CoN 25th Anniversary: 1997-2022
Espers vs. Materia?

 
Which magic and ability system did you prefer?
Materia [ 16 ]  [55.17%]
Espers [ 13 ]  [44.83%]
Total Votes: 29
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Posted: 25th March 2007 16:03

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Chocobo Knight
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*Quickly looks at the url and twiches*

I personnaly loved the Materia system. It gave the game more challenge, and it was fun deciding weather to raise Cloud's HP by 50% or let him cast ultima. In FF6 all you do is make a few trips to the Maranda Desert of the Fanatics Tower and all of your characters are so strong the game has no challenge!
In FFVII when you load up a character with white magic he has a very limited supply of offence.
In FFVI any given character can learn every spell in the game with no consequence!
Choices choices, each with its own negative....
Farming farming, with no setbacks at all.....

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Posted: 25th March 2007 17:11

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I didnt really have much love for either as any character can do any job or role within the team. So this doesnt give rise to alot of thought to stratigies like X's system did.
But my preferance would be the matria system though.




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Posted: 25th March 2007 19:07

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I disagree with cloud17, although you can give every character every ability with either system, they (the characters) still have their own strengths and weaknesses.... and having more variety is better overall for strategy IMO.

Although I see where you are coming from....

I picked Materia as well, as it was a lot more fun thinking of combinations and messing around with.... plus it duplicates itself... how cool is that? happy.gif

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Posted: 25th March 2007 19:48

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Magitek Soldier
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My only issue with the Materia system is that there isn't enough. tongue.gif That is to say, I'm one of those people who always wants to do more, advance more, etc. Now, if someone were to remake the game and have 3-4 directly linked materia slots, and/or a large number of new materia with new effects, I'd be busy for hours on end trying to come up with newer, even more powerful materia combos.
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Posted: 26th March 2007 00:08

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Chocobo Knight
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Wait, wait, wait...

Isn't that what makes Materia awesome? each choice actually affects their performance in battle instead of just maxing them out.

Could you imagine Linking Counter Attack > KotR > HP absorb > MP absorb? Every time you get attacked you fully heal and cause crazy damage!

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Posted: 26th March 2007 01:13

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You're right, though a wider variety of materia would still be cool.
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Posted: 26th March 2007 01:56

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Im gonna have to say Espers.

First, my main problem with this is, how are Espers (besides in VI) any way near related to Materia (and summon Materia)......cause they're just summons.

Second, i always liked the espers, because it takes a long time to do (it sounds crazy, but its something to do). and materia is...well odd. i dont like the whole double-edged sword aspect of it. i dont want to lose strength and HP to cast a spell....i dont like being weakened by something that is supposed to help me. and plus, you say that materia gives more balance, with the double-edged sword thing, yet equip the master materias onto a character and suddenly you're God, with no consquences. And another thing that makes me lean towards Espers is the fact that (i will get flamed for this but oh well) i didn't really like Final Fantasy VII. GASP!!! no it's true. it is probably the most over-hyped in the series, and it doesn't deserve it. it's gotten to a point that when people think of FF, they think FF 7...i was talking to a kid at school, and started talking about IV and VI, and he stopped me and said "Wait, there were FFs before 7?" im not joking. FF 7 was ok and all, but it just doesnt feel like a final fantasy to me.

thats my two cents



plus, i liked fighting espers in FF XII tongue.gif

This post has been edited by dont chocobos rule? on 26th March 2007 02:01

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Posted: 26th March 2007 10:29

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Holy Swordsman
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I agree with Suunok. As much as I like the Materia system, it should have been much better. There are some holes in there - like 4x Cut doesn't link with Counter - and there's no way of setting which Counter Magic kicks in first. If they had added something to set preference (akin to the Gambit system) that would've improved it massively.

Still, I voted Materia because is allows far more customisation.

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Posted: 26th March 2007 15:56

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Quote (sweetdude @ 26th March 2007 10:29)
and there's no way of setting which Counter Magic kicks in first.

But that does allow for some interesting tricks - for example, having a Magic Counter paired with a Restore materia, as well as one or more pairings of Counter + Mime. When I did this, whenever Yuffie got hit, she cast Cure2 on herself (2 star Restore), then Mimed her action before the cure spell.
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Posted: 26th March 2007 16:14

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Holy Swordsman
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Aye but if you had a preference setter you could put Counter-Mime at the top anyway for the same result. Good little trick though!

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Posted: 26th March 2007 18:27

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Engineer
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I'm not the hugest fan of either system, but I went with materia. With the esper system, there was no challenge. Everybody learned everything and that was that. With the materia system, there was a lot more you could do. There was materia that allows you to counter and go twice and all that jazz. Plus, I liked being able to designate a healer, a summoner, etc. instead of everyone having everything. Lastly, I liked selling materia for money. Can't do that with espers!

FFVII was one of my least favourite FFs while FFVI is higher on my list.

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Posted: 26th March 2007 22:12

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Chocobo Knight
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Quote
ou say that materia gives more balance, with the double-edged sword thing, yet equip the master materias onto a character and suddenly you're God, with no consquences.



I consider spending 36 hours getting ONE master materia a consequence.
In one and a half hours I taught 14 (Who uses Gua or Umaro anyways?) of my characters Ultima, Curaga, Reraise, and Quick.

Even disregarding that, If you equip a master materia you have 2 options:
Equip them all on one person:
Hmmm....One Uber character compared to 14. All your eggs in one basket.
Spread them out between characters:
AKA assigning classes. You've got the Summoner (Master Summon), Mage (Master Magic), and the Fighter* (Master Command).

So I fail to see how a Master Materia or 2 makes you a God. And even if it does, you have 1 or 2 gods instead of 14 to 16.



*= Or thief depending on how you look at it.

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Posted: 26th March 2007 22:23

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if you fail to see how it makes them God-like, then you forget that you can keep making Master materias, as a mastered materia gives birth to another. using movers, magic pots and the W-Item glitch, you can easily master at least 3 materias in 10 minutes. so you can keep getting master materias by simply mastering more materia and giving it up

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Posted: 27th March 2007 02:14

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Quote (dont chocobos rule? @ 26th March 2007 22:23)
if you fail to see how it makes them God-like, then you forget that you can keep making Master materias, as a mastered materia gives birth to another. using movers, magic pots and the W-Item glitch, you can easily master at least 3 materias in 10 minutes. so you can keep getting master materias by simply mastering more materia and giving it up

Erm.. If I'm not mistaken, and I may well be, don't the master materia all have only one star (meaning they're created mastered)?
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Posted: 27th March 2007 02:17

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no, they are one star, but the materia that needs to be mastered for master materia (say Fire for example) keeps being reborn as its mastered, therefor, you can keep making Master Materia

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Posted: 27th March 2007 19:29

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Quote (dont chocobos rule? @ 27th March 2007 02:17)
no, they are one star, but the materia that needs to be mastered for master materia (say Fire for example) keeps being reborn as its mastered, therefor, you can keep making Master Materia

Good point, but does that actually work? (I haven't ever successfully acquired one of every materia, let alone mastered them, so I wouldn't know).
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Posted: 27th March 2007 21:30

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Holy Swordsman
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Yes it does work. But I can tell you: it's not as easy as DCR makes out. It would take you masses of time to create another two of each master materia. And I should add that you lose one of each of your mastered materia in order to do so. I obtained a Master Command almost by accident and strived to obtain a Master Summon - a little easier.

If you wanted a reason why your party can become gods it's when they're at level 99. Aside from the optional Weapons, there's nothing that poses a serious challenge. And even if you can go into god-mode, it makes the game better when coming up with your own combination to do so.

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Posted: 27th March 2007 22:12
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Lunarian
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I hate to admit it, but I actually like Materia system over Magicite system.

Lost pretty much all interest in Magicite. I'd rather rely on Terra and Celes for magic than have Cyan, Shadow, Edgar, or even Sabin with uber physical power and magical power. Just makes everyone else useless.

I think Materia is a complicated system, where you have to combine two masses to improve your spell, etc. Dandy it may sound, I always hated having to equip "All" to each and every magic materia I had equipped. But atleast it doesn't get abusive, unlike Magicite.

So my vote goes for Materia. I really wanted to give it to Magicite, though.
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Posted: 27th March 2007 23:32

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true enough, it takes some fun out of the game with Master materia, but oh well. and i realize how hard it is to make the master materia, but with the example i was using, namely a fire materia, it is fairly easy to master it in a short amount of time, if you are lucky enough to have the right equipment and get movers/magic pots frequently

Edit
i may have a glitched game, but i kept making master materia, without losing my previous master materia wink.gif


This post has been edited by dont chocobos rule? on 27th March 2007 23:33

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Posted: 2nd April 2007 18:49

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Cetra
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I'm not a big fan of either, but I voted esper because Materia basically is the same as the esper system, but you lose the ability if you dequip it.

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Posted: 3rd April 2007 05:01

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Wait... which Esper system? If it's FFVI, and I'm assuming it is, Espers win out. -CSM

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Posted: 4th April 2007 23:26

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Materia System for me, i just liked using it over espers.
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