I just bought both games, and I started playing IV yesterday. Is it just me, or is this game freaking hard? I just barely defeated the Octop...squid thingy, but just barely, and at with all of my characters at level fifteen. I don't recall IV ever being this difficult. O:

So, my question is; should I give IV a little break, and start on III? It couldn't possibly be as difficult as IV.

I think they're equally hard, personally. Admittedly, if you know what you're doing, III is easier...

III isn't very difficult, imo. As soon as I reached the level of each respective boss they went down without much difficulty. The only tricky bit was the last dungeon. WHEE, no save points.

Something tells me Zulu used to play IV as the US release (i.e., II), aka, the easy version.

Final Fantasy IV is hard... hard, hard. Yes.

What really gets me, is the counter thing. Like, I STILL haven't found a way to harm Barbarrica without using jump and her NOT mortally fuck my party over.

But Still, it is working out better than The World of Darkness did for me.

Strange... I didn't have much trouble with Barbariccia. The only bosses that have killed me so far (only just got the Lunar Whale) are Scarmiglione (second form - didn't realise he countered fire...) and the Dark Elf when he went into dragon form (god knows why: I beat him easily the second time round).

But even the bosses' counter-craziness in IV is easier than the whole Crystal Tower/World of Darkness 'no save points' thing in III.

Really? I had a problem with the Dark Elf's second form, but Scarmiglione went down pretty easy, even though he countered fire, it worked out. Barbarrica and the Dark Elf are the only ones that gabe me problems. However, I am only just now fighting Calcabrina, so.

Little bit of SPOILERS here:

All the bosses have given me one form of trouble at least, even the damn mist dragon. and later in the game around the robot, after you go to the moon and get Fusoya, leveling up is tough as shit too. This game has always been tough though.

I think that the game would be a LITTLE easier, if when you went to go to the Antlion's den, if Edward wasn't there at all.

Is it me, or has the remake only REINFORCED Edward's uselessness? I mean, with the addition of you getting the Bardsong augment from him, any kind of usefulness that COULD have been was erased.

Unless you need someone in your party who excels at hiding.

The first time I played FFIV was on FF Anthology - The European Edition, which I still have, and I do not recall it ever being this difficult. It's almost impossible to make it through a dungeon without being brutally murdered, and at this stage, I can't really afford to stock up on Potions and stuff like that. >>

Perhaps it is just me who is out of practice. :(

Now, if you will excuse me, I will go and and destroy Kuja and Necron, to comfort my crying heart.

XD Final Fantasy IV DS is an AMAZING game. I expected a really tough challenge, and I sure got one. Heres a tip...dont run from like ANY battle unless its life or death if you don't. And I also trained a bit extra after like every dungeon.

I stopped like right after I got Fuyosa...I got bored of the hour-long training...

It's not that bad - some of the fights in the Giant of Babil give pretty good experience, particularly if you have the Level Lust ability on someone. If you're having difficulty with some of the fights, I think most - if not all - of the normal enemies in there are vunerable to Stop.

I've got both IV and III and even though i like them both, i gotta say that IV is AWSOME!!!
Its a real challenge - as has been established earlier in the thread - and offers a breath of fresh air after the relatively easy recent playstation games.
For the first time since i first played FF7, i've had to level up to match bosses and dont find myself to be 10 levels above them without even trying.
I also enjoy searching for the bosses weakpoints and discovering strategies to beat them, like with Scarmiglione's second form i realised you could damage him with cure magice and against Barbariccia the best thing to to do is keep Yang alive use his power up move 3 times - takes of LOADSSS...so long as it doesnt miss haha
So yeah, i'm enjoying very muchly, just got past the Tower of Babil and looking forward
Oh, and i gotta say, voice acting very impressive :)

Well with the remake of FFIV they made the bosses more difficult (have different attack patterns)

After beating the NES version of FFIII IDK if I'd want the remake. If there isn't any save point in the Dark World then the last point in the game would be a nightmare, unless they toned down some of the bosses

3 is much easier than 4.... until the last dungeon.
if youre less than 50, you WILL get gang-raped

So far the FFIII remake is easier than when I played the original. Not as much level grinding.

And yes the remake for FFIV is harder. The bosses have abilities they didn't have before, some people can't use certain weapons anymore...but I till liked the challenge of it though

It wouldn't have been so bad of an idea to make Zeromus a little more challenging though

Final Fantasy IV requires obnoxious level grinds, and the last dungeon is a total bitch. I recommend multiple playthroughs; it's one of my favorites, but it's quite hard. Don't give up, though, because it's totally worth it!

I loved the difficulty in Final Fantasy IV DS. I never thought of it as hard, but challenging. Then again, I finished FFXII with 1/3 of the MP I should've had and didn't think it was hard either. -_-

I've played FFIII fow less than 10 hours, but I thought it was harder. Perharps that's because I didn't had any patience for it anyway =P

I think FFIV DS is much harder than the PSX and Advance ports, though I can't say anything about the original since I haven't played it. It was a nice change, I suppose, because the game didn't feel 100% the same, and the Augments were nice too.

FFIII DS wasn't particularly difficult for me, personally. Some jobs were quite good, even though some were nerfed from the original game (Sage being a clear example).

FFIII.
It's got a good storyline and the different classes are good too.

... what squid thing?

... what squid thing?

Whaaaat?

I've never played IV but I wouldn't give III such slack... it is a hard game in its own right and if you are not the proper level you are just screwed. Also you need to be really careful with the classes because the MP setup is really annoying

I was considering eventually checking out FFIVDS, but I *HATE* level grinding. I can't stand it anymore. I level grind in almost every rpg I play at one point or another, sometimes unintentionally because I get lost after overlooking a door or something, lol..

I remember putting down FFIV (jap-SNES) for a while because I needed some level grinding before finishing the gravity cave dungeon. Same with the tower of bab-il and the tower of zot. Each time, I think I over shot it, and went in stronger than I needed to be, I don't remember.

What levels do you guys recommend for the dungeons I mentioned? just to get an idea of how much harder FFIVDS is.

If you want story, FFIV is the one for you. It was really tough but you can actually grind out boss battles and even random encounters if you know how to act quickly and efficiently. I messed up the whole augment thing but I didn't need it - as long as you heal, keep your defenses up and put pressure on the boss/enemies instead.

I personally never finished FFIII because I found it somehow more difficult, and definitely more annoying. Maybe because I had experience with FFIV before the DS version was released that I am leaning, and thus biased, towards IV over III. That's just me though.

FFIV DS was easy for me. guess i'm just a hardcore RPGer.

IV is very easy if you never flee and just spend time most of the time leveling up.


*Possible Spoilers*

It's freaking lame so many of your party members depart from you after you spend so much time lvling them up and giving them good equipment. Also it sucks big time when you lvl up a lot and a new party member joins you to have that character's lvl only half of the rest of the party members *cough*Rosa*cough*

It sucks big time when you lvl up a lot and a new party member joins you to have that character's lvl only half of the rest of the party members

I hate that. I also hate it when you fight one of your characters, like yang or kain, and they are ridiculously strong, then they join you and are a couple levels below you...

I really like FFIV for the DS. I sold my FFIII.

they could have made III SO much better. i hate that game.

FF3 DS I thought was harder of the two.

FF4 DS was a decent challenge, but it is based on an older FF style.

well, yeah, but in 3 you had to use the stylus to do everything.... well, no, you could use the D-Pad, but anyway.... i used the stylus for the most part. it was alright that way. the story was ok, but i just did not like the game. half of the jobs were stupid. the conseption behind the jobs was cool (ninja, warrior, sorcerror, etc), but most didn't really work, like the later ones.

FF4 in NDS is easier than FF4 in GBA, especially the probability to get rare item like pink tail for admantium armor

For me, III is the harder one :O And that comes from growing up with FFIV, and so as a result, I already know where everything is in IV and how to beat every boss. But on the other hand, had I not grown up with it, I'd be screwed I think :O

Another thing about IV that always got me even about the original and GBA is how the game flows relatively smoothly UP UNTIL the final dungeon, where EVERYTHING gets kicked up a notch :O Normal fights become like boss fights, and there's nowhere to save! That's as far into the game as I've even gotten yet :O