Top 10 Turn-Based Battle Systems In RPGs

combat and rpgs comes in all sorts of shapes and forms these days ranging from real-time action tactical strategy and of course my favorite good old classic turn-based i definitely appreciate all the variety and gameplay but turn-based rpgs are the ones i grew up playing and the ones i'm always going to have a soft spot for and over the years however they've evolved quite a bit i mean compare the turn-based system from the original dragon quest to oh let's say persona 5. the same foundation is still there but needless to say the mechanics are a little more in-depth with that said i thought it'd be fun to take a look back at some of my favorite turn-based systems over the years and count down my personal top 10. and really let me emphasize there my personal top 10. this is not an objective list by any means if you don't agree with some of my picks that's totally fine we're all humans with our own opinions after all at the end of the day no one is right or wrong also keep in mind while i have played a lot of turn-based rpgs and most of the classics there's still some i haven't gotten around to so if there's an amazing turn-based system that's not on this list it might just be because i haven't played it yet i'll also be limiting it to one entry per series unless the battle systems are similar enough just evolved and in that case i might include this series as a whole last thing if this is a topic that's interesting to you and considering you clicked on this video i assume it probably is we did release a video over the history of combat on rpgs when our channel wasn't quite as big as it is now so if that one sounds up your alley check it out with all that out of the way let's just go ahead and count down this very subjective list of the top 10 turn-based battle systems and rpgs coming in at number 10 we have super mario rpg legend of the 7 stars super mario rpg is the first rpg i ever played and it just so happens it has one of the most fun and interactive turn-based systems in the entire genre and no that's not just nostalgic talking either let me explain the biggest reason why it's here is the timing element that goes into your attacks whether it's regular or special there's both visual and audible cues that let you know when to press the specific button at the right time in order to inflict more damage it's not all just the same format every time either not only does this range from different characters but it also ranges from their weapons as well for example mario's hammer his gloves and his shell all have different timing in order to maximize damage now i'm not a hundred percent sure but i am pretty sure this is the first rpg to ever incorporate such a level of interactivity in the gameplay other games would expand upon this mechanic later on but i just really like the simplicity in how super mario rpg handled it while still having enough variety to be engaging and fun it always remains doable and challenging enough while not being too difficult like i love the addition system and the legend of dragoon but some of those late game additions get a little bit too complex to consistently pull off and you do get penalized if you don't pull it off correctly as you do [ __ ] damage the level of difficulty in which super mario rpg handles it though chef's kiss another thing i really like about the battle system is the ui it may seem like such a small detail but with the menu being made to look like the buttons on your super nintendo controller it just gave it a little visual flair and made it stick out from the dual formatting and a lot of other turn-based rpgs from that era all in all this turn-based system was just ahead of its time in a lot of ways i know there's a lot of people that probably prefer the battle systems from later mario rpgs like paper mario for example and while i do really like those two i just feel like they're a little bit too simple for me with not enough rpg elements super mario rpg strikes that right balance for me between engagement simplicity and complexity which is why it has a spot on this list [Music] coming in at number 9 we have octopath traveler the first of more modern rpgs to be on this list and its spot is well deserved visually the battles take a lot of inspiration from super nintendo final fantasy games especially final fantasy vi however the similarities in there as the battles play out very differently every enemy has their own set of weaknesses the different weapon types and spell types and it's up to you to figure them out after you hit them with a weakness you lower their armor level by one and when they hit zero they reach a break status where they're then weak to all but sacks and allow you to deal a lot more damage on the next turn this is absolutely essential as if you don't break enemies you're probably not going to win maybe for normal battles you might still win it would just take a while but against bosses if you don't break them you're gonna get straight up wrecked each character has multiple weapon types they can equip along with differing elemental spells so you have a lot of options at your disposal with how you try to break their armor there's also a class system in this game which only gives you more variety in expanding your weapon types skills and spells to further add to this strategy there's also the boost mechanic with each passing turn every character gains one orb maxing out at 5 which allows you to boost the damage on your attack you can boost your attack up to 3 times and not only does this work really well in breaking down the armor of your enemies it also lets you deal an immense amount of damage to broken enemies taking advantage of the strategy against bosses is pretty much required and the only way you're going to beat some of them the depth and synergy of how all these mechanics work together just give the game so much strategy it makes bosses very difficult and very fun concern based veterans will likely love this system and the complex strategy that it allows for with all that said while these mechanics add a necessary challenge for boss battles on the flip side it also adds a little bit of tedium to regular battles it's not that bad it can just make job grinding kind of annoying at times far from a deal breaker though as it still remains extremely fun man is why it's ranked here on this list [Music] coming in at number eight we have breath of fire four at first glance this may just look like your standard turn-based system and while i guess it kind of is in a lot of ways it also has some unique mechanics that make it stand out for one the six-person battle party is just awesome you can't fight with them all at once but you can't twitch them out whenever and the ones in the back row will regain ap which is very helpful i just really love how no character is useless and how they all can have their purpose and long challenging drawn out boss fights this is honestly the biggest reason why i have this game here instead of the other breath of fire games like three for example another reason that's also unique to this specific title is the combo system this allows you to combine spells and abilities together to create even stronger ones the only downside to this is that there's no exact way to tell what order the characters will go in so these combos can get interrupted this system would have really thrived at the way to see the turn order like in oh let's say the trail series for example oh well still a lot of fun last but not least there's no way i could talk about the combat in the breath of fire game without talking about the dragon transformation system now i do think the third game dip is better with the unique sprites and different splicing combinations but still dragon transformations are still better than no dragon transformations plus the animation that plays when you do transform is really cool breath of fire 3 may have the edge here but with the six person battle party and combo system breath of fire 4 just takes the cake overall it's traditional and simple but still has enough depth to keep you satisfied and having a good time by the way we did cover this game in a 40-minute retrospective a couple months back so if you want to hear some more of my thoughts on it check that video out coming in at number seven we have legend of lagaya alright so outside of super mario rpg this is the first serious rpg i ever played but i promise this century is not just nostalgia bait either to this day i've never played another turn-based battle system quite like the one in legend of lagaya well besides the sequel that is but i don't think that game's as good as this one so yeah basically you create combos by combining right punches left punches right kicks and left kicks together if you input the right combo you create what the game calls an art which is pretty much just a powerful attack the more correct inputs needed to perform an art the stronger that art is gonna be at the beginning of the game you can only input like three to four commands limiting your potential but by the end of the game the bar increases immensely allowing you to pull off multiple arts in the same turn it's so much fun there's also the sentient beings called raw sir you attached to your arm which visibly grow in size throughout the game and is reflected in the battle graphics it's really cool to see the in-game graphical changes don't end there either every weapon and armor has its own unique graphic which actually shows on your character in battle i seriously cannot express enough just how damn cool this was back then and [ __ ] even still is now no other jrpg did this back then and most still don't combine this with the incredible battle graphics compared to the walking around sprites and my 10 year old mind was just blown at the time with all that said the internet kind of ruined the novelty of this battle system is you can just look online to find all the right combos for the arts instead of stumbling upon them randomly which is where the real joy came from but even still i gotta give legend of lagaya props for having such a creative concept man being ahead of its time with the weapon and armor battle graphics if we could ever get a modern iteration of this one of these days i'd be a happy ass dude [Music] [Music] all right for the number six but i'm kind of cheating and breaking my own rules here but i'm including both chrono trigger and chrono cross i didn't want to take up multiple spots with two chrono games but with that said i still wanted to talk about them both so here we are let's start with chrono trigger the main reasons why i love the battle system and chrono trigger so much so the seamless transitions between exploration and battles the balance and viability of all your party members and of course the tax system battles taking place on the same screen as exploration was such a great ideas and not only cuts back on the loading times but also just helps the game feel more immersive and party balance was also handled really well i feel like there's so many rpgs from the snes and ps1 era where after i get a party member i never use them again for chrono trigger though every party member remains useful up until the very end i was swapping characters in and out all the time i love this with that said the text system is the coolest part and characters all have their own texts which are basically like special skills and you can even combine them with other characters text to create double text and triple text these range all over the place and effects and it's so much fun to see all the different combinations out there this tech system did return in chrono cross but it was pretty butchered down and not really why i love it what i did love though was a stamina system you start with seven stamina points in battle and every regular attack uses either one two or three stamina points depending on their strength there is a risk reward element at play here though as your stronger attacks do have less accuracy but you can build up that accuracy by performing weaker attacks first i really like this the element system is also quite robust but to be honest it would be pretty complex and long to explain and this entry is already getting long enough i do break down the battle system completely in our 40-minute retrospective over the game last month though so if you want to hear some more of my thoughts on it along with the game in general be sure to check that video out coming in at number 5 we have dragon quest 11. it's only right that the series that essentially created the japanese role-playing game genre would have a spot on this list man to no one's surprise in my opinion the most recent entry has the best battle system out of them all let me clarify though in order to make full use of the battle system and the depth that it provides it's absolutely essential that you turn on the stronger monsters mode at the beginning of the game the normal difficulty is just way too easy and you will not be pushed to utilize the battle system to its full potential when you do utilize it to its full potential though there's a lot of strategy to be had as it's a lot deeper than it appears on the surface first of all i love how useful status effects are even on bosses so many rpgs from back in the day have status inflicting skills that either work so little of the time they're practically useless or they don't work at all in some cases like against bosses yeah i'm looking at you final fantasy this pretty much defeats their whole purpose as there's no use in using them on regular enemies you can just defeat in one or two normal attacks in dragon quest 11 though status effects are absolutely essential against bosses some bosses can be beaten not necessarily by leveling up but by changing your strategy exploiting status effects and making proper use of buffs and debuffs in order to win some tough battles you're going to have to make full use of these mechanics in addition to this there's also the pep system this sort of acts like an evolved a more fleshed out version of the trance system from final fantasy 9 this enhanced pep state can be triggered at randomly where you have heightened stats and access to special pep skills you can then combine with other pept characters skills to create even stronger attacks performing a pep skill though will return you to your normal state so muse wisely also pep states can be carried over in between battles which makes this so much more useful than trances from ff9 i do also prefer this over the somewhat similar tension system from dragon quest a but i know that's more of a split opinion another reasons why i prefer the battle system in dragon quest 11 over the one in dragon quest 8 are how there's 8 characters instead of 4 but you can rotate on the fly in battles which only adds more strategy and the skills 3 is a lot more forgiving while still allowing for a lot of party customization overall the battle system in dragon quest 11 is just executed extremely well and a great example of how to handle turn-based combat in modern rpgs [Music] coming in at number four we have the entirety of the trail series so i'm including the series as a whole here because while the battle system has evolved through later entries the foundation has always remained the same it's a bit different than oh let's say final fantasy where some of those battle systems can vary quite greatly basically if you played one trails game you'll have a pretty good grasp of how combat works in the other games now the reasons why i love it first of all player and enemy turn order is visible on screen which to me is always a great touch secondly movements and positioning plays a huge role in battles certain arts and crafts affect specific areas so where you are on the battlefield is very important in deciding how you want to plan your next move sometimes you may just waste a turn moving somewhere else because you know that payoff's gonna be worth it the next turn the same goes for dodging enemy attacks as well speaking of arts and crafts i'm a huge fan of these systems by the way this is the second time i've said arts and crafts and i feel like i'm about to start talking about hobby lobby or some [ __ ] but alas that is not the case and crafts are basically just special skills that you can use after a meter is filled however what makes these different is after the meter is filled you can use them whenever you want this means if you want to wait to use it right before an enemy attacks to screw them over go for it an even better use for it though is to use it around the battle bonuses that occasionally appear in the turn order these can range in effects from restoring hp restoring cp increasing your strength or even getting a critical planning these crafts around criticals and whatnot can be a table turner and boss battles last but not least there's arts which basically act as magic in this game what's different however is the arts that you can perform are entirely dependent on the courts you have equipped outside of battle every character can equip a variety of courts which gives you so much options in how you want to customize your party not only do courts affect the arts you learn but they also can give you stat increases and even status inflicting effects to your weapons there's seriously so much strategy and customization here it's a deep system the sheer depth of it all and ultimately the fun factor are why the trail's battle system ranks so high on this list [Music] coming in at number three we have final fantasy 10. yup this is my entry from the final fantasy series controversial maybe i don't know i don't think so but apparently a lot of people do when i listed this game in our video about rpgs that have aged well i got massacred in the comments a lot of people saying stuff like ff10 sucks it was the start of the downfall the series the characters are annoying it was too linear etc man that's totally cool you're entitled to your own opinion i respect that but with that said are you really gonna try to tell me that the battle system wasn't awesome in my opinion this is the peak of final fantasy's turn-based systems and let me explain why there's no atb mechanic this time around but it does make up for it in other ways which i gotta be honest i was never that crazy about atb to begin with i get why square did it as it helps the slower nature of turn-based combat feel a little bit more actiony and fast-paced but to me i like to sufficiently plan my strategies as opposed to feeling rushed and final fantasy 10 allows for this with the visible turn order are you noticing a trend with some of my favorites here i've read some comments before saying that showing turn order isn't that big of a deal because even when it's not shown all you have to do is let one turn play out to know the order well in an ideal world that would be the case but in my experience this doesn't happen very often regardless of the speed stats so many times i've had characters move all over the place from one certain to the next like i'll have a character outpace an enemy one cern only for the opposite to happen the next turn older rpgs are especially notorious for this they can make planning healing really annoying thankfully ff10 negates this issue entirely and it's that much better for it i think plus it actually makes skills like haste extremely useful another reason why this battle system kicks ass is that you can actually swap out characters mid-battle the first final fantasy game to do this this gives viability to all your party members not only in long drawn-out boss fights but also in regular battles as well as some characters are stronger against certain enemy types than others the only downside of this is that each character has to participate in battle to get sphere grid points so grinding for that can be a little tedious oh well i do like how aeons work in this game though as opposed to being a one-time summon like in games past you actually fight with them yourself for a period of turns it's pretty cool i think what i really love though is the overall difficulty a lot of final fantasies before this could be a little easy to where you never needed to utilize the battle system to its full potential but final fantasy 10 does have some late game boss fights that will wall you if you don't know what you're doing this doesn't even take into account optional boss fights like the dark aeons which require even more preparation and strategy in order to beat these guys you gotta be a master of the system all these reasons are why final fantasy xin has the best combat in the series to me and is my third favorite turn-based battle system of all time coming in at number two we have persona 5. if i could describe persona 5's battle system in 3 words it would be stylistic flashy and fast all the menus and ui in general and persona 5 just drip with style and the battles are no exception even the after battle transitions are smooth as hell this combined with its quicker pace just makes combat feel like a satisfying rhythm and puts you in a flow state of sorts it's just the most fun turn-based system to simply act as weird as that sounds with that said the combat's all just not visual flair there's a good amount of mechanics and strategy to it first of all the press turn system the smt series is known for makes us read serm just as polished as ever well i haven't played smt5 yet so don't quote me on that but it's still done really well here exploiting enemy weaknesses to get extra turns is a very key components in combat so is making proper use of buffs and debuffs as well after exploiting every enemy's weakness in battle you can perform what the game calls an all-out attack which is basically just an attack from your entire team at once that does massive damage in addition to this in your regular attacks you can also attack with guns which was a new mechanic added to persona 5. in the vanilla version they were a little less useful as you had limited ammo but thankfully persona 5 royal fixed this by giving you unlimited ammo this gave them a lot more viability as you're not as afraid to use them and of course how could we talk about a persona battle system without talking about well the personas basically the main character joker can occasionally recruit demons to his side after battle that give you access to a variety of skills and come with their own sets of strengths and weaknesses to different weapon types and elements you can rotate between these personas during battle depending on what you want to do and the farther you are in the game the more personas you can have at once and you can also fuse personas together to create even stronger ones in fact this is pretty much essential when you're gonna have to do it a lot overall between the triple s trifecta of style substance and strategy persona 5 just hits all the right notes for me with that said however there's still a turn-based system out there that i like just a little bit better but first let's do some honorable mentions bats and kaidos one and two these at least deserve a mention for accomplishing the rare task of making a battle system built around cards and actually fun i love the strategy the customizing your decks allow for but i don't love the sometimes randomness of it and the slow pacing of battles wild arms 3. i have a soft spot for the wild arm series and this is probably my favorite iteration of its combat i've always liked the force system and i love how this entry fully embraced the wild west aesthetic and gave each character their own gun to shoot characters and enemies actually moving around the battlefield gave it a little bit more immersion than the previous entries as well suikoden won and sue these are here because i love the six person battle party and how fast battles move in general it's night and day compared to most other ps1 rpgs besides runes and combination attacks though it's a pretty standard system arc rise fantasia don't let the reputation this game has about having one of the shittiest english dubs ever scare you away huh that's stupid i have absolutely no idea what you're talking about the battle system is extremely fun boss fights are really challenging and fully engage you there's a lot you probably won't beat on your first try and to succeed grinding is not the move instead it mostly just comes down to properly customizing your weapons with stats and abilities through a tetris-like system i love this alright and the last honorable mentions we have are the other games that utilize a timing element system like shadow hearts lost odyssey and the legend of dragoon some of these could have taken super mario rpg spot on the list but that's the one i have the most nostalgia with and decided to go with all super fun systems though with their own things that they do better and worse than each other now with all those out of the way let's finally move on to the number one spot coming in is my favorite turn-based battle system of all time we have the grandia series if you're a frequent watcher of the channel this should come as no surprise to you grandia 1 and 2 were some of my favorite jrpgs of all time and i've talked a lot before about how incredibly fun their combat is and while i'm not the biggest fan of grandi xtreme and grandia 3 i can't deny that they absolutely kill it in the gameplay department with perhaps the best combat in the series from each iteration to the next some elements do slightly differ but for the most part the core foundation is the same it has some of your standard turn-based mechanics such as attack defend skills and magic but that's basically where the similarities in for one there's two types of regular attacks a combo and a critical a combo is just a normal two-hit attack but a critical has a possibility of cancelling an enemy's move at the bottom of the screen there's an ip gauge that shows you how close a player or enemy is to attacking or healing or whatever once someone is in the part labeled act if they get attacked with the critical or another special move or magic or something before they get that action off it can potentially get cancelled entirely and yes this can happen to both you and the opponent taking advantage of this mechanic in boss fights is pretty much required this gives combat a real time element of sorts while still giving you all the time in the world to plan your next move when it is your turn best of both worlds to me all of this combined with the fact that characters actively moved around the battlefield just gave it all such a lively immersive feel i also really like how the skills and magic system work these do vary from game to game so i won't get into them too much but i think how grandia 2 handled it is probably my favorite and i much preferred how they handled mana eggs in this one and the way the skill progression worked in the first grandia in general was a little obsessed all in all if i really had a pick i would say grandia 2 probably has my favorite combat in the series but you really can't go wrong with any of them regardless of the entry grandia's battle system always remains extraordinarily fun to this day there has been some similar systems but in my opinion none of them even come close to being as engaging as grandi is or replicating that level of excellence it's got strategy depth excitement and visual flair all while not being needlessly complex and hard to understand man that my friends is why the grandia series has my favorite turn-based battle system of all time come power of the universe ah dragon king's life [Music] [Music] all right and that about wraps up another video thanks for watching everyone we hope you enjoyed it if you did please either consider hitting that like button or subscribing to the channel if you haven't already like i mentioned at the start of the video this is a very subjective topic and i'm already having some second thoughts about the order some games that i left out and yeah there's just so many great turn-based systems out there this list was almost impossible to make plus there are still some great games out there i haven't played yet unfortunately i'm sure radiant astoria fans were angrily clenching their fists when i got to the end if you guys can make your own top 10 though what would it be let us know in the comments below oh and i also wanted to say that we got official merch now i guess it's pretty much just basic shirts with our logo slapped on for now but we do plan on getting other designs later and more apparel in general with that said the shirts are pretty damn comfy though it's a tri-blend and quite soft you know that good [ __ ] not that cheap cotton [ __ ] we also just revised our patreon tears and the patrons that join our highest tier will get a free shirt sent to them so yeah if you're interested in supporting the channel in any way feel free to check out our patreon or our teespring in the description and speaking of patreon as always just want to give a huge thank you to our supporters on there nan's an extra special shout out to whatsapp patrons jesse spencer and jump rock all of your supports and generosity is very much appreciated other than that thanks again for watching everyone and hope you have an awesome day this is corbin from gaming productions until next time [Music] you

Channel: Gaming Broductions

Views: 163,125

Keywords: best turn based battle systems, best turn based combat, turn based battle systems, top 10 turn based systems, jrpg combat, rpg battle systems, best rpg battle systems, best jrpg combat

Id: eR3V0HZFAIc

Length: 28min 42sec (1722 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 01 2022