How Is This Game Supposed to Be Played?

[Yar]

Honestly, without self-mutilation tactics, your characters will never really grow on their own.

(NES version anyway. The PSP and GBA versions are broken in their own right.)

[rubah]

they will grow 8) it'll just take FOREVER

[Yar]

I DONT HAVE THE TIME RUBAHS

[qwertysaur]

select cancel will also help. Remember though, increasing one stat will decrease another.

[Yar]

Scott you cheater, that is cheating.

I'm talking about playing the game legitimately.

[theundeadhero]

I remember the one time I played through an original rom this game was really really hard but I managed to beat it, no self-mutilation involved.

[qwertysaur]

Scott you cheater, that is cheating.

I'm talking about playing the game legitimately.


... (NES version ...)
:lol:

[Yar]

:mad:

[qwertysaur]

:aimkiss:

[black orb]

>>> Did you beat FF1? well, this game is easier..:luca:

[MarbleMinotaur]

I play this game all the time without using the exploit, and I usually clock in around 20 hours from start to finish. The trick is to get into a good, strict regimen of attacking/casting during the random battles. This way almost every random encounter will be rewarding in some fashion, and you more than likely will never have to "grind" to boost abilities or proficiencies. I've noticed that the game has a habit of "telling" you that you've hit a plateau and what you have should be sufficient to defeat anything you come across when it starts taking a LOT of random battles to increase a weapon or spell level.

A good strategy is to spread out your offensive and defensive magics throughout your party, so they aren't all lumped onto one character. Keep a wise eye on your equipment too, because the magic penalties are crippling. I generally play like this: Each of the starting three characters gets one of the three basic elemental spells and one of them gets Cure. The same goes for the defensive spells, like Blink, Shield and Shell. Then when you get access to them, I do the same with the negative status effect spells. I generally only take Blind, Silence, Fog and Curse, as they are the most useful.

This way, you can juggle what the party members are doing during random battles, so they never get stale. A generally good rule of thumb is, when there are more enemies on screen than you have party members, use elemental damage spells and target ALL of them. If there are the same number of enemies on screen as party members, use normal attacks, each character targetting different enemies. If there are fewer, alternate between the two, casting and attacking.

Also, for the positive and negative status effect spells, cast them at the start of battle, EVERY battle, but only against enemies where they would be appropriate. For example, if there are spell casting enemies, immediately open with Shell, Barrier, Wall, Silence or Fog. If there are physical enemies, open with Blind, Curse, Blink and Shield.

Lastly, don't try and do a dungeon in one run. If you run out of curatives and MP, immediately warp out and rest. Then start the process over again from square one. As tedious as it sounds, it's actually quite rewarding and often therapudic.

Edit: Also, from experience I've found that very rarely is it ever necessary to get any of your weapons/spells above proficiency Level 8. In fact, Prof Level 4 will get you through a good chunk of the game without any problems whatsoever. Only later, from the Mysidian Tower onwards do you really want everything at a minimum of 6. If you haven't been ignoring or running from random battles all game, ALL your spells/weapons should be at LEAST level 8 by endgame with little to no effort other than just... marching forward.

[Lamia]

It's not self-mutilation. It's sparring with your comrades and training your abilities. :D

[Wolf Kanno]

The easiest way to do it is just to choose a weapon for each character and a role for each of them (monk, archer, warrior, mage) and just stick with it. Its an exhausting task trying to master everything but really all you need is a dedicated party of specialist. I prefer making Firion a Paladin (swords, shields, white magic but mostly cure, raise, shell, protect) Maria as a black mage specializing in the three elemental spells and one instant death magic (Toad is fun) and have Gus use Axes. When Leon finally comes around I build him as the all around fighter.

After that, its just a matter of getting into ALOT of battles to compensate for not trying to max out abilites the cheap way, but one trick to making things easier is that you get slightly higher "experience" for battling higher level monsters and seeing as how its pretty easy to find such creatures...

[*Laurelindo*]

My favourite way to level "legitimately" is to enter/exit the dungeons a few times; this gives a much stronger feeling of accomplishment than just using the Select/Cancel trick, which I've always found rather dull and boring, TBQH - it feels like the characters are using steroids to become stronger or something, and that they aren't strong "for real".

You can also sort of "level up" rather normally against certain enemies - the Captains in Phin are relatively high-rank, so you can easily boost stats by just fighting them normally.
They are much easier in the Origins version though, since Life always works there; in the NES original it's wise to raise it to about LIFE 4 or LIFE 5 first.


I prefer making Firion a Paladin (swords, shields, white magic but mostly cure, raise, shell, protect) Maria as a black mage specializing in the three elemental spells and one instant death magic (Toad is fun) and have Gus use Axes. When Leon finally comes around I build him as the all around fighter.That's EXACTLY what I do! :p
I guess it's easy to decide on these jobs though, since the main characters' stats and equipment kinda encourage you to do so (Maria's high Intelligence etc).

[Wolf Kanno]

It is obvious based on their starting equips and stats, but I do level them up in other areas. I usually ditch weapons in the beginning over using the fist cause it will be ages before the game gives out any worthwhile weapons besides farming Flame Bows from the guards in Fynn. Not to mention the fist are just horribly overpowered and cap a few levels lower than all the other equipment.

I also forgot to mention that Gus tends to be my trash mule for magic spells. I give him cure and few other important spells but mostly I love giving him the weird spells and experimenting with them.

[Garland]

I'm playing my current FF2 game straight. The first thing I did was categorize the spells into four types, white magic instant, black magic instant, white magic lasting, and black magic lasting, based on whether the effect is active for more than the round it was cast or not. I assigned each category to the four starting/final party members, based on expected need. Each character can learn 16 spells, and I wanted my party to have character. Firion got 11 spells - the instant white - such as cure, holy, life and dispel. Maria got the instant black such as fire, ice, doom and drain - 8 spells. Guy got 9 spells like Blink, Protect, Silence and Mini - white lasting. Leon will get black lasting - 12 spells such as berzerk, blind, curse and haste.

I kept the weapon proficiencies the way the game starts them - again, for a sense of individuality of characters. Firion starts with a sword and shield, and I gave him the heaviest of armors. He can cure and revive - a natural tank. Maria wears only cloth weight materials. Guy wears the mid weight armors and dual wields axes. Leon will also dual wield, but likely two different weapons. I guess he gets an ultimate weapon like all the characters, and its name leads me to believe it's not a sword or axe, since SE is usually pretty historically saavy when it comes to names of things - he'll probably be sword and spear. I won't be capping every single weapon. I want the stats that come from being themselves.

I moved Maria to the front row so that she gains stats on par with the others. Other than that, I just never run from battles and try and juggle my skills with a sense of purpose so that they don't fall behind. My characters don't sit around and whack each other off. Battles don't get prolonged. I don't abuse any systems. I'm staying well equipped and trying to use character skills instead of items or trips to the inn. I only sleep when Firion can no longer cure. Considering he only casts cure when one's HP is red, I get a lot of mileage.

It's a lot more fun than exploiting. Not that exploiting isn't a valid game choice - I just oddly enough, find it more frustrating than anything. I hope my four heroes don't end up perfect - just like my game of FF1. I don't want the best party. I want the most likely party if the heroes pursued the plot like real people. My new take on RPGs is more on doing things that make sense. Just playing the game.

[Carnage-]

I pretty much gave up playing this game after about 2-3 hours. Leveling is horrible, story is horrible, characters are pretty horrible, and I HATE Guy.

[Vagrant]

I pretty much gave up playing this game after about 2-3 hours. Leveling is horrible, story is horrible, characters are pretty horrible, and I HATE Guy.

I've started playing this straight after beating FFI and love the progression as a sequel. I find the dungeons easier than FFI because I can replenish MP unlike the first game but the story is pretty good for a game from 1988.

As for my strategy I'm with some of the other people who replied to this thread. Firion acts as a paladin-esque fighter, Maria sits in the back row and is primarily a magic user, whilst Gus fights unarmed and has some magic in his bank too.

[*Laurelindo*]

I pretty much gave up playing this game after about 2-3 hours. Leveling is horrible, story is horrible, characters are pretty horrible, and I HATE Guy.Why do you hate Guy? :p
He doesn't exactly have a developed personality, except for the fact he can talk to animals, which I thought was pretty cool.

Keep in mind that the leveling system in this game is not supposed to be actively exploited, it is designed to automatically strengthen your characters according to their needs, so if you for example use magic and drain MP a lot, you will get a higher max MP; same with all other stats in this game: if you always get low on HP, you will get higher max HP, if you use physical weapons, you will become physically stronger plus more proficient with the weapon you used etc.
It is a very interesting idea in theory, although it might be kind of impractical sometimes.

My best advice is that you should let the leveling handle itself on the world map, and in the dungeons you should exit when you need to and the re-enter; this will gradually make you stronger and stronger each attempt.

[Yar]

I did a legitimate run-through of this game.

It's easier when you pull Maria out of the back row and give her staffs or some other melee weapon like that. Also, she is the black mage and Firion or Guy should have white magic.

[Elskidor]

Corad healthcare is always good to use while attempting to play this type of game.

[Garland]

What I'm doing in my current game is stripping everyone naked and having them fight with one fist and a shield. Once they derive all the benefits one can from that setup statwise, and once I've collected the most powerful equipment, I'll allocate it to my 4 monks equally and raise them as such. Spell wise, I'm giving Firion, Maria and Guy an equal portion of white and black magic - fire, thunder, ice, for example, respectively. I don't go to an inn until they've all blown their mp. Once all three of them have filled up their magic slots, I hope to have Leon back in the party, and he'll mop up all the game's last spells - seems fitting that way. I'm not doing any exploits - but I am molding characters deliberately.

[kriminal99]

Edit: Actually here is the best tactic, according to the way the game advancement formulas work.

You know in those movies when some people show up wanting to fight a group, and then one guy in the group says "I'll take care of these guys all by myself".. ? Do that. If you let Guy punch out 8 goblins, he can reach Fist level 9 after enough sets... against rank 1 enemies (except normal goblins usually run, but you get the point). If instead Guy and Firion punch out 1 each, and then maria Fire bombs the rest, Guy and firion can reach level 2 fist only, and maria can reach only lvl 5 fire.

If instead Maria kills all 8 1 by 1, then she can reach lvl 12 Fire, and will get higher MP. (but it gets slower the closer to 12 you get).

Furthermore, leave Maria in the back row. The other 2 characters, get more defensive stat advancement this way. She will get about half the HP of the other characters through most of the game, which is fine and more than enough to absorb magic attacks. Also all she does is magic, so her magic will go up higher, and she will have higher magic defenses.

Characters that are not "handling the enemies alone" do not have to sit idle. Instead they can use the time to level something else up that does not interfere with the guy who is killing the baddies. They can cast defensive spells on themselves, cast spells that the enemy is immune to, attack with the weak intro weapons doing little or no damage.

This is about the only non super tedious way to level spells like "protect" that I can think of.

Know the following formulas: (ADD = number of uses in this battle after first, RANK = Highest Rank of first enemies targeted)

If (RANK + ADD) < WLVL, WXP = 0, ELSE WXP = (RANK + ADD + 10) - WLVL
MXP = RANK + ADD + 4 - MLVL

These are from skyrender's faq on gamefaqs.com, although most of his information seems off these 2 formulas seem accurate. If you want to push yourself over where you have been able to level a weapon skill, try equipping a weaker weapon or beating on flans until they go down from criticals. For magic, equipping armor and attacking enemies with elemental damage spells they resist are too ways to make a spell take more uses to win the battle. Of course you can just always use spells or skills in ways that the battle will never end, but that gets really tedious and boring.

When you get to the Snowfield, I suggest farming it for elixers and cash. Ethers are worthless just about, and elixers are normally super expensive. This allows you to use your magic abilities frequently before you get Osmose on everyone. On any given game set, it cycles through 32 boards. If you write down the solutions to a few of them, you can farm that many elixer+cottages and then cancel out of the other 32 - that many to get back to the first. Then get more.


Incorporate the arcane labrynth into your playthrough if you are playing one of the latest versions. This gives you more opportunity to level up. Although after the first couple of times you will probably just rush through to get the ultimate weapons.

Also a solo challenge can be fun too. If you do one, I suggest using Guy. He has the most starting stats, they are in the right place, and he has the best ultimate weapon. You should start with armor on and fists, which will lower your evade and make you take more hits. This will level your stamina, evasion level, and magic faster (magic is less effective with armor). When Stamina and evasion are maxed, equip a shield and a high level weapon and level it to get your evasion percentage up. Once that is high, if you want you can equip light armor so your magic is more powerful. At that point you should have high HP, and 16-99 evasion which means you will like never take a hit anyways. Then once your weapon skills and agility are high enough, equip a second weapon and your evasion percent will still be 99. You can go the genji + shield route instead, but your magic will suck and I think that is defensive overkill.

Just save a lot because you can take high damage randomly or someone could land a instadeath spell.