Quote Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno View Post
Honestly, with the exception of moving around and combo bonuses, there really is not much difference between FFX-2 and FFXII's battle systems. Hell, technically FFX-2's system is simply a grossly sped up version of the original ATB system from FFIV before FFV came around and streamlined the system for players.
Moving around, combos, lack of battle instantiation, gambits... Yeah, not buying that one.


Unfortunately, you really can't separate X-2's mechanics from its character building. The only reason the unique fast paced ATB worked was because of the incredibly excellent implementation of the job system. That game hit a near perfect balance between focus and versatility.

Part of the reason why XIII and XIII-2's battle systems aren't as fun as X-2's is because this balance is thrown off. The battle system is too fast paced for the player to have any real input on battles. Sure, there's a command list there, but it takes so long to manually enter any multiple command chain that you'll be far better off just hitting auto-battle 99% of the time.

X-2 balanced each job exquisitely. You had enough abilities to make each job unique and useful, but not so many that controlling them was a hindrance in the fast paced battle system.

And the Garment Grid system allowed for much tighter control of the job changes than the Paradigm system.