Battle System

If you’ve just read the Confirmed Details section of this website, you will know that, like many aspects of the game, Final Fantasy 14 will feature a battle system that differs significantly from other games of this genre.

Contrary to what people thought when news of the game first emerged, battles will occur in real time but will not be ‘action-style’ battles which require on timing and a high tempo. Instead, the new battle system will be heavily strategy based. This is furthered by the Armoury job system which allows players to change classes on the fly thus allowing them to adapt to many different situations. However you cannot change classes in mid-battle. Mobs will also be of fixed level, allowing you to choose the difficulty of opponent you want to face. The battles are also seamless and have no change in area. You will also be able to choose the direction of your attack, and this will also influence the damage you exert on your opponent.

The strategy based battling introduces a learning curve to Final Fantasy 14. However there will most likely be options for beginners to be able to set it so that they have an easier experience before delving in to more advanced options of battling. It has also been said that players will be able to face multiple mobs of enemies at one time.

Controls

You target a creature with TAB, lock on it with X and bring out your weapon with F. You then attack using your different abilities on the hotbar, they were set to keys 1, 2, 3 etc. The stronger abilities required certain level of something similar to Adrenaline in Guild Wars. After building up enough Adrenaline you have access to certain AOE abilities.

Each attack must be selected from the action menu (unlike auto-battling in FFXI). Selecting certain options varies the way you fight, thus meaning in even solo battles there will be a strong element of strategy. Even though you can activate a command once the action gauge is filled, if the player waits instead, the power gauge then begins to fill up. Waiting for it to fill up before activating the action will render your attack more powerful and accurate.

Action Menu

The icons at the bottom of the screen make up this menu. You can set 10 abilities on the action menu, which will change according to your equipped weapon.

There are two gauges to the right of your character that correspond to both hands. The gauges under each ability is the action gauge and to the left of the icon is the power gauge. When the action gauge is filled then the ability activates. The level of the power gauge determines the power and accuracy of the move, thus meaning it is advisable to go into battle with the power gauge full. The power gauge has three stages in which it fills up.

There is also a TP gauge which wills up via actions such as simply hitting the enemy. You will need to use TP in order to use certain abilities.

These menus are all moveable, allowing customisation of your battle screen.

PvP

The team has also revealed that there will not be much focus on Party v Party elements in the game. The stated that PvP would only be featured (at least initially) in sport-style events. The team are not going to allow unrestrained duelling and player killing (PKing) and they are maintaining the same stance against this as they did with FF11.

Don’t want to battle?

It is possible to get to the highest level without battling at all if you stick to the Land and Hand disciplines. However you will need to enlist the help of fighter classes to venture into some areas of the game.

More Information

Square Enix have said that in order to gain some insight into this new battling system, hidden hints can be found in the logo artwork. From the artwork we can see a band of adventurers, all sporting different types of weapons. They are in a wheel formation (the designer was told to focus on a band of adventurers in a wheel formation) and with their backs facing each other. This implies that an emphasis will be placed on the idea of your comrades protecting you in battle.

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