Poll: Final Fantasy character progression systems

[Danzaivar]

Five / Ten-Two and the job system is by far my favourite system. Second would be Final Fantasy 9's version. Third would be Magicite (ala 6).

It's a shame that they crossed 10-2's amazing job system with so much in your face girl power. If they kept it to the usual angst filled game that Final Fantasies usually are it would be one of the favourites in the series imo.

 

[ZephrC]

You could just get a friend sphere if you really wanted to change tracks early and BAM, someone's on someone else's path as soon as you can. I think you can get at least one of them fairly early on. But the sphere grid really just felt pointless. They could have just taken the FFIV approach and everything would have been pretty much the same.

I suppose so. I hadn't really thought of those. That still leaves you with an entire path that isn't being filled in, which means your party will most likely be lacking something, thus being less balanced and inferior. Not that the game was hard enough for that to be a real problem with most of the characters, but you couldn't very well do that with Lulu unless you like a bunch of battles being incredibly annoying. Or Yuna unless you like relying heavily on lousy healing items. Or just switching everybody around, except you can't do that with friend spheres.

 

[WilliamRLBaker]

wheres the esper system from final fantasy 6?
Id pick that one, it was easy to use, and in the hard type version of the game, only terra and celes could equip espers.
which REALLY cut down on over powering the other characters in the game.

I tried that once... all it really does is make getting Edgar's Air Anchor (easily the most awesome ability in the game) that much more difficult. But once you have it, you're golden. Skillful use of Mog's, Gau's and Gogo's abilities can more than make up for lack of magic and summons. Also, *pulls up Nerd Pants, gives +5 to Nerding* Relm and Strago learn/use magic too... but that's all off-topic. lol

OT: I agree that FFIV Esper skill system is one of if not THE best of the entire series. Followed closely by the Materia, Sphere Grid, and Job systems (from V, not III).

Oh well I forgot Strago and relm like most people since I never really used them they were introduced so late I stuck with my main buitl characters.

 

[ZephrC]

You could just get a friend sphere if you really wanted to change tracks early and BAM, someone's on someone else's path as soon as you can. I think you can get at least one of them fairly early on. But the sphere grid really just felt pointless. They could have just taken the FFIV approach and everything would have been pretty much the same.

I suppose so. I hadn't really thought of those. That still leaves you with an entire path that isn't being filled in, which means your party will most likely be lacking something, thus being less balanced and inferior. Not that the game was hard enough for that to be a real problem with most of the characters, but you couldn't very well do that with Lulu unless you like a bunch of battles being incredibly annoying. Or Yuna unless you like relying heavily on lousy healing items. Or just switching everybody around, except you can't do that with friend spheres.

Hell, Yuna, Lulu and to a lesser extent, Auron are really the only characters that you need in that game since Lulu's magic usually can take care of any enemies that wakka or tidus would need to hit that auron would miss and if all else fails, just summon since they don't take MP or anything.

You don't even particularly need Auron. Just one physical attacker of any kind. Auron's just the most popular since the competition is Wakka and Tidus.

 

[Havra]

I've always loved the FFIX system. I didn't reallt like many others because it left too much up to the player t decide and turned it all into a huge grind.

 

[JonnoStrife]

(Snipped)

Where's the option for FFIII, where your character's skills leveled up as you used them?

I liked having a mage who also beat shit with axes.

You sure you don't mean FF2? I loved that system too, had such an amazing concept that really required some polish to it. It's easily exploitable but it's sheer concept was way ahead of it's time and I am probably one of the few people who ever beat FF2 WITHOUT exploiting the system at all. That was fucking hard but so damn rewarding. The GBA/PSP remake refined the system more but still contained a few blemishes in it, but ultimately it's a really awesome and versatile system which i wanna see in more RPGs.

That system is exactly the reason I bought FFII on the iTouch. Seriously the best and most practical system I've ever experienced. It allowed me to make myself my perfect duel wielding Red Mage, a perfect tank and a pretty damn decent support/archer.

Not meaning to pimp Apple, but seriously "shit is so cash" as they say.

 

[JonnoStrife]

You could just get a friend sphere if you really wanted to change tracks early and BAM, someone's on someone else's path as soon as you can. I think you can get at least one of them fairly early on. But the sphere grid really just felt pointless. They could have just taken the FFIV approach and everything would have been pretty much the same.

I suppose so. I hadn't really thought of those. That still leaves you with an entire path that isn't being filled in, which means your party will most likely be lacking something, thus being less balanced and inferior. Not that the game was hard enough for that to be a real problem with most of the characters, but you couldn't very well do that with Lulu unless you like a bunch of battles being incredibly annoying. Or Yuna unless you like relying heavily on lousy healing items. Or just switching everybody around, except you can't do that with friend spheres.

Hell, Yuna, Lulu and to a lesser extent, Auron are really the only characters that you need in that game since Lulu's magic usually can take care of any enemies that wakka or tidus would need to hit that auron would miss and if all else fails, just summon since they don't take MP or anything.

You don't even particularly need Auron. Just one physical attacker of any kind. Auron's just the most popular since the competition is Wakka and Tidus.

Dude, I beg to disagree. Auron had a massive attack stat especially in comparison to the pile of shit that Tidus had. Health wise too. Tidus was the main character and he was the most superfluous in battle too. Even Rikku has more use, Atleast she can 1 hit robots.

 

[JonnoStrife]

You could just get a friend sphere if you really wanted to change tracks early and BAM, someone's on someone else's path as soon as you can. I think you can get at least one of them fairly early on. But the sphere grid really just felt pointless. They could have just taken the FFIV approach and everything would have been pretty much the same.

I suppose so. I hadn't really thought of those. That still leaves you with an entire path that isn't being filled in, which means your party will most likely be lacking something, thus being less balanced and inferior. Not that the game was hard enough for that to be a real problem with most of the characters, but you couldn't very well do that with Lulu unless you like a bunch of battles being incredibly annoying. Or Yuna unless you like relying heavily on lousy healing items. Or just switching everybody around, except you can't do that with friend spheres.

Hell, Yuna, Lulu and to a lesser extent, Auron are really the only characters that you need in that game since Lulu's magic usually can take care of any enemies that wakka or tidus would need to hit that auron would miss and if all else fails, just summon since they don't take MP or anything.

You don't even particularly need Auron. Just one physical attacker of any kind. Auron's just the most popular since the competition is Wakka and Tidus.

Dude, I beg to disagree. Auron had a massive attack stat especially in comparison to the pile of shit that Tidus had. Health wise too. Tidus was the main character and he was the most superfluous in battle too. Even Rikku has more use, Atleast she can 1 hit robots.

His stats only come from his sphere grid though, put tidus on Auron's sphere grid and he would more or less end up with the same amount of HP and attack.

Exactly, Auron has the best physical based grid of any character, which is my point, Tidus has a crap one, which is weird because you'd think they'd want you to use him more often. I didn't even deviate from their given paths really... I think I made Rikku a secondary healer but thats about it.

 

[ZephrC]

You could just get a friend sphere if you really wanted to change tracks early and BAM, someone's on someone else's path as soon as you can. I think you can get at least one of them fairly early on. But the sphere grid really just felt pointless. They could have just taken the FFIV approach and everything would have been pretty much the same.

I suppose so. I hadn't really thought of those. That still leaves you with an entire path that isn't being filled in, which means your party will most likely be lacking something, thus being less balanced and inferior. Not that the game was hard enough for that to be a real problem with most of the characters, but you couldn't very well do that with Lulu unless you like a bunch of battles being incredibly annoying. Or Yuna unless you like relying heavily on lousy healing items. Or just switching everybody around, except you can't do that with friend spheres.

Hell, Yuna, Lulu and to a lesser extent, Auron are really the only characters that you need in that game since Lulu's magic usually can take care of any enemies that wakka or tidus would need to hit that auron would miss and if all else fails, just summon since they don't take MP or anything.

You don't even particularly need Auron. Just one physical attacker of any kind. Auron's just the most popular since the competition is Wakka and Tidus.

Dude, I beg to disagree. Auron had a massive attack stat especially in comparison to the pile of shit that Tidus had. Health wise too. Tidus was the main character and he was the most superfluous in battle too. Even Rikku has more use, Atleast she can 1 hit robots.

Well... to be perfectly honest... I actually never used Auron, because I didn't like him. As in, I think he's worse than Tidus and Wakka. Tidus gets some good buffs and the delay abilities as well, so he's actually quite useful if you can stand him. It's not like his attacks are super weak or anything, they're just not quite as powerful as Auron's. And Wakka's are as powerful as Auron's, other than the defense ignoring thing anyway. Plus they both basically never miss, which I tend to prefer anyway.

 

[ZephrC]

You could just get a friend sphere if you really wanted to change tracks early and BAM, someone's on someone else's path as soon as you can. I think you can get at least one of them fairly early on. But the sphere grid really just felt pointless. They could have just taken the FFIV approach and everything would have been pretty much the same.

I suppose so. I hadn't really thought of those. That still leaves you with an entire path that isn't being filled in, which means your party will most likely be lacking something, thus being less balanced and inferior. Not that the game was hard enough for that to be a real problem with most of the characters, but you couldn't very well do that with Lulu unless you like a bunch of battles being incredibly annoying. Or Yuna unless you like relying heavily on lousy healing items. Or just switching everybody around, except you can't do that with friend spheres.

Hell, Yuna, Lulu and to a lesser extent, Auron are really the only characters that you need in that game since Lulu's magic usually can take care of any enemies that wakka or tidus would need to hit that auron would miss and if all else fails, just summon since they don't take MP or anything.

You don't even particularly need Auron. Just one physical attacker of any kind. Auron's just the most popular since the competition is Wakka and Tidus.

Dude, I beg to disagree. Auron had a massive attack stat especially in comparison to the pile of shit that Tidus had. Health wise too. Tidus was the main character and he was the most superfluous in battle too. Even Rikku has more use, Atleast she can 1 hit robots.

Well... to be perfectly honest... I actually never used Auron, because I didn't like him. As in, I think he's worse than Tidus and Wakka. Tidus gets some good buffs and the delay abilities as well, so he's actually quite useful if you can stand him. It's not like his attacks are super weak or anything, they're just not quite as powerful as Auron's. And Wakka's are as powerful as Auron's, other than the defense ignoring thing anyway. Plus they both basically never miss, which I tend to prefer anyway.

And it's all pointless because Anima breaks the damage limit.

True, the Summons were waaay overpowered in that game. If I ever had any difficulty at all with a battle, the solution was almost always to simply summon my invincible Shiva. And she was one of the weaker summons.

 

[Naheal]

Where's the option for FFIII, where your character's skills leveled up as you used them?

I liked having a mage who also beat shit with axes.

That was FFII, sir. FFIII had a long and relatively involved job system.

Also, I prefer the Crystarium, but I loved the FFXIII system...

 

[AllLagNoFrag]

Im going to go with the Sphere Grid. The only con besides the fact that by the end game if you aim high for 100% completion like I did, (even Yuna became a tank hitting with her staff doing 5-digit damage) is that it might be a little overwhelming to take in all at once. One of my friends that I introduced FFX to was overwhelmed by the huge sphere grid and kept going "I don't get it." However, as the game progresses this problem solves itself. Sphere grid ftw!

 

[Withall]

Seeing as I've only played FFTA with any frequency, I am partial towards the job/equipment syste, myself.

 

[Plinglebob]

Damn, I want to re-start X now.

Out of those choice, I'd say X is my favourite, but overall its X-2. This is because not only did it let your characters all do different things, but because some of the jobs were so entertaining (try a battle with 3 Gamblers.)

My thoughts on 7-13's are below. As a note, I'm a massive grinder in JRPGs (one of the reasonsI like them). I have been known to find a good levelling spot, stick some music/TV show on my PC and spend the afternoon fighting the same 3 battles over and over.

VII - I didn't like the game overall, but I found the Materia system a bit too overly complex and it was annoying having to switch it between various characters. I do like how it levelled up as you used it and if they were to bring something similar back in a future game, I wouldn't disagree.

VIII - I liked the idea of the system (and the ease with which you could switch GFs & Junctions between party members), but it was too easy to abuse. I once spent an hour fighting one battle against 3 enemies at the beginning of disk 2 getting 99 of each magic each enemy had for every character. I could then just plow through the rest of the disk without doing anything. It also discouraged you from actually casting magic which seemed a bit of a waste. The GF's were cool and levelling them up to get extra abilities and was a nice touch that should be repeated.

IX - I liked how everyone had a pre-defined with their equipment improving them and supporting them, and I thought the AP system letting you choose extra buffs was also a good idea. It also encouraged grinding regularly to make sure you learned everything. However, the artificial barrier of having to wait for the next equipment to continue was annoying.

X - Probably the most well balanced system they've ever managed. If you don't grind, you get enough spheres and xp to get each characters final ability before the final boss and while the boss may be tough, its do-able. However, you can grind like a madman and not run out of new things to get. It also encourages specialission at the beginning before then getting you to start to mix and match. However, if you have the time, its open to abuse. My friend had a save game where Yuna could hit an enemy in Omega Dungeon for 24k damage.

X-2 - I love that its the job system with a bit of a twist. The fact each job levels up as you use it encourages specialisation and some of the jobs were great. The bad thing is it didn't really courage you to diversify once you got a routine set and the additional mini-sphere grids were often a bot of a waste as they encouraged you to switch between jobs in battle when its never really needed. Its probably my favourite, but its a pity the system has such a bad name and the game overall is fairly hated (I like it though).

XII - I really hate this system. The first reason is a lack of specialisation. In X, even though each character could learn everything, it would take absolutely ages and even then, they had unique weapons to use. In XII everyone could end up learning to use all weapons and all spells and abilities meaning you just ended up with characters whowere all pretty much the same. The second is if I've spent time grinding XP to use a spell or ability, I shouldn't then have to wait for it to become available and then spend gold to BUY it. The third is that the grind was too easy. There was a system where if you killed the same type of enemy, you would get an LP bonus. About 1/2 way through the game you came to a forest where there were a lot of the same type of enemy and this coupled with the Gambit system (so you don't even have to press any buttons in combat) meant that after a couple of sessions, I had everybody's license board maxed out. I quit soon after.

XIII - I like this because it encourages (ok, forces) specialisation with each character getting different abilities for each job early on (One gets defensive buffs as a synagist early on, where as another gets offensive buffs instead) and by the end everyone who has a role as one of their primaries get access to most abilities. I didn't like it because of the artificial walls to levelling (can't access the top without beating the game? BAD IDEA!!) and the combat system means a lot of abilities don't get used. It was also well balanced if you wern't a power-leveller which was also good.

 

[Russian_Assassin]

I actually like X-2, such as it is. Can't agree with you about the Garment Grid, though; it seems like a character progression system designed to appeal to girls who like to dress up Barbies...

...but that may be because that's who it was designed to appeal to.

I sense a slight odor of an insult. Nah it can't be. Well, just to make myself clear, I liked the idea of changing forms, not the dress up part (though there were some revealing suits, I tell you that).