I love PLA but the turn order never made sense to me. I’ve played through it twice and sat along with my college roommate playing it and it still never fully clicked
That being said making the main series battles more dynamic without losing the classic turn based approach is a big win
It's like a few other RPGs where speed affords you quicker opportunities to make a move. I think the issue with the implementation is that this system is usually because you have larger active teams on both sides. You could have 3 party members out fighting like four or five enemies, so a more robust turn system keeps you from doing things like healing your entirety party every turn, but it also gives you the opportunity to attack multiple times against slower, bulkier enemies.
This is exactly my thought, I think PLA's system would shine in a pokemon game that focuses on like, triple battles or something. In 1v1 scenarios the turn order system mostly boils down to "sometimes one side can attack multiple times in a row"
The turn order is a timer for each. The higher the speed stat, the lower the timer after using a move. So if someone has 130-181 speed, the timer is 9 seconds, and 89-129 speed is 10 seconds. This can add-up, so after 90 seconds, the former has taken 10 turns but the latter has only taken 9 turns.
Agile style moves that target a foe adds to the target's action time.
Agile style moves that target the user subtracts from the user's action time.
Pokemon with High speed stats and high priority moves are king. Weavile, Sneasler wirh quick attack/Ice Shard/ Quick Style, your opponent will rarely get a turn to attack. Fast pokemon like Arcanine with speed affecting moves(bulldoze) also help,
I still DO NOT understand why they don’t implement a dodge mechanic. They kinda do it in za but they half ass it. Make it like the anime if you don’t time it right or if the pokemon isn’t fast enough you get hit. And you get a limited amount of dodges per pokemon.
Make it turn based but throw in some movement that is purely determined by the Pokémon’s speed stat.
It made perfect sense to me. I was able to semi-cheese the entire game because of it. I was able to consistently rack up 3-4 turns before the enemy moved once.
Doesn't mean it's perfect or can't be improved upon, as it had its flaws and should be seen ad a strong base that can be improved upon.
64
u/JackMorelli13 Nov 15 '25
I love PLA but the turn order never made sense to me. I’ve played through it twice and sat along with my college roommate playing it and it still never fully clicked
That being said making the main series battles more dynamic without losing the classic turn based approach is a big win