Attacks with the equipped weapon. Depending on party formation and the character's position in the formation, this will usually have a bonus or penalty applied to the damage, with characters toward the front of the formation generally getting larger bonuses and those toward the back getting larger penalties (conversely, enemies get damage bonuses against those toward the front and penalties against those toward the back).

The details of the bonuses and penalties are specific to each formation. Also, to go slightly off topic, characters toward the front of the formation are also more likely to be chosen as the target of enemy attacks. However, if any character is dead (or successfully playing dead), attacks that attempt to target them are instead redirected to whichever valid target is closest to the back of the lineup, which is generally bad news.

A normal attack has a random chance to result in a critical hit, which doubles the damage. Certain weapons also have a chance to inflict instant death when attacking. Additionally, Ryu, Lin Pu, and certain enemies have a chance to counterattack when hit. This functions the same as a normal attack except that it ignores element and (though this is normally academic) cannot strike multiple enemies or hit twice even when using a weapon that normally would.

Opens the menu for selecting a spell or similar ability.

Opens the item menu. This also allows switching equipment as a free action.

Directs all characters to automatically use their normal attacks each round until interrupted or combat ends.

Attempts to flee combat instead of taking any other actions this round.

Allows the party to change formations (but not lineup). This is a free action.

Reduces damage taken until next turn. This tends to work better against physical attacks than magical.

Ryu's special command as a child. Unusable.

Ryu's special command. Restores a fraction of his maximum HP, depending on how many flames appear for his Guts stat on the status screen and on how badly hurt he is (the amount increases significantly when below 1/2 health, again when below 1/4 health, and yet again when below 1/8 health). However, it has a random 1 in 8 chance to fail, so don't rely on it too heavily.

Bosch's usual special command. Attempts to inflict instant death, but causes only 1 damage if it fails. Never works on bosses. Success rate is believed to be primarily determined by the target's Luck stat.

Lin Pu's usual special command. Attempts to force all enemies to target her. Enemies that pass a Wisdom-based check ignore this, as do any that are using multi-target attacks or not attacking. Damage against Lin Pu is additionally reduced by about 12% for the round.

This would be considerably more useful if it drastically lowered enemy attack like it does in the coliseum, or at least raised her chance to evade and/or counterattack. After all, shouldn't she be expecting and prepared for incoming attacks?

さそう (sasou) more typically translates to "invite".

Rand's special command. Attacks a party member. When hitting an Incapacitated ally, this has a chance to revive them with 1 HP, once per target per battle, with success rate believed to be determined by Rand's Guts stat plus a smaller bonus based on the target's Guts stat. Otherwise, it inflicts normal damage (and incidentally removes Sleep status), though thankfully it cannot result in a critical hit or inflict instant death.

Nina's usual special command. Restores 16 AP, or 24 if she's completely out, but has a 30% chance to fail and do nothing.

While it's not completely reliable and doesn't scale up at all, this does give Nina effectively unlimited AP.

Sten's usual special command. Attacks normally, and plays dead for the rest of the round. While playing dead, Sten receives a 37.5% penalty to Defense Power, but enemies that fail a Wisdom-based check will target as though he were Incapacitated.

Unfortunately, that means any enemy trying to attack him that he successfully fools instead hits whichever valid target is closest to the back of the formation, typically meaning someone you put there for their inability to take hits well. So unless the enemy wasn't trying to hit Sten in the first place, either he takes extra damage or a squishy character takes the hit instead. What's the point of this, again?

Tapeta's usual special command. Attacks all enemies, but with a -30 penalty to Attack Power for the second one he hits, -60 against the third, and so on. (** or is it -30/60/etc against ALL of them? **) Additionally, this is always non-elemental, cannot result in critical hits, and cannot inflict instant death.

Aspara's usual special command. When outdoors, it has a small chance to fail but usually has an effect based on the terrain. When indoors, it always fails.

On lakeside terrain: Invokes Flower Magic, halving the effective Defense Power of all enemies (once per battle).

On desert terrain: Invokes Cactus Bomber, inflicting 88 to 95 undefendable damage to all enemies. Although the cacti vanish from the screen after use, the skill continues to work repeatedly.

On forest terrain: Invokes Wood Step, inflicting 176 to 191 undefendable damage to all enemies.

On other outdoor terrain: Invokes Floral Aroma, healing all allies by 32.

Dís's special command. Fully restores her HP and removes Curse, Sleep, Poison, Zombie, and Rotting status. The only drawback is that it also gives her Defense Down status.

Special command for Bosch's shaman-induced transformation. Attacks all enemies at normal damage, but cannot result in critical hits or inflict instant death.

らんしゃ (ransha) more literally refers to firing wildly without any particular target.

Special command for Lin Pu's shaman-induced transformation. Spends one turn gathering strength, then strikes the next with 200% to 300% Attack Power (which ignores the usual 511 cap). This cannot result in critical hits or inflict instant death, but that's a lot of damage potential.

Special command for Nina's shaman-induced transformation. Attempts to force all enemies to flee combat. Does not work in boss battles.

Special command for Sten's shaman-induced transformation. Replaces the monsters in random encounters with a new set of random monsters for the current location, effectively generating a new random battle.

This is especially useful for seeking specific enemies when trying to get a rare drop. Also... "Sweh"?

Special command for Tapeta's shaman-induced transformation. Spends one turn gathering strength, then attempts to inflict instant death on all enemies the next. Does not work in boss battles.

Special command for Aspara's mushroom-like shaman-induced transformation. Attempts to inflict Sleep status on all enemies... unless the game decides there's a headwind, in which case it attempts to inflict Sleep status on all allies instead.

Special command for Aspara's flowerbud-like shaman-induced transformation. Spends one turn gathering strength, then attacks a random enemy for each of the next four turns at 200% Attack Power (which ignores the usual 511 cap). These are otherwise normal attacks, and so may result in critical hits or inflict instant death as usual.