I'm a huge fan of the old-school Final Fantasy games, and want to see what that style of combat would be like if there were a bit more tactics involved.

I prototyped a combat system that's just complex enough to make you think about what you're doing during a battle, and slapped together a crude-looking dungeon to see how it would play.

Use WASD to move, E to confirm selections, and Q to cancel selections.

Here's how combat works. Enemies have HP, and they die when it reaches 0. They also have orange dots, called Fury, which they randomly gain every turn. The more Fury they have, the harder they hit. Some of your attacks will reduce their Fury. The idea is to manage every enemy's Fury as you're attacking them.

Enemies also have a Charge meter at the bottom. Once it's full, they will begin a charge-up attack. The target party member is shown next to the enemy, and next turn that party member will be hit for big damage. The attack is vulnerable to being cancelled by some of your party members' attacks, which will prevent this damage from occurring. The turn before the enemy charges up, their meter will begin to flash as a reminder that you should prepare to cancel the attack.

Each party member has unique attacks and mechanics.

Locke can Strike for good damage and build up his Focus meter, Sever to deal moderate Fury damage, and spend his Focus to Backstab an enemy for big damage and interrupt their charge-up attack.

Edgar has a crossbow that can hold two bolts. Steel bolts deal good damage and also damage enemy Fury. Barbed bolts deal less damage than Steel, but can interrupt enemy charge-up attacks and deal heavy Fury damage. Explosive bolts deal high damage. He has to Load bolts two at a time before he can fire them on subsequent turns.

Sabin has different attacks depending on his Focus meter, with most of his attacks increasing his Focus by one. At 0 he can use weak attacks, and at 1 he can use a strong Hook attack as well as spend his Focus to Sweep and interrupt an enemy charge-up attack.  At 2, he can spend that Focus to use the powerful Haymaker attack.

Cyan is more powerful when he has at least one Focus. Sheathe will bring his Focus up to 2, although he will lose one on each subsequent turn. Slash deals high damage, plus bonus damage if he has any Focus. Skewer deals lower damage while also dealing more Fury damage, plus bonus Fury damage if he has any Focus. Parry, which is only available at two Focus, will interrupt an enemy charge-up attack and deal heavy Fury damage.

Your party heals in between battles. This dungeon is possible to get through without any thought, but in a finished version of this, you wouldn't heal between battles and would actually care about taking damage. There would be a healing mechanic of some kind, although it would be limited so that you can't just spam heal through everything.

More information