Poll: What kind of RPG Combat Systems do you prefer? And why?

[joest01]

Final Fantasy XII/XenoBlade
MMO-inspired in-field fights. When I started playing FFXII, I was stunned by how much I enjoyed the removal of random encounters and the lengthy transition between field and battle modes. Letting me manage the AI of my teammates with Gambits was also fun, since I could also program them to casts buffs on the party outside of combat.

Xenoblade also employed a similar system, but without the AI management.

Persona 4
Having the AI control the decision making for the rest of my team speeds up regular encounters, but I also have the option of tuning them off if I feel the need to. Super useful for boss fights.

Resonance of Fate
It's really hard to describe RoFs battle system. It's an odd yet incredibly unique combination of tactical RPG sensibilities with some quasi-real-time elements. You have to carefully move your characters around the field while shooting your enemies. A lot of team work is required, since the enemy health bars require you to first it them with 'scratch damage' from a machine gun before making delivering actual damage with a handgun.

good picks although I finished neither Resonance nor Xenoblade. Both feature those coop attacks I could never fully get the hang of. Especially in XB with tipping the foes over first.

But fully agree RoF has a great battle system, I think the reason I stopped playing was it felt like some battles were almost like puzzles where you had to have the right ammo and grenades etc and if you didnt it was basically back to the last town to stock up.

p.s. Persona 4 becomes a joke once you built a good Yoshitsune

 

[Trek1701a]

If I had my choice, it would be turn based, for a variety of reasons. However, whatever the combat in a game turns out to be, it should be appropriate for the game and preferably well done. I, and I'm sure pretty much everyone, have seen games where turn based is boring as hell or exploitable, or real time are simplistic or get too hectic to keep track of. Real time with pause creates it's own issues. Basically, though, it really comes down to what is good for the game.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Looking at my favorite RPGS like Pokemon, Golden Sun, and Paper Mario, I guess turn based RPGs would be my favorite.

Though I do like action RPGs too, Kingdom Hearts in particular.

 

[Dominic Crossman]

My favorite was the one from ff10 and blue dragon so I am not sure which category I fit into.

 

[Strain42]

I'm fine with most things, but let me tell you the sort of combat system I DON'T like in my RPGs

-looks over at Ni No Kuni- Pretty much that.

Trying to have full action RPG combat with running around and attacking and dodging and swiping is great, but when you also have to try and cycle through a menu during that just to say...use the Guard command...that's a problem.

One I really like for instance is the Digital Devil Saga (and other MegaTen games) Press Turn system which rewards smart thinking by giving you the option to increase your amount of turns per round or decrease the enemies depending on what you do, but also punishes just going in blindly.

Of course the biggest problem is that it also punishes luck based things like a normal attack simply missing.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

ATB or Turn-Based for a reason I've often brought up- I've never felt comfortable with letting AI control all my party members but one. RPGs are almost always group affairs regardless of nationality, and automating so much of the process makes the player feel redundant save for putting on the right equipment. Against many of the more powerful bosses in the Tales and Star Ocean series', you must frantically micromanage party members to keep them from blindly running into enemy attacks and dying unless you are overpowered.

I prefer ATB most of all, and I feel it would be best realized if you could see your enemies' action bars (perhaps even see what they are about to use with a certain spell or item) and assign commands before your own characters' bars are full, to be immediately executed when they are.

 

[Qvar]

Either Action RPG, or Tactical RPG.

I hate JRPGs with a passion. I even hate the very fact of the label including the term RPG at all. THEY ARE NO FRIGGIN RPG FOR GODNESS SAKE. As a pen & paper DM for 12 years, I feel personally offended at the assumption that Final Fantasy has anything to do with role-playing.

I've gone for JRPG - turn based as my favourite because i love the Final fantasy/lost odyssey style thinking battles. I also like Tactical RPGs but i do find them incredibly easy to beat.

I detest western RPGs with a passion. D&D is just the worst pen and paper rpg i have ever played and slapping it into every damn western game going infuriates me.

 

[Sofus]

I vote for "other" simply because I enjoy the combat and the camera mode of Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. I would have chosen WRPG with pause, but I think most people probably think of Dragon Age when they pick that option, and to be honest then I found the combat in DA:O to be somewhat boring and in DA2 I just found it far too over the top hollywood kind of unimmersive.

I enjoy not using skills and spells because, well you never know... I might need them later. But no.. in games such as Dragon Age you just spam the most effective abilities and spells all the time without ever having to pause the game and ponder the implications.

 

[OneCatch]

If I have to drag around a party (KOTOR, Dragon Age) a system with an pause system is best.

Yeah, agreed. I just started playing Mass Effect, and the team control system in that is horrendous. Was far better in KOTOR, where even though the teammember AI was really simple, it worked in the context of the rest of the game - and if they weren't doing what you wanted you could jump in and order them directly! You could line up attacks and actions to gain the best synergy. Whereas in Mass Effect I find it annoying to use my squad except to divide the enemy's fire, and they aren't even great at that because of buggy cover. It doesn't really feel like a team-based RPG.

I like real-time RPGs like the newer Fallouts and TES, and also shooter-rpgs like Borderlands, but Mass Effect is like the worst of both worlds - clunky combat and crap team management. Unfortunately, I'm enjoying the rest of the game so don't want to just stop playing!