Am i just Weak or what?

[Forsaken Lover]

So i was trying to avoid using a FAQ or guide for this game. All was going smoothly...until about 30 minutes in. I went to Fynn and Scott died. So I got his ring and figured I'd go back to Altair since his brother, who he wanted me to talk to, is there.

Only on the way there I keep reaching a certain part where I have to fight Bombs and Big Horns and hey own me in one hit.

This Flee command ain't worth crap.

Anyway am i just underpowered or something? Firion has 65 HP and Guy has 71 and Maria...well, she's just worthless.

Oh and it's the GBA version.

[Vermachtnis]

That's how the game tells you not to go that way.

[Forsaken Lover]

Kay. I'm on the right path again.

As for Maria, she has such low defense I thought it was best to keep her in the back row. I'll try her with the two swords thing then.

[Darth Cid]

Yeah, if you want you can train all you want to get strong enough to move around that area, (SPOILER)and find towns like Mysidia, no really, that's what a town is called in this game, it's a mage town like FFIV and everything, but it's a needed unless you want to break the battle system which takes a long time depending on how much you want to break in it.

[Barraza]

This game isn't meant to be played non-linearly.

It's called the "save" button, and it will save you. Save every two minutes.

[dragoon1028]

im not sure about the 'save' strategy. To me it seems boring and tedious, but since you are playing Final Fantasy 2 you are used to doing tedious things. Now this game is known for its sometimes unforgiving difficulty... but in truth it isnt tough just tedious...

And now since i feel that i strayed off subject a bit(sorry) Im going to give you some pointers on final fantasy 2 that made the game easier for me.

1.teach Maria white magic, she learns it faster than your other characters, besides Minwu, but he has every spell anyway so watever.

2.teach Guy black magic, he learns it faster too for some reason, and both Guys and Marias MP will increase faster.

3.If you want to give yourself some bonus HP all you have to do is have, Maria(since she is weakest) attack your other party members, if you attack someone twice, then there HP will go up and then just repeat the process

[Yar]

I think you just went too far in the wrong direction.

[Forsaken Lover]

So I got distracted and put down the game but whilst waiting for my sister to finally deliver FFXII, I decided to pick it back up.

Just killed The Emperor though of course I know he'll be back.

Ricard is smurfing worthless. I want Leila back.

Also what's this I hear about you not needing magic? I tried hacking and slashing my way through the game but once I got to the Wyvern place and ran into Hill Gigas and Flans, that seemed like an outdated way of fighting.

Most of the bosses, like the Thunder Gigas in the Mysidia Tower, are only threats due to their massive physical power (TG did almost 1k damage each attack) so Blink and Protect are absolutely vital for me.

Also attack magic is good. I have Level 10 Fire and Blizzard and I'm leveling up my Ultima and they're great helps.

[RedPouch]

Ricard is smurfing worthless. I want Leila back.

Of course Ricard is useless, but why would you want Leila back? She's slightly better than Ricard, but that's not saying much since it's almost impossible to be as bad as him. She pales in comparison to Gordon for heaven's sake, who was trash in comparison to Minwu and Josef.

Also what's this I hear about you not needing magic? I tried hacking and slashing my way through the game but once I got to the Wyvern place and ran into Hill Gigas and Flans, that seemed like an outdated way of fighting.

Most the magic I used was non-offensive, especially curing after battle. I never really took the time to level up the basic elemental spells, Holy, Flare, nor any of the status spells. You don't really need this stuff to crush everyone in the game. Pretty much, you only need things like Haste and Cure leveled up. Leveling up other spells is just for fun. If you take the time to do it though, then you can dish out some nice damage. However, I still think you get more damage-output by using magic to support heavy melee damage [specifically, Haste].

Also attack magic is good. I have Level 10 Fire and Blizzard and I'm leveling up my Ultima and they're great helps.

Leveling Ultima is useless unless all of your spells are level 16, otherwise its damage will be mediocre [and in many cases, less than other spells like Flare or Holy]. I've read conflicting "explanations" stating that [in reference to the person using Ultima] not only do you need his/her spells all maxed out, but that you need everyone else in the party to max their spells out as well. I've also read that you need to max out the user's stats as well, and I've also read that you need to max out the stats for everyone else in the party to "truly max out Ultima's damage". I've even read that you only need the user's spells all maxed out [along with Ultima] and all of their stats as well, but you need only max the other spells of all party members since their stats don't count.

Even though this is a response, I'd actually like to see if I can get a clear answer on this. I hear a different story each time, and I want to get the definite 100%-correct-explanation-with-proof-as-backup answer. None of this "well I read somewhere that blah-blah-blah", no. I want someone that looked at the coding of the game or something and was able to determine an actual, clear answer to this. Does anybody have such a source?

[Forsaken Lover]

I wanted Leila back because she had a lot of good magic. Gordon was cool too as I rmeember he started out pitifullly weak then became my best character in a few fights.

Also I don't care about any of them anymore. I have Leon in my party and he's all kinds of awesome from both a gameplay and story perspective.

And I admit I was leveling up Ultima solely to justify the hype it got. It's supposed to be like a superspell like FFVII's Holy. I want to make sure the trouble I went through getting it wasn't in vain.