Re: Let's Talk Combat
For me at least, I don't think the question comes down to a preferred style, so much as a preferred level of engagement.
There have been a lot of games that use turn based combat, from muds, to card games like slay the spire or crazy party, to entombed, the wastes, eamon, browser rpgs etc.
Defender is probably correct that breed memorial is likely the closest we get to a true active time battle system, although a dark room and more recently untold are also good examples, and then of course you get games which, though turn based, still mess around with turn order and initiative to break up the you go, they go method of most combats, the way entombed or Puppet nightmares do, and then of course there are the action point based battles like smugglers.
However, for me, what makes combat interesting is not necessarily any specific style, so much as my own engagement with that style, and how much attention I need to pay to what is going on.
If I'm just spamming one spell or attack over and over, the combat is just not going to be interesting to me, no matter what style it is.
heck, if I'm playing real time combat and just wailing away with the same weapon over and again, the combat is not going to hold my interest half as much, although we've had comparatively few real time combat rpgs in audiogame terms thus far.
for me, an engaging combat system is simply one that requires me to actually consider what my enemy is doing and how I react to it, or one which requires me to witness a current situation, and play accordingly.
if in a combat, I'm fighting a huge dragon, and it suddenly breathes fire and my actions do not change, then the combat hasn't engaged me.
This is also why I personally am much less a fan of ridiculously complex equipment and stat balancing systems, since if essentially your going to win every combat before it happens based on the gear the player equips, then what is the point in having the combat at all, after all what is the point of fighting a huge fire breathing dragon if I know that I've already got a high enough dodge bonus for all of it's fire to miss me, so don't have to change what my party does in the least.
So for me at least, I don't really mind what sort of combat a game employs, so long as it is engaging and actually requires me, the player to be an active part in the battle.
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