A Full Final Fantasy Fmarathon (Community Edition)

[Fynn]

Also I now realize the FFI PSP sprites are actually based on FFIII. The mages are at a 3/4 angle, which they weren’t in the original, while the monk and master monk (black belt in III) are pretty much HD versions of the III sprite. It’s neat, because I guess the versions in III are far closer to the series “canon” while I had a lot of early installment weirdness. Thief isn’t jacked and doesn’t have a mustache though lol. I do kinda wish they’d gone all the way and given the White Wizard a kitty hood.

[Wolf Kanno]

Fine I'll explain the classes for you.

Geomancer - The first time the class ever appeared and it's a doozy. Terrain is a weird ability in this entry. There are eight abilities in total based on the eight terrains. Three do damage to all enemies, two do damage to one enemy, the other three will instant kill one of them. The major drawback of this class is that if the Terrain ability misses all enemies, the Geomancer will be hit with Backfire, which does damage based on 25% of the Geomancers max health. When the moves land, the class is a beast, but the backfire effect is a real detriment, especially when the instant death stuff has the highest failure rate. The class is best used Underwater, in Caves, or on the open field because these three terrains do the group hitting attack and have the lowest backfire potential. They are also the only magic class with the Defend command.

Dragoon - First appearance in the series and not quite the beast this class is in later installments. Dragoons have their jump ability as usual. Jump can actually miss, which may seem odd for some people. Jump does higher damage but not necessarily the 2x people are used to and spears don't garner any more benefit for it like later installments. There are also fewer Lances in the NES version than the DS one. It's best attribute is that Jump still allows a character to dodge attacks which is the main reason why it's so damn useful for the Garuda fight.

Viking - Another tanky class like Knight. They come with the Defend command and are decent fighters. the original incarnation has higher vitality than their DS counterpart, but lack the DS versions higher strength. They are not bad units, but Knight largely covers what they do. You may want to use Vikings during the time where Knight gear is scarce and then switch back when the endgame knightswords arrive.

Magic Knight - Doesn't really shine until the endgame. They come with the ability to use low level white magic barring Aero. There main claim to fame is being able to use Samurai Swords which are the only physical weapons that can injure dividing enemies without making them divide. You'll want one or two of them for the Cave of Shadows and likely carry one into the final areas until Ninja is unlocked. They are an okay class in the defense department and thankfully the "dark blades" are generally stronger than a lot of Knight swords. The issue is that you need the Invincible to get this class any gear in the original. The DS gave them access to a few Knight weapons.

Evokers - This class is way better in the NES version. Evokers can soft summon the game's main summons. Basically they will either cast a Light or Dark Attack. Dark usually does some kind of elemental damage while Light is usually a debuff though some have other effects like healing, buffing, and physical damage. The elemental attacks only hit one enemy but do decent damage on par with a Black Mage. Where the NES shines over the DS version is that the status spells have 100% accuracy in the original, making this an ideal class for crowd control. Shiva's Paralyze skill or Leviathan's Petrify ability will do wonders for you in the Cave of Shadows.

Bard - The first incarnation of this class isn't so bad. In fact with the exception of Str. and Int. the DS version actually lowered the stats of this class for some reason. They are still on the flimsy side thought and Harps are not terribly great weapons. Their two commands are Scare and Cheer. Scare will lower all enemies level by 3. If use it enough time, enemies will actually run away. Bosses are of course immune to it. Cheer raises the whole party's physical attack power and will stack. In fact I don't think it even has a limit. So yeah, Bard's are neat.

Black Belt - Oof, easily the powerhouse of this group. They are an upgraded monk who get the Buildup skill. They are not quite as broken as their DS counterpart (which can one shot Cloud of Darkness and break the damage limit) but they are still one of the strongest classes in the game. There is a reason the DS version moved this class to the final crystal. The biggest issue with this class is their abysmal magic defense. Like seriously, their MND and INT will never go higher than 1 so they take lots of damage from magic. the class has the highest vitality in the game, so they are the perfect class to grind in for HP gains, especially if you've had a character stay a mage for too long.

[Fynn]

Ok, so I’ll likely set the Knight to Magic Knight once I have the equipment to back it up, and I’ll probably actually change my back mage into an evoker once I can actually buy the spells for them. Dragon I’ll probably only use for the Garuda fight. Bard sounds really cool but also I only have a white mage left to change, and I don’t think I feel safe ditching my dedicated healer :/

Also, if it’s not too much trouble, feeling like giving me a rundown of the earth crystal and eureka jobs?

[Wolf Kanno]

Devout - A Tanky upgrade White Mage, they get access to all the higher tier white magic spells. They are nerfed in the DS version having lower stats and spell charges for their magic.

Magus - Same deal as the Devout, a more robust Black Mage with access to all the endgame spells. The stat spread isn't quite as bad from the DS version. The NES version has lower strength but higher vitality. As with the Devout they have higher spell charge count for all of their magic.

Summoner - The is like the most tinkered with class. The NES version has slightly lower stats except for Vitality of which it has a huge drop off from the DS version. The NES version has lower spell charges as well but summons are pretty brutal. Summoners do the full summon showing off the signature attack of all their summons.

The main issue with the classes is that they are a lot like Internet Explorer. You'll use them once to help you get Sage and then they are all instantly obsolete. Granted, Eureka is no cakewalk, so thankfully these classes are good.

Sage is a beast of a class in this game and is the ultimate mage class. They can use any white, black, and summon spell in the game, and unlike their nerfed counterpart in the DS version, they use the full summon. Their overall stats are also better in the original making them fairly tanky, and they have the highest spell charges for all eight ranks of magic of any magic class. With three slots per level you can heavily customize them to your liking. Just remember that the Lv. 8 magic is in Eureka's shop and super expensive so choose wisely.

Ninja is the ultimate melee class in the game. They can equip any item that isn't the Onion Gear. They have the best melee stats on par with Black Belt but actually have real magic defense, so they can take better damage. They have no special ability but they can equip the rare Shuriken item that is super expensive in Eureka. Shuriken has the same attack power as the Onion Sword and when a Ninja uses it in battle, the weapon is lost since it was "thrown" so you'll need to equip a new one every round. I'd save them for CoD personally.

[Lord Golbez]

Yeah, if you can do that, you'll probably get lots of kills and maybe your team will pwn the other team.

[Fynn]

Ok so was no one gonna tell me the Cave of the Circle is one of those bulltrout mini-only dungeons in this version?

[Wolf Kanno]

[Fynn]

So I thought I’d be able to finish the game yesterday, but I didn’t. I got as far as finishing the cave of shadows though, so I’ll be finishing it either on Friday or Saturday, I guess. Current party is a magic knight, evoker, white mage and black belt.

[Fynn]

Oh right, forgot to mention I got Odin. I’ve decided the bosses in FFIII got hard but also did quick. I’m also very happy they don’t hit more than once per turn, which is what they did in the 3D version. Whose bright idea was that?

[Wolf Kanno]

That was to compensate for the re-balanced classes. If you were playing the DS version, you should have classes that could hit the visual damage cap by this point. What's the highest damage you've seen so far?

[Fynn]

Around 2k-3k from dual-katana-wielding magic knights. Granted, this isn’t consistent - they only got so much in Falgabard Cave, but still

[Fynn]

Ok so I beat Doga and Unei, got Leviathan, on my way to get Bahamut, and then all that’s left is the three final dungeons gauntlet. I’m probably gonna try and kill two birds with one stone by taking on Eureka with all Black Belts so that I can also grind everyone’s HP lol

[Fynn]

Welp, that’s FFIII done! Overall I think I actually had a much easier time with the NES version. Perhaps I was better prepared, more experienced, and just knew what to expect much more. The jobs may be less balanced but I think one of the main reasons this wasn’t nearly as terrifying is that bosses only attacked once per turn! That and the speed up feature made grinding go by faster

So yeah, that’s the end of the NES era for me. I’ll probably talk more on the matter later. For now I need to go to bed and tomorrow I’m entering what I consider the golden age of FF - the SNES era!

[Fynn]

So I started IV and am about to get on the ship from Fabul, which means I’ll have Cecil become a paladin very soon. It’s been very nice so far. I always like just playing IV because if just goes by so fast, especially on the PSP version. I’m actually using the original background music this time, which makes it all the more mindblowing just how big of a leap this was after FFIII’s sound. Mind you, I’m not doing this because I don’t like the rearrangements, as Junya Nakano did a fine job, I just want to use the new arrangements for TAY just to keep things fresh

On that note, while I do like the new versions - great call on Nakano’s part to take some elements from Celtic Moon - they don’t feel like as dramatic of an improvement as the arrangements for previous remixes do. I mean, that’s kind of to be expected considering I through II were rearranged from 8 bit music, but I still think of the three arrangers so far (the other two being Uematsu himself and Sekito) Nakano kinda feels the most basic. Uematsu really outdid himself for the for the first game, but Sekito’s work on II and III were mindblowing, with the arranged music for both being much better than the original, with the possible exception of FFIII’s battle themes. I am now very upset I had slept on Sekito for so long

[Fynn]

lol I forgot to update on Sunday. I’ve actually made it to the Underworld, and I even got to the Tower of Babil. Now I’m back stuck on the surface and about to pick up Edge, to get a taste of my final party (which I was never a fan of tbh? Like give me Yang over Edge any day tbh). I should be done with the main story pretty soon, but then of course I intend to do Mt Ordeals and the Lunar Ruins. I’m probably gonna be keeping Edward in my party a lot. I wanna see those stats soar once he passes level 70.

Also, wife intends to start FFIV DS this weekend so that’s exciting! This will be her first time to be playing IV, so I’m excited that she’s starting with my favorite version, though I do worry a bit if the difficulty won’t be discouraging. Sadly, that’s the only version available to her now, since the GBA cart is back with my parents and I’m playing the PSP version (which doesn’t even have a Spanish translation, which is her preferred language). It’s gonna be fun, playing the same game at once