>>310823
>and I've never heard of a situation where attacking an ally was a better choice than guarding or (in ATB games) just waiting it out.
The zugzwang thing is a VERY particular case. I think I only came across it in either an Octopath game or an RPG maker game. I think one time it came up with a 'copycat' enemy (I was in a zugzwang because if I defended, he would've defended, and he had a counter as well, maybe? So, by attacking one of my allies, he attacked one of HIS allies).
So, it has to be completely turn based and usually it's a case where guard/defend is an equip-able action to the player.
>I never felt the need to use edge cases like element-absorb or killing off an ally to reset status effects since if you're in a position to do them the "proper" way out of it is almost always also available
So, there are some RPGs where you can 'equip' basically every conceivable ability to a character (think like FFT where you can equip abilities you've learned in other job classes, only more extreme). That tends to give such an insane number of possibilities for character customization that you can create builds where self-attacks are a justified part of the strategy. Elemental-absorption-attacks is the simplest example of this.
>I was mentally leaving out applying status effects.
Sorry man, but I feel like I have to call you out here. I mean, there are RPGs where status effect trickery is like 90% of the combat in the game. Arguably, the whole part of the game that makes it challenging/strategic/fun!
>>310794
Good examples, especially:
>For meta-game purposes if they will turn on you permanently in an upcoming fight or scene as a plot point or due to reputation loss.
I forgot about cases like that. I think Xenogears had an example of this.
>Sometimes game engines bug out, especially old ones, and they're blocking a doorway or are trapped. Killing them lets you recover them later without breaking the game or cheating to fix it.
YES. Especially in bad RPG maker games, it is very often the RPG equivalent of "Percussive maintenance."
>>310792