Contact will give you the option, if you want it, of playing the entire adventure with the Nintendo DS stylus and touch screen. The directional pad and buttons are your other option, though you'll find yourself using the touch screen for certain actions anyway.
The game plays a little differently from traditional turn-based RPGs or even real-time-combat-based RPGs like the Mana series. The game does progress in real time but does not give you direct control over Terry's attacks. Instead, you can toggle Terry between normal movement and an attack stance. In the stance, he will automatically attack any creature within range, cycling through targets either as he defeats them or if you manually cycle his target cursor. "Any creature" is not limited to those you're supposed to defeat to progress, either: Terry can attack any creature or NPC in the game, friendly or no. It's not wise to go around picking fights, though: other characters in the game look down on beating up on the innocent and will treat Terry accordingly.
How Terry's treated is dictated by one of a rather large number of stats he has. The stat in question is part of his personality set, and it's called Karma. Doing good or bad things in the game will affect this statistic and by extension how Terry is treated by characters in the game. Also making an appearance in the personality block are Fame--defeating enemies ups this stat and makes Terry more popular--and Courage--defeating more-powerful enemies make people think highly of Terry's bravery. Rounding out the stats are a host of RPG mainstays as well as meters showing both elemental and physical strength and resistance concerning various types of attack and vocational skills Thievery, Fishing, and Cooking.
Fishing and Cooking make use of another unique feature of the game system: costumes. Terry will encounter several costumes during the course of the game which grant him special abilities and stat bonuses. Of these, the Fisher King outfit gives Terry the ability to fish while sailing between the game world's islands and the Mr. Cuisine outfit gives him the ability to cook. Other costumes' effects are a bit more mysterious.
To strengthen his stats, Terry needs to practice using the skill that they're linked to. For example, strength goes up as he uses weapons to attack, and attacking stronger targets will make the meter climb faster. Defense is increased by taking hits. Dodging increases agility. Beating up on faster enemies increases dexterity.
The game also makes use of a touch-centric special feature called Trick Decals. Earned during the adventure, you can "peel" them out of a special album using the stylus and apply them to the game screen to cause a number of effects. One Decal will summon Mochi to assist you in battle. Another, which we discovered at E3, seems to have the power to metamorphosize on-screen enemies into something less harmful to Terry. Decals are also used for a more utilitarian purpose: collecting the cells the professor needs to get home. The mechanics of this particular feature place it pretty solidly in the gimmick spectrum, offering no real advantage to selecting an item from a menu--but it doesn't seem like it'd be a chore to use by any stretch.
The game plays a little differently from traditional turn-based RPGs or even real-time-combat-based RPGs like the Mana series. The game does progress in real time but does not give you direct control over Terry's attacks. Instead, you can toggle Terry between normal movement and an attack stance. In the stance, he will automatically attack any creature within range, cycling through targets either as he defeats them or if you manually cycle his target cursor. "Any creature" is not limited to those you're supposed to defeat to progress, either: Terry can attack any creature or NPC in the game, friendly or no. It's not wise to go around picking fights, though: other characters in the game look down on beating up on the innocent and will treat Terry accordingly.
How Terry's treated is dictated by one of a rather large number of stats he has. The stat in question is part of his personality set, and it's called Karma. Doing good or bad things in the game will affect this statistic and by extension how Terry is treated by characters in the game. Also making an appearance in the personality block are Fame--defeating enemies ups this stat and makes Terry more popular--and Courage--defeating more-powerful enemies make people think highly of Terry's bravery. Rounding out the stats are a host of RPG mainstays as well as meters showing both elemental and physical strength and resistance concerning various types of attack and vocational skills Thievery, Fishing, and Cooking.
Fishing and Cooking make use of another unique feature of the game system: costumes. Terry will encounter several costumes during the course of the game which grant him special abilities and stat bonuses. Of these, the Fisher King outfit gives Terry the ability to fish while sailing between the game world's islands and the Mr. Cuisine outfit gives him the ability to cook. Other costumes' effects are a bit more mysterious.
To strengthen his stats, Terry needs to practice using the skill that they're linked to. For example, strength goes up as he uses weapons to attack, and attacking stronger targets will make the meter climb faster. Defense is increased by taking hits. Dodging increases agility. Beating up on faster enemies increases dexterity.
The game also makes use of a touch-centric special feature called Trick Decals. Earned during the adventure, you can "peel" them out of a special album using the stylus and apply them to the game screen to cause a number of effects. One Decal will summon Mochi to assist you in battle. Another, which we discovered at E3, seems to have the power to metamorphosize on-screen enemies into something less harmful to Terry. Decals are also used for a more utilitarian purpose: collecting the cells the professor needs to get home. The mechanics of this particular feature place it pretty solidly in the gimmick spectrum, offering no real advantage to selecting an item from a menu--but it doesn't seem like it'd be a chore to use by any stretch.