I rewatched the video of both Treehouse demos yesterday (
One,
Two)and in trying to get my head around the battle system and how it differs from Xenoblade, I started writing what I knew down since that's how I learn best and although I feel like it's super old information, but I'm mostly curious about how my understanding of the battle system matches up.
Battle Controls
L-Button: Target Lock
L-Stick: Character movement
D-Pad: Arts selection
R-Button: Target (presumably will make hitting l/r on the D-pad change target)
X: Weapon Change
A: Select Arts
B: Soul Voice actions
R-Stick: Camera
R-Stick Click: Enemy Body Part Lock
+ Button: Battle Menu
Attack
You attack in real time using your arts and they have a cool-down/recharge time, just as in Xenoblade. However, some arts can be double charged (like the shield) so that you can use them in quick succession. The example they give in the video is using the shield once on yourself and then on Elma. It actually seems like you can charge at least some arts 3 times before using them; you can see below the art 'Assault Hammer' has トリプルリキャスト, or 'Triple Recast'.
You can switch weapons on the fly; between ranged and melee. Arts that only work with one sort of combat won't charge while using the other type.
You can also switch classes mid-battle, which will change your arts palette.
Some arts will work more or less effectively depending on where you stand and which part of the monster you are attacking. As listed above in the controls, you can lock your target on one part of the monster by clicking down on the right control stick.
Arts can be upgraded using Battle Points (BP) you earn from beating enemies.
Healing
While you can apparently heal yourself, you cannot directly heal another party member using your own arts. There is no 'healer' or 'healer class' in the game. You can heal other players indirectly by using the 'Soul Voice' and successfully hitting the B button during in-battle events.
However, you can revive party members using TP.
Technical Points
Technical Points, TP, build up by using arts during battle. Melee arts apparently build TP faster than ranged arts.
You can revive a team member using 1,000 TP by pressing the b-button near where they fainted.
The player character starts off with a maximum of 3,000 TP according to the Treehouse demo.
Soul Voice
Of everything, I feel as though my understanding of Soul Voice is the weakest, but it sounds as though your party members will give orders to you via orange dialogue boxes, asking you to perform specific arts or attack specific body parts. Doing so within a certain time will raise your 'Soul Stage' (the yellow bar just above the arts palette), which will trigger the B-button based events, where you must hit b within a certain time (good timing = succeeded, perfect time = huge succeeded). This will then help heal your party members (and provide other bonuses?).
The higher your Soul Stage is the faster these b-events are and the shorter window for successful execution.
I think. I'm not sure.
Classes
You can select a class for your character. Each class will learn a different set of arts. Once you've learned an art it can be mix and matched with other arts to customize your play style better.
Here are the classes and their basic weapon types(melee on the left, range on the right) from the Treehouse video:
Lvl 1 Class
Drifter: Knife, Assault Rifle
Lvl 2 Classes
Assault: Long Sword, Assault Rifle
Command: Dual Sword, Dual Gun
Forcer: Knife, Ray Gun
Lvl 3 Classes
Samurai Gun: Long Sword, Assault Rifle
Shield Battler: Shield, Gatling Gun
Sword Fang: Dual Sword, Dual Gun
Long Lancer: Javelin (Spear), Sniper Rifle
Psy Seeker: Knife, Ray Gun
Blast Fencer: Photon Sabre, Psycho Launcher
Lvl 4 Classes
[Unknown]
Heavy Striker Shield, Gatling Gun
FullMetal Jaguar: Dual Sword, Dual Gun
Star Crusader: Javelin (Spear), Sniper Rifle
Elite Planner: Knife, Ray Gun
Galaxy Knight: Photon Sabre, Psycho Launcher
They didn't highlight one of the classes in the right-hand most column in either video so we don't know what that one it. As they say in the video, class names aren't final for the English version.
Within each weapon 'type' it seems as though there will be different kinds of weapons. For instance, you start the game off with the 'Proto Knife' and the 'Proto Gun' which are listed as types of 'knife' and 'assault rifle' respectively.
Treasure Drops
Unlike Xenoblade, treasure boxes don't appear on the field after battle. Instead, once the enemies are defeated, a dialogue box opens with a list of treasure chests you've earned. It appears you still need to open them in this window, though, as the contents don't automatically appear on the Item List.
Once you've opened them you have the following options:
Take All
Take Some
Sell All
Treasure Deal
Environmental Effects
Under environmental effects, we see two rows of boxes. One for weather effects and one for zone effects.
According to the Treehouse members, weather apparently have an effect on enemy behavior and types, but it seems it will also provide overall boosts or debuffs to your party. There is space for up to 4 effects caused by weather.
Zone Effects are presumably effected by data probes, in addition to possible general affects in each zone. There is space for up to five zone effects.
(Incidentally, we can also see space for up to 4 'Guest Characters' in this menu screen.)
--
So, that's everything that I noticed and how I understand it, but I'm sure there are other people more knowledgeable than me who can correct me.
And so I'll end on a reminder that you can hunt for items in steaming piles of giant monster poop.