1UP: Final Fantasy XIII's Battle System Exposed

[SHMUPGurus]

TruckOSaurus said:

Brainslug said:

I have a question - people who think "turn-based" sucks and loooooved FF12 - why are you even bothering with Final Fantasy?

Final Fantasy is SYNONYMOUS with turned based gameplay - that's what the series is about... if it's not turn-based, it's not a Final Fantasy and if you don't like turned based, you're not a Final Fantasy fan...

Just cause it's popular with a lot of other players, doesn't mean that you have to buy it or play it - then complain about the gameplay that you KNOW is part of the series.

Me, I hate shooters - with a passion. You'd never see me go out and buy HALO or Killzone then "complain" that I hate the gameplay. I know I won't like em so I don't bother. Nor do I complain that new new iterations are going to be shooters as well and "boring" to me.

"How dare a video game series not change it's core gameplay to suit MY PERSONAL tastes???" That's essentially what's being said...

I wholeheartedly agree with everything in the above post. (Yes even the shooter hate)

Oh nooooes! Change is bad! Reminds me of a certain topic I created (but I'm not the one complaining this time around)...! :(

Anyways, I don't think I'm part of the "turn-based RPGs suck" bandwagon because a good turn-based battle system can work. It can be enjoyable IF the battles at least require strategies and not just wait for your character to attack until the enemies die. Lost Odyssey was a good example of what I'm talking about. Some enemies in that game won't die unless you do certain move patterns. You can't just button mash the "A" button for attack, you need to plan everything out. Enemies can actually kill you too. Wow, a hard RPG, that's quite rare and enjoyable, can you believe it?

Oh, and even if I don't like dull turn-based battle system, I still play the games for the story. Ever thought about that? Even if I don't like the gameplay and don't grind the entire game, I can at least enjoy what I'm seeing and witness the whole universe the developers wanted to portray in the game. Example: Final Fantasy VI. The battle system never really appealed to me, but I still completed the game because the story was amazing.

By the way, isn't it story > gameplay for RPGs? I thought it was always that. Sure, gameplay is always a plus in my book, but since I don't grind in RPGs to make them a bit harder (since, you can't disagree with me on that, they're not the hardest games to finish eh?), I don't really care most of the time. o_O

Final Fantasy XII's battle system was real-time, so even if I wanted to skip the battles, well... enemies are in the world map. It's already another big plus. I'm glad enemies are on the world map, because random encounters are just boring and lazy on the developers' part (not just talking about Final Fantasies by the way).