Final Fantasy II - Like an old comfortable sweatshirt

[Ziggy]

Yeah, lol, maybe because I just played FF4, so I want it to be the same. Though losing that 5th character really sucks, but I guess FF5 would be imbalanced if you had another character.

[GameMasterGuy]

Anyways, five characters is one of the most defining features of IV. The characters were so awesome, Square couldn't bear to let only four into a single battle at once

[o.pwuaioc]

Yeah, lol, maybe because I just played FF4, so I want it to be the same. Though losing that 5th character really sucks, but I guess FF5 would be imbalanced if you had another character.

That was my single biggest disappointment with Final Fantasy after 4. The 5-party ensemble just rocked, and really felt balanced. Afterwards, I always felt like I wanted one more person to fight with. The jump to two characters in Mystic Quest, among many reasons, is why I loathed it so, and even with later stuff on the PS1, like (non-Final Fantasy) Legend of Dragoon, which only gave me three characters, still made me miss that old FF4 touch.

[Xeogred]

Yeah I could see five characters breaking most of the games, but it was perfectly balanced and well done in IV. I think what annoys me most is the three limit in FFVII-VIII, four would've been awesome.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Yeah, I feel like FFVII should have been designed around 4 characters too. I mostly played FFIV with the highest battle speed and with 5 characters it was just so much fun. Perfect difficulty and on-the-fly planning. Never got bored. Contrast to FFVIII or FFIX which are absolutely glacial.

I really liked how everyone was afraid of Cecil in the beginning. His own townspeople wanted him to leave them alone, and if you go into Baron's inn and talk to the bartender, he will offer you free booze because he doesn't want trouble. The Mysidians called him names or refused to talk to him at all. Cecil seems to be real afraid of himself too, and that first scene with Rosa, when Cecil realizes that he's not fit for love, is the only one that made me feel for her as a character. Cecil as a person absolutely rocked for the first few hours until he just lost all personality and started listening to whatever harebrained scheme the Dwarf King or whoever can come up with. So much lost potential >_>

Thoroughly enjoyed the game though. It was a lot of fun.

[Xeogred]

I dunno, I think FFIV was strong all the way through, and Cecil was good. Just seeking redemption or something.

That said yeah, I still wish the game was longer in the beginning with him in his Dark Knight form.

[Ziggy]

Eh, so I cheated a little bit with FF5. It's just so hard not to find out about things online these days LOL. I found out that the Shield Dragon in the Sealed Castle will give you a great amount of gil, experience and ability points. I also found out that if you use !Control you can kill the Shield Dragon easily. So I ended up having a character get the control ability real quick, and now I'm fighting Shield Dragons LOL.

[Xeogred]

I did the same thing, based off my guide lol. So yeah I used a guide loosely, it was fairly awful though (no maps or anything usually, it's the Anthology guide). But yeah I did that there too with the Shield Dragons I believe. That or I think I was trying to learn some blue magic spell in that area and gained a lot of exp in the process.

But trust me, your grinding will be nearly meaningless ahead.

[Ziggy]

Spoiler warning to anyone that hasn't played FF5 or FF7...

Ah, WTF! I just got up to the part where Galuf dies and is immediately replaced by Cara, which gains Galuf's abilities. So, LOL, just a name and sprite change but nothing else. Pretty pointless, actually. But I think it's kinda lame that the party is made up of one guy and three chicks now. Not that I'm sexist or anything, but it was balanced with 2 and 2 before. Also, Galuf looked badass as a Ninja and a Hunter. Now Cara is my Ninja/Hunter, and she's this little cute sprite. Yeah, I made both my female characters my mages, maybe I am sexist.

Honestly, after playing through FF4 and now seeing this happen in FF5, why was any one surprised when Aeris died in FF7? I haven't played FF6 yet, but I'm assuming there might be a shocking death.

[MrPopo]

Techniaclly Cara has different base stats from Galuf. She's a bit more caster whereas he was a bit more physical. The thing is that in IV you had a forced party and no customization, in V you get an instant replacement who's just as built but with slightly different stats, so when VII came along and axed a party member with no replacement and you had the customization it was pretty crazy.