Which game has the best magic system?

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Which game has the best magic system?

Postby Thoul » Fri Jun 8, '07, 2:44 pm

Which of the Phantasy Star games do you think uses the best magic system?

PSI's system is pretty simple, but it does have the unique ability of talking to enemies. PSII was a lot more varied, with techs that were specialized against biomonsters and machines, but that made some characters less useful in parts of the game. PSIII was a bit unusual; I remember that some of the healing techs (mainly the antidote) constantly failed and sometimes had to be used several times. PSIV was a lot like PSII, but everyone seemed more varied and useful than in II.

Overall, I think I liked PSIV's the most, but I have to say PSIII's added an extra level of challenge to the game. A couple of times I got into a jam when I almost ran out of TP for healing.
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Re: Which game has the best magic system?

Postby Tsunami » Fri Jun 8, '07, 3:03 pm

PSIII had the technique distribution. Higher stars you gave a tech, the better chance of it working or more damage/restoration for the said technique. I liked how it was done. I never really dumped all the stars into one technique until the end of the game, since I liked to keep the balance.

All in all, PSIII's was very different, and that's why it's my favorite. One thing that can be said is that each game's magic system worked well.
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Re: Which game has the best magic system?

Postby Thoul » Fri Jun 8, '07, 7:27 pm

Oh yeah, I totally forgot about the distribution system. :o Clearly, it has been far too long since I played PSIII. That was nice, letting us adjust the characters to our own individual playing styles.
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Postby The $ Avenger » Sat Jun 9, '07, 2:00 am

I liked PSIV's system the best; it was much more varied than the others. Techs, Skills, and Combos kept things fresh, imo.
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Re: Which game has the best magic system?

Postby Neithird » Sat Jun 9, '07, 5:08 pm

They're all definitely unique systems. I like PS2's system the least, because it was the only one that was just a straight battle magic system (excluding maybe the music tech). The others all had some special feature.

Out of all the others, I like 3's and 4's the most. Uncovering all the secret combos was great in 4 and the distributing was really neat and powerful in 3.
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Re: Which game has the best magic system?

Postby Ome_Joop » Fri Dec 17, '10, 11:06 pm

PSIV has the best magic system altough it would have benefitted if you could diverge power like PSIII.
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Re: Which game has the best magic system?

Postby PSjunkie » Sat Dec 18, '10, 6:18 am

I liked PSIV's magic system best. I found PSIII's magic system to be interesting to say the least, the healing distribution was the only useful magic. I found the rest of them useless even if you did max out one type of spell, just too weak too make a difference.
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Re: Which game has the best magic system?

Postby augmentedfourth » Mon Dec 20, '10, 12:42 am

I'll be boring and say PSIV. The macros could be pretty awesome and the difference between techniques and skills added another layer of interest.

I know PSII had similar techniques, but for me, it seemed like they were trying to cram too many into the game. For example (and I freely admit that I replay PSII the least), I have a problem remembering which of Kain's techs does what. I rarely, if ever, use Hugh, but I can imagine having a similar problem.

The PSIII distribution system sounds good in theory, but I think it fell a little flat in execution. The melee techniques are rarely strong enough to be used in battle, even with one of them maxed all the way out. The healing techs are really the only useful ones, but as someone else mentioned, it was sometimes a crapshoot as to whether or not Anti or the revival tech (was it called Rever in PSIII? my memory sucks) actually worked. I guess one could, in the 3rd generation, distribute techs so that each healer (and you have four of them playing as Adan or Aron) is maxed out at something different. I'm sure there's a way to distribute the other classes of techniques so they're actually useful, but I was too lazy and didn't feel the need to do so myself.
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Re: Which game has the best magic system?

Postby Wing Eye » Mon Dec 20, '10, 3:35 pm

I loved PSIV's system, having two different types of magic with techs and skills was very unique, and the combo system was very fun :)
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Re: Which game has the best magic system?

Postby tilinelson2 » Mon Dec 20, '10, 5:51 pm

PSIII because it was unique. If it is not so useful, well, in PSIV I've beaten the game without using any magic save for the great bosses...
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