Questions on player influence

[Op z'n gemak Dough]

Hi all,

I played the demo and it has left me more confused then anything rlly.
I tend to like turn-based tactical games like this one, and i especially like the graphics.
I looked at the youtube channel posted in another thread but it left me with even more questions:P

The demo does a very poor job of helping me understand what kind of choises have any significance.
I tried to do completely random things, but in the end i would always win.
I see no reason to differentiate between characters atm (they look different, but all do approx 100 dmg and have special + dissonance that are fairly similar mechanicly)

Could someone explain to me how the influence i have as a player can lead to greater benefit then just throwing a dice and playing whatever card corresponds to it?

[Cavaleiro FVerde (BR)]

Demo is Very old version, New version of game have more detailed explanation but is Very early version of game.

[***GENERAL** Snuggles]

Okay - I'll try and break it down - some of this may not be in the demo (because it's a very old version) but this is how it goes. Each character gets a turn on offense and another turn on defense. The order is shown at the top of the screen and the Centermost goes first, then the next is left. The enemy has the same ability - a turn at offense, then at defense for the character. When on offense, the character attacking has some options. He or she can choose to use special moves indicated by symbols I frankly don't know how to describe, or a regular move. The move that you will make is described in a box on the left side of the screen (I'm not sure if the demo has that). The character that is attacking attacks the circle infront of him or her - you can move your character as well before an attack. When he or she attacks, the defending character does NOT have to be the one you are attacking. This will make sense in a second.

Lets say YOU are on defending against an attack. Before you choose your action and it plays out, you see 2 circles that are highlighted by a light - the one on the enemy side is the attacker, the one on your side is the defender. However, the enemy (and you, when you are attacking) has the advantage of moving - and you do NOT see the move, so the attacking character may not be attacking the DEFENDING character. Or to put it another way, lets say there is one enemy and he is attacking you. You have 2 pieces. Your defending piece is in the front row directly infront of the character that is attacking, and your other piece is to the side of that defending character in the front row. The enemy can CHOOSE to attack the piece that is defending. Or he can move to the side and put an attack against the other piece that is NOT defending. How you choose your defense depends on your affinity choice and harmony choice. The affinity choice binds characters so they make a defense together. The harmony choice lets you choose between a regular defense and a stronger defense or counter attack.
(In this case, the most obvious move is to bind your defending character's affinity to the character next to you, which would make BOTH Characters defend or counter attack).

This gets complicated when you have several characters on the board with different affinities on different spots. You also get to choose before an attack whether or not to act in "Harmony" (a blue circle) or "Dissonance" (a red circle) - just like on defense. The same rules apply to you as to the enemy - the enemy that is defending may not be infront of you - usually its smarter to move your character to another circle so he can attack an enemy that isn't "Automatically" defending. Using Harmony will deal less damage or heal less - basically it does less, but it can leave the circle as a blue clircle which will now be a "Harmony" circle. In a future move, you can move out of that circle and call in a re-inforcement. If you act in dissonance, several things happen. If the circle was a harmony circle, it stops and becomes a dissonance circle. The opposite is not true though - once a circle becomes dissonant it stays dissonant and you cannot act in harmony on the circle. Every act of dissonance creates a dissonance circle. The more dissonance circles on the board, (both your side and the enemies side) the more likely... well to put it simply, they explode. The damage done is higher based on the total number of dissonance circles on YOUR side of the board - or the enemies if the explosion happens on his turn and does damage to him. So the chances of a dissonance explosion are the total number of dissonance circles on the board - the damge done is the total number of dissonance circles on the unlucky persons side. Once that happens, the circles "Reset" - they can become harmony circles again. The payoff in attacking with dissonance is that it is more powerful (whether its an attack, or a heal, or if you are defending, it initiates a counter attack) - and is also a random number, but it will be higher then if it was in Harmony. Think of it like a drunk emo teenager - you're not sure EXACTLY whats going to happen, but its going to be MORESO then if it wasn't a drunk emo teenager. LOL, sorry bad illustration.

I hope this is enough of a primer - do you have any more questions? This is kinda still changing, so don't take it as gospel :)

[BluNectarine]

Hi brammel, as said before - the demo is an old version and won't be available on Steam anymore. In the EA there is a tutorial (that will be developed further to cover more aspects of tactics in game :) ).

[Op z'n gemak Dough]

That explains the mechanics a bit better then the demo.

But let me rephrase my question:
in MTG for instance, theres interesting decisions for the player in both deckbuilding and playing.
For deckbuilding this is a tradeoff between type of mana, strength of card, early-mid-late etc.
For playing this is resource management (how do i spend my cards over turns the most effectively)

The Demo made it feel like every turn is just an attack and a defense, but there was nothing to manage and nothing to consider (or atleast i wasnt aware of it)

To explain this a bit further: from what i have played, it seems like every character has some regular/special and dissonance attack, and while the values for these attacks are different, it seems like every character is similar in this sense.

Most games have different roles for their characters; glass cannons, tanks, healers, etc. but i found none of those present in the Demo (there is a difference between characters but very minor/small)

I feel like a demo should showcase the primary mechanic of a game, and i feel like i missed it.

My current view is that its a resource management game where your game area (with dissonance and harmony) is your resource. But due to the unpredictable nature of the dissonance thing it seems impossible to make a "correct" decision.

Are there some things ive missed (like teambuilding, card sequences, combo's, etc) that would make this game less of a "use as much dissonance as possible without it exploding"? (which is quite random in my experience rather then skill-based)

And thanks for taking the time to answer my questions:P i appreciate it alot.

[BluNectarine]

Originally posted by brammel:

That explains the mechanics a bit better then the demo.

But let me rephrase my question:
in MTG for instance, theres interesting decisions for the player in both deckbuilding and playing.
For deckbuilding this is a tradeoff between type of mana, strength of card, early-mid-late etc.
For playing this is resource management (how do i spend my cards over turns the most effectively)

The Demo made it feel like every turn is just an attack and a defense, but there was nothing to manage and nothing to consider (or atleast i wasnt aware of it)

To explain this a bit further: from what i have played, it seems like every character has some regular/special and dissonance attack, and while the values for these attacks are different, it seems like every character is similar in this sense.

Most games have different roles for their characters; glass cannons, tanks, healers, etc. but i found none of those present in the Demo (there is a difference between characters but very minor/small)

I feel like a demo should showcase the primary mechanic of a game, and i feel like i missed it.

My current view is that its a resource management game where your game area (with dissonance and harmony) is your resource. But due to the unpredictable nature of the dissonance thing it seems impossible to make a "correct" decision.

Are there some things ive missed (like teambuilding, card sequences, combo's, etc) that would make this game less of a "use as much dissonance as possible without it exploding"? (which is quite random in my experience rather then skill-based)

And thanks for taking the time to answer my questions:P i appreciate it alot.

Every character has 2 skills and they are quite different and game-changing. Characters are put into 3 categories - defense, attack and support and their statistics (hp, attack and armor) differ - as well as skill types (healing, aoe damage, buffs).

Yes, game consists only of two phases one after another (defense and attack) but every time you have a decision to make - if you want a group defense or solo defense, do you want a regular guard or a counter-attack, do you use dissonance to create mana square for your dps to use skills or wait for Guard to make a Harmony square etc. While building teams you decide if you want tank-heavy team with a lot of Harmony resources - or a dps build that depends on Dissonance.