FF2 reveals inner RPG style

[Prancing Mad]

I think this is the best game in the universe for finding an RPGers true style. In few other games does your every move reflect your stats. Example, as my characters are now, before the last dungeon, my highest HP is 1700, average to high defense, awesome strength. Awful in any kind of magic with the exception of cure, and awful magic stats, my top mp is 120 I think lol. My mage probably has medium bad magic levels, 'cause I use her to fight as well. What does that tell me about my style? I'm cheap, I love warriors, I'm cautious with disposable stuff, but risky in my combat ( I think they're very calculated, but some would call it risky). What does your FF2 style reveal about your RPGin' style?

[Chris]

I loved FFII the first few times I played it, but it started to get a little too slow and redundant. I really used to hate the entire gameplay and I'm still not 100% comfortable with it. FFII didn't change anything for me, but it did teach me to be patient when it comes to dungeon crawling.

[Captain Maxx Power]

I think a lot of RPGs will show your style. I mean FF1 you can select Classes, same with FF3. FF4 you don't really have a choice. FF5 you can select, FF6's set again. FF7 is where things become much more customised, so it's probably best for "style-choosing".

[DJZen]

I disagree that FFII lets you show your true play style. There are definite dos and don'ts to the system. For example, if you feel that all your characters should be good at everything, you'll get nowhere. If you want to give a character high defense, you're going to suffer for it. If you want to make a sword fighter with high agility, you're going to kick a lot of ass. Monk, ftw.

[Prancing Mad]

Actually, from what I've found, if yo're one of those people who can't get enough of the all-arounder type, you can make a character like that. My gal is like that. She isn't awesome at anything, but doesn't suck either. It seems to me that for every 2 levels you gain at one thing, it's compliment will lose 1 level. I could be wrong though, that's just how it seems to be for me. I haven't tried making a crazy defense person yet. The thing with 7 is that you were only minutely rewarded depending on the materia that you had. In the long run, a lot of your choices didn't drastically effect the way your character grew.

Many RPGs can you show you your style, and what stats you like, but I don't think as many RPGs show you like FF2 does.

[Mikeneko Rocker -- Tim]

The thing I like about FFIIJ is that you get to mold every character (even the guest partymembers) the way you like, although it is time-consuming, I have to admit.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

I sort of find FF1 is better for revealing your RPG style, but FF2 is too.

[DJZen]

Actually, from what I've found, if yo're one of those people who can't get enough of the all-arounder type, you can make a character like that. My gal is like that. She isn't awesome at anything, but doesn't suck either. It seems to me that for every 2 levels you gain at one thing, it's compliment will lose 1 level.

Here's how it works. High strength decreases intelligence. High intelligence decreases vitality. High spirit decreases strength. Not quite rock paper scissors, but it's trying to be in keeping with FFI's job system, and here's why.

Black mages (high int) had awful HP. They die in like 2 hits.
White mages had pretty much no damage capacity, even worse than a black mage.
Warriors evolved into knights (which currently would probably be named paladins) who had a minimal amount of white magic ability, but literally no black magic ability.

Now, that much is covered in the FFO manual and is well known. What's less well known is the effect of equipment.

Strong weapons decrease intelligence AND spirit.
Shields decrease intelligence and spirit as well.
Armor (as in not cloth or cuirass) decreases evasion.

Sadly, that last one causes a lot of misery since it's so unintuitive. And since evasion is vastly more important than defense in FFII, if you want to go all out and make a knight with ubarl337 armor, you're going to wind up with a character who takes MORE damage than an unequipped mage. Genji Armor is the absolute worst.

[Christmas]

I like Star Wars and this is kinda like it with Leon being like Vader minus the son part & an evil empire. I reckon this counts.