Final Fantasy XIII Battle System Finally Revealed
To be honest, it has been very hard for me to really care about Final Fantasy XIII. Sure, it's the next installment in the legendary Final Fantasy series, but for me the series has been rather hit and miss over the years. The name Final Fantasy just doesn't immediately scream quality to me like it seems to for so many others. It takes a bit more than pretty screenshots and trailers to impress me; maybe, I don't know, actual gameplay details would be nice. Finally the wait has paid off, and thanks to PS3 Hyper's report on a recent Famitsu article, we have some details about how the battle system for the next Final Fantasy will pan out.
The first thing about Final Fantasy XIII's battle system is that all actions are controlled by an action stock. Each action has a number next to it, for example the basic attack command has a 1 next to it while the spell firaga has a 3. These numbers are used for the action slots, the three slots that appear directly above the commands. The ATB bar makes a return for the series, appearing in the screenshot under Lightning's name and the number 444, and is connected to the action slots. The report indicates that action slots will drain the ATB bar, with actions worth fewer slots draining less and actions worth all three slots draining the entire bar. Theoretically, this means that you could attack three times in a single turn, or attack once and then be able to use a more powerful spell like firaga sooner, allowing for some interesting strategies.
The top right of the screenshot shows a bar with the words chain and bonus above and below it. It is still unclear what the bonus refers to, although my guess is on an experience bonus, the chain seems to have a connection to limit breaks, since in some screenshots the word chain is replaced by the word break.
And finally, it was revealed that Final Fantasy XIII would follow in FFXII's footsteps by showing all enemies on the map. This means no more random encounters and no more battle transitions, even though the game will use a more traditional turn-based system than FFXII did. But Final Fantasy XIII will also be taking another part from the last Final Fantasy that has me less excited: you only control one character in battle. According to the article, other party members will provide follow-up attacks and you can switch to controlling them at any time, but you will always only be choosing commands for a single character.
Overall, the new battle system seems like both a step forward and a step back. I love the action slot idea, as it reminds me of Skies of Arcadia which I loved. But I'm worried about only controlling one character in battle. If a battle system is real-time, like the Tales of games, then I can handle AI controlled allies. But if the game is turn-based then I want to control my allies too. It's the reason why Persona 3 has been sitting on my shelf unfinished for so long, and I can easily see the same thing happening with Final Fantasy XIII
. I guess we'll find out how it all comes together soon enough though, since the demo for Final Fantasy XIII will be included in the (currently Japan only) blu-ray of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete arriving in three months.
More Details About Final Fantasy XIII Battle System, Vanille and the Demo [PS3 Hyper]
NaviFairy
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 8 January 2009
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: battle system, final fantasy XIII, Square-Enix
Whoa, calm down, no need to get so excited there, Navi.
I was expecting this... somehow, SE perfected the fighting in X-2, and then threw it all to hell. I haven't even bought XII yet, I didn't like the battles at all.
I'll wait and see how XIII turns out before I pass judgment, but it isn't looking too bright for the FF series. I was really looking forward to FFTA2, even bought it on the release date, putting all the other titles on hold... but I was let down. It's fun, but the story downright sucks. I miss the complex characters from the first FFTA and FFX, characters that actually made you think. Nowadays, SE characters always feels so bland and always act according to their roles. They never surprise the player.
Although, I have to agree that FFXII started out great, then it windled down a path of war and strife that you never really felt attached to. Like a bad movie of epic proportions. The action and shine is there, but the soul is lost because it was polished to a blinding sheen and somewhere along the road they forgot how to tell a good story. How to immerse the listener and let them participate, feeling important, instead of just acting out whatever they have to without anything that drives them to do it.
Looks great! I can't wait to play it on my Xbox 360!
I am assuming the one character at a time gameplay has been implemented to make the game easier for newcomers to play the game. Is is being released on the xbox after all. That does not bother me at all. You can make me play as a chicken for all i care as long as there is no level grind.
I like the return to the turn-base battle play but I'm also not keen on the 'control one character only' fact.
Why did they completely screw over the battle system after X?
Sure the lack of random battles is nice, but other than that it didn't really need changing imho...
I want random battles back, and I want Final Fantasy X's perfect battle system back.
While this does sound better than the crap that was FFXII's battle system, it still doesn't sound really amazing to me either. I guess if I want a true spiritual successor to the FF name, I should pick up Lost Odyssey instead.