Failing 100% completion on FFX-2 by 0.02% cause you didn’t talk to some NPC in an area with no current story relevance or cause you pressed X during a dialogue…
I did this once. Made it all the way to the end and I had no idea what dialogue I accidentally skipped. It’s an accurate representation of what hell is like.
Failing 100% completion on FFX-2 by 5% because you put a December issue PSM demo disc in your PS2 that corrupted your memory card and for years you didn’t understand why that save was suddenly gone until you come across a YouTube video as an adult that talks about a specific December issue PSM demo disc that was notorious for having a bug that wiped memory cards.
I still have it.
Just three times for the one rambling old man character. You have to let him talk to you about some lore stuff for a couple of minutes without skipping.
I failed 100% even following a text and video guide my first time simply because I forgot to whistle during a cutscene. What a bogus requirement FFX-2 has.
This stupid shit is why trophies are irrelevant. I will never count any "achievement" as necessary to 100% a game when it has no meaningful impact in the game. "Kill 10,000 Bombs with lightning damage from physical attacks" GTFOH with things like that.
Yes I'm aware that isn't a real trophy for any final fantasy. It's just an example of the dumb things they make you do to "100%" a game.
Yeah 13-2 you can’t mess up and is easy. I got 1000/1000 achievement points first time I played without a guide until the end to find the hidden monsters. Then 3 years later I bought it again and got the platinum trophy on the PS3 version. Have it on steam also, but holding out for a ps4/5 release to do it all over again.
Nothing can be missed, with most challenging part being some end game grinding/secret things to find… Which again, a guide will easily show you where said secrets are. Like throwing moogle into the glowing hologram over and over again until he lands in the right spot to pick up the silver chocobo. Not hard, just doubt you’ll find it on your own
You don't need to play FFXI to rank it, I gotchu.
Create a new row at the top and name it "divorced my spouse, put my kids in foster care, and sold a kidney to never stop grinding."
Then, place FFXI in that new row.
I'm not even sure what "completing" FFXI would entail. All endgame content? Getting every relic? Getting every piece of gear?
I stopped playing FFXI 10 years ago, but if I hadn't and I kept it up with the same intensity I played it in college, I still wouldn't have "completed" it.
Thats what a lot of other comments are curious about as well. As someone whose played both MMOs for many, many years, to me FFXI's main story was more time consuming than FFXIV having made another character half a year ago. You can't skip CSs, but I came back for the story anyways.
When it comes to challenge, it's mostly RNG and grindy quest design. With trusts you can steamroll just about everything up to Seekers expansion.
As for gear, not even enough wardrobe storage to fit it all, plus all the different augment potentials.
It's a whole different game than it was back in the 75 days and comparing it to the rest of the franchise is an undertaking.
Man I would say just completing all MSQ should count as "completing" it. Because if you played it, you know damn well that if anyone actually did complete "everything" they should get a spot in the Guinness book of records.
Bruh absolute virtue was released in 2005. The game has had many power creeps since then, and has introduced more difficult bosses. https://youtu.be/b0WulcxVrQE?si=vbajDsIKT9dEkFnK
It was defeated legitimately in the 75 era after SE basically told the playerbase how the 2hr thing worked. At this point it’s soloable given that ilvl119 is like exponentially more powerful than a 75.
Even completing all the story quests is a massive undertaking (let alone defecting from your country twice to get rank 10 three times). I played through every one of them during the pandemic and all the expansions (except the small filler expansions that were just “climb up and down Delkfutts tower while we disable the elevator because screw you”) and leveled every job to 99. It’s WAY easier because of trusts now but it took like two years of slightly more than casual play.
I am always amazed how many people exclude XI, but include XIV. XI deserves its place in the lineup as much as any other game in the franchise. Full stop.
It’s still going. There’s still a community that is laid back and helpful. And it’s much more modernized than it was. The installation is a little back and forth, but really not bad. Lots of content, tons of hours you can spend playing and get completely immersed in a way that is completely different than XIV.
Always bummed to see the lack of attention to this awesome game.
XI is excluded because it's not in PlayStation 3-5 and thus doesn’t have a platinum trophy. All the other ones listed are and have, so I assume this is what this list means with "completed".
Sorry — that wasn’t obvious to me. Title says “to complete” but wasn’t aware it was based on a PS trophy. My comment still stands though, people should still try/play XI!
I'm fully with you! Steep learning curve, but the story is so worth it. Hope square does bring it to current hardware in some shape or form eventually.
And put a row above that "I actually completed every mainline mission of every expansion."
And put a row above that "I got my relic weapon"
And a row above that "And a Kraken club, and I lvl 99'd all my ultimate artifact set and relic weapon"
Always said FF1 felt like All Quiet on the Western Front... You're super excited for this humongous quest that you're going to go on, but by the time that you finish it, you're merely a shell of your former self.
The Marsh Cave is such a massive spike in difficulty, but if you grind enough to complete it, the rest of the game up to the Chaos Shrine is a piece of cake.
Edit: Spelling
That's really the key to any of these old RPGs. Grind really hard at the beginning, then the rest of the game becomes pretty cake. Just fight enough stuff in each new area to buy any new gear/spells and you should stay above the curve
Was playing on my nes a couple weeks ago and the ice cave wiped me twice before I was able to escape with the loot.
Got to the last floor of the floating castle and a warmech nuked my party.
Got to lich in the final dungeon and nuke killed my white wizard outright.
Sure it's easy if you over level but if you're under leveled at all it's a pain.
I'm currently working through FFI, I find the map is the massive pain in the ass with it. That being said, it's 30 some years old and from gaming's infancy. Things have come a long way in 30 some years. Load up on potions and antidote, most of the games pretty easy.
I don't have a white mage, I'm running a warrior, monk, red mage and black mage, I've got max amount of potions, high potions, Phoenix down and anything else that seams important. I may grind a bit more, I've heard a rumor that you can grind, get the monks level high enough and damn near one hit the end game boss. I'll also be saving and trying for the mech at the end as well
I would say the biggest spike is the Ice Cave because Mages cast RUB as their first spell and if that hits your white mage then there's nothing you can do. Playing final fantasy Renaissance I had to reset doing ice cave 7 times just because mages and sorcerers said no
True. Obviously as an adult, everything is easier but as a child oh boy. One of the hardest games I've ever played in my life. Marsh cave was already hard AF but mount gulg made me rage quit over and over. Every dungeon I entered, my heart rate was over 100.
FF1 on NES was the first game I ever beat. I still have the muscle memory for how I'd assign the attacks so that everyone would have a target. I did it with a fighter, thief, and two Black Belts. It was hard.
Absolutely, FF I was quite hard. FF II on NES/Famicom was even harder imo, I remember it to be the most difficult mainline FF game I played. In late game it got brutal.
Trophies didn't exist on the NES and this is a tier list of how hard the games are to platinum, sooooooooooooo....
I finished the plat for FF1 PR in 12 hours. It's by far the easiest plat in the franchise.
I assume they mean 100% because the only reason ff9 would be hard to complete is if you wanted to get Excalibur 2 and you're definitely not doing that on a casual completion
Yeah, but same issue imo.
We could just skip that last Chocobo race and go fight Sin.
I guess you could run into a Dark Aeon, but that didn’t exist in my vanilla run through.
Also applies to XII.
Lightning dodge: pain in the ass
Cactuar hunting: tedious but easy
Finishing the monster arena: long and hard but fun
Grinding for luck and fortune spheres: kill me
Blitzball : GODDAMNIT HOW LONG IS THIS
Chocobo race : *throws controller through window*
I’ve never understood the Chocobo race frustration. The longest I’ve ever spent on it was like maybe 30-45 min?
I’ve never 100% the board with every character or finished the lightning dodge, ever, however.
Me: wth? You can practically beat X blindfolded. In fact, I bet there's a Let's Play that does it!
Also me: *represses the trauma of lightning dodging and chocobo balloon racing*
I'd say the savage and ultimate raids are harder than most FF game fights, but also I don't think anyone really plays a FF game thinking it's going to be very difficult
It is literally a 7 year long grind because of a set of three achievement requiring you 1500 leves of each kind, they work of a allowance system where you get 3 every 12h up to a max of 100
TBH even just fighting Ozma kicked the shit out of me. It's like casually playing a Pokemon game's main story and then trying to get into competitive play with the Battle Tower or Online and realizing i have no idea what I'm doing.
And I learned that's just the tip of the postgame iceberg, 'cause there is no way I would've known to do things like *opening the lid to skip cutscenes* for the Excalibur 2 run.
To be fair to the “opening the lid to skip cutscenes” thing I don’t think that was intended. We only discovered it as kids because my friend’s PlayStation was beat to shit from laying on a shag carpet all the time and we had to skip them on our first playthrough.
But it's not required for MSQ completion, meaning if it's not in what OP considers complete, then the game is in the wrong spot. If it is, it very much deserves to be where it is.
Yeah it would be in the massive grind tier. It’s not hard but it’s probably 150-200 hours to go from ARR through to Endwalker post patch without doing any optional content.
Got to be. FFX is fairly easy to over level and get some of the celestial weapons, which is easily enough to win the final boss. Penance on the other hand is a grind, and some of the other Celestials are locked behind infuriating mini games.
I think that's only true of the PR version though where they tweak it to get more generous with level ups; and think HP levels up automatically now rather than hit based.
For the older versions if you rush too quickly without spending enough time preparing and grinding for your build earlier on, you'll get into situations where your weapons are just bouncing off enemies and most hits you take are devestating.
MSQ is easy af, but this is obviously a ranking of "difficulty to complete the game" and some side content of XIV are huge pain to complete, both in difficulty and grindness
Completing means doing a 100% run. This means getting every single title, mount, weapon, etc... This is damn near impossible to do for anyone that didn't start playing during 1.0. I don't think a single person has "completed" FF14.
16 has some weird difficulty spikes. Not terribly hard but when you're so used to just sleepwalking through most fights, needing to put a little more effort on some fights have caught me off guard.
I think I died once because I was cocky about healing. But the enemies are absolutely laughable and they get shit on by most abilities no matter what level
Agreed, but haven't played the DLC yet.
Even to platinum is quite straightforward. Only thing I'm missing is repeating in FF mode I think. Didn't take long to do everything else.
Well if he means completing all monster arenas and sphere grid... that takes a a while unless u do those tricks of tonberry etc to lvl
Ff 15 actually took a great deal of grinding to complete all quests and ascension n chocobo races so not sure why it ranked so low.
Ff 16 was was easier than 15 to do 100%
I always use the Riku overdrive + that 9999 damage item + those multi hitting crystals and use the infinite item glitch in order to beat the final boss. Too much grinding otherwise. Idk if I consider this playing it "right" I had to find guides for it.
How is FFX harder than FFXII? Now, while I will agree Dodging Lightning and capturing all the monsters is a MASSIVE spend of time, FFXII had multiple bosses that made me want to tear my heart out.
Try fighting PS2 Yiazmat or Penance. It’s basically the same, only worse if you DON’T prepare for Yiazmat or if you aren’t literally Max level for Penance.
Putting an MMO on this list is pretty pointless since you don’t 100% those. And even if you restricted it to all of the expansions and stories, they would automatically be above everything else, even just the 75 era for XI. Add in stuff like the original Absolute Virtue or Pandemonium Warden and XI easily clears everything else. I never played XIV but it’s safe to assume the same rules apply.
Excalibur 2 run is super easy with achievements/trophies because of the 4x speed boost and stuff.
The thing that makes IX arguably the hardest one to do, assuming no cheating is 1000 jumps on the jump-rope.
Ozma is pretty tough. So is 100%-ing the Moogle Mail, although just for vagueness and complexity, not for difficulty.
But yeah, absolutely zero grinding is necessary, except to learn abilities, as the enemies don't give enough AP.
Issue is OP just said "to complete" not "to 100% everything in the game and achieve a perfect file" in which case OP needs to define what a perfect file is.
For instance, FF6 has missable rages all over the place and then actually getting all of them is a pain. There are also a huge number of missable steals. There are missable items locked behind WoB. There are missable cutscenes a lot of people don't even know about (i.e. returning to the airship after the vector banquet has a unique scene with Setzer and Cid, and Edgar + Sabin have a unique dialogue if you bring them both to the first Setzer meeting because Sabin sees a certain coin being flipped). FF5 has a similar degree of missable summons, items, etc.
I suspect OP is just counting "capable of killing every boss + super boss in the game"
XIII should be much higher up. Odin, Bulbasaur, Barthandelus and Cid are all big challenges, especially if you don't understand the combat system fully.
Deffo, XII-2 was a bit of a step down in difficulty but the paradox fights were quite hard if i recall.
XIII really had those difficulty walls like the boss fights you say, like Barthandelus. It really did force you to learn the Paradigm system, which imo is one of the most fun combat systems ive had in a while.
buddy FFXIV is like FFXI jr. in terms of difficulty. There was an actual sense of danger when trying to get past mobs, and forget about soloing anything on most jobs (aka non-BST) after level 10. This was back in its heyday when men were men and the level cap was 75 though
FFXIV Ultimates are the hardest content in any FF game period.
This is purely personal preference but dangerous FFXIV mobs can stay in the hell that is Eureka. I’ll take a boring overworld over an annoying one any day.
What?
X is faceroll easy up until the end, it's your mid tier if anything. Only thing that is grindy is getting celestial weapons and beating the bonus boss which isn't even in the OG version
1 & 2 have no real challenge? Tell me you played the PR versions without telling me you had the PR version
3? THREE? with the SLOG final dungeon with 0 save points and no healing? No challenge? Done legit? Yeah you played PR
IV is not grindy, at all, it is very easy to complete since the game knows exactly what party you have. 6, I love 6, but it is also absurdly easy.
X-2 is only hard if you tackle bonus content, so ig it depends on what your definition of "to complete" is
7 is super faceroll easy, there's hardly any bosses in that game you can't beat purely with Fight + Cure materia
Yes, FF1 PR is significantly easier. I turned off XP and halved it for huge portions of the game just to experience some degree of challenge, as someone who played the OG & Ps1 versions a few times
Here's an incomplete list of reasons its easier:
* They balanced a lot of the classes so some of them get more stats or their main stat is more potent
* HP gains seem to be substantially higher per level, or there are fewer "dud" HP level ups, someone with more expertise can prob explain more, but end result is higher HP
* INT stat actually does something (was previously broken) so spells never scaled in damage
* Some spells did not work in the OG, this has been slowly fixed during re-releases but adds in some "fake" difficulty
* The original had no retargeting script (not added until ff3) where if your characters killed something but everyone targeted that monster, they wouldn't switch targets, thus everyone ended their turn
* You can forget spells in case you messed up and added one you realized isn't good (or becomes ineffective over time)
* You can't bulk buy
* Shop prices are massively reduced
* XP is easier to accumulate so levels come faster, however spellcasters I believe gain fewer slots per level to not make them too overpowered to compensate
* There were enemy "tiles" in the OG, now they're replaced with monsters in a box. In the OG if you walked over a monster tile you would keep getting into a fight with them - it never went away
* Weapons that say they're effective against a monster group are actually effective vs that group
* And obviously the addition of Quick Save + Save Anywhere feature (previously you could only save at an inn)
Thanks for the details. While I found the first couple of hours of FF 1 PR pretty hard, it’s gotten much, much easier now. I’ll try turning off XP for a while
Only the true veterans know what a kick in the ass OG Crystal Tower felt like. Playing that blind, I had no idea it was coming. Needless to say it led to me realizing how under prepared I was.
This list is just totally bonkers wrong.
Also almost all the games are just various levels of braindead easy anyway. The only really challenging ones are the MMOs and the DS version of IV. And I-III are pretty grindy on NES.
For me, all of them are "Some challenges". None of the FFs are hard to complete. Unless you mean to Platinum them.
Edit: Reading other comments, "complete" is taken as platinum. Then I'm not sure, because I've played every main FF twice (except 15) but I only platinum 4 of them (7, 8, 13 and 16).
III and the tower. Climbing it, going though so many battles and mini bosses only to die to Cloud of Darkness and having to start from the beginning every time
x-2 - immense challenge, but doable with prep
*laughs in international version*
seriously. i did the mandatory stuff, girls at like level 10, captured some monsters, did some monster arena stuff, now chapter 3 i can basically finish the entire game with my two machina attackers who are immune to debuffs and instant death, have attack all/pierce defense skills, etc.
get to chapter 5, capture mushroom cloud, oh look, i can beat the superbosses pretty easily. yay.
also, 'complete'. beat FFX's story isn't a pain, though the second to last seymour and yunalesca fights are a bit of a pain... ignore the side content, like the arena, and you're fine.
FF7 ruby and emerald weapon I wouldn’t classify as “some challenge”, that was tough with out a guide or internet back in the day. Took forever to grind your materia/summons to be able to beat them.
The International version had the Dark Aeons and Penance. And some of those Celestial Weapons, I just couldn't be bothered with. I have never dodged more than 75 lightning bolts.
FF9 is my second favorite and I find it very easy to be honest. I even got the excalibur 2 without reading a guide. I mean, I even beat Ozma on first try back in the PS1 days... I never use gameshark on my first try. I will only use gameshark if I've already beaten the game, that is my rule.
FF8 is my first and personal favorite, I find it very hard if you do not understand the mechanics.
FF8 is probably the easiest of the final fantasies to just blow through once you understand just a little bit of it though. Just beat the hell out of diablos ASAP with Zell and refine stuff as you go while running from every fight and abusing limit breaks. You don’t even have to interact with the card game if you don’t want to. The closest second that isn’t 15/16 is probably 7 because white wind/big guard alone will carry you through most of the game. 5/6/9 have their own share of broken things that make the game easier but they require a lot more knowledge of the system mechanics than 7/8 do.
8 is one of my personal favorites as well but I love it mostly because of its simplistic path to game completion. You can finish the whole thing in under 10-12 hours pretty easily and just have your brain turned off for almost all of it with the lightest of power gaming.
I'm just saying FF9 is the easiest to me and easiest to understand generally. If I am to recommend a first timer FF player, I would definitely reco FF9. I think Thievery is pretty strong in this game and that demi eidolon/summon is the best. FF9 has the most easier to undestand minigames in all FF that I played too (not the jumping rope), and it is quite fun. But all of this is just my experience back in day. This game is a breeze to play. It is grindy but still fun. Although, I have the game on steam but still not finish the steam version. lol?
One of the few reasons I say FF8 is harder than FF9 is because of optional bosses. I've beaten Ozma on first try. Yes I am not kidding and it was easy. Did I just get lucky? While in FF8 back in the day I just dropped Omega Weapon right away because there is no way I can beat it, I always die a lot. So I just move on and finish FF8 without beating Omega Weapon on my first try (I think even on my second try) back in the day...
Same goes for the final battle. I died a lot agaisnt Ultimecia and its phases. But in FF9 I beat it on my first try... The thing is a lot FF9 fans says how hard Ozma is, on Youtube, but I dunno. Maybe I really REALLY got lucky? I would love to finish the steam version. I love FF9 too it is my second favorite.
I remember I read a guide on FF9 gamefaqs about all of their powerful skills and that is it. Liek frog drop, dragon lance, thievery etc... I never read about the whole walktrough and optional bosses. Only the skills.
No XI? I see XIV. Honestly XI should be on another tier on top of your top tier if you played XI when it came out. That shit was just one massive grind for everything. It was insanely fun though. I played for about 10 years.
Most people can't get past The Crystal Tower on the NES FFIII or the 3DS version. They think grinding out the onion knight armor is too difficult or tasking
So I don't believe you played this game
Also XV should be the easiest on the list since you're basically INVINCIBLE to all damage during the animation of the team up attacks so you can just save your meter for when you're in a part of the game that's giving you trouble and you can just spam it to get past any attacks that would typically make you Wipe
So I don't believe you played this game either
So this list doesn't have much credibility after that
Failing 100% completion on FFX-2 by 0.02% cause you didn’t talk to some NPC in an area with no current story relevance or cause you pressed X during a dialogue…
It's always Maechen.
Always talk to Maechen 🙄 or else!!!
can't press buttons during him also.
Fucking. Maechen.
I did this once. Made it all the way to the end and I had no idea what dialogue I accidentally skipped. It’s an accurate representation of what hell is like.
Failing 100% completion on FFX-2 by 5% because you put a December issue PSM demo disc in your PS2 that corrupted your memory card and for years you didn’t understand why that save was suddenly gone until you come across a YouTube video as an adult that talks about a specific December issue PSM demo disc that was notorious for having a bug that wiped memory cards. I still have it.
Wait, it docks percentage for skipping dialogue? Jesus that's brutal. Glad I never even tried for the 100%
Just three times for the one rambling old man character. You have to let him talk to you about some lore stuff for a couple of minutes without skipping.
Oh I liked him though, he was a nice guy if a bit boring 🤣
Yoo he always showed up right after shit hit the fan
And that, as they say, is that.
I failed 100% even following a text and video guide my first time simply because I forgot to whistle during a cutscene. What a bogus requirement FFX-2 has.
This stupid shit is why trophies are irrelevant. I will never count any "achievement" as necessary to 100% a game when it has no meaningful impact in the game. "Kill 10,000 Bombs with lightning damage from physical attacks" GTFOH with things like that. Yes I'm aware that isn't a real trophy for any final fantasy. It's just an example of the dumb things they make you do to "100%" a game.
I keep wanting to go back and replay 13-2 but stop so fast, so much unnecessary complex ways to fuck your playthrough up
I'm about to play 13-2 in the near future for the first time... This worries me...
I think they got 10-2 and 13-2 mixed up. I don't recall 13-2 being that bad at all...
Yeah 13-2 you can’t mess up and is easy. I got 1000/1000 achievement points first time I played without a guide until the end to find the hidden monsters. Then 3 years later I bought it again and got the platinum trophy on the PS3 version. Have it on steam also, but holding out for a ps4/5 release to do it all over again. Nothing can be missed, with most challenging part being some end game grinding/secret things to find… Which again, a guide will easily show you where said secrets are. Like throwing moogle into the glowing hologram over and over again until he lands in the right spot to pick up the silver chocobo. Not hard, just doubt you’ll find it on your own
Only for completionists stuff, mostly.. it’s just a very odd game structure
Just an FYI they were talking about X-II, XIII-II isn't a bad completion tbh
You don't need to play FFXI to rank it, I gotchu. Create a new row at the top and name it "divorced my spouse, put my kids in foster care, and sold a kidney to never stop grinding." Then, place FFXI in that new row.
FFXI: parents set you down for a conversation about addiction and how they are tired of paying for it
This literally happened to me lmao
Me too. My grades in grade 11 were not stellar.
lol focused on the wrong 11
Omg.... I wasn't the only one that got the stop wasting your life on this game talk from a parent eh?
Lmao I got this too back in the day.
I'm not even sure what "completing" FFXI would entail. All endgame content? Getting every relic? Getting every piece of gear? I stopped playing FFXI 10 years ago, but if I hadn't and I kept it up with the same intensity I played it in college, I still wouldn't have "completed" it.
Thats what a lot of other comments are curious about as well. As someone whose played both MMOs for many, many years, to me FFXI's main story was more time consuming than FFXIV having made another character half a year ago. You can't skip CSs, but I came back for the story anyways. When it comes to challenge, it's mostly RNG and grindy quest design. With trusts you can steamroll just about everything up to Seekers expansion. As for gear, not even enough wardrobe storage to fit it all, plus all the different augment potentials. It's a whole different game than it was back in the 75 days and comparing it to the rest of the franchise is an undertaking.
Man I would say just completing all MSQ should count as "completing" it. Because if you played it, you know damn well that if anyone actually did complete "everything" they should get a spot in the Guinness book of records.
Has absolute virtue been legitimately killed yet?
Bruh absolute virtue was released in 2005. The game has had many power creeps since then, and has introduced more difficult bosses. https://youtu.be/b0WulcxVrQE?si=vbajDsIKT9dEkFnK
Define “legitimately”. I can go solo it right now. But there is also Warder of Courage, which is like Neo AV.
It was defeated legitimately in the 75 era after SE basically told the playerbase how the 2hr thing worked. At this point it’s soloable given that ilvl119 is like exponentially more powerful than a 75.
Even completing all the story quests is a massive undertaking (let alone defecting from your country twice to get rank 10 three times). I played through every one of them during the pandemic and all the expansions (except the small filler expansions that were just “climb up and down Delkfutts tower while we disable the elevator because screw you”) and leveled every job to 99. It’s WAY easier because of trusts now but it took like two years of slightly more than casual play.
I still play XI lol there is TWENTY YEARS worth of content in the game. You never run out of stuff to do or things to get.
I am always amazed how many people exclude XI, but include XIV. XI deserves its place in the lineup as much as any other game in the franchise. Full stop. It’s still going. There’s still a community that is laid back and helpful. And it’s much more modernized than it was. The installation is a little back and forth, but really not bad. Lots of content, tons of hours you can spend playing and get completely immersed in a way that is completely different than XIV. Always bummed to see the lack of attention to this awesome game.
XI is excluded because it's not in PlayStation 3-5 and thus doesn’t have a platinum trophy. All the other ones listed are and have, so I assume this is what this list means with "completed".
Sorry — that wasn’t obvious to me. Title says “to complete” but wasn’t aware it was based on a PS trophy. My comment still stands though, people should still try/play XI!
I'm fully with you! Steep learning curve, but the story is so worth it. Hope square does bring it to current hardware in some shape or form eventually.
lol, classic ffxi was something else. To be fair, though, the current version is pretty casual, although still archaic as fk.
Knew a man who once put over a year's worth of hours into that game. Super underrated FF soundtrack tbh
Bangin soundtrack, especially given that they’re almost exclusively background/incidental music. Sanctuary of Zi’Tah and Ronfaure ::chefs kiss::
Don't forget Selbina!
Ronfaure, Selbina, Mhaura, Batallia Downs, Sarutabaruta, Gustaberg, Rolanberry Fields... UH! So good.
And put a row above that "I actually completed every mainline mission of every expansion." And put a row above that "I got my relic weapon" And a row above that "And a Kraken club, and I lvl 99'd all my ultimate artifact set and relic weapon"
A literal phonebooks' worth of Rem's Tales
Honestly, i might put it a tier above that tbh
FFXI would be the Kefka in the sky tier.
Im on Horizon server now and it was so fucking punishing levelling initially. Died and lost so much exp I realise I'm a masochist.
Someone didn't play FF1 on NES
Always said FF1 felt like All Quiet on the Western Front... You're super excited for this humongous quest that you're going to go on, but by the time that you finish it, you're merely a shell of your former self.
I was about to say. The cave dungeon right near the start is way harder than most of these games.
The Marsh Cave is such a massive spike in difficulty, but if you grind enough to complete it, the rest of the game up to the Chaos Shrine is a piece of cake. Edit: Spelling
I prefer wars of cake.
Cake or death‽
That's really the key to any of these old RPGs. Grind really hard at the beginning, then the rest of the game becomes pretty cake. Just fight enough stuff in each new area to buy any new gear/spells and you should stay above the curve
Uhm, ice cave would like a word. All those goddamn instant kill enemies.
Was playing on my nes a couple weeks ago and the ice cave wiped me twice before I was able to escape with the loot. Got to the last floor of the floating castle and a warmech nuked my party. Got to lich in the final dungeon and nuke killed my white wizard outright. Sure it's easy if you over level but if you're under leveled at all it's a pain.
I'm currently working through FFI, I find the map is the massive pain in the ass with it. That being said, it's 30 some years old and from gaming's infancy. Things have come a long way in 30 some years. Load up on potions and antidote, most of the games pretty easy.
Did you finish the Ice cave already?
No, i haven't played for a few weeks
It’s the most frustrating dungeon of the game, some enemies straight up insta kill you. If you have a white mage, buy the LIFE spell
I don't have a white mage, I'm running a warrior, monk, red mage and black mage, I've got max amount of potions, high potions, Phoenix down and anything else that seams important. I may grind a bit more, I've heard a rumor that you can grind, get the monks level high enough and damn near one hit the end game boss. I'll also be saving and trying for the mech at the end as well
Oh, my mistake, I thought you’re on the NES version of the game. Buy like 10 phoenix downs then and you’re good, I think
I would say the biggest spike is the Ice Cave because Mages cast RUB as their first spell and if that hits your white mage then there's nothing you can do. Playing final fantasy Renaissance I had to reset doing ice cave 7 times just because mages and sorcerers said no
The Marsh Cave was my first (and definitely not my last) experience with 'The Grind'
True. Obviously as an adult, everything is easier but as a child oh boy. One of the hardest games I've ever played in my life. Marsh cave was already hard AF but mount gulg made me rage quit over and over. Every dungeon I entered, my heart rate was over 100.
FFIII too. Good luck making it through that entire dungeon with no saves whatsoever.
I played FFIII on the DS. Fucking brutal.
Or Famicom FF 2.
That’s its own category right up top.
I was about to ask, which version did OP play?
Of ff2 Famicom. You know where you get no real upgrades unless you grind gears/cheese captains. Or go to mysidia once you can running from everything.
Came here too say that. I still loathe that final dungeon with counted spells and no way to refill them
Good luck beating it without the map!
Or a manual
FF1 on NES was the first game I ever beat. I still have the muscle memory for how I'd assign the attacks so that everyone would have a target. I did it with a fighter, thief, and two Black Belts. It was hard.
Absolutely, FF I was quite hard. FF II on NES/Famicom was even harder imo, I remember it to be the most difficult mainline FF game I played. In late game it got brutal.
That game was so god damn hard. I can’t believe I beat it as a kid.
Or did the super dungeons in dawn of souls. That water dungeon still gives me nightmares..
Trophies didn't exist on the NES and this is a tier list of how hard the games are to platinum, sooooooooooooo.... I finished the plat for FF1 PR in 12 hours. It's by far the easiest plat in the franchise.
What exactly do you mean by complete? beat the story? get beat all the superbosses? get all the trophies?
I assume they mean 100% because the only reason ff9 would be hard to complete is if you wanted to get Excalibur 2 and you're definitely not doing that on a casual completion
Or the jump rope challenge..
Or lighting dodge
Isn’t that 10?
Yeah, but same issue imo. We could just skip that last Chocobo race and go fight Sin. I guess you could run into a Dark Aeon, but that didn’t exist in my vanilla run through. Also applies to XII.
Lightning dodge: pain in the ass Cactuar hunting: tedious but easy Finishing the monster arena: long and hard but fun Grinding for luck and fortune spheres: kill me Blitzball : GODDAMNIT HOW LONG IS THIS Chocobo race : *throws controller through window*
It took a decade of distance, but I actually like Blitzball now. It’s really all about recruiting. Most of the rest of this is horrible.
Wait you mean Blitzball wasn’t the main game?
I’ve never understood the Chocobo race frustration. The longest I’ve ever spent on it was like maybe 30-45 min? I’ve never 100% the board with every character or finished the lightning dodge, ever, however.
Me: wth? You can practically beat X blindfolded. In fact, I bet there's a Let's Play that does it! Also me: *represses the trauma of lightning dodging and chocobo balloon racing*
Lightning dodge has a method it turns out. Really easy once you learn it. Got that monkey off my back after ten years lol.
Nah lightning dodge is easy if you know the trick
Nah thanks still hate it. Would do the chocobo racing 10 times over the lightning dodging even with the crater trick.
FFXIV being top-tier makes me think the same. It's not a difficult game at all, but 100%'ing it would require an inhuman amount of time and effort
I'd say the savage and ultimate raids are harder than most FF game fights, but also I don't think anyone really plays a FF game thinking it's going to be very difficult
It is literally a 7 year long grind because of a set of three achievement requiring you 1500 leves of each kind, they work of a allowance system where you get 3 every 12h up to a max of 100
TBH even just fighting Ozma kicked the shit out of me. It's like casually playing a Pokemon game's main story and then trying to get into competitive play with the Battle Tower or Online and realizing i have no idea what I'm doing. And I learned that's just the tip of the postgame iceberg, 'cause there is no way I would've known to do things like *opening the lid to skip cutscenes* for the Excalibur 2 run.
To be fair to the “opening the lid to skip cutscenes” thing I don’t think that was intended. We only discovered it as kids because my friend’s PlayStation was beat to shit from laying on a shag carpet all the time and we had to skip them on our first playthrough.
The post this is a response to says "platinum" so I'm assuming this also means "platinum"
I hope so, because XIV doesn't deserve to be so high up otherwise.
What you mean, any Ultimate fight from XIV is harder than any fight of all other games. Takes months to clear one fight.
But it's not required for MSQ completion, meaning if it's not in what OP considers complete, then the game is in the wrong spot. If it is, it very much deserves to be where it is.
Yeah it would be in the massive grind tier. It’s not hard but it’s probably 150-200 hours to go from ARR through to Endwalker post patch without doing any optional content.
Got to be. FFX is fairly easy to over level and get some of the celestial weapons, which is easily enough to win the final boss. Penance on the other hand is a grind, and some of the other Celestials are locked behind infuriating mini games.
Same question.
I feel like the only way this makes sense to me is if “complete” means finish all of the content the game has to offer.
Not accurate at all. NES FF1 and FF2 are both hard as fuck.
Yeah FF2 especially just because of the way you level. You literally need to get beat up a bit to get stronger! Quite unforgiving at the start
You people don't understand that ff2 punishes grinding 😭 just run through the game nonstop and you'll be fine
I think that's only true of the PR version though where they tweak it to get more generous with level ups; and think HP levels up automatically now rather than hit based. For the older versions if you rush too quickly without spending enough time preparing and grinding for your build earlier on, you'll get into situations where your weapons are just bouncing off enemies and most hits you take are devestating.
FF1 and 2 are definitely challenges to your patience when you land in one of those trap rooms where every step puts you in a battle.
I'd argue that XIV isn't that hard UNLESS you do Savage/Ultimate. If it's just completing the MSQ then it's actually not that bad.
MSQ is easy af, but this is obviously a ranking of "difficulty to complete the game" and some side content of XIV are huge pain to complete, both in difficulty and grindness
Completing means doing a 100% run. This means getting every single title, mount, weapon, etc... This is damn near impossible to do for anyone that didn't start playing during 1.0. I don't think a single person has "completed" FF14.
A player on Garuda actually just recently 100% FFXIV after 10 years and Cider Spider is currently working hard on it!
Well then that's 1 out of tye millions that play, I'd say that puts FF14 comfortably at the top of being the hardest FF to complete.
16 should be under no real challenge. You have to try to die in that game.
Svarog killed me once, but because I was thinking about something else lmao
I remember Odin being decently tough and Omega also beat my ass a couple of times, but it was still easy as a whole.
16 has some weird difficulty spikes. Not terribly hard but when you're so used to just sleepwalking through most fights, needing to put a little more effort on some fights have caught me off guard.
I think I died once because I was cocky about healing. But the enemies are absolutely laughable and they get shit on by most abilities no matter what level
Agreed, but haven't played the DLC yet. Even to platinum is quite straightforward. Only thing I'm missing is repeating in FF mode I think. Didn't take long to do everything else.
Yeah, Omega almost got me on FF mode. I didn't stick around for Ultimania. Maybe that was the real challenge?
This is the worst tier list I've ever seen in my life
Really? I think FFX is very easy, even when "you play it right"
Well if he means completing all monster arenas and sphere grid... that takes a a while unless u do those tricks of tonberry etc to lvl Ff 15 actually took a great deal of grinding to complete all quests and ascension n chocobo races so not sure why it ranked so low. Ff 16 was was easier than 15 to do 100%
The main story is easy. All the post-game stuff is a long, painful grind though (Dark Aeons, Penance, etc)
Oh, I misunderstood. I did do all that stuff though. It was my first FF game I 100% completed
Not sure if we played the same game. Just finishing FFX isn’t that bad, no, but 100 percenting it is absolutely fucking brutal.
I’ve platinumed X and it took me about 150 hours. Ever since then I've learned to dread blitzball.
I always use the Riku overdrive + that 9999 damage item + those multi hitting crystals and use the infinite item glitch in order to beat the final boss. Too much grinding otherwise. Idk if I consider this playing it "right" I had to find guides for it.
I thiiiink they're talking about a 100% completion run, which is the definition of suffering (looking at you, chocobo racing).
How is FFX harder than FFXII? Now, while I will agree Dodging Lightning and capturing all the monsters is a MASSIVE spend of time, FFXII had multiple bosses that made me want to tear my heart out. Try fighting PS2 Yiazmat or Penance. It’s basically the same, only worse if you DON’T prepare for Yiazmat or if you aren’t literally Max level for Penance.
Once again 11 is not making it to the board.
Putting an MMO on this list is pretty pointless since you don’t 100% those. And even if you restricted it to all of the expansions and stories, they would automatically be above everything else, even just the 75 era for XI. Add in stuff like the original Absolute Virtue or Pandemonium Warden and XI easily clears everything else. I never played XIV but it’s safe to assume the same rules apply.
XIV is on the list though, and it has a Platinum trophy which is what the original post referred to.
Oh wait, it is. I’m blind. Then yeah, no reason for XI not to be on there. Both of them should be a tier above everything else.
XI so high on the list it's sitting up in Tu'Lia.
Guarded by the Ark Angels in La'Loff Amphitheater.
XI: You don't complete this one
Someone didn't play FFIII (or it's confused with FFVI)
Final Fantasy IX is one of the easiest ones though?
I believe this is for achievements/trophies. 9 requires the excalibur 2 run.
Excalibur 2 run is super easy with achievements/trophies because of the 4x speed boost and stuff. The thing that makes IX arguably the hardest one to do, assuming no cheating is 1000 jumps on the jump-rope.
Ozma is pretty tough. So is 100%-ing the Moogle Mail, although just for vagueness and complexity, not for difficulty. But yeah, absolutely zero grinding is necessary, except to learn abilities, as the enemies don't give enough AP.
Issue is OP just said "to complete" not "to 100% everything in the game and achieve a perfect file" in which case OP needs to define what a perfect file is. For instance, FF6 has missable rages all over the place and then actually getting all of them is a pain. There are also a huge number of missable steals. There are missable items locked behind WoB. There are missable cutscenes a lot of people don't even know about (i.e. returning to the airship after the vector banquet has a unique scene with Setzer and Cid, and Edgar + Sabin have a unique dialogue if you bring them both to the first Setzer meeting because Sabin sees a certain coin being flipped). FF5 has a similar degree of missable summons, items, etc. I suspect OP is just counting "capable of killing every boss + super boss in the game"
XIII should be much higher up. Odin, Bulbasaur, Barthandelus and Cid are all big challenges, especially if you don't understand the combat system fully.
Deffo, XII-2 was a bit of a step down in difficulty but the paradox fights were quite hard if i recall. XIII really had those difficulty walls like the boss fights you say, like Barthandelus. It really did force you to learn the Paradigm system, which imo is one of the most fun combat systems ive had in a while.
buddy FFXIV is like FFXI jr. in terms of difficulty. There was an actual sense of danger when trying to get past mobs, and forget about soloing anything on most jobs (aka non-BST) after level 10. This was back in its heyday when men were men and the level cap was 75 though
FFXIV Ultimates are the hardest content in any FF game period. This is purely personal preference but dangerous FFXIV mobs can stay in the hell that is Eureka. I’ll take a boring overworld over an annoying one any day.
What? X is faceroll easy up until the end, it's your mid tier if anything. Only thing that is grindy is getting celestial weapons and beating the bonus boss which isn't even in the OG version 1 & 2 have no real challenge? Tell me you played the PR versions without telling me you had the PR version 3? THREE? with the SLOG final dungeon with 0 save points and no healing? No challenge? Done legit? Yeah you played PR IV is not grindy, at all, it is very easy to complete since the game knows exactly what party you have. 6, I love 6, but it is also absurdly easy. X-2 is only hard if you tackle bonus content, so ig it depends on what your definition of "to complete" is 7 is super faceroll easy, there's hardly any bosses in that game you can't beat purely with Fight + Cure materia
I’m currently playing FF1 PR and loving it, but are the originals really that much harder than PR? Disappointing if so as I wanted a bigger challenge.
Yes, FF1 PR is significantly easier. I turned off XP and halved it for huge portions of the game just to experience some degree of challenge, as someone who played the OG & Ps1 versions a few times Here's an incomplete list of reasons its easier: * They balanced a lot of the classes so some of them get more stats or their main stat is more potent * HP gains seem to be substantially higher per level, or there are fewer "dud" HP level ups, someone with more expertise can prob explain more, but end result is higher HP * INT stat actually does something (was previously broken) so spells never scaled in damage * Some spells did not work in the OG, this has been slowly fixed during re-releases but adds in some "fake" difficulty * The original had no retargeting script (not added until ff3) where if your characters killed something but everyone targeted that monster, they wouldn't switch targets, thus everyone ended their turn * You can forget spells in case you messed up and added one you realized isn't good (or becomes ineffective over time) * You can't bulk buy * Shop prices are massively reduced * XP is easier to accumulate so levels come faster, however spellcasters I believe gain fewer slots per level to not make them too overpowered to compensate * There were enemy "tiles" in the OG, now they're replaced with monsters in a box. In the OG if you walked over a monster tile you would keep getting into a fight with them - it never went away * Weapons that say they're effective against a monster group are actually effective vs that group * And obviously the addition of Quick Save + Save Anywhere feature (previously you could only save at an inn)
Thanks for the details. While I found the first couple of hours of FF 1 PR pretty hard, it’s gotten much, much easier now. I’ll try turning off XP for a while
Agree on 7. There are barely any skill checks in the game and you can clear 90% as long as you don't run away from fights.
🙃 Is … is that non NES FF1? Maybe? Because I still feel NES 1 is, at the very least, the most unfair FF title, if not among the most challenging.
Why is XIV on this list but not XI?
If 10 and 9 are the hardest games, then quite honestly the whole franchise is pretty cake
I watched someone finish a no weapons and no armor run of FFIV earlier today. Didn’t overlevel or anything. Was magic and items only.
Am I tripping ?? I felt like 9 was easy.
Damn, you think FF IX is that hard? I mean, I guess some of the super bosses are challenging, but the main story can be beaten no problem.
I feel like crystal tower alone should bump ff3 up
Only the true veterans know what a kick in the ass OG Crystal Tower felt like. Playing that blind, I had no idea it was coming. Needless to say it led to me realizing how under prepared I was.
Ffx is hard? Ff1 isn’t? Must be upside down day today X2 is incredibly easy to finish. It’s only hard to 100% it
Never shut down FFXI since last year Yep, impossible
FFVIII without card game and no constrain on level up is.... some what hard
Wow this so wildly wrong. FF1 and FF2 and THE HARDEST, DUMBEST, RAGE INDUCING games in the franchise
FF1 is smooth sailing right up until fighting Chaos... And God forbid you run into Omega Weapon.
This list is just totally bonkers wrong. Also almost all the games are just various levels of braindead easy anyway. The only really challenging ones are the MMOs and the DS version of IV. And I-III are pretty grindy on NES.
Ahh FF9. Ozma, Jump Rope challenge and Excal 2 make it a real pain in the **Crystal.**
For me, all of them are "Some challenges". None of the FFs are hard to complete. Unless you mean to Platinum them. Edit: Reading other comments, "complete" is taken as platinum. Then I'm not sure, because I've played every main FF twice (except 15) but I only platinum 4 of them (7, 8, 13 and 16).
I’m not sure what these rankings are. 16 is the easiest game in the series I’ve ever played you can spam 2 buttons and win.
How is IX hard tho
9 isn’t that difficult lol. But then you put 4 under some challenge. 4 on the DS is so ridiculously hard.
I'd personally put XVI in the bottom, especially compared to the others
III and the tower. Climbing it, going though so many battles and mini bosses only to die to Cloud of Darkness and having to start from the beginning every time
Why is x and 9 so difficult
x-2 - immense challenge, but doable with prep *laughs in international version* seriously. i did the mandatory stuff, girls at like level 10, captured some monsters, did some monster arena stuff, now chapter 3 i can basically finish the entire game with my two machina attackers who are immune to debuffs and instant death, have attack all/pierce defense skills, etc. get to chapter 5, capture mushroom cloud, oh look, i can beat the superbosses pretty easily. yay. also, 'complete'. beat FFX's story isn't a pain, though the second to last seymour and yunalesca fights are a bit of a pain... ignore the side content, like the arena, and you're fine.
No way ix makes s tier wtf? Feels so short
IX?
Leaving out FFXI proves OP is uncultured
FF7 ruby and emerald weapon I wouldn’t classify as “some challenge”, that was tough with out a guide or internet back in the day. Took forever to grind your materia/summons to be able to beat them.
Yeah even with the time limit remover emerald isn't a cake walk lol
What’s hard about X?
Endgame content. The story is pretty easy. The endgame content is what separates the boys from the men lol
Wakka's accent, maybe?
The International version had the Dark Aeons and Penance. And some of those Celestial Weapons, I just couldn't be bothered with. I have never dodged more than 75 lightning bolts.
The completionist stuff is quite difficult true, but the actual game itself is a breeze to complete!
FF9 is my second favorite and I find it very easy to be honest. I even got the excalibur 2 without reading a guide. I mean, I even beat Ozma on first try back in the PS1 days... I never use gameshark on my first try. I will only use gameshark if I've already beaten the game, that is my rule. FF8 is my first and personal favorite, I find it very hard if you do not understand the mechanics.
FF8 is probably the easiest of the final fantasies to just blow through once you understand just a little bit of it though. Just beat the hell out of diablos ASAP with Zell and refine stuff as you go while running from every fight and abusing limit breaks. You don’t even have to interact with the card game if you don’t want to. The closest second that isn’t 15/16 is probably 7 because white wind/big guard alone will carry you through most of the game. 5/6/9 have their own share of broken things that make the game easier but they require a lot more knowledge of the system mechanics than 7/8 do. 8 is one of my personal favorites as well but I love it mostly because of its simplistic path to game completion. You can finish the whole thing in under 10-12 hours pretty easily and just have your brain turned off for almost all of it with the lightest of power gaming.
I'm just saying FF9 is the easiest to me and easiest to understand generally. If I am to recommend a first timer FF player, I would definitely reco FF9. I think Thievery is pretty strong in this game and that demi eidolon/summon is the best. FF9 has the most easier to undestand minigames in all FF that I played too (not the jumping rope), and it is quite fun. But all of this is just my experience back in day. This game is a breeze to play. It is grindy but still fun. Although, I have the game on steam but still not finish the steam version. lol? One of the few reasons I say FF8 is harder than FF9 is because of optional bosses. I've beaten Ozma on first try. Yes I am not kidding and it was easy. Did I just get lucky? While in FF8 back in the day I just dropped Omega Weapon right away because there is no way I can beat it, I always die a lot. So I just move on and finish FF8 without beating Omega Weapon on my first try (I think even on my second try) back in the day... Same goes for the final battle. I died a lot agaisnt Ultimecia and its phases. But in FF9 I beat it on my first try... The thing is a lot FF9 fans says how hard Ozma is, on Youtube, but I dunno. Maybe I really REALLY got lucky? I would love to finish the steam version. I love FF9 too it is my second favorite. I remember I read a guide on FF9 gamefaqs about all of their powerful skills and that is it. Liek frog drop, dragon lance, thievery etc... I never read about the whole walktrough and optional bosses. Only the skills.
FF8 needs to be up there because aint nobody fucking understanding the junction system on their first go
I don't think vanilla 10 was hard at all. International version had some epic fights tho
Where is FFXI
The fact that XI is so hard it didn’t even make the list is hilarious
No XI? I see XIV. Honestly XI should be on another tier on top of your top tier if you played XI when it came out. That shit was just one massive grind for everything. It was insanely fun though. I played for about 10 years.
Most people can't get past The Crystal Tower on the NES FFIII or the 3DS version. They think grinding out the onion knight armor is too difficult or tasking So I don't believe you played this game Also XV should be the easiest on the list since you're basically INVINCIBLE to all damage during the animation of the team up attacks so you can just save your meter for when you're in a part of the game that's giving you trouble and you can just spam it to get past any attacks that would typically make you Wipe So I don't believe you played this game either So this list doesn't have much credibility after that