Hello everyone, and welcome to the game! We’ve put this together both to give players a general reference material to the game’s core mechanics, as well as provide new players with an introduction to the fundamentals. While you’re welcome to choose a team before reading, you may want to read this first to help inform your decision. So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Basic Mechanics
Health – Your team’s total health. Every character has a different health value. Each full bar of health is a combination of both character’s health values (Example: Battler has 1400 health, and Kanon has 1200 health, so a team of Battler/Kanon has 2600 health per bar). When you are hit by attacks, 25% of the damage you take will remain flashing in the form of recoverable health (similar to “red health” in Marvel vs Capcom for example). Chip damage is also received in the form of recoverable health. Recoverable health can be healed by executing a Normal Touch, and is lost when you perform any other form of Touch (see “Tagging” below).
Break Limit – A team’s break limit goes up as they block attacks. When the break limit is filled, their guard is broken, and they become stunned temporarily. You can reduce the amount of Break Limit you have taken by tagging between characters (more details in the section on “Tagging” below), by using LambdaDelta’s Ability UltraPER, or by being guard broken (which empties the bar and reduces the amount of Break Limit you receive for a short time afterward).
SP Gauge – SP is the resource for your characters, and is spent on Metaworld Activation (see “Metaworld” for details), SP moves, and the various methods of tagging. Both of your characters have their own SP Gauge, which can be filled with up to 5 stocks. Most SP moves cost one stock, although every character has a special SP2 move that costs 2. SP Gauge is generated for whichever character you aren’t controlling when you attack, block, or are hit by attacks. There are also some Abilities that affect how SP is gained by characters.
Tagging
Now we can get into the real meat of the game. Though your characters share a health bar, you of course only control one at a time! In order to switch between characters, you have to use one of the various “Touch” moves, most of which cost some amount of SP, and utilize the Touch Gauge. The different options you have are these:
Normal Touch – Executed by pressing the Tag button on its own. Your character will do a short animation, then switch out for your partner, activating the exiting character’s Ability for a short period, healing any recoverable health available and recovering half of your Break Limit. This puts the Touch Gauge on cooldown for 3 seconds. If you get hit during the animation, it will interrupt the tag and your characters will not switch, so be careful about using this!
Attack Touch – Executed by pressing Tag when one of your attacks connects with your opponent (even if it’s blocked!). Your character will immediately switch with your partner, who comes flying in with their own overhead attack! This heals a quarter of your existing Break Limit, and puts the Touch Gauge on cooldown for 6 seconds. If used in a combo, it will reduce the damage of further attacks in the combo by 20% until the combo ends.
Guard Touch – The opposite of Attack Touch, you perform this by pressing Tag when you block one of your opponent’s attacks. It also costs 1 stock from the SP Gauge of your partner, so if they don’t have any stock, you can’t do it! Doing a Guard Touch will interrupt your opponent’s attack as it switches in your new character, recover half of your Break Limit, and put the Touch Gauge on cooldown for 9 seconds. If you press forward when you perform a Guard Touch, it’ll also knock your opponent backward, potentially opening them up to a counterattack!
Damage Touch – Similar to “Burst” mechanics in other games, this is a way you can potentially escape an opponent’s combo. It costs 2 stocks of SP from your partner and is executed by pressing Tag when hit by an enemy’s attack. Your character will immediately break out of the attack and send out a shockwave, trying to knock your opponent away, and then switch out with your partner, recovering 50% of your Break Limit and putting the Touch Gauge on cooldown for a whopping 15 seconds! Be careful though, because you aren’t invulnerable during Damage Touch, so if the shockwave doesn’t hit your opponent (perhaps they’re too far away), then they may be able to interrupt you before you switch out!
Assault Touch – Executed with the command 236D (Quarter-circle forward and Tag for those not familiar with the terminology). This costs 2 stocks of SP from your partner and will send you flying forward, completely invulnerable during the charge. If you hit your opponent, or when you travel the full distance, your character will switch with your partner, activating your current character’s Ability for a short duration, recovering 50% of your Break Limit, and putting the Touch Gauge on cooldown for 15 seconds.
Metaworld
The Metaworld is another unique mechanic to Golden Fantasia, and a very powerful one. Both characters have a Metaworld Gauge below the timer, which begins counting down when you enter the Metaworld, and is completely drained if your attempt is stopped by your opponent. While your team has Metaworld active, both of your team’s characters’ Abilities are activated for the duration, and you can execute your character’s Metaworld Super move. (As many times as you want until it runs out!) Only one player can have Metaworld active at a time, though, so it’s first come, first served!
Declaring Metaworld – Pressing A+B+C at the same time will attempt to have your team enter the Metaworld, interrupting your current attack (potentially letting you extend a combo) and costing 1 stock of SP from your current character. If this is successful, Metaworld will last for a full 8 seconds as the Metaworld Gauge slowly drains. However, this brings us to our next point:
Metaworld Argument – If one player attempts to enter the Metaworld, their opponent may try to stop them. By pressing A+B+C themselves, they can spend 2 stocks of SP to interrupt their opponent’s activation and drain their Metaworld Gauge. The first player may do the same to argue back, which likewise costs them 2 stocks of SP. Each attempt to re-activate Metaworld in this way reduces the duration by 25% of its base amount, and both players may continue spending 2 stocks to argue until out of SP. This means the initial player may potentially be forced to spend 5 total stocks to enter the Metaworld, and even then they’ll only get half the time in it.
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