I personally wouldn't worry about 'skills' so much for a first game. The maker is WYSIWYG for the most part and you can make a great game without having to know advanced formulas.
I would just focus more on originality. Have original spell names, original characters, don't copy off Final Fantasy (unless it's a FF themed game, and first games probably shouldn't be that anyway), make your own music.
When you turn a cliche on its head (like say what Buffy did, ie the general thought 'women are weaker' and thus gave them super powers, etc.) - it makes people wake up and think of something new. You don't have to be weird just to be weird, but new ideas make ppl think of new things.
Though a solid foundation is also important. Have a city/world that's relateable and likeable. My english teacher once told us to be 'pithy.'
Im a bit lost according to the skills as it is.. I dont have any clue on how I will balance my game. To be honest, math was my least favourite subject in school, and I have never been a bright student when it comes to formulas and such. I guess my only chance for a balance game will be to playtest alot, and to scale the skills by adding a.atk x random number - b.def or something.. Im making my own animated skills and the once I have done so far is turning out pretty ok.
The story of my game, might be a bit cliche, focusing on one specific person that has the most amount of impact on my worlds fate, but with a little twist that I hope will be kind of interesting. The story is also centered along an ancient civilization, that you will get to know about as the game moves on. That is the base of my story so far, but inbetween I will do my best to add some originality and to keep my world very dynamic when it comes to the people living there and so on.
Im working on my story for now, and the world that my game will take place in. Adding laws, culture and beliefs for the different locations in my game. Im also working on adding some backstory up to the events that the current world is facing.
But balancing my game will be my biggest issue for sure..
While Im at it, I sure could use some opinions on how you guys build up dialouge, with the information that you created for your characters. My characters will be very different from eachother, and have seperate viewpoints on the world they live in, and this will lead to alot of tension between my characters. Thats the basics I have so far, and I hope I can build something decent around that guideline.