Square RPG Component Rating

[xLostWingx]

Lately I've been noticing just how different some opinions around here are about the various FFs and their various systems and whatnots.  I'm curious to know what systems/gameplay features does everyone like the best?  I mean, Materia System, or Junction System, Crystal Shard for Job classes, Crystal pieces for skills/abilities etc. 

#1 - Materia System by far.  I won't bother explaining too much, but I can spend as much time in the materia/equip menu as I do actually playing VII; sometimes it's more fun to be in the menu!

#2 - FFV's/Tactics Job system.  I really enjoyed having a primary class and being able to assign secondary abilities from other classes to make various hybrids.  I always wished these types of systems would give birth to more complicated and deeper customization.

#N/A - The first two types are my favorites, but I also liked how Chrono Cross had the levels/stamina.  How you could throw a Photon Ray on a level 6 Slot for Photon Ray +5, or higher level spells on lower level slots for -1 or -2. How you could combine Elemental Skills with Elemental Characters, with Elemental Fields. 

[Covarr]

I despised the job systems in 1, 3, and 5. They made the games tremendously unfun, when you realize that you made a poor decision early on and ten hours of play later you're screwed and you've gotta start over, or do a crapton of grinding.

[xLostWingx]

Yeah that is true.  I can't remember how many Blue Mages I tried to make that always ended up sucking hardcore later on.  I guess I liked the concept more than I liked the exection.

[Prince Lex]

Speaking of which, can anyone recommend a solid party to use in FFIII for most of the game? I'm playing through it on my phone just now for the first time and I don't want to run into this problem. I remember the rage it caused me in I and V.

Materia system is the best so far in my opinion. I did like the sphere grid system for individuality of the characters in the beginning, until the game gets incredibly easy when Wakka, Auron and Tidus get ridiculously strong really fast about halfway through (at least in the EU sphere grids, both "Normal" and "Expert").

FFII's system is a nightmare/so easily abused. It's easy to see why they only tried it once and moved back to a level system.

[chillyhe]

Hurr durr golf clubs ya'll

[Nightmarish]

I didn't like sphere grid that much mainly because of the empty spaces.
You could happen to fill them with a XX node and end up not needing it later on, screwing the total possible stats for each character (aka not being able to get 255 on every one (if that was even possible)).

Materia was pretty much straight forward. You just leveled those interesting magic balls and then just add/remove them as desired. In the end you could get a "do it all materia" as a reward of leveling all the same kind to the max. That's why i liked it, there wasn't no random possibilities in it.

I also like the system where every char has their "job", as long in the end they have the same amount of influence. As in, if a black mage is so strong we don't even get hit, the white mage is useless. The concept is good as long as all chars are needed, and in certain battles making the difference using a certain char with a job. In the end every char being able to do any job is also ok, but i'd like if they would be better than anyone else in his original job would be perfect, ofc.

This also brings me to the summons/aeons/etc. I hated the fact that you would have to bind a summon to a character in FF12. But that's another story.