How do you play?

SaShman

SaShman

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No I'm not asking to play Final Fantasy!
(Or the RPG for that matter)

One thing I've noticed during my time here is that different people usually have different playing styles. Particularly when I browse the Help Booth and see people offering strategies on beating different bosses, I notice that the strategies are generally quite diverse.

So how do you generally go about playing a Final Fantasy game? Do you like inflicting status effects on bosses? Do you prefer using magic to inflict damage opposed to physical damage? Do you always make sure you cast protect, shell, haste and other buffs? Do you make sure you learn every limit break so they can be your main source of damage? Do you use gravity magic? Do you spam summons? ect.....

Usually my main source of damage comes from physical fighters. I'm not that big of a Black Magic user. I will occasionally buff my party but only for the really tough enemies, I use haste most of the time though. I rarely use status effects unless I am up against someone who inflicts huge physical damage or only uses magic. Since most of my damage is physical I will usually try to get the ultimate weapons (or at least something exceptionally good), I rarely bother learning the most powerful limit breaks though.

So basically the only characters I use are physical attackers and white mages. Unless the enemy has an extremely vulnerable elemental weakness.
 
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I'm mainly a phsical fighter, using magic only when I have to or for curative reason. I like having jobs, but then I really hate having to have a mage in my party, because I never know what to do with the character, Im so stingy, I hate wasting my MP on anything other that necessary healing. Id rather have my white mage doing 1 hp of damage than waste my precious mp :wacky:

I rarely use status affects, only times I do use them is for Trexaurs in FFVIII when I blind them, OR if I can, Il quip it to my weapons effect. It's good then, I just dont like wasting a move because they qalways seem to be immune or miss when I try using status effects

I always struggle in any area that maybe soley/majority magic using, like that stupid tower in FFVI, or Fork Tower in FFV

So yes, physical fighter all the way :monster:
 
It honestly depends on the game.

In XII, I usually inflict statues effects on the enemy, and positive effects on myself. I never use black magic in that game, though. Oh, and when I'm in a dungeon, I just hold down the L2 and R2 buttons until I get to a save point. Then I go back and kill everything so I can level up. :wacky:

In X, I use buffs on myself, but don't bother doing anything bad to the enemies. If I do, it's usually on a really difficult boss or something. I use black magic a lot, though.

In VII, I very rarely cast protective crap on myself. I usually just physical attack and summon on bosses. I also tend to spam enemy skills.

In IV, I cast buffs and then just summon like crazy. I also hit with physical attacks.

I don't do much of anything in V and VI. :P

In IX, I just hit with physical attacks and use black magic. I never cast protect, shell, haste, or anything of that crap on myself. I don't remember slowing bosses. Oh, and I never summon either. They're not that powerful in that game in my opinion. Oh, and this is the only game I steal in.

So yeah, that's how I play my games. :wacky:
 
I like physical attacks, but I really like black magic when I can hit all the enemys. I like trying to wipe them all out at about the same time.
Stiner and ViVi, great Combo, Magic and physical attacks.
 
Most of the time I rely on weapons to kill off my enemies but from time to time when weaposn can't do the trick, I lash out the summons since they are very powerful and useful in battle. I tend to stay away from status effect magic since most of the time they don't inflict the effect I want on them. I do cast a lot of white magic when it comes to FFIV (DS) and FFXII since the enemies are a bit more stronger. If all else fails with white magic, then I rely on the last source possible... which is potions and such. To sum it up...

FFIV: I pretty much everything that each character has to offer.
FFVI: I rely mostly on weapons and sometimes espers, black/white magic.
FFVII: Weapons, summons, and white magic only.
FFVIII: Weapons mainly and sometimes summons without boosting because that is annoying.
FFX: Mainly Yuna's summons and white magic, Auron's attacks, and Lulu's black magic.
FFXII: Weapons, items, and white magic mainly because I suck at this game.
 
I tend to use magic and special abilities when I can in FF6. In FF1, I've been selecting "Attack" a lot though. For magic, I tend to rely heavily on elemental magic, as other stuff like "Death" tends to "MISS" a lot in my limited experience. I also use a lot of healing magic, often on my whole party unless one or two characters are much weaker than the others, in which case I'll just heal each weak character.
 
Honestly with me its all about power. I like characters with high attack and defense like Auron or Steiner. I never bother with mages to be honest except in certain titles where only particular characters can use magic, then il have a white mage for spells like cure.
I tend to not bother with status effects except in X where i can put abilities like ddeath strike on a weapon.
 
I like to use a balance of physical and magic. Thereofre I will usually have something effective against any enemy. I never use items unless it's desperate, don't know why. I probably tend to use spells and summon a lot and I generally try to steal from my enemies.

This only applies to games where you can choose class and steal eg. FF3 and FF12. For other games I tend to max out every character and own! I use summons a lot but I still maintain a balance.
 
I have to admit that I'm the kind of gamer who likes to spend time leveling up, but mostly getting my characters to learn as many abilities and skills as possible. I don't try to necessarily power level my characters, just try to get all I can out of the way early on so I have a full arsenal of tricks up my sleeve when boss battles and dungeons come around.
 
Speed is needed it gets you more turns and you always want high strength and defense. It depends on what boss you are versing if it is high in magic you will need good magic defense. Generally building up characters is an essential.
 
I mostly use physical attacks but it depends on the enemy. If theyre really weak against a certain magic then ill use that. Not really big on status change but i will use haste a lot.

The only magic i use consistently is healing magic
 
I go with all physical attacks. If I have my preference, one of my warriors can cast buffs and a few can heal. I usually never have a person dedicated to white magic or any other type of support. My strategy changes based on the situation but I'm usually in for the long haul. I believe in having good defenses, hitting decently consistently, and keeping the party healed. My fights usually take longer than others but I just like to fight that way.
 
Generally, might over magic. I'd love to use the status effects a bit more, but they're not too practical -- half the time a spell will miss, so essentially you've just wasted a turn. All the 'hard' monsters are immune to most statuses, so the only things you can cast these spells on are foes you can one-hit at higher lvs anyway.

I only really used black magic and buffs regularly in XII -- otherwise only if they're essential really.
 
Different from game to game. FFI-FFVI I ignored most sidequests and just went for the main storyline. Only concentrated on levelling and buying stuff.

FFVII: Did sidequests, used Bio ALOT, more of a collector, like for enemy skills and weapons. Overlevelled.
FFVIII: UNDER-levelled, lol. :P Would get upto the last disk and do quests then. Used to summon GFs practially most of the time.
FFIX: Eh..haven't played this much.
FFX: Wait until almost the end to do sidequests. Would summon alot.
FFXII: Do sidequests/marks during storyline (I've NEVER done this before in a FF game.). Use status effects alot. Rarely use Espers. Abuse Quickenings ALOT.

In general, I prefer physical than magic. I use status effects when they're very useful enough for a boss. I adore sidequests. I'm VERY lazy with protect/shell/etc. but I use Haste often. I find Limit Breaks/Overdrives/Quickenings/Trances etc. very important and helpful for me and I try learn them quickly as possible (especially for FFVII and FFXII)
 
FFXII was the only game I've ever done the side quests during the main story, but after about sixty hours I wanted to just beat it and quit doing all of them. Usually, I like to just play through as fast as I can, and if I liked the game well enough I'll go back and do all I can.

I tend to use more magic, although I'm not sure why. Only time I really rely on all physicals is when I'm levelling up, half asleep on the couch just pressing the x button over and over again.
 
1) It depends on the game.
2) Depends on the character(s)

I usually try to balance my party and obtain every weapon/equipment as soon as possible, I don't like being powerleveled, but I hate being underleveled.

I tend to equip all my best equipment on my main attacker and over-use Haste(ga) to keep him at full speed and finish the enemies/boss Asap. While other members support/heal and also attack, I.e: Mages with spells, Warrior-like characters with attacks. When I have weak characters (low def or low mag def ) I cover those points.

When facing a Boss that I already know I prepare and think of a strategy to beat him the easiest way and without much casualties.

I don't use summons that much, I summon them when a certain Boss/enemy has a lot of HP and/or is weak to a certain element.

But then again, it all depends on the game.
 
Depends on the game for me. For FFXII I'm all physical attacks because it's so easy with gambits. For FFX I used magic mostly and Yuna and Lulu were my most used chars by far. As for games in general, I think playing a magic based game is A LOT more fun than physical but sometimes I'm just too lazy to go through the trouble of using it lol
 
When fighting in FF battles I'm always in one of two mindsets: conserve your mana or go all out to get to the goal as fast as possible. Usually my setups are half melee/half casters to keep a good balance and be able to take out any type of monsters (in case the enemies have high physical or magic resistances).

Reasons why it would be good to go conservative route: walking across long distances without the chance to replenish supplies, going into a dungeon and need to save the big spells for the final big boss, or when grinding levels and just feel like hitting attack. :) During this time of conserving mana I probably would not be casting any extra buff/debuff spells just to make the group last longer.

Why it might be better to go all out: its a boss fight and there is no point in conservation, you are going for the world record for fastest completion and don't mind hitting nuke every turn if it will just get you to the end faster, or getting bored and want to look at the shiny spells. With these type of fights my casters would likely do damage spells before buffs/debuffs unless I am feeling uncertain or my chars are underleveled.

I think this goes for all the FF games for me.
 
Generally I go with the physical approach and only use magic when a monster particularly weak against. But I shy away from summons -- the animation sequences are just too long -- and status magic. It misses so often you might as well skip a turn.
 
Over the many many years of playing RPG's, I've developed a personal sstem that (like everyone else's) is rather hard to just explain.

For the most part, I'm a physical guy. When the option presents itself, I will always buff up attack rather than defense, magic, or etc. This is especially true of the main character, who I always make the strongest, and then brush off magic to someone else. (For example, Squall didn't cast any magic for me, he was my item, draw, and GF guy. And Cloud only had one spell and one summon on him. The rest was physical materia like Double Cut and CounterAttack.)

On the other hand, I make sure to boost magic when there are character's who can't really do anything else. (Like, Aerith, cough cough, or Jessica in Dragon Quest VIII.)

But some games kind of throw my strategies out the window. Like FFX. The game was overly balance for me. Everyone had their own skills and tricks and spells, and were to use strictly what they were given until near the end of the game when you could cross nodes and schtuff.

With bosses, I tend to exploit any weaknesses first off, to get it out of the way, then bash them with physicals. (I usually have two strong guys, one all physical, and one physical/magic and then a healer/magic user.) And use any Limit Breaks (or whatever they're called) and summons and lay waste to 'em.

Worked for me so far. =D
 
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