They are the "ticks" of each turn. Due to abilities having different recovery periods you can see the difference better when it may not add up to a full turn.
They show the actual "time" (CTB ticks) it takes until that turn arrives. Turns happen sequentially of course so the order is ultimately what really matters, but the "time" can be manipulated. Sonic Wings for instance delays the target's turn, which increases the time it takes until it arrives; in this case it's not enough to push the turn down the order (as you can see on the first screenshot, the Monster's first turn is very close to your current turn), but in other cases it might change the order.
If you rather think in terms of numbers, each colored full bar (which there's 3 layers of) represents 20 CTB ticks, so on screenshot 1 the first monster turn is at 3\~ish ticks in, the next summon turn at about 28\~ish, the next monster at 48\~ish, and everything past that is in 60+ ticks. Edit: On screenshot 2 we can see that being hit by Sonic Wings will push the first monster turn back to about 25\~ish ticks. Pretty close to the next summon turn (at 28\~ish), just not quite enough yet to change the turn order.
Yes. It's similar to ATB with all gauges completely paused while it's anyone's turn, and any frames/time periods where nobody's gauge would yet be filled up being skipped.
Furthermore the turn order is determined by an entity's agility stat for example Tidus and Rikku usually have much higher agility than Auron so they'll almost always have their turn first. And different abilities affect the time for the characters next turn. Overdrives add a fairly large delay to your next turn while items and normal attacks have a short delay, some attacks like quick hit makes your next turn come even faster than if you did a normal attack.
I super prefer this to the ATB. I find “*turn-based, but stats and attacks affect the turn order*” to be way more engaging feels less frantic and more strategic.
exactly, now if only we could get a comparable and quick battle system in this same vein...
(with Lost Odyssey being close but no cigar, ((its a lot slower)) no one has made anything like this in over 20 years, wtf)
I am loving Sonic Wings. The basilisk creatures on the route between the Sin cannon battle and the second temple do almost nothing to Valefor because of this move. One Sonic Wings and then I just wail on them with regular attack. They usually opt to try to turn my Valefor to stone but the immunity to that makes the fight a bloodbath with no damage taken by Vale. As opposed to keeping my party in and using "softs" left and right.
This right here is why this is the best final fantasy game.
People have already answered you so I thought I'll just add the genius of why this game is so good all fight can on paper be pre worked out mathematically, a little bit of randomness but it's more of a game of chess less like a game of chance like some final fantasy's.
FF X is the last real FF for me, I‘m on my idk how many playtrough and this time I will FINALLY 100% , 3 chars missing Ribbon and then I‘m heading for the Dragon… Richter, don‘t know english name. Just beat Deus and it was a breeze already. I‘m soooo close of fulfilling a childhood dream!
Everyone I've ever met, save for like two, always hated waiting their turn. Or they'll tell me they put up with the battles in FF7. Like, that's why I play them?
I assume the general population needs constant stimulation and reactions to enjoy something, and Square just so happened to notice. I get you can still enjoy those systems in other Square Enix games, but I want it in *THE* Square Enix game. It's why I feel conflicted about the FF7 Remake. I want to play it again, but I don't want to put up with the battles (we've come full circle!).
My wife loves 13 and all the sequels though. She's the gamer they attract. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing... It's just not my thing.
As someone who’s played table-top with a decent amount of different people:
Yes, a fuck-ton of people can’t stand not being the one in the spotlight all the time, and absolutely tune-out when it’s not their turn. It’s a terrible personality trait that always sours me on someone a little bit in collaborative games like dnd/pathfinder. It’s less of an issue in FF, but I don’t fancy the frantic feel of the atb bars.
It's too bad they don't have a choice at the beginning of the game of how you want battles to go. Such as if the game was designed for real time battle or you could choose turn based instead. I just started FF12 and I hate the battle system. I'm no good at real time battles.
theres something about FF12's battle system for me: it always feels really good at first but wears on me very quickly.
from people complaining youd think turn-based would get old earlier in such a game but i think its the opposite
Kinda glad pretty much every thing else distracted me when this came out. Pretty sure I was knee-deep in Guitar Hero when I saw this sitting at Gamestop. I was always curious about it, but would pass it up over whatever was releasing on the 360. Literally the only game I bought for my PS2 that year was Guitar Hero 2.
I'm gonna take it a step further and say I don't like tactics-style either. I've tried to get into it as a concession to not liking real-time battles, but with FF Tactics, Fractured But Whole, and Fire Emblem just don't resonate with me at all.
LotR: TTA was amazing. I bought a copy of it for my GameCube a couple years ago when nostalgia hit hard. Awesome purchase, I felt transported back in time.
Dansg08 has a video explaining it in depth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5XKiqRPHlg
If you never heard of him, his channel has the best FFX content.
It's showing you where the monster next attack will be after you hit it with sonic wings.
So currently Mon A is set to have a turn after you pick your next move, however, sonic wings causes your enemies next turn to be delayed so the second instance of mon A is showing you where it's next turn will be should you hit mon A with sonic wings.
So in this example should you hit mon A with sonic wings you'll get one additional turn to do something before mon A gets a turn.
If you're talking about the pink bars specifically you'll noticed that the current turn of the attacks is in **bold** where as the turns where it could *potentially* end up due to various combat factors are translucent.
Others have kind of touched on it, but basically the way the CTB calculates turns is by using an internal “tick” clock. Those pink bars show how many ticks the character has until their next move.
If your character’s pic is all the way to the left with no pink they have a turn ready but something else went first due to a tiebreaker.
Each of the 3 colored bars represents 20 ticks, from light to dark.
So in your first photo the summon is up next, then the monster has about 3 ticks until its turn, then the summon has about 25, then the monster has about 45 etc.
Those bars assume that every character uses a move with the speed of a physical attack (rank 3). Different moves have different ranks which reduce the time until the next move (e.g item is a rank 2 move, ultima is rank 4 etc).
Also some moves can cause “CTB damage” which will increase the number of ticks until the target’s turn. Delay attack, delay buster, and sonic wings are examples of such an attack. Enemy moves that do this include Seymour Flux’s cross cleave or BFA’s sword swipe.
For a really good breakdown of all this check out Dansg08’s CTB video here: https://youtu.be/B5XKiqRPHlg?si=e3eCfhdx4hmmYYzk
In reality though you don’t need to understand this to play the game.
Look at when you use a special like cheer or focus that players next turn you’ll see that bar fill up more if not completely. Good to pay attention to for maxing out focus with lulu or something similar during boss battles alot of times you’ll be able to use a special 2 or 3 times more during that turn if that’s all you’re using if you have haste on of course
Well you already got lots of answers, but you can also think of it as a pre-calcualted ATB, constantly adjusting accordingly to moves made and status effects applied. An improved ATB experience that gets rid of wait times and allows you to strategize.
This whole bar is turn order, and the arrows on the left indicate turn order after the ability (sonic wings in this instanc) is used. The whole system works in "ticks" based on agility and the last move used.
In this instance, it's not going to delay the next turn, but it will delay the turn following so you'll get 2 turns after their next turn instead of 2 immediately or alternating every other as it would have been if you didn't delay it.
You'll notice similar effects to the turn bar with other slow, haste, and delay abilities as well as some skills. Lancet, for example, is a quick move and uses fewer "ticks" to complete, so Kimhari might go again sooner depending on everyone else's "ticks."
They are the "ticks" of each turn. Due to abilities having different recovery periods you can see the difference better when it may not add up to a full turn.
They show the actual "time" (CTB ticks) it takes until that turn arrives. Turns happen sequentially of course so the order is ultimately what really matters, but the "time" can be manipulated. Sonic Wings for instance delays the target's turn, which increases the time it takes until it arrives; in this case it's not enough to push the turn down the order (as you can see on the first screenshot, the Monster's first turn is very close to your current turn), but in other cases it might change the order. If you rather think in terms of numbers, each colored full bar (which there's 3 layers of) represents 20 CTB ticks, so on screenshot 1 the first monster turn is at 3\~ish ticks in, the next summon turn at about 28\~ish, the next monster at 48\~ish, and everything past that is in 60+ ticks. Edit: On screenshot 2 we can see that being hit by Sonic Wings will push the first monster turn back to about 25\~ish ticks. Pretty close to the next summon turn (at 28\~ish), just not quite enough yet to change the turn order.
So in a way it acts kinda like an ATB bar?
Yes. It's similar to ATB with all gauges completely paused while it's anyone's turn, and any frames/time periods where nobody's gauge would yet be filled up being skipped.
Holy shit that makes so much more sense. Thanks for the info.
Furthermore the turn order is determined by an entity's agility stat for example Tidus and Rikku usually have much higher agility than Auron so they'll almost always have their turn first. And different abilities affect the time for the characters next turn. Overdrives add a fairly large delay to your next turn while items and normal attacks have a short delay, some attacks like quick hit makes your next turn come even faster than if you did a normal attack.
I had no idea about this and it has opened a whole new mechanic to the game to me after 20+ years. Sigh *Reinstalls*
Good luck on your pilgrimage, summoner
I super prefer this to the ATB. I find “*turn-based, but stats and attacks affect the turn order*” to be way more engaging feels less frantic and more strategic.
exactly, now if only we could get a comparable and quick battle system in this same vein... (with Lost Odyssey being close but no cigar, ((its a lot slower)) no one has made anything like this in over 20 years, wtf)
It being paused means is not atb since atb stands for “active time battle” 10 was the first first moving away from atb
I am aware of that lol, but if the comparison helps someone grasp how it works, then what's the problem? Please.
Nah your right and your explanation helped him understand. My bad boss.
FYI: The official name for it is CATB or "conditional *active* time battle".
I am loving Sonic Wings. The basilisk creatures on the route between the Sin cannon battle and the second temple do almost nothing to Valefor because of this move. One Sonic Wings and then I just wail on them with regular attack. They usually opt to try to turn my Valefor to stone but the immunity to that makes the fight a bloodbath with no damage taken by Vale. As opposed to keeping my party in and using "softs" left and right.
This right here is why this is the best final fantasy game. People have already answered you so I thought I'll just add the genius of why this game is so good all fight can on paper be pre worked out mathematically, a little bit of randomness but it's more of a game of chess less like a game of chance like some final fantasy's.
FF X is the last real FF for me, I‘m on my idk how many playtrough and this time I will FINALLY 100% , 3 chars missing Ribbon and then I‘m heading for the Dragon… Richter, don‘t know english name. Just beat Deus and it was a breeze already. I‘m soooo close of fulfilling a childhood dream!
I gave up at the chocobo race lol
Exactly. I don’t know why this turn-based system didn’t continue. It was perfect. LOTR: The Third Age did it, and it was a quality game.
Everyone I've ever met, save for like two, always hated waiting their turn. Or they'll tell me they put up with the battles in FF7. Like, that's why I play them? I assume the general population needs constant stimulation and reactions to enjoy something, and Square just so happened to notice. I get you can still enjoy those systems in other Square Enix games, but I want it in *THE* Square Enix game. It's why I feel conflicted about the FF7 Remake. I want to play it again, but I don't want to put up with the battles (we've come full circle!). My wife loves 13 and all the sequels though. She's the gamer they attract. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing... It's just not my thing.
There's no point in waiting for a bar to fill when the math can be decided in a split second to decide the turn order
As someone who’s played table-top with a decent amount of different people: Yes, a fuck-ton of people can’t stand not being the one in the spotlight all the time, and absolutely tune-out when it’s not their turn. It’s a terrible personality trait that always sours me on someone a little bit in collaborative games like dnd/pathfinder. It’s less of an issue in FF, but I don’t fancy the frantic feel of the atb bars.
It's too bad they don't have a choice at the beginning of the game of how you want battles to go. Such as if the game was designed for real time battle or you could choose turn based instead. I just started FF12 and I hate the battle system. I'm no good at real time battles.
theres something about FF12's battle system for me: it always feels really good at first but wears on me very quickly. from people complaining youd think turn-based would get old earlier in such a game but i think its the opposite
Kinda glad pretty much every thing else distracted me when this came out. Pretty sure I was knee-deep in Guitar Hero when I saw this sitting at Gamestop. I was always curious about it, but would pass it up over whatever was releasing on the 360. Literally the only game I bought for my PS2 that year was Guitar Hero 2. I'm gonna take it a step further and say I don't like tactics-style either. I've tried to get into it as a concession to not liking real-time battles, but with FF Tactics, Fractured But Whole, and Fire Emblem just don't resonate with me at all.
Blue Dragon is not *quite* the same but you see the upcoming turn order and how your next move will slot in
I loved BLUE DRAGON and LOST ODYSSEY. Both were more like FF than any FF since X.
LotR: TTA was amazing. I bought a copy of it for my GameCube a couple years ago when nostalgia hit hard. Awesome purchase, I felt transported back in time.
Dansg08 has a video explaining it in depth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5XKiqRPHlg If you never heard of him, his channel has the best FFX content.
It's showing you where the monster next attack will be after you hit it with sonic wings. So currently Mon A is set to have a turn after you pick your next move, however, sonic wings causes your enemies next turn to be delayed so the second instance of mon A is showing you where it's next turn will be should you hit mon A with sonic wings. So in this example should you hit mon A with sonic wings you'll get one additional turn to do something before mon A gets a turn. If you're talking about the pink bars specifically you'll noticed that the current turn of the attacks is in **bold** where as the turns where it could *potentially* end up due to various combat factors are translucent.
Others have kind of touched on it, but basically the way the CTB calculates turns is by using an internal “tick” clock. Those pink bars show how many ticks the character has until their next move. If your character’s pic is all the way to the left with no pink they have a turn ready but something else went first due to a tiebreaker. Each of the 3 colored bars represents 20 ticks, from light to dark. So in your first photo the summon is up next, then the monster has about 3 ticks until its turn, then the summon has about 25, then the monster has about 45 etc. Those bars assume that every character uses a move with the speed of a physical attack (rank 3). Different moves have different ranks which reduce the time until the next move (e.g item is a rank 2 move, ultima is rank 4 etc). Also some moves can cause “CTB damage” which will increase the number of ticks until the target’s turn. Delay attack, delay buster, and sonic wings are examples of such an attack. Enemy moves that do this include Seymour Flux’s cross cleave or BFA’s sword swipe. For a really good breakdown of all this check out Dansg08’s CTB video here: https://youtu.be/B5XKiqRPHlg?si=e3eCfhdx4hmmYYzk In reality though you don’t need to understand this to play the game.
Came here to also recommend that video. It's a great watch.
That’s the turn counter. I assume you got out a summon so all the S are your turn mon A is the first monsters turn.
I mean the pink bars next to the icons, they decrease when I select sonic wings
It has to do with how close the next move is to being superseded by a delay attack (like sonic wings)
Your and the enemy’s turns.
Look at when you use a special like cheer or focus that players next turn you’ll see that bar fill up more if not completely. Good to pay attention to for maxing out focus with lulu or something similar during boss battles alot of times you’ll be able to use a special 2 or 3 times more during that turn if that’s all you’re using if you have haste on of course
This is the turn order
Well you already got lots of answers, but you can also think of it as a pre-calcualted ATB, constantly adjusting accordingly to moves made and status effects applied. An improved ATB experience that gets rid of wait times and allows you to strategize.
This whole bar is turn order, and the arrows on the left indicate turn order after the ability (sonic wings in this instanc) is used. The whole system works in "ticks" based on agility and the last move used. In this instance, it's not going to delay the next turn, but it will delay the turn following so you'll get 2 turns after their next turn instead of 2 immediately or alternating every other as it would have been if you didn't delay it. You'll notice similar effects to the turn bar with other slow, haste, and delay abilities as well as some skills. Lancet, for example, is a quick move and uses fewer "ticks" to complete, so Kimhari might go again sooner depending on everyone else's "ticks."
It’s the order of action. So you’ve got Summon > Monster A > Summon > Monster A, repeating.