Does Final Fantasy Need Difficulty Settings?

Does Final Fantasy Need Difficulty Settings?

  • Yes

    Votes: 9 52.9%

  • No

    Votes: 8 47.1%
  • Total voters
    17
ACardAttack

ACardAttack

Kefka Disciple and Ultros Stalker
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The title says it.

I say yes, and I would say 3 levles are needed. I just feel I havent played a tough FF game other than IV, and V....VI did catch me off guard at the end because a lot of my party that I never used was pretty underleveld. But XII, X, IX, VIII, and VII werent that hard for me, sure there were parts like Lady Yunalesca in X, but over all it wasnt that hard and the lasts bosses werent that hard either. The only challenges were the optional bosses.

Casual RPG Player, pretty much no grinding is needed, would be about the difficulty of pretty much all the 3d FF games

Veteran RPG Player, tougher, some grinding is needed, bosses are never pushovers, more thought and tactical skills are needed when fighting enemy

Hardcore RPG Player, plenty of grinding is needed to get anywhere in the game, this is pretty much like some of the first FF games that from what I have read are hard as hell

I think difficulty settings which wouldnt be that hard to implement could open up future FF games to a wider audience.
 
If it would keep them from increasing the standard difficulty, then yes. I fucking hate level grinding, and pretty much avoid it like the plague. It adds nothing to the experience other than boredom and frustration, and considering that I pretty much play the games for the story, serves to prolong the pleasure.

Four levels. Level 1 for standard easy, 2 for normal, 3 for difficult, and 4 for carpal tunnel inducing torture.
 
I think the whole point of FF is to level grind, that's what makes up a lot of the hours completing it. But I don't think it does mainly because it's not that FF's are too easy, it's mainly because you become over leveled so it becomes easier so just don't level up as much, I don't think difficulty settings are needed. :gmonnster:
 
i love doing challenges like low level and no junction, no matera or an excalibur II run.....those kind of stuff are like a part of final fantasy. so if you want something more difficult, try one of those (nothing can compare to spending a weeks trying get through the Iifa tree in ffix with a lvl1 game^^).

anyway, dont think theres a need for it, and id rather have ffxiii sooner out than wait for them to put settings on the game 3-4 times.
would be nice though
 
LuvHerEyes said:
i love doing challenges like low level and no junction, no matera or an excalibur II run.....those kind of stuff are like a part of final fantasy. so if you want something more difficult, try one of those (nothing can compare to spending a weeks trying get through the Iifa tree in ffix with a lvl1 game^^).
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I think those can be frustrating and not my style. I want to strategize against bosses, but not because I am way under powered...I dont have THAT kind of patients.

I dont think its because I am over leveled. I definitely did not do a whole lot of leveling in XII, although I did some of the hunts and same with X, IX (only to catch up a party member when teams were split up) or VIII (although I drew like crazy). Dont rememember VII enough. And it wouldnt take long or do I think it would push back XIII if there was difficulty levels added
 
I think they took a right step when they did CC. It's challenging doing hard on a new game and not a new game plus. I wouldn't mind seeing difficulty levels since I could in just about any of the recent FFs kill bosses just by attacking and healing when needed. No real stratagy there. Most of the time I don't find myself making use of spells like slow or death sentence since there's really no point. I remember FF for the nes. Now THAT game was a challenge. I've yet to see any self imposed challenge beat a solo theif in that game.
 
Well I know Crisis Core did have one, but for the standard rpgs that following the franchise, I would say YES PLEASE! Alright here is why... as some of you have already said there are casual gamers and there are hardcore gamers. I myself sometimes am a casual depending on how much time I want to invest in a game, but other times I've played a game till there is nothing left to do in it.

The difference being.. some people only want to play final fantasy strictly to see how the story/characters/graphics play out. As for the hardcore gamers they are stictly invested into the gameplay and looking to one up themselves with every spin. With the recent installments though excluding FFXI, since it is an online rpg, I have found that the FF's are stupid easy compared to the older ones. There is no difficulty setting and the only thing you can do is turn on/off "Real Time attacks", which basically allow the enemy to attack whenever instead of wait on you.

Now I have been cocky at some points and died again and again because I was just trying out new strategies on newer bosses, but that's mostly because I like to be inventive on new ways to exploit bosses.

If they gave us a difficulty setting, I'm not sure what it would entail. If the mobs hit harder, or if there would be limitations on spell usage or whatever else, it would be very interesting to see.

That's all I got.
 
Why would it need difficulty settings? As the player, you can choose whether to level up or not; if you just rush though the game, it tends to be hard anyway. So technically, you control the difficulty. You also have the choice of Wait/Active for the battle system. However, an increase in the monster/enemies AI could be implemented...
 
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Gabriel said:
Why would it need difficulty settings? As the player, you can choose whether to level up or not; if you just rush though the game, it tends to be hard anyway. So technically, you control the difficulty. You also have the choice of Wait/Active for the battle system. However, an increase in the monster/enemies AI could be implemented...
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Well I have done little grinding in the recent games...because the random encounters I had traveling between places has been enough to keep me at a good level. Also the enemy AI could use a boost instead of just being stronger...too many times I have had for example an enemy (boss or normal fiend) that will cast stop or doom or something like that on one cast member, to only seem them cast that same spell on that same character while that status effect is still active...i.e. cast stop on someone, they are still stopped and casted it again. I have also seen things like LVL 5 death casted more than once in a fight where no characters were effected by the spell
 
i agree ff7 was alittle on the eazy side probably shouldve put a hard mode after beating the game
 
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Though I can understand the purpose of wanting to implement a level difficulty setting, it's not in the games best interest to put a difficulty setting. First and foremost, the game itself is a story. Stories don't need to be retold 3-4 times. The game itself already has enough replay value and many challenges ARE put in place to keep you from expiring from the game. IE: FF7's Weapon Bosses, Osmosis for FFIX, etc. These are things that are to keep the game set. What's the point of a story if it has no end?


I understand what you mean about how it worked with Crisis Core, but look at the battle system. If you tied in that type of battle system with a turn-base RPG, then you're going to be pulling your hair out. It just doesn't work for these kind of games. Grinding is a natural part of Final Fantasy, but that's how the game is. Easy difficulty, pfft. There's no accomplishment in saying "Hey, I beat FF(insertnumberhere) and it was SOOO hard on Easy Mode!"

That just sounds stupid. Keep it to originially, I'd hate Square Enix if they implemented a difficulty system.....seriously.



~Insanctified
 
FF's are too easy as it is. they keep getting easier too. it seems like as rpg's go, they make them easier and easier. older rpg's are really tough though. like FFV was one of the toughest rpg's i've ever played. i found myself grinding several times though. but that's the thing, no matter how hard it gets, you can always grind until you can beat the boss. and that's the point of rpgs. that's why you don't need difficulty levels like you do for the survival horror genre.
 
Well i think if your new to the Final fantasy series yes. It should be Easy Medium, Hard and Pro
If yopur new and not use to the ff settings, then i'd pick easy and go from there. If your tired of it and need a challenge i'd pick an harder level.
So yes, i think there should be a level settings
 
I think that difficulty levels would take the fun out of the game. Leveling up can be a pain in the ass, but it makes the game what it is.

What would be nice would be leveling up AND difficulty levels, like in the world ends with you. With higher difficulty, you could get more and better items and things, and so on.
 
No final fantasy is already good the way it is and anyways it gets tougher as you progress through the game so whats the point of difficulty settings. The games are already challenging.
 
[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]I agree that FF games are too easy. Even the ones the OP mentioned as hard were a walk in the park compared to other RPGs at the time. Many people are saying that you shouldn[/FONT]’[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]t grind if you want the game to be hard, but the problem is that I[/FONT]’[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]m still over powered just regularly playing through the game. Often times I find myself intentionally avoiding battles so I don[/FONT]’[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]t[/FONT][FONT=ＭＳ 明朝] level up so fast.[/FONT]
[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝][/FONT]
[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]For other RPGs, being too easy would cause me to complain, but with FF games, I prefer it not to be too hard because I[/FONT]’[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]d much rather just progress through the story.[/FONT]
[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝][/FONT]
[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]Final Fantasy is the lowest-common-denominator RPG; being difficult would lower it[/FONT]’[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]s fan-base (even having difficulty settings would confuse some casual gamers). If you wanna grind, play Dragon Quest, which focuses on battle strategy and actually playing the game over the story (oddly enough, DQ outsells FF in Japan). [/FONT]
 
How would difficulty settings confuse some casual gamers?

Also I did just pick up DQ VIII, havent had time to play it yet though, but I look forward to it
 
ACardAttack said:
How would difficulty settings confuse some casual gamers?
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[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]Yeah, I was pushing it a bit with that comment, but I[/FONT]’[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]ll tell you my messed-up way of thinking. Some people can be really anal with this (like me for example). This opens up questions like [/FONT]“[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]what difficulty is it meant to be played on?[/FONT]”“[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]Is there anything missing from easier difficulties?[/FONT]”“[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]Am I getting full experience?[/FONT]”“[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]What if the game is too easy/hard? Do I have to start from the beginning if I want to change the difficulty?[/FONT]”

[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]The US version of FFIV was an [/FONT]“[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]easy version[/FONT]”[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝] of the original and was missing quite a bit of content, like most of the characters[/FONT]’[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝] secondary abilities (Cecil had no dark knight abilities). Many games have missing content in easy modes (and some games can[/FONT]’[FONT=ＭＳ 明朝]t be finished in easy mode), and this can disappoint and anger people.[/FONT]
 
Great thread.

I say yes for one reason more than any other: companies are trying to expand their consumer base to as many people as possible. Because that's the case, a lot of newer games are dumbed down in skill level. I really wouldn't mind playing through on a harder difficulty in an FF title.

I don't necessarily think they're too easy now... but it's rare that I'm ever really challenged. I can usually defeat a boss 5-10 levels less than most would just because I use good strategy. Harder difficulties would force me to level for those battles.

I would also imagine that level caps would differ. While a person playing on "easy" might cap out at lvl 75, normal at 100... a person playing hard or expert wouldn't cap out until 125 or 150.
 
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