Rebuttal of the Rebuttal of The Importance of Character Niches in RPGs

by MoG

Original Editorial: Rebuttal to: The Importance of Character Niches in RPGs

OK, basically, yes and no. Certainly, to say that plot is unimportant in an RPG is ridiculous, but an innovative battle system is at least as important. If one feature is very original it will usually carry the other. If it is unimaginative, and obviously, if one is very poor it can drag down the whole outing.

For me, one of the biggest problems with the latest FFs is not so much long summons, but the drudgery of hundreds of easy (especially, but not exclusively, towards the end) no-thinking-required-wonder-why-you-spent-all-that-time-in-magic-school battles, in which a few selections of the 'Attack' command will do the trick. But, as you say, more often than not, the story drives me on.

Conversely, FFTactics has rather poor story, and worse translation, but the superb and varied battle system has kept me playing. Even random battles are challenging and enjoyable enough to make me crave them when I'm in the mood for a really, really, badly translated mission report.

I think we have to be reasonable about this, and yes, on balance, a story is more important than a battle system, but not by as large a way as you make out. After all, if there was no battle system it would just be a movie, let's not forget the 'game' in 'role playing game'.

No, The most provocative thing about Mr Witham's editorial is the fact that he condemns Chrono Cross' battle system to be 'boring and repetitive'. Bwah!? In my opinion the CC battle system was a masterpiece, and indeed one of the best features (although I was judging it very harshly, as it is the sequel to the most hallowed of RPG - Chrono Trigger)! The characters had were versatile enough for me not to lose sleep over axing one (the choice between a cute character and a cool character was sometimes unbearable)! However, battles did need preparation and thought, and the innate colour system gave the player a push but not a shove as to which characters were suitable for which situation. There were not thousands of versions of one spell, but the excellent idea of being able to give spells priorities to make them more or less powerful and easy to cast allowed for a huge scope of strategies. Even the humble 'Attack' command has strategy behind it, allowing for different tactics; attack with high chance and low power or go for a big attack, bearing in mind how it may affect your casting power. Mr. Witham does go on to praise the summons, and for that I won't assassinate him, because they were truly excellent, and the way all summons should be done in my view.

You could say that the battle system was Nichilicious. guffaw.