Quote Originally Posted by Vivi22 View Post

You know, I'm not actually convinced it takes longer at all now that I think about it. Yes, you have to wait for a bar to fill, but if you play in active mode, your enemies bars and your other party members bars will fill while you make a selection. So there won't be that much waiting before you get to actually input something, particularly since your characters ATB gauges probably won't sync up all of the time, if ever. Not to mention the bars continue to fill while attack animations and enemy turns play out. So in theory it may not be as fast as something instantly taking it's turn after the last character did, but in practice, much of the waiting happens while selecting actions, watching attacks play out, and during enemy turns. Things you're forced to watch anyway, regardless of whether it's an ATB or turn based system. If the ATB speed is properly tuned to the player you won't notice any wait time at all, while still keeping the pressure to act before you fall behind your opponent which a turn based system can't replicate at all. The only real difference is that since you can see the bar filling you're more aware of how long you have to wait than you'd otherwise be.
Yeah, but let's be real. When have you ever needed to anything remotely tactical in an ATB Final Fantasy? FF10 was the first FF in a LONG time in which you couldn't just spam your strongest attack. If I really want "pressure" I'd want it to be something skill-based. Does anyone really have trouble pressing X when the command window opens up?

I'm not really sure why you brought this up when it has nothing to do with the discussion about ATB. AOE spells being stupid in FFXIII has nothing to do with the ATB system, but with the fact that Square are morons when it comes to game design and never noticed that AOE spells are stupid when you can't move your characters on the battlefield. So rather than having some spells hit a single target and others hit all targets, they put in AOE spells that sometimes miss characters, but only if you're lucky enough to have them randomly move far enough from your other characters.
It's the fact that ATB doesn't do anything but combine the worst aspects of turn-based and active. It has the button mashing simplicity of active games, with the static failings of turn based games. It's not like you even have to react at specific times, to dodge or make an attack. Nope, you just press X when the bar fills up. The can tape down the X button, and the game plays itself.

I find it hypocritical when people bash FF13's system, or KH, but love something like FF7. At least in KH, you have to move around, while doing no more button mashing than you do in most FF games. In FF13, the autobattle cut out the middle man, but if you removed the autobattle, it was just literally ATB. At least you had to be quick with paradigm shifts. 5-starring the last Cieth Stone mission is a lot better at what you claim ATB's benefit is than anything in FF7.

As for FF13's system being poor luck, that's not entirely true. If you had everyone at ranged, and Lightning was being targetted with an AOE, you could have her run into melee range. It's still stupidly limited, and there's no reason to not just have free movement.

I fail to see what benefit ATB has over something like FF12, which still had precious bars filling up, but at least allowed movement and seemless combat (instead of standing there clumped together for an AOE, and being teleported to the battle screen). If you value pressure, then something like KH, or even FF12, achieves that so much better.

However, a game like FF10, which is full turned based, replaces the "can I button mash faster than a computer" from ATB, and allows for more tactical and precise play. ATB really doesn't have anything going for it other than nostalgia. A lot of people, probably yourself, grew up playing ATB JRPGs, and it's natural for people to cling to the familiar.