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THE BEST BATTLE ANIMATIONS YOU'VE SEEN?
Posts
StormCrow
2877
StormCrow
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CloseI think this is one aspect of graphics/visuals that I don't see get a lot of discussion because it's not as make-or-break as maps or sprites, but what are some of the best battle animations you've ever seen, whether in RM games or commercial games? (Although the focus is slightly bent towards RM games since this is in GD&D.)
I'd say monster hunter but then .. oops. Yeah, good question. It usually isn't as much a focus (or a necessity for most RM games, let's be honest)
The more and more modern games I play, the more I prefer simple in RPGs - the old final fantasies and hero's realm, that sort of thing. Combat in ye olde RPGs is just an abstraction. The characters are not literally standing across from each other, trading blows. They're feinting, parrying, diving for cover, that's what the player is supposed to see in their minds. At least that's how I see it.
But for best looking combat, I'd have to say Chrono Trigger.
But for best looking combat, I'd have to say Chrono Trigger.
StormCrow
2877
I'm revisiting a real old project and remembering how much I used to obsess over creating cool sometimes overly elaborate battle animations at that age (nevermind that my mapping was shit and all my other graphics clashed). Then I got really lazy about battle animations around the time VX came out and used either the default ones in the editor or slight modifications of them whenever possible. Now I'm kind of getting into it again, in part due to being able to cherry pick from the like 180 or something excellent animations made by (I think) lexusx.
Milennin
2060
For me, the Golden Sun games left a huge impression on me with how cool all the spells and summons looked. Plus, it was really nice how you could skip or speed up the animation with a button press if you wanted to get on with it instead.
I think I might have played only like one or two RPG Maker games that had nice custom animations (don't remember the titles), but even the most basic attacks and spells took up so much time, it just got really annoying after a while and it made me not want to play more.
I think I might have played only like one or two RPG Maker games that had nice custom animations (don't remember the titles), but even the most basic attacks and spells took up so much time, it just got really annoying after a while and it made me not want to play more.
Darken
3952
Strictly talking about RPGmaker here:
What's great about Ranmasters animations is they have a lot of "wait" to them, there's a pacing to the animations that makes it feel closer to an official game for some reason. When you have timing like that, there's more impact to even the most simplest of moves.
Still holds up to this day, the smoothness of how the character dashes across the screen and the limit break-like animation is so great. This blew my mind then and is still pretty nice. It's all likely done through pictures and CBS programming so there's not even really an editor to go by here.
Not so much the animation but rather the presentation of them. I kind of enjoy the creativity and use of prerendered 3D here.
It's hard to talk about Battle Animations on their own since they could allude to either particle effects or how well mocapped the fighting stances are etc. But I prefer to look at it as the art of an RPG character attacking the enemy. And presenting that as smooth as possible. One of my fav commercial examples is XenoGears. Where I think they really take on the examples set forth by fighting games in order to electrify the RPG strategy that's really going on.
https://youtu.be/yL-_0Yo4ZMQ?t=19s
Again it's all about the principle of anticipation and timing. I could probably write an essay on how it all works in the context of video game animations and why they can be interesting to focus on. But atm I just want an excuse to showcase Ranmaster more.
What's great about Ranmasters animations is they have a lot of "wait" to them, there's a pacing to the animations that makes it feel closer to an official game for some reason. When you have timing like that, there's more impact to even the most simplest of moves.
Still holds up to this day, the smoothness of how the character dashes across the screen and the limit break-like animation is so great. This blew my mind then and is still pretty nice. It's all likely done through pictures and CBS programming so there's not even really an editor to go by here.
Not so much the animation but rather the presentation of them. I kind of enjoy the creativity and use of prerendered 3D here.
It's hard to talk about Battle Animations on their own since they could allude to either particle effects or how well mocapped the fighting stances are etc. But I prefer to look at it as the art of an RPG character attacking the enemy. And presenting that as smooth as possible. One of my fav commercial examples is XenoGears. Where I think they really take on the examples set forth by fighting games in order to electrify the RPG strategy that's really going on.
https://youtu.be/yL-_0Yo4ZMQ?t=19s
Again it's all about the principle of anticipation and timing. I could probably write an essay on how it all works in the context of video game animations and why they can be interesting to focus on. But atm I just want an excuse to showcase Ranmaster more.
one thing to mention about Ranmasters as well is the good use of flashing. By default rm2k (or any rpg maker really)'s flashes are pretty bad, because they just add a flat color with opacity on top then smoothly fade out. By making it flash back and forth like that it looks like something from the SNES which works hand in hand with the rest of the stuff.
I really dont get why in 2018 no rpg maker has additive flashing... welp
BTW i wanna present a counterargument to "battle animations are unimportant"; I've seen more than a few good rpg makers whose battles were ruined by poor animations -- still playable and fun but the use of default or underwhelming animations took much of the fun and excitement away in the battle system.
Good battle animations help set the pacing of the battle so you're constantly darting your eyes around points of importance, they should be communicative and consistent so they always inform the player correctly, and they should feel rewarding to use. When the player unlocks a new spell (especially if it's a powerful or otherwise unusual spell) if the animation is underwhelming, it won't be nearly as fun as if it's exciting and memorable so idk
Animations are important guys dont underestimate them
Thankfully there's plenty of awesome in terms of battle animations on the internet :^3
I really dont get why in 2018 no rpg maker has additive flashing... welp
BTW i wanna present a counterargument to "battle animations are unimportant"; I've seen more than a few good rpg makers whose battles were ruined by poor animations -- still playable and fun but the use of default or underwhelming animations took much of the fun and excitement away in the battle system.
Good battle animations help set the pacing of the battle so you're constantly darting your eyes around points of importance, they should be communicative and consistent so they always inform the player correctly, and they should feel rewarding to use. When the player unlocks a new spell (especially if it's a powerful or otherwise unusual spell) if the animation is underwhelming, it won't be nearly as fun as if it's exciting and memorable so idk
Animations are important guys dont underestimate them
Thankfully there's plenty of awesome in terms of battle animations on the internet :^3
@JosephSeraph
You make a fair point. My personal preference is simplicity, because I like the older RPGs for the most part, but really whatever fits the overall aesthetic of the game is what's best.
It's not a game, but anyone ever see the video for The Sword's "Used Future"? It's done like a jRPG and has some really cool animations.
You make a fair point. My personal preference is simplicity, because I like the older RPGs for the most part, but really whatever fits the overall aesthetic of the game is what's best.
It's not a game, but anyone ever see the video for The Sword's "Used Future"? It's done like a jRPG and has some really cool animations.
zeello
40
Battle animations are a very good way to help the player digest information about how the battle is playing out, who's doing what etc. So it would be ludicrous to suggest that they are unimportant.
Kaempfer
1932
Yeah, but I think the point wasn't that battle animations aren't important, it's that elaborate animations aren't important. Quick, clear animations can convey a lot of information. Something like FF:Tactics has an interesting dynamic where you occasionally get a slightly more complex version of the animation, with the caster saying a few words beforehand. It's neat.
I really don't like long, drawn-out animations, despite how nice they look sometimes. I think that's probably a pretty benign opinion most people can get behind. When you're seeing the same thing over and over and over... you just want it to be over.
@Darken:
That first game is sort of the ideal RM2k* combat style, for me. It's paced super well. Not too slow, but slow enough to let the smooth animations shine.
Velsarbor has got to have some of the best cutscenes in RM2k*, but the battle system seems... impossible to keep at that level of quality for even a short, full-length game. In my books, a good looking system that scales well beats a great looking system that drains the creator's will to live.
@JS:
oh no, that video of FFXII with the slowed audio due to emulation errors is making me want to play through it again, what have you done?
I really don't like long, drawn-out animations, despite how nice they look sometimes. I think that's probably a pretty benign opinion most people can get behind. When you're seeing the same thing over and over and over... you just want it to be over.
@Darken:
That first game is sort of the ideal RM2k* combat style, for me. It's paced super well. Not too slow, but slow enough to let the smooth animations shine.
Velsarbor has got to have some of the best cutscenes in RM2k*, but the battle system seems... impossible to keep at that level of quality for even a short, full-length game. In my books, a good looking system that scales well beats a great looking system that drains the creator's will to live.
@JS:
oh no, that video of FFXII with the slowed audio due to emulation errors is making me want to play through it again, what have you done?
Darken
3952
author=Kaempfer
Velsarbor has got to have some of the best cutscenes in RM2k*, but the battle system seems... impossible to keep at that level of quality for even a short, full-length game. In my books, a good looking system that scales well beats a great looking system that drains the creator's will to live.
CrossCode by the same creator is keeping up with that quality actually. Although it is an action game it definitely retains that magical smoothness. Reminder to pick it up since it just came out.
Edit: Actually why aren't we talking about this more???
Kaempfer
1932
CrossCode is a pretty amazing game- I tried the demo and was very nearly blown away. The load times are absurd, but that might just be my potato computer (although the game runs perfectly other than that, so?). Everyone reading this topic should go and play the demo, at the very least!
I more meant that level of quality... in RM2k*, which works against you at every turn for things like big flashy cutscenes and complex CBSes. I had no idea the Velsarbor guy(s?) went on to work on CrossCode, although now that you mention it I can see some of the influence, even from the little bit I've played. Neat!
I more meant that level of quality... in RM2k*, which works against you at every turn for things like big flashy cutscenes and complex CBSes. I had no idea the Velsarbor guy(s?) went on to work on CrossCode, although now that you mention it I can see some of the influence, even from the little bit I've played. Neat!
LordBlueRouge
2143
...I was originally planning on posting this the moment I got back, but I got some bad news today – so I wanted to post this before I forget, because I always thought this thread was cool and peeps should be talking more about animation in rpgs in general: (this thread was cool too!)
It's really cool that you mentioned this Kaempfer, I agree, I always thought Breath of Fire 3 was the biggest offender of this; like the game is really well animated, but since it came out in 97/April 98 it’s very much product of it’s time. And a lot of that time is spent just watching pauses, or waiting for turns to play out in battle - it's such a chore to play through again because of this. Breath of Fire 4 fixed all that and even gave you a button to skip certain animations - but technological struggles aside, I really liked how Breath of Fire 3 used it's character animations, to show character development:
Like when you first play as Ryu, he doesn't know how to handle a sword so he swings it like this:
But once Rei and Teepo disappear his sword swing changes to this:
I wish more games did that, just showing really subtle character development through character animations, instead of just dialogue or in game cutscenes. There's more ways to tell stories in rpgs.
...Anyways, I wanted to mention Aberrant2. I mentioned it in the archive thread awhile ago. The reason why I'm mentioning it now is because I finally got it to work on my laptop and I really think it's worth checking out if you're into rpg battle animations and you're interested to see what rpgmaker2003 can do for you as a developer. What's interesting about Abberant2 is how the game often uses all 25 of rpgmaker2003's battle animation frames for some of it's animation:
Idle Animation
It's very fluid, almost needlessly so, but it's really neat to look at and underneath it all there's this really great understanding of how rpgmaker can work within it's own limitations.
Attack Animation
Victory Animation
...plus it's a comedy game, so you get stuff like this, where it's poking fun at Final Fantasy 7's over the top battle animations - "Oh wow, it looks like he's gonna do something really gosh dang cool - no wait, that's too much work, let's just give him muscles and have a giant laser shoot out of his hands" I love it! ❤ It makes me laugh everytime I see it.
But yeah, like there's 7 characters, including an axe wielding undead skeleton that flashes the Brazilian flag when it uses a cure spell(???):
But yeah, these probably aren't the best animations, but these are certainly the best rpgmaker2003 battle animations I've seen so far and I'm certain there are more rpgmaker games like this out there we haven't seen yet.
author=Kaempfer
I really don't like long, drawn-out animations, despite how nice they look sometimes. I think that's probably a pretty benign opinion most people can get behind. When you're seeing the same thing over and over and over... you just want it to be over.
It's really cool that you mentioned this Kaempfer, I agree, I always thought Breath of Fire 3 was the biggest offender of this; like the game is really well animated, but since it came out in 97/April 98 it’s very much product of it’s time. And a lot of that time is spent just watching pauses, or waiting for turns to play out in battle - it's such a chore to play through again because of this. Breath of Fire 4 fixed all that and even gave you a button to skip certain animations - but technological struggles aside, I really liked how Breath of Fire 3 used it's character animations, to show character development:
Like when you first play as Ryu, he doesn't know how to handle a sword so he swings it like this:
But once Rei and Teepo disappear his sword swing changes to this:
I wish more games did that, just showing really subtle character development through character animations, instead of just dialogue or in game cutscenes. There's more ways to tell stories in rpgs.
...Anyways, I wanted to mention Aberrant2. I mentioned it in the archive thread awhile ago. The reason why I'm mentioning it now is because I finally got it to work on my laptop and I really think it's worth checking out if you're into rpg battle animations and you're interested to see what rpgmaker2003 can do for you as a developer. What's interesting about Abberant2 is how the game often uses all 25 of rpgmaker2003's battle animation frames for some of it's animation:
Idle Animation
It's very fluid, almost needlessly so, but it's really neat to look at and underneath it all there's this really great understanding of how rpgmaker can work within it's own limitations.
Attack Animation
Victory Animation
...plus it's a comedy game, so you get stuff like this, where it's poking fun at Final Fantasy 7's over the top battle animations - "Oh wow, it looks like he's gonna do something really gosh dang cool - no wait, that's too much work, let's just give him muscles and have a giant laser shoot out of his hands" I love it! ❤ It makes me laugh everytime I see it.
But yeah, like there's 7 characters, including an axe wielding undead skeleton that flashes the Brazilian flag when it uses a cure spell(???):
But yeah, these probably aren't the best animations, but these are certainly the best rpgmaker2003 battle animations I've seen so far and I'm certain there are more rpgmaker games like this out there we haven't seen yet.
TheRpgmakerAddict
60377
author=LordBlueRouge
But yeah, these probably aren't the best animations, but these are certainly the best rpgmaker2003 battle animations I've seen so far and I'm certain there are more rpgmaker games like this out there we haven't seen yet.
THANKS to you I was able to discover this game (and also the prequel). Nice animations, and also great game.
My favourites instead were those of Psycho Platoon, I love the art style and the animations and the effects of the moves are really professional (combat start at 17:21). Impressive work considering all the other games are almost cool as this.
LordBlueRouge
2143
author=TheRpgmakerAddict
THANKS to you I was able to discover this game (and also the prequel). Nice animations, and also great game.
My favourites instead were those of Psycho Platoon, I love the art style and the animations and the effects of the moves are really professional (combat start at 17:21). Impressive work considering all the other games are almost cool as this.
Very very cool find TheRpgMakerAddict♥♥♥!!!
Holy shit, I lost it, at the umberella shotgun part at 18:14:
Thank you for sharing this dude! I really gotta finish that archive forum.
One of the things I wanted to do, once I had a place to work again,
and I got the archive stuff down was just to start sharing and discover new games and rpgmakers communities.
Thank you again for this TheRpgMakerAddict, it just confirms my beliefs that there's some really wicked cool rpgmaker games
out there that we haven't seen XD. Another cool thing too is that, usually japanese rpgmaker games aren't as resource heavy, so they're usually very easy to get working on stuff like easyrpg on the wii etc.
But yeah, we should exchange info at some point. Thank you for finding this and sharing it!
author=LordBlueRougeauthor=TheRpgmakerAddictVery very cool find TheRpgMakerAddict♥♥♥!!!
THANKS to you I was able to discover this game (and also the prequel). Nice animations, and also great game.
My favourites instead were those of Psycho Platoon, I love the art style and the animations and the effects of the moves are really professional (combat start at 17:21). Impressive work considering all the other games are almost cool as this.
Holy shit, I lost it, at the umberella shotgun part at 18:14:
Thank you for sharing this dude! I really gotta finish that archive forum.
One of the things I wanted to do, once I had a place to work again,
and I got the archive stuff down was just to start sharing and discover new games and rpgmakers communities.
Thank you again for this TheRpgMakerAddict, it just confirms my beliefs that there's some really wicked cool rpgmaker games
out there that we haven't seen XD. Another cool thing too is that, usually japanese rpgmaker games aren't as resource heavy, so they're usually very easy to get working on stuff like easyrpg on the wii etc.
But yeah, we should exchange info at some point. Thank you for finding this and sharing it!
Those are the ones that make you go "THAT'S an RPG Maker game?"
Here's a question. Anybody know of any games that take advantage of front-view battle systems to give the appearance of a first person perspective?
TheRpgmakerAddict
60377
author=LordBlueRouge
Thank you again for this TheRpgMakerAddict, it just confirms my beliefs that there's some really wicked cool rpgmaker games out there that we haven't seen XD.
http://hentaifilm.sitemix.jp
Here you will find and download and play all the Hentaifilm rpgmaker games if you can read japanese or have Visual Novel Reader(they are not Hentai games at all but they all look great).
SweetMeltyLove
587
I always like browsing animations on pinterest, such as this one and the related ones, or the amazing stuff at the chinese forum CGWell.com (use the browser's translation option)
