Battle and Experience
Contents
BATTLE AND EXPERIENCE
Squaresoft has made changes to the magic, attack, and character building systems for each new Final Fantasy game, but Final Fantasy X is remarkably different from all the rest. The main difference is the real time battle mode is gone, and in its place is something more turn-based (called Conditional Time Battle). The battle interface in general is completely different from what you may be used to in previous episodes of Final Fantasy. The most noticeable difference in the interface is the abundance of color, which is also prevalent in the game backgrounds and characters. In the upper right corner of the screen during battle, there is a list of turn order for three characters who are fighting, and also includes enemy turn order. Also, you are able to switch your characters in and out during the battle, which is completely new in FFX (in past titles, this was only possible usually in the final boss fights). The animation of characters switching in and out is cute – the departing character runs away, and the arriving character says some cheesy line (“miss me?”) and is able to take action immediately. You can also switch your equipment during battle, in case you encounter a monster that is weak to a certain element, and you have a weapon that inflicts magic damage of that element. That often takes an extra turn, however. This battle system allows you to really strategize, because there is much more to think about without the time constraints. There still is an element of recovery time required for a character to take action again, and you will see this in the switching of battle turn order. As you fight more monsters, you figure out that certain characters are stronger at fighting certain monsters, which allows you to fight more effectively. I think that the new CTB system is a large reason why the game is so popular – it allows even a novice RPG player to be able to jump into the Final Fantasy world without that extra level of difficulty. Some may say that it makes the game too much easier, but I was always annoyed at having to watch the little time gauge fill up for each character. For those hard-core players, there is still the element of timing skill involved with executing the overdrives for each character (see the OVERDRIVES section).
The other major change to Final Fantasy is the introduction of the Sphere Grid, which is an elaborate system where your characters learn new abilities, gain hit points, magic points, and build up stats like accuracy and defense. It also requires a good amount of planning, as it’s not a linear gain like gaining experience points. You still do gain experience points, but they are called “ability points” and actually contribute to “sphere levels,” which is the foundation of what you need to move around the sphere grid. Sphere levels don’t do anything unless you activate nodes on the Sphere Grid. When defeating enemies, you obtain different spheres that fit into the different attribute nodes. Your characters, depending on their strengths, begin in a position of the grid where the attributes are geared towards their strengths. For example, Lulu is a black-magic caster, so as you move around the grid from her starting point, there are more magic-related attributes and spells to learn closer to her starting point. Eventually you will be able to move characters into other parts of the grid through the use of spheres that unlock to new sections of the grid. But obviously this is not until much, much later in the game.
If the Sphere Grid intimidates you at first, don’t worry too much, because it is configured to help you figure out where you can move and what spheres you can use where. A nice touch is the ability to change the camera view on the grid, so you can zoom in and out, and pan left and right to view other parts of the grid. But I’m warning you, it’s quite elaborate looking and might scare the novice player away!