When I first got into gaming one of my first experiences with RPGs were turn-based RPGs like Digimon World 3 and Final Fantasy IX. Those games were endearing and each with an awesome story that I could only imagine in books, animations, movies or tv shows, but with a turn: I was the one in control of the characters and the story went at my own pace, every place I explored made me get more attached to the characters and made me feel more part of the story, not only as a spectator, but as an active participant in the narrative.
Well, the years went on and new ways to play RPGs were created like we can observe in games such as the remake of “Final Fantasy VII”, the series “Tales of” and “The Witcher 3”; and today is pretty common that every RPG follows the format of action RPGs, where the way to play is more active, similar to Hack’n slash and Fighting genres, point towards a more action packed combat, leaving turn-based combat behind.
But why do game devs are doing this more and more? Were turn-based combat used just because it was a limitation that devs no longer have and can produce better ways to play the game? First we must actually explore what it means to be a turn-based RPG, let’s take as a case study a somewhat modern RPG which still uses turn-based combat – Persona 5.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Persona series, it is a series of games in which the player takes control of a group of teenagers who live their daily lives attending school, extra curricular activities and interact with each other and other students, but during certain times they fight occult forces to save people. (For the sake of not digressing I will not explain the story of Persona 5)
So, in the game Persona 5 there is a heavy focus on dialogues and how the story moves forward with every decision that you take and contrary to most RPGs made nowadays, it uses a turn-based combat system which some might think is a weird or even obsolete choice of battling system. But that’s where Atlus (the game producer) comes and show us that turn-based combat still have space in nowadays gaming with a fast paced combat with a clean interface and a bopping soundtrack that makes you feel each part of the game, especially the fights as they were the reason why you’re playing the game. Well, moving away from fanfaring how good I think the game is, let’s have a look at how the style of combat suffices (and even surpass) the expectations of how the story is told to the player and how this style of combat complements it.
There are many moments in Persona where dialogues happen in combat, usually the most important dialogues, those where we get revealed to us a story of a certain character or why those weird events are happening. But why do I say that this style of combat complements the narrative? In a combat, there is usually no time to pay attention to dialogues, cause you are normally preoccupied with trying not to die, so one of the ways that turn-based combat complements narrative driven stories is with the “go at your on pace” kind of battle, where you do have to deal with the enemy, but at the same time you can pay attention to the important dialogues that are happening and can absorb better what is being said.
To complement my argument I will use the direct sequel to Persona 5, Persona 5 Strikers. In that game the player still has the same characters and a new problem that they have to deal with. The game follows a similar formula where important dialogues happens in combat, but are way more difficult to the player to pay attention or even listen to sometimes because the game is heavily focused on a more active combat where every party member and enemy attack at the same time making ton of noise and sometimes turning the place a real havoc, making almost impossible to pay attention to anything, let alone the dialogues that are happening.
Well, after talking about those two games I would like to ask directly to you reader, do you think turn-based RPGs are outdated and should be left behind as just a piece of story of the RPG genre? Or do you think that is still space for games with such mechanics?
