Just a thought...

We keep talking about class customization and stats...what if the customization part was purely cosmetic? For example, if you want to be an ice mage, invest all your points in ice-based spells. Over time, your equipment would "evolve" to show how much more in tune you were becoming with your chosen element. You wouldn't do any more direct damage than, say, a fire mage, but there would be differences in the way targets react of course.

What's more, it would finally give us a use for all that junk materia. Any class could attune to a specific element by dropping stat points and elemental materia into their weapon/armor slots. There would be a place for strength/vit/crit elements and a couple elemental-only slots. You could reset, but it would kind of be like changing your GC - you couldn't switch back for a couple weeks + there would be a hefty fee beyond the first change.


The starting quest for your chosen elemental mastery could have something to do with the primal that "owns" it. That would re-ignite interest in the primals. Going back to our earlier example, you could be an ice mage, and perhaps your attacks won't do quite as much damage to Shiva, but you wouldn't take as much damage from her either. It balances out that way.

What are your thoughts? This keeps things balanced class-wise, lets us have greater control over customization, uses existing elements and assets from the game (albeit with a few minor changes) and such.