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It's sad to say... But, I've played exactly ONE RPG battle system I enjoyed. Yeah, just one. There's a "runner up" though. I don't mean a battle system where it was flashy or you could do a whole lot.
What I mean by "enjoyed" is that it was challenging, interesting, gave me options, and let me use my own skill to win. Naturally, anything where I can just spam "attack" or "the best magic spell all the time" aren't combat systems I enjoyed. The runner up (okay, two runner ups) are systems which really don't hit any of those criteria except for "enjoying the absolute spectacle".
Secret of Mana. Weird, 'eh? Sue me, I loved the battle system. I wish they'd bring it back. I liked the "the whole playable area is the battlefield" and you charged weapons or casted spells on the fly... and enemies could do the same to you. It punished "button spam" with weak attacks. Even better, you could evade everything in the game (except magic!) by just using skill. You could kill several enemies and bosses before your level was high enough by just being skilled enough. Some people can't make it through the first fight against the Mantis Ant thingie (a fight you can't lose) without getting healed up and revived by the offscreen characters to continue the fight... But I can. Every time. I even managed to beat the boss at the end of the game without casting the spell required to do enough damage to him to kill him. Of course, that required a lot of work on my part. What I also liked is that if you had the Multi-tap, you could play with 2 other friends, all of you running around, hitting enemies, casting spells, whatever. It was FANTASTIC.
The runner ups? Earthbound. I like the trippy backgrounds and trippy magic spell looking casts. I also like that whole, "SSSSSSSMMMMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" that covers your screen on a critical hit. And the monster designs and names. I like that battle system just for the spectacle. It's not that deep or engaging without it.
The other one? Final Fantasy 6. So much of what you could do in this game was just different ways of making things dead in a single hit. The devs just gave you options upon endless options to murder-kill the whole game in a single hit. Do I want to cast Ultima? Sword Tech Level 8? Bum Rush? Summon Ragnarok? Genji Glove + X-Attack? X-Magic Ultima? Vanish + Death? Vanish + X-Zone? Meteor? Chainsaw? Atma Weapon? Rage? Mimic an already deadly skill or move? Drill? Fire 3? Dances?
So... so many ways to make things dead instantly in Final Fantasy 6. That's what made the battle fun in that. Not that it was deep or engaging. It certainly wasn't. But, they gave you so many spectacle ways to just murder everything in the game in a single hit.
So... I guess that's my list.
What I mean by "enjoyed" is that it was challenging, interesting, gave me options, and let me use my own skill to win. Naturally, anything where I can just spam "attack" or "the best magic spell all the time" aren't combat systems I enjoyed. The runner up (okay, two runner ups) are systems which really don't hit any of those criteria except for "enjoying the absolute spectacle".
Secret of Mana. Weird, 'eh? Sue me, I loved the battle system. I wish they'd bring it back. I liked the "the whole playable area is the battlefield" and you charged weapons or casted spells on the fly... and enemies could do the same to you. It punished "button spam" with weak attacks. Even better, you could evade everything in the game (except magic!) by just using skill. You could kill several enemies and bosses before your level was high enough by just being skilled enough. Some people can't make it through the first fight against the Mantis Ant thingie (a fight you can't lose) without getting healed up and revived by the offscreen characters to continue the fight... But I can. Every time. I even managed to beat the boss at the end of the game without casting the spell required to do enough damage to him to kill him. Of course, that required a lot of work on my part. What I also liked is that if you had the Multi-tap, you could play with 2 other friends, all of you running around, hitting enemies, casting spells, whatever. It was FANTASTIC.
The runner ups? Earthbound. I like the trippy backgrounds and trippy magic spell looking casts. I also like that whole, "SSSSSSSMMMMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" that covers your screen on a critical hit. And the monster designs and names. I like that battle system just for the spectacle. It's not that deep or engaging without it.
The other one? Final Fantasy 6. So much of what you could do in this game was just different ways of making things dead in a single hit. The devs just gave you options upon endless options to murder-kill the whole game in a single hit. Do I want to cast Ultima? Sword Tech Level 8? Bum Rush? Summon Ragnarok? Genji Glove + X-Attack? X-Magic Ultima? Vanish + Death? Vanish + X-Zone? Meteor? Chainsaw? Atma Weapon? Rage? Mimic an already deadly skill or move? Drill? Fire 3? Dances?
So... so many ways to make things dead instantly in Final Fantasy 6. That's what made the battle fun in that. Not that it was deep or engaging. It certainly wasn't. But, they gave you so many spectacle ways to just murder everything in the game in a single hit.
So... I guess that's my list.
