M M A G G G I I I I I C C C
M M M M A A G G I C
M M M M A A G G G I C
M M M M A A A A G G I C
M M M A A G G I I I I I C C C
P P E E E N N G G G E E E L
P P E N N N G G E L
P P E E E N N N G G G E E E L
P E N NN G G E L
P E E E N N G G E E E L L L
THE QUEST FOR COLOR
Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color
Playstation 2
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+BATTLE SYSTEM GUIDE V1.22+
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Update History
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7-2 Started, finished, and sent the guide to Gamefaqs.
7-7 Realized some slight problems in statuses, and corrected those. Also
added the legal info, and completely redid the strategy section,
which had some serious issues. Afterwards, added the color types,
some drawing info, and some basic stat info. Most importantly, fixed
the 79 character per line issue. Maybe now updates won't take
quite so long.
7-22 After fully realizing the guide was rejected, fixed some formatting
issues. Maybe they'll actually put it up now!
7-25 Added permission for cheats.de to use this guide, as well as some
minor fixes and updates.
8-2 Added permission for IGN to use this guide, as well as fixed some
very small issues.
This guide is copyright me, Elliot Eaton, as of July 2, 2003.
Gamefaqs.com, IGN.com, and cheats.de are the only sites with permission
to use this guide. You may not steal it, post it on another site without
direct permission from the author (me), distribute or sell this guide.
Printing this on paper is acceptable, but don't distribute. Please
respect the work put into this guide.
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Introduction
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Welcome to my guide on the battle system of Magic Pengel. The
In-game tutorial leaves some blank spots, especially for more
advanced strategies. Add the fact that Magic Pengel guides are
virtually nonexistant, and I figured a guide needed to be made.
I've tried to make this complete, but its not quite perfect.
If there's something missing or incorrect, I'll try to update
that as soon as possible. I hope this guidehelps you to
understand the battle system better and puts you on the path
to becoming a master doodler!
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Types of Attacks
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There are 4 types of attacks in Magic Pengel:
Attack- The basic ability. Your doodle does physical damage
with parts of its body. Attack loses to magic, but beats block.
Block- The defensive ability. Your doodle creates a shield
to protect it from magic. Block loses to attack, but beats magic.
Magic- The special ability. Your doodle casts a spell to damage
and possibly affect the opponent with abnormal status. Magic
beats attack, but loses to block.
Charge- The restorative ability. Your doodle restores some HP
to itself and preparesfor a stronger attack next turn.
Everything else beats charge.
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Battle Basics
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Magic Pengel's battle system is roughly based off of Rock Paper
Scissors, but is much more complicated and involves quite a bit
of strategy. The system is as follows:
/+Attack\
/ \
/ Charge \
/ \+
Magic+ - - - - - - - Block
Not exactly the best diagram, but it shows which type beats which.
Attack beats block, block beats magic, magic beats attack. The
anomaly is charge in the center. Charge doesn't do any damage,
but instead restores HP and powers up your doodle's next move.
I think charge makes your ability do double damage, but this is
unconfirmed. If you select the ability that beats your opponent's
ability, you make your move and your opponent loses the turn.
If both doodles use the same ability type, both will use the ability,
and the one with higher agility has a better chance of going first.
You can't use the same ability twice in a row. You have to be able
to predict what the opponent will use next and be ready with the
ability that beats it. If you choose the ability that loses, you may
get stuck in a pattern of ties or losses. If this happens, use charge
to break the cycle. Charge can't be used on the first turn of a battle.
Whenever a doodle loses a turn from a status, the charge ability will
be locked the next turn.
Doodles are all either attack, magic, or block type, based on the colors
they're made out of. The ability that matches their type will be the
most powerful move they can use. Plan your strategy around the types
of your doodle and the opponents doodle. Block type doodles have the
reflect skill, which not only returns the damage from magic but also
sends the status back at the caster.
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Color Types
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The colors your doodle is made out of affect its type, which is a major
factor in how you fight. The combinations are as follows:
Red shades- Attack
Yellow Shades- Attack
Blue Shades- Magic
Green Shades- Magic
Grey Shades- Block
The dominant color group will determine your doodles type.
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Raw Stats
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These are what determines your doodles strengths and weaknesses.
As you gain experience, your stats will increase slightly.
HP- How much damage you can take before you die.
MP- Spells cost a certain amount of MP. If your MP is gone, you
can't use magic.
Power- How much damage you can do when attacking. I'm not sure,
but I think this also applies to block.
Defense- How much damage you take. Higher defense = less damage.
Agility- How fast your doodle is. The only time this is used is in
ties, where the faster doodle has a higher chance of going
first.
Luck- I'm not quite sure what this does, but I think it affects how
likely you are to get a status effect.
EXP- As you win battles, you'll gain experience points, or EXP.
With lots of EXP, your stats will increase.
There is no right way or wrong way to doodle. But no matter how good
you are at fighting, you can't win without a decent doodle. So here
are some basic tips for making strong doodles:
-HP is affected by how large the doodle is. A large body and lots of
big parts results in a doodle with high HP.
-Lots of thin parts makes a doodle faster. Long thin legs and plenty
of tentacle-like parts are the key to more agility.
-In general, large doodles are better than small doodles. Use lots
of ink to make powerful doodles.
-A lot of accessory parts can allow your doodle to use certain
abilities that it couldn't before.
-Making a doodle all (or nearly all) one color allows it to use certain
abilities that it couldn't before. Some abilities require the dooodle
to be all (or nearly all) two colors.
-When you find some abilities you like, look in the encyclopedia to see
how to get them. Then draw your doodle in a way so that it can use
those abilities. I'm making an FAQ on how to get every ability, but it
may be a while before its up.
-Doodles made out of mostly one part generally have very poor stats.
Use lots of parts to make your doodle well-balanced.
-The best looking doodles aren't necessarily the strongest. It doesn't
mean that they're weak, but creatures with no recognizable form are
often the strongest.
-If you have extra ink left over and want to make your doodle stronger
without messing up how it looks, use the design tool to scribble over
a section in the color that part is in. You'll get a bonus for the
extra ink, but you won't see a physical difference.
This is a list of statuses you can receive from
magic. The corresponding magic spells usually have the same
name as the status they cause. All statuses will wear off after
a few turns.
(Ability) Seal- Seals off one of the abilities so that it can't be used.
(Ability) Curse- Curses one of the abilities so that the doodle takes
damage when it uses that ability. In the case of charge, less
HP is restored.
Same Seal- Perhaps the most useful status, this stops the opponent from
using the same skill as you. That means if you both attack,
the CPU will be unable to do anything that turn.
(Ability) Main- The doodle can't be commanded and uses random abilities,
most likely the ability from the status title.
Mad (Ability)- The doodle is confused, and the ability from the status
name is more likely to be used.
Shrink- Shrinks the doodle's size, decreasing damage output.
Flatten- Essentially the same as shrink.
HP/MP Damage- Additional HP or MP is lost after the spell.
HP/MP Steal- The victims HP or MP are drained and given to the caster.
HP/MP Poison- HP or MP is lost every turn while this status is active.
Faint- The doodle can't take action for two turns.
Sleep- The doodle can't take action until the status wears off or it
takes damage.
Paralyze- The doodle may be immobilized, but may be able to attack for
three turns. It's random whether or not you can move.
Balloon- A balloon hovers over the doodle and bursts after three turns,
causing damage.
*Resize- The same as shrink.
*Color Drain- HP is lost at the end of each turn and given to the opponent.
*Mesmerize- The doodle always performs the same command as the opponent.
*Color Leech- HP and MP are lost at the end of each turn and given to the
opponent.
*= Only used by a form of the final boss
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Strategies
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Basic Rules of Thumb
-If you lose a matchup, its never a bad idea to charge and get out of it.
You can beat them the next turn if they attempt something tricky, but
it's generally safer to wait and see what happens. You'll also increase
your HP and strength!
-If you use the same ability as your opponent, never jump two abilities
ahead on the cycle. Doing this would guarantee your loss. Example: Say
you both used magic. The next turn, you could either attack or block.
The CPU will always attack, because at attack will either win or tie,
and block will either tie or fail. So just attack and you'll be safe.
Later on the CPU may charge instead, but by attacking you'll still win.
If your doodle has higher HP or does more damage than your opponent,
it's a good idea to stay in the cycle of ties. You'll take a lot of
damage, but you'll win unless your opponent hits you with a cheap
status.
-When facing a magic doodle, they'll almost always start out with magic.
That means you should block the first turn. This will keep you free
from statuses, and if you're using a block type you can affect the
opponent. When testing this out, 8 out of 10 times the magic doodle
cast magic the first turn, so I beat them with block. If you're facing
someone with all magic doodles, they may catch on by the second but will
definitely realize by the third. Even if they do attack, its a lot
better to take some damage than be stuck with a bad status.
-Be careful with magic against block types! You should always wait
until their block is unusable to cast strong magic, because otherwise
they may reflect it back and hit you with the status. This may not
always be a big deal, but for some statuses like faint or seal spells,
it could cost you the fight.
-Stay away from Mad/Main status spells. These can help you in rare
situations, but most of the time it will cause the opponent to use
an ability that would seem stupid, but actually causes it to win
that matchup.
+Using Statuses Well+
Effectively using statuses can be a huge help to your battles.
Try to seal or curse the opposing doodle's main ability type to cut
off their strongest attacks. Use MP draining spells on magic doodles
so that they'll be unable to use strong spells. Cast shrink on
strong doodles to limit the damage they give out. Faint, sleep, or
paralyze anything to give yourself a chance to charge or do more
damage. Best of all, use same seal. Then get the opponent into a
pattern where it either uses the same ability as you (tying,
therefore being paralyzed) or using the ability that yours will beat.
This works great until late in the game, when they may use charge to
break the cycle. You can also use charge to keep it going, but
you'll still have a turn or two of guaranteed wins.
+Miscellaneous Strategies+
Probably the hardest choices are the first turns and turns after the
opponent or both doodles after use charge. In these situations, all
abilities are open (except charge, that doesn't really matter). At
first, most opponents will usually use the ability type that's strongest
in their doodle. Later on, they'll start using the one that beats yours,
or the type that beats the type that beats their type (that's pretty
confusing, meaining they're guessing that you'll use the ability that
beats their type, so they use whatever it is that beats the type you would
use to beat them). I haven't confirmed this, but it seems like each
person is set to one of those specific methods and will stick to it
when more doodles come into action. Once you discover their style,
exploit it! Then again, if their doodle is the same type as your
doodle it's best to use your strongest skill, because your its usually
safe and does more damage.
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Contributions
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I know I have some problems in this guide, so if you have
anything to add, fix, or clear up on the guide, email me. Or,
if you just want to tell me that I am the coolest person in
the world for writing this guide, you can email that too. Please
title your emails "Magic Pengel" or "FAQ Input", or something like
that so I don't think its spam. My address is
CubeCrazyMonkey@aol
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Special Thanks
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I'd like to thank...
Taito and Agetec, for bringing us this awesome game,
Gamefaqs, for hosting this guide,
my local Babbage's, for pronouncing it Pain-Gale, Pain-Gull,
and Pen-Jewel,
and EGM, for writing the quirky review that got me hooked on this game.
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Thanks for reading this guide, and good luck on your Quest for Color!
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