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Brave Dungeon + Dark Witch’s Story: COMBAT gameplay systems explained

By Freedom251 Team · · 10 min read

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Brave Dungeon and Dark Witch’s Story: COMBAT are two different INSIDE SYSTEM games built around deliberate, turn-based decisions. Brave Dungeon is a three-character dungeon-crawling RPG: you choose which visible enemies to fight, gather experience and materials, improve equipment, and specialize the party through Class Changes. Dark Witch’s Story: COMBAT is a three-card, best-of-three battle game in which medal costs, character matchups, team effects, and a growing card collection determine each duel.

The distinction matters. Brave Dungeon’s central question is “Which route and encounters should I take before returning to town?” COMBAT asks “Which three characters, medals, and effects can win a sequence of one-on-one rounds?” The systems are explained below, including progression, failure, customization, and the practical choices each game expects you to make.

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What each game is built to do

Although they share characters and the INSIDE SYSTEM name, the games do not use the same combat model.

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Game Core format Primary progression Published platform notes
Brave Dungeon Turn-based dungeon RPG with a party of three Experience, skills, equipment, crafting, and Class Changes Nintendo Switch listing gives a UK release date of 28 September 2017
Dark Witch’s Story: COMBAT Three-card, best-of-three matches; each round is a one-on-one duel Characters, medals, ranks, levels, skills, and team effects Steam lists a PC release date of 20 August 2021

Nintendo describes Brave Dungeon as a dungeon-crawling RPG adventure. Its combat is designed to be easy to pick up, but the route, party, and upgrade choices create the longer-term decisions. COMBAT uses characters and creatures from the Dark Witch series and separates solo Quest play from multiplayer Battle play.

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How Brave Dungeon’s dungeon loop works

Five dungeons, selectable in any order

Nintendo Life’s review reports five dungeons. They can be attempted in any order, and each dungeon contains floors that become progressively harder. That structure gives you freedom to choose a target rather than following one fixed sequence, but it does not make every floor equally suitable for a newly assembled party.

A sensible approach is to treat the dungeon list as a set of scouting options. Enter the area where your current party can survive, learn the enemy placement, and use the resulting experience and materials to prepare for a deeper floor elsewhere.

Visible enemies replace random encounters

Enemies appear on the map, so you can see encounters before committing to them. You may route around a group, approach a favorable fight, or postpone a dangerous enemy until the party is stronger. This changes combat from an unavoidable tax on every step into a resource and risk decision.

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  • Fight selectively: choose encounters that fit your current healing and damage capacity.
  • Scout first: map enemy positions and identify routes to the next floor or chest.
  • Use repetition deliberately: return to manageable fights for experience and crafting materials instead of forcing a losing battle.

Death and returning to town

Nintendo Life reports that dying carries no penalty. Purchased items also recharge after you return to town. Together, those rules make experimentation relatively forgiving: you can probe a floor, retreat, adjust the party, and try again without losing a conventional death penalty.

The practical loop is:

  1. Enter a dungeon whose enemies are within your party’s capabilities.
  2. Read the map and choose encounters rather than engaging everything automatically.
  3. Win selected battles to gain experience and collect materials.
  4. Open treasure chests and add their contents to your equipment and crafting stock.
  5. Return to town when the next floor is too costly, then spend Tres, craft, and reorganize.
  6. Re-enter with a clearer route and a more suitable build.

Brave Dungeon party combat and builds

A three-character team with complementary jobs

Brave Dungeon uses a party of three. Al is the central hero, while allies provide different combat identities. The review specifically points to healers, technical fighters, and brawlers as useful role patterns. These are not merely cosmetic labels: your team must cover survival, control or utility, and reliable damage across a dungeon’s enemy mix.

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Role pattern What it contributes When it is valuable
Healer Restores the team and extends the number of encounters you can survive before returning Long floor pushes, chip damage, and unfamiliar enemy groups
Technical fighter Uses effects and specialized skills to handle specific threats Enemies that punish a purely damage-focused approach
Brawler Provides direct, dependable damage Shortening fights and finishing weakened enemies

The best trio depends on the floor. A fast damage team may clear ordinary encounters efficiently but struggle when healing or a particular effect is required. A defensive team can last longer but may spend more turns exposed to enemy attacks. Build around the encounters you can see, not around a single permanent party formula.

Tres and skill investment

Players spend Tres to choose skill upgrades. Because Tres is used to shape a character’s abilities, avoid distributing every point without a plan. Decide whether a character should deepen an existing role or cover a weakness in the group, then buy skills that support that purpose.

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For example, a healer can be developed around dependable recovery while a technical fighter receives effects that answer the dungeon’s specific threats. A brawler’s investment can prioritize the skills that let the party end ordinary encounters before they consume too many resources. The game’s visible-map system lets you test these choices against known enemies and revise them after returning to town.

Class Changes are specialization decisions

Class Changes let you select a specialization path later in progression. Treat a Class Change as a commitment to how that character will serve the party, not as a routine cosmetic switch. Before choosing, consider which role is already covered, which role is missing, and whether the next dungeon’s enemies demand healing, technical effects, or more direct damage.

  • Use a Class Change to strengthen a role that the party relies on every floor.
  • Use it to repair a structural weakness, such as having no dependable healing.
  • Check equipment and purchased skills together; specialization is most effective when the entire build points in the same direction.

Crafting and equipment

Materials come from defeated enemies and treasure chests. Crafting turns successful exploration into permanent preparation: each selected encounter can contribute both experience and the resources needed to improve the next attempt. Equipment then lets you tailor characters toward the job you assigned them.

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Do not view every material as a reason to clear every visible enemy. Since encounters are optional, compare the likely reward with the damage and recovery it will cost. A short return to town followed by crafting can be more useful than pushing one additional floor with an under-equipped party.

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How Dark Witch’s Story: COMBAT matches are structured

Three cards and a best-of-three result

The basic match uses three cards in a best-of-three format. You select three characters for your team, and the match is decided across rounds rather than by one large simultaneous battle. The PlayStation description says the roster contains more than 40 characters.

Each round is a one-on-one duel. When one fighter is defeated or the round otherwise ends, the next character enters. This means a card that looks weak in isolation may still matter because of the effect it passes to the next fighter or the way it completes a team combination.

Support and Main phases

Turns contain Support and Main phases. The separation encourages sequencing: a support action can prepare the board before the main action commits your attack, recovery, buff, or debuff. Read the available effects before spending your resources, because using a medal in the wrong phase can leave a later turn without enough capacity to answer the opponent.

The 12-medal deck and Syega Crystals

Each player uses a deck of 12 medals. Medals are played by spending Syega Crystals, and crystals accumulate on each turn. Medal effects include attacks, healing, buffs, and debuffs. Since crystals build over time, you must decide whether to use a modest effect now or save resources for a stronger sequence later.

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Syega Crystals Turn-by-turn resource accumulation Spend immediately or bank for a decisive turn?
Best-of-three format Round results and remaining fighters Protect a later round or press for an early advantage?

COMBAT’s tactical layer

Attributes use a rock-paper-scissors relationship

Character attributes interact through a rock-paper-scissors system. The matchup can therefore matter as much as raw card strength. Build a team with coverage rather than assuming one attribute will win every duel, and consider which opponent remains after the current round when deciding whether to reveal a favorable or unfavorable matchup.

Roles, Team Links, and signature medals

Some roles pass effects to the next fighter. That makes the order of your three cards a tactical choice: an effect created by the opening duel may be intended for the second character, not the current attacker.

Team Links add another layer of coordination between selected characters. A team should be evaluated as a sequence of interactions, not simply as three individually powerful cards. Each character also has a signature medal, giving that character a distinctive effect to account for when assembling the 12-medal deck.

  • Choose an opening card that can establish your plan without consuming every resource.
  • Place follow-up characters where transferred effects will be useful rather than wasted.
  • Use attributes to avoid giving the opponent an easy favorable matchup.
  • Reserve signature medals for turns where their unique effect changes the round’s outcome.

Magic Items can change a match

Nintendo and Steam describe Magic Items that can be assigned to cards. These items can change how a match develops, so card selection is not the only preparation step. A team with a sound attribute spread can still need a different Magic Item assignment when facing a particular opponent or quest rule.

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Quest mode progression in COMBAT

Forty-five quests and repeatable rewards

The PlayStation listing describes 45 quests. Winning quests provides experience, characters, and medals. Characters gain levels, can unlock higher ranks, and some rank increases provide new card art. Characters can also equip skills, so progression changes both the collection and the options available inside a match.

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Quest mode is therefore more than a sequence of tutorials. It is the main route for expanding the roster and medal pool while working toward the “Game Master” title described by the storefront listings.

Final battles and Auto Battle

Final battles introduce special boss rules. Read those rules as a change to the normal win condition or tactical priorities rather than relying on the same deck order used in ordinary quests.

After a quest has been cleared, it can be replayed with Auto Battle. Auto Battle is useful for repeat runs and resource collection, but manual play remains important when learning a new quest, testing a character, or dealing with a boss rule that the automatic behavior may not handle well.

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Quest mode versus Battle mode

Quest mode is single-player progression through the 45-quest structure. Battle mode is multiplayer competition. The modes reward different habits: Quest play lets you develop characters, ranks, skills, and medals over time, while Battle play tests whether your team and deck remain effective against another player’s choices.

Brave Dungeon and COMBAT compared directly

Question Brave Dungeon Dark Witch’s Story: COMBAT
What do you control? A party of three moving through dungeons Three character cards and a 12-medal deck
How are fights selected? Visible enemies on maps; you choose when to engage Quest encounters or multiplayer Battle matches
How does a battle unfold? Turn-based party combat Best-of-three; each round is one-on-one
How do you customize? Skills bought with Tres, equipment, crafting, and Class Changes Characters, medals, Magic Items, ranks, skills, Team Links, and signature medals
What happens after failure? Review reports no death penalty; return to town and try another route Quest battles can be replayed; cleared quests gain Auto Battle
What is the main planning skill? Route selection, encounter risk, and party roles Card order, attribute matchups, crystal economy, and medal timing

Which system will feel more strategic to you?

Choose Brave Dungeon if you prefer exploration decisions

Brave Dungeon is the better fit if you want to read a map, choose encounters, improve a persistent party, and return to town when a floor becomes inefficient. Its strategy is cumulative: route knowledge, materials, skills, equipment, and Class Changes make the next expedition more capable.

Choose COMBAT if you prefer compact competitive matches

COMBAT suits players who enjoy assembling a small team, managing a resource deck, and adapting to one-on-one matchups. The best-of-three structure gives every card a role across several rounds, while attributes, transferred effects, Team Links, and signature medals reward careful sequencing.

Practical starting checklists

Before entering a Brave Dungeon floor

  • Confirm that the three party members cover damage, recovery, and any technical effect the visible enemies may require.
  • Spend Tres on skills that reinforce a defined role instead of spreading upgrades without a purpose.
  • Equip available improvements and check whether stored materials can produce a useful crafted item.
  • Identify a retreat point in town; there is no reason to force a floor when the encounter cost exceeds the likely gain.

Before a COMBAT match

  • Select three characters with complementary attributes and a deliberate order.
  • Review the 12 medals and their crystal costs, including attacks, healing, buffs, and debuffs.
  • Account for each character’s signature medal and any Team Link or passed-effect interaction.
  • Assign Magic Items with the expected opponent or quest rule in mind.
  • During play, track Syega Crystals so a strong later turn is not accidentally made impossible by an unnecessary early spend.

Release and edition context

Nintendo UK lists Brave Dungeon for Nintendo Switch with a release date of 28 September 2017. Steam lists Dark Witch’s Story: COMBAT for PC on 20 August 2021 and identifies INSIDE SYSTEM as both developer and publisher. Storefront descriptions can vary by region and platform, so verify the edition’s current listing before purchasing.

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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

Brave Dungeoncard battle gamesDark Witch’s Story: COMBATInside SystemNintendo SwitchSteamturn-based RPG

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