Franzen

Franzen is a JRPG set in the fictional world of Branzen, whose civilizations have been forced to abandon their world's surface and live in the skies thanks to the surface being rendered uninhabitable by dark magic and unending hordes of monsters. This forced migration has not been without its problems, with the vast majority of the remaining population living in the floating city-state of Akon, with others living in minor city-states which are controlled from Akon. The player plays as Franz and Lefsa Dellia, a married interspecies couple who work as technomancers, a hybrid of engineers, scientists, and magi. The couple discover "The Scream", a magic portal which spawns monsters similar to those found on the surface, is rapidly expanding, and embark on a quest to warn Akon of the impending danger.

Gameplay consists of controlling a party of up to four characters in simultaneous turn-based battles similar to the ATP combat system found in Chrono Trigger. Like Chrono Trigger, there are no random enemies, with all enemies visible on the current level; however, enemies are not directly fought on the level itself, but on specialized battle screens. As the game progresses, new skills are acquired, which cost mana points (MP) to cast. These range from healing a character in the party to dealing damage to one or a row of enemies.

Elemental damage and defense is used by both enemies and by party equipment, operating under a limited rock-paper-scissors style system. If the element of an attack is countered by an enemy's element or by a party member's equipped armor, the attack deals no damage; conversely, if the element of an attack instead counters an enemy's or equipped armor, it deals bonus damage instead. However, some elements combinations result in normal damage instead of negation or boosting it. Furthermore, regular enemies only drop random items and currency, never experience points. Experience can only be gained by using Daemon Cores on party members. These items are only dropped by enemies and sold for a deliberately-exorbitant cost by an end-game vendor.