2nd June 2004, 2:41 PM
It's in recruiting and raising their skills. And yes it WAS complex, but it was intended to be a really big mini-game. The AI doesn't cheat by the way, it just takes advantage of your team's weaknesses. Trust me, the starting team is SO much weaker than most enemy teams... If you don't train your players and find other ones, you'll loose pretty much all the time simply because your players suck, not because the computer cheats. Even just training your starting characters will get you a super powered team by the end if you know what you are doing, but I liked having a mix of all the races of Spira in there rather than just a bunch of boring humans.
That said, while a fun diversion, it really didn't make up for the game being far too linear. Some people don't mind that, but I'm telling you, you really ARE LITERALLY walking down the SAME path right up until the end. There ARE lots of side quests, but you only really get access to them at the VERY end when you finally get free roam over the world (in the most boring way possible, I want to actually CONTROL that airship... the way GOD INTENDED!). Sure, FF games are linear to an extent anyway, but you are still generally allowed to take off running towards some other places at most points in the game for diversions. I like being able to say "Yes, we must go to Zozo and find... ooh what's that place?!" when I play an RPG.
That said, while a fun diversion, it really didn't make up for the game being far too linear. Some people don't mind that, but I'm telling you, you really ARE LITERALLY walking down the SAME path right up until the end. There ARE lots of side quests, but you only really get access to them at the VERY end when you finally get free roam over the world (in the most boring way possible, I want to actually CONTROL that airship... the way GOD INTENDED!). Sure, FF games are linear to an extent anyway, but you are still generally allowed to take off running towards some other places at most points in the game for diversions. I like being able to say "Yes, we must go to Zozo and find... ooh what's that place?!" when I play an RPG.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)