FFI: everybody keeps missing wtf (level 2 ppl)

[Peegee]

I just started play Final Fantasy 1, because I wanted to. I just want to publicly congradulate Dr Unne for writing a walkthrough that will make things rediculously easy for me *yay*

I'm using 3 fighters (I like the shinies) and a RM. They all have Rapiers and chain armour. YES IT IS EQUIPPED. Yet usually 1/4 of of them can score an attack. It's not a big deal now, but geez, battles take forever and I keep seeing 'miss' or 'ineffective' or 'omfg you stink'. What's the deal? Is it just an effect of low-level warriors?

edit: I started manually attacking different imps, and it's starting to work. Why doesn't the game just automatically choose another monster to attack, like...well, FF8 has it, and so did FF7. Was it too early? *wanders away*

[DocFrance]

"Ineffective" comes from when a character attacks a target that's already dead. So you tell both your fighter and theif to attack the same imp - the fighter swings and easily kills the thing, but the thief goes ahead and attacks its dead corpse. Don't ask me why. Try having only your hard hitters attack a single target, and the ones that can't do so much damage gang up.

[Dr Unne]

FF1 requires a bit of thought. You've been spoiled by the later games, in which holding down a single button = instant success in most battles. In FF1 you have to pick your targets. You have to know how strong your characters are, how strong the monsters are, when a monster is going to die so you can avoid targetting it unnecessarily. When you fight two monsters, you get to divide your own party into teams, depending on how strong they are, to do the optimal damage; doing too much damage on one monster is as bad as doing too little, when you're fighting a group. And when you get spells later (FIR2, LIT2) that can hit all the monsters at once, you'll appreciate it much much more.

[Rase]

Why doesn't the game just automatically choose another monster to attack, like...well, FF8 has it, and so did FF7. Was it too early? *wanders away*

Yes, it was to early. I don't beileve they auto-changed targets until... FFIV? I think that was the one.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

It was FFIII.

[DJZen]

Playing FF 1 and 2 really gives you a new perspective on fighting monsters. Even when I play the new school FFs that don't have the inneffective message, I still try to economize the damage that I do. If I have one character that's weaker than the other, and I'm fighting monsters that have different amounts of HP, I try to set it up so that I'm not doing too much damage to one and not enough to the other. Sometimes you have to choose between killing one and only hurting the other, or just hurting both of them. That's REALLY obnoxious sometimes.

[Rase]

It was FFIII.

Well, I never played that one, so that could be why I didn't know that it. Thanks for the clarification.

[DJZen]

FFIII also did this neat thing where it showed you who was attacking which monster by flashing the number of the character over their sprite. If they do ever do a remake of FFIII I hope they keep that in just for tradition's sake.

[aeris2001x2]

stick with the auto target on origins, much better then attacking empty space. you still have to econmise in all the ffs 4 max damage, e.g i still get my fighter to attack the high hp guy and get my black mage 2 hit the goblins. but you always know you wont waste your turns which is highly horrid.

its funny how ff1 is a hard ff at first, requiring much tactics in battle then most. but by the end everything is so weak. almost complete oppisite to ffx-2 (everything easy, by end at trema and paragon u need tactics).

but ahhh, it is such a refreshing sight to compare your lv 1 starting team to your finished team that annalihates warmech with ease.

[Black Mage]

FFX-2 was easy the whole way through, but this isn't the forum for that.

Personally, I left Auto-Targeting off, when I played FFO, mainly because it felt more like playing the original. It ups the difficulty, if only by a small bit, and does, indeed, keep the battle tactics intact.

Otherwise, it would simply be holding down one button, as Unne had said. Sure, you can still target other monsters to "optimize damage", as some of you had said, with the Auto-target on, however, when you're just fighting to level up, I don't believe many bother with that. Yet, when that option is left off, then it forces you, the player, to pay attention, even if each monster only takes two hits to destroy.

Perhaps it makes things more "obnoxious", but I suppose that's what makes a classic a classic.

[Dr Unne]

I honestly can play FF7 without even looking at the TV. When I want to level up, I hold down the right flapper button + right d-pad, to run in a circle till I get into a battle. Then I hold down O until the monsters die.

That's no way a game should be. Every battle should be hard to the point where you need to pay attention just to survive. The game should put you in a state of outright fear of death at any second, with no silly illusions that you can breeze through random encounters. That's how FF1 is. Go through the Ice Cave and then see where a strategy of "hold down the button" gets you. It gets you torn to little tiny bits by sorcerers, that's where.

Back in The Day, when you played an RPG, it wasn't to "enjoy the storyline", or to "get to know the characters". Oh no. The first five or ten minutes might've been for "fun", but after that, you realize that fun doesn't even enter into it any longer. You realize that this game was not designed to give you enjoyment, but rather is intent only on murdering your party at unexpected times. You go from a map of happy, weak Imps, to a forest with Ogres who can kill you in one hit. You watch as the game toys with you, letting you get with steps of the dungeon exit, only to throw a party of Frost Dragons at you, letting them strike first and killing you before you even get a chance to run. From that point forward, you play the game to show that NES cart who's boss. Beating FF1 for the first time is less enjoyment than it is sweet sweet revenge. And that's the way I likes it.

[TasteyPies]

Hey Dr.Unne i must admit that i enjoyed your walkthrough, actualy its the best. Can you make more walkthroughs for other titles? Yours was just so easy to understand, plenty of humor too.

[DocFrance]

Back in The Day, when you played an RPG, it wasn't to "enjoy the storyline", or to "get to know the characters". Oh no. The first five or ten minutes might've been for "fun", but after that, you realize that fun doesn't even enter into it any longer. You realize that this game was not designed to give you enjoyment, but rather is intent only on murdering your party at unexpected times. You go from a map of happy, weak Imps, to a forest with Ogres who can kill you in one hit. You watch as the game toys with you, letting you get with steps of the dungeon exit, only to throw a party of Frost Dragons at you, letting them strike first and killing you before you even get a chance to run. From that point forward, you play the game to show that NES cart who's boss. Beating FF1 for the first time is less enjoyment than it is sweet sweet revenge. And that's the way I likes it.

Why do I get the impression of some old man complaining about how all the young whipper-snappers these days have it so easy?

[DJZen]

Right flapper button?

Actually, the only FF I ever really struggled with was FFII, but then I figured it out and brought the PAIN!

[Peegee]

holding down the o button? Do you have a turbo controller? No wonder you're winning!

I liked Dr Unne's rant except I have yet to seriously encounter a problem fighting anything in FF1. The only time anybody died was when I cheated and went to that penninsula with the upper level monsters, and I only lost my RM or something.

I don't even remember, that's how easy the game is. Thanks Dr Unne.