Which JRPG Has The Best Combat System? (Tactical JRPGs Excluded)

Which JRPG has the best (or rather your favorite) combat system and why?

Final Fantasy's ATB remains my favorite.  No contest.

Thanks for reminding me about not being able to beat the final boss in GII. Fuck that game.

Tales of Eternia, the Pokemon series, The World Ends With You, Tales of Vesperia and Valkyrie Profile, in that order.

The only problem with the Grandia battle system is that it is easy to exploit it. i remember just spamming "Critical" and just canceling actions. Obviously it depends on how far spaced your characters time is from the action field.
 
I really like the Tales battle system. Now granted the only Tales game i played is Vesperia. The battle system reminds me of Star Ocean 2 from the PS but adding a 3rd dimension to it.

Mother 3 in theory, but not in practice. For an actual answer, I'd probably say a tie between Chrono Trigger and Phantasy Star IV for the emphasis on teamwork and cooperation.

A bloody shame that Grandia III never made it to western shores. I remember looking foward to that.

I liked FFX's battle system. The way it was turn based but you could see whose turn came up when and how a spell like Haste or Slow would effect that order before you used it was really cool. That and swapping out party members to defeat certain enemy types made it pretty fun and involved.
 
Also games like Super Mario RPG and Mother 3 deserve a special mention for encouraging active participation with their timing based attacks, which goes a long way to keeping combat interesting.

I love, love, love the battle system in the Shadow Hearts series.  The judgment ring requires good reflexes, but it becomes second nature as the game rolls on.  It never feels cheap when you miss, and keeps you engaged not only in the strategic aspect of the battle (i.e. picking attack sequences and elemental damages, etc.), but also in the execution of your abilities.  You also have to factor in queuing up combos, and hitting the enemy in certain ways to make other attacks more effective.

Here's an example.  The battle starts around 2:30 in:
 

Tales series. Woo!

star ocean or tales games

Haven't really played many JRPGs but out of those I have played I think Chrono Trigger would be my favorite. I remember training for hours just to get that new skill and see how it combined with others. ( It's a shame ::Spoiler::Magus::Spoiler:: only had triple techs). In the end it was hard to pick a permanent team because everyone had awesome combinations.

Lost Odyssey. 
 
Then Tales, Star Ocean and FFX. 
 
Edit: for those of you who haven't seen this game in action, here is a video. It's extremely old school turn based and has the best battle music I have ever heard. 
 
  

While FFX, Tales of Vesperia, and Star Ocean: The Last Hope have great combat systems, I think my favorite is in a game almost no one has heard of -- Mana Khemia (and Mana Khemia 2). It's pretty much FFX meets Marvel vs Capcom 2. The turn system is like FFX's where there's an order cycle and certain moves push you back further in the cycle while others can give you quick turns so you go again immediately after (kinda like Tidus' quick attack that lets him get like 16 turns in a row). 
 
There are also assist attacks and super combos that feel like a vs fighter, where you can keep swapping in characters who will attack as they swap in, and you can call on multiple characters to unleash combination attacks. On top of that, you have a "super meter" type thing that builds up and when it maxes out you can unleash character specific finishers for crazy damage.
 
Overall it feels very fluid and combat is never dull.
 
@Seppli said:

" A bloody shame that Grandia III never made it to western shores. I remember looking foward to that. "

Dragon Quest. I don't have to name a specific one. They all play the same. Also, all JRPGs should allow you to whistle a random encounter to attack you instantly. Running around in circles is dumb.
 
 

Chrono Trigger.

FFXII and Star Ocean: The Last Hope for it's real time combat, and Persona 3 and 4 for it's turned based tweaked combat.

" FFXII and Star Ocean: The Last Hope for it's real time combat, and Persona 3 and 4 for it's turned based tweaked combat. "

" FFXII and Star Ocean: The Last Hope for it's real time combat, and Persona 3 and 4 for it's turned based tweaked combat. "

I'm going to say Grandia II but not that awful PC/PS2 port you've posted. My vote goes to the DC version. 
 
Oh and also the 3D Tales games are great, love Vesperia and Symphonia's fighting. There's something to be said for fun button mashing.

All I know is I hate the bull shit that is a mix between turn based and action, those always suck. I either like FFX stuff or Kingdom hearts stuff.

Crono Cross had a pretty good system.
 
Also i would say i enjoyed Vagrant Story's real time combat system, it was sort of the first incarnation of the V.A.T.S system that fallout 3 uses but in jrpg form.
 

Tale of Symphonia, Baten Kaitos: Origins, or The World Ends With You. 
 
 ToS's combat felt fluid, even when not playing as Lloyd. And the only time there was ever a problem with getting stuck in a corner was in the single battles in the coliseum.
 
BK:O's battles added a discard feature and a magic guage (more like an over limit) that was really addicting and rewarding in all of its flashiness.
 
TWEWY enabled you to set six different attacks at once that all used the stylus, but it was organized in such a way a fumbling with them never became a problem.
 
I can't really bring myself to pick a favorite in terms of combat.

Dear OP: Grandia II did indeed have some awesome combat. My favorite actually has a strong emphasis on movement and placing as well and honestly a lot of games have something similar to that if you actually look around in the genre. Anyway: 
 
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter hands down as my favorite. It took some ideas from more "tactic" style games Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, etc and fused it with some of the traditional turn based combat (sort of) while keeping a nice pace to keep action constantly happening.
 
Essentially enemies would be on the dungeon map and when you came into contact with them a battle would start directly where you were standing. Your characters had action points which determined every action they could do from moving to attacking. 1 step drained one point from the bar and once you were positioned to attack you could either save the remaining points to add to your point total next turn or spend the rest to attack. The cool part of attacking is how you had different levels of attacks and could chain these together until you ran out of action points along with a focus on positioning for AOE attacks and such. The only small problem is that there was really no limit to item use so you could spam heals if you wanted too, the game was still hard though(some may argue too hard). This video is a pretty good example of its combat. 
 
Honorable mentions go to FFXII, Grandia series, Tales series (Symphonia for now, though I imagine Vesperia is better but I don't own it yet sadly), Mario & Luigi series is fun though a bit easy, and of course Parasite Eve was always mad fun.

Fourteen years after its conception, I am still discovering new and awesome ways to combine Materia into effective combat strategies and brilliant auto-mechanics. 
 
A decade ago I first started training, multiplying, combining and experimenting with Materia, and it is still as fun today as it was then. 
 
There are still youtube videos posted regularly with Materia use that I hadn't thought of before.  And I have not even collected them all yet.
 
The level of customization, professionalisation, creativity and fun it brings to the combat is still unmatched in any other (J)RPG I have ever played.
 
That's why the answer in this thread, I'm afraid, is - as always:
 

" Fourteen years after its conception, I am still discovering new and awesome ways to combine Materia into effective combat strategies and brilliant auto-mechanics. 
 
A decade ago I first started training, multiplying, combining and experimenting with Materia, and it is still as fun today as it was then. 
 
There are still youtube videos posted regularly with Materia use that I hadn't thought of before.  And I have not even collected them all yet.
 
The level of customization, professionalisation, creativity and fun it brings to the combat is still unmatched in any other (J)RPG I have ever played.
 
That's why the answer in this thread, I'm afraid, is - as always:
 

"

" I'm going to say Grandia II but not that awful PC/PS2 port you've posted. My vote goes to the DC version."

Y's.  You just run into stuff.

" A bloody shame that Grandia III never made it to western shores. I remember looking foward to that. "

POKEMON.  Call me a hater.

Persona 4 and FFX

" @Seppli said:

" A bloody shame that Grandia III never made it to western shores. I remember looking foward to that. "

huh? I own this game. In fact I'm looking at the box right now. "

Grandia 2, hands up for the game! Totally blew my mind away when I played it the first time. And it's still my favorite JRPG. Oh and the conversations and the amazing story, the cherry on top!

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter has a unique and interesting turn based combat system.
 
Don't try the game unless you like Rogue-likes though. A death in the game means you restart from the beginning.  And maps are re-randomized. 
 
I think FF12 has one of the best combat in JRPGs too.

I liked FF9's system and levelling system the best out of any RPG.

Persona 4.

FFXII for the best battle system, gambits are nice!
 
Someone mentioned materia, but that was just customization right? That's the best character customization system, but it still ran on the old turn based ATB.
 
Anyway FFXII is where it's at for me.

" @Meowayne said:

" Fourteen years after its conception, I am still discovering new and awesome ways to combine Materia into effective combat strategies and brilliant auto-mechanics. 
 
A decade ago I first started training, multiplying, combining and experimenting with Materia, and it is still as fun today as it was then. 
 
There are still youtube videos posted regularly with Materia use that I hadn't thought of before.  And I have not even collected them all yet.
 
The level of customization, professionalisation, creativity and fun it brings to the combat is still unmatched in any other (J)RPG I have ever played.
 
That's why the answer in this thread, I'm afraid, is - as always:
 

"

As always... what? "

Lost Odyssey, since it is one of only a handful of JRPG's I have ever enjoyed.

Grandia 2.  Wasn't a huge fan of Tales, too fast to be thoughtful.  I wouldn't be surprised if FFXIII makes it high on this list.

I haven't played many JRPGs, but I do enjoy Persona 3 and 4s combat. It just flows really well.

Grandia 2, you say?
 
RIGHT ANSWER.

I liked FFXII a lot.

 

    How about you guys? Know any standout combat systems amongst the tons of uninspired, slow and boring trash out there? "

I would have to say FFX. Best turn based combat I have played. You have the ability to swap and use all of your party members in the same battle! I mean common, how do you get better than that? I also really enjoyed Eternal Sonata's battle system as well as Lost Odyssey's.