The combat system is awesome, as expected of SG.
It expands on the mid-combat stat modification that Sankegi used.
This time, it separates them into two phases - Attacking and Defending
In the Attack phase, you put points into either Damage or Accuracy - You can't do both. You can see that the more you put into one, the lower the other becomes.
In the Defense phase, the same is true for the other stats - Defense and Dodge.
Another difference is that instead of having a Stamina Pool, you gain 5 points every cycle. Each time it's your turn to attack, you'll get 5 points. This stacks with the points left over, allowing you to horde up to 9 points if you play smartly.
The single most major difference, however, is the introduction of Armor Points. Based off the first three fights you do, each person has Armor Points. The goal is to get your opponent's AP down as low as possible, and then hit them hard. Their armor points reset after they're brought to 0, so don't go trying to destroy them in one fell swoop.
Likewise, when you're defending, it's generally wiser to take a few points of HP damage than 50 armor damage. That means that the next turn, your opponent will only have to cut through 10 armor to get to your health, where-as if you just take a few points, they'll half to cut through 60 again.
Now, after you allocate your STR/ACC and DEF/EVA, you'll be brought to a new menu, which is also brand-new - the Skills Menu. The default option here is to just use the points you spent and stab your opponent.
However, there are skills you can get and level up in the game menu(not combat), these are what the other options are.
Concentrate(YES, THEY'RE IN ENGLISH TOO! HURRAH!) increases your ACC by a solid 30% each level you use, like-wise All-Power increases damage by 30%
The skills do the same thing for their defensive counterparts as well. Concentration boosts evasion, and All-Power increases Defense
While these may seem alluring for only 1 stamina point per level use, be warned that you can only use as many stamina points as you have levels in the skill - If you have Lv2 Concentrate, you can only spend 2 points on it. One Lv2 or two Lv1's. Using them means you lose that level until you drink from your waterskin.
Like in the last game, your waterskin only holds three drinks. It can be refilled at wells, or the open jar of water in Rhodes' room.
When on the map, use the Cancel button to bring up a sub-menu - With the options Cancel, Crawl, Drink, and Appeal
Most of these are self-explanatory. Appeal, however, is more of an "Alternate Action" command, sort of like the Examine command in Dragon Quest. You can use it to get alternate dialogue with some characters, but you also use it to carry wounded people over your shoulder, and to interact with some objects, like the mirror in Rhodes' room.
Also, if the one "dungeon" area they include in the demo is how they plan to do the rest of the game, the Cancel Menu will also show you how many enemies are still in the area
Not quite sure what the passives do(Wonder Body increases HP?), and I'm assuming Grand Protect is locked until later in the game.
