An Analysis of Turn-Based Battle Systems
For an assignment I was tasked with researching some turn-based RPGs, which I wasn’t initially planning on putting on here, but I did WAY too much work than what was recommended or required (70+ slides), so instead of letting it go to waste I might as well post it here. So here are the 4 turn-based RPGs that I researched:
(Link to slides if you prefer it that way)
Fate/Grand Order (2015)
Necessary Pre-Battle Information:
Servants:
Servants are the most important parts to Fate/Grand Order’s battle system. Here are some of the key parts of a Servant with regards to battle:
Lv. - The Servant’s level, which is capped out depending on the Servant’s rarity.
HP - The Servant’s health.
ATK - The Servant’s attack power.
For the complex equation of how damage is actually calculated in battle visit this link.
Servant’s Skills:
A Servant will always have 3 Skills, all of which are unique to that individual Servant. Each Skill can be leveled from 1 to 10. Each Skill has a cooldown of a specific amount of turns, dependent on Skill level and base Skill cooldown.
Servant’s Noble Phantasm (NP):
Every Servant has a Noble Phantasm. NPs will always be leveled 1-5, their effectiveness changing based on that level.
Generally there are 3 types of NPs:
ST - Damage to a single enemy target.
AoE - Damage to all enemies in battle.
Support - Debuff enemies or Buff allies or both.
Servant’s Command Cards:
Each Servant has a total deck of 5 Command Cards. They will always have at least 1 Quick, Arts, and Buster card in their deck. The amount of each varies per Servant. For a more in-depth explanation of what each of those 3 card types do visit this link.
Class Affinity:
Each Servant is assigned a Class. Classes have different effectiveness against each other, as shown in the charts to the left.
Quests:
Fate/Grand Order’s combat system is used when attempting Quests such as the Free Quest to the left. It generally will show the player a preview of the Classes of the enemies that will be in the Quest.
Support Servant:
After clicking on a quest, you will be brought to a Select Support menu. Here you will pick a Servant from either one of your friend’s Support Sist, or from a random person’s Support List. In general, you will always have to pick a Support Servant before assembling your main lineup.
Confirm Party:
After picking a Support Servant, you now will be brought to a menu that you will assemble your party as a whole. There is a total of 6 slots, 5 of which are filled by your own Servants and the remaining is the Support Servant you just selected. The left-most 3 Servants will start the battle on the field as only 3 Servants are allowed to battle at a time.
An important note about Parties are that you cannot use duplicate Servants unless the duplicate Servant is a Support Servant.
Craft Essences:
Each Servant is also allowed to use a single Craft Essence. A Craft Essence provides the Servant equipped with it Buffs, such as the Painting Summer Craft Essence to the right which provides the Servant with an increase in Arts Card effectiveness, NP Gain and a starting NP charge.
Actual Battle Analysis:
Battle Screen - Part 1:
This is the main battle screen. It is shown from a side perspective. Some of the main takeaways from this screen are:
Light Blue - Your Servants UI displaying health and NP Gauge + their usable skills.
Blue - Actual placement of your Servants.
Red - Enemies UI displaying health and special attack charge.
Orange - Actual placement of the enemies.
Side note: Enemies have a Level, Attack, and HP just like Servants do. The charge below their HP represents their NP Gauge or special attack based on enemy type.
Battle Screen - Part 2:
At the beginning of the player’s Turn, the player is free to do a couple of things:
Use Skills - Any amount of Skills can be used in a given Turn as long as prerequisites are met if applicable.
Attack - Actually attack the enemy. The targeted enemy is selected by tapping on the enemy itself or the UI above the corresponding enemy.
In-Battle Skills Example:
Attack System - Part 1:
As aforementioned, each Servant has 5 Command Cards. Every 3-Turn span follows this pattern:
Turn 1 - 5 Command Cards randomly selected from the total pool of 15 (3 Servants x 5 Command Cards each).
Turn 2 - 5 Command Cards randomly selected from the remaining pool of 10.
Turn 3 - Remaining 5 Command Cards are selected.
The order in which the Cards are clicked are important and are explained much more in-depth here.
Attack System - Part 2:
Every attack phase, 3 Command Cards need to be selected. Those attacks will be focused on the currently selected enemy. If all 3 Command Cards are from the same Servant, a 4th extra attack will also be added.
The enemies will also generally follow the same attack pattern, however the player’s Servant that is targeted is completely random. Another note is that when an enemy uses a Skill it counts towards the total attack count of 3. (Unlike Servants which can use skills + attack 3 times)
In-Battle Turn Example:
Attack System - Feedback:
Whenever an attack is executed, the amount of damage that is done is shown own the screen as visual feedback. The HP bar also goes down instantly of those that are attacked.
Buffs and Debuffs are also visible at all times they are active and are shown just above the Servant’s UI or below the enemy UI. Clicking on the individual’s UI can give the player a more in-depth view of the Buffs/Debuffs of a Servant or enemy.
Attack System - NP:
During battle, each Servant has an NP Gauge. If the NP Gauge reaches at least 100%, then the Servant can use their Noble Phantasm. The Noble Phantasm Command Card will show up above the normal dealt Command Cards and will function the same as regular Command Cards meaning you can still only use 3 Command Cards per turn.
Once a Noble Phantasm is used, the Servant’s NP Gauge is returned to 0 no matter what percent it was used with.
In-Battle Noble Phantasm Example:
Battle System - Turn + other conditions:
The 3 circled UI represent the following 3 conditions and stats for the battle:
BATTLE - The amount of Waves in a Quest. In the right example, it is the 1st of 3 Waves of the Quest. Clearing all the enemies in a Wave progresses you to the next Wave.
ENEMY - Amount of enemies remaining in current Wave. Only 3 enemies are allowed on the field, but there can be more than 3 enemies in a Wave.
TURN - The amount of Turns during the current Quest. A Turn occurs when the player attacks followed by getting attacked by enemy. Once the player returns back to their attack phase, a Turn has occurred.
Battle System - End Conditions:
A Quest ends in the following 2 ways:
Win - The winning condition for most Quests are defeating all of the enemies in the Quest. A win will generally end with the player getting item drops like pictured right.
Lose - The losing condition for most Quests are all of the player’s Servants being defeated prior to defeating all of the enemies. A loss will result in the player having to try and attempt the Quest again.
Full Quest Example:
Fate/Grand Order - Battle Systems Final Analysis:
Fate/Grand Order has an extremely unique and complex battle system with tons of aspects and features that could not be easily covered in a brief amount of time. With hundreds of Servants and even more Craft Essences, the amount of team compositions and meta that are available to the player are endless. Teams can be formed for efficiency, power, and so many other possibilities.
One of the most interesting part of the attack system is how the attack Command Cards are determined solely based on RNG, meaning that a player can fail or win a Quest solely based on the ways the Command Cards are dealt, which brings an interesting dynamic to this system. Similarly, the enemies attacks are completely RNG based, meaning that it is very tough to predict how you should focus your skills/defense. Overall, personally I feel that this system that is built with such randomness creates a very fun battle system. It means that a single playthrough of a given quest will almost never be the same, which keeps battles refreshing.
Toontown Online (2003)
“Toontown Online, commonly known as Toontown, was a 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on a cartoon animal world, developed by Disney’s Virtual Reality Studio and Schell Games, and published by The Walt Disney Company.” - Via Wikipedia
Necessary Pre-Battle Information:
Toon:
The Toon is the playable character that the player uses to traverse the world. The player travels around using the arrow keys and ctrl to jump.
There are a handful of clickable items on the screen that takes you to different menus or features.
Toon Laff:
The Laff is the equivalent to the health of a Toon. The number on the left represents the current Laff and the number on the right represents the total Laff the Toon has. The UI for the Laff changes based on the amount of Laff the Toon has.
Toon Gags - Part 1:
“Gags are hilarious jokes used by Toons to defeat the Cogs” - Via Fandom
In essence, Gags are the objects that Toons use to fight in battle. There are 7 total types of Gags:
Toon-Up - Heal other Toons in battle.
Trap - A Gag with perfect accuracy and the highest damage, but requires Lure in order to be used.
Lure - Stun the enemy for a set amount of turns.
Sound - Low damage but high accuracy. When used by multiple Toons at once, high damage can be dealt to all enemies on field.
Throw - Medium accuracy, but relatively high damage.
Squirt - High accuracy, but medium damage.
Drop - Low accuracy, but second highest damage behind Trap.
Toon Gags - Part 2:
Every Gag type has 7 different usable items known as Gag Tracks. They are unlockable by using those Gag types and gaining experience to earn the next Gag. There is also a limit to the amount of a single Gag that a Toon can hold at any given time.
Most Gags have 3 important stats:
Accuracy - How likely the attack is to hit.
Damage - The amount of damage the attack will do.
Affects - How many enemies or allies it affects.
Except for Toon-Up and Lure:
Toon-Up (Toon-Up) - Amount the Gag heals.
Rounds (Lure) - How many Rounds (Turns) the enemies are stunned for.
Cogs - Part 1:
Cogs are the main enemies that the Toons fight in Toontown. There are 4 different types of Cogs: Sellbot, Cashbot, Lawbot and Bossbot. The Cog type doesn’t have any particular effect on the battle.
Each Cog type has 8 different cogs. Each cog have attacks individual to them specifically. Also, each cog of the 8 have different ranges of levels they can spawn as. For example: Flunky can spawn as low as level 1 and as high as level 5. The Big Cheese can spawn as low as level 8 and as high as level 12.
Cogs - Part 2:
Cog’s health are calculated using the formula of the screenshot to the right. - Via Fandom
The Cog’s health number is not explicitly shown to the player, however there is a visual cue that tells the player how close the Cog is to being defeated as shown to the right.
Cogs - Part 3:
Cog’s health are calculated using the formula of the screenshot to the right. - Via Fandom
The Cog’s health number is not explicitly shown to the player, however there is a visual cue that tells the player how close the Cog is to being defeated as shown to the right.
Actual Battle Analysis:
Initiating Battles:
To initiate a battle, a Toon must collide with a Cog while it is walking around. A battle can have a max of 4 Toons and 4 Cogs at a time.
Battle Screen:
Pictured left is the main battle screen. Each Toon has the following options for each Turn:
Use Gag - Click on the gag to use it in the battle.
Fire - Special mechanic that auto defeats single Cog.
Pass - Don’t do anything this Turn.
Run - Leave the battle and return to main Playground.
SOS - Call in a special attack or buff/debuff for your turn.
Turns:
A Turn will always start with a Toon being able to take a single action. If there are multiple Toons, actions are taken in a top to bottom order based on the Gag types. Meaning Toon-Up will always be used first and Drop will always be used last. If Toons use the same Gag type, it will be used in right to left order. Each Toon has 20 seconds to select an action.
After the all of the Toon’s use their single action, all of the active Cog’s will also take a single action, which is always an attack.
A full Turn is completed after a Toon takes action followed by the Cog’s actions and it returns back to the menu for Toons to take action.
In-Battle Single Turn Example:
Battle Feedback:
All actions visually give the player feedback to see what has happened. On the right the Cog was damaged and it shows a red -64 to show that.
Additionally, that damage was reflected on the color on the chest of the Cog, where it changed from green to orange.
Finally, when a Toon takes damage, the bottom left Laff UI changes to reflect the total health of the Toon like portrayed to the right.
Win/Lose Conditions:
Win: If all of the Cogs are defeated, the Toons win and gains experience towards their Gags or progress towards their Tasks.
Lose: If a Toon’s Laff reaches 0, they are forced to leave the battle. They gain no experience and they lose all of the Gags that they are currently holding. They return to the Playground “Sad” meaning they have 0 health and have to wait and gather their Laff back over time.
Full Battle Example:
Win/Lose Conditions:
Win: If all of the Cogs are defeated, the Toons win and gains experience towards their Gags or progress towards their Tasks.
Lose: If a Toon’s Laff reaches 0, they are forced to leave the battle. They gain no experience and they lose all of the Gags that they are currently holding. They return to the Playground “Sad” meaning they have 0 health and have to wait and gather their Laff back over time.
Toontown - Battle Systems Final Analysis:
Toontown has very simple and easy to learn battle mechanics. Stats are very well explained to the player and visual cues are given whenever any action is executed, which give the player instant and easy to consume feedback of what is happening. It allows for players to strategize as well, due to having a limited amount of Gags that can be held at any given time.
Toaru Majutsu no Index: Imaginary Fest (2019)
Toaru Majutsu no Index is a light novel series written by Kazuma Kamachi that started publishing in 2004. It is still publishing today, spanning 53 volumes and counting.
Imaginary Fest is a mobile game that “is an academy superpower battle RPG” that “allows the player to relive scenes from the anime and build decks using the characters from the anime, movies, the latest light novels, and from sidestories.” - via Fandom
Necessary Pre-Battle Information:
Lineup Menu:
This is the Lineup screen where you assemble your Team for battle. It is separated into 2 parts:
Main (Light Blue) - The 3 characters that will start the battle.
Sub (Red) - The 3 characters that can be substituted in for the battle.
Battle/Assist Characters:
There are 2 types of characters in a lineup:
Battle (Light Blue) - The characters that actually do the battling in battle.
Assist (Red) - These characters provide buffs to allies or debuffs to enemies.
Attack/Health Stats:
There are 2 key stats for each slot in the Lineup:
総戦力 (sousenryoku) (Light Blue) - The total attack power of an individual slot. The total attack power of a slot is calculated by adding the attack power of both Battle and Assist characters.
HP (Red) - The total health of the slotted characters.
Affinity:
There are 5 different types of characters: Red, Blue, Green, Gold, and Purple.
The affinity chart is shown to the left.
Red is effective against Green and weak to Blue
Blue is effective against Red and weak to Green.
Green is effective against Blue and weak to Red.
Gold and Purple are both effective and weak to each other.
Actual Battle Analysis:
Battle Screen:
This is the main battle screen. It is shown top-down and the characters can be arranged like cards. Some important items on screen are:
Exit (Top Left) - Exit battle.
Swap Character (Bottom Left) - Swap a single character on field with a sub character.
Begin Attack (Bottom Right) - Start attack with how cards are currently aligned.
Wave (Top Middle) - Current Wave of enemies.
Enemy (Top Middle) - Amount of enemies left on current Wave.
Turn (Top Middle) - Current amount of Turns in this battle.
Character Attack Arrows:
Each battle character have a specific attack parameter:
Single Arrow - Attacks at most a single target. Can be left, right, or middle.
Double Arrow - Can attack up to 2 targets at once. Can be any 2-direction combination of left, right, and middle.
Triple Arrow - Can attack up to 3 targets at once. Attacks left, right, and middle of where the character is positioned.
Character Stacking:
Characters can be stacked on top of each other in order to attack using multiple cards in the same way the face card can attack.
Single Arrowed characters can have 2 other characters stacked on top of them.
Double Arrowed characters can have 1 other character stacked on top of them.
Triple Arrowed characters cannot have any characters stacked on top of them.
Individual Character Actions:
During the set-up phase for battle, an individual character can use 1 of the 3 following skills during the Turn:
Skill (Green) - A Skill that is specific to the character. Can do damage, buff self/allies, or debuff enemies. Skills have cooldowns after use.
Normal Attack (Red) - The middle red button is the normal attack for the character. This can be used without cooldown.
Special (Purple) - The character’s special ability. Like Skills, can do damage, buff self/allies, or debuff enemies. These can only be used in the bar at the bottom of the battle screen has atleast 100%. When used it subtracts 100 from the bar. Specials have cooldowns after use.
Turns:
A Turn will always start with the player. The player may line up the 3 characters in any way they want. They may also choose to execute Skills or Specials during the turn as well. Once the red button at the bottom right is clicked, the player’s actions are executed.
After the player’s actions are finished, the enemy has an AI that arranges the cards and performs skills and attacks, exactly like the player does.
Once the enemy’s action phase finishes, a message will pop up saying “Your Turn” which denotes the beginning of the player’s turn once again.
In-Battle Single Turn Example:
Battle Feedback:
All actions that are taken give the player visual feedback of what occurred. When using a skill, a message pops up of what is being buffed/debuffed. When an attack is used, the amount of damage is shown, as well as any other messages that apply to what happened. While attacks are occurring, a small UI pops up in the corners showing the player and enemy HP as well as any buffs/debuffs those characters have.
Win/Lose Conditions:
Win: If all of the enemies are defeated and all of the waves are cleared. Beating the Quest will result in the player gaining xp, drops and other similar rewards depending on type of quest.
Lose: If all of the player’s characters are defeated before defeating all the enemies, the player gets no rewards and loses the Stamina that they used to attempt the Quest.
Full Quest Example:
Imaginary Fest - Battle Systems Final Analysis:
Imaginary Fest has a battle system that is quite interesting compared to a lot of games within the same genre of it.
Aligning the cards and choosing actions from a top-down view like arranging cards, before transitioning into a full 3-D battle when executing the actions looks and feels great.
Imaginary Fest contains pretty common mechanics in these types of games such as Skills, Normal Attacks, and Special Attacks, but I think that restricting the ways that the characters can attack using the arrows as well as being able to stack the characters creates a unique and pretty interesting dynamic.
Pokémon Red and Blue (1996)
Necessary Pre-Battle Information:
Pokémon:
Pokémon, which share the name of game itself, are what are used to battle in this game. In Red and Blue, there are a total of 151 types of Pokémon. Each Pokémon has the following:
Level - The Pokémon’s level, which is capped at 100.
HP - Pokémon’s health. When HP reaches 0, the Pokémon “faints” and cannot be used until being healed at Pokémon Centers.
Attack - The amount of damage that the Pokémon can deal.
Defense - Higher Defense means less damage taken from an incoming attack.
Speed - Determines which Pokémon attacks first based on which has higher Speed.
Special - The amount of damage that a Pokémon can deal using special attacks.
Pokémon Types:
Pokémon can be either 1 or 2 of 15 different Pokémon types. The chart to the left from this site shows a chart of the effectiveness of each type to each other.
Pokémon Moves:
Pokémon can also have up to 4 action moves, all of which match a single type of the previously mentioned Pokémon Types.
PP, also known as Power Points, are the amount of times that a Pokémon can use a particular move. If the PP reaches 0, they cannot use that move until they use a special potion or go to the Pokémon Center.
Actual Battle Analysis:
Battle Screen:
Pictured to the left is the Pokémon battle screen, where there are 4 main actions:
Fight - Use an action with your active Pokémon.
Item - Use an item such as a potion to heal, or a Pokéball to capture a wild Pokémon.
PKMN - Switch out the current Pokémon for another Pokémon. Players can hold up to 6 Pokémon at a time.
Run - Run away from the battle. This function is generally only used in wild Pokémon battles.
Turns:
At the beginning of a player’s turn during an actual battle, they will generally pick either Fight, PKMN, or Item.
When picking Attack, assuming no external buffs/debuffs, the Pokémon with the highest speed will attack first.
When using an Item, that Item will be used prior to an enemy attack.
When switching Pokémon, that action will always occur prior to an enemy attack.
The Turn is finished once the player returns to the battle screen where they are allowed to select their next action for the next turn.
Battle Feedback:
Whenever a Pokémon is damaged or healed, their HP bar slowly fills or drains, which gives the player visual feedback of what is occurring.
Generally attacks will cause the screen to shake, giving the player another visual cue.
Win/Lose Conditions:
These conditions apply to Pokémon Trainer battles:
Win: If all of the enemy’s Pokémon are defeated, then the player wins and gains Pokémon Dollars that can be used to buy items.
Lose: If all of the player’s Pokémon are defeated, the player loses Pokémon Dollars, as well as are forced to visit the Pokémon Center to revive and heal all of their Pokémon.