If you’re playing FF1&2 on the PlayStation, prepare to hate the second one. The Pixel Remaster is the way to go because it has auto-battle – in the game there are no levels, per se; I guess it counts as an innovation that you build skills by using them, but it’s a broken af system. You need to develop your characters’ skills beyond what you would just in the natural course of the game, so you’ll have to do grindy bartles where you just spam Heal on your characters to build your skill with that spell. When you have auto-battle, you can set your characters’ actions – say, have them cast heal and buffing spells, turn on auto-battle (which has them repeat their last action ad infinitum), go get a sandwich or whatever, come back after a character has drained their MP and defaulted to attacking, which killed the monsters and ended the battle with spell ability boosted by a level. On PlayStation, you’re going to have to spam healing, buffing, and curing spells until your MP runs out manually. Turn after turn.

FF1 is a playable, fun game. The Pixel Remasters rebalance the game so there’s minimal grinding, at least compared to the NES version. I can think of nothing seriously wrong with it, like DW1 and 2’s high experience points needed for a level.

FF4 is badly overrated IMO. I think where the love comes from is that it was 1991 or whenever and the game was the first major RPG (in America, at least) that was story-driven in a way that JRPGs would be known for. Gameplay is perfectly adequate but always in service to the story. If you set the game aside for a month, you may as well restart. All this was revolutionary then, but in 2024 it’s just a JRPG, and a fairly middling one if we’re being honest. FF5 was a return to fun gameplay mechanics and then FF6 was combined V’s deep skill system with IV’s plot elements and produced the best game in the series.

Damn Cheryl Hines is trashy hot. She’s doing an interview with Gayle King on TV right now. Is the correct Spanish “vivan las GILFs”?