BATTLES
Most of the fun of playing an RPG lies in challenging and defeating powerful monsters and villains. Most battles that occur happen randomly, meaning that the characters are suddenly swept into a fight from time to time while traveling a certain area or whil moving on foot across the world.
However, sometimes a monster is introduced, or it introduces itself. These creatures are usually enemies that you must fight to proceed in the game. They are commonly referred to as Boss Enemies. You can expect Bosses to be much tougher, much more interlligent, and much trickier to defeat than all of the other enemies. Overcomming Boss monsters requires brilliand and sometimes risky strategies.
Battles usually don't occur in towns or cities, unless they are part of some kind of tournament or contest to win prizes. Most of your battles will occur suddenly as you are exploring dark and mysterious areas, where villains and evil lie in wait for young heroes.
When you enter the battle screen, your party will be aligned against an enemy party of one to fouir monsters. All character have an opportunity to strike, which is their 'combat turn.' When all of the characters have attacked and the enemy has retaliated, one combat round is complete. Battles can go on for several rounds, until all of the enemies or all of the characters are dead or incapable of continuing to fight.
A character gets to fight when it becomes his turn. This is determined by a time gauge. When the character's time gauge fill up, you can choose commands for that character to execute. The eight playable character in Final Fantasy IX all have different and unique abilities to utilize in battle. You must use the characters' skills so that the party functions as a complete team. Oftentimes, the magic users are required to cast status changing spells that will let the characters who can't use magic attack more effectively.
After each battle, characters may gain Exp, Ap, Gil, and spois. Exp is a measure of experience and allows the characters to gain levels and become more powerful. Ap are ability points that are applied to each skill or ability that the characters are trying to learn. Thus, if you are trying to learn five abilities and you defeat a monster that yields 2 Ap, then 2 are applied to learning each ability. Character that are not fighting do not gain levels.
Gil is money that can be used to purchase new items, equipment, and supplies. You can also use it to gamble, stay the night at an Inn, or bid on auction items. Monsters also drop spoils after the battle, which are items of all sorts including medicines, weapons, armor,equipment,Add-ons,and key items. |
