Magic Knight Rayearth

Throughout the game, the player controls a party of three characters. However, only one character can battle at a time; though the other two characters will follow behind the active character, they cannot attack and are unaffected by all enemy attacks and even environmental hazards. The player can instantly change the active character at any time. In essence, the three characters confront the enemies, puzzles, and assorted threats of the game in a tag team fashion. Unlike most RPGs, character upgrades and magic spells in Magic Knight Rayearth are mostly acquired upon progressing to certain points in the game, rather than by independent accomplishments. (The exceptions are maximum HP and maximum MP, which are increased by finding special items.) Weapons and armor are also upgraded as part of general level ups instead of being leveled up individually. While the anime and manga both have the Magic Knights using color-coordinated swords, in the game only Hikaru uses a sword, while Umi uses a foil and Fuu a bow and arrow. Each of the three weapons has its own advantages and disadvantages. For instance, the bow works long range but requires precise aim, whereas the sword slices with broad strokes that make it easy to hit enemies but is short range only. The need to aim the bow is mostly removed once it is upgraded, since Fuu can then charge the weapon to make it "lock on" to the nearest target. However, unlike the sword and foil, the bow's attack power does not increase when it is charged up.