Playing Final Fantasy 1 need help

[ChildOfCv]

Probably different by class mix, but my team of BB's went in at about 27 and finished it.  They were almost at 30 by the time it was over.  Despite losing one to Tiamat's bane, the remaining 3 were able to take him down.

 

One thing that helps is to distribute the healing items between 3 members and give the wizard staff to the last one.  Then when you need time to recover, wait for an enemy that's either a light hitter or easily confused, and keep it busy while the other 3 use the healing equipment to restore everybody.

[Tanooki]

You're low by a few levels, nothing crazy.  As he said above, 27, but using BBs which are walking meat walls with high attack and defense basically naked(of gear) and you using more squishy stuff, you need more power.

[bradhig1]

I can't learn anti-rub cause my white wizard has three spells at level 7.   Where do you find the wall spell?

[ChildOfCv]

Equip your armor-wearing characters with the ProRing for anti-rub.

 

WALL is in Gaia.  There are two magic shops for each color there.

Edited June 18, 2021 by ChildOfCv

[bradhig1]

Beat it.  Two characters at Level 31 and two at Level 30. I lost two characters in the final battle and thought I had lost again until terminated came on the screen.

[Tanooki]

Nice, that didn't take much time, unless you've been at it a LOT of hours to grind away.  The game is slow going, it was a learning thing, their first title.

[bradhig1]

Today I used a game genie to max out  my characters.  It  took three hits to kill the last boss.

[7800Knight]

There is replay value in FF1.  You can go back and try different parties or tackle some parts in a different order like Gurgu Volcano, the Castle of Ordeals, etc.

 

Some people like to do challenges like a party of all fighters or all white mages.  Only try those if you are an expert player.

[BawesomeBurf]

Played through the Wonderswan version (same as PS1) a few years ago and had a hard time enjoying. Main problem was the team I chose. Went with what I thought would be a balanced party; Warrior, Thief, Black Mage, and White Mage. 80% of the game was spent trying to keep the latter 3 alive, while the Warrior was the main damage dealer. Magic is almost pointless since you get so few charges of the useful stuff, and you can't restore MP in dungeons.

 

Late in the game I found some great weapons for the 2 Mages which actually made them somewhat useful. The Thief/Ninja still sucked though. Sure you can use magic, but only the weakest ones. It would be awesome if he at least had a speed advantage, but turns are completely random. Probably never playing it again.

[ChildOfCv]

The FF1 design team probably had more ambition than time when designing the game mechanics.  You can find a huge list of bugs in the game such as using the wrong stat for certain calculations, one buff spell that has the opposite effect, a few spells that do nothing, etc.  One thing about the white mages:  They get intelligence increases almost every level.  But intelligence does nothing at all.

 

It is too bad that they didn't at least fix the bugs for the re-releases.  But that would likely require a bit of game rebalancing after the bugs got fixed.

[Tanooki]

On 8/5/2021 at 2:05 AM, ChildOfCv said:

The FF1 design team probably had more ambition than time when designing the game mechanics.  You can find a huge list of bugs in the game such as using the wrong stat for certain calculations, one buff spell that has the opposite effect, a few spells that do nothing, etc.  One thing about the white mages:  They get intelligence increases almost every level.  But intelligence does nothing at all.

 

It is too bad that they didn't at least fix the bugs for the re-releases.  But that would likely require a bit of game rebalancing after the bugs got fixed.

To be fair, if the wonderswan sucked and stuck to the NES I can see some of those arguments made.  But the party in the post earlier, I always used that on NES, never had an issue with a weak ninja or struggles keeping 3/4 of them alive.  Maybe that release is most broken.  But, if you have Origins, GBA 1+2, mobile versions since though, the bugs are fixed and all those dropped that disgustingly wrong magic system for a traditional one with MPs.

[ChildOfCv]

10 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

To be fair, if the wonderswan sucked and stuck to the NES I can see some of those arguments made.  But the party in the post earlier, I always used that on NES, never had an issue with a weak ninja or struggles keeping 3/4 of them alive.  Maybe that release is most broken.  But, if you have Origins, GBA 1+2, mobile versions since though, the bugs are fixed and all those dropped that disgustingly wrong magic system for a traditional one with MPs.

Come to think of it, I bought the Android version years ago.  Just downloaded it and fired it up again.  Looks like they fancied it up even more than when I bought it.  And now it says there's a "remastered" version and the one I bought is no longer available for purchase.  But in their infinite mercy, they have granted me the privilege to keep playing the one I have.

 

Anyway yeah, it went to a MP system.  So hopefully they also fixed the dead spells and other wonky stuff.

[Tanooki]

On 8/7/2021 at 12:08 AM, ChildOfCv said:

Come to think of it, I bought the Android version years ago.  Just downloaded it and fired it up again.  Looks like they fancied it up even more than when I bought it.  And now it says there's a "remastered" version and the one I bought is no longer available for purchase.  But in their infinite mercy, they have granted me the privilege to keep playing the one I have.

 

Anyway yeah, it went to a MP system.  So hopefully they also fixed the dead spells and other wonky stuff.

Same setup here on iOS.  They quietly warned people it was going away on the sales page I guess for the old copy, but that's all, if you read the expanded notes spreading the details out.

I'd like to try the remaster, but I'm not paying like twice the price of the original for a visual enhancement.  Shame they don't have the decency to have an upgrade charge.  Nintendo did that on virtual console stuff from Wii to WiiU giving a large discount if you bought in a limited window of time.  I dont' think that's asking much, given it would be locked to only current owners, so they'd not take a hit.

[Lord Mushroom]

On 8/5/2021 at 7:28 AM, BawesomeBurf said:

Played through the Wonderswan version (same as PS1) a few years ago and had a hard time enjoying. Main problem was the team I chose. Went with what I thought would be a balanced party; Warrior, Thief, Black Mage, and White Mage. 80% of the game was spent trying to keep the latter 3 alive, while the Warrior was the main damage dealer. Magic is almost pointless since you get so few charges of the useful stuff, and you can't restore MP in dungeons.

Thank you! I was starting to think it was just me who had this problem.

[newtmonkey]

I dunno if the Wonderswan version is broken or anything, but the PS1 version (which was based on the Wonderswan version) is excellent.  The D&D style magic "slots" work fine for FF1 (it was, after all, originally designed with this in mind), and switching to MP ruins the balance imo.

 

The magic system is based heavily on D&D and Wizardry, and spells are meant to be tools you use only for certain situations.  It's just a different system than later FF games, Dragon Warrior, etc.  The game is designed so that you choose between classes that are useful in every battle (warrior, monk), classes that are mostly useless in regular battles but are VERY useful in difficult situations (white mage, black mage), and the one class that is useful in all situations up to the midpoint of the game but really start to suffer toward the end (red mage).  The thief is broken in the original release but the intent was to have a "utility" class that would make it easier to run from difficult battles.

 

I completed the game with a Warrior, two Red Mages, and a White Mage and didn't have to grind at all.  It's actually balanced quite well, though some of the larger dungeons might require you to return to town halfway through to recover and restock.  This is something that was inherited from computer RPGs, and was expected for the older or more traditional JRPGs.

 

You really do need to gain an understanding of the mechanics and eke out every advantage you can (through using items and spells) to get through it without grinding for hours—it's not something you can win just by following the plot.  I know not everyone is into that for JRPGs, so I get why it could seem frustrating.  It's definitely a challenge, but in my experience it's never unfair.

Edited August 9, 2021 by newtmonkey

[BawesomeBurf]

On 8/9/2021 at 9:57 AM, newtmonkey said:

I completed the game with a Warrior, two Red Mages, and a White Mage and didn't have to grind at all.  It's actually balanced quite well, though some of the larger dungeons might require you to return to town halfway through to recover and restock.  This is something that was inherited from computer RPGs, and was expected for the older or more traditional JRPGs.

Not sure if I'd call that balanced, since you have to pick very specific classes to get by without grinding. Classes that cannot be changed once you've committed to them. It's fine if you know which classes will be the most useful before starting or if you have a guide, but a first time player will most likely have to grind to make up for a poor party choice. I enjoyed it when it came out on PS1, but that was because I bought a guide and knew exactly what to do. Coming back to it on Wonderswan almost 2 decades later without help felt like a totally different experience. Also, leaving a dungeon midway through to buy 99 more potions and antidotes because your White Mage doesn't have enough spell charges ain't balanced.

[newtmonkey]

I disagree.