| CGI-Quality said: Final Fantasy XIII changes things up bigtime. Sure, your characters still attack and cast spells, but you don't have to pick them. Instead, for the most part, the battle takes place in a way that's more like a real time strategy game than a traditional RPG. You tell your character what role they play, and they go to it. You'd think the whole 'auto battle' option would make things easy, but you'd be wrong. Boss battles are tough of course, but even normal fights can get rough. You need to pay attention in most fights, and use some strategy. If you don't, you could easily die in even the simplest encounter. Fights happen fast, and speed is encouraged. You get better loot for fighting faster, so the game is constantly encouraging you to find the best combinations, and giving you a reason to do so. Final Fantasy XIII's battle system is by far the most inventive and most satisfying of any Final Fantasy so far. |
Isn't that just missing the point entirely? This is supposed to be turn-based combat. If I wanted fast-paced battles I'd play Devil May Cry or TWEWY at least, not Final Fantasy.
I want time to mull over my attack strategy, to work out exactly what the enemy is weak against and decide whether I want to hammer it to death with Firaga or conserve MP with Fira. Do I wait to use Cure when I need it or let out Kirin to Regen everyone? Do I even need to use Cure, are the items competent enough? Should I even use magic or just stick with items? What should I do if my healer dies? Do I need to cast Haste or Slow? Should I get my dragoon to jump or defend my mage? Do I get my healer to revive my heavy-attacker now or wait a few turns in case the big boss-monster uses another giant-attack? Do I need to steal some Annoyntment? Should I attack now or hold off until my Limit bar fills up, or will I die in the process?
These are the kinds of questions I want to be able to ask myself in a battle. Getting the computer to do it for me just ruins the whole experience. If you try and make a turn-based system fast-paced, it only takes away from the depth of the combat because everything happens at once, stopping the players from being able to make decisions and forcing them into the Auto-Attack. As for the AI-swap, it doesn't matter how good the AI is, I'm perfectly capable of doing it's job myself.
You compare FF13 to a Strategy game but, if anything, it's more like rythm game or one of those old CD-based, FMV-heavy games where all you'd do is hit a button when the flashing light appears(I'm looking at you, Time-Gal). FF6 was more of a strategy game than 13 because there are at least three segments when you're directly controlling twelve people. Give me random encounters anyday as long as I get to do things in them.
