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The game takes place on the world of Layle, a world sharply polarized by Fonts of magic, segregated by the Elemental Lieges throughout the generations. Throughout time, wars have been fought over these Fonts, empowering one nation's Liege at the weakening of another. Recently, however, a sixth Liege, that of Arcane, has arisen, and forced ceasefires amongst the Five. As time goes on, the Fonts begin to overflow with magic from all five of the elements.


Like the spokes of a wheel, the five nations remain separate despite the long peace. In the center, lies a land where few choose to travel. For this land is held in the iron grip of Leader, the head of a group of assassins known as the Dissonant. The Dissonant have mastered memory magic, able to imbue in their assassins the memories and resemblances of multitudes of men. With this magic, they have been able to successfully bring about the end of legacies. Under their magic, none save those close to whom the memories were taken from are able to tell anything is amiss. Even so, the longer the Dissonant remains in a form, the more perfect their disguise becomes, yet the more likely they are to discover the secrets of Leader...

Ephion and Lyeras


Twin sisters that underwent the Ritual together. Due to an unforeseen complication in the Ritual, the pair are able to share their Memories. This enables them to both select from the same pool of Memories, while also enabling them to communicate with one another telepathically.


Ephion is humble, dedicated, and courageous, but prone to anger, while Lyeras is intelligent, fair, creative, and calm.


Ephion is a melee brawler, while Lyeras prefers to stay at range with bows and arrows.


Ephion has access to Wrath, while Lyeras has access to Harmony.


Atras


Atras, born in the sweltering heat of the World Desert, under the rule of the Lord of Fire, is a Sundweller, a member of a nomadic people. Brash, hotheaded, cocky, and boorish.


Playstyle: Inflicts Burns on enemies, reducing their Endurance. Deals large amounts of damage.


Control vs. Wildfire:


Control raises Atras' Strength and Power at the cost of Spirit. However, her attacks have an increasing chance to steal the opponent's Spirit.


Wildfire raises Atras' Aura and Agility at the cost of Endurance. Her attacks have an increasing chance to burn both the enemy and herself.


Keruli


Keruli is the youngest daughter of the Tor, a chieftain of a clan of barbarians who swear loyalty to the King of Water, Iglis. Brave, collected, and self-sure, but without Atras' swagger.


Playstyle: Summons blizzards and enhances her blades' power with the fury of the Tor.


Rime vs. Thaw:


Rime raises Keruli's Endurance at the cost of Dexterity. After Tier 2 Rime, Keruli generates a shield worth 5% of her HP each turn.


Thaw raises Keruli's Dexterity at the cost of Endurance. Her attacks leech life, but Keruli suffers damage each turn.


Misra


One of the Thunder Queen's Wardens. Under the Wardens' protection, Sonas deals with her many detractors. Cautious, resolute, composed, and guarded.


Playstyle: Focuses on Parries and Counterattacks. Certain attacks have a change to Stun targets, and can mitigate damage taken.


Magnetism vs. Storm:


Magnetism reduces Misra's Evasion by 100%. However, when struck she reflects for 15% and is healed by an amount based on her Magnetism Tier and the amount reflected.


Storm triggers an event every 3 turns (each Tier after 1 reduces the interval by 1 turn.) This event will do one of the following: Pure Damage, Damage+Blind, or Damage+Slow. Tier 2 Storm adds Stun to the list of events. Tier 3 Storm causes the events to occasionally effect Misra as well as the enemy, and raises the damage the event deals.


Elan


One of the High Priestesses of the Goddess, the Mother of the Gods and Goddess of Light. Cheerful, gentle, and caring.


Playstyle: Favors support abilities that aid the self and spells that blast the enemies with righteous vengeance.


Balance vs. Zeal:


Balance raises all of Elan's stats by a small amount. At Tier 3 Balance, whenever Elan is struck by an attack, her HP will be changed to either the nearest 0 or 5. (i.e., an attack brings her to 82 HP. Balance will either increase it to 85 or reduce it to 80.)


Zeal raises Elan's Power at the cost of Status Application.


Shaye


The runaway daughter and sole heir to the King of Dark. Strong-willed (unless something catches her curiosity) and attentive.


Playstyle: Uses skills that debuff their enemies and apply a variety of effects.


Plague vs. Bloodline:


Plague causes Shaye's attacks to apply a 1-turn debuff on their targets. The debuff's potency depends on the Tier. Tier 1 Plague reduces all stats by 5%. Tier 2 Plague reduces all stats by 10%. Tier 3 Plague reduces all stats by 15% and Power, Accuracy and Concentration by 10%.


Bloodline raises Shaye's maximum Life at the cost of Strength, Endurance, Aura, and Spirit. At Tier 2 Bloodline, skills with alternate Bloodline effects trigger these effects. At Tier 3 Bloodline, skills that require Bloodline are usable.

Stats:



Spoiler



Life = HP


- Pretty self-explanatory.


Strength = Attack


- Increases the damage the user deals with Physical-type attacks by 1. Cap = 12.


Endurance = Defense


- Decreases the damage the user takes from Physical-type attacks by 1. Cap = 10.


Aura = Magic Attack


- Increases the damage the user deals with Magic-type attacks by 1. Aura also raises the user's chance of inflicting a status ailment. Cap = 12.


Spirit = Magic Defense


- Decreases the damage the user takes from Magic-type attacks by 1. Spirit reduces the user's chance of becoming inflicted by a status ailment. Cap = 10.


Dexterity = Agility


- Adds to the user's chance to dodge incoming attacks and their action economy, and contributes to their Power. Each point of Dexterity adds a chance to attack multiple times per turn, as explained in Dexterity Battle. Cap = 15.


Will = Luck


- Adds to the user's chance to critically hit and inflict status ailments. Each point of Will raises the user's chance of inflicting a status ailment and reduces the user's chance of becoming inflicted by a status ailment. Cap = 15.

Skills: There are no classes or levels in Staccato. Instead, the character has a set of 8 skills. Most of the available skills are unique to each Memory, with each Memory having its own skill theme and playstyle.


Center: Replacing the Attack function, Center shifts the player to the center of the Wrath and Harmony dichotomy. This is useful to shift more swiftly from one to the other, and may be used, at most, once every four turns.


Parry: Replacing the Guard function, Parry reduces all damage taken by a smaller amount than a true Guard but raises the character's Counterattack stat to 100% for that turn. Each Memory has its own Counterattack with different secondary effects. There is, by default, a 50% chance to perform a Parry, a 30% chance to perform a Hasty Parry, which triggers less powerful Counterattacks, and a 20% chance to perform a Perfect Parry, which triggers more powerful Counterattacks.

Wrath and Harmony:


Wrath and Harmony is the game's catch-all resource mechanic. Rather than other games having skills consume a resource, Wrath and Harmony are instead built up by attacks. While in Wrath, the character deals and receives more damage, and vice versa in Harmony. Wrath and Harmony both cap at 25, and have 3 tiers. The strengths and weaknesses of each resource is increased with each Tier (Tier 1 is 5-14 resource, Tier 2 is 15-20, and Tier 3 is 21-25). Player characters and bosses, however, have alterations to the Wrath and Harmony mechanic.


(For those of you with experience, Wrath and Harmony are like the World of Warcraft Balance Druid's Solar and Lunar Energy before Blizzard made the system automatic.)


Dexterity Battle:


Dexterity has a unique function in Staccato of Memories. Each point in Dexterity gives the character a 6.67% Action Time+ and a 3.33% Action Time+ (So a character wielding a Fan in Cloth will have an 53.4% Action Time+ and a 26.7% Action Time+.) This serves to improve the action economy that most single-actor games lose out on.


With Dexterity capped, the user has an action economy of 2.50 (An Action Time+ of 100% and a second one of 50%. This means that the user gets, on average, 2.5 attacks per turn at 15 Dexterity. 0 Dexterity has an action economy of 1.00.


Power:


Power defaults at 100%, and raises all damage the user deals by a % amount (or decreases, in the case of sub-100% Power). Power is primarily controlled by the user's Dexterity. At 5 Dexterity, the character (or monster) has 100% Power. Dexterity stats below 5 add to the user's Power (up to 139% Power at 0 Dexterity), while Dexterity stats above 5 subtract from the user's Power (down to 56% Power at 15 Dexterity). Power may also be increased or decreased by certain effects.


Combat:


Combat progresses similarly to a CTB-style combat. The user attacks (with any additional attacks as per Dexterity), and then enemies do the same in turn. Depending on the character's Dexterity, they will attack 1-3 times per turn. As far as damage calculations go, it's similar to the Paper Mario system. Each attack has an Attack Power that the ability deals in damage before stat modifications, but largely damage dealt is the Strength stat of the user minus the Defense stat of the opponent.


Secondary Resources:


Ephion and Lyeras both have a secondary resource that dictates their use of Physical abilities, both in their basic form and in Memories.


Ephion uses Stamina. Stamina has a cap of 100, and Ephion regenerates Stamina at a rate of 10 per turn. When out of Stamina, Ephion is limited to Magic attacks until her Stamina regenerates.


Lyeras uses Arrows. Arrows have a cap dependent on Lyeras' currently equipped quiver. Each Physical ability Lyeras uses consumes 1 Arrow (2 while in Scatter Arrows). While Lyeras still has Arrows remaining, her Evasion is increased, her Counterattacks become Evade counters, her attacks deal additional damage based on her Dexterity, and she does not gain or lose Power based on her Dexterity, but she also does not gain multiple attacks per turn. When she runs out of Arrows, her Strength is reduced by 25%, but she regains the ordinary effects of Dexterity (Power and multiple Attacks).

Weapons:


Ephion may choose from the following weapons:


- Staff: 3 Dexterity. Staffs can Suppress their targets' Endurance and Spirit. (Suppress reduces the effected stat by 20%)


- Sword: 5 Dexterity. Swords can leave a Bleed on their targets.


- Fan: 6 Dexterity. Fans' flashy attacks can Distract their foes. (Distraction reduces Accuracy and Concentration by 10%)


Lyeras may choose from the following weapons:


- Longbow: 4 Dexterity. Longbows can equip Piercing arrows.


- Shortbow: 6 Dexterity. Shortbows can equip Scatter arrows.


Jiaris additionally has access to the following arrow types:


- Regular arrows: Deals regular damage.


- Jagged arrows: Deals regular damage and can cause Bleeding.


- Broadhead arrows: Deals lower damage, but can Stun.


- Piercing arrows: Restricted to Longbows. Deals normal damage, but attacks penetrate Defense.


- Scatter arrows: Restricted to Shortbows. Deals normal damage and attacks all enemies.


Armor:


Both Ephion and Lyeras may equip the following armor types:


Outfit: Outfits offer additional Spirit and Dexterity.


Armor: Armor offers additional Endurance and Life.


Relic:


Ephion can equip relics. Relics are a source of power for the user, and are often held in the off-hand.


Enchantments are laid on the Relic. These enchantments vary, but are the largest single source of Will.


Quiver:


Lyeras can equip quivers. Quivers hold a certain amount of Arrows for an archer to fire. Different quivers can hold a different amount of Arrows.