Final Fantasy VIII or Dragon Quest VIII?

[Karellen]

Once again, I disagree with your first and second comments for my previous point - the exploitability of the game is largely exaggerated, especially by those searching for reasons to bash the game (i'm not saying you're one of them). Of course I've refined the Wizard Stones you get from saving Ellone - there are only 8. That gives you 40 -aga magics. Maybe you were underleveled, but even if you gave all 40 to one stat on one character, that hardly makes them broken. Not to mention that would be using up the entire thing on ONLY one stat for ONLY one character; its far from broken. Spreading out the magics, as I'm sure alot of people would do, highly reduces the effectiveness. The only other method early in the game would be to refine tents into curagas, but that is expensive considering the salary in the beginning of the game. If you were to use a cheat sheet and fly through the exams, (which you can only take up to your level) it reinforces what I said earlier - that you're still spending time away from the main story to do these things, much like level grinding in any other title.

As I said, the amount was enough to allow me to kill bosses with two or three limit breaks. I’m not saying the amount you get in the beginning will last you the entire game, but it’s enough to make the beginning of the game effortless. By the time you DO need more you’ll quite commonly come across fiends that not only drop these items but allow you to draw high level magic directly. 40 –aga spells might not seem much on paper but seriously, next time you go through the game test it out. You really can cause the amount of damage you described. Similarly, while you probably won’t afford ten tents for each character from right after you get Siren, the amount you can afford is enough to give your offensive character enough HP that he doesn’t have to fear being KO’ed while on critical. After that you can just refine them as you can afford more, for when you’ll actually need high HP for the later battles.

I already covered the point about people not following the methodology I described. As I said, just because people don’t know how to break the system doesn’t make it any less broken. The point is you shouldn’t be able to break it to begin with.

As far as your third point, your example makes no sense. Every RPG has monsters in pre-designated areas, so I'm not quite sure what it is you're trying to say. You hardly need to stock up on as much magic as possible in order to progress through the game, only some, and that's it, not to mention with the reifning process, you can have characters which never need the draw command (it is optional, by the way).

I meant that your analogy wasn’t particularly accurate because in other games you consistently gain experience as you go, which means there is no need to stop and level up. The difference in FFVIII is that you can only given a few set opportunities in the beginning to gain some of the better powerful magic, with it only becoming available en masse (through draw points or refining better items) much later in the game. Therefore, I said a better analogy would be if there was a game where most monsters didn’t give EXP unless you are in a few set areas within the game that a few and far between. In that situation, I think most people would level up because they knew they wouldn’t get another opportunity for some time.

Also, you should refrain from using words like "absolutely" in describing your disgust for the system, because it's only your opinion.

Yes, it’s my opinion that there is absolutely nothing good about it. I really don’t see any reason to tack ‘IMO’ or whatever on the end of it, especially when you seem to be able to tell I was stating an opinion anyway.

Rather than "a hideously designed system with absolutely no redeeming qualities" alot of people like me find it to be an intriguingly designed and incredibly flexible system which allows for a fresh experience every time you pick up the game.

Other games have had just as flexible system without being broken. Hell, virtually every non-Japanese RPG gives you the same level of customization. It’s worth noting though that I wasn’t talking about the junctioning system. I was talking about the draw system.