Easiest/Hardest Square Game

[escobert]

Easiest VIII obviously.

Vagrant Story or Parasite Eve would be hardest imo.

[Shotgunnova]

For me, easiest is no contest -- FFVIII. You can immediately augment your stats and, within two hours, get Degenerator! It doesn't help that limit breaks are the most abusable thing this side of a broken ATM.

Hardest that I've played is Vagrant Story. It's definitely refined and nuanced, but as hard as I try, I stumble repeatedly in fighting, keeping RISK down, building and correctly using weapons, etc. Great dialogue in the vein of FFT, but it can crush people going it alone pretty easily. Federal law should state it can't be sold without a manual. =p

[Spuuky]

Yeah, there is about one correct post in this entire thread:

"anyone who isn't saying 7th Saga has obviously never played 7th Saga."

Probably also the hardest RPG ever made. Bonus points for that.

The easiest is Final Fantasy anything and Chrono Trigger and any game made after the SNES and ...

[Roogle]

I do not count 7th Saga because it is not a Square Enix game. It was made by Enix years before the merger — but it is a terribly difficult game. That would get my top vote if we are counting Square Enix, Squaresoft, and Enix games.

Easiest: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
Hardest: 7th Saga / Vagrant Story

[Sarc the Swordsman]

Vagrant Story was the hardest out of all the Square/Enix games I've played. The boss battles, and even some of the normal enemy encounters were excruciatingly difficult if you didn't have adequate equipment.

It still remains one of my favourite games of all time though.

As for the easiest, I found FF7 to be very easy. Aside from the optional boss battles, that is. I guess it was easy because in every playthrough I took the time to set up each character with a nice set of materia and equipment, and it was pretty easy to level up at any time in the game if you knew where to go.

[Alucard von Elru]

Hardest: Vagrant Story and Einhander, I'd wager. Although on the note of VS, Matsuno games are always more challenging than most other RPGs.

Easiest: Final Fantasy X or Chrono Cross

Best overall balance of challenge: Chrono Trigger

[Laddy]

Easiest: FFVIII was ridiculously easy, I hated the Junction system!
"Honorable" Mentions: KH, FFX, Chrono Trigger

Hardest: FF1 was unnaturally hard.
"Honorable" Mentions: FFIII, SO3, FFV, Chrono Cross

[feioncastor]

Easiest was most definitely Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. Doesn't take more than 8-10 hours from start to finish, and that includes obtaining everything there is to get and essentially "mastering" the game.

And the hardest probably goes to FF1, since they didn't seem to have figured out how to employ a practical inventory and other bizzare things that just made the game unusually difficult.

[Tabris]

The easiest would have to be FF XII: Revenant Wings.

The hardest I guess would be... FFI, actually. It required a lot of levelling, and I found the dungeons more difficult than any other FF I've played so far.

[Ace14]

For me the easiest game was probably final fantasy X except for the final summoning but I'm not much of a person to stand around and train and level up so maybe thats why.

Hardest game for me was FFXII, just everything was incredibly difficult and I don't even know why. Especially trying to get all the espers the monsters on the way to Zodiark are evil EVIl little things.

[Monkey4Soul]

Easiest: Dragon Warrior (if it counts)

Hardest: I don't really know many games outside FF, and none of them were hard IMO.

[Gilghamut]

Easiest: FFX

Hardest Final Fantasy Tactics - mostly atop Riovanes Castle, and the battle with Elmdor; later in the game.

[hhr1dluv]

Hrm...of the ones I have beaten (see below):
Kingdom Hearts II was the easiest.
Final Fantasy IV was the hardest.

Of the ones I have simply tried, Dirge of Cerberus seems to be very easy, and FFTactics seems to be very hard.

To all of you who have said that FF VIII is ridiculously easy, I assume it's because you take advantage of the junction system in a way that a casual gamer might not. But then, that's just an assumption. Question: do you all always flee from random battles in FFVIII? Is that one of the major ways to make it easier?

[Wolf Kanno]

Hrm...of the ones I have beaten (see below):
Kingdom Hearts II was the easiest.
Final Fantasy IV was the hardest.

Of the ones I have simply tried, Dirge of Cerberus seems to be very easy, and FFTactics seems to be very hard.

To all of you who have said that FF VIII is ridiculously easy, I assume it's because you take advantage of the junction system in a way that a casual gamer might not. But then, that's just an assumption. Question: do you all always flee from random battles in FFVIII? Is that one of the major ways to make it easier?

There are few threads in the VIII forum than can offer better detail but for me the best tricks are simply these:

1. Don't bother using offensive magic. Magic is terribly underpowered in this game and is only useful for stat maxing and basic defensive purposes (healing, haste, and Barrier etc..). Furthermore, stick to raising your physical attack and improving it as welll as speed.

2. Don't rely on the GFs. They're powerful but towards end game, bosses gain abilities that allow them to one shot them. You want to strike a balance with GFs and using your Junctioned Party. Besides, abusing your Limit Breaks is better and more efficient though a few GFs will always be useful (Doomtrain, Cerberus, Odin, and Gilgamesh).

3. Refining, is the key to becoming godly. Drawing spells from enemies is ok but abusing the ability to to refine items or lower level spells into higher level spells is even better. Refine abilities should be your number #1 priorty of obtaining from GFs. By the end of Disc 1, you can have the ability to refine Curaga's from Tents and these can practically triple your current HP.

As you can tell, the games system is incredibly broken and offers the easiest and simplest way of power-leveling in the series.

Back on topic... anyone else disappointed by how dirt easy the main story of Crisis Core is?

[chionos]

Easiest: FFVIII or FFIX, or maybe FFMQ. Drakengard's pretty easy too

Hardest: Really no contest here. FFXI is easily the most challenging SE game. (Twice I spent 12+ hours on one single fight) Of course, MMO's are in another class, so I guess they don't count, in which case I'll say Vagrant Story since I haven't played 7th Saga, but I'm d/l that now and maybe I'll update later.
The DQ games are hard too, but only because they suck so bad I can't make myself finish them. DQVII took forever simply because I couldn't force myself to play.