 |
| The Legend of Legacy created and owned by FurYu and Atlus. Images used for educational purposes only. |
When you begin a new game of Legend of Legacy you start off with three basic Formations, and these Formations consist of a series of Stances. Stances are temporary stat boosts, selected each round, that change how your character will perform in a particular Formation. They may boost your attack strength; they may boost your defences; they may boost your speed; they may even boost the effectiveness of your healing charms.
You start off with three basic Stances, and you can go through the entire game with just those three Stances, if you wish. Indeed, unless you look in the Encyclopedia you might not even realize that there are actually thirteen Stances, broken down into three difference categories. We’ll get into how you find them in a moment, but first, let’s look at each of them in a bit more detail.
Attack Stances
These Stances, generally speaking, increase your attack power for a round. A character using a move in one of these Stances may receive an Attack boost to either their chosen move, or their Attack stat in general.
- Attack - Your default Attack Stance. It improves attack power. Good for a long time, but basic.
- Ambush - Raises attack power and speed. Better than Attack, obviously, and a nice, early compromise when your characters aren’t so swift.
- Delay - Greatly increases attack power, but sacrifices on speed. This character will almost always go last. Try not to use this Stance when facing attacks who can stun your characters or put them to sleep.
- Anticipate - Greatly increases attack power, but your character will go dead last. Again, don’t use it if stun or sleep are factors.
- Pressure - A joint Stance. The more characters are using an Attack Stance at one time, the greater each one’s attack power. Good for all-out rushes, when you know you’re not in life-threatening situations and want to end a battle quickly.
Defence Stances
These Stances improve your defensive capabilities for a round. Defence Stances are utterly invaluable for survival, especially later in the game. A character using a move in one of these Stances may receive a Guard boost to either their chosen move, or their Guard stat in general. Additionally, any character using a defensive move - for example, if someone with a shield equipped used Block - will extend the effects of that move to everyone in the party, and not just themselves. Be warned, however, that this only works against physical moves. Charms are unaffected.
- Guard - Your default Defence Stance. It improves that character’s defensive power. Unlike the other basic Stances, Guard will be useful throughout the game.
- Suppress - The fewer the enemies present, the greater your defence becomes. A solid Stance for bosses.
- Counterstrike - The character will have a greater chance of countering physical attacks when using certain defensive Arts, such as Retaliation. This one's great for crowd control, and excellent against bosses that rely heavily on physical hits... though there's still a decent chance your Art won't activate. Use caution.
Support Stances
These Stances improve your speed for a round, and may provide additional effects. Support Stances are great when you need to outrun an enemy in order to heal your party back into fighting shape. They’re also typically a better choice for charm users. A character using a move in one of these Stances may receive a Support boost to either their chosen move, or their Support stat in general.
- Support - Your default Support Stance. Your character is better at healing, and moves more quickly in combat. This will get lots of use when you’re trying to grind Support levels to boost your team’s speed.
- Rush - Raises your character’s speed. They’re faster than if you just used Support, but unless speed is a major issue, I prefer Support.
- Recovery - Improves your character’s healing skills, whether through charms or other accessories. The lack of extra speed kinda sucks, but the boost to your healing makes this a great Stance.
- Caution - Improves healing abilities and raises defence, but reduces your character's speed. Healers are often left exposed by Support Stances, so this is a solid choice - but only if you know a character is going to survive through a round in order to get their healing. If the answer is 'No', pick something else.
- Recklessness - Greatly improves your speed, but your defences suffer. The name says it all, really. If you must must must go first, use this. If not, don’t. Your character risks death.
Acquiring New Stances
Because the programmers of The Legend of Legacy love randomizing things so much, new Stances are not so easy to come by. You can only acquire a new Stance by completing the map of a region - say, for example, Hidden Forest - and selling it back in Initium. Doing so will bring NPCs into said map, and one of them, occasionally, will have a new Stance for you. They don’t always appear, but when they do, they at least seem to appear in the same places. If an NPC doesn’t appear, leave the map and reenter for another go.
Though some Stances will or won’t appear on certain maps, it’s still random as to whether you’ll find the same Stance on the same map between two games. I have done my best to list which Stances you can find on which maps, and where they appear. You can find more than one Stance on one map, though you’ll have to leave and reenter to reshuffle the NPCs.
- Hidden Forest - Outskirts of Town, near the entrance - Ambush, Suppress
- Forest Ruins - Clearing, southeast shell - Delay, Ambush
- Roaring Valley - Valley Entrance, eastern ridges - Recovery
- Archwing Burrow - Stinking Tunnel, east of southwestern entrance - Ambush
- Valley Ruins - Propylaea, west of entrance - Rush
- Seaside Ruins - Tectonic Forum, dead end east of entrance - Recovery
- Great Crag - Mountain Rise, northwest of entrance - Suppress
- Tabletop Mountains
- Southern Mesa, up first ramp to the north - Counterstrike, Suppress
- Western Mesa, up first ramp and to your left - Pressure, Counterstrike, Recovery
- Eastern Mesa, up first ramp and through the grass to the east - Caution, Recklessness, Recovery
- Northern Mesa, near first batch of frozen water northwest of the entrance - Recklessness, Anticipate
- Ship Graveyard - Forest of Ships, northwest from the entrance, beside a bank of coral - ???
- Bogsaur Marsh - Wetlands, right near the entrance - Pressure, Anticipate