Difficulty level

A game's difficulty level refers to a game's challenge level allowing players to choose a level best suited to their level of skill or play-style. Giving the player option to change the game's difficulty level is a rare occurrence in the Final Fantasy series, and has mainly appeared as an extra in re-released versions of games.

Other things similar to a difficulty level is the introduction of an Expert level Sphere Grid in Final Fantasy X PAL and International versions, and the different New Game Plus modes in Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System. Notably, the original North American release of Final Fantasy IV was made easier than the Japanese version, and is often referred to as the Easy Type version.

Final Fantasy
The Origins version of the original Final Fantasy features an Easy and Normal mode. In Easy mode shop prices are cheaper, experience levels are gained more quickly, and stats are increased more rapidly. After the player has completed a save, they can save their progress, and load that same save when starting a new save. In doing this all bestiary and Collections info is kept. This means the player will not have to face enemies again that they did in a previous Easy playthrough if they wish to play a Normal playthrough. A number of images in the Photo Gallery can only become available after completing the game on Normal mode.

Final Fantasy II
The Origins version of Final Fantasy II features an Easy and Normal mode. The Normal version of the game presents itself more similarly to the NES version of the game, removing features such as Sprint. It is not possible to start a Normal playthough until an Easy playthrough has been completed.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-
Hard play mode was added to the game's international releases, and this mode is absent in the original Japanese version of the game. In Hard mode, the enemies have greatly increased stats, but otherwise the game plays the same as in Normal mode.

Final Fantasy XIII
New Easy Mode was added to the release of Final Fantasy XIII on Xbox 360 in Japan. This mode was later made available for PlayStation 3 players as well in form of a patch released for the Japanese gamers, which adds the tweaks made to the North American and PAL versions, as well as the Easy Mode.

Players can set the game difficulty level from the config any time when they are playing, but the default difficulty is Normal. In Easy Mode players deal more damage to staggered enemies, enemies have reduced HP, making battles end faster. Enemies are still as strong as in Normal Mode. One drawback of using Easy Mode is that during it, enemies do not drop rare items. This may be to prevent gamers from making grinding faster, thus earning game achievements more easily.

Final Fantasy XIII-2
In Final Fantasy XIII-2, Easy Mode and Normal Mode comes as included as default as opposed to its predecessor.