Whenever I think of this game, I think of the Junction system, and how poorly it was implemented. I almost always then think of Golden Sun, which I still feel accomplished everything that FFVIII was trying to do, but failed at. However, it seemed to me that it should be possible to rewrite the Junction system to make it functional and enjoyable, without completely junking everything that has come before. So I sat down and started tweaking. Before I knew it, I had sort of completely overhauled the system, but I am rather happy with what I wound up with, so I thought I would share it, and let you guys tear it apart.

Just keep in mind, that should this idea be implemented, enemies would have to be completely rebalanced. The game is easy enough as it is, and this system will wind up making it easier if you don't adjust the enemies and stats to account for it.

Change #1:
Increase the effectiveness of magic. This is one of the most obvious changes that need to be made to this system. The concept is based on the idea that using your magic will weaken your character's stats, presenting a double-edged sword and a gameplay tradeoff. Unfortunately, your magic is essentially never powerful enough to make that tradeoff worthwhile. Your physical attacks are always stronger, and don't cost your stats. And your GFs serve much better as emergency beatdown machines, again without weakening your character completely. So make magic more powerful.

Change #2:
The first time you draw a spell, you receive 100 of that spell. This is to keep down on the unnecessary drawing off mass quantities of a spell when you first discover it, which is a huge hindrance to the game. Boss fights are supposed to be hard and thrilling, but, during most of them, you spend most of the boss fights mindlessly drawing rare spells, which is rather anticlimactic. It also makes the early game go faster.

Change #3:
You can only cast spells you have Junctioned. We'll let you go ahead and hold every spell at once if you want (seriously, you can get so close to this anyway that it's silly not to be able to), but to cast a spell, you have to have it Junctioned. Thus, anytime you cast a spell, you will take a hit in your stats. But we've boosted spells so that they should be worth the tradeoff. The objective now becomes a case of balancing what spells you have, against what the enemies carry, what they are weak against, and how they affect your stats.

Change #4:
You cannot refine a spell until you have drawn it. While my system is probably going to cause the entire refining system to have to be rebalanced, I feel this one is particularly important because of just how easy it is to refine the high level magic spells early on. So you have to get the spell first, either from an enemy or a draw point, before you can refine it.

Change #5:
Casting most spells requires consuming more than one of the spell. Perhaps the biggest change I introduce, I also feel that this one is one of the most necessary. There was a reason you could only cast Knights of the Round 3 times in FFVII, under most circumstances. A spell like Ultima should be a powerhouse that you only use once every so often, not a spell that you can just cast indefinitely (that's what the GFs are for!). Another big problem with the current system is that when you cast, you cast 1 spell, but when you draw, you usually draw 7 or so. There is no reason not to cast spells (aside from the fact that your physical attacks are better), because the tradeoff of losing a single spell is miniscule, and can easily be negated. So make most spells consume a larger number of the spell, esentially making the spells work off a percentage system. Casting Fire may only consume 1% of your Fire reserve, but casting Fira consumes 3% of your Fira reserve. Firaga might consume 5% (or more, these numbers are just for examples, I haven't crunched them or balanced them too much). And Ultima may take 20% of your Ultima reserve (but it should be worth it!).

Thus, casting Fire is easy. You can cast it several times without a huge cost in your stats, and it will be reasonably effective for the cost, especially against enemies weak against Fire, and until you start upgrading your weapons (and, really, they need to keep you from getting Ultimate Weapons during the first disc, the difficulty is broken enough without completely ruining the weapon progression).

Once you get up to Firaga, the cost becomes a little more serious. Sure, it does a ton more damage, but it also provides a larger stat boost, and taking away 5% of that larger boost will be quite a bit more costly than taking away 1% of Fire's much smaller stat boost. And a spell like Flare would give a much higher boost, but cost even more, like 15%, resulting in a higher stat cost for casting the spell.



Practical Application:
Squall is facing a Ruby Dragon, who carries Firaga and Flare (for simplicity's sake, he's the only one in the party). He draws Flare, instantly getting 100% Flare reserves, then kills the Ruby Dragon.

Squall goes into his Junction menu, and Junctions Flare to Magic, giving him a Magic Stat of 200 (we're ignoring the way Junctioning works off base stats for this example, because it makes the numbers much easier to follow), and allowing him to cast Flare 6 times without Drawing/Refining more.

Squall gets into a fight with another Ruby Dragon. He casts Flare on the Ruby Dragon, reducing his Flare capacity by 15%, leaving him with 85%, and a Magic Stat of 170 (casts left: 5).

Squall draws Flare from the Ruby Dragon, gaining 6% of his Flare capacity back (pretty average draw there for this game, I think). So Squall now has 91% Flare, and a Magic Stat of 182 (casts of Flare left: 6).


And this is how the system plays out. Spells will be more powerful, but come at a corresponding higher cost. When dealing with a spell like Ultima, which you can only cast (with my admittedly uncrunched numbers) 5 times before you run out, and with each cast taking a 20% chunk out of the game's largest stat boost, it becomes a last resort type spell, and has a power corresponding to that.



Anyway, that's a basic outline of the system, I hope I explained it clearly enough. If you have any thoughts, feel free to share!