Command Synergy Battle

Command Synergy Battle (CSB) is the name of the battle system used in Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2. It was designed by Toshiro Tsuchida. It derives the flow of time from ATB as each character has their own ATB gauge. Unlike in most other Final Fantasy battle systems, the player is only able to control the actions of the party leader, and the computer controls the two others.

Yoshinori Kitase, the director of Final Fantasy XIII, has stated that at the time they were planning for another Final Fantasy title, there was an emerging trend in the gaming industry where FPSs were becoming more popular. The developers wanted to keep away from the traditional JRPG style of tactical and command-based gameplay, and instead incorporate elements of speed and action. Kitase says they hadn't thought of this particular battle system prior to Final Fantasy XIII, but that it didn't take long to produce.

Command Input
Commands can be either input manually or via the Auto-Battle feature. Selecting the commands manually from a list of available commands is identical to how it works in the other games in the series. Final Fantasy XIII has a new feature, called Auto-Battle, which selects commands automatically for the player. The commands that are drawn up with Auto-Battle are not random but depend on the battle situation: the party's health and the foe the party is currently fighting.

How much information on the foe the player has unveiled on its bestiary page affects the commands chosen in the Auto-Battle: If the foe's elemental weaknesses are unknown, a Ravager would try to hit it with different elements to unveil this info. Once a foe is known to be weak against an element, the Auto-Battle command would only bring up commands of the element the foe is weak to, if the character in question knows these abilities.

See the individual Paradigm Role pages to see the exact AI mechanism for each role.

ATB Gauge
The ATB gauge in turn acts like an action point meter divided up into equal segments (a similar system was used in Enix's game ). Each action consumes a portion of the ATB gauge. For example, attacking consumes one point, while casting a powerful spell consumes three. Full ATB Skills use up the whole gauge.

Commands can be chained so as long as there are enough action points. When the player decides on what commands to take, the player presses another button to execute the commands for the character to do. If the player executes the chained commands without filling all ATB segments, the unused amount of the bar will remain.

The characters start with two ATB segments. They gain one when becoming l'Cie and gain one more when they obtain their Eidolon. Thus the minimum final size of the ATB gauge is four segments, as an additional segment is gained via the Crystarium System and one more is gained by equipping a Tier 3 weapon.

Not all commands use up ATB gauge. Items and Techniques can be used without expending ATB segments, as long as the character isn't stunned by status effects preventing their turn.

Enemies also have an ATB gauge, but unlike the player, enemies can only stock one command per turn. Enemy abilities still consume a various number of ATB slots, so the enemy will need to spend a variable amount of time between turns.

ATB Gauge Speed
The speed the gauge fills on screen depends how many ATB segments the character has in their ATB gauge. The speed below is when Battle Speed is set to "Normal". If the configuration settings are set to "Slow" the fill speed is halved.

Statuses and Passive Abilities
Certain statuses and passive abilities affect the speed the ATB gauge fills. The base ATB speed is determined by the ATB level (how long the gauge is); statuses and passive abilities affect only the base ATB speed. The slowest gauge speed is -90%. Slow and Haste cancel each other out.

Abilities
Certain abilities gain the player more ATB gauge. The effect is seen that when the player gets their next turn, their ATB gauge is already partly filled.


 * - Siphon abilities are boosted by Hope's Siphon Boost weapon ability.
 * - Effect won't stack.
 * - If the damage is dealt by a Saboteur ability and a status effect is affected, the ATB recovery is doubled.

Another way to have a full ATB gauge at the start of battle is to enter a battle with a preemptive strike.

Chain Gauge


Both enemies and player characters have chain gauges. The enemies' chain gauges fill when the players attack them, and the rate at which an enemy's bar can be filled depends on its chain resistance. The more resistance the opponent has the slower the party can fill its chain gauge, but the slower it also drains.

When the player fills the enemy's chain gauge filly it enters a state known as stagger and its chain resistance falls to zero. The player can rake up chain much faster and, depending on the enemy, it may have other advantages, such as being able to launch it into the air or it loses its immunity to certain types of attacks.

Paradigm Shift


After becoming l'Cie the Paradigm system becomes available. The player can essentially choose between six different "jobs" and the preset combination of character jobs is called a Paradigm. The player can then shuffle through the settings while in battle to change battle tactics on the go.

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.

Battle Score
After the battle the player receives a star rating depending on how fast they finished the battle. The star rating affects the rate the Technical Points accumulate and the chance of spoils.

Cinematic Action
Cinematic Actions (known as Aktionsmodus in Germany) are special scripted cinematic sequences that prompt for a button input by the player, similar to Reaction Commands from the Kingdom Hearts series or cinematic combos seen in the God of War series. At times, the player will have to choose between two commands, and this will effect the scenes and battles to come.

Failing a cinematic action sequence doesn't bring about any adverse affects however, it can bring about offensive or defensive benefits. It is also possible to obtain bonus items for successful performance of Cinematic Actions.

Feral Link


The game also introduces ally monsters which can perform their own unique abilities. To use a Feral Link ability, party needs to fill the Feral Link gauge in order to perform the ability which can be initialized by pressing /. In order to improve the ability's powers, a feature called Synchronization requires pressing buttons or rotating the analog sticks, similarly to Cinematic Actions.

Wound Damage


Sometimes when an enemy attacks, that attack may lower a character's maximum HP. It is called "Wound Damage" (Blood Damage in the Japanese version), and when this occurs, a pop-up appears with text "WOUNDED" in red. Characters are automatically recovered from Wound Damage after every battle, by usage of specific items or through certain Feral Links. It is also possible to deal Wound Damage on enemies, as well.

Mechanics
A character's maximum HP is 500 and its current HP is at its maximum - 500 HP - meaning that this character's HP gauge color is green. Whenever a character receives damage, his/her/its current HP may reduce; the lost HP is represented by a red gauge. However, when an enemy attacks, its attack may inflict Wound Damage resulting in lowering a character's red gauge, thus that character cannot be healed to his/her/its 500 HP which were in the beginning of the battle, but to the state of the red gauge.


 * Example:
 * Serah COM HP 350
 * * Each "=" is equal to 50 HP.
 * * Each "=" is equal to 50 HP.

In this example we can notice that Serah's current HP is 350, and the red gauge is additional 50 which can be restored. However, the black section means non-recoverable HP (in the actual game this section is transparent), thus 100 HP is ultimately removed to the end of the battle.

Paradigm Tuning
Through use of Paradigm Tuning, the AI of the other party members 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; Spread, which makes each party member target a different enemy (or ally, when healing and buffing); and 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 that the paradigm will concentrate on a single enemy unit. Suffix -W is added to "Wide" tune meaning that the paradigm will spread its attacks on all enemies. Paradigms with no suffixes will follow their "original" tunes. In addition, 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.

Change Leader
This function, added to the battle command menu, allows the player to manually switch the party leader between Noel and Serah. Party Leaders can be changed in battle manually, or when the current leader is KO'd. This allows many different strategies to be used, due to a wider range of abilities being able to be manually utilized per battle.