I found Tacticss Ogre PSX considerably harder than FFT. Between perma-deaths, the game having wonky mechanics and logic, and the fact that you really have to just grind a lot to win, no question I found FFT Easiser. True I had some difficulty my first FFT playthrough (Riovanes as a whole), and it was a tough game but definitely found TO PSX a harder game than FFT.
And yeah, FFT does a crap job with Faith and Brave explanations. I remember reading about them and it sounded like Faith only applied to Magic on the Defensive side. Also I had a similar experience with Monk where I used a low brave character (wasn't necessarily female) and saw them hit for very disappointing damage. I also used N Ninja Ramza with Hammers for a decent part of Chap 3 (I did learn pretty fast that Axes were crap at least!)
But anyway, onto a different Job System related game!
FF3 Dualplay: Beat Tower of Owen, then went to Gishal and Town of Ancients. So thoughts and such!
-Tower of Owen is completely opposite in both games. NES version, the randoms are fairly competent, the dungeon can be taxing on your resources unless you bought a crap load of potions, enemies can hit hard, and they hurl status (as a side note, PC#2 remains the Butt Monkey for all enemy status effects. Sure, when casting Mute on anyone else, it misses, but when you cast it on him? IT HITS! He's a Monk, so this of course was the worst thing in the world.) Medusa, by contrast is a complete push over, doing 5HKO damage to Monk (frailest PC to physicals given the set up; Mages are in Back Row which makes a HUGE difference, and Fighter is obviously much higher defense), and an inaccurate slow petrify spell. The DS version, the randoms are pretty tame; only thing that might be scary is one enemy can cast Blizzara and it's rare. The random encounter limit also shows up here; NES version you fight on average 3 to 4 enemies per fight. DS version, you regularly fight 2 (even though it's capable of having 3), and unlike previous dungeons, enemies aren't stronger to compensate. Medusa, on the otherhand, is the best boss fight thus far. Her Ara spells hurt a lot (outside of the one character with the Mage Robe and even they take some notable damage), and her basic physical can inflict Silence, and given this is FF3, she always uses it every turn (sometimes twice, but that means she's not using an Ara.) Worse yet, she has really high defense, so if your spellcaster gets silenced, it's hard to damage through her unless you've got a decent stock of expandable Ara casting items. Speaking of her defense, that too is flipped, as the NES version, her physical defense is standard but her magic defense is pretty darn high, complete opposite of the DS version.
Not sure which I prefer. On one hand, NES version is way more frustrating because every random gets on your nerves, but the DS version runs a serious risk of getting to the top of the tower (and it's not a short dungeon) only to die to the boss and have to redo everything all over again. I guess it's like choosing what would you prefer? Constant punches in the arm, or one big smack of a hammer. The former is going to consistently annoy you but the latter is going to hurt way more than all those other punches, but it's over and done with in one fell swoop...except that's a perfect parallel because the hammer in this case is waiting about 30 minutes before it actually swings, so you're sitting there with anxiety waiting for it to just drop <_<
-Again, reiterating that NES version handles dungeons better. The DS version I twice in Tower of Owen went the right way when I wanted to get treasure and had to turn around since the draw distance is ass. NES version, that didn't happen, because you can see 70% of the entire floor at once so when you go the right way and miss chests, you're more likely to turn around much sooner than the DS version.
--As a side note, this is one thing I'll give FF4DS credit for. While it still has this issue, it added a Minimap which marks your progress so you know where you've been and where the exits are, on top of rewarding you for 100% completion of each floor, giving you further incentive. It doesn't fix the doubling back issue but it does make navigating smoother, at least.
-Sailing is better in the NES version. Both versions have annoying encounter rates on the sea, and while the DS version allows for 8 directions as opposed to 4, the NES version moves notably faster.
-...on the other hand, the DS version has the constant map helping you keep track of where you are. The NES version requires using Dwarf Breads for that, and only now Sight has finally showed up, though at least they were smart enough to make it a level 1 spell, which White Mage has plenty, but even then, the DS version still has the ever present Map so it still wins, especially when you get off the Floating Continent and Sight only shows a portion of the World Map, as the world gets much bigger.
-Tower of Owen is where Thief actually starts to stop lagging. It's still way behind Warrior, but it's physical damage starts registering, especially after the 2nd Spark Dagger, which in addition to a considerable attack upgrade, also gives another +2 Agility; Thief is finally at a speed where it goes first a lot more regularly than others (though the randomness still exists.) Interestingly, Tower of Owen is where the NES Monk starts to become somewhat more consistent. It has more hits, and while still relying on Nunchaku's, the damage per hit is typically high enough that missing some isn't such a big deal. Around this time is when fists start competing with nunchaku's too. For reference, 3 Part + Tonfa is about 64 at 82% accuracy, unarmed is about 56 at 87% accuracy. Haven't been using DS Monk, but in my experience, you always have it with Claws if you aren't JLevel grinding, since it's unarmed physical generally will not outdo Claw damage.
--For why I'm not using Monk in the DS version? It's a short term investment I feel. Thief has far more long term uses, especially since I intend to nab Gungnir, and better utility thanks to the speed. Monk's fine for a fair amount of the game, but definitely reaches a point where it's damage isn't much better than other fighters, and they all have other qualities (be it having heavy armor, Speed/Back Row damage like Thief, Viking's Provoke tanking, etc.) In the NES version, all Fighters are a short term investment regardless, since the game is set up that they get obsoleted by superior jobs later (Fighter -> Knight for example), and Thief doesn't exist in FF3NES this early anyway (though if it did, it'd be god awful, since it'd rely on Mithril Daggers.)
