Playing RPGs

[Blades]

Can someone tell the "strategy" to play classic turn-based RPGs like Final Fantasy or Phantasy Star?

The instruction manuals always explain how to do specific actions (cast spell, attack, etc.) but I have no idea of any strategic element other than constantly attack and heal characters with items/spells, and occasionally attack with a spell to watch the animation.

What usually happens is I'll get up to a big boss and just be unable to move forward because the boss always destroys me.

I followed a walkthrough to the letter for the first generation in Phantasy Star III and it left me with more questions than answers. The author had mapped out everything in the game, and warned not to proceed until at a certain level. At one moment, the surprise boss was a member of my own party, so the walkthrough warned to completely disarm him before this point. Thanks to the walkthrough, I actually made progress but it was like I was being held by the hand without understanding anything.

How did people pick which equipment to equip/which spells to cast/which characters to put in the party? Final Fantasy X has the sphere grid which makes no sense to me.

I got into RPGs pretty late so maybe I just missed out on understanding, like how people that never played action games find it hard to learn. I'm thinking I'll watch a full playthrough of an RPG online and see if I can learn anything.

Right now, I'm on disc II of FF VII (Carry Armor boss in the Junon underwater reactor) and the beginning of FF X and both make about the same amount of sense to me. The visuals and story are nice though.

[Leynos]

I think FFX sucks. Most the complaints about FFXIII apply to FFX. Anyway. I typically take a more basic approach. I grind like hell for money and/or a few levels. I might over level a couple levels. I have a problem always buying the newest armor/weapons. Enemies can be weaker to certain attacks/spells and such. Boss enemies when the game has it. Buffing my party. Debuffing the boss. Have my healer focus only on heals and/or buffs. I don't attack nonstop. These battles can go a long time in some games. Some bosses taken me more than 30 minutes. Patience is something needed to play. Buy every kind of potion and healing item. Not just HP but gets rid of status ailments like confuse or poison.

90s RPGs esp ask the player to grind for a while before advancing. Sometimes if strugging with a boss. Maybe just not a high enough level. Then sometimes game have a fight you are supposed to lose. (I hate these as it does not tell you so you use your items)

[roce]

Bosses have patterns, strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes they change during the battle. You observe them and take advantage of them.

[gamevet]

Final fantasy typically requires you to use protective spells like Shell, to keep your players alive. It’s best to use those spells on your healer, as well as haste. Typically you’ll also cast haste and other enhancing spells on your best fighter. What typically happens is that the boss will cast a spell, that will remove your spells from the party, so it ends up becoming a battle of spells to keep your party alive.

Make sure that each member of your party has at least one Phoenix Down and several Mega-Potions. That way, you’ll be able to resurrect your White Mage/healer, and heal party members as needed.

[BonusKun]

Let's not even get into the Dragon Quest games. Well actually yeah let's get into them.

If you want to try that series, I would suggest trying out Dragon Quest XI "S". There's a demo out on all consoles at the moment which will allow you to carry save files over if you're up for getting the full game. Generally Dragon Quest games are more simple in terms of RPG stuffs and not so brutal as to throw you into a fucking mess of menus and explanations of shit that will leave your head hurting from trying to figure out what the fuck is what. My favorite of the series is Dragon Quest V but that's just my nostalgia more then anything kicking in there.

I'd say just experiment and try different games to see if something catches your fancy.

[gamevet]

DQ XI S has a demo on Steam as well. I was quite shocked to see that on PC.

[Leynos]

Be aware that demo is 8 hours long.

[Blades]

Final fantasy typically requires you to use protective spells like Shell, to keep your players alive. It’s best to use those spells on your healer, as well as haste. Typically you’ll also cast haste and other enhancing spells on your best fighter. What typically happens is that the boss will cast a spell, that will remove your spells from the party, so it ends up becoming a battle of spells to keep your party alive.

Make sure that each member of your party has at least one Phoenix Down and several Mega-Potions. That way, you’ll be able to resurrect your White Mage/healer, and heal party members as needed.

I grind like hell for money and/or a few levels. I might over level a couple levels. I have a problem always buying the newest armor/weapons. Enemies can be weaker to certain attacks/spells and such. Boss enemies when the game has it. Buffing my party. Debuffing the boss. Have my healer focus only on heals and/or buffs. I don't attack nonstop. These battles can go a long time in some games. Some bosses taken me more than 30 minutes. Patience is something needed to play. Buy every kind of potion and healing item. Not just HP but gets rid of status ailments like confuse or poison.

90s RPGs esp ask the player to grind for a while before advancing. Sometimes if strugging with a boss. Maybe just not a high enough level. Then sometimes game have a fight you are supposed to lose. (I hate these as it does not tell you so you use your items)

Thanks everyone, but especially this is structure I didn't have previously. They really should put something like this in the manual, unless I missed it.

Generally Dragon Quest games are more simple in terms of RPG stuffs and not so brutal as to throw you into a fucking mess of menus and explanations of shit that will leave your head hurting from trying to figure out what the fuck is what. My favorite of the series in Dragon Quest V but that's just my nostalgia more then anything kicking in there.

I've always wanted to try Dragon Quest. How did you play V, on DS?

The only RPG I've been able to "pick up and finish" is Panzer Dragoon Saga, and that's because PDS is more of an action RPG really and quite short. It also has an extensive and detailed tutorial section if you choose to do it.

On the other hand, I've been playing Phantasy Star III on and off since 2006 and had made minimal progress until I tried a walkthrough last year. If it's not clear already, I'm really bad at RPGs. I always enjoy the stories though.

[Mega Drive Bowlsey]

One of my favourite RPG's of all time is Skies of Arcadia for the Dreamcast. Grinding is optional but is certainly not required, and once you get the hang of harnessing spirit points in battle to spend on your team's abilities, most boss battles, although certainly challenging, are far from insurmountable. In Skies of Arcadia your weapons can be imbued with the power of seven different moon stones, all based on different elements, fire, ice, electric attacks etc., so once you find out which element a particular monster or boss is weak against you're well on your way to victory. Honestly check it out, Skies of Arcadia is not only one of the greatest RPG's of all time, but it's also one of the more accessible RPG's, and far more intuitive and beginner friendly than titles in the FF series. Everything in the game just...makes sense, and at no point do you feel like the game is being cheap or unfair.

[BonusKun]

I've always wanted to try Dragon Quest. How did you play V, on DS?

My first time playing Dragon Quest V was actually as a rom that was translated to English. I ended up getting the DS version much later which I still have.

Generally Dragon Quest's popularity overseas was small compared to Japan. It was pretty much the game that out did the Final Fantasy games over there. I was happy tho when SquareSoft and Enix merged into one company. Overall like Gamevet said, There's a free demo of XI on consoles or steam. I got it on the Switch first and loved it to death. After playing Dragon Quest IX on the DS and kinda being let down on that, it was refreshing playing XI when it came out. The thing I can say myself is if you're really struggling with RPG's, then maybe give some of the more simple ones a try. It just comes down to playing and not being afraid to experiment with different games.

Some RPGs like Phantasy Star II, Beyond the Beyond, and the original Dragon Quest II are fucking brutal to casual players. There's usually a thing in most RPGs you can do which is obviously grind aka level up your characters, farm money to buy better gear and just more or less make it so the next major hard fight you run into can be a breeze. This is pretty much the focus on a lot of RPGs being progression along with the story. I can't really think of too much else to talk about on that point other than to say don't give up and keep trying.

I've been into RPGs most of my life so I've experienced AD&D project games back on the old ass IBM PCs like Curse of the Azure Bonds, Pools of Radiance, Bard's Tale, & the Ultima games. I wouldn't suggest trying those as you have to be a bit of a super nerd to follow some of those. I can honestly say RPGs for me have relieved a lot of boredom in my life but I know it's not for everyone.~

[gamevet]

I've been into RPGs most of my life so I've experienced AD&D project games back on the old ass IBM PCs like Curse of the Azure Bonds, Pools of Radiance, Bard's Tale, & the Ultima games. I wouldn't suggest trying those as you have to be a bit of a super nerd to follow some of those. I can honestly say RPGs for me have relieved a lot of boredom in my life but I know it's not for everyone.~

They were almost like sitting down to play some AD&D with your friends. They were pretty tough, because you had to bust out graph paper and make maps of the dungeons you were in. The Bard's Tale games games really required drawing those maps. I eventually just bought the players clue books to have the maps.











I had some other dungeon crawlers on the C64 and Amiga. Those Amiga RPGs were brutally tough, because you had to wander the dungeons using the keyboard, and memorizing keys for spells and potion, while engaging in a real time fight. Dragon Wars was created by the people who made Bard's Tale. I never got very far in that game either.

[Leynos]

Have you tried a series like Ys? It's a JRPG that's fast paced action RPGs. Ys 1 Chronicles. Oath of Felghana,Origins or Ys VIII are good games to ease you into them and the first game is short. Oath is short as is Origins. Those last 3 each one takes about 10 hours at most.

[Blades]

Have you tried a series like Ys? It's a JRPG that's fast paced action RPGs. Ys 1 Chronicles. Oath of Felghana,Origins or Ys VIII are good games to ease you into them and the first game is short. Oath is short as is Origins. Those last 3 each one takes about 10 hours at most.

Nope. I'll have to give it a try after I get through FF.

They were pretty tough, because you had to bust out graph paper and make maps of the dungeons you were in.

When I bought the original Phantasy Star for the Master System, it came with some very old dot matrix printouts the previous owner created of the dungeon maps. In retrospect, drawing maps would've been helpful.

[gamevet]

I had a good chuckle (sort of), when I paid $12 for an official guide for Shining: The Holy Ark, from Sega’s website. It was pretty much something that someone had typed up, with dungeon maps that looked like someone put together using a ruler on a blank piece of paper. It did the trick, but I sure felt like I paid for some kids personal guide.

[Kamahl]

The strategy in turn based RPGs is always pretty much the same:
- Kill basic enemies taking only negligible damage, spending negligible amounts of mana.
- (Negligeable means you can go many many fights in a row without wasting items to heal or recover mana)
- If you're struggling to do the above, grind.
- If you can reach the boss with full mana, you'll probably win.
- Buff your characters, debuff the boss, don't waste more than 1 or 2 turns on this.
- Protect the healer, invest heavily in AOE healing as soon as you get it.
- Go nova, throwing all of your most damaging attacks at the boss until it dies.

These games don't really have any real strategy to them. They're about as deep as cookie clicker. You play them for the story.
If you want strategy, you need to play an SRPG.