Final Fantasy XIII: the Paradigm System - an explanation.

Final Fantasy XIII changed the combat system (again) allowing the player to only control one character. To allow for better strategy, and give the player more control they introduced an innovative new system call the Paradigm system.

The Final Fantasy XIII Paradigm systems effectively allows the player to configure their characters and give them roles that control what they do in combat. The Paradigm system gives the player the ability to really delve deeply into roles and allows them to set up paradigms to match their own personal styles in combat – some may not like the fact that you cannot macro control every element of battle, but the Paradigm System does allow the player to control the strategy somewhat.

The beauty about the Paradigm System in Final Fantasy XIII is that the non-controlled characters are very intelligently used making the whole combat system a pleasure to use, and not as frustrating as it could have been. As you can also change Paradigms during combat, it also gives you the chance to change your strategy on the fly either to take advantage of weaknesses, or to find a different strategy that may be more effective.

You get to have three characters in your party – for the first 20 hours or so you have no choice of the team members, but eventually you will be allowed to pick your own team. You control the lead character directly and then assign paradigms to the remaining characters in the team.

Your characters all have a bar (ATB) which has a varying number of slots (between 2 and 6). During a battle the ATB bar will fill, and thus each slot will become filled.  During this time you will be selecting which commands your main character will do, and also select the enemy. Each command takes a various number of slots, depending on how complicated the command is – once the ATB bar is full, the commands you have selected will be performed.

Early on you are limited due to the party and also to the number if paradigms you can use, but you still have the option to configure the paradigms, and generally do this prior to each battle. Each party can have six paradigms.

Changing a paradigm during a battle will reset the ATB bar, so timing is often important.

Another important bar to keep an eye on (apart from the HP bar obviously) is the chain gauge bar. This is one of the most important aspects of the game and becomes essential during some of the boss battles.

As you attack an enemy you will begin to fill his chain gauge – once full the enemy becomes staggered, this often gives you the opportunity to go intro ultra attack mode, or if needed go and heal all your characters – staggering an opponent is one of the most important parts of the game. This is where paradigms also become important – you can define paradigms that are for healing, or for all out offence, so changing paradigms at key points in battle becomes very important and very strategic.

Final Fantasy XIII role system allows you to define a set of roles or behaviors for your party. Essentially as you change roles, you change the ability of the character – thus you really don’t set classes for characters any more, but can train your character to be better in certain roles.

Your limited at the beginning, but as you progress through the game you have more choice and begin to control the choices through the Crystarium and by spending Crystarium Points (CP points are earned in combat).

The different roles are as follows:

• Commando – this is your workhorse warrior type role – they will do most of the attacking and can add elemental attributes to their weapons. The AI in Final Fantasy XIII is generally very good, and you’ll find that mostly characters will attack the same target – when your lead character is a Commando, the AI characters will attack the enemy that the lead character does. Having more than one commando in a party often causes problems as the attacks could be divided between two enemies, so I tend to avoid this. One thing to note is that a Commando will not add much to the enemies chain gauge, but it will slow the rate at which it drops.
• Ravager – this is your magic user; magic seems to drive up the chain gauge, so is a good style to have in combination with a Commando as the Commando will reduce the rate the chain gauge reduces.
• Medic – this is your healer, and at times can become one of the most important style, especially when faced with some of the tougher bosses. The medic also casts spells that can remove status ailments.
• Synergist – this is a pretty important style as it allows you to ‘buff’ your character. Buffing becomes very important as you progress through the game especially against some of the harder characters – a buff is something that improves your ‘status’ – these can include haste, protect, bravery etc.
• Saboteur – the saboteur is the opposite of the Synergist and is used to de-buff your opponents. Again this becomes important as the game progresses especially as you can cast de-buffs like slow, poison and de-protect – the more you can de-buff an opponent the more chance you have to implement a decent strategy.
• Sentinel – this is perhaps one of the most overlooked roles. The Sentinel attacks by casting various ‘spells’ like provoke or challenge, and have some great guard commands. They can soak up a lot of damage allowing your characters to heal or go on the offensive.

A paradigm is essentially a set of roles that you can assign to your party, and then during combat can be changed – rather than having to change the role of each character, this allows you to setup a predefined set of roles before combat – you are however limited to six paradigm, and the setup prior to some boss battles therefore becomes strategically important.

The main paradigms are:

• Diversity – this is a combination of Commando, Medic and Ravager. This is a great healing paradigm that also gives you some combat options with the Commando and Ravager – it’s a defensive paradigm that allows you to keep the chain gauge moving as you do a little healing.
• Relentless Assault – this is a combination of Command, Ravager and Ravager. I love this paradigm as it does a lot of magical and physical damage. It is a great paradigm to really get the chain gauge moving upwards.
• Aggression – this is a combination of Commando, Commando and Ravager – this is another good attacking paradigm, however I wouldn’t use it against multiple opponents as the Commando characters will attack different enemies. It’s not as effective as Relentless Assault when trying to get the chain gauge moving, but does a lot more damage to a staggered enemy.
• Solidarity – this is a combination of Sentinel, Commando and Medic – this is a great hyper-defensive paradigm that allows you to soak up a lot of damage, or to do a lot of healing.
• Bully – this is a combination of Command, Synergist and Saboteur. This is useful where you need to apply buffs, and de-buffs (or re-apply them) – it’s a good way to start of many of the boss battles.
• Evened Odds – this is a combination of Medic, Synergist and Saboteur. This is similar to Bully, but focuses more on healing the party rather than attacking with the ‘spare’ character.
• Tri-Disaster – this is a combination of Ravager, Ravager and Ravager. This is the best way to get an enemy staggered very quickly – it’s useful against some bosses, but can be dangerous to use against multiple powerful enemies. I have used it where there is one very strong enemy, and then many weak enemies – it gives me the chance to get rid of the smaller enemies while the strong one is staggered.
• Delta Attack – this is a combination of Commando, Ravager and Sentinel. This is similar to Diversity but instead of healing it deflects attacks – it’s another very good defensive paradigm to assist in battles where you are about to become overwhelmed.
• Hero's Charge – this is a combination of Commando, Synergist and Medic. This is another defensive paradigm that allows you to buff your party while still healing and do a little attacking.
• Matador – this is a combination of Ravager, Sentinel and Saboteur. This is an interesting paradigm that allows you to de-buff your enemy while attacking with magic – the Sentinel also soaks up any enemy attacks.
• Combat Clinic – this is a combination of Medic, Medic and Sentinel. This is a great healing paradigm while the Sentinel soaks up any damage being done to your party.
• Mystic Tower – this is a combination of Sentinel, Ravager and Ravager. This is a little more conservative way of driving up the chain gauge – the Sentinel provides some protection by soaking up some of the damage.
• Entourage – this is a combination of Ravager, Medic, and Sentinel. This is a little like Solidarity although in my opinion not as effective. It’s a very good defensive paradigm that allows you to heal and still do a little damage.

When creating the above paradigms you assign a role to each member of your party – here are my suggestions of the strongest roles for each character.

• Lightning – Commando and Ravager
• Sazh – Synergist and Ravager.
• Snow – Sentinel, Command and Ravager.
• Hope – Medic, Ravager, Synergist and Saboteur.
• Vanille – Medic, Saboteur and Ravager.
• Fang – Commando, Sentinel, Ravager, Saboteur and Synergist.