Holy crap this game is hard!

[Frostwake]

Unless you are way overleveled obviously... Its easy until you have to go back to baron to get Cid's airship... After that the bosses are simply insane...

I thought something was wrong with my game so I went to check some videos of FF IV advance on youtube and bosses are SOO SLOW there... If you have the GBA version you have NO IDEA how hard the original (hardtype) game is... Bosses are SUPERFAST and always get 2-3 turns between EVERY CHARACTER... you can just barely keep up with the healing

Im playing using an emulator (thank god, because I cant imagine having to load from save points) and at that boss with the regenerating arms (Baigan) its just insane... every arm hits up to 400 damage (Cecil having the highest HP at 800.. imagine the slaughter) I was about to throw my keyboard out of the window after the 30th try.. God bless the save states LOL

The worse is, after this one boss, every single enemy in the game becomes super fast and does insane damage to characters in the front row.. a typical group of 4 monsters WILL get about 8 attacks before your whole party can act, by which time someone will probably be dead already..

Just wanted to "vent" my frustration :P am I the only one here or is this really the hardest FF by far?

[Jowy]

I never thought FFIV was hard until I got to the end.

[marysonnie]

Yeah...the final boss is usually tough but beatable the first time. I had so much trouble with this one; everyone's HP was being constantly drained and Rosa couldn't keep up.

It doesn't help that a save crystal is ages away from the final boss...

[NINJA_Ryu]

Yeah...the final boss is usually tough but beatable the first time. I had so much trouble with this one; everyone's HP was being constantly drained and Rosa couldn't keep up.

It doesn't help that a save crystal is ages away from the final boss...

It builds charachter!

I had an easy run with it, usually killing the bosses in one go, except for zeromus the first time. I tehn leveled for another 10 levels, went back, kicked his sorry ass.

Although, I did rush the Giant of Babel a little ><

[Sidderz]

Ya know I completely agree, I actually thought from the point you said onwards that the game was actually real hard and I usually only beat bosses by luck of just getting in all Tellah's powerful spells.

Possibly the most difficult FF I've played.

[Crossblades]

I didn't really find FF IV to be so difficult. The only difficult parts of the game was the Odin fight and the final battle

[Goldenboko]

Try beating it without fighting random encounters.

[Takara]

Evil Wall wiped the floor with my party's sorry asses so many times... T_T

[Zeromus_X]

Eh, I think II and III can be alot tougher at places.

Since getting killed fast seems to be a problem for you, have you tried turning down the battle speed? Also, is your equipment and everything up to date? You should never have to power level if you just never run from random encounters (the exception being the final dungeon). Cecil should be a good tank with a decent level and equipment.

For Baigan, kill off one of the arms but don't kill both (they'll regenerate). Have Yang use Buildup on his body, and Tellah cast a level three spell at the body. Then, Baigan will retaliate with Reflect. Have Tellah now cast reflect on one of your characters, and have him and Porom bounce black magic off of that character. This might kill the arm instead, but those should fall rather quickly (only 444 HP). Eventually he should fall. And of course, the boss after him shouldn't present any troubles with Thundara/Thundaga.

[Ashley Schovitz]

IV is the hardest i think if you're playing the SNES or Playstation version. I heard the GBA version is easy. Yes the game is hard especially Evil Wall and especially in the Land of Summons about every step you take in their drains your health and the random monsters themeselves are killer.

[robfinalfantasy]

That's right it's hard. Don't you just love it when the enemies knock off a good 50% of your HP in a single blow!? I'd say it is the second hardest Final Fantasy.

[Evastio]

I didn't find it that hard.

It was the first Final Fantasy I started with

[Frostwake]

After playing some more I realized how much levels affect difficulty in this game.. I was used to FF IX in which levels basically only change your hp, but here wow... the same boss that kills your party at lvl 20 gets wiped at lvl 25... When I reached the underworld and went on to beat Calbrina my cecil wasnt even lvl 20.. that explains why I was having so much trouble :P

Oh and btw, does Edge suck or its just me? He dies faster than Rydia or Rosa even in the back row... very lame

Something that makes this game really hard aside from the raw speed of enemies is the randomness of damage.. in the same battle an enemy can do 50 damage and the next turn do 500.. I dont get it

Either way, it seems having a fully armored Cecil with everyone else in critical hp is the way to go against physical attackers.. he just covers everyone and loses so little hp that Rosa has all the time to heal him

[Momiji]

Unless you are way overleveled obviously... Its easy until you have to go back to baron to get Cid's airship... After that the bosses are simply insane...

I thought something was wrong with my game so I went to check some videos of FF IV advance on youtube and bosses are SOO SLOW there... If you have the GBA version you have NO IDEA how hard the original (hardtype) game is... Bosses are SUPERFAST and always get 2-3 turns between EVERY CHARACTER... you can just barely keep up with the healing

Im playing using an emulator (thank god, because I cant imagine having to load from save points) and at that boss with the regenerating arms (Baigan) its just insane... every arm hits up to 400 damage (Cecil having the highest HP at 800.. imagine the slaughter) I was about to throw my keyboard out of the window after the 30th try.. God bless the save states LOL

The worse is, after this one boss, every single enemy in the game becomes super fast and does insane damage to characters in the front row.. a typical group of 4 monsters WILL get about 8 attacks before your whole party can act, by which time someone will probably be dead already..

Just wanted to "vent" my frustration :P am I the only one here or is this really the hardest FF by far?

No, I found FFI (NES) to be the hardest so far. I haven't even come close to beating it. FFIV is a great game, and the difficulty is what makes it all the better. And it shouldn't be that hard if you're using savestates. I have the Playstation version and the GBA version, and I beat them both and yes, the PS/SNES version is much harder than the GBA, but you need that level grinding to beat Zeromus. A little trick that I use for leveling is going into the moon dungeon, loaded with cottages, run around the area close to the save point, and when you get to a battle, kill off one or two of your characters (or four if you're confident) and when you win, the exp earned is divided by your characters, and the dead ones get nothing, so the characters that need more EXP get it, when the stronger and dead ones get none. It's good for balancing your party, or getting Rydia and Rosa's final spells faster.

EDIT: And yes, Edge does suck. The only redeeming part of him is his steal (for stealing dark matter from Zeromus) and his throw (the spoon, fuma shurikens, and the Excalibur at Zeromus) abilities. He's pretty lame otherwise, unlike other ninjas. Even the fact that he can wield 2 swords isn't that great, he still can't match up to an attack from Cecil equipped with the Crystal/Ragnarok (depending on version), and he can't take a hit either, and his magic sucks compared to Rydia's magic.

[Ashley Schovitz]

Blitz seemed to do more damage than Bolt 2 for me.