Best combat in an RPG? EVAR

If you're talking JRPG then I'd have to go with Grandia. It is completely turn based but you can still use part of your turn to change positions on the battle field to avoid area of affect attacks. You can also you area of affect to attack to hit multiple enemies that are grouped together.

Fable III

Origins, I found it's combat wayyyy more enjoyable. The best, in fact. And not ruined by the rest of the shit in the game.

Everyone who wants a fresh take on JRPG's needs to play Resonance of Fate. One of the freshest interesting takes on the genre in years. From the combat to the boardgame like overworld you all NEED to play it.

Too many types to choose but the one that sticks out ATM is Fallout 2.

Super Mario RPG

KOTOR

I dunno about best, but I thought the Paper Mario series refreshed the turn-based formula and made it entertaining. I think Turn-Based RPG's should focus a lot more on placement in the level as well as the basics.

I guess KOTOR had some fun combat as well.

Dark Souls is kind of actiony, but it's deliberately thoughtful.  For traditional strategy I always liked Final Fantasy Tactics.

I'm going to say Valkyria Chronicles because I admire how it blended SRPG and Third Person Shooting together.

For traditional turn based combat, I'm going to call a draw between Chrono Trigger and Persona 4.

@TheDudeOfGaming: Agreed. I had played ME2 before I had played ME1, and I could never understand why people were mad about "Stream Lining" a game, but then I played ME1 and DA2.

I quickly understood where their complaints were coming from.

Borderlands and Dark Souls.

@sthusby: say that shit again and i'll straight fuck a nukka up. I'm fucking crazy.

Final Fantasy XII.

Grandia III has a great battle system even if the rest of the game is pretty much garbage.

Hands down, Demon's Souls has the best combat. I like how fluid it is. The way that every class of weapon has different animations and the weight works so well. The shield and spear action or can dual wield two giant swords once your strength is high enough and feel you are doing the damage you deserve to be doing. The dodge mechanic is fantastic. Character movement and strategy off knowing your speed and stamina compared to your opponents attacks make you feel like you deserve to be hit when you are. I like it more than Dark Soul's combat because I am not a big fan of the new magic system.

@BrockNRolla: I was a mage and used all 7 buttons for my spells. Not exactly pressing A over and over again (8 buttons were A, X, B, Y, and pressing the RT button to bring up new moves on those buttons). Not to mention I had to bring up the combat wheel to use spells that wouldn't fit into the face button scheme. The combat also looked good and was satisfying to me. I played a warrior in Dragon Age: Origins and that was basically pressing A once for auto attack, with a shield bash or other moves every now and then. It has more depth to it then it may seem, even when using a warrior. If you must go with the popular "DA2 is a horrible game no matter what" (Even when we are talking about the best thing in the game), go ahead. An opinion is an opinion, just wanted to let that out.

EDIT: My choice is FF13. That combat felt really solid and fun to use. If it wasn't for that combat, I wouldn't have beaten the game.

@delorean99947 said:

@BrockNRolla: I was a mage and used all 7 buttons for my spells. Not exactly pressing A over and over again (8 buttons were A, X, B, Y, and pressing the RT button to bring up new moves on those buttons). Not to mention I had to bring up the combat wheel to use spells that wouldn't fit into the face button scheme. The combat also looked good and was satisfying to me. I played a warrior in Dragon Age: Origins and that was basically pressing A once for auto attack, with a shield bash or other moves every now and then. It has more depth to it then it may seem, even when using a warrior. If you must go with the popular "DA2 is a horrible game no matter what" (Even when we are talking about the best thing in the game), go ahead. An opinion is an opinion, just wanted to let that out.

EDIT: My choice is FF13. That combat felt really solid and fun to use. If it wasn't for that combat, I wouldn't have beaten the game.

So, what about that combat set it apart from Dragon Age: Origins? You played a wizard in the second game which led to you pausing and using other skills. Had you played a warrior, you would have had the same experience as Dragon Age: Origins, only this time no auto attack = pressing A over and over. Further, the pressing A over and over is a symptom of removing the auto attack, meaning even as a wizard, while you're waiting for things to recharge, you're still pressing A over and over.

That said, seeing as you're a fan of the repetitious attacking in FF13, then I'd say you're less interested in a good combat system, and more interested in something flashy. Both DA2 and FF13 are full of combat and graphical flourish, something both games have in excess, but neither provides any kind of depth to combat. So to reference the title, that DA2 has the "Best combat in an RPG? EVAR", I would say that not only is DA2 a bad game in just about every way, but the "best feature" is in fact, crap. But, that's my opinion on things. If DA3 ends up being an extension of DA2, then count me out of that series.

Pokémon is the epitome of turn-based combat, if you ask me.

If we're talking about RPGs where the RPG elements have an actual effect on combat, I wouldn't really even consider Mass Effect 2, since it's basically just a carbon copy of other third-person shooter systems.

Mount & Blade, if that's an RPG.

I like the Press Turn system from SMT: Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga. I also like Chrono Trigger and Tales of Vesperia. With Tales, the fact that you have to learn a character, like in a fighting game, was always awesome for me.

This is a really tough choice, but I'd probably have to say Grandia II.

I'm still partial to the SSI Gold Box Games combat system so I'll just pick Pool of Radiance since it was the first  one...

Star Control 2

The Souls games, especially Bloodborne.

Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne.

Every game is an RPG so probably Super Metroid, Resident Evil 4, or Symphony of the Night.

As far as traditional RPGs go Vagrant Story or Valkyrie Profile 2. The Souls series is certainly up there but is sort of on the border of action game at this point.

If we're talking action focused, then Dark Souls. Diablo 3 is up there too. Mass Effect 2 and 3 were dang good as well. Ys games are fun on the Vita. Haven't played many turned based games, although I am currently enjoying Xenogears. Liked FFX as we'll (discounting the mini games!).