LogFAQs > #928978001

This part of the game is mostly menu-based. You have an "action" command that gives you several options and if you pick the right one, it will either pacify the enemy, which lets you use the "spare" command to end the battle, or change the pattern of its next attack in some way that lets you cause that effect. For example there is one enemy that you have to pacify by touching the green zone close to its actual attack. The menu-based pacification gets more complex as the game goes so that eventually you have to pick multiple options in the right sequence. Naturally, you waste a turn and have to dodge more attacks if you mess up, which is where the sense of challenge comes from.

(SMuffin explained it way better than me lol)