So... they just lied about this having the same classic gameplay. They changed a ton. Might wanna read before buying.

[Epicmask]

First, im still enjoying, and some of the changes are fine. Im just annoyed they advertised this as just making it look and feel better to play, when the actual game play has been HEAVILY changed. Its falsely advertised.

Anyway, so people have an idea of what they are actually getting if they buy this, ill note the changes ive noticed so far. Up to getting to the second airship.

I wont include ease of life stuff. Running for example and the map dont effect gameplay much. so im not gonna go on about them.

Stats - stats work completely different. Items give stat bonuses, you get them as you level up now, the formulas on how damage works, its all changed. The damage numbers your attacks do rise rapidly compared to the NES version.

Jobs stat growth. - Seems random honestly. My fighter gains intelligence with every level up while my mages dont, and my monk has the lowest hp while my red mage has way more than everyone else. All at the same lvl... i dunno wtf is up with the stat growth.

Job skills. - some jobs are re worked, for example, rangers no longer can use white magic, and now have "Barrage" Which splits their number of attacks randomly on all enemies. which is actually pretty sweet.

Phoenix downs - i might be in the minority here, but i lied how in the original there was only a certain amount of these that you found during the game. Having a character die in a dungeon and needing to use one actually mattered. It made the game a little harder, and you had to be careful on using them or not. Now you can buy them anywhere.

Enemies stats - In general, mobs seem to hit harder. If a group gangs up one one character they can sometimes KO them from full hp before you get a chance to do anything about it, but at the same time, Mobs die way faster than before. Without grinding at all from the start of game to leaving the floating island almost everything died in 1 hit.

Difficulty - I hope it picks up, cause up to the second world map, its been a cake walk.. I love the nes versions difficulty. Never needed to grind, but fights actually posed a threat. So far ive just blasted through everything with auto battle.. im really disappointed in the lack of challenge so far. I hope it changes. I got to the water crystal in 2 hours without even trying to rush.

Overall, it looks great, feels good to play, the changes arnt that bad. But it is not the same nes game play like they made it out to be.

Worth buying still. Way better than the 3d remake. I just wish square would stop dumbing down the difficulty every time they do a remaster. Some people like games to challenge them. For me, making it easy like this is a HUGE let down.

[HexGramarye]

Originally posted by Epicmask:

Job skills. - some jobs are re worked, for example, rangers no longer can use white magic, and now have "Barrage" Which splits their number of attacks randomly on all enemies. which is actually pretty sweet.

This part actually has me really excited, though. This suggests to me that they tried to fix the problem in the original where you *had* to have two Ninjas and two Sages to beat the game, and I think that's a really good change, actually. I'd like to see what they do with the other jobs as well.

[FreshMint]

Originally posted by Epicmask:

Items give stat bonuses

While I'm not sure about the level up stuff, I can say that equipment has always had stat boosts. It's just that the game actually makes you properly aware of those now instead of highlighting your boosted stats on the stats screen in at least the 3D remake.

Originally posted by Epicmask:

Phoenix downs - i might be in the minority here, but i lied how in the original there was only a certain amount of these that you found during the game. Having a character die in a dungeon and needing to use one actually mattered. It made the game a little harder, and you had to be careful on using them or not. Now you can buy them anywhere.

I agree that having a limited (well, limited in chests and not mob drops at least) stock of phoenix downs makes them matter a lot more which I found enjoyable. Fortunately you can always decide to just never buy them!

Originally posted by Epicmask:

Difficulty - I hope it picks up, cause up to the second world map, its been a cake walk.. I love the nes versions difficulty. Never needed to grind, but fights actually posed a threat. So far ive just blasted through everything with auto battle.. im really disappointed in the lack of challenge so far. I hope it changes. I got to the water crystal in 2 hours without even trying to rush.

I do feel like I've been going a bit more smoothly through things as well but currently I'm back to Salamander causing me to suffer like the good old times.

[Epicmask]

Yeah true, you dont have to buy phoenix downs and some items did have stat boosts. But not to the extent they do now. Even some early staffs give like 20 or more intelligence now. Im pretty sure that wasnt in the nes version.

Again though, im not saying the changes are bad. Some are great. Just pointing out that they did change stuff, when the store page made it sound like that wasnt the case.

Stuff like making the useless classes better is great. I like most of the changes.. Other then it being a lot easier.

Salamander is still pretty hard at least. though you can still destroy him with items.

Also should have mentioned battle items seem way more effective. Especially with a scholars alchemy ability. Used it for the wall changing boss, bomb arm did almost 2k with alchemy. Kinda busted. Can tell how much the wanted to make scholars actually usable.

[FreshMint]

I don't remember them ever saying they didn't change anything but rather had the feel that they wanted to make the remasters a case of 'what if we made these games with today's technologies?'.
They obviously also wanted to rebalance the game, particularily the jobs and their abilities, taking a couple ideas from the 3D remake.

Wasn't scholar by the way already able to use attack items at double strength in the remake?

[Epicmask]

All the magic of the original with improved graphics and UI. Doesnt say anything about rebalenced difficulty or changes. "All the magic of the original" at least to me, meant it would.. you know.. be like the original.

[doooooorgassssss]

I don't get these posts about difficulty on a frigging JRPG... If the game is easy, then don't grind for levels or use cheap tactics to destroy bosses.

[Epicmask]

Dpnt assume people grind. that would be stupid to grind and then say its easy. Theres a dfference to getting op by grinding, and the game having no challenge. As i said, i dont grind theres no need. Yet i have easily just been able to go from place to place on auto battle without needing to ever try at all. Maybe you dont mind that, but id rather have to actually use strategy and enjoy an earned victory rather than just holding attack and breezing through everything.

Theres no need to grind. At all. The whole point is that Jrpgs use to have challenge n them, were they never do anymore. Thats okay for some people. I find it boring.

[AH-1 Cobra]

Originally posted by Epicmask:

The whole point is that Jrpgs use to have challenge n them, were they never do anymore.

JRPGs used to be challenging? You'd have to go all the way back to the NES. Because even the SNES games were pretty easy,

They're redoing these old games for a new generation of players to enjoy, not the old hipsters wearing rose tinted glasses. What part of that don't you understand?

[ECWeideman]

To be fair, this IS a remastering of an NES game...

[Josh-A]

They removed the CP requirement to change jobs as well - but honestly, that's a welcome change.

[BrawlyLikesToBrawl]

improving the old useless/gimmick classes is awesome. I wish they advertised this rather than making people think these were the NES builds made to look prettier

[Epicmask]

Im all for getting rid of the useless annoying things, but some of the changes are just a bit much for me. Like bards being insanely good now. Terrain always working with no downside at all, Several jobs having a multi target skill that has no downside and is almost as strong as a normal attack. Many weapons cast spells when used in battle that didnt before, You can just spam aga spells for free with staffs about halfway through the game. Things like that.

Sure you dont have to use them, all im saying is they added tons of way to plow through everything. You can always play how you want to make things harder still. there s just options that are very OP.

Although, even not using the cheap stuff, its still easier purely because every class was made way stronger than the NES version. Everything dies in 1 or 2 hits regardless of job.

[Josh-A]

I wouldn't say every class - White mages still have to be very conservative about their mana usage, and AOE cures are still terrible until you have Curaja. :P

[Sparlock]

Regarding the "random stats during level up", character stats except for HP are fixed. It shows the stats increasing during level up, but if you change all characters to the same class, you will see that their stats are identical. It's only showing the changes in the pre-determined stats.

It IS definitely frustrating trying to find information on what classes do what... It seems to be kind of a mix between the 3D and the original version. I'm glad they've reworked the spell names to match the later games, though. I can't stand Fire3/etc

[FreshMint]

Originally posted by Sparlock:

It IS definitely frustrating trying to find information on what classes do what... It seems to be kind of a mix between the 3D and the original version.

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out if viking's provoke drops enemies' defense or not like in the remake but it's a bit difficult to tell.