RPG Battle Systems - what's your style?
 

Good battle systems are hard to find. A good one can actually make random encounters and level building enjoyable, while a bad one can turn the whole game into one big chore. What does it take to make a good system? Which games do you think exemplify these traits?

I have to say that my favourite system of all time is the one employed in Grandia II. I'm not sure if the other ones use it, as I haven't played them, but I love this system. Every thing moves at once, and there's just enough of an emphasis on strategy and timing to make the whole thing much more of a game in itself, without it being too much. The battles are fast paced, and they don't take forever to finish, so you don't get bored fast. I also like how special moves and regular attacks each had their own advantages, without one clearly being the solution for every scenario. I've noticed that in some other games, you either end up attacking, then refilling MP and attacking again, or constantly using regular attacks, while your attack spells sit around and take up space.

The 'critical,' function was so simple, but it added so much depth to the system. I feel the whole thing was executed perfectly.

I'm a huge fan of the system employed in the Mario RPG series, but especially in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. There were no random encounters, but there was actually skill involved with how you encountered an enemy on the map. (For example, if you jumped on the enemy on the map, you would get a free jump attack on them). And then the fact that the battles were somewhat active in that you had to press certain combinations of buttons at a given time or do something just right to get the maximum amount of damage. I also loved the magic system, which was refreshing from standard mana based attacks.

I've only played Mario RPG, but I liked that one a fair bit. It sounds pretty cool.

Xenogears had a good combat system for the humans. There was nothing really special about it, but the sheer volume of crap that you could pull off kept it from getting monotonous.

Good music is important, I think. Mitsuda and Uematsu have both made some really good battle songs.

Yeah, Grandia II was sweet. Plus they set it up so that you had to use all your abilities a lot in order to level them up and get new ones. You couldn't rely on just one attack/special move. Xenogears was cool too, with the special moves you had to learn by inputting different hit combos. Legend of Legaia had a similar system.

Another game I liked the battle engine on was Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits (I think that's the name - the newest Arc game for PS2). It was just strategic enough without being all FF Tactics up in your face. Just wish it was a little faster paced.

Chrono Trigger also rocked.

I loved the final fantasy X-2 system (the first time I played I got trashed), I just wish that I could control where my characters ran. I also liked seeing how much spells like haste and slow could affect a battle.

As for my favorite, I really loved the Card battle systems.

With the Card system, each card represents a diffrent attack, magic, summon, or item. The system was relatively easy to learn, could be used to make awesome combos and really helps the game progress.

An example would be KH: CoM

SaGa games, Unlimited SaGa aside, have battle systems I like. Most of them restore a major portion of your HP at the end of any given fight, and depending on the SaGa game, have a portion of your WP (For physical attacks) and JP (For Magic attacks) restored. So fights become a "Who can kill who first" contest, since the monsters are as capable of dropping you as you are of them.

Barring that, ToE/ToS. Fighting games with stats. And unbalanced bosses, just like a normal fighting game.

I agree with ChaosMage on this one, Paper Mario has the best battle system I've played. The game actually rewards you for paying attention in battles, both in offense and in defence. Heck, you can even counter! And let's not forget the infamous falling stage props, I swear that damn stage light did more damage to me than all the goombas combined. Plus, the star moves are pretty freakin' sweet.

I also enjoy real time and dynamic turn-based (yes, i just made that term up) battle systems from games like Diablo 2, Dungeon Siege, Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, D&D, etc.

Tales of Phantasia has a great battle system. It's all in real time and special moves tend to take a second to instigate (or be faster but weaker), so you have to time it properly if you want to use them, while normal physical attacks are more instantaneous but weaker so you have moments when using THEM is better too (like when you're being charged by an enemy and want to halt it). The other characters tend to flit around on AI a lot while the main character is the only real useful one, but it's still a good system. Occassionally you do have to pause and force your other characters to use their attacks if you don't want to lose, though.

Which brings me to another good system: Secret of Mana. Everything was real time, and if you got hit it was your own damned fault. The stats WERE important, but the skill of the player was usually more so. I like that in a game because if I lose a fight I don't have to go level up or just change my equipment going into it. I have to actually improve as a player.

And then there's Parasite Eve, which had a battle system similiar to Secret of Mana's but it was more three dimensional, and added guns along with different bonuses or negatives depending on the kind of gun. For instance, an automatic gun with a high fire rate meant that you could shoot a lot, but you also couldn't move while shooting so you were open to attack, and they tended to be weaker. Then you had the extremely powerful ones that you'd fire and would have to stop for a second... and you'd have to stop to reload, etc. etc.

I'm also fond of FFX-2. I can't quite place why, they just made it much more frantic while still forcing you to use all the same strategy that you would normally use. In a normal FF game you'd have the time to stop and think "do I want to do this or this..." in FFX-2 you just had to DO or the enemies would interrupt you. And you had to time everyone's attacks properly in order to get the most out of them, by chaining. I'm particularily fond of following up a trigger happy with normal physical attacks from the other two. And being able to switch spheres in battle, as well as the different grids having different effects AND having different effects depending on how you moved, made things more interesting too.

Then there's Legend of Dragoon, with the healing defense (making selecting defend not completely useless) and the use of additions. The additions make it so, again, your skill as a player plays just as big a role as your character's stats, at least to a point. There were some things I didn't like about it, such as the fact that the character with the strongest physical attack power actually had the smallest ability to do damage... and that was the only good thing about him, so he became completely useless. Over all, though, the system rocked.

I'm also pretty fond of a few more games, but I'm tired of typing, now.