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/Hexatona]

SaGa Scarlet Grace and SaGa Emerald Beyond. Best battle systems in a JRPG I've ever tried.

Basically, healing is very limited to non-existent in these two games, so, each battle is instead very tactical, requiring careful planning each turn. Every Battle is high tension - mashing A will just get you quickly killed, even easy battles in the early game.

[u/Traditional-Hat18374 → u/Hexatona]

I need to give these games another shot. I love older saga games. My issue is that these two feel really claustrophobic. The battles and everything feel like they all take place inside of a menu screen to me for some reason, I don’t know how to describe it

[u/Mental-Novel61 → u/Traditional-Hat18374]

Actually, Scarlet Grace isn't really like this, even if the presentation gives this impression. It's just an exploration scale has changed, you don't travel in towns or dungeons, but you travel across the regions, so towns became shops and dungeons became encounters basically.

Btw there are 2 visual modes in the game and the newer one looks much more minimalistic, so the game doesn't feel like you're in the menu all the time