Forum Overview :: Reviews :: Re: Oh bitch you did not just

[quote name="Nomura Dau Don"][quote name="Ice Cream Jonsey"][quote name="Nomura Dau Don"]Anyway tl;dr - it's not popular for no reason, it's just popular for no <i>good</i> (i.e. legitimately gameplay-based) reason.[/quote] It would be nice to see an FF game with a non JRPG combat interface. I know this will never happen, but still. I yearn. ICJ[/quote] I don't want to be the faglord who is proposing a solution to something that isn't actually a problem, but I will cheerfully spec out some FF battle systems (all of which are "JRPG" in the sense of "you must pick an action every turn from a menu, you have a party of 3-4 characters to manage while you do this.") FF1-FF6: pick action per character, standard actions pretty much are "fight" "magic" "item" and sometimes "special character action." Character roles are fixed. FF5 (and 4 also? can't remember. or is it 4 and not 5?) had a job system in which you could develop your characters into whatever roles you pleased, but it was best to pick an order and stick with it. FF7+9: standard actions modified by what "materia" you had and how much you'd levelled it. In FF9, read "bits of outfit" for materia, and keep in mind that your character keeps a learned ability rather than losing it to materia tradeoff. The caveat: not everyone can use every ability. Character roles are semi-fixed, more in 7 than 9. FF8: standard actions + extended abilities granted by levelling GF by fighting. GFs or summons in this game work like a combination of summons and materia in FF7. FF8 is special for a number of reasons. One of these is that monsters are calibrated to your level, rather than there being level-specific monsters in various areas. It's also possible to play the entire game against level 1 monsters and just use the Triple Triad minigame to get all the shit you need to max out your guys once you get the Card abilities on Quezacoatl. I have in fact won the game this way so. Character roles are encouraged by stat development and Limit Breaks (i.e. what your character does when he or she goes super saiyan), but not specifically fixed FFX: standard actions, except it's theoretically possible for everyone to learn every ability EXCEPT summoning - that's Yuna-exclusive - or overdrives, but those are basically interchangeable damage-dealers. The smart strategy in FFX is just to buff Yuna past all recognition since, once you get the Bahamut summon (and Anima if that's your thing), her summons get +stats for her stats. Has the best villain, since he's not wrong, he's just an asshole. FFX2: why are you playing this? I hope because you like grinding. I'm always surprised when I go back and read my mostly positive review of this game, since it sucks balls. Anyway, it's another everyone can learn every action more or less, and character roles are interchangeable on the fly. That's pretty much the only good thing I can say about it now. FF12: everyone can learn everything, char roles are encouraged by stat development but nothing else. Most interesting in this one: you can more or less program your characters to fight the battles themselves, or you can elect to control everyone if that's your deal. It sounds nicer than I can explain here - rather, it's very nice if you're someone who, like me, enjoys watching video games as much as playing them. FF13: hybrid of FF12, FFX, FFX2 - sounds (and looks) more complicated than it is. Long story short: character roles are fixed but fixed within a scope (i.e. your character can be a fighter and a healer, a healer and a debuffer, a debuffer / fighter / tank, but cannot access all four available roles (damage dealer / buffer / debuffer / tank) nor all abilities within a role type. You the player control only the leader of your three-man party, the other two guys are AI controlled. [/quote]