Actual gameplay in the three areas was focused on running into enemies scattered about the stages and entering the game's battle system. Although we didn't have enough time to fully explore the battle system, it's clear that while the game is certainly be pretty to look at, the battle system may be an even bigger main draw.
As mentioned in our initial look at the game a few months back, battles make use of cards, which you use to determine your next move. Here's how the system seems to work. Characters have a set of cards that they've built up throughout their adventures. Prior to battle, the cards are shuffled and are dealt out to your character. You can select from the cards that appear on screen and no more. Once you've selected a card, it's replaced by a new one which can then be selected as well.
When it's a given character's turn to move, rather than selecting "fight," "magic," "equip," "flee," and so-forth from a menu, you select a move from the cards that are displayed on screen. You can choose to attack with a specific spell, like fire or water, for instance, or you may opt to select one of the more potent cards that features a powerful magic spell. Everything is done via card selection, from equipping your characters with new items to using even basic attacks.
At the game's unveiling, Monolith mentioned that despite the reliance on cards, the game wouldn't be kept at a slow pace. This definitely seems to be the case. You don't select a single card in a given turn. Instead, you select cards in succession as part of a combination, with moves coming out as you attack. Cards have numbers atop them which determine the kind of combo that you're performing. Lining up cards with "2," "3," "4," and "5" together (or in reverse) will give you a "straight" combo. A 2-2-1-1 combination is called a "pair." Building up a combo is the key to dealing out greater damage and even developing new cards.
There are other ways to build up combos aside from these poker-like combinations. You can try to think of natural combinations of the images presented on cards for some interesting results.
These cards, by the way, are properly referred to as "Maguns" in the Baten Kaitos world. Outside of performing combos, you can earn Magnus (or is the plural "magnii"?) through a variety of means. You can buy them in town, collect them in dungeons, and pick them up when enemies drop them. Magnus can also evolve into new forms (a rock ice magnus -- that is to say, a card with a picture of rock ice on it -- will change into a mineral water magnus, for instance). In all, you'll find 1000 different types of Maguns in the game, covering a range of battle spells, attacks and items.
The magnus aren't just used for attacks. Enemies also use cards in their attacks, and if you want to properly defend yourself, you have to select an appropriate combo. If an enemy sets up a straight, for instance, setting up a pair will result in less damage from the enemy's attack.
In most RPGs, clear a battle and you'll see a stats screen showing how much experience you gained and so-forth. In Baiten Katos, you see a similar screen after every mini-confrontation within a battle. The stats screen computes how much final damage you or the enemy incurs based off card use. It seems that you can think of battles as collections of short, fast-paced card-fights between enemies and the characters in your party.
To be honest, we were only able to scratch the surface of the battle system in our fifteen minutes with the game and there's plenty about which we're not sure (we're sure you're confused as well, having read the above description). Expect a deeper, clearer update once we've had a chance to spend quality time with the game, perhaps close to its early December Japanese release date.
, hopefully it lives up to its graphical prowess.
