Babel Sword/Gameplay

Controls
One player may compete against the computer, or two players may simultaneously compete against each other. Each player has an 8-way joystick and 4 buttons.

Buttons
The buttons on the arcade are typically laid out in the following fashion: 

The A and C buttons are used for firing the main guns with C being a greater shot, while the B button is involved in blocking. D will creation an option that fires in place and has to recharge before it can fire again.

Joystick
The joystick works intuitively in that pressing left will generally move your character left, and pressing right will generally move your character right. But it is more important to think in terms of relative direction. For this reason, all instructions are given with respect to forward and backward since the left and right directions change purpose when your character switches directions.
 * If your character is facing to the right, then pressing left on the joystick means backward, and pressing right on the joystick means forward.
 * If your character is facing to the left, then pressing left on the joystick means forward, and pressing right on the joystick means backward.

Depending on which mode of movement you are using (walking or flight), certain direction buttons change function. The following directions assume that your character is facing right, the starting direction of every fight for player one, who begins on the left side:


 * Walk mode, and is only available if there is an actual ground to walk on (otherwise you'll simply jet downward).


 * Flight mode, activate while in walk mode to hover around. Pressing this while in Flight already will rocket you upwards.

Rules
Each battle consists of best-of-three round match between you and your opponent. At the start of each round, both player's life or health bars are full. The first player to drive the other player's health bar to zero wins the round. The first player to win two total rounds wins the match and moves on to the next opponent. If a single player loses to the computer, the game is over and the player must continue to rematch the recent opponent. In certain missions in Mission mode, the game will require a certain amount of enemies to be destroyed to proceed instead of one on one combat.

A timer must also be contended with. If the timer reaches zero, whichever character has the least amount of life loses.

Attacking
To win a round, the player must use his or her character's attack moves to damage the opponent, and block or dodge the opponent's attacks. Each player may attack from a standing, crouching or aerial position. To attack from a standing position, press any single attack button. To attack from a crouching position, pull the joystick in a downward direction (including both diagonals) and press any single attack button. To attack from the air, activate flight, or direct your character to jump straight up, or jump in a diagonal position, and press any single attack button in mid-air.

Blocking
To block, the player must press the B kick button, which will activate a shield. Blocking can be done from any position, but not while boosting in any direction. When blocking, power is consumed from the player's attack gauge, and a shield appears for a limited amount of time. Blocking will require power from the attack gauge: having none leaves you unable to guard against enemy attacks. While guarding, you will take greatly reduced damage from enemy fire, making it essential against attack that cover a wide area and cannot be avoided.