History of The Third Age :: "Your tale has hardly begun"

All of the different aspects of battle in The Third Age make up such a complex and interesting battle system that you're bound to be entertained for hours. All of the aspects flow together and are easy to understand. Although similar to a mix between Final Fantasy 10 and Final Fantasy X-2, this game has its own unique set of ideas to work off of.

Overview

As you first enter battle, the most immediate thing you'll notice is that the interface is a lot like that of Final Fantasy 10. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well, that's up to you, but we find it to be a good thing. The thing about FF10 is that its battle system is just a recap of previous Final Fantasy titles, only with a different coat of paint. This game takes that idea and takes it to the next level, giving you the best out of both worlds.

Gandalf steps in to kick some ass.

As with any RPG, you're going to get the same array of abilities that you normally get. In this game, you are presented with a window in the bottom-left corner of the screen that displays "Attack", character-specific special attacks, "Items" and "Perfect Mode". Every one of these choices are self explanatory, but if you want more information on them anyway, read on down below this.

Your party always consists of 3 people in battle, unless another character comes in for specific events (like the Balrog fight). Sometimes one of your party members steps out while another character (like, say, Gandalf) appears and helps your party kill some bad-guys. The battle system is turn based, taking into account another staple from FFX, a bar on the upper right corner that tells who attacks when.

You fight enemies in-game through a variety of different ways, depending on the area. If a Palantir appears on the upper-left corner of the screen, it means that there are no random encounters, but you're about to trigger a pre-set encounter (like a boss). If the eye of Sauron (the burning eye) takes place of the Palantir, then you're in an area with random encounters.

Taunt Foe

Think of "Taunt Foe" as the equivalent of "Cover" in other games. However, instead of this being an ability that is set off at random, this time your chance at guarding others focuses on you just hitting an option. Once you hit the "Taunt Foe" button, the chance that the enemy you targeted with this option will attack you instead of another character increases tenfold. The way you set up your taunt with yourself and other characters can also be beneficial.

Imagine, if you will, that you're in Moria and Idrial the elf is in serious need of healing. Instead of just letting her die, you take Hadhod the Dwarf and cover Idrial against an impending attack from one of the enemy Orcs that you're fighting. After double checking that it's the right Orc against the bar on the upper right hand corner, you "Taunt Foe" it, take the pain, then let your other characters wail on said orc until it's dead.

Makes sense? Good! This makes it really easy to pull together strategies for enemies and bosses. Just be careful to make sure you're guarding with the right person and that person has enough health to take the damage.

Special Abilities

Says David Silverman, marketing manager at EA Redwood Shores, "not magic!" Special abilities count as the "not magic but darn close to it" abilities at your disposal. Looking for a flashy maneuver to show off to your friends, or just some nice fireworks for no reason whatsoever? Look towards these abilities! You're bound to get some "ooohs" and "aaahs" out of it.

Berethor's performs a Leadership ability

Berethor shows off one of his "special abilities".

Each character on your team has their own unique set of abilities that depend on who they are, what they are, and what they do. For example, Berethor has abilities that allow him to up the strength and dexterity and other stats of the party for a certain amount of time, and Idrial has the ability to heal wounds and other problematic injuries that appear in-battle.

In the UI screen, you can choose different abilities to learn by gaining enough "SP" from each battle that you take part in. Much like FFX-2 (just without the dress-spheres), once you gain enough SP, you can use the ability you just learned as many times as you want. The abilities that you learn are split up into two categories: "light" and "dark". Light abilities constitute healing and defense, while dark constitute attack.

So they aren't magic abilities (only Gandalf and other wizards can technically "perform magic"), but they're the next best thing to 'em. As you progress through the game and beat enemies, you gain SP points that go towards getting new abilities. It just so happens that these sort of abilities are among the list of those that you learn this way! Nifty, eh? So go out (when the game comes out, that is) and look snazzy with your special abilities.

Summons

Summoned creatures are generally regarded as the most powerful abilities at your disposal, and this game appears to follow the same guidelines. During battle, you have the chance of summoning such common Middle-Earth creatures as Ents, Firework Dragons, Fire Demons and Water Stallions, among others. Each summon has their own unique elemental attack, much like "special abilities", so it's important to choose the right summon for a specific enemy or enemies.

Summoned creatures in this game are a lot like those in Final Fantasy 9 in terms of their technique. In this game, you summon a creature, it appears, does its attack, then disappears. Summons cannot be attacked, as they only last for a short period of time. Use them to your advantage during tough fights.

Items

Items have always been an integral part of Role-Playing games, and this one definitely does not lack in that department. Sporting well over 500,000 items with completely unique results, you'll never go wrong if you're looking for something. Instead of these items just being medicinal items, however, they have other purposes as well.

Elegost uses an enchanted arrow.

One unique thing about the items in this game is that they can also be used offensively. Some of the potions and herbs that you get can be used to either power up your weapons and armor or to increase your strength or stamina. The offensive potions that enchant your armor or weapon come in 6 different varieties: Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Light and Dark. You can use the different elements presented in these to attack specific types of enemies. For example, if you're fighting the Balrog, you'd want to use a potion with the element of water.

There are no item shops in Middle-Earth, so everything you find is going to come off of the ground, out of treasure chests, or from enemies (or even as enemies). You're not going to find "Potion"s and "Ether"s here though. Instead, the dev crew opted to go the way of actual herbs that you might find in the nature of Middle Earth, like King's Foil.

Perfect Mode

Perfect Mode is a trigger that, when activated, gives you some of the most powerful abilities at your disposal. The catch? You must execute a certain number of attacks and special moves for it to raise. The amount of damage that you inflict is directly proportional to the perfect-mode bar rising. Once it reaches its peak, you can launch some devestating attacks.

Perfect mode only lasts until you perform a perfect attack, and once one person in the party reaches it, so does the rest of your party. Some of the abilities that appear can heal yourselves, while others can hurt the enemy. This is where summons come into play; the most powerful offensive perfect mode abilities are the summons. These are definitely recommended for those who want to take down bosses quickly, or even regular enemies.

After Battle / Leveling Up

Upon leveling, you can upgrade any stat.

During battle, each attack that you successfully pull off against an enemy adds to a tally of points, called "SP". This system allows you to learn skills while in battle. The SP that you earn depends on what type of attack or skill you use. For example, if Berethor uses a Leadership skill, one SP point will be added to that skill. Once you've learned a specific skill you'll know (it'll say "Learned *skill name*!" in the upper-left hand corner), and you will be able to use it immediately.

In addition to this SP, you gain Experience Points (EXP) at the end of each battle that allows you to level up. Once your character levels up, you have several different choices at your disposal. With your new level in hand, the ability to upgrade any stat of any character (that just leveled) appears. If you wanted Idrial to be a majorly proficient magic user, just up her magic points and you'll be all set.