Best battle system?
 

Which RPG had the best battle system? Only include systems where, when the battle occurs you 'teleport' to the battle field, you're on one side the enemies on the other, and turn-based combat ensues, so not something like FFT. Compare things such as pleasing graphic quality, Technically interesting etc, and also remember the time in which the game was made (so for example, final fantasy X's battle system is not better than FF1's just cause the graphics are better). My personal favourite is Rudra's Treasure (Rudora no hirou), a japanese game that was not made into an english game. Things such as it's smooth, and beautiful graphics, in every aspect except a few spells (words flying across the screen), weapons that could hurt all enemies at once, amazing spell system, and others cause me to think this. Oh yeah, and the music is SO COOL, it isn't funny. They SHOULD have translated this game for us, I would buy it in less than a heartbeat. Anyways, what do y'all think?

No, but FFX's is better on the basis that it run's smoother, you can see exactly how every move will affect your turns, and every character has a slot to be filled, but that it's not necessary to have them for 100% of the time.

Anyway... with the way you set it up, my favorite battle systems (parasite eve, orphen, the lunar games, etc.) have all been nulled.

I'm going to say FFX for the reasons above, BoFIII for dragon genes and the mentor system... umm... the wild arms games for the 'force' system. Particularily the second one, because I liked the personal skills. Oh, and Legend of Dragoon get's points for the combo system.

I'm not sure which of those I like the most.

They should have sent alot of games over here like Tales of Phantasia and a host of NES/SNES RPGS, but anyway.

For me, my favorite RPG battle systems are a toss up between Chrono Trigger and Suikoden II. They both happen to be very similar as well, however Chrono Trigger is Distance and Time Based and Suikoden is Turn Based. However, they both have multiple Techs, both are very Anime Character centered and both just have a ton of time put into them.

Grr. Don't remind me of Tales of Phantasia. It's still being held back because it's too adult or offensive or something. "We aren't ready" or some such BS.

And by the way, what actual effect did distance have in Chrono Trigger? I don't remember any weapon ranges or movement of any kind.

Anyway, if you only include battles which do not occur on the main field and which are not tactical, that really loses a lot of RPGs. I seem to remember Chrono Trigger's battles take place on the field, so that would leave that out. Not to mention most fairly recent PC RPGs.

Still, a few I can think of worthy of mention:

Betrayal at Krondor - Turn-based with movement, yet both simple and deep.

Wizardry VII - Really good mechanics. JRPGs tend to favor extremely primitive hit/damage mechanics. How many actually consider an attack that hits but is deflected by armor. Wiz VII featured a hit/miss system based on avoidance, multiple zones of impact each with its own AC value, penetration of said armor, and then damage based on attack type. Thus if you had a really slick breastplate but no helmet and took one to the head you'd be damaged much more easily.

Grandia 2: For having a system that actually tried to at least partly resemble a battle. The characters had to reach their opponents to strike and thus distance really mattered. And it was quick and easy.

Pool of Radiance My outright innovation vote. An amazing implementation of AD&D combat rules back 15 years ago. Turn-based and tactical it could handle indoor and outdoor battles, had such elements as attacks of opportunity, time to complete certain actions like spell casting, and delayed turns. Ranged weapons really meant something, and area effect spells had to be used wisely to avoid hitting party members.

How was Lunar nullified? It meets the requirements Light's Warrior-mun set. Granted, the characters do get moved around on the field a lot, but still...

I personally liked Legend of Legaia. Fighting game combat taken to a turn-based RPG system; something that hadn't really been done before. Sure, there was the King of Fighters and Samurai Showdown RPGs, but the fights were actual fighting game fights, not turn-based. So, yeah, Legend of Legaia's system was revolutionary and awesome.

I liked the "Fallout tactics" squad turn based system. That was proberly the easyest to use.

FFT is turn based, enemies on one side or the other, fits everything he said too... except you can move your characters around to more strategic positions.

Lunar battle systems are like FFT light. Which is like some other game I can't think of.

I think FFT falls into its own catagory of Tactics games. Lunar, you input all the commands at the start of the turn, and watch it develop from there. Besides, characters and enemies stay on relatively opposite sides of the screen. In FFT, you can ometimes find yourself surrounded on ALL sides by enemies.

Which also remins me of Ephemeral Fantasia's battle system. There were always two battle ettings; either you surrouned the enemy, or the enemy surrounded you. And depending on which was the case, different spells were effective or ineffective.

I liked Skies of Arcadia. I liked how spells and speciall attacks had to be drawn from the same pool for all characters (plus the mp cost for spells, but it was never that much). I also liked the element base and how you could switch a weapons element in the middle of battle to best suit the enemy. I did kind of miss the ATB from FF, but you can't have everything.

I think what he was trying to get at was RPGs that are not tactical/RPG hybrids or strategy games with RPG elements. Games where you don't just travel from combat map to combat map. I think.

You're just describing the difference between turn-based and phased combat. In turn-based you make each character's move as it comes up and in phased you input all commands for a turn then watch it unfold. Ultima used the former and Wizardry the latter. Phased is obviously a subtype of turn-based. The only thing is that the FFT system is a little slow for a game as combat heavy as a regular RPG.

The ability to be surrounded is mostly what you do with the combat system then the system itself. Unless it's a system that doesn't support 360 degrees of enemy placement that is.

I'd point out that the tactical combat system where you can move your characters around on a grid predates the system where you see your characters line up on one side of the screen and stay put. The former made its appearance in 1983 (Ultima) and the latter in 1985 (Phantasie).