Board 8 > I'm playing Final Fantasy I & II Dawn of Souls for the first time *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's time for another Final Fantasy playthrough topic, with two games in one this time!

I'd somehow gone my entire life without playing a Final Fantasy game until 2016, when I tried Final Fantasy XIII. I loved it, and I've been working through the rest of the series ever since. I've also had a playthrough topic for every FF I've played, and having others follow along has always enhanced the experience. I'm going to keep that tradition alive as I work through the rest of the series this year! These two are older games but I'm excited to see where they end up in my overall ranking, which currently sits as follows:

XIII > X-2 > LR > VI > WoFF > IX > VIII > X > BD >>> XIII-2

Also, while I'm not sure if these old games even have characters with enough depth to crack my top ten, here's my current top ten FF characters:

Lightning > Yuna > Dagger > Terra > Agnes > Cyan > Eiko > Lumina > Rinoa > Squall

I also want to mention that, while I've never played FFI, I have seen the FFI rap by Duane and BrandO so I imagine I've spoiled myself entirely. Let's get started!

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In a world where the wind is dying, earth is decaying, and the seas are raging, four heroes are prophesied to fight back against the encroaching darkness. They've appeared in the Kingdom of Cornelia, each holding a crystal that marks them as a hero of light. Their names are:

Ward, the warrior!
Reid, the red mage!
Witt, the white mage!
and Beck, the black mage!

The four meet the king, who is happy to see the warriors of legend arrive... but he's also skeptical, and sends them on a quest to prove their worth. They need to rescue the princess, Sarah, from the evil knight Garland. The heroes bought a few spells, some equipment upgrades, and then set out into the world.

This early part of the game was easily the most difficult so far. Regular enemies were legitimate threats, plus at one point after two people died I fled back to town, used my last bit of money to stay at the inn... and it didn't even resurrect them! I had to go back out with just two people and brave a bunch more battles to earn enough money to pay for a visit to the priest and another stay at the inn. I spent about an hour slowly grinding, though, and by the time I made it to the Chaos Shrine in the north my heroes finally lived up to their legend.

I found Garland in a room filled with bats (seriously what's the deal with these bats, I've found them in a bunch of different places and they just keep shouting 'Kee!' at me). He tried to knock the heroes down, but they knocked him down instead and rescued the princess. Having proven their worth to the king, he fixed up a bridge to the next area and the adventure continued.

Now that my goal was exploration rather than grinding, I want to say that the encounter rate in this game is insane. There were a few stretches where I'd get into a battle every step I took! Still, I guess leveling up is a good thing. My first discovery while wandering the continent was a blind woman named Matoya, who had lost the crystal eye that allowed her to see. Since she'd never be able to ID them, the heroes took this opportunity to steal things from her treasure chests. Next they found a town and beat up some pirates, getting a boat.

With the boat, the heroes traveled the seas, finding a dwarf community in a cave. These guys say 'Lali-hoo' so I'm pretty sure they're alternate-dimension relatives of those lovable dwarfs in FFIX. A dwarf here needed nitro powder, so I made a mental note of that too. Next up I found an elf city (where I massively improved both my spells and my gear). The prince here was cursed and needed Matoya's help to be cured. This was also the moment I realized I'd been stumbling across bits and pieces of a long fetch quest.
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Next up I found a marsh cave, and after clearing that the heroes had a crown. They gave this crown to an evil elf in a northern castle, which triggered a boss fight and let them reclaim Matoya's eye. Then they returned to Matoya, got a tonic, gave it to the elf prince, and got a key. I backtracked through the few dungeons I'd been in so far and opened mystic key doors, gathering treasure. I also opened a door in Cornelia, claiming some nitro powder! The dwarf was happy to get it because it let him create a canal so my adventure could continue. After heading west and finding a new town on an island, this was where I stopped. My heroes are all level 18.

So far, I'm enjoying FFI more than I thought I would! With old games like this there's always the worry that they haven't aged well or are needlessly obtuse, but that hasn't been a problem so far. My only real complaint is the high encounter rate but I'm trying not to run from battles because I suspect the difficulty has been balanced around fighting all of them. I would've appreciated a map too, but it's also been oddly fun to wander the world looking for things to do and I haven't gotten stuck or lost yet.

Anyway, that's all I've done so far. I think these games are shorter so I'm not sure how long this topic will go for, but I hope a few people follow along like usual regardless. And, as always, I welcome any tips people might have!
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Tag.

Also - there is a map, but you have to pay attention to the brooms to find it. (Or I could just tell you, it's up to you.)

Edit: Eh, you do tend to appreciate tips, so I'll put the relevant dialogue in spoiler tags.

Front-words, back-wards, any way you see! Such a strange spell to swish-swish-aree! Tceles Nottub B. Swish-swish-aroo!
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Oh cool, I'll try that out next time I play. Thanks!

I guess you get that dialogue by talking to the brooms, which I never tried. It didn't occur to me that brooms would have anything to say >_>
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i've never played the GBA/PSP version of FF1, did they really still limit you to 4-character names? or did you do that on purpose?
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They could've been more than four letters but when I was brainstorming names before starting I assumed there would be a limit, then I stuck with them.
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Tag
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FF I is very old but I had fun with it (I also played Dawn of Souls).
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At least you picked Red Mage. ProJared is currently running through with a Thief on his LP Channel, and now I know why people say they suck.
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Strife2 posted...

At least you picked Red Mage. ProJared is currently running through with a Thief on his LP Channel, and now I know why people say they suck.

Red mage and warrior are carrying my team right now but I imagine the other mages will have more utility later

Also, I don't know how they work in FFI but I generally dislike thieves in RPGs so he was never under consideration
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Tag

Haven't played these since.... middle school probably? I'll see if I can follow along!
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Strife2 posted...

At least you picked Red Mage. ProJared is currently running through with a Thief on his LP Channel, and now I know why people say they suck.

Dawn of Souls is a completely different game. Thief only sucks in the original and PS1 versions.
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Yeah, Thief is a pretty decent melee fighter in Dawn of Souls and and he gets even better later in the game.
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Oh man, another FF playthrough topic. Tag!

I've had a couple experiences with these games over the years. The Origins collection on PS1 back in the day was my introduction to both FF1 and FF2. I played a bunch of FF1 but never finished it there, and played about half an hour of FF2 before putting it down and never playing it again.

I then went through about 95% of the PSP version of FF1 which was great. Not sure why I never ended up finishing it though.
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A couple quick notes on version differences. One, whenever you beat one of the main bosses, you'll see a brief cutscenes showing you a place in the world. These are optional dungeons that I believe originated with this release, featuring bosses from later games in the series (and high-powered rewards for defeating them). I think the first one or two can be done at the time they unlock, but later on they become much closer to postgame material.

Second, and this is THE big change IMO, FF1 on NES and PS1 didn't have MP. It had spell charges, so for example your mage could at low levels only cast a spell of level 1 or 2 a couple times before needing a tent or inn, with the high-level ones always restricted as a result. The MP system gives you a lot more flexibility in the magic department, contributing to (but not solely responsible for) the vast difference in difficulty between the original version and this one.

Third, on NES, if you had more than one character attack the same target, and the first one killed it off, the other(s) would simply whiff their attack rather than hit one of the remaining enemies. The PS1 version had this feature on a toggle, so you could get closer to the original gameplay if you wanted.
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Spell charges are basically how D&D does things. I prefer MP so much.
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The optional dungeons are really really boring. Try them if you like but don't feel compelled to finish them.
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JonThePenguin posted...

A couple quick notes on version differences

Interesting stuff, thanks for typing it out! The original magic system and attacks missing both sound awful, I'm glad I'm playing this version
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I remember having fun with the optional dungeons!

You will also probably be happy that you're playing this version of FF2; the original had some really dumb mechanics like stats that you didn't make use of getting weaker.
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Time for a short update!

Having opened the canal and discovered another town, I explored the new landmass and found the earth cavern. Exploring it led to taking down a vampire, but that didn't solve any problems. People in town were as confused as I was and gave directions to a knowledgeable dude who lived further out. I gave a ruby to a giant to get through his cave, then got an earth rod from the dude to explore further into the earth cavern. After finally making my way through there yet again, I took down a Lich and gained the Earth Crystal! One out of four down

At that point I explored elsewhere (a task made easier by the map showing places of interest) and found another city. There was a circle of sages in here with a lot of advice about the main quest, but the most important thing was that one of them gave me a canoe. I used that to navigate the nearby rivers and headed over to a volcano. The enemies here were pretty tough and it didn't help that the second floor was a literal maze. I got all the treasure, but retreated to heal rather than go deeper.

I wanted a map of the area before continuing, so I googled that... and the map I found listed the volcano as being later in the game, meaning there were other areas I should have gone to before this. Turns out I was supposed to use the canoe to go visit some ice cavern, so I went and did that next. FFI gives directions through townspeople and cryptic dialogue, and I guess I'm not the greatest at putting those hints together! I don't mind using guides but I always feel bad when I do it during playthrough topics. FFXIII was great for this, more games should just be a hallway where even someone as dumb as me can't manage to get lost

Anyway, the ice cavern wasn't too bad, and by the end of it I had some levistone thing that I could then use to awaken an airship (after first looking up where the airship was, I'm sure someone someplace would've told me but I wasn't sure where to start asking), I stopped playing here because I imagine finding new locations with the airship will be an adventure and I want to do that next time!

I hope no one minds me using the occasional guide. Even if I managed to beat the volcano out of order, I probably would've wound up wandering aimlessly for a few hours right after that before finding that ice cavern
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Mobilezoid posted...

JonThePenguin posted...

A couple quick notes on version differences

Interesting stuff, thanks for typing it out! The original magic system and attacks missing both sound awful, I'm glad I'm playing this version

It was more engaging than the mash A game dawn of souls becomes
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Just because the game lists locations in an order doesn't mean you have to do that lol.

Ice Cavern is required for a different Crystal than mt gulg. Neither is necessarily first.
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Oh, so the crystals can almost be done in any order? That's pretty neat, actually. I think I'll go back and finish the volcano first then, just to try and stay a little honest!
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I still got my copy, but no charger for my DS Lite.

I remember the Fighter getting ridiculously overpowered late game.
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Update time

I went back through the volcano and took out the Fire Fiend, powering up a second crystal. After that I checked a guide to see where I should go next, then headed off to the Citadel of Trials! I wandered through here and found a rat's tail, which I then used to prove my worth to Bahamut and upgrade all my heroes. At this point I knew it was time for the water crystal but even after tracking down a few remaining areas I still wasn't sure where it was. There was just some NPC chatter about fairies and caravans and I dunno

I checked a guide and found the caravan, which let me buy a fairy. Once freed, that fairy gave me an item to breathe underwater and I headed into the sunken shrine. I made my way through here without referencing a guide or a map at all, and felt pretty proud of myself when I navigated the maze and took down Kraken. The water crystal was powered up, mission accomplished!

...Only, I didn't know where to go next. I haven't progressed further than the water crystal but it seems that I need to go back into the sunken shrine to find another key item. There's also a cave hidden behind a waterfall somewhere, apparently. I'm not sure how I was supposed to know these things without checking a guide, to be honest. I even went back to that dancing lady in Cornelia who was supposed to give hints and she basically said 'lol I dunno what you should do next'. It may feel like I'm using a guide a lot but stuff like this makes me feel justified! Plus, if I wasn't checking a guide I'd just be constantly frustrated and that wouldn't be fun for anyone.

There's only one more crystal left to go, so there's a good chance I'll finish FFI in the next day or so!
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dawn of souls is one of my favorite remakes of all time. I thoroughly enjoyed the extra content, but I'm a sucker for the game itself. I even enjoyed FF2, but I don't remember a dang thing about it now
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Ironically, I was asking myself this morning if there would be another Roba playing Final Fantasy topic soon. This is a tag.
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FF1 GBA is so easy as to be boring, I think PS1 is still best choice there.

For FF2 though GBA is fine. I assume PSP doesn't change anything further, but has better graphics and sound quality
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WazzupGenius00 posted...

For FF2 though GBA is fine. I assume PSP doesn't change anything further, but has better graphics and sound quality

Also adds more bonus dungeon stuff, much like FF1 PSP did.
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WazzupGenius00 posted...

FF1 GBA is so easy as to be boring, I think PS1 is still best choice there.

Yeah, but Roba just wants to press A and watch his characters win so this is the best version for him.
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FF1 GBA is easy compared to FF1 NES but I think if you're calling it "so easy as to be boring" FF in general shouldn't really be your series.
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You haven't played it recently then. It is severely easier than the average FF.
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Who needs to have played it recently I've been a difficulty elitist all my life and didn't really get that feeling the first time I played it. Definitely on the lowest tier of FF difficulty but it's not on an island of its own. It has good company with FFIV US, FFVII, and FFIX.
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I don't know about that. You're literally taking 1 damage from enemies with hundreds of HP in Dawn of Souls.

Like sure, maybe the chances of losing are about the same (can't get much smaller than .1% essentially) but you have to put in a little work. You have to utilize your materia or look out for good equipment and abilities in IX.

FFIDoS is just mashing A without thought, which I'll give you is a lot like FFIV probably.
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Obligatory

Robazoid posted...

XIII > X-2 > LR > VI > WoFF > IX > VIII > X > BD >>> XIII-2

Disgusting.
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He accurately placed X-2 and X in relation to each other at least.

Gives me some hope XIII is actually good.
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I think the circle of sages update their dialogue throughout the game to help you if you don't know what to do.
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pjbasis posted...

Yeah, but Roba just wants to press A and watch his characters win so this is the best version for him.

There's certainly an element of truth to this, but I think it's fairer to say that I don't like wasting time. FFXIII had its fair share of difficult battles but it let me pause and instantly select 'retry' if things went south so it never bothered me. Lightning Returns was also one of the most difficult games I've ever beaten and I grew to love it because of that! By comparison, the final boss of FFIX was terrible because it had an attack that gave a bunch of random status ailments. If it gave everyone berserk then I'd basically wasted the last twenty minutes of my life and had to start all over, all while hoping he wouldn't do the exact same thing again next time. That's the sort of stuff I hate. When I eventually play Fire Emblem Awakening, it's also why I'm going to play casual. Having to start a mission over just because someone died sounds like the worst thing in the world to me.

I do agree that FFI DoS is fairly easy though, and I think that was a design flaw. The encounter rate is so ridiculous that any amount of aimless exploring levels the characters up a few times. There was one corridor that didn't even lead anywhere in the earth shrine and I easily fought thirty battles moving in and out. Still, there's an element of difficulty even now just through attrition. 1-10 damage per attack starts to add up when there are nine enemies every two steps.

SupremeZero posted...

Disgusting.

Yeah I probably should have a few more greater-than signs between Bravely Default and XIII-2 but I didn't want it to look silly.

Seriously though, I'm always interested in hearing people's specific grievances with that ranking! Like, is it X-2 ahead of X or XIII in first or what?

Grand Kirby posted...

I think the circle of sages update their dialogue throughout the game to help you if you don't know what to do.

Huh, I didn't even consider this. I know where to go next now, obviously, but I'll go and check with them again just to see if they also point me in the right direction.
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Robazoid posted...

Having to start a mission over just because someone died sounds like the worst thing in the world to me.

I sorta agree with your general sentiment but single character deaths in Fire Emblem shouldn't really be considered in the same category as random status ailment death. Fire Emblem you can generally control when units are put at risk of dying, and the maps/difficulty are designed around the idea that people are not going to want to lose any units. Even fluke crits are generally something you can avoid outright.

All this being said you'd hate vanilla FF1 because it loves fluke status ailment death.
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Robazoid posted...

There's certainly an element of truth to this, but I think it's fairer to say that I don't like wasting time.

I know, I was being snarky about it.

But also I think having a real penalty is what makes things tense. I can't say a Retry button is ever a bad thing, but losing having a real consequence is thrilling too.
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Robazoid posted...

all while hoping he wouldn't do the exact same thing again next time.

Yeah but there's ways to prevent that. You shouldn't have to hope things go well, it's about recognizing why you lost and coming up with a solution. Granted the solution for you probably would have meant tracking down some equipment with an ability that prevents status effects, but that's also a skill.

And that's a great example why FFIX is way harder than FFIDoS. If you play casually, missing out on a bunch of useful abilities makes the game way harder. There's really not a way to do anything in DoS to make it harder, except by purposefully making a weak team.
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I had an awful lot of anti-status skills in FFIX, just not berserk! That was the only way I could lose that final battle, too, so I didn't want to back off just for that.
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btw that hallway in Cavern of Earth is intentionally designed to do that
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Tag
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WazzupGenius00 posted...

btw that hallway in Cavern of Earth is intentionally designed to do that

I just checked out a map of the area and you're right. "Hall of Giants", apparently.

Would've been nice if there was some indication of that before I wandered down it >_>
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Final Fantasy I has been beaten!

First I went back to the circle of sages and, sadly, they didn't give any further advice. Luckily for impatient people like me, a neat website named GameFAQs exists. I headed to a hidden waterfall cavern to get a warp cube from a robot built by a civilization that had been destroyed by the wind fiend Tiamat. Next I went back through the sunken shrine to find a Rosetta Stone, and that led me to a whole civilization of mermaids that I'd somehow missed before. They were all very thankful that I'd fixed the water crystal... except for one who didn't have her dialogue updated and still told me where to find Kraken >_>

Anyway I found the Rosetta Stone, tracked down someone who told me how to use it, and then I headed to a city I'd somehow never found before filled with refugees from the same civilization that built the robot from before. They told me how to get into Mirage Tower, so I headed there next and climbed a long way up to Tiamat. Once that battle was won, all four crystals had been reawakened and it was time to return to the circle of sages. I also opted not to do the bonus dungeons because I have FFII to get to. Plus, at this point, I feel like I have a good sense of what FFI has to offer. Maybe I'll come back to them someday, though!

Anyway, the sages explained the time travel aspect of the plot and sent me back to where I'd fought Garland. The bats here also finally explained themselves, They were heroes sent by that old advanced civilization, only they failed and were turned into bats. That's neat! However, it isn't as neat as traveling two thousand years into the past to stop a time loop. By the end of the Chaos Shrine I had re-beaten the four fiends and reached level 54. Then it was time to face Garland again... only this time he morphed into Chaos. This was a time loop where the fiends would send him back in time and then he'd send them forward in time, but I broke that cycle here. It was a difficult fight (Ward the Warrior carried my team with some help from Beck the Black Mage and healing from Witt the White Mage. I don't know what I did wrong with Reid the Red Mage but he couldn't manage more than 100 damage per attack so I relegated him to ether duty).

That final battle took like twenty minutes but I survived, bringing down Chaos and ending the time loop. The final text crawl explained that no memory of these events would survive... except for what lives on in my heart. Hell yeah!

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Final Fantasy I was a good game, but it wasn't anywhere near my favorite in the series. For starters it felt a little generic. I know that's unfair (FFI was the reason a lot of things became RPG staples after all) but it's a new game to me and I can't help but judge it like that. That said, I still had a lot of fun with it. The encounter rate was silly but typical battles only lasted fifteen to twenty seconds so I never felt bogged down or frustrated. My only real complaint was the lack of direction on where to go at times, and I'm fairly certain most of that was me being an idiot (plus guides alleviated this anyway). The story was basic but still had its moments and the dungeons were varied. The game also had a lot of charm, like Matoya getting her sight back and saying the heroes weren't as attractive as she'd imagined (I won't rank characters but if I did, Matoya would be my favorite).

The best way to describe my feelings for FFI is that it was a solid RPG experience, and I appreciate that it was remade so I could get a sense of where the series began. However, later FFs all have aspects that I truly loved (XIII's combat system, X-2's fun tone, BD's job system, etc) whereas FFI was just overall standard fun. Because of that, my overall ranking goes like this:

XIII > X-2 > LR > VI > WoFF > IX > VIII > X > BD > I >>> XIII-2

Now the question is, where will FFII fit in? Tune in during the weekend for another adventure!
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So what do you have left after that?

III, IV, V, VII, XII, XV?
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Current plan for this year is:

III (DS)
IV (I dunno)
V (GBA probably)
VII (Steam)

XII and XV are going to have to wait for a hopefully inevitable PC release. FFT and FFTA will probably be next year, by then I'll have a new phone that can actually play the mobile version of FFT.
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So Roba, fortunately for FFXII it is getting a PS4 release this summer so I cannot imagine a steam release won't be far behind. Also, I am under the understanding that all of those games are available on steam.
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eaedwards6400 posted...

So Roba, fortunately for FFXII it is getting a PS4 release this summer so I cannot imagine a steam release won't be far behind. Also, I am under the understanding that all of those games are available on steam.

That XII re-release is what I'm counting on! And most of them are available on Steam but it's a question of the best versions. I've heard FFV on GBA is the best and I borrowed III on DS from a friend so I'll just use that. With FFIV, I just haven't researched the versions but it is on Steam so that is an option.
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