"One Button to Rule Them All" - Square Enix Awarded Patent for Single-Button System

Twinfinite writes, "Yesterday, Square Enix was rewarded a US patent for a single-button RPG battle system. It was submitted by Hajime Tabata, co-Director for the upcoming Final Fantasy XV."

[jerethdagryphon]

well that will make ff 15 a bit dull

[iamtehpwn]

Not entirely bad. Kingdom Heart's combat system is 1 button, minus dodge rolling and jumping, both of which is already confirmed in FFXV. How I expected it to be, really.

[Godmars290]

Still, they get panned for FF13 basically being a "1-button" game, and now they've officially adopted a 1-button mechanic, Assumingly for FF15.

This is Square literally not listening or addressing complaints.

[Blackleg-sanji]

exactly it was already stated ffxv takes kingdomhearts battle system

[TheLyonKing]

Depends the abilities you select, I would like to see someone fight sephiroth with just those buttons you mentioned. You need all of the face buttons and the quick link shoulder button too.

[DOMination-]

Sephiroth isn't a tough battle. If you have 4x cut you can bring him down in a few attacks

[hay]

Smells Xenobladeish with that positional context part.

One button combat schemes not always worked well, and spells a bit of flatness to the strategic layer. With FF13 and 14 chance of it being botched appears to be more probable.

Not sure how to position myself towards this revelation.

[AsimLeonheart]

If they have patented it then they must believe it to be something special and do not want it to be copied by anybody else. I just hope that the battle system has depth and strategy. I do not quite like the KH battle system which is basically mash x until the enemy dies with an occasional press square to dodge or press triangle for a special action.

[colonel179]

I can see the instructions: Press X

Damn, this is going to bring a new meaning to button mashing.

[dcj0524]

Isn't that what games are all about.

[Lukejrl]

remember Jetsons "my button pushing finger is getting tired" this world is getting closer and closer to that amount of laziness

[Guitardr85]

Not that I'm a fan of Squeenix anymore but I think the patent is to make a single button have multiple functions thus allowing a game pad to have multiples of funtions per button than they otherwise would get. I didn't really get the vibe of a single button "only".

[TitanUp]

just because something gets patent doesn't mean it will automatically make it into the final product.

tons of people love kingdom hearts and all that game basically is one button smashing rpg action game so even if it does get implemented i don't believe to many people will complain about it.

[AgentSmithPS4]

"... and in the darkness, mash it."

[memots]

kinda like my wife she only has one button and i know how to push it.

[ThichQuangDuck]

bdum dum

[Illusive_Man]

Well until...

[George Sears]

Geez what a sophisticated redundant way to describe the patent...

[1nsomniac]

What is it with this "casual gamer" crap?

We're not retarded you know!

The majority of the games I was playing between the ages of 5-9 years old were leagues above in difficulty than the majority of games released these days & I played & completed them just fine & they were more fun instead of trying to dumb us down.

[dcj0524]

Square's been doing this for years. They're just now patenting it. FFXV is basically Kingdom Hearts but in a differently universe basically.

[Dravidian]

I'm skeptical, but as long as it works...

[LightDiego]

Now Square-Enix just release games for IOS, you just need one button, the touch screen for that platform.

[hay]

FF Theatrhythm?...

[nerdman67]

You mean theres going to be one button to use in combat? wow, imagine how in depth and tactical thatll be. I bet we can push the button quickly and SLOWLY
Next gen is here, guys.

In all seriousness, isnt a movie a game here you press a single button: play

[hay]

You forgot to add:
From far and near, left and right. That's like, 8 combinations. Ahh, good old Atari times...

[DVAcme]

So they were wondering how to make the game even more boring after the tunnel-fest that was FF13, so now it basically has the control scheme of Flappy Bird.

If you were able to harness the stupidity of Squeenix' s management into usable energy, we'd have space colonies by now.

[Blackleg-sanji]

ummm kingdom hearts style battle system??

[specialguest]

How the hell is this even patentable?? That's like if Capcom patented the down, down-forward, forward + attack motion for projectile moves. Or worse, what if pressing a button and holding it down for a second or more to charge or power up was patented? This Square Enix patent or any future video game patent involving a way to execute a certain command is just wrong.

[TacoTaru]

Well, if they can't make money by making great games maybe they can take up the patent troll mantle and try it that way.

[SilentNegotiator]

You can get a PATENT for an RPG battle system? And even one that only uses ONE button?

The United States of Disney patent laws need a serious overhaul.

[xX1NORM1Xx]

Yay another patent that will surely be used to crush an upcoming indie in the future I'm so sick of patents holding back innovation especially in this industry that survives on new concepts and mechanics being borrowed from other games

[MoveTheGlow]

I think applying for a patent for this is kinda BS, and being awarded said patent is even worse. I'm intrigued, though - could this be a programmable procedural change by the player, the way you could make conditional things happen in your AI characters in FF12? That might have been my favorite thing about 12, it was if-then statement programming 101 in the wrapper of an RPG. I'd love to see that again.

[ChozenWoan]

FF12 had my fav combat system so far... Gambits offered a nice mix of action as well as depth of strategy. Only thing bad about that game is that your main char was a side kick to some of the most epic chars/storylines in a FF game.

Hmmm, has been a whole gen since I beat a FF/SquareEnix game... gonna have to hit this classic one more time.

PS:
Tomb Raider doesn't count since it was made by Edios Montreal and SE only published it.

[Deep-throat]

It's okay, someone is trying to beat Ryse's combat play!

[Taislin]

I love how people start jumping to conclusions here. This might not even be for FFXV, and even if it is, it might just be very goood. Picture this: A menu where you set up skills, spells, weapon changes based on proximity to enemy, or condition of MC or sidekicks, like HP, status elements, position. It would allow for flashy and fast combat with simple execution, while still retaining thought and depth to it. It would also push the game further into RPG land and away from Action game, which is damn fine by me. I mean, if a group of people came up with the idea of a never before made system that alows for complex and good looking action to happen in the simplest manner,and with different animations for many possible branching actions ( Nomura mentioned this was one of the reasons for the change to PS4) is it not good enough to warrant a patent? God knows how much work went into it.

[modesign]

its called QTE or a railshooter.

[Baccra17]

This has casual written all over it.