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[vulpiximisa]

Futsal Boys review, that's somehow longer than the Ryman Club review, but maybe because I've posted about Ryman Club before

Watching bad/shitty sports anime for boys is slowly becoming my repertoire, so of course, I was like, yeah lets watch this low rated sports anime on MAL. Let’s talk about Futsal Boys.

So I, unfortunately, am a person who does like shows when there are voice actors I like in it. IT’s not any different from watching a movie or series because an actor you like is in it. Which isnt to say that the show will be made or broken just because there’s a lack of familiar seiyuu. But I’m just so incredibly baffled by how the entire cast of Futsal Boys are all newbies? Either this is their first Anime role and maybe they’ve had experience in other things (maybe Youtube? Singing? dramas?) but the fact that there are No familiar faces makes me wonder iff they either were very confident in their product or they had no budget to get anyone. (Aside from Fukuyama Jun, who I was Super surprised voiced the announcer, because I was like “No way thats FukuJun because there’s Nobody Here.) 

Okay, so, not that it’s starting off rocky, let’s look at the content and characters? 

Futsal, what is it? Lmfao. I didn’t know either so I had to look it up, and to sum it up, it’s indoor mini soccer, with half the court size and half the team size. It worked really well because the series was only 12 episodes long and the team consists of 7 boys, which is a perfect amount. Not everyone on home team got a moment or development, but you know them enough and I think the characters that did get spotlight (mostly the four first years) are familiar enough to the audience and to each other. 

I personally loved the tightness of the four first years. (I think they are first years, I could be wrong, but you know who I’m talking about, Haru, Sakaki, Ryu, Taiga) [Also I do not want to be biased because I Love the Karasuno First Years but I digress.] Of course the focus is on Haru and Sakaki’s red and blue rivalry and partnership etc and also Ryu and Taiga come in a pair (the dragon and tiger duo) but I also really loved how Haru and Ryu became besties and even got their own duo attack. Taiga is a lot more quiet and is often seen with Ryu of course, but I like that he isn’t afraid to talk to (back to?) Sakaki, who is also stand alone/aloof. Ryu also get’s to but into Sakaki’s business, of trying to make the entire group all Buddy Buddy. They’re not a star pair or anything, but they interact enough. Of course it’d be perfect if we got to see more Taiga and Haru interact, but that’s not too much of a concern.

Unfortunately the characters themselves aren’t anything super deep. I would have liked to know more about Haru and his abandonment issues, and I think episode 5 and 6 were great for even existing, but he doesn’t really go into it again afterwards. I’d been looking forward to Sakaki’s backstory the entire time, (who did he used to pass to and how did they die and traumatize him XD;;;;) and not that I’m disappointed in the story itself, but I would have liked to see Nagato again. (Not me thinking he looks like my boy Naegi Makoto that I want to see him again lmfao) I think coming from Salarman’s Club, Azuma spoiled me with an actual good and likable ex partner with partner issues. It felt a little inconclusive, not being able to get any closure from Nagato. Like yeah, Sakaki finally manages to make a Full On Pass to Haru, (with their cheesy attacks and animation and all) and we kind of knew it was coming, but I felt like the lead up might either have been too late or not as dynamic as I liked? I personally liked it more when Sakaki was struggling to decide if passing was right or not. Like (SORRY TO COMPARE TO HQ AGAIN) when Kags wasn’t sure when to be King or Goody Two Shoes. I thought Sakaki needed to learn that passing wasn’t just about giving the ball to someone else but to be able to decide for himself when is a proper time to pass. (Like him calling to pass to someone vs someone calling to get passed to.) Anyway, that wasn’t how that turned out, so maybe that was my fault for having expectations. 

Ryu and Taiga are, there, I guess. I don’t have problems with them, though I kind of like how Ryu looks with the long hair and ponytail but he doesn’t do anything that’s like “femmy” or “shota”, he’s literally still a boy but he just Looks like that. Taking selfies and having fun at the arcade doesn’t count, he just wants to chill with his friends.

That leaves the senpai group of Tsukioka, Yukinaga and Usami. From the get go, Tsukioka is introduced as someone big and important, a very strong player that had played with/against the other National team members. (Or something, I don’t remember. Is it like, Japan’s Youth something something.) Tsukioka is a very strong captain and leader and you see him working with his kouhai to make a strong and better team. Unfortunately, I think Yukinaga and Usami just relegate themselves to the side lines and Tsukioka just takes all of the action in being a senpai.

I’m actually upset because Yukinaga was the original goaleiro until Taiga came in, I was kind of hoping for an arc for him. (Sorry to compare to HQ again, but very much like Suga to Kageyama.) Taiga literally came in and they were like “yeah, he’s on our team, let him in.” There was even a scene of Yukinaga injuring his hand during practice earlier in the episode before Taiga came in, and if it was along the route of “Yukinaga can’t play anymore, please help us Taiga”, I would have accepted it more? Like, Taiga jumping in because he saw Ryu hurt again (Family Guy dead pose meme in the exact position twice in a row) isn’t bad because it triggers his reason to play futsal again, but I would have liked a little something more for Yukinaga. They had him sub for Sakaki that one game vs Adalbert, (which again made me think of Suga and Kags) but it wasn’t like he had a moment for himself and it was just to get Sakaki to cool down.

As for the other teams, I literally confused the Other Prince School (Amanogawa) with Adalbert because they’re both pink and princely, or something. Also I’m a little baffled that they have a different character designer for every team? Not that the designs themselves clash, but it’s just weird to me ^^; 

I thought Momomi was nice and fun (and reminded me of Jouzenji SORRY IM HQ BRAINROT). NGL I thought Yukimaru was Sakaki’s ex because he was plain looking and had an ahoge. This actually would have been a lot cooler, but I guess we can’t have Real characters knowing each other or anything. Anyway, even though I liked Momomi and that match, I was kind of baffled that they get almost 3 episodes to them, and the final Adalbert rematch was literally only 2 episodes? Like I know Momomi wasn’t a full 3 episodes, but we get to see them before the match and their entire schtick. Like, I guess we saw Adalbert before so we don’t really need another introduction, but since it’s a Revenge Match and the conclusive match for the end of the series, you’d think it’d be a lot longer? (And have a little special animation? Or that’s just me, I want cool sakuga.)

Other comments, uh, they never really explained the Futsal terms to me or the audience. Didn’t even use the excuse of Haru being a noob to info dump to us. I’m only guessing because they look and sound similar that the goaleiro is the goalie. The other stuff I literally have no idea what they are. The Play Caller sounds like the important role but I don’t know what that actually means. (Being a setter in volleyball? I guess?????) There was a good amount of Sport in the show, but there was also a good amount of character drama. I think the balance is good, and even though I won’t jump at the opportunity to watch games, I think it was fine. Me personally would have knocked the games down by like 10% but no real complaints. 

Animation was… it did what it had to. They never looked Beautiful or Gorgeous and we never got really cool sakuga. Their special attack moves are Not Cool Sakuga. It’s something that’s cool if you were five years old XD;;; (Is that why the final move in the last game was not impressive to me? Sakaki doing his Super Move to Pass was fine but I personally wished they reanimated Haru’s move, with an added personal touch, just to make it a little more special instead of the stock animation. But also, the fact that they have stock animation attacks makes me not take the game seriously at all. (Gemini Twinkle AKA playing soccer in space with my friends) 

Anyway, I wasn’t paying attention to the OST, so it probably wasn’t anything stand out. The OP and ED were fine. Anyway, Futsal Boys, I gave it a 7/10 on MAL, just because it wasn’t AMAZING, but it also wasn’t utter Trash Shit Show. It’s a little sloppy, and jouseimuke which probably is why it’s rated low because Dude Bros infest MAL. Like even though it’s an all male cast and you know they are trying to sell boys, there wasn’t any baity moments at all. Like, the fact that male friendships and fiery partnerships/declarations of rivalry, doesn’t even make it homoerotic to me. Like you sure can take it if you want, but they could have gone worse and gone the Number24/Free route if they wanted but they didn’t.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

hmmm thinking about potential side effects of gligar-emmet-au ingo losing his Actual Soul

[rat-game]

“It’s just pressing ‘A’ a bunch of times”: How to make turn-based JRPG Combat engaging

Abstract

In recent years many games have modified the formula that constitutes the turn-based jrpg combat systems in an effort to make the experience more engaging for players. In this article I first provide an exhaustive definition of what makes a games combat “turn-based jrpg combat” through a set of necessary properties. Additional properties that are commonly found yet not necessary are mentioned. An argument for how combat systems like this may inherently run the risk of not being engaging for plays is brought forward and multiple methods game developers have tried to solve this in the past are analyzed and evaluated: adding complexity, adding mechanical challenge through QTEs, adding visual flair, adding a gimmick and adding depth. It’s concluded that the optimal approach is using all of those methods in moderation while trying to avoid the pitfalls they come with.

I feel like in recent years game developers have come to regard turn-based JRPG combat in it’s purest form as inherently flawed. Many feel like they need to innovate, otherwise modern audiences will get bored, won’t feel engaged and play a more action-oriented or real-time strategy game instead. I would like to challenge this perception, explain ways how modern devs have tried to solve this problem.

What is turn-based combat?

First I want to define what I mean by “turn-based JRPG combat” (”tb combat” henceforth for the sake of brevity). This is not an easy task as most people will resort to an ostensive definition, naming games like Final Fantasy 7 and 3 (aka. 6), most of the Dragon Quest games, Mother 2 and 3, Suikoden, Chrono Trigger, Xenoblade, Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario, Pokémon, etc.. I agree that all of these are indeed JRPGs with turn-based combat but they’re also diverse enough that finding the least common denominator for these is anything but trivial. I think it is useful to give a well-defined description of each part that makes up the combat of games like these so I can refer to them with a general term later on. A game can be devided into what’s called scenes. Note that these are unlike scenes like those in movies or books, instead a scene in game development is a reoccurring state for whom layout, input-handling and other in-universe as well as algorithmic rules are defined. In JRPG there are often at least 3 scenes: the overworld scene is where the players moves their character, interacts with NPCs, enters houses, etc. The menu scene is where inventory managing is done, often different parameters about the game are displayed and equipment may be sold or equipped. A combat scene, then, represents the act of fighting something or someone in an abstract way. In Final Fantasy while in a designated overworld area the game may trigger a battle, encounter or what I will call “combat”. The entire layout changes, moving the cursor now selects an attack or enemy or an item instead of moving a character, you can only control the characters indirectly by selecting attacks or other such action and part of the screen has a menu from which to select these actions.

Figure 1: Boss battle against Ultros, Final Fantasy 6 (1994, SNES)

It is necessary for each entity participating in combat to have the same set of “stats”. A stat of any type such as a number of string or anything, really, is a property that can be interacted with through game mechanics while inside the battle scene. An easy example is Health (”HP”), usually all enemies and allies will have a number representing their health, dealing damage to an entity lowers this number, healing raises it. If the number reaches 0 the entity dies. Other examples of stats may include Mana or Action Points (”AP”), Attack, Defense, Speed, the name of the entity, etc.. I will consider the property (boolean) of wether or not a entity is an enemy or ally as a stat as well [1]. It is vital that each entity has the same set of stats, though some games may obfuscate them (such as the player not knowing how much AP the enemy has left). While this seems functionally indistinguishable from the entity not actually having the stat, this is not the case. It becomes important when considering abilities: an ability is any action that interacts with stats of any entity (or none). Since all entities have the same set of stats theoretically any ability could be executed by any entity. In my opinion this is a vital part of tb combat and all of the games commonly considered tb JRPG combat share this property [2]. If the player sees an enemy using an ability it will seem fair, they know that there’s a chance that they may get a similar ability later in game and more importantly, they know every entity is playing by the same rules. Later on I will discuss why this is extremely important for an engaging experience. A turn is a unit of measurements of arbitrary length. Each combat scene has to have the possibility of having at least <number of different entities> many turns. During a turn exactly one of the entities may choose an action such as using an ability or item, defending themself, fleeing, etc.. It is not imperative that entities may only act (that is choose an action) during a turn though most games follow this rule. Often the order of turns (the order of who acts before whom) depends on one or more stats or another property of the world or how the battle was started. For example in Pokémon the pokemon with the highest speed stat acts first but there are also abilities that make entities ignore this rule and always act first or even reverse the order of turns. In final fantasy and chrono trigger one of the stats of the entities is slowly rising, if the precentage bar is full entity may choose to act (c.f. figure 1, grey bar on the lower right of the screen) . This makes the order, length and number of turns flexible and the time in-between turns arbitrarily long (usually enemies act as soon as they are ready but the player can theoretically not start a turn until the battle ends), yet the turns still behave like in other tb combat systems.  To summarizes, the combat scene of a game is considered “turn-based JRPG combat”, iff 

all of the entities (both enemies and allies) have the same set of stats

the battle is divided into turns during which

abilities serve as a way to represent abstract combat, choosing abilities is the main gameplay

To finish of this section I’d like to give kind of a quick-fire round of properties that are commonly found in tb combat but that I don’t consider strictly necessary:

One of the stats is a “status” one or multiple out of a fixed number of them. Being afflicted with a certain status may have effects on the entity or the battle as a whole. For example a poisoned entity may loose HP over time, being stunned makes it so they can’t act during your turn, etc.. Being dead or knocked out may also be considered a status, it’s effect is being unable to act until resurrected.

Allies and Enemies can die or be knocked out (usually when their HP reaches 0). A dead enemy is removed from the battle, cannot be further interacted with unless resurrected. If either all enemies or all allies die the battle ends in a win- or fail-state respectively.

There is a visual representation of each entity such as sprites, names along with numbers or something similar (c.f. Figure 1). Resolving an ability has a visual representation, usually either an animation or sometimes just the changing of displayed numbers as damage is dealt.

Some of the abilities are instead considered “items”. These usually act as a one-time-use abilities, each entity may have a shared or individual inventory that contains multiple of these items. If one is used in combat it may vanish from the inventory, so for example if you have 3 bombs, using one in combat it will deal damage much like a regular ability would but instead of costing AP one will vanish from the inventory so only 2 are left. I refer to items acting this way as “usable items” (or “usables”)

Interaction with the game may be a lot more complex than just selecting something from a menu. This includes QTEs to block or attack, button combinations instead of selecting attacks, etc.. I will discuss these in a future section.

Winning the battle will reward the player party with experience or gold both of which may unlock new abilities or something similar outside of battle.

The set of entities may change over the course of the battle. This includes switching out team members, creating new ones (”spawning) with abilities or more entities joining for story reasons or something similar.

The combat scene itself may have certain properties. Examples include weather effects like rain, sandstorms or hail that apply a (de)buff or damage periodically. There may even be examples where the property breaks some of the rules of combat, for example an enemy attacking immediately after being struck outside of their turn. I will refer to these as “hazards”

An entities stats are dependent on their equipment, equipment are usually items that may be associated with a character by equipping them from the inventory outside of combat. For example equipping a metal helmet may grant the wearer more defense while equipping a magic ring will increase their magic power. Equipment systems can be very important to a game but if they can’t be engaged with during battle they are not technically part of it. An example of them being able to be interacted with are Pokémons held items.

Abilities may interact with each other. For example one ability may freeze an entity and another ability shatters them. In chrono trigger the players party members can team up for a single stronger attack that is dependent on who the participants are.

This list is not exhaustive, while the core axioms of the definition may not be diverged from, other aspects of the battle systems are hugely varied.

Realizing the Problem

Now that we have the technical stuff out of the way, let’s talk game design. There are two inherent complication to tb combat and they’re on the opposite side of a spectrum. For the sake of argument lets assume the difficulty is fixed at a certain level, no matter what mechanics exist or how they’re implemented. If tb combat is either too simple (that is the game requires little effort in understanding and applying the combats mechanics during strategizing) or too complex (that is understand and applying is too hard) it will result in the player having a bad experience.  Why is that?  Tb combat by nature is not mechanically challenging (at least in it’s basic form). Furthermore tb combat inherently contains a lot of actions that will be repeated over and over such as a entity loosing health, the player scrolling through a list, selecting which character to target, etc.. Tb combat has to rely on the mental aspect of it to be sufficiently challenging, even though a player may repeat a small set of actions hundreds of times if they have to think hard which action to pick when and strategize to solve the potentially extremely complex problems it will make for an engaging experience. It’s like doing homework for a subject that is really interesting to you, it’s fun to think about what to write, the act of writing itself is not. Similarly it’s fun to think about what actions to pick when and how to equip your characters and predicting what the enemy may do, selecting the options from a menu is not. If a tb combat system is too simple the player will spend most of the time not thinking about trying to come up with a solution, they will be stuck mindlessly doing the “writing things down” (pressing A) part. Because of the mathematical nature of interactions it’s also very easy to make a tb combat system too complex, if there’s hundreds of variables and interactions all going on at the same time the player won’t be able to solve or even understand the problem. If they can’t they again can only mindlessly press A. This is also why the fact that all entities have the same set of stats is so important, if the player is able to assume that they can strategize around all the entities playing by the same rules. They will know what the enemies abilities do and how they will affect other entities. If this symmetrical nature of combat is not present, the player will have trouble strategizing as suddenly everything can happen. This again leads to the player not being mentally challenged, all that’s left is pressing A.

How to Fix it

Naturally one will ask: How do we fix that? In my observation there are multiple approaches that are not mutually exclusive. I will explain which of these game devs took, why, and wether or not it can be successful:

i) Adding Complexity

Figure 2: Third party program for predicting damage dealt by one attack during a pokemon battle in Pokémon Sun & Moon (3DS, 2019)

This may be the most popular approach and can be observed in many well-reviewed successful games: If a simple battle system doesn’t engage the players, just add more. More mechanics, more abilities, more enemies, more items, more everything. A good example for this is the pokemon games. The game started out with about 150 pokémon, 4 stats, 15 types, no held items and 165 abilities (“moves”). Now, almost 15 years later we’re at 800 moves, 800+ pokemon, 18 types and countless new mechanics such as new hidden stats, held items, z-moves, mega-evolutions, etc.. I am not faulting pokémon for taking this route, one could argue it fits well with the collection aspect of that game but relating to pokémons combat specifically I think this more-is-better approach is anything but optimal. Side-Effects of using this approach are:

Redundancy: There are only so many good ideas to go around, once you go past that amount mechanics will be redundant. Pokemon may fullfill the same role, a move may have an objectively better version making it completely superfluous.

Readability: More things means more for the player to learn. This isn’t only related to tutorials, to truly be strategic and play at their best, players will have to learn bascially every move, every pokémon, every mechanic. Players who don’t won’t be able to strategize and as discussed above, this will decrease engagement.

Development Effort: This is not technically relevant to the player but more things means more chances for bugs to appear and obviously more work both as a programm, designers an artist.

Balancing: More moving parts means more interaction which makes balancing even harder. The recent pokémon generation cut almost half of all available pokemon citing the above mention growing workload and balance issues. All of the most well-balanced games from chess to star craft have one thing in common: they have as few pieces as possible. 

All in all I think increasing the complexity when you think your battle system isn’t engaging past a certain point is rarely a good idea. Games that have a story-reason or collection aspect may still profit from this approach. I also want to make clear that adding complexity inherently is value-neutral. In my opinion every game needs a minimum of complexity to not be overly simple but I see many games taking the route of adding just more complexity past a certain point triggering the side-effects.

(Other games that used this complexity approach are: Suikoden and it’s 99 party members, dragon quest and it’s many monsters and equipment, earthbound with all it’s weird status effects and hidden enemy weaknesses. Note how most of these games are still amazing games but in my opinion their tb combat system would’ve been a lot better if they turned down the complexity a little) ii) Adding Mechanical Challenge

Figure 3: Action Command in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003, GBA)

If the game isn’t engaging enough it’s not mentality challenged so the only thing left is pressing A which isn’t fun, why not make pressing A fun then? Many RPGs have gone about this by introducing timing or quick-time-event (”qte”) based mechanics tied to many game actions. Often during the attack animation a player will be tasked to hit a qte, if they fail the damage the attack may be redudde. Similarly there may be an additional input needed to defend, to flee, do certain attacks or sometimes even navigate the menu. Adding mechanical challenge will shift a tb combat system from something very abstract to something closer to resembling an action game. Games like the Mario RPG Series or Undertale have done this too great effect to the point where their battle systems only superficially resemble tb combat. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it exemplifies my main issue with this: making the player allocate mental resources towards mechanical challenge will have to necessarily take away from the strategizing part. Again this isn’t bad or good, it simply changes the game, people who like action games will like this version of tb combat better, people who like strategizing will like it worse. Either way it’s a fact that games who went this route were highly successful and loved by many, sometimes even opening the target-audience so that some people who dislike most tb combat games will still play one that’s action-focused. I personally think the adding qtes is a valuable tool but going too far in that direction may take away from the original appeal of tb combat. Interestingly there is another option here, making the original way of interacting with the game more engaging while not adding any additional qtes or inputs: time limits. Limiting a players time in some way will make navigating menus more stressful and thus challenging. Time limit don’t necessarily have to be a ticking clock, a soft time limit such as Final Fantasies “active time battle” introduces the time limit in a way that doesn’t feel stressful yet rewards quick actions navigating the menus.��[4] iii) Adding Flair

Figure 4:  Animation for using a simple AoE slash attack in Octopath Traveler (Switch, 2019)

This option includes a wide selection of methods. While complexity focuses on the purely mental aspect and qtes focus on the purely mechanical aspect, adding flair will focus on the audio-visual one. The vast majority of time spend in tb combat will be watching menus and animations of the enemies moving, dying, attacks playing out, winning, etc.. Flair is not limited to visuals however, similarly adding music or even narrative elements will make the “watching things play out” part of tb combat a lot more enjoyable. Once again there is a trade-off here, if combat is too flashy the game may run the risk of reducing readability and making things hard to parse. Another common negative side-effect of this is that actions take too long to resolve because a lengthy animation has to play out. As flashy and stimulating as it may be watching the animation for the first time, if it takes 10s to finish and you will have to watch it hundreds of times it’s a good idea to give the player the option to turn off animations or give them a way to speed them up during battle. As with most games (including non tb-combat), adding flair is usually a good idea. A game that looks amazing and has a great soundtrack will usually be a better game for it. However it’s important to not go overboard as to not mar the interactivity and pacing of combat.

iv) Adding a Gimmick

Figure 5: Dialogue and social interaction with enemies during combat in Undertale (PC and others, 2015) The very first thing I want to say in this paragraph is that the word “gimmick” is used as a value-neutral term here (language barrier at work). With that out of the way, in the past few years more and more developers choose the approach of adding a mechanic that is not related to the set of base mechanics for tb combat outlined above, adding a gimmick. In Undertale (c.f. Figure 5), this is social interaction with enemies: Instead of attacking the player has the option of befriending or even romancing enemies. Damage values are replaced by the enemy responding with dialogue or a certain animation. Interacting with enemies this way will have effects on the overworld gameplay. This gimmick is mostly unique to undertale, yet there are countless different games with different gimmick. Possibilities are endless which is why most games will try to find their own gimmick, a thing only that game has. Being value-neutral this may add or detract from a game in general but the effect on the tb combat system is more palpable: Going outside tb combat framework has the risk of detracting from it, much like adding mechanical challenge in ii), adding a gimmick will necessarily decrease the complexity and depth of combat both mentally and mechanically. In summary adding a gimmick can be a great way to freshen up your otherwise stale combat system but in my opinion if a game dev is striving to make a great JRPG they have to be mindful of adding things that muddle that goal. Not striving for that goal while still wanting tb combat in your game can still results in an amazing and fun experience however. v) Adding Depth

The difference between complexity and depth is subtle yet crucial. Complexity is adding an entity, ability, stat or any other property an entity can have that was not originally part of the combat. Think adding a character, adding a new attack, adding a new component. Depth however is adding another interaction between already existing entities, abilities, etc. Adding depth will make combat more complex yet may not necessarily increase it’s complexity (depth and complexity can overlap and effect each other) as described in i). Examples of adding depth include:

making the AI scripts decision process more involved, for example each enemy entity may react to each others state (ideally dynamically, that is not following a fixed script) protecting their powerful yet vulnerable mage or trying to keep everyones health above a certain threshold

making the AI remember things the player did such as analyzing which move the player likes to use often and then preparing for that move in the future

making it so passive effects are not encapsulated but may increase/decrease/interact with each other. For example a ring may increase strength but gain an additional amount of damage when the players defense is boosted. Equipping another ring that boosts defense at the cost of strength will give the additional effect of the first ring. If the player now has an ability that lets say increases each buff to damage by 50%, the player will have to think about which combination of items to use and if the interaction is beneficial. There is no easy solution

making abilities interact, for example one ability may increase the next abilities damage and another ability may bounce from enemy to enemy 10 times but only do very little damage. If the order of execution is based on the parties speed values for example, the player will have to manipulate the speed such that the damage boost happens before the bouncing effect so damage buff will increase 10 fold.

status effects reacting to each other, for example trying to burn an already frozen enemy will thaw them, cooling a burning enemy will cure the burn

You may notice a trend in these examples, a lot of them are rules in the form of “if x and y, then z” where x and y are already existing mechanics or properties. Because both x and y already exist, adding depth will bypass a lot of the pitfalls of adding complexity while still gaining most of the benefits. It will make combat a lot more complicated but also interesting as suddenly strategizing isn’t just picking the clearly optimal option, it’s thinking through all of the interactions trying to find out which combination (and order) of actions will do the most damage. The more moving parts interact with each other the more dynamic the battle will feel while still being initially easy to understand because keeping the number of entities, abilities, stats, etc. low like this will cut down on time spend learning what everything is and instead make for more time experimenting, learning through interaction and emergent situations. I’m very much in favor of adding depth but it’s not always positive. Adding too much depth will inherently increase complexity and thus cause the same problems mentioned above. Furthermore adding depth will make the combat system harder to balance: if the game dev designs the system in a way where most of the interactions are emergent and not hardcoded they will have to do more testing and thinking things through to keep stuff from spiraling out of control (though to be honest it can be very satisfying to figure out a game-breaking combination if it’s complicated enough but the point still stands). In summary trying to reach an appropriate level of depth for your combat system is always a good idea in my opinion. Be aware that going too far may make things too complicated or unpredictable though.

Conclusion

I hope I made clear that I’m in favor of all of the methods mentioned above as long as each one is used appropriately and sparingly. Sometimes it’s okay to shift the game as a whole away from combat into more action- or narrative-oriented but if the developer decides that their game should have tb combat, any of the techniques mentioned above can be a valuable tool.

Addendum: Closing words

I want to end this piece with a little personal anecdote, as you can imagine I played a lot of games with tb combat, most notably I spend most of my teens on pokémon tournaments and playing old gems like earthbound that weren’t available to me as a child. I’m going to be honest, I didn’t like most of these games. When I played LISA: The Painful, I had a hate-love relationship with it. I thought the combat was pointless and shallow, the environment art was terrible and the story was overly edgy and not subtle enough. It took me 6 attempts to finish the masterpiece that is Mother 3 and even then I gave up 70% in and watched a let’s play instead because I didn’t want to grind and the music-related combo system just didn’t work for me. I played FF6 when I was in college and I was bored to death, every time there was a random battle from walking through blank space I groaned internally, doing the battles just felt like “deal damage, then heal, then deal damage, then heal” over and over for the entirety of the game. Honestly there really wasn’t ever a game with tb combat that I though flawless or at least as good as possible. Of course because I was a pretentious amateur I figured “I’ll just make my own game and make it better than all of them”. The more I tried to actually do that the more I realized that these weren’t flaws at all. There isn’t an optimal way to do things. While I still think it’s true that all of these games didn’t live up to my tastes, that has no barring on their quality or how successful they are in realizing their vision. What I’m trying to say is: You shouldn’t try to design tb combat in a way that is the best, you should try to design it so you, the designer, will like it best. Choose from any of the design methods mentioned above but be aware that there isn’t a concrete answer, there isn’t one specific point after which the bad side-effects of certain methods kick in. Just do a game you would love, if you do that I can promise you there’s a good chance that someone else will too.

Footnotes

[1] “is an enemy” is considered a stat since the game may allow for the property to be interacted with, such as when an enemy charms an ally and makes them fight for the enemy team or when an enemy dies and is thus pacified.  [2] I realize that this assertion isn’t falsifiable since if an tb combat system doesn’t share that property, it isn’t a tb combat system by definition. Apart from that I still believe that this property is crucial and most games I can think of share it. For the remainder of this piece it is asserted that tb combat has to be symmetrical.

[3] note: I will use pokémon as example to illustrate my points, if you are not familiar with the pokemon battle system consider skimming through this article though I don’t think it’s necessary to understand the combat system fully

[4] An additional way to introduce a soft limit that I honestly have not seen or used anywhere yet is limiting the amounts of menu inputs a player can do in some way. In rat_game specifically there will be one boss that instead of attacking when it’s their turn will attack every 5 menu inputs. This means a player is not necessarily limited by time but rather has to navigate the menus as efficiently as possible, otherwise they risk being attacked more than necessary.

[the-firebird69]

They mentioned me

All night Thor's name next to Link and they call him Ceaser

In the woods they are up a tree

The body his General, Gorrilla, powerful eager killer

They want this scenario fits with the code earlier found known to us

But it's nice to put out there as it's resl

Waldorf Astoria wwoded villa

Yes it is they seek us there now

I send an alert

Thor

Me too

Gabriel

And me

Hera

And I

Iris

We all will they utter it non stop

Gu

Wall it all

Zues

We have lots of it, will finish it

Ramped it up, we continue to get ready to finish them

Firing the second round off target, missiles means from a distance

Firing now, thank you Thanatos for the spacely rocket idea

Thor

Make room back there the s said at the top of the rocket, oh there good and she flew right at it. One of the big mouths adjacent to you. Flew right off the handle too.

She cursed you out her us over and over until impact her mouth was going. The idiot on the rampage vs you and your hilt.

So we carried her there laid her into her final resting place nice and comfy. Set the bitch in right too. Lumpy farmtso Trump behind her in Jeff's rocket. She whined for hours the others squished blood filled the bottom, you could here them yell get us out use your hands. She tried the door it's jambed. Come up here and help me then

She was a stand up girl, got up and kicked at it for hours. Sat down and said what's the use nobody is coming

She sat cross legged. Bewildered. The man behind her useless. Dumb as shut wouldn't help, opposed to it.

She questions him ate you Chris boy are you Thor's boy then help or your dead, he said no i obtain I'm tired and dead anyways. She said what all that shit and you just fart out they probably did this or orchestrated it. She leaned into him meaning to hurt him.

He said ow your hurting me.

She said sit and wait to die then it occured to her it's the Martian rocket. They both tried the third helped, I've been in a juicer before if you call too many they juice you.

True too. They tried for hours found things too. Useful tools he could probably escape with, the windows not secure

She threw it at it it bounced meaninglessly and dissappeared below. We heard a whisper no, don't do it we are fine here

Who the hell are you to say we are fine we are trapped. Hours of it. None could understand it.

Then we heard. Jeff. She knew it would work

It did they panicked the clown frying ppl for ancient dmsins by others on others for gain

We hear it again don't do it, we deserve this. And it was Jeff.

He explained hecwas caught his rocket exposed by billium. And he threw down w them lost another picked it up

They all died thinking what a waste it was to feed him over and over

And we laughed the fools think it matters that they get it. Times running out i hear engines she says. Find it. They did. Tools started whaling on it sturdy hull meant for you and them.

They tried harder

It failed. A buffalo chip fell out drawerless trump

I got scared and pooped

Oh no you stink they ignored him. Then she killed him with one blow from the bar

Fu why do that he's useful when scared.

Might kill me they have that reaction. True.

She fell asleep exhausted.

She beamed after I HV an idea. We hv aurcand it's leaky look for light near you she covered it the window

Found a hole poked at it, it went through almost lost the tool held her breath it's aweful for him, she was in horror, the fear was intense, she couldn't hold it

We fd up we fd up, he's so mad he crucified everyone

And she tried for the hole crushed nobody answered her call.

It broken tool a small screw driver you need to fix the car

We hit them now here

She sat waited thought we fd up. After a while said we can't give up smashed at the window it wouldn't break

Came over to port side tried nope

Kicked hard too you can see dents. Pete and Lori left Trump the two fart bags no useful advice just sat staring... At nothing you see. Too far gone

Hateful really didn't care about dying

Shoved ppl near so hard they broke insisted they stop they wouldn't, let us out we work u dont

Then they stopped realized who andcsaidvfart us out as we do u

And we had a line he said in his head nope

They all tried heard t minus five minutes, human sounding.

And saw a man in the window waving goodbye. Her daddy. Link. He had a good idea why. Frame Chris the fellow yelling at him to shut up, why don't I die he thinks oh yeh those things I potty him after I talk it up

Well guess it was corky too assholish for link

True too it was corky

We left him there, on the window, dead. He said no. Tried to signal failed. Died mouth opened on the window

Soon after the engines started

He left Earth

Stuck to it, it started returning, he fell iff amd was incinerated immediately by his stolen engines he took from tinsel, the raptors f22 you needed so desperately this week no punishment no pence nothing only free reign for caa talking about cork

He felt great waving though. He was corky and yes Daniel John c rielly and yes Dr Phil sure lots behind him too. All atevrubber seeing him depart to the site large infight over button

Fool we heard really gross he says being here near your idiot animal

What a dick! Preston says here we finish him now

Hitting them is good Joe says we hit them imbiciles

What a louse caa says and I'm here never made it to any show nope, but corky your a winner, you mention me a million if you die stupid

Zues

We know we see it all the time

Have to

Cork

Nope you don't HV to your made to by Chinese and Russians etc of yiur particular race under cover.

Zues

Oh. Hell.

Cork

[kkpetshop]

Vital Pieces of Pet Shop Shops in Singapore

You must locate a location that is easily accessible, and when you come across the perfect place, you’ve got to devote time to do up the place such that pets will feel comfortable in it. There are lots of on-line venues for selling antiques. Most theatres have many diverse shows performing during the day.

There are numerous different kinds of shops it’s possible to find at the neighborhood mall. This shop also provides products to teat different ailments, like pregnancy, immune difficulties, kidney difficulties, liver issues, respiratory issues, prostate issues, thyroid issues and worms. You might also have the ability to find some free from the local carpet shop. Stores are only the opposite. On-line pet stores have a vast number of pet supplies you may choose from. There are lots of on-line pet stores you can get from. Cheap, square parts of carpet that you are able to purchase from Wal Mart, etc..

In addition to that it is simpler to build since the plan is simpler. You could say this very first design proved to be a true jigsaw puzzle, since he actually employed a jigsaw to make it! The body design is often as easy or as complex as you decide is suitable for the age of the kid.

In case you are on the lookout for die products in accordance with your unique choices, then you can think about contacting some esteemed machine shops at Brooklyn in the States. You are certain to get some intriguing die goods in your kitchen soon! You’re going to be limited to specific brands. Naturally, some services and products or management practices require very little adjustment, although some need to be adapted dramatically. In case you are on the lookout for dependable and leading die manufacturers, then think about searching their presence on the Internet. In addition to that, the equipment you have is also quite essential.

Why Almost Everything You’ve Learned About Pet Shop Shops in Singapore Is Wrong

Once opened, local small business ads will surely help. Local advertising with a lovely web site in order to establish an internet presence can also mean. To begin with, decide what kind of business is the most interested. As soon as your pet photography company is ready to go, start doing what others don’t do.

That being said, the web has certainly changed a great deal of things. The site is very good and user-friendly and they supply online labs to have you started. It might be very helpful to find some information regarding dog training even before you buy a puppy. The above mentioned list isn’t exhaustive but should earn a good starting point. There are many categories to pick from including a wanted” section in case someone wants to obtain a particular item.

The Meaning of Pet Shop Shops in Singapore

Vets and animal experts all around the world classify the Chihuahua among the most protective dogs on the planet and they are able to become quite jealous when other dogs come in the picture. You also need to respect your dog. If you’re planning to have additional pets later on and you’ve got a desired breed in mind, check the body dimensions and make sure that they can pass through the door too. You ought not purchase a cat scratching post simply because it seems cool. Make certain you aren’t feeding kitty close to his litter box. Toddler after toddler can delight in handling the exact wooden pieces for many years.

Should you be trying to find a pet parrot which is most suitable for everyone, then you have to think about a Senegal parrot. In 3 steps, you are going to be able to get your own cheap hamster cage. The most frequent ones are plastic rings you could hang from the cover of the cage.

You will conserve time and it might be the only means to get to a show in time. With this time you are likely getting hungry. Visiting the regional towns is a relaxing and fun means to spend some moment; point.

There’s absolutely no need for virtually any foundation and there’s just one frame at the very top. One of them is certain to be ideal for your loved ones. There’s honestly something for everybody in Branson. There is something for everybody at a nearby shopping center whether it’s a department store, toy shop, eateries or kiosks. Cheer up, things might be a good deal worse! The theory behind purchasing customized dies is to get healthy home-made snacks instead of cooking ready-made snacks. Hopefully, after all the above ideas, you can are aware on how best to begin a pet photography enterprise.

Pet Shop Shops in Singapore Explained

Unfortunately, lots of citizens in the South weren’t so lucky. Nowadays it is possible to get in touch with a man and get help through forum, email, skype and several other means although the man or woman is much away. Perhaps you will earn a friend. If you cannot speak about it with your family and friends, then word of mouth is non-existent. Iff that’s the sense, it’s a fantastic companion to get.

The post Vital Pieces of Pet Shop Shops in Singapore appeared first on K & K aquarium & birds centre.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2ncdolD via IFTTT

[kkpetshop]

Vital Pieces of Pet Shop Shops in Singapore

You must locate a location that is easily accessible, and when you come across the perfect place, you’ve got to devote time to do up the place such that pets will feel comfortable in it. There are lots of on-line venues for selling antiques. Most theatres have many diverse shows performing during the day.

There are numerous different kinds of shops it’s possible to find at the neighborhood mall. This shop also provides products to teat different ailments, like pregnancy, immune difficulties, kidney difficulties, liver issues, respiratory issues, prostate issues, thyroid issues and worms. You might also have the ability to find some free from the local carpet shop. Stores are only the opposite. On-line pet stores have a vast number of pet supplies you may choose from. There are lots of on-line pet stores you can get from. Cheap, square parts of carpet that you are able to purchase from Wal Mart, etc..

In addition to that it is simpler to build since the plan is simpler. You could say this very first design proved to be a true jigsaw puzzle, since he actually employed a jigsaw to make it! The body design is often as easy or as complex as you decide is suitable for the age of the kid.

In case you are on the lookout for die products in accordance with your unique choices, then you can think about contacting some esteemed machine shops at Brooklyn in the States. You are certain to get some intriguing die goods in your kitchen soon! You’re going to be limited to specific brands. Naturally, some services and products or management practices require very little adjustment, although some need to be adapted dramatically. In case you are on the lookout for dependable and leading die manufacturers, then think about searching their presence on the Internet. In addition to that, the equipment you have is also quite essential.

Why Almost Everything You’ve Learned About Pet Shop Shops in Singapore Is Wrong

Once opened, local small business ads will surely help. Local advertising with a lovely web site in order to establish an internet presence can also mean. To begin with, decide what kind of business is the most interested. As soon as your pet photography company is ready to go, start doing what others don’t do.

That being said, the web has certainly changed a great deal of things. The site is very good and user-friendly and they supply online labs to have you started. It might be very helpful to find some information regarding dog training even before you buy a puppy. The above mentioned list isn’t exhaustive but should earn a good starting point. There are many categories to pick from including a wanted” section in case someone wants to obtain a particular item.

The Meaning of Pet Shop Shops in Singapore

Vets and animal experts all around the world classify the Chihuahua among the most protective dogs on the planet and they are able to become quite jealous when other dogs come in the picture. You also need to respect your dog. If you’re planning to have additional pets later on and you’ve got a desired breed in mind, check the body dimensions and make sure that they can pass through the door too. You ought not purchase a cat scratching post simply because it seems cool. Make certain you aren’t feeding kitty close to his litter box. Toddler after toddler can delight in handling the exact wooden pieces for many years.

Should you be trying to find a pet parrot which is most suitable for everyone, then you have to think about a Senegal parrot. In 3 steps, you are going to be able to get your own cheap hamster cage. The most frequent ones are plastic rings you could hang from the cover of the cage.

You will conserve time and it might be the only means to get to a show in time. With this time you are likely getting hungry. Visiting the regional towns is a relaxing and fun means to spend some moment; point.

There’s absolutely no need for virtually any foundation and there’s just one frame at the very top. One of them is certain to be ideal for your loved ones. There’s honestly something for everybody in Branson. There is something for everybody at a nearby shopping center whether it’s a department store, toy shop, eateries or kiosks. Cheer up, things might be a good deal worse! The theory behind purchasing customized dies is to get healthy home-made snacks instead of cooking ready-made snacks. Hopefully, after all the above ideas, you can are aware on how best to begin a pet photography enterprise.

Pet Shop Shops in Singapore Explained

Unfortunately, lots of citizens in the South weren’t so lucky. Nowadays it is possible to get in touch with a man and get help through forum, email, skype and several other means although the man or woman is much away. Perhaps you will earn a friend. If you cannot speak about it with your family and friends, then word of mouth is non-existent. Iff that’s the sense, it’s a fantastic companion to get.

The post Vital Pieces of Pet Shop Shops in Singapore appeared first on K & K aquarium & birds centre.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2ncdolD