Opinion Fest 2008: Best Battle System

Phew. Okay, now that we're done with the "worst of" 2008, let's check out everything that made this last year great in RPGs. We'll start with Best Battle System.

This award is not necessarily for the most innovative or most original battle system, but rather the battle systems that remained fun and engaging. No game that wins this award ever made me think, “dammit, not another battle!”

3rd: Infinite Undiscovery – tri-Ace, Square Enix – Xbox 360

Forget random battles, magically being spirited away to a parallel dimension’s battle field, or waiting for your turn to come, Infinite Undiscovery throws you into the fray right from the get go. Draw your sword, play on your enemies’ weaknesses, and fight as a team and you’ll come out on top. IU’s battles are fast-paced, fun, and often chaotic. If nothing else, IU delivers a healthy shot of adrenaline into the action-RPG genre, and does a good job of it.

2nd: Fable II – Lionhead, Microsoft – Xbox 360

Sure, there’s no real team effort involved in Fable II, but maybe that’s what makes it so enjoyable: feeling badass enough to take on the whole world all by yourself. Having unlimited control over melee, ranged, and magic attacks at any time makes for a simple battle system that never seems to grow repetitive. I absolutely adored kicking one guy off a cliff, slashing another guy’s feet out from under him, then picking off a third guy in the face with my pistol. I don’t know, but some things just never get old.

Also, fighting balverines is wicked.

1st: Tales of Vesperia – Namco Bandai – Xbox 360

The Tales of series has been around for a long time, but ToV’s battle system is easily the best to date. Whether you’re stringing together punches and slashes with Yuri, launching enemies into the air with Judith, or laying down a magical barrage with Rita, ToV’s battles can only be described as ‘satisfying.’ Throw in a healthy dose of overlimits, burst artes, and secret missions, and you have yourself a battle system that grows with you, complimenting your abilities the further you progress in the game. Tales of Vesperia easily made for the most intense, most enjoyable battles of the year, yet manages to keep it simple enough for even novice players to feel in control.