Ranking EVERY Final Fantasy Battle System 

I'm so excited you're playing through Final Fantasy Tactics. I'm excited you get to experience it finally. Do you stream yourself playing it? I'm sure people would love to watch you play it for first time. Funnily, FFTactic's Charge time battle and FFX's Conditional Turn based battle behave fairly similarly, where your specfic actions affect your next upcoming turn in the battle. Conceptually they are almost the same. They even have the same Acronym (CTB). Chances are if you love FFX' CTB so much you'll find yourself right as rain with Tactics' Charge time system.

@@pyguy7 I used to stream lots on Twitch but I just don't have the time anymore unfortunately! I might try to get back into it soon but just depends on life stuff! But super excited to get into tactics - I can see the similarities with FFX!

FF10 was the last final fantasy and best fighting system.

indeed, there's some things that pull it down tho(it's my favourite as well but let's be real) the replayability isn't that good in terms of challenge unless you want to nerf yourself, as you get the strategies to beat every enemy by the second or third playthrough. and super late your party becomes the same 3 characters with some use for other two(and there's poor lulu and kimahri who are useless) and it's pretty much quick hit, quick hit, attack heels, quick hit and there it goes if the game really gets a remake, and it stays the same combat, i hope they improve the super late stuff to be more strategic and less brute force your way out of the enemies

@@EricMcLovin13 I'm ok with the replayability not being that great. My backlog is way too big to replay any game a 3rd time lol

I prefer ff7R it feels so good when you switch characters ❤❤

Ff7R has some of the best combat of any game ever in my book. Rewards skill and very satisfying while also remaining user friendly for new players

Agreed. FF7 Remake is one of the rare RPGs where I actually seek out the combat and look forward to every battle. It’s that good.

Oh god, not me. There are a few things I dislike about 7R's combat : - ATB only raises decently when attacking so even with classic combat on, you have to button-mash and I HATE button-mashing (stupid AI staying on defense for ages and ATB doesn't increase when guarding. I'd like to use an ATB action before snow falls, thank you...). - Enemy attacks can cancel your ATB actions and in a battle system so fast and chaotic, with no alerts that an enemy gets their «turn», good luck preventing that from time to time, especially when you're fighting more than 1 enemy. It is SO infuriating to completely lose your action. - There is no gambit system to program your team's ATB usage, a big downgrade from FFXII. You have to either switch characters or pause the action by pressing R2 or L2 to make them do what you want. It's annoying to have to pause the action or switch characters manually constantly, especially with that camera movement that goes from one char to another. Even though it's not an efficient way to play because you sometimes want to use your ATB charges at the right time or use more than one, I wish classic mode automatically entered the pause that allows you to enter commands when someone has an ATB gauge so you don't have to ogle your ATB gauges at the bottom of the screen. It's an action battle system in which you need to watch the enemies to dodge and block, so don't make me keep my eyes at the bottom-right corner so I can press a button when someone has one or more ATB gauges ffs. The lack of improvements from Remake about these is the reason why I didn't buy Rebirth even though I have a ps5. I'll play Rebirth on pc to play with mods that improve the battle system a bit, like I did with Remake. In its Remake / Rebirth state, I'd definitely put most other battle systems above it. I really, really don't understand the hard-on that many players have with 7R's battle system and can only hope they finally improve it for the 3rd part (Reunion?) - at least how the classic mode works, but I won't hold my breath. I agree that FFX is the goat though.

@@armorvil fair enough. I especially agree on gambits. Some battles would be A LOT easier with tuned AI behavior. Enemy moves canceling abilities, I don't remember how bad it was in remake, but in rebirth if you see a named move above an enemy's name then it's usually a good idea to move or wait. Also, higher level magic and abilities are a lot harder to interrupt. ATB also generates insanely fast in Rebirth with the use of synergy skills and certain equipment. See a projectile coming at you? R1+Circle to Counterfire and you do good damage and get an instant ATB bar.

Yeeep. I tried! 🤣

Yeah putting XI and XIV combat together is wild.

"Your char autobattles while you eat pizza" Meanwhile, my ninja opener. . .

@@Chelaxim Would have made more sense to leave them off his list.

Definitely! Best of both worlds I think.

Finally, some good opinions.

You have good taste.

You know if its not FF7 its not going to be at the top of the list, lol

YES

Love 13, love the way you can manipulate the AIs actions and the nitry gritty of hiw fast certain characters animations are, biggest problem with the game and I think the reason people dog it is the pacing. They take so long to take the training wheels off and just let you have at it. That game will absolutely destroy you at the higher levels but the meme of "auto battle" lives on because it takes 30 hours to get there 😂

Ff13s battle system was wonderful

Really good list actually, the only difference is that i would put ff7r on 1st or 2nd, really like 12 as well. Agree with everything else

Remake was great but the improvements they made for Rebirth battle system - soooo good. It's a step up in a way. I loved it!

Thanks for the kind words!! The FF7R battle system is awesome. Perfect hybrid of old and new FF gameplay for sure!

I 100% agree. FF16 is cool sure. It's a bit of dmc watered down but bosse battles feel really good to fight. Most of the fights just feel like bullying the enemies tho ahahahaha. But ff7 r is just perfect, every enemy has a different weakness that you need to exploit with your characters, you have parry, counters and dodge. You have uncountable abilities and materia that you can combo to create a multitude of builds. My aerith in rebirth was basically just a support character with her wards, RED XIII was the crowd damage dealer, and Cloud was the heavy hitter. Caith Sith was a lot of fun to play with too, his x hold down attack was super effective at builiding stagger. Yuffie was also really fun with her aerial combos, magic, auto attack, clones. To me the more barebones were really tifa and barret but they were still very fun. I can't wait to have a dragoon playstyle with Cid. After fighting dragoons on ffxvi my hype is gigantic. I'm very curious to find out what they're doing with Vincent too, he can really have a completelly diferent gameplay from the rest of the cast.

Yup the combat system in the FF7 Remake trilogy so far is the best in the series. It’s so good that even purists that don’t like the direction of the Remake still praise the combat system 😂. That’s how good it is. I hope it’s the future of the franchise

That's it!🙂

7R combat is a near perfect fusion of action and ATB. It rewards skillful play, makes every party member unique, and it’s fun.

My only complaint with the 7R system is how slow non controlled character ATB builds 😂

@@feircy well if they didn’t do it this way no one would be inclined to switch characters. The devs want you to switch as much as possible. In fact they stated that they added the synergy attacks in Rebirth to ensure players switch more often. That’s why you’ll notice that the synergy gauge fills much faster when you switch characters. It is a party based Final Fantasy after all 😅

I wouldn't mind seeing the gambit system appear in something again! It was cool to mess around and try to get it right.

Agreed.

Agreed

agreed

I love it but its issue is how long it takes to open up. It reallt takes off once you get full access to the classes, if that happened sooner more people might have stuck with it. Plus I actually enjoy the healing after every fight when it means that every fight is a legitimate threat

It's so satisfying finding the right paradigms for the right enemies and get in that five star rank.

agreed

I loved it! It was awesome for what it was.

You’re not the only one

Ya i sorta agree, tho added the stagger bar and ravenger class makes it ff13 quite fun. And debuffing and buffing feels good in ff13

Ffx2 battle system is one of the best, but requires a bit of love for the garment grid system in tandem with the ATB to get that feeling.

Going for overkills also is very rewarding ❤

Yes! Rebirth combat is best of the best honestly. So good.

Yeah it's a bit annoying but it is what it is. I don't mind grinding for certain characters when needed!

There's a mod for the PC version that fixes that

I know it's locked away on apple arcade for now but honestly give Fantasian a try. It's got a similar battle system and it's a Sakaguchi game with Uematsu doing the music. I wish they'd port it already!

I'd recommend checking out XV now. The royal edition is the way to go and it's a great experience overall!

@Erek Ladd, I know, I bought the royal edition, just didn't find the time to play it yet !

Remembering ffxv combat system makes me want to vomit. It's a mess like the whole game. Holding x to keep attacking is one of the most idiotic ideas I've ever seen in an action game. Every weapon plays the same, MAGIC IS A FUCKING CONSUMABLE GRENADE. Enemies don't react to your attacks, the parry and dodge are a fucking mess. The only REDEEMING feature is the party attacks you can command but then again, FF7 remake does it 200% better in every way. I really wished I liked ffxv, the world is beautiful, the map is too, everything looks good from outside when looking at it but when you start interacting with the game everything feels like a chore, from going from a to b, to doing sidequests, to the combat, to the horrible dialogue most of the time and the story that just kind of happens and you don't really start to mind it until the game is in it's end.

Yeah 7R is insanely good. I love it. Easily the best modern take on a FF battle system!

Thank you! Too kind!!

It has issues mostly how the leader can get focused on and result in a game over while every other party member is at full HP. I also think it’s so fast that you can’t really input commands manually forcing you to use the auto command.

​@@saltyk9869yeah, it was definitely made for seasoned fans whereas Final Fantasy 10 is simpler (like to a huge fault)

It takes too long to get deep and rewarding

@@ThomasWalsh-kn9di Exactly my issue with it!

I think its still better then 8 11 12 14 and 15 not saying they are bad games just i enjoyed 13 more

It's also dramatically different from FFXI, to the point that it's pretty embarrassing to lump them together.

Crazy!!!!

Same!!! So far so good!

100% agree. I flip flopped a few times when making this list for the #1 spot so I could go either way honestly.

you just need to select Wait mode in the menu and take the habit of entering a submenu or clicking "attack" without selecting a target to have all the time you need to think about your next action in the ATB systems of 4/5/6/7/8/9/10-2. Zero stress that way.

@@armorvil sure, i know that. But still i enjoy the other more

Thanks for stopping in! I did flip flop on 1 & 2 when making this video but settled on CTB in the end. I just like the strategy of it! But in contrast I LOVE the FF7R stuff. Square really nailed it with that!

@@ErekLadd Square hasn't really failed on much, but especially music (that was a good video). I know, gameplay some of the later ones are divisive, but people are still talking about this amazing series, so it can't be that bad. Consider myself subbed. Good takes, you know?

Yeah lots of people are recommending the Trails series to me in the comments here! I'll take a look and see where the best place to start is!

Leader Death = Game Over isn't bad.

@@redmagelala it’s not entirely bad, tho it can get annoying at times.

@@madkaiser4887 That's fair. If it wasn't for Dragon Quest, I'd agree.

I've heard many things!! Can't wait to check it out.

The turn order was paramount for me as the view is extremely helpful for deciding your next action, as each action comes with a delay displayed in the turn order. It allows for more depth in your decision-making process, such as 'Should I heal now?' or 'Can I still attack?' with the enemy's turn approaching, 'Should I defend?' etc.

All combat systems are good in their own way for sure. It's lots of fun trying to master them. Thank you for suggesting this video as well!!!

Right? 🤣

Superior to 10 I don't know, it's a matter of preference, but yeah I agree with you that it's superior to most others, especially 7R's. The Gambit system really was brilliant.

mainline games only

The only caveat is many people don’t like or don’t understand the garment grid system, which you need to use in tandem with the battle system.

Definitely comes down to what you grew up with! I love the ATB system though, it's a great way to play.

X-2 will get it's time to shine here, don't worry! I loved that game as a kid!

I've not played a single Trails game! So I'm happy to take recommendations!

Trails games have the worst combat of any JRPG series, hands down

They're a huge deal for the bigger enemies/bosses. That's where the turn order really shines. Yeah, most enemies die in 1 or 2 hits though. I enjoyed the strategy for the longer fights!

Yeah ffx is complicated to me. It feels like a long corridor that doesn't end with pokemon like battles that you win spamming the same attacks over and over again. So I rushed the first 20 hours, now I'm on the flying ship boss battle and I can't kill the dragon enemy because I'm underleveled and a lot of his attacks one shot my characters. I wanted to like FFX but it's pacing, at least in the start is HORRIBLE, nothing happens in the first 20 hours, literally no lore explaining, almost no character development, boring puzzles and locations. The underwater football minigame is maybe the worst in the franchise. Everyone tells me that it gets better but I'm not really prepared to start again from the beggining, a shame because graphically the game is fucking stunning. It's like the style didn't age, feels like I'm looking at the equivalent of 3D pixel art

@@bardockshiny it’s pretty funny, you’re actually at one of the biggest mental hurdles in the entire game 😂 everae is kind of a make or break moment in the game, I would say if you can get to Evrae, you can definitely learn to love this game, but know at least 3 people who have “noped” out at that part. I had a friend who got locked into the sin spawn gui fight being way under leveled also 😂

@@Saixjacket Yeah, I rushed thru the entire game waiting for the story to finally kick in and guess I got that as my prize ahahaha.