turn-based jrpgs

[water dog]

The problem with a lot of turn based games is that you can't do wrong in battle. You can't pick the wrong move for the situation and get fucked over. Most the time, you just have one brute force guy use their best move over and over while the party members heal. There is no incentive to buffing/debffing other than that it makes the fight easier, but all fights are cake walk button smash fests anyway so those turns would be better spent smashing your attack command instead. Speaking of using your most powerful moves, skills rarely have practical diversity. There should be situations in which all of my skills are useful, not just the ones that push the highest numbers. Another huge problem with MOST turn based RPGs is that every character can do everything. It's ridiculous, and makes every single battle such a flat experience, not to mention having multiple party members beyond the max sized becomes pointless.

Turn based as a genre isn't a bad thing, if you ask me, it's the stale limbo the genre has been in for years now that make it shit. Also reaction/precision/timing gimmicks should never be a necessary part of your battle system. This should be true for all games, honestly. Any skill that isn't trainable (arguably reaction/precision/timing can be trained but it doesn't come natural to everyone) shouldn't be necessary for your game to operate.