At the “Yurutto nihon’ichi No. 82 _ Xicatrice special feature!” live broadcast held on March 30, Nippon Ichi Software revealed more characters and the Skill Build system for Xicatrice, an upcoming RPG where players play as a teacher to lead a special unit of students on dangerous missions while managing their everyday school lives.
During their journey on the campus, players will encounter several supporting characters, who support the training of the student. Xicatrice also boasts a vast array of skills for students to master, with around 300 options available.
Players can also customize their characters by deciding how to train them, with each student having unique base stats and growth potential. Xicatrice will also feature passive skills, which players can equip to make significant changes to their combat style. The game promises to deliver an entirely different experience, blending the traditional RPG elements with a school simulator.
Xicatrice is slated to launch globally on June 29, 2023, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
▍ Xicatrice Skill Gameplay
■ What is Xicatrice?
Xicatrice is a “supernatural x school RPG” in which players enjoy school life as a teacher and lead a special unit composed of students to face dangerous missions in case of emergency. The player manages the physical condition of the students and trains them by repeating “Lessons”, “Skill Build”, and “Battles”.
Lessons
Daily classes help students acquire skills.
Skill Building
Consider better builds from a myriad of skills and take countermeasures against the enemies.
Battle
Choose an action each turn based on the students’ suggestions and attack the enemy.
■ Skill Build System
Depending on “Majors” What Skills Students Will Learn
There are approximately 300 different skills in Xicatrice, and they are classified into 15 different categories called “majors”. To learn a skill, you must select the “major” in which the skill is classified and then raise your basic skills to a certain level.
For example, for Kei Namisaki to learn the recovery skill “Resurrection,” it is necessary to select the major “Healing Arts” and raise the basic skills Concentration to 44 and Logic to 53.
The majors can be changed every month, and the number of majors that can be selected at the same time will increase as the student grows.
Skills Based on Student Characteristics
In Xicatrice, it is up to the player to decide how to develop the character, but each of the seven students has different initial stats and basic skills that are easy to develop. Here are the characteristics and initial skills of four of the students.
– Haruki Suzuhira
Due to his high accuracy and high rate of criticals, Haruki can use skills like “Double Attack,” a series of attacks that have a low hit rate but with a high chance of critical damage.
– Toma Asahi
Taking advantage of her high physical defense, she can protect her allies by using “Shield Strike,” which makes her more easily targeted by enemies.
– Wakaba Shinomori
Because of her high speed, she can attack many enemies first by using “Quick Attack,” a fast attack that strikes first.
– Yuichi Kamishiro
With his high physical attack power, he can cut down the enemy’s strength in one fell stroke with his powerful “Smash”.
In addition, the power and SP consumption of the same skill varies depending on the basic power of the character using it. For example, a smash used by a character with Judgment 30 has a power of 2.4 times and consumes SP 9, while a smash with Judgment 60 has a power of 2.9 times and consumes SP 15.
Kamishiro’s “smash” with improved judgment. The power of his “smash” is greatly increased.
Passive Skills that Significantly Change Combat Styles
Skills are divided into active skills, which are performed as actions such as “smash”, and passive skills, which are effective only by equipping them.
Passive skills include “Cautious Action”, which increases attack power for the number of times an attacker strikes an enemy, and “Protection: Break”, which shields allies from physical attacks, and other skills that only activate when conditions are met, but are more powerful for that reason.
By equipping “Cautious Action” and using “Double Attack”, you get two increases in attack power in one turn. Try to achieve a synergy effect from the combination of skills.
The “Armor I: Robust” is always activated and raises the HP, attack power, and other parameters.
“Start Dash” gives a significant boost to multiple stats, but only in the first turn of combat. Combined with “Quick Attack”, the first strike can be enough to kill an enemy.
Counterattack, Chase, and Auto-attack. Passive Skills to Increase the Number of Moves.
In combat, only one suggestion for action is selected each turn from a student, and only that student acts. However, depending on the equipped skill, “students whose suggestions were not selected” can also take action.
Some passive skills automatically activate the equipped active skill with a probability each turn, some are triggered by certain actions of allies to perform follow-up attacks, and some counterattacks when an enemy attack is received or evaded. Equipping these skills allows you to increase the number of actions you can take in one turn.
“Attribute Detection” is a passive skill that is triggered by an ally’s attribute attack and then follows up with a chase attack.
“Evasion: Breaking” is a passive skill that allows the user to counterattack by evading enemy attacks. Combined with skills that enhance evasion, it becomes a powerful offensive tool.
▍ Xicatrice Supporting Characters
In addition to the students trained by the player, there are support characters that appear in the game.
■ Renshi Kamiya – CV: Tomohito Takatsuka
– I don’t care if you’re annoyed with me. I’m determined to help you with whatever problem you’re having.
The main character in the game, as a member of the AUT (Anti-Aberrant Unusual Abnormal Unit), used to solve cases caused by superpower users, but lost his powers in one incident. After that, he was assigned to lead the RAUT 302 squad as a teacher.
■ Takayuki Akutsu – CV: Yukiya Matsui
– I only came to check on you under orders from above.
A colleague of the protagonist during his time in the AUT, and the older brother of Rui Akutsu. He has known Renshi for a long time and has spent time with him since they were students. He has a higher ability than a normal superpower user and is currently a squad leader of the AUT.
■ Rui Akutsu – CV: Yumika Yano
– If you fail, try until you succeed. Fortunately, there’s no urgent right now…
A research physician at the Superpower Medical Center. She is in charge of monitoring the progress of the protagonists and students, using a special device called CUAD to help the students of the 302nd squad overcome their psychological trauma. she is worried about her brother, who is busy with his AUT duties.
