Sakura Wars: On-line Manual: Battle Commands

Sakura Wars On-line Manual: Battle Commands

Battle Commands

The battle part of Sakura Taisen is a third-person strategic combat simulation where the player (as Oogami) directs in turns the "movement", "attack" and "defence" of the mecha units (Koubu) of the Hanagumi members. Emphasis is on strategy rather than action. Good coordination is essential to defeat the enemies while ensuring the safety of the Hanagumi members.

Condition of Defeat

If Oogami's mecha unit's health point drops to 0, that means the player has failed his/her duty and thus the game is over. But you can choose to fight the battle again from the beginning.

Battle Map View

When it's a certain mecha unit's turn for action, a mini-stats window will be visible (see explanation below). Press the A button for detailed stats about the unit, press the C button for the command window (see below), or press the start button for the system window.

Flow Chart for Battle Commands

Steam Vents (for Recharging)

Both your team and your enemies can use these steam vents to recharge their health points during battle. Simply move the mecha unit over the vent to recharge. May need to repeat for a full recharge. Special-attack points are not recharged by steam vents. You need to use the "ta-me" command instead (see below).

Explanation of Battle Commands

Movement

When the movement option is selected, the range of the active unit's movement will be highlighted by light-blue squares on the battle map view. Simply move cursor to the desired blue square and press the C-button to move the unit. Hitting the C-button again before or during unit is in movement will cause it to speed up to its destination, which is useful if you don't particularly enjoy their graceful but slow movements ^_^ Once the unit has reached the destination square, you may change your mind and cancel the movement by hitting the B-button. If you want to confirm movement, hit the C-button instead. Except for Iris' unit, all other units can only move up higher terrains if there's a path which leads to the taget location and which does not contain any upward steps of more than one unit. i.e. for higher terrians you'll need to find a route that will get you there one step up at a time. A unit's range of movement can be limited by land formations or by the presence of enemy units.

Attack

Normally there are three types of attack:

Normal Attack - the less powerful type of attack but always available. Once selected, the range of attack will be highlighted by yellow squares on the battle map view. Choose a target for attack (choice is usually automatic if there's only one enemy in range), and use the C-button to initiate attack. Some units can attack one or more targets adjacent to the chosen target at the same time, so choose your targets wisely to maximize damage. Effective range of damage is indicated by red squares once a target is chosen. Actual damage done is dependent on the attacking unit's attack ability, which is in turn related to the confidence level of the Hanagumi member controlling the unit (there's in addition a certain degree of randomness built in)

Sure-kill Attack - or special attack (which is more appropriate perhaps because it doesn't always kill your enemy, but "sure-kill" is what the Japanese kanji's mean literally ^_^) This is the more powerful attack, but can be used only if the special-attack points for a unit have reached 100%. Range of attack differs from normal attacks, and so does the range of damage. Special-attack points drop back to zero after a sure-kill attack, and has to be recharged (see below) before another sure-kill attack can be used.

Combine Attack

Defence

There are three options under defence:

Defence - Choose this option when there's no enemy in range for you to attack and you're about to be attacked. This will lessen the damage to your unit when attacked.

ta-me - (can be translated as "welfare" ^_^) Choose this to recharge a unit's special-attack points after using a sure-kill attack. Remember you need 100% special-attack points before using sure-kill attacks.

Recover - use this to restore a unit's health points. If there's a "x2" besides this option, that means you can use "recover" twice. Can be used to restore health points to one's own unit or another unit immediately adjacent to it (don't try it on enemy units though ^_^).

Information and Stats

There are two ways to find out about the stats of a unit:

Mini-stats menu - this menu appears whenever the cursor is placed over a unit. The meanings of the various elements are:

A - Mug-shot of operator of unit

B - Special-attack points indicator

C - Health points indicator

D - Name of operator

E - Unit's postion in the order of movement in a round ("1" goes first). This can be important in terms of strategy.

Detailed Stats Menu - this appears when the "information" option is chosen from the command menu. Elements of the menu are:

A - Name of unit

B - Current Health Points/Maximum Health Points

C - Current Special-attack Points/Maximum

D - Ability associated with the operator of the unit

E - Ability intrinsic to the unit

F - Ability adjustments dependent on the confidnece index

G - Total abilities (sum of above three)

H - Attack ability

I - Defence ability

J - Movement ability

K - Name of unit's sure-kill attack

Map Command - This will open an overall map of the battle, with the green dots representing friendly units, red dots representing enemy units, and yellow dots representing land formations and other immobile units.

Conversation Command - Use this to learn about team members present conditions and also to get hints about how to win the battle.

Terminating a Turn

Use this when there's nothing to be done. Before ending your turn this way, make sure you don't have any special-attack points to recharge, and make sure no enemies are around (otherwise use "defence" instead).

Protect Mode

This option is only available to Oogami's unit. You can use up to eight protect moves in one battle. When this option is selected, you need to choose whom you want to protect (can only protect one team member at one time). Once done, the chosen member will be shielded by Ooagmi's unit from the next attack by enemies. Out of gratitude the team member's confidence index will go up by one (don't you just love hearing Sakura saying "arigatou gozaimasu!"? ^_^) Neither unit will suffer any damage under normal attacks. This is a good way to increase the confidence index (thus also love index) in a chosen member ^_^

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