The BEST and WORST Battle system/mechanic

So far every next gen FF, basically VII to XII, has had a totally facelifted Battle system… from Limit gauges to Trance… what are some of you favorite and worse guys…

Personally I can’t stand Trance…. IMH HUMBLE HUMBLE O Trance is crap… The only character who’s Trance was worth using was Zidane… however when they transformed they looked awesome… like Steiner… and sadly, your trance never lasted that long to be of any good use… unless like I said you used Zidane. So FFIX talks last place in my book…

FFVIII had a nice system…. but too overpowered, all together… with a few different abilities… oh who am I kidding, Recover, Revive, and Treatment…. why do I need magic lol? Well besides Stat builidng… I can honestly remember NOT using magic in that game one bit… maybe near the beginning but I highly doubt it.

FFVII was fair… not overpowered really until you get KOTR summon, MIME, MIME, MIME, Mr. MIME… But I still think that without that it was solid… nothing special. Not even Limit Lv 4 was overpowered… I mean compared to say….. Lionheart every turn with Aura…

FFX was really solid as well… nothing in there extremely cheap… even Bahamut wasn’t all powerful with Break limit, I did like the ATB bar on the side, kinda told you the effect of using an item, magic… and I think that it was nice that that mechanic was even introduced… awesome even. Use Ultima or Meteor… wait more then normal amount of turns before you get to act. Brings the playing field to normal.

FFX-2 I really really love the battle mechanics in this one… it was different, it’s quick, you can chain spells/attacks… they still somewhat implemented the "charge" period for using certain skills… certain things were cheesy.. like when your able to toss ANY item for free lol… makes you WANT to have to have an alchemist always in the party, or the Lady luck pause trick. But it was still great imo. We’ll overlook the Mog suit which I can’t remember the damn name.

FFXII The BEST system Mechanic… almost plays like a mix of FFX-2 with FFXI. I think the Gambits (lol… er.. Macros) Are pretty awesome.. they give PLENTY of options… personal favorite is Enemy weak vs. ____ Quick battles are awesome…. no waiting for the 40 sec long exp screen… which isn’t so bad but when your just lvl… just bring on the next mob already… and when your falling asleep…. which most of us have at one point…. you can practically just run into a mob and it does the work, ha. Not really an overpowering thing… I don’t really use Espers or Quickenings for that matter.. I know they can be devastating… especially the Quickenings and certain Espers. Only big deal I found was when I actually decided to finish up with the story… I have Vaan lvl 60… rest of party was about 54-55… and I pretty much just walked all over any boss for the rest of the game… I was a lil disappointed in that.. but still the way the system works is awesome… not to mention boss attacks… some of those attacks just look awesome…

Anyways this is gettin pretty long, post up so we can discuss about it
My order is: from worst to best
FFIX
FFVIII
FFVII
FFX
FFX-2
FFXII

Didnt mention FFXI because its a lil different with the 2hour thing and such so..

sorry, but this has already been done… here I’ll link you

Thread 36934

this is slightly different so I will play along.

from worst to best.

FFVIII
FFVII
FFIII
FFII
FFV
FFI
FFIV
FFIX
FFVI
FFXII
FFX

Thanks… can the mod delete this please? Feel like a HUGE noob… Just because I didnt see it dont mean it doesnt exist.. next time I search

This is different as it’s asking for a discussion, this is asking for ranks.

Mine is

FF10-2
FF10
FF6
FF3
FF5
FF12
FF8
FF9
FF7
FF2
FF4
FF1

Job Systems ftw.

Freya’s Trance was the only thing that made win against Necron jftr

From best to worst

FFX-2 (if only the presentation of the game, and it’s story weren’t so weak)
FFXII
FFVI
FFVII
FFVIII
FFIX
FFIV
FFV
FFIII
FFI
FFII

Freya’s Trance was the only thing that made win against Necron jftr

I remember her Jump givin me a victory over a boss or two… but still Trance just wasn’t appealing to me…. but there suits were awesome

I think ffix’s trance was the best. It was a buildup of emotion (not unlike many other ff games) that brought on the extra strength, so its only appropriate that you shouldn’t be able to "save" it until a boss battle (which is apparently why many people hate it). it makes the game more difficult, and much more fun in my opinion

Indeed. It’s pretty stupid when people think quality means being just the same as what came before or being ridiculously easy. The Trance mechanic made perfect sense within the context of the game and was implemented flawlessly. Complaints such as those you mentioned are nothing but the obnoxious whining of people who have no idea what they’re talking about.

And complains such as yours are the obnoxious righteousness of someone who can’t understand other people’s opinions.

Do you even realize what you just said? Let me make this clear for you. The use of the word "or" implies an addition to my own statement. Therefore, you were amending my statement to the following:

"Complaints such as those you mentioned are nothing but the obnoxious whining of people who have no idea what they’re talking about or the obnoxious righteousness of someone who can’t understand other people’s opinions."

Pretty funny stuff.

here, fixed for your little shit stirring brain.

Or the obnoxious righteousness of someone who can’t understand other people’s opinions.

Its been proven time and time again that opinions mean very little in these forums, especially in a thread thats practically inviting a debate to occur. If you or anyone would like to back up any opinions with some facts, then you’re more than welcome to. Otherwise don’t be expected to be taken seriously

We talk about opinions. My guess is that debating about an opinion is futile, but can be interesting if people like Prak can show respect for other people’s opinion, while elaborating on their ideas why they think otherwise. No need to insult people if you don’t agree with them. Give us your reason why you think otherwise and leave the retarded insults out of it. Otherwise, your showing us how narrow minded you are.

We talk about opinions. My guess is that debating about an opinion is futile, but can be interesting if people like Prak can show respect for other people’s opinion, while elaborating on their ideas why they think otherwise. No need to insult people if you don’t agree with them. Give us your reason why you think otherwise and leave the retarded insults out of it. Otherwise, your showing us how narrow minded you are.

Thank you couldn’t have said it better myself, in fact if you read what I said I said my HUMBLE opinion… I wasn’t on the attack to anyone who liked Trance even though I could of.

Have to agree with Hynad on that one… just showin us how narrow minded you can be.

–

I had a huge problem with FFIX’s "Trance" system. I personally think that it was the worst in the series, but it was only one of few flaws in the game. I’ve always liked the Limit Break system in FFVII; it was easy and it didn’t require a whole lot of work to handle. Those two games have the best battle systems if you ask me.

FFII had an interesting concept, but too flawed to truly work; Final Fantasy V’s job system was revolutionizing, but it too had huge flaws to fully rank up there. Final Fantasy VIII’s Junction was just annoying, as it required people to draw and constantly worry about drawing at the right time.

I still say Final Fantasy VII and FFIX.

I think IX was an awesome game personally… just Trance wasn’t workin for me.

Materia has always been pretty damn awesome in my book, I liked the options.

I think IX was an awesome game personally… just Trance wasn’t workin for me.

Materia has always been pretty damn awesome in my book, I liked the options.

the materia system made things waaaayy too easy. you could combine knights of the round or whatever unnecessarily powerful materia you have with a couple mimes and just press a button and wait for everyone of your enemies to fall. Don’t get me wrong, i think if they revised things for a future game it could be a very neat system. It definitely has potential, but lets face it: ff7 was ridiculously easy with it the way it was. Honestly, did you have any problem whatsoever fighting Sepheroph?

I never fought Sepheroph. But I remember the last boss, called Safer Sephiroth, didn’t give me any challenge. It took me about 5 minutes to beat him. Although the game was easy, the Materia system was neat. I liked how you could find many different combinations to improve your character’s battle behavior.

Final Fantasy VII was way too easy not solely because of materia but because you could duplicate your way to 99 Megalixirs. Seriously.

99 Megalixirs + Magic Pots = Shit load of Mastered and duplicated Materia.

Yeah way lame if you ask me.

Hynad and geese person, your opinions are bullshit. All opinions are bullshit by nature. When you defend your opinions, you defend nothing more than your own distorted perceptions of an immutable truth. I am better than you cunts because I look for that truth instead of forming ignorant opinions.

Hynad and geese person, your opinions are bullshit. All opinions are bullshit by nature. When you defend your opinions, you defend nothing more than your own distorted perceptions of an immutable truth. I am better than you cunts because I look for that truth instead of forming ignorant opinions.
Wow, you truly can not stand FFVII, can you? I don’t understand why you’re so adamant on converting everyone into not liking the game. It’s a waste of time, and no matter how we twist or turn it around, Final Fantasy owns a lot to its seventh edition. I actually happen to agree with you to some extend, but it is futile to fight its legion of fans. ><

Who said anything about FFVII?

Prak, you are the bullshit. If you are going after the truth, then obviously, you’re at the wrong place. Truth has nothing to do with the appreciation you have of something. If I like FFVII, it is true to me that this game was good. There are no definite way to say one’s appreciation of something is better than someone else’s appreciation. You’re proving once again you’re just a little stupid egotistic soul lost in his own delusions.

You’ve yet to formulate anything that can move this debate forward. You come in, attack people, and never make a point. Maybe that’s your idea of immutable truth (you have a very long way to go to find it in that case.). It only makes you look like a total fucktard.

Keep going. Seems like you like being a cunt.

It’s like you have this little key in your back. All I have to do is give it a little twist to wind you up and make you amuse me.

Nice little rant there. Now try to directly relate it to my own point without looking like an utter fool.

Also, I only seem egotistical and arrogant to those unfortunate souls who have never known the feeling of being perpetually correct in nearly all things. Were you my equal, you would understand.

LOL, you really need to come back down on earth. You have yet to formulate anything that include any immutable truth. You just come in and stir shit pretending to be better.

Also, I only seem egotistical and arrogant to those unfortunate souls who have never known the feeling of being perpetually correct in nearly all things.

No you seem that way because you rely on the use of insults and condescension in every of you post, without even coming with any kind of counter-argument.

I posted a very immutable truth a few posts back. It is the underlying truth behind a subject of debate, minus any personal impressions. I have my own view of the matter, certainly, but that’s not what I posted.

As for countering your arguments, I cannot do so unless your original counter-argument is directly related to my original point. Unfortunately, you make the mistake of looking at the situation as one of "I’m right and he’s not" instead of looking at the situation clearly to decide whether your original viewpoint is in need of revision. Because of that, your comprehension skills suffer and you wind up talking more to yourself than your intended target.

LOL, nice try there Prak. You try to bounce everything back at me.

Unfortunately, you make the mistake of looking at the situation as one of "I’m right and he’s not" instead of looking at the situation clearly to decide whether your original viewpoint is in need of revision.

My point is not in need of revision. I have stated my preference, and you come in and tell me I’m bullshit because you think you’re searching for truth and I’m not. What kind of truth are you looking for? There’s no definite way to judge a game’s battle mechanic as better than an other. It will always be an opinion you’ll formulate, no matter how detailed you make it. If you think there is, why not share it with us instead of attacking everyone who think differently than you do?

Are you even reading the conversation at all? I did not attack your preference. I did not say one thing’s characteristic is better than another’s. All I said was that a characteristic of one particular game is often judged unfairly by morons. I guess I must have struck a nerve with you.

Yes, your first post wasn’t directed at me, but then I explain that we share opinion, and that’s when you said my opinion is bullshit. So by calling my opinion bullshit, you did attack my preferences.

And because some people have a different opinion than yours, doesn’t mean they’re morons. You should go out sometimes, you may realize that you are not alone in this world.

I didn’t say your opinion is bullshit. I said all opinions are bullshit by their very nature. That does include yours, so you are half-correct, for all the good it may do you to be so.

It also includes yours, so why do you even bother coming here on a thread that is intended to be about bullshit?

There’s the difference. I don’t form opinions. I carefully avoid it. I look at things objectively and determine what the real facts are, even if my preferences are contrary to them.

You don’t formulate much facts. You come in and attack people.

You state your opinion on them, you don’t state any fact.

It is your opinion that opinions are bullshit. It’s not an undeniable truth.

I cannot stop laughing at you. It’s like a fucking circus with clowns that aren’t creepy and where the lions bite the bastards who whip them!

Honestly, at least I have reasons for making attacks, even if I am a bit arbitrary about it. You simply do it out of nothing more than spite for me, which puts me about four steps above you.

If it pleases you to believe so. Pretending to be better than anyone else will only prevent you from evolving. Which clearly, you’re showing us that’s what is happening to you.

Alright both of you cool it. Prak you are entitled to what you believe is the truth same goes for Hynad. The discussion isn’t on which FF battle system can be proven to be the best but rather which one people THINK is the best. Hynad you think prak is full of shit and egotistical Bastard who should be knocked off his stool. Prak you think Hynad and most Shriners are complete Morons myself inculded probably. Fine we got that move on and add depth to your sides instead of attacking each other.

As for Myself I liked most FFs Battle systems and same goes for their Limit/Trance/Specials. The only ones I despise are FFVI, FFVIII, And FFXII. FFVI because you aren’t even told about them I first discovered them when fighting Kefka with Relm. Most of their limits are useless or so Hard to get it is almost impossible to do. All I rememeber of it was that you needed to be at 10% health or so to get them. FFVIII the Low health problem. If I am going for a Limit I want to be able to use it without wondering if I will Die in the next hit or not. FFXII the fact Quickenings require Magic and aren’t independant of that sucks big time. Now these are all my opnions.

Truth is created not through someones words but rather someones idea then search for that ‘truth’. No truth is always a truth nor is no lie always a lie. Just like Yin and Yang each are reversable and morphable, Good into evil Evil into good, Truth into Lies Lies into truth. Our world is not stale and flat but rather Round and vibrant what is up becomes down and down into up with a round world.

FFX-2 had the best battle system. Fluid, high paced and a lot of fun. The sphere grid was simple to understand, and elminated the need for numerous characters who served no purpose in the story.

Also, I really liked Trance. It was implemented in a realistic way, and rather then a single, anti-climatic, over-power attack, you got a sustained bonus.

and rofl @ Hynad making an ass of himself also.

edit: Private Message: pointing finger at your sheep behavior
Today, 07:50 AM
Hynad
Grand Shriner

Hynad’s Avatar

Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Canada
Posts: 262

pointing finger at your sheep behavior
Your comments are not surprising, coming from someone who publicly lick the ass of Prak.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Apperently laughing at stupid people, proving themselves to be just that means i lick ass now.

an idiots guide to logic. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Hynad and geese person, your opinions are bullshit. All opinions are bullshit by nature. When you defend your opinions, you defend nothing more than your own distorted perceptions of an immutable truth. I am better than you cunts because I look for that truth instead of forming ignorant opinions.

I find that rather difficult to believe. If you really looked at things from a completely unbiased view, you would find at least some flaws with FFIX and some good things about FFVII, neither of which I have seen from you in all my time at this forum (granted, I haven’t been here very long, but I do look at a lot of threads). Unless we’re supposed to believe that FFIX is the epitome of gaming quality, and FFVII of gaming crappiness. I don’t think FFVII is that good of a game, but surely it’s not the worst thing ever produced by mankind?

If you search old threads, I have been known to give FFVII credit where it’s due. Heck, I’ve gone on record several times as saying that the majority of the first disc was pretty good.

As for FFIX, I have issues with it, but I never have reason to bring them up. I prefer to speak up when someone judges something unfairly instead of just chiming in with my own thoughts on things. To me, that makes all the difference between discussion and blathering.

Prak, to be blunt, your an idiot, Hynad and I weren’t even defending our opinions, we were just pointing out just how blatantly stupidit was for you to ATTACK OUR CHARACTER based on our opinion and somehow YOU blew it out of proportion…. but I doubt you’ll ever understand that cause your an idiot….

Done with you. Period. =)

Anyways yea I had said that about the materia linking in my first post, all it takes is a 2 MIME and KOTR… = finished =) Yea the sneaky lil item dupe is gay but hey thats a glitch… not a mechanic 😀

Done, eh? Let’s put that to the test, you unjustifiably self-righteous numbskull.

For one thing, did you even notice that my post was a direct reply to the one right before it and simply reinforced the idea it presented? I do not see you attacking the other guy. It looks like you’re just jumping on a bandwagon here.

Secondly, I did not directly attack anyone. I made a very general statement with sound reasoning. If I struck a nerve with you, that’s just too bad. If I wound up addressing you with that post, you’re a fucktard, plain and simple. That’s not my fault and I didn’t directly call you on it. You did it yourself.

OK, here something to refresh your memory.

Indeed. It’s pretty stupid when people think quality means being just the same as what came before or being ridiculously easy. The Trance mechanic made perfect sense within the context of the game and was implemented flawlessly. Complaints such as those you mentioned are nothing but the obnoxious whining of people who have no idea what they’re talking about.

And you call that not directly attacking someone? Prak, you really seed to do some introspection.

And look. No names are mentioned. However, if you’d like, I can edit that post to include your name as an example.

No names of course, you don’t need to put a name since the only person who complained about the Transe system at that point was pimpedoutgoose.

And if you actually paid attention, you might have noticed that the complaints I mentioned didn’t even match up to what he had said. I was responding to a single person, not attacking anyone in particular who had posted in the thread. You, however, are on some kind of witch hunt, it seems, and are determined to attack me for anything and everything you can find, no matter how fucking unreasonable it is. It’s pathetic.

–

This topic was redundant to start with. And in case you didn’t notice due to your overwhelming stupidity, they attacked me, you fuckwit.

–

No, what is pathetic is that you attack people, and then pretend you didn’t by playing semantics with everyone here. You take great pleasure in turning every thread you go in into derision.

You say you didn’t even match up what he said. You try to go around it because clearly you can find no better escape. Yet you did say "Complaints such as those you mentioned".

Pathetic? yeah, but you should use that word while looking in a mirror.

No, what is pathetic is that you attack people, and then pretend you didn’t by playing semantics with everyone here. You take great pleasure in turning every thread you go in into derision.

I only take pleasure in it because it is the right thing to do and I do it well.

You say you didn’t even match up what he said. You try to go around it because clearly you can find no better escape. Yet you did say "Complaints such as those you mentioned".

Take a look at these posts.

Personally I can’t stand Trance…. IMH HUMBLE HUMBLE O Trance is crap… The only character who’s Trance was worth using was Zidane… however when they transformed they looked awesome… like Steiner… and sadly, your trance never lasted that long to be of any good use… unless like I said you used Zidane. So FFIX talks last place in my book…

I think ffix’s trance was the best. It was a buildup of emotion (not unlike many other ff games) that brought on the extra strength, so its only appropriate that you shouldn’t be able to "save" it until a boss battle (which is apparently why many people hate it). it makes the game more difficult, and much more fun in my opinion

Indeed. It’s pretty stupid when people think quality means being just the same as what came before or being ridiculously easy. The Trance mechanic made perfect sense within the context of the game and was implemented flawlessly. Complaints such as those you mentioned are nothing but the obnoxious whining of people who have no idea what they’re talking about.

The complaints I referenced were the same ones terra child brought up, NONE OF WHICH were stated by your fellow idiot. Therefore, he was not attacked at all. If I struck a nerve, tough luck. It wasn’t intentional and it wasn’t malicious.

game, set, and match

Hynad just ignore him man, the truth is right there in the post…. we don’t have to deal with it
Terra child… seriously, read the post… i HOPE your not as dimwitted as your buddy Prak there, there is NO WAY he can be right… the last line in what he said is in to DIRECT REFERENCE to what I said, no names were needed. Hence, he was calling me an obnoxious whiner.

Anyways back on topic… When I read the FFXII Q&A thread, something was said by… I think Ultima.. not too sure I’d have to look. But something was said about theres really no way to really know about the Zodiac Spear unless you had a guide straight from the get go… isn’t that a weird lil mechanic, haven’t seen it at all in any FF, and the fact that you CAN’T open a chest is weird

Final Fantasy IX battle system was probably on of the better ones Square had, and definitely the best out of the PSX core Final Fantasy games for me. The Materia system was okay, but I really felt that it just ended up making everybody way too powerful with the ability to use any/all the abilities at once. A nice idea, but I just felt that it was poorly executed. I didn’t like VIII at all. Just way too broken. XII and X were okay, but still basically allowed everybody to have every spell/ability and powerups that made everybody similar aside from limits. Quickenings didn’t help, either, since once you got those the game really got easy with double/triple MP and all-out powerful attacks that bosses fell to way too easily.

I still liked Tactics the most because I do. Super duper.

I’d probably go

Tactics
VI
V
IX
IV
III
XII
VII
X
I
VIII
II

I just hate II. It is unique and all, but I just absolutely hate it.

It is kinda like the 12 hour time limit for FFIX there is no mention unless you press X in a single area with no mention at all beyond that. Zodiac spear you are aware of it since LP board shows it. So all it is luck and through search.
I still don’t know how people found it but I know others have gotten it by luck like Agent also there is a chance you can get it without the chest trick in Hene Mine but it is extremely rare but possible I know some shriners have gotten it.

If you search old threads, I have been known to give FFVII credit where it’s due. Heck, I’ve gone on record several times as saying that the majority of the first disc was pretty good.

As for FFIX, I have issues with it, but I never have reason to bring them up. I prefer to speak up when someone judges something unfairly instead of just chiming in with my own thoughts on things. To me, that makes all the difference between discussion and blathering.

Could you post some links? Not that I don’t believe you, but I’ve no wish to search through the mass of archived threads to find it, since I don’t know the age of these threads you speak of.

Could you post some links? Not that I don’t believe you, but I’ve no wish to search through the mass of archived threads to find it, since I don’t know the age of these threads you speak of.

I AM PRESIDENT OF WORLD, CAN VOUCH FOR WHAT PRAK SAYS IS TRUTH

So far every next gen FF, basically VII to XII, has had a totally facelifted Battle system… from Limit gauges to Trance… what are some of you favorite and worse guys…

Personally I can’t stand Trance…. IMH HUMBLE HUMBLE O Trance is crap… The only character who’s Trance was worth using was Zidane… however when they transformed they looked awesome… like Steiner… and sadly, your trance never lasted that long to be of any good use… unless like I said you used Zidane. So FFIX talks last place in my book…

Hm, I agree with that – the trances for a lot of the characters really did not offer anything spectacular. Zidane and Vivi probably had the most useful Trance stages to date.

FFVIII had a nice system…. but too overpowered, all together… with a few different abilities… oh who am I kidding, Recover, Revive, and Treatment…. why do I need magic lol? Well besides Stat builidng… I can honestly remember NOT using magic in that game one bit… maybe near the beginning but I highly doubt it.

I remember using Aura, Haste, Meltdown a lot – true that you did not have to use Magic a lot once you got the hang of junctioning. Too overpowered? Hm, it seemed alright to me o.o. The only thing that bugged me about the junction system was that yeah, you could build your stats up, but it was hard to find a magic that would readily protect you against most status attacks.

FFVII was fair… not overpowered really until you get KOTR summon, MIME, MIME, MIME, Mr. MIME… But I still think that without that it was solid… nothing special. Not even Limit Lv 4 was overpowered… I mean compared to say….. Lionheart every turn with Aura…

I was pretty disappointed with VII’s – there was nothing to it really, say from making a few materia combos. Limits, didn’t excite me a lot either. Never got up to the KOTR stage =P

FFX was really solid as well… nothing in there extremely cheap… even Bahamut wasn’t all powerful with Break limit, I did like the ATB bar on the side, kinda told you the effect of using an item, magic… and I think that it was nice that that mechanic was even introduced… awesome even. Use Ultima or Meteor… wait more then normal amount of turns before you get to act. Brings the playing field to normal.

I was never too keen on this system. Well, the Sphere Grid side of things anyway. However, I don’t know how I did it first time round, but I made Yuna extremely fast, and she could do 999,999HP of damaged with each physical hit of her staff. Either that, or it was 99 999HP of damage.

FFX-2 I really really love the battle mechanics in this one… it was different, it’s quick, you can chain spells/attacks… they still somewhat implemented the "charge" period for using certain skills… certain things were cheesy.. like when your able to toss ANY item for free lol… makes you WANT to have to have an alchemist always in the party, or the Lady luck pause trick. But it was still great imo. We’ll overlook the Mog suit which I can’t remember the damn name.

Ohoho, brilliant also imo. More realistic, the Garment Grids however, proved pretty useless. It seemed a bit of a pain having to go through certain changes before activating the effect. The Jobs were beautiful, especially Dark Knight.

[QUOTE]FFXII The BEST system Mechanic… almost plays like a mix of FFX-2 with FFXI. I think the Gambits (lol… er.. Macros) Are pretty awesome.. they give PLENTY of options… personal favorite is Enemy weak vs. ____ Quick battles are awesome…. no waiting for the 40 sec long exp screen… which isn’t so bad but when your just lvl… just bring on the next mob already… and when your falling asleep…. which most of us have at one point…. you can practically just run into a mob and it does the work, ha. Not really an overpowering thing… I don’t really use Espers or Quickenings for that matter.. I know they can be devastating… especially the Quickenings and certain Espers. Only big deal I found was when I actually decided to finish up with the story… I have Vaan lvl 60… rest of party was about 54-55… and I pretty much just walked all over any boss for the rest of the game… I was a lil disappointed in that.. but still the way the system works is awesome… not to mention boss attacks… some of those attacks just look awesome…

About the bosses, I don’t think you would find Omega, Hell Wyrm, and Yiazmat so easy, as also Ultima and Zodiark. In any FF game, once you reach a certain level, you could almost trounce any later bosses – for me, I beat Safer Sephiroth in FFVII below 60, for everyone. In IX, I overlevelled – I was above level 70 with most characters. In fact..I think I overlevelled with VIII, IV even. In X-2, I was nowhere near the level you were at the end of XII with my characters from X-2 – I was below level 50. 45 maybe? Gambits can be awesome, and there are a lot – I tend not to use them though when I don’t want to get ambushed by monsters which are too powerful for me. Ohoho – yeah, some of the boss attacks DO look neat =D

My favourite battle systems would probably go into a top 3

1. FFXII
2. FFVIII
3. FFX-2

Your right about the overleveling though… I do remember one hunt that took forever I think it was Fafnir, I also liked the Behemoth King… I like the big mobs, anyways though those both were semi difficult and did take time, especially fafnir.. and I was around 50 for those.. but yea I’m not gonna fight those mobs just yet, I started making a "perfect" file for XII so I’m doin that now, but I might load up the other file just to fight them

Hynad just ignore him man, the truth is right there in the post…. we don’t have to deal with it
Terra child… seriously, read the post… i HOPE your not as dimwitted as your buddy Prak there, there is NO WAY he can be right… the last line in what he said is in to DIRECT REFERENCE to what I said, no names were needed. Hence, he was calling me an obnoxious whiner.

You are an obnoxious whiner, as well as an absolute cunt in other regards. However, if you actually see a correllation between those previous posts, you are a moron in addition to being another useless member of the utterly pointless anti-Prak bandwagon.

I dont agree with the whole surge of emotion thing for trance. I mean surely a battle against Kuja would bring on trance more than getting hit by some random rubbish monster. Its just a waste being forced to use it when you dont want to. Flawless system indeed:rolleyes:

Saying it’s flawless isn’t the same as saying it can’t be improved.

I dont agree with the whole surge of emotion thing for trance. I mean surely a battle against Kuja would bring on trance more than getting hit by some random rubbish monster.

both are potential life-threatning situations. go figure.

You are an obnoxious whiner, as well as an absolute cunt in other regards. However, if you actually see a correllation between those previous posts, you are a moron in addition to being another useless member of the utterly pointless anti-Prak bandwagon.

lol anyways

Yea Trance takes forever to come and when you do get it, it’s gone within two turns of use… maybe if it lasted longer it would be more practical, or maybe if it came a lil quicker. I only used Trance maybe a few times throughout the whole game… Shame when compared to other FF games were you can use literally hundreds or in FFVIII’s case 😛 Thousands… Aura FTW

yeah, and that cause the battle system to be totally broken. gg.

I dont agree with the whole surge of emotion thing for trance. I mean surely a battle against Kuja would bring on trance more than getting hit by some random rubbish monster. Its just a waste being forced to use it when you dont want to. Flawless system indeed:rolleyes:

The fact that you’re forced to use it regardless of whether its ideal for you is why its better than others. Not only is it unrealistic to have a trance with all of your characters at once when going into every boss fight, but its also a pretty cheap way of winning while using little strategy (if any). The game mechanic increases the level of difficulty and need for a strategy for versing powerful enemies. In addition, there are no "clever" tricks to manipulate the amount of damage your characters are capable of to make them unstoppable.
In comparison, FFVII not only lets you save up limit breaks for each of your characters, but the flawed materia system makes just about every battle (including all sepherophs) ridiculously easy.
In FFX, i personally liked the overdrive mechanic, however it was too easy to manipulate the sphere grid to make your characters deliver max damage in every hit, thus destroying any point in even having an overdrive. The sin battle was an utter disappointment.

Yea Trance takes forever to come and when you do get it, it’s gone within two turns of use… maybe if it lasted longer it would be more practical, or maybe if it came a lil quicker. I only used Trance maybe a few times throughout the whole game… Shame when compared to other FF games were you can use literally hundreds or in FFVIII’s case Thousands… Aura FTW
Because Trance takes longer it makes the occurance more significant and enjoyable. There are ways of making Trance come more often, but thank god it never takes 3 hits for every trance to occur; the game would be beaten in a matter of hours. Oh, and I believe Trance gives you three hits (although I may be mistaken), but even so, if characters could get say 5 attacks for the duration of the trance, thats potentially 49995 hp worth of damage from one character alone, and there are three others out there hitting the same guy. Thats overkill.
Oh, and I remember Zidane going into Trance twice in one boss battle when I played for my first time.

Trance is figured on Damage to HP ratio the more damage the more Trance charge. Also does trance carry over from one battle to the next? It has been years since I played so I don’t recall.

I’m not sure that Trance’s realism really makes up for its lack of versatility. Gameplay mechanics tend to trump realism in JRPGs: it’s for this reason that gun-shot and sword attacks don’t kill you with one hit. I don’t really consider it a particularly prominent flaw in the game (at least, not enough that I would consider FFIX’s battle system to be anything close to ‘bad’) but the rather lethargic rate at which the trance bar charges, combined with the frustration of it going off when you don’t want it to, meant that I would never consider trying to incorporate it into my battle strategy. Having Zidane go into trance makes boss fights ridiculously easy though, so it’s probably for the better.

Anyway, I would probably say that either FFII, FFVIII or FFXII have the worst systems. It’s sad really, since they were all really neat ideas. FFII made leveling more ‘realistic’ (perhaps another example of why that’s not a great idea) but at the same time it made battles a chore. Having to cast magic in every battle just so your spells are powerful enough to take on bosses is slow, annoying process that makes grinding several times more annoying than in other JRPGs. Having to turn your weapons on yourself just to make sure you have a decent amount of HP isn’t great either. The Junctioning System in FFVIII was interesting and allowed for a great amount of customization but it allowed you to make your characters far too overpowered too quickly, turning almost all bosses up to the last 10% of the game a catwalk. FFXII’s system went for the ‘build your characters how you want’ system once again, yet ultimately the system gives you no reason to make your characters anything other than warrior-mages and will ultimately handicap you if you don’t follow this formula. Not only that, but Quickenings allow you to finish off most bosses with ease up to around the 40 hour mark in the game and even after they become redundant your battle strategy will only consist of “buff>attack>heal>attack>heal” etc. Not particularly fun, really.

For the best system, I would probably say FFIII DS. The extra customization element in FFV is nice, but most of the jobs aren’t particularly useful and you’ll no doubt find yourself using a combination of maybe up to 8 different jobs for the entire game. FFX-2 has a similar problem, as once you get the Dark Knight there is no reason to use any other physical class (except if you plan on using the Trigger Happy/Cat Nip trick). In FFIII DS, ever job has enough advantages and disadvantages to be useful the whole way through the game, with the possible exception of the Scholar. Despite the outdated battle mechanics, battles move very quickly so unlike many other FF games they never really become much of a chore. Short, sweat, challenging: definitely my favorite.

I really liked Final Fantasy 10’s battle system. The idea of swapping in and out party members during a battle was excellent in my opinion.

Also I liked the Aeon summoning. You could actually control the summon, rather it just being a one damage/status effect like move.

Finally, the Overdrive system was excellent. being able to choose how your overdrive meter is filled was a refreshing change from the limit break/trance, which are damage charged . Also I liked how each character had a different style of overdrive attacks.

So my order would be:
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy IX

I dont agree with the whole surge of emotion thing for trance. I mean surely a battle against Kuja would bring on trance more than getting hit by some random rubbish monster. Its just a waste being forced to use it when you dont want to. Flawless system indeed:rolleyes:

Thats why your characters get trance throughtout the game 🙂 Vivi with the Black Waltz, Zidane with that plant boss etc. But I get your point

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There were automatic trancs for Zidane, Vivi and Steiner as far as I remember. Also if there was a trance at Kuja and Necron the game would be just easier ;). I think trance was a good idea. Just look at FF X wit hthe overdrives. They did most of the work in boss fights for me, making the game really easy.

Anyone notice that Beserk in the other games wasn’t such a good status effect as it is in this one..

Beserk is your best friend in FFXII, practically want to use it against every boss… almost anyways

While final fantasy 12’s system had great potential, it was very poorly excecuted.

Final Fantasy 9 stands at the top of the heap as most satisfactory.

Bit late in my reply to this long-ish thread, but I’d really like to express my dislike for FFXII’s battle system.

My main gripe is about the difficulty of battles, mainly boss battles. It’s not that they aren’t difficult enough, it’s that the only way of beating many (if not all) bosses is simply to pummell them with quickening chains. Very few battles actually require strategy.

OK, that paticular point was not strictly speaking about the system, rather the retardedness of game difficulty.

But I have complaints about the system itself too.

For starters, Gambits are a good idea which Square spectacularly managed to cock up by making you find or buy the majority and not making some simple ones such as targeting an ice-weakness enemy with Blizzara available for much of the game. Why not just make them all available from the start? It defies belief why you would need to pay gil to learn how to target an enemy with an ice spell. The licence board is similarly retarded in that you need to spend licence points to learn how to wear a hat for example.

I would also say the system worked much better in FFX-2. Indeed that was the high point of the series in terms of battles, so why Square would get rid of quite possibly the best aspect of their previous effort and replace it with a terribly-implemented system, with the only ‘benefit’ seemingly being the lack of random battles, is beyond me.

Anyway here’s my list:

FFX-2
FFX
FFVIII/FFVI (liked the idea of having limits only when HP critical)
FFIX/FFVII/all the rest
FFXII

I think FF12 is actually one of the best systems they’ve come up with. The no random battles makes the game go so much faster and makes running through dungeons much more bareable. Theres nothing wrong with the gambit system at all imo. Great idea and ive been playing for like 13 hours and have yet to notice any ice enemies so screw you. You dont need magic. Also, what FF game did require strategy? Other than using ZOMG firaga on an ice enemy there was none. The licence system is a great idea although I may agree with you on the armour yet ive no real problem with it. I haven’t got half the armour i can equip at this stage so im not too worried.

There is nothing wrong with the battle system conceptually. It’s the fact that system doesn’t even begin to take advantage of itself until you tackle some of the harder sidequests that’s the problem. Even then you’ll mainly just be buffing up your characters and them letting them loose at the enemy with physical attacks. That’s not even mentioning quickenings, where 1-2 chains can kill a boss up to 30 hours into the game.

Ultimately, there are severe problems with a system that gives you a grand arsenal of offensive magic and then never makes any of it useful. There are also issues in a system that provides you with the ability to build characters however you want, yet gives you a significant advantage for building them all the exact same way.

Well I realise im a bit under leveled as usual but theres no way a 1-2 chain would kill a boss. What level are you people at!?!

1-2 Chains, not a 1-2 hit chain.

Thats a bit better I guess but I still doubt id kill a boss with that.

That’s all it took for me to kill most bosses from Demon Wall (when I first had quickenings on all characters) up to around Ahriman. The only notable exception was Elder Drake, which had more HP than usual for bosses at that point (I found out later he was optional). I don’t think I was particularly overleveled for the point I was either, being level 16 when I fought Demon wall up to level 33 when I fought Ahriman. I was, however, leveling both parties which may have made a difference.

From worst to best..

FFX-2
FFX
FF12
FF9
FF8
FF7

and I loved FFX-2’s system lol