LogFAQs > #973683546

TomNook7 posted...

And it's combat and ability systems may not have been the deepest in the series, but they always felt satisfying and rewarding.

The combat and ability systems are my least favorite parts of FF9. Every battle just takes forever, what with the opening animation and camera moves, then every animation taking a billion years to start up and complete. Compare to FF7, where everything feels snappy and quick, and even the animations that are a little drawn out mostly feel that way for effect and so the attack has more visual impact.

The ability system upsets me because of the disparity between how much AP is required to master an ability and how much AP you can reasonably obtain by just playing through the game without grinding. Invariably I get a piece of equipment that is a statistical upgrade over what I'm currently using before I've learned all the abilities from the old piece, and now I have to choose between grinding out the last AP so I have that ability or forgoing the abilities in favor of better stats. I know in the long run it doesn't make a ton of difference, but the completionist in me hates it. I can stand grinding if it's for a good cause, but mastering a few situational passive abilities on an old piece of gear rarely feels worth it (and it only gets worse if I've managed to build up a backlog of gear with unlearned abilities).