Battle System

Learn the turn-based combat of Dragon Quest VII! Understand Attack, Spells, Abilities, Items, Defend, Flee, and the Tactics menu to control your party effectively.

Alright, let's talk about fighting in Dragon Quest VII! When you bump into a monster out in the world, you'll jump into a battle. It's a pretty classic turn-based system, much like the older Dragon Quest games, so if you've played any of them before, you'll feel right at home. The cool thing is that at the start of each turn, you decide what everyone in your party is going to do. Then, the game figures out the order everyone acts based on their speed.

You've got a few main choices when it comes to what your characters can do:

• Fight: This is your main action menu. From here, you can choose to Attack with your weapons, cast Spells (which are like magic for attacking, healing, or buffing your team), use Abilities (similar to spells but not quite magic), use Items from your inventory, Defend to reduce incoming damage, or try to Flee from the battle (though it's not always successful!).
• Tactics: This is super important for controlling your party! If you choose 'Follow Orders,' you get to tell every single character exactly what to do each turn. But, if you switch to the AI options, you let the computer take over. Sometimes, letting the AI handle it can be really effective because they might figure out enemy weaknesses you'd miss!
• Flee: You can also choose to Flee directly from the main battle menu, same place you pick Fight and Tactics.
• Settings: This just lets you tweak various options, similar to the main game settings.

Oh, and a neat little trick: some equipment you have can actually be used as an item in battle! For instance, the Staff of Salvation can be used to heal up one of your allies. Keep an eye out for gear like that!