Sphere Grid vs. License Board

[Roto13]

So which do you think is better? The License Board allows for more customization but the Sphere Grid let's you use abilities as soon as you unlock them.

Choices....

[LunarWeaver]

You're replacing the pogo stick as my favorite thing in the world.


I think the License Board is awesome, but I choose Sphere Grid. I mad2 at those that do not choose Sphere Grid. Let the mad2 insanity begin.

[rubah]

The Spheregrid is bigger and you can spend a lot more time on it.

The license board was pretty cool, but kinda generic. It would've been neat to have judges roaming the countryside and if you tried to use a technick you didn't have the license for, throw one of your characters in jail like in ffta xD But mainly it was too small. You shouldn't be able to finish the whole board in the normal course of playing the game.

Spheregrid. it was integrated with pretty much all kinda of spira.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'll stick up for the License Board since I never cared for the Sphere Grid system. I don't think the Sphere Grid system is bad mind you, rather I just didn't think it was some great system template that every FF should follow. Of anything, it taught me how tedious leveling really is...

I prefer the License Board cause it is far more excessable and allows you to create the job class system (The system I really love) for your party. The board is smaller than the Sphere Grid but it allows for deeper customization. In FFX, by the time your party finishes the initial path of there character (usually end game) , they really don't need to go any farther in the grid except to level to fight optional creatures in the Monster Arena. On the otherhand, when you complete the License Board, you gain access to customize your party however you see fit and you can even change their customizations within battles which gives you a better strategic edge.

It's just more versatile and offers deeper customization IMHO.

[Jessweeee♪]

Well you didn't VOTE for it!

I voted for Sphere Grid!
Rather than provide an intelligent analysis of both systems, I'll just repeat myself.

Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid Sphere Grid

[Remedy]

I'm the only voter for FF XII's License Board ^^

[Wolf Kanno]

Well you didn't VOTE for it!

I thought I did, well now I have so:p

[Angel_from_hell]

I like the Licence Board, I think it is enjoying to try to gather enough License Points to buy the diffrent things on the Board.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Not being able to edit the License Board = Fail.

[BlackWaltz]

Licence board. The spere grid didnt really do anything for me.

[Dreddz]

I prefer the Sphere Grid, the License board is still cool, but its just there to burden the player. The advanced Sphere Grid is what I'd preferably use.

[Setzer Gabianni]

The Sphere Grid was lame. When I wanted to get to spells that were really good, I apparently didn't have the right spheres. License Grid ftw. A lot more challenging.

[Neo-Omega Mk XXV]

License board - though I really do wish that weak enemies wouldn't give you any LP to prevent cheap LP farming.

The sphere grid, even in advanced form, just ends up playing too much like an ordinary levelling system with fixed job classes. It's not until late in the game that one can get return, friend, teleport etc. spheres that allow genuine customization. On top of that the speed,power etc. spheres were so common place that they might as well have let you activate the corresponding nodes for free. Had they been scarce there might have been an interesting resource management side to the whole thing.

[Sergeant Hartman]

Not being able to edit the License Board = Fail.
Yeah you could add whatever you liked to the Sphere Grid.

[Yuriev's ghost]

Conceptually, the License Board is better. In practice, they both eat ass.

[Renmiri]

I love the License Board but it is too short.

Sphere grid FTW!

[Tavrobel]

They are both based on board games; therefore, both of them fail.

But...


Not being able to edit the License Board = Fail.

... FFX fails less.

[Skyblade]

I must choose the Liscense Board. Certainly, the Sphere Grid had more customization potential, but you could not access the vast majority of that potential until the very end of the game. Spheres were extremely easy to come by, making them useless for the sphere grid system, since the odds of not having a needed Power, Mana, Speed, or Ability sphere is slim to none. Yet, if you want to use the spheres for Aeon enhancement, you must gather an entire stack and waste them all to gain a single point in a stat. There are some really screwy calculations there.

The Liscence Board, on the other hand, cannot be customized, yet I feel that it is a far better system than the Sphere grid. It is far less linear, since your characters can take any path they wanted from the very beginning of the game. You can customize your characters however you want, with strong magic or strong physical attacks, with speed or technics. Your characters develop how you want them to, with no forced path that they must follow.

The Liscence Board may be too small, but its flexibility, even at an early stage, makes it the winner in my book.

[Little Blue]

The sphere grid... I don't really like the License board, its good for making a pretty uniform party pretty early in the game... At least the Sphere Grid had a rudimentary job-like system for the first couple dozen hours until you maxed one persons path...

[Xurts]

wtf? License Board is far better. The Sphere Grid was full of suck.

[chrisguapo69]

I choose the Sphere Grid.

The License board was too generic and too easy and you did not really need any strategic approach to enhancing your characters identity. It paved the way to make everyone into clones. Although I know you don't have to make them into clones but the possiblity is there.

Where as the sphere grid you had to plan more strategically or you'll end up wasting valuable moves. Why i say the sphere grid is more strategically challenging is simple:

1. You need different type spheres to enhance not only the characters abilities, but also the Aeons as well. If you lack some spheres, you have the option to fight monster creations to get the spheres you need. Or you can buy sphere distillers and cast them onto fiends to get the spheres you need. PLanning and strategy! I love it!

Who ever said there's a lack of spheres even when upgrading your Aeons is totally wrong.

2. If you want to make clones, this will be challenging since pathways start off differently. So in the beginning the roles and abilities of each character start off differently. Thus when you do battles, you need to strategize (is this a word?)and re-think your every encounter. Unlike in FFXII, you can buy axes for everyone in one setting. Boring!!! I would rather find a plan and strategy that works instead of saying "Hmmm.. I can't beat this boss! I'm just gonna buy 'Save the Queen' for everyone. MUahahaha!"

Don't even mention the different Weapons and Armor customizations!! So my 'Dragonkiller' sword may be different than yours! or I can even make 2 or 3 Kotetsu's each with different uses depending on the battle.

3. If you want a certain character to have an ability not obtainable from his/her starting position you can always use teleport, friend, return spheres. (Ex. My Auron can cast Holy) But you have to plan it out first before using, or else waste an uncommon sphere. More planning and strategy which I love!!

4. And in FFXII, you can't really go deep into leveling and customizing since there is no Break HP, Break Damage, Break MP abilities. So although more versatile, no matter how strong your weapons or strength abilities are, you'll only get up to 9,999 damage. Boring!!

In FFX, the game continues to encourage you to get your characters as much damage potential as they can get.

5. Should I even include the level unlocking spheres needed?? More planning!

All in all to sum things up, I love the Sphere grid since it involves more challenging strategic thinking than the License Board.

They should have called it the "License Bored." lol :D

[Setzer Gabianni]

The License board was too generic and too easy and you did not really need any strategic approach to enhancing your characters identity. It paved the way to make everyone into clones. Although I know you don't have to make them into clones but the possiblity is there.

This alone describes the Sphere Grid.

[Neo-Omega Mk XXV]

I choose the Sphere Grid.

The License board was too generic and too easy and you did not really need any strategic approach to enhancing your characters identity. It paved the way to make everyone into clones. Although I know you don't have to make them into clones but the possiblity is there.

Where as the sphere grid you had to plan more strategically or you'll end up wasting valuable moves. Why i say the sphere grid is more strategically challenging is simple:

1. You need different type spheres to enhance not only the characters abilities, but also the Aeons as well. If you lack some spheres, you have the option to fight monster creations to get the spheres you need. Or you can buy sphere distillers and cast them onto fiends to get the spheres you need. PLanning and strategy! I love it!

Who ever said there's a lack of spheres even when upgrading your Aeons is totally wrong.

2. If you want to make clones, this will be challenging since pathways start off differently. So in the beginning the roles and abilities of each character start off differently. Thus when you do battles, you need to strategize (is this a word?)and re-think your every encounter. Unlike in FFXII, you can buy axes for everyone in one setting. Boring!!! I would rather find a plan and strategy that works instead of saying "Hmmm.. I can't beat this boss! I'm just gonna buy 'Save the Queen' for everyone. MUahahaha!"

Don't even mention the different Weapons and Armor customizations!! So my 'Dragonkiller' sword may be different than yours! or I can even make 2 or 3 Kotetsu's each with different uses depending on the battle.

3. If you want a certain character to have an ability not obtainable from his/her starting position you can always use teleport, friend, return spheres. (Ex. My Auron can cast Holy) But you have to plan it out first before using, or else waste an uncommon sphere. More planning and strategy which I love!!

4. And in FFXII, you can't really go deep into leveling and customizing since there is no Break HP, Break Damage, Break MP abilities. So although more versatile, no matter how strong your weapons or strength abilities are, you'll only get up to 9,999 damage. Boring!!

In FFX, the game continues to encourage you to get your characters as much damage potential as they can get.

5. Should I even include the level unlocking spheres needed?? More planning!

All in all to sum things up, I love the Sphere grid since it involves more challenging strategic thinking than the License Board.

They should have called it the "License Bored." lol :D

Customizable weapons - virtually useless for the vast majority of the game due to the difficulty of obtaining items that allow for decent customizations.

Return,friend etc. spheres - again unavailable in any decent quantity for the majority of the game. Hardly any customization is either possible or necessary unless one wants to do side quests, never mind planning.

Aeon enhancements - absurdly overcosted, useless in practice.
Skyblade specifically said that there are always enough spheres for upgrading your characters, but not enough if you also want to upgrade your Aeons. That's absolutely true unless you're willing to engage in absurd amounts of distilling.

Cloning - Yes it's probably too easy to fill the license board (it doesn't help that you can still accumulate LP from weak enemies). I didn't have this problem, and I suspect that most people who do are grinding unnecessarily (a better designed system would forbid this, but FF games have rarely been paradigms of balance). Not only is it unnecessary to "buy Save the Queen for everybody" to get past any bosses, it would be enormously boring to accumulate the gil for that. OTOH the amount of challenge in the FF10 bosses is very low with 3 or 4 exceptions (not counting optionals), especially when compared to the FF12 average, so this argument is not very convincing. In any case any challenge can be overcome in either game by levelling/gil hoarding (or sphere grid building if you will), so this is a moot point (see my .sig).
The idea that FF10 requires more strategy (not counting optional fights again) than FF12 is just laughable IMO, and not even really worth discussing. "Strategizing" and rethinking every encounter? Please. The amount of different possible encounters in FF10 is considerably lower than in FF12 anyway given that FF10's enemies always come up in fixed groups, and the battle scene stays the same in every location.

The fact is that for the vast majority of the game the sphere grid _does not even allow_ any significant amount of planning and strategy, so there's no question about it "requiring planning and strategy", especially when compared to the license board.

MP Break, HP Break etc. - I don't see what the big deal about not having these is, as they are only necessary (again) for difficult optional fights and make the main quest even easier.

[Wolf Kanno]

Well Skyblade and Neo-Omega Mk XXV, pretty much said my feelings about this debate and the supposedly "stengths" of the Sphere Grid. The fact is, most of these "strengths" only become truly excessable by the end game and they are more designed towards taking out the optional boss creatures by making your party into clones of each other.

Also, for the Aeon customizations, they are completely pointless (honestly, FFXII could have used it more than FFX) since the Aeons are generally more powerful than everything in the game. Who cares if you powered up Ixion so much he can beat Yunalesca by itself?

The problem is that FFX doesn't have the level of difficulty and strategy needed within the main game to make it's extra features so wonderful. XII's system was designed around the main game not the optional stuff you do later. The fact that FFXII gives you challenges as nasty as FFX's with more limited resources at your disposal makes it far more challenging and requires a higher level of strategy than just "power leveling".

[Formalhaut]

This is WAY tough but I think the sphere grid is just a tad better. Why? As there are more space to get your Hp or Mp or whatever to grow faster.And its larger and the abilty to make new nodes!


Kupo!

[xtrava]

IMO, Sphere Grid > License Board.

License Board seems designed for noobs to Final Fantasy. :p

[Setzer Gabianni]

Tard. I would think of something more appropriate to say, but right now, tard seems the only suitable word for that statement :bigsmile: XD

[No.78]

IMO, Sphere Grid > License Board.

License Board seems designed for noobs to Final Fantasy. :p

That doesn't even make sense =/


MAKE SENSE



I vote... License Board, cos sphere grid takes forever to complete. I still havent completed it.

[DK]

Conceptually, the License Board is better. In practice, they both eat ass.

I agree with Jonathan.

[xtrava]

Tard. I would think of something more appropriate to say, but right now, tard seems the only suitable word for that statement XD

You'd think of something more appropriate to say, but unfortunately, you're incredibly stupid.



IMO, Sphere Grid > License Board.

License Board seems designed for noobs to Final Fantasy. :p

That doesn't even make sense =/


MAKE SENSE



I vote... License Board, cos sphere grid takes forever to complete. I still havent completed it.

How does that not make sense? Do you have problems understanding English?

[hplvr]

id prefer the License Board, everyone starts at the same place and can get the same things, FF10 is that charaacter has his/her own weapons and armour and crap... and so on

[Setzer Gabianni]

Tard. I would think of something more appropriate to say, but right now, tard seems the only suitable word for that statement XD

You'd think of something more appropriate to say, but unfortunately, you're incredibly stupid.



It was a joke, hence the little "XD" smilie.

[Serapy]

I vote License Board, it may be smaller than Sphere Grid but FF12 has more items/spells/etc than FFX so it's equivalent

[Markus. D]

Sphere Grid [The Advanced from international]

Its more balanced.

and then oodles out to ub3rism.

unlike the FFXII one. which is extrodinarily ub3r depending on choices.

[Nefarious_Virtue]

A better version of the license board would have been nice which could have added more diversity, each character should follow a path like in the past final fantasies ie white mage, black mage, thief. This would have been more interesting instead of a party of powerful characters which are great at everything.

[xtrava]

Tard. I would think of something more appropriate to say, but right now, tard seems the only suitable word for that statement XD

You'd think of something more appropriate to say, but unfortunately, you're incredibly stupid.



It was a joke, hence the little "XD" smilie.

I never said I wasnt joking.

[chrisguapo69]

The License board was too generic and too easy and you did not really need any strategic approach to enhancing your characters identity. It paved the way to make everyone into clones. Although I know you don't have to make them into clones but the possiblity is there.

This alone describes the Sphere Grid.

Wrong again. I'm already way past the game but until now my characters still have different identities. In FFXII, all my people were the same after doing a good number of the hunts. And working for the "cool" weapons were as easy as opening a treasure chest. Not in FFX.

FFXII was my first Final Fantasy and even I found it too easy to play and license up. At first I just unlocked whatever and I didn't have any perception of what licensing and weapons upgrades were for but I was able to easily work thru it.

FFX was my second FF game. The Sphere grid I found was far more interesting. Even with a little knowledge of upgrading weapons and stuff from playing FFXII a lot of planning had to be put into place for your characters to go the way you wanted them to go.

For example, if you wanted Balthier to throw in some magic spells, all you had to do was unlock a few license spots. And since you only need to buy Magic only once, everyone can now benefit from it.

Do you now get how easy and generic this system is?? or not?

Now, if you wanted Auron to become a caster, you'll have to travel way accross the globe to get him there or throw in some share spheres or whatever.

But don't get me wrong. The gameplay was way better in FFXII. I liked how you can plan and strategically prepare your guys while in the same time doing battle. (Turning off "wait" mode in the options menu). This saved a lot of time especially with the use of gambits.

[MikeL Valentine]

I think FF10's Sphere Grid is better I didn't really liked FF12's leveling (and fighting) system.

[Aerisfanatic]

ill have to say sphere grid because the lisence board takes away the fun of the game, you cant just by a weapon you must get points so you can you use it, if this was real life situations... i get what i want, im going use it, im not waiting, thats it... and that how should be in the game

[Neo-Omega Mk XXV]

ill have to say sphere grid because the lisence board takes away the fun of the game, you cant just by a weapon you must get points so you can you use it, if this was real life situations... i get what i want, im going use it, im not waiting, thats it... and that how should be in the game

Huh? Takes away the fun of the game? No game in the FF series allows every character to use every weapon without imposing any sort of cost except for FF2 (whose gameplay is rotten anyway). FF5 and 11 (not played 11, but from what I've heard) allow characters to equip different sorts of weapons through abilities acquired via job systems. FF3 lets you equip different weapons by changing jobs, and the other games in the series have fixed weapons for the characters. Do you complain about all of those games as well?
Requiring characters to activate licenses is the "cost" imposed in FF12 for allowing characters to use different weapons. Think of it as representing training to use new weapons if you wish.

[Aerisfanatic]

ill have to say sphere grid because the lisence board takes away the fun of the game, you cant just by a weapon you must get points so you can you use it, if this was real life situations... i get what i want, im going use it, im not waiting, thats it... and that how should be in the game

Huh? Takes away the fun of the game? No game in the FF series allows every character to use every weapon without imposing any sort of cost except for FF2 (whose gameplay is rotten anyway). FF5 and 11 (not played 11, but from what I've heard) allow characters to equip different sorts of weapons through abilities acquired via job systems. FF3 lets you equip different weapons by changing jobs, and the other games in the series have fixed weapons for the characters. Do you complain about all of those games as well?
Requiring characters to activate licenses is the "cost" imposed in FF12 for allowing characters to use different weapons. Think of it as representing training to use new weapons if you wish. sorry i cant answer that i only played 7-12

[Yuffie514]

Sphere Grid. it is easier to earn the AP and also unlock abilities, etc. the License Board kind of annoyed me.