Gameplay

Lord.Bachus

I watched the gameplay video released on E3.

 

But it absolutely gave me no clue at all of what to expect from this game...

Also information about the classes (espescially magic classes) and the combat system on the wiki is very thin...

 

 

Can anyone enlighten me on this?

Hyanmen

I'm not really sure what to answer to you- can you be more specific?

I can share some light on the 2 questions though.

2 magic classes: Thaumaturge has CC and enfeebling/DoT spells and the spells are frontal cone, Conjurer has buffing, healing and nuking spells and they are AoE around the caster or the target. Both classes have variety of skills too which I'm too lazy to list. You can combine most skills and spells between the classes and when more magic classes become available, you can mix and match spells to create your own class even.

So basically If Arcanist is released and you're Conjurer, you can take Arcanist spells and use them on Conjurer with little to no penalty.

You can also take skills from the Melee and ranged classes but they won't be as effective, due to the weapon type you're using that boosts magic stats instead of melee stats.

 

Combat has many layers that each make it more and more complex, here's the list of known systems so far:

Stamina Gauge that you saw in the vids works kinda like Rogue's Energy Bar in WoW. If you have Shield equipped, you gain another Stamina gauge which works individually. We don't know what happens if you equip two single handed weapons in both hands yet. 

Monsters and players take more damage when hit from sides or behind. Their body parts and/or weapons also break when hit from the correct angle. If your weapon type has a long range, you can hit multiple mobs at the same time if they're close enough.

By doing normal attacks such as Slash and Stab you gain Tactical Points which are used to do special skills. Usually it takes 2 to 3 normal hits to generate enough TP for a skill. You need to be careful with what skill you choose and think about your choices.. since each skill has variety of effects and you can't just spam them. However, there are some reactionary skills that you can do regardless of your Stamina Gauge when you for example evade the mob or block it's hit with a shield.

Some classes have also a unique side to them, which we don't know much about yet unfortunately. For example, Pugilist has "offensive stance" in which he hits for more damage and gains access to more offensive skills, and "defensive stance" in which his evasion rises considerably and he gains extra hate for his actions. The longer you stay in one stance, the better you will be at it so even though you can change your stance at any time you need to consider if its worth it considering you will start at the weakest stage of the stance and lose the current bonuses. Marauder on the other hand can make his attacks AoE by staying still long enough. This means you need to position yourself in a way that your attacks can hit most mobs in the arena without you having to move and thus cancel the stance.

Some skills and spells also use MP which in this game does not regenerate through normal means. Only select few abilities with large cooldowns can restore some of your MP, but other than that you can only get it back during a kind of "check points" called Aetherytes which restore all your HP and MP. 

In addition to this, combat happens in a group vs group setting and quests take you to roam around the areas. This means if you go on a larger quest with multiple objectives, if you waste all your MP on the first encounter you'll be in trouble later. That is why you need to think about your MP usage and can't just spam your MP pool empty and rest after. 

On top of that quests also have a time limit, so you can't take your sweet time doing the objectives. You also can't rush or you'll run out of mana. The game records the time spent doing the quest and you'll get an extra reward the faster you complete it.

There are also pre-emptive strikes so you can surprise the monsters to gain advantage over them, but monsters can also do the same for you.

There's also a system called Battle Regimens which basically give you and your allies chance to cooperate which each other and combine skills and spells to create a variety of beneficial effects. For example if you shoot the monster with an arrow and the Conjurer in your group immediately follows with a Fire spell, the monster receives the effect of Burn. There are a lot of combinations like these which are vital to ensure victory in battle.

And uhh, that's all I can remember for now. 

Lord.Bachus

Thank you, your information atleast made me grasp the basics of this video

 

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-final-fantasy/700314

 

Hyanmen

Yeah, you can see the stamina gauge in action there as well as him using TP skills, although he isn't familiar with the class not to mention the game itself so he's kinda bad at it.

It shows the basics though, some things you can expect. 

Crafting and gathering also have much bigger part in this game than usually. You don't (supposedly) have to even touch a combat class to 'clear' the game, although you'll miss on lot of content by doing so. It's not just a side activity however and you can make a career out of it if you wish.