Best RPG Battle Systems

[Laddy]

Wizardry, Grandia, FFX, FFXII, and Persona 3/4 all have sexy battle systems.

What are your choices?

[Hollycat]

Persona 3 and 4 are the best basic turn based, beating out pokemon and the first 3 ff games. FFX was pretty good. X2 had the best ATB easily. Crisis core and every kh from bbs on had awesome battle systems as well.

[Shauna]

Grandia and that style of battles are awesome. Another one I enjoyed was the system in Eternal Sonata, it is just sort of Star Ocean-y but I found the light/shadow thing a pretty cool addition which added another layer of button mashing. ;)

[Bolivar]

VII was my favorite implementation of ATB in the series. Never played ten two.

Valkyria Chronicles was a breakthrough.

I really admire the simplicity and balance of the Dragon Quest games.

[Spuuky]

Are you counting SRPGs/TRPGs?

I always prefer turn-based systems. If I want my twitch skills or action skills to be tested, I'll play a shooter or platformer or whatever. Turn-based battle systems are just more fun for me in RPGs, with the exception of games that are single-character games basically designed around interacting with the world, like Gothic or Skyrim or whatever.

I certainly appreciate the clean austerity of Dragon Quest.

[Bolivar]

I feel the exact same way. I'm willing to overlook this for Oblivion and Skyrim because I had so much fun playing them but when i play an RPG I'm looking for some RPG game play. Control over my party, turns, all that.

[Pete for President]

Dark Souls. So much depth, so many thrills.

[Karifean]

Out of the few I've played, Final Fantasy X-2 wins hands down.

[Del Murder]

Best active turn-based: Final Fantasy X-2 or Chrono Trigger
Best passive turn-based: Final Fantasy X
Best action: Vagrant Story or Secret of Mana
Best tactical: Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre

[Vyk]

Legaia

[NeoCracker]

Persona 4 wins out on turn based for me, though 3 is pretty damn close at second.

As far as SRPG's go you don't really get better then Devil Survivor.

[Mirage]

Star Ocean 3. Tales of Something. FF13-2.

[Flaming Ice]

Maybe not the best but I liked Arc Rise Fantasia's battle system...you get a certain amount of points to spend and you can attack however many times you want with the same character (so you can take full advantage of healing and weaknesses)

Actually last remnant wasn't too bad either, you got to create teams of combatants (the only problem is that it slowed the game down considerably).

[Skyblade]

Persona 4 wins out on turn based for me, though 3 is pretty damn close at second.

As far as SRPG's go you don't really get better then Devil Survivor.

Eh, it's a bit of a toss up between 3 and 4 to me. 3 does have a few advantages. First, you had a reason to not perform an All-Out-Attack (since doing so would un-stun the enemies, while in 4, you had to hit them all with weaknesses twice, which was way more difficult), which added some tactical choice. Second, it had three types of physical attacks, which really helped the physical game (and made Margaret a lot harder than she was in P4).

I think each has aspects of the best system, but that combining them could make one better than either.



Chrono Trigger has the best ATB system. Better than VII, better than X-2. If nothing else than for combo attacks, and the importance it gave to timing.

[Madame Adequate]

Star Ocean 2, Legaia, FFVII, FFX, Vandal Hearts, Suikoden, Morrowind, Chrono Cross, Wild Arms, Grandia, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain.

[comma]

I know a lot of people seem to hate it, but Xenogears.

[Bolivar]

I have problems with the implementation, the balance and the challenge but overall it was a pretty awesome system.

Interesting how the games mentioned here are overwhelmingly Japanese RPGs.

[Denmark]

Pokemon, Super Mario RPG

Pokemon is nice and simple. SMRPG has incredibly small timing windows for things like "perfect" timed hits (which do 2x damage, as opposed to normal timed hits which do 1.5x) and Super Jumps (3 frame window - that's 1/20th of a second - for jumps 13-100)

[Skyblade]

Interesting how the games mentioned here are overwhelmingly Japanese RPGs.

Well, this is an "RPG Battle Systems" thread. And it's not really surprising, since JRPGs tend to be a lot more imaginative, mechanically speaking, than their western counterparts.

Heck, aside from Mass Effect, I can't even think of a western RPG that has "good" battle mechanics, let alone one that would be in the running for "best battle system".

[Pete for President]

Can't believe i forgot about Vagrant Story. Chains ftw!

[Ultima Shadow]

Star Ocean 3.
This

Tales of Something.
And this (though Vesperia and Xillia probably have my favs)

...and then add Valkyrie Profile 2 to that.



....oh, and Super Robot Taisen og Saga. :greenie:

...followed by Super Mario RPG.

[NeoCracker]

Can't believe i forgot this, but Mana Khemia's battle system was fucking fantastic. We need another game with a similar set up.

[Rocket Edge]

FFXII's was so addictive.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Pretty much any game made by Tri-Ace has some interesting combat mechanics.

[WildRaubtier]

Ultima Shadow was right; SRWOG Saga EF has probably the best turn based battle system in recent memory.

[Ultima Shadow]

Ultima Shadow was right; SRWOG Saga EF has probably the best turn based battle system in recent memory.
Few games manages to make every battle enjoyable. But if I were to mention a single game that I think manages to do this, I'd probably say Endless Frontier. Even when it's that same enemy formation you've seen 30 times already, it's just so FUN to keep smashing them around with crazy combos and finish them off with extreme overdrives that never gets old and basically makes every FF limit break ever look boring and dull when compared.

I actually played the second game (SRWOG Saga: Endless Frontier EXCEED), even though it doesn't have an english translation, because all you need in order to enjoy that game more than your average DS game is the battle system. Especially once you get the secondary overdrives that were introduced in EXCEED. Especially Suzuka Hime's. <3

...I can seriously pick that game up just to go fight some random enemies and enjoy the hell out of that awesome battle system.

[Skyblade]

I never tried the Super Robot series (due to various reasons, but never lack of interest). Now I really want to. But your recommended game is no longer in production, apparently, and is quite expensive to pick up.

Is it actually an ATLUS series, or did they just handle localization?

[Ultima Shadow]

I never tried the Super Robot series (due to various reasons, but never lack of interest). Now I really want to. But your recommended game is no longer in production, apparently, and is quite expensive to pick up.

Is it actually an ATLUS series, or did they just handle localization?
The developers are Monolith Soft and Banpresto, it was just localized by ATLUS as far as I know.

[Quindiana Jones]

Dark Souls.

[Jiro]

Tales of Xillia has perhaps the most refined battle system in the Tales series and it's great. Resonance of Fate is fucking fabulous, surprised nobody else has mentioned it yet.

[Flaming Ice]

Tales of Xillia has perhaps the most refined battle system in the Tales series and it's great. Resonance of Fate is smurfing fabulous, surprised nobody else has mentioned it yet.



Played that game a bit but wasn't fully sure what was going on :)

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I forgot about Resonance of Fate! That game's battle system was a lot of fun. I need to sit down and continue playing it again. Or start over since I haven't played it at all in like 2 years.

[Polnareff]

Breath of Fire III, for the master system and the dragon genes. Any character in the game could be a powerhouse, even Nina. :jess:

Grandia, for having real-time elements in it.

Namco X Capcom/SRW Endless Frontier/Project X Zone because of the fast-paced combos.

[Jiro]

I forgot about Resonance of Fate! That game's battle system was a lot of fun. I need to sit down and continue playing it again. Or start over since I haven't played it at all in like 2 years.

The plot makes no sense regardless, so don't worry about starting again. :jess:

[krissy]

ff13 and 13-2

[Hollycat]

ff13 and 13-2
:nonono:

[Polnareff]

Thought of 2 more. Legaia and its sequel, and Tales of Rebirth. Tales of Rebirth, to me, still has the best battle system in Tales' history.

[black orb]

>>> Star Ocean games have the best RPG battle system..:luca:

[Vyk]

Thought of 2 more. Legaia and its sequel

Called it ^_^

[Loony BoB]

ff13 and 13-2
:nonono:
Actually, XIII-2 is a good shout. I didn't think of it when going through this thread until Mirage mentioned it, and it was certainly a notable enough difference to XIII with the pet system it added. I really enjoyed it. FFX is a good shout, too. I also quite enjoyed the battle systems in Grandia and Grandia II. Of the old school systems, probably FFV or FFVII, and FFXI was a great system, too.

[DMKA]

Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy XIII-2 has pure sex for battle systems.

[Pike]

I enjoyed the FFX battle system quite a lot. Just sitting there switching guys in and out without losing a turn was great.

[Skyblade]

I enjoyed the FFX battle system quite a lot. Just sitting there switching guys in and out without losing a turn was great.

The character switching was great. It was such a blast to edit your team on the fly, switching them out to handle threats. It was nice to finally be able to use your entire team, even if you could only handle a few of them at once.

[Edge7]

I'm a huge fan of the battle systems for (in no particular order):

Grandia: It felt like a more tactical look at the ATB system FF introduced.

Personas 3 and 4: Exploiting enemy weaknesses while defending your own is goven even more priority.

Valkyria Chronicles: More Strategy RPGs should adopt this format; it feels really smurfing good to have this sort of control over my units.

Vagrant Story: Chaining moves, and using defensive counter moves with RISK penalties, having individual body parts suffer from damage, all really clever.

Parasite Eve: I'm a huge fan of the first game's battle system, it has the same fun that action games poses when you have to analyze a boss's attack patterns to succeed.

Final Fantasy XII: I love the real-time model.

Valkyrie Profile: I love having to max the combo meter to chain together special attacks with different characters. The more ways I learn how to utilize character attacks, the more addicting it gets.

Tales Series: Used to be Abyss, my current favorite is Xillia. Xillia's AD skills are just so expansive and do so much for each character, I love it.

Chrono Cross: As much as I can't get into the game's story, I really like the complexity of its battle system. Although I'd probably pull my hair out when trying to get the game's good ending.