So. From what I've read in this thread.
Is character customization the only redeeming quality of the gameplay in FFVIII?
Seriously, I want to give you an example of a system that has incorporated advanced character customization without turing it to an abstract mess like FFVIII did. But I have only played four JRPGs and I don't think any of them have a system that is as complex as FFVIII. (fortunatley not as abstract and messy as FFVIII though.)
The ones I have played are: Phantasy Star II, Final Fantasy VIII, Secret of Mana, and Tales of Symphonia. And Pokémon if you count those. And unless the EXsphere system is advanced enough for you, the only thing I can compare the FFVIII system to that rivals it in complexity would be good old pen and paper RPG (If that is even valid-_- I'll try though).
Pen and Paper RPG is by far the most complex with all of the skills you put experience points in and how your age, the weight of items, and so on so on.
Now what pen and paper RPG does right, that FFVIII does horribly horribly wrong is how nothing in the FFVIII system makes sense. I wouldn't complain if there was at least a pseudo realistic explanation for how everything in FFVIII works. When you set the age of your character and add + and - stats when taking stuff like profession and race and items that you have and lots of other factors, you don't just customize your stats, you customize the feel of the character.
In FFVIII on the other hand, since junctioning spells drawn to enemies doesn't represent anything like age or anything, you're stuck with just customizing numbers! You might as well do your math homework if you think only numbers are that fun! Becasue that's all the FFVIII system gives you, numbers and nothing that the numbers represent!
If you say customization is what makes the FFVIII system good then I can't agree in any way. I will simply have to agree to disagree. Square failed horribly when they made the system. Why? Because they sacrificed too much to add the complexity.
I ask you this. What if the things that you junctioned to your stats and weapons wasn't magic drawn from enemies but items that also had a place in the story, and if magic used a complex mana system instead and you actually did learn spells, perhaps you learned a spell if you drew it from an enemy enough times, and you couldn't abuse draw magic because it cost mana too.
And if they made the use of items and other stuff not dependant on the GF becasue that's just retarded but let the GF alter the stats of the character depending on what GF is junctioned to who.
It would be just as complex as the FFVIII system and offer just as much customization, but the difference is that my system actually makes some kind of SENSE.
There you go, I just came up with a better system than the development team at Square.
I LOVE ICELAND!
