A lot of shit isn't explained particularly well if at all. The game makes huge assumptions about the player's knowledge -- something I knew was gonna happen as soon as I opened the case to see a flimsy manual. Most of the time it's just characters making a passing reference to a game mechanic. "Oh, we should work together!" Alright. But I had to look up what support does; why some pair-ups attack twice while others are trash, why some units attack twice at all, etc. I didn't even know 'conversations' existed until happening upon it on the game map; wherein I just did them without knowing what they did, if they could only be done once, etc. People gaining hearts on the map as they fight? No clue what the fuck that was without looking it up. What do some of the weapon stats mean, like why did a green number appear beside an item inside a shop? What's that mean? Why can I buy some of the magic items listed as "E" (again with numbers?), but I can't buy "Flux" even though it, too, is an E?
Sometimes it's just the shoddy interface getting in the way. One example, the game tells me where the enemy can attack me from, right? One space appears clear. But when I move a character to that space it's no longer clear. They can now attack me there. Why? I don't know, but more importantly, why didn't the game give me a heads up before I finalized that move? What purpose is the heads up if it doesn't work every time? Other things just bug me a bit about the interface in general. A hand axe is not only thrown but it has the same range as bows? Sure, I could have clicked on the weapon details, but I'd rather not do that nonstop; why was it so hard to just put everything on the interface, readily available a la Advance Wars? It's not like the game was pressed for screen space. Nor is the game even clear when you I do check. Why do I only learn an enemy does double-attacks when they're attacking/defending and not before? Does it only happen in some match ups or all of them? And why does it happen? I don't fucking know. Like with the pairs, I don't know why some support characters step in and others just chill. I can't find answers for stuff like that anywhere in the game. The fact the bows did one-hit KO damage is far, far different than "oh, I'm weak to bows." It's not that the game didn't tell me about the weakness, it's that it didn't hint at you will certainly die if fired upon by arrows. The seriousness of the damage was fucking out of nowhere because the game didn't really impress upon me that it would happen. And by that point, after slogging through all this shit, it was kinda like "Okay you fucking game, you coulda at the very least warned me a bit more than that."
The game is fun, but frustrating as all fuck because I'm constantly like, "What does this do? Why does this happen?" and I can't find the answers anywhere without going to the internet. For example, why can't I equip that "E" ranked magic when I can the others? I don't know. The only option I get on that screen is to either buy or go back. One of my skills says it will save me if hit with HP > 1. Alright. Trigger % = (Lck stat). Okay. My Luck stat is 9. So what the fuck is my percentage? Well, nowhere to be found, of course. It's this kind of shit that irks me. I'm sure veterans of the series are like so what, here's some stats right here for criticals and this and that, but my handheld strategy game of choice was Advance Wars and I can say, without a doubt, that its interface is infinitely better. It has just as many facets to its gameplay, but it doesn't waste any screen space or withhold information in anyway. I'm not saying the game mechanics are faulty, though, it's quite good there; I'm just saying it's not nearly as intuitive and accessible as it could be.
Edit: Another example, and one that kinda encapsulates a lot of issues. I'm at a part where I'm trying to upgrade a low level character. To do this, I'm feeding him enemies; makes sense. So I have the enemies channeling in. There is an archer to my left who has been doing pot shots for 7 damage. An enemy below which does 6 damage. So I switch in my weak character and finish an enemy off; this will leave the weak character prepped for 13 damage, which he can easily manage, leaving him with around 5-6 HP for the next round's heal. First guy moves, does his 6 damage as planned. The archer now attacks, but now he does 7 damage... twice. At no point prior had he done two shots. At not point prior in the entire fucking game had an archer done two shots. How am I supposed to know? Serious question. I just don't fucking understand half the things that happen.
