Playing for the first time AND trying for 100%

So... I'm playing through ff2 (actually I've barely started - I'm over-training at the moment, just to make sure I dont mess up too badly.) for the first time. I'm very much used to the general idea of ff, so I'm not expecting a noob guide or a how-to-do everything... but if any of you guys have any general tips I could keep in mind, I'd be very grateful to hear them.

I'm attempting one time without a walkthrough, but if i get too mad i might use one to find any extras Imight need to get my 100%. Actually I have no idea how to rate my 100% complete until I play once anyway so that kind of explains it :P lol

so any advice you guys can give? id be very grateful.

Which version?
As for tips, remember: Blood Sword = kill final boss in 2 hits, and useful against many other bosses, and you'll be fine.

ah good point. well im a playstation freak, so im playing through the origins release for psone. thanks for the blood sword tip. :D

Well, FFII doesn't have any optional side-quests (except for the extra dungeon in the Dawn of Souls version), so I'm not really sure what a 100% Completion would be. Maybe getting 100% of the treasures in the Bestiary, and maybe encountering 100% of the monsters in the game. Mastering all weapons, all spells and all stats for every character is totally unnecessary and takes forever to do (if it's even possible since I think FF Origins still has the feature of weakening stats).

Now that I said it, though, you wanted some advice, so here's a tip. Don't try to make your party members jack-of-all-trades characters who are excellent in every way. The game mechanics have been designed in a way that they favor specialized party members. Make someone a white mage, make someone a black mage, make someone a fighter, but don't try to make someone a juggernaut that can do all that him/herself. Don't give the mages powerful weapons, shields or heavy armor because that will cripple their magic.

thats great to know - thanks very much :)

EDIT: oh yes and by 100% i basically just meant the bestiary et al on the psone version. Nice to know there's no sidequests so i dont go looking for them :P

Yeah dude Listen to Sephiroth...like that's what I did - I spent A LOT of time lvling my guys into SUPER everything...but before I realized it....It hindered a lot of their abilities, making them mediocre, somewhat like a red mage - (I love those guys though!) So yeah, specialize and spread the team out- After all that's what Final Fantasy is all about - THE TEAM. Go rock it out! FF2 is an incredibly fun game to try and get everything - I really enjoyed 2 and will be playing it again soon.

like it's been said, there's no sidequests, but technically the final dungeon is; there's alot of extra stuff and optional bosses to get them.

So when you get there I would really reccommend trying to get everything it has to offer, there's alot of great equipment and it adds to the experience if you're really trying to get that 100%

Lovely stuff. I've been on holiday for a week or so and I needed a little push to get me going again - thanks for this!