Phantasy Star II/Gameplay

Character stats
Due to some bugs in the original programming, most of the stats in Phantasy Star II are just for show. Later versions of the game fix this, but the following table displays both what a stat was intended to do, and what it actually does in the game.

Order
Throughout the game, you can have a maximum of four party members. Rolf is required to be in your party at all times. At any time, you may alter the order of the party, designating who is positioned first, second, third and fourth. The closer a character is to the first position, the more likely they are to be attacked. Characters like Rudo who have high defense and many hit points are best placed first to absorb more damage. Characters who have less defense and low hit points such as Amy should be placed fourth to reduce the amount of attacks they suffer. Note that moving a character further back does not reduce the amount of damage taken or increase evasion, it only reduces the chance that an enemy will target them. Additionally, a character's order has no effect on techniques that attack the entire party.

Combat
In combat, your party is visible on the bottom of the screen, and your opponents are presented above you in a sparse virtual landscape..Before each round of combat, you enter instructions for every party member who is alive in battle. After instructing each character, they carry out their action while the enemy counter attacks. Combat continues until all of your enemies, or all of your party has been defeated, or until one of your party members successfully flees from battle. If either side is completely incapacitated by status ailments, the other side gets free rounds of attacks until at least one member recovers. If all of your party members are defeated, the game is over.

To conduct a battle, you must navigate a series of menus:


 * Fight: Upon pressing Fight, rounds of combat will begin. Combat will continue until either the player presses  to pause combat between rounds, or if the party defeats all of the enemies.  When combat is paused, the player may alter the instructions for any party member.  Fight must be selected again to resume combat.
 * Strategy: While combat is paused, you can cycle between your characters, and select Order to change a character's instructions, or Run to attempt an escape.
 * Order: Selecting this will open up a window with four icons. Choose one of the icons to give an instruction to that character.
 * Sword icon: Select this icon to use your weapon(s) to attack an enemy, or enemies. Depending on the weapon a character is using, you may be required to select a target group of enemies that you wish to attack.  You may not select a specific enemy.  If the group you selected dies before that character gets to attack, they will attack another available enemy at random.
 * Sparks icon: Select this icon to use one of your character's combat techniques. You must have the required amount of TP in order to select a technique to use.  Depending on the technique, you may be required to select an enemy group, or a fellow party member for the technique to act upon.
 * Pack icon: Select this icon to direct a character to use an item in their inventory during combat. A character may only select an item that they were carrying when the battle began, they may not use another character's item.
 * Shield icon: Select this icon to direct a character to defend themselve from attack. Defending when you're under attack reduces the amount of damage that you would normally sustain.
 * Run: This instructs your party to attempt to run away from the enemies and escape combat. Your party must have significantly higher agility than the enemies to succeed at getting away.  It has a relatively low rate of success in this game.  Failing to run away gives the enemies one free round of attacks before you have the option to try to run away again, or resume regular combat.