A character's portrait in the status menu gives how good their relationship is with the player character; the happier they look, the better their relationship. Also, the familiars have the ability to see the party members' opinions of the protagonist. "Wayfarer of Time" features a new vacation system where players spend time with their party members to form close friendships or pursue romances. Completing a character's back-story quest will unlock features such as ultimate armors, skills and one of the 40 possible endings. Like its predecessors, "Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time" utilizes a free-range movement tactical RPG battle system. Unlike grid-based TRPGs, a character's movement range is represented by a circular area in which the character can move anywhere within its confines. In addition, movement speed is based on the amount of MOV points a character has in the game. Another unusual aspect of Growlanser's system is that it's active time-based rather than strictly turn-based. Instead of each side taking its turn in waves, both sides move and act based on individual units' speed stats. Physical attackers must move towards the enemy to connect the blow within its range while magical attackers must take the time to chant their spells in exchange for being able to hit much farther ranges. Because characters' actions play out in real-time, a player can interrupt an action at any time to perform a new action. The Growlanser series features cooperation magic, in which two members of the party can cast stronger support or offensive spells (for ex: Co-op Heal or Co-op Sleep). In "Wayfarer of Time", the player's party can only cast area of effect spells through use of cooperation magic. However, some enemy bosses are capable of casting AoE spells on their own. "Wayfarer of time" features "limit abilities" which are similar to limit breaks in Final Fantasy. Depending on specific circumstances, characters may activate their limit abilities that vary from powerful attacks to extremely useful support magic. Major events in the story have unique battle objectives, such as the ability to rescue an NPC from enemies rather than simply 'defeat all enemies'. Reinforcement enemy forces sometimes show up in battle, making it prudent to plan a strategy, rather than rushing blindly into battle. There are a wide array of mission goals that vary from the normal "defeat all enemies" such as: escape the battle without killing anyone, protect the NPCs, search out areas where enemies are trying to ambush the player, don't let the enemy escape, set fire to different points on the enemy camp, and more.