Difficulty

[Omega]

I'm just curious as to what you people think in regards to the difficulty of this game. How does it compare with the other titles in this series? Easy, Normal, Harder than hell???

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It could be just me but I have always thought that this is one of the tougher games in the Final Fantasy series. I dunno what it is, but unlike FF Tactics to where you can pretty much use any unit to win a battle, it seems in this game that you need to follow the strat guide to a "T" and use the exact suggested classes for boss battles or you are going to get your ass whooped.

Maybe it's because I'm still early in the game and things might get easier later. I personally thought that Shiva was harder than hell, I lost a few times than gained 3 more levels, fought her at level 15 or 16 and she still almost wiped me out.

The strat guide isn't totally legit either, they suggested that I use Fire 2 or Fire Edges or whatnot to throw at her, yet I had no previous access to that spell or that item. It also stated suggested level 7 and I needed to be near double to beat her.

This isn't my first FF by a long shot and things are getting somewhat easier for me, but while on active mode the enemies move like lightning speed.

This is easily one of the harder FF's I've had to play.

[neoistheone]

i find the game pretty hard too but then i used cheats from my gameshark and all my problems went away

i found it wicked hard the only way i could beat garula was by having 4 monks then attack and counter and still lost countless times but trust me it gets way eaiser later on.

[Psiko]

**********POTENIAL SPOILERS THROUGHOUT ENTIRE POST**********

I, for one, only found a few bosses along the way to be mildly challenging. In fact, it wasn't until the N-Zone that I really started to have a lot of problems. X-Death is, without question, the hardest final boss to get to, as well as beat. You literally fight at least a dozen bosses throughout his lair. It is pure madness! But I can say that I beat the game, and I'll give you guys the breakdown of what I had when I won...

Butz - Level 40, 2358 HP/211 MP (Job Class: Bare)
Monk Level 6
Lancer Mastered
Ninja Mastered
Black Mage Level 6
Abilities - HP + 20%, !Throw
R-Hand - Holy Lance
L-Hand - Masamune
Head - Crystal Helmet
Body - Crystal Mail
Relic - Protect Ring

Reina - Level 39, 1544 HP/308 MP (Job Class: Bare)
White Mage Mastered
Time Mage Mastered
Chemist Level 4
Geomancer Mastered
Abilities - !White, !Time
R-Hand - Artemis Bow
Head - Crystal Helmet
Body - Prism Dress
Relic - Red Shoes

Galuf/Krile - Level 40, 1700 HP/342 MP (Job Class: Bare)
Thief Mastered
White Mage Level 6
Summoner Mastered
Trainer Mastered
Abilities - !White, !Call
R-Hand - Enchanter
L-Hand - Crystal Shield
Head - Ribbon
Body - Black Costume
Relic - Protect Ring

Faris - Level 40, 2045 HP/301 MP (Job Class: Bare)
Knight Level 4
Samurai Mastered
Sorcerer Mastered
Blue Mage Mastered
Abilities - Two-Handed, !Sword
B-Hands - Excalibur
Head - Crystal Helmet
Body - Crystal Mail
Relic - Genji Glove

Blue Magic Listing - Aqua Rake, L5 Doom, L2 Old, Toad Song, Little Song, Flash, Time Slip, Moon Flute, Aero, Aero 2, Aero 3, Burn Ray, Gob Punch, Black Shock, Guard Off, Pep Up, Mind Blast, Red Feast, Mag Hammer, Exploder, ????, White Wind, Missile

As you can see, each character only had FOUR Jobs that they learned. Why would I do that? For two reasons: 1. Usually the best abilities are the last ones learned, so I was able to learn those faster. 2. When you have no job equipped, all the inherent abilities (Such as the Monk's counter or the Ninja's 2 Sword) of the jobs you have MASTERED automatically take effect. Thus why Butz is able to have two weapons equipped without using the ability.

My old file I tried to learn as many things as I could and only had one job mastered on each of them by End Game, and X-Death totally thrashed me. Thus why I set out the way I did and was able to win at a relatively low level. One tip I will give you is that Throw is very nice against X-Death and you'll want to get all twelve legendary weapons (Which you will learn about late in the game)

But the satisfaction of finally beating X-Death was unreal. I was way too happy about finally winning the game. ^^

[Brotherhood]

I found this game petty hard. I breezed through FFIV pretty easily. FFVIII and FFIX were a little bit easier. FFVII and FFX were walks in the park.

[Omega]

My difficulties so far have been these:

Shiva was just a bitch in the beginning because she was so fast and she just kept nailing you with Ice spells. The real problem lies in the fact that you probably don't have enough abilities learned to create a good offensive against her, so early in the game.

Gilgame, this dude was a psycho. You have to continually cast Golem to stay alive against his non stop physical attacks, and barage him back with Ice 3 spells as Shiva just doesn't do enough damage. The Gil is good for this sidequest, however it isn't that much of a gain after you factor in how many Ether's your wasting refilling your MP.

Odin, fighting him was ridiculous. He has the much needed Protect Ring and the steal rate is terribly low. I had like 8 or 9 attempts to steal it each battle with my Ninja's and Thief, and I finally got it after 4 or 5 tries. Then I had like 20 seconds left to kill him off, which I nailed him with Bolt3, and I threw Shurikens at him with my other characters.

The key thing to remember when fighting Odin or going for his summon and that ring is to come up from Jachol Cave and then go unlock the castle door from the inside. Then go up a floor and save your game there in the Basement. I lost 3 times before figuring that out, or thinking of it.

Currently I'm getting screwed in Fork Tower. It's damn stupid, the guide and online FAQ's don't tell you shit about this place, so I've had to figure out alot on my own. Ok you split into two groups of 2 characters each, Warrior's to the right, Wizards to the left towers respectively. Well you start with the Wizards group and then do the Warrior group, fight the Warrior side boss and then the Wizard side boss.

Well I had my Chemist with Summon and my Black Mage with Redx2 as my Wizard party. I didn't know how tough the monsters were at first so I thought I'd just attack them. Turns out though that if you attack the Wizard enemies physically, they counter with spells like Flare and Meteo. I was like "this is insane difficult". Later finding out that if you just use spells on them, they won't unleash hell on you.

So I finally made it to the top there, and switched to the Warrior group. The warrior side is easy, however you have to keep an eye on your HP as the enemies can hit rather hard sometimes. I used a Hunter and a Ninja, my Hunter had Medicine so that I could double heal with Potions and such in the Boss fight. No real problems here, made it to the top fine and beat the boss easily. My problem is that it switched back to my other group and it says "better take the magic before the tower explodes". Well I thought for sure I would have time to look around the room, most FF events like this are passive events waiting to be activated by the player touching the glowing spell. So I look around the room...and the tower explodes...game over.

Fu*king retarded!!

So now I was going up again and I was getting low on MP, so I was having my Chemist refill my MP and I had already used Titan to take out a Tiny Mage and damage the DeemMaster and Flare monsters. Well they continually Slow 2'd me, Stoned me, Toaded me, Hasted themselves and Regen'd themselves. Aside from killing me as well, I couldn't keep my group alive to kill them, and I wasn't just letting one guy live, so they ended out killing me, it was total bullsh*t.

Oh...my characters are level 55 too, this is such a joke. The game is just difficult no matter what your levels are, and it would seriously help if the damn guides whether book or online actually had some info that would assist or maybe prewarn you of the monsters you'll face, rather than just show us the items.

I mean look at the Solitary Island Shrine, where the hell did the Tote Avis come from?? Mo Fo has 33 thousand HP!!!!! I used Odin 3 times on him at around 5 grand a pop, a Berserker, and a Samurai and Hunter and it still took a bit to take him out. Tougher than sh*t I tell you.