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Final Fantasy XIII as we already know uses Active Time Battle, otherwise known as ATB. The Active Time Battle (ATB) system in Final Fantasy is an alternative to a turn-based system designed by Hiroyuki Ito during production of Final Fantasy IV for the SNES (originally known as Final Fantasy II when it was released in North America).
On the battle screen, a status summary of each character is displayed. These encompass HP levels, MP levels (where applicable), and an ATB gauge. Shown in the image from the first battle of FFIX below.
The ATB gauge determines when a character can take action. When the gauge is filled completely, the player can issue an order to that character.
In Final Fantasy X-2, some abilities require time to charge before attacking, while others, such as a standard attack, work immediately with a recovery time afterwards. If a character uses a charged ability, and then a no-wait ability, he or she can attack twice in a row. Sometimes an action will require both charging time and a recovery period.
The main deciding factor in the length of the time meter is the ability that is used. More powerful abilities will take longer to charge and recover from than normal attacks. The length of the time meter and the speed in which it charges is also affected by a character's "speed" attribute, which can be altered by certain items, equipment, abilities, spell effects (Haste, Slow, etc.) or leveling up.
Not all of this applies to every role-playing game that uses Active Time Battle, and some are much less complex, but it is a general idea of how this battle system works.
A common element in the ATB system was how the battle started out initially. Although this could be applied to the various other turn-based systems, Square games used them the most. The first of these was the "Preemptive strike" which gave the player a free turn in the beginning, without retaliation from the enemy. The second was "Back attack", which is the preemptive strike for enemies, although if the ATB system in the allowed for characters to be in a front or back row, every character's row position was reversed (all front row characters were in the back, and vice versa). A third was side attack, which the player's characters were split up into two groups that attacked the enemy from both sides. Not only did the player gain an extra turn, but physical attacks do more damage if the player attacks an enemy that's facing away. The last one was "Pincer attack" or "Attack from both sides", which is the same as side attack, only at the enemy's advantage.
Furthermore, spells and abilities can modify the turn order (called the Act List), as some abilities require a longer cool down time. In general, weaker abilities tend to require less cool down time, thus introducing a trade-off between speed and power. An act list appears in the top right hand corner of the Final Fantasy X screen. ( Shown Below )
Please note that most of this is speculation on my part based upon previous Final Fantasy games and should not be taken as how the final battle system is.
SUMMARY
1. Older Final Fantasy games that use the ATB system display on the battle screen, a status summary of each character. These encompass HP levels, MP levels and an ATB gauge.
2. The ATB gauge determines when a character can take action. When the gauge is filled completely, the player can issue an order to that character.
3. An ''Act List'' depicts the order when spells and attack will be delivered and this can ultimately change whenever speed overtakes power as some abilities that are more powerful take longer to 'recover' from.
DISECTION OF A SCREEN
The image below most likely gives away all that we may need to know about the battle system so far in FFXIII.
If we disect the image itself we can see some similarites between previous Final Fantasy titles, and the newest in the series.
There is something that resembles the world map from FFX in the FFXIII screen shown above. Looking at the world map from FFX, you can see a small yellow arrow representing the main protagonist Tidus, and a red arrow to show the player where you should be headed.
Now taking a look at the FFXIII screen we can see that there is a blue dot surround by a blue circle which i think represents lightning, judging by her positioning so close to the soldier which appears to be who she is attacking, I think that the target is represented by a red dot with a red circle surrounding it.
There are also numerous larger red dots surrounded by red circles, which I believe to represent the other enemies on the field. The reason I think they dots are larger is because I think that it means they wont receive your attack? And that the smaller red dotted enemies will receive the attack you have inputted. If you look this screen you can see what I mean, every target is visibly receiving the attack, then looking at the top left, they are all small red dots with circles around them.
1. Older Final Fantasy games that use the ATB system display on the battle screen, a status summary of each character. These encompass HP levels, MP levels and an ATB gauge.
If we look at the screen from FFXIII we can see that it has most of these details right there for us to see. The thing in the top right hand corner resembles the character summary gauges from Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2. If we look...
And now the FFXIII one....
See what I mean in the way they look similair. And because there is no MP gauge or HP gauge on this screen, my main theory is that this thing from the screen in the top right hand corner is it. Observe...
1. ATB Gauge / MP Gauge
2. MP Gauge / ATB Gauge
3. HP Gauge ( Visual display instead of a number like at the bottom of the screen)
4. HP damage display, like when you get hit. Shown below.
2. The ATB gauge determines when a character can take action. When the gauge is filled completely, the player can issue an order to that character.
3. An ''Act List'' depicts the order when spells and attack will be delivered and this can ultimately change whenever speed overtakes power as some abilities that are more powerful take longer to 'recover' from.
Take a look at the image below. I have given the labels and explained how I think they fit in to points 2 and 3 above.
A. I think this is the Act List. Like Final Fantasy X, it could be in the order that attacks have been selected to be executed, notice the 2 empty spaces in the right hand side above the tag, and how the V.Strike command is the same colour as the one in the middle of the 'list'. This could mean that blue commands have been selected and will be executed and that the orangey brown colours will either be executed onto another enemy or havent been selected yet?
B. This is labelled ATB cost. I think this means that as you select each attack it deducts from your ATB gauge and takes longer to recover from, i think when you have executed each attack you will gain ATB again, and this means more free slots and more executable actions? If this were the case, I actually dont think there will be MP in this Final Fantasy and just ATB costs, and that each action takes away from available slots you can deliver to the enemies. It would make sense, as I dont understand where the numbers next to each command would fit in if they weren't MP costs. Having said that, in the very bottom right hand corner of the image below you can see the letters ''HP and 08624'' Its all just below the .COM bit of IGN.
Noticeably from this point aswell does that mean that HP will go above 9999??
Here is a clearer version of that image, cropped.
COMMAND MENU
The image above I believe is the action menu. Currently from this image we can see some of the available actions in FFXIII and their either MP or ATB cost.
Below is a list of some I have found from other screens, their MP / ATB Cost and their description (if any)
Each command will be displayed in the following form below.
Eg. Command // MP or ATB cost // Description
Commands
Attack // 30 // Attack Target
Shoot // 30 // No Description
Defend // 30 // No Description
Fire // 40 // No Description
Blizzrad // 40 // No Description ( But Blizzrad is how it is spelt in the screen)
Thunder // 40 // No Description
Cure // 40 // No Description
V. Strike // 50 // Attack One Target And Propel Them Into The Air
Aerial // 60 // No Description
Firaga // ?? // As seen in this image. Image
Well, I hope that you all found this very intriguing. I know i loved writing it, I just hope you like my theories. If anybody has anymore then post them up.
Josh x
__________________
'He who throws away a friend, is as bad as he who throws away his life.' - Sophocles
I found out some more information after I had written this so I dont know if it is true or not. Its from this website here.
They say that each action the player makes (for example casting a spell) seems to cost points, which adds up on an "ATB cost" numerical value on the lower part of the screen. In the 5 action slots (on the bottom of the screen) it seems that a player can queue up to five commands at a time to execute in battle; so long as the sum cost of all actions are not greater than the character's total "ATB cost" points .
The commands shown in my analysis above show that all the commands each have an allotted amount of "ATB cost points".
It may be that the player fills up the queue, and then the character performs these actions in successive order making it an interesting combination of real-time and turn-based battle system.
When the blue gauge becomes full the player is given the opportunity to instigate a move, the action slows down while the player selects up to 5 commands and possibly targets. ( Hence the small red dots with circles around them)
Like previous Final Fantasy games this combat system appears to also feature a limit break system called Overclock. A circular meter on the top right corner fills up as the character fights, which puts the character in Overclock mode and they are engulfed in a blue aura. It is unknown what Overclock does to the character, though it seems to resemble the Trance mode in Final Fantasy IX.
Once Overclock is activated a number appears inside the meter and decreases, probably signifying the duration of the Overclock mode.
Do you think Overclock mode is when she turns upside down and stuff with her Anti - Gravity weaponry?
Josh x
__________________
'He who throws away a friend, is as bad as he who throws away his life.' - Sophocles
Seems like they will break the 9999 limit, its old and IMO annoying. Yes you can break it in older games with a skill or an item, but its illogical.
I think you can do a "favorites" of your attacks in the menu so you can activate the ones you want in a fast order.
__________________
You've been hit by the
^^^^^^^^^^^|
|SEXY BITCH TRUCK '|""";..,___.
|_..._...______===|= _|__|..., ] |
"(@)'(@)""""*|(@)(@)*****(@)
And it f***ing hurts
Pretty nice mock-up. Yeah Overclock obviously has something to do with time and space manipulation. Her clicking her fingers and freezing the enemies when the circle at the top of the screen said "Overclock". Onto the HP numbers, you probably can break the limit in this one too or the extra space(addition 0's) could be used for vehicle fights(Gears had tons more hp in Xenogears for example). My only fault with the cap is how come it only applies to my squad?
For the orange ones. They seem to represent what you are performing but they don't vanish until you perform something else. It may seem weird but when they are the first selection they seem to stay longer(before, during, some time after) but if not they just disapear right before the next animation. Also strange is, the worst part in the video. When her and the soldier are locked Switchgun-to-baton. During that part the orange selection changes three times: Attack > V strike > Aerial. You see in the video that when she moved to another selection the orange changed but later in the video she is on "Fire" and the selection doesn't change. This is also probably because she has mapped out plans already. Goes with Ghenrik's idea a little.
My real problem with the video is the ATB bar that goes up as the numbers increase. Why is it almost full at 110 but isn't at 214, even 90 is somewhat higher. the numbers in 800's, 400's, 600's, and 500's have the bar moving up?
ATB jumps up and down because they have cut out some parts from the fight - The part where Overcast is shown and many more.
The part where she changes costs her 10 ATB a change, there is a part missing between attack and firaga.
I wonder why the dots on the map never move and her HP never changes either?
And I swear after the shooting and turning the gun into a sword while cutting a monster in 2 I see some tiny pieces (blood?) flying...
During the train part she doesn't hold her fingers together but she is wrapped in some blue electricity allowing her to walk on the ceiling. But while the up-side-down shooting in her hand is stretched (fingers possibly together) out and there is no blue stuff. Sill she floats...
ATB jumps up and down because they have cut out some parts from the fight - The part where Overcast is shown and many more.
The part where she changes costs her 10 ATB a change, there is a part missing between attack and firaga.
My question was why the numbers on the ATB gauge didn't match up. Even though the scenes were obivously cut up it shouldn't be the way it is(with 110 and 800 being higher then 214).
Well they might of still been working on the battle system at that time so it might possibley be a bug ..like the miss-spelling of blizzard...blizzrad XD ha ha I guess we'll just have more info on the game. <.<
What if blizzrad is a completly new type of attack. Firrad, Tundrad, grawrad, ultrad, etc.
__________________
You've been hit by the
^^^^^^^^^^^|
|SEXY BITCH TRUCK '|""";..,___.
|_..._...______===|= _|__|..., ] |
"(@)'(@)""""*|(@)(@)*****(@)
And it f***ing hurts
blazzrad is a typo by the developers. and as for the enemies on the map, the dots are the same size, but the smaller surrounding crcles makes them appear a larger (human psyche, wont dwell into it). and that blue sparks underneath her feet on the train can be a cusion in her boots...and YEAH, you can attack multiple enemies with magic again! happy time!!!
__________________
PSN: Lillehagen
My dad aint stronger then your dad, but he's stronger than your dad! If you struggle with this, then you can burn in hell. Other than that, it should be fine....
you couldn't do that in X? I know that is possible in XI and XII.
If I remember right, it was with some spells, but you could not spread etc tunder over several enemies.
__________________
You've been hit by the
^^^^^^^^^^^|
|SEXY BITCH TRUCK '|""";..,___.
|_..._...______===|= _|__|..., ] |
"(@)'(@)""""*|(@)(@)*****(@)
And it f***ing hurts
and if compared to the real world (if we had magic), it looks like that when it is shot from her palm it goes forwards and won't stopp before it meets it's max range and the blast is kinda cone-shaped, so it will hit anything in it's way. chain also seems to be back (whatever it meanth in X-2), and you can do quite a deal of damage early (if the video is early in the game). as for swapping blade/gun, the only logic button are the shoulder buttons, probably R1, in my mind. but it is kinda hard to move around while selecting attack, isn't it? you have to dodge attacks and select what to do at the same time and then find a good spot and execute it. it's likely to be the most complex FF-battlesystem ever. you must: be able to execute attacks, select attacks, move, jump, block, switch blade/gun, start/stop overclock, get airborn in overclock...phew...
__________________
PSN: Lillehagen
My dad aint stronger then your dad, but he's stronger than your dad! If you struggle with this, then you can burn in hell. Other than that, it should be fine....
Final Fantasy XIII as we already know uses Active Time Battle, otherwise known as ATB. The Active Time Battle (ATB) system in Final Fantasy is an alternative to a turn-based system designed by Hiroyuki Ito during production of Final Fantasy IV for the SNES (originally known as Final Fantasy II when it was released in North America).
In Final Fantasy X-2, some abilities require time to charge before attacking, while others, such as a standard attack, work immediately with a recovery time afterwards. If a character uses a charged ability, and then a no-wait ability, he or she can attack twice in a row. Sometimes an action will require both charging time and a recovery period.
The main deciding factor in the length of the time meter is the ability that is used. More powerful abilities will take longer to charge and recover from than normal attacks. The length of the time meter and the speed in which it charges is also affected by a character's "speed" attribute, which can be altered by certain items, equipment, abilities, spell effects (Haste, Slow, etc.) or leveling up.
Not all of this applies to every role-playing game that uses Active Time Battle, and some are much less complex, but it is a general idea of how this battle system works.
A common element in the ATB system was how the battle started out initially. Although this could be applied to the various other turn-based systems, Square games used them the most. The first of these was the "Preemptive strike" which gave the player a free turn in the beginning, without retaliation from the enemy. The second was "Back attack", which is the preemptive strike for enemies, although if the ATB system in the allowed for characters to be in a front or back row, every character's row position was reversed (all front row characters were in the back, and vice versa). A third was side attack, which the player's characters were split up into two groups that attacked the enemy from both sides. Not only did the player gain an extra turn, but physical attacks do more damage if the player attacks an enemy that's facing away. The last one was "Pincer attack" or "Attack from both sides", which is the same as side attack, only at the enemy's advantage.
Furthermore, spells and abilities can modify the turn order (called the Act List), as some abilities require a longer cool down time. In general, weaker abilities tend to require less cool down time, thus introducing a trade-off between speed and power. An act list appears in the top right hand corner of the Final Fantasy X screen. ( Shown Below )
Please note that most of this is speculation on my part based upon previous Final Fantasy games and should not be taken as how the final battle system is.
SUMMARY
1. Older Final Fantasy games that use the ATB system display on the battle screen, a status summary of each character. These encompass HP levels, MP levels and an ATB gauge.
2. The ATB gauge determines when a character can take action. When the gauge is filled completely, the player can issue an order to that character.
3. An ''Act List'' depicts the order when spells and attack will be delivered and this can ultimately change whenever speed overtakes power as some abilities that are more powerful take longer to 'recover' from.
DISECTION OF A SCREEN
The image below most likely gives away all that we may need to know about the battle system so far in FFXIII.
If we disect the image itself we can see some similarites between previous Final Fantasy titles, and the newest in the series.
There is something that resembles the world map from FFX in the FFXIII screen shown above. Looking at the world map from FFX, you can see a small yellow arrow representing the main protagonist Tidus, and a red arrow to show the player where you should be headed.
Now taking a look at the FFXIII screen we can see that there is a blue dot surround by a blue circle which i think represents lightning, judging by her positioning so close to the soldier which appears to be who she is attacking, I think that the target is represented by a red dot with a red circle surrounding it.
There are also numerous larger red dots surrounded by red circles, which I believe to represent the other enemies on the field. The reason I think they dots are larger is because I think that it means they wont receive your attack? And that the smaller red dotted enemies will receive the attack you have inputted. If you look this screen you can see what I mean, every target is visibly receiving the attack, then looking at the top left, they are all small red dots with circles around them.
1. Older Final Fantasy games that use the ATB system display on the battle screen, a status summary of each character. These encompass HP levels, MP levels and an ATB gauge.
If we look at the screen from FFXIII we can see that it has most of these details right there for us to see. The thing in the top right hand corner resembles the character summary gauges from Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2. If we look...
And now the FFXIII one....
See what I mean in the way they look similair. And because there is no MP gauge or HP gauge on this screen, my main theory is that this thing from the screen in the top right hand corner is it. Observe...
1. ATB Gauge / MP Gauge
2. MP Gauge / ATB Gauge
3. HP Gauge ( Visual display instead of a number like at the bottom of the screen)
4. HP damage display, like when you get hit. Shown below.
2. The ATB gauge determines when a character can take action. When the gauge is filled completely, the player can issue an order to that character.
3. An ''Act List'' depicts the order when spells and attack will be delivered and this can ultimately change whenever speed overtakes power as some abilities that are more powerful take longer to 'recover' from.
Take a look at the image below. I have given the labels and explained how I think they fit in to points 2 and 3 above.
A. I think this is the Act List. Like Final Fantasy X, it could be in the order that attacks have been selected to be executed, notice the 2 empty spaces in the right hand side above the tag, and how the V.Strike command is the same colour as the one in the middle of the 'list'. This could mean that blue commands have been selected and will be executed and that the orangey brown colours will either be executed onto another enemy or havent been selected yet?
B. This is labelled ATB cost. I think this means that as you select each attack it deducts from your ATB gauge and takes longer to recover from, i think when you have executed each attack you will gain ATB again, and this means more free slots and more executable actions? If this were the case, I actually dont think there will be MP in this Final Fantasy and just ATB costs, and that each action takes away from available slots you can deliver to the enemies. It would make sense, as I dont understand where the numbers next to each command would fit in if they weren't MP costs. Having said that, in the very bottom right hand corner of the image below you can see the letters ''HP and 08624'' Its all just below the .COM bit of IGN.
Noticeably from this point aswell does that mean that HP will go above 9999??
Here is a clearer version of that image, cropped.
COMMAND MENU
The image above I believe is the action menu. Currently from this image we can see some of the available actions in FFXIII and their either MP or ATB cost.
Below is a list of some I have found from other screens, their MP / ATB Cost and their description (if any)
Each command will be displayed in the following form below.
Eg. Command // MP or ATB cost // Description
Commands
Attack // 30 // Attack Target
Shoot // 30 // No Description
Defend // 30 // No Description
Fire // 40 // No Description
Blizzrad // 40 // No Description ( But Blizzrad is how it is spelt in the screen)
Thunder // 40 // No Description
Cure // 40 // No Description
V. Strike // 50 // Attack One Target And Propel Them Into The Air
Aerial // 60 // No Description
Firaga // ?? // As seen in this image. Image
Well, I hope that you all found this very intriguing. I know i loved writing it, I just hope you like my theories. If anybody has anymore then post them up.
Josh x
About the dots you mentioned. The red (enemy) dot that has a bigger ring around it is the one that the player is currently attacking. The red dots that have a smaller ring around it means that the player isn't attacking those enemies. But is currently focusing on the red dot that has a larger ring around it.
Good thought firewolf... well I'm suspecting it to be similair to FFXII Mp system... how when you walk the points regenerate. Otherwise i think it could be that the more enemies you defeat then the more atb points you receive? Could it also be that the amount of damage incurred is the amount of ATB points you also receive? Who knows.... but they did say that the battle system was truly unique and that we would face enemies with a past... whether they be a coward or whether they be a berserk hero.... lets just keep our eyes and ears open and lets see what SE has to suprise us with this time!
Josh
__________________
'He who throws away a friend, is as bad as he who throws away his life.' - Sophocles
Ugh, I hated MP Stroll on FFXII. Not that there was anything wrong with it, ive just got horrible memories of running round in circles for 5 mins to gain enough MP to use cure. xD
If you watch the trailer, the ATB points go up. It looks like they go up slowly when youre not attacking.
I prefer the regenerating MP stroll idea - in the old FF games where it didn't regenerate I'd find myself using Magic as little as possible in order to save it for some big boss battle or whatever that you always expect to be around the next corner.
For FFXIII as far as I can tell based on the evidence I think the idea that ATB cost will be a combination of the old ATB time bar and MP rolled into one seems the most likely. It seems like you stack up a chain of moves in advance depending on the individual ATB costs, the moves play out in sequence and the ATB regenerates slowly over time. At a guess, you could increase the rate at which it regenerates by damaging enemies, creating large chain attacks, killing more powerful enemies etc. So, it regenerates anyway, but you can fill it quicker by attacking more.
I don't think a separate MP system will be used, it appears to be all about the time it takes to complete each action.
FFXIII Battle Screens Analysis - With Images
