The Secrets of Final Fantasy XIII’s Underrated Battle System
You don’t have to go far on the internet to find someone ranting about how boring they find Final Fantasy XIII’s battle system and how they disingenuously claim that ‘all you do is Press X’, a dogpile of criticism still going on to this very day. So to celebrate Final Fantasy XIII’s thirteenth birthday I’ve decided to compile a list of some more complex mechanics you can use to further explore this modern classic.
Final Fantasy XIII’s command synergy battle (CSB) system is much like a blooming flower that opens up ever more as the game advances, reaching its peak complexity and beauty only in its most challenging fights. Let's explore a few of the techniques that you can use to save Cocoon!
1. Launch Juggling
Launch is one of the earliest abilities the player acquires in Final Fantasy XIII for the Commando role and can be used to devastating effect on staggered enemies. Although the ability is gained early, it never ceases its usefulness and becomes an invaluable part of the Final Fantasy XIII arsenal. By launching an enemy, you negate their turn from ever taking place, essentially locking them in stasis until their stagger bar finally depletes and your onslaught ends, if the enemy even survives that long. But there are ways to further manipulate the mechanics of Launch to maximise its value to the player.
An enemy who is launched can be ‘juggled’ by alternating attacks between party members. While the player has no control over the AI in FF XIII, you can get a very good sense of how they function over time and plan your attacks to alternate and prevent the enemy from crashing down and fighting back. This principle even applies after the stagger ends, meaning that even though the bonus damage is over, you can still keep the enemy in the air just a little while longer, chipping off a little more health and keeping your party safe from the launched enemy for just a little while longer.
This is an exceptionally valuable skill to master and proves extremely useful against foes beyond your current power. Furthermore, any damage-dealing attack can keep an enemy juggled as they flinch upon hit, meaning your Ravager or Saboteur classes can also maintain the launched state meaning you can further increase the damage being output and re-apply any waning status conditions before the stagger ends safely!
This technique is simple and may not vary much from your regular strategy, but learning to optimise Launch’s value proves extremely useful in later fights, especially if combined with short-shifting your attacks to maximise up-time.
2. Get Technical
That there TP gauge sure does look full a lot of the time, doesn’t it? Well, don’t be afraid to use it! The TP abilities in FF XIII provide tactical utility to the player with a range of situationally useful abilities that can swing the tide of battle. Assuming you are going into battle with a full bar of Technical Points, you will have 5 to play with. The three most useful TP abilities are the Libra, Renew and Summon abilities and knowing when to use each is important.
- Libra will reveal an enemy’s weaknesses with one use and all further information such as resistances with two. Cost: 1TP
- Renew will fully refresh the entire party, fully restoring HP and reviving fallen party members, an excellent panic button. Cost: 2TP
- Summon is the last TP ability to consider. Although it is the most expensive ability, it provides the same effects as Renew while also giving you the opportunity to deal some damage with your Eidolon. Cost: 3TP
When you’re heading into a tough boss battle, Libra can help open up the floor, giving your AI-controlled allies better information so that they can begin targeting their weaknesses right away. Due to its cost of 1, it enables the player to still use two Renews in a single battle if need be, essentially offering a free scan and two panic buttons for when things look dicey.
A similar tactic can be used with your Summon, calling on them right before a Boss delivers a powerful blow can result in a much better outcome than if you had just tanked the hit, especially because all Eidolons prioritise the player’s survival over dealing damage. This enables you to utilise their potent healing while building up your Gestalt gauge for a powerful special move of your own, with the added security that your party members will return refreshed and ready. Utilising these abilities at the right time, especially the Summon ability, is valuable in controlling the pace of battle and giving yourself a refresh when needed.
An Eidolon’s ‘ultimate’ attack often focus more on building stagger than on raw damage, so consider this in your timing as well. Due to their slower damage output than a party of three, a summon can ‘hang’ the bar near a complete stagger state while you use your party leader to heal, buff and prepare for the incoming onslaught.
TP can be recovered in between battles by using the Ethersol item or mid-battle / post-battle by completing the following actions:
In regards to how a player can best manage their TP and restore it during battle, the following items are capable of granting an ability called ‘Gestalt/TP Boost’ that increases the TP earned. With this, a player can frequently gain enough TP to cast Renew thrice or summon 2 Eidolons.
- Weapons: Hauteclaire, Durandal, Lionheart, Ultima Weapon, Rigels, Polaris Specials, Procyons, Betelgeuse Customs, Unsetting Sun, Midnight Sun, Alicanto, Caladrius, Heavenly Axis, Abraxas, Taming Pole, Venus Gospel
- Accessories: Survivalist Catalog, Hunter’s Friend, Speed Sash, Energy Sash, Champion’s Badge
- 2–3 pieces of equipment grants Random: Instant Chain. 4–5 pieces of equipment grants Gestalt/TP Boost. which brings me neatly to my next entry:
3. Ability Synthesis
As previously mentioned, combining certain items can produce unique abilities for the player to utilise. The Gestalt/TP Boost ability is one of many, and far from the most mechanically interesting. Some of the abilities the player can synthesise include the standard elemental / physical / magic / status resistances that can serve as a key defence in a battle with an enemy that spams a pesky status or elemental move, but there are plenty of more complex abilities such as Ethereal Mantle, an ability that nullifies incoming physical damage completely, but at the cost of being able to heal using magic.
Ethereal Mantle prevents the character from being healed by your Medic class meaning that they will have to be healed via items or TP abilities like Renew. Although this is a hefty trade-off, it can trivialise some fights with enemies that don’t utilise any magic attacks, essentially ensuring that the character equipped with it cannot fall. In this scenario, if it is applied to the party leader, your victory is assured. (Magic Damper is the opposite of Ethereal Mantle, blocking all incoming magic damage with the same trade-off.) When applied to a Sentinel, your character will be extremely difficult to KO, despite their lack of conventional healing.
A favourite of mine is Vampyric Strike. Vampyric Strike absorbs 1% of damage dealt to enemies as HP. 1% may not seem like a lot, but this applies to each hit, meaning that with a full ATB bar of six attacks, you gain 6% of damage dealt. And some may wonder “Well why is a piddly 6% so valuable? You made me give up most of my equipment for this!?” But when you consider that endgame enemies possess several million HP and that when combined with the Genji Glove item that increases the cap of maximum damage from 9,999 to 99,999, you may begin to see the value of this ability. This is amplified even further if the character in question has an ability capable of hitting even more than six times in a turn such as Lightning’s Army of One ability, making her far harder to bring down than would be expected given this build’s lower stats than otherwise possible.
By planning your synthesis abilities well you can open up a plethora of new gameplay styles that can turn a difficult battle into a breezy one!
4. Mastering the Paradigm System
The paradigm system has a number of intricacies that can be manipulated by players to maximise their gameplay. Beyond being in the right paradigm formation at the right time, there are several other tricks you can use to gain advantage.
The first is ATB refreshing. The first time you shift paradigms in a battle, you will refill your ATB bar instantly. This is incredibly useful for speeding up your battles by a few seconds to achieve a 5-star rating in a battle or make a quick transition into recovery or defensive formations.
ATB refreshing can also be extremely valuable when switching into an identical paradigm (For example COM | RAV | RAV into COM | RAV | RAV) as it will essentially enable you to execute a devastating back-to-back attack chain. When combined with the previously mentioned Launch Juggling technique this can result in huge damage output in a short period, this also applies to my favourite variant of this technique that utilises the Synergist and Saboteur roles to rapidly rebuff and disable your enemies.
This refresh occurs every 12 seconds after your first paradigm shift, meaning that if you plan your switches accordingly, you’ll always get a free switch. If you’re changing too often, you’re not maximising your party’s potency. That being said, sometimes the best option is to forego this refresh to make sure you’re in the right posture for the battle at all times. Knowing that it’s there, however, allows you to pace your battle more evenly.
There are certain quirks to each class that can be manipulated using these paradigm mechanics and learning, refining and experimenting with the paradigm system is extremely rewarding.
For thirteen years, Final Fantasy XIII has silently been one of the most complex battle systems in the series, rivalled in complexity and overall difficulty perhaps only by XII.
It presents a completely new battle system, unlike anything that came before it and utilises these systems to create a unique experience, one designed around controlling the pace, flow and momentum of battle. The battle system is full of useful techs and secrets that blossom like the mandalas beneath your party’s crystarium as they develop.
Hopefully, this article has convinced you to pick up Final Fantasy XIII again and try out some of these techniques to assist you in defeating the Fal’Cie and saving Cocoon!
Sincerely,
Blake Walden
