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- Battles in this game occur on the field with no transition. At the height of action, the player controls Zack while selecting commands. The series of reels in the upper left corner are known as the "Digital Mind Wave" (DMW), and spin continuously as long as there is SP left to consume. Each rotates independantly, and various effects can be achieved when they stop on matching portraits or values.

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- There will be a wide variety of materia. Materia can be both found and synthesized (as in Before Crisis), though the synthization method wasn't explained.

- After you've obtained enough experience and exceeded the specific value for leveling up, you will level up via the reel system.

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As you make your way around, you'll go into random battles with enemies that appear. Rather than play out via turn-based battles, Crisis Core's battles are played out in real time. A trio of meters comes up on the lower left-hand side of the screen, and an action bar shows up on the lower right. The meters show your HP, MP, and "AP." Though your life and magic points are fairly self explanatory, the AP bar seems to be tied to Zack's defensive actions. Guarding or performing rolling dodges to avoid being hit lower the bar, which slowly refills when not in use. The action bar in the lower right-hand corner of the screen features several different icons you can toggle between by using the shoulder buttons. The first icon is your basic sword attack while the others in the row appear to be materia, which is used to perform heals on your self or boost magic attacks such as fire and lighting. One bit of randomness to the proceedings is a small three-character slot. From what we can gather, the slots are constantly cycling and will randomly shift over to a screen-filling interface that requires you to stop them at the right time. Specific combos of character portraits in the slots yield power-ups and special attacks.

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FFVII: Crisis Core - How the Battle System and Materia works:


The official Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core website has updated the "System" section, which includes brand-new information and 2 videos showing how the Battle System and Materia works.

The "Character" section has also been updated with new profiles for the Turks: Tseng and Cissnei (previously known by fans as "Shisune").


BATTLE SYSTEM INFORMATION:

Battle System



Materia System

O - Action
X - Cancel
△- Defend
□ - Dodge
R-L - Cycle Commands


And on the map -

O - Action
X - Cancel
△- Menu (???)
□ - Map display
R-L - Camera


note: Familiar Materia and monster enemies will appear in Crisis Core.

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