Final Fantasy Series

[Sasquach]

I just learned about that last night, I had no idea.

So I think FF1-3 are on NES, and FF4-6 are SNES.

I'd want the originals of all the games, which is easy enough. But to actually PLAY them on the systems, I'd have to get fan translated Famicom games. They are supposedly pretty well done.

I think you'd have to get them emulated on PC then.
The only other option is to import the famicom versions and learn japanese lol, or play them im playstation or whatever system its available on nowadays.

I think only FF1 (NES/NES classic mini), FF4 (FF2 SNES) and FF6 (FF3 SNES/SNES classic mini) had actual north american releases at the time.

 

[OverclockN']

I think you'd have to get them emulated on PC then.
The only other option is to import the famicom versions and learn japanese lol, or play them im playstation or whatever system its available on nowadays.

I think only FF1 (NES/NES classic mini), FF4 (FF2 SNES) and FF6 (FF3 SNES/SNES classic mini) had actual north american releases at the time.

Well yes, but I described the options in my previous post. I want the actual legit games, so I could just purchase the Famicom Japanese imports. They had cool art on the carts anyway.

But to actually play them, there are fan made translations you can buy. In other words, NES and Famicom carts of the original exact games, only translated to English.

 

[ugly]

I just learned about that last night, I had no idea.

So I think FF1-3 are on NES, and FF4-6 are SNES.

I'd want the originals of all the games, which is easy enough. But to actually PLAY them on the systems, I'd have to get fan translated Famicom games. They are supposedly pretty well done.

Yeah, that's right. FF1-3 were NES and FF4-6 were SNES.

And the original US version of FF2 was actually FF4. The US SNES cartridge I think was the 'easy type' version of FF4. I think the enemies were weakened a bit and there was some censorship. You can look into the 'hard type' compared to 'easy type' if you want to know the differences.

As far as I know, the US version FF3 (actually FF6), didn't have that much changed.

As for FF5, I think the only legit US release of the SNES version would be the Final Fantasy Anthlogy game released for Playstation. It includes a port of FF5 and FF6, and I think they were basically the same as the SNES version, but they added in some cinematics (and long load times).

Without resorting to any fan translations or ROMs, I believe the first legit North American releases for each game was:
FF1 - NES
FF2 - Playstation (Final Fantasy Origins)
FF3 - Nintendo DS (or PC) - but this is a significant departure from the NES version
FF4 - SNES (easy type version - sold as FF2)
FF5 - Playstation (Final Fantasy Anthology)
FF6 - SNES (sold as FF3)

Then after that they stopped messing around with the naming and you can get them on whatever generation Playstation they were released with.

 

[OverclockN']

Thanks for the list! That definitely helps.

Starting with the original Final Fantasy on NES. Purchased it last night and it should be here sometime next week. I know these games will be rough compared to the newer RPG's, but it'll be a fun trip through the Final Fantasy series. I'm sure it'll take a while as well.

 

[Sasquach]

Thanks for the list! That definitely helps.

Starting with the original Final Fantasy on NES. Purchased it last night and it should be here sometime next week. I know these games will be rough compared to the newer RPG's, but it'll be a fun trip through the Final Fantasy series. I'm sure it'll take a while as well.

Kind of how i feel with the collectin of mana series i got when i got my switch.
Its a little hard to get into compared to some of the more recent stuff....so i havent really played it much lol.

 

[OverclockN']

Kind of how i feel with the collectin of mana series i got when i got my switch.
Its a little hard to get into compared to some of the more recent stuff....so i havent really played it much lol.

I can pick up and play Final Fantasy III (FF6) on SNES pretty much at any time, absolutely love that game. But older than that and it gets a bit rough. We'll see. I'll start going through them and see what happens.

 

[Sasquach]

I can pick up and play Final Fantasy III (FF6) on SNES pretty much at any time, absolutely love that game. But older than that and it gets a bit rough. We'll see. I'll start going through them and see what happens.

maybe its just the mana series seems to be more action rpg than turn based like the other ones......plus the UI was a little wierd and without any instructions (yeah i know i think they have a digital one somewhere with the game) i was pretty much going in blind and figuring things out as i go. In comparison turn based is easy and obvious to figure out.

and mana was wierd as it felt like it just got started right away.....
games nowadays dont really do that, they give you like a 30mins+ tutorial on how to play it before anything actually happens.

 

[ugly]

Thanks for the list! That definitely helps.

Starting with the original Final Fantasy on NES. Purchased it last night and it should be here sometime next week. I know these games will be rough compared to the newer RPG's, but it'll be a fun trip through the Final Fantasy series. I'm sure it'll take a while as well.

I think the graphics and music in the original have some charm to them. And it's also sort of interesting to see where a few of the staples of the series started.

But for FF1, the hard part will be dealing with the interface and the combat speed. When you start a new game, there's a 'respond rate' option to change how fast messages appear in battle, so make sure you set that to the highest. The messages in battles can be brutally slow (especially when you're dealing with attacks that can hit multiple party members). And there's no option to change it after you start.

The other big pain is shopping. They didn't give an option to buy more than one item at a time. So buying stuff (especially healing potions) takes forever.

The game is pretty simplistic as far as combat goes. Just make sure not to have all your party members attack the same enemy. If the enemy dies, the rest of your attacks for that round will become ineffective.

And for your magic casters, you can only buy 3 spells per level and you're stuck with what you buy. So you need to plan ahead on that.

You also have to pick the classes for your party at the start. You can't change them, so you're stuck with what you pick. I think the classic party is Fighter, Black Belt, White Mage and Red Mage (or Black Mage).

The Thief is pretty useless at the start, and gets pretty good at the end. The Black Mage is weak to start but gets stronger at the end. The Red Mage is good at the start, but weak in the end. The Fighter is pretty powerful throughout. The Black Belt is also pretty powerful throughout, especially after he can use his bare fists instead of weapons. The White Mage is pretty weak but heals. Some people think just using the Red Mage is better than using either White or Black.

If there were achievements at the time of the NES, then for FF1 there would probably be one for beating the game using all White Mages.

Wow, I really nerded out right there.

 

[OverclockN']

Wow, I really nerded out right there.

Nah, it's all good info. Especially the bit about the different members of the group and spell selection.

 

[OverclockN']

Started playing the original Final Fantasy the past couple nights on NES. Kind of neat to see where it's roots are at, but man is the early game incredibly frustrating. They dialed in artificial difficulty by making you miss EVERYTHING. Oh man, it makes me rage at this damn game.

My guys get whittled down slowly via attrition due to my higher level guys missing every single damn time. Not only that, but it makes the game and every fight drag on and on. Holy **** it's stupid. The game itself isn't bad at all for its age, but this particular game mechanic makes me want to bang my head against a wall while I just sit there with a controller in my hand watching it cycle through my guys as they MISS, MISS, MISS, Inneffective, every damn turn. What is this madness?

I know it's due to low Hit % during the early levels, but seriously? I'm at level 4 with everybody using a Fighter (24% hit rate), Black Belt (14%), White Mage (11%), and Red Mage (11%). Seriously, they actually miss 75-90% of every single shot they take. Come on...

I'm sure it'll be better and move along a bit faster once I get past this nonsense. I did forget to change the battle menu text speed function, or I didn't see the option...because it's pretty darn slow. But I'll power through it.

Still undecided what I will do for Final Fantasy II, but I think I'll likely buy the PAL games just to have them in the collection. Then probably get a translated cartridge of FFII and FFIII to actually play through.

 

[ugly]

My guys get whittled down slowly via attrition due to my higher level guys missing every single damn time. Not only that, but it makes the game and every fight drag on and on. Holy **** it's stupid. The game itself isn't bad at all for its age, but this particular game mechanic makes me want to bang my head against a wall while I just sit there with a controller in my hand watching it cycle through my guys as they MISS, MISS, MISS, Inneffective, every damn turn. What is this madness?

I don't remember missing attacks all that often.

If you're getting the 'ineffective' attack it's because you're targeting an enemy that has already been killed. So you need to spread your attacks around. You can't just have everyone target the same enemy every turn. You sort of need to plan your attacks.

And did you maybe not actually equip your weapons? It's a pretty common mistake. You don't just buy the weapons. Make sure you go into the menu screen and equip your weapons and armor (there should be an E beside the items you have equipped in the Weapon and Armor menus). You should see a weapon animation when you attack.

I'm sure it'll be better and move along a bit faster once I get past this nonsense. I did forget to change the battle menu text speed function, or I didn't see the option...because it's pretty darn slow. But I'll power through it.

It's at the 'New Game'/''Continue' screen when you start the game (you have to push left or right and set it to 7 or 8). If you're only at level 4, I'd actually consider restarting. It could get really annoying as you go through the game. Especially when enemies start doing multi-hit spells. It takes forever seeing how much damage has been done to all your characters.

 

[OverclockN']

I don't remember missing attacks all that often.

If you're getting the 'ineffective' attack it's because you're targeting an enemy that has already been killed. So you need to spread your attacks around. You can't just have everyone target the same enemy every turn. You sort of need to plan your attacks.

And did you maybe not actually equip your weapons? It's a pretty common mistake. You don't just buy the weapons. Make sure you go into the menu screen and equip your weapons and armor (there should be an E beside the items you have equipped in the Weapon and Armor menus). You should see a weapon animation when you attack.


It's at the 'New Game'/''Continue' screen when you start the game (you have to push left or right and set it to 7 or 8). If you're only at level 4, I'd actually consider restarting. It could get really annoying as you go through the game. Especially when enemies start doing multi-hit spells. It takes forever seeing how much damage has been done to all your characters.

Thanks! Maybe I'll start over then so I can crank up the text speed.

The weapons and armor are definitely equipped, I learned that lesson the hard way when I saw all my guys doing hardly any damage and getting pummeled constantly by low level enemies. I started going through the menus and playing with things and saw how to equip it. I assumed that since the game literally asks who you want to receive it during purchase, that it auto equipped. Not the case! The issue isn't that my guys aren't doing any damage, because they are one-hit killing the enemies. But they are essentially doing 0dmg every turn because they miss.

Yeah, not sure what's going on with the constant misses. I read that others were frustrated by it too, and then I checked the Hit % and they are all super low. This is, by far, the absolutely most frustrating part of this game right now. They just miss, miss, miss, miss, and man it makes me want to rage quit.

 

[OverclockN']

So I started over and then realized I could change the text speed at any time after I did that. So yeah, whether you use Continue or New Game, you can adjust the text speed which is pretty handy.

Game is a lot better with the faster text speed for sure. I'm past where I was before already. It's quite a bit grindy it seems, but that's ok. Not a whole lot of information in the game about what the different spells are or what they do, and some of the abreviations are so short, I had no clue what they even were. Same thing with weapons, there is nothing available on stats when you purchase it, like the later games. I've been consulting a Final Fantasy WiKi that has everything laid out in a big table for weapons/armor/spells.

Story is pretty light on story elements with in game NPCs all looking the same and saying the exact same thing. For example, a certain town will have a bunch of NPC's wandering around, but only 3 variations in how they look. So each variation will say the same thing as the other one that looks identical. Not always, but I've found that in a couple places already.

Other than that, not a whole lot to go on as you wander about. You really have to pay attention to what the NPC's say to have any clue where to head off in a general direction. They might something like "My daughter was kidnapped and is held in a castle to the NorthWest" if you're lucky. Other times it's more vague. So you have to just write everything down as you go so if you can't figure anything out, you just remember where the character was and which direction they said to go...then just kind of wander over that way until you stumble on something. On the plus side, I ran into a cave that had a voice saying to hold B and Select together as some sort of spell. Well, it turns out that's how you bring up the map. I'm glad THAT was in there.

 

[ugly]

So I started over and then realized I could change the text speed at any time after I did that. So yeah, whether you use Continue or New Game, you can adjust the text speed which is pretty handy.

Oh ****, sorry dude. I could have sworn it was a one-time only setting. I wish my 10 year old self would have known that.

Game is a lot better with the faster text speed for sure. I'm past where I was before already. It's quite a bit grindy it seems, but that's ok.

I remember when I first played it as a child I would constantly run from everything when I was in a dungeon/castle. And then end up having to grind for gold to buy things. I think it's a little better if you can kind of fight your way through most dungeons/castles. But you do have to balance it because some battles can be punishing and you'll often find you're limited on resources.

There are also a few spots that are a bit better to grind. After you get to the elf castle, I remember there's another castle nearby that has some treasure chests that are guarded by groups of mummies. I think that was a decent place to get gold early on. Because once you get to the elf castle, there is a ton of expensive items and spells to buy.

Not a whole lot of information in the game about what the different spells are or what they do, and some of the abreviations are so short, I had no clue what they even were. Same thing with weapons, there is nothing available on stats when you purchase it, like the later games. I've been consulting a Final Fantasy WiKi that has everything laid out in a big table for weapons/armor/spells.

Yeah, I think a lot of those spells are kind of buggy too and some might not actually do anything. I don't completely remember. I think you'll eventually find some weapons like a 'dragon sword' that is supposed to do more damage to dragon-type enemies, but they don't actually do anything extra.

I think, like in most games, damage is king. And you can probably safely stay away from most status spells. I think FAST is the only good status spell I remember using (supposed to be like haste in the later games). But you're probably better off just killing an enemy instead of trying to put it to sleep or something. There's a few times where spells like sleep are useful early on in the game.

I remember the NES game came with a huge chart of what items can be equipped and what spells which characters can use. And an enemy chart that outlined how much HP enemies had and what spells they were weak and strong against. So, yeah, you kind of need to consult something.

Story is pretty light on story elements with in game NPCs all looking the same and saying the exact same thing. For example, a certain town will have a bunch of NPC's wandering around, but only 3 variations in how they look. So each variation will say the same thing as the other one that looks identical. Not always, but I've found that in a couple places already.

Other than that, not a whole lot to go on as you wander about. You really have to pay attention to what the NPC's say to have any clue where to head off in a general direction. They might something like "My daughter was kidnapped and is held in a castle to the NorthWest" if you're lucky. Other times it's more vague. So you have to just write everything down as you go so if you can't figure anything out, you just remember where the character was and which direction they said to go...then just kind of wander over that way until you stumble on something. On the plus side, I ran into a cave that had a voice saying to hold B and Select together as some sort of spell. Well, it turns out that's how you bring up the map. I'm glad THAT was in there.

I'm sure there are some translation issues as well with the dialogue.

I think the book it came with even guided you through the first half of the game or so. There was a lot of hand-holding. So don't feel like you're cheating if you consult some guides on what to do next. It's basically the experience we all had playing it for the first time.

 

[OverclockN']

Thanks! No issues on starting over, I didn't realize it either until I went back into a saved game AFTER I started over and realized the text speed was slow after the console had been turned off. It actually resets every time you turn off the console.

I've been using guides for weapons/armor/spells and seeing what enemies are weak/strong against, but that's it so far. I plan to find my way around as best I can the old school way.

I'm already to the Elf Castle and stumbled on the Dwarven Mountain too. The dungeon/cave for the Elf quest is pretty dang hard, so I've been going in and out to level up. Since I've kinda grinded my way through, I have excess gold and already have all the best armor/weapons I could find. I have Cure, Cure 2, Fire, Fire 2, and Afit for spells...with gold to burn to buy more but I'm just not sure what exactly would be the best options since you're limited to how many you can learn per character. I've been trying to learn what combinations would be most effective for a well rounded experience...but it seems all I've really needed so far has been exactly what I have, Cures and Fires. I've never been good with spell handling in RPG's.

 

[MyTMouse]

I beat FF7 again (a few weeks ago) for the first time since I played the original at launch...

I got so much better with strategies and using my materia that it made defeating all the Weapon "bosses" far too easy. I remember facing Emerald and Ruby for the first time and thinking it was going to be an absolute marathon.

still, was fun and gave me all the nostalgia feels again. SOOO glad the new versions allow you to enable 3x speed mode to get through some of the tedious parts of the game much quicker

 

[ugly]

I'm already to the Elf Castle and stumbled on the Dwarven Mountain too. The dungeon/cave for the Elf quest is pretty dang hard, so I've been going in and out to level up. Since I've kinda grinded my way through, I have excess gold and already have all the best armor/weapons I could find. I have Cure, Cure 2, Fire, Fire 2, and Afit for spells...with gold to burn to buy more but I'm just not sure what exactly would be the best options since you're limited to how many you can learn per character. I've been trying to learn what combinations would be most effective for a well rounded experience...but it seems all I've really needed so far has been exactly what I have, Cures and Fires. I've never been good with spell handling in RPG's.

Yeah, that marsh cave is tough. Whenever I think about replaying this game that's one place that makes me think twice. Especially if you don''t have a map to know where you're supposed to go. And on top of that the 'boss fight' in that cave is pretty rough too.

I mentioned it before, but that's one sort of primitive thing I liked about the first game. You're very limited on your spell choice, and how many spells you can cast. The remakes of this game change it out for the standard MP that most games have and it really changes things.

There's not a whole lot you can do. The White Mage spells don't do a whole lot for you, other than restoring HP. For black magic, the elemental spells are the most important, and FAST (but that's more for a single boss fight).

Make sure your fighter has the silver sword (I think it's actually supposed to be mythril that shows up in the later games), that's one of the best weapons for a long time. And you can probably start switching the black belt to bare hands to do way more damage.

I beat FF7 again (a few weeks ago) for the first time since I played the original at launch...

I got so much better with strategies and using my materia that it made defeating all the Weapon "bosses" far too easy. I remember facing Emerald and Ruby for the first time and thinking it was going to be an absolute marathon.

still, was fun and gave me all the nostalgia feels again. SOOO glad the new versions allow you to enable 3x speed mode to get through some of the tedious parts of the game much quicker

Yeah, the strategies make a big difference in some of these games. I remember being really young and thinking FF6 was hard in some places. Then I replayed it later and was able to understand how easily you can overpower your characters and the game becomes a joke.

I think by the time FF7 came out, I was old enough that I could understand how to make everything work well. FF8 especially was pretty easy to overpower your characters.

That's really an issue with a lot of RPGs. If you follow a guide and min-max your characters, you kind of break the balance of the game and it can ruin the fun a bit. Sometimes you get a better experience when you don't really know what you're doing. And, actually, that's one of the reasons the original FF is still enjoyable for me to replay. I don't think there is any real way you can make things easier.

 

[OverclockN']

Blazing through the game now. Found a few spots in the game where you could just level your characters and spent a few hours doing that. Since then, I read in the guides how hard a boss enemy is, then I finally face it and one-shot kill it. I just saved in the town where you get in the Submarine to go down to the water temple. I've done all the requirements to get that available, so get to tackle that next time I play.

Still fun though. I'm quite enjoying it. I'm really not using spells much though. Besides the various Cures, I really haven't used much but Fire2 a few times when there were huge groups of enemies and I hadn't leveled up enough to one-shot kill them.

Ordered Final Fantasy II tonight. Since I'm enjoying this one, I figured what the hell...I'll continue through the series in the correct order. Grabbed the Final Fantasy II cart from OCDreproductions with the English translation.

 

[ugly]

All this talk gave me the itch to play the game again.

I decided to make more of an unusual party. I went all melee. Fighter, Fighter, Black Belt, Thief. We'll see how it goes when I need to heal.

So far it's fairly easy. I did forget how often you miss early in the game. And that Marsh cave section is a slog, with all the enemies that poison and paralyze you. And a lot of wolf fights - not challenging, just annoying because they take a long time and aren't worth the gold and XP you get for the fight.

I'm past that now, and once you get the Key and get access to some more weapons, the game seems a bit easier. Around level 9, the black belt can go bare first and do a lot of damage. And after you find some decent weapons, the thief finally stops being totally useless. The fighters are always reliable, but getting the silver sword makes a big difference. So all four characters can finally do decent damage.

I'm going to try and avoid power levelling because I want to get a realistic idea of how difficult the game is with this type of party.

 

[OverclockN']

I decided to make more of an unusual party. I went all melee. Fighter, Fighter, Black Belt, Thief. We'll see how it goes when I need to heal.

I can very easily see beating the game with using just melee characters. The Fighter and Black Belt (my classes changed now though) are doing the vast majority of the damage. The White Mage is pretty much worthless. The only exception having to heal the party. That seems like it would make things pretty hard until they go through the class change and can learn the early Cures.

I went unarmed with the Black Belt around level 12 I think, and his damage was massively increased due to so many hits per turn. Was using Silver Swords for a while too.