I don't know, losing out on one heavy melee character in a game filled with heavy melee characters in exchange for buffing up a squishy mage doesn't sound like a bad trade to me, though I agree your second statement is most likely the original intent of the designers.Originally Posted by Flying Arrow
I haven't played AP I'm afraid, of anything I have a huge backlog of games to get to (I just finished my first playthrough of Silent Hill 2 which I've owned for over four years now) but I may check it out since I hear a lot of good things about it.Fair enough. Wolf, have you ever played Alpha Protocol? Of every game I've ever played, AP is probably the best at rewarding choices with gameplay benefits. No matter what choice you make, your in-game character is built-up in some way for it. Give it a spin if you can.
Well not quite, leveling useless materia can lead to getting the infinitely more useful and overpowered Master Materia so this really comes down to whether you are planning for the long game or just the short game. Obviously for a first timer it's short term which is where I'll concede your point but for a long term goal it's still useful to level everything, not to mention if your spending time leveling useful powerful materia, it wouldn't hurt to level up that garbage bin materia you haven't used for 60 hours, so effectively this is what I was getting at about leveling for the sake of leveling.That's not what I'm saying, though. In VII, it's easier and beneficial to ignore Materia you don't want to use because your characters have a limited space for abilities. To get them everything you want, you need to either make trade-offs or get creative. Placing useless Materia on a party member is pointless because it comes at the cost of removing something potentially valuable. So if you want your guys to be the killing machines you want them to be, you have to make a conscious trade-off of not removing the magic orbs that allow them to do the things they do. If you want Tifa to cast Barrier, great. But you need to remove Fire for her to do that, or HP Plus, or Deathblow. Or don't remove anything at all, but find another combination within your three-person party to allow you to work that ability in creatively. Maybe Tifa won't get it, but if you tweak it just so then maybe Red XIII will be able to get exactly the Barrier value you were looking for.
The other issue with VII's customization is that the game suffers from the same Achilles heel of VI and well most of the FFs have, which is that the game isn't difficult enough to warrant a complex strategy for the customization system it gives you. If you're debating about the merits of using Barrier over Deathblow materia, I would argue you don't really need either cause neither holds any real benefit for what the game throws at you. The most precise character customization will get you about the same results as a party that has the four elemental magics, a cure materia and maybe a summon or two. It's really more for the tinkering which many people (myself included) enjoy and in that regards, I understand where you are coming from.
To me, teaching characters skills you don't intend to use is not really beneficial, it's just busy work you give yourself, something to do while you're leveling other characters, and I do feel that teaching characters like Cyan and Sabin is actually harmful to them because it makes the player not use them to their full potential. The Magic system in VI is a crutch for newbie players, because the characters personal skills will only take you so far if you don't know what you are doing. Magic has just high enough damage potential to make the game a cakewalk but it's the abuse of the Esper's level up, gear twinking and relics that will bring out the most stupidly overpowered character builds. While I agree it's far less flexible than VII, I still don't feel it's detrimental, but that is probably just me.The difference between this and VI is that in VI, the party is composed of 10-14 characters defined by their unique skills and the capacity to learn new abilities for good. Since they can learn everything, there's no reason to not have them learn everything aside from pouring hours of your life into the effort. Even if you play the game for about 35 hours (an average playtime at least as far as I'm concerned, not an insane post-game file) you'll find yourself filled up on abilities you want. Yes, you can neglect to give people certain abilities, but that's neglect and not meaningful customization. There is zero downside to teaching everybody everything, and worst of all, there's nothing to get in your way of from doing so.
Not really cause if you really understand the merits of the full system, you'll realize that magic is a bit of a red herring. Incredibly useful in the mid to later game but by end game it's not really as efficient as utilizing the party's inherent class skills or better utilizing the relics with equipment options. Terra is one of the most overpowered characters in the game and it's not because of Ultima. Even with the best spellcaster build you are still under-utilizing her and this is where the customization system of VI is beautiful because it's not about building the best team for any situation, it's about taking a characters talents and making the most out of it. You're literally trying to make the characters into better versions of themselves and when you start playing the game that way, you realize how much teaching magic to a character is a waste of your time, especially if you are going to be playing in the Coliseum (and you will be in this type of game cause gear/relics chump magic) teaching Cyan magic will make him more flexible but it won' make him better as a fighter. You need to build his stats with the espers, and you need to tinker with his relics and equipment to make him a stronger fighter and once you've done that, using a Cure spell is the last thing you will be caring about him doing in a battle. VI's system is about bringing out the full potential of your party, or it can be about making the most flexible party.I'm sure it does make a world of difference, but I don't think this makes a strong game at all, actually. It's still be a fun one, but I don't think it's strong design. What's your gameplay in not having everyone know Cure? Simply not equipping them with the stone that teaches them that ability? Not using your abilities to the fullest isn't avoiding "cheating" it's just a low-level run, or a gimp run, which you can do with any game. The problem with VI's customization system is that it's so damned open that actual customization for experienced players boils down to neglect rather than creative or meaningful tinkering. A regular, non-gimped playthrough will result in most characters being able to cast damn near everything.
I say it's more comprehensive because it's VI's system taking apart a step further. Materia is basically the relic system where you equip skills it's just that VII broke magic down and made it work the same way though like VI the kept a lot of the spell families together. Also like the Esper system, the materia effects your stats though it's largely a transient handicap much like how the Esper's level up elements is a slow moving upgrade. It's not difficult to notice that Materia is ultimately a refined and evolved version of VI's various systems. Though I would argue BoFIII/IV are the true inheritor's of VI's customization system.I don't think VII's is more "comprehensive". What it is, though, is more strict with the amount of breathing room it lets the player have. It also offers a lot of options and possible builds within the battle system it's designed for - on the one hand, you can't just throw everything at a character and have it stick but with enough creativity those characters also aren't limited to only doing certain things.
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