I prefer spell charges in Final Fantasy I/III and Suikoden to a traditional MP system. In other RPGs, there’s usually no reason to use weaker spells once you’ve unlocked strong ones. Why waste MP using Fire 1 when Fire 2 will kill for sure? You’d only do it if you didn’t have enough magic to use a stronger one. Even if you wanted to save magic, you’d be better off just using a standard attack. But with charges, using a weaker spell doesn’t affect how many times you can use the stronger spell, because they have separate ammo pools. You also have to be very selective with when you use your strong spells, because you can only recover by leaving the dungeon and starting over. You have to think very carefully about whether it’s best to cast Fire 4 and watch as it slowly annihilates the powerful group of enemies in front of you one by one, or saving it by escaping or defeating them through other means.

>>11795435 (OP)
Dragon Slayer Eiyuu Densetsu 2 had an interesting spell charges system where every character had 8 spells they could cast which recharged independently outside of combat and you could fill these 8 spell slots with any spell you wanted even multiple of the same spell so a healer could have 8 heals while maybe the main guy could have a couple heals and some damage. It was nice.

>>11795435 (OP)
I sort of agree but the main problem with mp is that it's usually poorly balanced. The mp vs damage ratio is usually too efficient so the minor mp saving of using lesser spells isn't worth it compared to certainly killing something

>>11795435 (OP)
I think the system has merits, though I think FF1 kind of wasted it by doing things like putting RNG-based spells like death spells on the same levels as reliable damage spells, so you basically just stick with the reliable predictable ones

>>11795435 (OP)
You do have a good point. Wizardry works really well with spell slots and ensures you're going to be using (most) early magic throughout the whole game outside of some really weak damage spells like Halito. There's also sometimes issues though like >>11795454 points out though, where spells that'd otherwise be great end up being ignored in favor of consistency.

Slots are pretty guaranteed to be cool, but i agree that >>11795446 its usually a balance issue with mana/mp. I like games where the cost of higher level spells is so much greater that there are still times you want to use the equivalent of Fire 1, just for a better mana:damage ratio. And suddenly that layer of decision-making from charge-based systems is back

>>11795435 (OP)
Ok but…
At least in the case of FF1, by midgame you have items like Zeus Gauntlet that allows you to spam LIT2 endlessly
It almost makes the entire class of wizards pointless. I could just make a party of 4 fighters and goes balls to the wall.

Consumable magic that you can upgrade with ability like FF8 is peak

>>11795573
Yeah most recent time I played FF1 (Famicom) I had fighter, red mage, white mage, black mage and I recall being underwhelmed by the black mage
I heard the Pixel Remaster makes INT boost their damage so they're more useful tho

>>11795573
But you can’t get the Zeus Gauntlets until the Bahamut side quest, that's pretty deep into the game; and, you have to find them. LIT 2 is still very useful to have for a large portion of the game.

>>11795435 (OP)
Not only do I agree, but I firmly state that two major aspects of the game: spell charges, and the fact targeting n enemy that's killed earlier in the round results in a miss, not a redirected attack to the nearest adjacent enemy, make Final Fantasy I one of the greatest jRPGs in existence, and significantly better in this regard than its sequels.

Both of these elements lead to emergent tactical thinking. You have to be able to plan out how long your spell charges will last, how deep into the dungeon they can get you (and back out again safely), and whether you even want to try going all the way to the bottom, or grab a few chests and escape. The combat rule requires you to be able to learn and estimate on the fly how much HP each enemy has and how much damage they're likely to take from your various melee or spellcasters, and plan accordingly. What makes this sublime is that it's tactical thinking that doesn't increase the time required to complete combat. You don't have to sit there and plan out complex turn orders and count out movement spaces like a Tactics game, rather you simply have to use a little memory and intellect but can mostly be guided by intuition. Eventually the combat leave you feeling like a well-oiled machine, it's deeply satisfying when every party member plays their role perfectly and ends the battle without waste.

Now, granted, it's not perfect in its distribution of spell tiers, weapon types, and class abilities but the TECHNIQUES were there, and it's a pity they were abandoned to create far less mentally involved experiences for later games in the genre.

>>11795789
>You have to be able to plan out how long your spell charges will last, how deep into the dungeon they can get you (and back out again safely), and whether you even want to try going all the way to the bottom, or grab a few chests and escape.
This still exists with MP and you are heavily overstating the emergent tactical thinking.

>>11795951
>This still exists with MP
Barely. The experience is VASTLY different, the FF1 remakes are testament to that: utterly bland, destroyed experience nothing like the original.

>and you are heavily overstating the emergent tactical thinking.
Nope, if anything I'm vastly understating it. Sorry you don't like to work your smooth brain.

>>11795954
you can put 99 herbs in your pocket and auto attack till the end of the game, what strategy should I be employing here? FF1 is not particularly special.

>>11795958
>I've never played FF1
Damn, it shows.

>>11795951
>gets pissy that a game made before he was born is better than the slop he plays
same old pattern, i don't know what brings you trash to /vr/. good job entering a thread for something that makes you mad tho

Frightening

Shining Force III has MP but all the spells grow stronger as the character's proficiency with the weapon he uses grows. I quite like that aspect as weaker spells remain useful throughout especially considering for big combats there is often just enough MP to last the entire combat.

Some weapons also give access to certain spells but your character won't be proficient in all weapon types (unless you grind a lot) so you have to choose between having access to a weapon which has another spell or added effect but with which your character is not proficient, or stick to what he's proficient in and give up on the other spell/added effect. Or try to build up the proficiency of several weapon types equally so you're more effective to switching weapons mid fight.

MP isn't inherently bad, it's just that MP became the "standard" which combined with the casualization of JRPGs and the fuck ton of copy cats that did things badly, made MP look bad. A well balanced JRPG with MP will still leave you with similar choices as spell charges, for instance in early Dragon Quests (1 to 5) weaker spells remain useful for a long time (it's only in the late game that I'd usually drop them altogether) because the game is well balanced and due to small nature of the numbers dealt with, it's easy to remember the amount of HP
the enemies have and therefore know when a weak spell is enough to do the job, unlike Final Fantasy games which deal with bigger numbers at which point most players try to stop to count/remember/guess how much HP enemies have and just use their strongest attacks on repeat.

>>11795435 (OP)
>In other RPGs, there’s usually no reason to use weaker spells once you’ve unlocked strong ones. Why waste MP using Fire 1 when Fire 2 will kill for sure?
Grinding efficiency. Quite the other way around. Why use Fire 2 when you can Fire 1 to kill the same enemy... if you can use fire1 50 times and fire 2 25 times before going back to town, that means less going back to town or using an item to restock mana.
In fact, your own example is nonsense in that spell charges creates that precedent that the two costing a single charge means you're either genreally better off putting a more useful or diverse spell there - or going all in to double your needed spell effect performance - if weaker.

MP = more diversity and efficiency but harder to difficult to account for.
Tier charges = easier accountable casting cost. You will never run out of FIR3 by casting FIR2.
Non-tier charges = wtf is even going on. This is somehow completely shit and completely amazing all at once.


>>11795573
First play knowledge vs multi-run knowledge. Everyone is an expert if they have the knowledge of an expert. Weird how everyone's not an expert. Also, an item like that doesn't really affect their comparative discourse. All you're saying is "sure there's pro's to that system over the other - but have you considered it's even better to not have that system entirely by having an item in a game which may or may not exist in a particular game since we're literally comparing generalized systems, ala FFI/III vs Suikoden etc... IS the Zeus Gauntlet actually in Suikoden? If not, that's a pretty stupid comment then, because we're not debating run strategies for a single game... we're discussing the benefits and detractions of gaming mechanics. So being asshat bringing up infinite charge items isn't really useful. Infinite charge items can be done in MP casting systems too and it doesn't matter.

>>11795965
What would be nice is untiered charges... as in all spells cost the same, but they have stamina/debuffs etc... you always know how many casts you have... but you have to decide if you want to put a wizard out for a round or three over casting crazy shit or have them stay in for weak stuff. Basically wizard cooldown.
It'd certainly help make low-grinding easier.

>>11795789
>targeting n enemy that's killed earlier in the round results in a miss, not a redirected attack to the nearest adjacent enemy
Change the message from "Ineffective" to "OVERKILL!!!11!" and give it some audio/visual spectacle and people will love it

>>11795789
>and the fact targeting n enemy that's killed earlier in the round results in a miss
That shit always kills immersion for me. Turn based attacks also kill immersion a bit but at least it's a compromise. A mage preparing a spell and then after it gets killed walking up and shooting it over a dead body just seems fucking dumb... mages aren't supposed to be idiots... you got a spell - you use it on someone, you had one job.

bump

I have to disagree here; I'm not a fan of charges or non-auto-redirecting attacks (mentioned by >>11795789).
In something like FF1 or Mystic Quest, they can add some complexity to a relatively simple game, which is welcome there. But imagine adding them into a really complex Final Fantasy game, like X-2, and problems start to emerge.

In X-2, you are controlling three characters at once, any of which can at any point during their turn switch to one of several different classes. Doing this not only trades out their entire suite of abilities for another, but also completely changes their stats. Switching classes like this moves their piece across paths in a small board game (each character having their own board) and depending on how far they've moved, their stats and abilities and even the classes they have access to will further change. In addition, characters can advance in their classes in the middle of battle, and enemies similarly can at any moment "oversoul", suddenly turning into a miniboss with a whole new suite of abilities and stats. All of this takes place in real time, on top of all of the normal mechanics present in every Final Fantasy game.

Final Fantasy X-2 does not need to be more complex. It already has piles and piles of mechanics. The only reason the game functions and is fun to play is that really basic stuff like remaining magic uses and enemy targeting is streamlined.
Essentially, the "mental weight" that D&D-style magic charges and manual targeting would take up is instead reinvested into new, wholly unique systems you can't experience in any other RPG.

In short, I don't think that these kinds of systems are interesting or fun enough to be worth the additional "mental weight" they put on the player, at least for most RPGs.
Adding more things to keep track of makes RPGs harder to play, but that doesn't directly translate to more fun.

>>11796652
Yeah I agree corpse-targeting is dumb if you interpret combat in-universe as everyone waiting around and taking turns shanking each other. I like to see it as an abstraction of the chaos of combat. Where one of the party members ends up slaying the monster just as the mage fires off his spell. Or two party members attack a monster in rapid succession and the monster receives the second attack before its body even hits the ground.
From a gameplay perspective, I like the mechanic. Its risk management and that's the bread and butter of RPG gameplay. You can spread out your actions and hope for good results or focus your actions to get a guaranteed result.

Ok but even the weaker spells are fucking worthless because of how few charges you get with them. Oh boy 8 casts of Fire in a dungeon with 50+ random encounters, my black mage is totally not going to be useless 99% of the time now.

>>11795959
NTA but I played the NES original a few years ago with a Fighter/Thief/WMage/BMage party and I remember everyone feeling completely fucking useless in combat except the Fighter. Even the WMage only existed as a mobile healing/resurrection tool. Outside of bosses magic is pretty worthless. If I had to replay the game today I'd probably do 3 Fighters and a WMage, MAYBE replace one Fighter with a Black Belt just for variety. It's a very poorly balanced game.

This is in spite of me playing with a romhack that fixed the fact that 90% of magic is just literally broken in the original release and does nothing at all.

>>11799103
>>11799105
Couple that with the fact that when you start getting gear with usage effects youre just spamming those instead of spells. My black mage just used items that cast spells for him most of the time.

>>11799103
> boy 8 casts of Fire in a dungeon with 50+ random encounters
That’s why you get spells on other levels, silly

>>11795441
Sound rather unique, I like it.
If this was done maybe having the spell slots charge after being used at a slow rate in a fight so in boss fights you can re-use a spell after 8-10 turns.

>>11795951
Yeah, however MP is more fiddly to balance with power/cost and it's opaque when playing the game since you don't have a clear limit to casts but a resource in a single pool.
Easily accessible MP recovery items are a scourge on strategic thinking.

>>11796652
Like >>11799068 said, the combat takes place in a short period of in-game time with your swing hitting a dead monster because the two of you were going for the same one.
Auto-targeting takes away from the strategy. However I would argue that in many FF games for example it doesn't matter since the enemies are rarely more than one hits anyway.

At the heart of HP/MP bloat and brainless combat is the number bloat. When your combat system scales X^n it's very hard to nearly impossible to balance that system in a way that isn't either all one-shots or brainless mashing. A few levels difference in that system can be the difference between impossible to trivial.
Old school Dragon Quest games went from 10 damage to 100 or 200 at most with a skill, compare that to FF games where you start by doing 10-30 damage with a regular hit and end doing anywhere from 3000 to 9999 damage per normal hit, depending on the game.

I'll never understand this meme with so many people claiming spells are worthless in FF1. Spells are the only way you can hit several enemies at once and you can fight up to 9 enemies at once. Without spells in those circumstances the fights drag on absolutely fucking forever and the risk of getting some nasty status ailments (Zombies, Cockatrice, etc) or getting hit by a group spell yourself (Dark Wizards who often come in group) just increases the longer the fight lasts.

As for items that cast spells for free sure they're nice, but they come in later in the game AND they're the weaker versions of the spells, so no they can't replace spell useage entirely.¨

I wonder if the complainers played the same game or maybe they played some shitty modern remake (GBA/PSP onwards) and/or used fast forward

>>11800254
Dragon Quest games are generally balanced super tightly indeed, it's a great feeling when you have a rough estimate of the enemies HP in your head and your turn goes just according to keikaku. But Final Fantasy hits that power fantasy itch better by the end game since the numbers are bigger.

Though the satisfaction of becoming strong at the end is still a thing in DQ if you consider several games together: I always loved how in DQ1 to 4, in each sequel you end up a bit stronger than you were by the end game of the previous game. Sadly DQ5 stopped this progression as by the end of 5 you really aren't stronger than in the end of DQ4 (weaker even iirc).

>>11800272
I just can't stand the way magic works in Dragon Quest.
In DQ a 30% resistance to a spell doesn't mean you only do 70% of the normal amount of damage, it means that 3 out of every 10 times the spell fail will fail.
And there's no way to see what resistances the enemies have in-game, so if you aren't using a guide you can very easily waste tons of MP on an enemy highly resistant to your magic without realizing it because you got a few lucky hits in early and thought that they were vulnerable. The reverse scenario where and enemy luckily resists your magic several times in a row and convinces you they have a high resistance when they don't is also frustratingly common.

Whenever I play a DQ game I always end up just having my mages spend all of their turns attacking or using items, barely having them use any spells.
It feels incredibly lame and random and out of my hands as the player. It's one of my least favorite magic systems in any RPG.

>>11801246
Dragon Quest, like Street Fighter, is only respected because it’s old and influential: by its own merits it’s a very low tier example of the genre.

I honestly don't like how FF 1 limits you to only 9 charges, FF 3 did it better in my opinion.
>>11795606
>I heard the Pixel Remaster makes INT boost their damage so they're more useful tho
Magic in the original game is bugged, pixel remaster just fixed that.

>>11801274
>Magic in the original game is bugged, pixel remaster just fixed that.
No it doesn't. Intellect isn't called for by any calculation and there's no documentation on how INT was supposed to function.
However I have a feeling if it was meant to be implemented it was to do with Spell Hit Rates. Damage spells always hit, but if they also score a "hit" they double the effective damage this hit calculation takes into account the targets Magic Defence, the spells hit rate, and a base value, if you add in INT then the effect from enemy Magic Defence can be mitigated and the average damage of damaging spells increases as they're more and more accurate as you level.
In the remakes there are INT stat thresholds at 00, 20, 30, 40, 50, 65, 80, and 99 each of them adds another layer of base power the effective power of a damaging spell. Magic Defence also works in a very wonky way having thresholds at 100 and 200 where the damage is reduced by a % above those values. This creates a really jank stepped damage growths where 0-19, 21-29, 31-39, etc. INT has no effect on anything, very bad design.
The remakes of FF1 are in general really janky and poorly designed, for example the unavoidable overleveling causing many more hit multipliers throughout the game.

>>11801246
This is how it functions in DQ 1-4, in 5-11 the resistance decreases damage and damaging spells have perfect accuracy. If you look at the resistances in the older DQ games they're divided so that Frizz spells have the most stable hit rates, while group and all attack spells are more varied. Enemy types also often share resistances, In DQ3 Minidemons resist almost all magic, while the Apes, Birds, Frogs, and Living Armour are fodder for Crack while Bears, Rams, and sea creatures don't like Sizz.
Personally I really like that there are these trends that repeat, unless you're against a new type of enemy the type and any elemental naming schemes tell you what spells to cast.

>>11801263
gr8 b8

>>11801274
Magic scaling with an intelligence stat or with levels, basically magic scaling at all, was NOT a standard in RPGs at the time. Be it tabletop, JRPGs, or WRPGs. That and as the other anon said there is no telling what the int stat was supposed to do in FF1 if it ever was supposed to do anything.
You should stop parroting what you heard from a bunch of retards and racists

>>11796652
>>11799068
Leave the abstraction aside, it's the game you're in control of.

>>11799105
>90% of magic is just literally broken
This is not even close to true and you're an idiot for believing it, which means none of your other opinions can be taken seriously. There are a few notable broken spells, it is nowhere near "90%". Mostly there are bugs involving the wrong resistances being used, which don't actually have a huge overall effect on gameplay. You're just yet another drooling youtube-addicted moron repeating overblown memes about how "bUgGy" and "uNpLaYaBlE" this incredibly successful, influential, timeless, replayable game is. Not a single one of those bugs stopped any of us from enjoying it before you were born.

>>11795435 (OP)
No Aspir no buy

>>11801975
Or rather not in control of. Which is why it sucks. It's fine for people to like it. But it still sucks.

Anything is better than MP pools

>>11795435 (OP)
They took that from Wizardry (like the entire jrpg genre) and yes it's a much more interesting way to handle magic. MP pools are a casualzation.

>>11795984
I knew about Zeus Gauntlet on my first playthrough

My first playthrough of FF1 NES I had no idea about free spells when using items because I was relatively new to RPGs. I managed just fine though I fled a lot in the final dungeon (which was honestly less boring than the absolute drag of healing with free spell items by that point).

Anyway Glory of Heracles 3 has limited, but fairly generous, number of uses for items that cast spells, once it's depleted you need to buy a new one. I thought that was a nice system. There is also the option of the item breaking after a few uses and having to repair it like Shining Force does but I find that to be very limited (though suitable for a tactics game).

>>11800268
exactly this these people are fucking nuts. without black mage you’re hitting one dude at a time. even the death spell isn’t too bad. it’s risk reward to get to the end of the dungeon and black mage aoe saves a ton of resources. but right out of the gait you’re fighting like groups of 9 pirates and shit.

>>11802104
Can confirm. Played through FF1 on NES a handful of times with different classes. Nothing was broke. Actually I just googled it. There’s 5 spells that don’t work. I promise you won’t even use them. I definitely didn’t.

>>11805407
I never used the high level spells in FF1 because they were mispriced to look way too expensive when they actually werent. An embarrassing glitch that had no reason to exist.

>>11805407
>nothing was broke

This is not even close to true and you're an idiot for believing it, which means none of your other opinions can be taken seriously.

FF1 spells are truly fucked, it isn't like Pokemon RBY where it's just one or two moves out of hundreds. We're talking six out of like thirty. One fifth of the spells simply do not fucking work.

>>11805441
And this is shit you have to pay valuable money for and lock down permanent ability slots.

>>11805152
black mage only gets 3 or 4 shots of level-appropriate multi-target spells, and you have to save those for bosses

you could give the black mage a magic item to use but at that point why not just have another fighter who can wear armor and tank damage?

FAST is about the only thing that really makes black mage worthwhile and you’ll be using it to buff… your fighter

>>11805602
There are like four "bosses" in FF1, and none of t them are at the end of dungeons. Roleplay harder.

>>11804101
i wanted to post about chrono cross. it's nice having slots full of weak elements to control the field, and slots being recharged after battle/healing with unused heals

>>11805767
>i like to control the field
No you don't, it's extremely poorly implemented and it's one of the most widely criticized parts of the game. Why are you retards like this?

>>11805424
Thanks for letting me know you're so disingenuous, and rattled for being exposed, that you mindbreak straight into "copypaste what the other guy BTFO me with" loser mode.

Next time, don't lie to yourself when you post, you won't feel exposed when someone disagrees with you.

>>11805602
> and you have to save those for bosses

No, you don't. Bosses are a single target, you don't wasted the important multi target spells you have on them.

Also FF1 (as many RPGs of the 80's) have reverse balancing compared to the standard of the SNES era onwards. You're used to the idea that random encounters are trash and bosses are the real challenge, but in FF1 it's the contrary, random encounters are the real challenge and bosses are fairly easy and balanced around the idea that the player will have few ressources left by that point. Saving all your powerful spells for bosses is unnecessary and a poor tactic

>>11805767
It's a neat idea and ties in well with the terraforming background of the setting, but I don't remember paying much attention to it aside from summoning. Summons requiring a full field is also cool, like it's necessary to first create a suitable environment for them. The mechanic seems a bit underused at first glance but on the other hand a greater emphasis would drag out the common fights, so I guess they struck a decent balance with having it, but not having too much of an impact in most situations.

>>11805441
There are 64 spells, troll. The list YOU POSTED says HEL2 does "not fucking work" in the sense that it is STRONGER than it's supposed to be, troll. 5/64 = ~8%

>>11795435 (OP)
I agree in general, OP.
We have picrel to thank for this wonderful system and its descendants.

>>11806298
lol this anon is basically correct. everyone knows that FF was inspired by wizardry which was inspired by dnd. here’s the explanation:
> The magic system used by the original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) drew inspiration from the Dying Earth novels by Jack Vance, for whom the Vancian magic system is named. In those books, wizards need to memorize a spell to use it, which wipes itself from the caster's mind after it was cast.

>>11795606
Not really, because they use charges but the enemys’ stats are still the same as the MP versions.

>>11795789
>and the fact targeting n enemy that's killed earlier in the round results in a miss, not a redirected attack to the nearest adjacent enemy
I would play the shit out of an FF1 NES romhack that changed this and only this.

>>11795951
That's how Persona 4 is, at least in the beginning. Spells cost quite a lot of mana and you have very limited ways to replenish (only a small amount) of it. So, you use physical skills (which cost health) and only use mana for healing spells done by the member with highest magic. Spells allow you to get AoA which basically end the battle, but you need to know the elemental weaknesses of the enemies first, plus, like I said, it's not sustainable. Only later on, when you have the Fox S-Link and he allows you to replenish your mana for a huge price (which goes down as you rank up the link).

>>11808670
It's called the PSX version

Reagents>Charges>ManaPoints

>>11808670
That's part of the planning, strategy, and difficulty of FF1. You have to keep track of how many hits you've done to each enemy in stead of mash X to win.

>>11808810
I have thought about playing that version. It still changes the music and graphics but it's something.
>>11809135
I know. I kinda like being able to "mash X to win" though. :^)

>>11795435 (OP)
DnD and other vancians system kinda achieve that too with tiered spell slots.

Final Fantasy 1 NES > every other final fantasy
simple as

>>11810667
>"I like cheating myself out of actually enjoying video gaming so I can just add the win to my checklist"
>literal troll emoticon
just not surprised at zoomer self-destructiveness anymore, so sad to see

>>11800254
>Easily accessible MP recovery items are a scourge on strategic thinking.
I think Earthbound handled this the best.
They exist but for much of the game they're so fucking rare.

>>11795789
Not ff1 rerelease ever did the game justice. Its much harder in its original form because of stuff like this.

>>11811795
It's fun but I like 7 better.

>>11812503
The PSX version is very faithful outside of bugfixes. It added auto-targetting but you can disable it.

>>11795435 (OP)
Spell Charges are shit, at least in their implementation in FF1 and 3.
On average you're gonna have far more than 10 battles in a dungeon in these games, so only having 10 casts of a basic attack spell is total garbage cause your mage is gonna be useless for half the fights - this is why most people take Red Mage over Black since you actually get filler attacks for free.
This isn't even to mention that having different resources for lower and higher tier spells removes a crucial component of the decision making - are you willing to cast a higher tier spell in a given battle that might get you out of a bind if it's eating into your ability to attack regularly with your weak spells?
Meanwhile the MP Charge decision making is just
>do you want your mage to participate in this battle?
and
>are you willing to sacrifice a high tier spell charge on a regular battle rather than a boss?
And that's just not nearly as interesting as the ever present threat of running out of MP completely, leaving you with nothing to work, with that being the culmination of ALL your decisions.
I feel like the only reason people jerk Spell Charges off so much is because they're in way fewer games than the standard MP system.

>>11812579
>On average you're gonna have far more than 10 battles in a dungeon in these games, so only having 10 casts of a basic attack spell is total garbage cause your mage is gonna be useless for half the fights

This isn't a spell charging issue, it's a balancing thing, and it's near identical with RPGs of the time that use MPs. Just look at Dragon Quest and count how many spells you can cast, you'll realize you can cast more spells in FF1 because at least once you run out of a level you can still cast from another level pool.

For spellcasters you ARE supposed to carefully choose when to use their spells, that's how balancing worked in RPGs, back when RPGs were balanced (in the 80's).

>>11812632
I dunno what Dragon Quest games you've been playing but at least in the NES ones you can cast like 20 Infernos and still have half your MP left since it only costs like 3 MP out of the 50+ you're likely to have even by mid-game.
The balancing comes from how most mages in those games are either mixed attackers and healers or have buffing and debuffing spells mixed in, so you can't attack as you please without sacrificing something else.