story was fine, i just didn't "like" any of the characters, they all seemed rather boring. vivi was probably the only one i could "like" due to his ingame ideas revolving around him. Zidane didn't seem to have anything interesting to do or say.

I also disliked the way abilities/items worked compared to other FF's.


So obviously it's not on my list of FF games to replay, but it was ok.

No ff9 sucks. Actually all the ff games sucks except for 10 but 7 was aight. Fanboys gonna be fanboys and claim every ff game is awesome even thought it has a very boring storyline.

In Final Fantasy games, players command a party of characters as they progress through the game's story by exploring the game world and defeating opponents.[3][44] Enemies are typically encountered randomly through exploring, a trend which changed in Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XII. The player issues combat orders—like "Fight", "Magic", and "Item"—to individual characters via a menu-driven interface while engaging in battles. Throughout the series, the games have used different battle systems. Prior to Final Fantasy XI, battles were turn-based with the protagonists and antagonists on different sides of the battlefield. Final Fantasy IV introduced the "Active Time Battle System" that augmented the turn-based nature with a perpetual time-keeping system. Designed by Hiroyuki Ito, it injected urgency and excitement into combat by requiring the player to act before an enemy attacks, and was used until Final Fantasy X, which implemented the Conditional Turn-Based system.[3][20][53] The new system returned to the previous turn-based system, but added nuances to offer players more challenge.[16][54] Final Fantasy XI adopted a real-time battle system where characters continuously act depending on the issued command.[55] Final Fantasy XII continued this gameplay with the "Active Dimension Battle" system.[56]

Now i'm not saying your wrong, but your wrong.

I haven't said anything incorrect. Just because you copied and pasted from some article that you needed to support your position, doesn't change anything. People mislabel plenty of RPGs as "turn based", even when they aren't a purely turn based system. Yes, ATB built on turn based, that's no secret. But they are NOT the same thing, for all the reasons in my previous post, refer back to that.

And whatever you quoted that from, it actually supports a lot of the things that I was arguing for. I can see why you quoted it though, since it throws around the name "turn-based" a few times. It's poorly written, and I feel like you are misunderstanding it actually. Let me quote a few things from it that actually essentially say what I was saying:

Throughout the series, the games have used different battle systems.

Main point of the article, again even though it throws around the word turn-based in a couple other sentences, this is what they were really trying to touch on. And yes this is true, they started out as a turn based system, then moved to ATB, and FFX's Conditional system(which is not the same as a real turn based game).

Final Fantasy IV introduced the "Active Time Battle System" that augmented the turn-based nature with a perpetual time-keeping system. Designed by Hiroyuki Ito, it injected urgency and excitement into combat by requiring the player to act before an enemy attacks, and was used until Final Fantasy X, which implemented the Conditional Turn-Based system.

Yep that's true, it built on the old turn based system, and as a result came out with a new time flowing system. Everything said there is right on.

The new system returned to the previous turn-based system, but added nuances to offer players more challenge

No clue if that sentence came directly after or what inserted from another section. But it doesn't elaborate at all on X's system.. X is called Conditional Turn-Based by some, but it is also called Count Time Battle which I think is a more fitting and proper name. Again, in this system, there are no "turns" or "rounds", whatever you want to call it, so it's not a turn based system. There is an action list on the screen, that can be manipulated in battle, and is also dependent on each characters speed stats, so again characters are going to have an unequal amount of actions. IMO, the system is the exact same as the ATB system with time stopped while navigating a menu. The only real difference is you can see exactly when your enemies are going to act, and there is no time bar on the screen. The action list is more easily manipulated as a result.

yes, one of my favorite ff's

You are wrong. You are arguing semantics and being pedantic, pointlessly.

I copied that directly from Wiki, Who do you think is right? You or wikipedia?

ATB is a TURN based system. So FF9 IS turn based.

If you are going to go ahead and say ATB isn't turn based, I'm going to have to say you've gone full retard.

Final Fantasy IV introduced the "Active Time Battle System" that augmented the turn-based nature with a perpetual time-keeping system. Designed by Hiroyuki Ito, it injected urgency and excitement into combat by requiring the player to act before an enemy attacks, and was used until Final Fantasy X, which implemented the Conditional Turn-Based system. Sums it all up.

The keyword is Augmented, Not replaced, Augmented as in made bigger or improved. I'm sure you can direct yourself to a dictionary if you don't understand.

Now if i can direct you back to my post in which i said "It isn't 100% turn based, But it is definitely turn based to a massive extent" you will see i was correct.

You clearly don't understand what "Turn-based" is, or what a TURN actually is. An ATB has no turns whatsoever, period, end of story, there is no debating that. Characters get to perform an action when their bar fills up, there is no waiting for everyone to perform their actions, so there is no turn.

And lol, a Wikipedia page is not the end all be all for anything. That is a user written article, like I said, it was poorly written and went in no detail, I should have known it came from a generic Wikipedia page. I can find a few other links that actually know what they are talking about, give me a sec to google that:

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_System : This is from the actual FF wikia page, and is a great in depth piece about all the battle systems, if you don't check out any other links, this should be a great one to give you a better in depth knowledge of the differences since you clearly don't believe me.

http://www.giantbomb.com/active-time-battle/92-95/ : An article on ATB, supports everything I've said.

http://www.wurb.com/stack/archives/281 : Another good ATB reading.

You are trolling right? If a character doesn't perform their action when the bar is full, Nothing happens. Thus when they use their gauge charge they are having a turn. This makes it turn based, That is a turn. A ratio of 1:1 isn't a requirment for the ATB turn based system otherwise it wouldn't be ACTIVE. ATB is turn based, The fact that you will even argue that shows you have no understanding or reading comprehension skills.

That first article, Backs everything i have said up. How can you use that to support your own evidence, For example.

After the action is executed, the ATB gauge is depleted and must recharge. The rate which the gauge recharges will typically correlate to the Speed stat of the character and the Battle Speed, which can be adjusted in the config. This means that combatants do not always get an equal number actions on a turn.

See the keyword at the end of the sentence there? TURN. And one more time note the keyword.

The first game to make use of this system was Final Fantasy IV, but it did not feature the ATB meter in the SNES and PlayStation versions. The ATB meter was introduced in Final Fantasy V, while the option to skip turns debuted in Final Fantasy VI. All following main installments until Final Fantasy X made use of the ATB system, and it returned in a modified form for Final Fantasy X-2.

The second is a two paragraphs opinion piece written by people like you that don't understand the concept of ATB. and in the third article it highlights that ATB Is turn based combat with a twist if you read between the lines.

Wow, talking to you is like talking to a retarded brick wall, not just a normal one, but a retarded one.

I'm only going to say one thing about that whole post:

If a character doesn't perform their action when the bar is full, Nothing happens.

That is not true at all. Enemies will keep attacking you regardless of whether you act or not with your characters. It does vary from game to game, I can't remember which of the ATB games have the option to make it so time stops when you navigate menus, but that is not true at all for the ATB system as a whole.

As for the rest of this whole mind-fuck. You must be completely misunderstanding everything I've said in this entire thread. In every post I've made, I've tried to point out the difference between a real turn-based game, and the ATB system. And all you've been doing is finding the word "turn" and thinking that it must mean the turn-based battle system, just because they've used the word "turn". You are arguing that the ATB system is turn based because characters still have to perform actions(we'll still use the word turn here just to make this make sense to you), but the fact of the matter is, just because they are performing an action, doesn't mean they are taking a "turn". Maybe it's been commonly called that as a carry over from the older system, and the word is very easy to use. But, It's not turn-based, because there are no rounds. Turn-based is a synonym for round-based, where in an entire round, or turn, everyone gets the same number of actions. Then a new "turn" or round starts. Playing a turn based system is more like playing Chess, while playing ATB is more like playing Risk(kind of a garbage analogy I know, but I couldn't think up anything better off the top of my head).

There's a reason why on tons of FF forums, you'll see threads asking which of the two battle systems (ATB versus turn-based) people prefer. It's because they are fundamentally different, and built on completely different principles.

Personally, unlike many other people, ff9 was my favourite FF game in the series..followed by 10 then 7. The story line was amazing and the gameplay was very good. The ATB turn battle system was nice too.

Highly recommend this title.