LogFAQs > #942098868

Plot changes:

Remove the orphanage and every reference to it. It adds complication to the story for zero reason. The characters mesh well together as presented in the game, adding in this childhood amnesia backstory was just plot bloat.

Flesh out Ultimecia significantly, both as a character and her role in the game. Drop the time travel entirely but keep her the ability to possess other sorceresses and you're good to go.

People keep saying "fix" the romance stuff but really what needs to be fixed is the characters and how they interact. Make them less caricatures and more like actual people. 90% of this would just be making Squall less edgelord. Give him a clear moment, probably right after the two Gardens battle, where he suddenly realizes how dangerous everything is and how much he cares about his team. All you gotta do is shoehorn in a realization that while he's worried about everyone its Rinoa he's most worried about and the rest pretty much writes its self.

Possibly age everyone up a bit. The whole plot makes a bit more sense if they're graduating from college age rather than graduating from high school age, and it especially helps Quistis as an instructor make sense. Possibly can leave Rinoa's age alone since she's *supposed* to be a bit of an outsider at first anyway. *googles* Ok, apparently she's 17 ingame so if we're aging most of the cast up to 22-24 then age her to 19-20 so that her and Squall don't get creepy

Mechanics changes:

Junction system is fine, the magic system is not. Easy fix though. Spells can now only be learned by refining items into spells, but spells never get weaker if you use them. Instead, stocking them increases the power of the spell up to level 100 (and once at level 100 it never goes down). Draw is removed entirely. Add new items to refine into various spells, and make sure some of the more powerful ones are still accessible relatively early in the game (such as the existing Ultima draw point available early in disc 2). Draw points, including on the world map, can be replaced with item stockpiles. Spells now cost MP. Add junction abilities such as MP Turbo, Half MP, etc into the game. Boost the overall damage of spells so that they are competitive with other commands. Oh, and probably let Ultima break the damage cap. It makes Eden less unique but in a game with so many options for multi-hit attacks spells need to do more damage to be viable.

I honestly think the equipment system is fine if you don't change the Junction system. Make getting weapons a bit less grindy by reducing the raw numbers of rare items needed.

Nerf the shit out of Limit Breaks so that they aren't the defining aspect of combat. Give them a gauge like in FF7. The Aura spell now increases how fast your gauge fills up. Restrict Zell's Limit to a certain number of attacks per use to encourage working thru combo chains rather than spamming the same two moves dozens of times in a single command. Adjust enemy HP values accordingly. This single change makes every other combat command infinitely more viable since Zell or Squall can just Limit Break everything into oblivion from the start of the game otherwise.

Remove the Hero and Holy War items entirely, or at least remove the ability to Card Mod to get them.
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Please, call me Bolt