This game is insanely hard in a bad way.

[Knetog]

Having only finish FFIX and FFX I understand what to do in this game but there is so many bad stuff about it. The way you are forced to intensely grind for levels otherwise you severely get punished by dungeon boss which simply demolish you. The world map is simply just confusing, rather not use it.


*SPOILER* I still am in the early stage of the game, but the way the game is designed... finaly killed the boss for fire crystal then I have to go back to X town. So I simply jump back in my boat go directly to the town, just to be knocked out to a dungeon, by the time I get to that dungeon boss, I have barely no skill charge/mana left and the boss is simply overpowering me with his mass poison and mass confusion, while my character damage suddendly do way less damage to that boss compared to random mobs. This ♥♥♥♥ doesn't make sense at all. GRIND FEST.

[Lvl1. Slime]

Originally posted by Jeanosaurus Rex:

Hard? Dude I've made it to the water temple without grinding at all, maybe you're just bad at this game

He can only be as good or bad as the characters of the game allow him to be. Such is the case with many JRPGs. Stop being a show off. ;)

[Knetog]

@valeria, that's pretty insightful, there sure is a lot that the game is hiding and not telling the player about. I still like it despite the many rage instant death :P

[gyarad0site]

This game starts off insanely hard. My first playthrough was an absolute disaster. Because I didn't look up any mechanics or strats online, I had no idea how job points worked. The early-game is extremely unforgiving with limited cures and a dangerous lack of phoenix downs. I plowed my way to the fire crystal, only to get roflstomped repeatedly by Salamander's fire breath. I quit the game for a couple months.

Knowing how the mechanics work (e.g. HOW TO LEVEL UP JOBS, the fact that red mages are so useful early-game, abusing rods for unlimited spell casts) makes all the difference. It can still be hard and frustrating on occasion -- there's a comical amount of instant-death scenarios built into the game, mostly just to troll you -- which is probably why Luneth's mom encourages you to save early and save often. Random back-attacks put the player at such a big disadvantage early on that one could easily mean game over, especially when phoenix downs are in short supply.

...And then you start building momentum with your job levels, and everything gets easier. Keeping some early-game classes helps a lot; I stuck with a knight from the second crystal and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, he was basically my carry throughout the game. Once you get access to Raise, and if you have a balanced party with decent job levels (rather than spreading your characters thin across multiple jobs), you should be in the clear mid-game onwards.

I finally beat the game (today!) with a Knight, Devout, Summoner, and Ninja :] Was challenging at first, but the game rewards you the longer you stick with it. Just don't forget to save.

[WeirdoGeek]

Originally posted by Knetog:

Having only finish FFIX and FFX I understand what to do in this game but there is so many bad stuff about it. The way you are forced to intensely grind for levels otherwise you severely get punished by dungeon boss which simply demolish you. The world map is simply just confusing, rather not use it.


*SPOILER* I still am in the early stage of the game, but the way the game is designed... finaly killed the boss for fire crystal then I have to go back to X town. So I simply jump back in my boat go directly to the town, just to be knocked out to a dungeon, by the time I get to that dungeon boss, I have barely no skill charge/mana left and the boss is simply overpowering me with his mass poison and mass confusion, while my character damage suddendly do way less damage to that boss compared to random mobs. This ♥♥♥♥ doesn't make sense at all. GRIND FEST.

I just re-bought this today, but I had it on my old iPod and it was actually a lot of fun for me. Here are some tips that helped me out after a few trials and errors:

#1: Split the jobs up and make them character exclusive. Example being one guy gets the jobs that specialize in physical damage and another gets the healing and support stuff. This makes the job levels grow much quicker and even.

#2: Kill every random encounter you run into. A good sign that you are ready for a dungeon's boss is when you are able to plow through it's random encounters with little to no trouble.

#3: Be fully stocked on healing items at all times and use the weapons that cast spells when used like a fire rod instead of using magic concerning random encounters and damage panels like lava. The parts of the game where you REALLY need your mage's spells are the bosses.

I felt the same as you the first time I played this and some of this may sound like a "no duh" thing to say, but it really works.

[400g]

i always liked the grinding, in fact that's the reason i like the ff games. I really miss that in the newer titles.
I need to die in a game, go back grinding and trying the boss again. That was the fun part, it gave this 'you did it' feeling. the newer games are just interactive movies, boring.

[DorcasAurelia]

Originally posted by ValDarkmoon:

- Don't buy spells like poisona, blindna, esuna etc. Most of the spells that cure a status ailment often cost considerably more than 99 of the item that cures the same ailment. You won't need 99 of any ailment curing items for the entire game and considering the limited nature of spells it's often better to just buy and use items instead of spells to keep your party in fighting shape. This will also keep you from needing to grind for gold.

You can probably make an exception for poisona. It's a level 1 spell, so it only costs 100 gil, which means you come out ahead after just a couple uses.

[-|Nur|-]

Originally posted by tero:

i always liked the grinding, in fact that's the reason i like the ff games. I really miss that in the newer titles.
I need to die in a game, go back grinding and trying the boss again. That was the fun part, it gave this 'you did it' feeling. the newer games are just interactive movies, boring.

Try beating the hardest bosses in the newer titles without grinding and you'll see how wrong you are.

[400g]

Originally posted by -|Nur|-:

Originally posted by tero:

i always liked the grinding,

Try beating the hardest bosses in the newer titles without grinding and you'll see how wrong you are.

Hehe, why should i?

In the newer ff games (starting with 7) there is just a minimum of grinding* required to beat the games. The only bosses that require some more grinding are optional bosses like the Cie'th missions or the weapons. For the story related bosses the strategie is more important than how powerfull your party is.

* everything shorter than half an hour per boss is counted as minimum grinding

[-|Nur|-]

Originally posted by tero:

For the story related bosses the strategie is more important than how powerfull your party is.

Uh, isn't that a great thing? Putting emphasis on boosting your stats instead of coming up with a winning strategy is kinda lazy. That's why XIII has the best battle system in the series.

[400g]

I wouldn't call hours of grinding lazy, there's a lot of work involved. But i know what you want to say. :)

the best thing would be to have both, you need to find a strategie and a certain level to win. Strategie alone can make it too easy.Take the final boss of ff7, it's nearly impossible to lose the fight if you have at least one char that can absorb elements. That is way more lazy. There're some bosses in the ff games where that works and there is no fun in doing such fights. it's ok if it works for some random enemies, but it should be always hard to win against bosses. Just like a test of what you've learned, or in case you've grinded enough, the reward for your training.

btw: xiii is the perfect example what i meant with interactive movie: with the exception of the Cie'th missions and some eidolons i could beat nearly all bosses in the first try, i really miss the challenge here.

about the battle system: i dislike in xiii that you're not in full controll over the party, and that you're gameover if the char in control dies. Everyone should be recoverable with a phoenixdown. Also i think it's too uncomfortable if you want to decide yourself which action to perform.
I prefer the old atb system up to ffx, but the worst battle system are in xii and viii.

well, opinions of course. overall i had my fun with all ff games :)

[Lord Wholesome]

Some tips for FF3 on my end:

- Always use dualwield. The usage of shields is only a good tactic should you run with a viking.
- Use staffs on mages, it's free magic.
- Conserve said magic, as you have noticed already there are no ethers.
- Stock up on healing items, this ties in with the whole conserving magic thing. Level 1 white magic like poisona is very helpful however.
- Don't switch jobs too often, specialize your characters for max efficiency.
- The steam version has an autosave feature. It saves everytime before a battle and when you enter a new map. Use this to your advantage!
- The last set of unlockable jobs are by far the best. (Ninja/black belt/devout)

Job specialization is everything, it gives you the biggest bonuses compared to constantly switching. I've heard people say thief is no good. In this regard thief is actually very good. It does need job levels to be proficient but if you assign 1 character to be a thief the entire game he will clear the entire game for you, doing close to (but not excluded to) 9999 damage. The thief attacks first in every battle after a few job levels, so it will finish most fights for you too. Also it opens every door in the game. I've had several runs now with one next to several other jobs and it just outshines everything by a mile damagewise. By the time you can put throwing weapons on him (around the golden manor bit and pretty much every weapon after that) you've broken the game and you can keep using it untill you unlock the last set of jobs.

In terms of grindiness, the game levelchecks you like a lot of JRPG's do. One level too low and bosses are hard as balls, level up once and it's a cakewalk. A good indicator is just going through a dungeon, find all the chests, do all the encounters and by the end of it you should be about right for the boss if not very very close.

[Warrior of Right]

This is an original NES game that's why.
You have to level up to make the game easier.

i kept a character as Freelancer almost the whole time on steam to have another Magic caster and get a job class to 99 quick for massive combo damage with dual weilding.

Also this version has the auto save you can abuse which i took advantage of when the game kept giving me status effect every battle.

[Fitz Chivalry]

Just farm for exp, and no problem ^^

[Knetog]

I'm surprise this topic is still going on :P I already finished the game about 1-2 weeks after I started this topic. Only wish the game would "help" you more like saying staff can be used as spell in combat.

[Caligo Clarus]

Which is why your op and this whole thread is senseless. You beat the game on your first playthrough in 30 hours (and so did I). This is one of the easiest RPG's I have played. You can just bumble your way straight through it to the end. Real grinding RPG's will take well over 100 hours or more to complete on the first play through when you don't know what to do.