Basically, speed determines who attacks first, etc. At the bottom left-hand corner of the screen it shows the order of who attacks. Anyway, when you attack, you can choose between a light attack and a heavy attack. Light attacks are faster and deal more hits but are weaker. Heavy attacks deal less hits but are stronger. For instance, a light attack may hit 8 times and deal 16 damage, while a heavy attack may hit once and deal 16 damage. You can also chain these together (since you can attack a couple times per turn). You can also use Blood Skills and Life Skills. Blood Skills are essentially spells that affect baddies (damage, status conditions, etc) while Life Skills are spells that affect your party (healing, stat boosts, etc). It's pretty easy to get a hang of.

 

I'd like some clarification about the battle system too. A few issues:

1) every now and then I'm able to attack three times instead of twice, and once Morte only got to attack once per turn, after she'd had her ass handed to her a little. What gives? Is your number of attacks linked to your health or something?

2) how do I do those fancy attacks like Virtuoso?

3) Upgrading my attacks: what is the point? If you upgrade the attack power, they're not as accurate, and vice versa. Ergo end result is that it's hardly worth upgrading them at all, since upgrading them equally leaves them about the same as you started with, and focussing on one aspect ruins the other and makes the attack damn near pointless. Advice please.

4) In the trailers I've seen the lead character do some insane attack where he's throwing knives all over the place. When do I get to use such things? No spoilers please, just a rough idea of how long, hours wise, before I'll be using it.