All that has been known for ages.

The most important question is how other party members are being controlled. It's ATB, so it's basically real time (means enemy will attack even if you dont use your turn) and from what can be seen in the trailer the gauge fills very fast. Plus other characters in party act without player giving them commands.

So it seems that you wont be able to give commands to every character each turn (each time the gauge is getting filled) That either means gambits or AI system.

I say there are Gambits or an analog in FFXIII. We'll see on April 16th.

And they consider this new? Played this one before. Not bad, but nothing to get excited over.

i believe it's not completely turn-based...the only one that i remember is FF X...i hated the battle system...i think ATB is great...cuz it puts together real time and turn-base together...but definitely not the classic turn-base...i think ur getting the wrong idea....there is a guage that just fills up over time which will let you do commands....

let's think of it this way...any of you play wow or dota??...i guess u can call those guages Cooldown....once guage fills up..cooldown is complete...but still played in real time...i dont see anything turnbased about that really...cuz if you stand there doing nothing...the monster will keep attacking you....

Bashing ATB for being "turn-based" is stupid. You know there is a cooldown of skills in action games, that makes them as much turn-based as ATB is.

I hope it's more like Chrono trigger then FFXII or else I won't buy it until it's in the trash bin.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

This system is cross between Final Fantasy X-2 (fast paced ATB) and Final Fantasy XII (overworld combat, no random battles).

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).

Gameplay is always greater than every other aspect for me.

Bad gameplay = me no play.

Hmmm, we could probably start a discussion about which types of game really require good gameplay to still be enjoyable or not, but I guess it will go for another thread! =P

In my case, of course both have to be good, but I'd prefer a game with a fantastic story and decent gameplay (for instance, Suikodens don't have the most innovative or complex battle system out there, it's functional and good enough, it's in the story where they shine) than the reverse. But of course, both are requirements, you can't make a good RPG without one