Quote Originally Posted by Renathras View Post
Old SMN had a LOT of disjointed systems that barely worked together creating a clunky mess of a Frankenstein's Monster Job.
It has the same disjointed systems then as it does now, except those systems work together less lol. New SMN still has a permanent summon, Demis, Aetherflow, and filler spells. Difference is they have all been sanded down to absolute simplicity, removing the synergy along the way.
Ruin 4 has no nuance in it's use, it's just the instant cast filler you get one of every minute, compared to before where it was generated by your Egi and necessary for optimal Bahamut damage.
Aetherflow interacts with literally nothing anymore, whereas in ShB it at least only maxed out on potency with both of your DoTs applied to a target, and before that was critical to using Dreadwyrm Trance.
Gameplay at the level of Ruin filler spam is now the whole rotation, and easier (except for Ifrit Dash and Slipstream.)
Carbuncle does fuck and all, they even took Searing Light off of it.
The shiny new Gem Summons don't really interact with anything other than themselves. They generate nothing. You get them for free from pressing your Demi button (which requires nothing).
Rework was a complete failure if the objective was to avoid piling together disparate systems that don't work together. It's as much of a "Frankenstien's Monster Job" as it's ever been.