Onto Disc 2 of Final Fantasy XIII

Last night I got through the rest of the first disc on FFXIII, and I think I've begun to accept the combat system for the most part. It makes sense to me if I look at it as a progression of an idea.

In most JRPGs, you would have a turn, and then you'd make a selection of what ability to use, and combat would just wait for your input. It worked, and I enjoy games that still do this-- but at the same time it's admittedly a little bit slow feeling, and is hard to make fights like this seem more action packed outside of your own imagination. So, modifications were made to make it more "interesting". Even in Final Fantasy IV, which I'm playing again now, each of the people in combat have their own action bar that allows some characters to attack more often than others, and will continue the combat going while you are looking at your combat options. There is a sense of urgency there that wasn't in the previous titles, but it still was "your dudes on one side, your opponents on the other". Tweaks happen here and there, but the next major change I noticed in the games was in FFXII.

In FFXII, all the battles are real-time, on the regular overworld map -- like in Zelda or any other action game. You no longer went to a separate combat screen. At the same time, you now don't really control anyone but your main character. Everyone else have to follow rules you have pre-designated ahead of time. At first I found this overwhelming, but after learning how it worked it made the combat much faster and more like how an MMO like World of Warcraft plays. If the overall idea was "make combat faster and more interesting", then I think FFXIII's changes make sense.

This time, you don't even have to input commands for the other people in your group ahead of time. They will make the "smartest" decision for the fight not only based on their abilities, but also based on what you have already learned about the enemy. If you know (based on using Libra or seemingly just from trial and error) that the gremlin you are fighting is weak to fire, and resistent to lightning -- your companions will attack them with fire-based abilities if they can, and will avoid lightning attacks. You switch their purpose mid-combat to meet the demands of the situation -- if you are taking a lot of damage, you can switch someone in your group to a healing function, and they will begin healing people who need it most. If you switch to a buffing role, they will start casting buffs to your party members in some sort of organized fashion. Your own character will also do this with the "autoattack" button, but I've found that picking my own attacks and setting off chains of attacks early really makes things more interesting for longer fights, and will manage to stagger enemies a little bit faster sometimes.

As a concept of making RPG combat more interesting and less monotonous, I can follow this train of thought. In the basic "input all members commands" turn based RPGs, you end up picking the same skills for people constantly. Yes, I could choose to cast a different spell other than "lightning" but that is my most efficient combat spell-- just for the sake of diversity it doesn't make sense that I would change it. Combat is this game, at least for non-boss fights, is FAST. Everyone does what you ask them to do, in a fairly efficient manner, and as long as you've selected the right roles at the right times, then a lot of combats end in a matter of seconds. The end result to me feels more like I'm picking football plays, and then playing as the QB while my team does what I've asked. I think I like that concept, at least enough to keep playing this to it's conclusion.

I don't think it's the best way to do this, and I'm pretty sure I'd rather have the game switch back to the more MMO-feel of FFXII. Still, I'm beginning to understand the combat a little more now, so it is feeling much less like "PRESS A, THE GAME". I suppose that quells most of my early fears.