Allo everyone,

I'm just interested what other RPG fans on these boards consider their favorite RPG battle systems.

Mine are as follows...

Overall - Shadow Hearts: From the New World, engaging, strategic and fun.
Action - Kingdom Hearts 2, full of fun smashy.
Old Fashioned - Xenosaga 3, I really liked the Break system.

I loved the Oblivion system.

Although its technically not an RPG my favorite is mass effect.

Second up is oblivion just because the third person view seemed tacked on and pointless.

Third is kingdom hearts chain of memories

and finally is Final Fantasy 12, not because I enjoyed the controls but just so I would have an excuse to point out to the developers that it sucked.

ert3:

and finally is Final Fantasy 12, not because I enjoyed the controls but just so I would have an excuse to point out to the developers that it sucked.

Really? I though FF12's battle system would have been fine if anything but "Attack" had been a decent combat option, the big mistake was having Technics be WAY too useless and making the bosses un-scannable.

I did really like the system in Oblivion, especially how so many skills had direct combat applications and bonuses applied to them. I only wish there were MORE skills to choose from, so the game would be worth replaying.

Ditto for chains of memories.

My favourite has got to be .hack//gu and star ocean 3 style of battle. It's more active and fast pace. Just starting to like the tales battle system too.

My fave RPG battle system would have to be The legend of dragoon, just because the ability to power up your attacks by timing the X button Correctly Just gave it tht little bit more interaction tht i needed, but overall Any thing FinalFantasy-ish ( beside's Tacticts, Crystal chronicals, or XI-XII ) Im just a sucker for a good old EPIC turn based battle.

I think I'm probably one of 3 (including the OP! <3) people that liked the Shadow Hearts battle system (judgement rings). It added another element for me and I enjoyed it a lot. In that sense, the way Lost Odyssey (rings) adapts similar battle system elements is quite excellent as well.

My favorite RPG battle system, to be honest, was the time based for power up, turn-based goodness of "Super Mario RPG". It was interactive and turn based. Perfect for someone that takes his time doing strategy but also gets bored when he can play by clicking the buttons while reading a book and still getting the same winning result.

Kn1f3ySp00ny:
My fave RPG battle system would have to be The legend of dragoon, just because the ability to power up your attacks by timing the X button Correctly Just gave it tht little bit more interaction tht i needed.

Legend of Dragoons was okay... my main problem was that you had NO abilities other than "Attack" when you were out of Dragoon Form. Also if you liked LOD's battle system, Try Shadow Hearts: Covenant, it's like LOD except with more options and a better story. It's also VERY VERY funny.

I was already convinced that I was the only person on the planet who understood what Chain of Memories' system was about. All I've heard until now has been "Cards!?! Awful, awful, it must be awful!!! Won't even try to like it! No, no, no! Why isn't it more like KH1???".
But really, it's one of those rare systems that blend action with tactics without seams.

Final fantasy seven. It required fast thinking combines with a degree of tactical consideration. Plus the enemies were a lot harder than any other RPG's

That being said, I'm playing Fallout 2 at the moment, and I find it's turn-based system to be sufficently intuitive and enjoyable to make the game pleasant.

Also played Baldur's gate- nice combination of tactics and action -and the pause-command feature was excellent.

FF12-I like the return to the ATB battles, but the queing up of orders and 'Gambits' was so overdone it killed a lot of fun in the game. If they had slowed down the combat a little, and given the player more control over the party it would have turned out better.

Fondant:
Final fantasy seven. It required fast thinking combines with a degree of tactical consideration. Plus the enemies were a lot harder than any other RPG's

I found FFX-2 to have the best battle system out of the final fantasies, despite it's AWEFUL story. I really enjoyed the fast action + Turn based goodness, like the fact that I could use Rapid Fire to hold back an enemy attack while my warrior delivered the killing blow.

It sort of hit a nice nirvana of Action and Control, since what I hate so much about most realtime battle systems is the craptacular AI for the characters you aren't controlling.

Anything in real time. (mass effect,oblivion etc)

I have to agree with you on X-2, Pedro. Even though the story was crap it had an addictive gameplay that I loved. Definetely one of the fastest turn based style games I've played and enjoyed. I always hated ff7 for having a slow atb system. Sure it was more active, but it was too slow for me. Even ff12 had th same problem of being too slow and breaking the flow of being active. It should be either fast or be an actual turn base game like ff10 or lost odyssey

Oh, forgot about X-2. That was an excellent battle system, which seems to becoming unusual for RPGs these days.

PedroSteckecilo:

Really? I though FF12's battle system would have been fine if anything but "Attack" had been a decent combat option, the big mistake was having Technics be WAY too useless and making the bosses un-scannable.

Magic is much more useful in FFXII than it is in any FF game since 4, mostly because you have regenerative MP and MP regain on kill for magic users, which means that your casters don't run out of the stuff halfway through the dungeon and have to piddle about with knives for the rest of the time. Also, the fact that buffs persist between fights made them much more useful because you don't have to use up one turn out of a three turn battle to cast the buggers. (High level spells had problems, their animations locked out all other casting, so you couldn't heal whilst you used them, which was either an odd design decision or a concession to the limits of the PS2 whilst not having the top level spells look too weedy)

Technics (bar Steal) were admittedly not very useful, but they were generally the kind of one-off things that you might only need to do occasionally anyway, so you just left them to manually activate when needed.

Overall though, FFXII, and also the game it most resembles, Knights of the Old Republic, did a very good job at mechanically controlled combat. (KotOR was possibly hampered by the D20 system and the inherent limits thereof, but as a system for representing mechanical combat on computers and consoles it was fine)

Vagrant Story; neither turn based or real time, just the perfect balance.

laikenf:
Vagrant Story; neither turn based or real time, just the perfect balance.

Battle System...Very Yes.
Difficulty...Very No.

I found far too many of the bossfights epic-grind stupid hard, and I wasn't having any fun while I was doing it so I decided to sell the game back when it was worth something.

My favorite systems are still the RT/TB combos present in BG, NWN, KOTOR and ME. Simple and immersive. [And yes, ME is still an RPG]

That being said, my favorite "pure" TB systems are from:

1) Fallout 2 ("The bullet rattles around in his skull")
2) Final Fantasy 4 (Espers are still the best system, better than Materia by a longshot)
3) X-Com (TFTD and UFO Defense/Enemy Unknown) [While they may be tactical games, they have as many RPG elements as FF4.]

Yeah I also liked Mass Effect, did a really good job of meshing Shooters and RPG's while still feeling like both. Can't say I liked Never Winter Nights though, moslty because it hampered by being built around DnD... which is designed for 4 Characters, not 1.

I really liked the combat system in Legend of Legaia - a mix of traditional turn-based and fighting games with combo-based attacks. It was sweet whenever you learned a new combo.

I also like the combat sytems in the Baldur's Gate games, Fallout, Mass Effect, KOTOR.

Pedro: Yeah, I never was all that fond of the original. But NWN2 really manages to fix that problem by allowing you to actually have the "iconic party."

Of course, I love any game that allows you to "Smite Evil" and cast "Fireball" with any sort of satisfying explosive effect (Realmz anyone?), so I may not be the most unbiased observer.

But still, I really don't see much difference between Kotor, NWN(1 and 2), and BG where it comes to combat systems. ME has a delightful "shooter" vibe, but I can still feel the dice rolling behind the screen.

Even though the sheer impossible difficulty and the amount of enemies on screen were just insane I still say Odin Sphere had a good battle mechanic. Set aside from turn based or more open style type games Odin Sphere brought a new type of gameplay that was fun and exciting. The inventory mechanic was probably the best out of the game since it was simple, but necessary for the game. The only problem other than the difficulty curve is the lack of moves you could do.

slaygore:
Even though the sheer impossible difficulty and the amount of enemies on screen were just insane I still say Odin Sphere had a good battle mechanic. Set aside from turn based or more open style type games Odin Sphere brought a new type of gameplay that was fun and exciting. The inventory mechanic was probably the best out of the game since it was simple, but necessary for the game. The only problem other than the difficulty curve is the lack of moves you could do.

I got annoyed at the shear repitition but yeah, it was still a neat game.

Grandia II. I really enjoyed the time-based nature of attacks (not unique to Grandia II of course, but I thought that game handled it extremely well.)

I also very much enjoyed the Judgment Ring of the Shadow Hearts games. I also appreciated the mechanic in SMT: Nocturne that allowed you to either run the battles on a script, or play them out by hand, as your mood suited.

gameking218:
I loved the Oblivion system.

I agree. the Oblivion combat system is flawless in my opinion. but KH:CoM? when has a card battle game EVER been good? Some of my fav's are Mass Effect and Blue Dragon (simply because its sorta old stlye turn-based combat).

Baten Kaitos, all the way!

The only system that was truly, deeply enjoyable. Takes some time to get used to (I only met people who abandoned the game after a first try) but once you get it, it keeps you on the tip of your chair till the end

Anything else... nah everything pales compared to Baten.

What I absolutely HATED was with the FFV remake I've played: real-time and turn-based combined. Had all the disadvantages of both. It wasn't as rushy and cool as real-time, but you didn't feel in control or tactical with a turn-based system either... meh

First post!

Yeah I really liked the Oblivion battle system. Just because it was very visceral, quick and exciting. And the magic system complemented it perfectly.

Also Vagrant Story's battle system was amazing and the best I've played in a non-WRPG Then again I haven't played all that many JRPGs. I prefer it to FF though.

tobyornottoby:
Baten Kaitos, all the way!

The only system that was truly, deeply enjoyable. Takes some time to get used to (I only met people who abandoned the game after a first try) but once you get it, it keeps you on the tip of your chair till the end

Anything else... nah everything pales compared to Baten.

What I absolutely HATED was with the FFV remake I've played: real-time and turn-based combined. Had all the disadvantages of both. It wasn't as rushy and cool as real-time, but you didn't feel in control or tactical with a turn-based system either... meh

I really enjoyed how some of the cards changed over time in Baten Kaitos. That was definitely a fun element.

A few games I liked the battle system of were already mentioned. FFVII, Grandia2, and Vagrant Story. I didn't all that much like the battle system of KH2 - I thought it was horrible, actually. There was the kill button, which you hit most of the time. And the infamous Instakill button on the side. On top of that there were so many stars and fireworks going off that I couldn't tell what was going on during a fight. By far one of the few games where battling meant I could turn off my mind and hit one button continuously.

ChronoTrigger I enjoyed battling on. Like FF12, it had the enemies right there instead of random encounters, and like other old rpgs, CT had a nice strategic play to it.

Not an rpg, but I really liked battling on Ratchet and Clank - especially the third one. There wasn't much in the way of strategy as rpgs have, but they did battling right. Big freaking awesome and diverse weapons, lots of shit to blow up, and half the time I had to think before running out and getting Ratchet pumped full of non-existent holes.

Grandia.
Vandal Hearts (strategy wise).
Legend Of Legaia.

In that order.

I really liked Oblivion, but Disgaea 2 is still my favourite RPG. I suppose the combat system is technically from the first Disgaea, but whatever. It kicks ass either way.

Crisis Core- A great active time battle which makes excellent use of the materia system, it's A LOT more useful in this game than it is in FF7. With full control of zack being able to move him about ducking, dodging and blocking. The materia is easy to use and is set up to be used more strategically. It's a pretty solid hack n slash battle system which never gets old, especially with the DMW always spinning giving random bonuses and special abilities, keeps experiences fresh.

FF6- Every character was unique!! they all had their own signature abilities to go with all the magic spells they could learn. Each signature ability was useful in certain situations and added a good strategic edge to it. On top of that, the espers just made it one of the most effective battle systems of many RPG's. Anyone could equip any esper and learn any spell, allowing characters full customization making them be jack of all trades, masters of black magic, healers, ect.. on top of that espers also added stat and level bonuses to go with their summon abilities which varied from devastating attacks, to status inducing spell. This system was absolutely AMAZING for its time and still is quite a wonder.

Chrono Trigger- This can be simplified with 2 words, SIMPLE and FUN. Battles where not overly complex, enemies where seen on the world map and where fully animated sprites unlike FF's still pictures... With only 3 simple commands one would think it's nothing special but the tech system (which was also used in chrono cross)was AWESOME. Characters could perform attacks that varied which could hit one enemy or many depending on positioning on the playing field. To add onto that they could perform more advanced techs like dual and triple techs!! which allowed 2 or all 3 characters in your party to perform a devistating and not to mention really cool looking attack. it really gave a sense of team work between the characters, as if they were aware of each other unlike in other RPG's where they sometimes seem oblivious to their other allies.

Those are my top 3 battle systems that I thought where great, i would go on rambling about my other favs but I will just list the rest.

-FF tactics/ ogre battle games
-Zelda
-Golden Sun
-Legend on Dragoon
-Legend of legia
-Mega Man battle network games

and the list goes on...most systems are good in their own way, they tend to fit the game well most of the time.

KoTOR.

As one of my favorite games ever, I have to mention Final Fantasy X. I don't really know what it was about it, but I guess the flexibility in switching out members and the strategy that could be involved really made me like that turn-based system.

Final Fantasy X-2 was a surprise to me. I hadn't played alot of RPGs with real-time or ATB systems at that point so when I played it and enjoyed the system it was a first. I think part of the enjoyment came in being able to just manage the three characters, as opposed to something like Final Fantasy 12 where the system was fun, but making all the gambits out and trying to keep the party evenly leveled sort of made it tedious.

I have to mention Golden Sun 1 & 2 before this post ends as well. There wasn't really anything groundbreaking about it's system, but it's execution was flawless. I also loved the Djinn system since it really added a chance to be creative with the way you took your characters into each and every battle.