I think Turn-based games should follow the example of Paper Mario, Avernum, or Grandia. Or a mix of the above.
Paper Mario's action commands are what make battles fun. Your success depends not on some random dice roll, but on actual skill. Timed button presses (which are used in an impressive variety of ways), pressing a string of buttons quickly and in the right order, and other such mini games have effects on how you defend/counter attacks, how well stat boosts work, how many enemies an attack hits, etc.
Avernum has characters moving on a grid, like a chessboard, so you can move guys out of range of enemy attacks, or surround enemies. So there's actually strategy that's deeper than "Use Buffs -> Attack enemy -> Heal when necessary"
Grandia's turn based system has character's portraits sliding across a bar from left to right. About 3/4 to the right is "COM" and all the way at the right is "ACT." When you or your enemy's character gets to "COM" you (or your enemy) select the character's action (ie, move, attack, etc). When the portrait gets to "ACT" the character will start the action.
There are special attacks called criticals that can knock enemy portraits back to the left, thus delaying their action, or cancelling it completely if the attacked enemy's portrait is between COM and ACT. So if an enemy's about to use some big-ass spell that will do big-ass damage, you can stop them by hitting them with a critical attack at the right time.
It's possible to have 4 fast enough characters gang-beat on an enemy with critical attacks to the point where it's never able to attack at all.
Speaking of items, I never liked how RPG's allow you to stock up on ridiculous amounts of healing potions (99) as long as you have the money. Because that way, it's pretty much impossible to lose to even the toughest of bosses, unless they just decide to go all God Mode on your ass and kill your entire party in one hit.
Paper Mario's action commands are what make battles fun. Your success depends not on some random dice roll, but on actual skill. Timed button presses (which are used in an impressive variety of ways), pressing a string of buttons quickly and in the right order, and other such mini games have effects on how you defend/counter attacks, how well stat boosts work, how many enemies an attack hits, etc.
Avernum has characters moving on a grid, like a chessboard, so you can move guys out of range of enemy attacks, or surround enemies. So there's actually strategy that's deeper than "Use Buffs -> Attack enemy -> Heal when necessary"
Grandia's turn based system has character's portraits sliding across a bar from left to right. About 3/4 to the right is "COM" and all the way at the right is "ACT." When you or your enemy's character gets to "COM" you (or your enemy) select the character's action (ie, move, attack, etc). When the portrait gets to "ACT" the character will start the action.
There are special attacks called criticals that can knock enemy portraits back to the left, thus delaying their action, or cancelling it completely if the attacked enemy's portrait is between COM and ACT. So if an enemy's about to use some big-ass spell that will do big-ass damage, you can stop them by hitting them with a critical attack at the right time.
It's possible to have 4 fast enough characters gang-beat on an enemy with critical attacks to the point where it's never able to attack at all.
Very well said.Low Key said:
Speaking of items, I never liked how RPG's allow you to stock up on ridiculous amounts of healing potions (99) as long as you have the money. Because that way, it's pretty much impossible to lose to even the toughest of bosses, unless they just decide to go all God Mode on your ass and kill your entire party in one hit.
