Quote Originally Posted by giftforce View Post
just when I thought they introduced something cool (i.e., dynamic quests and Imperial armies), they go and ruin it (by marginalising crafters)
You are 5 months behind.

Ever since they introduced the sidequest system it was obvious that normal gear could be attained from NPC's from that point onwards, and was not going to stay crafting-exclusive.

Which was worrisome indeed, until they started talking about Materia.

It's the system that gives crafters the value they lost by having NPC's hand out gear. That was obvious too.

And since it's a voluntary system (you don't "need" materia, but everyone is going to want it anyway) it's a much better trade-off to keep crafting relevant and important.

And that's the gist of it.