Paradigm



A Paradigm, also known as an Optima , is a combination of two 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 / button, also known as a Paradigm Shift or an Optima Change. Setting paradigms and performing paradigm shift at optimal times during battle is the core of formulating winning strategies.

In Final Fantasy XIII-2, suffixes of paradigm names may change according to the Paradigm Tune player has selected for each paradigm. The player has only two main characters, but once the Paradigm Pack option unlocks the player can include a third party member from their roster of captured monsters.

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. Monster allies in Final Fantasy XIII-2 have only one role each, and thus when paradigm shifting with monsters in the party the monster itself changes to another monster whose role corresponds with the chosen paradigm.

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.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 removes the long animation from the initial shift to reduce time spent shifting between various paradigms. Additionally, since the third space in the party is filled by Paradigm Pack monsters with differing HP levels, the HP percentage remains constant between monster companions when switching. For example, a monster at critical hit points will transfer its critical status to the monster switching in, and a KO'd monster will remain KO'd. However, since only the percentage remains the same, the monster ally's hit points can potentially increase or decrease dramatically when the role is switched.

Settings
With six roles and three maximum playable party members, it is possible to set up to 83 paradigms, sorted in the tables below by the number of contributing party members. The names for these paradigms remain the same from Final Fantasy XIII to Final Fantasy XIII-2.

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.

Creation and Development
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.

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.

Paradigm shift and paradigm roles are not available in the Final Fantasy XIII demo; instead, the player queues up all available abilities, mixing different types to the same command queue.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Lightning's battle style is an adapted form of the Paradigm System. By pressing and  during battle, Lightning can change between the Commando, Ravager, and Medic Paradigms, signified by the name of the new Paradigm being displayed and a visual effect engulfing Lightning briefly. Each Paradigm has its own set of Bravery attacks, with HP attacks being shared across all three, and allow Lightning to quickly change up her fighting style. Commando focuses on physical attacks, Ravager focuses on magic attacks, and Medic allows Lightning to cast healing spells to increase her Bravery without attacking.

Etymology
The Japanese name of Rapid Growth, Trismegistos, alludes to.

The paradigm Cerberus refers to Greek and Roman mythology where is a three-headed dog, or "hellhound" who guards the entrance of the underworld to prevent the dead from escaping and the living from entering.

The Japanese name of Salvation,, is the name of the Greek god of medicine/healing in Greek mythology, referring to the paradigm's unrivaled healing potency.

The paradigm All for One alludes to the , a novel by Alexandre Dumas, whose titular heroes' motto is "". The paradigm's Japanese name is literally The Lionheart King, which could allude to of England and the folkloric portrayal of his braveness. The paradigm War & Peace gets its name from , a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

The Japanese name of Decimation paradigm is Storming Dragon-Tiger. Various martial arts disciplines have symbolized the eternal rivalry between the dragon and the tiger, and both are needed to achieve the delicate balance of energies. A Chinese idiom to describe equal rivals (often in sports) is "Dragon versus Tiger".

Some of the paradigms in both the English and Japanese versions refer to various terms in the series: Delta Attack (both) refers to the signature attack of Magus Sisters, Tri-disaster (both) refers to an ability of the same name that deals damage of multiple elements, 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, and White Wind (JP) to a healing spell which removes negative status effects as well.

Trivia

 * 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.
 * A party of Lightning, Fang, and Hope/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.

Reference
Paradigma Paradigm