System Needed for Final Fantasy-esque Setting
I've got a problem.
I have a setting. It's quite fleshed out in terms of lore and characters and religion and geography and even in terms of some of the central mechanics it uses.
The problem is that these mechanics were made before I had settled on a game system.
So here we have with a world with four elemental crystals held by four human kingdoms who infuse their citizens at birth with elemental powers for increased strength, endurance, intellect, agility, and of course snazzy magic powers. These crystals were gifted to humanity by a mysterious goddess called... well, Goddess. And if you didn't predict Goddess being secretly evil or having her own agenda that doesn't have the best interests of humanity at heart the moment I mentioned her, then you haven't played very many JRPGs. And, of course, the world is teeming with elementally-aligned monsters that are just chomping at the bit to give the human kingdoms a very bad day.
So we've got elemental crystals, an evil god, improbably skilled PCs... yep, the first natural choice for a game system would be something Final Fantasy-esque, right? I did some research and some light reading and these are the systems I'm currently considering for this setting:
- D&D 3.5 with a pile of houserules. Suboptimal choice mechanics-wise but a system I am reasonably familiar with and has enough brand recognition that I can count on players bringing their own experience and not requiring much hand-holding.
- Returners 3e, which seems to be considered the de-facto standard for tabletop Final Fantasy. The job system nudges me away from it somewhat, but considering I was also considering D&D 3.5 before it classes aren't as big an obstacle as I am probably thinking. TBH I haven't actually read much of it yet.
- Zodiac 3e, extremely barebones and customizable to the point of divorcing from the job system entirely. The complete lack of a skill system makes me shy away from this since it implies a lack of gameplay outside of combat.
- FFd6 1.3, made by (as far as I can tell) some guy on the Giant in the Playground Games forums. Currently my favorite pick due to a direct mapping of its four attributes to the four elements. Not all jobs get magic, which is a big problem for a setting that revolves around magic and the elements.
- BESM 3e. Classless, nearly limitless potential, can do pretty much everything I want of it with some enforced attributes, and unfortunately stigmatized as weeaboo trash despite being an upgrade of the very excellent Tri-Stat system. Only three stats relegates it to being my second pick but could be difficult to get players for.
Think one of these systems suits my needs better than the others? Need to know more before you can render an opinion? Know a system I missed? I'm polling you for opinions, RPoL; show me your insights!