Poll: Your opinions on RPG combat

Recommended Videos

loc978

New member
Sep 18, 2010
4,897
0
0
Nominally turn-based with an ATB system is my favorite. Pretty much all of my favorite RPG combat systems were that, from FF4 up through Resonance of Fate.

Honorable mention for actiony combat a la the Star Ocean series. After that first/third person action with a pause system (the new Fallout games... which I play mostly in third-person) works quite well... remove the pause from it and it turns to crap, though (lookin' at you, Elder Scrolls).
 

LunaticPanda

New member
Sep 12, 2011
28
0
0
Turn based all the way, I can, will and have planned one turn for upwards of ten minutes and Fire Emblem is one of the few series I rank above Final Fantasy.
 

Naeras

New member
Mar 1, 2011
989
0
0
My three favorites are the one with a tactical, turn-based approach(FF:Tactics), real-time third person perspective(Dark Souls, Phantasy Star Online) or a real time arena-based structure(Tales series). In all of these cases, it really does feel like I'm contributing to the result of the fight, it takes either skills or smarts, and I can easily get punished for making mistakes.

Although, I have to admit, the possibly most important part of it is that dice rolls/percentages/RNGs overall isn't a major contributor to the combat. This is the sole reason I can't be bothered to play the otherwise good Black Isle-RPGs. =/
 

Wintermoot

New member
Aug 20, 2009
6,559
0
0
hacky slashy like in dot hack//GU it felt more fluid then the the one they used in Infection-Quarantine.
 

verdugo136

New member
Sep 9, 2009
132
0
0
i prefer the combat from the Tales of games and star ocean. No random encounters and fighting like a hack and slasher but i don't mind random encounters they can be fun as well but some times they are way to frequent which just annoy me.
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
Legacy
Oct 29, 2010
18,149
2
3
Country
UK
I sort of prefer third person since the only rpg combat that I actually like was Xenoblade Chronicle.
The way that combat work was that the character deal normal attack (hacking and slashing) automatically when you are within range of the enemy/ monster. You're pretty much keep circling around it but you can still move away from it.
You do got a skill/ spell bar to press and they all have cooldown timer so you can't just spam it. Also some of the skill/ spell do more damage depending which side you attack the enermy/ monster from like e.g. a backslash imply a greater damage when you attack it from behind.
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
13,757
5
43
In a nutshell, the more combat mechanics RPGs steal from other genres, the better they will be.

I like turn based combat too, but a lot of games screw it up. A turn based game should be about planning your actions, not about being forced to take turns performing the same actions over and over again.
 

dvd_72

New member
Jun 7, 2010
581
0
0
uhm.... all of the above?

Sometimes I feel like something turnbased, other times something more hack-and-slashy, etc etc. I enjoy it all.

well apart from FPS. I'm not as big a fan of that style as I am for the others.
 

Talvrae

The Purple Fairy
Dec 8, 2009
896
0
0
I like the Baldur's gate, NeverWinter Night, Dragon Age style, it's not WoW clone... Baldur's gate 2 was outyears before WoW
 

Mordekaien

New member
Sep 3, 2010
818
0
0
It depends on the game mood for me, really. If the game is High fantasy with lots of elves dwarfs, magical MacGuffins and whatnot, I'll go with a turn-based/ realtime with pause combat.
If the game tries to set itself with a gritty realistic combat without the typical high fantasy magic, I love me som real time hack n' slash.

EDIT: Also, It depends on the style and variety of classes you can play- RPGs with wide variety of classes are better with turnbased/realtime with pause combat. If you have like D&D 14 starting classes (I think) it's really hard to make every class feel right when you play her in action/ skill-based combat.
 

Space Spoons

New member
Aug 21, 2008
3,334
0
0
In my opinion, if it doesn't have turn-based combat, it's not a real RPG, and it isn't worth my time. A consequence of growing up on SNES and PSOne JRPGs, I guess.
 
Jun 11, 2008
5,329
0
0
I like all of them except the first person type combat in Bethesda games. That is really and example of boring and truly abysmal combat and if they could ever sort it out their games would be close to perfect. People talk about turn based being unrealistic but so is standing there waiting to be attacked then hitting them twice, shield bash then smacking them twice or constant back pedalling while casting spells.
 

Rack

New member
Jan 18, 2008
1,379
0
0
I like some third person style and there's something to be said for first person but really I like some strategy. Fire Emblem and Baldur's Gate are good examples. Also I like the idea of programming your strategy ala Dragon Age or FFXII but I've yet to really try that out.
 

Kahunaburger

New member
May 6, 2011
4,141
0
0
Glademaster said:
I like all of them except the first person type combat in Bethesda games. That is really and example of boring and truly abysmal combat and if they could ever sort it out their games would be close to perfect. People talk about turn based being unrealistic but so is standing there waiting to be attacked then hitting them twice, shield bash then smacking them twice or constant back pedalling while casting spells.
True. Mashing LMB is about as bad as combat can get in games.

For realism, I actually consider the turn-based system you see in roguelikes to be one of the most realistic ones I've played, simply because it rewards using advantages from your inventory and the dungeon environment so thoroughly. IMO, a system that lets you be creative with how you kill things (light the fungus the ogre's standing on on fire, petrify a goblin by hitting him in the face with a cockatrice corpse, etc.) is the kind of realism that games should aim for.
 
Jun 11, 2008
5,329
0
0
Kahunaburger said:
Glademaster said:
I like all of them except the first person type combat in Bethesda games. That is really and example of boring and truly abysmal combat and if they could ever sort it out their games would be close to perfect. People talk about turn based being unrealistic but so is standing there waiting to be attacked then hitting them twice, shield bash then smacking them twice or constant back pedalling while casting spells.
True. Mashing LMB is about as bad as combat can get in games.

For realism, I actually consider the turn-based system you see in roguelikes to be one of the most realistic ones I've played, simply because it rewards using advantages from your inventory and the dungeon environment so thoroughly. IMO, a system that lets you be creative with how you kill things (light the fungus the ogre's standing on on fire, petrify a goblin by hitting him in the face with a cockatrice corpse, etc.) is the kind of realism that games should aim for.
Hopefully they'll develop an AAA game with the rougelike style and it will catch on and the better parts might bleed through to other styles.
 

Tayh

New member
Apr 6, 2009
773
0
0
Whatever genre Fallout 2, Jagged Alliance 2 and Silent Storm applies to.
I figure it would be one of the first two categories, but having never played a FF game, I have no idea what you mean by those.

If it's a D&D game, I like how it worked in NWN 1+2. Pause, plan, play.
 

babinro

New member
Sep 24, 2010
2,514
0
0
I tend to enjoy the actiony style of RPG the most.

Tales of Symphonia, FF13, Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 are easily the most fun battle systems I've encountered in RPG games. I enjoy systems that utilize combo's, real time fighting and strategy.

While the above is certainly the most fun and memorable for me, the age old table top style of the original FF will always have a place in my heart.

The only one I feel fails is the first person ones. I find combat in Fallout and Elder Scroll games to be far and away the worst feature of an otherwise good series. I believe that first person combat in an RPG can work, it's just that I haven't played one that does yet. Take the Fallout story and use the Borderlands controls and leveling system and you'd have one hell of a FPS RPG.