Siliconera recently revealed some details about how battles will take place in GungHo’s upcoming PS Vita game, MIND≒0. Previously, this game seemed very similar to the Persona games, but now we get to see some differences.
The battles will revolve around how you use your MIND, which are basically like Personas, but a bit more advanced. You have two separate health bars, one for your health (LP) and one for your MIND’s health (MP). Your MIND’s attacks are usually stronger than your own, but keeping it out will cause it to gradually consume MP. Additionally, you can also use your mind to protect you from damage using the MIND Guard ability, but it will cause its MP to decrease even further. You can call it back and allow it to restore its health, but that makes you vulnerable to enemy attacks.
If you keep your MIND out for too long, then you’ll suffer from a status called MIND Break. This means that you’ll be unable to summon a MIND and be unable to perform certain actions for several turns. This could prove to be problematic against tough foes.
So yeah, the battle system in MIND≒0 does appear to be a bit more complex than the Persona games. While interesting, I doubt that will be enough to stop some people from calling it a Persona clone. This game will be available in Japan on August 1st. No international release date is known at this time.
