Basics

1. Controls
Control pad "up" - move in the direction the character is facing.
Control pad "down" - take a step backwards.
Control pad "left/right" - turn to the left or right. This is a free action and does not use up a turn. You can spin around as much as you like.
"A" button - Attack (also used to confirm selections in menus).
"B" button - Cancel in menus. Doesn't do anything in battle.
"X" button - Open the skills menu.
"Y" button - Stand still for a turn. This allows you to regain AP.
"L/R" buttons - Switch between characters in battle.
"Start" button - Opens up the map in battle. See below for a little bit of info on this map.

2. Battles
The game is all about the battles. The most important thing to know is that you only control one character at a time - that's right, this isn't like Final Fantasy Tactics or even Vandal Hearts. Any time a single character makes a round-expending move, the enemies get their turn to act. All of them. Knowing this, it is therefore very important to keep an eye on both of your characters (some battles you'll only control one, but for the most part you'll be using two). The characters can move together when they "Pair up." Some battles start with you paired up, some don't. To avoid wasting a turn to find out if you are/are not paired up, open the skills menu. If the option to "Separate" is available, then you are currently paired up. If the option to "Pair up" is available, then you are currently separated.

When you are paired up, both characters move as one unit. Whichever character is selected (switch between them using the L/R buttons) determines the direction you move in. Here's another important thing - even though the character you're not actively controlling will move with you when you're paired up, he/she will still regain AP as if he/she had not acted at all. This is especially important when you're moving together around enemies. If Fron uses up all his AP on, say, a goblin that still manages to live, switch to his partner (I'll say Tia for now), and use her to control the pair's movement. This way you can stay away from the enemy, but Fron will also recover AP in the meantime.

The map - hitting the Start button during a battle will bring up a map. Its main use is to tell where your enemies are - all the yellow squares mark the positions of enemies.

Using skills - unlike many games, since you recover AP in Monstania, you can use skills to your little heart's intent. Indeed, I encourage it. Don't be a conservationist in that respect.

Items - throughout the game you'll be picking up a good number of healing items, and you might wonder, if you use my walkthrough, why I almost never mention them. In short - you probably won't need them. On that note, feel free to use them whenever you want, keeping a Cure-all or two on hand at all times, though.

Directions - throughout my walkthrough I refer to four directions: forward, back, right, and left. To demonstrate what I mean by all these, I'll borrow some Fron sprites. The direction he's facing is the direction I'll be referring to in the walkthrough, so pay attention!

Forward:		Back:
Right:		Left:

This will hopefully make any confusion about what I mean in the walkthrough avoidable.

Ok, now for something else you'll find in my walkthrough. I list the enemies in the battle by first putting their picture, a number (no number means there's only one, while "Inf." means that the enemy will keep appearing until you finish the battle by other means), and then a small list that goes (HP, sq, m/t). The first number will be the enemy's Hit Points, the second is the number of squares it takes up (size), and the last is its movement. 1m/1t means it can move one space in a given turn, 1m/2t means it can only move once ever two turns, and so on.

3. Equipment
Items are equipped through selecting "Status" on the in-between battles menu that shows the map of Monstania and your current location. Once you choose a status, choose a character and then "Equip."