How do you know where to go next in Final Fantasy games?

[LordofPurple]

I tried playing Final Fantasy I, VI and VII and I always have this problem that makes me give up where I have no idea where to go next. How does everyone know where they're supposed to go next. It's such a big, open world to explore and you can go anywhere you want, so what's the right way to go about finding out your next destination? It kills me because I really want to play these games and like them but I hate having to use a walkthrough; it takes out the fun.
So yeah, when you play these games, how're you supposed to find out where to go?

 

[oplinger]

...They generally tell you where to go at least. Just not how to get there. Usually how to get there is by going the way you didn't or could not go before.

Like, FF5 is pretty blocked off, you get new ways to travel to pass over barriers, find next town. By the time you get free reign over everything, you know the world, and can go where they tell you.

It's kind of like that for all of them really.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

What Trilligan said. Talk to everyone you come across. Sometimes they just have useless advice about gameplay you might already know or figured out but they often give clues as to where to go next. FFIV (or FFII for the original NA release) at one point a villager tells you about a girl they found outside the village. That leads you to next plot point and allows you to advance through a cave previously impassable. Also pay attention to what they are saying in the story. Something like lets go to so and so town that is south east of here generally means that is where you will find the next plot point.

Personally I found FFVII a bit easier to navigate because they was generally only one way you could go really once you got to the world map.

 

[Agent Cross]

Most games block you off from straying too far at first. Either by giving you very little options of where to go, or by putting enemies/creatures in your path that do nothing but hand out some serious ass kickings. And like Trilligan said, talk to everybody.

Still... Exploring is part of the experience, and you don't feel like your grinding if you don't know where you're going. If you do immediately find your destination, well, you might have to go back and grind. Which can suck.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

FFI I understand, you weren't given whole lot of direction in that one and could pretty much kill the Fiends in any order after Lich, but how are you lost in 6 and 7? You're always given a destination until the halfway point or so, at which point the world opens up and you get complete non-linearity with your airship.

Those two are generally pretty good about blocking off paths you aren't supposed to travel yet. If you're stuck either run back and talk to the last important NPC you met or just explore the map until you find what you're looking for. They don't lock you into a single path or remind you of your goal every 10 minutes, and that's something I really miss.

 

[OrpheusTelos]

You talk to people.

It's really that simple.

 

[wooty]

I used to just generally explore everywhere. If I didnt find the next area then I usually accumulated a shitload of useful XP for when I did get there.

Oh, oh. In before "Iv itz Ff firteen den u juzt puzh up on da left stik 4 30 hourz lolollollllzozlzOMG!!!!rofl1337n00b!!!".

 

[Vivi22]

I could kind of understand getting a bit lost in FFI (though not for very long), but VI and VII, and hell, pretty much every other entry in the series except for FFXII is not only extremely linear for most of the game, but outright tell you all the time where you need to go next. Beyond that, simply heading towards something you haven't been to for a few minutes and/or talking to NPC's will get you there.

Honestly, it's that simple. The world maps may give the illusion of being big and open sometimes, but they almost never really qualify as being either.

 

[xplosive59]

Just talk to people and explore is the answer in most cases, there is usually an obvious cave or something you need to go to. That or find a guide online or something, hope this helped

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

I tried playing Final Fantasy I, VI and VII and I always have this problem that makes me give up where I have no idea where to go next. How does everyone know where they're supposed to go next. It's such a big, open world to explore and you can go anywhere you want, so what's the right way to go about finding out your next destination? It kills me because I really want to play these games and like them but I hate having to use a walkthrough; it takes out the fun.
So yeah, when you play these games, how're you supposed to find out where to go?

In Final Fantasy I it's... well basically the next place you need to go is usually the place you couldn't go before and you wander around until you stumble across it. The villagers might give you a hint - gotta read and think about what they might be saying like... if you need to go to a wind palace or something they might say "X town has a windmill" or "X place is so windy!" and not much more. This is one of the many things that makes FF I one of the hardest of the franchise, it was just new and they were still working on how to give hints for things at the time without telling players what to do outright.

Final Fantasy VI should be telling you what you need to be doing if you check in with the people who are around the area. Your group will split up frequently and that can add some difficulty to finding where to go, but largely you can depend on the npcs to guide you with hints and if all else fails - go the place you haven't already. FF VI does a pretty good job of blocking off places that would insta-death you until you are supposed to be there.

Final Fantasy VII has, for all its openness, a pretty clear path of where you'll be going and doing for at least the first several hours of the game. Again, it is vital to talk to people and get information from all the npcs in the area. Once you are given full access to the open world, you should know where you're going by having been there at least once before or - again - the place you now can go that you haven't been able to go to before.

I would recommend - at least for FF I and VI - that you level up and grind an area a bit before moving on to the next segment. It makes things a bit easier as you go on (it is actually pretty hard to finish FF I if you don't do this, FF VI is a little more forgiving) and it helps you gain familiarity with the maps / world. The NPCs ARE your walkthrough. These games are all before the days when a walkthrough was required to play a game and get all the secrets. All the info you need is in the game, you just have to search, explore, engage, and think about it. Have fun

 

[Najos]

There's also this thing called Google.

 

[krazykidd]

I always thought that was the most fun of the early FF games - and it is something I miss in modern gaming.

You find out where to go next by going everywhere. You explore. You search every cave and every field and every town, and the story will be waiting for you when you get where you need to be.

It was a charming experience. Also, a very difficult one. You had to save a lot, because the way the game most often told you you were going the wrong direction was by killing you mercilessly.

EDIT: I should add that talking with everyone was usually a good idea. Eventually somebody would give you a description of a location and a direction to search in; some random townsperson would inevitably say something like "Stories tell of a demon of fire in a cave high in the mountains to the NORTHWEST," and that was usually a sign that you were supposed to trek that way.

This is exacly what i wanted to say . Couldn't be more spot on .

Talk to everyone , not only will you find out where to go , but you will discover more about the world you are in .

My favorite random peice of information was in FinalFantasy I . An old man tells you that years ago , the balance between light and darkness ( Cosmos and chaos ) was leaning towards light . And Darkness sent 4 warriors of chaos to reinstate the balance . The reason i found this interesting is because in that game you play as the 4 Warriors of light that want to reinstate the balance , since it is now leaning towards darkness . There is always a ever lasting battle between these two forces . And when one side get's the upperhand the other sends their " champions" to restore balance.

I have been waiting for a Final fantasy game where we play as the "bad guys" ever since.

 

[LordofPurple]

There's also this thing called Google.

I specifically said I'm asking because I don't want to look it up or use walkthroughs.

 

[LordofPurple]

Also (I'm restarting FF7 and am determined to not use google once) do the bonus characters (Yuffie, Vincent) show themselves to you or are they another thing you have to ask NPCs about? I remember that you find Yuffie in a random forest somewhere that I never wouldve thought to just run around aimlessly. Do the NPCs tell you where to find her/the rest of them?

 

[targren]

I could kind of understand getting a bit lost in FFI (though not for very long), but VI and VII, and hell, pretty much every other entry in the series except for FFXII is not only extremely linear for most of the game, but outright tell you all the time where you need to go next.

Wait, what?

FF XII is less linear than FF VII, not to mention VI? Are you sure you're thinking about the right series here? I mean, 6 and 7 had open world maps, FFS.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

I could kind of understand getting a bit lost in FFI (though not for very long), but VI and VII, and hell, pretty much every other entry in the series except for FFXII is not only extremely linear for most of the game, but outright tell you all the time where you need to go next.

Wait, what?

FF XII is less linear than FF VII, not to mention VI? Are you sure you're thinking about the right series here? I mean, 6 and 7 had open world maps, FFS.

An open world map does not mean it is nonlinear. FF6 and FF7 are both -extremely- linear games.

 

[everythingbeeps]

Eh. I usually used strategy guides for those games, if only to stay on path. So I don't have a lot of experience doing the "wander aimlessly until you trip over the next destination" thing.

But, I imagine that talking to people in towns will typically offer some hints.

Targren's point about open-world maps is spot-on. Usually those games dump you in the overworld and with that crappy camera angle, you usually have no idea which direction to set off in.


Also, RE: FFXII, don't confuse a (relatively) open world with non-linearity. Yes, you can go anywhere at any time (at your own peril), but there's very rarely any question about where you're supposed to go next, and there isn't much you can do out of order. True non-linearity is exceedingly rare in games.

 

[Vivi22]

I could kind of understand getting a bit lost in FFI (though not for very long), but VI and VII, and hell, pretty much every other entry in the series except for FFXII is not only extremely linear for most of the game, but outright tell you all the time where you need to go next.

Wait, what?

FF XII is less linear than FF VII, not to mention VI? Are you sure you're thinking about the right series here? I mean, 6 and 7 had open world maps, FFS.

No, I'm dead serious. Vi and VII may have had overworld maps, but they were absolutely extremely linear. It was pretty much impossible to miss the next area to progress the story because the entire map was designed to guide you down a specific path for the majority of the game. Sure, there may have been pit stops along the way, but until you get the airship in both of those games they are absolutely, undeniably, linear affairs. You can't jump around to new areas ahead of when you're supposed to get their in the story.

In FFXII on the other hand, it's somewhat linear in the sense that there's a clear path to follow and they're careful to try and point you towards it, but it's still not as linear as the others. In XII, the areas are larger, there are vastly more interconnecting paths and ways to get to different areas, and often the only thing preventing you from experiencing areas out of order is the fact that enemies in areas you aren't supposed to be are usually far higher in level than your characters. But if someone were persistent and wanted to stray from the beaten path, the possibility is there, and that's something that doesn't exist in pretty much any other game in the series until you hit the late game.

 

[targren]

An open world map does not mean it is nonlinear.

It does imply LESS linearity than a game without one, i.e FF XII.

FF6 and FF7 are both -extremely- linear games.

I can only conclude that you've either never actually played FF VI past the floating continent, or you have a very odd definition of the word "linear."