Originally Posted by
Marshall banana ^ っ is the same as つ (tsu), but it's smaller. It's placed before a symbol to make a double consonant with it. See:
せっしょうまるさまはかわいい！
Sesshoumaru-sama wa kawaii!
Yes, thats it basically. っ marks a double consonant.
Personally I think video games / anime are the worst places to learn Japanese. Would you speak English like the characters of FFXII ?