Can someone friggin help me?

[Joshkabob]

I have no clue how to play. The tuorial helps me none.

[Despotus]

Firstly, you have a main character, Ramza, and up to 15 other soldiers and monsters in your party. In any battle, you can only take 5 people. Some battles require Ramza to be one of those 5. Before the battle begins, there will be a small grid on which to position your 5 characters. Ramza will often be there to begin with; to place the other 4, use the L1 and R1 buttons to scroll through your team lineup and place them where you want them. I would suggest bringing 3 Squires and 2 Chemists into early battles.
Squires fight (They can hit enemies that they stand next to) and Chemists heal with potions and raise the dead with Phoenix Downs (They can hit enemies next to them and can throw potions and such up to 4 squares away).
The abilities that each of your characters have are chosen by you by spending JP (Job Points). If you want the Chemist abilities 'Potion' and 'Phoenix Down' for example, you have to "purchase" them with JP. When on the world map, press the triangle button and select 'Formation' to get a look at your team. Position the cursor over any character and press triangle again. Select 'Item' to look at the equipment he is wearing, and 'Ability' to see which abilities he has learned and which ones can be purchased with JP. Select 'Change Job' to change Squires into Chemists, and vice versa (pretty soon you'll be able to change them into other classes like Knights, Wizards, and Priests).
Well, I hope that can get you started. You need patience to surf all of the menu screens at first. But it will become easier with practice. Try to keep your troops together in the early battles, and keep them healthy by using potions. If one should fall, you'll have 3 full rounds to raise them. I'll shut up for now, I'm sure some other people would like to offer advice.

[Wiegrahf42]

Much of it is experimenting with the classes. Remember to train often to get all the good abilities. It's hard to get the hang of but once you do you'll be hooked.

[Joshkabob]

Do I ever get to walk around like in the other FFs?

[Mindflare]

Nope. This one is all battles. Very different. You "move" around the world map, but that's about it.

[feioncastor]

Well, battles and then the management you get to do between battles, which is the best part of the game for me.

You know, picking job classes, teaching abilities, buying things, taking propositions...

Best parts for me.

Feion

[Joshkabob]

Thanks guys, really helped. Know how to play now :)

[darkblade117]

enjoy... :)

[feioncastor]

Hey, Josh, keep us posted on how you're doing, and how you're enjoying the game.

It's always cool to find that people are enjoying the best game ever made.

Feion

[RedCydranth]

If you ever run into any snags, we'll be more than glad to help you out. FFT is a phenominal game, it just takes getting used to.

[Joshkabob]

I think I'm doing good, but that's my own opinion. Where do I buy stuff? And change classes?

[mike without a hat]

You buy stuff in towns, you walk to a town and select it and there are several options, there should be a store.
On the world map go into the menu and select formation, select a character and look around in there, there should be a job option or something.

[BG-57]

Every time you finish a major battle (they correspond to red dots on the map) you should check the nearby towns for new items. The shops upgrade often when the plot gets advanced.

Also, if you equip the Thief skill 'secret hunt' you can poach animal hides every time that character lands the physical killing blow on any monster (enemy or ally). Fur shops in a few cities will sell you half price items depending on monsters you poached. You can get items this way that aren't sold in shops.

[Despotus]

Where do I buy stuff? And change classes?
Like MSchmidtt said, once you have some money you can buy some equipment in towns (those are the white dots on the world map), I would strongly suggest stocking up on potions(10 or 15) and phoenix downs(5 to 10) at first. Fight a lot of random battles before advancing the story too much, thus you can get plenty of money, equipment, and JP for buying skills.
As for changing classes, when you press the triangle button on the world map, it will bring up a little screen... select 'Formation' to get a look at your crew. Move the cursor over any character on the party formation screen and press triangle again to bring up your choices for making changes. You'll see you can change equipment or abilities or change jobs. Be careful when you change to a new job at first because you won't have many skills learned for that new job. Make sure you choose a good secondary ability in order for that character to be useful in the meantime.
Secondary abilities are very important. Under the Ability option of the character changes screen you can set your secondary job ability, your defensive ability, support ability, and movement ability. Picking a good secondary ability means your new Knight character will be able to throw stones or accumulate (Squire abilities) or use potions and phoenix downs (Chem. abilities). I should warn you, if you use the chemist abilities, you will not be able to throw the items farther than the square right next to you unless you learned the chemist ability 'Throw Item'. ;)

[ScoopArt]

lol....at skool, it wont let me on gamefaqs, so does anyone know how to become a bard? (this is a kinda embarresing question from a FFT expert, but i could NEVER remember the job change req. >___>)

[BG-57]

Level 4 Summoner
Level 4 Mediator

[Joshkabob]

Is there bosses in this game?

[Despotus]

Oh yes there are. Not only will you have to battle 6 or 7 major demons with little demonic helpers, but you'll also have some very tough fights against some powerful humans with enviable abilities that your characters will never have. Mwahahahaha!! :radred: Remember to save often, and it is highly suggested that you have 2 or 3 saved games in case you need to backtrack to an earlier point in the game.

[Joshkabob]

I'm stuck right after the Sweegy Woods place. THe battle right after.

[BG-57]

Slums of Dorter? It's arguably the toughest battle of Chapter 1.

First of all, fight some random battles and increase your units' levels. Also, you can use the cash you earn to buy equipment for your entire party.

Make sure all your units can heal themselves (with white magic, item, or chakra).

Consider using the Knight's Equip Armor skill on your Chemists and magic users so they have more HP and protection.

You should send one of your controllable units with Algus and Delita to take out the Archer on the rooftop. Send Ramza and the other two to take out the Wizard and Knight. Try to spread out and triple team each opponent one at a time.

[DocFrance]

My suggestion for the Dorter battle is levelling everyone up as archers until you get the Block Arrows reaction skill. The archers in this battle will make pincushions out of you if you don't. For the battle itself, use two black mages and two knights (Ramza can be a knight or a blacn mage, your choice). The BMs should know the Bolt spell - it's raining in Dorter, so lightning will do extra damage (something like 50 a spell, depending on how high your Faith is). Since your party is almost invincible to arrows, have your knights take out the enemy black mages, while your black mages zap the knight. Delita and Algus will always go up the tower to take out that lonely archer, so you can make them archers if you want. That way, once the archer up top is out of the way, they can rain death and destruction down on your enemies.

[TyK]

Also, it's good to have the JP-up ability for when your leveling up in random battles.

[Joshkabob]

I just got grounded, so I'll only be playing on the weekends...I'll keep posting.

[Fate Fatale]

well, that sucks!

[conan]

what sucks is how its a great song during that battle, but its the only time in the game its ever used. plenty of other songs are repeated, but dorrter slums is unique like that i guess....

[BudSoda02]

Yeah it's one of the coolest. Yeah, but then so is THE WHOLE SOUNDTRACK of the game. Anyway, as for tips, just level up, have at least one black mage, preferably with a high faith. Again, have the mage cast bolt on everyone possible as it causes greater damage because of the rain. Strategic games like this one are all about strategy & patience. Have knights w/ shields or the equip shield ability w/ any other job class as a secondary ability. Just ask me if you get stuck anywhere else, as I know a lot of the ins & outs of this game. On your first playthrough, just focus on the main story, don't worry about sidequests. Altough, on my first playthrough I stumbled into one kinda accidentally & got two great characters out of it.
Thaks- BudSoda02 BudSoda02@yahoo.com

[Dark Knight]

I found that the easiest way is to fight a few monster battles at the Mandalia Plains before you move on. How much you choose to do is up to you, but i would fight there for a few hours, and my characters were already somewhere between level 20 or 25. The rest of ch. 1 and most of two were a breeze.

[Vod]

slums in dort has cooler music...I'll need to check that out...wow, I never knew, oh and Josh I really hope that you're enjoying the game, it's not my number 1 favorite battle style but I think it has the best storyline ever composed