9999 Damage Limit

[DarkClaymore]

Don't know it there was a thread like this... anyway, I didn't find one


I bet most of you have noticed the fact that in many FFs, there is a limit to how much damage you can do. That limit is 9999 Damage per hit.

When fighting the final boss in FFXII (which was my first FF), I have used a magic with Penelo (I think it was Holy) and it hit the boss with 9999 Damage. I thought "What?! What the chance of such thing to happen?".
(It is actually 0.1% I think...). But then it was 9999 again, and again.
I knew that magics rarely do exactly the same damage, so I came to the conclusion that there is Damage Limit. Later, I realized it is true to other FFs as well.


So what do you think of this Damage Limit? Annoying thing? Good thing? Or it doesn't really matter?


I quite dislike it, as I don't see what is the big idea of having such a limit.
It actually ruins some game elements. For example, Holy did 9999 damage, so why to use Ultima (don't remember if FFXII had Ultima, but I guess you got the idea) if it won't do more damage anyway? So Ultima will become useless. Even more if you'll be able to deal 9999 with a Fire magic (don't know if that possible though), then you won't need Fira and Firga anymore.
I do at least admit that in FFX, there is point to put such a limit, as it can breaked. But as for other FFs (maybe it is possible to break the limit and I don't know), I can't see what limit is for. And it annoys me.

 

[idiotic idioms]

....wow. Final Fantasy XII is your first ff game? Or just the first one you noticed the limit? The limit if there to put realistic restraint on your characters. The Limit can be gotten around though, in many different games. In Final Fantasy 7, for example, there are attacks that do multiple hits. If each hit for 9999 then your total is way above. In FFX, there is actually an ability you can get that will allow you to break the 9999 limit and do damage way above that, if you're able. The cap is just there as a max number for a single attack. It's been that way in RPG's for a long time. It can be annoying, especially when you think you should be doing more damage, but maybe it's for a good reason.

I'm pretty sure they put the 9999 cap there for the very simple fact that the harder you hit, the tougher your enemies have to be. Without the cap, the enemies would be a lot harder. and it would just keep going up. much like the economy of the US. Think of it as supply and demand. When people want lower taxes, it has to balance out by lowering their pay. If they want a higher minimum wage, then taxes have to go up. There has to be a balance or it all starts getting out of hand. Well, same concept applies to the game. If people want higher attacks, then the difficulty of the monsters have to go up. People complain about the difficulty enough of as it is with some of the monsters. If the cap were say, 99,999 then it would give rise to a whole breed of monsters who hp number in the billions. Your max health and mp would have to go up because the enemies would also have to have the ability to hit that hard. And if we were to do that, people would get used to it eventually, and along would come someone with much the same ideas and thoughts as you and question why it couldn't be higher. There has to be balance.

 

[stinger]

Agree with everything said above. The limit is there for a reason and without it later parts of the game would become drastically imbalanced. It's not like the limit stops you from winning battles, if you can do that much damage on a regular basis battles should be won fairly comfortably.

The games that have enemies where it can be needed such as X the ability to break that limit is there.

 

[Megalo]

Id rather not have the limit. FFX didn't have a single monster with as much HP as Yiazmat and yet it was FFXII who had the 9999 limit. I say get rid of the limit, but make it hard to get past 9999. Some tough sidequests, beat some hard optional bosses, minigames.

 

[idiotic idioms]

the whole thing is that Yiazmat was optional. The bosses you fought in FFX weren't, for the most part. and it still made it too easy. really, when you get right down to it, all of you people who think the 9999 limit is annoying are people who either just want the game to be easier, or would like to see big ass numbers pop up on their screen. back in my day, our rpgs had a max hp of 999, and you were lucky if you reached that. Max attack? 999, and you were lucky if you reached it. and they didn't have all these nifty new graphics either. You had little blips you could barely see and that was good enough, damn it. kids today are spoiled. SPOILED. lol.

really though... you are.

 

[Flagg]

There was a summon in FF VIII that did over 9999 limit.

I voted "doesnt really matter" but should have voted good. It is a good thing its there, otherwise you'd get to a level where you could kill every enemy with one hit.

BORING.

 

[7Grievers]

Well, I hope ffxiii will be different. Like a Summon or a Limit Break hits 30 times with 999999 dmg. Well those thing would be most hard to find but available.

 

[Bambi]

I don't thin it really matters...although I guess it's dependent on the enemies in the game, you can complete X at the 9999 limit, but I can imagine doing some of the optional bosses with there millions of HP would be a pain in the arse...saying that ....FFX has some stupidly high HP'd bosses and theres a limit there...so I supopse it just makes it more of a challenge

Don't want things to be too easy now do we

I dont mind it being 9999

 

[Ramiel]

You can break the limit in FFXII with Balance, Zeromus, Zodiark's Final Eclipse, Dark Matter, Renew & Arise (for healing), and in FFXIIIZJS, in which the damage limit doesn't exist, you can actually hit 1 million damage with the almighty Seitengrate bow (which has a 1:10,000 chance of appearing on a treasure chest in an airship).

 

[Khadaj]

A damage cap is necessary imo. It's basically broken down into fractions. Sure, you could have no cap, and be doing hundreds of thousands of damage against a boss with millions upon millions of HP, or be doing thousands of damage against a boss with hundreds of thousands of HP. It's basically the same thing, just fractioned.

Just keeps us from doing retarded numbers xD Also, the higher the digits, the harder it would be for balanced character growth, no?

 

[Robbiedbee]

I think there should be a cap, but one that can be broken as and when it needs to be broken. For example, FFX. You don't need BDL to finish the game, it is quite manageable without.

There are times in FF games, where breaking the damage limit would be advantageous, but then who knows, maybe it would make things a little easy.

Here is an idea; lets use FFVII as an example. By the time your levels are in the 60s, you have your ultimate weapons you can hit for 9999 (I think). How about the 9999 limit can be broken, but only when you hit for a critical? That would be some kind of compromise wouldn't it?

 

[Saix]

I see what you're saying about spells ultimately doing the same damage, but up to where you get on the higher end of the power spectrum - they don't. I enjoyed being able to break it in X, but it really did make things pointlessly easy; X wasn't the proper game to implement Break Damage Limit at all.

I like the idea of no cap, though, but for as long as we can't breach 9999 by too much. 5-10k at best.

Also...

Holy did 9999 damage, so why to use Ultima (don't remember if FFXII had Ultima, but I guess you got the idea) if it won't do more damage anyway? So Ultima will become useless.

Holy is generally a single-target spell, whereas Ultima, although slightly weaker, hits all targets. Beneficial in their own ways.

 

[karmiccancer]

logistically spoeaking i'm pretty sure there has to be a cap somewhere, in the actualy hardcore game design at least
lvl99, 999MP 9999HP etc. i dont think they could program it so there wouldn't be one
(maybe there is i dont really know much about game design)
if they cant they could just make so high that you'd never reach it anyways, but i really dont think it matters
having the cap forces some kind of statedgy change near the end, but not enough to really effect anything. by the time youy can do 9999damage the game is easy enough to play without doing anymore
i think i've heard that its possible to beat ffVI on level 7, i think that gives some perspective

 

[Ezio Auditore]

Doesn't really bother me all that much to be honest, it's useful if you have it and it makes some bosses so much easier but it takes sooo much effort to be able to get it, meaning you have to work really hard so it's basically your reward

You don't have to have it to complete the game it just makes it a lot easier Break Damage Limit though is very good to have though, especially in FFx when you fight Dark Aeons, those things would have murdered me ten times over is I wasn't able to deal over 9999 D;

 

[aintnoscrub]

A damage cap is necessary imo. It's basically broken down into fractions. Sure, you could have no cap, and be doing hundreds of thousands of damage against a boss with millions upon millions of HP, or be doing thousands of damage against a boss with hundreds of thousands of HP. It's basically the same thing, just fractioned.

Just keeps us from doing retarded numbers xD Also, the higher the digits, the harder it would be for balanced character growth, no?

i couldnt agree more, without the damage cap, bosses would just have ridiculous amounts of HP and it would start to look abit silly imo.
i admit first time i played a FF i thought to myself..is that?
but once i got into the series and came to the realization that millions and millions of damage at one time was necessary.

 

[Rorolina Frixell]

And unless you have the 'zombie' status effect ability (zombie attack) you can't even beat the game. So BDL is a must to beat FF10 anyway

Was kinda annoying how every other enemy later on starts to require it once you get to sin though. >_>

 

[SpreadZero]

There are other FF games that can pass that damge limit but you usually have to equip ability called "Break Damage Limit"

Anyway I dunno what to think I mean I kinda like cause you OHKO a boss or something in one hit but sometimes you just wanna bam cause the battle dragson and just wanna get past the stage and stuff....yeah..

 

[Tyler Breeze]

I love seeing the 9999 damage symbol pop up during battle. I'm all like "fuck yeah!". LOL anyway, if it was put any higher, it would probably make the later game bosses too easy to beat. Which I wouldn't mind, XD but some people like a challenge. I think that's a great number to stop it at. Maybe it'll change in the future.

 

[Fantasy_Dragon]

I usually don't like limits, but I see it as a good thing. It keeps your character from being too overpowered but it's more interesting when there are ways to break it (like the special weapons/armor in X).