Elemental Absurdity

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who's noticed this... it's something very strange that's quite noticeable in the later FFs, particularly FFVII and VIII. It has to do with the assigning of elemental attributes to a character's weapon and defences.
Let's look at a situation where one character - Squall, for instance - has an 'Elemental Attack - Fire' rating of 100%. Rinoa has an 'Elemental Defence - Fire' rating of 100%. She's totally immune to Fire magic, she'll actually absorb it.

Let's then suppose that Squall attacks her with his fire-elemental Gunblade. She'll gain HP, absorbing the damage. To me, this is just absurd. No matter how flame-proof you are, it's still going to hurt if someone shoots you in the face, or hacks at your body with a whopping great sword. The same applies for any element - just because a character is immune to the Poison element doesn't mean that they should be invulnerable to any bullets, clubs or pointy sticks that happen to be carrying poison.

Am I the only one to whom this situation is just a little strange? A minor gameplay detail, but one I felt like mentioning for no real reason.

Ding, wrong. If Rinnie has a 100% ED, she is only immune. You need over 100% to absord an element in VIII. I think.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but does an Fire Absorbing enemy gain HP from a less than 100% Fire attack? Dun remember.

Maybe Squall didn't exactly "hit her"? :O_O:

Yeah sometimes the elemental kind of method of gaining energy back seems a little funny. In my opinion characters shouldn't even be able to attack their own party members unless they're confused. It just seems a little perplexing.

Slashing Rinoa with the gunblade (+ shooting her with R1) should not have to gain her health up by 2000 or so. :eep:

OK, I'll try to be little clearer this time...
Being very fireproof (or cold-proof, or water resistant) shouldn't make you get healed when someone attacks you with a flaming (or icy or wet) sword, stick or gun. It's just a little odd.

I totally agree with Big D... after a while I never junction any magic to Elem - attack in fear that I would heal the enemy.

The magic attacks should only work as an auxiliary and not the whole attack.
i.e. it should be attack + element and not elemental attack, that way no immunities.

I do like Status attack though, these are better than using the actual spell forms.

I explain it the way I explain just about everything in FF: MAGIC! Remember, magic isn't real, so it doesn't have to behave realistically. So Squall can run right up to Rinoa and slash her to ribbons and shoot her right in the face, but if he's got so much as +1% fire damage, if she has *100% fire defense, she'll just magically heal after being smacked around physically. Make sense?

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Originally posted by Big D
Let's look at a situation where one character - Squall, for instance - has an 'Elemental Attack - Fire' rating of 100%. Rinoa has an 'Elemental Defence - Fire' rating of 100%. She's totally immune to Fire magic, she'll actually absorb it.

Let's then suppose that Squall attacks her with his fire-elemental Gunblade. She'll gain HP, absorbing the damage. To me, this is just absurd. No matter how flame-proof you are, it's still going to hurt if someone shoots you in the face, or hacks at your body with a whopping great sword.

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Well, in that situation. It would lower your SeeD rank to hit your own party members, even if it heals them.

Yes, well, whacking your young, pretty boss with a sword isn't going to go down too well with the authorities, even if you can plead 'elemental immunity'.

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Originally posted by Big D
Yes, well, whacking your young, pretty boss with a sword isn't going to go down too well with the authorities, even if you can plead 'elemental immunity'.

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Meh, she deserves it.

Anyways, it is rather strange. But, hey, we're in a ficticious world, which means anything can happen, right? Who knows, maybe she does get slashed by this blade of fire, but the burning heat of the fire makes for quick healing of the wound? Kinda like a lightsaber in Star Wars. People's limbs get chopped off, but they don't bleed all over the place. *shrug*

Meh, I don't think much about these things. After all, it is just a game.

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Originally posted by Kuja Highwind
Meh, she deserves it.

Anyways, it is rather strange. But, hey, we're in a ficticious world, which means anything can happen, right? Who knows, maybe she does get slashed by this blade of fire, but the burning heat of the fire makes for quick healing of the wound? Kinda like a lightsaber in Star Wars. People's limbs get chopped off, but they don't bleed all over the place. *shrug*

Meh, I don't think much about these things. After all, it is just a game.

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Yup, she damn well does

As for Lightsabers, wouldn't they cauterise(sp?) the wound, causing it not to bleed?

Shouldn't this be in the FF8 Forum? Unless I am already there, and imagined that I wasn't...

Well the point applies to all FF games that factor elemental immunity/absorbancy. I remember accidentally healing Ifrit in FF6 many times just 'cause I left Sabin equipped with his fire knuckles. I also remember similar happenings in FF4.