Final Fantasy - Best Battle Systems

[Silver]

CBR presents their list of the best Final Fantasy battle systems.

6. Charge Time Battle

Charge Time Battle was introduced in Final Fantasy Tactics. It uses a charge time meter that fills up to 100 to allow units to take action. Speed determines how quickly each unit's charge meter will refill. This system changes traditional video game battles into a virtual chess match within a 3D environment. It adds challenge and strategy to how players battle, as they need to consider the movements of the enemy and AI-controlled party members to plan their next move. You can easily miss receiving a healing spell or potion if you move out of range of a friendly AI character.

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[Phoonzang]

My favorite system is the classic Active Time Battle. It's simple to use yet manages to retain a sense of urgency.

My least favorite is the Command Synergy Battle system from Final Fantasy XIII. It's been a few years since my playthrough of that game, but I recall the battles being more frustrating to me than in most other FF games.

 

[Couchpotato]

The series went through many changes in the last thirty years. Turn=based was first due to tech limitations which I liked to a more recent action style which I like less.

 

[Zloth]

It didn't even list Final Fantasy VIII's battle system, so kudos to them. That thing was sad. Sitting around, drawing powers from enemies was not at all fun.

XII had a fun battle system once you got enough commands to do it right. XIII wasn't very fun at all and I didn't stick around in XV long enough to even find out what it was really like.

 

[duerer]

For me, Final Fantasy's battle systems were always felt as experiments.
Some of them were quite good, some of them fell flat.

My personal highlights (in no particular order):

Final Fantasy V: ATB + the job system. Flexible and addictive.

Final Fantasy VI: ATB + character-specific quirks (e.g. "bushido minigames", etc). Interesting in theory, but I find somewhat disjointed on the long run.

Final Fantasy VII: ATB + materia system. Simple and flexible, but encourages grind.

Final Fantasy X: turn-based system done right. Interchange-able party roster mid-game, yeeaah! A very good, laid back experience.

Final Fantasy XII: MMO-style auto battle with just the right amount of balance between micromanagement and automated stuff. I'm not a fan of the Zodiac system
(prefer the original's more flexible character growth), and the License system is unnecessarily confusing.

Final Fantasy XIII: paradigm shift system. Extremely fast, ultra aggressive, hyper flexible. Really good, almost feels like an action game - shame on the actual game though.

Final Fantasy XV: experiment on the importance of positioning during battle (warp), and a choice between a tactical (wait) and a fluid action is kinda…. interesting. If FFXIII was a bad game (to me, yes, it was), then FFXV is the bottom of the barrel. I find the whole FFXV experience so painful, so disjointed, that I dismiss this game entirely, and mention here only for historical reasons.

Final Fantasy VII: Remake: a simple action battle system, that is IMHO not that good. Addictive at first, but very bland on the long run.

 

[TomRon]

XII is definitely my personal favourite, nice flow without getting button mashy. I would just call the system used RTwP though, because that's pretty much what it is...

 

[mercy]

What you see on the picture is IMO the best turn-based system for these JRPG-s, of course the Rebirth PSX version. Along with Tactics Ogre: One Vision mod.

 

[GothicGothicness]

Final fantasy Tactics by far of course!

What you see on the picture is IMO the best turn-based system for these JRPG-s, of course the Rebirth PSX version. Along with Tactics Ogre: One Vision mod.

Gah a mod for one of my favourite games ever? how couuld I have missed that, thanks a lot!