>>5439186
SaGa shares the same design, FF2 was the prototype for the variable stat system used later in most SaGa games, but RS2 created the fixed stat system as opposed to the variable one, where your main stats outside of fuel ones like HP/JP/TP do not grow, you have proficiencies instead for your weapons and magic schools, which again, mean that the more you use certain weapons of magic the better a character gets at using them, though their main stats do not grow.
>How is skill aquisition during battle handled, is there a hidden XP bar for it or is it completely random chance?
Techs (Waza) have a RNG seed for aquisition that is influenced by a lot of factors, but mainly what you're fighting and what you're doing in battle, powerful enemies rig the dice throw for more success chances of learning a new tech, furthermore you can rig the dice even more by using certain techs to learn better ones instead of just doing whatever, some techs can also be learned only by using other ones, then there's other techs that are unique to certain weapons and can only used with those weapons, e.g. Phantom Warrior can only be learned and used with the Amethyst Axe.
All characters also have their own table of what they can and cannot learn, you can infer their tables by looking at their proficiency levels, and their classes also specificy what they're naturally good at, however, there's a couple of characters in each class that are special in the sense that they usually have different tables that allow them to specialize differently from the rest of their class.
Magic is learned by having a mage teach you the spell, the higher your magic proficiency level, the better spells you'll be able to learn through your teachers, furthermore, after you reach certain global levels you'll be able to fuse different spells from non opposing schools into other ones, however, you cannot use two opposing schools on the same characters.