[Vincent]

15 ) The Mana Khemia Series

This is always a rather lovely series to play. x3 It includes Mana Khemia 1 - The alchemists of Al-Revis and Mana Khemia 2 - The Fall of Alchemy.

Both games are similar in their own aspects, so I'm just going with both in one. XD Anyhow, the games take place in a school-like setting. As such, you attend classes that grade you based on the assignments given. Assignments range anywhere from 'kill this monster with a high chain hit count' to 'gather these items' or even 'make this item with a certain property.' If you do well on your classes, you get free time , and during free time, you can advance on character quests to get your relationships up.

Battles are turn-based. Number 1 has a card gauge, number 2 has a sphere gauge, and they both work in the same manner. Imagine a row of cards, with three cards representing your allies with their faces on them near the start, with 2 faces representing your enemies after them. The cards move to the right, and whoever reaches the right first gets their turn, then their card is moved back on the card gauge. This makes it work as a turn-based battle system. What's unique about this, though, is timed attacks. For example, an early character has a 'healing echo' spell. If she casts healing, that character gets healed, and a time card for the 'healing echo' gets put on on the card gauge. Now, the card gauge moves along, giving turns as usual. Once the healing card comes up, It heals again automatically to the person with the lowest hp, then it goes back on the card gauge again for 1 more round before disappearing. Sound nice yet? It can create some intense battles where you have a bunch of attack time cards and the enemy has a bunch of attack time cards going on at the same time. Such as 'flare rain' where it rains fire down 3 times over the course of the fight, or such. It also helps plan when you need to attack or heal by noticing what turns come up when. If you see a bunch of attack time cards by the enemy coming up, it's best to heal in preparation.

Then there's the alchemy system, which this game is pretty much all about. You can make your own items from materials found in the dungeons. You can make healing items, more ingredients, bombs, weapons, armors, etc. Making these involves doing a simple mini game, and depending on how the 'game' plays out, you alter the effects of the item. Such as giving an ingredient item a 'Hp + (L)' factor.
This means if you use this item to forge a piece of armor, (where you can choose up to 2 factors to put on it) you can add a 'Hp + L' to it and improve your hp greatly. This allows for almost limitless customization of your characters. And their skills, as you can add skills from various items, as well. Such as that Flare Rain from before.

Making items fills out your 'Grow Book'. If you make a healing jar for the first time, it's card in the character's grow book opens up, and you can spend 'SP' points gained from battle to increase your stats. For examle, a healing jar might open up a card that gives Hp+, atk+ and def+. And you can spend sp to increase each one once before needing to make something else to unlock a new card. :3