Spellcasters not useless AI like in the SNES original?!?

[T-Prime]

What? It's true. Fight me.

[Risotto]

You know you can make the AI teammates cast spells in the original right?

[T-Prime]

I had no idea.

[Unicorn furf]

Not automatically. You still need to pause the game to bring up the ring menu, switch over to the other character, select a spell, continue playing for about a second while it's being chanted, then pause the game again for the spell animation to play.

[Mithalan Mithrarin]

Yeah hopefully they won't run into danger/kill the one enemy you wanted to kill last first, and allow for auto-spellcasting with the AI companions. (HINT HINT, SQUARE!)

[frog the log]

yo. a website that had the opportunity to interview the devs actually asked about this (and about using magic in general). here are the questions/replies:

RPG Site: One thing I was specifically curious about is how magic works. In the original game, you would have to pause and open the ring menu to select which magic to use, how does it work here?

Oyamada: You can bring up the ring command during combat to use magic like before, but we are also planning to implement easier ways to access spells as well. Also when someone uses magic, whether it's your allies or the enemy, the action will not stop like in the original game.

RPG Site: Perhaps a related question. In Seiken Densetsu 3, when I had Angela as a companion, she was never quite smart enough to use effective spells on her own. I repeatedly had to open the menu to command her to use certain abilities. Will their behavior be improved here?

Tatsuke: We have redesigned the AI systems completely. If you set up Angela to use her magic, she will use it that way. We cannot show you this now, but eventually, you'll be able to set up the behavior to act in certain ways.

i bolded the part you specifically asked about.

here's the link to the full interview for anybody interested:
https://www.rpgsite.net/interview/8642-mana-series-interview-and-hands-off-demo-at-e3-2019-we-chat-with-series-producers-about-re-releasing-and-remaking-a-classic-series

[Tracido]

Originally posted by frog the log:

yo. a website that had the opportunity to interview the devs actually asked about this (and about using magic in general). here are the questions/replies:

RPG Site: One thing I was specifically curious about is how magic works. In the original game, you would have to pause and open the ring menu to select which magic to use, how does it work here?

Oyamada: You can bring up the ring command during combat to use magic like before, but we are also planning to implement easier ways to access spells as well. Also when someone uses magic, whether it's your allies or the enemy, the action will not stop like in the original game.

RPG Site: Perhaps a related question. In Seiken Densetsu 3, when I had Angela as a companion, she was never quite smart enough to use effective spells on her own. I repeatedly had to open the menu to command her to use certain abilities. Will their behavior be improved here?

Tatsuke: We have redesigned the AI systems completely. If you set up Angela to use her magic, she will use it that way. We cannot show you this now, but eventually, you'll be able to set up the behavior to act in certain ways.

i bolded the part you specifically asked about.

here's the link to the full interview for anybody interested:
https://www.rpgsite.net/interview/8642-mana-series-interview-and-hands-off-demo-at-e3-2019-we-chat-with-series-producers-about-re-releasing-and-remaking-a-classic-series

I had a tear. This could be worth every penny..

[Erpy]

Note that in the original, an AI that automatically cast attack magic would be a quick and easy way to get Suzaku Aerial-ed to death since several strong enemies were scripted to automatically launch a painful class strike at your skull the moment they were hit with anything that paused the action. If the AI were to start shooting willy nilly at those kinds of enemies, you'd get countered to death before you could yell "Wait, not that one!!!".

[Zunnoab #931]

Originally posted by Unicorn furf:

Not automatically. You still need to pause the game to bring up the ring menu, switch over to the other character, select a spell, continue playing for about a second while it's being chanted, then pause the game again for the spell animation to play.

Actually you could hold L or R to control another character and directly bring up their menu, unless you're talking about the remake which I hope you are not.

Spell casting is probably the biggest flaw in the original, in my opinion. At the least, counters should have been more obvious.

[Tracido]

Originally posted by Zunnoab #931:

Originally posted by Unicorn furf:

Not automatically. You still need to pause the game to bring up the ring menu, switch over to the other character, select a spell, continue playing for about a second while it's being chanted, then pause the game again for the spell animation to play.

Actually you could hold L or R to control another character and directly bring up their menu, unless you're talking about the remake which I hope you are not.

Spell casting is probably the biggest flaw in the original, in my opinion. At the least, counters should have been more obvious.

Oh yeah, I remember that. However, if it's going to be good AI, I still don't want to lose the ability to switch into each character, so I hope that switching them is still allowed.

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by Bruce Magician:

You know you can make the AI teammates cast spells in the original right?

Share with us your secrets!!!!

[Bloody Sorcerer]

Welp, I'll still use Angela as a main because I prefer as the main character of the Dragon Emperor arc over Duran.

[Schutzengel]

Originally posted by Bruce Magician:

You know you can make the AI teammates cast spells in the original right?

That is possible ?

[Zunnoab #931]

I think they mean by holding the shoulder button and opening the menu.

Either way, the fact magic doesn't pause everything and AI options are there is great. They took it way too far nerfing magic with the original, and the counter system (which isn't even remotely obvious at that) punishes using magic and level 2+ techs. It's not uncommon for people to get a huge amount into the original before realizing counters even exist. I just thought enemies spammed abilities my first time.