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Gensou Shoujo Taisen/Gameplay

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Gameplay

Controls

The game may be played using either a keyboard or a gamepad. Controls can be mapped in Key Config, the last option in System.

  • The Arrow Keys move the cursor around.
  • O selects units, opens the battle menu, confirms actions and advances dialogue.
  • X cancels actions, brings up terrain information and activates Backlog Mode.
  • ■ automatically focuses the selected unit and reveals the background CG during cutscenes.
  • △ toggles Battle Animations on battle preview screens, speeds up animations during battle, and turbos through dialogue.
  • R1 moves the cursor to player unit 1. Repeatedly pressing R1 will move the cursor down your units in a numerical order.
  • L1 moves the cursor to player unit 1. Repeatedly pressign L1 will move the cursor up your units in a numerical order.
  • R2 moves the cursor to enemy unit 1. Repeatedly pressing R1 will move the cursor down their units in a numerical order.
  • L2 moves the cursor to enemy unit 1. Repeatedly pressign L1 will move the cursor up their units in a numerical order.
  • Start places a colored marker down on a selected tile during gameplay and skips dialogue during cutscenes. Holding Start will delete all markers.
    • Tapping R1 + R2 + L1 + L2 + Start at the same time will return the player to the title screen. Holding them will reload the last quicksave.

Basic Gameplay

FMW is no different from any other Turn-Based Simulation RPG. The player and the enemy are given units to move across a grid-like field, and take turns moving their units. Once a unit has moved, they can not be moved until the next turn. Units can perform a variety of actions, from healing to attacking, and often must deal with restrictions such as MP or Power requirements. Defeating enemy units will reward the player with experience and Graze for the attacking unit as well Points for general use. At the beginning of each chapter, the player is given is a set of conditions explaining how to win, how to lose, and any optional challenges. If the player fulfills the victory conditions they move on to the next chapter, and if they fulfill the defeat conditions they Game Over. If the optional challenge is met, the player will also receive a bonus of 5 WP to add to the 10 WP normally earned from completing a chapter.

In between gameplay segments are brief Intermission screens, where players can spend the Points, Graze, and WP they have gathered on Upgrades, Skills, and WP Levels respectively. Players may also equip special items on their units and save their game data.

Power

A central mechanic, Power influences damage and defense. Normal units starts off at 100 Power and can get all the way to 150 Power. Power can be gained from various actions, with each unit's Personality determining exactly what those Power gains are. Once a unit reaches certain Power thresholds they can start using their stronger attacks or activate their abilities.

Flight

Fittingly, almost every single character in the game is able to fly. While in the air, units will have unrestricted movement no matter what terrain might be under them. In exchange, they will lose 1 MP per tile moved. Some terrains also grant passive bonuses to Defense/Evasion and regenerate the HP/MP of units standing on them; flying units can benefit from the latter, but not the former.

Game Overs

When a player Game Overs, the chapter immediately restarts. All Points and experience gathered before the Game Over are maintained, but all Graze is lost. They are also barred from trying to complete each chapter's optional challenge, and will earn 0 WP once the chapter is completed.

Saves/Continues

Players can create quicksaves at any time during gameplay. These can be loaded at any moment, and can easily be used to overcome difficult odds. Players are not penalized for "save scumming", but a counter is kept of how many times a player has saved/continued.

  • After saving, the option to Suspend the game will be given. If selected, a short Suspend Conversation will play.

Unique Features

FMW has a couple game mechanics that differ it from SRW, its inspiration.

Danmaku

Danmaku is the biggest new addition, as all of the other new mechanics tie into it. Enemies can release fields of danmaku that can debuff Defense, Evasion, and Movement range in all player units that stand inside them. Enemies have unique fields of danmaku with differing effects, and boss danmaku will carry special effects that can shake up battles. Which enemies will spawn danmaku is pre-determined, as are the range of the fields and the effects of the debuffs, and the higher difficulties will increase all of these. Destroying an enemy spawning danmaku will destroy its danmaku field.

Spell Cards

Spell Cards in this game take the form of special danmaku fields. When a boss' health bar is depleted, they will restore their health and declare a spell. This will create special, intricate danmaku fields and give the boss access to a brand new attack. It will also create a timer on the top-right corner of the screen; each enemy phase after declaration, the timer will increment by one. If the timer goes past a given limit, the spell will "time out" and immediately end. Likewise, if the boss is defeated before the timer goes over, the spell will be "captured". Once all of a boss' spells have been defeated, whether by time out or damage, the battle will end and the boss will go down for good.

Capturing VS Timing Out

Capturing spells is the only way to receive rewards from spell cards, so it's recommended to capture everything. However, things can go wrong (especially on higher difficulties), so never forget that Timing Out is an option.

Special Spells

Some spells lack timer gauges, and must be defeated to progress onwards. Others are Survival spells, where the player must outlast the spell in order to capture it. Both of these varieties are rare, however, and the former will always be a chapter's final spell.

Focusing

Not to be confused with the Spirit Command, Focusing is a universal technique that has a variety of effects. Focused units:

  1. Will ignore all Defense, Evasion, and Movement penalties from any danmaku field they are in.
  2. Lose the ability to fully evade attacks. If they would have successfully evaded, they will instead take some Graze damage, which is calculated by [Enemy Damage x Enemy Hit Rate]. Grazing itself is treated as a successful dodge.
    1. In Kou and You, Private Square (which is checked before evasion) will completely nullify graze damage, and Random Dodge will also nullify graze damage when it activates in You. In Ei and Yume, they will no longer nullify graze damage, although Private Square and any sort of Double Image will reduce graze damage by 1-activation rate% when they activate. Parry will completely nullify graze damage when it activates in all games.
  3. In Kou and You, Choosing to defend will only reduce damage to 60% instead of 50%, or 50% instead of 40% for characters with Shield Defense (You). This penalty is removed in Ei.
  4. Gain a flat +10% to their Hit rates.
  5. Move slower. Each unit has two numbers next to Move on the status screen, with the one in parenthesis stating how far they can move while Focused. As a general rule, Focused movement is lower than Unfocused movement.
  6. Lose the +10% bonus to Points all Unfocused units have (only in Kou; being Unfocused will no longer give point bonus in later games)
  7. Lose 10 MP at the beginning of every player phase.

Bombs

Enemies with a green "B" on their icon will drop Bombs. These can be used as miniature MAP attacks by any character, dealing guaranteed-to-hit damage to all enemies (not allies) in a 3 panel radius (4 in Kou). They will also destroy all danmaku in range, or at least until enemies recreate them on the next phase. While usable as an offensive technique, their main benefit is their strategic value. Being able to move Unfocused for a turn can greatly aid plans involving formations, and sometimes an enemy's danmaku effect is so ridiculous it simply must be stopped.

  • Bomb damage is calculated by [(2500 * (Range + Power)) - (Enemy Armor * (Enemy Defense + Enemy Power)) / 200]
  • Using a Bomb will cost a unit 10 Power.
  • Any enemies defeated by a Bomb will only give half the amount of Points and Graze. They also will not drop bombs (unless Gain/Cheer is used) or items (unless Luck/Bless is used)
  • Using Bombs will not prevent you from Capturing spell cards.
  • Bombs are not carried over between chapters.

Miscellaneous

Stats and Attributes

A character's stats can only be increased by level-up or the activation of certain skills.

  • Melee: Factors into the damage formula for Melee attacks. (Fist symbol)
  • Ranged: Factors into the damage formula for Ranged attacks. (Target symbol)
  • Skill: Determines Critical Hit rate.
  • Defense: Factors into damage formula.
  • Accuracy: Factors into Hit/Evade formula.
  • Evasion: Factors into Hit/Evade formula.

Meanwhile, a character's attributes can be increased by either equipping certain items or spending Points on the intermission screen. Each attribute can be upgraded up to five times, with the cost for each upgrade steadily increasing.

  • HP
  • MP
  • Mobility: Factors into Hit/Evade formula.
  • Armor: Factors into damage formula.

Terrain Ranking

Ranging from C Rank to S Rank, a character's terrain rankings reveal how they (and their attacks, which have their own rankings) perform in the air, on the ground, and underwater. A S rank grants a x1.1 modifier to damage, accuracy, evasion, and defense, an A rank a x1.0, a B rank a x0.9, and a C rank a x0.8. Rankings can only be changed by equipping certain items or skills.

  • Night is a separate, field-wide terrain that modifies other terrain rankings. A character with a S in Night will have all of their other terrain ranks bumped up a grade, while a character with a B in Night will see a decrease instead.

Supers and Reals

There are two main archetypes of characters. Super-types boast high HP, a rock solid defense, and an incredible damage output, but are hindered by their low mobility and MP reserves. Meanwhile, Real-types are the opposite: weaker and frailer, but much more mobile and not as reliant on MP. Generally, Super characters want to upgrade their HP, MP, and Armor, while Real characters want to boost their MP and Mobility.

Supports

Certain characters in the game will gain a bonus to their Hit/Evade rates by standing next to each other. Buffs range from +5% to +15%.