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[nogoodnamesleft]

Let me preface by saying this game is one of the worst FF games ever made. The story, setting, the corridors and the characters are all absolutely pityful/corny/poorly written.

The music however is good.

But MY GOD the combat. I remember playing the game on release back when it came out on PS3 and i remember REALLY liking the combat but having returned to it again since i have some spare time on holidays i just got to the chapter 5 boss where the combat finally has taken off most of its training wheels.

The tension between setting up paradigms and switching them on the fly. INSANE. Just managing to get in a double cure before you are about to die and the boss is about to kill you feels so satisfying. The rush to charge up the bosses stagger meter while managing buffs/debuffs while healing and watching rotations carefully is exhilarating. When you finally hit that stagger and lay the SMACK DOWN on said boss...amazing! And the music in both normal battles and boss battles is perfect for the mood!

Its a shame the rest of the game is basically total shambles but the combat alone makes the game *nearly* worth completing. I am 7 hours in now and i will probably keep going because i remember the battles in Pulse also been incredibly fun. It is a shame we will never see this paradigm system being used as i truly believe no JRPG is so exciting in its combat.

Anyone else have this much fun with the battles?

 

[Grim Patron]

It also has one of the best soundtracks ever. Way better than XV.

 

[Ishida]

I highly prefer XV and X-2's combat over it, but yeah, it's great.

EDIT: But it's NOWHERE close to being the best of any JRPG's. That's just crazy talk.

 

[Pankratous]

Yeah, I love the combat in 13/13-2.

 

[EvilKatarn]

A self destructing bomb enemy was glowing and had "DETONATING" written over it in a text-box.

Lightning walked right up to it and died.

I disagree.

 

[Magnus]

I have to disagree strongly. It practically ruined the game for me. I appreciated the fast pace of battle, but was infuriated at the stupid decisions AI was making for my party members all the time. Going from previous FFs to this one was brutal; losing fine control over party members' decisions was just awful.

I have a similar gripe with FFXV, but not to the same degree. You can't even issue specific tech/skill commands to characters in XIII aside from your leader, can you?

 

[Oregano]

Bravely Second has the best command based battle system IMO.

 

[firehawk12]

The combat is why I spent an extra 60 hours grinding Adamantoise for the platinum trophy. It was fun even to do completely repetitive and boring tasks.

 

[Wiseblade]

Not even close, XIII doesn't even have the best combat in the Final Fantasy Series. In that regard, I'd hold X & X-2 as the height of the series. Those games especially do a better job of establishing tension in combat while giving the player actual freedom in character builds and party layout.

XIII even struggles to stand out in presentation of combat, something it tries so hard to nail. I'd argue Panzer Dragoon Saga, a game more than a decade older has better execution of a similar combat system and does a far better job of presenting battles in a cinematic/dynamic manner.

 

[ExoSoul]

Since it's Christmas season what do you guys say we buy OP some games? He clearly needs to expand his horizons.

 

[DNAbro]

I disagree that it's the best ever but the Paradigm system kicks ass. End game content is fantastic with it.

 

[LelouchZero]

I quite liked the battle system in this game, XIII-2 is on another level with the

Spoiler

monster hunting

and the ability to enhance them.

 

[potatohead]

Bwahahahaha

 

[BocoDragon]

It does seem to offer more strategy possibilities than XV. And you do seem to have to stay on your toes, switching up strategy quickly, more than the FFs of old.

 

[Salty Rice]

If best means garbage then you are maybe right.

 

[Kyoufu]

Good joke, OP.

 

[leng jai]

Yeah once it opens it to its full potential it's easily the best battle system in any FF game. It's vastly superior to FFXV's unfortunately.

 

[BasilZero]

XIII's combat was awesome, was one of the two aspects I enjoyed the most (the other being the music).

XIII-2's combat more so cause of the monsters.

Havent played much of LR but it looks okay.


Excluding the XIII trilogy, my favorites are IV, VI, VII, IX and X.

 

[MissDeviling]

Not even the best in its own trilogy. That would go to LR.

 

[ShdwDrake]

X-2 battles are infinitely better.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

I haven't played nearly enough JRPGs to say if it's the best ever. But the battle system was a ton of fun and made even random encounters actually enjoyable. I liked it a lot.

Valkyrie Profile 2 and The World Ends With You are my two other favourite Square Enix battle systems.

Not even the best in its own trilogy. That would go to LR.

Lightning Returns is so underrated as a game. I really liked it.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

Yeah once it opens it to its full potential it's easily the best battle system in any FF game. It's vastly superior to FFXV's unfortunately.

This must be stated. The battle system at the beginning is a basic, beginner friendly borefest! But once it opens up and gives you access to everything....GOAT!

 

[AgentOtaku]

I really feel like i should give this just one more chance since I've gotten XV out of the way

Dont wanna hook the PS3 back up tho :/

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

OPs not wrong. XIII combat is amazing, a shame the storytelling and level design caused people to leave before really getting into it.

 

[DukeLongfellow]

I loved the combat in both games but I avoided Auto-Battle like a plague. The moment I saw it I was like "nope, I'm going to enter all my stuff manually". And I did. And it was a blast. Even if I used Triangle to repeat the actions, it was still based on what I entered so it felt genuine.

I guess that's why I have a much better opinion on the system than most people who accuse it of being automated. Honestly, just ridding the auto-battle would have turned the opinion of so many people around.

 

[ScientificPizza]

I like the XIII combat, but I would put X or even XV above it pretty easily

 

[JayEH]

I like 13's but I enjoy 15's more.

edit: haha title change.

 

[Ishida]

Dat title change. Way more fitting. :v

 

[daebo]

Let me get back to you after I continuously hit X for a few minutes...

 

[Reorx]

I agree you have more freedom in designing boss battles with paradigm shift, but boy that X smashing is dull and boring. Also I'm not a fan off switching classes at any time, thus I prefer the classic way, where every char gets his class (black mage, white mage, rogue, etc.)

 

[Holundrian]

Obligatory XIII so snooze post.
Honestly one of these days I'm going to actually try XIII again to try to get behind the mystery why I found it so utterly boring and not engaging.
Especially because XV gets carried a lot by its combat for me personally and I see very similar grievances uttered about it by people that don't like that combat system.
Like it's I've switched camps. for XV.

 

[Bladenic]

XIII-2 was so much faster, which made it better IMO. Especially since they got rid of the camera focus every time you paradigm shifted (the first one in each battle showing all three characters was the worst).

 

[Servbot24]

Great combat, great graphics, great protagonist. Bad everything else.

 

[wanders]

Yup playing FFXV makes me say things like that too

 

[Icyflamez96]

 

[Hilarion]

I simply cannot enjoy non-turn based combat in an RPG. It feels weird and unnatural. I'd take Bravely Default as the best RPG combat I've ever experienced, though.

 

[120v]

FFXIII and X-2 had great combat. if they kept the guys responsible for that and cleaned house on story, scenario and general design you'd have a pretty amazing FF

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

Yeah, FFXIII (and XIII-2) don't get enough credit for their combat systems. It's a shame that they're unlikely to be used in any other (hopefully better) games anytime soon.

 

[GetDigitized]

Final Fantasy XIII's was one of the best turnbased systems, it's Active but i still consider it turnbased. FFXV's is entirely different and action orientated / Pure-active so i wouldn't compare them directly. I prefer FFXV's personally, but i don't think there's a clear best since that's just based on opinion. As for the XIII trilogy , I echo what others have said, I thought XIII-2 had the best combat and Lightning returns one wasn't as great due to the lack of party members.

 

[Kyoufu]

OPs not wrong. XIII combat is amazing, a shame the storytelling and level design caused people to leave before really getting into it.

I played the game for 100 hours and I can't agree. Not even a little bit. It's not bad but it's not exactly up there among games like Grandia, Tales of Destiny, Valkyrie Profile etc.

 

[GunBR]

XIII battle system is incredible
And the "keep pressing X" complains can be said to any Final Fantasy game

The paradigm switch is so fun
Too bad that the rest of the game is really lame. And XIII-2 is even worst

 

[Amirnol]

I agree that it is great but it takes 30 hours to get truly interesting. Playing FFXV recently and FFXIII's soundtrack is the one I listen to the most, another great aspect of this unfortunately very flawed game.

 

[KZXcellent]

I liked the Paradigm system and how well action packed combat can look even though it's all turn based.

Here's hoping they bring the trilogy of games over to PS4. I'd like to try them again.

 

[KZObsessed]

Yeah I absolutely loved FFXIII combat, it's what kept me playing tbh.

It was fast, tactical and very satisfying. Sure, it was pretty simple, but some of the high level hunts needed specific tactics to beat. I really liked the levelling system as well, even though it was simplified from the sphere grid.

Although it was a disappointing game, I think I'd rather have another FF by Toriyama than Tabata.

 

[TI82]

I really disliked it at launch, but want to retry it when it gets cheap enough on Steam.

 

[PuppetMaster]

High level fights in XIII were WAY more exciting than the high level stuff in XV

But for low level trash mobs, XV's style of combat is better.

XIII combat system was almost puzzle like.

 

[Fitts]

I really enjoyed XIII's combat, but it wasn't very well utilized outside of a few bosses/marks. Battles that made you constantly change your paradigm were incredibly fun.

 

[R10Neymarfan]

It's kinda funny XV's release how lots of people romanticizing about XIII and thinking it's not totally bad.

 

[Ishida]

Although it was a disappointing game, I think I'd rather have another FF by Toriyama than Tabata.

 

[JayEH]

I agree that it is great but it takes 30 hours to get truly interesting. Playing FFXV recently and FFXIII's soundtrack is the one I listen to the most, another great aspect of this unfortunately very flawed game.

yeah that's true...you can pretty much win by auto battle until then.

It's kinda funny XV's release how lots of people romanticizing about XIII and thinking it's not totally bad.

it's like this for every major franchise. MGS, zelda, SF, etc.