Lost Odyssey(Check OP for any help you need w/endgame stuff)

[Exoduso]

Most of the mid and later FF games didn't used turn-based systems, you know

Hmmm, active turned base is still turned base.

Regardless of whether there's a flow chart (hi2uFFX) showing who's next on the order of attack, it's still turn-based if the ATB is running the battles... >.>

[Elcura]

ATB, even though it pretty much is turn-based (especially at the start of a game) feels more interactive and fast paced than turn-based or it's variants. You can't just sit there like a lemon pondering for ages what your next move will be and face it, in most RPGs it's either some variant of attacking or curing. At least ATB, in certain encounters makes a fight tense and exciting, and near the end of a game ATB feels less rigid than turn-based. If you could get a character with high speed it actually feels like they're a fast character in an ATB rather than a turn-based system.

Not to say I don't enjoy a good turn-based system, I'm more annoyed at this game for reasons other than it's turn-based battles. I will probably try it out when I get a 360, but for now the only interesting thing is the music and graphics.

[Kaylia]

Never noticed a difference between ATB and turn based. Sure, monsters might get 1 more hit once in a while, but it doesn't really matter. If the fight is easy, you just spam attack (or w/e move you used the whole games that make everything else obsolete), if the fight is hard, you use w/e healing move you have and toss an attack inbetween healing. None of those actions takes a long thinking, and it's usually quickly selected.

The only time I ever have to make a decision in RPG is when I have 1 character standing with low hp, and I need to decide between healing him or raising another dead character. I can't really think of another situation that require some planning.

[Exoduso]

As long as you're actually responding to the game, ATB and turn-based are exactly the same. The only difference is that you can afk in a turn-based game if your character's turn is coming up, and you can't do that in an ATB system (unless it's got a wait mode, but those are stupid.)

[Kaylia]

As long as you're actually responding to the game, ATB and turn-based are exactly the same. The only difference is that you can afk in a turn-based game if your character's turn is coming up, and you can't do that in an ATB system (unless it's got a wait mode, but those are stupid.)

Or a start button

[Exoduso]

As long as you're actually responding to the game, ATB and turn-based are exactly the same. The only difference is that you can afk in a turn-based game if your character's turn is coming up, and you can't do that in an ATB system (unless it's got a wait mode, but those are stupid.)

Or a start button

I'm not talking about pausing the game. Once again you get the point, yet you choose to go the smartass route.

They're the same. ATB is a turn based system, regardless of how "active" it is.

[Elcura]

As long as you're actually responding to the game, ATB and turn-based are exactly the same. The only difference is that you can afk in a turn-based game if your character's turn is coming up, and you can't do that in an ATB system (unless it's got a wait mode, but those are stupid.)

Or a start button

I'm not talking about pausing the game. Once again you get the point, yet you choose to go the smartass route.

They're the same. ATB is a turn based system, regardless of how "active" it is.

The point isn't how active the system is, it's how active it feels. Disregarding that the systems are actually similar ATB feels like it's active, rather than "oh it's my turn now what should I do?"

Which is why I'll always prefer ATB to turn based. The only turn-based battle that had my adrenaline going was Penance in FFX. Great fight.

[Kaylia]

Hey hey, I rarely take the smartass route. I usually just make a long reply that lead to a neverending argument when I disagree But that's not the case here since we both agree about ATB = turn based

The point isn't how active the system is, it's how active it feels. Disregarding that the systems are actually similar ATB feels like it's active, rather than "oh it's my turn now what should I do?"

Which is why I'll always prefer ATB to turn based. The only turn-based battle that had my adrenaline going was Penance in FFX. Great fight.

Most turn based fail by making every turns take 2 fucking years, killing any sort of pace the battles could have had. Sure, a 30sec animation look pretty first time, but it become insanely boring soon after.

[Exoduso]

Seriously, I wish that developers would get that... It's awesome seeing it the first time, 2nd time, THIRD TIME... after that it's just annoying. It's like "oh here goes the 30 second Ultima spell again..." and you can go off making a sandwich while it's still going.

[Kaylia]

Seriously, I wish that developers would get that... It's awesome seeing it the first time, 2nd time, THIRD TIME... after that it's just annoying. It's like "oh here goes the 30 second Ultima spell again..." and you can go off making a sandwich while it's still going.

W-Summon, Knight of the round, mimic, mimic. Fun time (Sure, it's optional and not needed, but God, it's painful to watch).

It's really weird to see how developper can ignore something that should be common sense. FF7 was relatively fast, but FF8 was probably the first fast paced rpg where your character attack while the other is still moving. They somehow fucked up FF9 and made the fight slow paced again (my biggest complain about the game). Almost every other company sucked hard time at making fast paced turn based combat. Dragon Quest was horrible, Xenosaga I/II were slow as hell, Blue Dragon (what ive seen in the demo) made me want to /wrist. Other games like Shadow Heart arent too bad unless the ennemies start casting spells, but the gimmick wheel really slow down certain normal encounter.

On topic, someone said it was an issue with Lost Odyssey. I hope it won't be too bad, but when are people going to learn...

[Elcura]

I think FFVII had it the worse, between Knights of the Round and some of the level 4 Limit Breaks (along with Mime and all that repeating bullshit) by the end of the game you're barely playing (and the amount of action required in JRPGs isn't the highest either). 8 wasn't so bad, I think the longest spell was Apocalypse or something that Ultimacia had, although when you Triple that (and some other spells) it was pretty long.

Disgaea does it right, Disgaea 2 (and Disgaea PSP) has an option to turn off animations that makes every fight twice as fast. I think this should be mandatory in all RPGs. It makes it hell to fight or grind when you have at least 4+ seconds of doing nothing every fight (battle intro/outro) + long animations for spells/attacks etc.

Although, the only game I didn't mind the long spells was IX, mostly because all the long spells were fucking beautiful.

[Exoduso]

I think FFVII had it the worse, between Knights of the Round and some of the level 4 Limit Breaks (along with Mime and all that repeating bullshit) by the end of the game you're barely playing (and the amount of action required in JRPGs isn't the highest either). 8 wasn't so bad, I think the longest spell was Apocalypse or something that Ultimacia had, although when you Triple that (and some other spells) it was pretty long.

Disgaea does it right, Disgaea 2 (and Disgaea PSP) has an option to turn off animations that makes every fight twice as fast. I think this should be mandatory in all RPGs. It makes it hell to fight or grind when you have at least 4+ seconds of doing nothing every fight (battle intro/outro) + long animations for spells/attacks etc.

Although, the only game I didn't mind the long spells was IX, mostly because all the long spells were fucking beautiful.

Kuja's Ultima.. <3<3

[Kaylia]

I think FFVII had it the worse, between Knights of the Round and some of the level 4 Limit Breaks (along with Mime and all that repeating bullshit) by the end of the game you're barely playing (and the amount of action required in JRPGs isn't the highest either). 8 wasn't so bad, I think the longest spell was Apocalypse or something that Ultimacia had, although when you Triple that (and some other spells) it was pretty long.

Disgaea does it right, Disgaea 2 (and Disgaea PSP) has an option to turn off animations that makes every fight twice as fast. I think this should be mandatory in all RPGs. It makes it hell to fight or grind when you have at least 4+ seconds of doing nothing every fight (battle intro/outro) + long animations for spells/attacks etc.

Although, the only game I didn't mind the long spells was IX, mostly because all the long spells were fucking beautiful.

There was many "faster" alternative in FF7 tho, like quadra slice and counter x8. Most of us used summon and long attack on our first game, but we can't blame the lack of choice.

FF8 summons were pretty damn long, but there was that "spam square" gimmick that could make them fun. Not that they were needed at all to beat the game. I dont even remember what apocalypse look like, but it's not that much of an issue when it's only one fight in games. It's really bothering me when every random encounter you don't care about take a while.

Problem with FF9 wasn't so much the spell length, but the delay between every actions. Before you can input the first command, the camera was spinning for a good 5-10 sec more than FF8. There was also a 2-3 sec delay between every actions where no one is doing anything, instead of overlapping attack.

[Elcura]

I think FFVII had it the worse, between Knights of the Round and some of the level 4 Limit Breaks (along with Mime and all that repeating bullshit) by the end of the game you're barely playing (and the amount of action required in JRPGs isn't the highest either). 8 wasn't so bad, I think the longest spell was Apocalypse or something that Ultimacia had, although when you Triple that (and some other spells) it was pretty long.

Disgaea does it right, Disgaea 2 (and Disgaea PSP) has an option to turn off animations that makes every fight twice as fast. I think this should be mandatory in all RPGs. It makes it hell to fight or grind when you have at least 4+ seconds of doing nothing every fight (battle intro/outro) + long animations for spells/attacks etc.

Although, the only game I didn't mind the long spells was IX, mostly because all the long spells were fucking beautiful.

There was many "faster" alternative in FF7 tho, like quadra slice and counter x8. Most of us used summon and long attack on our first game, but we can't blame the lack of choice.

FF8 summons were pretty damn long, but there was that "spam square" gimmick that could make them fun. Not that they were needed at all to beat the game. I dont even remember what apocalypse look like, but it's not that much of an issue when it's only one fight in games. It's really bothering me when every random encounter you don't care about take a while.

Problem with FF9 wasn't so much the spell length, but the delay between every actions. Before you can input the first command, the camera was spinning for a good 5-10 sec more than FF8. There was also a 2-3 sec delay between every actions where no one is doing anything, instead of overlapping attack.

4x Cut and all those counter/mime things were quicker, but still took longer than I like. 8 Summons weren't all that long were they? Only really long one was Eden, which was ridiculous. Spamming Square didn't really do much for me, since summons weren't the best source of damage (unless you really suck and can't junction for shit). IDK, I played 8 the least and it isn't my favourite, so I don't really care about it

I think the camera spinning shit was just a guise for loading times or something. Hmm, I don't remember the delay being so long, but it has been a while since I played IX. I'd probably notice something like that if I played it again recently.

[Maguspk]

Me and my friend have been waiting for this for awhile. It's due in Japan around February right? So maybe early/late Spring for US?

[Elcura]

I thought it was out already in Japan.

[Arelian]

Comes out here....Feb 5th I believe.

[Maguspk]

Links please? I read it was to be released in February and translated soon thereafter.

[Elcura]

I just checked the release date on GFAQs, says it's out in Japan already, but I thought that was already known...

[Kaisha]

Feb 12th for US release.