Favorite FF Attribute System?

[Xno Kappa]

FFXIII was my favorite too minus the draw magic grind. Gave a lot of versatility to characters without stripping their identities. Junction 100 Death's to your weapon and make random battles that much faster ftw. FFXII was pretty lame in my opinion, all your characters essentially became a carbon copy of one another.

[Charismatic]

FFXIII was my favorite too minus the draw magic grind. Gave a lot of versatility to characters without stripping their identities. Junction 100 Death's to your weapon and make random battles that much faster ftw. FFXII was pretty lame in my opinion, all your characters essentially became a carbon copy of one another.

You're not even making any sense.
The only difference between the characters in FFVIII were their limit breaks, difference in FFXII was quickenings... same shit.

[Sagacious Sundi]

The only difference between the characters in FFVIII were their limit breaks

And weapons.

Anyway, I think I'll go with V and VIII. Tactics, IX, and XII also get honorable mentions.

[Koul]

looovvvvvvvvvvveddddd tactics/FF5

That was my issue with FFXII and FFX was that everyone could be whatever you wanted. Which is cool and stuff but I like defined roles.

FF tactics/5 > FF9 > FF8/FF6 > FF7

FF8 was fun because of how you learned abilities from GF's like FF6. I also dug the junctioning crap. The drawing magic was kind of a pain but after playing it on emulator... 200% speed boost makes it not so bad

I dono. I don't really have a hardon for FF7's system. It was kind of fun but I didn't really get a lot out of it.

Now I wanna play FF5

[Xno Kappa]

You're not even making any sense.
The only difference between the characters in FFVIII were their limit breaks, difference in FFXII was quickenings... same shit.

Maybe because Quickenings were just a bunch of random flashing lights with complete disregard of what the character's set up to do or even what weapons they have equipped? Seriously, you can interchange them all with one another and no ones the wiser, but if Rinoa were to start busting out Lionhearts it'd be a huge "wtf!"

[Charismatic]

And weapons.

Anyway, I think I'll go with V and VIII. Tactics, IX, and XII also get honorable mentions.

OH WOW, DIFFERENT ATTACK ANIMATIONS... SO DIFFERENT

[-Zer0-]

8's battle system , I think, made up for the Drawing tedium. I miss hitting R1 during attacks

[Wintermute]

Aura was hands down the best spell in that game. God I fucking loved FF8.

Fuck, I loved Aura. I remember fighting Ultima weapon and Squall solo'd the fucker, Aura > Renzokuken > Lionheart twice for 9999 a hit before anyone else could act thanks to auto-haste.

Friend of mine Aura > The End'd everything throughout the game, the git.

I liked the Draw system in retrospect. Allowed you to set up your characters quite insanely right at the start if you spent a while levelling. I recall a friend got to level 20 or so and had -aga tier magic at least before even fighting Ifrit thanks to Quetz's abilites.

He kept doing this all throughout and ended up one-shotting pretty much everything on Disc 1. Takes ages to setup though it's not much different from farming for days to get random HQ gear from AH in XI.

[TheDirtyHobo]

Only played (read: beaten) post-5 FFs, so the order I've got

V > X-2 > FFT > IX > VIII > VI > VII > X > XII

I'm a sucker for job systems.

I had the license board in XII cleared before I was even 2/3rds done with the game. They made that shit way too easy.

[Spira]

OH WOW, DIFFERENT ATTACK ANIMATIONS... SO DIFFERENT

There are differences in weapons too actually.

The difference between characters in FF8 would include:
- character's base stats and stat progression, which would vary depending on you'd choose to play, and whether you use Cactuars stat bonus abilities or Devour. (ultimately they all cap at the same point, but nothing in the game requires you to do that, nor is there any point in doing it either)
- weapon choices. Squall's weapon is far more accurate than the rest throughout the game, and only Selphie will be able to naturally match that accuracy with her final weapon in the end.
- magic stores. If you want to use all 6 characters at the same time you will want to have individual magic stores... each person can hold up to a certain number of different spells...
- limit breaks - each character has different limit breaks that dont just do damage (unlike FFXII) and can lend themselves as different assets to the party.
Squall and Zell are both pure damage. Squall can only gain new finishing moves with new weapons. Zell's damage can exceed everyone else if you boost the right stats and are good at executing Duel, but you can do everything off the bat (if you know it in advance)
Irvine is damage but you can pick the type of damage you do, but depends on Ammo.
Selphie can be damage or support though she requires luck. Full-cure, Rapture, Wall and The End are unique spells. The End is like, the most powerful spell in the game. Also, Slot is unaffected by Silence.
Quistis is damage and support as well. Nothing else works as well as Mighty Guard in terms of buffs. Bad Breath, Degenerator, White Wind, Micro Missile, Shockwave Pulsar, etc are all assets when used properly. You need to earn the spells with the items tho.
Rinoa is mainly support but also damage. The fact that Angelo comes around to help every now and then is her strongest advantage, as well as Angelo Revive (or whatever its called). Invincible Moon is free invincibility for all party members and Wishing Star is quite a decent limit break. In Angel Wing mode (magic berserk stance), Rinoa is a beast if you set her up well, boosting her magic stat as far as you can.. her Meteors can be insanely powerful.

With FFVIII, the junction system is only droll and people complain about drawing because they force themselves to draw like 100 of each spell. Sure, it makes the game easier but there is no need for it to beat the game at all. Complaining that a game makes you do something that you're not at all required to do to beat it is ridiculous. You can easily beat the game without ever drawing from enemies. Also, theres something called magic refining.. and card mod.

As for keeping full spell stock, its not a necessity either. Its a trade off anyway. If you want to enhance certain stats with a spell, your penalty becomes weighing the advantages of casting the spell and disadvantages of reducing that stat - this thus makes players consider what spells they want to keep on certain characters and choose whether or not to cast/junction certain spells when using certain players. At the same time, they dont have to bother if they dont feel its importatn. You can always make up for the spell by refining or transferring anyway.

The customizablility I liked, which is more significant was more of being able to choose what status and element your attacks do, and to what degree you can defend against them, even down to the percentile..

The other lovely thing about FFVIII is that leveling wasn't necessary

[Charismatic]

There are differences in weapons too actually.

You realize that most of what you wrote in that post exists in some form in FFXII (where everyone can use the same weapons) and you know what that means?
It has shit to do with the actual weapons, also Squall's accuracy doesn't have anything to do with his weapon, that's HIS stat.
If they allowed him to use other weapons he'd still be at capped accuracy.

[Insanecyclone]

I'll go with 9 since I started playing it again 3 months ago and X's sphere grid was kind of stupid letting everyone have everything, but you could limit to what a person gets and such I guess. FF12's thing was alright but it seemed they ran out of ideas and took the sphere grid and changed it up some but made it a little more rewarding due to the grinding.

[Yuri-G]

VI probably is the most overlooked as far as what the system is really capable of. I know I never bothered to level people with the right Espers on until I played it on the GBA, it's sick how much of a difference that makes if you do it right.

I don't think I could pick a favorite though, they all had something interesting about them. FFII is definitely my last favorite. Great concept (stat gain based on what you do most in battle is a lot more realistic then experience points) but the execution was pretty awful in my opinion. What's even less fun than grinding for experience points? Repeatedly letting your characters get beat up to grind for HP! Yay.

[fantasticdan]

There are differences in weapons too actually.

The difference between characters in FF8 would include:
- character's base stats and stat progression, which would vary depending on you'd choose to play, and whether you use Cactuars stat bonus abilities or Devour. (ultimately they all cap at the same point, but nothing in the game requires you to do that, nor is there any point in doing it either)
- weapon choices. Squall's weapon is far more accurate than the rest throughout the game, and only Selphie will be able to naturally match that accuracy with her final weapon in the end.
- magic stores. If you want to use all 6 characters at the same time you will want to have individual magic stores... each person can hold up to a certain number of different spells...
- limit breaks - each character has different limit breaks that dont just do damage (unlike FFXII) and can lend themselves as different assets to the party.
Squall and Zell are both pure damage. Squall can only gain new finishing moves with new weapons. Zell's damage can exceed everyone else if you boost the right stats and are good at executing Duel, but you can do everything off the bat (if you know it in advance)
Irvine is damage but you can pick the type of damage you do, but depends on Ammo.
Selphie can be damage or support though she requires luck. Full-cure, Rapture, Wall and The End are unique spells. The End is like, the most powerful spell in the game. Also, Slot is unaffected by Silence.
Quistis is damage and support as well. Nothing else works as well as Mighty Guard in terms of buffs. Bad Breath, Degenerator, White Wind, Micro Missile, Shockwave Pulsar, etc are all assets when used properly. You need to earn the spells with the items tho.
Rinoa is mainly support but also damage. The fact that Angelo comes around to help every now and then is her strongest advantage, as well as Angelo Revive (or whatever its called). Invincible Moon is free invincibility for all party members and Wishing Star is quite a decent limit break. In Angel Wing mode (magic berserk stance), Rinoa is a beast if you set her up well, boosting her magic stat as far as you can.. her Meteors can be insanely powerful.

With FFVIII, the junction system is only droll and people complain about drawing because they force themselves to draw like 100 of each spell. Sure, it makes the game easier but there is no need for it to beat the game at all. Complaining that a game makes you do something that you're not at all required to do to beat it is ridiculous. You can easily beat the game without ever drawing from enemies. Also, theres something called magic refining.. and card mod.

As for keeping full spell stock, its not a necessity either. Its a trade off anyway. If you want to enhance certain stats with a spell, your penalty becomes weighing the advantages of casting the spell and disadvantages of reducing that stat - this thus makes players consider what spells they want to keep on certain characters and choose whether or not to cast/junction certain spells when using certain players. At the same time, they dont have to bother if they dont feel its importatn. You can always make up for the spell by refining or transferring anyway.

The customizablility I liked, which is more significant was more of being able to choose what status and element your attacks do, and to what degree you can defend against them, even down to the percentile..

The other lovely thing about FFVIII is that leveling wasn't necessary

Who cares about any of that when you can oneshot every enemy/boss in the game with zell anyway?

[Xno Kappa]

My whole point was that FFVIII's attribute system lends itself to help the character's personalities. There's no incentive for that in FFXII because everyone can do the same exact shit.

[Spira]

You realize that most of what you wrote in that post exists in some form in FFXII (where everyone can use the same weapons) and you know what that means?
It has shit to do with the actual weapons, also Squall's accuracy doesn't have anything to do with his weapon, that's HIS stat.
If they allowed him to use other weapons he'd still be at capped accuracy.

in FF8 the weapon upgrade determines your base hit %. Squalls is 255% base on all Gunblades.. Its based on the weapon because the game does actually say its the most accurate weapon or something to that extent. For other characters, the weapon affects base accuracy too but they mostly hover between 85-99% accuracy. The only other weapon that has 255% hit stat is Selphies final weapon, so the character and weapon does make a slight difference.

Sure you can say it makes no real difference to a player, but I have to be technical because it actually DOES make a difference even if you can't tell.

[Stiker]

FFV - because you could customize your characters in amazing ways and it wasn't hard to do at all.

FFIX - because it lead to specified customization with specific job attributes which forced you to seriously consider your party configuration and playstyle.

FFVIII - was great, but the draw system was ANNOYING and really takes away from the system being completely amazing

FFX-2 - I'll likely be shot for this, but somehow I just feel in love with the dress sphere system. I didn't care so much for the grids involved, but being able to quickly switch needed jobs, and being able to gain AP by simply taking action were big high points for me. Really opened up a lot of different things that I could do -- too bad the story was horrid.

[Xno Kappa]

You know, for the complete flak FFX-2 get's for its Charlies Angels story-line, the battle-system was fun as hell.

[Yuri-G]

My only beef with FFX-2's battle system was how annoying it could be to activate some of the garment grids. I didn't like being forced to change jobs continually just to get the full effect out of them. Otherwise it was fantastic, especially the timing aspect and the chains - Trigger Happy with a Sparkler finish was one of my favorite things to do, so much damage.

[Elcura]

My whole point was that FFVIII's attribute system lends itself to help the character's personalities. There's no incentive for that in FFXII because everyone can do the same exact shit.

FFXII had a similar thing as well, Vaan was better as a tank character than black mage character. Ashe was better with Katana weapons and was the most effective choice for using Masamune (or Murumasa, who cares) and a glove. That doesn't mean someone else couldn't do the same though. Vaan was the best choice for a Tournesol but fuck if I didn't let someone else use it.

in FF8 the weapon upgrade determines your base hit %. Squalls is 255% base on all Gunblades.. Its based on the weapon because the game does actually say its the most accurate weapon or something to that extent. For other characters, the weapon affects base accuracy too but they mostly hover between 85-99% accuracy. The only other weapon that has 255% hit stat is Selphies final weapon, so the character and weapon does make a slight difference.

Sure you can say it makes no real difference to a player, but I have to be technical because it actually DOES make a difference even if you can't tell.

Sure, stat wise there's a difference, but I can set up the characters exactly the same (if I had Selphie on a haste set up, I can transfer that to Irvine) and the shit won't matter. FFXII is the same as well. Infact, the only really annoying thing about the grid/license system is how long it takes to unlock the whole board (if say you're gonna use a character you haven't before, and all the LP in the world won't make it faster).

In the end, systems like that are made so all characters are the same, only the really hardcore care about the minute differences between Squall's hit rate and Zell's hit rate. And hardcore is definitely not a good term in this case.

Also, am I the only one who finds the concept of 255% accuracy ridiculous?

Lastly, I don't see why anyone should be ashamed to mention X-2 for the battle system. It was the only GOOD thing about the game (well, the story picked up later on, but it still isn't nearly good enough). X-2 also had a decent end-game.