dtgreene: Shiva isn't really that interesting; it's just yet another summon that does damage to all enemies (an effect that is *way* overused in FF7).
MeowCanuck: IIRC, Shiva is the first mandatory summon you get. So if by chance you missed Choco/Mog, this is a new mechanic for the player you're vouching for.
Where are the summons like Golem, Zoneseek, Kirin, Carbunkle, Unicorn, Seraphim/Starlet, Palidor? All interesting summons that *don't* do damage to the enemy. (At least FF7 has Phoenix, but even then FF7 Phoenix includes a damage effect.) Or, to go back a bit further in the series, what about Remora, Sylph (though the FF4 version was more useful than the FF5, even taking in account when the summon is first available in those games), and Asura?
MeowCanuck: Each FF game is different by design with more emphasis than others on for status effects. Plus, this is one of the few FFs where you have Hades who effectively bad breaths all your enemies. And even then, I found it useless compared to maximizing DPS. The emphasis of the game leans more towards exploiting Quadra magic, multihit limit breaks + fury + hero drinks, KOTR spamming, or the 7777 trick.
If you really want to play an FF game with huge emphasis on status effects to max DPS and mechanical theorycrafting, go play 13. It's not turn-based, however.
FF7's materia variety isn't as interesting as FF5's ability variety simply because FF5's abilities are more varied in their effects. Plus, FF5 encourages specialization more (while still allowing somewhat balanced characters, unlike many games with skill point systems), so characters actually have different combat roles at any given point (unless you use the same set-up on everyone, but that tends to only work in certain areas for any given job, and may lack important abilities like healing).
MeowCanuck: But the same can be said about 7, objectively speaking. Thing is, if FF7 were made more difficult by increasing enemy stats, but not giving enemies status immunities they didn't currently have, status ailment spells would be significantly more useful. I remember trying Seal + All, and that materia combo appeared to work well, except that enemies would die too easily for it to be worth using.
Also, it's worth noting that Choco/Mog was probably my favorite summon in the game, mainly because it was cheap, had a reasonable length animation (unliie other summons in that game), and would randomly cast Stop. Also, it wasn't too hard to master, so I could link it with both Quadra Magic and Steal as Well to get 4x steal on all enemies.
Some of the early FF games handle status ailments better than FF7. Here is how the early games handeled it:
* FF1: Success rate is lower than one would like. You do get an item that casts instant death on all enemies for free, but it's hard to use without auto-targeting (and as such, is improved in the PSX version that has auto-targeting).
* FF2: If you know what you're doing (in particular, avoid heavy armor and weapons), status ailments become really good. With that said, there's lots of player usable instant death spells (probably too many), and any of them at a high level ends up making battles *much* faster. Also, there are only 2 bosses that can't be instantly killed this way.
* FF3: In the Famicom version, status ailments are really good in random battles, but useless in boss fights. (There's an explicit boss check; even Drain fails on bosses.) The 3D remake, unfurtunately, messed this up, and made status ailments useless. From what I understand, the Pixel Remaster is somewhere inbetween, with normal enemies sometimes being immune to some statuses and the success rate being somewhere inbetween.
* FF4: Status ailments work pretty well on normal enemies, but still do not work on bosses. Worth noting that petrify, while working well for much of the game, doesn't work well in the final dungeon. In the 3D remakes (DS version, and later versions on the harder setting), the difficulty gets to the point where you practically need to use status aliments on many enemies in the final dungeon.
* FF5: Status aliments work on bosses again! Bosses tend to have long lists of status immunities, but there are holes. (My favorite example is an early boss that uses physical attacks but is succeptible to Toad; if you turn it into a toad, it will reverse it by casting Toad on itself, but this enemy is not immunt to Silence!) They're not too important in normal encounters, though Spellblade Break is *really* good, allowing the character to instantly petrify enemies.
(Aslo, please don't post unmarked links to sites that auto-play video.)
Matewis: I can't really recall, but I think I would've remembered if it were the case for me. I do remember not finding the monastery setting that appealing for some reason, in contrast to most locations up to that point (well except the ice castle, but I always seem to be able to power through it). That might've had something to do with it.
IwubCheeze: Yeah, the monastery area wasn't much fun at all, same with the ice temples battle squares. Auril's ice temple is actually where the problems start. Your characters are powerful enough now you don't need to level up and you can end up level squatting because of it. Even if you do level up your characters right away, you're so powerful that monsters no longer give you experience so it really dampens the sense of progression. IWD2s late game is nowhere near as fun as the early game.
[Assuming you're talking about IWD2]
"level squatting" is the result of a rather serious design flaw in the game.
In particular, the game handles a new level 1 character joining mid-game rather poorly.
Sensible handling of this:
* Typically, the new character gets XP at the same rate as existing characters, and with XP requirements increasing at higher levels, the character can reach a decent level without too much work. This can lead to multiple level-ups after one battle. (In Final Fantasy 4, for example, there's one point where a character could easily grow from level 1 to level 7 or so in one battle.)
* The new character gets XP *faster* than existing ones, allowing the character to catch up. (I hear the Suikoden series does this, and some SaGa games (SaGa Frontier 1 comes to mind) behave like this (despite the lack of XP in those games).)
Bad ways of handling this:
* New character gets a small share of the XP due to being lower level, exacerbating level differences. (Dragon Quest 9 is an offender here, though at least that game gives XP to characters who end the battle dead.)
* As the main character levels up, everyone gives less experience. (I've seen this in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, as well as in Geneforge 1; this makes it impractical to level up late-game recruits, even those that start weaker (like if you went back and recruited a new Pixie late game).)
Worst possible way (that I've seen) of handling this:
* Icewind Date 2's approach. Everybody's XP gain is based on the average level, so adding a new character makes everyone level up faster. This means that having a character who stays at a low level means that the other characters will level up faster than if that character were absent.
