Final Fantasy XV TGS 2016 Preview - Boy Band Road Trip

Steven Bogos

The Taco Man
Jan 17, 2013
9,354
0
0
Final Fantasy XV TGS 2016 Preview - Boy Band Road Trip

Final Fantasy XV starts out slow, but has the beginnings of something great.

Read Full Article
 

captainsavvy

New member
Jan 5, 2009
56
0
0
Steven Bogos said:
Combat in Final Fantasy XV is pretty much what you'd expect, given the prior games. You attack and block in real time, building up MP and a special meter.
You mean the prior games that were essentially all turn-based and used a menu, bar some of the spin off games (Crisis Core, Lightning Returns, and Type-O)? ;)

As a long time player of FF, it's the combat I'm most on the fence about. See I really like turn-based combat. I like that it gives me some room to be tactical without the need for the fast reflexes that real-time combat requires. The combat in this game looks closer to Kingdom Hearts than Final Fantasy.

As long as the camera isn't as god-awful as the one in KH, then I'll probably get along with the new system eventually.
 

Makabriel

New member
May 13, 2013
547
0
0
captainsavvy said:
You mean the prior games that were essentially all turn-based and used a menu, bar some of the spin off games (Crisis Core, Lightning Returns, and Type-O)? ;)
You're showing your age there ;)

Sadly those types of games have gone the way of the dodo. They just don't fit in the generation of consoles that have as much processing power as they do now. Maybe as a mobile or indie game game, these days.
 

Tanis

The Last Albino
Aug 30, 2010
5,264
0
0
I was gonna pre-order this, but them I realized I haven't loved a FF game since...uh...um.

FF14 Rebirth?
FF10-2?

I'm just waiting for Persona 5 myself.
Seems like Atlus/NIS are the last bastion of turn-based JRPGs.
:/
 

immortalfrieza

Elite Member
Legacy
May 12, 2011
2,336
270
88
Country
USA
Makabriel said:
captainsavvy said:
You mean the prior games that were essentially all turn-based and used a menu, bar some of the spin off games (Crisis Core, Lightning Returns, and Type-O)? ;)
You're showing your age there ;)

Sadly those types of games have gone the way of the dodo. They just don't fit in the generation of consoles that have as much processing power as they do now. Maybe as a mobile or indie game game, these days.
Turn based games are going the way of the dodo for the same reason horse and carriages did once cars became cheap enough and stable enough to be practical, because it's obsolete. Action RPGs are able to do everything turned based RPGs can do, including tactical play in many of them, plus far more that Turned based games could never do, or at most badly mimic. The only reason Turned Based games still exist is a combination of developers catering to nostalgia and because it's still easier for developers to make Turned based games than it is for them to make Action RPGs. As it becomes easier and easier to make Action RPGs Turned based games will be gradually phased out until they are all but nonexistent.

I am glad FF15 is taking the leap to true Action RPG because honestly the series is long overdue for a real example of it, and their attempts to try to mix the two like they did with FF12 have been just awkward and only ever made the combat much worse than it would have been had they just stuck to one or the other.
 

Baresark

New member
Dec 19, 2010
3,908
0
0
I have to say, I was really put off by Kingsglaive on the world. I was looking forward to this, but less so. Final Fantasy demos used to be awesome. They used to give you a whole section of game to play with minimal interruption. This honestly sounds like a shit boring demo to me.
 

Baresark

New member
Dec 19, 2010
3,908
0
0
immortalfrieza said:
Makabriel said:
captainsavvy said:
You mean the prior games that were essentially all turn-based and used a menu, bar some of the spin off games (Crisis Core, Lightning Returns, and Type-O)? ;)
You're showing your age there ;)

Sadly those types of games have gone the way of the dodo. They just don't fit in the generation of consoles that have as much processing power as they do now. Maybe as a mobile or indie game game, these days.
Turn based games are going the way of the dodo for the same reason horse and carriages did once cars became cheap enough and stable enough to be practical, because it's obsolete. Action RPGs are able to do everything turned based RPGs can do, including tactical play in many of them, plus far more that Turned based games could never do, or at most badly mimic. The only reason Turned Based games still exist is a combination of developers catering to nostalgia and because it's still easier for developers to make Turned based games than it is for them to make Action RPGs. As it becomes easier and easier to make Action RPGs Turned based games will be gradually phased out until they are all but nonexistent.

I am glad FF15 is taking the leap to true Action RPG because honestly the series is long overdue for a real example of it, and their attempts to try to mix the two like they did with FF12 have been just awkward and only ever made the combat much worse than it would have been had they just stuck to one or the other.
Calm down chitlins. There is room in this world for both of those games. ARPG's have existed for a long time and have nothing to do with relative power of the platform. It's Ok if someone prefers one type of game over to the other. I honestly think FFXII had the best battle system in the series (so far) if I'm to be honest, and the license board was far superior to any version of that before or after.
 

immortalfrieza

Elite Member
Legacy
May 12, 2011
2,336
270
88
Country
USA
Baresark said:
Calm down chitlins. There is room in this world for both of those games. ARPG's have existed for a long time and have nothing to do with relative power of the platform. It's Ok if someone prefers one type of game over to the other. I honestly think FFXII had the best battle system in the series (so far) if I'm to be honest, and the license board was far superior to any version of that before or after.
There's room for both like there's room for horse and buggies at fairs and whatever because it's quaint, yet the vast majority of people use cars because it's vastly superior in every way. Just like that, Turned based games will gradually decline as Action RPGs become easier to make, until only quaint little games with little to no budget and callback games deliberately trying to invoke nostalgia will use it.

Also, you've GOT to be kidding! The ideas behind FF12's combat system might have had merit, but the execution was HORRIBLE. 12's combat was slow, boring, required micromanagement of Gambits for all but the easiest of encounters, and lacked the style and flare of every other Final Fantasy game before or since. The license board did nothing but lock the player out of pursuing various equipment paths, which was fine if it didn't mean the player was screwed if they didn't choose an optimal path for the character. It was something that was turned based but tried to look like it was an Action RPG and was much much worse off as a result, and blatantly threw in the player's face the fact that it could have been better. The rest of the game wasn't particularly good enough to make up for it either, especially since the combat was about 8/10ths of the game anyway.

The combat is out of everything what truly makes or breaks an RPG, if it's not fun fighting to get there the really good stuff, the environment, the story, and the characters are just going to be dragged down by it. FF15 already has a pretty significant headway in that department by going for being an Action RPG.
 

Baresark

New member
Dec 19, 2010
3,908
0
0
immortalfrieza said:
Baresark said:
Calm down chitlins. There is room in this world for both of those games. ARPG's have existed for a long time and have nothing to do with relative power of the platform. It's Ok if someone prefers one type of game over to the other. I honestly think FFXII had the best battle system in the series (so far) if I'm to be honest, and the license board was far superior to any version of that before or after.
There's room for both like there's room for horse and buggies at fairs and whatever because it's quaint, yet the vast majority of people use cars because it's vastly superior in every way. Just like that, Turned based games will gradually decline as Action RPGs become easier to make, until only quaint little games with little to no budget and callback games deliberately trying to invoke nostalgia will use it.

Also, you've GOT to be kidding! The ideas behind FF12's combat system might have had merit, but the execution was HORRIBLE. 12's combat was slow, boring, required micromanagement of Gambits for all but the easiest of encounters, and lacked the style and flare of every other Final Fantasy game before or since. The license board did nothing but lock the player out of pursuing various equipment paths, which was fine if it didn't mean the player was screwed if they didn't choose an optimal path for the character. It was something that was turned based but tried to look like it was an Action RPG and was much much worse off as a result, and blatantly threw in the player's face the fact that it could have been better. The rest of the game wasn't particularly good enough to make up for it either, especially since the combat was about 8/10ths of the game anyway.

The combat is out of everything what truly makes or breaks an RPG, if it's not fun fighting to get there the really good stuff, the environment, the story, and the characters are just going to be dragged down by it. FF15 already has a pretty significant headway in that department by going for being an Action RPG.
Listen, this whole horse and buggy vs car analogy doesn't really work here. Cars are a far superior mode of transportation so they won out. But ARPG vs turn based RPG isn't remotely the same argument. They aren't the same type of games, so saying one will win because it's a better version of something is just not true.

Also, yeah, the battle system for 12 was superior in my opinion. The gambits were a way for a player to strictly define the AI of the game and quite honestly, it resulted in some of the best acting AI by anyone's standards. It surely took some tweaking. The only time Micromanagement was necessary was in boss battles where you may decide to choose actions for some or all of the characters.

Keep in mind, I'm not saying it's the best battle system in any game. I'm simply saying that, in my opinion, it was the best battle systems on a final fantasy game. I personally found it far more engaging to say anything in the Final Fantasy 13 games. It's that particular aspect that makes it my second favorite Final Fantasy game after 6. Opinion right, so annoying. Also, for the record, I'm happy they are trying something new in Final Fantasy 15. I'm never against a good ARPG. I just hope they do something better with the world and characters than what they did in Kingsglaive.
 

immortalfrieza

Elite Member
Legacy
May 12, 2011
2,336
270
88
Country
USA
Baresark said:
immortalfrieza said:
Baresark said:
Calm down chitlins. There is room in this world for both of those games. ARPG's have existed for a long time and have nothing to do with relative power of the platform. It's Ok if someone prefers one type of game over to the other. I honestly think FFXII had the best battle system in the series (so far) if I'm to be honest, and the license board was far superior to any version of that before or after.
There's room for both like there's room for horse and buggies at fairs and whatever because it's quaint, yet the vast majority of people use cars because it's vastly superior in every way. Just like that, Turned based games will gradually decline as Action RPGs become easier to make, until only quaint little games with little to no budget and callback games deliberately trying to invoke nostalgia will use it.

Also, you've GOT to be kidding! The ideas behind FF12's combat system might have had merit, but the execution was HORRIBLE. 12's combat was slow, boring, required micromanagement of Gambits for all but the easiest of encounters, and lacked the style and flare of every other Final Fantasy game before or since. The license board did nothing but lock the player out of pursuing various equipment paths, which was fine if it didn't mean the player was screwed if they didn't choose an optimal path for the character. It was something that was turned based but tried to look like it was an Action RPG and was much much worse off as a result, and blatantly threw in the player's face the fact that it could have been better. The rest of the game wasn't particularly good enough to make up for it either, especially since the combat was about 8/10ths of the game anyway.

The combat is out of everything what truly makes or breaks an RPG, if it's not fun fighting to get there the really good stuff, the environment, the story, and the characters are just going to be dragged down by it. FF15 already has a pretty significant headway in that department by going for being an Action RPG.
Listen, this whole horse and buggy vs car analogy doesn't really work here. Cars are a far superior mode of transportation so they won out. But ARPG vs turn based RPG isn't remotely the same argument. They aren't the same type of games, so saying one will win because it's a better version of something is just not true.
Actually yeah, the horse and buggy vs car analogy is a perfect analogy to use. Cars are a far superior mode of transportation so they won out, just like Action RPGs are the far superior genre of games and are winning out, little by little, the only thing stopping Action RPGs from dominating entirely is the difficulty of making them is greater, something that will be fixed as technology improves. Action RPGs are innately able to do literally everything a Turned based game can do better, easier, and can do far far more than Turned based games could ever do, one can even put a Turned based game INSIDE an Action RPG if need be, the same is not true the other way around. Action RPGs are all but limitless as a genre, superior is the only honest word one can use to describe Action RPGs when talking about how they relate to Turned based games. They are the same type of games, Action RPGs evolved out of developers trying to get more out of Turned based games and developing Action RPGs to fulfill that need. The Action RPG is a logical PROGRESSION from the creation of Turned based games, and like any progression the former will be less and less used until it barely exists if it exists at all. This is not comparing apples to oranges, it's comparing two different ways of doing the same thing, one clearly able to do that thing far better than the other could ever do so and more.

For the record, Final Fantasy 13 games had the most fast paced and strategic combat in the series bar none until FF15's Action RPG combat of course, with ally A.I. intelligent enough anything like the 12's tedious gambit system was never needed.
 

Saelune

Trump put kids in cages!
Legacy
Mar 8, 2011
8,411
16
23
immortalfrieza said:
Baresark said:
immortalfrieza said:
Baresark said:
Calm down chitlins. There is room in this world for both of those games. ARPG's have existed for a long time and have nothing to do with relative power of the platform. It's Ok if someone prefers one type of game over to the other. I honestly think FFXII had the best battle system in the series (so far) if I'm to be honest, and the license board was far superior to any version of that before or after.
There's room for both like there's room for horse and buggies at fairs and whatever because it's quaint, yet the vast majority of people use cars because it's vastly superior in every way. Just like that, Turned based games will gradually decline as Action RPGs become easier to make, until only quaint little games with little to no budget and callback games deliberately trying to invoke nostalgia will use it.

Also, you've GOT to be kidding! The ideas behind FF12's combat system might have had merit, but the execution was HORRIBLE. 12's combat was slow, boring, required micromanagement of Gambits for all but the easiest of encounters, and lacked the style and flare of every other Final Fantasy game before or since. The license board did nothing but lock the player out of pursuing various equipment paths, which was fine if it didn't mean the player was screwed if they didn't choose an optimal path for the character. It was something that was turned based but tried to look like it was an Action RPG and was much much worse off as a result, and blatantly threw in the player's face the fact that it could have been better. The rest of the game wasn't particularly good enough to make up for it either, especially since the combat was about 8/10ths of the game anyway.

The combat is out of everything what truly makes or breaks an RPG, if it's not fun fighting to get there the really good stuff, the environment, the story, and the characters are just going to be dragged down by it. FF15 already has a pretty significant headway in that department by going for being an Action RPG.
Listen, this whole horse and buggy vs car analogy doesn't really work here. Cars are a far superior mode of transportation so they won out. But ARPG vs turn based RPG isn't remotely the same argument. They aren't the same type of games, so saying one will win because it's a better version of something is just not true.
Actually yeah, the horse and buggy vs car analogy is a perfect analogy to use. Cars are a far superior mode of transportation so they won out, just like Action RPGs are the far superior genre of games and are winning out, little by little, the only thing stopping Action RPGs from dominating entirely is the difficulty of making them is greater, something that will be fixed as technology improves. Action RPGs are innately able to do literally everything a Turned based game can do better, easier, and can do far far more than Turned based games could ever do, one can even put a Turned based game INSIDE an Action RPG if need be, the same is not true the other way around. Action RPGs are all but limitless as a genre, superior is the only honest word one can use to describe Action RPGs when talking about how they relate to Turned based games. They are the same type of games, Action RPGs evolved out of developers trying to get more out of Turned based games and developing Action RPGs to fulfill that need. The Action RPG is a logical PROGRESSION from the creation of Turned based games, and like any progression the former will be less and less used until it barely exists if it exists at all. This is not comparing apples to oranges, it's comparing two different ways of doing the same thing, one clearly able to do that thing far better than the other could ever do so and more.

For the record, Final Fantasy 13 games had the most fast paced and strategic combat in the series bar none until FF15's Action RPG combat of course, with ally A.I. intelligent enough anything like the 12's tedious gambit system was never needed.
I could understand it if used for say, Skyrim having dialogue, versus Morrowind not, and why we likely will never go back to text talk in a TES game, but Turn-Based isnt obsolete.

I dont like RTS (REAL-time strategy games), but I love Civilization, which is a turn-based strategy series, and a very popular one at that. It plays very different than RTS games, but both are valid.

Turn-based versus action just leads to different styles of play. Turn-based RPG ultimatly are more strategic and tactical, while action are more...actiony.

Though turn-based is also just not dead either, cause...Fire Emblem and Dragon Quest.

Plus Chess hasnt become two people punching eachother, and that game is old as hell (as is many other classic boardgames)
 

JCAll

New member
Oct 12, 2011
434
0
0
Turn-based RPGS are rarer these days for the same reason survival horror games are rarer these days. Some executives somewhere decided the genre was dead and stopped making the games, leaving the fans to migrate to smaller studios for their fix. Only the old series like Pokemon and Dragon Quest are still released by the big studios.
 

Geisterkarle

New member
Dec 27, 2010
282
0
0
Are we talking about the car that is breaking down in this demo!? ;)

Sorry, but IMHO there is no "evolution". There are different styles! FF6, FF15 or even Witcher are all RPGs but with very different battle designs (among other things). Thinking some of those are "superior" to others is personal preference and nothing more.

My personal "problem" with FF as an ARPG is not directly the "action" part, but that it restricts me to one person/hero I order around. Maybe I'm biased and "too influenced" by the older FF games, but part of the charm was that you could use different teams and strenghts/weaknesses (and maybe abuse them). Now you are only one player... that is accompanied by some other people. I don't feel like a team anymore and that is sad! I don't care how good the AI is (maybe). It is impossible for an AI to decide things the way I would ... maybe I'm even wrong, but then it was my decision! Now I just have to deal with it! That is not what I want from FF; I can play Witcher if I want to run around alone!
 

captainsavvy

New member
Jan 5, 2009
56
0
0
Makabriel said:
You're showing your age there ;)
Is it that obvious? XD

immortalfrieza said:
Turn based games are going the way of the dodo for the same reason horse and carriages did once cars became cheap enough and stable enough to be practical, because it's obsolete. Action RPGs are able to do everything turned based RPGs can do, including tactical play in many of them, plus far more that Turned based games could never do, or at most badly mimic. The only reason Turned Based games still exist is a combination of developers catering to nostalgia and because it's still easier for developers to make Turned based games than it is for them to make Action RPGs. As it becomes easier and easier to make Action RPGs Turned based games will be gradually phased out until they are all but nonexistent.
You do realise that turn-based RPGs and action RPGs are two completely different things right?
Just because one exists doesn't mean the other shouldn't. That'd be like complaining 3rd person shooters exist because there are first person shooters.

There are plenty of action RPGs out there. Good ones too.
By turning FF into a full on action title, you're basically removing what would have been it's unique selling point. Now it's just another action RPG in a sea of action RPGs (who have probably done it better than FF15 ends up doing it, let's be honest).


Baresark said:
I honestly think FFXII had the best battle system in the series (so far) if I'm to be honest, and the license board was far superior to any version of that before or after.
Now, FF12 is probably my least favourite of the series but that's more for the lackluster story and characters than anything. I actually really ended up liking the Gambit system. It was immensely satisfying once you'd got your Gambits set up just right and your party members were able to just deal with every situation thrown at them without you having to micro-manage them.

Oh, you're poisoned? Ashe casts Esuna.
Oh, your health is low? Penelo casts Cura.
Oh, you're dead? Basch throws a Phoenix Down.

I'm also going to come out and admit that I liked the FF13 trilogy. Yes, all 3 of them.
I really loved the Paradigm system, and again it was the satisfaction of creating the perfect set of Paradigms and seamlessly switching between them to completely wreck house.

I also got super in to Lightning Returns combat. Switching between Garbs so you never ran out of stamina was, again, incredibly satisfying. As was blocking perfectly to stagger the enemy.


JCAll said:
Turn-based RPGS are rarer these days for the same reason survival horror games are rarer these days. Some executives somewhere decided the genre was dead and stopped making the games, leaving the fans to migrate to smaller studios for their fix. Only the old series like Pokemon and Dragon Quest are still released by the big studios.
I know causality doesn't equal causation, but does anyone else think that the quite obviously turn-based FF6 - FF10 are considered fan favourites for a reason?

I mean, it's only really from FF12 onwards that people's belief in the series has waned right? /conspiracy

-------------------

I don't hate action RPGs. Not at all.
I just don't think that every RPG has to be one.

What's that saying? If everyone is special, no one is?
 

Baresark

New member
Dec 19, 2010
3,908
0
0
captainsavvy said:
immortalfrieza said:
Turn based games are going the way of the dodo for the same reason horse and carriages did once cars became cheap enough and stable enough to be practical, because it's obsolete. Action RPGs are able to do everything turned based RPGs can do, including tactical play in many of them, plus far more that Turned based games could never do, or at most badly mimic. The only reason Turned Based games still exist is a combination of developers catering to nostalgia and because it's still easier for developers to make Turned based games than it is for them to make Action RPGs. As it becomes easier and easier to make Action RPGs Turned based games will be gradually phased out until they are all but nonexistent.
You do realise that turn-based RPGs and action RPGs are two completely different things right?
Just because one exists doesn't mean the other shouldn't. That'd be like complaining 3rd person shooters exist because there are first person shooters.

There are plenty of action RPGs out there. Good ones too.
By turning FF into a full on action title, you're basically removing what would have been it's unique selling point. Now it's just another action RPG in a sea of action RPGs (who have probably done it better than FF15 ends up doing it, let's be honest).
Good luck explaining that to him/her. I tried a couple of times of but they are intent on it being the same thing, ergo his terrible horse/carriage vs car metaphor.
 

wulfy42

New member
Jan 29, 2009
771
0
0
I'm a fan of both turn based and action RPGs myself. Turn based can involve alot of strategy, and you get more out of character building often in them. The Grandia series was especially awesome due to interupting and how tactics could be so important (was also in a few other games). I really enjoyed many turned based games in the past, but, over time I have found many are not that interesting anymore as they did not compare well to others I had played.

Meanwhile action rpgs, like kingdom hearts, have their own advantages. I generally like them, as long as the combat isn't so chaotic you can't really tell whats going on, and you don't just mash buttons to win everything. That of course is the big problem with many of them. The first Kingdom hearts for instance started great, but after the early levels, you could get by just mashing buttons pretty much ifyou wanted. The second one seemed to get rid of the whole skill based combat (that you at least had at the start in the first) all together.

I played the demo of FFXV....and it's looking like mashing may be back again. I'm hoping that is not true. Honestly you don't need to have 90 things happening at once in an action rpg, just let the players actively control the characters and make things happen slow enough that skill and thought matters. If things are too fast, then you are often better off just constantly mashing commands since they go through faster that way, and you get more attacks off, then if you took time to plan things out. Usually the game creates figure kids won't be able to handle such complex requirements, so they make the fights beatable with just mashing, and even if you can handle the complexity, there is no reason to.

Good action RPGs are great, but I have not seen that many that still include a large amount of tactics and thought. I hope FFXV will be an exception, but it does not appear that way so far. The demo did include a bit of tactics in the final boss fight, but it certainly had nothing on a dark souls type boss fight, and didn't have anything that it added better to compensate for the lack. The random fights where pretty much cake (and you could actually avoid most of them if you wanted), which is normal in almost all rpgs, and then the boss fight didn't really involve any tactics or thought (especially since if you fail, I think you just got to try again).

A few action RPG's have offered harder difficulties to play at, which could net you more of a challenge at least, I think that is an option in FFXV as well, and I'll certainly play ona higher difficulty if it's available. I just hope skill will actually matter and it won't just become a longer battle due to higher health etc.
 

immortalfrieza

Elite Member
Legacy
May 12, 2011
2,336
270
88
Country
USA
Baresark said:
Good luck explaining that to him/her. I tried a couple of times of but they are intent on it being the same thing, ergo his terrible horse/carriage vs car metaphor.
It's a perfectly good metaphor, you just are so nostalgia blind for Turned based games that you refuse to acknowledge that because you are unwilling to recognize how limited Turned based games are. Action RPGs and Turned based games are not different things, they are the two ways of doing the same thing, the former able to do everything the latter can do and far more, this is a fact. Action RPGs make Turned based games obsolete in every possible way, you can refuse to listen all you want but it won't change the fact that that's true. It's not that Turned based games don't have value, it's that they are far surpassed in every way possible by Action RPGs to the point that just like any number of things that have made something else obsolete there's little point in the existence of the former anymore.
 

Baresark

New member
Dec 19, 2010
3,908
0
0
immortalfrieza said:
Baresark said:
Good luck explaining that to him/her. I tried a couple of times of but they are intent on it being the same thing, ergo his terrible horse/carriage vs car metaphor.
It's a perfectly good metaphor, you just are so nostalgia blind for Turned based games that you refuse to acknowledge that because you are unwilling to recognize how limited Turned based games are. Action RPGs and Turned based games are not different things, they are the two ways of doing the same thing, the former able to do everything the latter can do and far more, this is a fact. Action RPGs make Turned based games obsolete in every possible way, you can refuse to listen all you want but it won't change the fact that that's true. It's not that Turned based games don't have value, it's that they are far surpassed in every way possible by Action RPGs to the point that just like any number of things that have made something else obsolete there's little point in the existence of the former anymore.
Except for the part where I didn't say I wasn't happy they were going this route, I love ARPG's. I like turned based RPG's as well though. I have more than enough experience with both to know they aren't the same thing, which is my point. Not that one is or is not better than the other, just that they are different. You don't think they are different, but you are wrong.
 

captainsavvy

New member
Jan 5, 2009
56
0
0
wulfy42 said:
Meanwhile action rpgs, like kingdom hearts, have their own advantages. I generally like them, as long as the combat isn't so chaotic you can't really tell whats going on, and you don't just mash buttons to win everything. That of course is the big problem with many of them. The first Kingdom hearts for instance started great, but after the early levels, you could get by just mashing buttons pretty much ifyou wanted. The second one seemed to get rid of the whole skill based combat (that you at least had at the start in the first) all together.
My biggest problem with KH1's combat was the camera. It was awful.

I recently played the HD remix of KH1 and was intrigued to find that they'd changed the controls from the original (without an option to revert back that I could find).

In the Remix version, the right analogue stick controls the camera and you have to use the d-pad to navigate the attack menu.
This makes it an absolute nightmare to do anything other than attack and use your magic shortcuts (unless you run miles away from the enemy and hope you can navigate the menu and use an item before they reach you).
In order to navigate the menu you either have to take your left thumb off the left stick and stop moving, or take your right thumb off the right stick and give up all hope of seeing where you're going because the camera is a shit show.

If I remember rightly, in the original the camera was controlled with L1/R1 and the right analogue stick controlled the attack/magic/item menu. And while at the time it seemed weird, now I appreciate how it allowed the player to keep moving and control the camera whilst also navigating the menu, all at the same time.


wulfy42 said:
I played the demo of FFXV....and it's looking like mashing may be back again. I'm hoping that is not true.
I think you don't even need to button mash.
I'm pretty sure that in the one of the demos they released you can just hold the button down and you automatically just attack until you release it. Same with the dodging, though that constantly uses stamina or something if you just hold it down.

There is that tactical pause mode that you can turn on in order to "pause" the combat so you can target specific enemies and co-ordinate attacks. Though it has a finite bar of time that it uses so it can't be used infinitely.

---------------

I just... I don't see why FF15 had to be action based.
I mean, who is this game actually aimed at? Most fans of the FF series that I know are just as baffled as I am at the decision to change the combat this drastically.

My biggest fear is the magic system.
From what I've seen it looks awful. It looks like a grenade-type system and it just seems super inaccurate and clunky :(


There are so many action games out there that have had years to perfect their combat systems, and I just don't know how FF15's combat will hold up in comparison. And it will be compared, regardless of whether it's a valid comparison or not.