Main | Traditional Turn-based Role-playing Games | Tactical Role-playing Games
A long-time favorite type of role-playing game are traditional turn-based role-playing games. They are role-playing games that use a battle system where characters in a party take turns to attack an enemy of their choosing in the battle screen. Typically, in most games in this genre, party members would be lined up on one side of the screen, and the enemies lined up on the opposing side. When a battle is initiated, one of two styles can be used: A system where the main character would be walking around the world map, and suddenly the screen will change to a battle screen, or the enemies would be seen in the game world, and the main character would walk into them to initiate a battle either on the same screen or a battle screen. In the former's case, that style is known as a random encounter. It is called a random encounter because the specific enemy that would appear to battle your party is randomized.
During the 1980's, there were classic turn-based games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, released on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Dragon Quest, however, approached how characters were represented in battle. Whenever a random encounter would begin, none of the player's party members would be seen. Instead, it would be a first-person perspective, with the enemies seen in front of you, and the menus would list the names of your party members. In the early Final Fantasy games, the characters could be seen during battle, and were lined up on one side of the screen. Regardless of the style a game had, the turn-based battle system was strategic and fun to play with.
The 1990's, known as the Golden Age to fans of role-playing games, had a variety of excellent turn-based role-playing games, such as, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VI, and EarthBound. All of those games listed were developed for the Super Nintendo, which allowed the game development teams in creating much more beautiful graphics, thanks to the 16-bit graphics. As technology advanced, so did the game mechanics of the battle systems. Players were able to use a wide assortment of abilities and magic spells, all having their strengths and weaknesses. Enemies had elemental weaknesses, and resisted against some of them as well, whereas, some abiliites and magic spells would not be as effective.