Queen's Blade Spiral Chaos Review - Part 3

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The destruction of all armor will result in a "perfect knockdown" and eliminate the character from the board also giving you additional experience if you manage to perform one against an enemy. In addition to Queen's Blade characters there are also female "monsters" who can be captured by Jean if he achieves a perfect knockdown. The monster characters then become available to be called into battle on your team.

In addition to this, Jean or other characters are able to develop closer relationships to each other that effect the actions they take in battle. Characters with a close affinity to each other will join in the others attack, and if they are close enough, will even throw themselves in front of an enemy and defend the other.

Relationships can be built by two options in the communication menu; one is free talk, the other is training. In free talk, Jean can chat with one of the females currently in the party and get to know them better. In training, you may pick any two characters to battle each other. Characters that battle each other repeatedly will begin to develop an affinity.

Another fun aspect of the battle system in this PSP game I'd like to review is a bonus/penalty system based on the type of combatant that each character is. There are three types, flower, moon, and sword. They have a rock-paper-scissors relationship where flower beats sword, sword beats moon, and moon beats flower. Characters of opposing types will have a bonus or penalty to damage when attacking or defending.

In addition, there are colored jewels that correspond to the three types of fighter. The colors are red(sword), blue(moon) and yellow(flower). Each character may hold three jewels and they get a bonus for each jewel of the same color as their combat type that they hold. Jewels also bestow skills that can be used in battle.

In addition to jewels, characters may also have skills that come as part of the costume they are wearing, or as part of the character itself. As you play through the game on your PSP you'll find costumes for a few select characters (including Reina, Nanael, Cute, and Ymir). This costume will effect stats as well as skills and is a complete visual overhaul for the character including the sprite, character portraits, and armor crush animations. Skills use skill points and can lend a number of useful abilities to characters for both battle and support. Added to this is the ability to upgrade the effectiveness of armor on various body parts, or your characters attack ability. Not only that, but various items can be purchased that give your characters bonuses to stats like hit, attack, defense, evasion, and even attack or movement range.

• Queen's Blade Spiral Chaos Review - Part 4

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