Poll: Your opinions on RPG combat

[WaruTaru]

Worst combat system I've experienced: Bethesda's Elder Scrolls. When I am grinding, the last thing I need is a boring fight. It really takes me out of the game especially if I'm gonna be spending shitload of time in combat.

Good combat system(s): A toss up between Grandia's turn-based style which involves skill and character positioning as well as delaying and interrupting enemy's turns, Diablo's isometric point-and-click and Kingdom Heart's plain old bash-em-up without the Quick Time Event (I've never liked QTE and never will). What they have in common is all three games require you to pay attention to the battles and not just mindlessly tap X or left-click through the combat.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

I really liked Grandia's system- it was almost good enough to carry the third one all on it's own. Likewise for FF's Active Time Battle, though I wish they'd let you see the enemy's meter too- even if it was really fast you could at least know when to have healing ready.

My least favourite system is the type used by the Tales and Star Ocean series. It's extremely messy. In every single one, the attacks that cause flinching are king. The strategy for the uber-bosses is usually just trapping them inside of multi-hit area attacks like Chisato's Tear Gas ad infinitum, assuming you can get the normally brain-dead AI controlling 3/4 of your party to cooperate. I feel if you're going for complete real-time, a battle transition is unnecessary- Secret of Mana did it right.

 

[Praetox]

Since Elder Scrolls and Fallout are my favorite RPGs, I'd have to go with first-person. I still enjoy other kinds of combat, but I prefer seeing through my character's eyes

 

[Weaver]

Turn Based Strategy is probably my favorite kind of combat in an RPG.

 

[Zen Toombs]

NOT

ability toolbars, click to target (Every WoW clone forever)

Everything else is fine, so long as it fits the style of the game. I generally play RPG's for the story and characters, not the the combat. It is nice when the combat is really fun though.

 

[endtherapture]

I like party based, tactical combat in the style of Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age.

Semi-real time, appears real time but it's turned based really.

 

[dimensional]

Dont really have a preference as long as it is implemented well, although the one I have probably had the most fun with is very recent and thats the system that is featured in The Last Story which is mostly real time but mixes in time delayed attacks, special moves and effects plus use of cover, FPS elements and occasionally destructible scenery make it absolutely awesome.

 

[Trivun]

I know everyone will chastise me for this, but I have to say that the style seen in FF XIII is the best style of RPG combat I've seen in games to date. I've played FF since X, as well as several Western RPGs, and Kingdom Hearts, and I just think FF XIII has the best one of the lot. Western RPGs are too similar to a standard shooter, so although I enjoy games like Fallout 3 and so on, I see them less as traditional RPGs and more as FPS or 3PS games with RPG elements. As for turn based, I don't mind it, but I hate the lack of realism, and more importantly I hate that it isn't anywhere near as challenging. When you have enough time to think you can deal with literally any scenario easily, and that just isn't worth it, whereas with the ATB style (and especially that in FF XIII, with the Paradigm system), you have much more of a challenge, and it encourages you to think quickly and come up with strategies and tactics on the fly, which is a lot more fun. If I want to wait around thinking about my next move and plan ahead, I'll play chess. Or Advance Wars.

 

[lazinesslord]

I prefer turn based combat because of the strategy involved.
But I also like actiony stuff like Kingdom Hearts.

 

[boag]

I used to love the Turn Base Combat when I was young, now a days it gets too repetitive and I end up falling asleep

 

[Ursus Buckler]

I'm not that picky. I like the turn based combat of Pokemon and FFX, but I also like real time, like in KH2, BUT I also like the first and third person styles of Skyrim and Fable.

so yeah, like whatever man.

 

[josemlopes]

I like the last two (FPS,TPS) because I like to influence the outcome through my own skills instead of relying solely on the statistics of the character

 

[Dudeman325]

Actually , FF1 doesn't have the same turn base combat as FFX. It's more like ff4 Through ff9 . Enemies will attack you rven if you don't input a command .

I'm not sure about some of the "remakes" that change FF1 around, such as the "spells per day" being turned into the MP system, but this certainly isn't true of the NES version. In combat, everyone stands around doing nothing until you give a command to all four of your party members, THEN actions are executed once per round by all characters/monsters until everyone has a turn, before starting up the next round. Almost nothing like the ATB battle system.

 

[Slayer_2]

Either third or first person combat, although I tend to prefer FPS style combat. Just no damn turn-based.

 

[skywolfblue]

Hmm.

I like WoW's combat when it's done right. Though, WoW was kinda designed on combat on your own being rather boring, but combat as a group to be extremely synergistic and interesting. Plus it was more about "not standing in the fire" and position-dependent group work then having flashy ways to kill the other guy. So not really single-player material.

Dragon Age 2 would be my current nominee for best single-player RPG combat. (I haven't played Dark Souls or Kingdoms of Amalur so I don't know how well those fair, Amalur looks like it might be a contender if I ever get around to it.) There were some flaws (wave-based combat, some weak abilities, etc etc) but on the whole the ideas were great. Having easy access radial menus, all 4 face buttons on the controller mapped to abilities, every time you push a button something happened, no delays, misfires, constantly being bumped out of melee range before you could push the attack button or other problems.

 

[Suicidejim]

Turn-based combat, either with or without an ATB gauge, tends to be my favourite. Also, I've been playing the Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor series and find that combat system (sort of a mixture of classic FF turn based battling with grid-based strategy) to be surprisingly engaging.

EDIT: And The World Ends With You gets special mention from me just for having the biggest clusterfuck of a battle system I've ever seen. Still love the game though.

 

[skywolfblue]

every time you push a button something happened

Come on. You know you wanted to slip AWESOME in there

That was a quote from one of the devs that gets used by a lot of people to mock the game if I'm remembering right?

I think it's one of the more silly complaints people use against DA2. Most of the time pushing a button did do something nifty, I don't know why people think that's a bad thing. Sure there were cases of going overboard, but on the whole I think it was a good idea.

 

[Kahunaburger]

I think it's one of the more silly complaints people use against DA2. Most of the time pushing a button did do something nifty, I don't know why people think that's a bad thing. Sure there were cases of going overboard, but on the whole I think it was a good idea.

Why is "button awesome" shorthand for all the terrible combat decisions in DA2?

In a nutshell.

Button-mashing aside, I don't want something "awesome" to happen every time I hit a button in an RPG. "Awesome" things happening are only actually awesome if they're a reward for good gameplay. For instance, in the game I'm playing right now, Brogue, fire literally looks like this: ^^^^^, except red. But when you trap a powerful enemy in a burning room, it's satisfying because it's the result of using your resources in a creative way. If, on the other hand, my character does some kind of complicated ninja flip every time I mash A, it gets old quickly.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I am quite into SRPG's at the moment thanks to FF:Tactics A2, and Disgaea... but I also love every other type of RPG... seriously! Well... maybe not MMO's, but that's just because I haven't played any! :S

I also for some reason thought we were going to be talking about Rocket Propelled Grenades... Damn work! :S

 

[Kotaro]

For me, the specific system doesn't matter as long as it's fun. I've enjoyed turn-based and action-based combat systems equally.