Favorite Battle/leveling System in Final Fantasy?

Hello everyone I was quite curious to what is everyone's favorite battle and leveling system (as a whole) are. You may actually choose more than one, and if you want you may give a full or short explanation on why you choose that battle system(s), or what makes it better than the rest.


The battle systems I like the most are Final Fantasy VI, VII, VIII, X, and XIII.

• FFVI: I like combining the espers to characters, so they can summon and with them they gain new magic and abilities. Also I love ATB.

• FFVII: The materia system is really fun to try out, and also very simple to use and master! Limit Breaks were actually a nice touch and very useful in the game, I'd like if they had them more exciting as this to pull off Limit Breaks in another FF. FFVIII Limits were kinda annoying to do. ATB is 3D is a plus!

• FFVIII: Believe it or not, I actually liked the junction system, I just wish it wasn't the main focus of making your characters stronger. New armor and more effective levels would have been nice, but it was still fun messing around with junction and GF's!

• FFX: The return of characters classes can be good, especially if done this way. While each character might seem to have a role, Yuna being White mage, Rikku a thief, etc. With the Sphere Grid, later you can allow and customize your characters to other rolls, that is really exciting. This is also the last time we'd see a more traditional turn based FF, well at least for now. *wink wink*

• FFXIII: So fast paced! The paradigm shift have you thinking on your toes! I know people complain about auto button, but you don't have to use it. And it actually came in handy a few time for me, these battle are fast, but also strategically menu based. With roaming monsters on the field that lead to traditional intermissions, I thought that was a wonderful touch (I love random battle themes but sometimes random encounters can get tedious).

So these are my favorites and a summary to why I like them. Tell me yours, and please don't forget to vote in the poll, you may choose more than one option if you must!

My favorite ffs are 7 , 10, & 9. But battle and level system wise 9 and 7 were the best. It was more fun collecting materia and getting new spells than a grid system like 10 and 12 boards. Plus I like character level up with exp. 9 was even better because different gear gave more skills and you still got stronger with levels. In 9 it made it worthwhile to keep old stuff for new cast members who might get great stuff from it. These days exp and chara levels are dying out for just skill trees and class systems. They're trying so hard to nix level grinding that even things like limit breaks and summons are beiing removed. People are always saying the games are easy so they keep taking things away to make it hard.

FFVII/X/X-2/XII share the nº1 apot in my favourite list both in game and gameplay.
▪FFVII: the materia system was fun and simple yet it require some thinking. Also ATB in 3D animation!(for that time)
▪FFX: i like the ability to cuztomise(to a certain degree)the character, going from strenght to HP and their class(although in the international version changin their class was more noticeable). The only "problem" with the sphre grid was that you could make amy character by good at anything.
▪FFX-2: the dressphere was like the the job/class system at its fines in my opinion(i know, this may sound hyperbolic).
▪FFXII: the more dynamic ATB up today (although in perspective is the same ATB like FFVII-VIII for example, the only thing that made it more dynamic said ATB was that the battle happened in a 3D map that you could actually move freely),the gambits were a nice detail, but with similar problem like FFX with the license board.

Side note: even though you could argue that you can just simple use the sphere grid/license board in a way to limit the rol of the characters, in the end the system allow you to make them good at everything and only a self impose challenge could stop you from doing so. The IZJS of FFXII kinda fix this but i only count the original version in this list.

Materia for the win. I also enjoyed the Sphere Grid in X.

My favs come from ff 12, i love fighting and gaining levels and then spending LP. FF 8's Junctioning system was fun and so was ff 7 materia . Btw if i could create a ff i would implement all of these and ff 13 crystarium but only for eidolon while junction and LB would be for characters

I also think FFXII should get an honorable mention from me. Using ATB while being implemented to being able to move freely is a very interesting concept. The license board also allow you to customize the characters to your liking. I'm not a fan of the seamless battles, mostly just due to because there was no random battle theme, but instead the regular dungeon music just played through all battles.

The speed and character switching from X combined with the junction system from VIII and the ability system and 4 player party from IX. I think that'd be my favorite "turn based-ish" battle system. Oh and also standard leveling from 1-100 for each character.

I don't really have a favourite. I really like ATB, but nowadays I need some twist to it and, especially, a fast system, since I don't really have much patience anymore.

And well, even if X isn't at all one of my favorites of the series, I really liked its combat system, and welcomed the change. X-2 was even better I think, but I fucking hate its aesthetic (even worse than X's) and everything else of that game lol. Regarding XII's, also loved that one, despite all its flaws. XIII's is alright, I guess.

I also love classes/jobs, whether predefined or free (I prefer the former though, especially if they somehow affect the plot/characters/world). I don't really enjoy blank-slate characters you can transform into anything you want, even if they can be very fun to shape: I need my unique stats, skills and weapons.

Regarding abilities, I feel like the Materia system is still the best one (even if I really liked IX's approach, if anything because weapons, items and accesories felt more... magical/special/whatever). The Materia system is versatile, simple and has tons of possibilities... also, its justification inside the lore/story, even if not that original or well-done, is pretty good. Now, as a concept I also like VIII's magic and junction system, but man, was it a chore to actually play (still, my third favourite FF even with its plethora of flaws).

Actually, I think I like all the different battle systems, even if they're not perfect at all or challenging for the most part (besides some bosses, sure). Let's hope XVI has a nice one, I'm very curious to see it: we've been waiting since 2006 to see a new offline FF universe...

I'm glad that FFXII is getting so much love! Normally all I ever hear is gambits this, gambits that.

Not surprised that FFVII is leading though. There was something about materia that I found very satisfying.

However, I'm going to add that I also thought FFXIII's battle system was really innovative. I liked the fast-paced fighting and how sometimes making a misstep or being too slow on the draw could pose a real risk. Even though I have a deep appreciation for the earlier FFs in the series, I don't think I'd want to go back to how things were. Replaying FFIV on my tablet made me realize that I really like the auto-battle system and I don't really know how to do without it anymore.

I'm glad to see someone else who enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII's battle system here on these forums.

I know, but you just can't get that kind of speed when you're trying to control 3-4 characters! Unless, you know, you're one of those Starcraft players who can do like 200 actions per minute <_<

I didn't mind that you couldn't control the other party members during battle in Final Fantasy XIII, because other than battles you could always change your character and the party leader outside on the field screen also change. So we could change characters so that made me happy.

Also changing your field character had not been done since FFVI, unless you include FFXII, but you had to be Vaan during city/rest stops visits.

My favorite leveling system is the one found in Final Fantasy 2. I like the activity-based progression where you get to level up your stats by doing a particular action, such as casting spells to increase magic. I also love that you master a particular weapon by frequently using it. Through that, you're almost creating job class yourself but can still be changed by mastering another weapon. I also love how practical leveling up your defense is, since you need to get hit by a certain amount to level up. If you compare it to modern games, it's almost like Skyrim. But Skyrim, only has 3 stats: Health, Magic, Stamina, but with tons of skills to master. I wonder if the Elder Scrolls games based their leveling system from FF2. If it is, then that would mean how important FF2 is to the gaming industry. Can you just imagine if FF2 uses Luminous Engine? That would be revolutionary.

I often wonder how it would be if Square made a RPG like the older FF's with today hardware. And no I don't mean a Bravely Default, a game with chibi character. I mean a console game with the style, as if it was the next main installment.

With enough people like us, who thinks about it, maybe our voice would be heard and they might consider it. It's not that I'm expecting it. What I'm expecting is to see the characters of the main series being rendered using the Luminous engine. It's possible to see them all IF they make a Dissidia sequel.

You mean getting to control my party members beating the shit out of each other to level up in FULL HD?!

Yea, I will always voice my opinion, I'm just not sure how many others agree about this.

I think they should make more Dissidia Final Fantasy, you know speaking of this and that, I wonder what it would be like if they made a Dissidia game as an RPG, instead of a Fighter.

I don't understand?

I think I know what he's saying. I've played FF2, and leveling the defense stat meant dealing a whole lot of damage from enemies. If it only needs damage, why not attack your own teammate?

That's right, dude. Maybe give them a dialog before attacking a team member. I can just imagine Firion attacking Maria and says "Forgive me, Maria. It's for your own good". Haha

Ooooh! Thank you for explaining that to me. That would be pretty funny in HD

Looks like FFX is above VII now (which VII was in the lead earlier). But it's cool to see everyone opinions are so diverse. Kinda surprised FFV don't have a vote. I thought people loved the job system it had.