ABSTRACT

The point of wide levels is to reintroduce complexity that was stripped from battles when character classes disappeared. The really brilliant thing about FFVII's level-up system is not that it's just wide, but that all of its diverse systems interact with one another in different ways, giving clever players a way of manipulating all of these systems to their party's advantage. The FFVII team's first priorities are telling a meaningful story, crafting compelling characters, and building a persuasive world. The point of the Reverse Design series is to make available to its readers the design tools that were used in the making of classic games. The level equivalence (LEQ) value works best for one-to-one comparisons, like one weapon or spell against another of its kind, but it's still useful for broader analysis of a game. Independent materia, which include such gems as Magic Plus or HP Plus, are the easiest kind of equip to measure by LEQ.