Row Mechanics

Both the party and the monsters in a fight have a front and back row.

The party's front and back rows are readily apparent, and can be changed in menu and in battle.

It does not matter whether there are any characters in the front row; the back row is treated as the back row regardless.

Monster rows are determined by the positions of their sprites on the screen.

• The monster closest to the party is in the front row.
• Any monster whose sprite's right side overlaps with the front-most monster is in the front row.¹⁾
• All other monsters are in the back row.

These rows are updated every time a character or monster executes a command.

Example: The 2 Baron Guards are both in the front row. However, if they are Toaded or Sized, only the closer one will be in the front row.

(a.k.a. the long-range bit)

When a character equips a long-range weapon²⁾ - and takes an action, if this is done in battle - then their backrow bit is set, and they will not incur penalties when attacking from the back row or attacking back row targets.

If the Gbackrow flag is enabled, then this bit is never unset, and the character will remain backrow glitched for the rest of the game.

Monsters never have the backrow bit set.

Physical defense is doubled when in the back row. The backrow/long-range bit has no effect on this.

If an attacker using a physical attack does not have the backrow/long-range bit:

• When attacking from the back row, their accuracy will be halved.
• When attacking a back row target, their accuracy will be halved.

These can be combined when attacking a back row target from the back row, leading to 1/4 accuracy.

Note that Jump bypasses these accuracy penalties.