REBUTTAL TO: An Attack By Any Other Name...
Recently –while trawling the editorial section- I happened across an editorial titled ‘An Attack by any other name’, which is probably unsurprising judging that it was at the top of the page. In any case, there were certain parts of the article that I found to ring very true, although I have to disagree on a few points.
Let’s face it – the ‘traditional’ style of RPG battling is on the ropes, and personally I wouldn’t be particularly sad to see it go. On one side you have your guys, while sitting a short distance away in the blue corner is the enemy critters. The battle from that point on simply consists of you attempting to smack seven shades of hell out of the buggers while retaining enough hit points to not collapse in a quivering, boneless heap on the floor. Not only does that lack a certain amount of elegance, it flat out sucks. As Howard said, while there are elements that initially make it interesting –such as the Renzokuken limit break- you can pile that stuff on ad nauseum and the whole damn thing will still play almost exactly like ‘Rock’em Sock’em’ robots. Enough of the flashy graphics and overly long summons thank you very much; I’d like some game with my Role Playing.
However, where I disagree with Howard is that I don’t think that battles need more strategy; they actually need more interactivity. While the Grandia series does indeed have a good thing going for it with its IP system, eventually even that simply degenerates into chucking out the combos and criticals until the enemy dies of terminal boredom. Personally, I think that interactivity is the way forward, and here’s why.
I’ve recently completed the Mario and Luigi RPG, and I have to say that it was absolutely first rate. Sure, the story was a little ropey –mind you, the dialogue was excellent-, but its redeeming grace was that it had a battle system that made Final Fantasy’s look like it was developed by concussed chimpanzees. While, yes, it was very much based off the same system, it had a few critical alterations that improved the game play no end.
For those who haven’t played M&L (and if you haven’t then I suggest you do post haste) one of the major changes is that you can move during enemy attacks. This is only limited to being able to jump in the air or swing with your hammer, but in both cases these allowed you to dodge enemy attacks and even counterattack. It’s a simple change, but it certainly beats watching that giant grasshopper chew on your character’s cranium for the umpteenth time.
Unsurprisingly, this simple change opens up a vast plethora of possibilities. With the ability to dodge your characters don’t need to have as much health, meaning that in a lot of cases boss battles end up being played fairly close to the wire. Final Fantasy may have tense battles, but that’s mainly in the case of ‘can I heal up my characters and still deal enough damage to this guy to make it worth my time’. In Mario and Luigi, you’ve having to dodge the viciously swinging arms of your nemesis or bat away falling stars, fully aware that the next hit will thoroughly cook the respective superstar’s chicken. For me, that’s tense.
I’ll have to make a candid admission; I prefer much faster battles. A lot of my gaming revolves around First Person Shooters, and I tend to be drawn towards games that require a large amount of spatial awareness and reflexes rather then simply grabbing a sword and pounding away ad infinitum. It is entirely possible that you’ll think I’m absolutely barmy in the next section, but I’m pretty sure that’s just a matter of taste.
What I’d like to see is more RPGs like Mario and Luigi, where the combat is not so much about sharing and taking turns and is rather more of a general fur ball. I’d like to see more games where timed blocks and counters take precedence to simply having a lot of health. Anyone can spend half a day cultivating characters with a lot of health and attack power; if I wanted to do that, I’d become a botanist. I want battles that actually require coordination and skill, but still manage to remain damn hard even when you get your head around the battle system.
For a start, I’d like to be able to move my characters. I personally don’t see the problem to at least partially adopting the initiative/movement system ala AD&D, although I will admit that precision movement with a console game pad is one of those things that brings me out in a cold sweat. If you can actually move your characters about on the battlefield in a precise manner (and I’m not talking about the ham-handed method that Grandia II has) then you have even more options. For a start, you get the possibility of opening up combo attacks only when characters are standing in certain positions. If you applied that to the enemies as well, then you’d end up with a situation where everyone’s trying to attack, block and counter at the same time as jockeying for overall dominance. It would be absolute chaos…and I couldn’t possibly be happier.
It’s doubtful that that would ever come to pass (at least in mainstream console RPGs) as it would probably be an utter bastard to code, not to mention the fact that it brings in several RTS elements that people may find uncomfortable. However, in my opinion the Final Fantasy method has had its day; its time to move on and find something that gives you greater command of the battle.
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