To those of you, who've played FF7 and FF8, I'd like to ask a question: What do you think of the Materia\GF system? --- To those of you who haven't played Final Fantasy, I'll tell you how it works... According to the game, people can't really use magic the way sorcerers or wizards use them. So mortals use something called materia (in FF7) or paramagic (in FF8), which allows them to do magic. Sort of. It's not real magic, of course... Anyway, this all leads up to an interesting aspect of gameplay, especially in FF7 materia, where you can mix different kinds to become more powerful. Not just Fire spells, etc, but you can use Status materia to boost health, or combine different types (if your weapon or armor can hold\link them) to blow up all the enemies, etc. In FF8, GF (Guardian Forces) are monsters that you can summon to help in a battle. They appear after you summon them, do something cool, then disappear. Now you can use them as a shield when you're being attacked. While you're summoning, any attacks will damage the HP of the GF, and not yours. Of course, if the GF's HP goes down to zero, then you can't summon them (unless you resurrect them). This also makes for interesting gameplay, since GF's are necessary in order to do things other than attacking, and there's also the Junction system, etc. Enough babbling. Opinions? - DarkMage139 ++++++++++++++++ "Shut up and give me the freakin code" -unknown "Ask and you will be shot" -snes16bit "Not again!" -SHilbert (upon being assimilated) "Nazrix is cool." - Nazrix "You've only seen the beginning" -The Dark Lord of RPGs Edited by - DarkMage139 on 9/14/00 9:03:23 PM

Well, to keep it short, I liked FF7''s system (one of my favorite games, I own it for PC and PSX )

In opposition to this, I hated FF8''s system, though I can''t really say why...

Agreed... FF7''s was OK, and I didn''t really like FF8''s... actually, I didn''t like FF8 in general, but thats a post for another thread

teehee... You know how messing with the materia in FF7 makes a little chime sound each time? I was trying to get the best possible combination and my boyfriend in the next room hears this "chime chime chime chime..." and shouts to me "Hey you, are you masturbating your materia again?" I fell off my chair.

Edited by - sunandshadow on September 14, 2000 11:10:24 PM

quote: Original post by sunandshadow

"Hey you, are you masturbating your materia again?"

LOL! :D :D

-Jussi

quote:

In opposition to this, I hated FF8''s system, though I can''t really say why...

Too much micromanagement, maybe?

- DarkMage139
++++++++++++++++
"Shut up and give me the freakin code" -unknown
"Ask and you will be shot" -snes16bit
"Not again!" -SHilbert (upon being assimilated)
"Nazrix is cool." - Nazrix
"You've only seen the beginning" -The Dark Lord of RPGs

I agree... I didn''t like FF8''s magic system, although I can''t really say why. The materia system in FF7 was very cool though -- lots and lots of combinations to explore. Especially if you''re one of those people like me who plays until he''s got more master-level materia than ten average players combined.

-Ironblayde
Aeon Software

I enjoyed both FF7 and FF8''s systems. The materia system is a great thing that I would like to see to incorporated into other games. I like the design and creativity in the systems, they are built to actually fit into the story and the world itself. Where as the other final fantasies just had magic that you learned, or bought (shudder) the materia and GF system were deeply entrenched in the story and worlds of the games, and I think that''s part of designing a system like that, perhaps even as much as %50 of the work. I think a lot of peopled disliked the GF/Draw system because they didn''t get it. I think a lot of people felt it was too complicated, and didn''t really attempt to learn it. The funny thing is the designers even included an automatic allocation command so that the game itself will assign the appropriate magic to the appropriate slot automatically, based on whether you want strong defense or offense. Still, I liked them both.

JD