Balmung Cycle Part I: The Messenger and the Heretic

One underused feature of RPG Maker in my opinion is the weapon attribute type. Any spell that has a weapon attribute attached to it can only be used when a weapon of that kind is equipped. This is the basis for the logia spell system.

Weapon Attributes

We have four primary attributes in game:
-Force
-Pierce
-Disrupt
-Astral

Almost every enemy is vulnerable to at least one of these types, often you can even judge what attribute a foe is aligned to by its appearance!

There are some cardinal rules that can help you to determine an enemy's weakness to a specific weapon attribute:
1. Heavily armored enemies are vulnerable to piercing attacks and stronger against force-type attribute weapons and logia spells. Some armored foes can completely block 100% of force damage, so beware!
2. Spectral and unholy creatures are very susceptible to astral attacks, however disruptive spells are severely ineffective against them.
3. Wild animals and botanic creatures usually are susceptible to any attribute aside from an astral skill. Their lack of a sentient soul actually will cause astral attacks to heal them!
4. Mechanical enemies are often a bit of trouble to deal with... Not only are astral and disruption spells poor for combating them, but depending on how they are constructed they may be strong against force or pierce skills, or possibly both! If they are so strong, just what kind of weakness do they possess? The answer will be revealed in a future update!
5. Magical and magic-powered enemies are generally weak against force attacks while piercing weapons do little damage to them. Why is that... Well, they're magic! A magical creature is some kind of object become animate or something mythical like a mermaid or chimera. They are similar to spectral enenmies, but different so try not to get them confused, okay?

There are of course rare exceptions to all of the above, should one attribute be ineffective try another! It is usually a poor idea to equip all party members with the same attribute, as if you face an enemy that cannot be harmed regularly you will find yourself in a very bad spot!

Logia spells
Logia is the basic magic system for the game. All logia contain a weapon and magic attribute. In order to use a force-based spell, you must have a force weapon equipped! Additionally weapons have one of five elemental attributes, however the weapon attribute takes precedence when deciding damage. This is important to remember.

Some weapons contain multiple attributes but are quite rare, so don't expect them to be easily obtainable! Also, when fighting unarmed your player will use skills of the weapon attribute they are naturally aligned with, so keep that in mind as well!

Weapon attributes as you have seen add much more depth to battles and in Balmung it is my hope that they will keep things interesting in a system that is often quite stale and easy to become bored with.