NameIsRobertPaulson said:
kabooz18 said:
NameIsRobertPaulson said:
~SNIP~
I don't think you played 7, 8 or 9 if you think the fighting system was the same...
7 used the Materia system, allowing you to set up what you wanted to use in battle, how strong to make it, and if you wanted extra abilities on top. This allowed you to set your party's combat how you liked it.
8 used the Junction system, where you used magic to customize stats and elemental and status bonuses. It was an awful system, mostly because it made everything short of attack, limit break, and occasionally summon worthless, since magic was so weak, and so needed for everything.
Side quests start in 7 as early as when you exit Midgar (6 hours) Side Quests in 8 start as soon as you finish the SeeD test (4 hours) Side Quests in 10 start as soon as you leave Luca (14 hours average). Side quests start in 12 at almost the beginning (1:31 if you skip cutscenes). Side quests in 13? 21 hours in.
I blame the game because if the commands the game would do for you matter as much as your own, something in fundamentally wrong. I could set up my paradigms for a combo chain, but it doesn't give any real advantage 95% of the time, doesn't speed up the battle (actually slows it down), doesn't give any reward or even sign that it's the right thing to do, it's pointless busy work.
no, I've played them FF8 was my first and FF9 was my second I played FF 8 nearly 15 times now and have modded the interface somewhat for the pc version.
As I myself work in game design I think much on how a game works an makes me feel.
you seem to be making the assumption that the junction/materia/ect systems are part of the battle system, that they are not these are level or character progression systems.
the materia system is you socket materia to your weapon which can:
increase or decrease your stats,
give you spells or
change your commands. (IIRC)
all are levelable which grants bonuses depending on the kind of materia
interchangeable whenever you want outside of combat.
whereas the junction system and GF made it possible to:
enhance your stats with magic depending on what your junctioned GFs have learned,
you can convert items to items , items to magic, magic to magic, cards to items,
can set what fighting commands you want to have except attack (e.g. draw magic or use GF)
you can set what kind of auto abilities a character schould have (haste, protect, attack to steal),
you can change what set of GFs a character should have and with that the abilities
GF levelable and abilities unlockable, streng of magic dependent of junction (e.g. 100 cure better for HP than 100 Fira),
everything interchangeable whenever you want outside of combat.
as for the junction system and magic, many have a problem with that but to my experience it's mostly if someone does not think about what they are doing with the characters.
I have no problems using magic and GF and other commands like devour and I'm stronger for it,
it's a more complex system I admit but it allows more individuality and freedom with the characters than any other FF to date IMHO.
to your point on sidequests:
you're absolutely right but it doesn't matter much to me when you have the chance to do that stuff^^
as for combat in FF XIII
after I've gotten to gran pulse paradigm shifting is necessary to keep alive even with some normal mobs, and auto battle does not only do a crudely job at it, it's even not really survivable sometimes.
so I don't think something is fundamentally wrong with it, however it takes far too long to be interesting enough
as for speed for me it can slow down a fight if the enemy is too weak but with a strong enemy it can cut down the time needed to defeat an enemy to about a fifth of the time.
my fav fighting systems in the final fantasy series are FF X and FF XII
my fav lvl systems are FF VIII and FF X
in that order
for completeness my fav story is FF VI and FF XIII and FF XIII-2