Best battle system (not character buildin) of the main series?

[TreasonWall]

The question is simple: which battle system from the main series would you say was the most compelling for you among the installments you played. However, please note that in this case we're only talking about specific systems, not individual games, so character building mechanics such as Materia and Junction don't come into play. With that established, here's a rundown of them all:

- Regular turn-based: The most basic of them all, and for that matter I'm pretty sure FF didn't invent this one. Present in Final Fantasy I-III, the Dragon Quest series, most RPG Maker 2000 games, and many others. It's basically a two-step process: You pick a command for each of your party members, and once you're done every participant in the fight unleashes an action in an order that depends on their respective speed and possibly a small randomness factor. Go back to step one, then repeat until one of the two sides has no characters left alive. Not my favorite, it works well but there's really nothing special about it.

-Active Time Battle (ATB): we all know how this works, but I'll explain it for the sake of exhaustivity. Present in Final Fantasy IV-IX, Chrono Trigger with a couple twists, FF10-2 in a modified version, most RPG Maker 2003 games, and probably countless others. Each participant has an individual timer, often symbolized by a gauge, that fills itself faster or slower than those of the others depending on their own speed stat. Once it is full, they get a turn and can perform one action, then it has to fill itself again. Then there is the additional factor that some actions take a charge time even once selected, such as magic spells, and thus will further delay that character's next turn in relation to everyone else's. And let's not forget surprise attacks: if you take the enemy by suprise, you begin with all your gauges full. If the enemy takes you by surprise, you begin with all your gauges empty.Tried-and-true, and rather widespread. I'm a fan, but it's really nothing special anymore these days.

-Conditional Turn-Based (CTB): Simple in its presentation but intricate in its depth. only Final Fantasy X uses it to my knowledge, which is an utter waste of potential. It's turn-based, but instead of using rounds, it uses separate turns for each participant. This means that any character's turn freezes the game until an action is chosen for them to perform. Also, participants with a higher speed stat get more turns, while those with a lower one get less (even more so than with ATB). But more than than, actions that are performed quickly (for example items) will make your next turn come earlier, while those that cost more effort to perform (such as Overdrives) will delay your next turn further.Another thing is that you can swap a character that is currently on their turn out of the active party and replace them with someone from the sidelines mid-fight, as many times as you want.

And now for some FF10 specifics: should you summon an Aeon, it will replace your whole party and fight alone, under player control, until they either get killed or you call them off, in which case the fight will resume as normal. Aeons have the particularity of being impervious to any and all status aliments. The last thing is contextual commands, which sometimes let you spend a turn to interact with a specific environment. Examples would be spoilery, but some of those are almost useless, others quite useful, and a couple imperative to victory. One of my favorites, it's one of the most straightforward but also one the deepest.

-Real Time Battle (RTB): It' called "real time", but there's nothing real time about it. Used in Final Fantasy XI and XIV, and most MMOS really. You control one character, who automatically performs an action you pre-selected once their timer is full. Functional but in my opinion extremely boring. Good for team work only, and even then it's not all that thrilling.

-Active Dimension Battle(ADB): How do I explain this exactly... it's like ATB, but in a seamless environment which you can freely navigate and take advantage of. Used in Final Fantasy XII. So, the fact that you can move around will let you get away from certain attacks(though not always, since your characters tend to stick close to each other), but on the flipside, monsters that you never targetted may come after you anyway (just like MMOs). But wait, controlling three different characters on your own in a pseudo real-time situation? seems to walk the line between tedious and unfeasible. Luckily, Gambits let you pre-program what they will do in which situation, and in what order. But for further strategic depth, you can override them at any moment and pick a manual command instead, for any of your party members. Just like FF10, you can swap characters in and out at any moment unless they're currently targeted by anyting, but unlike FF10, you only get a Game Over if *all* of them are down. As for Espers, they fight alongside witht their master while the other two active members go away. If either the Esper or their summoner gets taken down, the summon sequence ends. Impractical to say the least. Quickenings are worth a mention, since they can indefinitely chain into each other until the timer runs out, regardless of character turns save the one who initiated the chain in the first place.

I hated this system at first. I went something like "ATB timers with pseudo-real time, three characters and only one player to control them? What sense does that even make? How can that in any way NOT be inconvenient? And why on earth would I want the game to play itself without me?" Then I played and I got used to it, and grew not only to enjoy it a lot, but to see the immense tactical depth it holds. Stuff like Immobilize, Disable, Enrage, or Needle Traps? Only possible in FF12. Easily the one I like the most so far.

-Combat Synergy Battle (CSB): Keep in mind that I have never played Final Fantasy XIII or XIII-2, so I may get some of this wrong or not make it very clear. Basically, you control one party member manually, while the other two ara AI-controlled. Now, what this system has in common with X-2 is that it IS in fact real time, as in nothing any participant does will freeze the actions of the others. Which is crucial in understanding how this is played. For your leader character, a segemented ATB gauge fills itself over time. Instead of costing MP, skills cost ATB slots, which means the more powerful a move is, the bigger a part of the gauge it will use. First you chose which moves to assign to each slot, and then at what moment you want to execute them. Consumed ATB slots have to refill themselves before you can use them again. As for your AI-controlled characters, they make their own automated decisions through the same process, based on their knowledge of the current situation.

Except it's not that simple. Only a specific job can execute specific skills, for example cure spells are only for medics and debuff spells are only for saboteurs. To remedy to that, you can switch everyone's job on the fly. However, two differences with X-2 are that you switch from one party configuration to another instead of changing an individual character's job, and that doing so will not interrupt the flow of the combat, meaning for example that you can get hit while switching. And I think it gives you a free ATB slot unless you already activated your next one, but I'm not really sure how that works. The last element is stagger: most enemies have a gauge in the top right corner which fills itself whenever you hurt them, but also decreases constantly. If you manage to get it full, they will be in a posture of weakness and thus easier to attack until the gauge is empty again. Then there's the summoning mechanics,but I don't know much about that. Well, what can I say. Once you understand most of it and watch someone else play it, it looks quite awesome. However, if there's one battle system you can't properly judge without trying it first hand, it's this one. So I can't evaluate this one, but what I will say that does look good, if not necessarily superior to CTB and ADB.

Winner in my eyes: CTB (X) and ADB (XII). Your turn!

[Karifean]

For me, it's a toss-up between X's CTB system and X-2's ATB system. I can't put one over the other.

[Sephiroth]

ATB and then CTB. Like almost all of my favourite Final Fantasys.

[Raistlin]

Most of my favorite RPGs are turn-based or ATB, but that's mostly because I love the characters, plot, and other gameplay elements a lot. Just focusing on the battle system itself though, FFXII was a huge step in a positive direction, and had the most promise of any game in the series. It wasn't perfect, but it allowed you to mold the battle system to your liking, removing some of the most annoying elements of typical RPG random battles. No other FF game has such exciting boss fights, though FFXIII had its moments (despite being an overall regression from FFXII).

[ShinGundam]

For me, it's a toss-up between X's CTB system and X-2's ATB system. I can't put one over the other.
Agreed. :)

[Gamblet]

Having played only FF I-IX, I am going to say ATB, because turn based is too slow for me.

[Loony BoB]

As much as I dislike certain things about FFX, it did perhaps have my favourite battle system. I really liked how it allowed you to have all kinds of characters with very obvious job functions without restricting you heavily. I'd love to see a combination of FFV's job system mixed with FFX's battle system, meaning you could rotate in other characters and change their jobs outside of battle, allowing for even more versatility (it would probably be overpowering, though).

FFXIII-2 probably comes second for me... if it just allowed that little bit more control or neccessity to do something besides paradigms and auto, I'd probably go for it as the first option.

[Dr. rydrum2112]

CTB was the best, plus the ability to swap out characters made it cool. Only downside is that I (just my opinion) prefer 4 person parties.

[NeoCracker]

IF we ignore how easy the game was, X had the best actual system I feel. A system they didn't use anywhere near as well as they could have, but a good system none the less.

Mana Khemia did a similar system a lot better. :p

[Roogle]

I am of the opinion that Final Fantasy X-2 had the best battle system in the series. I think that it could have been something much greater if it had been fleshed out a little more. Imagine Final Fantasy V with that type of action-packed, fast-paced battle system?

[Depression Moon]

Should've put X-2 as an option. I tie it and XII with the best battle system in the series. X-2 made the flow so well and XII took out repetitiveness and allowed for action customization. XII hooked me in so deep, they really should've brought it back. I hope they do.

[Del Murder]

For me, it's a toss-up between X's CTB system and X-2's ATB system. I can't put one over the other.
I agree that these two were the best. I went with ATB due to the nostalgic value.

How can most of us agree that FFX-2 had the best battle system yet it only appeared in one game? FFXIII seemed like it was trying to be the evolution of that system but it did it in all the wrong ways. I would have loved it if FFXIII-2's system went back to the more direct control model of FFX-2 rather than pretty much keeping XIII's intact.

[Laddy]

CTB had a strong tactical layer that was lots of fun, but ADB was a close second.

[Skyblade]

Most of my favorite RPGs are turn-based or ATB, but that's mostly because I love the characters, plot, and other gameplay elements a lot. Just focusing on the battle system itself though, FFXII was a huge step in a positive direction, and had the most promise of any game in the series. It wasn't perfect, but it allowed you to mold the battle system to your liking, removing some of the most annoying elements of typical RPG random battles. No other FF game has such exciting boss fights, though FFXIII had its moments (despite being an overall regression from FFXII).

Exciting, really?

Do nothing while the gambits make the game play itself.

Sit in one place hitting Yiazmat for hours on end, resetting if he insta-kills too much.

Watch your characters doing nothing because large animation attacks keep you from acting, despite having a "real time" battle system.

FFXII had the least engaging combat system I've ever seen, and probably the cheapest enemy mechanics in the entire series.



My own vote goes to ATB, but only if we count Chrono Trigger. Why? Because of Dual/Triple Techs, which added another layer of strategy, made waiting a much more tactical decision, and gave a benefit to having multiple characters with available turns at once. It may be considered a "customization system", but Dual and Triple Techs can have such an impact on how the battle system plays out that it gives ATB the victory if it is included.

Otherwise, probably CTB from FFX.

[Del Murder]

Yeah, FFXII relied too much on the gambits to be memorable to me.

[Fynn]

ADB is the only correct answer here.

[Wolf Kanno]

Honestly, with the exception of moving around and combo bonuses, there really is not much difference between FFX-2 and FFXII's battle systems. Hell, technically FFX-2's system is simply a grossly sped up version of the original ATB system from FFIV before FFV came around and streamlined the system for players.

I like all the systems, but if I had to stick with only FFs versions of the systems, then I would say ATB is the best because the Turn Based systems have some clunky mechanics to them, CTB exists in a game that rarely made use of it and squandered its potential, and I feel ATB allows for some more flexible and inspiring game mechanics (like player input controls) that ADB just can't really implement. CSB just doesn't do anything for me, its all speed with no real substance to it in terms of strategy and control.

So ATB is my choice, if I could count RPGs in general I would say Turn Based to be honest because Press Turn system from Shin Megami Tensei III and Digital Devil Saga might be one of the best battle systems I've ever played in an RPG.

[Skyblade]

Honestly, with the exception of moving around and combo bonuses, there really is not much difference between FFX-2 and FFXII's battle systems. Hell, technically FFX-2's system is simply a grossly sped up version of the original ATB system from FFIV before FFV came around and streamlined the system for players.

Moving around, combos, lack of battle instantiation, gambits... Yeah, not buying that one.


Unfortunately, you really can't separate X-2's mechanics from its character building. The only reason the unique fast paced ATB worked was because of the incredibly excellent implementation of the job system. That game hit a near perfect balance between focus and versatility.

Part of the reason why XIII and XIII-2's battle systems aren't as fun as X-2's is because this balance is thrown off. The battle system is too fast paced for the player to have any real input on battles. Sure, there's a command list there, but it takes so long to manually enter any multiple command chain that you'll be far better off just hitting auto-battle 99% of the time.

X-2 balanced each job exquisitely. You had enough abilities to make each job unique and useful, but not so many that controlling them was a hindrance in the fast paced battle system.

And the Garment Grid system allowed for much tighter control of the job changes than the Paradigm system.

[Wolf Kanno]

Honestly, with the exception of moving around and combo bonuses, there really is not much difference between FFX-2 and FFXII's battle systems. Hell, technically FFX-2's system is simply a grossly sped up version of the original ATB system from FFIV before FFV came around and streamlined the system for players.

Moving around, combos, lack of battle instantiation, gambits... Yeah, not buying that one.


Actually they are quite simialr in the fact that in all three games, (IV, X-2, XII) a major element of the battle system is the fact that all skills have different charge times, which is one of the reason I'll never fathom how people feel X-2's system is fast when you put into account the dressphere transformations and most of the useful skills have long charge times which slows the battles to a crawl. In all three games, it often became more important to use lower level spells over powerful abilities because you could effectively do more damage over time with simpler attacks like just the basic Fight command. There is certainly variation with all three systems like the fact that using large skills in XII has far greater benefit to the player if you understand the mechanics of the queue element of the combat system. Not to mention that you can effectively job class change in FFXII mid-battle as well. Gambits are a major element of the system but I'll simply defer to mu usual advice of the system which is that they are best suited to streamline the gameplay experiences and the amount of control given to the characters is up to the player. themselves, the system ain't jacked, its the players inability to find equilibrium with it.

[Karifean]

I think X-2 is one of the fastest because even if you get a pre-emptive strike you have to be quick in inputting your commands or the enemies act before you do. And I always turn the dressphere change sequence off.

One of the biggest flaws of the combat systems of both X-2 and XII was the magic queue, IMO. You can attack infinitely as longs are you're not targeted by the only magic spell that can be cast at a time. Granted, if there was no queue it would look a bit like XIII, but it would've been better. I can't tell you how annoying it is when you can't use Sentinel in time to block things like Megaton Press or Meteor.

[Skyblade]

Honestly, with the exception of moving around and combo bonuses, there really is not much difference between FFX-2 and FFXII's battle systems. Hell, technically FFX-2's system is simply a grossly sped up version of the original ATB system from FFIV before FFV came around and streamlined the system for players.

Moving around, combos, lack of battle instantiation, gambits... Yeah, not buying that one.


Actually they are quite simialr in the fact that in all three games, (IV, X-2, XII) a major element of the battle system is the fact that all skills have different charge times, which is one of the reason I'll never fathom how people feel X-2's system is fast when you put into account the dressphere transformations and most of the useful skills have long charge times which slows the battles to a crawl.

So I suppose FFXII and FFTactics use the same battle system as well, then? :D

Dressphere transformations can be turned off (which I recommend, especially if you use them a lot), but I don't really feel the charge times slow things to a crawl. Between Haste and the various boosts to charge speed (Black Magic level 2 or 3, etcetera), the game winds up keeping up a good pace anyway. And, then too, the fact that you control three characters give you a lot more input in the game then you get in, say, XIII. Even with charge time, the pace of the game keeps up fairly well. At least, in my experience.

Plus, similar to Chrono Trigger, it's one of the very few games to make the "Active" part of the ATB system useful. Too often the ATB is simply turn based anyway. But the hit-stun and Chain bonuses give X-2's system a benefit to waiting. There can actually be a tactical advantage to not attacking as soon as your bar fills up.

[Wolf Kanno]

Tactic's system is actually more close to FFX's system than XII's because FFTactic's is decidedly turn based in nature, in fact FFX's system is pretty much a tunr based system except you are notified what the turn order is. You can technically modify the turn order as well but the game puts little thought into this which is a shame. Grandia does a better job of creating a system that allows the player to affect turn order as does Nocturne, DDS, and Persona 3 and 4.

You can keep a steady pace in X-2 but it also requires building your party for speed and avoiding the overuse of high powered skills like Trigger Happy and Darkness as well as some Job Classes. The fact some spells and skills are relegated to the garmet grids, forcing you to needlessly shift job classes just to be able to cast Holy or Flare is also a huge time waster is a huge time waster, especially since casting times for these spells are also large. There are reasons why X-2 has one of the more unbalanced Job Systems in the franchise. This is pretty much keeps it in line with FFIV and XII where you're better off never using Meteor or Scathe if you want to get anything done. At least in FFXII flooding the queue with a high level spell can serve a purpose strategically. Its one of the key strategies for taking down Zodiark with fewer headaches.

[Pumpkin]

X-2 is my favorite. I feel like a moron now after all that technical debate, but my reason is, I enjoyed it the most. Yep, that's it.

I consider it ATB. The ATB is my favorite. I always miss it when it's gone.

[Bloodnight]

ATB. FFV's battle system is my favorite, fast battle and a lot of job classes.:p

[VeloZer0]

Conditional Turn Based. Though FF10 was certainly not my favorite entry in the series I felt that the battle system was the one main thing it had going for it. I also consider the battle systems from FF10 and FFT to be more or less the same, just with the addition of movement and having ability charge times vs ability recovery times.

In all honesty aside from the gambits layered on top I didn't really see a whole lot of difference between FF12's system and plain old ATB. IMO it was functionally the same thing with some tweaks to make it look more organic when played out on the field.

[Lennox Muerto]

Sorry about the bump. XD But honestly though, for a mainline FF entry, XII had one of the best battle system's I've ever seen. It could use some work though to make it a little less reliant on Gambits, after all.

Then again, if you look at FF AS A WHOLE, then Type-0's battle system, hands down is the best. :D

[ScottNUMBERS]

I like the active dimension battle system. Although I think FFXII's take on that type of system can be spoiled by gambit abuse. I personally try to limit gambit use to a necessary basis but the fact that you can abuse this system means that people will, and then become annoyed with the game because it "plays itself". It would have been better if your party leader's gambits deactivate to force interaction.

[Formalhaut]

I like the active dimension battle system. Although I think FFXII's take on that type of system can be spoiled by gambit abuse. I personally try to limit gambit use to a necessary basis but the fact that you can abuse this system means that people will, and then become annoyed with the game because it "plays itself". It would have been better if your party leader's gambits deactivate to force interaction.

I like this. If the current Party Leader's gambits are turned off, then it makes things alot less automated. But then you can turn gambits off anyway. While people bemoan the gambit system, you don't have to use it.

I'm very interested in Type-0's battle system. Could someone explain it to me?

[VeloZer0]

I don't so much bemoan the gambit system, but the fact that the game was so simplistic and easy that it could be easily beaten without actually playing it yourself. I don't think the gambit system itself was bad, just that it exposed how much of the game itself was busy work that could be farmed out to a computer. The problem is that there was nothing of substance left afterwards.

[Skyblade]

I like the active dimension battle system. Although I think FFXII's take on that type of system can be spoiled by gambit abuse. I personally try to limit gambit use to a necessary basis but the fact that you can abuse this system means that people will, and then become annoyed with the game because it "plays itself". It would have been better if your party leader's gambits deactivate to force interaction.

I like this. If the current Party Leader's gambits are turned off, then it makes things alot less automated. But then you can turn gambits off anyway. While people bemoan the gambit system, you don't have to use it.

I'm very interested in Type-0's battle system. Could someone explain it to me?


Sure. I'm playing through it and loving it right now, so I'll take any excuse to gush.

The battle system is that of an Action RPG, closer to Kingdom Hearts than your traditional Final Fantasy (and quite possibly a preview of what we'll get in FFXV).

Movement is based around the Analog stick, and you can lock on to enemies by holding the R Button.

There are plenty of ways to actually attack, so we'll go through them now. A character's basic attack is triggered by Triangle. And every character has a different attack and combo setup, based on their unique weapons. King wields two pistols, giving him high range, but he has to stop to reload every so often. Ace wields a deck of cards, which he throws for mid-range attacks that come fast, but do little damage. And the list goes on and on. There are fifteen playable characters that I know of (Class Zero starts with thirteen members, one for each of the cards in a suit, and picks up two more after the prologue), and each wields a different weapon and fighting style. Attack speed, combos, timing, damage, attack movement (such as lunging with a sword)... These all change between characters.

Next up is special abilities. As a character attacks, they build up a gauge that can be triggered to activate the character's special moves with Circle. Again, these are unique to a character. Ace, in keeping with his card motif, summons forth a card each time you press Circle. He can summon up to four at a time (though they vanish if you're hit), and when you perform a Triangle attack with Cards out, the effect of the Cards will trigger instead of a normal attack. Which cards are out determine the effects. Red cards make the attack a heavy hitting fireball. White cards cause the attack to deal damage and freeze the enemy. Blue cards restore health instead of attacking, and Yellow restores MP (I believe, it's hard to track sometimes, and I'm not sure what Black Cards do). And if you have a mix of various cards, it will activate one of the effects and power it up (not sure of exact calculations for which effect is used, but they don't seem to combine effects, only power). Queen summons a spinning cross of magic that surrounds her and tears through enemies and heals allies while you hold the Circle Button, and until she's hit. So these vary greatly, and look as though they can be upgraded and possibly exchanged out (but, unfortunately, I can't read Japanese, so no details on that yet).

Then we get the X Button, which controls dodging and blocking. As with Kingdom Hearts, dodge when moving, block while holding still. Get used to this button, you'll use it a lot.

And, finally, the Square Button, which is used to control Magic. Each character starts with a particular spell setup, but these can be exchanged (if you can find where in the menu to change them and what to change them out with). Each spell is actually a combination of spell type and effect range. For example, Ace starts with Blizzard magic with Bomb attack range. Blizzard is an ice spell that can freeze enemies (or, y'know, just destroy them), and the Bomb range means it's a short range attack that hits every enemy in a circle around Ace. Great for when you get surrounded. Then there are other ranges like Missile (which fires homing shots), Rifle (fires straight forward but travels really, really fire), Shotgun (spreads at close range, and can hit multiple enemies and at multiple heights), and Rocket Launcher (creates a reticule for you to aim with, then travels to the target and blows up for area damage).

That's just the basics of spells though. Higher level spells, like Blizzara and Blizzaga, require you to charge the spell for a time before releasing to get the extra power. And there are unique spells like Quake and Tornado, which don't follow the normal area rules. There are also, of course, Support spells like Cure, and each character can carry one of those in addition to an attack spell. I think. I haven't figured out how to use them yet, even on characters I know have them (Queen has casted Cure on me plenty of times when AI controlled, but I haven't figured out how to cast it myself). And, finally, there's a customization system called the Alto Crystarium that can supposedly change how powerful spells are and how they work (charge speed, projectile speed, power, MP Use, range, etcetera). But, I haven't found it yet, and wouldn't understand it if I did, so we can ignore it for now. Oh, and supposedly you need a particular proficiency in a spell's element to use it on a character, but I don't know the details of that yet.

Yeah, magic's complicated.


That's it for the basics, now, on to the more advanced techniques. First, Countering (my name for it, no clue what it's actually called). As you fight while locked on to enemies, you'll occasionally notice a yellow or red reticule pop up on them. This is a Counter indicator. If you land an attack while that reticule is up, it will deal massive damage. Color is a simple indication of effectiveness. If it's Red, it means that landing an attack in that time frame will do enough damage to kill the enemy (as far as I can tell). Harder enemies have harder to hit Counter reticules. You do a lot more damage with Counters, but going for them can open you up to a lot of pain if you screw up.

Then there's the Phantoma system. When an enemy dies, if you target their corpse (or just keep targeting them), you can press an action button to rip Phantoma from their bodies. This replenishes MP, does decent damage in a small area around the corpse, and collects Phantoma which is used to level the Alto Crystarium for your spells. It's also involved with the plot, as Phantoma manipulation is one of Class Zero's specialties, and is at least part of why they can use magic even when in the field of the Crystal Jammer.

And, finally, summons. Each character apparently has a summon monster, which you can choose to summon at the cost of sacrificing (temporarily) the summoner. Not sure how effective they are, since the only one I've used is Odin (riding Sleipner this time, not a transformer), and he's part of the prologue/tutorial, so it's probably not balanced that way for the actual game. But he had the ability to charge a Zantetsuken. The longer you charge, the higher the percent chance to one hit kill things. Normal enemies were 100% very quickly. The boss? Yeah, it took a little time, but you can charge him to 100% on that boss too. Odin is a beast.


That's pretty much all I can think of off the top of my head, hopefully it gives you a little bit of a feel for the systems.

[Mirage]

FFX-2's and FF13-2s combat systems are my favourites. The only thing I'm really missing is the ability to control combat positioning.

Truth be told, I don't really think any of these hold a candle to Star Ocean 3 or most of the PS2/GC and newer "Tales" games.

Star Ocean 3 on full manual mode, that is some serious tit.

[Formalhaut]

I like the active dimension battle system. Although I think FFXII's take on that type of system can be spoiled by gambit abuse. I personally try to limit gambit use to a necessary basis but the fact that you can abuse this system means that people will, and then become annoyed with the game because it "plays itself". It would have been better if your party leader's gambits deactivate to force interaction.

I like this. If the current Party Leader's gambits are turned off, then it makes things alot less automated. But then you can turn gambits off anyway. While people bemoan the gambit system, you don't have to use it.

I'm very interested in Type-0's battle system. Could someone explain it to me?


Sure. I'm playing through it and loving it right now, so I'll take any excuse to gush.

The battle system is that of an Action RPG, closer to Kingdom Hearts than your traditional Final Fantasy (and quite possibly a preview of what we'll get in FFXV).

Movement is based around the Analog stick, and you can lock on to enemies by holding the R Button.

There are plenty of ways to actually attack, so we'll go through them now. A character's basic attack is triggered by Triangle. And every character has a different attack and combo setup, based on their unique weapons. King wields two pistols, giving him high range, but he has to stop to reload every so often. Ace wields a deck of cards, which he throws for mid-range attacks that come fast, but do little damage. And the list goes on and on. There are fifteen playable characters that I know of (Class Zero starts with thirteen members, one for each of the cards in a suit, and picks up two more after the prologue), and each wields a different weapon and fighting style. Attack speed, combos, timing, damage, attack movement (such as lunging with a sword)... These all change between characters.

Next up is special abilities. As a character attacks, they build up a gauge that can be triggered to activate the character's special moves with Circle. Again, these are unique to a character. Ace, in keeping with his card motif, summons forth a card each time you press Circle. He can summon up to four at a time (though they vanish if you're hit), and when you perform a Triangle attack with Cards out, the effect of the Cards will trigger instead of a normal attack. Which cards are out determine the effects. Red cards make the attack a heavy hitting fireball. White cards cause the attack to deal damage and freeze the enemy. Blue cards restore health instead of attacking, and Yellow restores MP (I believe, it's hard to track sometimes, and I'm not sure what Black Cards do). And if you have a mix of various cards, it will activate one of the effects and power it up (not sure of exact calculations for which effect is used, but they don't seem to combine effects, only power). Queen summons a spinning cross of magic that surrounds her and tears through enemies and heals allies while you hold the Circle Button, and until she's hit. So these vary greatly, and look as though they can be upgraded and possibly exchanged out (but, unfortunately, I can't read Japanese, so no details on that yet).

Then we get the X Button, which controls dodging and blocking. As with Kingdom Hearts, dodge when moving, block while holding still. Get used to this button, you'll use it a lot.

And, finally, the Square Button, which is used to control Magic. Each character starts with a particular spell setup, but these can be exchanged (if you can find where in the menu to change them and what to change them out with). Each spell is actually a combination of spell type and effect range. For example, Ace starts with Blizzard magic with Bomb attack range. Blizzard is an ice spell that can freeze enemies (or, y'know, just destroy them), and the Bomb range means it's a short range attack that hits every enemy in a circle around Ace. Great for when you get surrounded. Then there are other ranges like Missile (which fires homing shots), Rifle (fires straight forward but travels really, really fire), Shotgun (spreads at close range, and can hit multiple enemies and at multiple heights), and Rocket Launcher (creates a reticule for you to aim with, then travels to the target and blows up for area damage).

That's just the basics of spells though. Higher level spells, like Blizzara and Blizzaga, require you to charge the spell for a time before releasing to get the extra power. And there are unique spells like Quake and Tornado, which don't follow the normal area rules. There are also, of course, Support spells like Cure, and each character can carry one of those in addition to an attack spell. I think. I haven't figured out how to use them yet, even on characters I know have them (Queen has casted Cure on me plenty of times when AI controlled, but I haven't figured out how to cast it myself). And, finally, there's a customization system called the Alto Crystarium that can supposedly change how powerful spells are and how they work (charge speed, projectile speed, power, MP Use, range, etcetera). But, I haven't found it yet, and wouldn't understand it if I did, so we can ignore it for now. Oh, and supposedly you need a particular proficiency in a spell's element to use it on a character, but I don't know the details of that yet.

Yeah, magic's complicated.


That's it for the basics, now, on to the more advanced techniques. First, Countering (my name for it, no clue what it's actually called). As you fight while locked on to enemies, you'll occasionally notice a yellow or red reticule pop up on them. This is a Counter indicator. If you land an attack while that reticule is up, it will deal massive damage. Color is a simple indication of effectiveness. If it's Red, it means that landing an attack in that time frame will do enough damage to kill the enemy (as far as I can tell). Harder enemies have harder to hit Counter reticules. You do a lot more damage with Counters, but going for them can open you up to a lot of pain if you screw up.

Then there's the Phantoma system. When an enemy dies, if you target their corpse (or just keep targeting them), you can press an action button to rip Phantoma from their bodies. This replenishes MP, does decent damage in a small area around the corpse, and collects Phantoma which is used to level the Alto Crystarium for your spells. It's also involved with the plot, as Phantoma manipulation is one of Class Zero's specialties, and is at least part of why they can use magic even when in the field of the Crystal Jammer.

And, finally, summons. Each character apparently has a summon monster, which you can choose to summon at the cost of sacrificing (temporarily) the summoner. Not sure how effective they are, since the only one I've used is Odin (riding Sleipner this time, not a transformer), and he's part of the prologue/tutorial, so it's probably not balanced that way for the actual game. But he had the ability to charge a Zantetsuken. The longer you charge, the higher the percent chance to one hit kill things. Normal enemies were 100% very quickly. The boss? Yeah, it took a little time, but you can charge him to 100% on that boss too. Odin is a beast.


That's pretty much all I can think of off the top of my head, hopefully it gives you a little bit of a feel for the systems.

That sounds awesome! Hurry up and localise it SE!

[Lennox Muerto]

TL;DR at that guy's post:

Type-0's battle system is a highly streamlined version of Kingdom Hearts and Crisis Core. If anything, the three-man combat and the button input of Kingdom Hearts as well as the sped-up ATB mechanics of Crisis Core are pretty much hybridized.

Magic has its own Charge Time gauge to make spells increase tiers (e.g. Fira to Firaga when holding Square or Cure to Cura when holding Cross), while the Takatsugu Nakazawa's referring to it as the Supersonic Active Time Battle system can be seen in how unlike FFXII, actions cannot be chained and wait time is imposed in between each attack.

Honestly, an FFVIII remake on the Type-0 engine would be pretty great. Case in point: drawing Spells from enemies--Phantoma and the Altocrystarium.

[Omni-Odin]

X-2 so I'll just go with ATB

[Jiro]

There were quite a few good ones, weren't there? FFX's CTB gave me the ability to breathe and think a little more, but also to abuse the system and just use delaying attacks to never let them attack. FFX-2 nailed the ATB system so so well. And yeah, FFXII's whatever it was called again (ADB? should scroll up but cba) was an interesting albeit flawed step in what I think is the right direction. I don't think ATB has much of a place these days, at least not in the direction modern JRPGs and such are going, but ADB could be the answer. Needs refining, though.

[Quindiana Jones]

"I really hated XII's system because it had a completely optional aspect". :confused:

Bitching about Gambits always confuses me. I like playing with dogs, but I don't like sucking them off, so I don't.

XII and X-2 had my favourite battle systems, independent of any other factors. I really liked X's as well, if only for the freedom it granted you compared to the older systems.

[Red Mage Coffman]

If only Kingdom Hearts 2 would have been mentioned on this list.. Easily has one of my most favorite battle systems of all time, and I wouldn't mind seeing Final Fantasy take that turn at all, but that isn't what we're discussing here, is it?

In terms of battle systems, its a tie between the X and X-2. As much as I hate them both with a burning passion, the battle systems won me over easily. A cross between these two battle systems, with more control and maybe even a kind of multiplayer aspect (Even if that is going to far out of the questions) like Secret of Mana, though I doubt it'll ever happen, would probably be my ideal battle system, even if it does cross swords with Kingdom Hearts 2, THE defining action RPG. For me, anyways.

[Bolivar]

ATB is my favorite cause it's pure rpg gameplay but with the intensity of an active fight, those bars always filling up. X was more strategic but everything stops for you to analyze and plan your next move; its just not as exciting for me.

I'm with Jiro in that modern JRPGs should take a cue from ADB. It allows for real time exploration and eliminates combat transitions, while still giving the player full control over every single action a full party of heroes takes. If thats too frightening for you, turn off gambits for your main and let your other party members follow AI, much like XIII, Mass Effect and every other modern RPG operates, much to my disappointment.

[Skyblade]

"I really hated XII's system because it had a completely optional aspect". :confused:

Bitching about Gambits always confuses me. I like playing with dogs, but I don't like sucking them off, so I don't.

XII and X-2 had my favourite battle systems, independent of any other factors. I really liked X's as well, if only for the freedom it granted you compared to the older systems.

While you have a point, Gambits were really not what made XII's system so bad, and had the core gameplay been better, Gambits probably would have been much better received.

[VeloZer0]

While you have a point, Gambits were really not what made XII's system so bad, and had the core gameplay been better, Gambits probably would have been much better received.
Ding, ding ding!

I'm so happy to hear someone else has the same opinion.

[maybee]

Final Fantasy X's battle system. It was so cool how you could change your party team through battle which made battles less repetitive, fun and added new tactics to the game. Plus it was noob-friendly and then by Al Bhed Home it went into serious business time. It was the perfect balance between starting out easy and then heading into expert mode without destroying too much.

[SteahMeLee]

I choose X...

Also XII for many reasons but X is better to me! I found it the most tactical... It's turn based and not with ATB... It doesn't stuck you to 3-4-5 characters but it lets you use the whole party exchanging them freely! This latter part is the most important to a Job Class maniac like me because any of my characters is totally different from the others and all his/her skills are unique to him/her, then it means that for every type of action I want to accomplish I need to have the corresponding character/class on the field and this way I can use them all according to what I need to do, but I'm not hurried to make decisions, I have time to choose because everything stands while I have to input commands but at the same time speed counts with the order and frequency of turns, so If I need to act fast I can call the Thief Rikku in and move quickly! :D