A half month ago i ask, what’s the Best turn baesd battle system. While turn based battle system are very typical for rpg’s, action system could be used in different franchises. So the best action battle system is probably not part of a jrpg. But i think there are some action system, that are a bit more creative than these 100 copies of souls or other battles system.
At the same time action system have heavily change from 2D to 3D area. The Ys or seiken densetsu franchise a two early action battle system games are very different from todays 3D-action jrpg’s.
While i’m more a fan of 3D action game, i think early tales of game, are quite interresting with their 2D action games. The one that remain the most in my head is Tales of Eternia. I probably like it because it’s already quite combo heavy and has a lot things that modern Tales of games have as well. Also they were already quite creative with weapons, played a lot Meredy with her animal
Square Enix is not a big fan of turn based game systems anymore, especialy with their Final Fanasy franchise. But i would say Final Fantasy 7 remake is a perfect fusion between a turn based and a action game. While being able to do action gameplay, dodgle and hit the enemy, there is also a bar for magic or other moves, while using them freezes also the game. In my opinion the best action gameplay Square Enix has made out of all modern Final Fantasy games.
For the last part i would just metion a style of games, that i like quite a lot. Fast pased action games with perfect dodgle or parry mechanic. Maybe it’s a bit generic, but some jrpg’s have implement it quite good. For example the modern Ys games like Ys 8. Nier Automata is also a perfect example for that. It’s just some kind of gameplay i like and there are some representive in jrpg’s, but i wouldn’t say it bound to that genre.
I would also like to mention Forpoken gameplay but you would proabaly start to hate me for that
Have you played Ar Tonelico? It also has some unique battle system.
No, didn’t even know the game. Ok i have seen some gameplay, just a few minutes. I’m not sure what i have seen. Seems to be interresting
The first game, at least, is turn-based. I can’t really recommend it based on gameplay either. Incredible music, though.
Also storyline.
Tho I’d only vouch for the first one in the series.
Most interesting action battle jrpg for me has been Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, which I believe is the team that went on to design FF7 Remake’s system. However, I did not like the latter’s as much.
I like Kingdom Hearts II battle system as well. Always fun to play the game.
I am not usually a fan of turn based combat, primarily because it slows down the pace of a game and is often combined with two of the absolute worst possible mechanics ever devised in games:
- Random Battles
- Bad Experience Pacing
Both of those usually go hand in hand. Random battles are an annoyance that have very little excuse to exist, and should only be used where thematic puposes require it. But just trying to walk around and explore should never lead to me being forced into a battle every two pixels I move on screen. It interrupts the fun of me exploring. Additionally, when a game expects you to repeat content/farm to get to a certain level before being able to progress the main storyline is another annoyance. Sometimes I want to do the sidequests. Sometimes they’re annoying and I dont want to do them. Sometimes I just really want to keep playing the main storyline. Telling me “no no, you have to repeat the same content like a mindless zombie now so your level is shigh enough” means all I hear is “stop playing this game because it does not respect your time.”
I have never finished ChronoTrigger or XenoBlade (any of them) and I quit playing XenoSaga 1 because of these mechanics (and in XenoSagas case, perhaps the worst boss gameplay design I have ever seen in a video game ever, even the bosses in John Romero’s Daikatana which often become invincible due to bugs have better designed boss gameplay, both XenoSagas DOMO Carrier and the Gargoyle are ridiculous, IYKYK).
However, that doesn’t mean I don’t like turn based games. I really like tactics/strategy rpgs. An old one I like is Power Dolls. It was made for MS-DOS and Windows computers up until like, 2004. It plays out kind of in a similar fashion to games like Advance Wars and XCOM.
Similar to Power Dolls, which perhaps less than 150 people outside of Japan even know exist, is a PC-9801 game called Tuned Heart. It was developed in collaboration with Kawasaki, the motorcycle company, and features an all female vehicle-riding police force doing police force stuff. Well anyway, like in XCOM and AW, in combat you have a percent chance to hit, and a little animation plays out that shows the result of the battle. Its a pretty short animation, and despite them being pretty repetitive, they’re fun to see play out.
Here is a sample Tuned Heart gameplay.
These games aren’t exactly turn based combat, but they are turn based games that feature combat.
Maybe if more traditional JRPG turn based combat played out in a more simplified manner that was faster, it would be more popular?
