Should Square-Enix take another crack at a game of this style?

[Sephex]

As in letting the actions characters take is what powers the characters instead of traditional leveling?

I would be down with it. Only if...

-Don't let stupid things like damaging yourself on purpose count towards stat building
-You have to actually get a decent fight to up some stats
-Tone down prices for stuff (having your inn price be based off of your party's HP was LAME too)
-In order to prevent grinding make the game better balanced, but there should be optional areas to progress characters for those who want an edge vs those who want a challenge
-Simply casting magic doesn't increase the skill, but subtle ways on how you use it (ex: single target more than multi target)

That's all I got for now. I am sure some of you can think of better stuff!

[Electroshock Therapy]

Some of your points make little sense to me. You want to prevent grinding, but you want it significantly harder to build up your stats? That sounds like you would need to grind to find that perfect battle just to raise a single stat.

Actually, I could swear I played the game my first time with very little grinding, but on my most recent playthrough I had to grind more often. I wonder what I did differently...

I actually really like this game and wouldn't mind if Square-Enix revisited this style. I don't see it happening, though, when many people still complain about it.

[Wolf Kanno]

Well they kind of did, after FFII, Akitoshi Kawazu (one of the main game designers) went off to make Square's SaGa franchise which actually utilized a more streamlined and refined version of FFII's battle system.

I'm actually fine with the game's leveling system except maybe make it easier to grind magic. My main beef with the game is it's terrible dungeon design and incredibly high encounter rate, not a good combo. The inventory system was also disastrous but that's been fixed with ports.

[Sephex]

Some of your points make little sense to me. You want to prevent grinding, but you want it significantly harder to build up your stats? That sounds like you would need to grind to find that perfect battle just to raise a single stat.

Actually, I could swear I played the game my first time with very little grinding, but on my most recent playthrough I had to grind more often. I wonder what I did differently...

I actually really like this game and wouldn't mind if Square-Enix revisited this style. I don't see it happening, though, when many people still complain about it.

I kind of did a fly by, but I'm trying to make it so the game doesn't rely on the player doing weird exploits to grind in order to survive normal fights, but at the same time not make it too easy.

[FFNut]

I found that the grinding on this took me out of the game. Just like in FFX where you make sure everyone get a turn in to get the AP, in this one I found it annoying that every battle I made sure to beat the tar out of my warriors at the end of each battle. Like you said, there has to be a more balanced way to get that done right. I just don't see this form of levelling working very well.

[Ayen]

You don't have to beat the tar out of your warriors. You can just set it up to where your warriors hit thin air to make battles last a little longer.

[FFNut]

Maybe I'll take a second stab at it now that I'm older, but I remember it being a grind to get through it when I was in my teens.

[Pike]

I just want another game like this period because it's one of my favorite FFs

[lizardbacon]

Here's an interesting thought: Hidden class system.

Have a number of (hidden) character classes. The game determines which class a character best falls under (based on that character's actions), and grows their stats accordingly.

For example: You have a character use bows and white magic often. The game notices these tendencies, and classifies that character as a 'white archer' and assigns that character to the 'white archer' growth rates. You have a character that uses double-axes and no magic. The game notices these tendencies, and classifies the character as a 'berserker' and assigns that character to the 'berserker' growth rate. You have a character that uses sword, shield, and white magic. The game notices these tendencies, and classifies that character as a 'paladin', so on and so forth....

The challenge would be making a system detailed enough to account for many styles of gameplay, and also able to change the types of growth rate in conjunction with a change of play style.

Thoughts?

[Wolf Kanno]

^ They actually utilized a less ambitious version of that system for Sword of Mana. You could choose what stats went up each level up and once you reached a certain level the game would calculate your stats and which magic you've been using and slap you into a specific "class" which got bonuses with certain weapons and magic.

[Motdrafin]

I really like the hidden class idea. In general, I would like a return to this style because I find it enjoyable to grind levels in this system (or job). I just really like it that if you grind you are doing more than just leveling up.

Another strategy that I think could work is having is that you choose your stat distribution while gaining a level. This makes it more accessible to those who prefer leveling up but still retains the idea of choosing how to shape your characters. This style is in a lot of the MegaTen games, but I would expand it by adding even more stats, such as Fire spells stat, proficiency in bows stat, etc., to add the diversity of choices.

[DMKA]

I could see it working better in a game like Final Fantasy XII where battles aren't random and abundant and in a separate game mode.