Wave (term)

In battle-focused games, a wave refers to a formation of enemies within a sequence of one or more battles fought by the player. The term usually applies in games where the battles must be fought in rapid succession and follow a preset script or pattern of progression. Though some randomization of the foes involved may occur, the patterns themselves tend to be predictable enough that the player is able to devise a consistent strategy for defeating each wave. The final wave of a multiple-wave battle may or may not be a boss battle requiring a completely different strategy than any wave before it.
The terms round and battle may be used to denote a wave, especially when followed by a fractional number, e.g. "Battle 3/5", "Round 1/3".
==Appearances==
===Final Fantasy VII===
The Battle Square within the Gold Saucer is a quasi-optional event that pits one of the player's three current party members against up to eight preset waves of enemies, punctuated between waves by a handicapping slot machine. Only one series is required to advance the story. The longer the player remains, the worse the disadvantages; and yet the point rewards may be greater. 
====Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis====
All battles are fought in waves of 1-3 enemies apiece, over any number of rounds. Certain missions may randomly spawn the various types of Cactuar as a separate wave, causing all item drops to repeat.
===Final Fantasy VII Remake===
The Corneo Colosseum and the Shinra Combat Simulator feature challenges consisting of one or more rounds of enemies. The regular enemies can range from weak to collectively strong. The last round often contains at least one boss or a strong group of enemies.
In harder challenges, a gauntlet of strong enemies and/or bosses will effectively prove the player's overall skill in battle. A prime example is the challenge "Three-Person Team vs. Top Secrets", where the player has to defeat all summon bosses in each of their respective rounds, before facing off against the superboss Pride and Joy Prototype.
===Final Fantasy XIV===
Certain boss encounters see players battle against waves of weaker enemies rather than a single strong enemy. Examples include the Clockwork machina in , the Illuminati in , and the Sanguine Sirens in . Some duties, such as and , also feature elevator sections against regular enemies that come in waves.
The most common variety of FATE requires players to defeat a certain amount of enemies. In most such FATEs, all required enemies are not initially present. Instead more enemies will spawn either as they are defeated, or when all present enemies are defeated a new wave will appear.
s see players battle through a gauntlet of bosses, all of whom must be defeated in a single attempt. Failing a single encounter resets the entire gauntlet.
===Final Fantasy Mystic Quest===
Battlefields placed throughout pit the player party against ten waves of monsters prevalent in an area. While the player can pause at any wave and advance to an allowable waypoint, downing all ten waves will net a reward that most likely will make a future area much easier to traverse.
===Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia===
Players could engage 1-15 waves of 1-3 enemies in a single mission. Should the player have paused the mission in progress, they could retry the wave in progress, or give up and retreat. A retry reset any use counters to their values at the start of a wave; or else if the mission was finished, it would allow for a repeat attempt with the active party. Retreating pulled the player back to the map or mission screen to restart the mission from wave 1.
Some monsters, such as those of the Archaeoaevis class, respawned multiple times in the same mission, with each revival accounting for one wave.
===Final Fantasy Record Keeper===
Every core mission is comprised of one or more series of events within each Realm Dungeon, which in turn is made up of one or more consecutive rounds of battles. Each battle can deploy up to 6 enemies per round depending on the setting and sprite limitations. As of the most recent update, the player can pause battle to retreat or restart the current round with any remaining ability uses. If the application is interrupted before a battle can complete, the player may be prompted to restart from the current wave.
Some battles, such as those based on events in Final Fantasy Tactics, emulate the effect of sending randomized units by sending fixed waves within the same round. If the player restarts such a wave, they will restart fighting the first wave issued.
===Final Fantasy Brave Exvius===
Non-exploration stages consists of one or more battles during which the player cannot change deployed units, Espers or equipment. These are often punctuated by dialogue at the beginning of each battle and sometimes conclude with a boss battle. Each stage has a series of missions, optional objectives that can be performed during its battles to obtain additional rewards.
Certain events, known as story events, are series of stages linked together by story scenes that must be cleared in sequence. Both regular stages and story events can be abandoned at any point but progress made within the stages will be lost.
====War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius====
While uncommon, several battles can spawn more than one wave, often triggered by the defeats of one or more specific foes on the field. When this occurs, the system will pause the battle to spawn the extra wave(s). The end of battle is determined by the conditions listed in the battle parameters screen.
If a battle is unduly interrupted, the player is prompted to resume or cancel it. Resuming the battle will permit the player to retain their current progress, including all kills made and items collected.
===Final Fantasy Dimensions II===
Being a former MMO converted for offline play, this title retains both mission/quest and wave mechanics, deploying any number of waves per mission as indicated by the mission briefing panel. Important waves such as bosses may be demarcated with a pause in play while cutscenes load.
===Mobius Final Fantasy===
Players could engage 1-8 enemies per round over any number of rounds, with the current round shown at the top of the screen.
===Final Fantasy All the Bravest===
Most stages consisted of multiple battles in succession with various monsters per battle. These stages were demarcated by having a smaller monster on the overworld compared to boss stages. Even upon wiping, players could still resume the wave from the point they were defeated by either waiting for their units to return one by one or using a golden hourglass that returns all units at once.
===Crystal Defenders series===
Category:Recurring