7th Dragon III Code: VFD does something unusual with its party. Your Unit 13 dragon hunting group starts out with three characters. At certain points in the story, you’re given the opportunity to expand it to six and nine people. While you aren’t always using everyone at once, this feature gives everyone a chance to be ready for every situation in 7th Dragon III Code: VFD.
You’ll first get an opportunity to expand your group in Atlantis, bringing the number of official Unit 13 dragon hunters up to six. While the six backup characters aren’t in active use, they’re still incredibly handy to have around. The default place for these extra three folks is in the background. They wait in the wings in a battle, their character portraits appearing on your touch screen. Theiir presence there means they’re earning skill and experience points.
If your main party in 7th Dragon III Code: VFD is getting exhausted and you don’t feel like retreating to regroup, it’s possible to swap to this other party in the field. You can then use them in battles instead. It’s a handy means of putting off returning to an exit point or Nodens headquarters to restore everyone. It’s also a good way to try new strategies with a different party.
The most useful part of this back row of allies is the ability to call them in to break through a dragon’s defenses or offer a turn of supporting effects. Gauges appear below each character’s portrait in the rear. After certain milestones are reached after a specific number of turns, you can tap or swipe on the screen to bring them in. This is most handy during dragon, high dragon, and true dragon battles. If a dragon suddenly boosts its attack or defense, or perhaps hops away so it’s able to attack, but not be hit, you can tap one rear character to bring them in for a Break.
Here’s a hypothetical example of how the 7th Dragon III Code: VFD Break system works. My heroine and group one leader, a God-Hand named Jenni, is facing a dragon that charged the previous turn to boost its physical and magical attack stats. This is usually a sign that a stronger than usual attack will be used the next turn. Since my second team Samurai, Chris, has one bar filled below him, I can tap him, then select Jenni’s Jab attack. Jab hits immediately when a turn begins. Before Jab lands, Chris pops up for a Break attack that deals damage and returns the stats to normal. Then, Jenni Jabs. This is especially handy when defense is boosted, as it returns the enemy’s defense to normal before attacks land.
7th Dragon III Code: VFD also has Unison Attacks. Once you have a full team of 9 characters in Unit 13, you’ll have an opportunity to unleash a Unison attack when the rear team’s gauges fill enough and the active team’s party members are all healthy and alive. This is triggered by swiping through the entire second team, then third team, on the touch screen. Every character will be able to take an action, with no MN points expended for skills. This is an essential move against high and true dragons, as it can let you set up lots of buffs from inactive characters that last multiple turns, as well as deal a substantial amount of damage in one turn.
There’s one more neat reason for multiple teams. They’re able to split up. There are multiple points in 7th Dragon III Code: VFD’s story where Unit 13 splits up into two or three teams to handle multiple problems at once. Which makes sense from a tactical and adventuring viewpoint. Sometimes, you need to do multiple things at the same time and you do have up to nine people available. This means the Break and Unison features are unavailable, but does provide an opportunity to use teams that may not normally get much action.
Basically, 7th Dragon III Code: VFD makes sure a player is set when they go into a dungeon. You will, after one point, have nine people in your party. These extra allies will let you swap active parties, so you always have someone fresh to tackle dragons. They’ll help you tear down a dragon that’s trying to boost stats with a Break attack that’s the equivalent of saying, “Nope!” You can even get a jump on a true dragon by pulling off a Unison attack with a full party at once. If you make sure your characters are both well trained and well organized, you’ll be ready for anything.
7th Dragon III Code: VFD will come to the Nintendo 3DS on July 12, 2016.
