ff4 easytype vs hardtype (opinion needed)

[twobitmage]

I just got both and im wondering which one should I play? and why?

oh and can someone tell me, or give me a link to a list of all the differences between hardtype and easytype?

thank you very much

[TheAbominatrix]

Well as the names suggest, hardtype is the more difficult of the two. It depends on your own skill level and how much of a challenge you want, because hardtype is difficult. Off the top of my head... um... all monsters are stronger, you cant by Ethers until very very late in the game (as opposed to easy where they're in every shop from the very beginning)... etc, etc. It's really your call, I'd recommend easytype to start out with if you're newer to RPGs, hard if you're a pro.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

All the characters except Cain have unique skills in battle that were removed in Easy Type.

[DCI Superfan]

Make that Cain, Rydia, Paladin Cecil, Edge, and Cid. ;)

Hardtype all the way, I think. However, I still play FF2-US, mainly for all the translations and the original game I played the hell out of and enjoyed..... yeah, nostalgia is good.

Hardtype gives you the best of challenge and a much more accurate portrayal of the storyline. I WILL say that the hardtype is arguably the hardest game in the series, though.

DCI Forever!!

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Originally posted by DCI Superfan
Make that Cain, Rydia, Paladin Cecil, Edge, and Cid. ;)Right. Cain just stands out to me because he has no magic in addition to the whole skill thing.

[twobitmage]

Originally posted by DCI Superfan
I WILL say that the hardtype is arguably the hardest game in the series, though.



actually, honestly I dont think ANY of them were hard

[Dalkaen]

Hardtype really isn't all that much harder, but I would suggest going for it anyway, because its better overall.

[Meuterei]

Hardtype wasn't particularly hard... it's just that Easytype was ridiuclously easy... especially since one item, costing only 100 Gil, healed nearly every single status ailment in the game. Also, Easytype's battle system didn't have a true "active" mode, it's what is considered "Wait" mode in Hardtype. Active is a lot faster and a lot more of a pain in the arse... =)

[Sefie1999AD]

I prefer the hard type for better translation and more abilities. A problem is that hard type can be extremely hard unless you level up a lot (I used to run a lot from battles in FF4, and the game became hard), and it's even harder if you set battle speed to the maximum. I could beat Zeromus with around level 58-60 party on normal battle speed, but on the max battle speed he's still really hard until level 64 or so.

There's one better feature about easy type, though, and that's in the Japanese easy type. In FF4j Easy Type, Zeromus looks like a huge grim reaper. In FF4, he's a weird bug. IMHO, the reaper form looks more impressive, because that symbolizes hatred more than some bug.

[twobitmage]

just beat hardtype...one to chrono trigger!

[Dignified Pauper]

actually, honestly I dont think ANY of them were hard

Same here. Hard type has much more plot into it, (if you're talking about the easy type being the FF2 American Release in the early 90s). Plus, mis-translations were fixed in it and what-not. The game itself is over-all great and is a must to be played, but I would go with the hard type. All that's really different is that you should be about 5-6 levels higher than you were in the easy type. That is if you want to smoke through the game. I beat it with my part in the very early 60' (no one above 61). Take your pick.

[Revenant]

Hard type is waay better. I'm nitpicky about certain things. The game was back when I played it on SNES, but when I got the hard type rom it had enough new features to make it completely replayable and enjoyable. Hard type's like an upgrade to the easy type, with more character abilities, items, status ailments, and even a deeper storyline.

[unfie]

After playing the DW1, and the original FF1 carts and a couple other RPG's (ultima:exodus, etc)....

FF4 wasn't terribly difficult. I don't see why anyone would ever want to play it in an 'easy' mode. It's already easy enough as is. You can *run* from everything up until Mysidia for god's sake (several hours of 'game play').

If you do fight every fight (like you should), then money is generally not an issue, and if you pay attention to what items do in combat (ie: that first rod you get does 30 damage... handy when ya don't wanna use magic), you shouldn't have any issues with stuff.

Looking for secrets will generally get you alot of the items you need, too.

Spending maybe 15-20min to level in an area that seems impossibly hard doesn't hurt, either.

The only difficult fights I remember in the game were Asura and the Behemoths (until realizing they mostly 'retaliate' instead of attack). I *once* had issues with the infernal dolls, but shrug.

Waiting until the end of the game in order to buy ethers is fine.... use tents and inns often and you should almost never run out of MP... i might use 3 ethers up until the moon. so you should have alot left over.

I think alot of people's problem is that they treat RPG's alot like they treat FF7 and later games .... a whole lot of dialog with 'this weird fighting stuff' in between.... so they don't do what normal RPG playlers would call 'common sense' by saving often and using inns and such. Anyone who mentions the ultimate weapons on response to this post is only prooving my point, btw.

[Roogle]

Play the Hardtype and you'll appreciate the game much more, and see all of the characters' skills which were removed for some reason in Easytype.

[MelodyofLute]

The best advantage to playing the Japanese hardtype is all the humor you miss. Final Fantasy IV has some of the funniest lines/events out of the series (playboy mag) (william shatner crack)

[robfinalfantasy]

Think of it this way. The hard version is the complete version.
To list a few differences:
Item names
More items
More spells
Extra abilities that were left out
More enemies
Extra scenes that were left out
Cid, Tellah, and Palom speak vulgarly
References to death and sex were omitted

[Rase]

Personally I like the original SNES English version (released in the early 90's in America), probably because it was the first FF I played. I also didn't really like the extra abilities in the other because for some reason, Tellahs' Remember always did something like Lit 3 all in the Waterfall Cave. I noticed some dialouge missing/changed from this one for FF Chronicles, which is supposed to be the Japanese one, most notably the opening scene in Mysidia. But this is just me.