Battle system

Battle systems are the core engine for fights between characters and enemies. The first three games in the Final Fantasy series use a traditional turn-based battle system with no elaborations. Subsequent Final Fantasy titles eventually included varations in the turn-based battle systems.

Active Time Battle
Active Time Battle (ATB) is a battle format used in many Final Fantasy games. Combatants do not always act on a turn ratio of 1:1, but instead act as determined by Charge Time. Whenever a unit acquires a set amount of charge time, that unit may act. Taking action then causes that unit's CT to reset, and the cycle repeats. It is first used in Final Fantasy IV.

The ATB is an alternative to a turn-based system designed by Hiroyuki Ito during production of Final Fantasy IV for the SNES (originally known as Final Fantasy II when it was released in North America). It has been used primarily in Square Enix's Final Fantasy franchise, although it has appeared in a few other games, including Square's own Chrono Trigger.

On the battle screen, a status summary of each character is displayed. These encompass HP levels, MP levels (where applicable), and an ATB gauge. The ATB gauge determines when a character can take action. When the gauge is filled completely, the player can issue an order to that character.

In Final Fantasy X-2, some abilities require time to charge before attacking, while others, such as a standard attack, work immediately with a recovery time afterwards. If a character uses a charged ability, and then a no-wait ability, she can attack twice in a row. Sometimes an action will require both charging time and a recovery period.

The main deciding factor in the length of the time meter is the ability that is used. More powerful abilities will take longer to charge and recover from than normal attacks. The length of the time meter and the speed in which it charges is also affected by a character's "speed" attribute, which can be altered by certain items, equipment, abilities, spell effects (Haste, Slow, etc.) or leveling up.

Not all of this applies to every role-playing game that uses Active Time Battle, and some are much less complex, but it is a general idea of how this battle system works.

The first game to make use of this system was Final Fantasy IV, but it did not have the ATB meter (except in the Game Boy Advance remake); all following installments of the main Final Fantasy series have used the ATB system until Final Fantasy X, though the ATB system did return for that game's sequel, Final Fantasy X-2.

A common element in the ATB system was how the battle started out initially. Although this could be applied to the various other turn-based systems, Square games used them the most. The first of these was the "Preemptive strike" which gave the player a free turn in the beginning, without retaliation from the enemy. The second was "Back attack", which is the preemptive strike for enemies, although if the ATB system in the game allowed for characters to be in a front or back row, every character's row position was reversed (all front row characters were in the back, and vice versa). A third was side attack, which the player's characters were split up into two groups that attacked the enemy from both sides. Not only did the player gain an extra turn, but physical attacks do more damage if the player attacks an enemy that's facing away. The last one was "Pincer attack" or "Attack from both sides", which is the same as side attack, only at the enemy's advantage.

Conditional Turn-Based
The Conditional Turn-Based Battle (CTB) system, or the Count Time Battle system in Japan, designed by Toshiro Tsuchida is used in Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

At its most basic, CTB is a turn-based system which does not operate in rounds. That is, though each character's turn is atomic, the order of the turns does not guarantee that each participant in a battle will have an equal number of turns. Characters with higher speed will be able to take more turns than slower characters, thus making speed much more important than in other turn-based battle systems. Furthermore, spells and abilities can modify the turn order (called the Act List), as some abilities require a longer cool down time. In general, weaker abilities tend to require less cool down time, thus introducing a trade-off between speed and power.

The system is distinguished from Active Time Battle system by the fact that when a character's turn begins, all action stops while the player decides upon an action. This shifts the focus from reflexes and quick decision-making to strategy and careful planning.

Final Fantasy X featured an augmented CTB system, allowing the player to substitute characters while in the middle of a battle called the "party interchange system".

Real Time Battle
The Real Time Battle (RTB) system is a combat system introduced in Final Fantasy XI. It replaces the random encounter that has featured in past Final Fantasy games, instead allowing players to view the location of nearby enemies on the game map, therefore allowing one to move around the landscape during battles, or to avoid battles altogether. Characters start attacking automatically once they are in combat with an enemy, and special commands and magic can be inputted by the player at any time; contrary to the system's name it is not in real time, with the exception of items, moving, certain special abilities, and the first physical attack, all actions have a "wait" time before they are executed. This system, merged with the ATB system's time meter and customized for single-player use, was seen in Final Fantasy XII as the Active Dimension Battle (ADB) system.

アクティブ・ディメンション・バトル