Apparently the designer did this intentionally because they wanted to avoid the redundancy you see in turnbase games, it was developed so that the tension you get as a lv1 character in these turn base games is always present. It's pretty genius actually
I have to say they achieved the desired effect because it's my most loved battle system of all time when it comes to turn-based RPGs. The sheer speed and unpredictability of battles makes every fight unique. I'm just waiting for the remaster to release so that I can play through them again.
The game was only difficult because 10 year old me did not understand that you were supposed to stack tiers 1-4 special attacks, rather than have all tier 3 special attacks. I watched OmegaEvolution's fight once, then the game was smooth sailing from there.
Believe me. I had that same issue as a kid, it took me too many attempts to finally figure that out. After that i ended loving the battle system despite hitting a difficult curve here and there. Man the developers knew what they were doing.
i got the hang of the first games gameplay right around after you beat the Wind God boss and you get kalas fifth class level up it’s also when lyude joins that’s the point when you can really start pulling off combos and understanding how Pairs work you do get a lot of cards and it gets harder to pick out a specific card but your deck should be made in a way where you have plenty of attack cards so you can pull off combos you should never have your strategy be based around using one specific card anyways i haven’t played the second game yet so i can’t say anything about that yet but if you playing the first game and your not liking the combat at least wait untill after The wind god boss and see if you like it then before you drop it
Cool to see some in depth videos discussing the nuances of th battle system. I've beaten the game three times and never get tired of it. I stuck with a 40 card deck with lvl 1-4 specials for each character (sans Millie) Ive to pull off that perfect 25 card combo but will one day. I just found out in burst you can play the same level special so it's technically possible to play every special in the game in a single combo? Has anyone pulled this off?
It could be possible in theory, but it's very unlikely to be pulled off in practice. There are 34 unique special attacks, all of which need to be included in the deck. As demonstrated in my most recent video, it is possible to perform extremely long combos by pressing X after weak attacks. But if you use an MP burst, pressing X will stop the combo. So to make sure you always have enough MP, you will need to balance the deck with a lot of standard attacks (and maybe weapons, too). Let's assume you're going to use 4 trios of weak/medium/strong attacks and 6 weapons. That'll be 52 cards in total. Minus the ideally ~8 cards that are queued up or in use during the combo, and the 7 hand slots, we get a pool of 37 cards to draw from. Out of these 37 cards, there are 2-4 "good" cards that we want to draw. So the chance of being able to continue the combo is ~11% at best, and that's just for one card at a time. The total number of cards does get smaller and smaller until the reshuffle, but I highly doubt anyone could even reach that point without dropping the combo. If we want to see all special attacks in a single combo, Sagi will need at least 4 turns, Milly will need at least 3 turns, and Guillo will need at least 7 turns. That's at least 14 turns where we need to make sure to gain enough MP. The combo will end up being about 100 cards long if we're generous. Maintaining a lucky streak for that long seems astronomically unlikely, even when factoring in spirit draws.
Have to disagree with the armor magnus -- they're _very_ useful. The right armor magnus can make an opponent's attacks trivial. Plus, some have special effects, like restoring you to full health or make it so you're nigh impossible to hit. Also, another bit of advice not mentioned here - _read your field guide._ It fills in automatically, and it tells you everything you need to know about the enemies of the area, including strengths and weaknesses, so you can set your decks accordingly.
is there a way to get the eng voice acting in origins on the switch? I miss it greatly...(do ex combos factor into this at all? like Milly's medium+ attack that sees her spin doesn't seem to be in any ex-combos, so unless you're going for hit count maybe its a bit of a dud card?
There is a mod that brings back the English voices, but you'll have to dump the game to set it up: gbatemp.net/threads/baten-kaitos-hd-remaster-dub-restore-effort.639640/page-8#post-10297758 Canyon Wind (2+) is not part of any EX combo as you said, but it's still a very good attack it its own right. It adds 3 variable element hits for some decent extra damage from weapon cards, and you can use it to build more MP.
At some point on disc 2, one of the kids at the orphanage will provide a list of quests you can take on in any order. 3 of them are mandatory to advance the story, but there are also 4 optional ones including "Wacho's latest dirt". To get the true ending, you need to complete all 4 optional quests, and when a choice comes up on any of them, always choose mercy.
Sorry for the late reply. It is generally known for being much more difficult than the first game, by virtue of being fast-paced and having very strong and quick enemies, and that's not just the bosses. Other reasons are the knockdown mechanic and the delay between card selection and the actual turn, which allows heals to be canceled through death or unconsciousness. To overcome these difficulties, players need to frequently check the queue in the top-left corner and the delay gauges below the HP bars in addition to the magnus and MP display. This is a challenge in itself when everything moves so quickly. If it's any indication, the GameCube original has an "easy mode" in the options menu that makes battles slower than normal mode. (It pauses delay gauges during actions and prevents anyone from acting during card selection.)
