Final Fantasy: Building The Perfect Sequel (1 Feature From Each Game)

Random encounters were the bane of many player’s lives for the first fifteen years of Final Fantasy’s existence. In the vast majority of locations, every few steps would trigger a swift transition to the battle screen, with hapless monsters mowed down before the process repeated endlessly until the next town or safe area was reached.

They were a necessary evil given game limitations and the need for enemies to grind levels against, but few mourned their passing when Final Fantasy XII opted to place monsters on screen with the player for the first time, accentuating the threat of large enemies in particular.

There were flaws in this first attempt at a seamless combat system, most notably that every monster’s spawn was fixed and required travelling three screens away to reset, making grinding an even more arduous process than normal.

XIII greatly improved on the system, with faster monster respawns, the ability to buff the party or debuff adversaries in the field through item usage and a more extensive focus on chaining.

The downside of real-time combat has been that only one character can be controlled at once, putting others at the mercy of the AI (which could at least be negated through Gambits in XII). This will even be the case in Final Fantasy VII remake, despite the original offering control of three individuals at once.

Somehow merging elements of ATB with the fast-paced but still user-friendly combat experience of XIII would be a momentous accomplishment.