Quote Originally Posted by Maxico
The materia system?
Exactly right. And I mean exactly.

one_winged_angel's reasons are quite close to what I was thinking when I wrote that riddle, but here's my explanation for a few of the lines...
Some say it’s the same as what came before
But I would say that they’re just sore...
I've seen the materia system criticised - mainly by die-hard old-schoolers - for being too similar to FFVI's Magicite system.
At the heart of the matter
Double-meaning here - the literal interpretation is right, but also, 'materia' is Latin for 'matter', hence "the heart of the matter".

But yeah, Maxico wins