Final Fantasy III DS

[zoraking]

Okay, I'm back after thinking I was P-Banned but that is another story. PM me if you want the details.

Anyway, are any of you planning on buying FF III for the DS? It's the first time for us Americans to buy it.! :D I can't wait, but it will probably be another year. I also want Animal Crossing DS.

[vegeta1215]

I haven't really heard anything about FF III on the DS to tell you the truth. FF III is the one where they first introduce the job system right?

I was thinking about getting FF: Dawn of Souls for the GBA not long ago, but I'm still not in the mood to play an RPG with random battles, so I don't think that's going to happen.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

Veg, I picked up DOS about a month or two ago with a Best Buy gift card leftover from Christmas. It was a good buy, I have to say. Final Fantasy I has never been so great, and although I have a few issues with the way FF2 plays (as a game, not as a remake), it's still a lot of fun, and a good way to blow time when you're bored. The extra dungeons don't change the game a whole lot, but they're a fun little add on. I'd recommend it, if you can get past the random battles. It's not that bad.

[AtmaWeapon]

From what I remember of FFI on the NES, that game can spank you pretty hard if you aren't devoted to your leveling. I should probably pick it up as a good way to kill some time.

FFIII I've never seen, so it's probably worth a shot. I'd love to see FFVI on the GBA, but I think it would take a lot to get it there. For one, it was a huge game. In addition, the graphics were a little dark and extremely detailed; it would be hard to scale them down.

[Coder GT]

It sounds like a good idea, it should be cheap since It's a classic. I would price it at about $15-$20

Ah, It's good that their finally releasing it in America. They really should come out with a collection of old FF games...I don't have a Game Boy anymore, let alone a DS....so, I will not be getting this.

[vegeta1215]

Ah, It's good that their finally releasing it in America. They really should come out with a collection of old FF games...

They have, and they're all on the Playstation, with the exception of FFIII which has never been released here in the US (until the DS version comes out):
- Final Fantasy Origins - I & II
- Final Fantasy Chronicles - IV and Chrono Trigger
- Final Fantasy Anthology - V & VI

[Coder GT]

Exactly (I already knew about that)....now fuse them all together...add in some special features, DVD coolness...and wrap it all up into a cute collection for a nice $20-$30 and put that baby on all 3 consoles of the current time

[Daarkseid]

From what I remember of FFI on the NES, that game can spank you pretty hard if you aren't devoted to your leveling. I should probably pick it up as a good way to kill some time.

FFIII I've never seen, so it's probably worth a shot. I'd love to see FFVI on the GBA, but I think it would take a lot to get it there. For one, it was a huge game. In addition, the graphics were a little dark and extremely detailed; it would be hard to scale them down.

Dawn of Souls is pretty dissappointing, actually. FF1 is one of my favorites on the old NES, mainly because of the difficulty and time required to progress in the game. The GBA version has been made too easy, partly from how quickly you go up in level and stats, partly from things like being able to just mindlessly hold down the A button whenever a random enemy encounter appears.

They did give the player 4 new difficult dungeons to play through, but they're annoying, the random enemies aren't at all difficult past level 30, and the floors appear in random order. The only thing really challenging about them is the bosses, which will kick your ass unless you do what I used to do in the original FF and level up super fast killing evil eyes in the Ice Cave. Around 45 to 50 is when those bosses become beatable; since the game allows you level beyond 50(as opposed to the original), a little time spent bogged in the endless mindless enemy encounters in those new dungeons will have you well prepared for the boss fights.

I can't really blame square though, the game is on a portable system, it has to be made more playable. Not all of us spend most of our GBA playing time in our damn homes. So there are people who will appreciate the game. I don't.

FF3 will undoubtedly come with various enhancements over the original that will alter the game experience. First off, in the original, there were no save points in dungeons, and the final dungeon, being how large it is, took you quite a while to even get to the first boss fight. In fact, I highly doubt that most people playing the game in english could've finished the game without save states(a tool available to emu users that I avoid entirely; I had to use them in FF3). Once you make it to the second part of the final dungeon, you can't go back, so you can't save. The path to the final boss is fairly short, but if you decide to fight that boss immediately, you'll lose. So instead you have to fight 4 bosses, 4 of the most intensely cheap and aggravating required boss fights in any of the games I've played(which is all 11). And after each fight, you have to move on to the next, you can't save, if you die on the second, or third, or the fourth fight, YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN. And then you still have the final boss to fight, who isn't very easy, despite the reputation of final bosses in the FF series. This is why you need save states. This would probably reveal why the game never made it to the US in its NES form.

So clearly, FF3 is going to have that addressed, and that will be a good thing. However its a portable, they'll need to rebalance the difficulty for players who get actual use out of their portables.

The neat thing about FF3 was that it was still a challenge throughout the game but had an extensive job system that made things interesting whereas in future games, similar character building systems made the game too easy. If they take the challenge away, it probably won't be worth more than the fact it'll be the first time the game was ever released in the US.

[Coder GT]

Daarkseid the same thing goes for the 4 evil elemental dudes from FF 2/FF4 (SNES)...the annoying basterds, that's the only reason why I never beat the game. The 2nd basterd keeps whooping my ass.

[Daarkseid]

Daarkseid the same thing goes for the 4 evil elemental dudes from FF 2/FF4 (SNES)...the annoying basterds, that's the only reason why I never beat the game. The 2nd basterd keeps whooping my ass.

Yeah, I remember that fight, the first time I ran into it, I nearly shit myself.

But that was actually one encounter, that that was preceded by a fairly close save point. Once you succeeded, you could back to that save point, use a cabin, save, then go fight the CPU core.

In FF3(J)'s situation, each battle was its own encounter, there are no save points anywhere, no cabin items to replenish HP and MP, just hi-potions and maybe some ethers(you can't buy ethers from merchants) or if you were that bad off, using precious elixers(again, can't be purchased from merchants). Then you have the final boss encounter which was actually more difficult than FF4's battle with the fiends.

[Coder GT]

Yeah, but how the hell do you beat that battle? What's the trick, Edge keeps getting killed. That ninja dude....I keep trying to cast spells like virus on the guys....it was kinda useless.

[ctrl-alt-delete]

Fire 3 on Milan. Lightning on Kainazzo. Ice on Rubicant. Lightning on Valvalice. All the while, Rydia using Bahamut or her version of fire, ice, and lightning 3. Edge attacks with strong blades. I would suggest starting your game over and making sure you get all the strongest weapons and attacks possible. Personally, after I realized that FuSoYa could use the Spell 3s and kick some major ass, I just used eithers on him and made sure Rosa was healing the party. Easy win.

[Coder GT]

I have to anyway because I formatted my computers. Thanks for the help :D

[Cloral]

If your characters are as strong as they should be at that point (you haven't been running from battles have you?) it shouldn't be too tough at all. As was pointed out above, attack the elemental weaknesses with Rydia and Fosoya, Cecil and Edge should attack, and Rosa should heal - having her cast Cure3 every round is a good idea. The main tough point is you cannot jump Valvalis so you can't take her out of the spin, which is why they put her last of the 4. Just hit her hard before she can do too much to you.

FF3 had very uninspired dungeon design - most of the levels were simply corridors with a couple short branches to treasure chests. This made exploring them feel more like an arduous task than anything else. It was decently balanced, you really didn't have to spend time leveling up. The story though was pretty bland, you just wandered from one problem to the next, and not until near the end did the events start to build into any sort of a sequence.