I wanted to talk a bit about Active Time Battle systems, why they aren’t en vogue any more and why I think that’s a good thing.
ATB systems – and really any menu-driven, turn-based, combat system – is something I’ve had the opportunity to think a lot about. As someone who grew up with the very beginnings of Final Fantasy, I had the benefit of being able to draw upon a lot of experiences with these kinds of systems (for better or worse).
While turn-based combat (TBC) systems give designers some great structure, they also create a lot of problems, specifically with difficulty.
Newer players experiencing TBC for the first time will probably not [stumble upon the game-breaking secret] to TBC, but it will probably become apparent eventually – If you can push more healing in a given turn than a given encounter pushes damage, then you cannot lose.
My favorite example of this idea in action is the Zeromus fight in Final Fantasy IV. It serves as an outstanding example of where TBC kind of falls flat. A great example of the “HP-IN > HP-OUT” strategy can be found here:
It’s largely uninteresting – and at its most difficult, instead of being engaging, it’s tedious as you spend a lot of your turns keeping your party alive while you slowly poke away at a boss when it’s ‘safe’ to do so.
I don’t think early designers realized how problematic this idea was, and how damning it can be to the entire system. Evidence of this I think can be seen in fights as early as Warmech from the original Final Fantasy, fights which are ‘hard’ because the numbers are big, and whose solution is to simply find a way to put more HP on your party than is being taken away, which often comes in the form of ‘more levels’ – it’s extremely uninteresting.
I also think Square figured this out and started down a road where fights had less emphasis on raw numbers, resource management became a little more tricky, and bosses became closer to puzzles than simple number checks. I think Yunalesca from Final Fantasy X might be the best example of this, but forcing a party to deal with status effects can be seen pretty much anywhere a Malboro exists, and perhaps most notably against Necron in Final Fantasy IX.
With all that in mind, I think not only do designers see it as potentially boring for the fans well-versed with TBC, but also boring for themselves.
When you are working with a set of systems you already know is flawed from the ground up, it’s hard to get excited about it. It’s hard to pour passion into that, and instead of blazing a trail and making something that is a reflection of your ideals, you’re instead trying to patch together a game on the back of systems you might not even like.
I think it’s this attitude which birthed systems like Final Fantasy XIII‘s combat system – it’s definitely turn-based, but the rapid pace and partitioned turns make you think about combat a little differently, even if you are a veteran of TBC. Was it perfect? Certainly not, but the idea oozes passion and I am of the opinion that it’s a net positive for the series to at least try these kinds of things and see where they go.
So when it comes to the Final Fantasy VII remake, should they abandon the traditional TBC that it helped further solidify as the mainstay of all JRPGs? Maybe not. I think there is something kind of sacred to maintaining the systems that were in the original game. Minor tweaks and changes would be okay in that regard, but a total overhaul of the combat systems might be too much.
At the same time though, I can’t help but be excited for what might be. It might be super cool to see familiar bosses presented in a new way on the back of a new combat system. There is a lot of potential to bring a new experience to people, even to those that have played VII several times, and I think there can be value in that. Will it be for the better? I guess time will tell.
I hope in this rambling, I helped explain why turn-based combat might not be as acceptable as it once was.
