FF IV is still my favourite FF, but I would go with the ds version now.

@Soriku:

About thirty to forty hours, if you don't use a guide. Yeah, roughly the same length as the PSX titles.

@Crazzyman:

FF3 was never released on the GBA, but yes, I played the GBA version of FFIV and the DS version is much better.

Go play Final Fantasy XII and don't come out until you are completely finished with it

And go play EarthBound or Mother 3 or Chrono Trigger while you're at it, to see where a lack of random battles came from before you thought it was hip

FFIV DS is by far the best version; FFIII DS is really your only English option; and if you already have FFI & II on PS1, just play those. The differences between them, the GBA and the PSP versions are not significant enough to warrant purchasing an additional version.

The random battles never really bothered me in the early FF games, personally. I can't imagine FFIV working any other way.

You are like an hour into the game

You haven't even gotten the gambit system yet

Where you are, it's still turn based

Play it for real.

This. End thread.

This.

Soriku you are making me lose respect for you.

Do it. DO IT!

ON topic:
I would get the GBA FF1&2 because they come together...you have to buy the PSP releases separately (?!) and I'm not ure about their loads times but I know that they're games I wouldn't be able to stomach that in. Then get FF3 and 4 DS.

Man don't you have a PS2?

I'll explain the Gambit system thing as soon as you tell me whether or not you own the platform on which one would play the majority of JRPGs from the last ten years

GGHHKK-

twenty dollars.... it's only twenty dollars...

Cough

Hack

Okay now I'm not choking on my own foam

The way the combat system works is pretty simple.

Enemies roam freely around different areas of the map (one of the best things about FFXII is that there's no "overworld" per se). Each one has a range at which they will notice and attack you.

Where you are in the game, you have to manually select "Attack" and the enemy that you want to attack for every attack you do. The quickest way to do this is to queu up your next attack as your initial attack is hitting, but at this point you're basically playing a 3-D version of Final Fantasy IV-X's ATB system. Only difference is that you can run around at your leisure, which has its own strategic applications, such as in kiting.

The way the Gambit system works is that you have what are call "Gambit slots". You can get more of these as you level up. They're what allow you to use Gambits. Gambits are a series of criteria you can use to set up prioritized courses of action that your characters will take whenever a certain criteria is fulfilled.

Let's pretend that I set up some Gambits on Vaan. They might look someething like this (this isn't exact, I haven't played in a while):

1. Ally: HP < 50% - Cura
2. Ally: Basch - Berserk
3. Enemy: Status: Oil - Firaga
4. Enemy: Lowest HP - Attack

Now, that's very simple and only uses up four gambit slots (you can have more than ten I believe), but it illustrates what the Gambit system allows you to do. In this scenario, let's say that Basch has 40% of his HP, does not have Berserk, and Basch and Vaan are fighting two enemies: one has the Oil Status and the other does not. In that scenario, Vaan would heal Basch until his health is above 50%, then cast Berserk on him, then cast Firaga on any enemy that has the Oil status, and when basch is healthy, berserk, and no enemies have oil, he will bash the weakest enemy until all enemies are dead.

Yes, it automates things. No, this is not bad. It allows you to pick and choose your strategies and gives you a system in which you can manage your status effects (which are very important in this game) while devoting your concentration towards more important actions and larger-scale battle strategies.

Since Gambits are so varied and have so many different variables and can be switched out on the fly, you can set up different Gambit schemes for every single boss encounter or area according to the kinds of enemies you fight there, and it makes the gameplay much faster and less tedious.

Yes, it's still technically turn-based, but for once it doesn't feel like it is.

Make your judgement when you actually have an opportunity to try it out. You'll feel differently when you can run through an area, butchering enemies with a speed that turn-based just doesn't give you. FFXII is full of a lot less bull-crap than most JRPGs.

You get them after the event that you're leading up to. Balthier explains them to you in-game, and then you set them up after talking to him.

twenty dollars is not much for the best Final Fantasy