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[Marcus Aurelius]

For me it's the battle system from Tales of Graces F:



It was so much fun I even looked forward to grinding and wanted to fight every monster I encountered. (rest of the game was mediocre though)

 

[Ferdimage]

Grandia III was the best, from out of the 3 games.
Valkyrie Profile 2 : Silmeria was super fun too

 

[saintjules]

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

Overdrive system from Xenoblade Chronicles X, particularly in late game:

 

[oagboghi2]

Final Fantasy 7 Remake

followed closely by the bravely default system

 

[Kerlesly]

I agree with OP tales of graces F its mediocre at best but the Battle system is soo well put that once It opens up is extremely satisfying to the point that you go thru all the game and future ark without thinking you just wanna fight everything they trow out to you.

They even could note replicate this feeling in tales of zestiria which was supposed to use the same Battle system.

 

[anthraticus]

For tactical....

Jagged Alliance 2 (1.13 mod)
Temple of Elemental Evil (temple+ mod)
Knights of the Chalice

For action....

Dark Souls
Dark Arisen

 

[Pejo]

I'm going to say turn based with a little flair is the best for RPGs. Something like Shadow Hearts ring system or Xenogears Deathblow system.

 

[ethomaz]

Tales games stopped to have good battle system since SNES.

Grandia probably holds the best JRPG battle system.
Xenogears had a interesting one too.

 

[saintjules]

Xenogears truly has a one of a kind battle system. I love everything about it. It's a shame what was done with the Xeno series after this.

I always told myself if DragonBall ever decides to do another turn based JRPG again, it should try to adopt this.

 

[01011001]

Resonance of Fate:


it has so many fun elements. your positioning, your movement, your weapon and damage types, the weapon customization, objects in the environment you can use as cover or to attack.
it's just fun as hell.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Mister Wolf]

 

[Pejo]

Resonance of Fate:


it has so many fun elements. your positioning, your movement, your weapon and damage types, the weapon customization, objects in the environment you can use as cover or to attack.
it's just fun as hell.

I'm not proud to say that I was completely filtered and shut down by this game. Never understood the combat system and threw it in the backlog, never to see the light of day again.

 

[mansoor1980]

dragon age series

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Xenogears truly has a one of a kind battle system. I love everything about it. It's a shame what was done with the Xeno series after this.

I always told myself if DragonBall ever decides to do another turn based JRPG again, it should try to adopt this.




Love this

Hell. Yes. Loved the battle system in Xenogears. The sounds effects really sell it, too.

 

[Moonjt9]

I am partial to the simplicity and fun of Chrono Trigger’s battle system.

More modern game wise, FF7 Remake is definitely the best. I generally hate action oriented JRPGs but they totally nailed it.

 

[HaveButOneLife]

Old Final Fantasy games, preferably 8 or 9.

For Action combat,, Dark Souls is the most overrated RPG ever, sick of games trying to copy it. Kingdom Hearts was always my favorite and naturally FFXV and FF7R as well as the Level-5 games. I can't think of any western ones atm besides Elder Scrolls, and Witcher 3 isn't known for its combat.

 

[AJUMP23]

I loved setting up the gambits in ff12. Just getting my characters to attack and heal and support without me monitoring constantly.

 

[Hosam6xavi]

Xenoblade chronicles and the last story revolutionaries the genre

And final fantasy 7 Remake surpassed them both

 

[jaysius]

FF7 Remake, they finally figured it out, with some of THE WORST fucking growing pains ever in gaming, FF13 was awful shit, FF15 was bearable at least, but still shit.

FF12 was great fun, simple programing prompts was some fun shit, I wish another game could bring back that level of polish to that idea.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

 

[Lethal01]

Final Fantasy Remake by far. It feels like the level of quality action rpgs have been stiving towards for ages.
Final Fntasy tactics is good too.

Not actually a big final fantasy fan overall.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Sorry to end your thread OP. Also, thanks for playing everyone!

 

[fallingdove]

Xenogears truly has a one of a kind battle system. I love everything about it. It's a shame what was done with the Xeno series after this.

I always told myself if DragonBall ever decides to do another turn based JRPG again, it should try to adopt this.




Love this

Xenogears is one of my favorite games of all time but in its unpolished state I found the battle system to be beautiful but aggravating. A couple of tweaks and the Xenogears battle system could have been much more engaging.

For instance, canceling was underutilized and was really only used for combo building. (Combos themselves being useful in just a few situations)

If I ever get around to developing the JRPG of my dreams, I’d like to leverage canceling to a greater degree to account for enemy counters perhaps or provide for deathblow learning multipliers.

I still feel that the Xeno series is one of the greatest tragedies in gaming. If the strengths of Xenogears, Xenosaga 3, and Xenoblade 1 could be harnessed and their weaknesses minimized, I don’t know that I would need another JRPG. I would play this game until my eventual death.

 

[Dream-Knife]

Overdrive system from Xenoblade Chronicles X, particularly in late game:

I could never figure out how that worked. I just activated it and wailed on people.

For me, I think SMT 4/Apocalypse has the best battle system in a turn based RPG.

 

[Makariel]

Not technically an RPG, I like the way XCOM handles turn based combat and am delighted that a number of RPG decided to copy many of those elements.

Divinity original sin 2 is a hot contender for best turn based combat in an RPG as well.

On the action front dark souls is of course worth mentioning. Looking forward to Elden Ring. Nioh (2) is also neat.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

I more-or-less like anything turn-based. Be it modern-day or old-school jrpg. I like having the opportunity to sit and think.

 

[Dream-Knife]

Xenogears is one of my favorite games of all time but in its unpolished state I found the battle system to be beautiful but aggravating. A couple of tweaks and the Xenogears battle system could have been much more engaging.

For instance, canceling was underutilized and was really only used for combo building. (Combos themselves being useful in just a few situations)

If I ever get around to developing the JRPG of my dreams, I’d like to leverage canceling to a greater degree to account for enemy counters perhaps or provide for deathblow learning multipliers.

I still feel that the Xeno series is one of the greatest tragedies in gaming. If the strengths of Xenogears, Xenosaga 3, and Xenoblade 1 could be harnessed and their weaknesses minimized, I don’t know that I would need another JRPG. I would play this game until my eventual death.

It's a controversial opinion, but I think XC2 is much better than the two other blade games. Its honestly my favorite single player game ever, and I think its combat system is what Xeno has been striving towards.

I hope the next game builds on XC2s combat, but also brings gears/E.S. back.

 

[firegamer273]

dragon age and mass effect series both have good rpg battle system.

 

[luffie]

I'm going on a limb here, but BG2 and Icewind Dale 2 dnd battle system was the best for old school rpg. They have so many strategic options and counters, from invisibility, to rendering all magical weapons normal and straight up sending someone to another dimension. I have played many rpgs, but have never strategized with so many protection and counters like these games.

To strengthen my case, the whole system is tested when you play Icewind Dale 2's insane difficulty "heart of fury" mode. With a good dose of strategy, you can beat it.

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

It's a controversial opinion, but I think XC2 is much better than the two other blade games. Its honestly my favorite single player game ever, and I think its combat system is what Xeno has been striving towards.

I hope the next game builds on XC2s combat, but also brings gears/E.S. back.

I really can't wait to play it, but my time hasn't yet come. I've got it and Torna locked and loaded, and after certain... life events I will get time to indulge. Maybe even on a switch pro for an enhanced visual experience, XCDE on switch can't even maintain 720p lol

I talk about how much I love XCX but my initial reaction was negative, once I got over its shortcomings compared to Xenoblade 1 I learned to appreciate things like the depth of Overdrive, which while brilliant is admittedly an obtuse system and it needed some explaining before I grasped it and grew to love it.

If I end up liking XC2 as much as I'm hoping, since I loved both XC1 and XCX once I excepted they weren't even trying to do the same thing, maybe afterwards I'll go back to these other xeno games I know almost nothing about, except that they're totally crazy.

Divinity original sin 2 is a hot contender for best turn based combat in an RPG as well.

Great battle system. Played through it many times, only because of excellent turn based combat

 

[darth.shrimp]

Grandia II and Xenogears on top (someone mentioned Grandia III above, but I haven't played it)
Chrono Trigger for "true" ATB

The mainline Neptunia games (and some spinoffs) have really good combat systems as well, if very abusable. A party comp that gets infinite turns without letting the boss ever act? Don't mind if I do...

 

[West Texas CEO]

Chrono Cross, by far.

• You can escape from every fight with 100% accuracy. The battle system being about fine-tuning your deck to fight back, the game allows you to escape even from boss fights, leaving you the ability to go into the menu, change your strategy, and then fight back. You don't have to suffer a game over because you messed up something, and it's a HUGE change.
• Grinding has been neutered. Most of your stats comes from beating bosses. You get slight stat boost from fighting random battles, but it comes at a point where you will not get any stat boost until you defeat the next boss.

Here's how the battle system works:

• Element system allows for several things: there is no MP management, you manage the use of your elements that are refreshed every battle with the exception of consumables. This means that you can go for your strongest attacks immediately at every battle. But this also means that you need to have extreme confidence in the way the battle is going to play out, lest you waste your elements and are left with weaker ones.
• The Grid has several levels that informs the power of your elements. Elements at a level 5 Grid are much stronger than ones at level 1 Grid. But, you have to get there. This means that you have to earn a power level proportional to the level of the element.
• Attacking increases the power level, and there are 3 levels of attacks that have different levels of accuracy. Level 1 has the highest amount of accuracy, but only give 1 point of power level. Level 2 and 3 have both worse accuracy, BUT starting with level 1 increases the accuracy of level 2 and 3 respectively. This means that you are given a choice : do you start with a higher level at the risk of missing and not receiving anything ? Or do you start with level 1 and use the accuracy boost for the subsequent levels.
• Stamina is probably the best thing out of the bunch. You earn Stamina either by defending or when your turn comes up. This stamina is used to attack, and the attacks increases your power level for the Grid. Stamina is what informs everything about the battle system and allows for a huge amount of strategy.
• Lastly, there is the field effect. Each element has an effect (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green White, Black) and using an element fills one bar of the field effect (composed of three). One element is opposed to another one, which means that using a blue element will be decreased in power heavily when the field effect is red. The fight then becomes a tug-of-war where you sometimes have to use another element just to prevent the enemy to have a field effect to their advantage.

This means that at every stage of the battle, you have to think about several things in order to optimize your fight. But if you solve the battle system, then the only answer left is to effectively use your best strategy all the time, right ?

This is where the game is lying to you. Attack accuracy is lower than what is shown on the screen. This means that risk-taking is much higher than you think. But why is the game doing this ?

It's because the battle system understands that it truly shines when things don't go exactly your way. Adapting to the situation is when the game really elevates itself to be truly engaging and nerve-wracking. Your attack misses and you can't have the element you needed, then it opens up to so many possibilities : do you defend to wait for your next turn coming faster and regain stamina, or do you for a weaker element, or do you go all in and take a level 2 or 3 attack and hope for the best ? Even then, what about your teammates ? The field effect ? Should you really try it ? Or maybe run away and come back when you have fine-tuned your strategy further ?

The crux of the battle system is about taking risks, and being rewarded for it. Walking this fine line between playing it safe and taking risks is the great quality of the battle system, and I think it's something quite rare in the genre for a game to force situations where you have to think outside your comfort zone.

The battle system is really something I enjoyed, and it really gives the oomph for the game to be rewarding and engaging. You don't win by grinding your way to victory, you win by outsmarting your opponent. Really great gameplay.

 

[Pantz]

Parasite Eve

 

[Mistershine.]

Mass Effect Andromeda. It gets a lot of deserved grief for the lacklustre story and shonky animations but the combat is amazing.

 

[Zheph]

FF7R took the throne by storm

 

[DelireMan7]

Don't know about the best but some really good one from my recent experiences :
Valkyrie Profile : so satisfying to find good combos
Baten Kaitos : Eternal Wings and the lost Ocean : the card system battle system is amazing. It keeps you constantly thinking about what to do. Looking for the numbers for making pairs or straight for bonus, watching the elements (avoid opposite in attack, and play them in defense ), looking for special combos to create new cards in battle...
Final Fantasy XII : the gambit system is really interesting and experimenting with it feels really good.

 

[TheDreadLord]

Turn based: probably FFX or Suikoden 1-2
Action oriented: m.likely FFVII

 

[NeoLed]

I really need to narrow down what is RPG first.. Is it every game that have numbered stats?

 

[whiteshadow]

Recently I got into the Y's series, and I'm very impressed with the combat in the game.

Super tight, fast paced, customizable...almost done with Ys IX and I liked it so much I bought a physical copy of Lacrimosa of Dana why still playing IX.

The best turn based RPG I've played is probably Xenogears, I loved it for the combo prompts among the party system and attack rates.

Best action-rpg I've played is probably Onimusha Dawn of Dreams. It's not perfect, but I loved a lot about it. When I first played it, I kinda hated it for being so far off/different from what made the original 3 games what they are...but it's basically an action rpg and from that lens it ended up being a personal favorite.

 

[Marcus Aurelius]

I really need to narrow down what is RPG first.. Is it every game that have numbered stats?

If a game is widely accepted to be an rpg...then it's probably an rpg. Check reviews if you doubt a game is an rpg or not.

But if you want to talk about semantics then it's best to open a new thread.

 

[Lanrutcon]

Valkyrie Profile had a very interesting spin on turn-based combat. FFXII had gambits. Dragon's Dogma shits on every action RPG from a dizzying height. Divinity: Original Sin let me drop giant stacks of barrels on enemy heads. So many choices...which is great.

But obviously, the winner is Wizardry 8.

And it would make most of you cry like little babies.

 

[Kumomeme]

FFVII Remake has best modern combat system. it has nice balance for those who prefer turn based and those who prefer action. nice blend between both. whats more, the system is easy to pick but to master is has deeper depth and has room for those who git gud. the team make outstanding job crafting the system.

when player can do stuff like fighting sephiroth in frog mode, then you know that system has tremendous potential.

worthy to mention is The Last Story combat which is basically very underrated. like VII Remake it also blend between action and command based command. originally Hironobu Sakaguchi hope this system would be new standard for future jrpg. however compared to VII Remake it is an action system where there is no button mashing. player no need to press attack button either. or easier to say there is no attack button. it is a system where should be fit nicely to those who didnt prefer hack and slash type of control. its auto attack when come close to enemy and player must be clever on position how and from, when to attack(hide behind pillar for suprise attack, attack from above etc) the enemy. player can give command to active A.I controlled party member and can use crossbow for environmental attack for example shoot pillar and stuff. meanwhile the main player controlled character has agro ability which is basically he function like a tank. compared to VII Remake, this game utilize whole/wider area rather than locked to specific radius.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Turn based: SMT's press turn. It makes weaknesses and resistances matter a lot, while also making buffs/debuffs and status effects matter a lot. It's tactical and it doesn't allow for the typical "just use your strongest magic attack bro" that many RPGs fall into.

To make an example, in SMT IV there's an early optional boss which is 50 levels above you, and you can beat him just by outsmarting the system.

Action: Dragon's Dogma. It has a lot of options, a different playstyle for each class, a great feel when hitting enemies and it's fun as fuck.

 

[Jigsaah]

For me it's the battle system from Tales of Graces F:



It was so much fun I even looked forward to grinding and wanted to fight every monster I encountered. (rest of the game was mediocre though)

That poor dragon didn't even have a chance.

 

[cireza]

My pick is Lightning Returns. Best real time fights I have seen in any RPG.

 

[Spukc]

fucking crack

 

[TheStam]

I'm going on a limb here, but BG2 and Icewind Dale 2 dnd battle system was the best for old school rpg. They have so many strategic options and counters, from invisibility, to rendering all magical weapons normal and straight up sending someone to another dimension. I have played many rpgs, but have never strategized with so many protection and counters like these games.

To strengthen my case, the whole system is tested when you play Icewind Dale 2's insane difficulty "heart of fury" mode. With a good dose of strategy, you can beat it.

Nail on the head. Magic gameplay especially with buffs, counters and so forth. Haven't found a game that does the strategic element of spells as well since.

 

[Daymos]

I'm a big fan of final fantasy xi which was basically like xenoblade chronicles with casting interrupts if you got hit. More specifically, as a red mage you could bind an enemy in place, slow an enemy's movement with gravity, and put an enemy to sleep for a short time. Making use of those 3 spells along with being able to convert your health in mana (mp) and then kiting a super-powerful enemy around to slowly kill it was probably the most satisfying action I've ever done in a video game. I think before playing FFXI I was 100% in the turn based camp and loved final fantasy X (as an example).

Learning that kiting strategy so well back in the early 2000s, I've applied the same idea to everything from dragon age inquisition to dark souls to zelda breath of the wild, and many others.