Comparing the old and new Final Fantasy XIII battle interface

When Final Fantasy XIII comes out, I expect to spend countless hours grinding, which is why I’m hoping the battle system won’t be a hassle to play. High quality scans show the new and improved (?) battle system – way different from the one we saw from early screens.

When Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) comes out, I expect to spend countless hours grinding, which is why I’m hoping the battle system won’t be a hassle to play. Thanks to new high quality screens from the most recent FFXIII spread on Famitsu, we’re now able to take a closer look at the updated battle system.

Here’s an old screenie with Lightning you should now be long familiar with:

And here’s the scan showing the new battle system, also with Lightning:

Some notable differences is the arrangement of the battle menu, which dropped the stacked command menu arrangement for a column format. The ATB meter, which was found with the HP bar, has been relocated to the top of the battle menu. The HP bar still remains on the lower right hand corner.

Also changed is the mysterious circular meter on the top right corner, which was replaced by a chain bar which FFXII gamers should be familiar with. The setup kinda reminds me of a mix between FFVIII and FFVII, which is no surprise since the guy behind the FFXIII design is Motomu Toriyama, who worked on both previous games.

I posit a notion of how the battle system will work. Judging from the fluid motions of Lightning and her enemies from all the scans we’ve seen, I can imagine that battles will be continuously in action. Villain and hero alike won’t be panting stupidly in one place to wait for our commands. Instead, we input commands as we like, and it’ll just be up to the ATB when to execute them, resulting in one fluid battle scene with no pauses.

Of course, I’m just speculating. We’ll see how it really works when Square Enix finally releases a battle scene vid with more details. Any of you have other ideas?

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Via Siliconera