Favorite FF Attribute System?

[Wintermute]

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

Not when fighting Cactuars.

Little evasive bastards.

[Spira]

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.

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.

Thats quite what Im getting at really. The differences are there, and they vary according to how you play in the game. If we're talking about the 'end' as in people playing till they max every stat and so on, the differences in these systems are obviously going to be minimal because they were designed to cap at the same level (having it otherwise would just not make sense from a technical point of view).

However, most players, normal or casual players don't see the necessity of capping stats and the like. The further you are from the cap, the more obvious the differences will be.
In the case of FFVIII, transferring a haste setup won't do quite as well on certain players because well, they might not be the same level and their base stats actually progress at different levels (and are different to begin with anyway). Rinoa has the best natural stat progression.

Similarly with FFX and FFXII, the characters are more unique/different the further you are from completing the license board/sphere grid. However, between XII and VIII, VIIIs limit breaks actually made a difference. In XII, although the quickenings looked different, they were all the same.. down to the attack power rating. Essentially, you start off the games with characters with defined roles and towards the end you're given the freedom to redefine them as you wish, or just make them all the same.

If we're going to talk about the flaws of a system, we should be realistic to the point where we know an average gamer will feel these flaws. If we're talking about the point where we're intently wearing out the system by pushing it to its limits, then its not being fair to the game.. and honestly, no game will be able to satisfy those demands.. unless its incredibly unbalanced.

[Rocl]

Draw sucked, but Junction owned.

[Freijah]

You're all wrong, it's dress spheres. Unfortuantly the system appeared in a shit game.

[Guitarman]

I know it's cool to hate on FF7, but I loved the materia system. Probably because I liked dicking around with oddball combinations. Final Attack + Phoenix is broken. Or w-summon Knights with mime on the other 2. Cast Knight and leave for dinner, come back and dead boss lol.

[Wintermute]

I know it's cool to hate on FF7, but I loved the materia system. Probably because I liked dicking around with oddball combinations. Final Attack + Phoenix is broken. Or w-summon Knights with mime on the other 2. Cast Knight and leave for dinner, come back and dead boss lol.

W-Summon KotR with a Quad Magic Bahamut Zero is asking for it. All Mastered of course.

BZ > KotR > Mime > Mime > Mime > etc is a piss take.

It's funny to say "lawl summon then go eat" but I've seen it done. Friend went and made a sandwich, made some tea, finished his meal, took a shit, got back and it was still going.

[Akiyama]

Yeah. Hell, I had it set up with the HP<->MP Swap with KoTR and what not. That shit was fun. D: I think I set it up with Quad Magic/Mimes and left to go and do some errands for about 15-20 minutes, and it was still going lol.

[Arachna]

I rate them 9, X-2, 8.

[Elcura]

Essentially, you start off the games with characters with defined roles and towards the end you're given the freedom to redefine them as you wish, or just make them all the same.

This is basically how most of these games go. Which annoys me because in games like IX, no matter how far you get into the game, a blackmage is a blackmage and no one else can do their job. To the point where the only difference is whether you like the character or not. XII and VIII have their points, VIII has the limit break differences to define characters (even if it is loose) and XII has weapons (even if all characters can use weapons, others will be better at it).

None of those games really have more or less freedom than the other, only differences would be in battle systems that make or break the game.

[Xno Kappa]

W-Summon KotR with a Quad Magic Bahamut Zero is asking for it. All Mastered of course.

BZ > KotR > Mime > Mime > Mime > etc is a piss take.

It's funny to say "lawl summon then go eat" but I've seen it done. Friend went and made a sandwich, made some tea, finished his meal, took a shit, got back and it was still going.

Pretty much exactly how I took down that undersea weapon.

[Guitarman]

Pretty much exactly how I took down that undersea weapon.

I had cloud maxxed on hp at that point. I forget the item but theres one where you take extra damage but your limit fills quicker. Basically every round id just spam full cure on him, and every single round was omnislash.

[Zimbabwe Justice]

Love FFV's job system. XI's too.

[Chezo]

I like all the FF attribute systems for the most part, but the best imo were FFIV, mostly for the fact that you were stuck with w/e the game gave you all the way to the end, makes you use every character/job at some point. FFVIII was great because it was so diffrent from all the rest and I think the junction and draw system were genius. I hated the system in FFII, and am not a big fan of the FFVI system(think I'm the only one lol).

[MisterBob]

God Tier:
FF5, FF6

High Tier:
FF Tactics, FF3

Mid Tier:
FF12, FF10, FF7

Shit Tier:
FF8, FF2, Pretty much the rest

Yeah. Hell, I had it set up with the HP<->MP Swap with KoTR and what not. That shit was fun. D: I think I set it up with Quad Magic/Mimes and left to go and do some errands for about 15-20 minutes, and it was still going lol.

And people complained about FF12 playing itself, lol.

[Soa]

The Junction system in VIII was great with the only real downside being that a) using spells weakened stats and b) it made the game too easy. Why use spells though when you can easily do normal attacks for 9999 damage?

As for people bitching about Drawing magic, play the amazingly fun Triple Triad card game and refine cards into spells. Seriously I almost never used Draw (or GF's for that matter) after disc 1.

[Lordwafik]

I loved the grid in FFX.

[Correction]

Yeah well you live on the other side of the world, where winter is summer and washbins swirl the other way. Everything is backwards.

Also:

I like all the FF attribute systems for the most part, but the best imo were FFIV

You like randomly losing stats on level up? FFIV's stat 'gain' system is probably the worst of the series.

[Antithesis]

I don't know what it was, but 8 and 10 were by far one of the best FF games I ever played. 8 probably I fell in love with because it was my first FF game but the battle system was awesome as well as the story and the feel of the game. It was the first PS1 game that didn't creep me out with its graphics (most PS1 games looked weird as hell around that time.) Sure you didn't get to use magic a lot because it became almost obsolete around the time you got to Disc 2 but just casting Aura on your characters and literally beating the fuck out of everything was just as fun.

10 will always remain a mystery to me as to why I loved it. Maybe it was because it was so amazingly balanced throught most of the game. Sure when you got to the end EVERYONE was basically the same with only Overdrives and certain things (Yuna's Aeon's) to differentiate them but, before you got there the game was solidly balanced. The grid was fun, the overall experience was fun and the setting was beautiful. A water driven-asian-esque world was a perfect setting for this game. Everything was beutiful.

I'd have to say F8 => <= F10, then FF9 => <=FF10-2, FF9, FF6.

[Palom]

I could be remembering incorrectly, but didn't the Junction system in FF8 totally discourage the use of magic? EG: You had to go Draw magic for hours and hours, then junction that to equipment to make it stronger, but then if you wanted to cast spells, you'd have to deplete your junction reserves, thus making your equipment weaker. Is that correct?

FF9 I really liked, simply because the characters actually played different. You didn't have everyone spamming the same attack/spell/summon. In 7, everyone was spamming KotR. In 6, everyone was spamming Ultima.

I did actually like the grid system in 10, although it did have its flaws. Kimhari's (sp?) grid put him in an awkward spot, which made him difficult to flesh out after his initial "area." Having to aquire items to unlock certain areas of the grid put a damper on certain schemes of unlocking abilities. You couldn't plow through and level up people early and breeze through the rest of the game; there would be points where you'd be forced to stop (most of the time one character got "stuck" way before another) until you could unlock areas on the grid.

[Kwijiboe]

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

Squall was great because if he was ever blinded you knew he would deliver the final blow on the bad guy before you were wiped out--or he could also wake up a party member with a hit.

However, on the other hand. Squall was always the reason I died whenever I farmed Malboros. He'd hack up my entire party.

Probably didn't help that I continued pressing R1, either.

**
BTW, I loved 8. Junction was awesome. I played card games to get magic mostly, and trained the GF with the no random encounter skill and drew magic from the Isles of Heaven and Hell. Great game, at the beginning the only spell you need to draw to a 100 is Tornado.