Greatest Ability/Magic System

reddas

reddas

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I was just wondering what other people thought was the best magic or ability system in any final fantasy game. for example the junction system from FF8 or the sphere grid from FF10.
My personal opinion is the materia from........well you can guess which game!:P
 
I think they're all great in their own little way. The only magic and ability system that bugged me was FFIX...I hated having specific characters with auto-assigned abilities. I like being able to build my characters however I like.

I liked FFVI's idea for learning abilities; by having Espers junctioned to your characters. Espers are magical beings; learning magic from them seems very reasonable.
FFXII's version of Espers was ruined. That and I hated buying magic at shops...that made virtually no sense to me.

FFVII's ablility and magic system was satisfactory. I won't be biased and say "omgomg it was my favorite". But I loved the whole idea of allotting materia to your weapons and allowing growth.

As much as I loathe FFVIII as a Final Fantasy title, I did think the junction system was very unique. It reminded me of FFVI with the idea of junctioning espers to each character...only you had more options. The only bad thing about this system was that it made the game too easy; it should have had disadvantages as well.

I liked the sphere grid in FFX as well. It was a mediocre challenge; only because level 4 spheres were so rare. Other than that, it was terribly easy to build your characters statistics.
The battle system was amazing, but again...it was just too easy. And the weapon alteration...something I think should be a bigger part of FF.

FFXII had a good battle system. The license grid was too easy...way too easy to fill out. With a golden egg or whatever equipped, I could rake up a good 2k license points in under an hour. I was semi disappointed that the espers only had a few moves and no special magics. And I'm a little upset that there was no earth magic.
 
I thought that FFVIII's Junction System was done quite well. I liked having Magic used as health boosters and whatnot.

XII's License board was too easy. I didn't like how easy it was to fill out. I thought there were going to be more added onto the boards. Ya know, hidden pieces of the board.

X's sphere grid was done quite well too. yes, it was easy and people say it was one of the most diffulcult to understand at first. =/.
 
The sphere grid was only difficult because Lvl 4 spheres were hard to come by...but later on in the game I think you can refine them, can't you? I haven't played in ages.

I thought FFVIII was too easy of a game. I managed to get my characters up to level 100 before disc 3 and it was still easy with lvl 100 enemies. The final boss was horrendous, but for the most part...the game was easy. Having the junction system boost your attack, health, defense, vitality, and luck to 255 made my characters like invincible. The only way to get a challenge out of this game was to level up to 100 and equip the weakest weapons/ don't junction magic to your stats.
 
Same with me. I had once gotten to level 100 before disc 3 if not on disc 3. lol.

It is quite simple to become "invincible" on this game. I still liked the Junction system somewhat. I hated junctioning magic though. It was so damn time consuming.

I never played IX, but I do like characters having certain abilities set to that certain person. I've heard that IX is too easy though.
 
In FFVIII, it only takes 1000 Exp to level up...no matter what level your currently at. It was just too simple. XD

I do like the idea of having certain characters with auto-assigned abilities but...I think it would be better off with a job system instead so that you can choose which characters to be your white mage, fighter, dragoon...etc.
In this game I always wound up with the exact same party:
Zidane as my support character
Steiner as my fighter
Garnet as my white mage
Vivi as my black mage

I would have loved to have the other characters in my party; namely Eiko and Freya, but the other characters pretty much ruled them out.
 
Ohhh, I see. So you'd rather choose the character Job and do it that way.

Like...X-2? I actually liked the % System. It was a nice touch. I think X-2 had the best System.
 
Yes. As much as I loathed X-2 as an FF title. XD
I loved the job system. I like being in control of who is in my party and who isn't. It sucks when my favorite characters are left out like that. =[

FFX kind of had a similar system...since you could roam the sphere grid in any direction.
 
I guess so. I just liked X-2's system better than X's. =p. If only X-2's story line wasn't so shitty.
 
I wish they would make the ultimate ability system. Like a mixture of them all.
And what would be better...would be if they would give you the easy, medium, and hard options. XD
Or a universal mode that's SUPER challenging but with extra sidequests, magic, weapons, and dungeons!! =D
 
Now, that's an Idea they should seriously consider. I would also like a Longer story LINE! I feel like they all are so short. =(.
 
Well, I liked Final Fantasy V job system. The only down side for me was it takes forever to get a job maxed out. I only had two and a half jobs maxed out on each character. Getting 300-400 AP just for getting your characters 30% HP or to equip a weapon takes forever. A monster gives you 1-3 AP.

Final Fantasy VI - Learning magic from espers...great. Only problem I had with FFVI most of the characters unique abilities weren't as strong as casting Ultima. Edgar's tools were powerful, Terra's esper form was helpful and Sabin and Cyan's abilities were alright. The rest of the character's abilities were cool and unique but didn't help with the final dungeon.

Final Fantasy VII - Materia was great, not too bad to level, most materia was useful. Limit breaks were balanced. What I liked about Final Fantasy VII you did not have to focus on one spell, summon, or limit break to kill your boss.

Final Fantasy VIII - I liked the junction system, very unique. It was cool refining items into spells or other items. Problem with FFVIII later on was using most magic and summons were pointless. The only magic I bothered using later on was aura, curaga, double/triple and full-life. The rest of the spells were just to junction for better stats. Even then only few spells were worth to junction on a character. At the end of FFVIII, it was only just using Squall's Lion heart to kill everything.

FFVIII was an easy game though. Sames goes for me, all of my characters were level 100 before I fought Seifer. Thanks to area's Island closest to hell and heaven and Quistis limit break.

Final Fantasy IX - I did not mind having my characters equip items to learn abilities. Also I never really ran out of money when buying equipment for all of my characters. The magic and skills were pretty balanced. The only down side was having characters going into trance without avoiding it.

Final Fantasy X - Sphere grid to me was just...whatever. Get AP and learn skills, easy. Level 4 sphere were annoying though. -_- It limited some magic/skills.

Final Fantasy XII - I didn't play all the way though. License board was just another sphere grid to me.

Hrmmm I can't choose which one is my favorite....I like most of them. :/
 
I really liked Final Fantasy VII's ability system. I couldn't find anything wrong with it at all, truthfully. I liked that you were who you were but your powers were augmented by what materia you chose... and those augmentations gave the game a lot of strategy in a hurry. And if you wanted the all powerful being that could control all the different spells, summons, and abilities... the simply get the Master Materia in all those areas.
 
The best in my opinion was the FFVII system as well. It wasn't too complicated nor was it too easy to pick up. Just a few materia slots you have to fill and voila! you're ready to go.

Not that I mean I hated VIII's system. The junction system was alright in my opinion, though I thought it was a bit too complex to understand completely.

The Sphere Grid was a bit too easy, just moving around the grid really wasn't all that. Plus you had the ability and the choice to pick which abilities you would want your character to improve upon as well. That's it.
 
Because I had just completed XII when I started X, I found the sphere grid very slow(gaining sphere levels compaired to licence points) but I'm kinda getting used to it.
I still prefer materia though..... whenever I started a new game on VII I'd always look forward to gaining AP and leveling up materia:)
 
I'm dying for something that's just harshly complicated. Indeed I would love a combination of all the best summon, magic, and abilities systems, but the perfect solution is the easy, medium, and hard settings. And let's just say expert or universal settings as replay value for those who beat it on hard. That would be tremendous.
I love games that have universal modes with more difficult leveling, extra dungeons, and more complicated abilities, better abilities, more weapons.
Omg. ^__^
 
I love the job system and I'm surprisid that hasn't been mentioned much. The only thing was though, once you changed your job, your job level sterted again. That was annoying.
 
I enjoyed 7-X2s really, although the jobs were done before.
I cant decide on which is the best cause they are all different and unique in their own way.
 
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