On that note, Final Fantasy Tactics (original) is probably the entry in the series that most works the way Frank describes, with the caveat that the highest-level Black Magic was fucking garbage.Blicero wrote:When I played a bunch of Tactics Advance, that is how I remember it working for a lot of the endgame.Manxome wrote:I am having trouble thinking of any point in a Final Fantasy game where I felt things actually worked that way*.FrankTrollman wrote:Where spell points work is where you have fundamentally similar effects with a difference such that you can make a meaningful tradeoff between using the ability more times and using the ability less times with the enhancement. So like how in Final Fantasy you can use Fire or Firaga, and Firaga does more damage per turn and Fire does more damage per mana point and sometimes you care more about one and sometimes you care more about the other.
In FFT, you have access to basic evocations in the form of Fire, Ice, and Bolt at levels 1-4. The relevant details are as follows:
Fire 1 = Costs 6 MP, casting delay of 4 ClockTicks, damage multiplier of 14, AoE of 2
Fire 2 = 12 MP, delay of 5 CT, dmg mult x18, AoE 2
Fire 3 = 24 MP, delay of 7 CT, dmg mult x24, AoE 2
Fire 4 = 48 MP, delay of 10 CT, dmg mult x32, AoE 3
On paper it might not look so bad, but a delay of 10 CT is a complete death sentence for these spells' battlefield utility. Funnily enough, physical weapon users reign supreme in FFT-land, because their attacks are way stronger, way faster, can be made incapable of missing, and don't rely on the caster or target Faith value to resolve hit rate or damage.