[Ginkasa]

As I stated above I have just beaten FFI. I've beaten the game once before; it was the same version (Origins) right after it came out, so about 7 years ago or so. I have played the original on the NES, but I never got very far in it.

I beat it this time with a class of Warrior/Knight, Monk/Master, Black Mage/Wizard, and a White Mage/Wizard. Not very exciting, but I like balance. I kind of got frustrated with my Monk, though. I probably would go for another Warrior next time. The Monk gets strong later, sure, but not that much stronger than the Warrior and he takes a lot more damage. The only real benefit is not having to buy equipment, but I never had any issues with gil and could have easily afforded a second Warrior's equipment.

One thing in FFI that seems odd to me is the balance between normal enemies and bosses. In most of the games the enemies in the dungeons are usually just speed bumps on the way to boss. Sure, it ramps up in difficulty for the final dungeon and special dungeons, but for the most part they're there for farming exp and gil, not much else. In FFI, however, I actually had more difficulty with the normal enemies.

I guess it has more to do with a lack of resources and save points than the enemies themselves. Potions restore a set amount of health, no percentage, so their usefulness ends pretty quick and there aren't any "Hi-Potions" or anything later on. Magic does better, but you have a maximum of 9 casts per healing spell and that's only if you don't plan on using any of the other spells on the same level. They get used up quit, too. So I ended up running from battles just trying to save my resources to fight the boss at the end and be able to heal only to find that the bosses are pretty easy. They only have slightly more health than normal enemies and can usually be defeated in one or two rounds. Even the final boss only lasted me about 5 rounds. They don't hit hard either; some enemies hit almost as hard, except that you have to fight up to 9 of them all spamming the same friggin' attack.

Its an interesting dynamic. Instead of very difficult boss fights where you need all of your resources, FFI has relatively easy boss fights, but you're usually pretty spent by the time you get there.

Ultimately, my view on FFI is the same as most 8-bit titles of long running series (of course, my version was closer to 16-bit): its interesting to see where the series evolved from, but the older version just can't compare to the later games.