I have read a lot of hate for this particular installment of Final Fantasy and in my opinion, a lot of that hate has to do with the Junction system and how much pressure was put on it which made the entire game harder to enjoy. For the most part, I think this game is about as solid as any other in the franchise, so I don't want to hear any complaints about the story. The story is just fine, and if you actually think 7 did a better job you're just lying to yourself. I loved the Junction system in theory, the ability to have spells like Fira and get use out of them without actually using them is awesome in a way I just can not explain, you either get it or you don't. My problem is that it should have been a bonus system, like espers in Final Fantasy 6, but it ends up being the primary method of boosting your characters. In most Final Fantasy games, in fact, in most RPGs characters power up using experience levels and equipment, and Final Fantasy in particular has mastered the art of a third system of customization that practically defines the game(jobs in 3 & 5, espers and relics in 6, materia in 7, spheres in 10, license grid in 12) but the Junction system in 8 virtually replaces the main system. The problem comes from two very good ideas that should not have been implemented simultaneously with the Junction system. First, they reduced equipment to just weapons. In theory his actually makes sense, because superficially, the character sprites never change, so adding armor and helmets doesn't make sense because the characters are never seen wearing them. In practice in a game, however, you find yourself only being able to increase physical attack, with no way to affect any other stat, leaving you quite literally defenseless. Second is leveling, you do still level in this game, unfortunately, so do the monsters, which means they cancel out your party's level. One really annoying aspect of this is that Squall can never leave your party, so he is always there to level up, so if you fall behind leveling any character they get screwed royally in the end because they are too weak to catch up and it's impossible to level down the monsters with Squall always wrecking the average. This leveling system made sense on paper because it meant that certain rewards, such as magic draws and item drops, increased with certain monsters leveling up, but it also meant that leveling up really meant nothing for your character.With all other methods of power increase removed, you were left reliant entirely on the Junction system, which if you know how to use it can make you a god, and if you don't know how to use it you're as good as dead. It was obvious enough to someone on the development team because just before any difficult battle , the game prompted you to make sure everyone was Junctioned, if you know that it's that important you imbalanced the game. And just why do I have to junction to use the item command? I get that this means I can switch out Item with a more useful command, but seriously, should item use have been SEED training 101? Why can't four graduates of Balamb Gardens be unable to use a potion without a Guardian Force?
Speaking of Guardian Forces, I wanted to share a game theory, the Guardian Forces are time travellers from the future. When you meet Laguna at the end of the game he talks about remembering in the past when Ellone sent Squall back to experience the events through him. His description makes it seem like Squall and co. were like Guardian Forces. Ultimecia returns to the past using a machine that mimics Ellone's abilities. Machines like that probably don't work right the first time, so perhaps there were a few test runs that went arwy resulting in the Guardian Forces who made it back in time but then got stuck in a state where they exist inside a person from the present and now have no way of returning to their true times and forms. One could argue that this should have then caused a time compression if they were from the future and Ellone sent them in the past with Squall, but since they remain with the party for the duration, that means that they can not return to the future and lost their connection to it and thus the past-present-future dynamic remains incomplete. This might also explain why memories are lost, a side effect of the temporal distortion that allows GFs to exist in the first place.
Another game theory, there is only one Sorceress at any given time and Ultimecia and Edea are the last. The only time we ever hear of multiple Sorceresses is when Adell and Edea exist at the same time, but Edea gets her power from Ultimecia from the future. Edea passes her power to Rinoa who also absorbs Adell's power to become the only Sorceress of her time. This means Ultimecia gets her power from Rinoa, or else she is Rinoa. When she goes back to give her power to Edea, it closes the loop, meaning that whenever in time Ultimecia is from, after her there are no Sorceresses because she gave the last of her power to the past.
And one last thing I have to say before I leave you this week, what the hell was with promoting Rinoa and Squall as the first Final Fantasy romance? What about Cloud, Aerith and Tifa in 7? Or Locke and Celes in 6? Or Cecil and Rosa in 4? Are they all chopped liver?
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