Too many spells?

[kerbonklin]

There's one thing about FFVI though, if you just play through it normally without a bunch of extra grinding then you shouldn't have every skill in the book, you'll at least have all the necessary ones on selected characters. Although honestly if you grind in that tower place where you get the dual-cast item, then yeah it's pretty easy to learn everything.

@Alexander, well yeah when you fight bosses and such, you have to abuse Double/Triple with magics for good DPS, and heals.

 

[Alexander Amnell]

@Alexander, well yeah when you fight bosses and such, you have to abuse Double/Triple with magics for good DPS, and heals.

No... you really don't... unless you are fighting Omega Weapon anyway, 95% of that game can be beaten with normal attacks if you augment your spells to boost the correct stats.

But yeah, I suppose that game serves as a really good example of how not to do a magic system, in every way you could possibly need said example.

 

[Rello]

There's one thing about FFVI though, if you just play through it normally without a bunch of extra grinding then you shouldn't have every skill in the book, you'll at least have all the necessary ones on selected characters. Although honestly if you grind in that tower place where you get the dual-cast item, then yeah it's pretty easy to learn everything.

That's the point I was trying to make, I guess. Just because you CAN have everything doesn't mean you HAVE to or WILL have everything. I mean, I sure as heck didn't have my entire cast learn everything on the license board...

 

[kerbonklin]

Weeeell I didn't really go through the game as good. I missed a few permanently-missable GFs and other things so it kinda hindered my best possible junction setups. Definitely the worst magic system in gaming history. I was mad when I saw someone make a VX script for it a long time ago.

 

[Omnimental]

I actually enjoyed the augmentation system in FFVIII.  It was poorly implemented, but I loved the idea behind it.  I wouldn't mind making a tweaked version of my own at some point.

 

[Rello]

Well, I tried to condense a little. Down to six elements (Fire, Earth, Shock, Water, Light, Dark) and only 4 base spells. Still going to have the three Shield spells per element though.

 

[Eschaton]

I believe everything you put in your game should be useful from the moment you get it to the very end.

Everything should have more than one use.  For example, maybe fire is useful for exploiting the weakness to fire, but it also lowers defense, panics your target (maybe briefly cancels their action).  If nothing else, maybe the smoke from the fire blinds the target.

Minimalism, with a lot of room for strategy and utility.

 

[Rello]

I believe everything you put in your game should be useful from the moment you get it to the very end.

Everything should have more than one use.  For example, maybe fire is useful for exploiting the weakness to fire, but it also lowers defense, panics your target (maybe briefly cancels their action).  If nothing else, maybe the smoke from the fire blinds the target.

Minimalism, with a lot of room for strategy and utility.

That's an interesting way of looking at it. Perhaps each element has a chance to inflict a particular ailment and decrease a particular stat...

 

[Eschaton]

That's an interesting way of looking at it. Perhaps each element has a chance to inflict a particular ailment and decrease a particular stat...

There you go.

EDIT:

I should mention that if the enemy is strong against the fire (they should never be immune, don't let the player waste turns!), that doesn't preclude being afflicted by the blinding effect or other utilitarian effects of the spell.

The spell should add states to which each enemy has varying defenses.