I've discovered how the battle system works!!!!!!!!!!!

[Laddy]

OK, I believe the battle system works like this: you have two bars: HP and ATB. You know what HP and ATB is, but ATB works like this: You see on top of the ATB bar, there is a chain of commands, and on the left-lower corner, there are command lists, well I think you make a list of up to five command, each command takes up ATB, and some attacks take up more ATB then others, so I think you make a chain of attacks that must not exceed the ATB, and you perform that action, example: Attack, Blizzard, Attack, Shoot, Defend, Attack. You use this to make a list to block and make attacks, but you can still move around and interacts with the enviroment much like Kingdom Hearts 2, however, it m ight not be like that, but I just noticed it, if you're still confused, let me know.

[RiseToFall]

And you know this how?

[Laddy]

I've studied for like an hour and used common sense, FYI, It's an educated guess.

[RiseToFall]

Studied what, a couple of screenshots?

[Zeromus_X]

Yeah, no solid details regarding the Cinematic Battle System have been announced as of yet.

[Laddy]

I know, but look at it, can you see it possible? Plus, it's just a prediction. SHEESH!

[Zeromus_X]

Then you should've mentioned it was a prediction instead of posting as if you knew the ins and outs of the battle system of a video game that's currently in development.

Anyway, to give this a topic: What do you want to see in the new battle system of FFXIII (it's worth a shot).

[Laddy]

Well, I know party members, maybe combos? Oh, and I did say it was a prediction. Anyway, maybe REALLY smart enemies would be cooler than cool.

[Moon Rabbits]

Both times I watched the trailer, the battle system made me think it went like this:

Your characters' ATB bars begin filled and the battle is paused (like it is when you input commands in Wait mode in FFXII), you input a chain of commands and press a button to resume action. All characters and enemies execute their chain of commands until their ATB bar runs out or the chain of commands is exhausted. As soon as one character is out of commands or has no ATB the battle stops again for that character(s) to create a new chain with a newly refilled ATB bar. Of course, when an enemy runs out, they'll automatically be refilled/be given new commands without the battle stopping because no human interaction is needed for this to happen and the battle continues as normal.

Of course, I doubt this is how the battle system works, but I think it's rather neat.

[Dragon Mage]

oh god, not action points. I loathe action points!!!

[Laddy]

Not bad, Moon Rabbits! It's kinda like mine, but much cooler and smoother.

[Mercen-X]

What do you want to see in the new battle system of FFXIII?

I like the idea of playing through a battle with Time Points, or whatever. It isn't something I recall ever seeing in Final Fantasy, which means that it would be new to the series.

Funny to see this topic up here, I just received my latest issue of GI not long ago and developed pretty much the same theory on the battle system myself. I was thinking of posting it, but caught distracted. Now it seems I've been beaten to the punch.

I believe that this character (whether Lightning is her name or an attack or magic is still unclear) will be the only party member with a transforming weapon, just like Squall was the only (permanent) party member with a righteous gunblade. Despite this belief, I would really like to see other party members wielding a "doublers," as I will now call any weapon that doubles as another.