Which was the easiest Final Fantasy?

[Ayen]

Out of the ones I played? I, II, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII... Didn't play much of the last three. Toss up between VII and VIII. I can get pretty far without needing to grind on VII and VIII is pretty easy when you start GF spamming everything.

[Raistlin]

I actually thought that FFXIII had some challenging moments, despite the fact that I dislike the game as a whole. FFVIII definitely wins my vote, for the reasons already stated in this thread. FFVI, VII, and X get honorable mentions.

EDIT: Oh, and re: FFX, I have to agree with WK on the mechanics. It was a nice try at a slight change of pace, but it was so simple and blindingly obvious that after the novelty wore off, having to change characters every battle for the easy kill just became a mild annoyance. FFX was an attempt at a middle ground system between button-mashing and challenging, but ended up being just barely north of button-mashing.

[Jinx]

FFX's battle system would've benefited from something like Shadow Hearts: Covenant's battle system: the less turns you take to end a battle, the more XP and rewards you get. Then there would've been more incentive to killing everything in one go.

[Mirage]

Not sure what to judge this by. Total amount of optional hard content, or ease of completing the main story?

I think FF7's main story was pretty easy to complete. FF6 (SNES) didn't have a lot or hard stuff to do in the endgame, and the main story wasn't very hard either.

[Colonel Angus]

Once you max out the jobs V is really easy. Even the ever so feared Shinryu is a piece-o-cake as long as you have Coral Rings.

[The Man]

I can't think of any game in the series that I've played to completion that didn't give me at least one Game Over. It sounds like I skipped the easiest entries in the series, though (FFVIII and FFXIII).

FFX is mostly easy but there are one or two difficult boss battles (Seymour Flux and Yunalesca come to mind), although a case could be made that those battles are so cheap that they count as Fake Difficulty. FFVII gave me trouble at the Demon Wall and one other boss battle of which I've forgotten the name. FFVI gave me trouble at several points but that's mostly because it was the first JRPG I'd played in literally ten years (I'd played FFIV shortly after it came out). None of these games are particularly difficult in general but there are one or two tricky parts.

I do agree with Colonel Angus that FFV is really easy if you learn all the jobs. But then, even the hard version of FFIV is easy if you're overlevelled, and that's generally agreed to be one of the most challenging entries in the series.

[Madame Adequate]

My issue is that it is a matching game. Instead of letting me figure it out for myself that Tidus is better for weaker but agile enemies the game flat out tells me and proceeds to show me through it's strong visual design that Tidus will always kill these smurfers in one hit. Hell the fact it usually takes just one hit to finish them off is another problem. Being able to see turn order basically means that my entire strategy is

Step One: Scan enemy types
Step Two: Figure out turn order
Step three: Match enemy with character, hit attack
Step four: win.

It may seem like there is more strategy than earlier installment where strategy comes down to mash X to win, but since the results are the same due to poor challenge, then I'm annoyed the game forces me to take two extra steps if the result is going to be the same. If the enemies had the ability to manipulate turn order more strongly and could take a few more blows, the system would be pretty good but as it stands it's just extra busy work for a battle that was always a one-sided victory like previous installments.

I mean, I can see your point, I'm just struggling to see how any other FF or indeed RPG is much different from this. To me, the fact that I can tell at a glance who can do what is the very model of game design, so I think we'll just have to disagree on this one

Which version did you play?

PSP, as the OP didn't specify versions, but I don't doubt the original installment was rather harder.

[Wolf Kanno]

I mean, I can see your point, I'm just struggling to see how any other FF or indeed RPG is much different from this. To me, the fact that I can tell at a glance who can do what is the very model of game design, so I think we'll just have to disagree on this one

I'm disappointed that you fail to understand the underlying issue here but I guess you would need to in order to enjoy X's insufferable combat system.

PSP, as the OP didn't specify versions, but I don't doubt the original installment was rather harder.

That makes sense. I just went through the original and find it hard to believe someone could say III was the easiest, but alas the DS/PSP version had to make sacrifices in order to work. Still a fun remake though.

[black orb]

>>> Except for FF1 (nes) and FF2 all the other FF games are easy..

[Quindiana Jones]

I voted for VII because it's the only one that's easy without having to rely on something. V may be easy if you max out the Jobs, VIII may be easy if you exploit its system, X may be easy if you use the characters properly, XII may be easy if you set up your Gambits well and so on, but VII is easy if you have eyes and can successfully push a button. It's the only FF I've played that isn't easy because of something; it's just plain easy.

[Ayen]

Quin settled the tie for me. My vote goes to VII.

[Yellow_Magic]

Voted for VII but completely forgot about the Junction system in VIII lol

[Pike]

Not sure what everyone's issue with FFX combat is, I think it's ridonkulously fun. Agreed that the overall game is easy because much of it is corridors but that's not why I play it. I play it because I love the fights and the sphere grid (and the characters but that's getting off topic)

Edit: IMO outside of the original NES games FF isn't a particularly challenging series, but that's fine. I don't play FF for the challenge; I play FF when I feel like running around like a dolt and killing monsters with magic and crap.

It may seem like there is more strategy than earlier installment where strategy comes down to mash X to win

I believe the word you are searching for is "tactics", not "strategy".

[Shauna]

FF7 gave me trouble at Demon Wall, but that's because I had fallen asleep while pressing X to win and missed that he wasn't as much of a complete pushover as the other battles in the game.

I can't comment too much on other games, as they may have given me a bit of trouble, but I last played many of them 10 years ago when I was crap at RPGs. :3 I also haven't played some of them. People say FF13 is easy, but I definitely had to redo more battles in there than in FF7.

[Forsaken Lover]

VIII may be easy if you exploit its system

Okay Stop.

Stop.

STOP.

I am sick of FFVIII apologists using the word "exploit" or "if".

It is not a matter of going out of your way to break the game. it is not a matter of grinding. It is not in any shape or form difficult to bend FFVIII over your knee and snap its difficulty in half.

In fact, it is the exact opposite of difficult because you are REWARDED for NOT DOING ANYTHING. Don't level up? Don't fight any random encounter?S Now the game is a laughing stock to you because you spent five seconds buying 10 Tents at Balamb and gave your character a billion HP in the first hour of the game and all the bosses will be scaled to fight someone at level 10 so they do only triple digit damage at best.

FFVIII is not a game you have to be smart at, or to know what you're doing. You just need to read the damned mandatory Tutorial and then bam, the game is a joke.

Can you have Firaga, Curaga and Thundaga in the first few hours of any other FF game? I don't think you can. Level 3 spells are easier to come by than Level 2 spells in FFVIII.