#radiant future

Se'arah has four choices of weapon, like most characters, but a fifth one is obtained in the story and can be used in multiplayer upon completing the story.

Silver Sword: The basic all-rounder. Is Silver by default in PVP, but starts as an Iron Sword and can be upgraded to Silver in Story Mode.

Killing Edge: Overall less damage, but increases the Skill Gauge gain per hit. Can be upgraded to Slaying Edge in Story Mode, but remains a Killing Edge in PVP.

Brave Sword: A noob's weapon of choice, this weapon has mostly the same stats as the Silver Sword, but grants a few autocombos that deal less damage and grant less reward than performing the same combos manually would, like Dragon Ball FighterZ autocombos.

Firesweep Sword: A hyper risk/reward sword. The Firesweep Sword has the most damage of any sword and can break guards, but if a foe initiates combat, your own attacks are disabled for the first 10 seconds of the round, so you cannot fight back for a third of the engagement. As a saving grace, if you have a Turbo Mode effect active, it won't start depleting until you can attack again.

Alondite: Substantially slows down the frame data of all of Se'arah's sword attacks, but has comparable damage to the Firesweep Sword, doesn't lose any combos, and changes his/her Sword Wave from a grounded shockwave to a large multi-hit sword beam.

Now, on to Se'arah's actual moveset.

Universal Normals: 5L: A backfist with his/her right hand. 5M: A swipe of his/her sword across his/her shoulder. 5H: A meaty overhead sword swing. 5S: A forward-stepping stab.

2L: A swift crouching side kick. 2M: A crouching sweep kick. 2H: An overhead sword arc, think Ike up smash. 2S: A jumping uppercut that brings Se'arah into the air, allows him/her to combo into a jumping attack on hit.

j.L: A diagonal downwards elbow swing. j.M: A diagonal heel kick. j.H: An overhead sword swing that delivers a hard knockdown. j.S: A circular sword swing that covers a full 360º area. 6S (Advancing Overhead): A lunging bash with the hilt of his/her sword. 4S (Retreating Low): Se'arah drops on his/her back and thrusts both feet out before curling up his/her legs, rolling backwards, and rising to his/her feet. Sk (Throw): Se'arah swings his/her right arm up and out, then drives his/her hand forward to grab the foe. On success, he/she knees the foe away with a forward or up input, sweeps their legs out from under them with a backward or down input, or hurls them straight down if he/she is airborne.

Command Normals: 6M/Right Stick Forward: A hilt bash with Se'arah's sword in reverse grip. j.2L/Right Stick Down (stick input automatically shorthops): A divekick with substantial hitstun to lead into grounded combos.

Specials:

236L/M/H: Quick Draw - Se'arah dashes forward with a wide sword swing. Light is about the same distance as 5S, Medium is slow but travels further, and Heavy has him/her freeze in place for a bit before dashing the fastest and furthest.

236S: Sword Wave - Se'arah rakes his/her sword against the ground, slinging a shockwave as a standard Hadoken-esque projectile. In his/her Alondite variation, this attack is changed to a sword beam with slower startup but a faster and stronger projectile.

214L/M/H: Sol - Se'arah performs a leaping crescent slash, the archetypal Dragon Punch. Medium rises higher than Light, while Heavy has him/her arc backwards through the air once the attack is no longer active, letting him/her avoid an anti-air punish.

214S: Patience - A parry. Se'arah crosses his/her sword over his/her chest in a reverse grip, and if struck, he/she can immediately perform any move and it will start on its first frame with an active hitbox.

Skills:

236Sk: Luna - Se'arah raises his/her sword high before swinging it in a crescent arc. If this attack hits a blocking foe, it breaks their guard, staggering them. If used in the air, Se'arah plummets toward the ground with a sword hitbox all the way down. Sol can combo into Luna even if it misses, which grants no special properties but creates a sequence of movements near-identical to the iconic Aether.

214Sk: Eruption - Se'arah throws his/her sword, which flies toward the foe's current position, then rushes to catch it and makes an omnidirectional blast of wind (fire in Alondite variation) upon reaching it.

Critical Strike: 41236Sk: Renegade Aether - Se'arah pulls his/her sword all the way back and lifts his/her front leg, shouts:

"I'm done with you!"

"It's OVER!"

"Your life is mine!"

"Underestimated me!"

Each character has a Map Action - an active ability they can spend their turn on, like Rally Spectrum or Dance.

A form of Biorhythm exists as a double-edged snowball effect. Instead of fluctuating based on the individual character as a chapter progresses, your Biorhythm improves every time you pull off a combo of 10 hits or more, and worsens when you whiff 10 moves in a row in a single engagement, representing the character's confidence and doubt. Since Hit and Avoid are gone, Biorhythm affects Attack and Defense.

Stats and levels still exist. As mentioned, Hit and Avoid are done away with. The Dexterity/Crit stat determines the rate at which the Skill Gauge fills relative to damage dealt, the Speed stat shaves frames off the startup of a character's moves, the Luck stat extends the character's window for a successful perfect block, and the Movement stat has the same effects on the map as always, but also determines in-battle walking and jumping speed. Range still affects how far away you can initiate combat from, but there is no instance where one unit can fight and the other can't, unless there's an item or Map Action that can force a unit to start combat in a stunned state.

Promotions and class changes are done away with entirely, even for the Avatar, as this is a fighting game and it wouldn't be as fun if you could deal with every single enemy by throwing a General with super armor and a guard crush super at them. However, characters do still have stated class names, which can give you some idea of what they're about.

Oh, right, the actual fighting game side of things. Should probably get into that. THAT begins when you use the Attack command - at the same point where a real, official FE game switches into an automated sequence that plays out entirely by comparing stats and calling RNG. Instead of that happening, the unit you use to attack and the unit you attacked are thrust into a 2D plane with health bars at the top of the screen, three-segmented Skill Gauges (super meters) at the bottom, and a 30-second timer in the middle. The fighting units do entrance animations, pausing for dialogue if they have a special interaction, and then the fight begins.

There are five main button inputs: Light, Medium, Heavy, Signature, and Skill. Skill is used sparingly, primarily for supers, while Signature can be compared to the Slash input from Guilty Gear, in that you tend to get a 100% character-specific move out of it.

Your objective in combat is not necessarily to defeat your opponent. Your average unit can take substantially more of a beating than even some bosses in official FE. When the 30-second timer runs out, the game returns to the map screen and each unit's HP is set to what it was at the end of the engagement. This also applies if you KO the opponent before time runs out—the engagement immediately ends, the victor's HP is adjusted if applicable, and the loser disappears from the map. It may be worth it not to overcommit to defeating an opponent in one round, and to instead deal risk-free chip damage to soften them up for later. All units have their own separate HP meter, but the Skill Gauge is shared between everyone on the same side.

The Weapon Triangle exists in a form. Instead of hard number superiority, lances have the longest reach, axe-wielding units tend to have a lot of armored moves that let them push through lance disjoints, and swords have a way to beat super armor, whether with counters, command grabs, or just hitboxes that ignore armor. The Anima Magic triangle does not share this property.

Weapon types are not as strict as in real FE games—the Avatar's fighting style is best described as "sword with some unarmed street brawling thrown in"—but represented weapons include the core weapon triangle; bows; knives; at least two spells from each of the Fire, Wind, Thunder, Dark, and Light groups; staffs; gauntlets/martial arts; Laguz transformations and weaponized Creatures mimicking them; and guns that shoot non-elemental magic bolts instead of bullets.