Final Fantasy XIII's battle system explained

by Jason Dobson { Mar 26th 2009 at 11:30AM }

Anticipation is building for the upcoming director's cut of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which is set to drain Japanese wallets of MP next month, as well as give eager gamers their first hands-on taste of Final Fantasy XIII. The demo, which comes bundled with the Blu-ray exclusive movie, also promises to give players an early look at how the anticipated sequel handles combat, which judging by a recent 1UP article looks to sample both Final Fantasy XII and Squaresoft fan favorite, Xenogears.

Much like the "Active Time Battle" system seen elsewhere in the series, XIII's gauge-heavy combat will likely tread familiar territory for series vets. Here different actions -- such as casting a spell or smacking an imp upside the head with a giant sword -- each siphon off a different amount of "time" from a meter, with more powerful attacks demanding a greater sacrifice of patience. This all sounds interesting, though like mom and apple pie, Final Fantasy and combat just go together. And while the series' battles may lack a flaky crust, their mix of spiky hair and androgyny can be just as filling. Well, maybe not as much as mother's rhubarb pie -- that stuff's to die for.

Tags: battle, combat, final-fantasy, final-fantasy-xiii, square-enix, time

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Eric Pell @ Mar 26th 2009 11:36AM

I would expect it to drain their wallets of Gil vs. MP.

nutman @ Mar 26th 2009 11:38AM

Awesome. I'm really looking forward to this game.

LegendaryRedass @ Mar 26th 2009 11:45AM

Yeah, I'm gonna need my MP to try to get that demo.

Markez @ Mar 26th 2009 11:41AM

Japanese people have magical wallets!? WUT where can I get one?

Zach @ Mar 26th 2009 11:45AM

Japan

samfish @ Mar 26th 2009 11:50AM

They put little good luck frogs in their coin pouches and it makes your money come back.

Markez @ Mar 26th 2009 11:51AM

My wallet only drains me of HP :(

Deeznuts420 @ Mar 26th 2009 12:31PM

ahem, its called the nintendo DS

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 11:42AM

Do they even need graphics with this game? All you need to do really is pick an action from an interface and wait. How riveting.

Verde @ Mar 26th 2009 11:50AM

Uh huh... And picking an action in an action game by pressing a controller button is THAT different?

I hope the battles have lots of strategy involved. I can't wait!

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 11:58AM

@Verde

Yes, it is different. In an action game you have to control your character at all times to avoid death. In these games you pick actions from a menu and wait.... kinda like surfing the net, or renewing you prescriptions or using an ATM.

ryanpaulmcgowan @ Mar 26th 2009 12:00PM

That poor analogy is really poor.

No game needs a graphic. Real time text adventures exist. Any game can be played on one.

Verde @ Mar 26th 2009 12:01PM

@ronEbear: Yeah, just personal tastes. I like the tactical nature of menu-driven fights. If not paced well, they can can become boring, but I'm hoping FFXIII keeps it interesting.

Erluti @ Mar 26th 2009 12:03PM

To be fair the point is to read all that text and watch shiny videos, not actually play a game.

Saria the Cat @ Mar 26th 2009 12:17PM

Troll is a troll.

Haohmaru @ Mar 26th 2009 12:24PM

"I don't like turn-based RPGs, so I came to troll in order to make sure all of you JRPG fans are aware of my disapproval!" Thank you, Mr. Bear!

NoughtSoClever @ Mar 26th 2009 12:36PM

I love JRPGs and I am not afraid or ashamed to admit that one of the things that has always made the FF series successful is the imagery. Their art direction is top notch. There is a reason that, too this day, more people would prefer FF3 on SNES over a text based adventure.

But it's not like the graphics are the only reason people buy these games. Story and combat system are of equal caliber. Try a better argument.

Saria the Cat @ Mar 26th 2009 12:45PM

Okay, I will feed the troll.

ronEbear, have you even played a Final Fantasy game in the past 5 years? They change their battle systems every game and, in the most recent (FF XII), there is no wait time at all. Everything is real time.

You clearly don't know what you're talking about if you're presenting a huge over generalization like that. That's like me saying, "Street Fighter? But all you do is mash buttons LOLOLOL!"

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 12:50PM

@ Saria the Cat

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM'.........buuuuuurp. Thanks, that`s all I needed. I think i`m full now (let`s see who bites at setup).

Saria the Cat @ Mar 26th 2009 12:51PM

@ronEbear: Okay, wow, you need to be shut down.

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 12:57PM

@ Saria the cat:

But I`m a human dammit!! I can`t be shut down, although I can be turned off. ZZZING!

NoughtSoClever @ Mar 26th 2009 12:59PM

Just ignore the trolls. They will eventually get lonely and die.

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 1:09PM

@NoughtSoClever

See, you really are not so clever. By telling the others to ignore the trolls what you`re doing is acknowledging their presence thus doing the reverse of your desired effect.

NoughtSoClever @ Mar 26th 2009 1:19PM

I would say "Is that the best you can come up with?" But I already know it is.

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 1:36PM

@NoughtSoClever

So your best is "Is that the best you can come up with?". Really? After failing to rally up the troops to ignore me you go ahead and bring even MORE attention and acknowledgment to the troll that lurks.

Maybe I should use the same lame internet même seen in these comments at least twice already and declare:

NaughtSoClever is NotSoClever

Do I get points for that?

Wait, let me queue up another action for when this one takes place and just wait for the outcome.

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 1:38PM

@ NaughtSoClever

LIMIT BREAK!!!

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 1:41PM

(Scrolls through menu)
I summon (greek, norse or medieval deity).
(waits 5 minutes for animation to finish)
CRITICAL!!
You win.

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 1:42PM

Rinse and repeat for 200 hours.

NoughtSoClever @ Mar 26th 2009 1:49PM

Please continue. Don't let me stop you.

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 1:59PM

@NaughtSoClever

Because you can`t. And in trying to be clever you ended proving that you are not. Now you`re hoping that by using reverse psychology you will be able to stop the train. You can`t even follow your own advice in ignoring the trolls. You are a big nothing.

Markez @ Mar 26th 2009 2:30PM

Man you are seriously butthurt. You had 4 in a row there, great job?

Powaqqatsi @ Mar 26th 2009 2:43PM

Yo shit is wizeak.

NoughtSoClever @ Mar 26th 2009 2:45PM

It's simply a matter of patients. n the end you shut up. In the end I prevail. I mean, who is taunting who here?

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 3:07PM

@NoughtSoClever

I think you need to go back to school for some grammar lessons.

Patients are people who require medical care. The correct word that you were looking for is patience, which is a state of endurance under difficult circumstances. You also forgot to add an "I" in your second phrase. I guess in your rush to provide another feeble response you forgot to choose appropriate words and forgot how to write some altogether.

NoughtSoClever @ Mar 26th 2009 3:19PM

hers summor grammer 4 u to corrct. Keep it going.

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 3:28PM

Oh ho ho!!

See there is a large difference between being an idiot on purpose,such as your last post, and being an idiot naturally. Two states that seem befitting of you and at which you excel.

NoughtSoClever @ Mar 26th 2009 3:30PM

You know you and I, we should make a thing of this. We can call it 'Troll Fighter.' You keep typing away and I'll keep provoking you. What do you say? If you agree, just reply with another great and predictable retort. Here are some suggestions, you can claim that I'm not very clever which would be ironic considering my name, or you can say that regardless of what I think, I have not accomplished anything. Heck, just throw out a blatant insult. And then I'll reply with "Nice!" and we'll take it from there.

ronEbear @ Mar 26th 2009 3:45PM

Well, let`s see what I can muster here to try to end this silly debate as diplomatically as possible.

Of your suggestions, here are the one`s that i have covered already.

A: You can claim that I'm not very clever which would be ironic considering my name
B: You can say that regardless of what I think, I have not accomplished anything

What is left is blatant insults. Considering all of my taunts and rebuttals have all been in context, and since none of us two will concede, I will perpetuate the discussion with:

I bet you wish you were a pair of Cloud Strife`s underpants/thong.