how difficult are the older FF games?

I beaten FFVI and FFVIII but I wonder difficult the previous FFs are. I am currently playing FFV but that is not easy or hard but somewhere in the middle even so, I don’t know if I could play FF I-III considering it’s notorious difficulty level. Are the older games really as difficult as everyone says?

The original versions are ridiculously hard, and I would not recommend the originals, but instead go for the many remakes.

Final Fantasy I

This game is exceptionally easy, the remakes are however. The original Nes game is a royal pain the ass.

Final Fantasy II

I have always found this game to be hard. Never played the original Nes game, but the Playstation port was punishment enough.

Final Fantasy III

Only played the DS version, and it wasn’t really that hard. That is until you reach the last part of the game. Nearly drove me insane.

Final Fantasy IV

Quite possibly the hardest FF game, in my opinion. Even the earliest dungeons have ridiculously powerful fiends, and it has prevented me from really liking the game.

Final Fantasy V

My third favorite FF game. It’s not that hard, and it’s quite fun.

I only played the original versions.

I: Hard. Very hard at times, if you made the wrong class choices. Unless you’re a geek like FF1WithAllThieves.
II: That one’s very hard, too, but imo a bit easier than I.
III: Can’t remember, sorry.
IV: Can be extremely difficult at times, but if you play carefully, it shouldn’t be all too hard. Best FF.
V: Easy.

I’ve only played FF4, FF6, FF7, and FF12, and I think that FF6 was, for some reason, the most frustrating to me. I didn’t have too much trouble with FFIV, although many other people seem to. The only area in FFIV that really burst my bubble was when they go to the moon. So I think, to a certain extent, what you think of the difficulty level is a personal judgment. And, while I’m the exception to the "FFIV is freaking tough" rule, enough people say that that you might avoid it, unless you are actually looking for difficult games.

I’d say out of all of them, though, that FFIV had the most compelling story for me, after VII. It is definitely a good game and shouldn’t be missed just because many people find it to be a challenging game.

I’ve only played remakes, I’ve tried the originals but they were too much of a pain for me. They’re all relatively easy except FFIV (and I’ve never gotten into FFII). FFIV is a pain in the butt if you don’t like to spend a lot of time leveling up, it’s a great game otherwise.

Final Fantasy IV has two versions– an easytype and a hardtype. I believe it’s the hardtype model used on most, if not all of the officially released remakes, which is good, because it contains stuff the easytype version doesn’t. Yes, it is harder, but it is worth it to a hardcore fan.

Final Fantasy II – I’m playing that one currently. It can be difficult, but as Neg has pointed out to me, there’s a simple strategy you can use– attack your own characters to boost their HP and Endurance, through the roof with just a few hours work. But the encounter rate on this one is set high sky and you have to be careful where you wander (there are no clear boundaries) and who you talk to.

Final Fantasy I – Since Neg sent me Origins, I will play this once I’m done with I. I’ve already played it once before, the original version, and yeah, that’s tough. One annoying thing about this one is that if you just cue a bunch of attacks at the same target and then that target goes down, then all the other attacks are a wasted turn.

Final Fantasy III – Damn, I’ve completely forgot this game, but I only played it once.

Final Fantasy V – Love this one. Not overly difficult, but it does have some tough dungeons and you need to be smart with your strategy. Easier than the four preceding it, but still generally more challenging than anything that came after.

Final Fantasy III – Damn, I’ve completely forgot this game, but I only played it once.

lol, Agent suffering the same as I do. <3

Some things worth noting:

Things that we take for granted in latter FFs don’t exist in the earlier ones or are a very limited luxury. Items such as Phoenix Downs and Ethers are generally very expensive and rare to find in the field. You have a limit as to how many items you can carry at a time. Inns are relatively more expensive and won’t revive a character that has been KOed (although in FFII it only costs 1 MP to cast Life– why not just give you the Phoenix Down for cheap?)

Final Fantasy IV, the DS version in particular, will kick you in the nuts throughout the course of the game.

In Final Fantasy III, if memory serves, you cannot purchase Phoenix Downs early on, if at all, which means losing even one party member can be devastating, and what’s more frustrating, it’s likely they’ll be down for a long, long time.

Same is true of Final Fantasy I. And in the original FFI, you weren’t allowed to cast Life in battle. Oh, and regardless of what version you’re playing, inns will not restore KO or any other negative status. For the status, you need the appropriate item and for KO, you need to visit a church. Oh, and poison status in most earlier FFs lasts after the battle and so you’d better cure it right away or any character that’s poisoned will take a hit for each step you take.

Poison lasts after the battle in quite a lot of FFs. o_o

I think Final Fantasy IV was the easiest. A little tougher on the DS, but still easy. And it’s my favorite out of all FF’s.

Sherlock– can you name a non-classic FF where poison lasts after the battle?

Sherlock– can you name a non-classic FF where poison lasts after the battle?

I haven’t played any FF in ages, so I don’t know anymore. xD
But I pretty much just got up when I made that post, so I read that you were talking about I only. I distinctly remember the poison effect to last after battle in IV and V, so I kinda was surprised, hah.

Yeah, I meant the classics in general, the poison effect will stick around after the battle. Curiously, however, in FFI, Dark/Blind status will not stick around after the battle, whereas in later FFs, it usually will.

It really just depends on the system and how much you grind.

FF1 – This game is pretty easy because you can save the game just about anywhere and the game is very basic compared to the later Final Fantasy titles

FF2 – FF2 is just crazy in some parts, I had to struggle in some areas to survive. The final battle was very easy though and could be beaten in less than a minute

FF3 – This one was quite hard especially the last dungeon because you cannot save at all and you have to fight 5 bosses before the final boss and not to mention that the dungeon is very long

FF4 – Wasn’t that hard

FF5 – Some parts are challenging such as the dungeons of the merged world but it could be very easy as well if you mastered all the jobs

I’d say it depends on what game.

FFI is easy if you play the GBA or PSP remake
FFII is insanely hard at times. If you don’t grind for 9999 HP you’ll be slaughtered by some of the later enemies.
FFIII I’ve only played on the DS but that’s hard, for a lesser reason of II but as well as most late-game enemies attack 2-4 times.
FFIV I’ve only played the DS remake and that’s also hard
FFV is easier but still somewhat hard
FFVI is the same as V

FF1 – Play the ‘White Mage Challenge’.

;3

FF1 – Play the ‘White Mage Challenge’.

;3

How much grinding would that require? I’d imagine healing would be easy but attack power would be a nightmare.

How much grinding would that require? I’d imagine healing would be easy but attack power would be a nightmare.
It’s a nightmare, even with heavy heavy…fucking Koren MMO level…grinding.

I did it back on the NES, as a joke more or less, and it took me AGES to do crap.

Level 20 WM getting beaten by start monsters…wtf?

Another pain in the ass feature of FFI (NES, at least–not sure about Origins), is that if a character has any negative status, they’re bumped to the bottom of the group. Which means that after curing them, you have to re-order your party lest you wipe on the next random trash encounter.

For those who haven’t played FFI, the order in which you place your party members has a direct impact on the amount of damage they take. The characters at the top will take the most damage, and the ones at the bottom, the least. With Fighter’s high HP and armor, it’s essential to put one at the top of your party to be your tank.

Oh, it’s the same in Origins.

Oh, it’s the same in Origins.

But I’m assuming in the NES version, it would be essential to regularly check it. Personally, having played the PSP remake of I, I can say that I never paid much attention to the order of my characters. Never was much need to, I suppose.

Well, I suppose it depends on how you choose to play. There are two different modes and you can also choose whether or not it will redirect an attack if you selected a target with a character and it’s already been KOed. The expert mode is rather challenging whereas the easy mode is about ten times easier by comparison.

Are the older games really as difficult as everyone says?

That depends on who you ask, and how much/less you enjoy the game. I can usually tell within the first 30 minutes or so, if I’ll like/hate the game. If I hate the game, it can become a drag, annoying to complete. If I like it, I can get through it fairly easy.

FF, either on NES, PSX port or w/e, I can still enjoy. Gameplay and story were/are great.

FFII irritated me to no end, and as of this date, I still have NOT finished FFII. The leveling system annoyed me to no end.

FFIII… I’ve only played on the NDS, and I’m not sure how I feel about this game. ‘A little from column A and a little from column B’

FFIV for me was an easy game. I enjoyed the story and the characters, which is what probably pulled me into and through it.

FFV was a mixed bag for me. Gameplay and storywise was pretty good imo. The characters… so so.

FFVI, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. The characters were great as was everything else.

I have not played I-III, but I found IV,V,VI to be fairly easy, and i didn’t grind that much. The thing you need to remember is to set up properly before bosses. They require more strategy than the later FF’s.

I beaten FFVI and FFVIII but I wonder difficult the previous FFs are. I am currently playing FFV but that is not easy or hard but somewhere in the middle even so, I don’t know if I could play FF I-III considering it’s notorious difficulty level. Are the older games really as difficult as everyone says?

Just based on my personal experience the original FF games are only as hard as you let them be. If you spend time level grinding weaker enemies you can handle and gain multiple levels before progressing your experience won’t be too bad. If you just run from area to area with minimal grinding other than what you’re forced to do then you’re going to find yourself getting angry quite a bit as to why you’re getting your ass kicked from time to time.