What in the smurf is Final Fantasy IX fans problem?

[Wolf Kanno]

I like gameplay being about more than just winning as well, but I don't feel I have to create a sense of challenge instead of being given one, and I just can't enjoy what you enjoy as there is no real benefit that I can find in it, as I don't find it fun, which means it's poor gameplay. I agree we'll have to disagree. I will say I enjoy things like stealing with a thief because there are tangible benefits, but doing things like particular spells just to watch them be in mini/toad etc. for a while when I could have saved the MP by just hitting him to death in a few moments... for me this just doesn't compute.

Honestly, the enemy doesn't really last long once the Toad thing happens as the status drastically reduces their stats and you can also silence them to prevent them from changing back, so it's not just me picking on the boss though that option is also valid. So I wouldn't call it a waste of MP, especially since you're more likely to be wasting MP healing in this case. My point is really the fact that several bosses in the series have multiple strategies that can be utilized to beat them instead of just hitting them with a brick until they die, and frankly many of these strategies are generally more satisfying to me to pull off since any scrub can use a blunt instrument to get their way.

This is why I like Blue Magic cause it will honestly give you a huge advantage as several spells can easily cripple bosses and tough enemies, but acquiring them is a challenge in themselves. This ultimately adds more value to combat as I now find myself in situations to prolong battles to acquire them, or perhaps do something that seems a bit counter-intuitive to get them. They add a puzzle aspect to battles which adds variety for me in the long run.

It was pointed out beforehand that there is the S-Ranking thing, which I really enjoyed getting for all those monster fights on Gran Pulse. So I guess personally I found that really enjoyable as a challenge outside of the regular mash X to win stuff, finding a way to take down those guys at brutal efficiency took a bit of figuring out in many cases, often having to use methods/paradigms that weren't previously used. So I guess that's about as close as I get to what you enjoy.

I honestly don't care for it, largely because the only thing that matters is speed which is the greatest flaw in most games with grading scales cause that's the one element that tends to make up 60-90% of the score. Where this goes wrong is that it means you can play recklessly and simply trade blows if it means you can win the fight in less time, which to me shouldn't qualify as an S-Rank score. Hell, half the time in XIII I found the difference in getting an A versus S score was simply just not bothering to switch to a defensive paradigm except maybe a brief second to heal. I don't really find this rewarding. I honestly prefer how Record Keeper does this kind of stuff where minimizing damage and accomplishing strategic objectives like hitting the enemy with a specific weakness or status effect.

Well, I'm not sure what it makes it, but it's not the original game and for me is different enough to not be classified as something that is described as simply FFXII.

Director's Cut or Criterion Edition comes to mind, especially since the game basically plays like how it was originally envisioned to be in the early stages. Hell, Ito didn't even want to give the game the International title when they originally released it because that usually meant only a few elements changed, whereas XII Zodiac Job edition received quite the overhaul mechanically to basically play like a different game, so he wanted a new subtitle to reflect that. The closest comparison to the game within the series would FFIV DS, which was also radically overhauled to feel like a different experience from the original.