More Complex Junctioning Perhaps?

[Sword]

I just thought of something really cool. Y'know the way you get a certain amount of magic and you use it up, well I was thinking that it would have been better if instead of using up the amount of magic you have (The quantity will have another use which I will explain) it uses up good old MP. I think because of the fact that it uses up the magic and hinders your stats that no one uses magic. My friends don't use it and I never use it. This is where the fun starts: Limit Break junctioning.

Squall:

Say, for example, you had 100 Ultimas and you junctioned it to renzokuken to increase it's attack power. Everytime you use renzokuken it will deduct 1 of your Ultimas. Normally renzokuken has at least 4 hits. Well what if you junctioned your ultimas to make it have at least 5 hits guaranteed and add an extra hit if there are more than 5. When you use renzokuken it will again use up one of your Ultimas. That leaves 99 and therefore it now has a 99% chance of adding an extra hit. Another element could be the percentage chance of him using Rough Divide after the renzokuken. If you have 99 Ultimas junctioned to Rough Divide, there will be a 99% chance of him using the attack and within the remaining 1 percent there is a chance of him using either Fated Circle, Blasting Zone, Lion Heart or no attack. 1 Ultima will not be deducted if the Rough Divide attack is not used.

I think this system will let players feel better knowing they can use magic freely without any repercussions on their character stats and also force players to use Limit Breaks less often. Here are some more.

Zell:

You could junction magic to:
-increase the timer length;
-Make certain final attacks come up more often than others;
-and, again, perhaps increase the strength of individual attacks.

Irvine:

-increase timer
-shoot faster
-increase strength
-attack multiple targets with some single-target shots

Rinoa:
(Angel Wing)
-increase magic strength
-give certain magicks higher priority

(Angelo)
-Increase strength
-increase the probability of certain attacks occurring
-shorten the length of time to wait until Angelo search, Angelo Reverse etc.

If I went on anymore I'd just be repeating myself so feel free to add critisisms and your own suggestions. I want them to make another game or a remake just to do this ^_^.

[Rantz]

Not a bad idea for those who are already familiar with junctioning. However, the junctioning system is already quite complex and hard to understand for beginners. For me, the whole first playthrough went to learning techniques and strategies, and I still can't call myself an expert on the subject. However, if the game had focused on being even more pedagogic, the game could be slightly more complex without ay big losses. And yes, it would be good to have the game less relying on Limit breaks and more relying on magic.

[TheSpoonyBard]

Nice idea, but magic in FFVIII simply isn't powerful enough to warrant the use of it in battle (aside from status-inducing magic and Meteor Wing), and the abundance of it through Drawing and refining items counters the loss of magic through Limit Breaks you are proposing.

Also, several of the 'bonuses' you mention are already covered by the Crisis Level system.

[Qurange]

Actually, I use magic in my games, and I've never had much problem with doing so, despite the fact that stock tends to decrease. ...Besides. A couple of spells don't decrease stats that much, and with the right Refining abilities, they can be replaced at the end of battle.

...Also, it's fun.

[Xurts]

I don't think that would be a good idea. Every time you wanted to use a Limit, you would lose one of your rare spells. Spells like Ultima, Triple, Full-Life, Meteor, etc. are already hard enough to get, I would hate having to use one of those every time I used a Limit. Even if it would be stronger. It's already easy enough to strengthen your Limits, just Junction Ultima or some other strong magic to your Strength stat. That boosts EVERY physical attack, and it will never decrease in strength unless you use it, which I never would.

In FF8 I rarely ever use magic from my stock. The only magic that I could ever imagine using is Meltdown, and Doomtrain uses that, and with a high enough compatibility he can be summoned extremely quickly. There isn't much purpose for using magic in FF8, since your physical attacks will easily do more damage once you have some good magic junctioned to it. And if a certain enemy has a high defense against physical attacks, like Adamantoises, etc., you can just summon a GF like Doomtrain or Diablos. You don't need to use Curagas or Full-Lifes either since Alexander offers Revive and Leviathan offers Recover. Status ailments are easily dealt with with Siren's Treatment too, so no need for Esunas. Except maybe if everyone has the ailment, then you'd might want to triple cast Esuna.

[Sword]

Yeah but you don't have to junction the most powerful magicks if you don't want to. Also I was thinking that when you get your str stat to 255 that junctioning to the limit strength will increase it further because it divides the damage up and Lionheart doesn't always do 9999damage per hit. I never had to use magic either but sometimes it's nice to have such freedom to do whatever you want during battle.
Also: What is this "Crisis Level" system? I never heard of that.
Also also: If it is too confusing for beginners (I never thought about the beginners) then maybe the choice of "Expert Junction System" at the start of the game.

[TheSpoonyBard]

What is this "Crisis Level" system? I never heard of that.

Crisis Level affects the character's limit breaks. It can be increased to the maximum by inducing the Aura status, having low HP, suffering from negative status effects (Death Sentence is the best) and having both allies KO'd.

With regards to Lionheart, the Crisis Level determines the number of hits in Renzokuken and whether or not a finishing move will be used. It does not affect which move will be used, as each has a fixed percentage:

Access to Rough Divide: Rough Divide 100%
Access to Fated Circle: Rough Divide 25%, Fated Circle 75%
Access to Blasting Zone: Rought Divie 25%, Fated Circle 25%, Blasting Zone 50%
Access to Lionheart: Rough Divide 25%, Fated Circle 25%, Blasting Zone 25%, Lionheart 25%

The Luck stat has no effect whatsoever on the choices made when using a Limit Break.

Here are the effects of having a high Crisis Level for the other characters.

Zell: More time during his Duel
Quistis: Higher damage/more statuses induced/higher success rate of causing statuses
Selphie: More powerful spells available and more castings
Irvine: More time during Shot
Rinoa: Better moves selected with Combine

[Sword]

interesting. I didn't know there were other factors that influenced when the limit breaks appear other than HP.