I'm replaying the old NES Dragon Warrior games and I have a question that has been the bane of all gamers since the beginning of time.

Do you buy the less expensive defensive armor in RPGs first or do you save up, buy more expensive weapons, and get armor later?
What's the way you manage your equipment?

Personally, I go with a strong offense as a defense (kill before you get killed.)  I tend to use the basic fight commands, and fight random encounters or small enemies in an area as much as I can.  I typically do this by exploring every inch of the screen, looking for hidden items and treasures, fighting all the enemies possible, leveling up and finding useful things and secrets while doing so.  

This way you level up, gain hit points, gradually have higher attack power, discover secrets and make money.  So, the first thing I do when spending that money is buy stronger weapons.  I also keep up with armor, but the weaponry is first and foremost for me.  It can depend though...there are times in certain games: certain tasks, battles, etc. that defense or magic are more important in preparation.

Well enough babble.  Long story short: Weapons.

I you want to kill some noob enemies fast, get offense. If you are a scaredy cat and don't want to die, get defense. But offense is recommended if you want to be MLG. 

I always go for the offense first, I always make sure that I can get my offense as high as it can early on.

For myself, I try to get the highest grade weapons available first, then find a convenient place to level up multiple times.

I`ll start focusing on defense when it`s a particular enemy that causes an annoying effect, hard to beat boss or overpowered bonus dungeons.

Typically, in most RPG`s, I like to stay at the top of the food chain by having high powered weapons combined with massive preemptive level ups to take out standard enemy's without much effort, while staying ahead of the games standard play-through parameters.

Of course I like getting the bonus weapons and armors that some games offer towards the end and can be used in a second play through or bonus after game dungeon/level.         

Depends entirely on the game.

I read the rules of the RPG, I study the battle system through early battles, and then determine what's needed for me to get through the game more, offense or defense.

Over half the time, I come to the realization that defense is either miscalculated or doesn't matter, or is equipment based, rather than stat based, and just go for an offensive build.

But in the rare token game, defense is actually important, and I tend to build defensive hit sponges just so that I don't have to replay sections of the game that suck.

It depends on the game itself. In almost every game I've seen the defense is more of an afterthought and really not important early on, if at all.

A perfect example of this is an MMORPG that I used to play. I played for about two years before tiring of the terrible system (free to play, pay to win), and in that game I tried to build defense instead of strength, and as a result everyone (even free players like me) could crush my character. lol

Such seems to be the case with most every RPG, saving those that lump hp in with defense building (and only some of them), and maybe a scarce few besides. So in the end, it does depend on the game, but in most cases I go for attack first and save defense for later...if I boost it at all.

Am I limited to being fast or slow?  If I have the advantage speed wise, then it is fair to say that I will rely on my power rather than defense, but if I am lacking in speed then the strategy needs to be one where the enemy is drawn in closer to me in order to take them out, so higher defense and resilience is prefered over destructive force.  Its all on my character and the game I'm playing in.  I personally would rather be an attacker, no holds bared, smash em' to bits kind of player... but it is also neccessary to cope and adapt to the situation.

This question usually gets me a lot of the time. I'm usually more of a strategic player when it comes to RPG's so I'll go defense a lot.

But most of the time it would depend on what game I'm playing. A lot of the RPG's I play don't really use the skill point system so it's all random in terms of what trait you level up. It them all depends on the items you obtain or buy.

In this case I usually only have need to get the best weapon or two if any party members would need any. I can then focus on buying new equipment to raise defense.

In some games it all really depends which matters most. Sometimes defense is useless to have and sometimes it's critical to level up.

offense. We don't have time for silly ideals such as "defense".

I always buy weapons first. For me, the best defense is a good offense. However, if I can't afford both weapons and armor, I usually go grind somewhere to earn a lot of gold so I can get the armor before venturing into more dangerous areas - and it's usually easy when I've just bought some powerful weapons.

I always go with offense (and speed if its available) I always like to build my character up to the point of where I can knock my enemies out in one or two hits. If you can manage to kill your enemies with power and speed, you don't need to focus on defense because you can knock them out before they even realize what happened. Cheers ~Fox

Offensive weapons/magic first, armor/healing magic with the money left over. Of course, there are many exceptions, mainly healers with the healing magic, I always put those high on priority, but for the most part I prefer taking the enemy out quickly. And, I prefer healing magic over armor, because it can be used in all cases (other than magic locks, mana drains, etc.), whereas armor will always have attacks that penetrate it, rendering it useless.



EDIT: I should also mention I prefer magic over everything. It's versatility has gotten me out of many sticky situations, and whenever I get to a new town in the old FF games, the first thing I do is go to the magic shop.

In pokemon...

I foucus in offense of course!!!

But resently i tryed the boosting mechanic-ex. Harden +1 def...-

And i liked it and i have set it in my arsenal...

I usually go for offense first because I want to sweep, but defense is good because if their defenses are very high, and you cannot take them out in one hit, they will hit you hard.

I tend to go for defense first, unlike most here, it seems. Habits of consistently playing a mage, I guess? I figure that it's better to take longer in battles and be fairly assured of not dying to a lucky blow than it is to hit hard and still die in one hit. Makes things slower, sure, but I'll take more defense over more offense early on any day.