Battle Animation length/general discussion

[Silent Darkness]

I think one part of RPG game design that has a big impact is the attack animations, no matter what battle system you use(I use the YEA Battle Engine tho).

There's often a temptation, to me, to make every animation something drawn-out and fancy, even when the game would benefit more from something short and sweet.

How about you?

 

[hiromu656]

I like seeing fancy animations until they get tedious. Having the option to not play full spell animations is a good thing to have if possible, I know i've seen it in other (non RM) RPG games. I also get tempted to push the Animation system to the fullest, but a couple play tests and I realize they get annoying to see over and over.

 

[SLEEP]

Short animation for normal attacks (I set a personal max at 30-40 frames), long but not too long for special attacks, options to turn animations off.

 

[Tai_MT]

In my opinion, an actual battle animation should really last no more than 15 seconds.  15 seconds is quite a long time to last as well.  Most battle animations will do well with anything between 3 to 7 seconds long.

 

[kerbonklin]

Normal attacks should generally be a short 7 seconds at most, minor skills about 15 at most, and uber-exaggerated skills, well as long as you can provide a skip-feature for them. (We don't want more FF7-summon/sephiroth-syndromes)

 

[Black Bart]

also being able to turn off summons is nice

 

[Silent Darkness]

Yes, I suppose. I think uber-long animations can be forgiven if used in a way that ensures they are used very rarely. And being pretty to look at helps :3

 

[Clareain_Christopher]

I've never cared that much about animations. If a game allows me to turn them off, I will.

But that's me being an ass. If people use RMACE, look at this, and copy this.

Adjust Animation Speed to a rate of 2 is highly recommended. It won't make your game feel so... slow.

 

[Eschaton]

In my opinion, an actual battle animation should really last no more than 15 seconds.  15 seconds is quite a long time to last as well.  Most battle animations will do well with anything between 3 to 7 seconds long.

Fifteen seconds?  I'd rather them be a second.  Maybe two.

 

[Arin]

As much as I would like to have all of my Spells last fifteen seconds, I don't have enough energy to make such a long and tedious animation that would bore players, especially when there's no way to turn said animations off.

 

[Silent Darkness]

@Eschaton

Gotta disagree, there. In order for the more powerful attacks to really appeal to a player, and not just feel like a super-duper-dev-buffed command, there should be something to it.

 

[Eschaton]

Okay, let me adjust my statement.

Turn-based battles can have long animations to the developer's content.  I expect them to be skippable, especially if random battles are more common, or I won't expect to be playing much longer.

In a more action-oriented battle, say ATB or ABS, animation lengths need to be in a negative correlation with the pace of the battle.  Fast-paced battles need to have short animations.  Slow-paced battles are going to give animation lengths a bit of leeway.

There is also a negative correlation between the utility of the spell and its animation length.  If I expect to be using a spell often (one, I'd better not have to navigate a ****load of menus to access it), it should have a shorter animation than a spell that gets used once in a dungeon.

 

[Tai_MT]

Ideally, the 3 to 7 seconds for a magic spell is plenty and might even be too much.  An animation for a physical attack really should only last something like 3 seconds.  Enough time to run forward, swing the weapon, play the hit animation, run back into place.  Any longer than that for something you're going to be doing often is going to get tedious.

Magic animations, on the other hand, should really be no longer than 15 seconds.  Even then, 15 seconds can easily become tedious and annoying.  There are really great magic spells in games (even the powerful spells) that look impressive despite their 6 second animations.  Anything you expect the player to be using often will get tedious when you've got overly long animations.

I, for one, do not need to watch "Knights of the Round" every single last freakin' time I execute it.  I also don't need to see the complete destruction of the solar system each time Sephiroth throws a hissy fit in combat.  Let's not even get into the really unnecessary and overly long animations of Final Fantasy 8 summons, or Final Fantasy 10 summons.  Such animations are impressive ONCE.  When you've been using them for hours on end, they become tedious.

Let's think about games that exist on the SNES.  Their animations typically last no more than 6 seconds.  Even spells like Luminaire and Ultima don't last any longer than 9 seconds.

 

[Eschaton]

Ideally, the 3 to 7 seconds for a magic spell is plenty and might even be too much.  An animation for a physical attack really should only last something like 3 seconds.  Enough time to run forward, swing the weapon, play the hit animation, run back into place.  Any longer than that for something you're going to be doing often is going to get tedious.

I like it when we agree on things, Mai Tai.

 

[Sneakaboo]

Using victors for side view.

Monster basic attacks:

Same as your old school final fantasy 4, monster shakes/blinks and hits right away.

No running forward or what ever.

Same for their casts they blink and the spell animation.

Also removed them backing when hit.

Hero animations:

Basic attack:  For now they move forward, though I might go oldschool and let them walk forward for a moment and just swing their sword to speed up.


Skills and magic: Abilities you will use often in battles will be short, I think indeed that 3 to 7 seconds is fine.

Summons/special stuff:  Making them long but they are suppose to be used a few times.

I think the old FF 4-5-6 got it right with the speed.

It looked flashy and fun but it was never long.

 

[kerbonklin]

Here's a sample set of 3 Normal Attack animations i'm using in my current project. They're pretty short, simple and effective.

 

[Silent Darkness]

That....brings me to another problem....proper use of screen flash. Seems like it's all to easy to put too much of that in and make people glad they're not sensitive to bright lights.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I personally prefer shorter animations... long ones seem so boring to watch after a while and becomes a factor as to why I find battles in RM games unnecessarily slow...


as for flash, I prefer having screen flash only for "strong" skills...

 

[Eschaton]

I personally prefer shorter animations... long ones seem so boring to watch after a while and becomes a factor as to why I find battles in RM games unnecessarily slow...

as for flash, I prefer having screen flash only for "strong" skills...

That's definitely something to be considered:  it doesn't matter how happy you are with your work, the player has to see it a ****load of times. 

 

[Matseb2611]

I think the animations do not have to be very long at all in order to make the attack seem super-powerful, even if we're talking about character's or boss' ultimate attack. All it needs is just for it to look different to every other attack in the game and to make it look grand by maybe putting a lot of flashy stuff on the screen, but it can easily last under 10 seconds, maybe even 5. The right sound effects can also give it the right punch. I agree that the summon animations and some boss specials in FF games were way too long. The players will be even more picky and critical if this stuff happens in an indie RM game than something that's already popular.