Final Fantasy VIII

[Kafriel]

I found 12 to be quite the challenge:
1) HUGE dungeons.
2) 10k dmg limit
3) Rather competitive bosses, even with the right gambits, it still took a long time to beat it.
4) License to equip gear AND use magic, and money wasn't really easy to get.
5) I think the AI was actually smart in this one, Nabreus dreadlands had me in a pickle for a long time.

Comparing to XIII:
1) Auto-heal after combat
2) No MP costs
3) Very few actual challenges, since you can work your way out of most battles with the proper buffs and hexes.
4) Pin-point character development.

The one thing that makes XIII hard for me is the lack of healing items and the poor efficiency of heal, even at its best.

[Sassarai]

ff12

Huge dungeons does not make it challenging when you're just going around in circles fighting repetitive easy mobs.

Higher dmg limit does not make a game more challenging.

I pretty much gambit everything and auto through the game even for most of the bosses.


ff12

Auto heal does not make the game easier, just less downtime. Same with mp cost.

Proper buffs, strategy, etc can work you out of most battles in any game.

[Kafriel]

FF is known for having all kinds of useless spells though (PARTICULARLY FFVIII where they mostly serve as junction material than anything else), while in XIII you can cast pain/fog even on tough enemies, poison on the hardest ones (on which it works more efficiently because of their huge HP reserves), etc.

Higher dmg limit does not make a game more challenging.

I know, I said the opposite. Having to fight a 50m HP creature by hacking away 9999 a time is guaranteed to be long, tiring and potentially much harder to beat. That, and FXIII's got an HP record of 16.5m with a 1m damage cap.

Auto heal does not make the game easier, just less downtime. Same with mp cost.

For FFXII, I found this to be a big deal: MP recovers by moving, very slowly, healing takes up a considerable amount of MP, and ethers are extremely expensive for what they are (athough you can get them from a hidden shop...in a dungeon many levels higher than yours when you first enter). With MP also playing a role in mist moves, healing or choosing to save up your MP was a tough decision.

To stay on-topic, FFVIII was so much easier, you got vampiric attacks, X-potions, auto-potions, elixirs, megalixirs, heck even recover and full-cure, not to mention the holy wars

[synaesthetic]

FFXI is the hardest final fantasy. =p

I've never fought any FF boss harder than Chains of Promathia 6-4. AIRSHIP FTL. Fucking level restriction.

(I do not count Absolute Virtue or Pandemonium Warden because they are epeen Bonus Bosses and not part of the main storyline.)

[Sassarai]

Kaffy you could just use the charge ability or whatever it's call that either regenerates your mp or brings it to zero if it fails (charge?). I never had a problem with mp because of it.

I guess we just play them differently. I actually died pretty frequent at times in FFX13 till I over leveled myself while I don't recall dying much in FF12 and let the gambit system do everything.

I think there's a more simple way to judge a games toughness rather than comparing the mechanics.

1)Number of deaths
2)Number of times close to death.



syn

There are so many tough battles in FFXI that it would take awhile to list them all. Kirin, Kings, COP Wryms, Divine Might, Gods, Nation missions, Dynamis Lord, etc. Did them all underleveled and undermanned most of the time and it was tough as hell but also extremely rewarding.

[synaesthetic]

Divine Might is really easy if you PLD/BLU supertank it. You don't even need good gear; BLU was my main 75, PLD was just something I leveled doing Campaign out of boredom. So I had just some AF and Campaign crap.

That fight was created before BLUs existed so the sub under PLD breaks it.

Oh yeah and I've soloed Genbu NIN/RDM, got me a shield for BLU/SCH soloing. I tried soloing Jailer of Fortitude that way, but it takes so long I'd always slip up and get killed. Really wanted that necklace for BLU though.

Okay enough FFXI nerdery. I'm supposed to be clean of MMOs, I can't relapse!

[Kafriel]

I actually died pretty frequent at times in FFX13 till I over leveled myself while I don't recall dying much in FF12 and let the gambit system do everything.

I think there's a more simple way to judge a games toughness rather than comparing the mechanics.

1)Number of deaths
2)Number of times close to death.

I died tons in both...in 12 because I stuck my nose to higher-LV dungeons than I was supposed to and on a good few marks, and in 13 mostly on the Palamecia where I got bazooka'd and in Gran Pulse when I went up against the obvious death that is adamantoise...