CRYSTALGATE'S PROFILE

author=hector212121
Eh, i guess it would have been handy when I had Mai, but i just didn't think of it. Action economy is key; if you can kill 1 enemy with 1 action rather than redirect 2 enemy's aggression with that action, i consider it better spent.

I haven't played the last version yet, but in all other versions I've played, Provoke was handy for almost every battle Amalie was in. It may be less useful to you though since you use completely different tactics than I do. Still, try using it and then have Amalie focus so she has her highest defense.

Anyway, a question to Red_Nova. The description for Aeyr on the characters page states "Aside from that, his natural aggression enables him to manipulate the emotions of both enemies and allies to turn the tide of battle." However, I've noticed you've now given Amalie three emotion manipulating skills while Aeyr has none. Have you changed your mind regarding who gets what?

That's right, I didn't keep in mind that you're doing a blind let's play.

author=Marrend
It's a little sad to see that Mia's Lightning Moment Draw cannot induce critical damage, but, I can absolutely sense the logic there!

Don't worry, we may have a new game breaking feature to replace Concentrate -> Lightning Moment -> Sheathe.

- Gave Mia a new haircut

The new haircut probably haven't gone trough the proper testing and as such may be very unbalanced.

author=Kalin
I'm also a hoarder and I only use consumables if save-scumming fails to get me through.

An idea I heard once was to have a limited number of potion bottles the party can carry, but they can be refilled at fountains scattered around the maps. This lets you collect them all and still use them. But it still doesn't address the issue of knowing when you should use them.

I should use the healing items when I have to, as in, I risk a game over if don't. One RM game I've recently played limits you to ten healing items and they restore 50% of your max HP. So, use them when someone has less than 50% of their HP left. Pretty easy actually. Attack items should be used when the situation is such that they offer a huge benefit over not using them. I have seen that happen in games, but only very rarely. More often than not, there simple isn't a situation where a non healing item is more beneficial than otherwise.

So, for most games, just tag every non healing item with "use whenever or don't even bother, doesn't matter" and tada, you've informed the player of when to use them. More often than not, that's the real issue.

I feel that this topic is about two different subjects, how you encounter enemies and how you battle them.

As for how you encounter them, I don't think it makes that much of a difference. If you switch from random encounter to touch encounter, you change one problem for another as far as I'm concerned.

When it comes to making the battles actually interesting, most JRPGs does not succeed with it. I have seen a few exceptions though and they have all had one thing in common; you have to do something about the ability of the enemies to harm you. That is, you can't just attack them and heal the damage you take, you have to take actions that are designed towards preventing or weakening their ability to hurt you. If you just use offensive skills and healing, you get a game over or has to retreat from the dungeon prematurely.

This can come in many different shapes, you can redirect their attack towards a tank, cast a defensive buff, hit them with a status effect or even use a non conventional RPG mechanic like the ability to cancel enemy attacks in the Grandia series by timing your attacks correctly. Further, you methods have to wary between the encounters. If every battle has you taunt the enemies with the tank or cast a party wide defensive buff or pretty much anything, that turns into a mandatory chore rather than a tactic.