Button Mashing... Let's Not I suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome from many years hunkered over poorly designed keyboards when I worked as a technical writer and computer programmer. Now in my mid-sixties, I also have arthritis. In other words, my hands hurt, often quite a lot, despite attention to ergonomics, use of wrist braces and daily physical therapy. I love spending a few hours with a Playstation JRPG in the evenings, and intend to continue doing so as long as I am able. For me, the hardest part of any game is battles that require repetitive high-speed button-mashing. But not all games require this. A surprising number of games have ways to fully or partially automate battles. These lists only includes games that I own or have played. Also see my playability notes for other features that affect my ability to play particular games. Latest update: July 2020.

Battle Systems

This is my own "how much does it hurt" view of battle systems.

Turn-based

In the beginning, most games were turn-based. Your column of characters faced off against a column of baddies. One at a time you chose your character, its action and its target, said 'go' and the AI responded. Repeat for as many rounds as necessary to win or loose the battle. No button-mashing and you could proceed as slowly as you desired.

Over time, things became more complicated, and harder on the hands. "Real time" and "action time" systems were introduced such that the AI controls the baddies while you are still trying to decide what to do. Some of those systems have ways to set how fast the AI works, or to pause the AI while you're making choices, but eventually this evolved into the "mash buttons as fast as possible so the AI doesn't wipe out your party" system that I simply cannot handle without debilitating pain.

The only way I can play a game like that is to select the easiest level of difficulty, do a lot of leveling up and farming to keep the party ten or so levels ahead of the curve, and hope that the characters I don't have to control can keep the one I do have to control alive (preferably as an archer and/or healer who can stay off to the side). I put myself through this for games in series that I love, but otherwise it's a deal-breaker for me.

• Early Final Fantasy games (through VIII, and X but not X-2) are turn-based, though the random encounter rate can be annoying or even painful if you're not careful. (More than one early game essentially tries to steer you by killing off your party if you go the wrong way.)
• The Atelier games that I have, Shallie and Sophie, have turn-based battle systems, and item creation, not battle is not the point of these games. (I only have these two because in most Atelier games you're playing against a countdown calendar, which I do not like.)
• Dragon Quest VIII and traditional mode in Dragon Quest XI are turn-based. In the latter it is possible to completely automate the battle.
• Older games typically had a battle party of four, which I generally found to be easier to manage than a party of three. (Melee fighter, ranged fighter, black mage, white mage.)

Strategic

In strategy games, the battleground is divided into a map of squares. You place your characters, set their actions, and then a round of battle happens automatically. Repeat until you win or loose the battle. This requires a good deal of use of your hands, but you do it at your own speed; no X-button mashing or frantic attempts to avoid doom. Pretty much any game that has 'tactics' as part of its title falls in this category.

• Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (PSP, Vita TV)
• Jeanne D'Arc (PSP, Vita TV)
• La Pucelle: Tactics (PS2, PS3, Vita TV)

Full-auto

Each character in the battle party may be set to auto. Once the battle begins, you just keep an eye on things and intervene if necessary.

• Most if not all Tales games
• Dragon Quest XI with turn-based battles

Other

Games that don't exactly fall in one of the above categories.

• Final Fantasy XII has a 'gambit system' that allows the AI for each character to be programmed rather extensively. In the original Playstation 2 game, the available gambits increased slowly during the game, so full-auto battles were not practical at first. But in the PS4 HD version, all gambits are available from the beginning.
• The huge 'atelier' franchise of games places its emphasis on activities other than fighting (which is turn-based), though most games impose time limits on completing activities.
• There are many exploration, mystery and puzzle (logic, not physical feat) games, many of which are relatively inexpensive downloads.

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