[00:01] about Final Fantasy [music] Resonance, especially for players fond of the series roots is its combat system. Now, it's pretty different from the real-time active time [music] battle system you might know from Final Fantasy 7 remake
[00:13] and Rebirth and much closer to the strict [music] traditional turn-based mechanics of the classic era. Think Final Fantasy 1 through 3 with a dash of Octopath Travelers thrown in for funsies. It does have a layer of
[00:26] complexity to it that's really fun once you get into the swing of things. >> Null moon. >> Here's everything you need to know about
[00:38] how the combat works in Final Fantasy Resonance. [music] basics. This is a turnbased combat system. You can see whose turn it is to
[00:55] these diamonds. And you'll move along the bar from left to right. The [music] turn of your actions is determined by your speed stat. And yes, okay, in some cases your AP skills, but more on that in a bit. Basics first. Each member of
[01:10] your party takes turns dealing damage to your enemies in this order. Deal out win. >> That plan unfolded excellently.
[01:23] >> Combat roles define each [music] character's responsibilities during battle. Final Fantasy Resonance has six roles: commando, medic, sentinel, breaker, synergist, and sabotur. Each bringing something different to the
[01:38] party. Now, sentinels like Rain lead in defense and protect allies from enemy attacks, [music] as well as protecting and buffing the team. Medics like Fina keep the team healthy by healing when needed. Commandos like Lid, Jake, and
[01:52] Sakura specialize in attacking enemies and dealing out damage. Synergists like Nickel are all about enhancing the party's abilities by providing buffs like defense and stagger power. Breakers like Lasswell target enemy weaknesses
[02:05] and manipulate the stagger gauge. And saboturs, like a certain character that I can't talk about without spoiling the story, are all about debuffing enemies. A balanced team benefits from a mix of roles. Assign a sentinel to protect the
[02:20] team, include a medic for healing, and use a breaker to manage the stagger gauge. You could add a commando for damage, or you could add a synergist or a sabotur to provide additional support by strengthening allies or weakening
[02:32] enemies. But hang on a minute, there's only four party slots, and that was a >> What's she talking about? >> Well, that's where visions come in. >> Well, that's where visions come in. Wait, what?
[02:48] These are Final Fantasy Resonance's main gimmick. These are echoes of legendary heroes that you can equip to all of your party members. Visions are how you can cover off a lot of those different roles. Each vision has its own role. So,
[03:02] you could equip a commando vision to a breaker main character to [music] amp up their attacks, or my personal favorite, a medic vision to a synergist main character to create this allound support combined role. or you could just pick
[03:16] your favorite hero. There are some familiar faces here. 26 familiar faces, in fact. Visions are basically slightly tweaked versions of espers from Final Fantasy 6, which are also in this game. But unlike
[03:31] Espers, who can only be used by Fina, everyone can and should use a vision. But why? Well, apart from giving you new abilities to use in combat and some
[03:43] outside of combat, you can use visions in sweeping staggers for a powerful in sweeping staggers for a powerful attack. More on that in a minute. There So, make sure you check out our full visions guide to see who we've been
[03:56] pairing with who. If you've played a Square NX JRPG recently, [music] you'll know what staggering is. This is your main way of taking down any and all enemies in this game. Take a look at this enemy. You can
[04:10] game. Take a look at this enemy. You can see two bars, a red health bar and a yellow bar underneath. This is its stagger gauge. Every hit you land reduces it and quicker if you hit it with its elemental weaknesses. If we
[04:23] move on over to weapons, you can see these bars. Again, red is generally how much damage it's going to do, and yellow is how much stagger it'll do. A lot of fights are going to center [music] around staggering foes, then hitting
[04:36] them with big damage moves while multipliers are active. The higher the bars, the more effective they are. Once your attacks deplete your stagger gauge, that yellow bar, it breaks the enemy and skips its turn. Now, it's important to
[04:50] think about who lands that final blow and when. Once it breaks, [music] whoever staggered the enemy gets an extra hit in a bonus phase. If every enemy on the field is staggered, welcome to the sweeping
[05:03] stagger. This gives your entire party an extra hit and rounds [music] it off with a resonance. That's that powerful attack that your mentioned earlier. Enemies in Final Fantasy resonance don't just sit there
[05:17] and take hits. They have a complex web of elemental affinities. You'll want to bring characters like Nickel or visions like Cloud to cast Libra, your primary scouting tool for uncovering an enemy's hidden weaknesses.
[05:32] Libra can also tell you an enemy's status vulnerabilities like silence, poison, or charm, all before you act. When you're up against enemies, keep a few rules in mind. You're going to want to be careful about immunities and
[05:45] absorptions. While resistances just lower the damage that enters the enemy, some are able to completely absorb certain elements. Bear in mind as well, if you've got magic reflect on your party, maybe from an esper like
[05:59] carbuncle, that includes white magic, which often focuses around healing. And yes, that'll bounce your cur spell right out of your party and heal the enemy instead. Ask me how I figured that one out. I think the worst thing is that I
[06:13] didn't just do that once. I kept doing it. It's It's one to watch out for. Don't Don't let what happened to me happen to you. Okay. In Final Fantasy Resonance, there are two types of damage, physical and
[06:25] magical. Now, some characters have stronger base physical stats like Rain, while characters like Fina and Sakura have higher base magic attack. There are also elemental attacks, but these can either be physical or magical. Don't let
[06:39] that catch you out. They're not just purely magical. Now, that's not to say that [music] you can't run magic attacks on a physical attacker or vice versa. If bit low in a battle, it might be one to check. You can do that by going into
[06:53] equipment and abilities in the main menu, navigating over to your visions, and pressing square or the equivalent on whatever platform you're playing on to see a summary of your vision's attacks. If it says in your summary that it's a
[07:05] physical move and you're running it on a magic attacker, or again, vice versa, it visions. There are a lot of icons [music] in this game. I mean, a lot. Like, even if you've played a dozen Final Fantasy
[07:21] read the tutorials so you can understand all the stats and status effects. For stat [music] called sanctity rather than magic power. Here's a quick overview of
[07:33] what to look out for. Let's start with [music] buffs. Regen restores health every turn. Reflect. Well, reflex magic back. Raise revives a KO'ed character
[07:45] once during battle. Haste, well, increases your speed and slow does what it says on the tin. Moving on to buff and debuff effects. If [music] attack, you're looking at D brave for physical and d faith for
[08:00] magic. Similarly, if you're looking to reduce the defense [music] of an enemy, you're looking at D protect to decrease against physical attacks and D shell to [music] decrease against magic attacks. It's always worth a quick Libra check
[08:13] an enemy is dealing out to you so you can react in accordance. All right, so now you know the basics. Here's some tips to get you started. The first one, an early side quest you don't [music] want to miss out on, is Dream of
[08:28] an Idealist. Picked up in Grand Shel at the start of chapter 1. This gives you the Flomberge Great Sword for free. It's a solid early game weapon for Rain. Not only is it an increase over his previous weapon's attack power, but it also
[08:42] increases his base HP by 140, which is a pretty big chunk in the early game. We've got a full breakdown of this quest over on IGN.com. The second one. You've probably spotted these golden sparkles on the ground.
[08:55] These are tablet shards. There are 12 to pick up in chapter 1. Hand them into the enigmatic princess at the Oblivion Palace in the Kingdom of Grand Shell, and you'll unlock the stagger ring, which increases stagger power by 10%
[09:08] when equipped. This basically means you can stagger enemies much more quickly. It's especially useful in tough fights, particularly against bosses. Check out our full tablet shard location guide for where to find them.
[09:21] And last, but by no means least, once you're in the thick of battle, managing the flow [music] of turns is everything. Keep these essential strategies in mind. Always keep an eye on the turn counter at the top of the screen. If you time it
[09:34] right, you'll be able to move to the next turn, breaking an enemy twice instead of just once. If an enemy is about to attack and you need to shift your positioning or line up a stagger, you can choose to defend to skip a turn,
[09:47] letting you try and break the enemy before they strike again. If your party is facing down multiple enemies, think carefully about which threat to [music] break first. There's zero point wasting a stagger on an enemy
[10:00] that acts less if you can break a faster threat beforehand to mitigate that incoming damage. This is why while counter abilities that you unlock with your visions can be really helpful, it's worth managing the damage you output to
[10:13] prevent it from breaking an enemy only after they've moved that turn. And that's everything you need to know about combat in Final Fantasy Resonance. Go forth, soldiers of Grand Shel, and save the world. If you get stuck on your
[10:25] of this latest Final Fantasy game. And for everything else, keep it right here for everything else, keep it right here on IGN.