Attack (command)


 * This article is about the battle command. For the statistic, see Attack (statistic).

An Attack is a basic, yet extremely practical, in-game command of party members in battle during Golden Sun games. Put very simply, it's when a selected party member physically attacks a target on the opponent's side. This is a ubiquitous staple and convention of almost every fantasy Role-Playing game ever made. In the Golden Sun games, however, the Attack command has a particularly unique significance in the overall scheme of battling methodology, compared to other RPGs' battle systems.

Basic Description
As stated above, a basic Attack is defined as as physical attack inflicted by a user. The basic Attack does not consume PP, but instead involves direct force, either from the body or from a weapon. A standard Attack inflicts damage to the target's HP meter based on how the party member's Attack rating compares against the target's Defense rating. This comparison can be represented by the following equation:


 * damage = (User's Attack - Enemy's Defense) / 2

Essentially, the damage of a basic Attack is determined by subtracting the enemy's Defense rating from the User's Attack rating. This number is then divided by 2 to give the damage total. Thus, the power of a standard Attack varies greatly depending on the statistics of the User and the Enemy.

In each game, the Attack statistic (and thus the power of an Attack), can be increased via multiple methods: Attack-raising equipment, such as weapons and some Armor, the use of Apples to permanently raise Attack, and Psynergy such as Impact. Vice versa, the power of an Attack can be decreased by raising Defense, by methods such as Armor, Defense-increasing Psynergy like Guard, and the item Hard Nut.

Variations on the basic Attack
The basic damage a user can do with their Attack is utilized to some degree by many other methods of offense. Weapon Unleashes, Djinn, and some Psynergies use the damage done by a base Attack as a factor in determining the damage. All three methods, manipulate the basic Attack damage depending on the Elemental alignments of the involved battlers. In addition, these methods often increase the basic Attack damage by a set amount or by a multiplicative factor.

An example of this is the Ragnarok Psynergy. Ragnarok adds 35 points to the basic Attack of an Adept, then multiplies this number by the ratio of the battler's Venus Power and Venus Resistance as seen in the following equation:


 * final damage = ( + * (1 + (User's Venus Power - Enemy's Venus Resistance) / 400)

The outcome of this is to give the Adept a much stronger physical move than they would ordinarily be capable of. Such offensive methods serve as the main forms of damage throughout the series, and become some of the most powerful. Weapon Unleashes and Djinn work along similar lines.

Another aspect that should be discussed is the effects of pure-element weapons, that is, weapons that are aligned with one of the four Elements. A basic Attack inflicted while wielding such a weapon will be aligned with the element of that nature. Thus the basic Attack damage will be modified by the Elemental Power of the user and the Elemental Resistance of the targets, without any additional damage added.

The final aspect is the use of Criticals. A Critical is a completely random event during battles that take place in Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. The player will strike a foe and do damage slightly more than they normally would. This is not to be confused with an Unleash, which can only be used with an Artifact. Criticals are not aligned with an element, and have no additional effects besides the extra damage. A Critical can be triggered by a non-artifact weapon, but Artifacts are capable of both Criticals and Unleashes. In battle, Criticals are represented by the camera zooming in on the target, followed by a slightly delayed attack from the user. The animation is similar to a standard Attack. Criticals do not exist in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn; instead, common weapons generally have non-elemental unleashes that multiplies damage by a specific factor.

Trivia

 * Although no real explanation for criticals/unleashes occurs in-game, a small bit of easily forgotten text on the subject appears when Isaac's party first arrives in Kolima, prior to having defeated (and healed) Tret. The enraged tree curses the residents of Kolima for taking their axes to him, turning them into trees, so that they would die alongside him. Isaac's party happens to get involved, needing to pass through the Kolima region as part of their quest. Immediately they are set upon by Tret, who immobilises the Adepts, pinning them to the ground. However, as the wave of Psynergy that would turn them into trees approaches, the Adepts are enveloped in a shimmering barrier that wards off Tret's curse. This barrier was a purely reactive and subconscious display of Psynergy, as none of the Adepts intentionally used their powers to create the field. They assume this type of subconscious defence is similar to a weapon's unleash, which holds vast, though uncontrollable, power. Apart from a concluding remark about how it would be nice to control this ability, it is never mentioned again. As such, this only serves to confirm that the Adepts do know that unleashes and criticals exist and that they are uncontrollable and nothing more.


 * In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the attack symbol changes depending on what type of weapon the player has equipped (for instance, it can either have a picture of a sword or an axe, etc.). If for some reason, the attacking Adept has no weapon, the symbol instead shows a generic energy burst-style symbol.