Why I prefer Turn-Based JRPGs

Some of you may already be aware of this but the first video game that ever had a profound effect on me was Final Fantasy IV. The story and themes blew my 8 year old mind away and allowed me to view the world differently. However, the Active Time Battle system also had a profound effect on me, allowing me to control up to 5 characters at once and harness their abilities.

Naturally I continued to gravitate towards turn-based JRPGs as I grew up but, in contrast to my personal tastes, JRPGs began to drop turn-based combat in favour of a real-time combat system. We saw the Final Fantasy series fully drop any notion of turn-based combat in Final Fantasy XV, the disappearance of franchises such as Grandia, Breath of Fire etc and the rise of action-RPGs such as the Tales of series and the Ni no Kuni franchise.

Let me be clear, I can appreciate a good action-RPG. My favourite franchise of the past decade is easily the Dark Souls games where combat is real-time and highly demanding. However, I believe there is a very clear difference between the combat of the Dark Souls series and that of other JRPG franchises and that is with regards to party members/companions.

Dark Souls sees you controlling a single character where you are ultimately responsible for every aspect of combat. Died because you failed to notice you had low health, that’s your fault! Died because you didn’t react fast enough, that’s your fault! Died because you got too cocky with the enemy. That’s your fault! Ultimately, all these aspects are the responsibility of the player.

However, Dark Souls isn’t like most JRPGs. Most other JRPGs are party based games where you control a team of 3 or more characters. In the past, turn-based combat allowed for precise control over all of these characters. However, with the rise of real-time combat, players are increasingly reliant on AI controlling their other characters and making important decisions on when to heal, which enemy to focus on etc.

Some JRPGs manage this well enough. One of the better examples is Final Fantasy XII’s Gambit system which acts as a simplified programming system for the AI of individual characters. However, most JRPGs do not go into this depth and either have very similar AI parameters for each character or allow simple strategies such as “Conserve MP” or “Keep your distance”.

I have personally been quite frustrated by these systems in the past. An example of a game that I ultimately gave up on for these reasons is Dragon’s Dogma. While a potentially fun JRPG, I grew frustrated with it as my AI companions would regularly get stuck in the environment, fail to focus on the same target or fail to heal each other.

However, I am pleased to see a small rise in the release of turn-based JRPGs as of late. With the successful releases of Dragon Quest XI and Persona 5 and with the surprise announcement that the latest Yakuza game is dropping its brawler-style combat for a turn-based system, it looks like the future of turn-based JRPGs may not be as bleak as it once was.

Let me know whether you prefer real-time combat, turn-based combat and any issues you have with either.

Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.