Square win US patent for one-button RPG battle system because complex menus are intimidating to novices - invented by FFXV co-director

[celador]

Yesterday (April 17) the US patent office awarded a patent to Square Enix for an action RPG battle system that chooses attacks based on a character's distance from allies/enemies rather than having the having the player select from menus.

The system was invented by Hajime Tabata (co-director Final Fantasy XV; director Final Fantasy Type-0; producer, Final Fantasy Agito) and Kenichiro Yuji (director, FF:CC: My Life as a King. SE applied for the patent in October 2012 and it was just approved.

Square Enix stated in the documents that complex menus are intimidating to novice players:

And that they created a one-button solution so that even novice players can enjoy an action RPG

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