FS III New Battle System Guide

FS III has a new battle system.  Note: To See Spoilers, click on the black rectangle box thing. A spoiler looks like this:

Spoiler:

First Menu Bar
Here's how it looks like:

The character who's glowing is the one whose turn is now. This is represented in the ATB bar (on the left side view)
EX:

Moving up or down allows you to select between Attack, Switch, Soul Skills, and Item.

When you attack a monster, you can target a monster. The monster who is being targeted lights up and is shown in the ATB bar. Select with the default keyboard button (C) to attack.


As you fight, each damage you deal will increase your Overdrive bar.  Your overdrive bar is above the Hp bar. Once you fill up the overdrive bar, right click the Attack option for that character and select [Soul Rage], then use the skill.

From this:

To This:

To Finally This:

Switch is unusable because you don't have enough party members. At a certain point in the game, the [Switch] command will enable you to swap places with another character in [Reserve]. The said character will not gain any buffs cast prior to being switched, but will not lose buffs while they are in [Reserve].

Spoiler:

Note that this is still your turn. Switching a character does not take up a turn. Use this to your advantage.

2nd Menu bar
Your first Menu. Press the left arrow.

From this:

To this:

To Finally This:

Defending = Regen hp/mp by around 2% or so + 20-30% chance of attacking Back. Regeneration will increase depending on your level.

Skip is to skip a characters's turn. The character whose turn is skipped will be closer to have their next action than one who uses Defend, and Item, or Attacks.
Status = View a character's stats (does not take a turn but can only view your own). Click again to stop viewing stats.

Escape = To run. There is a chance of failure, however.

C: Hope you had fun~

Updated to include [Switch] Command. LOOOL. Late update. xD