Paradigm



A Paradigm, also known as an Optima , is a combination of one to three roles in Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2. The player can preset up to a maximum of six paradigms when outside battle. During battle the player can freely switch between the preset paradigms using the /LB button, also known as a Paradigm Shift or an Optima Change.

If used properly, paradigms may help the player by ending the battle sooner, resulting in the TP gauge filling up faster and a higher chance for enemies to drop materials.

In Final Fantasy XIII-2, suffixes of paradigm names may change according to the Paradigm Tune player has selected for each paradigm. Shifting paradigms 1,000 times in Final Fantasy XIII-2 earns the player the "Strategist" achievement/trophy.

Role
Roles are a gameplay element unique to Final Fantasy XIII. The system is akin to past Final Fantasy job systems, however major changes have been made so that each role resembles a mix of different jobs.

Names have been changed between the English and the Japanese releases:
 * Commando (COM) / Attacker (ATK)
 * Ravager (RAV) / Blaster (BLA)
 * Sentinel (SEN) / Defender (DEF)
 * Saboteur (SAB) / Jammer (JAM)
 * Synergist (SYN) / Enhancer (ENH)
 * Medic (MED) / Healer (HLR)

Lightning also has six additional roles in her DLC episode of Final Fantasy XIII-2:
 * Paladin (PLD) / Attack Paladin (ATK-PLD), a role similar to Commando.
 * Mage (MGE) / Blast Wizard (BLA-WIZ), a role similar to Ravager that uses lightning-attribute magic attacks.
 * Shaman (SHA) / Blast Shaman (BLA-SHM), a role similar to Ravager that uses wind-attribute physical attacks.
 * Knight (KNT) / Defense Knight (DEF-KNT), a role similar to Sentinel.
 * Conjurer (CNJ) / Enhance Adept (ENH-ADP), a role similar to Synergist.
 * Sorcerer (SRC) / Jamming Witch (JAM-WTC), a role similar to Saboteur.

Setting each role to a character is made by default, although after a point, the player can freely switch between roles for each character outside of battle.

The localization team was asked to help with the naming of the roles and the team intended to use different names in Japan and the US/EU from the start. The English translators brainstormed and proposed both sets. For the Japanese version, they needed English words that sounded cool when rendered into Japanese, and would be understood by non-English-speaking Japanese players. For the localized version, the team's focus was on creating names that would have a more sci-fi feel to a native speaker's ear, and also abbreviate to three letters in a way that looked natural and made the short forms quickly and easily distinguishable from one another.

Paradigm Shift
The ATB gauge continues to increase during a Paradigm Shift. If the player shifts in the middle of an action, any unused ATB gauge is saved as if the player had simply cancelled the action. Shifting paradigm refills everyone's ATB gauge. There is a 12 second cooldown time for this effect after each time it activates. If the player shifts less than 12 seconds after this effect last activated, the gauge is not refilled at the end of the shift. The computer-controlled characters have their commands automatically selected immediately following the shift.

During the Paradigm Shift animation commands cannot be input or carried out, but during the animation the ATB gauges of both the player party and the enemies continues to fill. The two computer-controlled allies can act again sooner than the leader, as the leader must wait until all characters' animations are finished before acting.

In Final Fantasy XIII, the first Paradigm Shift in each battle has a longer animation, but it can be bypassed by only shifting during an animation, which cannot be cancelled by the Paradigm Shift.


 * 1) During an Attack command special animation (gunshot for Lightning, rifle shot for Sazh, three-sectioned staff bows for Fang).
 * 2) While being in the air, either launched by an enemy or attacking a launched enemy.
 * 3) While using a character's Full ATB Skill.

Circumventing the long animation will make the next shift animation the long animation.

Settings
With six roles and three maximum playable party members, it is possible to set up to 83 paradigms. Possibilities are shown in the table below.

''Note: Names shown in brackets are direct translations from Japanese.

Tunes
Final Fantasy XIII-2 extends on the paradigms' customizability, letting the player tune them in the menu. Tuned paradigms get the suffix of -X or -W.

Through use of Paradigm Tuning, the other party members' AI can be changed out of battle in the paradigm menu with different settings for various situations. These are: Normal, which automatically adapts to the situation; Wide (lit. "Spread"), which makes each party member target a different enemy (or ally, when healing and buffing); and Cross (lit. "Concentrate"), which makes everyone act on a single target. Certain Paradigm Tunes change the names of paradigms to have a letter at the end, for example "Aggression-X".

Suffix -X is added to "Cross" tune meaning the paradigm will concentrate on a single enemy unit. Suffix -W is added to "Wide" tune meaning the paradigm will spread its attacks on all enemies. Paradigms with no suffixes will follow their "original" tunes. When a paradigm is set to a Cross tune, Serah will only use the sword form of her weapon regardless of distance, and while one is set to Wide, she will only use her bow form. Standard tuning will have her switch according to distance.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Lightning can shift between paradigms in Dissidia 012 to switch between different abilities. To shift, R button must be pressed whilst holding L button.

Etymology
A paradigm shift describes a fundamental change in ideology, usually in the field of science. For example, Darwin's theory of evolution replacing Lamarck's theories and creationism is a paradigm shift.

Trivia

 * Some of the paradigms in both, Japanese and English versions, are referring to various terms in the series, e.g.: Delta Attack (both) refers to signature attack of Magus Sisters, Tri-disaster (both) refers to another ability of the same name of multiple elemental damage, Dualcasting (EN) to the ability to cast two magic spells at once, Mighty Guard (JP) to magic that grants positive status effects on the target, White Wind (JP) to a healing spell which removes negative status effects as well.
 * The only time the player can see Twin Shields, Stumbling Block, Havoc, or Rally without using a cheating device in Final Fantasy XIII is the battle against Hecatoncheir. Stumbling Block is put into the Paradigm Deck by default, but to see the other three, the player needs to get a Game Over on the fight or Retry it. Furthermore, Twin Shields requires the player to teach the Sentinel paradigm to Vanille, and Rally requires the player to teach the Synergist role to both Fang and Vanille.
 * The Japanese name of Rapid Growth, Trismegistos, is a reference to.
 * The Japanese name of Salvation, Asclepius, is the name of the Greek god of medicine/healing in Greek mythology. Appropriate since the paradigm fully focuses on healing the party as quickly as possible.
 * In Final Fantasy XIII, the first paradigm shift of every battle takes longer than all the other shifts that are made after the initial shift. If the player's character is in the air, or in the middle of executing a Full ATB Skill, when the first shift is made, the scene in which the three characters are zoomed in and their roles displayed is absent. Final Fantasy XIII-2 makes the shifts nearly instant to reduce time spend while shifting between various paradigms.
 * In an advertisement for E3 2009, three of six roles have different names and abbreviations: Gladiator (GLA) for Commando (COM), Augmenter (AUG) for Synergist (SYN), and Tactician (TAC) for Saboteur (SAB) in their respective colors. Paradigm naming had also a different pattern.
 * A party of Lightning, Fang, and Hope or Vanille can learn every skill from every role (excluding the exclusive Full ATB Skills).
 * According to a Brain Blast question in Academia, the term "paradigm shift" is used by office workers to refer to reshuffling staff.
 * When developing for the paradigm system the development team would have wanted the characters' appearance to change for each role, but this wasn't possible due to limited system resources. With only a single playable character in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, this became possible with the garb system.

Reference
Paradigma Paradigm