/vr/ - Retro Games

>>9771508

Dark Knight enemy's HP and real Cecil's ability to use any particular attack against it don't matter for difficulty because that's a special story-related fight in which you're not supposed to win with your attacks. The real difference there is that it weakens the story a bit to remove Darkness from playable Cecil, not that it changes difficulty.

>>9771508
Uh... yeah? It's not just 'easier' in terms of 'less difficult'; it's 'easier' in terms of 'we simplified or removed a bunch of systems because dumb gaijin wouldn't be able grasp the concept of curing different ailments using different means'

Strong hidden shit is no longer hidden; equipment prices are cheaper; you no longer have to worry about weird character abilities as opposed just hitting 'attack' over and over through the game...

>Options for setting different battle modes were hidden.
>The magic spells Protect, Shell, and Dispel are removed, as well as Rydia's Cockatrice summon. Asura originally incorporated Protect into her attack script; it was replaced with a stronger healing spell. Zemus's Malice and Zemus's Breath, however, still make use of Protect and Shell. The white magic icon was removed from the spells' names, replaced with a blank space.
>Individual items that cure specific specific status ailments were removed in favor of the Remedy item, with the price reduced from 5000 to 100 gil. The rare Ether item that replenish MP can also be purchased in any shop as well.
Excluding the Red Fang, all magical based items that could cast spells in battle were removed. Cecil can be seen using a Blue Fang automatically in the game's opening sequence, even though they can't be found during the game itself.
>The Alert item, the Summon Book as well as stat-boosting items (Silver Apples, Golden Apples, and Soma Drops) were removed, in addition to the Dark Matter.
>Various item costs are decreased.
>The attributes of some equipment are modified.
>Nearly all of the secret passages found in dungeons have been made visible. Those found in castles and towns are still invisible, as is the one leading to Cecil's Ragnarok.
>Cecil's Darkness ability is removed, in addition to all of the abilities that were removed in Easy Type (see above).

Note the 'in addition to'. Some easytype changes also got rolled into the US release, they just aren't getting relisted.

>>9771515
Fair enough but do you have an answer to my core question? Since u seem to know this game

>>9771523
>>Options for setting different battle modes were hidden.
What are these battle modes and how do they relate to difficulty
>>The magic spells Protect, Shell, and Dispel are removed
Wouldn't this increase difficulty?
>The white magic icon was removed from the spells' names, replaced with a blank space.
Looks like a cosmetic change?
>>Individual items that cure specific specific status ailments were removed in favor of the Remedy item
I'm assuming the Remedy item covers all functions of the numerous items removed being referenced here?
>Excluding the Red Fang, all magical based items that could cast spells in battle were removed
>The Alert item, the Summon Book as well as stat-boosting items (Silver Apples, Golden Apples, and Soma Drops) were removed, in addition to the Dark Matter
>Cecil's Darkness ability is removed, in addition to all of the abilities that were removed in Easy Type (see above).

Is this not a difficulty increase? Abiltiies that may have been useful being removed and items too

Additional question: does the PS1 version restore the original difficulty (assuming US actually decreased difficiulty - still getting confusing answers on that one)?

>>9771524

I was just about to respond pretty much the way >>9771523 just did. I haven't played both versions back to back - in fact I've never played any versions of the game except the original official English "FF2" for SNES and the romhack FF4: Free Enterprise - but it does appear that difficulty was significantly decreased. The main details of how much it was decreased may be hidden in those "item costs are decreased" and "attributes of some equipment are modified" lines and such. Like, did every weapon get its strength tripled, or were there just a few minor weapons that got +5% strength, or what? You'd have to look into the details or try it out, I dunno. I doubt that it's a huge difference. The game is simple, and changing some stats even by a factor of two would probably just increase grinding time somewhat, which doesn't really increase difficulty much - it instead makes the game take longer. Grinding is not difficult.

Removing abilities like they did probably doesn't change difficulty much. Whether or not you have all the characters' special battle commands, you mainly need Fight, some basic healing spells, and some basic damaging spells. Having those extra commands around is good mainly because it helps support the characters and story, not because it's actually important to your battle strategy. Replacing lots of relatively rare and specialized items for curing various status effects with one easily obtained cure-all item probably doesn't make a lot of difference either. I suspect that all three SFC/SNES versions of this game were roughly equal in difficulty (with Easy Type and FF2-SNES being a bit easier than the main version of FF4J), but like I said, I haven't personally tested this.

Nobody fucking cares if you want to play a shitty localization because you're a tendie and want to justify you're a hardcore gaymer because akshually the other versions are just artificial difficulty.

>>9771531
>Wouldn't this increase difficulty?

In theory it would, unless enemies have also lost the ability to cast those spells. In practice... it's a Final Fantasy game, you don't need that stuff to begin with. 95% of the time you only need direct damage and direct healing. Also, maybe the developers consciously counterbalanced this change when tweaking various stats, with the intention of making players stronger on average in order to make up for the loss of those spells.

>Is this not a difficulty increase? Abiltiies that may have been useful being removed and items too

I've seen the removed abilities in Free Enterprise and they don't seem all that strong, with the possible exception of Darkness. I think I've seen people say that that ability speeds up the early game by letting the first few versions of your party cheaply and powerfully attack a group of enemies instead of having to attack one at a time. But the game is extremely easy in the beginning, with or without that ability. Losing it may slow down battles, but they're still easy. It hurts the story (which benefits from Darkness' role as a mechanical expression of the kind of evil power a dark knight toys with) more than it hurts the challenge.

If you want a maximally difficult approximately-official version of the original game, I would think you'd do best by installing a translation patch into the original Japanese SFC ROM. But the only version I've ever heard of being at all difficult is... I think the 3D version for the DS, or something?

>>9771551
Yeah seems like a bit of an overstated myth