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Forums - Gaming Discussion - What's with the hate for turn based RPGs?

CladInShadows on 08 December 2015
Jedidiah-Rose said:
For me, in terms of Final Fantasy alone, it all changed with Final Fantasy XII's release.

I was blown away, here we are with the next gen on our doorstep, and I'd never seen a better looking game, it was this massive open world and the battles were all in real time in this open word. It was amazing, and for me should be the benchmark all Final Fantasy's are tested against. It was better in every way possible for me, and all future remakes and new line games in Final Fantasy should be like that.

XIII was horrid for a lot of reasons, linear not open, the battles may have been real time but they still took you off the map and into a battle mode. It felt like they attempted to blend both the old Final Fantasy and the new developments from XII and it didn't work.

Final Fantasy VII Remake will be a better game for the change, regardless of how many older fans say otherwise.

1. Absolutely agree with you on FF12.  Awesome game that was heads and shoulders above FFX.  But not necessarily because of the combat.

2. FFXIII's combat wasn't real time.

3. @ Bolded: Opinions, man.



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TruckOSaurus on 08 December 2015
Jedidiah-Rose said:
For me, in terms of Final Fantasy alone, it all changed with Final Fantasy XII's release.

I was blown away, here we are with the next gen on our doorstep, and I'd never seen a better looking game, it was this massive open world and the battles were all in real time in this open word. It was amazing, and for me should be the benchmark all Final Fantasy's are tested against. It was better in every way possible for me, and all future remakes and new line games in Final Fantasy should be like that.

XIII was horrid for a lot of reasons, linear not open, the battles may have been real time but they still took you off the map and into a battle mode. It felt like they attempted to blend both the old Final Fantasy and the new developments from XII and it didn't work.

Final Fantasy VII Remake will be a better game for the change, regardless of how many older fans say otherwise.

Final Fantasy XII is not real-time. It has a turn-based system underneath. It's less visible because Gambits make things happen automatically and you control your character.



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bigtakilla on 08 December 2015
outlawauron said:
People ridicule turn based RPGs because they generally aren't very popular anymore. A lot of people also don't realize that turn based RPGs are a product of the technical limitations of platforms rather than genuine design decisions.


Seems the technical limitations have still not been overcome. We can still only really control 1 character at a time instead of managing a whole party of heroes. Also, for a technical limitation Tales Of has been doing it since the SNES.



bigtakilla on 08 December 2015
CladInShadows said:
Azuren said:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That argument doesn't hold up too well, to be honest. There were real-time combat RPGs around at the time.  The Ys games started in 1989.  Crystalis in 1990. All real-time. The Magic of Scheherazade mixed both in 1987.  The concept of turn based battles were around a long time before they were brought to video games. Dungeons and Dragons says hi. 

Sure, the original Wizardry, Ultima, and Might and Magic games might have been greatly influenced by the lack of computing power, but JRPG combat was a design decision, especially if we're talking SNES or PS1 era gaming.

Tales Of Phantasia was also on the SNES and ARPG based.



Ljink96 on 08 December 2015

If turn based is done well, it can still thrive. I think Dragon Quest VII on 3DS will be a good spin on it because it's fast paced but you also get to make strategic moves. If your game is an Action RPG, then I feel that it's okay not to be turn based. I LOVE turn based. It makes me feel like I'm the driving force behind my actions, not just hitting some buttons. I mean, I love Secret of Mana, Zelda ,etc. as much as the next guy but turn based games make me feel like my actions matter more. I must admit that I'm kind of upset with the direction FFVII is going with the remake but I'm still going to buy it because I want to see how they handle the game as it's huge, and there's so many environments that I want to see how they handled.

In short, I love turn based an action based as long as they're done well.



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Netty on 08 December 2015

I'm fine with turn-based combat. I hate random battles though. It's the one thing that makes it really hard for me to go back to old JRPGs.



GamechaserBE on 08 December 2015

Loved them but got tired of them, it is like fps games with no sprint in it, it is hard to go back to a slower paced of game style, mind you some games do it good, Divinity's original sin is one of them.



outlawauron on 08 December 2015
bigtakilla said:
outlawauron said:
People ridicule turn based RPGs because they generally aren't very popular anymore. A lot of people also don't realize that turn based RPGs are a product of the technical limitations of platforms rather than genuine design decisions.

Seems the technical limitations have still not been overcome. We can still only really control 1 character at a time instead of managing a whole party of heroes. Also, for a technical limitation Tales Of has been doing it since the SNES.

That isn't a technical limitation. It's more of a controller/human limitation as you can't control multiple characters well in an action combat system. If there's a single game that doesn't pause while controlling all characters, I'd be very interested in trying it.



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LivingMetal on 08 December 2015
bigtakilla said:
outlawauron said:
People ridicule turn based RPGs because they generally aren't very popular anymore. A lot of people also don't realize that turn based RPGs are a product of the technical limitations of platforms rather than genuine design decisions.


Seems the technical limitations have still not been overcome. We can still only really control 1 character at a time instead of managing a whole party of heroes. Also, for a technical limitation Tales Of has been doing it since the SNES.


This is not a technical issue.  Some turn-based rpgs are designed for the faster, more agile characters to react first.  This is based on the character's stats which in turn reinforces why the game's genre is an rpg (the role of the character, not how fast a player can press a button.)



Areym on 08 December 2015

While I can play turn based without a problem and it can be executed phenomenally (wasteland 2 is a blast), I personally perfer action over turn based. In my head, it makes no sense that I dont have constant control of my character as far as movement and positioning. Action combat can just as much strategy as turn basedwith mechanics such as blocking, parries, counterattacks, dodging and etc, not to mention everything is done in real time and you are force to think on your toes and strategize/analyze on the go . I perfer the full control that action combat offers basically. I can't really put into words what my preferance for action combat but it basically boils down to it being more engaging and exciting than the chess matches turn based combat can become.



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