Final Fantasy XIII-2's New Battle System Looks Awfully Familiar

@Cincaid said:

Nobody reads internet forum posts as well as Fragmaster! Thanks for that Cincaid

@Cloudenvy said:

I loved the Final Fantasy XIII battle system, so I'm in!

Same here.

If they plan on making my rewards depend on battle length like they do in xiii, I'm out.

But can I cast Firaga on shit?

That dude sure looks a lot like a generic Squall clone.

I am indifferent to the Final Fantasy 13 battle system.

You guys could have just left the article title as "New Battle System Looks Awful" and it would have been more accurate. I've already stated my opinions on XIII, XIII-2, and Square to validate my reasons. Honestly if they don't get Versus or a new KH out soon they're done as a company. Especially after the financial flop that was FF XIV.

Whatever though. If they don't get it together good riddance I say. The best thing they've put out in years was Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and that was an Eidos game. Square itself as a studio is a shell of their once past greatness.

The battle system was actually fine, there was just not enough options in combat, it was pretty much the same thing the entire game. Also I don't know how I feel about only 2 characters in the party the whole game, I realize that might not be it but from what I've seen it looks pretty likely. Wth happened to Snow? Why is Serah just like with this dude the whole time? I've seen literally nothing of Snow in any of these trailers.

@Demoskinos said:

@Cincaid: Jesus Christ. I can't honestly tell if he is for real or just a horribly awesome parody of japanophiles.

It has to be a parody -- the guy makes a toast with a wine glass full of milk, for Christ's sake. Or maybe I just don't want to accept that it's real because the possibility terrifies me.

Since my biggest concern with FFXIII-2 was that they'd change too much of the battle system from XIII (by far the game's strongest point, and this in a game I generally like) this is good news for me. Probably the strongest in the series, not counting Tactics.

@North6 said:

@Deusx said:

X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, MENU, MENU,MENU,MENU, MENU, MENU,MENU, MENU, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, MENU, MENU,MENU,MENU, MENU, MENU, MENU, MENU

>REPEAT

This was the first 5 hours of the game for me. Truly interactive.

This. Exactly. I don't care about the quicktime events. As a huge fan of every FF game since the first one on NES, and especially X, XII and even X-2, I was very very disappointed in XIII. Chances are about 99.9999% that I'll never even try XIII-2. FF went from a must-buy every release to a question mark that I'll read about before considering actually buying.

VII was the series peak for story, X was the series peak for robust world building, and XII was the series peak for combat and leveling systems. XIII was terrible and repeated zero of the past successes - I don't know, maybe the story was good, but I couldn't play it long enough to find out.

Libra Scan,X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X

Libra Scan,X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X

Hold X down without even looking at the screen to level up

Rinse repeat

@NuDimon said:

Meh QTE's. :< Guess Japan is further behind then I thought they were...

Don't a lot of western games still use Quicktime events? Like Battlefield 3, GoW3, Heavy Rain. Sure Heavy Rain and GOW3 are from last year, but that's not that long ago.

i loved the battle system in XIII, and that was about it. every other aspect of the game was completely underwhelming.

except for the visuals, of course. those were overwhelming. i wish square would tone it the fuck down and try to make their settings a little more down to earth.

@Deusx said:

X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, MENU, MENU,MENU,MENU, MENU, MENU,MENU, MENU, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, MENU, MENU,MENU,MENU, MENU, MENU, MENU, MENU

>REPEAT

This was the first 5 hours of the game for me. Truly interactive.

@SpikeSpiegel88: Actually, you can!

By the way, if you guys thought the only good thing about FFXIII was the battle system, I'd say you might have fallen into the realm of those who overlook unnecessarily. It was a good game that departed a lot from the previous titles, but we shouldn't discount the many awesome aspects the game offered: graphics, music (especially those two), etc.

There were parts of the game that bugged me as well. I'd say that it isn't nearly as bad as the internet would lead those who haven't played it to believe. It was pretty good if you're into that kinda thing. Compare it to other current JRPGs honestly and decide.

I really wanna play Xenoblade soon too if I get the chance.

"Yo, we heard you didn't like the lack of interactivity in FFXIII's battle system, so we put QTEs in it!"

Square-Enix is out of touch.

I'm glad they kept Final Fantasy XIII's battle system since it was the only thing I genuinely enjoyed about the game.

@Norusdog said:

how can anyone like that battle system? it plays itself..you have no control over what your team is doing past a basic archetype....and some enemies have such idiotically inflated HP as the only reason you EVER have to even pay attention to a fight.

worst goddamn battle system ever conceived. And I won't waste my time on this Final Abortion XIII-2 because of this. Garbage goddamn system. Fuck off Square..

My dad sounded very similar when Final Fantasy was relesed on the NES. He asked me things along the lines of how I could like a game that played itself and so forth. All I did was tell it what to do as in select fight or magic, and the game did the rest for me. He didn't really get the idea of levels and dice rolls; I felt that he didn't have a grasp of what was happening in the game.

Perhaps you do have a much better idea, but your comments seemed to suggest that you're oversimplifying how the system works.

how can anyone like that battle system? it plays itself..you have no control over what your team is doing past a basic archetype....and some enemies have such idiotically inflated HP as the only reason you EVER have to even pay attention to a fight.

worst goddamn battle system ever conceived. And I won't waste my time on this Final Abortion XIII-2 because of this. Garbage goddamn system. Fuck off Square..

The "cinematic action" sequences are such a perfect example of why Japan just doesn't get what people actually want from them. Constantly trying to emulate the western style of simplified and faster paced gameplay never seems to work from Japanese games and I fail to understand why they continue to try, especially in the Final Fantasy series of all places. All it's done is dumbed down the combat horribly.

So... I take it you still can't swap what character you controll mid battle like in 12..

Sad panda and one less tick of my reasons to buy this even after hating 13..

I'm upset that it looks like you can only have two real characters in your party. The battle system was my favorite gameplay element in XIII (the only gameplay element I liked actually) but the worst parts by far were when you had a gimped one or two person party. It looks like FFXIII-2 has this for the whole game. Anti-yay.

" Good news if you loved everything about Final Fantasy XIII's battle system" 
 
Good news for me then. Loved all 94 hours of FFXIII.

@Spoonman671: The "Change Leader" option seems to suggest so.

That's fine, the battle system was great, it was the rest of the game that needed work in XIII.

Anyone notice anything new other than QTEs?

The battle system was easily the best part of XIII so if they are keeping it pretty much the same I am cool with that.

Its kind of interesting to think that its really the more superfluous aspects of the game that bugged people. It was the story, the characters, the linearity of the levels (instead of just linearity in the quest triggers), the lack of towns and the lack of personality in the side-quests that bugged people.

The game didn't lose much mechanically speaking but the presentation of those mechanics really rubbed people the wrong way. Which I think probably speaks to why most people like the Final Fantasy series. Its more about going along this epic journey told with amazing production values and the gameplay is there for pacing. That's not entirely true but when I hear people talk about the series its more the story moments that people remember, likes Aeris's Death or the Opera Scene than a boss battle or a side quest.

final fantasy 13's battle system was exhilarating, but the story AND story telling were poor. Nothing I've seen indicates the sequel will be any different.

I expected QTE's like in Legend Of Dragoon where you press a button to deal more damage and shit.

Can you at least switch which character you're controlling mid-battle?  It was really stupid that you couldn't in XIII.

I don't even know if this is a Final Fantasy game anymore. The last Final Fantasy game that I finished was Final Fantasy X and I would like a combat system like that.

This was the only thing I liked about 13 so I'm happy about this.

I will be playing this just so that when ME3 comes out, no matter how bad it is,'it will still be like a gift from the heavens.

@NuDimon said:

Meh QTE's. :< Guess Japan is further behind then I thought they were...

Don't a lot of western games still use Quicktime events? Like Battlefield 3, GoW3, Heavy Rain. Sure Heavy Rain and GOW3 are from last year, but that's not that long ago.

@Phoenix87 said:

The whole entire Final Fantasy series needs a shot of adrenaline right to the heart and watching that Chrono Trigger endurance run has made this more obvious than ever.

Can anyone on this earth do a 60 second elevator pitch for 13's story. I got ten hours in and I still don't have a clue what's going on.

And you still won't know till about chapter 11? I think? It gets better at that point at least.

Can we play as Serah while running around outside of battles?

Meh QTE's. :<
Guess Japan is further behind then I thought they were...

That has to be fake!

Anyone notice anything new other than QTEs?

FFXIII combat system was actually pretty fun, it was probably the best thing to come out of the game... so it's a good thing they are bringing it back for this game.

Can't wait.

Not very compelling characters, can't stand Snow!

This is very silly.

Better be wary of that simulated gambling.

@yoshimitz707: @yoshimitz707 said:

@rebgav said:

@Cincaid said:

Oh shit, so that's what an internet looks like.

That has to be fake!

Wasn't this dude a character on The Simpsons for a while?

The battle system was the one thing I was hoping would not change much, since it was the best Final Fantasy battle system to date. (Which is not to say it was the best RPG battle system mind you.) If they just improve the other parts of the game this could be one of the better FF's.

@rebgav said:

@Cincaid said:

Oh shit, so that's what an internet looks like.

That has to be fake!

I really liked XIII's battle system, it just sucked that it took like 30 hours for them to fully introduce it to you. I'm guessing that probably won't be the case this time in XIII-2...