Turn Based combat, what are your feelings on it?

Mondai

Member
I personally love turn based combat and I wish it was the default combat system in every RPG, but that's just me. I am a little bummed that FF has seemingly abandoned it and I wish Square goes back to it in the future (though I doubt it will).
 
Turn based became my favourite genre in gaming. It's so exciting to me.
I started with Xcom Enemy Within/ Civ 5 then went to XCom Ufo Defense from 1994 to Baldurs Gate 3 today.
 
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I love turn based combat with a lot of synergies, e.g. combat in Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity Original Sin 2, and XCOM.

Not a big fan of them in JPRGs but enjoyed Yakuza 8 quite a lot.
 
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LOVE it! especially Press Turn in SMT.

I am a little bummed that FF has seemingly abandoned it and I wish Square goes back to it in the future (though I doubt it will).
As long Square still gives me turn based games like Bravely, Octopath and DQ I dont mind they experiment with FF games.
 
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Yea, I miss the old turn-based systems. I played FF10 on my Vita a few years ago and, sorry, it just felt way better to play than FF7R. I really don't like that combat system. The weird thing is that I feel like TB is more popular than it has been in years, at the same time Square ditched it.
 
I used to love turn based JRPG combat but now it bores me to tears. Almost all there games are just picking direct damage attacks from a menu until you win, and your levels and equipment matter way more than the choices you make in battle. And they are generally designed around fighting the same groups of enemies over and over again, to the point you know how a battle will play out the moment it begins.

I'll be happy if I never play another "you strand on one side, enemies stand on the other side, and you take turns hitting each other until you win" FF/DQ style battle system again.

SRPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics are a different story, I like those.
 
Like everything else. It can be amazing to shit. Depends on its implementation.

I will say, real-time combat is much harder to pull off, yet everyone has a hard-on for it and it's usually trash (FF7R, looking at you).
 
Pokémon or Civilization only, don't enjoy it anywhere else.


Hated the combat in Baldur's Gate 3 so much I dropped the game.
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Its amazing when there is actually enough strategic depth to require turns and calculation. Stuff like Lamplighters League I just played is phenomenal. Its not even possible to play it without pauses. If its not that complicated it can sometimes still be relaxing or stylistically fun, like Final Fantasy. Or it can be sped up since it can be wasted time.
 
It depends on the implementation. Not all games do it well. A lot of games just feel slow because of it and I find them boring.
 
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I was an AD&D kid from 1980 to 1984, and to me turn based combat was simply part and parcel of RPGs whether it was tabletop pencil & paper or a video game, there was no difference. It wasn't a "technology limitation" or whatever people used to say. RPG combat is meant to be abstract and purely mathematical. Frankly I think it was bad idea to implement any sort of "ATB" or time limit b.s. in the first place. But I suppose over the years I had my fill, because when FF pretty much did away with the notion of abstract combat with FFXII and especially XIII, I just didn't care anymore, I was over it. I mean, I'd hate to play some new remake of... I dunno, let's say Xenogears... with "new, modern real time action combat." Fuck THAT. But I'm not clamoring for FF to back to turn based or ATB. FFXVI can suck my balls, but FFVII Rebirth was damn good fun.
 
Used to love it. Now I don't. Takes forever to do anything, I get bored, and jank and clunkiness is the norm when there is complexity.
 
i love turn based, but it is truly a product of the past. technical limitations and all that.
it's just rifling through menus at the end of the day.
You do know there were action RPGs back then as well, like Star Ocean, Tales of and Mana series, so you are wrong.
 
worst combat type and game type in any game iv ever played. Iv watched countless trailers of games i thought id love only to be devastated by finding out its turn-based combat. horrible. i need action and prefer counters in my action combat games.
 
There have been a few turn-based games that I've enjoyed (Kotor, Child of Light, Lost Odyssey), but I usually avoid games with it. I prefer real-time combat with the ability to pause and issue orders.
 
turn-based combat, like a lot of things, is like the little girl with the little curl in the middle of her forehead: when it's good, it's very good, when it's bad, it's horrid...
 
I love it. Even when it's simple like older games.

I was HIGHLY skeptical of FF7 Remake being an action rpg, but in the end they did a pretty brilliant interpretation of atb. I knew they couldn't do turn based in today's market... but I knew that if they really, REALLY, wanted to, they could figure something out.

Their pausing action gameplay turned out to be amazing, though. And they are still making smaller rpg's turn based. I can live with that.
 
I like it when the whole game is played like that. If it's just for combat you have to handle the transition seamlessly for it not to feel weird.
 
I think the appeal of turn based JRPGs is that they superficially feel all strategic and sophisticated, but really you're just sitting there half paying attention, making the same braindead simple decisions over and over and getting hypnotized watching the numbers going up and up.
 
I really like tactical turn-based.
i find action turn-based ok.

in general, i prefer them to real time in RPGs save a few exceptions.
 
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Love it because I used to play tabletop games but I can understand people who don't like it. The main problem with turn-based games is that they should let you just throw it, it's painful to battle small npcs because you need to go back somewhere else, just do all the calculations yourself (to the game) and just tell me the result if I don't care the result of a battle but I'm forced to combat. Especially if the other option is mashing the X button 3 times for combo, 4 times for long combo, and adding an Y in the mix for a super combo like in Fire Emblem Warriors, that gets repetitive and boring pretty fast (I got so fed up with it that after I finished I didn't return for the postgame stuff, and dropped God Eater 3, Astral Chain and Nights of Azure 2 because they also were X-smashing games).

I think the appeal of turn based JRPGs is that they superficially feel all strategic and sophisticated, but really you're just sitting there half paying attention, making the same braindead simple decisions over and over and getting hypnotized watching the numbers going up and up.
The system has been dumbed down quite a lot since the very beginning. For example, auto-switching target when the target dies so that you don't lose your attack, or losing your whole turn if you attempt to run away but couldn't, or adding magic points and items to reduce the cost of spell casting instead of just having a set amount of uses of every spell, etc. That was removing the strategy element for new audiences.
 
Love it. No other type of game makes the hours melt away like turn-based does. Constantly engaged and running hundreds of possibilities through your head.

X-Coms 1 & 2; Into the Breach; Baldur's Gate 3; Darkest Dungeon; Civilization; Invisible, Inc; Shadowrun; SteamWorld Heist; West of Loathing; Mutant Year Zero; Battletech...so many good ones.
 
I think the appeal of turn based JRPGs is that they superficially feel all strategic and sophisticated, but really you're just sitting there half paying attention, making the same braindead simple decisions over and over and getting hypnotized watching the numbers going up and up.
I would love to see you try to beat SMTV boss like Khonsu Ra with "braindead simple decisions" and see how far that gets you.

I beat that guy on hard while MUCH lower level than him and he starts turn first to summon his allies then he immediately uses Megidolaon and if your demon party don't have enough HP then they will die right away.

But YOU can still beat it half sleep right?
 
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Love it. No other type of game makes the hours melt away like turn-based does. Constantly engaged and running hundreds of possibilities through your head.

X-Coms 1 & 2; Into the Breach; Baldur's Gate 3; Darkest Dungeon; Civilization; Invisible, Inc; Shadowrun; SteamWorld Heist; West of Loathing; Mutant Year Zero; Battletech...so many good ones.
I would recommend Phoenix Point to you with Terror from the Void Mod. Phoenix Point is from the og dev of Xcom Ufo Defense from 1994. I have around 100 hours into the mod. It's really great.
 
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I love them personally, but I admit not every game does it super well. I don't mind more action based combat RPG games, but I definitely prefer turn based.
 
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