Guide Dang It/Video Games/Role-Playing Game/Eastern RPG/Final Fantasy: Difference between revisions

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* [[Final Fantasy I]]'s NES version almost manages to be this in its entirety. While the game's manual helpfully lists the effects of all spells and equipment (probably due to limitations in the game's text display as everything is truncated and comes with no further information than odd names like LOK2, XFER, Masmune and ProCape) if you got the game without the manual you wouldn't have any of this, and all those vaguely named items and spells may well have had you checking a guide. Similarly, the manual also contains a walkthrough of about half the game, probably circumventing the sloppy translation that otherwise makes certain early goals too vague. Again, no manual? Hope you had that one guide by Nintendo Power to tell you to go to the Marsh Cave and get the Crown and take the Crown to the Dark Elf in the Western Castle and so on because that NPC dialogue might not be so helpful! Thankfully everything was much clearer when Final Fantasy Origins and the many, many subsequent remakes came out with a better translation and interface, making everything coherent so the player could figure it out on their own.

** Of course, if you lived in Europe and the Origins re-release was the first version you officially played, none of that was an issue. And they used to say PAL gamers always got screwed...

** The iphone version thankfully (and oddly, since it could have been recreated with Open Feint or something) removes the "mail your friends" requirement and simply allows you to get the mognet mails and sidequests by advancing the game and [[Talk to Everyone|Talking to key NPCs.]]

* In the [[Video Game Remake|DS release]] of ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' has, among other things, an "Augment" system wherein you can teach characters certain helpful abilities. These items are one-of-a-kind, and said character will know them permanently. The catch is, if you teach Augments to temporary party members, you are rewarded with more (better) Augments. This little fact is nowhere to be found in the manual, or in-game. What fun.

* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' has a "Cursed Shield" that inflicts nearly every status ailment in the game on the wearer. But if they survive 256 battles wearing the shield, it becomes uncursed and is now the best shield in the game

** You can also bet the shield at the Colosseum for a "Cursed Ring". Despite what logic tells you, the ring ''doesn't'' uncurse, and is plain useless (except for teaching a spell, but it's not even the only thing that does that.)

** Want to save {{spoiler|Cid}}? Feed him fish. Not just ''any'' fish, mind you, you have to give him the fast-moving fish, otherwise he'll just get sicker. Granted, the game does hint at this; inspecting a regular fish in the menu gets the caption 'Just a fish', while a fast fish is 'A yummy fish', but what first-time player is going to be doing that? So you just fed him whatever fish you could get? Oops, you just killed off a poor, sick old man who'd done you nothing but good. I hope you're proud.

*** Later on, after acquiring the Airship, you probably have no reason to return to that old island. Would you guess that a very useful Esper washes ashore later on?

** Tifa's ultimate weapon is hidden in Midgar, and the only way to get to the area where you find it is by using a key you find buried in another location halfway around the world. There is a hint in finding a key from an NPC outside Midgar gates. Cait Sith's ultimate weapon is hidden atop the Shinra Tower when the player revisits Midgar near the end of the game, requiring them to climb back up 60+ stories and inspect a random locker.

*** To be fair, the game gives a subtle hint - during the first visit to the tower, inspecting the same locker will prompt a message about finding a megaphone, which is the type of weapon Cait Sith uses. But how is any player going to remember that?

** The most absolutely frustrating thing in Final Fantasy IX, though, is that you're never told at any time what items you need to synthesize the very best weapons and armor in Disks 3 and 4. On your first playthrough, be prepared to pull out some of your hair in frustration as you realize that, in order to forge the Grand Armor, you needed to keep those Mythril Swords and suits of Mythril Armor you got all the way back in Disk 2. Oh, and the Mythril Swords become [[Lost Forever|Lost Forevers]] after you leave Treno for the first time. That's just one example, mind you...

** Theoretically speaking, one could go to Esto Gaza before the plot demands it and buy their lion's share then. However, the above still applies, as many don't really think about Esto Gaza during that time.

*** There's one scene in which you can perform a certain action, and it does nothing. You have to do it ''thirteen times in succession'' to reveal one of the secret items. Needless to say, there are no hints for this.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', players can input one-word destination passwords in the [[Global Airship]] that lead to hidden locations that each contain a treasure chest, one of which houses Rikku's [[Infinity+1 Sword]]. While perhaps not technically a Guide Dang It, virtually all players learned of these passwords via a guide, as the method for discovering the passwords the normal way is so incredibly obscure that most players don't even know it exists (it involves [[Moon Logic Puzzle|deciphering deeply-hidden, nonsensical messages left throughout the game world]]).

** Getting the Celestial Mirror to ''unlock'' some of those ultimate weapons is, itself, pretty silly. First you have to win a chocobo race at Remiem Temple. Once you've managed that, you have to take the Cloudy Mirror to the Macalania Woods and reunite a man with his wife and child. When you do so, if you talk to the man twice, he'll ask you to find his kid, who has wandered off. If you go up a path that you may not instantly realise is even a path rather than [[Scenery Porn|awesome scenery]], which looks like it's a beam of light and thus something you wouldn't immediately suspect you could walk on, and which isn't visible on the minimap, and then go up a fork that was until ''that moment'' [[Dronejam|Drone Jammed]]. Now, bear in mind, this item has no use at all ''except'' as a key to boxes containing ultimate weapons.

** Valefor's second Overdrive, Energy Ray. Did you know it exists? If you haven't either read a guide or encountered Dark Valefor, you probably didn't. As for actually ''getting'' it, if you didn't talk to a dog in Besaid before you left, you won't have a chance to get it until you can throw down successfully with Dark Valefor. Bear in mind that the Dark Aeons are only exempt from being a collection of [[That One Boss|That One Bosses]] on a technicality.

** There's one bit even ''worse than that.'' At one point you can have a long sit down for a [[Maechen Period]] from the original Maechen himself. Periodically, you'll get a text box where you can either interrupt him to leave, or urge him to continue his story. But what you're ''supposed'' to do for this to count toward completion is NEITHER, and let him just keep rambling without you pressing a single button on your controller. If Maechen wasn't voiced by Dwight Schultz, this would be nearly as tedious and unbearable as the legendary hot-springs webcam sequence.

** Speaking of, the [[Comm Sphere]] sequences in Chapter 4 itself. Unless a guide is right by your side, you'd never know that a few scenes only appear after looking through the camera for a while, after other scenes that have nothing going on, and the whole Mi'ihen Highroad clusterfuck, of which, a number of potential targets don't give any completion points upon the reveal.

** The game also riddles players with the [[Limit Break]] of the Espers. While a good portion of the creatures will use their last attack when time is about to expire, low on HP, or the summoner has low HP. However, some of the other Espers will never use their final attack unless certain conditions are met, such as casting Immobilize on the Esper, having the summoner AND the Esper with low HP, or casting Petrify on the Esper! There is NOTHING in the game that hints at these conditions.

*** It's a good thing (well, [[No Export for You|not for ''us'']]) that the [[Updated Rerelease]] made them controllable. Not sure why they weren't to begin with.

** Also, for the ingredient needed to create Rank 3 weapons (basically the [[Infinity+1 Sword]]) you either have to buy it for 2,000,000 gil for all 6 characters (you'll most likely never gather 12 million gil) or getting it as a 1% random drop from one of the strongest random enemies (which will decimate even a high leveled party really quickly). And there is no way finding it otherwise.

*** The Upgrade system in general is this. While the basic premise is simple enough, good luck not wasting your hard-earned gil. Not enough XP? You just lost your bonus multiplier. Too much XP? Oh well, nice job wasting those components.

** Completing all [[Pop Quiz|Brain Blast and Captain Cryptic]] quizzes in Academia 4XX AF. Several Brain Blast questions either have no hints in-game to their answer, or are based on pure luck (heads or tails?). Captain Crypic's questions are worse - and first, you have to find him. He can be found in 11 different locations across town... and he's invisible.

** Completing the [[Monster Compendium|bestiary]] will get you one fragment. Probably 90% of the monsters will be encountered as you play the game, level up, and go after the rest of the fragments, but some are either incredibly rare or require certain options to be taken along the story (for example, choosing anything but 'Scream at Hope' will cause you to fight a different version of the Proto fal'Cie Adam, in Augusta Tower).

* ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (video game)|Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles]]'' is no exception, either. Finding a way to get through the barrier to the final level is only hinted at in a few of the numerous random encounters.

** Let's just say the entire plot counts. Want to see the complete stories of De Nam, figure out what to do with the letter from Tida, or unlock the complete stories of the caravans? Want to get all the hints to finding the {{spoiler|??? chalice}}? Want to learn about the miasma and the crystals from the {{spoiler|Carbuncles}} which are never actually mentioned in-game? Want to kill the Lich? Want to enjoy the incredibly rich and vast lore the game has to offer? Better shell out the cash for that guide, sucker!

* In ''[[Crisis Core]]: [[Final Fantasy VII]]'', Minerva is MADE of this. This [[Bonus Boss]] requires you to look up guides every step of the way. Locating the best armor in the game will require this, in addition to learning how to craft the best fusion materia in the game that is mandatory to surviving more than 10 seconds in her presence. Did we forget to mention she spams [[One-Hit Kill]] Ultima spells that leave you barely alive even if you block it while wearing said best gear and materia in the game? You'll need a guide to BEATING her too. Also, her [[Limit Break]] Judgment Arrow disables Phoenix Downs. Thankfully, you can Mug her for 99 of them.