RPG Progress Report

[MrPopo]

I did a little "swap trick" grinding for three of my four party members. I don't bother leveling the 4th member too much, until I get the final one that is.

I've actually avoided any major tricks. The only thing I've done was I started by grinding Captains in Fynn with a massively stacked set of Blinks. Each one would take 10-20 minutes to down but it was a guaranteed major boost to the majority of my parameters. That got me to the point where I can walk through the rest of the game and make sure I manage my equipment so as to maintain a high evade % (so no armor at the start, then as my stats get high enough I can start putting on pieces). The only grinding I do these days is grinding up my support spells, and that's just a single cast by everyone per battle.

The "strategy" associated with leveling in Final Fantasy II is one of my favorite aspects of the game. You can't just "press A" through a series of battles and level all of your party member's stats.

Out of curiosity, are there any other RPGs that have something similar to FFII's leveling system?

The SaGa games (minus SaGa 3) had a similar sort of system. SaGa 1 & 2 had your mutants gain stats somewhat based on the actions they took in battle (then you had buying stats for humans and eating your way up the chain for monsters). Similarly, I know Romancing SaGa 3 would give you a chance to learn skills based on the weapons you use, and your stats can go up based on use (I believe the previous two Romancing SaGa games did this as well). You'll notice that the guy who directed FFII was the director for the SaGa games except for SaGa 3, and that was the one that went back to a traditional leveling system.

[BoneSnapDeez]

For the record, I don't think FFII's leveling system is very good at all, but it is "interesting."

The SaGa series is really underrated. Though the PS2 games should be completely ignored.

[prfsnl_gmr]

The SaGa games (minus SaGa 3) had a similar sort of system. SaGa 1 & 2 had your mutants gain stats somewhat based on the actions they took in battle (then you had buying stats for humans and eating your way up the chain for monsters). Similarly, I know Romancing SaGa 3 would give you a chance to learn skills based on the weapons you use, and your stats can go up based on use (I believe the previous two Romancing SaGa games did this as well). You'll notice that the guy who directed FFII was the director for the SaGa games except for SaGa 3, and that was the one that went back to a traditional leveling system.

Thanks for the response. I actually played through Final Fantasy Legend II when I was 11 or 12, but I remember very little about it. I will have to play through all of the Gameboy SaGa games again sometime soon. (Summer Gaming Challenge 2015, maybe? )

[MrPopo]

Many western RPGs like to use the "learn through doing" leveling scheme. The ones off the top of my head are the Elder Scrolls series and Betrayal at Krondor. Of course, there were more RPGs that used some derivative of the base D&D system, but "learn through doing" is not uncommon in WRPGs.

[Stark]

Just took down the Demon of Song in DSII, love this game.

[BoneSnapDeez]

DS = Dark Souls???

[BoneSnapDeez]

Final Fantasy II

Finally have the airship, you get it way too late in this game. The (water) ship travel is annoying.

Just landed on the castle surrounded by mountains. I think there are only 3 dungeons left in the game. Can I finish it in under 20 hours???

[Exhuminator]

At about 30 hours in, I'm now at the final final boss of Conception II. In typical JRPG fashion, the final final boss is 20 times harder than any other boss in the game. I was having a time with it last night, but I'm coming back tonight with a new strategy that will hopefully demolish its ridiculous ass so I can be done with this game.

I also started playing Fatal Labyrinth recently. I had this game when I was 15 years old and I hated it because I thought it was pointless. Now about 20 years later I can see the rugged beauty in roguelikes, and I'm actually enjoying playing it. Going to try and get a good run and finish the game.

[ninjainspandex]

I'm about halfway done with Final Fantasy X and loving every second of it. Maybe after this I should give Final Fantasy 13 another chance? Does the PS3 version have the option to turn on Japanese Voice acting?

Loved the Darth Vader/ Luke Sky walker moment with Sin/Jecht and Tidus

[darsparx]

Playing Ys I in chronicle mode. On my way to Zepik to visit Jeba now. This game is pretty interesting, I just got distracted all the other times and forgot I was playing it...I swear I'm going to beat it this time...