Status explanations

[Hxc Flavor]

Is there a guide anywhere to be found that explains what each of the attributes (skill, move, etc)? I think I have a pretty good idea but I'd like to know for sure, and what the equations for criticals, multiple hits, etc are (like in Suikoden 2.)

EDIT: To make this more clear, hear are a few specific questions:

1. Why is there an attribute list on the left, then a shorter list with MOV, REP, ATK, etc near the character's picture?
2. What is the purpse of Speed vs Movement? I've noticed that not always the person who has the highest speed moves first or attacks first.
3. What determines who is going to move and attack an enemy first?
4. Why is PDEF on the Status screen blank?

Those are a few things I'm wondering about, if anyone could give me a basic tutorial on the Status screen and what each attribute effects (except Attack, Defense, MDEF of course, I understand those) that would be awesome.

[eldrasidar]

part 1: MOV, REP, and ATK are all composite numbers, based on the relavent stat(spd, rep, and pwr) combined with skills, armor, weapon strength, and other equipment. For ATK, this number is simply an addition of pwr + weapon strength + any equipment(skill bonus goes into pwr directly). The other two are more complicated, and involve several hidden variables.

part 2: Speed is your initial quickness, which is then adjusted by various factors, such as the armor you wear or the speed of the weapon being wielded. Movement is the resulting number from that calculation. This is why someone like Futch, who has high speed, can go well after someone with a lower speed.

part 3: There are several factors, as mentioned above. In general, the lighter the characters armor(lightest to heaviest: tunics/robes/leather/chainmail/full armor) the faster they will go. Having a high speed will help, as does improving a characters swing and holy dash skills. However, at the end of the day, the largest factor controlling how fast a character will go is their weapon's weight, a hidden variable inside the game(generally the bigger the weapon, the heavier), a factor which cannot be modified. You can learn more about the swing skill, holy dash skill, and weapon weights by checking out the multiple hits in depth guide here at suikosource.

part 4: Pdef or physical defense is blank for most characters, because the game assumes they will be wearing armor, from which they will draw their defense stat. However, for the three beasts, and the 5 dogs, this statistic actually does increase, since they cannot wear armor.

Unfortunately, there isn't any real record of how exactly all the statistics work in this game, and the data that is there is in several different places. Here's a few basics I can think of(although I don't know all the details)

Skill affects accuracy for sure(and is boosted by the accuracy skill), but it may also be involved with counter attacks and critical hits.

Rep affects your ability to repel attacks, and is boosted by the repel skill

Luck affects stuff, but it's not at all clear what, and to what degree, it could effect critical hits, counter attacks, dropped items, treasure chest finds, corpse finds among others, however nobody is really sure.

[Hxc Flavor]

Thanks for the info, but I guess I'm still a little confused why there are two Repel stats, and why the one on the right of the portrait is similar to other characters' number but the Repel stat on the left are a lot more varying for each character. How do they, if at all, affect one another?

[eldrasidar]

The one on the left is a character's natural repel stat, ranging anywhere from 30-255, compiled with a bonus based on their repel skill. The REP stat under the portrait, compiles that number in with penalties for equipment and possibly a few other things, you can noticed this if you swap a characters armor, as you'll often see that this REP will be effected slightly, but not your base stat rep. This REP stat will generally look very similar between similarly equipped characters, so for example all the knights of zexen have a really bad REP, often below 10, which means they generally can't repel an attack very well, however a character like Watari can have really high REP like 70, and can repel most attacks.

[Hxc Flavor]

Thanks! Great explanation. Now, what about MOV and Speed? how do they differ and what do they affect?

[eldrasidar]

speed affects your mov and your swing time. Mov is how fast you can move around the battle screen in order to get into range, swing time is how long it takes you to make your attacks. you can learn more about that by looking here: http://suikosource.com/games/gs3/indepth/swings.php