What Is Your Favorite type of RPG Battle System?

[Sion.Edge]

Hi everyone,

You can call me Sion. I'm working on an indie SNES era Japanese Roleplaying Game currently dubbed "S.K.Y Project" with a small team.
The project even in its early stages has impressive 2D tile graphics, character design and music, but what I am looking for are ideas for a good battle system to build the game around. I am a big Final Fantasy fan having played every main entry (Sans XI), so Turn-Based battles are not an issue for me at all. I have done some extensive research however, and have found that many deem the genre to be "Dead" or purely a result of "Hardware limitations" so I am curious to hear from Final Fantasy fans who I assume are role-playing game enthusiasts in their own right.

Noticing the trend even Square has gone in, do you think a more action-oriented system is what gamers are looking for today? I am leaning towards a derivation of Chrono Trigger with 3 party member battles taking place on the map itself, but even still I would like such a system to offer something different than "Spam attack button".


Early WIP Map (Just to give an idea of what kind of game I'm speaking of.)

Whether or not your opinions have anything to do with my project directly, I am very curious to see what it is you guys like in RPG battle systems.
Let me know.

~Sion

 

[Praygon]

Its gotta be turn based. Dont get me wrong I love action based battle systems kingdom hearts is one of my all time favourite games along with star ocean till the end of time. But turn based systems just have something about them thats so satisfying then again that may be nostalgia getting to me. I espicaly like it when they add a twist on the system like lost odyssey or shadow hearts did.

 

[The Witch]

action-based. im more of a shooter person so action based is more exciting. i def can't fall asleep during a fight that's for sure. even when i adjusted atb it's still boring as hell

 

[Setzer Gabbiani]

I think that a Turn-Based battle system is the perfect choice for a RPG game. I grew up playing some of the Final Fantasy series games such as Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy X, as well as other RPG games like Chrono Trigger and such. I have experienced both type of battle system and I personally like the Turn-Based battle system more. The reason why I like the Turn-Based battle system more than the Action-Based battle system is because it is more challenging and balanced. In the Turn-Based battle system it is hard for you to evade attacks in battles as to the Action-Based battle system which allows you to freely walk around and evade attacks without raising the characters evasion stats.

That alone will take away the purpose of making the game as fun and challenging as possible. That is why I choose Turn-Based over Action-Based.

 

[ZaXo Ken'Ichi]

I prefer turn-based most of the time, but I also fully understand that most turn-based J-RPGs are super unbalanced. They've pulled so much of the basics from table top games for so long, that a lot of developers don't even realize their games are unbalanced (nor do many players). They have worked around the issues for such a long time that they don't realize they can avoid the issue altogether by changing a few 'staples' of the statistical design. That really drives me crazy, because it's hard to find a J-RPG that's actually balanced well. You either get games like FFVII which -while it's my favorite game of all time- can be beaten purely by using Attack and Cure; that that's usually the most optimal strategy as well. Or you get games that are designed more like the post-game battles in FFX International, where only one strategy really works, leading to tons of grinding, tons of wasted time, and no real strategic depth for the player. Instead, it's more like solving a puzzle that kicks you back to the beginning every time you fail. And if that puzzle is so difficult that you just end up looking up the solution, it's not really a fun puzzle, now is it?

As far as action RPGs go, I don't like them as much as turn-based ones most of the time (though it's a thin margin). And they're usually just as broken as turn-based RPGs are. The key though, is that action RPGs are usually balanced to be too easy when they're broken. They're rarely frustratingly hard. So for me, mindlessly playing something action-oriented that's too easy is generally more fun than sifting through menus in a turn-based game that's too easy.

I think that a Turn-Based battle system is the perfect choice for a RPG game. I grew up playing some of the Final Fantasy series games such as Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy X, as well as other RPG games like Chrono Trigger and such. I have experienced both type of battle system and I personally like the Turn-Based battle system more. The reason why I like the Turn-Based battle system more than the Action-Based battle system is because it is more challenging and balanced. In the Turn-Based battle system it is hard for you to evade attacks in battles as to the Action-Based battle system which allows you to freely walk around and evade attacks without raising the characters evasion stats.

That alone will take away the purpose of making the game as fun and challenging as possible. That is why I choose Turn-Based over Action-Based.

You haven't played Dark Souls then