Breaking the Battlefield
What up, Ocean Drivers?
…Eidol-heads? Lost-o’s? I don’t know, we’re a new company, the verbiage is still a moving target.
My name’s Brandon. I’m the Localization Editor on Lost Eidolons, which means if you open the game and read some words in English, I probably touched ’em. (Unless you don’t like them, in which case…uhhhh…I didn’t touch those ones. It was a different guy. Who lives in Canada.)
ANYWAY. Today we’re here to talk about something that will make the dorky tactics nerds out there get all hot and bothered:
🔥❄💧⚡💨🍃 TERRAIN EFFECTS 🔥❄💧⚡💨🍃
Okay, so, you know how in a lot of turn-based RPG’s, you’ve got like 5,000 different elemental spells, but mostly all they do is deal damage (and, occasionally, deal slightly more damage)?
Magic in Lost Eidolons is built different.
As those of you who took part in the betas can attest, combat in this game is suuuper melee-heavy, with mechanics designed to imbue movement and positioning with greater strategic depth.
For example, you know that silly flanking-leapfrog thing other SRPG’s make you do? Yeah, there’s none of that here.
I’m lookin’ at you, Yasumi Matsuno >:0
Making that design philosophy work means taking a slightly more reserved approach to magic. This is not a game where your spellcasters will be whipping out 9-tile Thundagas 5 hours in. In fact, players may be surprised to discover that there are very few multi-target spells in the game at all.
So, what gives? How do you make your spellcasters melt the dumb sword guys?
That’s where elemental synergies come in.
In addition to doing damage, the majority of elemental spells in the game also have terrain-related aspects, altering the battlefield as you fight.
Welcome to nightveil.
Naturally, elemental hazards will bestow punishing status effects on any enemy dumb enough to walk through them. But they also create the opportunity for clever 1-2 combos, and these serve as the primary means of doing area damage in Lost Eidolons.
Maybe that means shocking that puddle you just created, to zap a bunch of guys all at once.
Linard and Albrecht with a tag-team special.
Or extinguishing an obstacle some other jerk set.
FIRE SEASON’S CANCELED.
The result is a combat system where nuking multiple enemies with a single spell is intentionally a bit of a pain to pull off — but when you actually do it? It can swing the whole battle. And feels AWESOME.
Discovering these and other interactions is half the fun of progressing the magic classes. And in true SRPG fashion, your spellcasters become flesh-liquefying gods of death by the endgame.
That said, spells have a limited number of uses per battle, and spellcasting classes tend to be on the squishy side, so they won’t be winning the day on their own. But with a bit of clever play and careful planning, they’re a crucial tool for turning the battlefield itself to your advantage.
And trust me: you’re gonna need all the help you can get.