Yeeeeeah no. Using the FF 7 Materia as an example is not only wrong, it's flawed.
Materia only needs to be equipped. THAT'S IT! You don't need to fiddle with both in and out of battle menus to Junction magic and Draw Magic or even waste hours doing it! In FF 7, all you need to do is slide a Materia into a slot! It develops ON ITS OWN! You don't NEED to grind to get it powered up! It levels up rather fast and at a good pace when you just fight enemies in the game! The ONLY time I ever needed to grind Materia, was to create copies of Mime and KOTR and that's ONLY because they not only have some of the highest AP requirement to power up and create copies, but they're entirely optional! Here in FF 8, it's from BATTLE ONE that you have to deal with this Drawing crap.
So yeah, your argument is flawed and the Junction system can eat it.
You shouldn't be grinding materia. If you're fighting battles at a natural rate you should have magic of at least the level you're supposed for that point in the game. If you want to complain about needing to grind for skills I'd suggest looking into FFVI
Also; this solely deals with a single, relatively minor complaint of the junction system. More common is how clunky the menus are, how complicated it can be, and the psychological effect of junctioning magic meaning that people try to avoid ever casting spells
Ah yes, junctions. How I love thee. Admittedly, it is sure a pain to draw and refine in the early game - almost as bad as the worst examples of level grinding. But once more efficient methods of refining spells open up (such as card refining), then things start to get interesting. I loved the variety of choices presented to you, including statuses to weapon attacks or elemental absorption. Incidentally, I never saw it as clunky or could imagine anyone who paid attention to the manual or tutorials could be confused by it. I consider the junction system to be one of the best things about this game.
"What's out there? What's waiting for me?"Leave a Comment:
A Different Look at the Junction System
Junctioning. Some love it, others hate it. But in the end, this system is no different from that of other enteries of the series. People accuse it of being 'tedious' and 'time consuming'. They say "It's annoying go from battle to battle, working to draw the mahics to make your party stronger." But the truth of the matter is that this system isn't any more 'tedious' or 'time consuming' as lets say; leveling up materia, gaining AP for skills, or Sphere Grids. How do you work junctiong? You go into battles and draw magic from enemies... or drawpoints.... or refine. How do you level up materia? You go into battles, and rack up experience for the materia. and you keep going into battles. and hours later, you will finally level up that piece of materia. How is this considered better than the junctioning system.
Thing is, in VIII, you ccan spend an hour sidequesting, and then 5 minutes refining and obtain just about every piece of magic you need for the rest of the game. There, you barely need to worry about it anymore. But with Materia, it ALWAYS takes a long time to level up. Wanna know what junctioing and drawing is called? Grinding. Almost every RPG has this, it's very common in RP Gs, and it is not neccessary to drive into the grind if you are not that kind of gamer.
So next time you decide to try and bash the Junctioning system, just think about how much longer it takes to level up materia, or gain points to obtain a new skill or license or whatever.
And if this hasn't gotten through the thicker heads of the ignorants who have a hard time thinking on their own, let me put it to you this way; The things you find wrong with junctioning and drawing, final fantasy vii with it's materia is guilty of as well, ten-fold.
(Authors Note: You may find exclusive comparison to FFVII, and consider it bashing that especially and such. I only took that as the main comparison example because it's the easiest to use, and makes the strongest point. I do love FFVII too, and do not think it has wronged anyone with the Materia system either)