Val the Moofia Boss
Scholar
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2022
- Messages
- 1,241
Well I am glad more people are talking about how important the graphical presentation of the JRPG battles are with the camera angles and cutscene attacks and such. That was one of my big issues with FF12's boring RTWP combat where the camera is zoomed out and you just see guys do boring MMO autoattacks against mobs, and only ocassionally do a cool cutscene quickening or cool cutscene esper summoning. I think for menu based JRPGs, a lot of the appeal is the framing of the three/four party members off to the side and the big cool overdesigned monster in the middle. It does somewhat look like a cool manga/anime. I like how the Trails series has a cutscene for every skill and magic spell of every party member.
A lot of this appeal is lost in the transition from classical style turn/menu based combat to MMO-esque real time (FF12, Xenoblade) or even straight up action combat. I have been playing FF11 Horizon which is a low APM MMO, and while it does have the camera framing with people surrounding a central monster design, everyone is doing basic MMO autoattacks all at once. FF14 has the camera lockon framing mode, but it is impractical to use because there are so many flashy skills going off at ground level that obscure vision, and AoEs going off that have to be dodged on short notice. And in both FF11 and FF14, for the big mobs you are often looking down at the mob's ankles, which isn't very cool. Or you are zoomed out far away and your character is a little spec buried underneath a sea of visual effects, not very cool to look at either.
A lot of this appeal is lost in the transition from classical style turn/menu based combat to MMO-esque real time (FF12, Xenoblade) or even straight up action combat. I have been playing FF11 Horizon which is a low APM MMO, and while it does have the camera framing with people surrounding a central monster design, everyone is doing basic MMO autoattacks all at once. FF14 has the camera lockon framing mode, but it is impractical to use because there are so many flashy skills going off at ground level that obscure vision, and AoEs going off that have to be dodged on short notice. And in both FF11 and FF14, for the big mobs you are often looking down at the mob's ankles, which isn't very cool. Or you are zoomed out far away and your character is a little spec buried underneath a sea of visual effects, not very cool to look at either.
