The Elements:

Earth
This element originally came from the five traditional elements of Expel.  It's used to rip up the ground and attack with rocks and such.  Scientifically, it's been called a force to control solid matter, but it is primarily used on the Earth below.

Water
Another traditional element, which is used to control water, mist, and ice.  Scientists say this is an "energy for controlling liquids," but that isn't the end of its possibilities.  Also, many healing spells are concocted from the water element.

Fire
Any way you look at it, this element is meant to burn things down and blow things up!  Used mostly for controlling heat energy and causing general chaos.

Wind
Scientifically, this element is called a method of controlling gaseous matter.  In practice, wind is used for speedy attacks and blowing the enemy away.

Thunder
Use this element to control electricity!  Attacks commonly come from the sky in the form of lightning.  Electricity can wreak havoc on some machines.

Plasma
This element replaces "Star" and "Matter" from the orignal PSX game.  Plasma is a form of matter that has particles even more scattered than gases, and stars have plenty of it.  Spells like Southern Cross would use this element, but it can do other things as well...

Light
This abundant energy can do a variety of things, from strengthening to overpowering.  It can also fuel some healing spells.

Void
"Vacuum" and "Darkness" were combined to make Void, which is a catch-all element name to refer to the lack of anything, not just air and light.  A particularly nasty element that hardly ever does anything pleasant, except when it does it by making things "go away."

The large variety of exotic monsters you run into on strange planets will have a few poisonous creatures among them.  This low-level status effect causes your character to lose a certain percentage of their HP every round.  It won't go away after battle, either, but you can heal it using a low level purifying spell like Antidote or by administering an Aquaberry.


Paralyze

Your body is frozen and you can't move a muscle!...  This will wear off after awhile, although it won't necessarily go away right after the end of the battle.  A Gooseberry is the most common way to bring you back to normal; Dispel will unfreeze you as well.


Mute

You can't say anything, which pretty much rules out the possibility of Killer Moves and Heraldric magic.  This will wear off after battle.  A Raspberry is the most common way to bring you back to normal; Dispel will remedy it as well.


Sleep

Every once in awhile something happens and you just gotta take a snooze... even if you really don't want to at the time.  If this happens, don't bother with herbs; the victim'll wake up the next time he or she gets hit.  Or, an ally can spend one round trying to shake the bejeezers out of their napping friend until he/she awakes.


Fainted

If your HP hits zero... well... you're screwed! ...At least, for the time being you are.  Even at the end of battle, HP will stay at 0 until you get a full night's recovery at an inn, or someone uses a very special spell or item to revive you, like Smelling Salts or a Resurrection Mist.  If everyone gets knocked out of commission, the party is defeated!!  Let's hope THAT never happens, eh?... ^_~