Easiest and Hardest Final Fantasy Games

[Wolf Kanno]

(Mountain Seymour and Final Aeon whooped most of yall, don't lie)

Going into battle with every character/Aeon with full Overdrives basically trumps most bosses. Not to mention unlocking any of the game's super weapons allows you to kill the Final Aeon with a single hit...

[Forsaken Lover]

See? Craziness. No way is II harder than XIII by any objective measure.

Objectivity doesn't exist in video games, bud. Sorry to have to be the one to tell ya.

It does here when one game allows you to grind to max levels and the other does not. The level cap in XIII ensures more difficulty than pretty much evey other FF game.

[Ayen]

See? Craziness. No way is II harder than XIII by any objective measure.

Objectivity doesn't exist in video games, bud. Sorry to have to be the one to tell ya.

It does here when one game allows you to grind to max levels and the other does not. The level cap in XIII ensures more difficulty than pretty much evey other FF game.

II pits you against monsters that are a way higher level than your guys at the very beginning if you don't watch where you're going, ergo I consider it harder than XIII, which I actually got farther in my first time playing than II.

[Forsaken Lover]

That is an annoying mechanic, yes. But wandering into the wrong area and getting WTFpwned is something several RPGs do. It just means you are too weak at the moment, not that the game is hard. Once you beef up tothe appropriate level, you can stomp them.

Or, if you want, you can easily break the game in half and beat those super strong monsters, too. 2 and 8 are the most easily broken games in the series, although I think 2 is less obvious about it because of invisible stat penalties and other obtuse mechanics.

FF2 is a game that can be really easy or really hard, depending on if you know what you're doing.

[Galuf]

its probably the battle system more than anything why xiii is hard. i think its pretty easy except a couple of bosses. but i aint gonna lie i think its more speed than anything you need in that game

[Ayen]

People beat their own characters to a pulp just to get anywhere on II before someone found an alternative measure to do it and posted a guide. A bizarre battle system that requires you think outside the box with things you'd never consider doing on a first run through is harder IMO than a game that leads you by the hand and throws so many tutorials your way it feels like you're reading the instructions manual.

Also from my experience, older games are always harder than newer ones.

[theundeadhero]

XIII was objectively easy in that I never got a game over or rated under 4-stars my first time through it. Now, retry the NES version of FFII and tell me it's easy.

[Forsaken Lover]

I don't consider invisible, unexplained mechanics real difficulty. XIII might give you a tutorial about everything but that's because a game is supposed to explain how it works. FFII actively hides how it works from you.

I'm still mad about those invisible stat penalties.

[Ayen]

XIII was objectively easy in that I never got a game over or rated under 4-stars my first time through it. Now, retry the NES version of FFII and tell me it's easy.

There's something I didn't factor in. Maybe the newer versions of FFII are easier. I played the PSX version, which to my knowledge is closer to how the original one was, so it was still a pretty big pain. Smurfing magic shops and their ridiculous prices.

[Fynn]

I don't consider invisible, unexplained mechanics real difficulty. XIII might give you a tutorial about everything but that's because a game is supposed to explain how it works. FFII actively hides how it works from you.

I'm still mad about those invisible stat penalties.

It's not any less fake difficulty than absurd level caps.

Explain to me how is a game that allows you to play it in one specific way, hard?

[Forsaken Lover]

Because you can still play it in many ways, it's justthat most of them are wrong. That's the point of the ranking system. I played XIII for the first time years ago and I never used SAB at all. I was all about COM/RAV and I did pathetically on the Sazh/Vanille portions because I wasn't playing it right.

Look, if this was any other FF and you were stuck on a boss, what would most people do? Go grind for an hour. Then their stats are high enough that their strategy of "take damage and return damage until victory" can work. Simply thinking of an alternate, more tactical way to beat the boss never would occur to them.

FFXIII ensures you cannot just power level your way through obstacles, unlike every other FF.

[Galuf]

might have just been how i was playing but every section i maxed the crystarium even Hecatoncheir and Barthandelus 2 required much change in strategy as they were slaughtered because of max crystarium.

and GBA FF2 atleast. was super easy. again may have just been me

[theundeadhero]

I'm pretty sure everybody tries a new strategy on every FF two or three times when they can't kill a boss before wasting a few hours grinding.

GBA FFII was easier thann PSX FFII which was easier than NES FFII. What's hidden about stats in FFII when after a battle it clearly says x stat went up / y stat went down? It doesn't take more then one time to figure out Str went up then intelligence went down, so they must be adverse to each other.

[Fynn]

It actually only says that the stats went up, don't think it says they go down.

Also, I don't think the stats go down in later versions of the game. I've recently played the 20th anniversary version and the base stats were really low at the beginning, but then they all went up, regardless of whether they were used or not

And FL - yes, maybe there are wrong ways to play it, but really, the game still keeps you on the same track. If you go to beat a boss too fast and lose, you can still go back and grind until you reach the Crystarium cap, and then it's cakewalk anyway. If you use auto-battle, it's Even easier, and you pretty quickly learn that all you have to do in every single boss battle is buff->stagger->all-out offensive (and maybe heal when you get a big low on health), rinse and repeat.

That's the thing - in other FFs (except things like IV, but then that game was still tough because the bosses had some mean attack patterns) you can grind, but you have no way of knowing how much is enough, and if you're grinding the right way because of any job class or stat systems. Heck, grinding is the worst you can do in VIII and to get stronger you have to think, and it's also one of the easier entries, but still harder than XIII. If you mindlessly grind in FFII - who will do your healing, magic, etc.? You have to have a plan for your characters. Same for III, but in different ways - you need a balanced party combo and you need to figure it out early on because the game punished you for changing a character's battle role.

So yeah, I think enough people have said XIII is really easy for it to not be such a crazy opinion anymore

[Wolf Kanno]

Look, if this was any other FF and you were stuck on a boss, what would most people do? Go grind for an hour. Then their stats are high enough that their strategy of "take damage and return damage until victory" can work. Simply thinking of an alternate, more tactical way to beat the boss never would occur to them.

FFXIII ensures you cannot just power level your way through obstacles, unlike every other FF.

No, you go grind for a few hours and upgrade your weapons which have no restrictions and only penalize your score. It's how I beat the few bosses that did give me issues. Grinding still exists in the game, it's just your gear that requires it more than your characters.

Honestly XIII isn't terribly hard and I feel it has more fake difficulty than legitimate difficulty. My few deaths in the game largely came from the game abusing the "kill the party leader to win" mechanic the game used.

I'm pretty sure everybody tries a new strategy on every FF two or three times when they can't kill a boss before wasting a few hours grinding.

GBA FFII was easier thann PSX FFII which was easier than NES FFII. What's hidden about stats in FFII when after a battle it clearly says x stat went up / y stat went down? It doesn't take more then one time to figure out Str went up then intelligence went down, so they must be adverse to each other.

I'm pretty sure he's talking about how gear affects your stats. Basically all but the most lightweight of gear reduces the power of magic, so in order to build a great mage, they kind of need to be naked and unarmed to get the most damage out of magic. The game never tells you this and it's difficult to notice if you're not really observing damage changes.