Which one???

[Wolf Kanno]

Except the requirements for a good chunk of those spells require you giving augments to characters that are going to leave long before the game actually gives you good ones. Its actually tough in the beginning cause you get a few really good ones but have to sacrifice them to Edward or Yang to get their skills and even then, you may not acquire the extra augments they give until much later.

To be honest, most of the augments are hardly game-breakers. Fast Talker is a great ability but it is hardly an "instant cast" ability. Omnicast has never worked properly for me and duel cast was a spell I had to hold onto cause I acquired long before I got the character I wanted to give it to. Not to mention the amount of augments your characters can actually use is very limited. Basically whatever you have on your attack menu (basically five slots) so you sometimes have to sacrifice good abilites for others.

Its really not that easy with a guide and and considering how nasty the enemies in the last two dungeons get, its all fair, the only ability that seems broken is Limit Break but since you only acquire it after you beat the game and can only use it in a new game + where all your characters are turned back to lv.1 its a moot issue cause you literally have to have end game levels to take advantage of it.

The augment system only becomes a game breaker when you start doing the new game+ since you finally start doubling up some abilites but most people probably won't play the game past the first run.

[RedPouch]

I wasn't even talking about the Limit Break one, but after reading the guide, I'm not sure what you mean by it not being that easy. Besides, most of the worst enemies are vulnerable to powerful status effects like Stop. The only thing not worth fighting there are the Dark Sages in my opinion.

I never new game+'d since I had too many other games I wanted to jump onto at the time, but maybe I will in the future, just for fun.
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[Wolf Kanno]

Then I have no idea what you mean by broken abilites cause most of them are really not bad.

I haven' partake of a new game plus myself but plan too once I get a playthrough of FFIX out of the way.

[RedPouch]

Then I have no idea what you mean by broken abilites cause most of them are really not bad.

I haven' partake of a new game plus myself but plan too once I get a playthrough of FFIX out of the way.

Alright let me recap. I only think some of them are broken, but I wasn't even aware there was that silly Limit Break one at first. But the main thing really is that they just watered down what challenge there is in the end half of the game based on what I saw from peeking at my friend's save. It reminded me a lot of going through Kefka's tower where everyone will have Curaga, Quick, Ultima, Arise, and Reraise.
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[Wolf Kanno]

Its really not that bad, to be honest, quite a few of the augments either have some default weakness (Ultima is a twincast ability but using it involves using both of your healers Cecil and Rosa and even then you still have no guarantee they will use that attack, you're usually better off letting Cecil attack and Rosa use Holy). Many more are useful in the beginning but since most bosses have counterattack abilites and trying to use Rosa for anything but healing will get you killed, I'd say they make thing survivable rather than easy. I'll admit Zeromus was easier than I had anticipated but this is because he actually has a more complicated attack script that doesn't start with:

Big Bang - Spam relentlessly

So him not using his big gun attack so often actually makes him a bit easier though him countering crap with Meteor was hardly fun...

Really, the enemies like to use status effects far more often and they reduced your parties defensive abilites allowing enemies to pull off the same level of damage on you with high Magic. This is why Golbez was a pain cause you have two party members left and he's hitting you with -aga- level spells that are actually doing damage in the 1000's. Reviving party members is an act of god in that fight. Its hard enough keeping Rydia alive with Cecil's mediocre healing spells, let alone trying to actually revive someone in the battle. I had two characters above level 70 for this fight (stupid rare drops) one of them being Cecil and I was still getting killed.

I had a maxed out party by the end of the game and utilized the augments extensively and I would hardly say it made the final dungeon really any easier, a tad less frustrating perhaps, but hardly a cakewalk. Granted their is a way to make it easier but you would need to know about the way Augments affect your stats above level 70. Even then it would be terribly hard and frustrating to pull off without a guide and severe patience as it involves getting the crazy rare drops in the game cause after gaining a power leveled party you quickly figure out that your equipment tends to be more important than your stats at times.

[RedPouch]

Are you sure you aren't exaggerating just slightly? I really didn't experience any of this when I went through the end-game myself. But aside from that, having Counter, Dualcast, and Omnicast really seemed to change the end-game parts dramatically using my friend's save, and her characters weren't even leveled that much.

[Wolf Kanno]

I probably played it more straight than you did. I have personal OCD things I like to do such as refusing to use Magic and items unless I have to. Still, at max levels I never felt my advantage was really all that great. Hell my max levels were sadly an accident as I gained them from actually acquiring all the special summons for Rydia. :sweatdrop:

No, I did have a rough time up until ironically I started fighting nothing but Behemoths and Blue Dragons. I usually don't waste my time with the Zemus monsters in the last stretch. I just had this bad luck of running into groups of Dark Wizards and half the time they surprised me. Once I got full equipment in there, they weren't so bad but getting to the equipment was another story.

[Book]

It's my understanding that most people that play either have a guide or look on gamefaqs.com though.

Now that's just stupid, I wouldn't use a guide or walkthrough the first playthrough, that would ruin any game. But it's quite fun after playing through a game to look them up and see all the things that you missed and how easy the games could have been But to say, oh I have every secret thing in a game cause I used a guide and grinded up my chracters and now the game is to easy! Is kinda.. silly if you ask me.

[VeloZer0]

Yes, but sadly it seems that nowadays game developers assume that people will use guides on their first playthrough. I found that augments did make the game noticeably easier, but even with them it was considerably more difficult than the original incarnation.

The first time I picked up FFIV DS I plowed through for 10 hours loving it, then found out about how much I had missed by just playing through for fun and not consulting a guide before I started. I was so pissed I put the game down for six months before I could pick it up again. I started a new playthrough with a guide and got everything, but it wasn't the same.
You can say I should have just not gone with a guide the second time if it makes it less fun, but missing stuff in games is also very un-enjoyable. Crap like that forces me into a no-win scenario.

Fortunately I though everything about the remake was amazing, so I wasn't that upset on the whole.

[Book]

The first time I picked up FFIV DS I plowed through for 10 hours loving it, then found out about how much I had missed by just playing through for fun and not consulting a guide before I started. I was so pissed I put the game down for six months before I could pick it up again. I started a new playthrough with a guide and got everything, but it wasn't the same.

That's the point of guides imo. When you have finished the game once on your own you can read about all the things you missed and strategys and etc and think "hey I wonder if I could do this.. and that" and then you play the game all over again just for the that. I know I've done that with quite a few games. Like creating the ultimate odd combinations of parties in FF1 or try not to use GFs in FF8. By using a guide for your first playthrough you ruin the chance to discover things on your own and to truley explore the game world. And at some points you can just say "enough" is enough. Like when I discovered all the things you cuould get in FF12 and I was like "No.. I'm not going to do that" it's quite fun to play the games on your own terms and create your own challanges and playstyles.

[VeloZer0]

I hate having missable crap in games. Imo there should be no missable items. If you miss something there should be some way to get it at the end of the game. That would massively reduce the need for guides as you playthrough the game.

I love going through guides of games I have played in the past to look for stuff I missed or new strategy ideas. Hell, I've even gone through the entire formula guides for some games I really liked.

[Wolf Kanno]

You would still need a guide to figure out where to go to get the items you missed though in the later parts

I can't say I care about the missable items, I never do the "completionist file" on the first run cause that file tends to mean I won't touch the game for years. Different taste I guess.

[VeloZer0]

After I am done the game I don't mind guides in the least. I find them very useful. I just don't like knowing there is stuff I am missing, or information that is not where in game. It is bad video game design if I am feeling pressured to consult outside material as I am playing through.

[Wolf Kanno]

I see it less about needing a guide and more as elements hidden for the player to discover on their own. I feel it would be pretty easy to find all the augments in IV without a guide. I mean, its damn near impossible to collect every weapon and armor in the game without a guide and that goes for most old school titles as well.

Really, you don't even need half the augments unless you want to take on the new optional bosses. I feel most games are design to be played more than once and experimented. Part of the joy I had playing through FFVI and Chrono Trigger is that I played those games so religiously I really did find elements that most needed a guide for. Hell, I've found equipment and items in both FFVII and Xenogears which no official guide even makes a mention of. I think guides are more of a deal thanks to GameFaqs and game stores always doing those package deals with new titles. If you ignore it, you can still game like its 1988

[LoneSwordsmanAuron]

I tink the graphics on the DS version are too childish and ruin the feel of the game, compared to the SP version which was similar to the SNES version.