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[OricWindstar]

I'm doing research for some art I'm doing for an RPG and in doing so have realized I've never given much thought to how turn-based RPGs present their battles. At first thought, everything seems to just be some variation of Final Fantasy's presentation, but the more I compile, the more I'm seeing just how varied it can be. Even just little things like the way HP is presented or how close the fighters are too each other makes a huge difference on the feeling of combat.

So, what are some of you guy's favorite "battle screens," for lack of a better term? One I always come back appreciating is:

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
The presentation throughout is wonderful, and the way it depicts its battles is no different. It takes what the original Paper Mario did and brings it to the next level by just making combat a straight up play on a stage. Information such as HP and FP are clearly presented, while also being very eye pleasing. And, gameplay elements aside, just having the audience their growing and shrinking based off your performance adds so much ambiance; anyone who's played the final boss knows how well this is used in key moments.

 

[Nesther]

Jade Cocoon had some nice angles during combat.
Jade Cocoon 2 mixed it up with that grid system, I actually enjoyed that one too.

 

[Hatchtag]

Either Persona 4 or Pokemon Black and White. Probably P4 for the UI and B/W for the animations and such.

 

[Goldenroad]

Summons in Golden Sun are some of the most memorable to me.

 

[Icyflamez96]

FFXIII

I wish I could find gifs but I can't, so here's a video.

https://youtu.be/VyQd_-XnR1I?t=318

 

[Philippo]

Persona 4

 

[UCBooties]

Summons in Golden Sun are some of the most memorable to me.

Golden Sun generally has a very nice presentation for battles. Critical hits would flash and pause to give a real sense of weight, spells had particle effects and would flip the perspective to give the illusion of 3D space. Detailed backgrounds to compliment the sprites. Definitely worth referencing.

 

[FloatOn]

I like the behind the back perspective Phantasy Star 4 had.

Also, the perspective when it cuts to the battle scene in Shining Force is great as well.

 

[OricWindstar]

Summons in Golden Sun are some of the most memorable to me.

With you on that one.

So good. I actually loved all of the presentation for Golden Sun. Was really impressed by the camera movement in battle, especially for a GBA game.

...man, we really need Isaac in Smash.

 

[Trace]

Easily Persona 4 Golden. Never really got bored of that combat screen, even if the combat itself got a bit dull at times.

 

[Space Medafighter X]

My vote goes to Lost Odysseys, loved the run up and presentation.

 

[distantmantra]

Grandia III.

 

[MudoSkills]

Hate to be an asshole and mention a game that isn't out yet, but Persona 5 is shaping up to be a pretty swish affair all around.

Like P3/P4 it has stylish character art, but the camera movement looks to be much more dynamic (based on the brief snippets we've seen in trailers up to now).

 

[Valonquar]

NIS has tried a few different ways of presenting the tactics style RPG with varied levels of success. Phantom Brave tried to use circles instead of squares and I HATED it. It was something different I guess.

Tactics Ogre & FF Tactics do a LOT of depth with their battle systems that go well beyond what most even play attention to through multiple playthroughs. Day of the year, height of current square, horoscope symbol of the targeted character and caster, weather, etc ALL play into damage and accuracy calculations. I love that this level of thought was put into something that most people will 99% of the time just go "Yup 91% chance to hit" *attacks.

 

[Strangelove77]

People talk shit(deservedly so), but FF13 at least looks rad when you're battling. It's sleek as hell.

 

[Haly]

Of all grid-based tactical/strategic RPGs I've played, I think the FFT line still looks the best.

FFTA, in particular, looks amazing even years after its debut on the GBA.

It's one of those sprite-based games where I think: "Yep, this art is damn near timeless."

Devil Survivor, which I played years later, didn't have half the "oomph" FFTA did.

 

[Cels]

transistor looks cool too, although it isn't rigidly turn-based like the other games people have listed

 

[Firebrand]

Summons in Golden Sun are some of the most memorable to me.

I didn't even use summons in Golden Sun... I wanted to keep my stats, darnit.

But yes, it was extremely cool for the hardware it was on.

 

[Sera O]

I was really impressed with Last Remnant's turn screens. They are quite clean but they manage to communicate a lot of information (squad positions, who is engaged by who, individuals targeted, broad commands, your team members' individual actions for each squad order, morale for the whole group, hp). However, it's all really easy to understand and makes it easy to play strategically.

And then once you set up their actions you can just watch them do all the awesome stuff you decided.

 

[SerTapTap]

Of all grid-based tactical/strategic RPGs I've played, I think the FFT line still looks the best.

FFTA, in particular, looks amazing even years after its debut on the GBA.


It's one of those sprite-based games where I think: "Yep, this art is damn near timeless."

Devil Survivor, which I played years later, didn't have half the "oomph" FFTA did.

The actual 2D level art helps a lot, the 3D stuff in FFT itself and the Disgaea series always looks a bit off next to the great character sprites.

 

[OricWindstar]

Of all grid-based tactical/strategic RPGs I've played, I think the FFT line still looks the best.

FFTA, in particular, looks amazing even years after its debut on the GBA.


It's one of those sprite-based games where I think: "Yep, this art is damn near timeless."

Devil Survivor, which I played years later, didn't have half the "oomph" FFTA did.

Man, good call on this as well. It's been a while since I played it, but yeah, that hasn't aged a bit. GBA really had some stunners on it.

 

[RespectThySole]

Persona 4
Lost Odyssey

 

[mokeyjoe]

My vote goes to Lost Odysseys, loved the run up and presentation.

Yes! Was going to post Lost Odyssey. Really fun combat too.

 

[PSqueak]

Earthbound & Mother 3 have minimalistic yet wonderful UIs, picking those entries specifically because the podometer mechanic in which your HP rolls down as you take damage and if you manage to cure yourself before mortal damage rolls it down to 0, you survive.

Persona games have also very non intrusive ones, which are nice, personally adore the one shown so far in Persona 5 previes, where the character in turn holds their hp/mp bars like they're getting their police mugshot taken.

 

[IncognitoPanda]

Summons in Golden Sun are some of the most memorable to me.

Beat me to it. Golden sun 1&2 (haven't played dark dawn), and FFIX.

 

[BadWolf]

Final Fantasy XIII, excellent battle system and very flashy looking.

 

[Moonlight]

The classic, as far as I'm concerned. Although special mention goes to Fates, for the nice 'zoom in' battle transitions and little details like character expressions reflecting the odds of the battle.

 

[SoulUnison]

People talk shit(deservedly so), but FF13 at least looks rad when you're battling. It's sleek as hell.

FF XIII is definitely up in the Top 5 for in-battle presentation, for me.
The only thing that keeps it from decidedly grabbing the #1 spot is that I find the "Launch" mechanic to be incredibly goofy looking.
I hate how everything gets launched to the exact same height and then just sort of "floats" there while characters jump up and "swim" at them.

I also wish the characters had just a few more varied animations for things.
Repeating the same melee strings and the one "arm waving" spell-casting animation for 60 hours is weirdly lazy for SquareEnix.

Some screen configuration for the in-battle UI elements would have been nice, too.
Like the way you can often customize the Health and "Super" meter positions in fighting games.
A lot of the UI is way too "inside" the screen and the edges are wasted.
Makes things look busier than it should.

See, I wish I could move the Stagger Bar up and to the right, the HP bars down and to the right and the Command Menu down and to the left.
Everything's just needlessly close to the center of the action.

 

[OricWindstar]

The classic, as far as I'm concerned. Although special mention goes to Fates, for the nice 'zoom in' battle transitions and little details like character expressions reflecting the odds of the battle.

Holy shit, how'd I forget about this!? Love the sprite animations here to death.

 

[rezn0r]

I like the behind the back perspective Phantasy Star 4 had.

Also, the perspective when it cuts to the battle scene in Shining Force is great as well.

THIS GUY GETS IT!

 

[Umibozu]

I would say the presentation of the battles in skies of arcadia was good. As the characters would be combating the enemies while you were deciding your character's actions.
They also moved around the battle area instead of standing in a row which was cool.

 

[Icyflamez96]

Why is it so complicated to make good quality gifs. How do people do that? Do you use Photoshop or something?....

It highly upsets me that there aren't FFXIII combat gifs out there, so I made a crappy one.

 

[JudgmentJay]

It's more traditional, but I love Grand Knights History's battles.

 

[Icyflamez96]

Cool, I think I found how to adjust the instagiffer settings to make it look more like other gameplay gifs I see. I'll probably post a few more FFXIII gifs throughout this thread as I make them.

 

[BlackJace]

The classic, as far as I'm concerned. Although special mention goes to Fates, for the nice 'zoom in' battle transitions and little details like character expressions reflecting the odds of the battle.

Yeah FE had every necessary element in its ui, nothing more. nothing less.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

The classic, as far as I'm concerned. Although special mention goes to Fates, for the nice 'zoom in' battle transitions and little details like character expressions reflecting the odds of the battle.

The king indeed!

 

[OricWindstar]

It's more traditional, but I love Grand Knights History's battles.

Never played it, but damn, that does look great.

Cool, I think I found how to adjust the instagiffer settings to make it look more like other gameplay gifs I see. I'll probably post a few more FFXIII gifs throughout this thread as I make them.

I could never get into FFXIII, but it was definitely not from the visuals. Hoping they can bring this kind of flair to FFVII's remake without it losing the core gameplay.

 

[Miker]

Earthbound & Mother 3 have minimalistic yet wonderful UIs, picking those entries specifically because the podometer mechanic in which your HP rolls down as you take damage and if you manage to cure yourself before mortal damage rolls it down to 0, you survive.

Persona games have also very non intrusive ones, which are nice, personally adore the one shown so far in Persona 5 previes, where the character in turn holds their hp/mp bars like they're getting their police mugshot taken.

While I like the rolling health meter in Earthbound, I thought its presentation was dreadfully dull and basic. There's no flair, little feedback, and just not a whole lot going on overall. I understand why it's the way it is, but I didn't like it.

 

[kamineko]

*snip*
The classic, as far as I'm concerned.

I am actually doing a replay of FE now. Striking how deceptively simple the game appears. All necessary information is immediately available. Great UI, great presentation, easy to manage.

I also think P4G does a great job of presenting a turn-based scenario in a way that feels dynamic. P3 achieves this to a lesser extent, but P4G is the champ.

 

[Noaloha]

There's something, I don't know, peculiar about it in a low rent, 'clipart' sort of way, but I grew to really, really like the battle presentation in Tales Of Xulima. Very intuitive, responsive and clear with its info. Lots of personality. Good immediate sense of numbers/size danger.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Resonance of fate?

Resonance of fate

 

[Icyflamez96]

Those animations though

 

[AppleMIX]

My absolute favorite is Darkest Dungeon.

 

[badcrumble]

FFXII and Chrono Trigger, because if you've got a separate battle screen you've failed.

 

[TheGamingBox]

probably ffxiii.persona 4 golden, and pokemon white

 

[MultiJhonny]

Those animations though

MMM looks so good.

FFXIII's really do look amazing

 

[Icyflamez96]

Epic battle transitions

 

[Icyflamez96]

#WRECKED

 

[Loomer]

Ogre Battle 64.

 

[Hargon]

Grandia II