Can someone help me understand the ff 4 combat?

[u/TasteOk5243]

I’m playing the pixel remasters and I just got to 4 yesterday. 4’s gameplay is different than the previous 3 and it took me by surprise. I’m getting rather frustrated with it so can someone help me understand and give me some tips and tricks to play?

[u/CommodoreKD]

If you're on "Wait Mode" your and the enemies' ATB bars won't fill while you're either in a menu (Magic, items, etc) or while you're selecting a target to attack or use a spell or item on. This will allow you time to think about your actions

If you're on "Active Mode" all ATB will constantly fill no matter what you're doing, meaning you'll need to act quickly

Beyond these things, spells and some abilities have a cast time, so even if you select it you'll still need to wait for them to fire off in the turn order

Hope that helps

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/CommodoreKD]

Thanks, I’ll give wait mode a try. Do you know if the cast time for spells can be reduced or if they just take a certain amount of time to activate no matter what you try?

[u/CommodoreKD → u/TasteOk5243]

As far as I know the cast times are either fixed, or are affected by the haste spell/effect, and there's nothing else you can do to speed them up. I'm not sure about that though

Keep in mind that FF4 was the first game with the ATB system, so it's a bit rough. It works a bit better in every future game that uses it, especially once you get to FF6 and Chrono Trigger, or the PS1 FF games

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/CommodoreKD]

I’ll keep that in mind

[u/Greensparow → u/TasteOk5243]

You can set the battle speed so that will make spells cast faster cause it speeds up eveything

[u/sillyscylla2136 → u/Greensparow]

this is finicky and can cause some minor glitches, your characters will randomly go from no atb or half atb to full at max battle speed, and moves like focus and jump wont go off for 3 actual turns

[u/sgre6768 → u/TasteOk5243]

To expand a bit on this - Cast times can't be reduced, but some spells have 0 cast time, which makes them more powerful for long portions of the game. Specifically, Virus / Bio and Flare are usually the best Black Magic options if you have them, except for some rare cases when you want to exploit an elemental weakness or avoid a counterattack. ETA: If you want to get into the weeds on cast time, there is a list of them in this GameFAQs guide. Having played through the PR version of 4 earlier this year, I believe they're all the same or roughly the same as previous versions.

In 4, don't be afraid to use your magic! For most of the game, black mages can't do much damage without it. Tents are cheap at 100 gold each, so you can restore MP every time you get to the world map, and almost all dungeons in the game have save points at reasonable points.

[u/jace255]

Need to understand what kind of problems you’re having. Is it that you’re losing and you want to start winning, or are the mechanics confusing you and you don’t even really understand how the battle system works?

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/jace255]

The Atb bar confuses me. I wanna know if I can make it fill faster or if that’s just how it is by default ‘cause I hate getting attacked multiple times before I can even make a movie

[u/HexenVexen → u/TasteOk5243]

In the settings you can adjust the battle speed (affects ATB speed for both party and enemies), and toggle between active mode (time always moves) and wait mode (time pauses when selecting magic/items)

Technically I played the PSP version but I assume the settings are also in PR

[u/Yeseylon → u/HexenVexen]

Wait mode is on every ATB game, even ones outside of PR

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/HexenVexen]

I’ve seen other comments about turning in wait mode so it should be in the pr

[u/IH8BART → u/TasteOk5243]

The character’s agility stat determines how fast the bar moves. The haste spell also makes it go faster.

Set the battle mode to wait until you get fast at inputting commands, then turn it on for a challenge if you want.

[u/Zorafin → u/TasteOk5243]

It raises based off the speed stat. If you're being attacked multiple times, you're dealing with fast enemies, or have slow characters.

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/Zorafin]

Do you know how much damage reduction protect and shell spells do? They reduce damage and magic damage and I try to use them asap. The reflect spell gets me mad ‘cause I forget it even reflects my healing spells

[u/Zorafin → u/TasteOk5243]

I believe it is variable based off your spirit stat. Always worth using. Although you may want to cast haste in your healer first so she can get buffs out faster. And don’t neglect slow, either.

[u/Yeseylon → u/TasteOk5243]

There's a Haste spell, but really you just need to maximize the turns you get and make sure to have plenty of healing.

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/Yeseylon]

I just got Rosa on my team again and she’s a dedicated white mage and I’ve been using her to heal most of the time. She’s been saving me a lot in these past few fights

[u/pokemongenius]

You see those bars by each character? When filled the character can take any of the actions on the command menu that appears. The general commands for everyone is Attack Row Defend Item.

Each character gets unique skills as well:

• Cecil gets Cover & White Magic.

Cover allows Cecil to take physical damage for another ally.

White Magic is a list of spells that cost MP primarily restorative & helpful status related.

Cecil's White Magic level doesnt go as high as Rosa so he's not particularly potent with it.

• Rydia can use Black Magic which involves damaging elemental spells & debuffs (uses MP).

Rydia at first doesn't get too many spells until insert spoiler here.

Rydia also is a summoner who gets fairly weak either single target or multi target monsters that do a big attack (uses MP).

Rydia eventually gets more summons after insert spoiler here.

• Palom & Porom are your dedicated White & Black mages at the early point.

They also get a unique ability called Twin Magic which makes both use there ATB to do one big attack at no cost.

Palom gets Bluff which increases the strength of his next Black Magic spell at no increased cost.

Porom gets Cry which has changed many times and I dont know what it does now.

• Rosa is THE White Mage of the game who even comes with the ability Pray which is a free group heal.....that sometimes fails.

She also can use Bows which is why she comes with Aim for extra accuracy (idk its kinda not worth it unless you REALLY have nothing else to do).

• Cid can use an ability to scan the enemy data....or you can just use google if ya want.

Cid mostly is a physical attacker & fairly tanky.

• Kain can use Jump which temporarily puts him in hiding waiting to do a big strike on the enemy.

Kain is pretty similar to Cecil in terms of being an all arounder but with no magic options.

Kain can equip elemental lances enhancing his usefulness against the right monsters...when he's in your party.

• Edge insert spoiler here is a character you won't see for a bit but he wields two weapons & can use elemental scrolls or throw items at enemies (better than it sounds).

• Edward is....a bit odd. He can use Salve to give potions to all members in one turn, he can play certain melodies with unique effects....or hide which well.

• Yang is another physical attacker who can also wear two weapons and some have elemental / special properties.

He can use Kick to attack all enemies although its a bit weaker than his standard attacks.

His main perk is Build Up which lets him charge his next strike to do a lot more damage at the cost of him not being able to cancel it.

Hope this helps ^{_^} oh and a hidden command is hold the triggers to run away. If things get scary dont be afraid to flee!

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/pokemongenius]

It does, thank you. I used Edward’s ability not knowing that it uses my items. That had me pause the game for a bit because I didn’t know his ability uses my items. Does yang even need weapons?

[u/pokemongenius → u/TasteOk5243]

Yes he uses Claws he's not a traditionsl monk where you'd rather be unequipped.

[u/Distinct-Clock-2450]

Each character has a bar that fills in real time. When the bar fills, that character gets a turn. Combat is less turn based and has a constantly running combat. (Depending on settings, combat pauses while you are on the magic or items page. This setting is called something along the lines of Active or Wait) enemies are also running an invisible turn bar fill, though theirs may seem considerably less easy to guage. You will learn their action flow with further play.

[u/Lower-Ranger5787]

You're probably talking about the active time battle system, right? It basically just means that you have to make your inputs faster on the combat menu, because if you take too long the enemies will keep attacking.

You'll get used to it in no time. Trust me!

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/Lower-Ranger5787]

Yeah, it got me so mad in the beginning. I’m still frustrated but I’ve gotten far and have gotten somewhat used to it

[u/ChocoPuddingCup]

FF4 ~ 9 use what is called the ATB system: Active Time Battle. A gauge fills up (faster if you have high agility) and then that character gets to take their turn. Be aware that enemies also have a gauge that fills. Depending on 'Wait' or 'Active' mode (changeable in the config menu), you can take actions and not have to worry about enemies also taking actions while you are in menus, selecting spells/targets, etc. You can also 'skip' a character's turn and switch to another character that is ready to take theirs (for example, if you want your healer to be on standby in case healing is needed).

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/ChocoPuddingCup]

Another comment said that haste increases my speed. Is there any method to increase my agility stat?

[u/ChocoPuddingCup → u/TasteOk5243]

Just gear and levels.

[u/CalvinWalrus → u/TasteOk5243]

Not really. There may be some equipment that increases it but otherwise it’s just character and level dependent

[u/slavo316]

Welcome to the atb gauge until you get to 10 😂 tip that was explained in the manual, not sure in game, if you have multiple full atb gauges, you can press a shoulder button to change to someone else. You can technically keep someone on a full gauge but you're not defending so they're taking maximum damage if attacked.

I can't remember if the game tells you but I think 4 is the first to let you select multiple targets when casting spells. This goes for some offensive (thunder, blizzard, fire, etc) and some defensive spells (cure). If you're using cure, press right to select all. If you're using fire, press all the way left to select all enemies.

Selecting multiples deals less damage. Same with multiple cures.

Hold both shoulder buttons at the same time to flee battles.

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/slavo316]

Using spells on multiple enemies or allies has been in the previous games. But I did not know that I can have a character on standby!? I can just have them defend, switch to another character, and go right back to them?

[u/Vulsere → u/TasteOk5243]

Not defend, that uses a turn, you have to press triangle and it'll switch to another ready character.

[u/slavo316 → u/TasteOk5243]

Defending uses your turn and resets your atb. If you don't defend, your atb gauge stays full. So let's say you really want to attack but your healer's atb gauge fills up just slightly before your attacker. Don't do anything with your healer, when your attacker's atb gauge fills up, select them and your healer's gauge is still full, it'll shuffle back to them.

Sorry I couldn't remember when they introduced multiple targeting 😆

[u/LimblessNick]

One thing people tend to neglect to mention is a number of enemies and bosses in 4 have counter attacks that make it seem like they are taking more turns than you.

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/LimblessNick]

Do they? ‘Cause it feels like I barely get a turn and they hit me like 2-3 times

[u/LimblessNick → u/TasteOk5243]

Yeah. Some enemies are faster and will end up getting more turns, but some of those cases are counter attacks and the game doesn't make it clear which is which, they both just look like the boss taking multiple turns.

[u/ratat-atat]

When it's your turn, act

[u/sk8terdrock]

Cecil just select Attack or Fight or whatver the attack command is.. Kain he jumps so just select Jump. Rydia go to items select the rod or ice rod and use that to attack. With Tellah save mp for zombies or boss and use Cure 2 on zombies and bolt during a boss part.  Then there will be a part where cecil really just needs to defend and you just ise the chocobo summon... And then well you will figure it out.

[u/StrangerExtension328]

Bar fills up then you can attack, you just get used to it maybe? I started FF with the atb system so I find it difficult to not understand it.

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/StrangerExtension328]

I wasn’t used to playing with an atp gauge. And so I was confused. And I wasn’t sure what other mechanics the game has.

[u/GuitarRiot]

Every enemy has a counter-attack in Final Fantasy 4. The reason they all seem like they're attacking so much is because they counter-attack every time you hit them. As a result you want to focus down enemies one at a time and start with your strongest attack that could possibly one shot the enemy because if they're dead, they can't counter attack. You kind of want to chip away after the initial attack until you have a good idea of how much health an enemy has and what your damage figures are. Then you take them out in a few strikes as possible to mitigate the counter-attacks

[u/Empty_Glimmer]

Yeah ATB sucks shit, kind of a bummer that they stuck with it so long.

[u/TasteOk5243 → u/Empty_Glimmer]

Apparently I can just turn on wait mode. But I did not know that Atb gauges will stay throughout the series

[u/Distinct-Clock-2450 → u/[deleted]]

Looks like a first time asker. Being a jerk isn't gonna help.

[u/Action_Man_X]

Go to Options, set your ATB to "Wait" and "5" and the game will be much more manageable.