what FF had the best battle system??

[reinward]

i think it was X.

X had the best difficulty by far IMHO. battles like Yunalesca, Seymour @ Gagazet, Braska's Final Aeon were very challenging and the bosses were just plain difficult, not cheap. the game also did a great job at making the battles feel very epic.

I like how you could switch in and out of battle, i liked how aeons were playable, i liked the turn based system, i liked how you could see the consequences of using a powerful move (an overdrive would take longer to recover from than say a regular attack). Overall, i just thought this was the most strategic FF game to date.

VII was a great game, but it was stupidly easy

VIII ^^^ same as VII^^^

IX was my favorite game, but again too easy.

XII was too easy plus i didnt like the gambit system

XIII is just annoying

[oddler]

XII was too easy plus i didnt like the gambit system

XII was easy because it actually involved setup and planning ahead of time. I loved XII's battle system. The only thing I'd want a game to add onto that system would be to allow everyone in your party to participate at the same time. I think it's kind of bogus to have X amount of characters in your party and only have some of them be able to engage the enemy at once. Otherwise, I thought it was amazing.

[Levian]

Final Fantasy X-2

[Vermachtnis]

Final Fantasy X-2

I agree, it was fun. Switching jobs in the middle of battle was a nice touch. And I liked how they didn't stay in spot either.

[VeloZer0]

I'm guessing voting for Tactics isn't in the spirit of this question.

I enjoyed FF10 the most, shame the character set up system and difficulty curve weren't on par to match. I didn't like Aeons (might have felt differently if people other than Yuna could summon them) and the fact you could bank your overdrives. Omg, boss fight! Switch in all your characters, use their Overdrives, use all the Aeons overdrives, whee! Next chapter.

I personally don't consider the Gambit system to be the actually battle system of FF12. IMO it was a fairly standard ATB battle system, with the ability to automate added on top. (Interestingly enough, everyone describes gambits as the FF12 battle system, but when you criticize them they are just a optional feature you can use.)
I probably would have liked FF12 a lot more if they forced people to only use gambits and took out all the MP restoring skills. Making gambits to just plow through everything was dead easy, but if I actually had to be up to the challenge of making good gambits it would have been much more fun. (and probably much less marketable)

[Shin Gouken]

Battle system? You mean active time bar or turn based? Sounds like your reffering to more along the lines of ability system. Or general difficulty.

I loved FFV's job system the most i think. FFXII was a basic atb system but being able to move characters during battle alone made it more appealing than any other FF with the ATB. I was fond of X too, the only system i really dislike is FFXIII. Paradigm shifting repeatedly and watching your team fight for you is both tedious and boring

[Mo-Nercy]

My favourites are amongst the later installments in the series. Final Fantasy X-2 being the best of all, I think. I also like FFXIII's and FFXII's.

[Slothy]

FFXII hands down. Lot's of party control, great depth, and also challenging. Some of the bosses in that game are among, if not the, toughest in the series.

[Clo]

FFXII, hands down. I loved that battle system.

On the other hand, I hated X's (though not saying it was my least favorite). I thought it was awkward, and the menu was hideous and annoying. The busy-ness of the screen often made me want to freak out, too.

[Saber]

My favorite would be X-2. It didn't matter how bad the game was cause the battles where awesome. It was a great last go of old school battling. They then switched to more movement and less control. FF12 was okay cause you could program your characters what to do, and in need you could throw in a command yourself.

My least favorite, is probably IX. Its not that I didn't like everything, there is just a lot that I didn't. First, the trance is BS and a waste of power. I prefer X's set up of limit breaks over all. Also the whole set job thing... I like to mix it up, which I won't say X-2 did it best. I'm saying Final Fantasy V did. The characters seemed weaker then others, and yes I did level all final fantasy characters to level 99. Even in 10 I mastered the sphere grid and had 99 SLVs.

[Del Murder]

I agree with the first post that X was the best. It was a truly tactical battle system since you knew when everyone's turns would be and had ample time to plan out your moves. You could also switch characters at will, which was awesome. And, for the majority of the time, the characters all had different strengths and weaknesses which provided for some really varied tactics.

A lot of people liked XII it seems and at first I liked it too. It felt like a one player version of FFXI. But as time went on it became too much like, well, a watered down version of FFXI. It lacked the freedom, options, and human interaction that FFXI had.

[PeneloRatsbane]

XII's made fighting fun. i enjoyed playing that game so much because the battle system was just a joy

[Chris]

"The best" and "my favorite" are two different things.

In my opinion, FFIX have the best battle system. It was easy, and it never once felt tiresome, but my favorite is FFX. To be honest, I love everything about FFX. :jess:

[NeoCracker]

X had the potential to be the best, but the game was so piss poor easy you could never really make any use of it.

[Erin]

I think the best battle systems were Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII.

[Bolivar]

Well there's a lot of things going on in the question. Game difficulty, character development system, the battles themselves.

And I don't really have an answer. VII-X and XII all stand out for me and I want to name each one for different reasons. VII had the best speed and presentation of the battles. VIII's junction system is one of the deepest character development systems in the series. FFIX simply did everything Final Fantasy stands for perfect, borrowing FFT's weapon-item system. FFX and XII have both been discussed by others.

ALL OF THEM!

[Hot Shot]

It's definately X. I love the way you can switch players in battle, it allows you to create greater tactics.

[Shin Gouken]

Well there's a lot of things going on in the question. Game difficulty, character development system, the battles themselves.

And I don't really have an answer. VII-X and XII all stand out for me and I want to name each one for different reasons. VII had the best speed and presentation of the battles. VIII's junction system is one of the deepest character development systems in the series. FFIX simply did everything Final Fantasy stands for perfect, borrowing FFT's weapon-item system. FFX and XII have both been discussed by others.

ALL OF THEM!

Junction system was horrible.

FFIX is just far too slow.

[Suikojowy]

Final Fantasy X's has been my favourite

[Xanthia]

Mmm battle systems seem to be improving as the series develops. Each battle system is great though, I was addicted throughout...

However, as mentioned previously in this thread X had a good one. From then onwards I found it was slowly improving. I like the system in XIII, but if I'm truthful I sometimes feel like I'm cheating as I only get to command one character... But the ability to switch 'positions' is pretty nifty.

It's speedy and sexy. <3

[Greatermaximus]

They're all kinda the same. It's not like DnD where you can whisper and communicate. You're in the middle of intense battles so you're improvising will be limited unless you can still pause the game while the 'scan spell' effect implements.

If you don't want to compare it to other games then the universal answer is each one stands on its own.