A good reason to start a FF thread...
 

I've *finally* got round to playing FF6 for the first time! This is due to the fact that I have had no spare time in my life to play games, christ, it took me over 2 years to get around to completing 5! Completing this game will close the chapter to my FF experience, unless I bother to buy 12, but it won't be for a looong while.

Thing is, I'm just wondering how to tackle this; do I play it like I did with 4 and not worry too much about levelling up and finding all the secrets (which take up the most time), or play it like 5 which did all that (I got every skill and mastered every job almost as soon as I got them).

My preference generally goes with the pnwing tactic, but I don't want to break the game up too much with it. I dunno. What do you guys think?

I suggest going for the secrets as you will encounter new character(s) AND new scenes. If NOt you will miss out some great adventures and additional information about your characters..like say Shadow. It's not really a pain in the ass to go after these "secrets" it's real fun!^^

I have to agree. I never really found myself frustrated or felt like I was wandering around aimlessly for too long in FF6. You'll get a good return on your investment if you search around in the game.

Final Fantasy 6 isn't as hard as 5 was, so you should be able to get by easily without mastering everything. A lot of the side quests and such are worth it, though, as they make up a very sizeable chunk of the game. They also give you a lot of character development, so try and do those.

With any new game/RPG, new as in first time playing it, I always try to go and get everything possible. Complete all the quests/missions, kill all super bosses/major bosses, get every hidden/secret characters, get all the best items, everything. If there's some vehicle that'll cost 20,000,000 game currency, you can bet your ass I'll be playing to get it just for the sake of having it completed. It'd probably ask me to go around defeating some monster type 2000 times for their item drop that'll fuel the construction/development of that vehicle. But I would be so daring and bold to do it.

For example, how many of us GFFers completed at least one sphere grid on FFX? I pretty much did for Yuna. When you complete a character's sphere grid, entirely (meaning advancing into the sphere grid region of another character and learning all those abilities/spells), you can also research those attribute spheres (strength, mp, hp, luck, magic, etc.) By doing this on Yuna (I didn't really know who to start with first, but I figured it would be wicked to start with Yuna since I had completed her ultimate weapon first), I was able to utilize her Break Damage Limits for physical and magical damages. One hit KO on every freaking opponent except for the ending boss, Jecht. (Hell, she even kills Yu Yevon in one hit. Fuck trying to do the zombie trick.) This was after I had already beaten the game by normal terms with the usual boss struggles.

Eventually, I got around to getting her an accessory that'll break HP and MP limits. Behold, weak-ass Yuna isn't so weak anymore.

So, playing a unfamiliar RPG is just based upon how you like playing these games. I'm somewhat of an elitist at times. If I want everything, I'm going to try and get everything. If I want to beat it in record time, then I would proceed to do so.

Unlike FF4, which is pretty much completely linear and plot-driven, a good chunk (the latter chunk) of FF6 is open-ended. That means taking your time to explore the countryside won't break up the game in any way. Since you did the extra stuff in FF5, I imagine that it won't bother you in FF6 where the sidequests yield more than just material rewards.

Cheers for the input guys, I guess I should be a little more specific now :)

First off, I'm in agreement; elitism is exactly how I play them. I've done it with every single FF so far (even 4, up to a point). And there's no doubt if I don't get every weapon/item/magic/skill and find every secret the first time, I'll do it the second (probably using GameFAQS :ashamed: ).

So really, I'm just wondering whether to play this the perfectionist way the first or second time. Normally I wouldn't give it a second thought, but seeing as this is THE FF to play (as stated by countless people I've come across during the years), do I risk ploughing through the storyline at the expense of maybe missing something, which I would not have missed given the extensive exploring I usually end up doing.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Maybe even that last paragraph didn't make sense. Who knows?? :edgarrock:

EDIT:
I like how that sounds...

Question for those of you who have played the game. After the first Ultros battle, which order should I do the next quests when the party splits up? Is there any difference? Just in case there's a set order of doing them to gain/lose an item or something. You know what I mean. ;)

I'm pretty sure it's only about preference and you won't lose out regardless of play order.

Well, sort of...Pick Sabin and load up on armor and items in the town he visits, so you'll have them for the others (since the inventory carries over). But really, it's not needed...Sabin's is the longest and most explanative, while the others are more-or-less storybased and easy to play (though you'll have to do some poking and prodding in Locke's...Might want to do his first, since he has a spoiler/explanation for something that happens in Sabin's).

Excellent, cheers for the quick answers guys. I reckon I'll go for Lockes scenario first, I'm not too worried about shopping a bit earlier as I'm a little overpowered at the moment... :D

i think you should just play the damn game

Thanks for that amazing contribution Calculusaurus. I'll take it into account.

P.S. Caps and punctuation never hurt anyone...