Let's Talk XV's Battle System!

[Death Penalty]

It's literally been years now, but the day is fast approaching when Final Fantasy XV is going to be seen in its "truest form" according to director Hajime Tabata. With March will come the one-year anniversary of Episode Duscae- our first taste of the game in its playable form- as well as a huge event promising to expose XV in close detail and share its release date nearly a decade after the project was originally announced. There's even an ATR dated for this very month which In a strangely bittersweet way, that means that our time for speculation regarding the game's battle mechanics is rapidly coming to a close. So I thought what better way for us to celebrate than to discuss and speculate while the speculatin' is still good?

Mognet Central continues to be the best place to discuss XV, just thanks to all the enthusiasm and positive energy you guys are never short of. To that end I thought that this would be the perfect place to get some reactions and hopes for the title, particularly concerning the aspects of the battle system we don't know much about yet. I'm making this thread because I'd like to hear what direction you fine people would like XV's combat to take and how you'd like to see certain promised elements materialize in the core gameplay. Just to give some potential suggestions, here are some battle system elements that may make some good talking points.

• Magic
• Summoning
• "Limit Breaks"
• Cross-Links/Slash-Links
• Weapons/Armor
• Enemies

Or of course anything else you might think of! How would you like to see these implemented into the full game? What would you do with the battle system if it was up to you? I'm really looking forward to hearing from you all. I've seen a few of you do some really devoted theory crafting so please feel free to let it all out here. Even if it's just specific thoughts on how you think Duscae's combat should be improved to something as massive as a comprehensive idea for how set piece battles should be executed, don't be shy. And just to be polite, I'll get us started! I have a lot of thoughts on the battle system that will come out as we go, but for this first part here I'll just give my thoughts on magic. Here we go!

I'd like to see magic return in full form for XV in a way it hasn't in a long time. Preferably it will be a system that's every bit as robust as Noctis' physical options, which include his truly massive arsenal of weapons and the unique abilities they provide to him. There would be a full range of elemental options, from fire and thunder to oft-forgotten elements like earth and water (which thanks to Titan and Leviathan respectively I strongly believe are in the game). I'd make magic an extremely powerful option capable of dispatching crowds of small foes in a flash of fire and ice. Unlike prior titles, the real time nature of XV would be a great opportunity to utilize different areas of effect. I'd make sure each spell had a unique shape and utility, drawing inspiration from the fantastic Kingdom Hearts with expansion into more robust options. To an extent, Noctis' weapon skills in Duscae are a great example of this. Jump is an area of effect you can drop from afar, Full Thrust can pierce a line of foes and Tempest can control those close to Noctis. I'd apply a similar philosophy to magic, perhaps with a spell like fire exploding around Noctis and a spell like thunder sniping enemies from a distance.

Magic would be used just as much to shape the battlefield as to do direct damage, with intelligent use allowing Noctis to freeze troublesome foes in place or erect a wall of flame to corral slippery monsters. Elements would tie into more than just weakness and resistance as a player would come to expect earth spells to act a certain way and ice spells to act another. To facilitate this, the player would be able to pause combat in order to place area of effect spells just right, which I think would deliver well on the tactical aspect Tabata seems to be trying to realize.

And finally, we know that magic does not function on MP as in past titles. So, first of all, I'd rename MP as it is now to AP just to be snarky. For magic itself, I'd implement a sort of token system as seen in the 2011 Versus XIII trailer. Let's call it "MP" for simplicity's sake. Magic would be a powerful option that is a bit above regular physical attacks in terms of raw damage. To cast a spell you would need to spend an amount of tokens equal to the tier of the spell- so for instance 1 MP would equal one fire/blizzard/thunder level spell. Fira/blizzara/thundara would cost 2 MP. Each character would have a pretty modest total pool, probably not even breaking double digits for the brawlers with powerful mages like Ignis having the most. You would replenish that pool with physical attacks filling up a small gauge such that say about a half dozen physical attacks equal one point. Tier 1 spells would be quickly cast on a single target and would be able to be weaved into physical combos without interrupting them, providing a quick spike in damage. The second tier -ra spells and up would have much more complex areas of effect and would require a brief casting time but come with devastating effects. Spells of even higher tiers would cost more, with varying utility. For instance, flare would be able to be cast snappily like a tier 1 spell for 4 MP with much higher damage, while ultima would cost possibly an entire MP pool, have a long windup time and encompass a massive area.

By keeping the MP pools small yet relatively easy to charge and magic a powerful option that is limited yet readily available, this system would encourage players to embrace the best of both worlds, using physical attacks to build up magic and being certain to quickly use it so more could be built. Weaving swordplay and sorcery together would be the norm for optimal play as befitting our boys from Lucis. Meanwhile, devoted mages like Ignis would have the resources necessary to lean more heavily on magic and the option would exist for a properly equipped Noctis to do the same.

Sorry if that was a bit wordy! Please comment or share your own ideas if this thread interests you! I'm especially excited to see what certain folks might have in mind for the likes of summoning and the other elements listed above, but if you think of something else you have thoughts on that's great too.

 

[LeonBlade]

I think one of two things will happen with Magic in terms of what resource it will use. Either, one it will just use MP and Tabata went back on what he said originally (since everyone was given MP bars), or they will consume on some form of a cool down.

I don't really think I can speak at length of how I think Magic will work, because there are many ways I can see it being used. I am very interested in using it though, as in most Final Fantasy games I tend to avoid Magic as it relies on a resource that needs to be replenished over time. This is why I tend to go with strength and just attacks enemies instead. I feel like if you are going to use MP, there should be a way to get it back more easily. HP can be restored with Regen, Cure or with Items. Similar to MP, it needs to be replenished, however, your HP is your overall survivability and not exactly integral to your attack power (besides a few different cases where having different HP values can harm/benefit your attacks).

In FFXIV you have a natural MP and TP regen tick that replenishes your resources and you have ways to also manage them in combat. Both melee and magic users have a resource to manage which balances their play styles. The only exception is Black Mage which has an effectively infinite MP pool.

In FFXV we know that natural MP regeneration can take place, and even some weapons can have MP restoration properties attached to gain MP back even faster. I hope that with this concept of natural MP regeneration that Magic can be used more freely and openly without having to pay constantly for your resource. To compare it to Kingdom Hearts, you often will collect MP bubbles to restore MP which acts as a natural regeneration of MP from killing certain enemies. This makes using Magic more enjoyable and accessible. However, like Kingdom Hearts, you will not be able to use Magic as your main source of combat. However, this is perfect for my play style, as unless you are a specific Job, you shouldn't be restricted in what you can do.

Summoning as I've said before will definitely not work like it did in the demo, you will be able to freely activate it, however I can only wonder under what circumstances. Perhaps the summon will not be able to be used for quite a while, or maybe it needs to pull MP from all party members, who can say.

I might make another reply at some point with some of my other thoughts, but I'll just leave it at that for now.

 

[Lulcielid]

Since magic doesn't use MP I have thought that XV would use something akin to VIII where you could stock magic and you would either find on the road as you explore or enemies would drop them in spare ammount.
In this system MP would exclusive for weapon only abilities, warping.

 

[APZonerunner]

I actually think in this type of battle system summons are detrimental; Duscae is relatively good proof of how hard they are to execute in a smart way. The animation is gorgeous, yes, and it's a great 'moment', but ultimately the way they're activated is more than a little guff. This is the sort of place where FF's history, and the expectations that follow it, work against the game, I feel - people expect summons, and the devs, particularly in this painfully self-aware feedback driven entry, feel the need to ensure they're included in a 'traditional' manner. In theory if you want to summon Bahamut to take out a small group of weak goblins, you should be able to, and so on. The thing is, if Ramuh is indicative of the path they're taking with summons in FF15, I'd personally much rather they make them cinematic events tied to certain in-game moments. I think the moment we left turn-based summons became less practical, to be honest, and the execution of them in both FF12 and FF13 - weak in both instances, I feel - bears this out.

However, summons can have a fantastic role in the story, as things like Odin, Alexander, Ramuh, Bahamut and Atomos prove in FF9, or as they're used in FF10 outside of the battle context. The thing is, what made summons particularly excellent from the PS1 era on was the spectacle - but all would agree, I'm sure, that once you've seen it, you've seen it. Ramuh in Duscae is impressive once; cool maybe a few times after that. Would summons be better served used as tentpole story moments instead? (Leviathan from the old visual works created trailer is a good potential instance of this) Yes, I think so. I think summons can still be a part of the lore without them becoming deeply integrated into the battle system, and that's actually what I'd want. I expect more executions similar to Ramuh in the final game though, for better or worse.

Just wanted to start with Summons, will ponder the rest.

 

[Lulcielid]

About summons, if they were to be "deeply" integrated into the battle system and not being just a cinematic move (like they were in the SNES, PSX era) they could follow the FF12 route, albeit better executed than in XII, my definition of better would be:

1. Summoning them doesn´t reduce your party to 2 (you and the summon) but increases it to 5 (Noct & friends + Summon).
2. The Summon is at the very least exponentially stronger than the party (like x5 at the very least).
3. They last on the field for like 30s-60s.

 

[Lulcielid]

Weapons and armor in XV

For the weapons I think for the action oriented game that is XV, having the weapons being relative even in terms of damange would be the best route to go, as an example i would say they should do something like KHII where the power gap between the initial weapon (Kingdom Key, see in the KHII tag) and the strongest (Ultima Weapon, see the KHII tag) it´s not so big (there´s only a x2 difference). To complement the relative small gap in power between each one, I think them having more than just 1 atribute (%critic rate, attacks faster/slower, x-ability exclusive to that wepon, elemental affinities, etc) and up them (at most) to like FFX 4 slot attributes would given them some variety and being viable for different situations.
The same concept of the weapons i stated above should apply on a similar fashion to armors and accesories (the latter, I think should be the one that has the most passive attributes).

"Limit Breaks" in XV

The only thing we know about this system is that it won´t use MP but will have a separate bar to fill in, either by doing damange or receiving it. Not too much to say other than it will likely being the common that one move that is x-times stronger than your generic attacks that will have some flashy effects catching to the eye, that may have some extra effects, that´s pretty much the definiton of Limit Breaks-like moves. Maybe they will have some kind of twist that requieres other certain conditions (outside of filling the LB bar) to execute them.

Cros-Links & Slash-Links

Another context sensitive type move, meet certain condition to execute them, I can´t think of anything else. You will probably unlock & upgrade them the more frecuent you use them or as you level-up they improve. Very little information to form a concrete & specific answer.

 

[Noctis_Caelum]

About magic,
Tabata confirmed a while ago that the magic-system doesn't use MP either a junction-system like in VIII (thanks god, because the system in VIII was really disappointing. You "couldn't" use the magic you have collected, because you had to upgrade your own stats. But overall it was a different cool idea.)

Since you wear rings to use magic in XV, I think it will be a similar system like the materia in VII.
- XV/VII
- use rings/materia to spell magics
- by interacting with the enviroment??/using MP
- each ring??/materia has it's own element
- you can??/can upgrade it
- you can??/can find, buy, collect it
- the rings are eventually created by the energy of the meteorites/the materia are created by the mako-energy

 

[Lulcielid]

About magic,
Tabata confirmed a while ago that the magic-system doesn't use MP either a junction-system like in VIII (thanks god, because the system in VIII was really disappointing. You "couldn't" use the magic you have collected, because you had to upgrade your own stats. But overall it was a different cool idea.)

Since you wear rings to use magic in XV, I think it will be a similar system like the materia in VII.
- XV/VII
- use rings/materia to spell magics
- by interacting with the enviroment??/using MP
- each ring??/materia has it's own element
- you can??/can upgrade it
- you can??/can find, buy, collect it
- the rings are eventually created by the energy of the meteorites/the materia are created by the mako-energy

Ok, i can feel the similarities there.

 

[Death Penalty]

I hope you folks will please indulge me in replying to all the replies I got. This is more than I was even hoping for!

I think one of two things will happen with Magic in terms of what resource it will use. Either, one it will just use MP and Tabata went back on what he said originally (since everyone was given MP bars), or they will consume on some form of a cool down.

I don't really think I can speak at length of how I think Magic will work, because there are many ways I can see it being used. I am very interested in using it though, as in most Final Fantasy games I tend to avoid Magic as it relies on a resource that needs to be replenished over time. This is why I tend to go with strength and just attacks enemies instead. I feel like if you are going to use MP, there should be a way to get it back more easily. HP can be restored with Regen, Cure or with Items. Similar to MP, it needs to be replenished, however, your HP is your overall survivability and not exactly integral to your attack power (besides a few different cases where having different HP values can harm/benefit your attacks).

In FFXIV you have a natural MP and TP regen tick that replenishes your resources and you have ways to also manage them in combat. Both melee and magic users have a resource to manage which balances their play styles. The only exception is Black Mage which has an effectively infinite MP pool.

In FFXV we know that natural MP regeneration can take place, and even some weapons can have MP restoration properties attached to gain MP back even faster. I hope that with this concept of natural MP regeneration that Magic can be used more freely and openly without having to pay constantly for your resource. To compare it to Kingdom Hearts, you often will collect MP bubbles to restore MP which acts as a natural regeneration of MP from killing certain enemies. This makes using Magic more enjoyable and accessible. However, like Kingdom Hearts, you will not be able to use Magic as your main source of combat. However, this is perfect for my play style, as unless you are a specific Job, you shouldn't be restricted in what you can do.

Summoning as I've said before will definitely not work like it did in the demo, you will be able to freely activate it, however I can only wonder under what circumstances. Perhaps the summon will not be able to be used for quite a while, or maybe it needs to pull MP from all party members, who can say.

I might make another reply at some point with some of my other thoughts, but I'll just leave it at that for now.

I think you cut right to the heart of the matter when it comes to magic; I can't agree more with you that it should be made more accessible than ever for XV especially considering you're controlling Noctis who is a jack of all trades. Quick regeneration of whatever resource ends up governing magic is a perfect way to do this and couples extremely well with Noctis' rapid MP regen. Also, I'd adore some spells/abilities that let him replenish his magic in a similar way to a cure or regen spell! I'm shocked they haven't implemented this yet.

As for summoning, I'm glad you mention that. I was pretty sure Tabata said something about summons not working under the same conditions they did in the demo, but I couldn't for the life of me find it. That's pretty much exactly how I'd like to see them used, freely but with some sort of high cost/restrictive cooldown.

If you have any other thoughts down the line, please do post like you said! That was incredibly detailed and a great read.

I actually think in this type of battle system summons are detrimental; Duscae is relatively good proof of how hard they are to execute in a smart way. The animation is gorgeous, yes, and it's a great 'moment', but ultimately the way they're activated is more than a little guff. This is the sort of place where FF's history, and the expectations that follow it, work against the game, I feel - people expect summons, and the devs, particularly in this painfully self-aware feedback driven entry, feel the need to ensure they're included in a 'traditional' manner. In theory if you want to summon Bahamut to take out a small group of weak goblins, you should be able to, and so on. The thing is, if Ramuh is indicative of the path they're taking with summons in FF15, I'd personally much rather they make them cinematic events tied to certain in-game moments. I think the moment we left turn-based summons became less practical, to be honest, and the execution of them in both FF12 and FF13 - weak in both instances, I feel - bears this out.

However, summons can have a fantastic role in the story, as things like Odin, Alexander, Ramuh, Bahamut and Atomos prove in FF9, or as they're used in FF10 outside of the battle context. The thing is, what made summons particularly excellent from the PS1 era on was the spectacle - but all would agree, I'm sure, that once you've seen it, you've seen it. Ramuh in Duscae is impressive once; cool maybe a few times after that. Would summons be better served used as tentpole story moments instead? (Leviathan from the old visual works created trailer is a good potential instance of this) Yes, I think so. I think summons can still be a part of the lore without them becoming deeply integrated into the battle system, and that's actually what I'd want. I expect more executions similar to Ramuh in the final game though, for better or worse.

Just wanted to start with Summons, will ponder the rest.

I can see you put a lot of thought into this... Though I may be part of the problem you mention where people expect summons, hehe... I'd honestly rather they find a way to fit them in and make them work than to cut them to just story elements. They're consistently the coolest and most satisfying element of Final Fantasy combat systems to me, and if I ever saw them go I'd be deeply saddened! I'm painfully aware that I'm valuing style over substance here with that sentiment though. XIII and XII did indeed have extremely lackluster summons, and Ramuh's overpowering damage would be pretty difficult to balance in a way that discourages exploitation. I mean, just look at the triple Ramuh catoblepas attempts in Duscae and it's easy to see exactly what you're talking about. I would definitely characterize that as detrimental to the battle system, as you point out. And that's even before considering how dissatisfying his current means of summoning is; you want to feel like you're wielding the power of a god, not like you're getting bailed out by daddy.

Still, I remain firmly in the pro-summon camp despite this. Not being able to acquire Alexander in IX was outright painful, he's my favorite summon! For better or for worse, Final Fantasy consistently thrives on putting these over the top all-powerful attacks in a player's arsenal and I'd hate to lose that spectacle as something actually at your command. Ramuh and the other summons definitely need some other means of being called, though. The conditional summoning actually has some potential, though you'd expect a summon like Phoenix to be thematically in Ramuh's place of bailing Noctis out. What I think mainly needs to happen is damage needs to be tweaked- one-shotting shmucks is great but one-shotting bosses isn't- and they need to be gated behind a difficult to attain resource like limit breaks. It's... It's actually a pretty tough question to answer! I don't know that you aren't correct. If a gameplay element becomes detrimental to the experience I do agree it should be cut, I'd just hate to see summons go that direction. Did you have any thoughts on how it could be tuned, even knowing your preference would be for summons not necessarily having to be a part of the battle system?

Also yes! If you have any further ponderings on other topics, please do share. I didn't expect to get so many great responses!

Weapons and armor in XV

For the weapons I think for the action oriented game that is XV, having the weapons being relative even in terms of damange would be the best route to go, as an example i would say they should do something like KHII where the power gap between the initial weapon (Kingdom Key, see in the KHII tag) and the strongest (Ultima Weapon, see the KHII tag) it´s not so big (there´s only a x2 difference). To complement the relative small gap in power between each one, I think them having more than just 1 atribute (%critic rate, attacks faster/slower, x-ability exclusive to that wepon, elemental affinities, etc) and up them (at most) to like FFX 4 slot attributes would given them some variety and being viable for different situations.
The same concept of the weapons i stated above should apply on a similar fashion to armors and accesories (the latter, I think should be the one that has the most passive attributes).

"Limit Breaks" in XV

The only thing we know about this system is that it won´t use MP but will have a separate bar to fill in, either by doing damange or receiving it. Not too much to say other than it will likely being the common that one move that is x-times stronger than your generic attacks that will have some flashy effects catching to the eye, that may have some extra effects, that´s pretty much the definiton of Limit Breaks-like moves. Maybe they will have some kind of twist that requieres other certain conditions (outside of filling the LB bar) to execute them.

Cros-Links & Slash-Links

Another context sensitive type move, meet certain condition to execute them, I can´t think of anything else. You will probably unlock & upgrade them the more frecuent you use them or as you level-up they improve. Very little information to form a concrete & specific answer.

That's a really good point about weapons, since it's not only about acquiring new weapons which are a static boost to attack. Ideally, you'd want to make sure every weapon remains viable for as long as possible, because each weapon comes with an ability that has its own unique utility that vastly broadens strategic options. For instance, at many points during my low-level behemoth kill in Duscae drain blade was a vital part of my arsenal. Not only that, but weapons come with unique properties that make them useful tools for taking out specific foes. The Zweihander ignoring armor comes to mind.

On the plus side, I think they're already addressing this in XV! We're certain at this point that some sort of weapon upgrade system is in place, and I believe the "tier" listed in the Episode Duscae weapon menu indicates to what level you've progressed a specific weapon. I'm hoping that just like you suggest this will enable weapons to remain a viable part of Noctis' arsenal all the way to the end, making Noctis' weapon deck a vital tactical choice all through the game.

About magic,
Tabata confirmed a while ago that the magic-system doesn't use MP either a junction-system like in VIII (thanks god, because the system in VIII was really disappointing. You "couldn't" use the magic you have collected, because you had to upgrade your own stats. But overall it was a different cool idea.)

Since you wear rings to use magic in XV, I think it will be a similar system like the materia in VII.
- XV/VII
- use rings/materia to spell magics
- by interacting with the enviroment??/using MP
- each ring??/materia has it's own element
- you can??/can upgrade it
- you can??/can find, buy, collect it
- the rings are eventually created by the energy of the meteorites/the materia are created by the mako-energy

The materia system or magicite system is something I hope they draw heavily from, well-said. This would be a great way to give magic some depth, enabling you to upgrade each ring and making exploring the world extremely rewarding by letting you actively collect spells. Most of all though, I want to address the bolded. I hadn't thought of that at all and that is such a cool idea! It would explain everything about how magic got into the hands of the general public, and it builds well off of the idea off the "power of the stars"! Do you think this is where this game's magicite comes from? Falling from the sky?

Sorry, I know it's not directly combat related, but I love this idea.

 

[Noctis_Caelum]

The materia system or magicite system is something I hope they draw heavily from, well-said. This would be a great way to give magic some depth, enabling you to upgrade each ring and making exploring the world extremely rewarding by letting you actively collect spells. Most of all though, I want to address the bolded. I hadn't thought of that at all and that is such a cool idea! It would explain everything about how magic got into the hands of the general public, and it builds well off of the idea off the "power of the stars"! Do you think this is where this game's magicite comes from? Falling from the sky?

Sorry, I know it's not directly combat related, but I love this idea.

Thank you for the reply^^
Yes I also like these types of ideas/theories, things we don't know yet or at least very little.

Well in every FF title, magic has a special and a deep meaning.
To list the games I currently know, where the magic comes from...
- VI, using magic by the espers -> they come from a different world (now thinking about that, perhaps XV has also something similar system to the magic, because the archaeans will play an important role in XV as in VI)
- VII, using magic by materia -> were created by mako-energy -> from the planet
- XIII, using magic as a l'cie -> giving a task by a fal'cie -> were created by gods (Pulse/Linzei) -> they were again created by Bhunivelze
- XV, using magic by rings
-> were created by meteor-energy (the city Lestallum also gains electricity from it)
-> meteorites come from outer space (Titan holds a meteorite, so does he come from the outer space along with the meteorite, like the others?? Also it makes sense and it feels realistic, meteorites come from outer space and they include many unknown elements. In FF XV again, it's something they can use magic^^)
-> and why are they crashing to the planet?? Because of the god or just a natural thing?? Sounds to me very spooky and creepy O_O

 

[Bigking]

It's literally been years now, but the day is fast approaching when Final Fantasy XV is going to be seen in its "truest form" according to director Hajime Tabata. With March will come the one-year anniversary of Episode Duscae- our first taste of the game in its playable form- as well as a huge event promising to expose XV in close detail and share its release date nearly a decade after the project was originally announced. There's even an ATR dated for this very month which In a strangely bittersweet way, that means that our time for speculation regarding the game's battle mechanics is rapidly coming to a close. So I thought what better way for us to celebrate than to discuss and speculate while the speculatin' is still good?

Mognet Central continues to be the best place to discuss XV, just thanks to all the enthusiasm and positive energy you guys are never short of. To that end I thought that this would be the perfect place to get some reactions and hopes for the title, particularly concerning the aspects of the battle system we don't know much about yet. I'm making this thread because I'd like to hear what direction you fine people would like XV's combat to take and how you'd like to see certain promised elements materialize in the core gameplay. Just to give some potential suggestions, here are some battle system elements that may make some good talking points.

• Magic
• Summoning
• "Limit Breaks"
• Cross-Links/Slash-Links
• Weapons/Armor
• Enemies

Or of course anything else you might think of! How would you like to see these implemented into the full game? What would you do with the battle system if it was up to you? I'm really looking forward to hearing from you all. I've seen a few of you do some really devoted theory crafting so please feel free to let it all out here. Even if it's just specific thoughts on how you think Duscae's combat should be improved to something as massive as a comprehensive idea for how set piece battles should be executed, don't be shy. And just to be polite, I'll get us started! I have a lot of thoughts on the battle system that will come out as we go, but for this first part here I'll just give my thoughts on magic. Here we go!

I'd like to see magic return in full form for XV in a way it hasn't in a long time. Preferably it will be a system that's every bit as robust as Noctis' physical options, which include his truly massive arsenal of weapons and the unique abilities they provide to him. There would be a full range of elemental options, from fire and thunder to oft-forgotten elements like earth and water (which thanks to Titan and Leviathan respectively I strongly believe are in the game). I'd make magic an extremely powerful option capable of dispatching crowds of small foes in a flash of fire and ice. Unlike prior titles, the real time nature of XV would be a great opportunity to utilize different areas of effect. I'd make sure each spell had a unique shape and utility, drawing inspiration from the fantastic Kingdom Hearts with expansion into more robust options. To an extent, Noctis' weapon skills in Duscae are a great example of this. Jump is an area of effect you can drop from afar, Full Thrust can pierce a line of foes and Tempest can control those close to Noctis. I'd apply a similar philosophy to magic, perhaps with a spell like fire exploding around Noctis and a spell like thunder sniping enemies from a distance.

Magic would be used just as much to shape the battlefield as to do direct damage, with intelligent use allowing Noctis to freeze troublesome foes in place or erect a wall of flame to corral slippery monsters. Elements would tie into more than just weakness and resistance as a player would come to expect earth spells to act a certain way and ice spells to act another. To facilitate this, the player would be able to pause combat in order to place area of effect spells just right, which I think would deliver well on the tactical aspect Tabata seems to be trying to realize.

And finally, we know that magic does not function on MP as in past titles. So, first of all, I'd rename MP as it is now to AP just to be snarky. For magic itself, I'd implement a sort of token system as seen in the 2011 Versus XIII trailer. Let's call it "MP" for simplicity's sake. Magic would be a powerful option that is a bit above regular physical attacks in terms of raw damage. To cast a spell you would need to spend an amount of tokens equal to the tier of the spell- so for instance 1 MP would equal one fire/blizzard/thunder level spell. Fira/blizzara/thundara would cost 2 MP. Each character would have a pretty modest total pool, probably not even breaking double digits for the brawlers with powerful mages like Ignis having the most. You would replenish that pool with physical attacks filling up a small gauge such that say about a half dozen physical attacks equal one point. Tier 1 spells would be quickly cast on a single target and would be able to be weaved into physical combos without interrupting them, providing a quick spike in damage. The second tier -ra spells and up would have much more complex areas of effect and would require a brief casting time but come with devastating effects. Spells of even higher tiers would cost more, with varying utility. For instance, flare would be able to be cast snappily like a tier 1 spell for 4 MP with much higher damage, while ultima would cost possibly an entire MP pool, have a long windup time and encompass a massive area.

By keeping the MP pools small yet relatively easy to charge and magic a powerful option that is limited yet readily available, this system would encourage players to embrace the best of both worlds, using physical attacks to build up magic and being certain to quickly use it so more could be built. Weaving swordplay and sorcery together would be the norm for optimal play as befitting our boys from Lucis. Meanwhile, devoted mages like Ignis would have the resources necessary to lean more heavily on magic and the option would exist for a properly equipped Noctis to do the same.

Sorry if that was a bit wordy! Please comment or share your own ideas if this thread interests you! I'm especially excited to see what certain folks might have in mind for the likes of summoning and the other elements listed above, but if you think of something else you have thoughts on that's great too.

It's literally been years now, but the day is fast approaching when Final Fantasy XV is going to be seen in its "truest form" according to director Hajime Tabata. With March will come the one-year anniversary of Episode Duscae- our first taste of the game in its playable form- as well as a huge event promising to expose XV in close detail and share its release date nearly a decade after the project was originally announced. There's even an ATR dated for this very month which In a strangely bittersweet way, that means that our time for speculation regarding the game's battle mechanics is rapidly coming to a close. So I thought what better way for us to celebrate than to discuss and speculate while the speculatin' is still good?

Mognet Central continues to be the best place to discuss XV, just thanks to all the enthusiasm and positive energy you guys are never short of. To that end I thought that this would be the perfect place to get some reactions and hopes for the title, particularly concerning the aspects of the battle system we don't know much about yet. I'm making this thread because I'd like to hear what direction you fine people would like XV's combat to take and how you'd like to see certain promised elements materialize in the core gameplay. Just to give some potential suggestions, here are some battle system elements that may make some good talking points.

• Magic
• Summoning
• "Limit Breaks"
• Cross-Links/Slash-Links
• Weapons/Armor
• Enemies

Or of course anything else you might think of! How would you like to see these implemented into the full game? What would you do with the battle system if it was up to you? I'm really looking forward to hearing from you all. I've seen a few of you do some really devoted theory crafting so please feel free to let it all out here. Even if it's just specific thoughts on how you think Duscae's combat should be improved to something as massive as a comprehensive idea for how set piece battles should be executed, don't be shy. And just to be polite, I'll get us started! I have a lot of thoughts on the battle system that will come out as we go, but for this first part here I'll just give my thoughts on magic. Here we go!

I'd like to see magic return in full form for XV in a way it hasn't in a long time. Preferably it will be a system that's every bit as robust as Noctis' physical options, which include his truly massive arsenal of weapons and the unique abilities they provide to him. There would be a full range of elemental options, from fire and thunder to oft-forgotten elements like earth and water (which thanks to Titan and Leviathan respectively I strongly believe are in the game). I'd make magic an extremely powerful option capable of dispatching crowds of small foes in a flash of fire and ice. Unlike prior titles, the real time nature of XV would be a great opportunity to utilize different areas of effect. I'd make sure each spell had a unique shape and utility, drawing inspiration from the fantastic Kingdom Hearts with expansion into more robust options. To an extent, Noctis' weapon skills in Duscae are a great example of this. Jump is an area of effect you can drop from afar, Full Thrust can pierce a line of foes and Tempest can control those close to Noctis. I'd apply a similar philosophy to magic, perhaps with a spell like fire exploding around Noctis and a spell like thunder sniping enemies from a distance.

Magic would be used just as much to shape the battlefield as to do direct damage, with intelligent use allowing Noctis to freeze troublesome foes in place or erect a wall of flame to corral slippery monsters. Elements would tie into more than just weakness and resistance as a player would come to expect earth spells to act a certain way and ice spells to act another. To facilitate this, the player would be able to pause combat in order to place area of effect spells just right, which I think would deliver well on the tactical aspect Tabata seems to be trying to realize.

And finally, we know that magic does not function on MP as in past titles. So, first of all, I'd rename MP as it is now to AP just to be snarky. For magic itself, I'd implement a sort of token system as seen in the 2011 Versus XIII trailer. Let's call it "MP" for simplicity's sake. Magic would be a powerful option that is a bit above regular physical attacks in terms of raw damage. To cast a spell you would need to spend an amount of tokens equal to the tier of the spell- so for instance 1 MP would equal one fire/blizzard/thunder level spell. Fira/blizzara/thundara would cost 2 MP. Each character would have a pretty modest total pool, probably not even breaking double digits for the brawlers with powerful mages like Ignis having the most. You would replenish that pool with physical attacks filling up a small gauge such that say about a half dozen physical attacks equal one point. Tier 1 spells would be quickly cast on a single target and would be able to be weaved into physical combos without interrupting them, providing a quick spike in damage. The second tier -ra spells and up would have much more complex areas of effect and would require a brief casting time but come with devastating effects. Spells of even higher tiers would cost more, with varying utility. For instance, flare would be able to be cast snappily like a tier 1 spell for 4 MP with much higher damage, while ultima would cost possibly an entire MP pool, have a long windup time and encompass a massive area.

By keeping the MP pools small yet relatively easy to charge and magic a powerful option that is limited yet readily available, this system would encourage players to embrace the best of both worlds, using physical attacks to build up magic and being certain to quickly use it so more could be built. Weaving swordplay and sorcery together would be the norm for optimal play as befitting our boys from Lucis. Meanwhile, devoted mages like Ignis would have the resources necessary to lean more heavily on magic and the option would exist for a properly equipped Noctis to do the same.

Sorry if that was a bit wordy! Please comment or share your own ideas if this thread interests you! I'm especially excited to see what certain folks might have in mind for the likes of summoning and the other elements listed above, but if you think of something else you have thoughts on that's great too.

u seem to have put a lot of thought into this . I'm curious what u think about summons. I remember a developer saying that we will have to ASK them to help noctis. It won't be something that yoy just find and aquier like from the demo. So I'm thinking that maybe they won't be around all the time. Maybe will or won't help depending on ur actions. Depends on what you are doing

 

[LeonBlade]

XV's summons seem to work more with the universe and also like some of the classic FF games where you meet some of the summons to get them or have to fight them.

XIV does an incredible job with explaining how "summons" (Primals/Eidolons) exist in that universe and there's still a lot more left to learn as well. I think XV will have a more connected experience with summons, as they are said to have existed since the beginning of world or something close to that. I wonder, could they be similar to that of WEAPONs from FFVII? Creatures born from the Planet to serve and protect them, then man create myth from the deities and worship them? I'd love to see if these Gods are worshiped by the people of the planet. We already know that some of the nations have crests/insignias with what look to resemble different beings, but we're still unsure of how they view them in their world. One interesting thing to note is that Lucis worships the Reaper, of course the wording will be toned down because of Chinese audience (and perhaps others) but they still exist and play an important role in that region of the world. Are the reapers similar to that of the Gods? Or do they serve another purpose in that of the passing of souls? Do they slay Gods? What connection do they have (if any) do the cloud entities we saw in the Dawn trailer?

I know this isn't exactly about the battle system, but I kind of threw it in here on the topic of summons. To try and keep part of my reply here more on point of the battle system, I'd like to comment briefly on what was mentioned recently in an interview with Examiner with Tabata.

Tabata told Examiner that there will be “two main threads” in regards to leveling, the aforementioned traditional stat improvement route, as well as actions that can be executed throughout the game in order to level further. Tabata stated the focus of the action-based leveling is “the enhancement of the combination attacks you can do.”

I'm not sure if it's referring to combination attacks as in combo abilities and combo strings, or the party combination attacks. They did change the system for the link system, so I wonder really what this could mean.

Looking forward to the next ATR to see some action!

 

[Infest]

Regarding the latest news snippets about the battle system

The equivalent to difficulty level settings in FFXV is a system where you can switch between different battle modes. By having this ability to switch modes, we want to make it so that both players who like action oriented, technical gameplay and also those who want to fight at a slower, more relaxed pace can all enjoy the combat in their own style.

It's a pretty vague statement but what I can imagine is that they managed to make the standard combat more action-heavy compared to Duscae -> means that you can play it more like an character-action-/KH-like/ game ( one button press = one slash or sth. in that manner....) and where you have to time your slashes/ dodges more active now. In Episode Duscae there was absolutely no difference between holding the button and tapping it, so it didn't feel really responsive if you tried to tap it constantly.

When they talk about " switching battle modes" I guess they mean switching from a completely manual combat system to sth. more half automatic ( sth. like we've seen in Episode Duscae) where you just have to hold (and alternate between) the attack/block buttons to attack/dodge.

This switching system is a key part of the gameplay that we decided to introduce based on the feedback we received from the Episode Duscae demo.
It's described as a" key part of the gameplay"

They also describe the switching system as "a key part of the game" . So I can imagine that it's not only helpful for " those who want to fight at a slower, more relaxed pace" in general but it's also a convenience feature for those who just want to quickly defeat some( stupid) generic mobs and where you don't want/have to bother with precisely timed dodging etc...

Well I could be totally wrong though.... lol... but I'd actually like to see sth. like that.