Final Fantasy 13 Dated

[Typhoid]

Where the skill comes in is item management and character development, if you take away part of it by healing after every battle, you make the game simpler.

Ding. This, exactly.



And DM, Every super recent Final Fantasy has offered full healing at save points. I am okay with that. I am actually completely okay with that, as it adds the element of health management to the game.

But with the "Alright, we removed random battles from the game, and we also removed health management."

And we're already only controlling one character with this game.
So, only 1 character...no health management, no random encounters.
What's next? No leveling system? Instead your new level is displayed as a puppy that ages over time.


Actually...

[Szymon]

I can't imagine that simplifying things a little makes a huge difference if the story is amazing and you're still having a lot of fun. I guess if you need something very challenging, then you might be out of luck. I'll reserve my judgment for after I've played it.

[Vampyr]

Regenerating health after each battle usually means each individual battle is tougher and more exciting, as opposed to long series of tedious fights.

[Typhoid]

I've never played - nor conciously know of - an RPG where you regenerate health after every encounter.

That's like in Fallout 3 if your AP and Health regenerate after each enemy. It's dumb. Even if battles are harder - it's still dumb. What made them hard before (to the point of this conversation) was health and MP management.


This is almost as bad of an idea as Tactics A2's MP starting at 0 each battle.

[TheSlyMoogle]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

I've never played - nor conciously know of - an RPG where you regenerate health after every encounter.

This is almost as bad of an idea as Tactics A2's MP starting at 0 each battle.

Final Fantasy Tactics. Save for 3 battles where you went from 1 fight to the next in succession but the first battle was always simple.

Pretty much every strategy RPG had heals after every battle. For the most part it's never about the heal management. Pretty much every RPG gives you enough healing stuff to cope with the loss of HP. Whether you're sucking down potions or tanking on the giant mana pool of your white mage, whose sole purpose is to heal you and deal like 25 damage to the critters, up until he/she finally learns some disable spells and then by that time you've probably got some broken equips, skills, or spells that make healing mostly useless.

I can't think of any RPG where healing has been a big deal to me except inside a battle, and most of the time I'm thinking "Hmm... Do I have enough HP to tank another hit and end the battle or should I heal now?" That's it because I never have to heal except at the end of the battle or during boss battles. I find it to be a fine concept, as long as they compensate in other ways. Need of mana to deal damage to the enemies or something like that. Who knows.

I'm still excited for this game, and it's about time a final fantasy game made me want to play it.

*shakes head at 10 and 12*; *Sideways glance at 9 for being pretty terrible too*

[Szymon]

Originally Posted by TheSlyMoogle

Final Fantasy Tactics. Save for 3 battles where you went from 1 fight to the next in succession but the first battle was always simple.

Pretty much every strategy RPG had heals after every battle. For the most part it's never about the heal management. Pretty much every RPG gives you enough healing stuff to cope with the loss of HP. Whether you're sucking down potions or tanking on the giant mana pool of your white mage, whose sole purpose is to heal you and deal like 25 damage to the critters, up until he/she finally learns some disable spells and then by that time you've probably got some broken equips, skills, or spells that make healing mostly useless.

I can't think of any RPG where healing has been a big deal to me except inside a battle, and most of the time I'm thinking "Hmm... Do I have enough HP to tank another hit and end the battle or should I heal now?" That's it because I never have to heal except at the end of the battle or during boss battles. I find it to be a fine concept, as long as they compensate in other ways. Need of mana to deal damage to the enemies or something like that. Who knows.

I'm still excited for this game, and it's about time a final fantasy game made me want to play it.

*shakes head at 10 and 12*; *Sideways glance at 9 for being pretty terrible too*

I was on the bus this morning thinking about FF tactics and was going to make a post about it but you beat me to the punch. Sure, counting your potions and making sure to properly ration them is something we're all used to, but is it really the best part of the game? No. Does it really affect the story? No.

What it does affect, is your play style and your attitude towards rationing items. Have you ever finished a Final Fantasy game with barely any items left? If you're a rationing king and pack rat like me, the answer is "AW HELL NO, I SAVED EVERY ETHER, ELIXIR AND POTION I COLLECTED!" So what value do these items have, if they're never used?

I'd like to see a Final Fantasy where these items are rare and not as necessary as they used to be. Going through the game relying on potions and white magic to heal yourself is a burden, albeit one that a lot of you guys seem to cherish. Have you ever been really excited about healing up after random encounters? Have you ever opened your menu and looked at your characters health and thought "Oh yaaa! It's time to use some potions, baby. I'm literally giddy with excitement about this, and I wish I could see more of this in future games!" Probably not. More likely, you're thinking to yourself "Oh okay, yea I guess it's time to heal." Then you press a few buttons, and go through the boring task of shuffling through your inventory, finding your potions and applying them to your characters to get them as full as possible without wasting any potions. This sort of boring yet necessary task is better off automated, in my opinion.

On the other hand, it could be that I power through this game and finish it without feeling any sort of challenge at all, which would be a bummer. Only time will tell.

[Szymon]

Time, and professional reviews from respectable websites.

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

Regenerating health after each battle usually means each individual battle is tougher and more exciting, as opposed to long series of tedious fights.

Well, the problem with that is... instead of a long serious of tedious fights... you get long tedious fights.

There is a very fine balance. If the fights become longer and more epic because your health regen after every battle, it will get boring, and make boss battles feel less so.

I think automatic health regen is a terrible idea, but we shall see when impressions start rolling in from the Japanese release.

[Dylflon]

Oh no!

We have to focus less on potions and ethers!

How will I ever enjoy this game?

[Vampyr]

Originally Posted by BreakABone

Well, the problem with that is... instead of a long serious of tedious fights... you get long tedious fights.

There is a very fine balance. If the fights become longer and more epic because your health regen after every battle, it will get boring, and make boss battles feel less so.

I think automatic health regen is a terrible idea, but we shall see when impressions start rolling in from the Japanese release.

Dragon Age works this way and the fights are not very long, and they're about 100x more fun than any Final Fantasy fight has ever been.

Originally Posted by Typhoid

I've never played - nor conciously know of - an RPG where you regenerate health after every encounter.

Again, Dragon Age.

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

Dragon Age works this way and the fights are not very long, and they're about 100x more fun than any Final Fantasy fight has ever been.



Again, Dragon Age.

I haven't played Dragon Age, and know can look up the answer, but is the game turn based or real time?

[Vampyr]

Originally Posted by BreakABone

I haven't played Dragon Age, and know can look up the answer, but is the game turn based or real time?

Sort of a combination of both. You can move around freely during battle, and you can assign certain attacks to buttons (or access them through the radial menu), but the game is very tactics based.

Every time you pull up the radial menu, the game pauses. So you can bring up the radial menu, then queue up an attack/spell/talent for every character, then unpause and let them go. So you can set up one mage to freeze an enemy, and another to shatter them with a rock spell or something.

But you don't even have to do that unless you're on a high difficulty, you can beat the game just playing as your one character and letting the programmable tactics do their work.