FF IV DS - Too hard?

[Ralz]

Those who have played the DS version of Final Fantasy IV will quickly discover this game picks up in difficultly quite early on in the game. It forces you to spend a lot more time leveling up, just so you can make it through a now-deadly dungeon, where enemies are given a whole new set of abilties to drain your power. Another problem is that the most important spells are now at higher levels, great spells like Flare and Curaja take too long to learn now. It's a requirement that you stop to level grind every once in a while, or you will not get far in this game... Anyone else have any complaints that overcomplicate thing? There's a lot of them.

[Andromeda]

You want a game that will beat you senseless with the need to grind play Persona 3 FES. Next to that FFIV for the DS has bee a breeze to walk through. I will admit that I have died frequently against bosses and there is one specific monster in the Tower of Zot that just destroyed me everytime. But I've only had to grind for levels once so far and I did it very briefly. That was for the Tower of Zot too. Which is roughly in the middle of the game, I think.

I find the game challenging without being straight up you're too low level for this fight. But then again I am wandering all of the maps for 100% completion on them. So I end up in a few each battles usually. So I'm probably staying evenly leveled for the game. It has been fun to play and it is certainly no walk through the park like so many RPGs these days. I prefer it this way.

[weberr13]

I like the new difficulty, especially the boss AI improvements/changes. So far the Fiends are much more difficult (especially the first one). I can't wait for Rublicant, who was pretty bad in the original, and will probably school me now. I think intelligent use of aguments and all the restored spell items can be used to offset the new difficulty and failing that, you can always setup your auto battle commands and level in the lodestone cavern after beating the elf.

[Corazón de León]

I noticed that I have to level up a lot. Early on in the game, when you get a new party member, that party member is horrible. I couldn't go anywhere without Rydia dying on me, and as soon as I got her leveled up, I couldn't go anywhere without Edward dying on me. I had the same problems with Palom and Porom, and right after Cecil became a paladin. I had Cecil up to level 27, and as soon as he became a paladin, he was down to level 1. It really pissed me off. It wouldn't be so hard if there was a way to get more experience fighting weaker monsters. That would be cool.

Other than that, though, the game is pretty easy.

[Rocky]

I'm actually pretty pumped to find out that SE stepped up the difficulty for this game! I always thought that it was a little bit on the easy side to play through, but making it more difficult makes the game more rewarding in my opinion. Plus they had to balance out this new augment/command system thing that makes characters more powerful anyway. Maybe because of this, it will tempt me to give the game a walkthrough.

[weberr13]

The augments really are the key to offsetting the new difficulty. Giving Rosa DualCast, Piercing magic, and omnicasting makes every battle beatable. Start every battle with wall/protect, followed by Haste/slow on EVERY party member at once. In addition you get a Draw attacks augment that allows you to make Cecil into your party meatshield (it even draws single target magic) and add a counter attack on top of it. I was a bit surprised about how levels above 70 work (stats and HP/MP are determined by the 4 commands you chose) leaving even a level 99 Cecil hungry for sliver apples.

[uced]

This version of the game is definitely more difficult then the only other version I played, which was the SNES version (Final Fantasy II). I did have to level up Rydia more when I first got her just to keep her alive. I didn't ever bother leveling Edward up so I just let him die.

[brnthsdiscout]

I completely agree it is the most difficult FF I've played.The game is so hard and I beat bosses only by luck..

[LocoColt04]

The thing is, even with FFIV's "new" difficulty level (it's really just the original difficulty from the Japanese original), it's relatively easy if you take the time to put a bit of thought into your augments. Now, I'm not saying it's a breeze, not by any means. Even grinding is tough sometimes (though it was nice to know that it's necessary here and there).

@brnthsdiscout: I don't think I can agree that it's the hardest FF, not by a long shot, but it is one of the harder ones now and it's lovely to see. Plus, you said it was the hardest one you've played, so I suppose I can't argue that as I wouldn't know any better personally.

[Valkyrie]

lucky guys, we still have to wait for one more week here in europe, actually week and a half but I'm working on FFIII for the moment and finishing that one off

I'd consider it a challenge to be more difficult since I find most final fantasies very easy to complete (not saying, unlock everything but get through the storyline, I've played VII,VIII,IX twice,X,XII and now III)

but I'll notice next week, going preordering this week

[King_Koopa]

i just started playing FF for the first time ever and the game i started playing is FFIV I am using a strategy guide since it is my first time, but it doesnt seem so hard so far. I played the game without it for awhile, and it didnt seem too too hard then.

[Edmisster]

I'm still playing, but so far it has been a bit odd, with the normal monsters being a breeze to defeat, while fiercely struggling against the bosses, but that is how games are supposed to be, with the heroes wading through hordes of weak enemies so they can fight the boss monster who throws its subordinates against them with no second thoughts. With a quick comparison to FF3 for the DS, I breezed through the nearly the whole game, until I got to the last boss, who I had to grind a lot for to be able to beat, even with the help of four ribbons. So I really find it to be at just the right difficulty.

[Aepriz]

Did it increase so much ?
I played the PS1 version and couldn't finish it .. and i could finish the GBA version with ease :s
It though theye decreased it (or it just could have been my age xD, I was 9 when i played PS1 and 15 when i played GBA)