Difficulty Levels (Origina\Origins\DoS)

[VeloZer0]

EDIT: Doh, forgot to check for typos in the subject header. Dam sticky 'l' key.

Mt FF1 experience consists of the following:
Melmont in Original
Beaten Origins
Beaten DoS

Now, its obvious that DoS is MUCH easier due to the greatly increased leveling curve. However, I noticed the Chaos seemed to have an insanely larger HP pool in this version.

Origins I though was equal to Original in difficulty, but I was just perusing the FF1 section (which is excellent I might add) and I noticed Chaos is listed as 2000hp. When I defeated him in Origins I decidedly remember him having far more than 2k HP, which makes me wonder if the difficulty has in fact been changed.

I sure hope Origins isn't easier, because that means I have to beat it on the original, and that’s far more of a pain to play (far cooler, but much more of a pain).

[abrojtm]

Origins and FFI are the same, but he can use Curaja/CUR4 at any time during battle, which restore his hp.

DoS has greatly increased.

[ValiantKnight]

iirc, and i could be wrong

Origins normal and the original are very very similar, but I believe even the normal version of origins still doubled the HP of all bosses.... but I could be wrong. I know they are doubled on easy version games for origins.

[The black mage]

The orignal will always be the hardest as it lacks any new things E.G bestiary
I have never played Origins
And DOS is easy. But the new Dungeons are OK

[VeloZer0]

There are also small things that make Origins easier.
If I recall, the backpack is larger, and characters can use cast able weapons in battle that are in the backpack instead of having to have them on them.

Chaos at 4k HP is what I seem to recall, though I don't think any other bosses were too much harder.

[abrojtm]

Also you can buy multiple items at once, as well as a few other things.

[VeloZer0]

I don't consider that difficulty, more annoyance.

Although its nice that they actualy tell you is a weapon is stronger or not before you buy it.

[Vermachtnis]

I haven't played DoS, but from what I've heard it was easy but had a high encounter rate.

I never finished the original though and that makes me sad. But the last time I played it I was seven and could never get past the Piscodemons to get the crown (Yea I'm that pitiful)

I did finish Origins on Normal difficulty, altough I think I "broke" it when I killed off everybody but my blackbelt and had him about five levels higher than anything else.

[VeloZer0]

On the topic, aside from higher Boss HPs and extremely fast leveling curve, do you know if anything else was changed? I do remember getting into encounters with 'Enemy Strikes First', 'Enemy Uses Instant Death Attack', 'Party Dies Before First Turn'. Judging from how they structured DoS I would think that they wouldn't have included that.

[Sefie1999AD]

I think FF1 WSC (and FF1 Origins on Normal) is the hardest version of FF1. The NES version isn't as user-friendly, but the WSC/PSX version still has some things that makes it harder. The bosses have double HP (Chaos with 4000 HP instead of 2000), and the enemies seem to be a lot more aggressive and smarter. In WSC, Mages and Sorcerers just love to ambush you in the Ice Cave and kill your party before you get a single turn (Fire3 + Bane until you're dead, or paralyzing your party and slowly killing everyone), and Lich II almost always starts the battle by casting Flare.

The DoS version should be the easiest. The Ice Cave has become easy there just for the reason that you can save everywhere. The whole reason the Cave is so difficult in other versions is that you have to survive a long time without saving, and you're never really safe from an enemy attack that might decimate your party.

[ReloadPsi]

Graphically, Origins is different. Aside from that they're exactly the same game save for a few tiles' worth of terrain in some of the dungeons where bosses are placed. But then again, that's graphically. So yeah. They're the same game as long as you play on normal mode.

Wait, gameplay-wise I can think of a few minor things:
-The Mythril Sword (SILVER in the NES version) is not available in Elfland
-Items. You can have as much equipment as you want, and anybody can use the items in battle
-Chaos has more HP, but you guys touched on that already

[ThunderPeel2001]

Now, its obvious that DoS is MUCH easier due to the greatly increased leveling curve. However, I noticed the Chaos seemed to have an insanely larger HP pool in this version.

Indeed! I just completed DoS: FFI and I can tell you that Chaos has a whopping 20,000 HP! (Twenty thousand!)

Lich II has 2,800.
Marlith II has 3,200.
Kraken II has 3,600.
and
Tiamat II has 5,500.

DoS is "easier", but only, I think, because of the higher encounter rate (too high and annoying at times!). It took me 20 hours to complete and I think I got nearly all the chests. I didn't explore the new dungeons too much (although I did defeat Cerebus, one baddie down there, and it was TOUGH!).

My Knight had 999HP and my Black Wizard had 999MP, and in
the final two dungeons I amassed 999,999Gil which I never got to spend!

Pretty good game, and now I know why it was called "Final Fantasy"! I started FF2 this morning, and I was expecting "more of the same", but I'm really impressed how they moved everything forward: Main characters with dialogue(!), flexible skills,
more of a storyline... It looks really good!

[Acid Raine]

I dislike DoS because it uses the MP system instead of FF1s normal way of being able to cast any spell as long as you have some in stock. I liked that system.

[Sefie1999AD]

In a way, although DoS' MP system is less complicated, it makes things harder, because the original MP system in FFI allowed you to cast all the level 1-7 spells even if you ran out of all the MP for level 8 spells (because casting level 8 spells didn't affect the MP of other spell levels at all). However, in DoS, when you're out of MP, you can't cast any spells anymore... although to counter this, the system in DoS (at least according to what I've seen so far) gives you so much MP that it's very hard to run out of them.

[Vermachtnis]

I liked the original MP system. Ran out of !NUKE no problem. Throw some !FIRE3 at it!