Never Again...

[Coma]

Of the ones I've played the battle system I disliked most would have to be XII.
\Man, I was so excited about XII.......and was severely let down by that foolish gambit system.

Yeah, I was totally let down by the fact I didn't have to worry over every little thing that came up. The game would have been so much better if I had to navigate into a menu and manually cast that status cure four times. Menu navigation is the way of the future.

Why didn't you guys turn off gambits?

wait a minute, coma's being sarcastic. . . okay, why didn't crazybayman turn off gambits xD

Because gambits are quite possibly the greatest innovation in a long line of stale combat systems. I don't know about all of you but having my characters standing in a line, shadowboxing enemies whenever a bar decrees they can, is boring. And the only hook in JRPG's like this is the storyline and rarely the soundtrack. FF12 took steps in the right direction. No longer are my guys standing in a row they're moving around a battlefield. I don't have to navigate a nest of menu's for every little thing. Stuff like status effects can be gambited and my characters take care of it myself. Leaving me to make the important decisions, since the battles in this game are far more fast paced. Sure, the games boring as if you let the gambits completely take over, but thats a case of doing it wrong. Gambits are meant to be an aid in the very fast moving battles of FF12. The system needs a few tweaks (why does Reddas attack a monster I just put to sleep?) but its definitely taking strides in the right direction.

tl;dr FF12's gambits are great, so smurf you.

[arcanedude34]

Granted I love FFI but I can't see a modern story based 40+ hour FF using this system well.

Doesn't that basically sum up the XII International Zodiac Jobs thingy?

I chose VIII because it makes no sense drawing magic from enemies trying to kill you, then assigning magic to your stats (I wondr what that would feel like in real life?).

[LunarWeaver]

I quite enjoy XII's system myself. I thought it was engrossing and fun while it lasted. Though I do think in the end it was nothing more than the RPG of "do this when that", a factor it highlighted. It took a new approach but wasn't new at the end of the day. Heal when hurt, antidote when poisoned, cast fire when the enemy is weak against fire, that sort of thing. I've played too many RPGs to be too impressed with such things anymore. Which is why I've largely drifted away from the genre recently.

Anyway, I've only played IV and up, so I'm going to say IV's.

[Roto13]

Those aren't battle systems, n00b. :P

[Goldenboko]

I'm so glad I wasn't the only one thinking that.

[Roto13]

So I guess this really means the worst system of character/party development. :P

I'm going to give the NES games a pass.

The worst is probably IV. There's no customization there. (Except for in the DS remake.) The characters in your party change according to the story. By the end, you have the same five characters no matter what you do, and they're pretty much the same except for a few summons or their levels.

[Bolivar]

Assuming we're talking about character development:

FFIV! Because there isn't one!

If we have to talk about games that actually had it...maybe III. One of my favorite games, its just my least fave system among the others.

[Wolf Kanno]

Those aren't battle systems, n00b. :P

So I worded it wrong, but I am not changing it just because you decided to point it out

Besides, if it was a just battle systems you would have had 4 choices and even then two of them are variations of one of the systems so technically it would come down to ATB vs. traditional turn base.

[crazybayman]

No longer are my guys standing in a row they're moving around a battlefield. I don't have to navigate a nest of menu's for every little thing.

Yeah, there's this series of games, I forget what its called, but for the most part they involve your party standing in a line, and navigating a little menu or combination of little menus to make battle commands. How stupid is that. And apparently they've been many people's favorite games for the past 20+ years. I mean, what kind of craziness is that.

Something called Final something or other. Man those games must suck.

[Wolf Kanno]

No longer are my guys standing in a row they're moving around a battlefield. I don't have to navigate a nest of menu's for every little thing.

Yeah, there's this series of games, I forget what its called, but for the most part they involve your party standing in a line, and navigating a little menu or combination of little menus to make battle commands. How stupid is that. And apparently they've been many people's favorite games for the past 20+ years. I mean, what kind of craziness is that.

Something called Final something or other. Man those games must suck.

...and progress once again eludes the masses...

[Coma]

No longer are my guys standing in a row they're moving around a battlefield. I don't have to navigate a nest of menu's for every little thing.

Yeah, there's this series of games, I forget what its called, but for the most part they involve your party standing in a line, and navigating a little menu or combination of little menus to make battle commands. How stupid is that. And apparently they've been many people's favorite games for the past 20+ years. I mean, what kind of craziness is that.

Something called Final something or other. Man those games must suck.

It says a lot about your personal tastes, when you play RPGs because you like stale combat and menu navigation. I apologize, I was mistakenly under the impression that people play RPGs for their fantastic plotlines, likeable cast of character, and the sheer amount of escapism available in becoming some one else. Man, I honestly thought RPG's were about fun. But hey, pressing X about 30 times a minute is fun too, I guess.

[Tavrobel]

Technically, he only has to hold it down.

[black orb]

>>> FF4 I guess, as someone posted here there's no customization in 4.. well, at that time rpg games/battle systems were still in diapers so i cant complain either.
I think the older FFs are pretty decent.
ff3 had the character classes, in ff2 I really liked the leveling up system, and ff1 allowed you to choose your party from the start (a pretty good idea if you ask me)..

[crazybayman]

No longer are my guys standing in a row they're moving around a battlefield. I don't have to navigate a nest of menu's for every little thing.

Yeah, there's this series of games, I forget what its called, but for the most part they involve your party standing in a line, and navigating a little menu or combination of little menus to make battle commands. How stupid is that. And apparently they've been many people's favorite games for the past 20+ years. I mean, what kind of craziness is that.

Something called Final something or other. Man those games must suck.

It says a lot about your personal tastes, when you play RPGs because you like stale combat and menu navigation. I apologize, I was mistakenly under the impression that people play RPGs for their fantastic plotlines, likeable cast of character, and the sheer amount of escapism available in becoming some one else. Man, I honestly thought RPG's were about fun. But hey, pressing X about 30 times a minute is fun too, I guess.

Good lord.

Nothing to do with poor tastes, which is a poor statement given you are making the assumption based on a few posts in an internet forum. But I guess the same could be said about liking an rpg just because you like fantastic plot lines and likeable characters, when the rpg in question lacks both compared to other games in the series and genre.

...and progress once again eludes the masses...

Progress is great to see, when it's done properly. Gambits for instance could have been done much better. Ditto with the storyline, plot and development in the main young characters.

[Karellen]

I have yet to see an offline-RPG that implements scripts as well as FFXII. Baldur's Gate II is the only one that comes close and even that doesn't allow for the low-level customization that FFXII does.

Then again I haven't played every RPG ever, so maybe I missed out on something.