Vandal Hearts II/Gameplay

Vandal Hearts II takes place in the country of Natra and follows the story of Joshua from childhood until adulthood, focusing his progress through the civil war that tears his home country apart. The early stages of the game introduce the hero and his childhood companions and acts as a prologue to future events in the hero's adult life.

The adult stages of the game shows the country of Natra immersed in a civil war with both warring factions having foreign backers. Joshua's renegade band of outlaws gets drawn into a plot to create a third faction to end the war and restore peace.

World Map

The World Map shows the continent Rognant, where the game is set. The various places, such as villages or battlefields, are represented by colored dots, connected to each other with the available routes. Your position is represented by a pawn. To move from one place to another, you need to use the pen cursor. By moving it to a dot, the name of that place will be shown. To move to a certain place, you must position the cursor over it and press the confirm button. Your unit will move to that location if the path to it is clear. As you progress through the game, more and more locations and routes will become available. The color of the dots on the map indicates the type of place:

• Red: An event will happen in this location. You need to head here to progress the plot. You will often have to fight, so better prepare accordingly.
• Green: These are battlefields that you have already faced. You can still go back in and fight again to gain money and experience, collect any missed items, etc.
• Blue: They are villages and towns. Upon entering, you can talk to people or head to the shop to make purchases.
• Grey: Nothing happens at these points.
• Yellow: These are the secret battlefields. To discover them you must necessarily find the relevant map, otherwise they will not appear.

Pressing while on the world map will open the main menu, where the following options are available:

• EQUIP: allows you to equip your characters with the various weapons, armor and items available
• TRANSFER: allows you to transfer skills already acquired from one weapon to another
• STATUS: allows you to check the detailed status of a specific character
• WAREHOUSE: allows you to consult all items and equipment in your possession (not equipped)
• SAVE: allows you to save the game or load a saved game
• OPTIONS: allows you to change the game configurations

Towns

Towns and villages appear on the World Map as a blue dot. Inside them the following menu is always shown:

• MOVE TO: allows you to move between places in the town. Generally, at least a shop and a tavern are always available. At the shop you can buy new equipment, even equipping it at the same time, or sell items that you no longer need. At the tavern you can instead talk to the patrons to learn information and better understand the development of the plot.
• EQUIP: allows you to equip your characters with the various weapons, armor and items available
• TRANSFER: allows you to transfer skills already acquired from one weapon to another
• STATUS: allows you to check the detailed status of a specific character
• WAREHOUSE: allows you to consult all items and equipment in your possession (not equipped)
• DEPART: leave town and return to the World Map.

Battlefields

Often, as you progress on the World Map, you will have to face battles. At the beginning of each battle, the conditions for victory and defeat are shown. Except for some variations, the condition for victory is to defeat all enemies, while you are defeated if the hero dies in battle. In this case, obviously, it's Game Over.

Battlefields can be compared to huge rectangular chessboards, on which your characters and enemies to defeat are located. At the beginning of the battle you can choose how to position your characters, within a limited area, which is highlighted in blue. However, the battlefield is not uniform, but can present several obstacles, such as steps, slopes, elevations, brushes that slows down movement or water obstacles that you cannot pass over (unless you are equipped with a Wing Armor). By moving the cursor over a certain portion of land, the relevant information is provided. It is precisely the variety of terrain and battlefields that makes the game varied and captivating. To fight successfully you must learn to manage it and try to use it to your advantage.

Battles take place in turns. The player and the game's AI can move one of their units and the move happens at the same time. To do this, you need to select one of your units with the cursor and press the confirm button. There are always 4 options available:

• Move: allows you to move the unit within the available movement range, which is highlighted in blue. Movement range depends on terrain and equipped armor.
• Action: allows you to perform an action, without moving the unit.
• Wait: keeps this unit waiting until the next turn. However, you are asked which direction to face this unit.
• Status: check the detailed status of the unit.

Once the unit is moved (or even immediately, if Action is selected), two commands are presented again: Wait (see above) and Action. If you select Action you then have the following options:

• Attack: attack an enemy unit. In this case, you must choose which weapon to attack with, among those equipped, and the range of action of this weapon is shown, which is highlighted in red. To attack an enemy unit, it must be in the red area otherwise the attack will fail. The damage the enemy receives depends on the attack power of the weapon used, the enemy's defense and where he is hit. To maximize the damage you need to hit the enemy from behind. Hitting it from the sides will instead receive normal damage, while hitting it from the front will receive minimal damage. Attacking the enemy from higher positions (for example with bows) also increases the damage.
• Tech: allows you to use a skill contained in one of the equipped weapons (when available). Skills can be intended to damage enemies or heal your units. Also in this case, the range of action of the technique is highlighted in red, while the area of effect is highlighted in yellow if it is an attack skill or in green if it is a support skill.
• Item: allows you to use an item from those equipped (when available). As with techniques, some are used to attack enemies, others to heal your units.

However, if you select an enemy unit with the cursor, you can see its equipment, its movement range and the range of its attack and techniques. By placing the cursor where there are no units and pressing the confirm button, a larger menu opens, where you can change the game settings or also end the current turn immediately.

When you have chosen the action to take, your unit and the enemy unit will move at the same time, but the one with the highest Agility value will take its action first. If both units then intend to move to the same position, the one with the lowest Weight value will be thrown to the side and its action will be cancelled. Once an allied or enemy unit has been moved, a symbol will appear above it. Since in this game the player's moves and those of the enemy units take place at the same time, to win battles it is essential to try to predict the enemy's next move. To do this, always keep these essential points in mind:

• The enemy always targets the character with the lowest HP value and prefers to attack already weakened characters rather than those with maximum life energy.
• The enemy prefers to attack multiple characters at the same time if he has the chance (he will therefore have his own wizards attack first).
• The enemy prefers to attack from behind rather than from the sides and from the sides rather than frontally. This is because your characters will also receive more damage if they are attacked from behind rather than from the sides, and from the sides rather than from the front.
• The enemy prefers to attack from higher positions.

If the player has more units than the enemy, once the enemy army has made all its moves, he will be able to move his remaining units freely (or vice versa). When both the player and the enemy units have made all their moves, the turn ends and the next turn begins. The battle will continue, turn after turn, until the condition for victory or defeat is met.

To defeat an enemy unit, its HP must be reduced to zero. When this happens, it will disappear from the battlefield. Naturally, however, this also applies to your own units: if a character's HP drops to zero, this character will leave the battlefield and will not be available until the next battle. At the start of each battle, all your characters have their HP maxed out, the amount of which depends on their level and the equipment used. MP is also at maximum, while EP is at 50% of the total. To gain EP, you must successfully attack enemy units.

For each battle concluded victoriously, a certain monetary reward is awarded. If you win the battle with all your characters still active on the battlefield, a bonus equal to the value of the reward itself will be added, which is thus doubled. It is essential to try to obtain this bonus, so that you can always purchase the best weapons and protection without problems. Instead, if during the battle one or more of your characters is KO'd, not only will you not have the bonus, but a penalty will be subtracted from the reward for each character lost in battle.

With a few exceptions, once a battle has been won, it is possible to re-enter the same battlefield from the World Map (where it will appear as a green dot) and fight again. This can be useful if you have neglected to collect some items. When you re-enter a battlefield you've already faced, the enemies you encounter will be different and easier to defeat. However, the final reward will also be decidedly lower.

In addition to the obligatory ones to face, the game also features a certain number of secret battlefields, where you can find items of great value. However, these battlefields will only appear on the World Map if you manage to find particular items, such as Maps that are hidden in common battlefields.

Treasures

Inside the battlefields it is also possible to find treasures. However, they are always kept inside chests or hidden in the ground. To open chests you need the Unlock skill, while to find hidden treasures in the ground you need the Searchmark skill. Both of these skills are contained in the first daggers you can purchase. It is therefore best to learn them as soon as possible. Some items are really well hidden or difficult to reach. Therefore always analyze the battlefields carefully. If there are points that seem suspicious to you, try to bring one of your characters with the aforementioned ability to that point. Maybe a trasure will be found.

General Tips

• Dedicate always one character to finding hidden items in the ground and opening chests. It must be equipped with Wing Armor, a dagger with the Unlock and Searchmark abilities, and a special weapon with the Blockmake ability to be sure to reach them all. Blockbreak and Terraformer are also needed on a couple of occasions.
• Before each battle, equip each of your characters with an item that allows them to heal themselves, unless they already have an energy recovery skill.
• Equip some of your characters, at least those with short-range weapons, with an item to attack enemies from a distance (scrolls, orbs and cards).
• Make sure your characters are always equipped with the best weapons and protection you can buy.
• If possible, try to win battles without any KO characters.
• Always try to kill enemy wizards first, as they can strike from a distance and cause massive damage to multiple characters.
• Try to create a varied and balanced army, where each character has their own specialties and is equipped with a different weapon.
• Even if a character can't attack any enemy, make him attack anyway, empty: he will still gain SP and EP.

Skills

Each weapon you purchase or find comes with its own particular skill. This skill, however, however, is initially still inactive. To activate it you need to equip this weapon and use it in battle. Every time you attack, even with a different weapon, you gain SP (proficiency points). These points will fill the bar relating to the skill contained in the weapon. When the bar is 100% full, the skill becomes usable in battle, with the Tech command.

There are many types of skills. Some of them allow you to attack enemies from a distance or cause massive damage. Others instead allow you to heal or upgrade your units. Then there are skills that give a magical power to the weapon equipped or that influence the parameters of the character equipped with it. However, many skills have a cost in MP or EP and can therefore only be used a limited number of times. These parameters largely depend on the armor used.

In this game it is also possible to transfer the skill of a certain weapon to another, using the TRANSFER option, available in towns and on the world map. This is particularly useful, as as you progress through the game you will have the opportunity to improve your equipment, buying increasingly powerful weapons, without losing a skill that you consider useful. To be transferred, however, a skill must have been completely learned and therefore already usable. Furthermore, it is possible to transfer a skill of a certain weapon only to another weapon of the same category. For example, a sword ability can only be transferred to another sword, not a bow or spear.

In the Transfer screen there are two perfectly identical windows: in the one on the right you can select the destination weapon and in the one on the left the weapon from which you want to take the skill to transfer (or vice versa). The process for transferring skills is very intuitive. Among other things, it allows you to search and select the skill you want to transfer in four different ways:

• By choosing a weapon from those currently equipped
• By choosing any weapon
• By choosing a weapon type
• Choosing a skill based on the type of magic

Finally, there are exceptions, relating to skills that cannot be transferred from one weapon to another, because they are of the opposite element. For example, a Fire element weapon cannot contain Ice element spells.

Status

You can check the status of your characters both on the World Map, in towns and even in battle. Although each character has a basic status, which improves as their level increases, it is heavily influenced by the equipment they wear. The parameters that determine the status are the following:

LV/EXP: Current level and current EXP points. The character levels up every time the EXP reaches 100. EXP points are obtained by performing actions in battle
HP: they determine a character's resistance in battle and decrease when it is attacked by an enemy. If they drop to 0, the character will disappear from the battlefield and will not be available until the next fight.
MP: they determine a character's magical power, needed to cast spells. They are at their maximum at the start of each battle and decrease with each spell cast.
EP: they represent a character's will to fight and are needed to use certain skills. They are at 50% of the total at the start of each battle and increase with each attack made.
Move: represents a character's movement capacity, i.e. the distance it can cover in a single turn in battle.
ATK-R: The attack power of the weapon in the right hand.
ATK-L: The attack power of the weapon in the left hand.
AGI: the agility of the character. Determines the ability to hit the target. Furthermore, if a character in battle has a higher agility value than the enemy who moved at the same time, it will act first. Otherwise, the enemy unit will act first.
DEX: A character's dexterity. Determines the ability to dodge enemy attacks.
Luck: a character's luck. Determines the probability of making critical attacks.
Weight: The weight of the unit. If in battle the character and an enemy unit intend to move to the same position, the one with the least weight will be thrown away and its action will be canceled.
Magic Def: The character's resistance to magical attacks. The resistance to the individual elements is shown next to it.
Land Cost: the cost necessary in terms of mobility to move on a certain terrain. Rough terrain has a higher value.
Ht. Cost: The cost in terms of mobility required to climb slopes or steps.