Again, please don't take as gospel. These are the some of the notes.
Battle System Notes said:
- Attack, defend, switch weapon mechanic, magic and teleportation. Two face buttons, three shoulder buttons. Access to one spell, Fire.
- No real point of comparison with the battle system. No jump button in demo. No idea if available in final. Press attack to hit, and hold to string attacks. Defence operates the same. Hold defence to take defensive stance and evade enemies. Can also hold defence and move using the analog. Potential for timed defences in more cluttered battles maybe. Movement entirely in player's control.
- Switching mechanic can be implemented before an attack or in the midst of an attack. Start heavy and strong, go light and fast etc.
- Teleportation works by holding the trigger to target, then releasing which implements the ability. Able to string teleportation and attacks together, with switching mechanic also. Can target enemies or certain points/objects for teleportation. Teleportation available outside of battle. Can't just teleport anywhere.
- Magic similar to teleportation. Hold to charge, target, cast. You can switch targets like teleportation.
- Battle system is based on movement and offence. You move and attack, move and defend. Constantly alternate between attacking, defending, switching mechanic, mixed with teleportation and magic for added flair. Attacks become more varied by switching mechanic. Example: Press Attack, Hold Attack, Switch, Press Attack, Switch, Press Attack, Teleport, Hold Attack, Switch, Teleport etc. Feels cinematic/flashy and plays well. Good potential here for combinations in big battles with more spells/abilities and teleportation.
- Missing meters for abilities and magic as well as UI. Not final. Must be in the final game in some form as no limitations in demo, constantly teleporting and abusing magic.
- Not indicative of the final product. A lot of work yet to be done. More customisation for magic and abilities, and they're still tinkering with the controls for the best overall feeling.
- Combat has a certain weight to it, but it's not slow at all. Feels good, responsive, quick. Game goes into battle mode when threat is detected. Seamless transition.
- Only controlled Noctis, but final game will allow control of characters other than Noctis. No demonstration of this.
Control scheme on the above demo:
R2 = Teleport
L2 = Fire
L1 = Weapon Switch Mechanic
Circle = Attack
X = Defend
L3 = Movement
R3 = Camera
This should give you a decent idea of how the demo in the notes was played.
Some points of difference from above and what they've shown here in the stream demo:
1. No magic targeting indicator anymore from the looks of it. Has this been replaced by automatic lock-on, or is it not present because they're changing how it looks or something? I don't know.
2. There is some form of UI in what they showed now, which wasn't there before. I believe this is not command based due to how the battle system is. One row for each member likely which tells you current actions. You could probably access item or summons off this by pressing back or forward. Again, I don't know this for fact.
3. Further note on the magic. In the demo in the notes, you press L2 to cast. No other button. I imagine in the final game, this will be like Kingdom Hearts instead so you have access to other magic. It wouldn't make much sense otherwise. Again, pure speculation.
The following is all speculation of what I thought it could possibly be like based of the hands-on (and added a little note now based on new UI):
Control Scheme for Battle Mode:
L2 = Magic (+ either Triangle, Circle, Square, or X)
L1 = Weapon Switch Mechanic
R2 = Teleport (or different unique ability for other characters)
R1 = Switch Playable Character
Triangle = Limit Break / Special Attack
Square = Request Ally Assist
Circle = Attack / Enter (for Item or Summon Menu)
X = Defend / Cancel (for Item or Summon Menu)
L3 = Movement
R3 = Camera
D-Pad:
Up = Cover
Left = Access Item Menu (off UI)
Right = Access Summon Menu (off UI)
Down = Taunt...
The above control scheme is what I kind of imagined. Noctis uses teleport, switching mechanic, magic and attack to chain attacks.
Other characters would have their own unique ability or play style. For example, for Prompto, shooting is auto-lock on target. You press R2 quickly to change target, or keep it pressed to take manual aim. He could possibly use the switching mechanic also but change to different types of guns. You would still press Circle once for a quick shot, or keep it pressed for continuous shots and then use the switching mechanic to change up your attacks.
Maybe Ignis or Gladiolus receive some other type of ability for R2.
If you access the Item or Summon menu, you have to cancel out of the Item/Summon menu before you can start attacking again, since you're using the same button for enter.
For customisation, I'm hoping for some form of AI settings. You should be able to set them to offensive or defensive, and also give them some form of priority on magic attacks in battle situations. This way, you can balance your party with more defensive and offensive members. In addition to this, you should have some separate customisation for their magic and abilities, so if you take control of them manually, you'll have access to what you set.
This is the battle system I've kind of envisioned in mind for a while now, but chances are I'm completely wrong. It's a lot of speculation based on a barebones experience.
One other thing I hoped for was that we'd be able to activate battle mode manually. If battle mode is activated via threat maybe, then it doesn't need to activate automatically if it's just peaceful animals or beasts. This gives some balance in not every monster being a threat. Some may only become one because you start a fight. You can then explore some places a bit more peacefully and just look, like Jurassic Park. However, if you're a dick, you could press L1 or something to activate the battle menu and start killing the peaceful animals also. The way to control this would be that the battle menu can only be activated when you're in the presence of animals/beasts that can be attacked or are fight compatible. I would really like something like this.
