Turn Based Combat: Yea or Nay
 

How do you guys feel about turn based combat? Do you love it, hate it, or maybe just like/dislike it depending on how the game implements it? Do you think certain styles of turn based combat can be more engaging than others, like Paper Mario and Shadow Hearts' timing mechanics, or Tsugunai's counter system? Do you think it works better for some genres over others (traditional RPGs versus strategic RPGs, for example)?

Fire Emblem >>> most other things

Always felt the Final Fantasy series turned away from its bread and butter turn-based goodness a little too ahead of its time. If I want to play an action adventure game, I do so. No need to take away my menus, man.

There are few things more engrossing than smoking a joint and playing some SNES Final Fantasy. Turn on the menu memory to take out all decision making and prepare for two hours of glorious drudgery.

I can confirm this. The GBA game was like crack.

I wanna get into some of the DS ones as they sound almost like mass dating sims which tickles me. They can have kids or something? Also I'm just a cornball who loves the support system and replayed the GBA games like they were Mass Effect.

I prefer turd-based combat: throwing shit at people.

I prefer burn-based combat myself: dropping napalm on Vietnamese villages.

I remember that from years ago. Shining Soul was a pretty nice non-turn-based RPG too.

Kotor was essentially turn based. And what a game that was!

Shout out to my first 3D RPG, Final Fantasy VIII. When I was in high school that **** entranced me. And so many people didn't like the draw system, but I was no good at figuring out how to tweak my characters anyway so it didn't bother me, and I loved the tediousness of collecting 100 draws of every magic for all my characters.

While I really like the combat in Shadowhearts 2 and 3, real time combat generally rubs me the wrong way.

Action style combat? Awesome!
Turn based combat? Awesome!
RTS/Hybrid, semi- pseudo- whatever action/strategy mish mash combat? Flush the toilet!

Consequently, I really hate traditional RTS games.

If I'm playing a strategy game, I really enjoy being able to just lean back and think and look at all the information available. Movement and combat ranges, remaining health, available skills, terrain properties, etc.
While it's true that some games with real time combat allow you to pause and give commands, it obviously still isn't nearly the same logic as true turn based combat. The gameplay differences will unavoidably be huge if you look at all sorts of details of how you can figure out what will result from commands and in how it will resolve over time/turns/etc. So I find it kind of annoying when people counter my dislike of real time combat with the usual "but you can pause any time!" retort, because that doesn't really make it better at all to me.

As long as there's not a lot of tedious, slow and repetitive animations to sit through, I don't find turn-based gameplay dull at all.

I'm not good at games like Advance Wars, Vandal Hearts, Front Mission 3 and Disgaea, but I like them a lot.

Sounds like you just need to git gud.

As with almost anything - if it's implemented correctly, it works great.
I'm currently in the middle of Pillars of Eternity and the turn based combat here is very good. Especially since you can speed it up (as you can do with the whole game).
But I was raised on games like Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale, never got to that "crazy good, but still crazy" level some people get to, but I'm doing ok. And just today I was talking to a friend that had close to zero experience with games like this - X-com 2 was her first tactical game, and she's 37 ;) And as it turned out, she's not that big a fan of the combat system and all that micromanagement.

When after 20 years of familiarity with real time style games I'm as bad at them as I am now, it's not likely that It's going to change now. I suck at them, I hate them, and that's that :mad:

I suck too, but they're still amazing.

Real time combat is a complete, instand deal-breaker for me.
There are (many) game genres I'm horrible at but still like, but this isn't one of them.

Can you honestly say you don't like Red Alert 2? It's not that hard for an RTS, but it's got so much personality. You know you can't not love it. 500-MAN CLONE RUSSIAN CONSCRIPT ARMIES OF MASS DEVASTATION!!!

A little surprised at the results. I thought it had pretty much been decided by the gaming industry that turn-based systems were outdated.

Final Fantasy and its endless clones have tarnished the genre with oversaturation, but it's a ****ing awesome genre when done right. And ****ing Civilization and Total War. Eat ****.

Guerrilla warfare all the way.

Golden Sun is cooler than Fire Emblem and one of my favorite games ever. It's downright awe inspiring how extensive it is for a GBA game. I've logged a good 3755348754632475489 hours of play into that stuff

You're red enough like Stalin after ****ing one of Ted Bundy's victims. But Fire Emblem is better than that.

have you played it

Have I don't know, metal is hard atm.

well you should cuz it's amazing and you'd actually have substance to back up your empty claims

Just looked it up and yeah I remember that ****. Got substantial hardcore tactical **** you hate cause it's better than you. Fire Emblem still the ****ing champ, bitch.

I like Golden Sun a lot better, I'm sure the forum will be able to rebound from this travesty

I played Golden Sun when it came out. Good shit

How do they pack so much into that tiny cartridge anyway, there's like a trillion different weapons/armor/items

It's a perfectly good game that isn't great.

U mad

I mad

We all mad

All I know is that Fire Emblem is perfect and you're a ****.

you're mad that I don't think that, mr. swear filter

From what I remember about Fire Emblem though Golden Sun is way more of a bitch and not always in a positive way

Boss battles got me like "how the **** is it actually even possible to beat this thing"

But Fire Emblem was like how the **** is life?

Yeah it's good, good games are good, FE > FF

OMG you actually are smart.

Yes, Fear Effect > Final Fantasy.

OMG but we should run the world bassed on Fire Emlbem cause who gives a ****?