Can you explain how the ability systems in all of the main Final Fantasy games work?

I know this is asking a lot, but I want to play a Final Fantasy game and before I do I would like to know how the ability systems work for each game. I have beaten FF7 a few times now, so you don’t need to explain that one to me.

What I want to know is how the ability systems for the other games work. What I mean for example is in FF7 you would equip materia to your weapon or armor, materia would grant a spell or ability, the equipped character would then get that spell or ability as long as that materia was equipped. Then that materia would gain ap every time you fought a battle. In FF7, for the most part every character was the same, any character could use any materia with good effect. Every character could be a good black mage, white mage, summoner, warrior, or more commonly a hybrid of all of them. You could even have multiple characters fitting the same exact roll with the same materia, very little character uniqueness. This was probably the only thing I didn’t like about FF7.

What are the other FFs like? Are the characters more unique in their abilities? Is there a lot of character overlap? Does each character fill a different roll? Can characters be made into a copy of another? Can characters become jack of all trades with any ability at their disposal?

I know a few things about some of the other games
FF8 uses the junction system with GFs
FF9 you get spells and skills off of weapons permanently when you max their ap
FF10 uses the sphere grid

Can you elaborate more on them based on my criteria.
When I say all the Final Fantasy games I am talking about the main series 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10,12,13 not any of the spin offs.

Major thanks in advance to any one who is willing to take on this hefty task.

Each FF game, being self-contained as far as storyline and setting go, also usually each feature their own unique ability and battle systems, although some standard elements are usually retained over successive games, and hence, with each successive title, the battle system evolves and is refined with time. A common feature of a number of FF titles is something called the ‘Job System’, which had it’s basis in the very first FF game, but took it’s proper form in FFIII and has also been used in FFV, XI, XIV and the spin off Tactics games. The Job System is very similar to typical RPG ‘player classes’ where the player sets a ‘Job class’ to that character which decides their abilities and spells, and even what equipment and weapons they can use. The benefit of the Job system is the player can customize their character with whatever Job they like whenever they like.

Other FF titles which don’t use this system tend to feature characters with more defined roles, but often still taking the form of a Job even if there is no ability to change it (for instance, FFIX features this where Zidane is very much a Thief with some Ninja abilities, Garnet is a Summoner and White Mage, Steiner is a Knight, Vivi a Black Mage etc).

Really, there is so many varying systems used in the FF series that it would be impossible for me to mention them all, however a good resource to become better acquainted with them is the FF Wiki as it lists them all in great detail: Character Development – The Final Fantasy Wiki has more Final Fantasy information than Cid could research (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Character_Development)