JRPGs With Unique Enemy Weakness Systems

There’s more to winning a battle than bringing weapons and spells that do the most damage. Along with conditions and classes, enemy weaknesses can turn an attack-spamming encounter into a sublime tactical treat, where every well-played move rewards the player, and thoughtless actions can end in disaster.

There are many ways to put enemies on notice, whether by exploiting an elemental weakness or cleverly hoarding turns until the perfect moment to strike. Some of these games offer a system that has greatly influenced the JRPG genre, while others are oddities and experiments at least worth looking back on as curiosities.

Persona 5

An All-Out Knockout Weakness System

• Hitting a weakness knocks enemies down, opening the way for a party-wide attack

The Persona series is known for its style, and that extends beyond its art style and glamorous UI design. Persona 5 rewards those players who can identify and exploit elemental weaknesses first by putting enemies in a knockdown state. Then, if the party can pull off a perfect chain of knockdowns, they can use an all-out attack, which does decisive damage.

Players can put elemental weaknesses on enemies by inflicting certain ailments, which is known as triggering a Technical. For example, a frozen foe will suffer additional physical, firearm, or nuclear damage. Enemies and allies can cover their weaknesses with elemental shields.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

The Mysterious Dance Of Elements & Signs

• As well as elements, every enemy and familiar comes with a sign which grants various perks and weaknesses

For a game with such a charmingly accessible art style and story, Ni No Kini: Wrath of the White Witch offers an extensive enemy weakness system. Familiars and enemies come with the standard elemental affinities but also “signs,” which optimal-minded players can exploit in battle.

On the face of it, signs are a rock-paper-scissors-plus system (but they come with extras such as status effect resistances). The sun sign beats the moon sign, the moon beats the star sign, and the star beats the sun sign. Signs have double variants. The double of the fourth and rarest sign, the planet, beats all others but is bested by the single planet sign.

Vagrant Story

Honing Damage Against A Plethora Of Weakness

• Every enemy has a binary weakness that can be exploited by honing weapons

The Affinity System Vagrant Story’s enemy is as fascinating as it can be frustrating, both to understand and to use. In short, weapons get better at damaging a type of enemy as they are used against another type of enemy in two ways. The first is against the class (human, beast, undead, etc.), and the second is against the elements.

Elements come in binary pairs that are weak against each other. For example, air is strong against earth, and vice versa. Fighting an air enemy will charge a sword with the power of earth, which will be effective against air enemies. The rub is that these affinities will shift over time depending on the target, and it is contingent on the player to remember which of their weapons is good against which class and elemental weakness.

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

Unique In The Sheer Number Of Type Interactions

• The series uses a standard rock-paper-scissors system but with a staggering 19 elements

Since Pokemon has changed relatively little over its three decades of reign, it may be tempting to think of its gameplay as simplistic. However, one part of the game that has evolved drastically since its debut is the number of elemental types of Pokemon. Although it is probably the go-to example of an elemental system, it is now unique in terms of its breadth and depth.

With a whopping 19 Pokemon types, each interacting with one or more elements (giving stacking advantages and disadvantages), with some ‘mons able to hold multiple types, there’s enough room for true complexity to emerge. Many games throw something unique into the mix with advantages and disadvantages. For example, Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet are able to temporarily change their type on the fly with a Tera Orb (which is known as a Terastal phenomenon).

Octopath Traveler

Chaining Exploits To Bring Enemies To Their Breaking Points

• Hitting weaknesses wears down shields, which opens enemies up for major attacks

Hitting an enemy for bonus damage upon exploiting their weakness is not new, but Octopath Traveler‘s sublime combat mechanics revolve around managing an action economy, so exploiting weaknesses feeds into this system perfectly.

Enemies have specific vulnerabilities to weapon types and elements, and targeting them reduces their shield points. When their shield breaks, they become defenseless. Boost Points, earned each turn, can then be used to increase attack power during this vulnerable state, creating a satisfying feedback loop of proverbially lining up ducks in a row and shooting them down.

Cassette Beasts

Remixing A Classic Elemental Formula

• Corresponding weaknesses create effects (reactions) and not just damage bonuses

On its face, Cassette Beasts looks like a straightforward clone Pokemon. However, its creativity puts enough spin on the collect ’em all (or, in this case, record ’em all) formula that it truly has become a beast of its own. Like Pokemon, the monsters have their own types, as well as moves of a type.

These attacks do not simply do more or less damage against a corresponding type but instead create unique effects called Reactions. For example, if a fire-type hits a plant-type with a gout of flame, it will suffer the Burned condition, which eats a chunk of its HP after its turn. However, an air type facing off against a fire type can extinguish flames, reducing the fire’s potency, and a fire attack against air will create an updraft, which deflects attacks.

Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne

Setting Off A Deadly Chain Reaction

• Exploiting weaknesses grants extra turns, on either side

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne uses the Press Turn System, where hitting an enemy’s elemental weakness grants an extra turn. Each demon has specific affinities, such as fire, ice, electricity, and so on. To survive, players should get into the habit of recruiting and fusing demons to build a party that covers a wide range of elemental strengths and weaknesses.

Exploiting an opening creates a chain reaction of death, which can be satisfying or incredibly frustrating, depending on who is on the receiving end, which can often boil down to how well-informed the player is of an area. In step with the Shin Megami Tensei series’ reputation for divisiveness in Western audiences, the system is love or leave it. Stepping into a new zone blind can often mean instant death, so playing with a trial-and-error mentality is a must.