So I'm trying out Chrono Cross for the first time. It had good reviews, so I thought I'd check it out. So far though, I'm barely grasping the battle system, and they're offering little to nothing as far as tutorials are concerned. I'm a learner by doing, at least when it comes to gaming. That and I'm too lazy to RTFM. The game sorta reminds me of FFVII though, which is definitely a plus.
The 3 percents when you use melee are your weak, moderate, and fierce attacks. The lower the percent, the stronger the attack, and the percents are your hit%. If you land a melee attack you get Elemental energy according to whether it was weak, moderate, fierce, so 1 level, 2, or 3. Then in the same round you can use an element if you have it equiped. For example, I make Serge do 2 fierce attacks, both hit, and then he has level 6 element power. I decide to use a level 5 element, he has 1 level of element left(elements are the magic in game). The way they balance this is by the little stamina gauge that is below your HP in battle. It starts at 7.0, and depending on the character's stamina regeneration, every time another character takes an action or an enemy takes an action it will recover by that rate. Fierce attacks take 3 stamina, moderate 2, and weak 1. Elements take 7 stamina, and you must have at least 1 stamina to cast them. If your stamina drops below zero, then that character has to wait until enough actions have passed that they are in the positive again.
It's a lot simpler than it sounds, and the battles go really fast. And oh yeah, it's important to note that if you want to kind of cheat and not use elements and have almost endless meleeing turns, then make sure that every member in your party has 1.0 stamina regeneration or higher. This way you go in a little triangle of beating on the enemy, and you can keep up a longer barrage of attacks, and then the game won't seem like FF's battle system at all.
Oh, and it's also important to note that you can set elements of higher tiers in lower slots and take a minus penalty and vice versa. Also note that buffing/debuffing elements don't take penalties, even though the game puts the +-1 beside them, so when you get access to your first boat and can go to Marbule and buy stuff like EagleEye(99% accuracy on melee attacks) you can just set your buffs in element slot 1 or 2 and have a weaker melee character buff your stronger character to achieve higher outputs more quickly.
Another note to add is, is that there are a few characters that have an innate level 3 element that is basically steal. The steal's accuracy is dependent on your natural fierce attack accuracy, so for guranteed steals, use weaker attacks and raise your fierce as high as it will go, then use steal. Eagleeye won't effect it.
TLDR; Go with moderate attacks if you're worried about missing, use elements to deliver finishing blows, and don't steal if your fierce attack rating is low.