Easily FFXIII. It's the first semblance of real strategy the franchise has seen and it presses the issue with an ATB system that stops for nothing, forcing you to plan ahead and think on your toes. To a degree, gear and attribute scores will matter in any game, but FFXIII never becomes the pure stat-check that other games in the series ultimately become. This is helped in part by a limited upgrade system which unlocks slowly as you progress through the game, forcing players to learn the paradigm system rather than just grinding until they're stronger than their enemies. Chrono Cross had a similar level-limiting system that helped preserve the game's combat, but most JRPGs really don't. Even the SMT franchise, which I love, can easily be subverted by a few hours of grinding.
My only complaint with 13 would be there aren't enough common enemies that really force you to mix up paradigms.
Also, Faith boosts a Commando's Ruin attack, so it's not wasted on Fang, especially where the enemy is resistant, immune or halves physical attacks. In these cases the syn will always throw on the Faith buff and Commandos will always honor it by spamming Ruin. Generally the synergist AI casts like spells together. Shell and Protect, Faith and Brave, etc. Assuming the enemy has no significant magic resistance, Ruin, and especially Ruinga, can be every bit as deadly to the Commando. Ruinga is better than blitz as an AoE as well. So Faith can always benefit the commando. Maybe you have no plans to use Ruin or Ruinga, but how is the AI suppose to know that? I'd rather have the buff and not need it instead of the other way around, especially since the priority on its casting is fairly low.
The AI is pretty damn impressive so long as you make sure to catalog your enemies with Libra, and I'm glad of that because there's no way I'd be able to control 3 characters at once with this combat system moving as fast as it does. Certainly not as effectively.
Log in to comment