retro jrpgs

[Anonymous No.5654216]

Are there any retro jrpgs with difficulty settings? I don't understand why it's such a rare feature, just tweak the enemy damage or player HP, boss attack patterns, rare item drops, maybe put a cap on items you can use/hold.

I don't feel like speedrunning jrpgs to get a challenge. Didn't developers imagine that non-children would be playing these games too?

[Anonymous No.5654290]

The difficulty is adjusted by one thing only, your time.

[Anonymous No.5654581]

>>5654216
Self imposed challenges

No Esper run - FFVI
Fiesta run - FFV
All white mages - FFI
Single red mage - FFI
Onion kid/Knights only - FFIII

[Anonymous No.5654623]

>>5654216
RPGs don't have difficulty settings because it's set in a way by how the player plays the game. If you never grind and instead of powering through tough encounters, use the run feature then the difficulty is usually pretty high. On the other hand if you want an easy experience you can level up to your heart's content and make enough money to buy every bit of equipment you see.

[Anonymous No.5654626]

>>5654216
Zelda: OoT has a master quest version which is harder than the original. The game is more of an ARPG than a JRPG, though. The new version brings the difficulty up a lot so it's more fun for adults.

[Anonymous No.5654648]

>>5654626
>The game is more of an ARPG than a JRPG, though.

Decent bait, but let's not derail another thread. :)

[Anonymous No.5654661]

>>5654623
Yes some of the modern games do this, Ys serious comes to mind.

Shining Force 2 is one of the rare retro jrpgs that has a difficulty setting also.

>>5654623
>just skip 90% of the battles
Yes that would add some difficulty but then the majority of your game is just running away from battles as you travel from town to town.
If the battle mechanics are fun then you're skipping a lot of content.

I would rather they have a difficulty setting to make each encounter more thoughtful and interesting. At least have an item limit or spell limit so you have to make choices.

[Anonymous No.5654669]

>>5654216
Legend of Mana does in new game+ mode, but they're broken so it doesn't matter much. There aren't many though since >>565462 usually the player controls their own difficulty.

[Anonymous No.5654678]

>>5654661
You don't have to skip 90% of battles, many would become very hard or impossible at that point. I just mean by not stopping to grind and if you run into a tough enemy group that may drain your resources to run instead of fighting it and then having to return to town to heal sooner (and fight more along the way which is basically grinding) then you'll have a decent challenge before you. Try something like PSIV that way, it's pretty fun.

[Anonymous No.5655371]

>>5654216
Difficulty wasn't a huge concern back then because the object of the developer was to have you play that game as long as possible. RPGs already achieve that by making you grind, so there's no need to make it as difficult as say a platformer. Sadly games are not developed to be the best incarnations of themselves, they're made to sell as well as they possibly can.

If you're interested in tactical rpgs they usually lend themselves best to difficulty scaling. Failing that you could always use a cheat-code to lower exp, it's not a true difficulty increase but your level gap would be wider than they expect and thus things will be harder.

[Anonymous No.5655590]

>>5654216
Valkyrie Profile

[Anonymous No.5655596]

>>5654581
>No Esper run - FF6
>All white mages - FF1
>Single red mage FF1
>Onion knights only - FF3

[Anonymous No.5655604]

>>5654290
This. Easy mode is you grinding more. OP is a retarded faggot who can’t grasp the concept of RPGs.

[Anonymous No.5655609]

>>5655596
What's funny?

[Anonymous No.5655615]

>>5655604
I never grind in jrpgs so that's wrong.

[Anonymous No.5655617]

>>5654216
Is there a particular game you'd like to see with a hard mode hack?

[Anonymous No.5655659]

>>5654216
If you want games like RPGs but with actual challenge you should give Roguelikes a try. Start with Shiren since it has enough JRPG that it will feel familiar, but enough of the RL formula to give you a taste of the fun in them.

[Anonymous No.5655664]

Star Ocean 2 has a difficulty setting and if you beat it I think you unlock the hardest difficulty but I can't remember clearly.

[Anonymous No.5655669]

>>5655659
I do play Shiren and appreciate the challenge.

[Anonymous No.5655831]

>>5655669
That's good to hear. Have you tried more "real" roguelikes? ToME, Nethack, Angband, IVAN etc?

Some of the newer Etrian Odysseys have had difficulty options where they added a casual mode for new commers but the base game has a decent challenge to it. It's kind of killed my ability to play older JRPGs because they're all so easy and boring by comparison now.

[Anonymous No.5656442]

>>5654216
Working Designs increased the difficulty on all the games they """localized""" by increasing monster stats, reducing the damage you do, increasing the damage they do, and reducing the experience and money you recieve etc.

[Anonymous No.5656446]

>>5655615
It’s actually right and you’re a retard

[Anonymous No.5656448]

>>5656442
>recieve

http://www.recieved.co.uk/

[Anonymous No.5656471]

It's not exactly retro, but labyrinth of touhou 2 has a hard mode where it doesn't let you do boss if you're above their recommended level, it also lets you lower and raise your level based on exp, so it's not like you can miss fights.

It's also a fantastisc game.

[Anonymous No.5657053]

I made the mistake of acquiring over 50 JRPGs across 30 consoles and I cant bring myself to start any.

I was playing Tales of Phantasia, got 2 or 3 elementals. But I forgot what Save file was mine, and idk how to check progress.

[Anonymous No.5657072]

Grandia 2 could really have used a hard difficulty setting.

An immensely deep and versatile battle system is wasted because you can just button-mash through 99% of the game.