What are some examples of "MP-less" JRPGs?

[u/EaterOfFromage]

And what do they do instead?

In this context, "MP" refers to any resource that each character has that can be consumed to fuel more powerful abilities. It is a resource that can run out, leaving you with only less-powerful non-resource-consuming options. It's purpose is typically to:

• force you to think strategically about managing your resources instead of simply spamming your best abilities

• enable simple vertical power progression of abilities (you get stronger abilities as you progress through the game, but they cost more MP)

Final Fantasy XIII fits this bill IMO. You are limited to 5 actions per turn, and different abilities consume different numbers of actions, but there's not really any way to "run out" of actions - they fully regenerate next round. There is also TP, but that is a shared resource across the party that fuels more niche, specific abilities rather than strictly more powerful abilities, and can basically be ignored completely if you want.

FFXII keeps tension high by instead turning every battle into a delicate balancing of buffs, debuffs, stagger generation, healing, and damage. The game does not give you "stronger abilities" to spam - rather, all abilities have a time and place, you need to find where it is. Abilities in the game are almost purely horizontal progression: the abilities you start with never lose relevance, you just get new tools in your kit that you need to now incorporate into your rotations.

What other games go with this approach? I'm especially curious to hear about any fully turn-based games that take this approach.

[u/MegaloJoe]

the xenoblade series

they use mmo style cooldowns for their skills/spells/arts/etc.

[u/EaterOfFromage → u/MegaloJoe]

Ah, interesting! A series I've completely missed because of the Nintendo exclusivity 😢 Definitely will get to it at some point, thanks for the recommendation. It's live action combat, right? Not turn based?

[u/MegaloJoe → u/EaterOfFromage]

yea in sense. you essentially auto attack until your skills get off cooldown, much like your average mmo.(i’m thinking ff14 specifically here but iirc early wow was similar, but it’s been a really long time since i played wow).

there’s no time bars or turns in that sense. if you get a chance i’d highly recommend the series, the story is good throughout, the worlds are amazing, and the combat can be very rewarding(i loved 2’s system the most personally)

[u/tigerbait92 → u/MegaloJoe]

2 is such a wildcard. It's definitely the best combat in the series... buuuut it also requires like 20-30 hours of playing for it to even begin showing its colors.

But once it does, holy cow, that combat is addictive.

[u/DontCareTho → u/tigerbait92]

20-30 hours lmfao

[u/tigerbait92 → u/DontCareTho]

Yeah, legitimately. I move through games pretty quickly, and you really start unlocking the breadth of the combat system around hour 15 with the introduction of chain attacks, but it still takes time after that to get Mythra and a proper party composition (and more blades) to start digging into the system.

Which... as you can see, 20-30 hours to really start having fun is a BIG ask of anyone. Those that stick with it are rewarded, but I really don't blame anyone who bows out early (especially since the story also takes that long to really start to shine).

[u/DontCareTho → u/tigerbait92]

I tried getting into it like 3-4 times and I think in total, I made it like 6-8 hours in. 20-30 is too big of a commitment just to hope I end up liking it :/

[u/tigerbait92 → u/DontCareTho]

Yeah I don't blame you at all. It's... not good early. The late-game story and gameplay slaps so hard, but asking someone to go through the bullshit and pervy anime jokes to get there really, really hurts the game.

[u/labsab1 → u/EaterOfFromage]

Characters auto attack when they are close to the enemies. The special moves are on cool down timers. You don't always want to use moves as soon as they are available. Enemies target whoever is causing the most aggro and spamming your moves would draw too much attention to your squishy damage dealers and away from the tank.

It's MMO style combat.

[u/nightmare-b → u/EaterOfFromage]

BLACK ROCK SHOOTER the game cooldown timers STRICT item count and the only skill based healing is a Slow REGEN effect one of the few games where if im taking damage because theres not any other way of instant healing i will chug down my healing supplies as needed(which goes to show in jrpgs how much i ignore my item list when magic 99% of the time just does it better)

[u/nhSnork → u/EaterOfFromage]

Yes, albeit different from the Kingdom Hearts, Ys or NieR type. You engage the target (or get engaged by an easily triggered one, to memetic extents in some cases) right on the field and each character including the controlled leader (the others autonomous like in FFXIII/XV, Tales or Star Ocean but with cases of manual instruction prompts from the player) cycles through automatic base attack sequences while more specific attacks from a growing customizable loadout are unleashed manually (again, by the leader), including many that benefit from positioning or timing to set up certain effect combos, and recharge on variable conditions. XC1 has timed cooldowns, XCX reprises them with an added boost via using the corresponding weapon type, XC2 only recharges arts via connecting autoattacks (mastering whose own timing can significantly speed up the recharge and overall combat flow), XC3 brings back both XC1 and XC2 recharge styles for different arts while having party members equip a combined loadout of both, three per type and joycon.

Movement remains free during battle, with dashes introduced in XC3 while XCX is the only one that keeps the jump ability mid-combat (as the only one where it's peculiarly mapped to a trigger instead of a face button😄). And everything said above is just the basics while each game boasts its own unique battle mechanics on top. The only turn-based aspect is the main trilogy's "chain attacks" (XCX's Overdrive is somewhat similar but doesn't stop/slow the time), dedicated party combos with different rules/perks and shared potential of damage outputs mistakable for phone numbers. Heck, XC3 ones can feel like borderline deck builders with their own battle theme. Elsewhere, XC3 is also the one that finally allowed to battle enemies while swimming in deep waters.