Quote Originally Posted by Lord Golbez View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno View Post
Xenogears is Turn Based, not ATB, as enemies can't attack while you're inputting commands during your characters turn. Chrono Trigger is like the only non-FF title by Square to ever use ATB.
Yeah, so it's CTB, although they probably didn't use that term. I consider all of round-based, CTB, and ATB to be loosely "turn-based," although ATB is the least fitting for that because enemies can interfere with your turns. It's still roughly turn-based because it's not a free for all and definitely distinct from, say, an action RPG (also at least "Wait" mode gives you some uninterruptible time in your turn). Round-based, regardless of whether turn order is affected by a speed stat, basically means everyone gets a turn each round. CTB distinguishes itself by a speed stat affecting number of turns. It's a little more specific than that (Breath of Fire 3 has a speed stat affecting number of turns, but it's round-based, not CTB), but I'm trying to come up with a succinct way of saying it...but basically that each unit of time brings all characters closer to their next turn in proportion to some speed stat (I don't care if it's called speed, agility, or whatever). Xenogears is CTB because if you look at characters like Citan, they will often get more turns than anyone else because of their speed and you can see their bar fills up more quickly. There might be other categories of turn-based combat, but those are the only three I can think of. Round-based probably covers most non-Square turn-based games (Dragon Quest, Breath of Fire, Suikoden, Lunar, I trink...)
I get that, but it's actually just called Turned Based at that point. When you say CTB to me, I'm thinking either FFTactics' Charge Time Battle system or FFX's Conditional Turn Based Battle system because CTB is the acronym used by the developers when talking about it and the C in the acronym denotes something very different from standard Turn Based titles which is largely the players ability to see both their own and enemy turn order and there is an emphasis on manipulating said turn order for tactical gain. Something Xenogears doesn't really do, though Xenosaga does.

Xenogears is still turn based for the most part despite having a visual cue like an ATB bar, simply because once you cue up a character menu, the enemy can't attack. I guess it might be easier to say it is ATB, but one that is permanently stuck in Wait mode. I mean there isn't much difference from how turn order works in Xenogears than other turn based titles outside of the NES variants of the FF/DQ franchise. Despite Citan's ridiculous speed stat, especially in comparison to Rico's pathetic one, I would still say a "round" of combat would only be complete once all participants have a turn even if one character would technically get two turn's per round. It's not really different from Breath of Fire's EX Turn mechanic when you think about it, and that game is pretty much just a variant of standard Turn Based.