More JRPG thoughts - battle design
Building on JRPG design thoughts, let's talk about… Final Fantasy IV, in particular.
This was the last game in the series where magic had a separate, hidden charge time. Powerful spells like Ice 3 would take ages to actually cast, although the player couldn't input them until the character was "ready to act." The move was essentially paid for twice, which would cut down on the damage rate a magic user was able to attain.
On the other hand, without charge-times, the MP cost is the only thing discouraging high-level spell usage. The character is ready, the command is input, the spell happens. It is only resources (MP) and the monster's expected health that affect the choice of spell tier. (In order to keep MP a restraint, Final Fantasy VI only lets the player buy the lowest-tier restorative, at a high price.)
What if... we reversed the charge sequence? Instead of charging up equally to do "any action," it was that actions depleted readiness, and larger spells had a longer recovery time?
I think that ends up being like the battle system of Chrono Cross. One could throw a level-3 attack at the end of a sequence with only a level-1 move left, but then the character would not have a lot of those points recovered by their next turn. (At least, that's how I remember it after all this time.)
Another thing about Final Fantasy IV is that the characters have a class title, but the classes are an immutable character attribute. Cecil is the only Dark Knight; Rydia the only Summoner; neither has a path where they can learn the other's craft. No other Dark Knights or Summoners join the quest. Each character throughout the game is pretty much unique, with the possible exception of Tellah and FuSoYa. Those two have different titles, but similar capabilities.
In comparison, the job system in Final Fantasy Tactics gives real meaning to class. Even storyline characters can be given any job, and will perform like any other unit in that job. The entire party can be made up of one class.
Class is also at the forefront of Final Fantasy I. The characters don't have any definition beyond their class. There's no individuality, and it is "the party" as a whole that is given the tasks to complete.
I don't think I have a different design to offer here; the contrast simply struck me.