Combat (XS2)

Shion, Jr., and MOMO in combat against two Glares.

For other articles titled "Combat", see Combat (disambiguation).

Combat or battle is a central gameplay mechanic in Xenosaga Episode II. The game uses a turn-based battle system.

Combat initiates when a party member collides with an enemy in the overworld. The player can sometimes shoot traps to stun an enemy on the field in order to get a small boost or stock bonus in the fight.

While initially similar to the first Xenosaga, the addition of the Break and Stock mechanic and the changes to the Boost system greatly change how battles work in this game.

Overview

Turn Order

Turn order is shown in the Group Turn Window (GTW) on the bottom right. Combat order is shown from left to right. Player characters are shown by their icon, while enemies are only shown by a generic B for Bio, M for Mechanical, or G for Gnosis. The order is determined by each character's agility.

Once all characters shown have finished their turn, a round ends and the turn window is refreshed.

Position

Party members and enemies fight either facing each other or with one behind the other. Back hits increase critical hit rate by 50% and hit rate to 100%.

In most fights, the party is one side while the enemy is on the other. Rarely, the party will already start surrounding the enemy with two one one side and one on the other. On the other hand, the enemy can start combat surrounding the party as well.

HP

The character's Hit Points. If it reaches 0 the character will be unable to fight. Incapacitated characters will automatically be revived with 1 HP after the battle ends.

ST

(Character Battles only) The character's current Stocks. One character can have up to 3 Stocks at a time. These are used to perform combination attacks using the button, and they can also be used to perform Double and Special attacks. Reset to 0 each combat.

EC

(E.S. Battles only) The unit's current Energy Charge. An E.S. can have up to 200% charge at a time. This is used to perform Special attacks. Resets to 0% each combat.

Target indicator

The target indicator indicates which unit is being targeted, as well as their current HP. Also, text saying "FRONT" or "BACK" will indicate whether the targeted unit is facing toward or away from the user respectively.

Boost Gauge

There are two gauges: one for the player party and one for the enemy group. This increases as normal attacks are made, and can be increased up to 3 for each group. This can be used not just to "cut" in line, but also to allow follow-ups on broken, launched, or downed characters.

Event Slot

This slot starts on a random effect when the battle begins. Every new turn changes the Event Slot to the next event.

1. CTC: Critical hit chance is increased.
2. BST: Boost Gauge gains are increased.
3. SKL: When enemies are defeated during Character Battles, Skill Point rewards from those enemies will be multiplied. This has no effect during E.S. battles.

After SKL, a random effect occurs:

Random Effects

Ether (ETR)	Turn Cancel (T·C)	Reverse (RV)	No effect (NON)
Ether damage and recovery increases by 50%.	Target loses its turn in the GTW if hit by an attack	Boost Gauge of target increases if attacked.	No bonus effect

From here it returns to CTC.

Attack Types and Attributes

There are multiple icons showing the type of attack that can be made. Attacks can be either physical or ether type. Enemies with a lower VIT (vitality) are weak to physical attacks, while enemies with a lower EDEF (ether defense) are weak to ether attacks.

• Physical Physical attacks appear with a "P".
• Ether Ether attacks appear with a "E".

Attacks also have a specific range:

• Short Short range attacks can only hit enemies on the ground.
• Long Long range attacks can also hit flying enemies and enemies launched into the air.

Finally, attacks can have physical and elemental attributes. The two-letter spelling in (parentheses) shows the shortened name as shown by the Ether Analyze.

• Strike (St)
• Slash (Sl)
• Pierce (Pc)

The elemental attributes are as follows:

• Fire (Fi)
• Ice (Ic)
• Thunder (Th)
• Aura (Au)
• Beam (Bm)

Hitting an enemy with the same elemental attribute many times during a Boost combo or a single attack will deal bonus damage for each successful hit. This is called an "AC", or "Attribute Combo", and the bonus damage increases the higher the combo gets. This is broken if a Boost is not used before the turn ends, or if a different attribute is used.

Finally, an attack can send an enemy afflicted with Break to the air or downward:

• Air
• Down

Status Effects

A colored sphere over character's heads indicates a status effect. There are two types: "L" statuses are blue, low-level, and last 5 turns. "H" status are red, high-level, and last until the battle ends. A character hit with an L status twice will change its type to H instead.

This page or section is incomplete. In other words, yes we know it's unfinished; we just didn't want to leave it blank in the meantime. You can help complete it. The editor who added this tag elaborates: List of statuses or a link to them.

Character Battles

Character Battles are when characters fight without using their E.S. mechs. Up to three characters fight against a group of enemies.

Normal Attack

Normal attacks are used by pressing the , , and buttons. Some characters only have one type of normal attack, in which case only the button will be available. When they do a normal attack, the character will turn to face their target.

The many icons shown associated with each attack show the effects each attack does. attacks hit B zones (1-3m high), while attacks hit C zones (0-1m high). attack depending on the character and the enemy they face (for example, MOMO can hit A zones of flying enemies like the Vacillation).

After the normal attacks, if a character has Stocks stored up, they can follow up with the button to do extra attacks. Even if they don't have a Stock at the start of the turn, Breaking the enemy can sometimes grant bonus Stocks mid-turn allowing for a follow-up.

Battle Menu

The player can open the combat menu by pressing button.

Stock

Main article: Stock

This increases the user's Stock by 1, and their defense improves until their next turn.

Ether

This allows the user to use an Ether move, which they learn by learning Skills. If two characters have the same Ether skill AND character 2 Boosts during character 1's turn, the user can press to do an Ether Combo, which consumes both character's EP to unleash a more powerful form of the move.

Item

This allows the user to use an item.

Double

Main article: Double Attack (XS2)

This allows the player to use Double Attacks. This can only be done if these conditions are met:

• The double attack has been learned
• It is one character's turn and the other character has Boosted
• Both characters have enough Stock to use it.

Move

The character can change where they stand to reach the enemy's back and gain the advantages that come from doing so. This does NOT change the way they are facing, so enemies can hit their back after the move until they turn around.

Additionally, if combat is set up such that one party surrounds the other party, Move is not an option even if one of the sides is eliminated.

Change

The character swaps out for another character mid-combat if available. Unlike other JRPGs, doing so ends their turn immediately, and the reserve party will not swap in on party wipe.

Escape

If and ONLY if the user is one of these two:

• Shion
• MOMO

the player can escape from combat. They will still receive rewards from any enemies defeated up to that point.

Special

Main article: Special (XS2)

If the user is KOS-MOS, she will be able to perform unique attacks that consume Stocks to use.

Zones and Break

Main article: Break (XS2)

Many enemies have specific zones that, once hit in order, will Break them. This is indicated by a zone indicator showing red instead of white. Once the full weak zone combo is hit, it falls into a Break state. Broken enemies take 1.5x damage from attacks. If a Boost is not done this status will immediately end, so Boosting is necessary to keep an enemy vulnerable.

When a weak zone is attacked, the attacker will sometimes get a Stock they can immediately use, which is useful for quickly putting an enemy into the Break state. This stock is known as a "Break Bonus".

Air and Down

Broken enemies can be knocked to the ground using Down attacks. chaos and Ziggy have these attacks. Downed enemies take 2x damage from attacks.

Broken enemies can be launched into the Air using an Air attack. KOS-MOS and Jin have these attacks. Launched enemies take 2x damage from attacks, but can only be hit by ranged attacks. After one turn they will be in the Down state.

E.S. Battles

E.S. Asher and E.S. Zebulun in combat against a Cera 7 S and a Cera 6 F.

E.S. Battles occur when characters fight in their mechs, known as E.S.. In these battles, up to two mechs fight against an enemy group.

An E.S. is piloted by a pilot and a copilot. The copilot chosen determines the types of Special attacks it can do.

Normal Attack

E.S. have two normal attacks, one using and one using . The attack is melee, while the attack is ranged.

Each successful attack generates 25% EC and 10 IA. Enemies using multi-target moves can get 20 IA when they do those attacks.

Battle Menu

Like in Character Battles, the player can open the combat menu by pressing button.

Stock

This charges the user's energy by 100%, and their defense improves until their next turn.

Additionally, if the user has IA, they will have a chance to intercept the enemy's attack and send it back to the attacker.

Ether

Main article: Ether (XS2)

The E.S. Zebulun is the only mech capable of using Ether. It can use any ether that MOMO has learned, provided she has enough EP to use it. The co-pilot's Ether skills can't be used during battle.

Since the Ether skill Revert is the only way to revive an incapacitated mech, keeping E.S. Zebulun alive and available is necessary for long battles.

Special

Main article: Special (XS2)

When a mech has enough EC, it can use a Special move. These often do more damage than normal and give the mech access to elemental and area-of-effect attacks.

The special available at 200% EC depends on the mech's copilot. If the mech has the EMAX300 equipped they will also have a 300% EC special.

Move

The mech can change where they stand to reach the enemy's back and gain the advantages that come from doing so. This does NOT change the way they are facing, so enemies can hit their back after the move until they turn around.

This is much more restricted compared to character battle Move, since certain places don't allow the player to move behind the enemy.

Change

The mech swaps out for another E.S. mid-combat if available. Like character Change, doing so ends their turn immediately.

Escape

If and ONLY if the user is the E.S. Zebulun, the player can escape from combat. They will still receive rewards from any enemies defeated up to that point.

IA

"IA" redirects here. For the reverse, see AI.

IA stands for Intercept Attack, and all fighters in an E.S. battle have a certain amount of IA. The current mech's IA can be viewed in the Battle Menu.

When a mech uses Stock before the enemy's turn, it has a chance of intercepting an attack with its own. This prevents the enemy from attacking, as shown here.

IA increases by 10 for each attack, and is reduced by half if hit by a critical hit. It is set to 0 upon a successful interception.

Boost

Main article: Boost (XS2)

Boosting can be done when the party Boost Gauge is 1 or higher. The player can press R1 or R2 and either , , or to grant the indicated character a Boost. If the player finishes their turn, the Boost will grant the indicated character an additional turn. However, if they used the Ether Combo or Double ability, the Boost is consumed instead.

Using a Boost also allows characters to follow-up on enemies that are in a Break state, since enemies will recover next turn otherwise.

Player characters can only use Boost if the character is not shown in the Group Turn Window and if the enemy has not activated a Boost of their own.

Counter Boost

In some cases, enemies will forcibly cut in line to take action when they are attacked (even if they dodge). This overrides a normal Boost, but the booster will take their turn afterward.

Unfortunately, this allows broken enemies to immediately recover and advance the event slot.

Strategy

Increasing damage dealt

A common strategy during character battles is to stock up multiple times with each of the characters in order to unleash powerful combos that can wipe out an enemy.

The normal sequence is to stock with all 3 characters until all of them have 3 stocks each. Then, use a technique that adds an element to all non-elemental attacks, like Ice Sword, Flame Sword, Thunder Sword, or Aura Sword. When all characters have elemental abilities, Break/Air/Down the enemy and then Boost until the enemy runs out of HP. This deals a large amount of damage that increases for each attack made due to the elemental combo.

The only drawback is that this can take a large amount of turns to execute and there can be a large number of enemies. It's sometimes worth it to try for Break Bonuses during Boost turns to get enough Boost for the final combo.

Decreasing damage taken

This page or section is incomplete. In other words, yes we know it's unfinished; we just didn't want to leave it blank in the meantime. You can help complete it.

Gallery

This page or section could use some images.