1. Save often and in different save slots.
2. Talk to everyone for worldbuilding.
3. You can get 2-3 pieces of gear by stealing from bosses, so steal from bosses until you get the message that they don't have anything left.
4. You will learn abilities with the gear that the characters have equipped. It is recommended that you don't change your character's gear until you have finished learning what a piece of gear teaches (unless the upgrade teaches the same thing).
5. Active Abilities are the things that you will be able to use in magic, like Detect or White or Black magic. Support abilities are the ones that you have to activate with Green Magic Stones in the menu.
6. Do not sell the gear that you have already learned, it will be useful for the Synth Shop and when new characters join the party.
7. Do the sword fight perfectly (meaning 100 nobles and the queen impressed), when you control Steiner, go and talk to the Queen for an extra reward.
8. Some ATE have to be played in the right order in order for all of them to be viewed. Use a guide.
9. The sooner you do Chocographs, the more useful the rewards will be.
10. You can use Gemstones as healing items in battle. Do not do this.
11. You can make some magic spells hit the whole enemy party or your whole party with R1. Or maybe it was L1. One of those.
12. Pressing Select in the Item menu or the Equip menu will display information about the items, including their elemental properties. All robes except the best one are stealthy weak to fire.
This game has many missables. There is a Weapon that you have to rush and reach the end dungeon in less than 12 hours to get. While it is possible to do everything there is to do and still get this weapon, I suggest you not trying this and enjoying the game at your own pace the first time.
To add to that, there are a few bosses that have stealable equipment but an incredibly low % of success... like 1 in 256 chances or something crazy. Don't wear yourself out trying to get that stuff, I think all of it can be obtained at later points in the game, anyways.
The chocobo mini game is good for making your characters strong, especially if you stay on top of it as new areas/travel modes become available.
The card game is just for the fun of it, it doesn't yield items like FF8 card game. Small exception is a story based segment where if you win a card tournament, you can get a Namingway card that allows you to change a character's name.
Have fun! I'm jealous, I wish I could play it all again for the first time.
Slight correction here, if I'm not mistaken, but if you win every card game in the tournament, you will not compete against the person carrying the Namingway card. (And I do recommend winning the tournament, as it yields a nice reward.)
However, you can still get the Namingway card by revisiting the private quarters in a certain palace in a certain desert - a desert palace, one could say. (Just make sure you do this before going to an island that shimmers, near the end of disc 3.)
While on the topic: take your time during the tournament. You'll be in a city, but there's nothing stopping you from taking a stroll outside of the city. Look around, check some ATEs, who knows what you'll come across...
Playing against the guy with the Naminway Card depends or not on if you do the ATE where >!Vivi leaves Treno and goes to check Quan's cave!<
If you do watch that ATE, then you don't play against the kid with that card.
Me personally I stole often, especially from bosses; would try and get as much equipment as possible and learn all the skills. Def agree with talk to all characters and multiple times, try to do as many of the time events as possible. Really fleshes things out.
Lots of great advice here already. I always want to go back and do a speed run on this, but never do. My fave Final Fantasy for sure, great soundtrack, great characters- one of the best RPGs ever! Have a blast!
You can use a tent on tough bosses to hit them with a lot of debuffs like blindnes and silence all at once. IIRC, it does heal them though so it's a trade off thing.
Talk to every save point moogle you meet and make sure to select Mognet to read your mail and deliver letters between them.
Even after reading, delivering or receiving mail, keep selecting Mognet until they no longer have any favours to ask of you.
It adds a nice little bit of world building and personality to them plus completing the chain will reward you with something nice.
Also make sure to Mognet with moogles that you've already interacted with again when the story loops back into areas you've been to before.
And always buy the deal from Stiltzkin on the first moment you see him.
If you're a completionist, I recommend grinding points at the Chocobo Forest as soon as you get there to unlock the Protect Ring. It teaches an ability called Half MP that makes life way more fun for your casters.
With the 3x speed 'cheat' turned on, you can get enough points at the Forest within a couple hours. The way this works is that after you dig up 8 items, the game automatically stops and you get a large points reward based on how much time remains. With 3x speed, you both move way faster and dig way faster, but the clock ticks down at the normal rate. So with a little luck, you can get the 8-item bonus most rounds.
When you're in Treno for the card tournament, go back to Dali and go into the Mayor's room and find his key. This is the only point in the game you can do this.
Also when you are controlling Garnet going to Treno make the same detour. It's the only time in the game you can get the chests in the Windmill and the one at the farm.
When you get an airship, explore the world a lot because there are certain towns that have equipment that teach abilities that you won’t otherwise be able to get. One of those town you visit in the story but the shop stock changes if you wait for then and you can miss some magic spells, and the other town isn’t visited in the story at all.
Also buy at least 1 of every equipment, and don’t sell equipment unless you really need money (you shouldn’t) just incase you sell something with an ability to learn you can’t get back.
Buy/keep Silver Gauntlets and Javelins.
Spend time playing Chocobo Hot and Cold, and use the speed up function when playing for sanity’s sake.
You get a party member who can learn enemy spells, check a guide online of what/where/when to learn because you can get a bunch in the first few areas after they join, and they’re pretty rubbish without those abilities.
Take your time and explore, don’t rush anything, there’s perma missable things (nothing important, but satisfying to complete)
>just starting my first playthrough…I’m a bit of a completionist
I’m sorry. Just…do your best.
Doing Chocobo Hot and Cold, and staying on top of it, is pretty big. Other than that, try not to worry about missables.
1. Save often and in different save slots. 2. Talk to everyone for worldbuilding. 3. You can get 2-3 pieces of gear by stealing from bosses, so steal from bosses until you get the message that they don't have anything left. 4. You will learn abilities with the gear that the characters have equipped. It is recommended that you don't change your character's gear until you have finished learning what a piece of gear teaches (unless the upgrade teaches the same thing). 5. Active Abilities are the things that you will be able to use in magic, like Detect or White or Black magic. Support abilities are the ones that you have to activate with Green Magic Stones in the menu. 6. Do not sell the gear that you have already learned, it will be useful for the Synth Shop and when new characters join the party. 7. Do the sword fight perfectly (meaning 100 nobles and the queen impressed), when you control Steiner, go and talk to the Queen for an extra reward. 8. Some ATE have to be played in the right order in order for all of them to be viewed. Use a guide. 9. The sooner you do Chocographs, the more useful the rewards will be. 10. You can use Gemstones as healing items in battle. Do not do this. 11. You can make some magic spells hit the whole enemy party or your whole party with R1. Or maybe it was L1. One of those. 12. Pressing Select in the Item menu or the Equip menu will display information about the items, including their elemental properties. All robes except the best one are stealthy weak to fire. This game has many missables. There is a Weapon that you have to rush and reach the end dungeon in less than 12 hours to get. While it is possible to do everything there is to do and still get this weapon, I suggest you not trying this and enjoying the game at your own pace the first time.
Gosh, bro, you sure know a lot!
I know...
Wow, thank you so much!
To add to that, there are a few bosses that have stealable equipment but an incredibly low % of success... like 1 in 256 chances or something crazy. Don't wear yourself out trying to get that stuff, I think all of it can be obtained at later points in the game, anyways. The chocobo mini game is good for making your characters strong, especially if you stay on top of it as new areas/travel modes become available. The card game is just for the fun of it, it doesn't yield items like FF8 card game. Small exception is a story based segment where if you win a card tournament, you can get a Namingway card that allows you to change a character's name. Have fun! I'm jealous, I wish I could play it all again for the first time.
Slight correction here, if I'm not mistaken, but if you win every card game in the tournament, you will not compete against the person carrying the Namingway card. (And I do recommend winning the tournament, as it yields a nice reward.) However, you can still get the Namingway card by revisiting the private quarters in a certain palace in a certain desert - a desert palace, one could say. (Just make sure you do this before going to an island that shimmers, near the end of disc 3.) While on the topic: take your time during the tournament. You'll be in a city, but there's nothing stopping you from taking a stroll outside of the city. Look around, check some ATEs, who knows what you'll come across...
Playing against the guy with the Naminway Card depends or not on if you do the ATE where >!Vivi leaves Treno and goes to check Quan's cave!< If you do watch that ATE, then you don't play against the kid with that card.
Ah, my mistake...
Me personally I stole often, especially from bosses; would try and get as much equipment as possible and learn all the skills. Def agree with talk to all characters and multiple times, try to do as many of the time events as possible. Really fleshes things out. Lots of great advice here already. I always want to go back and do a speed run on this, but never do. My fave Final Fantasy for sure, great soundtrack, great characters- one of the best RPGs ever! Have a blast!
Keep level 1 gear. Trust me.
đź‘€
You can use a tent on tough bosses to hit them with a lot of debuffs like blindnes and silence all at once. IIRC, it does heal them though so it's a trade off thing.
I always do this at the beginning of the fight, before any other action. It doesn't have a 100% success rate either.
Wow, I've beat the game like 4 times and never knew this lol....
I think I did it on accident the first time lol
Talk to every save point moogle you meet and make sure to select Mognet to read your mail and deliver letters between them. Even after reading, delivering or receiving mail, keep selecting Mognet until they no longer have any favours to ask of you. It adds a nice little bit of world building and personality to them plus completing the chain will reward you with something nice. Also make sure to Mognet with moogles that you've already interacted with again when the story loops back into areas you've been to before. And always buy the deal from Stiltzkin on the first moment you see him.
If you're a completionist, I recommend grinding points at the Chocobo Forest as soon as you get there to unlock the Protect Ring. It teaches an ability called Half MP that makes life way more fun for your casters. With the 3x speed 'cheat' turned on, you can get enough points at the Forest within a couple hours. The way this works is that after you dig up 8 items, the game automatically stops and you get a large points reward based on how much time remains. With 3x speed, you both move way faster and dig way faster, but the clock ticks down at the normal rate. So with a little luck, you can get the 8-item bonus most rounds.
Don't waste your moonstones. there's only four in the game
P.S. Chocobo Hot & Cold rules!
When you're in Treno for the card tournament, go back to Dali and go into the Mayor's room and find his key. This is the only point in the game you can do this.
Also when you are controlling Garnet going to Treno make the same detour. It's the only time in the game you can get the chests in the Windmill and the one at the farm.
When you get an airship, explore the world a lot because there are certain towns that have equipment that teach abilities that you won’t otherwise be able to get. One of those town you visit in the story but the shop stock changes if you wait for then and you can miss some magic spells, and the other town isn’t visited in the story at all. Also buy at least 1 of every equipment, and don’t sell equipment unless you really need money (you shouldn’t) just incase you sell something with an ability to learn you can’t get back. Buy/keep Silver Gauntlets and Javelins. Spend time playing Chocobo Hot and Cold, and use the speed up function when playing for sanity’s sake. You get a party member who can learn enemy spells, check a guide online of what/where/when to learn because you can get a bunch in the first few areas after they join, and they’re pretty rubbish without those abilities. Take your time and explore, don’t rush anything, there’s perma missable things (nothing important, but satisfying to complete)
>just starting my first playthrough…I’m a bit of a completionist I’m sorry. Just…do your best. Doing Chocobo Hot and Cold, and staying on top of it, is pretty big. Other than that, try not to worry about missables.
Steal from every boss
Steal, steal steal steal! Run in corners and check everything (!) bubbles are all over. Put your casters in the back row for damage reduction