A screenshot from Final Fantasy XIII.
Okay, this is a post for Final Fantasy geeks. For obvious reasons, I wasn't able to go into much detail about Final Fantasy XIII's battle system in my review, but I think it's perhaps the best yet in the Final Fantasy series, and I'd like to discuss it further here.
It seems to me that Square Enix went into development with this question: What are the weakest elements of JRPG battle systems, and how can we eliminate, hide, or make them work to the game's advantage?
I think they've done a great job of defining these problems and then coming up with solutions. Here are some of the examples that I noticed while playing:
Problem: Character levelling has become tedious and anti-climactic.
Solution: Get rid of character levelling and replace it with a more meaningful system. Instead of rewarding players with intangible experience, give them points that they can use to improve base statistics and learn abilities at their leisure. They can spend their points immediately for moderate increases to power, or save them up and then splurge, creating an immediately noticeable boost in skills and strength.
Problem: People often just mash buttons to get through field battles as quickly as possible.
Solution: Make getting through battles efficiently an objective. Players are ranked on speed after each battle, and rewarded with a score and precious technique points (used to do things like cast powerful summoning spells) for being as speedy and effective as possible.
Problem: Micromanaging multiple characters' actions can be annoying and keeps us from actually watching what they're doing on screen.
Solution: Manage the group's roles, not its characters. By creating battle paradigms-group formations that include varying roles useful in different situations-players can instantly alter their crew's actions and tactics. In tougher battles you'll switch paradigms countless times, often in rapid succession, but it takes only a couple of button taps. All the strategy is present, but none of the hectic micromanagement. Now we can actually watch our heroes pound their enemies.
Problem: Grinding through endless cookie cutter enemies sucks.
Solution: Have fewer battles, but make them longer, more difficult, and more memorable. There are many areas that take an hour or more to work through, but feature no more than 15 or 20 battles. However, each of those battles is challenging and demands the player's attention. Just using the same attack time and again generally doesn't work.
Problem: Discerning an enemy's weakness, then memorizing it and scrolling through specific attacks to find the one that's most effective each time you encounter that foe, is a drag.
Solution: Scan the enemy once and forget about it. Your characters will remember what to do when they encounter the enemy again, and choose the most appropriate attacks and defensive spells as required.
Problem: Summoned creatures are awesome to watch, but usually leave the player out of the action.
Solution: Let the player's character join with the summoned creature and control its spectacular attacks one at a time before unleashing a grand final assault.
Granted, not all of these innovations are new, but their combination in Final Fantasy XIII creates something really special: A role-playing game in which the battles rarely, if ever, become a thing of drudgery. They remain beautiful, highly strategic, challenging, and, most importantly, satisfying, throughout the game. It's about the fun of the fight, not just winning. And that's the main reason why it made the list of my five favourite Final Fantasy games of all time.
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