Angell Soul (Inside look into Turn Based Combat)

Hello dear readers, Angell Soul here again with an editorial in place of a review this time. With the new FFVII remake announcement and the upcoming FFXV it’s starting to look like turn-based combat is rapidly disappearing from RPGs. Are turn-based RPGs a thing of the past or do they still have a place in today’s gaming marketplace? Even the Final Fantasy series seems to be abandoning the genre.

I think we do have to face the truth of the matter. Turn-based combat has lost its place at the heart of the RPG world. It used to be that the top selling and best known RPGs involved meticulous strategic gameplay. Now the biggest titles are almost all exclusively action RPGs. Action like Dragon Age, Kingdom Hearts, Fallout 4, Oblivion and The Witcher games have been some of the most successful titles in the past half-decade of gaming.

Lately, I’ve heard people argue that turn-based combat is stale and boring. One person argued that turn-based combat was simply a result of technological limitations and bound to be abandoned. I would counter that turn-based combat is one of the most amazingly diverse genres of gameplay out there. Tactical RPGs that require detailed unit placement and consideration of space, classic Final Fantasy Games that require juggling different character skills, and the Mario and Luigi series that mix turn based elements with active input: these examples just go to show that turn-based combat is actually very diverse.

Does the expulsion of turn-based combat from mainstream games mean that those of us who love that kind of combat will no longer be able to experience it in our games? Well, no, but maybe it won’t have a place in the blockbusters of the gaming industry anymore. Turn-based combat is actually doing quite well when we consider the broader picture. PC rpgs are making a comeback and many of them, like the recently released X-COM 2, are showing us that turn-based combat isn’t stale.

In the grand picture of things the niche status of turn-based combat these days provides it the opportunity to grow in new and diverse directions. Developers making turn-based games won’t have to dumb down systems to appeal to casual fans, but can rather work on tailoring their games to be punishing and rewarding for experienced genre-fans. So, while FF XV won’t be revolutionizing turn-based combat maybe a smaller developer than Square-Enix might just do so.