Ace (Type-0)/Gameplay

Ace is a playable character in Final Fantasy Type-0. Developers have stated Ace is meant to be a beginner-friendly character. Ace wields a deck of cards in battle, and has a quick ranged battle style where he throws them at his enemies. Ace has low HP, but overcomes it with excellent evasion. Ace, after summoning his weapon, is the only character whose dodging changes to teleportation. With his teleporting dodge, he can easily pass through enemies and even allies for easier escape when cornered.

Abilities
Ace's cards automatically replenish to fifty-three pieces. His regular attack throws a handful of cards that home in on his target. By tilting the analog stick up or down he can use variants of his basic attack. The first is a melee attack that involves Ace creating a circle of cards around him. The second is a chargeable attack that summons up to three cards above Ace that fire at the enemy one by one when released. With an upgrade, Ace can summon up to five cards with the charged attack. The charged attack has an incredibly long range, which can be exploited when using Ace as a sniper character.

Ace's normal attack first fires off three cards, then four, then four again, and the finisher (learned with Finishing Blow) fires off six cards, totaling up of seventeen cards/hits for a full combo. Ace's cards during normal attacks actually sway quite a bit rather than just flying straight ahead, which allows the cards to move around anything in front of the target. Ace can easily change to either his melee or charged attack. His attacks' action time is short, allowing dodging right after an attack.

Cut Cards draws one card which changes the effects of Ace's basic attack. Up to four cards can be drawn before one use of Card, and there are four types of cards, each granting a different ability. The final effect is decided by the most present type of card, and is strengthened by the quantity of cards drawn.

The final effect can be one of the following:
 * Short Stop – Ace draws a majority of white cards. Feint, direct attack. Can Stop foes.
 * Drawing multiple white cards upgrades this ability to Long Stop, Mega Stop, or Giga Stop.
 * Burst – Ace draws a majority of red cards. Quick, powerful and direct attack.
 * Drawing multiple red cards upgrades this ability to Super Burst, Mega Burst, or Giga Burst.
 * HP Charge – Ace draws a majority of blue cards. Recovers Ace's HP.
 * Drawing multiple blue cards upgrades this ability to Super HP Charge, Mega HP Charge, or Giga HP Charge.
 * MP Charge – Ace draws a majority of yellow cards. Recovers Ace's MP.
 * Drawing multiple yellow cards upgrades this ability to Super MP Charge, Mega MP Charge, or Giga MP Charge.

Ace being able to draw four cards before being forced to use or dismiss them, there are four levels of effect for each ability. A two-card hand (Super-class, or Long Stop) simply increases power; a three- or four-card hand (Mega- and Giga-class) will deal damage to all enemies in the vicinity, or heal all allies. The higher the rank, the more potent it will be. However, if Ace is to draw, for example, the first two cards are Burst cards (into Super Burst), then the last two cards are HP Charge (into Super HP Charge), the Super HP Charge ability will be the end result.

Ace has four specialized variants of Cut Cards that are unlocked at higher levels, each of which has a higher chance of drawing a certain type of card; Attack Hand for Burst cards, Support Hand for Short Stop cards, Life Hand for HP Charge cards, and Spirit Hand for MP Charge cards.

Ace's Jackpot Shot is useful against slow, large enemies, such as the Colossus. Conjuring the Jackpot Shot up to three at a time can deal a lot of damage as they hit multiple times despite closing the opportunity for Killsight. Jackpot Triad shoots in three directions and is useful against swarming enemies, but lasts shorter than Jackpot Shot. Both Jackpot Shot and Jackpot Triad hit multiple times, but cannot stagger or Stun foes.

Blind Stud is great against chasing and sluggish enemies. Waiting for foes to walk on the trap and then triggering it will release a spinning spray of cards from the trap, dealing multiple hits but with lower power. It's more useful against smaller enemies as it staggers and can Stun them. Certain enemies, such as flan, are staggered so quickly by the spray of cards that they seem to almost immobilized by it.

Equipment
Ace's exclusive accessory is the Oracle's Codex that increases all magic stats by 30 and grants Auto Endure status.


 * Playing Cards
 * Argentic Deck
 * Akademeia Deck
 * Arcane Deck
 * Lustrous Deck
 * Imperial Tarot
 * Draconic Deck
 * Ironclad Deck
 * Mythril Deck
 * Platinum Deck
 * Reaper's Tarot
 * Cardshark's Deck
 * Magician's Deck
 * Hanafuda
 * Crazy Eights
 * Black Trump (ultimate weapon)

Support Personnel
Some Support Personnel characters in the HD version appear as Ace: Yuki Kaji (Ace's Japanese VA), Ryoto Shinzato (Rendering Environment Artist), Tatsuo Heianzan (Lead Character Modeling Artist), and Nobuyuki Ueda (Project Manager).