What's the appeal in turn-based combat?

[WilliamWhite1]

Simply put:

The ability to sit back, calculate, then make a strategic decision.

Or even more simply put:

Time to wait.

 

[Twilight_guy]

The ability to stop and think about what to do next as opposed to seeing something and thinking "OHCRAPABIGUGLYTHINGSHOTITAHHHH" and then wildly shooting or slashing in its general direction.

 

[Archereus]

Before we begin, I really, really don't want you to reply if you tell me "there is none." This is not a thread for people to razz turn-based combat systems for pleasure, this is an intellectual discussion that I'm raising out of curiosity.

I was recently discussing RPGs with a friend of mine and we segued into talking about Square and the Final Fantasy franchise, which we both agreed has gone well downhill since FFX as they haven't actually released a mainstream game in the series since then--with both of us agreeing that XII was too weak to be considered a mainstream title for our own reasons, which no one has to agree with. Then he said the strangest thing.

"I hear they're going back to turn-based combat for XIII. I really hope so... Crisis Core, no, that's action-based. If I hit the attack button and then the character attacks right when you hit the button, it's not turn-based, it's action-based, and I'm not buying it."

My personal feelings are that turn-based RPG combat is a holdover from the NES era--an obsolete and outmoded form of gameplay born of those technological limits and made all the less relevant by the fact that it has been re-created in almost exactly the same form in hundreds of games, explored literally to death. Point at anything about it that you will: the inherent annoyances of random battles, the segregation between story and gameplay, anything. The internet has done a fine job of exploring every single negative thing that could possibly be said about turn-based combat at this point.

What I'd like to know is what the appeal is here. I asked my friend about it but he wasn't very clear, simply going as far as to say that it just wasn't Final Fantasy if it wasn't turn-based. I'll admit that there was a time when I enjoyed this type of game too, but I've long since lost touch and would like to get an idea of what it is people saw and continue to see in turn-based combat that I don't.

Well for me I always say turn base as a more strategy typed combat. In real time your time limited to the amount of time you got to think out a battle plan because the more time you spend thinking the more you get attacked and destroyed. The appeal in it is the fact that the game waits for your strike. So you don?t need to rush through a large spell book and have a chance of accidentally hitting the wrong spell. So to me the point to turn based it having time to decide what?s the best way to take down my enemy rather then real time where it strike first, strike fast, strike big with hardly no strategy involved

 

[Klagermeister]

What's the appeal?
There isn't one. It's all work and frustration.
Trekking through land to level up constantly to beat ONE boss?
No thanks. It takes away what gamers use most: REFLEX.

 

[peduncle]

Love turn based combat. Gives you a chance to strategise your moves instead of constantly mashing 1 or 2 buttons. Also, press x to not die

basically. and FFX is among my top 3 favorite games ever. and, like talking smack about my mama, don't talk smack about it or i'll beat the shit out of you.

 

[geldonyetich]

Perhaps the whole issue could be summarized in two points.

• [li]Turn-based combat allows you as much time as you need to carefully execute your moves, which appeals to the inner mastermind.[/li]
  [li]Turn-based combat is hard to implement when you're developing your game to be multiplayer, which most games are these days. Not many players have the patience to sit around and wait while you scratch your head.[/li]

Yes, there are some turn-based massively multiplayer games around. Atlantica Online [http://atlantica.ndoorsgames.com/center/default.asp]. Dofus [http://www.dofus.com].

Why does this sound so familiar? Oh yes, because this thread has been done. Many times, even.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.67483
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.60882
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/smile_nod/4841-Smile-and-Nod-Turn-Based

And so on.

 

[Ancientgamer]

Do you think chess is outdated?

In TBC you can sit back and think up a intricate plan. Be thinking 8-10 moves ahead, predict the enemies moves. There's a magnificent feeling when a plan comes together against overwhelming odds.

 

[Zeke the Freak]

The ability to stop and think about what to do next as opposed to seeing something and thinking "OHCRAPABIGUGLYTHINGSHOTITAHHHH" and then wildly shooting or slashing in its general direction.

I perfer andrenaline rush rather then intellecual gratification. *take note, i have no fucking clue as to the spelling of those words* and if i did want a mental ego boost i would play a RTS like Dawn of War *gorey, fast paced, pretty to look at yet still a mind game* or Company of Heroes *this is where strategy shoves a hateful boot up your arse*.

Thats not to say that action games dont have their stratagies. Flanking, artillary, booby traps, tactical outfitting *giving your guys specific guns for specific occasions* and such. Plus, I like targets of oppertunity *an event happening withing a specific amount of time* and that on-the-spot-life-or-death-desicion deal.

 

[squid5580]

Cuz I can win dammit. I would much rather die because I made a mistake in my thinking rather than die because I couldn't mash a button fast enough. Or because I didn't time a jump properly.

 

[Yozzy]

It's like chess, but it's more immersive because you get some RPG elements and occasionally the added thrill of mechs blowing each other to hell.

It also has some appeal because a lot of people, including myself don't have the tactical skills to think of a victory-earning strategy on the fly.

 

[bladester1]

Because one person can only effectively control one character at a time, ie the AI that the controls the other characters you're not controlling is retarded. Take Neverwinter Nights 2 for example, while you're controlling your main character and tanking if you're a fighter/barbarian, the AI is having the other characters in the party WASTE THEIR MOST POWERFUL SPELLS ON WEAK CRAPPY MONSTERS, and not saving them for the boss of the area or not healing you and the other characters when you/they are about to die, so then you have to waste time to stop and rest for 8 game hours before you can move on. Yes I know that you can pause the game and issue commands, but it feels more like you're babysitting the characters and slows everything down.

True turned-based games take that annoyance and allow one person to play 3 or 4 characters like there are 2 or 3 other real people controlling the other characters instead of one person playing 3 or 4 people and wasting the abilities of all 3 or 4 characters.

 

[Kaminobob]

i was playing Age of Wonders the other week whilst ill. AoW, for those who've not heard of it, plays out on a big map where you direct your cities and stacks of units on your turn, until your stacks of troops hit enemy stacks. then, you have a turn based fight between the stacks on a little map (there are several little maps based on the local terrain where the fight is happening.)

i think that turn based games WERE a response to limited hardware ability, but now they're a useful (if threatened) gameplay mechanic. i'd say that games like advanced wars or Age of wonders, non-rpg turn based fighting, is almost its own genre. and in the end, i enjoy the inherent randomness of lining my troops up and doing all i can tactically while its my go, then letting the dice fly as my plan contacts the enemy.

 

[mr mcshiznit]

I realy like how combat is slowed down and i dont have to run around and play who has the fastest twitch reflex to kill something. I also find there is strategy in planning out your moves based on when you attack vs your enemy that i like. also i may be in the minority but i really like grinding in videogames. Random battles yes sir, make me level b/c i sure as hell dont want to sit there and kill the same thing over and over by choice. Oddly enough however, is that if i'm forced to do it via random battles i love it.

 

[mcgooch]

Turn based combat is a more intellectual form of game play. It means that you are rewarded for thought, planning and strategy rather than skill and reaction time. In my opinion that is the appeal of turn based combat.

 

[TSED]

I wonder if the person shouting about needing adrenaline rushes to feel rewarded realises how stereotypically 13 he's acting (even if he's no where near a teenager).


I like weighing options. I like outmaneuvering opponents (which is literally impossible in real time games with multiple players under one person's command, since the AI all works at once and the human can only control one person at once).

I especially love the ability to, if losing (and badly), look around and consider options that didn't originally become obvious.

 

[magicmuffinman]

I really do like the strategy element of turn-based combat.

You have to consider every move, and the endless scenarios it COULD spawn.

Not to mention when the game decides to throw in mid-battle events.

Fuck you Selvaria. And screw Zodiac Monsters too.