Ah! THAT'S the other game I meant to buy! Thanks for reminding me.

Yeah, it's a cool game, despite all the nitpicks I have with it. Just be prepared for the leveling system...KILL EVERYTHING YOU CAN!

I would prefer the other characters handle their own affairs, as this game moves extremely fast when it comes to battling, and it's really hard to keep an eye on three characters and however many monsters they're throwing at you all at the same time.

Er, so it's like SO3, only with all characters on manual...? Yikes. O_o

Yeah, pretty much. You have to move all the characters on your own. If you need healing, the chi running low, status effects all at the same time, you're pretty much screwed.

The "Leadership Bar" is sort of like the Fury Bar in SO3, except it pertains to ALL the characters. If it isn't at a certain point, you can't do anything. Which is why you have to manage relationships with the other characters. The better relationships you have, the faster the bar fills up in battle.

Oh, and if the monsters have better "leadership" than you, their bar fills up faster. Sometimes they can hit you three times or four to your once (if leadership is poor). Big Yikes here...but thankfully it's usually just the bosses and dojo masters that do this. Those blue monsters in the mountains can too--but they just plain SUCK! (grrr)

Even worse, if you get hit with something like paralysis or petrification, your leadership falls and that character can't guard. Which means the monsters, even weak ones, can hit more times and do more damage. *sigh* Paralyisis is popular in this game too...

Best strategy is to take the person(s) with highest defense and HP and use them as sheilds/attackers while a healer stands behind. Doesn't help much if the monster/boss has a high range of attack though.

It can be pretty difficult. The battles can last awhile. I think my longest was thirty minutes so far. The only saving grace I think is the fact that most monsters act the same way. The AI isn't intellegent like is was in SO3. It's pretty repetitive. Once you learn how to deal with a certain type of monster, or learn which ones need to be taken out first, you just set up your strategy (quickly postioning characters on the field) and get down to business.

However, in boss battles, it's usually twice as fast and you're hit twice as hard. Often I'll find myself using a significantly weaker character to run in and attack once, then run out of range, while Calintz takes all the hits (since his defense is so high). Or I'll move one character completely out of the battle (other side of the field) and just set a healer behind Calintz and rotate attack-heal-attack-heal and so on.

It's a fun game, but I really think they could have put more effort into smoothing out all the inconsistancies that make the battling--tedious.

At least there are no 'ring status effects' though. *laughs*

Oh maaaaaaaaan I love that game. (I have a teeeeeensy little bit of a thing for Haren. Hell if I know why, because he HATES Calintz. HATES HIM.)

Also, anyone else think that Azadhi or whatever looks like Marilyn Manson? Because it seems like it to me.

I thought he looked like him too!

Have you finished it yet? Did you run into the same problems as I did? I need to sit down and complete the game...