
Originally Posted by
kikix12
I'm afraid that they do mean a lot, but for all the wrong reasons.
The secondary stats in this game are born from the games desire to be "for everyone" originally. And there are people that like variety, customization...call it however you want. Early on you had actual choice of whether you prefer this piece or that. There was some sort of variety (though still limited). The relics (at least the Anima one) is a perfect example of that. You choose the bonus stats you want, while the rest is the same. That means that you can promote one build over the others to suit your play styles.
For that reason, games with secondary stats like that normally have multiple set of gear at every relevant level that are mostly different in bonus stats. Either that...or have randomly generated bonus stats on top. Or both of these...It doesn't matter what path is chosen, what matters is that a player A could make a max-level warrior that have significantly different additional stats compared to player B, while still having the same overall power level.
In this game, there is no such thing. The higher level armors are generally simply better, while there is no alternative at the same level. You will get whatever secondary stats you get and the only difference is from (all in all) small amount of stats you can add using materia (which is FURTHER capped by what is naturally on the gear).
However, what this game DOES have...is the drawback of secondary stats. You see, if you have 300 spell speed at lvlX and 600 spell speed at X*2, then you have -20% cast time. But if you have 300 spell speed at lvlX*2, then you have only -5% cast time. For example.
The amount of secondary stat you need for the same effect grows with levels. However, the sets in the game are so brainlessly simplified, that your rough crit, spell speed and so on will stay on a relative same level when you put on the complete sets from level to level. If you mix and match however, for example use the lower-level top that have crit and direct hit instead of skill speed and direct hit, then you will have a higher crit rate and higher global cooldown. It's nice and all, but you will still be weaker because you will also lose significantly on strength and defenses. If you want variety...you suffer being weaker by design.
The developers know this. They outright said that they want to remove all variety in order to make balancing stuff much easier without alienating anyone. In other words, they don't want there to exist gear or any customization to characters, but in order to avoid people leaving the game due to how ridiculous and worthless it would be at that point (and to have a cheap incentive for people to run boring content), they make a smoke screen by giving gears that give a semblance of choice...even though they don't.