Dual-wielding to hit two enemies at once

[Tokage]

If my first attack kills the enemy, then my second attack is directed elsewhere. This is great, but why isn't it implemented in III and V? Why only in II?

Where did it come from and why is it exclusive to II?

[SC_Nikki]

Yeah, it's definitely one of (if not) the coolest new features in the FF2 pixel remaster. It would've been great if it had extended to all the other games, too... even for Edge and Yang in IV.

[eslatt]

Ayyyy, +1 for FFII. :)

No idea why it's not implemented for others though. Not even a feature of the original game!

[zn0]

i love it, but it almost feels broken. to the point of making magic feel useless, because multi-targeting with spells splits damage to the degree it shouldn't even be possible. just equipping everyone with armor and 2 weapons instead of trying to actually understand and work with the original mechanics and their intent seems like the way to go in this version. which kinda makes me like this version a bit less, as nice as it looks and sounds. pretty frustrated with this one, and i think i still prefer ff origins for ps1, for a relatively ideal ff2 experience.

[Renfield628]

I agree with zeno. It's double the strength of every other combat system. It makes them all meaningless. I loved it during my first play through and breezed through the game with it, but after beating the game and missing the 100% chest chievo because of Paul's stupid bedroom secret, I got a problem now. I tried to mix things up and do an all black mage run, but it's sloooow compared to dual wielding. It's more than double the time to get through it all.

[zn0]

weird as it may sound to say, that's probably the best way to play the pixel remaster if you want any sort of meaningful experience from it. otherwise we're just smashing through an old ff with a very basic/quintessential story and some nicely redone graphics/music due to simply busted melee mechanics. having to think about how you're building your characters is what makes ff2 click. i'd probably even recommend using the mod from the moogles & mods discord which halves the encounter rate. anything to further offset all the changes making this version WAY too easy (like the costs of spells and consumables being lowered to practically nothing).

[Tokage]

Originally posted by zeno:

i love it, but it almost feels broken. to the point of making magic feel useless, because multi-targeting with spells splits damage to the degree it shouldn't even be possible. just equipping everyone with armor and 2 weapons instead of trying to actually understand and work with the original mechanics and their intent seems like the way to go in this version. which kinda makes me like this version a bit less, as nice as it looks and sounds. pretty frustrated with this one, and i think i still prefer ff origins for ps1, for a relatively ideal ff2 experience.

I don't think you even need any of that to make magic feel useless in this game: magic is incredibly weak, no matter what you do. I can put my characters some robes and staves and buff their Ultima spell as high as it goes, and it's still underwhelming. Belzebub, one of the Dukes of Hell, can hit one of my characters with a Flare XVI, and it does a piddly couple hundred points of damage.

[Renfield628]

Dual wielding is around 1.5 times the strength of weapon and shield, 2 times magic, and I'm assuming 2 times bow as well. There's no reason to experiment with any of the other modes of combat. What they should have done is made dual wield hit one target only at the strength of a single weapon hit as it is now, and made single weapons hit at the strength of 1 strike of the dual wield as it now. That would have made a lot more sense balance wise and still allowed the benefits of using 2 weapons, such as stats, abilities, and double skill gain. The pace of the game would have felt more normal too.

[zn0]

i'm playing the origins version now, approaching 20 hours in, and i can't state emphatically enough how much better it is. magic is great, too, even with guy as my heavy hitter on melee (and firion as white mage, maria as black mage).

[devilmaycry99]

I've been playing ff ii and I have guy duel wielding so i hit a goblin for 200 damage but instead of the goblin dying guy hits him a second time and it doesn't jump to another enemy and these are just normal goblins

[zn0]

yep, the target switching for the second attack was a bug and they patched it out