Castle Paradox

[Mr B]

It would help if XP could be gained through different methods than merely killing an enemy.

Different methods of winning a battle (other than total genicide) would help. It would be interesting to have a support class that can modify XP gain.

[Gizmog1]

I'm a little bit torn on this, but I will agree that most of the FFs didn't do a good job of making me feel like one person or another was really very different. Final Fantasy 6 in particular, but mostly because I'm more familliar with it. Once Espers got involved, anyone could have any spell, and they all gained it at the same rate. Terra and Celes could've gained magic faster than the others, seeing as how they already knew some spells, and had a natural advantage.

But, Sabin and probably even Cyan to an extent, didn't strike me as mages. I mean, Sabin was a bodybuilder, and a trained student of one of the world's greatest masters, and just all of a sudden, he's going to learn magic, rather than apply his martial knowledge? I suppose if he didn't have magic, Blitz would just be his cheap knockoff of it. But even if we didn't forbid them from learning magic outright, certainly they'd be a little slow at it, or at least not as fast as Terra and Celes!

If they'd varied the rate of learning a little, things would've been a bit more balanced and interesting. But it also would've been fun to see interaction between the various Espers. Maybe Ramuh has a feud with Tritoch, and so neither of them will teach spells to someone the other has taught. That'd be really annoying if overused, but just a little bit for flavor would've been a nice change I think.

Another thing that irks me is Final Fantasy 5's Time Mage class, and the way it's presented. Time Mage is really a pretty good class, and when you think about all of the spells you could give relating to turn status, it really becomes exciting. But, ultimately, the way FFV was designed, there was no time to really examine the concept. There were too many other jobs I wanted to try to get a good look at it, and they've never had a dedicated Time Mage character in any of the games I've played since.

That makes me think of another think that irks me, and that's how all the magic is the same in FF6. I'd like to see the differences played up a bit more. Maybe once you've chosen to learn black magic, it's not so easy to convince whatever powers govern white magic that you would wield their spells properly. That'd make the Red Mage even more intriguing, for being able to do both, although not as powerfully.

Like I say, I'm a little bit torn on all of this, because I play D&D, and I love having that range of customization, and trying to be good at everything, but I also think that a lot of games could benefit from forcing you into a more specialized role.


Mr. B's idea is pretty intriguing. In D&D you get points for getting past an encounter, even if you talk your way past the guards, or sneak in through the window. Maybe fighting battles would increase your strength, and there could be other tasks for increasing your other skills.

Rimudora's idea is also sort of interesting. I remember my first time playing Final Fantasy, and loading someone else's save game. I looked at the Black Mage's spells, and thought that was all the castings for them I had, until the next level. It'd be interesting to play a game like that at level 99.

Maybe Pokemon had a good answer to customization. You could use a TM or HM to teach an ability to certain varieties of Pokemon, and some of them could even be used out of battle! You were limited to four attacks, so you had to choose carefully, and you could only use a TM once, so you had to be especially careful to give it to the best candidate.