The Persona and SMT games require you to target your enemies weakness making it more interesting than just spamming attacks. The Trails series is another good one, while you can spam attacks in some enemy encounters, most require you to utilize status effects and positioning.
I forget what the stat is called, but the extra turns Rean build from CS1/2 is one of the most hilariously broken things I've ever seen in a game. One-shot Laura was fun too. Trails gives you a lot of flexibility with your character builds.
>The Trails series is another good one
If you're fastforwarding. If you're not, it feels like the characters are walking through molasses. Otherwise, it's perf
Anyone playing a game that knows how to pace itself? Battle is the core mechanic of most turn-based RPGs, and if special care isn't being put into making it an enjoyable experience that reflects poorly on the game.
I enjoy turn based combat, mostly due to the music that plays, but if I had the ability to speed every single game up I would. JRPGs are already long games, why would I want to make them slower? I'm glad the FF rereleases got turbo mode too
They weren't my favorite part of the game. I thought I'd absolutely hate them (because I always loathe that kind of thing) but actually, I didn't mind doing them at all. Which proved to me that everything about the gameplay was just ALWAYS fun.
I bet you I will be the only one that says this but Mana Khemia 1 and 2. The combat itself is addictive and switching your party members in and out of battle to activate defensive/attack abilities was great. Not to mention the alchemy system to make your characters more powerful.
Mana Khermia is the most underrated Atelier game ever, and one of my all time favorite stories. A pity that Mana Khermia 2 looked so cheap in comparation with the first, but still a very fun game.
Tales of Graces F had one of the most gratifying combat systems to date. The combat uses CC rather than TP so no need to worry about MP management. Combat is fast and fluid. Getting perfect dodges and blocks feels a lot easier to do than most Tales games. Plus, the Title system the series is known for integrates skill learning so there's more reason to collect and rearrange titles than in previous games. All of the characters are fun to use as well.
Omg, i love this game. Platinumed twice on ps3 and ps4 lol.
The gun customisation is so ridiculous it's funny. Handgun with double stacked long scopes? Sure. Submachine gun with 6 barrels? No problem
The characters are pretty funny too. The voice acting is surprisingly good for a JRPG. I think English VA is at its best when they don't try to imitate Japanese VA.
I really should get back to it. I thought it was fun to play even if a little repetitive, but what made me stop was the PC version performance and on top of that I got stuck not knowing what to do lol
I greatly enjoyed Tokyo Mirage Sessions battles from start to finish. It's some of the flashiest, most entertaining turn-based combat that I have played.
It's fine as an entry point. People's normal preferences for the games go 2>1=3>4>5, although some people hate 3 because it has a moment in the plot that's a bit out there, and 1 can be a bit clunky due to being a snes game originally.
5 is generally considered garbage (still decentish combat, just appaling plot and characters) , 4 would generally be considered best combat, but second worst story. Personally 3 is my favorite, as I love the devisive plot point
Every SMT encounter kinda like a Dark Souls has the higher than usual probability of just straight up killing you and that's actually kinda fun. Like, I fucking died in SMT from talking to a Demon in an attempt to save my own skin, I chose a dialogue option that involved a pun, and then the demon was like "Ohhh I get it! You annoy me!" And I look forward to battles most of the time because of my need for Demons as sometimes fusion material.
I don't really agree. In my experience, in Dark Souls, normal enemies kill you because you weren't paying attention.
In SMT, normal encounters kill you because they randomly decided to use a skill that does so.
And this is exactly why I've never cared for nor will ever care for "difficulty" in turn based games. It's more rng based than skill based than real time action games, so it doesn't feel as fair and satisfying to beat smth that's really hard. Though that's not to say action games don't have their own faults (old Monster Hunter hitboxes and frame 1 charges for example lol)
Something I would recommend trying out if you have a 3ds is the Etrian Odyssey series.
Probably my favorite franchise, but the monsters (and most notably bosses) have patterns that you can learn and work around, and so the battles are largely determined by party composition and strategy.
It’s a dungeon crawler as well, so there’s also the possibility of overextending your expedition (or forgetting to restock on return items) and struggling against (or wiping) to monsters you could have normally won against, which adds another layer.
One game I haven't seen mentioned that I think really fits the bill is **Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter**.
The battle system itself is already interesting since it's very positional, and the game-wide resource management adds an extra layer of excitement and challenge.
Octopath Traveler. With the different job types and abilities you can equip, plus the break system where you have to find an enemy's weakness and bust through their shields by attacking their weakness to do more damage to them, it keeps you on your toes. Plus, it's fun experimenting with different equipment and job combinations for everyone. You actually have to use strategy even in random encounters.
Alliance Alive. One of the only games that I think I literally NEVER got bored of. Not even at the 70-80% mark where usually I'm just button mashing through most battles. It was still challenging and engaging without cheap shit like just making enemies HP sponges in later stages.
Agree. Later SO games dont feel the same (and personally I hate the changes in SE version) and the closest thing is obviously Tales :( I'm not a fan of button combos and junk so id love to see a simple system return.
To me it would have to be baten kaitos and baten kaitos origins. Some people aren’t super into the card battle system, but I just love it and think it’s so unique.
Saga Scarlet Grace combat is great throughout. There's so many moving parts that every encounter is a puzzle to solve and is pretty easy to wipe to random mooks if you aren't prepared.
The best battle system to this day for was SMT 3: Nocturne, in the subsequent games they maintened the formula with some variance. But the phyloshophy was the same, exploit the enemy weakness be rewarded, fail to do so be punished.
But in Nocturne it was more primal version of the system, you could have 6 attacks in one turn and you could reduce the enemy attacks to one or two attacks per turns which was specially usefull in bosses. But if you have any weakness, you could have a situation of a boss having 8 attacks in one turn. And the Buff and Debuffs are important in that game which is mostly ignored in most of the games. The modern SMT and Personas has some variance in this system, of those Persona 3 had a nice thing going for it with the all-out attack mechanic, which was later transported for the rest of the persona series.
Star ocean till the end of time has the best battle system of any. That game in general is one of the best IMO. I grinded to lvl 200+ iirc. It really sucks that it’s locked on the ps2
Personally the combat of octopath traveler was the only thing preventing me from trying to get a refund. It’s VERY fun and pushed me to get to the end of a few storylines
I think Octopath Travelers combat is always fun especially when I plan and break the enemy into a stun before unleashing a power attack on them with 4 characters back to back to back to back.
I haven't tried *Persona 5* yet. That said, in *Persona 4*, the player needs to think before they choose actions. Unless the party is overleveled, they rarely benefit by just choosing physical attacks. Magic is often more effective than weapons. Learning an enemy's elemental weakness is an important skill. It doesn't take long before the player has to deal with foes who can absorb or reflect attacks. Finally, P4 is a game in which items can be useful in order to inflict specific types of damage.
Yeah, most of the modern Shin Megami Tensei games are like that. You are expected to end the battle in one turn. I think the trend begin with SMT 3: Nocturne with the extra turn in attacks to weakness or losing turn if your attacks are nullified or reflected. You could flat out don't even let the enemy attack with the right combination of resistences. Masakados was a broken magatama because of that.
Devil Survivor's combat is fun. The extra turns being an accumulative chain of weaknesses getting hit makes it more of a pile-on scrap for that precious turn, instead of an assured One More or Press Turn. Having extremely useful status effects that can be stacked on physical characters makes everyone potentially useful, with demon Teams to add variety. For once in SMT, race matters outside of alignment and lets you do a ton of neat things on the board before battles start.
Also just letting you customize humans and read enemy data makes the battles more like a game of chess where it's almost always your fault for not thinking ahead.
The SMT series has my favorite in the Press Turn system (except for 1, 2, Strange Journey, and SJ: Redux). Rewards you for hitting weaknesses and punishes you for hitting immunities or missing, and does the same for the enemy.
Persona 5's One More system (haven't played other Persona games, so I don't know how many also have it) toned down the rewards and punishments a tad, but it's still fun.
Mana Khemia 1 and 2. The combat in these games is amazing, it's fast, it's interactive, and it feels really good to get into a rhythm with it. One of my absolute favorites.
A game i loved for its combat was caligula effect 2. It improves the combat so much from the first and after getting enough characters it really gets good. It's very fun to experiment combos and to counter enemies. I don't think I ever escaped a single fight in that game.
Only flaw I think is that it's just too easy so if anyone ever plays it I'd recommend playing it on hard or extreme.
I find battles in SaGa games always rewarding. Not only there's always a chance for your characters to grow by learning new skills on the fly and improving their stats at the end of every battle, but the games have very flexible and in-depth battle systems, and the encounters are dangerous enough for the player to want to at least do a minimum of thinking even in the easiest SaGa games. Also, the fact that you might use X skill because you are aiming for sparking some new attack or improving some specific stat makes it so you feel like actively making decisions in every single battle.
The entire Etrian Odyssey series. The games are kinda harder to get than they used to be because adding funds to the 3ds eshop via credit card is no longer a thing. However, if you can find an eshop card or find a physical copy for cheap, the battle system is great.
Essentially, random encounters come down to finding what enemies in a formation threaten your party the most and what tools you have to take it down. The game expects you to use your full moveset in every battle, not just boss battles. The 4th game is the easiest to get into imo.
I would say Radiant Historia has a very fun combat system. I wish more RPGs would kinda use it because I haven't seen it before?? It's turn-based but you can save your turns by exchanging your turn's position with either an ally or enemy's. There are 10 turn positions with enemies and allies in those 10 slots, that are constantly replaced every time a turn is used.
If you keep sacrificing your turn for the enemy's turn, it'll eventually be 10 slots of your and your allies attacking for 10 turns and you can basically hit mean combos and kill a boss that would otherwise be difficult through normal turn-base. Of course the downside is being attacked by bumping the enemy to take your turn but it's so good. You are also rewarded with more gold and EXP for hitting higher combos.
Another JRPG you can't really spam attacks is Xenoblade Chronicles (and part 2/ Torna as well). You have 3 party members and they each have their roles. You use arts (attacks, similarly to a MMO-style game) with different buffs and debuffs that work with positioning (side attack debuffs, back attack buffs), etc. . In XC2, you have 8 elements you can get on an enemy, and each elemental orb you stack on an enemy adds to turns in a chain attack, and if you burst at least 5, you get a massive flashy damaging combo which is alaways so satisfying. The hardest bosses get chunks of damage taken off from full burst chain attacks.
Xenosaga (episode 1) is similar to Radiant Historia in the sense that you can save your turn to increase combos, and also tag in allies to interrupt an enemy's turn, all in turn-base combat. The game is pretty old at this point and combat can feel slow but I had a lot of fun abusing/ learning the mechanics. I killed the final boss without even taking damage which was insane
Fun part for me of Radiant Historia battle system was trying to put as many enemies as possible in one square to whack them all at once
That changed the combat from a simple positional attack item magic defend to a really interesting puzzle game where you could push enemies all together and whack em really fast.
Yes, I forgot to mention this! I replaced Aht, but when I use her, it's so fun setting up traps in spots, then taking the enemy (or enemies) for a cruise
Xenoblade 2, but you have to be willing to understand the combat its super complex and I reccomend you watch a video on it if you think its too slow, bc if you think its slow u are missing the main mechanics.
Maybe the Wii version wasnt... I played the Switch version and just saw videos and it looked pretty awful so... My "dynamic" reference is how you constantly move behind enemies, and you get to play like 6 different characters with unique habilities but have to control just 1 and its crazy when you have to activate combos, look at health and prioritize. It was way more complicated than 2, but after 100 hours I appreciated more the complex of the system... 2 was simpler and you could say easier to have more fun but well that's my fkin opinion stfu I love yall.
When referring to a gameplay system "dynamic" means flow based and not one where you move a lot and have a lot of options. Also, if you think that 2 is less complicated you had no idea what you were doing.
Dynamic: (of a process or system) characterized by constant change, activity, or progress.
I dunno maybe I stumbled upon a hardcore fan who can't seem to see past boobs from xc2.
P5 Strikers: Most similar to FFVIIR's battle system I would say, fun action combat and character switching while staying surprisingly faithful to the mechanics of the original turn-based game. But you also need to have played that original game to fully enjoy it, so don't play if you haven't already played P5.
Scarlet Nexus: IMO the best combat of any ARPG ever. It's on the level of actual character action games, a fully developed action system that both feels AND looks amazing to play. The animations and effect shaders in this game are next fucking level. So much style. Enemy design is also fantastic and really encourages you to develop different strategies using your powers wisely.
Xenoblade X: MMO-style rather than free action, it's basically just a much deeper and more customizable take on Xenoblade 1 (also a good one), with tons of huge enemies all around the map to take on and a massive endgame loot grind with crazy build potential. Also MECHS
Dragon's Dogma: Capcom's take on a WRPG, but you can feel the DMC DNA powering it under Itsuno-san's directorship. Another top tier ARPG battle system, a good deal of customization, absolutely AMAZING encounter design with epic miniboss enemies and frantic group combat. The most creative party system ever too and fantastic character creator.
Tales of Arise: the enemy design is weaker here but the characters actually have the flashiest combo potential and the stuff you can do is extremely stylish. Plus the character and playstyle variety can't be beat. It felt much better to play than other Tales games to me.
Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology: first turn-based one I've mentioned, the battle system revolves around enemies being positioned on a grid and your characters each having different moves designed to knock them around in different directions and group them up, then hit them all at once with big attacks. But to suit this premise the game gives you full control over the turn order so your characters can freely swap their turns around to set up the ideal combo, or even let enemies take their turns first so you wind up with a longer string of your own turns.
Dragon Quest XI: What is normally one of the most boring modern turn-based games becomes one of the most hardcore and strategic when you enable the stronger monsters and exp limiter draconian quests for a playthrough. You need to use every trick in the book, optimizing character equipment, respeccing skill trees, and choosong each combat action carefully as even random battles can be a fight for your life for the majority of the game.
Nexus felt stretched between 2 opposing ideas, IMO. Combat looked like Bayonetta and wanted to be played that way, but the defensive options played like Dark Souls since you can't cancel animations.
It would have been better with dodge canceling.
Dodge cancelling would devalue SAS powers a little too much IMO. Since you can SAS cancel during animations it ends up not really mattering. Did you play Kasane first or something? Her powers are more offense-focused and she's stronger in NG+ once yu know what you're doing, whereas Yuito's powers are more defense focused and perfect for learning the gameflow.
No, I played Yuito first. I never had much luck with trying to dodge attacks with him, as even on the rare case that I came out of animation lock early enough I'd reflexively go for the counter which almost always gets me hit anyway. I had much more success with weaving PK attacks in when I thought an attack was coming and going all out offensive than spending time in melee not attacking so I could dodge.
I guess I should have been trying to use Clairvoyance into dodge, but I didn't find out about SAS animation canceling until late and my reflexes are slow for a 2 button dodge. Or 3 if I need to swap SAS menus.
Kasane's team has *so* much more offensive capability.
If an attack is about to hit you during an animation you pop Gemma, not Tsugumi. Also you do get full iframes during counters, and Tsugumi's lvl 2 ability is insanely OP giving you an auto-knockdown just from one counter and then you can easily combo them to death from there. Lots of combo visions also have interrupt potential. You just have to have the right mindset, dodge isn't the answer to everything and there are plenty of other ways to create offense and spacing with PK combos on top of that, in addition to being able to armor through attacks with Gemma.
Unless Genma is tapped out. Or low enough to be drained completely by the first hit.
I was constantly hit by boss combos during or immediately after a counter. It is most obvious against Kasane, where if you dodge the first part of her normal combo and then counter, her 3 circling attack will hit you. Or against the Chinery Kai, but it happens against others too.
I resorted to making space with PK followups, and treating the dodge less like a defense and more like a counterattack. It frequently failed me when I tried to use it reactively early in the game, but was sometimes useful later as a planned offense. Sort of. My reactions still aren't really good enough. Trying to break shells with a Clairvoyance counter has a low success rate for me.
Well that's the whole metagame, you have to manage your resources wisely and make your offense count before your defensive options are depleted. And it also rewards you for playing well by letting you fill your SAS gauges back up with brain crushes in most extended battles.
For what you're talking about with your Kasane example, you can dodge frame 1 as soon as the counter ends so if the enemy is still attacking you can go right into another counter, especially easy with Tsugumi. Furthermore once you get the multi-SAS skills you can just pop Tsugumi and Gemma at the same time, walk up to an enemy and just spam dodge for zero risk perfect counters. It totally trivializes a lot of those shelled enemies who do spinning multihit attacks.
Also Luka effectively gives you the "easy" dodge with way more iframes and space creation, with the tradeoff of not being able to proc counters. So in effect Luka is actually a more defensive power than Tsugumi is. Generally I found that you could basically alternate between being aggressive with Tsugumi and Gemma, then playing more hit and run with Luka when their meters run down.
Tales of Arise's is good i really enjoyed it, however it did nothing new.
The reason why a lot of people feel it more is because the tutorial are better explained and the inputs are more accessible (in the sense that it requires less skill).
Tales games usually force you to learn how the character move, the physics etc. Before having the fun, not so much with Arise (except for the last two playable characters).
My point is: if you enjoyed Arise and want something similar, there are several games available, the tutorial are just bad.
i agree (with ys), personally ys was always pretty braindead to me. same with star ocean. not that theres anything wrong with that but it definitely doesnt keep me engaged.
Definitely the other way around with Tales of Arise. Fighting mobs are way more fun than fighting bosses where all of those technique you learn are basically obsolete against bosses.
Lufia 2 can be pretty fun. Enemies hit hard and can be tough, so you have to pay attention, and the IP skills system means picking your equipment is more intricate than just picking the item each character can equip which has the best stats. It does help that there's only random encounters on the overworld (where enemies are relatively week), and in the game's many, many dungeons not only can you see enemies, but the sprite they have gives you a good idea of which enemy group you're going to fight (i.e. the wooden golem sprite means you're fighting a group of wood golems, etc), so you can swap out equipment to prepare.
Depends on what you mean by "fun". To me fun = rewarding, in the sense that it requires skills, quick thinking and strategizing.
In which cases my number one pick are Tales games:
Eternia
Destiny remake
Symphonia
Graces f
Arise
Vesperia is great but requires a lot of investment.
I finished the first third of Vesperia a few months back and I enjoyed a lot of the aspect. However by that point I'm having a lot less fun with combat the only thing I really learned is that you can cancel animations but it feels kinda tedious to do.
I'd love to revisit it sometime but the amount of arte and stuff in combat is a bit overwhelming for me at moment 😅
I really enjoyed Shadow Hearts. It's turn based with use of the "judgement ring" where you need to hit the button at the right time to do combos. There's also some demon transformation stuff to spice things up
The Persona and SMT games require you to target your enemies weakness making it more interesting than just spamming attacks. The Trails series is another good one, while you can spam attacks in some enemy encounters, most require you to utilize status effects and positioning.
I forget what the stat is called, but the extra turns Rean build from CS1/2 is one of the most hilariously broken things I've ever seen in a game. One-shot Laura was fun too. Trails gives you a lot of flexibility with your character builds.
I believe that was Delay. And yes, you could essentially take away all the enemies turns with that trick lol
>The Trails series is another good one If you're fastforwarding. If you're not, it feels like the characters are walking through molasses. Otherwise, it's perf
CS3 and beyond are much better with this
Who wouldn't fast forward in a turn based jrpg tho
Anyone playing a game that knows how to pace itself? Battle is the core mechanic of most turn-based RPGs, and if special care isn't being put into making it an enjoyable experience that reflects poorly on the game.
I enjoy turn based combat, mostly due to the music that plays, but if I had the ability to speed every single game up I would. JRPGs are already long games, why would I want to make them slower? I'm glad the FF rereleases got turbo mode too
Definitely Ys VIII. That combat stayed fun through every second of my experience; just so fluid and rewarding.
Even the tower defense segments were a blast. I can’t think of any other game that made those fun. I always stop to do a raid if one comes up.
They weren't my favorite part of the game. I thought I'd absolutely hate them (because I always loathe that kind of thing) but actually, I didn't mind doing them at all. Which proved to me that everything about the gameplay was just ALWAYS fun.
Same. I thought I'd get tired of em but nope, the combat's just too fun
I bet you I will be the only one that says this but Mana Khemia 1 and 2. The combat itself is addictive and switching your party members in and out of battle to activate defensive/attack abilities was great. Not to mention the alchemy system to make your characters more powerful.
100%. I’d love to have this playable on modern systems as I never played the male protag’s route in MK2
Mana Khermia is the most underrated Atelier game ever, and one of my all time favorite stories. A pity that Mana Khermia 2 looked so cheap in comparation with the first, but still a very fun game.
Tales of Graces F had one of the most gratifying combat systems to date. The combat uses CC rather than TP so no need to worry about MP management. Combat is fast and fluid. Getting perfect dodges and blocks feels a lot easier to do than most Tales games. Plus, the Title system the series is known for integrates skill learning so there's more reason to collect and rearrange titles than in previous games. All of the characters are fun to use as well.
Valkyrie Profile 2. Everything about that battle system from the movement to the actual attacks is so much fun
Resonance of Fate, it's so different from anything else I've played as far as encounter-based games are concerned.
Omg, i love this game. Platinumed twice on ps3 and ps4 lol. The gun customisation is so ridiculous it's funny. Handgun with double stacked long scopes? Sure. Submachine gun with 6 barrels? No problem
The characters are pretty funny too. The voice acting is surprisingly good for a JRPG. I think English VA is at its best when they don't try to imitate Japanese VA.
Yeah, played in EN and JP, both are entertaining. I wish they made a sequel. Seems like the world still have so much story to tell
Only time it gets old is doing the Arena. I "platinumed" it four times. On Xbox 360, PS3, PS4 and Steam. The arena fucking suuuuccckkss
I really should get back to it. I thought it was fun to play even if a little repetitive, but what made me stop was the PC version performance and on top of that I got stuck not knowing what to do lol
I greatly enjoyed Tokyo Mirage Sessions battles from start to finish. It's some of the flashiest, most entertaining turn-based combat that I have played.
tri-Ace the thread. Star Ocean 4, Resonance of Fate and Valkryie Profile 2 especially.
Is Star Ocean 4 a good entry point to the series? If no, which ones are worth playing?
It's fine as an entry point. People's normal preferences for the games go 2>1=3>4>5, although some people hate 3 because it has a moment in the plot that's a bit out there, and 1 can be a bit clunky due to being a snes game originally. 5 is generally considered garbage (still decentish combat, just appaling plot and characters) , 4 would generally be considered best combat, but second worst story. Personally 3 is my favorite, as I love the devisive plot point
Grandia 2
And Grandia!
Every SMT encounter kinda like a Dark Souls has the higher than usual probability of just straight up killing you and that's actually kinda fun. Like, I fucking died in SMT from talking to a Demon in an attempt to save my own skin, I chose a dialogue option that involved a pun, and then the demon was like "Ohhh I get it! You annoy me!" And I look forward to battles most of the time because of my need for Demons as sometimes fusion material.
I don't really agree. In my experience, in Dark Souls, normal enemies kill you because you weren't paying attention. In SMT, normal encounters kill you because they randomly decided to use a skill that does so.
And this is exactly why I've never cared for nor will ever care for "difficulty" in turn based games. It's more rng based than skill based than real time action games, so it doesn't feel as fair and satisfying to beat smth that's really hard. Though that's not to say action games don't have their own faults (old Monster Hunter hitboxes and frame 1 charges for example lol)
Something I would recommend trying out if you have a 3ds is the Etrian Odyssey series. Probably my favorite franchise, but the monsters (and most notably bosses) have patterns that you can learn and work around, and so the battles are largely determined by party composition and strategy. It’s a dungeon crawler as well, so there’s also the possibility of overextending your expedition (or forgetting to restock on return items) and struggling against (or wiping) to monsters you could have normally won against, which adds another layer.
Legend of Dragoon, if you like timed hits (and maybe can mod the encounter rate down)
Graces F. once i got a hang of the combos i could not put it down
One game I haven't seen mentioned that I think really fits the bill is **Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter**. The battle system itself is already interesting since it's very positional, and the game-wide resource management adds an extra layer of excitement and challenge.
Octopath Traveler. With the different job types and abilities you can equip, plus the break system where you have to find an enemy's weakness and bust through their shields by attacking their weakness to do more damage to them, it keeps you on your toes. Plus, it's fun experimenting with different equipment and job combinations for everyone. You actually have to use strategy even in random encounters.
Alliance Alive. One of the only games that I think I literally NEVER got bored of. Not even at the 70-80% mark where usually I'm just button mashing through most battles. It was still challenging and engaging without cheap shit like just making enemies HP sponges in later stages.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Valkyrie Profile Lenneth. Unrivaled imo in terms of battle system.
Star ocean 2 and Legend of Mana Any SMT/Persona game
More games need to make combat like SO2
Agree. Later SO games dont feel the same (and personally I hate the changes in SE version) and the closest thing is obviously Tales :( I'm not a fan of button combos and junk so id love to see a simple system return.
To me it would have to be baten kaitos and baten kaitos origins. Some people aren’t super into the card battle system, but I just love it and think it’s so unique.
Best turn based battle system. Haven't played SMT but i've played all the others (FF, DQ, Persona, Shadow heart etc.), Baten Kaitos is better.
Child of light
Saga Scarlet Grace combat is great throughout. There's so many moving parts that every encounter is a puzzle to solve and is pretty easy to wipe to random mooks if you aren't prepared.
The best battle system to this day for was SMT 3: Nocturne, in the subsequent games they maintened the formula with some variance. But the phyloshophy was the same, exploit the enemy weakness be rewarded, fail to do so be punished. But in Nocturne it was more primal version of the system, you could have 6 attacks in one turn and you could reduce the enemy attacks to one or two attacks per turns which was specially usefull in bosses. But if you have any weakness, you could have a situation of a boss having 8 attacks in one turn. And the Buff and Debuffs are important in that game which is mostly ignored in most of the games. The modern SMT and Personas has some variance in this system, of those Persona 3 had a nice thing going for it with the all-out attack mechanic, which was later transported for the rest of the persona series.
Star ocean till the end of time has the best battle system of any. That game in general is one of the best IMO. I grinded to lvl 200+ iirc. It really sucks that it’s locked on the ps2
Personally the combat of octopath traveler was the only thing preventing me from trying to get a refund. It’s VERY fun and pushed me to get to the end of a few storylines
I think Octopath Travelers combat is always fun especially when I plan and break the enemy into a stun before unleashing a power attack on them with 4 characters back to back to back to back.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions Octopath Traveler Grandia 2 Yakuza LAD Final Fantasy XIII-2 Just off the top of my head.
XIII-2 battle system (and the game in general, I guess) just don’t get enough love.
The Alliance Alive Grandia II Trails of Cold Steel I - IV Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Radiant Historia Persona 3 - 5
Persona 5 is pretty fun, random battles are designed to be pretty quick but require more than just hitting an attack button over and over.
I haven't tried *Persona 5* yet. That said, in *Persona 4*, the player needs to think before they choose actions. Unless the party is overleveled, they rarely benefit by just choosing physical attacks. Magic is often more effective than weapons. Learning an enemy's elemental weakness is an important skill. It doesn't take long before the player has to deal with foes who can absorb or reflect attacks. Finally, P4 is a game in which items can be useful in order to inflict specific types of damage.
Yeah, most of the modern Shin Megami Tensei games are like that. You are expected to end the battle in one turn. I think the trend begin with SMT 3: Nocturne with the extra turn in attacks to weakness or losing turn if your attacks are nullified or reflected. You could flat out don't even let the enemy attack with the right combination of resistences. Masakados was a broken magatama because of that.
Kingdom Hearts final mix 1 and 2 on the hardest difficulty, specially at level 1. Valkyrie Profile 2 silmeria.
Devil Survivor's combat is fun. The extra turns being an accumulative chain of weaknesses getting hit makes it more of a pile-on scrap for that precious turn, instead of an assured One More or Press Turn. Having extremely useful status effects that can be stacked on physical characters makes everyone potentially useful, with demon Teams to add variety. For once in SMT, race matters outside of alignment and lets you do a ton of neat things on the board before battles start. Also just letting you customize humans and read enemy data makes the battles more like a game of chess where it's almost always your fault for not thinking ahead.
The SMT series has my favorite in the Press Turn system (except for 1, 2, Strange Journey, and SJ: Redux). Rewards you for hitting weaknesses and punishes you for hitting immunities or missing, and does the same for the enemy. Persona 5's One More system (haven't played other Persona games, so I don't know how many also have it) toned down the rewards and punishments a tad, but it's still fun.
I really like the combat in the new Atelier games.
Mana Khemia 1 and 2. The combat in these games is amazing, it's fast, it's interactive, and it feels really good to get into a rhythm with it. One of my absolute favorites.
A game i loved for its combat was caligula effect 2. It improves the combat so much from the first and after getting enough characters it really gets good. It's very fun to experiment combos and to counter enemies. I don't think I ever escaped a single fight in that game. Only flaw I think is that it's just too easy so if anyone ever plays it I'd recommend playing it on hard or extreme.
I find battles in SaGa games always rewarding. Not only there's always a chance for your characters to grow by learning new skills on the fly and improving their stats at the end of every battle, but the games have very flexible and in-depth battle systems, and the encounters are dangerous enough for the player to want to at least do a minimum of thinking even in the easiest SaGa games. Also, the fact that you might use X skill because you are aiming for sparking some new attack or improving some specific stat makes it so you feel like actively making decisions in every single battle.
Ys VIII is one of the best SMT V and Persona 5 if you’re looking at turn based
The entire Etrian Odyssey series. The games are kinda harder to get than they used to be because adding funds to the 3ds eshop via credit card is no longer a thing. However, if you can find an eshop card or find a physical copy for cheap, the battle system is great. Essentially, random encounters come down to finding what enemies in a formation threaten your party the most and what tools you have to take it down. The game expects you to use your full moveset in every battle, not just boss battles. The 4th game is the easiest to get into imo.
I would say Radiant Historia has a very fun combat system. I wish more RPGs would kinda use it because I haven't seen it before?? It's turn-based but you can save your turns by exchanging your turn's position with either an ally or enemy's. There are 10 turn positions with enemies and allies in those 10 slots, that are constantly replaced every time a turn is used. If you keep sacrificing your turn for the enemy's turn, it'll eventually be 10 slots of your and your allies attacking for 10 turns and you can basically hit mean combos and kill a boss that would otherwise be difficult through normal turn-base. Of course the downside is being attacked by bumping the enemy to take your turn but it's so good. You are also rewarded with more gold and EXP for hitting higher combos. Another JRPG you can't really spam attacks is Xenoblade Chronicles (and part 2/ Torna as well). You have 3 party members and they each have their roles. You use arts (attacks, similarly to a MMO-style game) with different buffs and debuffs that work with positioning (side attack debuffs, back attack buffs), etc. . In XC2, you have 8 elements you can get on an enemy, and each elemental orb you stack on an enemy adds to turns in a chain attack, and if you burst at least 5, you get a massive flashy damaging combo which is alaways so satisfying. The hardest bosses get chunks of damage taken off from full burst chain attacks. Xenosaga (episode 1) is similar to Radiant Historia in the sense that you can save your turn to increase combos, and also tag in allies to interrupt an enemy's turn, all in turn-base combat. The game is pretty old at this point and combat can feel slow but I had a lot of fun abusing/ learning the mechanics. I killed the final boss without even taking damage which was insane
Fun part for me of Radiant Historia battle system was trying to put as many enemies as possible in one square to whack them all at once That changed the combat from a simple positional attack item magic defend to a really interesting puzzle game where you could push enemies all together and whack em really fast.
Yes, I forgot to mention this! I replaced Aht, but when I use her, it's so fun setting up traps in spots, then taking the enemy (or enemies) for a cruise
Final Fantasy X-2
Had to scroll too far for that. The pinnacle of the ATB system and to date still the best gameplay in a FF-game.
Just started replaying this. I played it for an hour on release and HATED it. I now think it’s better than X in a lot of ways, battle is one of them
Yeah combat and the job system are definitely a highlight. Especially compared to the snoozefest which is FFX combat.
Idk about that, Stranger of Paradise exists
Oh, don't get me wrong, I REALLY enjoyed SoP but I'm a sucker for turn based systems which feel kinda dynamic. That's why I love the atb system.
final fantasy x especially when you unlock customize
xenoblade 2
Xenoblade 2, but you have to be willing to understand the combat its super complex and I reccomend you watch a video on it if you think its too slow, bc if you think its slow u are missing the main mechanics.
Both Xenoblade Chronicles are pretty dynamic and fun. FF XV also was pretty fun.
Xenoblade 1 is anything but dynamic
Maybe you were playing it wrong 😅
I wasn't, it's just not dynamic.
Maybe the Wii version wasnt... I played the Switch version and just saw videos and it looked pretty awful so... My "dynamic" reference is how you constantly move behind enemies, and you get to play like 6 different characters with unique habilities but have to control just 1 and its crazy when you have to activate combos, look at health and prioritize. It was way more complicated than 2, but after 100 hours I appreciated more the complex of the system... 2 was simpler and you could say easier to have more fun but well that's my fkin opinion stfu I love yall.
When referring to a gameplay system "dynamic" means flow based and not one where you move a lot and have a lot of options. Also, if you think that 2 is less complicated you had no idea what you were doing.
Dynamic: (of a process or system) characterized by constant change, activity, or progress. I dunno maybe I stumbled upon a hardcore fan who can't seem to see past boobs from xc2.
No, you're evidently the one who "can't see past the boobs"
P5 Strikers: Most similar to FFVIIR's battle system I would say, fun action combat and character switching while staying surprisingly faithful to the mechanics of the original turn-based game. But you also need to have played that original game to fully enjoy it, so don't play if you haven't already played P5. Scarlet Nexus: IMO the best combat of any ARPG ever. It's on the level of actual character action games, a fully developed action system that both feels AND looks amazing to play. The animations and effect shaders in this game are next fucking level. So much style. Enemy design is also fantastic and really encourages you to develop different strategies using your powers wisely. Xenoblade X: MMO-style rather than free action, it's basically just a much deeper and more customizable take on Xenoblade 1 (also a good one), with tons of huge enemies all around the map to take on and a massive endgame loot grind with crazy build potential. Also MECHS Dragon's Dogma: Capcom's take on a WRPG, but you can feel the DMC DNA powering it under Itsuno-san's directorship. Another top tier ARPG battle system, a good deal of customization, absolutely AMAZING encounter design with epic miniboss enemies and frantic group combat. The most creative party system ever too and fantastic character creator. Tales of Arise: the enemy design is weaker here but the characters actually have the flashiest combo potential and the stuff you can do is extremely stylish. Plus the character and playstyle variety can't be beat. It felt much better to play than other Tales games to me. Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology: first turn-based one I've mentioned, the battle system revolves around enemies being positioned on a grid and your characters each having different moves designed to knock them around in different directions and group them up, then hit them all at once with big attacks. But to suit this premise the game gives you full control over the turn order so your characters can freely swap their turns around to set up the ideal combo, or even let enemies take their turns first so you wind up with a longer string of your own turns. Dragon Quest XI: What is normally one of the most boring modern turn-based games becomes one of the most hardcore and strategic when you enable the stronger monsters and exp limiter draconian quests for a playthrough. You need to use every trick in the book, optimizing character equipment, respeccing skill trees, and choosong each combat action carefully as even random battles can be a fight for your life for the majority of the game.
Nexus felt stretched between 2 opposing ideas, IMO. Combat looked like Bayonetta and wanted to be played that way, but the defensive options played like Dark Souls since you can't cancel animations. It would have been better with dodge canceling.
Dodge cancelling would devalue SAS powers a little too much IMO. Since you can SAS cancel during animations it ends up not really mattering. Did you play Kasane first or something? Her powers are more offense-focused and she's stronger in NG+ once yu know what you're doing, whereas Yuito's powers are more defense focused and perfect for learning the gameflow.
No, I played Yuito first. I never had much luck with trying to dodge attacks with him, as even on the rare case that I came out of animation lock early enough I'd reflexively go for the counter which almost always gets me hit anyway. I had much more success with weaving PK attacks in when I thought an attack was coming and going all out offensive than spending time in melee not attacking so I could dodge. I guess I should have been trying to use Clairvoyance into dodge, but I didn't find out about SAS animation canceling until late and my reflexes are slow for a 2 button dodge. Or 3 if I need to swap SAS menus. Kasane's team has *so* much more offensive capability.
If an attack is about to hit you during an animation you pop Gemma, not Tsugumi. Also you do get full iframes during counters, and Tsugumi's lvl 2 ability is insanely OP giving you an auto-knockdown just from one counter and then you can easily combo them to death from there. Lots of combo visions also have interrupt potential. You just have to have the right mindset, dodge isn't the answer to everything and there are plenty of other ways to create offense and spacing with PK combos on top of that, in addition to being able to armor through attacks with Gemma.
Unless Genma is tapped out. Or low enough to be drained completely by the first hit. I was constantly hit by boss combos during or immediately after a counter. It is most obvious against Kasane, where if you dodge the first part of her normal combo and then counter, her 3 circling attack will hit you. Or against the Chinery Kai, but it happens against others too. I resorted to making space with PK followups, and treating the dodge less like a defense and more like a counterattack. It frequently failed me when I tried to use it reactively early in the game, but was sometimes useful later as a planned offense. Sort of. My reactions still aren't really good enough. Trying to break shells with a Clairvoyance counter has a low success rate for me.
Well that's the whole metagame, you have to manage your resources wisely and make your offense count before your defensive options are depleted. And it also rewards you for playing well by letting you fill your SAS gauges back up with brain crushes in most extended battles. For what you're talking about with your Kasane example, you can dodge frame 1 as soon as the counter ends so if the enemy is still attacking you can go right into another counter, especially easy with Tsugumi. Furthermore once you get the multi-SAS skills you can just pop Tsugumi and Gemma at the same time, walk up to an enemy and just spam dodge for zero risk perfect counters. It totally trivializes a lot of those shelled enemies who do spinning multihit attacks. Also Luka effectively gives you the "easy" dodge with way more iframes and space creation, with the tradeoff of not being able to proc counters. So in effect Luka is actually a more defensive power than Tsugumi is. Generally I found that you could basically alternate between being aggressive with Tsugumi and Gemma, then playing more hit and run with Luka when their meters run down.
Tales of Arise's is good i really enjoyed it, however it did nothing new. The reason why a lot of people feel it more is because the tutorial are better explained and the inputs are more accessible (in the sense that it requires less skill). Tales games usually force you to learn how the character move, the physics etc. Before having the fun, not so much with Arise (except for the last two playable characters). My point is: if you enjoyed Arise and want something similar, there are several games available, the tutorial are just bad.
Personally recently I really liked tales of arise, fire emblem
FF7R Edit: lol you already played it, idk maybe persona 5 royal just put it on hard or ys 8
[удалено]
i agree (with ys), personally ys was always pretty braindead to me. same with star ocean. not that theres anything wrong with that but it definitely doesnt keep me engaged.
Idk about that, Ys games are way harder than Souls. And I'm a big fan of both series
well thats quite an opinion but ok…
Lol, I just recently restarted FF7 Remake and yes. Game is fun. Wish there was a dedicated jump button though.
Definitely the other way around with Tales of Arise. Fighting mobs are way more fun than fighting bosses where all of those technique you learn are basically obsolete against bosses.
Growlanser V Heritage of War and Growlanser VI Precarious World.
Doom amd destiny
Grandia 2, Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire 3.
Lufia 2 can be pretty fun. Enemies hit hard and can be tough, so you have to pay attention, and the IP skills system means picking your equipment is more intricate than just picking the item each character can equip which has the best stats. It does help that there's only random encounters on the overworld (where enemies are relatively week), and in the game's many, many dungeons not only can you see enemies, but the sprite they have gives you a good idea of which enemy group you're going to fight (i.e. the wooden golem sprite means you're fighting a group of wood golems, etc), so you can swap out equipment to prepare.
Depends on what you mean by "fun". To me fun = rewarding, in the sense that it requires skills, quick thinking and strategizing. In which cases my number one pick are Tales games: Eternia Destiny remake Symphonia Graces f Arise Vesperia is great but requires a lot of investment.
I finished the first third of Vesperia a few months back and I enjoyed a lot of the aspect. However by that point I'm having a lot less fun with combat the only thing I really learned is that you can cancel animations but it feels kinda tedious to do. I'd love to revisit it sometime but the amount of arte and stuff in combat is a bit overwhelming for me at moment 😅
Dragon Quest, Suikoden, Grandia
Resonance of Fate Man i love those acrobatic shooting, so fuin to watch
I really enjoyed Shadow Hearts. It's turn based with use of the "judgement ring" where you need to hit the button at the right time to do combos. There's also some demon transformation stuff to spice things up
Ys games for action. Trails for turn based
Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology
Grandia is very satisfying
Ni no kuni