Topic: The Last Story

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@Mickeymac, it looks that it is gonna be succeful

Anyways, I know there is a link above, but I wanted to copy and paste IGN's article about the Battle system in Hironobu Sakaguchi Last Story:

"All About The Last Story's Battle System
Real time and command based come together in Sakaguchi's return to directing.

We've been introduced to the characters and background story, and even learned a little while ago that Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi is directing it himself. Now here are some specifics on the combat system in The Last Story as relayed in Japan's latest gaming magazines.

In past posts at the game's development blog, it was hinted that the game's combat would be a mix of real time and command based. Real time does seem to be the main idea here. We're actually getting somewhat of a Final Fantasy XII vibe.

Main character Elza gets his Gathering skill early in The Last Story.You take control of main character Elza as you run about the dungeons and areas of play. When Elza and his party of CPU-controlled allies approach enemies, they automatically engage in battle, directly on the field with no transition to a battle screen. You simply have to nudge Elza in the direction of an enemy, and he will automatically begin attacking with standard attacks.

If auto attack isn't your thing, you can also switch to manual button presses for making Elza attack. However, you're going to be busy on other things as well. You have to make Elza guard and evade manually. And you also have to control the general flow of battle through the game's unique "Gathering" system and via your command menu.

Gathering, as previously revealed in development blog updates, is a special skill possessed exclusively by Elza. It lets you draw the focus of enemies away from other party members and onto Elza. This frees the party members to charge up their spells, something that can take a lengthy period if the spell is powerful.

Elza is not alone to fight these giant beasts.With all the enemies coming at Elza, you'll have to be adept at fending them off. You can also make use of a couple of special skills that Elza has. While in Gathering state (you'll see a blue light coming from Elza when in this state), Elza can touch fallen allies to cure them, complete with temporary parameter boosters. Elza can also block enemy attacks to build up a burst gauge. If you build the gauge up high enough, once Elza breaks out of Gathering Mode he'll unleash a Gathering Burst attack that strikes his surrounding enemies.

At any point, you're free to bring up Elza's command menu and directly input commands for Elza and his allies. You can do this when you need to take a moment to get a grasp on the situation, or when you want an ally to do something specific. You can make a character move to a specific location, for instance. You can also have a character cast a magic spell or use a skill targeting a specific group of enemies or allies.

Screenshots we've seen of the command window show such options as the attack magic Holy, the recover magic Heal and a magic called Return which makes your allies warp to an area known as a "Heal Circle" (we're not sure what that one is just yet).

The Last Story actually has a unique way of handling magic. In addition to directly striking enemies and allies, the magic leaves a mark on the battle field. This is called a "Magic Circle." Infused with the elemental properties of the magic that was cast, it can be used in two ways.

If you move your allied characters into a Magic Circle, their weapons will be infused with the elemental properties of the magic.

The other use can turn the Magic Circle into a powerful weapon. Elza has a wind magic which can be used to scatter the Magic Circle. When scattered, the effects of the circle spread out. If the Magic Circle was formed from ice magic, casting wind on the circle will send out a wave that makes enemies slip over and fall. Use wind on a holy-based Magic Circle, and the resulting wave will increase party member defense strength. Use wind on a heal Magic Circle, and your party members will recover HP and fix their status abnormalities.

Enemies come at Elza. Can you see the Magic Circle in the distance?In past interviews, Sakaguchi said that gameplay came first in the design of The Last Story, taking precedence over story and scenario. This has happened only twice before -- back at the time of the original Final Fantasy when Sakaguchi considered how to bring PC role playing games to the NES, and back at the time of Final Fantasy VII as he considered how 3D could be used in the game.

That's pretty good company to be in, so we can't wait to see the result by sampling The Last Story's battle system for ourselves. While Nintendo Japan has set the game's Japanese release date for January 27, there's no word yet on a US release. We'll definitely be on the lookout."