For this post, I want to talk about equipment. From the different types of equipment, to the uses of them, and why things are the way they are. To begin, I think it's best to just state the types of equipment. In total, characters can equip 5 different things:

• Weapons

• Shields

• Headgear

• Bodygear

• Accessories

Weapons

These are a main source of character's damage output. Weapons will do three things in total: Add Accuracy, add Critical, and add Skills.

Equipping a weapon is necessary in battle, because without one, the character will have 0% accuracy, and thus can never hit a target. Weapons also add a Critical rate, allowing characters to inflict critical hits at the specific percent chance.

Rather than characters gaining new skills via level up, they will generally get access to new skills by obtaining new weapons. For example, Rover's Fire Tome gives him access to the Flare Skill. Without that tome equipped, he cannot use the Flare skill. Knowing what skills are attached to which weapon is important.

Under most circumstances, weapons do not affect the stats of characters. A common trope of RPGs is that older equipment just gets replaced when a newer piece has better stats. A weapon with 10 Attack is just better than one with 5 Attack, so the one with 5 is just worthless. I didn't want this, instead I wanted equipment to be useful throughout the game and have uses in different situations.

Shields

Shields provide one main use: evasion. There are three types of evasion, being Evasion, Skill Evasion, and Critical Evasion.

Evasion is the chance to dodge a Standard Attack from the enemy. While important, there is always the chance an attack will miss, meaning Standard Attacks are more likely to fail.

Skill Evasion is the chance to dodge a Skill from the enemy. Normally, Skills will always hit, but with Skill Evasion, the character has a chance to dodge that. Because of that, most Skill Evasion Shields come with some minor drawback such as decreased Strength.

Critical Evasion is the chance to dodge a Critical Attack from the enemy. For enemies with high critical rates, this is ideal as it prevents that damage.

Headgear

Headgear's main purpose is to provide a passive state to the character. This can vary wildly between effects, but is generally something that happens without input and benefits the player. For example, some Headgear will increase Max HP by 10% when equipped, while some reduce the target rate when equipped.

The important thing to note that for Headgear, like all equipment, the effect only takes place when it is equipped. Unequipping a Max HP Headgear will reduce the characters Max HP by 10% automatically.

Bodygear

The main use of Bodygear is to alter the damage taken. There are two types: Physical and Elemental.

Physical Bodygear will alter the damage taken by Standard Attacks and Skills in a trade off manner. That is to say, equipping a Bodygear that reduces Standard Damage taken will then increase damage taken from Skills. The opposite is true as well.

Elemental Bodygear works much the same, but with corresponding Elements. A Flare Cape will reduce Fire Elemental damage taken, but in exchange it will increase Ice Elemental damage taken.

I included this trade off so that players would always have a need to equip different bodygear. When facing certain enemies, the player can pick which piece is best for the battle, or best for the character involved.

Accessories

The last and most varied of equipment is Accessories. Their main purpose is hard to give, as they effect they have is extremely varied. Accessories will simply do what they state.

Some accessories will increase a stat, like Luck. Some will provide a regenerative boost to HP or SP. Some will alter the Standard Attack to inflict Statuses. There are a few accessories that will even voluntarily inflict a Status Ailment on the user in order to achieve a higher goal.

When equipping accessories, it's best to think about what you want to achieve in battle, or what you want each character to excel in. Accessories will help work towards that goal.

As stated, my goal with equipment was to never have something just become outdated and worthless. I wanted each piece to be relevant and potentially helpful even late into the game. I hope that I achieved that.