What are your favorite game mechanics? especially RPGs

[LiberoVulpesLiberoVulpes's icon]

IMO the Press Turn System is the pinnacle of turn-based battle systems, it rewards observation and tactical play, and punishes carelessness.

I like the Blood Skelter mechanic in Mary Skelter, where you have to workaround the possibility of party members going insane, or take a gamble and allow them to go insane, which makes them extremely powerful at the cost that you can't control them.

I really like the EX command in 7th Dragon, empowering their next skill as well as making them go first, makes it a magnificent strategic choice... Or a panic button, making it only rechargeable by resting at an inn is genius.

I like that in Saga Frontier characters get fully healed at the end of combat, but if they fall in combat they get debuffs which can only be healed by resting, and if they stack a certain amount of those debuffs they can't participate in combat until you go back to an inn.

The eating mechanic in Digital Devil Saga, which rewards you with extra xp if you finish off an enemy with the "eat" command.

 

[Bakuma1997]

If your RPG gives me a skill tree where i can unlock with enough foresight and knowledgable inversion of points broken skills before i need them, you sold me

If you can talk or negotiate with enemies for them to give you free stuff or simply scraming, i'm in

Anytime you can alter a boss battle doing some kerfurfling in the dungeon, especially when is not mandatory to beat the boss, making sidetracking feel more like a legit reward for exploration instead of being dragged by the neck to do the thing otherwhise you can't win literally

Food crafting (AKA cooking) makes the game feel alive, rather than being confined to drinking potions or using magic to heal, you make your own meals, like with the Skill point system, if you know what ingredients to use, you can cook cool recipes that will outdo the item buyed healing stuff

But by far my favorite ones are RPG's with Action Commands, a happy compromise between the nowadays niche Turn Based combat and Action RPG's

 

[Teberu]

Too bad that’s the last time that they used that awesome mechanic.

They kinda tried doing it again with the international version of FFXII but it wasn't as good imo

 

[Yousef]

Start button
X button
Joystick
Credits

 

[Tonberry]

Start button
X button
Joystick
Credits

X button is like SO overrated
Everyone knows Y button is the hotness

 

[miguk]

As broken as it is, I love the mantra system from Treasure of Rudras. You get new magic spells by typing their names in a menu. You're supposed to find them in the game in texts, thus getting the weak ones first and the powerful ones later; but if you kept written records from previous playthroughs, or just looked them up online, you can get any kind of magic at any time during the game. There are even some that are made up by people who figured out how the system's logic works.

 

[diapered]

FFV job system, it gives so much freedom to make any kind of build and party combination and adds so much replayability to the game

Ain't nothing like making an all ninja party with summoner skills and some buffs and demolishing everything that goes against you
The only problem with this system is that it's very very grindy sometimes...

Hell yes! I hate how it seems "outdated" nowadays to be able to take a cast of generic characters and customize their skills how you want :( It makes it so fun! I disagree it makes it "grindy". Yea, if you want to master everything, but I like how you are rewarded for efficient use of job switching and skill synergy. Take FFT, since random encounters scale with your level, you will get punished if you are not learning effective skills and think just leveling up will solve your problems: a horde of red chocobos will stomp you!

Too bad that’s the last time that they used that awesome mechanic.

Hello? FFT?

Esoteric, seemingly irrelevant personality quizzes at the beginning of the game with unknown consequences (but 3 out of 5 times impact your stats or other personality traits).

Also fun when these choices pop up throughout the game as well. It's a simple but charming way to add a little flavor and mystery to a game, no matter its other mechanics or complexity. Can be narratively relevant, but usually isn't in my experience (off the top of my head, anyway).

See: Ogre series, Dragon Quest, etc.

I absolutely hate cryptic shit like that, like langrisser 4. Just makes me need to read a guide... choices and alignment type decisions for story progression DURING the game are one thing, but influencing stats etc. with nebulous questions I think is really dumb. How would you feel getting towards the end of the game and realize your character is handicapped because you had no idea the result of some quiz at the start?

 

[lil_thang]

unironically, Morrowind's hit chance system. it gives actual gameplay progression to leveling up a given weapon skill. instead of +1 dmg on level up

skybabies and shit will moan about it unmerciful, but then they will also mature into SkyYoutubeEssayists and start to wonder why combat progression in skyrim is piece of shit. Oldblivion players are still smacking max level creatures with pool noodles as we speak. the chad Morroboomers have already long since leveled their weapon skills

 

[ExeExe]

Having an optional area early on with very strong enemies that you can barely beat, but if you keep at it, you can massively over level and make a good portion of the game a cakewalk. Hyper Dimension Neptunia Rebirth 1 has this throughout several points, and it was the only reason I kept playing even as I began to skip every story segment.

A variation of this would be the 'Peninsula or Power' concept you could find in the first final fantasy; a few set of tiles had encounters scripted there that were meant for a much later area, so you could level grind there. You can also find this in games like Okage Shadow King; the first town has a sewer dungeon that you're meant to come back and do later. Only a single screen is acessible to you behind a locked door, but you can still get encounters to spawn there.

It's like a level up cheat you actually have to earn, and it's always so satisfying.

 

[diapered]

As broken as it is, I love the mantra system from Treasure of Rudras. You get new magic spells by typing their names in a menu. You're supposed to find them in the game in texts, thus getting the weak ones first and the powerful ones later; but if you kept written records from previous playthroughs, or just looked them up online, you can get any kind of magic at any time during the game. There are even some that are made up by people who figured out how the system's logic works.

Oh ok, so it is kinda like discovering the martial arts moves in legend of legaia? You do learn them as you go from some, but you can discover or look them up yourself. But that does sound on another level that you can make up your own spells.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

S Ranking in CrossCode is a certified power trip

Also Press Turn (SMT), Noise chaining (TWEWY), Items that actually do shit purely in battle, Force skills (easiest to pull off in Etrian Odyssey 3 onwards), whatever you call Mario & Luigi's battle system, grid based ARPG combat (Mega Man Battle Network), invincibility for a short time after being immobilised (Custom Robo), heat actions (Yakuza 1-6 are also RPGs, I don't care), custom character classes (FFV and Etrian Odyssey among others), Level 4 Arts (Xenoblade 2), skill points to learn attacks (every Etrian. Odyssey and 7th Dragon), skill points to boost your personal stats (SMT, Etrian Odyssey, 7th Dragon), F O G B R E A T H my beloved (SMT), bullet hell shmups in a battle system (Undertale), even in RGT, F.O.E.

 

[miguk]

Oh ok, so it is kinda like discovering the martial arts moves in legend of legaia? You do learn them as you go from some, but you can discover or look them up yourself. But that does sound on another level that you can make up your own spells.

The mantra system is made up of 3 elements: prefixes, cores, and suffixes. The cores determine what spell it is, while the pre/suf make adjustments to them (status effects, single/multi-target, MP cost, etc). Normally, you are supposed to just pay attention for when a NPC, enemy, or other source mentions a spell. But you can just build your own spell once you know what each of the parts do.

 

[Bakuma1997]

even in RGT, F.O.E.

 

[MistHunter]

Skill evolution and mix in the first two Dragon Quest Monsters.
A monster can learn a skill, through specific stats requirements, not only by level.

Three can be naturally learned in every creature (and can be inherited, to a max of eight can be remembered).

When some skills are in the same skill pool, those can be mixed, becoming a more powerful one.

Post automatically merged: Feb 12, 2025

Another possibility is the job system in DQ 7
(initially in DQ 6).
You can master a job, in a certain (somewhat high) quantity of battles. When you master some of them, you can unlock more advanced ones and "hybrid" skils (one for each two mastered jobs).

There is a donwside in the 3DS Remake.
You can only have with you the basic-tier job skills.
You can keep the more advanced and master job skills, if you have it as the current job.

However, there is a little detail...

The monster jobs.
Once mastered, the skills are remembered and learned.
Even the advanced and master skills, from the normal jobs. Because this is a "parallel job tree".
Too much grind, of course... I did it, in both versions.
Somewhat tedious ><;

 

[Nidoking's iconNidoking]

I always loved Chrono Cross' field type system, where it's made up of three sections and each time an element is used it changes, impacting how effective the elements are.

I also really love the AP system (FFIX, Kingdom Hearts, etc.) Sphere grids, too... always hype to see one if it's done right.

 

[Mr. Daddy]

A big part of why Breath of Fire III is my favorite game of all time is the dragon gene system. I love the feeling of finding a new gene and running around to experiment with it just to see what combination I can make with it. Also, I've always been a big fan of FF8's Junction system. I had a lot of fun messing around and seeing how quickly I could make myself OP when I was a kid.

 

[happymasksalesman]

Hell yes! I hate how it seems "outdated" nowadays to be able to take a cast of generic characters and customize their skills how you want :( It makes it so fun! I disagree it makes it "grindy". Yea, if you want to master everything, but I like how you are rewarded for efficient use of job switching and skill synergy. Take FFT, since random encounters scale with your level, you will get punished if you are not learning effective skills and think just leveling up will solve your problems: a horde of red chocobos will stomp you!

Hello? FFT?
View attachment 23047


I absolutely hate cryptic shit like that, like langrisser 4. Just makes me need to read a guide... choices and alignment type decisions for story progression DURING the game are one thing, but influencing stats etc. with nebulous questions I think is really dumb. How would you feel getting towards the end of the game and realize your character is handicapped because you had no idea the result of some quiz at the start?

Just 1 orator in this game was enough in this game.

 

[PKT]

Etrian Odyssey's F.O.E.s are really neat since it allows for interesting puzzles and boss fights. Since F.O.E.s exist on the dungeon crawl screen and one step equates to a turn in battle you can have scenarios where a F.O.E. just jumps into your battle to wreck your shit. They also act as physical barriers for dungeon crawling (until you get strong enough to kill them). When you do kill them they stay dead for 7 days, then respawn so you can strategically kill them then leave and come back.

I genuinely thing EO1's first boss, Fenrir, is a great tech demo for the system in boss battles since by himself he isn't that bad but he is surrounded by F.O.E.s that beeline to you as soon as you start fighting. You can circumvent this by fighting the comparably weaker F.O.E.s first then leading Fenrir to a corner to give yourself plenty of turns to fight him solo (and probably kill him). The game doesn't directly tell you about this strategy either (if memory serves me right) but it is clearly intentional given some later bosses.

 

[CG4R12I4N]

Arc Rise Fantasia.
They took every decent system that already existed in other games and combined them all, absolutely improved it to the next level with some disgustingly difficult boss battles to pair up with, like a perfect blend of dishes and drinks.
You can move, you can combo your skills, you can cancel enemy's attack, your actions and items are limited, and every acts you take are pretty much important, even defending and moving because otherwise you'll get destroyed easily by non-mob enemies.
Even the menu abilities and equipments are excellently customized with its own pros and cons, making the mix and match for specific part an absolute must.
There's really no game quite like it till today, not even Grandia series were as good as ARF gameplaywise.