Which party is the hardest in FF1?

[Sullla]

BigFatJ, any party of four is not really that difficult. Four Fighters is obviously laughable, but so is a group of four Black Belts (who serious kick some major behind once they hit lvl 21 and pick up their 6th hit) and four Red Mages. Four Thieves can be rough in the early going, not quite so bad once you reach the middle part of the game. Four White/Black Mages requires a lot of creativity with the spell usage, but the White Mages can RUSE their way through much of the game, while the Black Mages have enough damage output to kill enemies before they themselves can be killed. The real question is simply how tough you want things to be. I beat the game with a solo Black Belt (I linked to my game report above in an earlier post), so a Black Belt with three mages doesn't sound all that hard. It might be a lot of fun though! I've also done games where no one equipped weapons (all damage done with fists) and games where no one was allowed to equip armor. Now those were some entertaining variants! Really though, it all depends on what kind of game you're looking to play. :p I agree with you on the old Final Fantasies and the use of imagination in setting the atmosphere. Probably an inevitability as graphics improved, but still somewhat sad to lose that feeling. johnsobas, I was incorrect about the Falchion (which I think is called a "Falchon" in the original text); it is actually sold in Crescent Lake, not Pravoka. However, I wasn't totally wrong - I was thinking of the Short Sword, which *IS* sold at Pravoka. It's slightly better than a Sabre (5% higher hit percentage), although there's not a great deal of difference. And why are you using Copper Bracelets? The Wooden Armor is MUCH cheaper and has double the Absorb (8 versus 4)! Now I know I wasn't wrong on that! Astos has 168 hit points - hang in there, you're not too far away. If all else fails, advance a level and try again. Thieves get a "strong" level up (more hit points) at lvls 9, 11, and 13 . Those may be good times to try again if you're running into problems. My solo black mage died about three dozen times before killing the pirates in Pravoka, so I feel your pain.