Current Events > So, why is Final Fantasy IX's combat so slow?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It can't be because of the 4 party members because it's slow when you only have 1-3 in your party
---

You playing the Pal version?
---

UnfairRepresent posted...

You playing the Pal version?

I'm not playing any version right now, but I just downloaded the Steam version so I have all the PS games on there. I'm about to play it, like I have a lot of times, but that's why I'm asking. The ATB is so slow in this game
---

That was the games biggest(only?) flaw

I hear the speed up feature on steam helps with that though
---

IX was a throwback to old RPGs, and it took some of the bad stuff like making the battle pacing more deliberate.

It was also an attempt to fix some wonky ATB issues 8 had; even on the lowest speed settings you could blink and go from empty to full if you boosted the speed stat.
---

PS1 was near its limit most likely
---

The_Juice_ posted...

IX was a throwback to old RPGs, and it took some of the bad stuff like making the battle pacing more deliberate.

It was also an attempt to fix some wonky ATB issues 8 had; even on the lowest speed settings you could blink and go from empty to full if you boosted the speed stat.

That last bit is true. Nothing worse than trying to spam skip to get limit break to pop up and only getting 2-3 chances before your support (aura and meltdown spammer) comes up. Zell spamming that O X into v^ endlessly is lazy but an effective way to deal way more than Lionheart ever could. And for squall, you'd ideally never get any other weapon besides his default and strongest weapon because he would have his limit break pool muddied.

In that regard, trance is a refreshing change of pace.
---

More issues:

8 had this "quirk" where atb took ever so slight charges between actions because the game had trouble loading things in a timely manner, and this could lead to actions that were already inputted being leapfrogged by higher priority actions.

Also even if you set the ATB to wait, the timer would still move while you were selecting a target. (Also applied to selecting double or triple) This was a big issue on the super bosses who had high speed because you could be attacked in the window between selecting an action and selecting the target, even through mashing.

I like 8 but it has a lot of problems lol
---