Anyone else have this problem with FFII? I've played threw 5, 7, some of 8, 9, 10, 10-2, 12, 13 and I just really enjoy FF. Well I decided to go back and run threw the FF that I've missed out on. Just finished 1 and really enjoyed it. Now I'm onto 2 and I've just passed the dreadnought sailin' off and smashin' up all the towns. Well at this point I'm still having a hard time dealing with the annoying "no lvl up" system where instead you lvl up your weapon class, spells, etc.

To me it's just an extra annoyance that I have to go out of my way to cast, shell, or each, offensive elemental spell, or my cure, in my lvl grinding battles just to make sure everything lvls up together. It's almost like it's just there to hinder you and make the lvling process take longer. Either way, I don't see myself getting used to it anytime soon. Maybe I will though. You know with FF12 I never thought I'd get used to not having my random encounters but even though it's been a very long time and I hardly remember beating it, I definitely remember thoroughly enjoying it.

Anyone else have any comments on FF2's lvling system? Just wanted to get other people's opinions on it.

P.S. I'm stoked I finally found a FF forum that has recent post and seems to still be alive!

Welcome to the Shrine! :D

Sadly, FFII's battle system is one of those 'love it or hate it' things. It came across to me as more a failed experiment on Square's part - showing even at an early stage they were willing to, pun intended, 'think outside the square', even if such experiments were more often doomed by poor planing or just hardware/software limitations.

But yes, you're right how it doesn't quite work as well as it should - especially when it comes to cure spells (there was an old trick that by simply curing over and over in battle in order to max your HP out as fast as possible - apparently this was fixed for the GBA and PSP versions though).

Hi Enkidoh. Thanks for the welcome! I like your sig.

I agree with the love it or hate it few point from as much as I've experienced it so far. I guess that just gets me wondering the question, "did anyone out there really love it?" Lol. It also seems like a failed experiment to me. I like thinking outside the square and all but at the same time I find myself thinking "don't mess with our system we already like and are used to!" So I guess I see it from both point of views.

So I guess my thoughts on everything lvling up together are accurate as far as having to cast shell, barrier, cure, etc. when not needed throughout grind battles to get them to lvl up with everything else. There isn't some sort of catch I'm missing then? Or any other tricks I should know about? Well that's just a kick in the butt. I did play around with some ideas. For instance I equipped everyone with a shield in both hands and attacked w/ everyone (doing no damage) and cycled using everyone with magic's spells, casting them just once, in order to try to get exp for hp, each spell, agility, etc. Still, that's a real pain. I am indeed playing the GBA version. I'm using an older laptop and the GBA emulator ran super nice on my laptop so I decided to stick with that one.

I just finished FFI and I must say I was surprised to see they had an easy and normal difficulty for the PS1 version. I must say, no matter how hard, I can't say I'd ever set a FF to easy difficulty if the option was there. And I've dealt with the hard. I'm reminded of FFXIII 5 star the marlboro... Lol. And actually I thought I was quite lvled up being almost lvl 60 at the end of FF1 because I'm a grind'o'holic and chaos really gave me a work over. (however I managed to come out on top w/ no MP left and ethers left he finally fell, swoo!)

Just finished playing for a few hours and I'm starting to dislike the game functions a lil' more every minute I play... Figure since I mentioned FFII in this thread I'm going to use it to vent on my lil' FFII break I'm taking atm.

Ogre Mages - I fricken' hate them. Where is the magic resist in this game? Seriously... I'm running threw the area to get the sun fire I believe it's called and these blue bastards do nothing but all cast blind, all cast sleep, all cast blizzaga. And their all cast NEVER MISSES with the status alignment. Sure there are annoying bastards that all cast status alignments in other FFs but for the love of god your magic resist has some sort of role and they typically don't get all four party members, LET ALONE EVERY TIME.

LVL Magic - This is directly related to the above rant. Okay, so their all cast status alignment never seems to miss. Coincidentally my esuna misses 100% of the damn time! So what's one to do??? Constantly cast the thing for no reason to lvl it up to a lvl where it can at least be effective in combat to where it actually works half the time you cast it? Or wait till after combat to use it out of combat where it 100% works, yet doesn't lvl your esuna up!? REALLY?

Red Soul - So I'm fighting this boss at the end of this dungeon. The Red Soul. Here's a fresh one for me. His name is Red Soul. The damn thing cast Fire VIII. He's a fricken' face made of fire. So he's fire based right? So what do I do? Of course I cast ice magic on him. Blizzaga. To my complete surprise this fire based boss fricken' absorbs ice. Wtf? This goes against like all FF elemental mechanics!? Here's another one I like from this same fight. This Fire VIII spell does about 35-38hp to everyone in my party. So I cast shell all (miraculously it actually gets all four w/o missing!). Shell, as in magic defense. Typically reduces magic damage by half, sometimes less than half in some games but none the less reduces magic damage right? So this Red pain in the butt cast his typical Fire VIII again after everyone has shell up. Wow, 35-38hp damage to everyone. Uhm, am I the only one that sees something wrong here?

LVLing up - So I'm goin' threw this little strategy guide about this boss and they mention "if you're weapon skill aren't high lvl it's going to be difficult to hit this boss." Okay, well I spent over an hour grinding before this dungeon and my weapon skills eventually stopped raising no matter how many battles. So they are capped for the rank of monster I'm fighting before this dungeon so you'd think they'd be max right? Wrong. My hardest hitter (Guy) with a mythril axe is practically missing or hitting for 0 on this guy every swing. (eventually I dropped him which is funny because my worst hitters would get in sometimes 10-20dmg when my hardest can't touch him) On the whole lvling up system, now that I'm out of that dungeon and done w/ it I figure I better go lvl up or grind some more. Common idea for grinding here (and pretty much almost all FF) is to find a place with monsters, close to a town so you can hit inn, continue grinding. Well the only place with monsters higher rank enough to continue to lvl me up is about a 5-7 minute hike out in no where, FAR from any town. Outside every town I've found on map is still the lvl 1 goblins or wasp, or w/e they're called.

Woosaaah. Well, that's my vent. Thx for listening whomever took the moment to read. Man this game is going to be stressful to get all the way threw... I know, what's the point in continuing if it's truly not fun to play threw? Because I'm one of those OCD people that is going to think "well what about FFII, you never beat FFII and you call yourself a FF fan!" :P Anyhow... Guess I'll head back to the grinding..

Just finished playing for a few hours and I'm starting to dislike the game functions a lil' more every minute I play... Figure since I mentioned FFII in this thread I'm going to use it to vent on my lil' FFII break I'm taking atm.

Ogre Mages - I fricken' hate them. Where is the magic resist in this game? Seriously... I'm running threw the area to get the sun fire I believe it's called and these blue bastards do nothing but all cast blind, all cast sleep, all cast blizzaga. And their all cast NEVER MISSES with the status alignment. Sure there are annoying bastards that all cast status alignments in other FFs but for the love of god your magic resist has some sort of role and they typically don't get all four party members, LET ALONE EVERY TIME.

LVL Magic - This is directly related to the above rant. Okay, so their all cast status alignment never seems to miss. Coincidentally my esuna misses 100% of the damn time! So what's one to do??? Constantly cast the thing for no reason to lvl it up to a lvl where it can at least be effective in combat to where it actually works half the time you cast it? Or wait till after combat to use it out of combat where it 100% works, yet doesn't lvl your esuna up!? REALLY?

Red Soul - So I'm fighting this boss at the end of this dungeon. The Red Soul. Here's a fresh one for me. His name is Red Soul. The damn thing cast Fire VIII. He's a fricken' face made of fire. So he's fire based right? So what do I do? Of course I cast ice magic on him. Blizzaga. To my complete surprise this fire based boss fricken' absorbs ice. Wtf? This goes against like all FF elemental mechanics!? Here's another one I like from this same fight. This Fire VIII spell does about 35-38hp to everyone in my party. So I cast shell all (miraculously it actually gets all four w/o missing!). Shell, as in magic defense. Typically reduces magic damage by half, sometimes less than half in some games but none the less reduces magic damage right? So this Red pain in the butt cast his typical Fire VIII again after everyone has shell up. Wow, 35-38hp damage to everyone. Uhm, am I the only one that sees something wrong here?

LVLing up - So I'm goin' threw this little strategy guide about this boss and they mention "if you're weapon skill aren't high lvl it's going to be difficult to hit this boss." Okay, well I spent over an hour grinding before this dungeon and my weapon skills eventually stopped raising no matter how many battles. So they are capped for the rank of monster I'm fighting before this dungeon so you'd think they'd be max right? Wrong. My hardest hitter (Guy) with a mythril axe is practically missing or hitting for 0 on this guy every swing. (eventually I dropped him which is funny because my worst hitters would get in sometimes 10-20dmg when my hardest can't touch him) On the whole lvling up system, now that I'm out of that dungeon and done w/ it I figure I better go lvl up or grind some more. Common idea for grinding here (and pretty much almost all FF) is to find a place with monsters, close to a town so you can hit inn, continue grinding. Well the only place with monsters higher rank enough to continue to lvl me up is about a 5-7 minute hike out in no where, FAR from any town. Outside every town I've found on map is still the lvl 1 goblins or wasp, or w/e they're called.

Woosaaah. Well, that's my vent. Thx for listening whomever took the moment to read. Man this game is going to be stressful to get all the way threw... I know, what's the point in continuing if it's truly not fun to play threw? Because I'm one of those OCD people that is going to think "well what about FFII, you never beat FFII and you call yourself a FF fan!" :P Anyhow... Guess I'll head back to the grinding..

Are you buying ethers? cause i noticed that eary on,it was nearly impossible to beat each dungeon without a ton of ethers.Oh yeah:the difficulty becomes broken half way.It goes from:Ridiculously hard,to ridiculously easy.
Also:This is the first final fantasy game i have ever played that actually punishes you for exploring,because 99% of the rooms,are empty rooms with 200% encounter rate.Mid/late in the game,this isn't a problem,but early on,its a killer.

Wait till you also see the broken final boss and the later bosses,it is a killer.
There is a spell that can 1 hit kill most if not all bosses in the game.And there is also a weapon that makes the final boss ridiculously easy.

Oh yeah:welcome to the forum Jon M

It's the worst FF ever made because of the leveling system. That about says it all~

Also, everything else about it sucks, really...

Talking to beavers....

:seriously:

Are you buying ethers? cause i noticed that eary on,it was nearly impossible to beat each dungeon without a ton of ethers.Oh yeah:the difficulty becomes broken half way.It goes from:Ridiculously hard,to ridiculously easy.
Also:This is the first final fantasy game i have ever played that actually punishes you for exploring,because 99% of the rooms,are empty rooms with 200% encounter rate.Mid/late in the game,this isn't a problem,but early on,its a killer.

Wait till you also see the broken final boss and the later bosses,it is a killer.
There is a spell that can 1 hit kill most if not all bosses in the game.And there is also a weapon that makes the final boss ridiculously easy.

Oh yeah:welcome to the forum Jon M

I wasn't buying ethers no. I see what you mean though! Honestly, I was maxing out 99 potions and conserving mp throughout entire dungeons. (Later on of course 99 potions and 99 hi potions when I could afford it) Now certain dungeons with monsters that absolutely have to have magic cast on them to even deal with them would still slowly drain my mp and I'd teleport out and head back in. Real pain. I spent a few hours grinding and now everything is ridiculously easy and I have enough gil to buy the world. So I'm stocked on hi potions, potions, ethers, phoenix downs, etc, now. Now that the monsters aren't a damn problem. Like, a few hours of grinding and it went from ridiculous to simple. Honestly, just like you mentioned. Hard to easy. I just took back castle fyn I believe it's called and the general boss or w/e, yeah he didn't get a chance to even hit me. I used a sleep sword/dagger combo on that worthless pirate to constantly put him to sleep while pounding the crap out of him. Killed one of the soldiers you aren't supposed to be able to kill early on to get a firebow that took my girl characters bow from like 17 damage to 47 damage w/ fire so that was a huge help.

You're 100% right on punishing for exploring! Don't even bother. The empty rooms w/ hundreds of random encounters that can be deadly early on, and even world exploration. I explored down at the Colosseum earlier in the game not knowing what it was and first encounter, DEAD. Back to last save and all previous encounters and exp gone. And the flee command is a complete joke in this one. It hasn't worked for me a single time. Ever! Explore, one random encounter from a wrong step and sorry tough luck.

I can't wait to see the finale broken boss now that you've mentioned it. Because I didn't think this FF could get any worse. I really don't mind the story so much but everything else ruins it. Plus I hate the constantly shifting 4th party member. I have no drive to equip them, build up their skills, or anything when they will just be gone shortly. What spell are you referring to that can knock out half the later bosses in a single hit? Magic is a huge disappointment for me in this one. I honestly just grab the essentials. Shell, protect, cure, lighting/ice/fire offensive spells, life, and didn't waste my time with the rest. I mean when you have to individually lvl up each one, forget about it. All in all I can't wait for that last boss so I can move on to the next FF and be done w/ this one. :(

Thanks for the welcome! Super stoked to find other people online to finally discuss FF with. None of my friends are into FF at all.


It's the worst FF ever made because of the leveling system. That about says it all~

Also, everything else about it sucks, really...

Talking to beavers....

:seriously:

I haven't played all of them just yet. I feel that I'm missing out on quite a few of the 1-6 classics so that's what I'm working through right now. I did play one of the two on the PS1 chronicles so either 5 or 6, but it was so long ago I don't remember. Pretty sure it was 5 though since when I read about 6 on here I feel like I would remember it. However with the FF I've played so far (1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10-2, 12, 13) I'm going to have to completely agree with you that this must be the all time worst FF.

Yeah, wtf man! "Me Guy, totally worthless character with no development but me speak to animals so it okay."

Can't really go wrong with IV or VI.

III is a job game like V, but it's fine if you're into that sort of thing. Especially compared to II. Sometimes I wonder how they got the green light for III, after this debacle.

Sometimes I wonder how they got the green light for III, after this debacle.

Lol, I hear yeah.

Okay, job thing as in you select the job of each character. Same as selecting "class" in FFI? V is definitely the one I played back in the day because I remember jobs. So I don't think I'll mind III. Wasn't there some oddness with III, like it's release or something? Maybe I'm dreaming this. I thought I remembered reading something about it never being released in US and when it was it was released as another number as opposed to III or something? Dunno. I'm gonna really dig into II tonight to hopefully get close to the end. Any idea if I'm close to the end if I just finished taking Fyn Castle anyone?

FFIII was never released outside Japan til the DS remake, so it was always regarded as the 'missing' FF title for many years. The battle system is awesome (namely, the Job System), but the story is too slight and character development is virtually non-existent (even with the DS version, which added named characters over the generic 'Onion Kids' wasn't an improvement - they were still little more than cardboard cutouts with little personality).

FFIII is still well worth playing for the Job System though. :)

Sounds good. I just finished getting the white and black mask here in FFII and now have to go get some third object in order to open the ultima cave or w/e. *sigh* Damn FFII. Lol.

Looking forward to starting FFIII. Was it only released on nintendo DS? As in the hand held? AH! Is that why my title on the forums reads onion kid? Lol.

Tis the reason for Onion Kid, yes.

IV was released in the US as II.
VI was released in the US as III. Which is why we pissed our pants when VII came out wondering what happened to "4", "5," and "6."

The real II didn't show up here until the Origins compilation on PSX, I think. Enki probably knows better than I do.

Yep, you're correct Neg. FFII's first foray into English was with the FF Origins release on the PSX, being bundled with FFI.

And yes Jon, FFIII was first released in English on the DS (in fact, it's still the only English-language version available, other than illegal English-patched ROMs of the Famicom version). But I digress.

Can't really go wrong with IV or VI.

III is a job game like V, but it's fine if you're into that sort of thing. Especially compared to II. Sometimes I wonder how they got the green light for III, after this debacle.

3 is also pretty crappy.In 2 you had a story,and yet 3 has no backstory to any of the onion kids,wtf?
Also:The designers could have at least allowed players to run away,instead of having to fight every damm enemy in the final dungeon and over level,no?

As for the final boss:Masamune raises your combo,and the bloodsword deals ridiculous amounts of damage.I can't even begin to believe how overpowered the bloodsword is.

You talking about the DS version or the original? I can't honestly remember if you can run away in the DS remake.

The final dungeon not having a save point is pretty hardcore, I'll admit.

Still, the job system (while I'm not a fan of those in general) was much preferable to hitting yourself in II. If you like the story in II, that's your preference. III was at least playable in a "normal" fashion, which is good enough for me to prefer it to II.

Leveling yourself and your job was asinine and was handled much better in V, X-2, and XIII, but it's not game breakingly strange like in II.

If you like II, it's all good. I just feel much freer about bashing it because far more people tend to agree about it.

Yeah, well I played around with a Nintendo DS emulator. Don't like it. So I guess I'm just gonna hop into VI. I've heard so much good stuff about it that I've sorta been jonesing for it. Btw I finished II. Talk about an annoying ending. I popped the emperor and I'm thinking "finally it's over," yet now we have to fight the dark knight. (of course they totally foreshadowed way to much and made it obvious it was Leon) So pop him, NOPE now you have to kill the emperor from hell! Good lord. I was like "why won't it just fuckin' end!"

But it's finally over, lol. End boss was a joke with the bloodsword. Just turtle w/ your party while bloodsword decimates the boss. Joke.

:happycroc:

:happycroc:

Lmao! What's that guy for? Haha! FFII being done victory dance? Lol.

For playing VI.

Personally, I think you should wait on FFVI and play FFIV instead. Even though VI is an excellent game in it's own right (in fact, it's my favourite FF), FFIV at least would allow you to see how the series evolved directly from the NES to the SNES (for one thing, it was the first game to feature the ATB system - so no more piss farting around with stacking turns like in the earlier games). Also, the storyline is awesome, and it was probably the first FF game to feature a cast who you could actually care about.

But, it's your choice either way. They're both awesome games regardless. :)

Hmm. Maybe I'll take your advice Enkidoh. I haven't gotten too far. I just messed with the beginning of the game earlier and haven't even gotten Tara w/ Locke yet. I was in a battle mode and left the PC because I didn't realize this game went with ATB bars and wasn't turned base. So I came back and all my little moogle guards were dead, lol. So I might need to restart it anyhow.

I know a lot of people didn't like FFX-2 but honestly, I actually think I want to try and find a copy in the future and run threw it again to 100% everything. I know the game itself is real girly and all but honestly I remember loving the combat system and the changing class mid combat and all. It's been a really, REALLY long time so I hardly remember but I do remember enjoying it.

So you say IV is still like turn based? I might want to move to VI then cause I think I might need a break from the turn based system since I just back to back did FFI then FFII.

No, FFIV uses the ATB system like FFVI (in fact, FFIV was the first FF title to use it). It does share one thing with the original FF though, and that every character has a set Job that they remain as for the whole game which they can't change (with the exception of Cecil, who starts as a Dark Knight and then changes to a Paladin during the course of the game).

Luckily though, the way the party is formed during the course of the storyline pretty much gives you a balanced party set up to compensate most of the time as far as abilities are concerned.

I don't mind the characters having to stick to their set job. I'll go ahead and do IV first instead then so long as it has a ATB gauge!

No, FFIV uses the ATB system like FFVI (in fact, FFIV was the first FF title to use it). It does share one thing with the original FF though, and that every character has a set Job that they remain as for the whole game which they can't change (with the exception of Cecil, who starts as a Dark Knight and then changes to a Paladin during the course of the game).

Luckily though, the way the party is formed during the course of the storyline pretty much gives you a balanced party set up to compensate most of the time as far as abilities are concerned.

If you play the remake,you can use cid,edward and yang during the whole game.Heck,you can even use porom and palom.

As for neg's comment:I don't like ff2 on the nes.It is probably one of the last games i will play at the moment.Its a pain in the ass to play,and because of it,i have little desire.Besides:I got games on console to complete.

Well I started FFIV today and I must say I'm already really enjoying it! The characters all seem to have their own story and background unlike FFI or FFII and I really prefer having each character be "stuck" to their specific job. It makes sense to me. To me having them have to stick to their job is simply because that's their character. (If that makes sense?) Like the girl that the main character is into. She's a white mage. That's her thing. Like, it wouldn't make sense if she could equip dark knight armor and start hacking away in the front row. Yeah know?

But I'm really enjoying the game already and barely started it. (Just got Yang)

See, I knew you'd like it. ;)

And yes, Rosa is awesome - not only is she a White Mage but she also is something of an Archer as well (besides the usual staves and rods, you can also equip her with bows and arrows, and she has the Aim ability). Not to mention her relationship with Cecil is really sweet too. :)

It does share one thing with the original FF though, and that every character has a set Job that they remain as for the whole game which they can't change (with the exception of Cecil, who starts as a Dark Knight and then changes to a Paladin during the course of the game)

lol, spoilers.

Yeah, still trying to figure out the whole arrow thing. Do you just second hand equip arrows? See I had some holy arrows and I assume I could have equipped them w/ her bow but didn't figure it out. However I really didn't try to hard to figure it out. I was playing on my laptop on the go so I was mainly just lvling up.

I must say I love Cecil's darkness. I just got these two dork mages and I guess I'm going to Mt. wherever to go paladin mode eh? :D I'm sure I'll loose my lovely darkness. I used the heck out of it to do some grinding. Cecil always fills his ATB gauge first, darkness, kill all in one hit (usually), onto the next grind battle. Cure, cure cure, repeat. Inn stops when mana runs out. Funny though. I just took the time to get everyone to lvl 20 and then get on my way only for leviathan to separate my entire party, lol. RATS!

Yeah, still trying to figure out the whole arrow thing. Do you just second hand equip arrows? See I had some holy arrows and I assume I could have equipped them w/ her bow but didn't figure it out. However I really didn't try to hard to figure it out. I was playing on my laptop on the go so I was mainly just lvling up.

I must say I love Cecil's darkness. I just got these two dork mages and I guess I'm going to Mt. wherever to go paladin mode eh? :D I'm sure I'll loose my lovely darkness. I used the heck out of it to do some grinding. Cecil always fills his ATB gauge first, darkness, kill all in one hit (usually), onto the next grind battle. Cure, cure cure, repeat. Inn stops when mana runs out. Funny though. I just took the time to get everyone to lvl 20 and then get on my way only for leviathan to separate my entire party, lol. RATS!

Yes actually,you equip the bow in one hand,and arrows in the other.This really doesn't make sense though,because you require both hands to execute a bow:1 to hold it and 1 to grab the arrow from your quiver and hold back the bow and shoot the arrow.
Also:Rosa's best weapon is a bow in this game,i think.There are some great staves in the game,but i usually equip those on rydia the caller.I like both cecil as dark knight and paladin.As a paladin,he's a bad ass good guy,and as a dark knight he is a bad ass dark knight.

I think though for rosa,you probably would want a stave,since her bow isn't that usefull anyways.She is a healer,and her damage sucks usually.
Also:You may want to grind for getting cure potions and also the paladin armor(no spoilers) Make sure you equip porom and palom with the best gear you can purchase.

That makes sense. Now I just need to get Rosa back and I can equip those arrows! That's funny though because she shoots fine w/o arrows equipped.

I already passed Porom and Palom and they are long gone and turned to stone. I actually am at the part where I need to get the earth shrine and, well, I am totally lost and was just randomly cruising around. Found this one town with tiny dudes and they have the paladin armor for sale there but I didn't have the flow to buy it. I haven't gotten to play in last 5 days or so cause I've had family visiting from out of state. I'm actually up so early so I can drop them off at the airport so I'm going to jump back in to the game and find that earth shrine today!

So since you mentioned the paladin armor, I have a questions. Cid and Yang can wear it too I believe. Now are there any negatives to equipping a monk with heavy armor? Like slowing them down? Or does it not make a difference and equip whomever with the best armor value armor they can wear? I know some older FF hvy armor would slow you down or effect magic usage. Also I never could understand what the heck that stupid "twin" ability with Palam and Porom did.

As far as heavy armour on Yang is concerned, traditionally Monks can't wear heavy armour. However, I believe FFIV does things slightly differently, but I can't remember if there is any stat penalty for so equipping. Best thing to do would be to experiment and find what works the best.

Also, re Palom and Porom's 'Twin' ability, if I remember rightly, that's essentially 'Dualcast' where they cast two spells together for added effect and damage. It can be useful, but I never really bothered with it either much except when I was bored and had them use it for variety.

So if they can equip it then use it. That's what I've been doing. I find it quite annoying in games that don't mention information like certain armors hindering certain classes and just expect you to know. I notice Tella is ridiculously slow as far as initiative. Even after I use his command after everyone else has already gone since his ATB bar fills up last, some of my others get another full ATB bar and another command before he finally uses his command.

When I used twin they would just sit there forever, and ever, and ever, until the battle was already over. So I never bothered with it after that.

Listen to this garbage. I consider this to be a break in the game IMO. I'm currently grinding before i go to this stupid no metal cave to get the earth crystal. Well the city of Troia. Forest all around it. River just south of it that separates the land where there are landing spots for the air ship. (below the river and not accessible to Troia) Well there is also a chocobo forest south of the river as well. So I hopped onto a chocobo, crossed the river to Troia, and hopped off my chocobo letting him go. Well if you pull this move you're 100% screwed. There are no other passages on this area of the land and you can't cross back over the river w/o the chocobo, and there is no chocobo forest that I could find. Apparently you are supposed to land your airship on the single square next to the town of Troia that is accessible to the airship. Anyhow, I had a bunch of grinding done and had to just reset since i couldn't escape this area of land where Troia is to get back over the river to get to my air ship. I also would have been 100% screwed and had to restart my entire game if I saved. I consider that a definitely error or broken part of the game.

Maybe I'm crazy and I missed something but the land is blocked all around by mountains and water, no other towns or anything, and no chocobo forest.

See, I knew you'd like it. ;)

And yes, Rosa is awesome - not only is she a White Mage but she also is something of an Archer as well (besides the usual staves and rods, you can also equip her with bows and arrows, and she has the Aim ability). Not to mention her relationship with Cecil is really sweet too. :)

Shouldn't equip her with a bow. Has major negative impact on soul.

I don't like the leveling system for FF2 myself, but of course being able to cancel previous actions and do something else but still get experience points helps. Also, in the beginning, once you get your HP over 100 and Mindu joins you, go just past the forest north of Phin to the plains area, and thanks to Mindu's healing magics, you can beat ogres and sorcerors and such ahead of time, and get good spells early(namely the Aero/Poison spell, the others sell for cash), as well as Mythril equipment. The Berserk spells you can get sell for 5K a pop, so you can get lots of money early to stock up on ethers and hi-potions, etc. And as soon as you get Leila's ship, go to Mysidia early and get the Change/Swap spell for everyone, go back to Altair/Altea and use it to switch stats with the weakest monsters in the game, it will get your HP/MP up high quick, at least quicker than doing it the old-fashioned way.