Quote Originally Posted by Phoenix Corps
Yes the system is balanced, but against what? Itself? I say arbitrary because you cannot simply lose ability whether physical or mental in an instant just because you got better at something else.

And I personally loved the dragon warrior series, in DW1 you had clear-cut levels of power, indicated by your level. In FF2 you could have the magic of a level 99 character and the hp of a level 1 character.
Like I said, it's done like that to steer your characters in the direction of one of the FF class archetypes. Mages always have low vitality, and fighters are always terrible at casting spells. Heck, even materia has this effect to some extent.

My reference to DW was to its tedium. If anything, FFII makes you think more because just blindly fighting limits your options in combat. In DW you just kill 50 billion someodd slimes and ghosts just so you can make it to the nearest town, nevermind that you need to be level 10 to even attempt the first dungeon.

Oh and BTW, I like DW too