Final Fantasy Thread

[Nikotsumi]

Honestly, FF8 is so broken that summons is not even typically used except real early parts of the game, but then it's also possible to not use them at all since Squall's limit breaks (literally) breaks the game. Quistis and Zell is no exception.

In terms of design, FF8 had my favorite summoning designs (mystic designs, which how it always was in past FFs). There are some enemies that are still programmed to high levels but their stats will still be tied to your sole levels, so the game is tricked either way. The only monsters that do not apply with this is the monsters from the Isle of the Damned (Level 70+ with high stats), Ultima Weapon, and Omega Weapon.

Yeah, those summons' designs were really amazing, my favorites as well, though yeah they're pretty "useless" after a while. Irvine and Rinoa's (last) limit breaks are neat too.
Didn't really use Selphie against strong bosses, that poor girl's limit break becomes pretty much useless, unless you want to "End" it all.... if you know what I mean xD

Btw, It took me 3-4 hours to clear

Spoiler: FFXV minor spoiler

that Pitioss dungeon lol, it was really satisfying.

 

[Hayabusiness]

This FFVIII talk is certainly making me curious about the game. I do know it's the most popular in my country (I think it was translated in Italian...? IX certainly was). I know for certain Laguna is cooler than Squall, because yes.

@Jadeinchains
I see you are interested in playing older FFs.
I forgot if you played X and X-2, but those are on the new-ish side... lol.
I think a good way to start is either IV, VI or VII: those are not too complicated and generally have the most praised stories in the series.
If you are scared of old 2D graphics, do not be... Squaresoft always had good art direction and I think they best the best looking games on the SNES (only rivaled by Yoshi's Island really). The new remakes with shit iOS graphics don't do those games justice IMO.

Also IV had a 3D remake that makes it more modern, if you're curious.

 

[Chapstick]

I really liked 3D FFIV on the DS. 3D FFIII was good too. The 3D models and closeups in scenes make the characters easier to connect to.

I really want them to do FFV and VI in bravely default graphics for the 3DS

 

[Jadeinchains]

Lol yeah I played X and X-2 they were good but X was really good. The characters in that were great and the setting was too. I might try the really old games like the 2d games but I'm not sure how well I'd do in them. I hope this rumour of a collection is true.

 

[KasumiLover]

You guys remember that FF Mobius game? It'd be cool if that protagonist was in Dissidia too, Ramzel or uh....whatever that guy with the ponytail is in and he was from a spin off game of that caliber.

 

[UpSideDownGRUNT]

The system of stat boosting and stuff was pretty much my biggest problem with FFVIII, even the guide I used(because some of the old FFs are really confusing if you don't know where anything is, hence another problem I have with older FFs/JRPGs) was just telling me to grind 100x waters, Fires etc. between main plot points and bosses because of how the game works.

I tried to do it without doing that and had ALOT of problems by the 2nd Disc, so basically you pretty much cant play FFVIII legit... you have to use the stat junctioning with a good number magics to do everything and it's probably the most grindy FF I've ever played even next to XIII which is a total grindfest later on.

If they release FF I - IX on PS4 like this supposed "leak" suggests, I might try to give VIII a 2nd chance since I cant play my Steam version atm.

 

[Hayabusiness]

Lol yeah I played X and X-2 they were good but X was really good. The characters in that were great and the setting was too. I might try the really old games like the 2d games but I'm not sure how well I'd do in them. I hope this rumour of a collection is true.

The rumored collection is said to be very expensive, sadly.
However, I will assure you that if you went through FFXII you should not have problems with IV, VI or VII. The *really* hard FFs (barring extra, non story bosses) are II and III on the NES, and those are obsolete if you just want to go through the story, since II is on both PS store and GBA with better graphics and III got a remake with 3D graphics.

 

[Jadeinchains]

That will be a shame If it is really because Id like to play through the old games and at least give them a try. I found FFXII really hard so I'm not sure. ( Fran is great though )

 

[DestructionBomb]

@Nikotsumi @Hayabusiness

Altissia has a Justice Monsters Five arcade machine that costs a whopping 10,000 Gil per game. Not surprised since the rewards are far better than what you'll find in the regular machine. I didn't even know there was an expensive one at Altissia. This is the super-deluxe JMF version. Here are the treasure rewards from it. (It can get repetitive if you play it mostly, b-but...the power from Justice!)

Number of Treasure Chests - Reward

5 - Hi-Potion
10 - Mega Phoenix
15 - Ruby Bracelet
20 - Platinum Bangle
25 - Emerald Bracelet
30 - Centurion Bangle
35 - Mystic Circlet
40 - Moogle Charm (!)
45 - Legatus Bangle
50 - Blue Diamond Bracelet
60 - Gigas Bangle
70 - Assist Suit
80 - Dark Matter Bracelet (!)
90 - Onion Bangle
99 - Wind-up Lord Vexxos (!)

Incase for anyone wondering, the game's final reward which is the Wind-up Lord Vexxos can be sold for 500,000 gil in cash or a UltimaMaxi magic cast. To avoid future spoilers, I will avoid mentioning more on who Lord Vexxos is so instead, here is a BLAZING theme of justice.

BLAZING HEART!!

 

[UpSideDownGRUNT]

500k Gil? you'd never spend that lol, I have 80+k and never fall below 50k

 

[Nikotsumi]

I've completely forgotten that Justice Monster Five exists lol. I had tried it out in the demo but I couldn't understand how it works and those rewards look interesting so I'll try playing it again xD

 

[Jadeinchains]

Yeah I played it once when I saw it in the game and haven't played it since, I was not sure what to do.

 

[Hayabusiness]

That will be a shame If it is really because Id like to play through the old games and at least give them a try. I found FFXII really hard so I'm not sure. ( Fran is great though )

Well, I found VII to be much easier, IV has an easy version (the US one, called Final Fantasy II on the SNES) and what I played of VI was not hard at all. I'd say XII is harder than all of those games' main story.
VII is especially easy IMO, although looking up a guide on certain things like useful monster spells to learn surely helps with the tricky parts.

 

[UpSideDownGRUNT]

VII is definitely easy, the only difficult parts are probably the post game stuff.

Outside of battle and post game stuff, the hardest thing is just trying to figure out where youre supposed to be going lol

If you play original VII before the remake, definitely use a guide or you'll probably get stuck after Midgar

 

[DestructionBomb]

FFVII starts getting easier the moment you finished the Forest Temple from there on. Game is pretty moderate. FFXII is harder, but that's because FFXII has hard focus on specific play and enemy AI. FFXII was good too though.

 

[Hayabusiness]

I personally never had a problem, the only thing I really used a guide for (aside from Chocobo breeding, eugh) was learning Enemy Skills such as Aqualung and Big Guard (I did not even bother with Magic Hammer; oh and Big Guard is basically easy mode) to help myself with Lost Number (a side boss!), but I hear people have problems with that wall boss near the end of the first disc.

Still, the beginning is very friendly to newcomers and setting out of Midgar, if you are unsure of what to do, should make you whip out GameFAQs ASAP because the story can be very gripping and if that's the case for you, chance is you'll just wanna know what comes next.

 

[DestructionBomb]

Found an instant refill HP/MP glitch on FFXV. Works on all battles and makes the -Spoilers-

Spoiler

Ring abilities super useful lol

 

[UpSideDownGRUNT]

I personally never had a problem, the only thing I really used a guide for (aside from Chocobo breeding, eugh) was learning Enemy Skills such as Aqualung and Big Guard (I did not even bother with Magic Hammer; oh and Big Guard is basically easy mode) to help myself with Lost Number (a side boss!), but I hear people have problems with that wall boss near the end of the first disc.

Still, the beginning is very friendly to newcomers and setting out of Midgar, if you are unsure of what to do, should make you whip out GameFAQs ASAP because the story can be very gripping and if that's the case for you, chance is you'll just wanna know what comes next.

It really depends, some stuff is way easier to find than others.

Not everything even hints at where youre supposed to go, and then sometimes they tell you where to go but not where it is.

So youre wandering around aimlessly until you accidentally come across where youre supposed to go. This happened to me alot without a guide.

 

[Awesmic]

If you wanna talk difficult FF games, Final Fantasy II in its original 8-bit format is hands down the hardest FF game to beat to this day, if only because the difficulty is for arbitrary reasons. Forget extra missions and superbosses. With this version of the game, you didn't need it!

It's one thing to play this with auto-targeting, but it's another when such a feature didn't exist back then, especially when monsters don't have a fixed max HP.

Now, imagine fighting multiple monsters in this situation, and in your most crucial moment to deal damage to an enemy that hits hard, you fuck up by hitting a blank. What's hitting a blank? When an enemy that was targeted by more than one member of your party was defeated before the next player could attack, thus the player who hasn't taken their turn hits a blank space, and the enemy pops you for free.

I'm not making this up. This was how badly you could get fucked over back then.

This alone was THE main reason auto-targeting was implemented in every game henceforth, and a major contributor to the game's unpopularity despite having a character-driven plot and a strong villain.

 

[Hayabusiness]

If you wanna talk difficult FF games, Final Fantasy II in its original 8-bit format is hands down the hardest FF game to beat to this day, if only because the difficulty is for arbitrary reasons. Forget extra missions and superbosses. With this version of the game, you didn't need it!

It's one thing to play this with auto-targeting, but it's another when such a feature didn't exist back then, especially when monsters don't have a fixed max HP.

Now, imagine fighting multiple monsters in this situation, and in your most crucial moment to deal damage to an enemy that hits hard, you fuck up by hitting a blank. What's hitting a blank? When an enemy that was targeted by more than one member of your party was defeated before the next player could attack, thus the player who hasn't taken their turn hits a blank space, and the enemy pops you for free.

I'm not making this up. This was how badly you could get fucked over back then.

This alone was THE main reason auto-targeting was implemented in every game henceforth, and a major contributor to the game's unpopularity despite having a character-driven plot and a strong villain.

This problem was also on Final Fantasy I on the NES. I would say FFII's unpopularity stems from the dynamic and relatively weird no-level up stat growth system, not to mention wandering into the overworld and getting wrecked by a random battle levels above yours.

Still, I respect you for going through the original on the NES. I only read that review and some of its issues sound so frustrating.

It really depends, some stuff is way easier to find than others.

Not everything even hints at where youre supposed to go, and then sometimes they tell you where to go but not where it is.

So youre wandering around aimlessly until you accidentally come across where youre supposed to go. This happened to me alot without a guide.

I'm trying to think if I had similar issues, and aside the bore of getting a chocobo to pass the Midgar Zolom, I don't think I ever had problems getting onto the next location. Maybe my memory is fuzzy.