release date: 31/10

IGN review:

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/741/741991p1.html

10 Presentation
Lightning quick load times, one of the best storylines for any genre on any system for the entire year, and a gigantic fully-realized world is yours right out of the box.
10 Graphics
A PS2 technical accomplishment in every sense. Slowdown is a non-factor, model detail is incredible, facial and skeletal animation is stellar, and the artistic design kicks ass.
9.0 Sound
English and Scottish voice actors play out the storyline perfectly and the sound effects are varied and first-rate. Musically, FF12 isn't the best in the series, but is still extremely strong.
9.0 Gameplay
The new gambit system, full-camera control, license board upgrades, and enemy AI make for a Final Fantasy like no other. Best of all, it's fun AND challenging.
9.0 Lasting Appeal
Expect 40-100 hours of gameplay depending on your grinding preferences. Luckily, there are plenty of mini-games and hidden goodies to uncover along the way.
9.5
Incredible OVERALL
(out of 10 / not an average)

but the demo... and the main character...

rrrgggg... so confused...

/nm/

and you know it too

maybe next year when it's a million seller.
i can wait.
i'm a very patient person.

my ps2 is also dead

dead, as in i took a hammer to it after one too many 'disc read errors.' yes, i regretted it after it was over but damn if it wasn't the most cathartic experience i've had in years

i'm waiting to see how the ps3 launch goes and if it will truly upscale ps1 & 2 games to 720p. ps2 games look like shit on my dlp :(

besides, rogue galaxy doesn't drop until the beginning of next year and it's not like there aren't a grip of 360 titles coming out to hold me over until then

But I think I'm incapable of NOT buying it....kinda like how people can't stop watching the Simpsons no matter how bad it's gotten

I skipped out on FFXI because I don't do the MMORPG thing, so my FF craving has been building up for years now

FFXII better be good because I NEED it

9.5 out of 10? Hmmm, that's suspiciously low coming from IGN. That's like Grabbed by the Ghoulies bad. (kidding)

Yeah, I'm trying to decide if I want to pre-order, pick it up when it comes out or order from Amazon (half off on strategy guide, which for 10 bucks would be a cool amusement).

"Do you want the collector's edition?"
"What's that got?"
"Check out this casing! Plus it's got a behind the scenes and history feature."
"That does appeal to the geek in me... Sure, why not?"
"What about the strategy guide?"
"Nah, don't need that..."
"You should probably look into it, it's got a lot of good material there plus you don't want to keep running to the PC to check things or when you're stuck."
"Eh..."
"If you buy it now you get 20% off."
"Yeah, I'll probably end up picking it up later, might as well get it now with a discount."
"Do you want it in the collector's edition?"
"Damn, they're really going all out, aren't they? :sigh: ...What's it got?"
"Well this really sweet artbook, plus if you consider it's 20% off, it's not that different than buying a normal one for full price."
"Sure, what's my total?"
"$88."

They should NOT let pretty girls work at EB anymore. I figure it's my present to me for sticking with my summer job into the college year and finishing up this weekend. Now I gotta sit around here waiting for midnight to roll around.

this chick better have a giant rack and/or a FFVI t-shirt on with kefka laughing hysterically

cuz man

you got took

I'm glad no girls work at my EB, because I'm stretching to pay for the game alone, lol

I think they must've borrowed this girl from the Hair Salon next door to trap XII pre-orders. I cannot count the amount of stupid things I've bought because of pretty checkout girls. I've got like 8 different book club membership cards. Luckily the art book for the game is damned cool and the strat guide pretty good (350 pages). I haven't checked out the special DVD features, but it's not looking like a bad purchase. Just a MUCH larger one than I expected.

.............

Im VERY excited because of the politically heavy storyline.....but gotta finish Xenosaga ep III first though.

so you know it's gonna be good!

(gotta pretend FFT Advance never happened though....i blame Nintendo for that disappointment, lol)

>(gotta pretend FFT Advance never happened though....i blame
>Nintendo for that disappointment, lol)

C'mon on now, that game wasn't bad by any means. All my vitrol is directed at Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

I actually liked FFTA. Like a lot. It wasn't FFT by any measure, but I didn't need it to be. It was a great game in its own and suitable for kids. That's a rarity.

besides that, the story, the lack of challenging battles, and the laws, the rest of the game is quite good i guess, i like how you can go back to your original position after you move, unlike FFT

but yeah, booo to annoying kids

Yeah, I'll give you that. But every Final Fantasy has had its share of obnoxious characters in my opinion. Not every Final Fantasy has had the ability to have characters of multiple races and jobs in your party though which is one of the things that won me over.

Haha, just finished Ep III last week. I was worried I wasn't going to be able finish in time, so I hunkered down and did all of disc 2 in like 3 sittings.

I might just have to cop it at that price (although I didn't like the demo too much).


http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=159407&WT.mc_n=4&WT.mc_t=U&cm_ven=COMPARISON%20SHOPPING&cm_cat=GOOGLE&cm_pla=DATAFEED-%3EPRODUCTS&cm_ite=1%20PRODUCT&cm_keycode=4

I'd be angry about my EB preorder if I wasn't hellbent on getting the collector's edition. Damn my materialistic tendencies!

<----------It's Her Dark Skin!

They adopted WAY too many of the features from XI (including the oh-so-fun camera). The towns/fields in XI were huge to house all those players. I'm the only one playing here, these areas are overwhelming to have at the beginning of the game. I feel like I spend more time checking a map than enjoying the environs.

Customization is all the hell bent out of wack. Who came up with this License Board idea? Think the Sphere Grid but for EVERYTHING and no paths (pick random things and they open more random things). Want to equip new armor? Hope you have the LP and the correct path to unlock it.

Also, in XI its cool to have the strong NMs for the high levelled chars passing through. That's not cool in here. When I'm aggroed by some random enemy and see my whole party wiped in one hit, that annoys me.

Other than that its a good game. Decent voice acting, great atmosphere. I like the plot (though the Aladdin protagonist is going to get old) and the concepts. It all feels very Vagrant Story from designs to style. The battle system is fun but I haven't gotten to see much depth yet (damned License Board! I unlock magic but need to go buy it back in the city to use it??). I think once I get used to the style of play it'll really grow on me. It's just a LOT of depth and customization up front to swallow at once.

>(damned License Board! I
>unlock magic but need to go buy it back in the city to use
>it??).

don't think you needed to buy magic since FFIII

n/m

*shakes fist*

So the initial overwhelming feeling of being tossed into this giant world wears off after a bit. You start to get your bearings and feel immersed instead of swamped. The crazy level spike monster was only in the first dungeon (Why? Why do that in your first dungeon and nowhere else?), but the game still has a nice level of difficulty. I'm still not a fan of the License Board but the battle system has really grown on me and I'm loving the game. Strange to say but the voice acting is one of the best features. Anyway, aside from the License Board the game's great, definitely check it out. I know someone posted the Gamespot review, read up on that if you're curious. It's very accurate and well written.

Oh and the Collector's Edition is actually pretty good. It's not just some thrown together crap for an extra 10 bucks. It's pretty cool stuff if you're interested enough to invest a little extra.

Random thought: When everything needs 2 discs nowadays how is it a game this big and this pretty somehow fit onto one? I almost feel like I must be missing a disc because it's blowing my mind how they fit all this on one.

this might be an esoteric reference, but is it anything like programming the ai in carnage heart for ps1?

Never played Carnage Heart, so I can't really compare. Overall, it's okay. It's a little frustrating right now to get to do what I want it to do because I don't have the proper gambits, so I have to manually handle some of my stuff. Once my number of gambits expands, I'm sure it's going to become more interesting. Right now though, it's a little convoluted (notice a theme?) if I want to do something simple like "Cast protective spells on everyone." But I suppose once I have more gambits, skills and spells it'll get really cool because I'll be able to specialize my tactics for each boss. It's not leaping out as the coolest thing ever yet, but it's not bad or a detriment to the game.

collector's edition. shiny case is irresistible. can't play till tomorrow though.... ugh
______________________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


to the beat and ya dont stop

http://www.myspace.com/djlino
http://www.myspace.com/linotype

I have a $50 Gamestop credit burning a hole in my pocket. I wanna scoop FFXII up, but with my birthday next week(and x-mas not long after that), I try not to purchase anything that my fam might be plotting as a gift!

CURSES!! Ah well, I'll just live vicariously through this post until after the holidays.

Peace-Like Stylee,
J-Bird

"Nobody light-skinned reppin' harder since Ice-T"

"Where does a platypus learn a word like hodgepodge?"

Link:

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/finalfantasy12/review.html?sid=6160816&tag=topslot;action;2&om_act=convert&click=topslot

This will be the first FF game I've ever owned.

Now before you guys get all uppity telling me to go play FF III, VII, and X, lemme explain that for the entire lifespan of the PS2, I refused to pay $200+ to get a PS2 console + mem card + spare controller. So I didn't have a PS2 until like a month ago when a friend gave her old PS2 to my roommate and since she's a girl, she never plays it unless a bunch of people are over rockin' Guitar Hero.

I look forward to the steep learning curve of the Gambit system as well as the FF game mechanics.

Oh wait... I did play FFXI from it's launch to the date they launched the PS2 version. But I don't think that counts, here.

frys.com has a great deal going on: a new ps2 + 10 games for $179.99 shipped

as of today, eb has a trade 3 get one free thing going on

basically, a new ps2, ffxii, bully, and disgaea 2 for $180

i might not be able to pass this up

are you positive about that EB deal?? I called them just last night before I picked up my copy of FFXII and asked if they had any trade-in deals going on or starting up soon and the manager at the store said "Nope, not til 'Black Friday'"

I hope dude wasn't lying to me, otherwise I'll be pissed. I traded in alot of shit to afford my gaming habits over the next couple of months.

i searched cheapassgamer.com for 'trade-in' and didn't notice the post was on the canada boards...

Honestly, I cant wait to get into the thick of this game....I mean, I havent been this excited for an FF since VII.

...kingdom hearts 2 was fun, but in the end i realized it wasn't THAT fun (okay the ending and final boss were weak)...i gotta hear some really dope stuff about a rpg to cop any now (hence, why i'm in this post)

Fuck Square for not releasing this during the summer

I barracaded myself into my room last weekend (and Monday) and worked the entire time I wasn't at work straight doing homework and managed to get most of the week done.

Im a sucker for great stories(and I love political thrillers) and great voice acting....this game seemingly has both(the latter has really blown me away, I havent heard one bad voice so far, its REALLY amazing how well they casted so far).

The atmospheres are tremendous...they are very detailed and GIGANTIC, but its not too overwhelming as you have some great maps and you cant talk to everyone. Rabanastre seems like a real damn city, its hectic in some parts, all these NPC's running around, I love how it feels like you are actually walking around this huge city and are just another pea in the pod.

The game starts off slow(once you get past the opening backround story), but once you actually start to do direct missions(at least 2 of my hours have just been spent wandering around, doing the Mark missions, etc), the storyline seriously picks up (esp the first time you see a Judge, their armor is just so excellent).

As for the battle system, Im really liking it. Its fluidly integrated into the maps so the dungeons and fights go by far quicker, and its basically the same thing but without all the waiting. The only thing I wish was that you could actually avoid attacks because ive tried to hide behind rocks and shit only to still get nailed, lol. The Gambit system works really well too imo, Ive fought a couple bosses and my gambit settings have been more than enough to get by easily(although I cant wait to get some more gambits like Target Enemy Leader).

As for the license board, its okay. I dont mind having to get licenses and having to buy the stuff, but I wish there were differences for each character...Ive never liked being able to fully cuztomize anyone into any class(and the basic stat differences arent that much, so for the most part, you can make anyone any class without a noticeable difference). However, with the lack of license points you get, you really have to choose a path and stick to it for your characters. I do like all the differences for each weapon class though, it really makes you think about what you want.

I cant wait to play more, time seriously flies by.

Lack of license points??

After about 30 minutes of gameplay, you've gained about 50 LPs, man. LPs drop 1-3 for each player for every monster. It's nuts.

But I agree with you on everything else. I am seriously loving this game. I haven't touched my 360 since I got it.

Yes but when every skill later is going to cost you 50-80 LP and you need a lot of those for armors or weapons (or better yet, squares to get TO the squares you need), you start feeling the shortage. You're also going to see a huge money disappearance so save up. I'm noticing an increasing number of RPGs are growing stingy with money. You can no longer just walk in and buy all the best equipment no problem. You might be able to afford new weapons and a new shield for everyone this time, but you'll have to wait til next town for body armor etc.

Okay I'm in the part where I'm headin' into the mines to save the girl, right?

I'm at the part right after we let that little Guest girl go and the three dudes are chasing us.

Any tips on how to take 'em down? No matter what I do, I can't seem to handle them.

I assume you're talking about Ba'Gamnan. The four Bangaas, right? Yeah. You hypothetically could beat them with a lot of levelling, but you're not supposed to. Run.

Anyone ever let the lights go out?

I'm curious as to how deadly the monsters are.

skeletons and zombies came out of the ground everywhere

Ghosts, zombies, bats.....in mere seconds they killed all but one member of my party. Lesson? KILL THOSE DAMN SPIDERS!

ITS ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT....I havent felt this way about an RPG since Xenogears(meaning im in class and just sitting there waiting for it to end so I can rush home and play).

Bad part is, I have a fucking paper due wednesday and the laker game is tomm night too....FUCK.

this is pretty fucked up, it's like FFX-2 with the whistling all over again (ie you NEVER would have known unless you read about it), for those that's hrs into the game, guess you've gotta decide whether this is really important or not...

(from gamefaqs)

Zodiac Spear

The most powerful weapon in the game has a trick to it that those who have to open EVERY treasure chest would miss out on. There are 4 places with treasure chests that must NOT be opened in order for the Zodiac Spear to appear:

1) Treasure chest in Lowtown, outside of Old Dylan's place
2) When sneaking into the palace (Before getting the Goddess Tear), there are several chests in the Cellar. Do not open the two chests in the southeast corner.
3) All treasure chests in the Confiscatory (the place where you get your weapons and armor back after being captured)
4) In the Phon Coast, later in the game, there is an island with 16 chests all near each other. The 4th chest that must NOT be opened is among these, so it is best to leave them all alone. They only contain Gil anyway.

If you've left all these treasures be, you'll find the Zodiac Spear in the Necrohol of Nabudis. It sports a whopping +150 attack and, like all spears, +8 Evasion.

Contributed By: gaeanprayer

Currently, Im not even using a spear...but even if I choose to switch, what can you do.

you might as well leave them be, and if you happen to be in the Necrohol of Nabudis, pick it up.

...who is?

Balthier is dope though. He's like a less flamboyantly effeminate Jack Sparrow. Still funny and slick, but not as grating.

he's a rip off of Mal from Firefly/Serenity, which is by no means a bad thing

dude is slick and witty as hell...smooth operator. Basch is a fucking beast though.

It sounds 20 years too old, but he's damn likable

*sigh*

looks like i'm going to have to pick this up today, along with gow and tony hawk (if it's in)

thank god for trade-ins

because i didn't feel like i was leveled up enough to go up against the boss i was at, at that point. Never before in any game have i been excited to go all the way back and play again and sit through the cut scenes

I am only through half, and exploring all of the areas on the map....its been 2.5 hours, have mercy, its getting on Solaris(xenogears fans know)type length here.

Also, I think Vossler is gonna turn out to be a traitor(hes a fucking BEAST though when hes in your party, him and Basch(who I have seriously leveled up and with almost all the hp, strength augments) just rock fools back with ease.

Christ, nearly 4 hours on a mission...and thats with hurrying up the 2nd half because the laker game was imminent.

I took the southern route, got my ass kicked by Garuda, went back the northern route, got the seeds, went back and fought the boss.

I just saved at the auto-save part....duke just told me about something about talking to the Yensa to find a weakness or something. This damn term paper isnt allowing me to play.

As for it taking so long, I search fucking EVERYTHING. Not only so I dont miss anything but it also keeps my levels up.

On a side note, did you see/fight/die from that fire-energy looking ball enemy(sandstone elite or something like that?)...shit was level 45 and firaga'd(like 3000 damage) everyone except Vossler, I then proceeded to run the hell outta there with Vahn. I only saw it again once, but it was on a lower sandy area so I was able to avoid it.

Yeah, you've got a boss fight the minute you load your game. Yeah, since you can't talk sandpeople-speak, you talk to the moogle on the North route and he gives you a sidequest. You complete that, get an item, the item makes the boss beatable. Technically you could beat him without it but he does 150 damage with the equivilent of haste. And he's hard to hit. The item basically halves his power.

Nah, I missed the elemental (thank God).

i ran into that thing a buttload of times, any time it gets close to you it starts off casting Silencega, then to make matters worse, it casts fucking Sleepga on you before it hits you with Firaga

mainly because I had no idea what to do lol.

However, I did all 3 of my quickenings which basically knocked out 1/4 of cat's power....after that it was pretty tough. But the gameplan was a) having high levels (which I already had considering the aforementioned 4 fucking hours lol)

b) having Garbara tee off on Basch and Vossler while Balthier and Fran launched away from a relatively safe distant(Fran's bow was KILLING, shit was like 150-160 damage each time, Balthier was a little less but he had some critical for over 500 damage). Once Basch died, Ashe came in to get a beating but at the same time she really took awhile to go down because she kept curing herself. Vossler and Ashe went down, and at that point I put in Vaan, started running around with Balthier with Garbara chasing, and Fran did some damage. Fran and Balthier then started dying, but I kept bringing them back with Vaan, and then at one point Garbara started chasing me again and Fran was able to get back to full power because I lasted awhile with Balthier constantly curing himself..and then cat finally went down. It may seem kinda hectic but it wasnt that hard...that damn devil wall in the tomb was a pain in the ass, all those status effects.

i finally beat belias with 2 quickening chains (he didn't even touch me, lol) but that's probably due to the fact that levels might be a little too high. i started out at lvl 18 going into the sandsea and now my main party is all lvl 23

Is that so much to ask? I've been forced to dash back to the beginning to save, because of time constraints. This one looks like it'll take me awhile...

now just gotta resist playing too much of it since my final exams are next week

1 hr a day, i say (yeah right..)

i got a chain of 134 right before i fucking got killed by a Urutan Exile in the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea. Those jawa motherfuckers are persistent

That's ridiculous. I think I've gotten 20s-30s. What's your best quickening chain? I've only unlocked lvl 1 quickenings, but I've managed to pull off cataclysm (7 lvl 1s in a row).

she got like 160 last i checked in the Lhusu Mines killing off those skeletons that keep coming and coming.

my best quickening chain is 8, i got a Torrent, it was pretty damn insane. I did almost 15,000 damage with it. Everybody in my party except Balthier has their lvl 1 quickenings, Vaan has his lvl 2, everybody else will almost have their lvl 2 soon, too.

Are you levelling everyone equally or do you use a main party? I'll probably have crazy chains my next playthrough, but whenever I go through a game the first time I always do it as a low level runthrough for the challenge. While not completely low level on this, I'm making sure I don't level too much and lose the challenge.

And your girl's playing the game too? That's the truth right there. I got a girl addicted to Pokemon once. Aside from very very casual gaming, that's the closest I got.

but right now i'm using a party of Vaan, Basch, and Fran. They're at lvl 20 where everybody else is lvl 19 at the Raithwall Tomb. I beat that record just a little while ago with a chain of 11 fucking hit Quickening. I hit the 2nd (optional) Demon Wall with it.

It was vs the boss in that area, and I needed it considering the boss has this cheap ass spore move that gives like 6 diff status effects to everyone.

If you catch aggro and then walk to the opposite side of the boss he only hits you with that move. Any time you see it coming, distance yourself as far as possible from anyone else. It makes things so much easier.

Are you just supposed to wail on the 'R2' button?

Look in the bottom right corner of your screen. You'll see the names of everyone in your party with a quickening. If one of those names appears in white hit the button that appears next to it. That chains them to the quickening being performed. Once they start, then the names will reappear. Find another name in white and hit it. If there are no names in white then hit R2 to reshuffle the names and hopefully get one in white.

Since Ashe was my first I thought I was supposed to hit R2 to shuffle the spots light come out of below the enemy to do better damage. It wasn't until I had multiple characters get a quickening that I realized what was up.

Out of curiousity who're you using and how're you using them? There are a lot of good characters without huge differences between them and a lot of opportunity for customization, so how're you playing?

Basch-Heavy armor, DD (spears for now, great swords later), techniks
Ashe-Light armor, sword and shield, white and protective magick
Fran-Magical armor, bow, white and black magick

Im using 4 for the most part but my first 3 are the primary:

1) Basch, heavy armor, swords(I would use spears but he just seems like a sword kinda guy imo)
2) Ashe (magical armor, staff, all magic but focus on white for now)
3) Balthier (light armor,gun(you cant not give him the gun!), white magic)


4) Fran (light armor, bow, all magic but emphasis on black).

The 3 I use are my favorite characters so its always fun having them in the party. Fran is primarily in there for a another long-range option. Im thinking about moving Ashe to the bow and having Fran use a spear, just to give me some versatility esp when I have a guest.

No one cares about Vaan or Penelo.

Vaan - light armor, swords, technicks, green magicks
Basch - heavy armor, axes
Fran - mystic armor, spears, black, green, white magicks, technicks

i'm trying to get everybody equally leveled, but that's the party i'm using right now.

Penelo's got.. light armor, swords (trying to get her using ninja swords, i don't know why), white magicks
Ashe's got.. heavy armor, swords (regular for now, great and samurai later), white magicks, green magicks, items
Balthier - light armor, staves (until i find some better guns and ammo, and maybe crossbows), technicks

hes around level 20 (in the tomb with the shard), but he gets around 200 damage...my friend told me that the special thing about guns is that they dont take into account the enemy's defense, but they are a tad offset by being slower(but that just leaves Balthier to be the executioner on my squad, hes the finishing blow on nearly every regular enemy).

But staves though man? Balthier is a combustion kinda guy imo.

The trick with guns is they have a lower ATK rating and are slower but make it up by never missing and cannot be countered. Beyond that they do not take enemy DEF into account.

i meant poles actually. He's pretty damn mean with those, doing some considerable damage with them. I had him with an Oaken pole while doing through the Omir-Yansa Sandsea, along with the Nam Yensa Sandsea, he was doing almost 500 damage on everybody

everyone is around lvl 18 ('cept for vaan who's at lvl 10, haha)

basch: axes/spears/swords, heavy armor
ashe: staff/sword, mystic armor, all kinds of pwnz0ring magic (4 magic lores, 3 magic channels, warmage. oh, she's so sick)

and either

balthier: gun/pole, light/heavy armor, technicks

or

fran: bow, light armor, support/healing magic and technicks

balthier might get the boot because he doesn't do as much damage as fran (killer bow ftw) plus fran has more mp and is a better generalist. then again, i suppose i could just give ashe the bow since i want her to stay back and cast spells anyway

ahhh, choices. wonderful choices

i'm using everyone, so i divide the party into 3:

main mages (w/mystic armor):
Vaan - White mage but knows most black magic as well, with Spears
Penelo - Black mage but knows most white magic too, with Daggers

secondary mages (w/light armor):
Balthier - Time mage, equipped with Bows at the moment
Fran - Green mage, equipped with Axes but uses Bows when needed

warriors (w/heavy armor):
Basch - with Swords, Technick master
Ashe - also a Dark mage, equipped with Poles or Crossbows

so essentially, other than boss battles where i might switch things up, there's gonna be one rep from each group at all times

i'm blown away that square enix has managed to once again draw out every bit of power from the ps2 to put together such an outstanding package. everything is on point: graphics, sound, backgrounds, design. i can't wait to see what they can do with the ps3

i'm slowly getting used to the battle system. it's not as hands-on as i'd like it to be (i'm playing in 'active' mode) but it along with the gambit system are showing a lot of potential. boss fights are pretty challenging and it's a refreshing change of pace to have to really keep your wits about you and rely on your reflexes instead of being able to carefully plan every attack

i like the license board as well. it's a logical combination of ffx's sphere grid and ff tactics' job system. i really like the tactics-esqe character portraits in the menus. nice touch :)

i'm only about 4 hours in (just got thrown in the dungeon) but i'm totally hooked and i can't wait to get deeper into the game

topaz, you were right. also, i take back every negative thing i said about this game when the demo dropped. i should have known better than to doubt square enix, lol

>i'm only about 4 hours in (just got thrown in the dungeon) but
>i'm totally hooked and i can't wait to get deeper into the
>game

the battles are so much fun, i probably spent about 2hrs just killing wolves & hyenas so i can level up and get loot to sell, then another hr doing the hunts (man, the Flower Cactus gave me fits!! used about 15 potions in that battle)...i really like how you have to think hard when you're in combat

>
>topaz, you were right. also, i take back every negative thing
>i said about this game when the demo dropped. i should have
>known better than to doubt square enix, lol

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=11&topic_id=44829&mesg_id=44829&listing_type=search

you people shouldn't have doubted the man who gave us FF Tactics & Vagrant Story haha...and as for Vaan's design, does it even matter now?? i can't believe people were writing off this game based on something that insignificant relative to the story and battle system...either way, i'm glad the game turned out so well

i'm not too thrilled with the way FFXIII is looking though :/ and i don't even wanna play FF Versus XIII (booo to action rpgs)

n/m

You get him to like 2000 power and he does a 'reform' move that gives him back like 3/4 of his power. I fought him like 4 times and I just couldnt get the timing right to get that last final blow, but after going through 3 quickenings, I used Belias who luckily finished him off with Hellfire.

tho it took a 9-hit quickening + a belias session + a 2-hit quickening (i fucked it up) + another 5 hit quickening (i got lucky with my charges). i only had to revive basch once

did he do his move where he doubles his level on you? that shit scared the living daylights out of me when he did it and i was lucky enough to have an ether handy so i could summon belias to take the punsihment

when his HP gets to a quarter or so....I think the problem why it was tough for me was because I only had 4 quickenings total and on 4 diff characters at that point(I hadnt realized how much damage quickenings could cause).

Its a level III mark that I didnt mean to fight just yet, but I was looking for the 2 parts to a windvayne for some merchant cat, and stumbled upon em. I did my quickenings, took off seriously like 1/20 of the things power bar. So it all came down to Belias who does like 2k damage each time, and other than the physical attacks(rake especially), wyrm doesnt do much damage(whenever he casts fira or fireball, Belias just absorbs it, and none of the status magic works either).......HOWEVER, you hafta summon duke at least 8-10. I had the mark at like 1/3 power left, but then the mugucker immobilized and killed everyone except Ashe(Vaan to but he was my getaway plan) which wouldnt have been that big of a problem(while Belthias was fighting I would just charge, heal myself, and Belthias if he needed it, and once the summon was about to run out, I would make sure to get 2 charges in so 1 ether would fill the mp back up). But then ONE fucking time, right after I have called in Belias, the mark is still targeting me and breaths me for a KO. Needless to say, I bounced out, and it was only a 30 sec trip the oger-yensa sandsea crystal where I decided to continue the storyline lol.

the thing was whupping my ass left and right and my characters were around lvl 26-27 and would normally kick serious ass considering we had the best weapons and decent armor. After a minute of getting smacked around i just said fuck it and fleed like crazy

where you just hold on to L1+R1 to run....this game you really have to run! and most of the time you can't even get away w/o leaving the map, all the while you're there screaming "Stop hitting me!! AHHHH!!"

just adds to the thrill of combat in this game

>After a minute of getting smacked around i just said
>fuck it and fleed like crazy

i'm gonna go somewhere far to level up, then get better skills/gambits, better equipment, and figure out some strategy so i can kill that damn bird & its offsprings (casting protect sure as hell didn't work)

sorry Penelo, you're gonna have to wait for awhile, lol

I tried to kill it before I went to the lhusu mines(forgot the city's name), and had no chance. But after I got back, it was a easy but long fight(the cuckatrice and its chicks didnt waste much but they still took A LOT of hits before going down, but it got easier and easier as I took out the chicks).

As for gambits: I just have the two im not controlling with cure: ally hp<60% and then attack: same as party leader. Get your HP up with the augment licenses, and make sure your defense is relatively high as well.

>As for gambits: I just have the two im not controlling with
>cure: ally hp<60% and then attack: same as party leader.

that's pretty much the same Gambits i had, but their attacks are too powerful atm, before i knew it i'm out of MP and had to start throwing Potions everywhere...i didn't stand any chance all 3 times i fought them

i really wanna beat this hunt before moving on though, because the last one (Wraith) wasn't really satisfying since i pretty much fluked it

You will be at least around 15 if you havent, and with some new equipment will beat them, trust.

well i went to have a look but didn't save...just what Balthier said about not being able to return to Rabanastre for awhile worried me

also, i'm paranoid that there's a time limit to do the hunts (which probably isn't true but just to be safe)

using the amber colored save crystals. Also, there's no time limit on the hunts, you can do them whenever you want.

my technique: protect on your whole party. use a quickening RIGHT off the bat on cluckatrice, use two combat guys (i used vaan and barshe? i think his name is?), you probably want to manually put in thier commands so EVERY hit goes on cluckatrice, have fran stand way back and just heal, your two guys will take hits like a champ, but wont be too bad w/ protect and healing, you want to kill the cluckatrice as quick as possible, because it will wreck you w/ status damage, and you'll be so overwhelmed you won't be able to really heal it. once its gone, you gotta kill the chicks, just concentrate at one at a time, and they'll go down.


however, id recommend you at least do the mine mission, i did this hunt right before im about to go over the sandsea and i got my ass handed to me 5 times before beating it, i just dont know if its possible at this point in the game w/o taking a long time to level up. good luck....

worked damn well, thanks...i didn't even have to cast Protect (although i probably should have, used more Potions than i had hoped)

but yeah managed to beat them before going to the mines...didn't take too long to get to level 12-13 actually, just went exploring everywhere - the monsters in Westersands give pretty decent EXP

it just isnt right. wasting all my god damn time.

fuck a croakadile.

I would ask for level IV marks, but I havent got any yet, not sure why. But right now, Im trying to get the damn Trickster to show up(the one time he did, I wasnt having anything to do with em....but theres a savepoint right next to the area he's in so now im thinking I might as well give him a shot after straight pwning the ferral retreiver, but even after entering the frozen brook 13 times, fool aint showing up again).

First time I had to freaking run out of there with the whole party dead and Basch with 200 leaving Trickster with 1000 HP (yeah, you can imagine how much that sucked) because the stupid elemental joined the battle halfway through. I thought I was gonna be able to make it but no. Came back after healing, took out the elemental, went rehealed and took Trickster down.

14 hit Quickening. That's the truth. Still haven't pulled off Black Hole but I know I've gotten Ark Blast a couple of times.

the wyvern in the sandsea, the ferral retriever(both pretty easy esp the latter), the wyrm in the westersand(who was still pretty tough and has a shitload of HP, i was doing really well on him until the last 1/4 of the battle or so when I just couldnt seem to get Basch and Balthier to a high enough HP where they could sustain some hits without dying....but with some Ashe heroics and stress management along wtih some hits here and there, I got dukes power low enough where a revived Basch could start a 8-hit quickening chaing followed by catacylsm(the only time I ever had it) to finish him off), and the Gil Snapper in the tracks of the beast area in rainy Giza(he wasnt that tough, it was a long fight, but the guest mark hunter helps with his protect spells and some damage, all you really have to do is protect against the stomp move which wastes like a thousand). The rewards have been less than what I was hoping for though.

So im about to go to Archadia, and am in Rabanastre thinking fuck it, lets try the White Mousse out(the only other level V I had tried was Trickster and I nearly had him beat so I thought what the heck, plus my levels were now high as I chose to walk from Bur-Omisace to Rabanastre and clear out the Golmore Forest on the way). So first off, I get down to the waterway, and there are those overking Marlboro's which are pretty sweet with actually wearing crowns(one jewel in the crown for each year according to the bestiary, gangsta, lol) and give good experience. So im like level 39, the Mousse doesnt seem so hard, and then I get his power to like 1/4 and he starts doing Waterga nonstop, I get a quickening in, have his power down to seriously like 1/30th of his power bar remaining...he kills everyone and then as a last ditch effort, I hope Vaan or Penelo may get one attack in, but he proceed to destroy them with one waterga, lmao.

But I go back in, give Basch the Shell Shield(takes off like 200 damage), plan the quickenings where Ashe still has 1/3 of her mp left in order to cast cura after every waterga....then Basch recharges and get another quickening. At this point like 1/4 of cats power bar is left....so I go into it, Im at 5 hits, then somehow Basch gets off 3 straight of his level 3(and the last two were seriously by the skin of my teeth, like no time left), and then Ashe gets her Maelstorm bolt in for a 9 hit and then whiteout(which I hadnt ever seen before, im wondering how many there are)......26,000 damage, and I get a yoichi bow in return which makes Ashe a pure KILLER.

I was in shock. He's freaking LVL 15. My party like yours was all 38-39ish. I was doing well until the mad Waterga session. And then, you guessed it, freaking King Marlboros aggroed me and joined the fight as they wandered by. Freaking ridiculous. After a VERY rough area (where I fully expected a Game Over screen) I was able to pull through and finish him off without too many hitches. Surprised the hell out of me though that he was that tough. It didn't help I could not get a decent Quickening chain for the life of me.

white mousse, marilith, orhtos, and lindwyrm

most of them i beat with this ridiculously basic tactic:

before running into battle i'd throw lure, haste, bravery, protect, and berserk on basch who's rocking a bubble belt that gives him something like 5000+ hp. i'd then hit the mark with dispel (if it's needed) and whatever status ailmements that will stick. in my experience, slow and blind have worked on most of them. the nipohlona or whatever the fuck it's called (it's the 30000 gil accessory available at the clan provisioner that reverses the effects of items) is extremely useful for hitting marks with status ailments. equip it and throw eye drops at the mark to make it blind, echo herbs to silence it, remedies... ;)

at this point, the mark is focused soley on bacsh who's hitting the mark for at least 1500 damage (depending on what weapon he's using) per hit, with each hit occuring around 3 times every 2 seconds (exlcuding combos). now the rest of your party is free to hang back and toss spells and heal as necessary. usually, fran and ashe hit themselves with haste & faith, hit the mark with shear, equip staves or rods, and sit back and throw shades of black (best tech in the game so far) at the mark. there's nothing better than watching basch hit a mark with a 7000+ damage 5-hit combo which is immediately followed by a 5000+ damage ardor or scathe :)

If you are around level 20-23 or so when you have to go through the rained out giza plains, make sure you look for these withered trees(a exclamation point will come over the party leaders head just like a treasure) and you can cut them down. There are about 5 of these trees throughout the giza plains areas, and they all float to the SE to create this bridge to a new area(its called like big track island or something). You will fight these level 36 turtles who can be taken down with belias, and some quickenings(and make sure to use belias first because you dont want all the experience only going the caster). If you have Balthier with a gun, he does like 500 damage each time....they give like 1100 experience each time, 4 LP, and drop a rare turtle shell that sells for like a grand(I believe there are about 5 of these turtles every time you go there). Just make sure to charge and run around until your MP is back.

i've been looking for a spot to get up some really good and expensive loot for more gil. I need new weapons and armor, plus there's a mark there i need to take care of

head to the Lhusu mines, bone fragments go for a nice price. You can get almost around 20,000gil for 99 of them. Since they come out of everywhere, it doesn't really take that long. Especially if you chain them, some of them start dropping 2 at once. It's easy money

ended up with 50-something bone fragments that i sold for 10000+ gil

i really like that this game rewards and in fact encourages grinding with the hp & mp bonuses and increased item drops you can get with the higher level chains

>i really like that this game rewards and in fact encourages
>grinding with the hp & mp bonuses and increased item drops you
>can get with the higher level chains

The best part is that while it rewards you for it, it doesn't punish you for not doing it. I hate games who punish you for not grinding.

If anyone has gotten near Mt. Bur-Omisace, the partina(or something like that) area with all the snow effects and blizzardy conidtions....its amazing. The way they made the environments so beautiful and diverse and flowing perfectly along with it actually taking a good amount of time to traverse the areas....you seriously feel like you are on this epic journey. I keep having LOTR flashbacks lol.

Mt Bur Omisace is when the story starts to kick in and get damned good too.

Some things about the gameplay seem sooo broken..
Ive got questions

Black Magic.
Is any of the magic(black/de-buff spells) even useful? Seems like its all a waste of MP. Consistent weapon damage and healing is all i do. It works, but it just doesnt seem right.

Summons.
The last time i used a summon, the boss just targeted Ashe. She died right away and the summon was dismissed. Ashe is left with 0 MP.

Quickenings.
When i use quikenings the damage is always random. I think ive only gotten good results once. And once again the characters are left with 0 MP.
One example: I tested it out on a small mob. I chained two quikenings and it wasnt even enough to kill the mob. How is that worth draining two MP bars?

Im beating all the bosses pretty easily with my melee/healing method, but this game has to be more complex than that. What am i doing wrong?

and ill post about the story in a bit..

but offensive magic does get useful in some situations later on.

>Some things about the gameplay seem sooo broken..
>Ive got questions
>
>Black Magic.
>Is any of the magic(black/de-buff spells) even useful? Seems
>like its all a waste of MP. Consistent weapon damage and
>healing is all i do. It works, but it just doesnt seem right.

get some 'magic lore' augments on your black magic-using character. my lvl 24 ashe has 4 magic lores and that augment that ups magic damage when your health is full and she can do 800+ damage with aero. and as always, keep libra going so you can hit know what magic the foes are weak against. if my ashe uses aero on enemies that are weak against aero, the damage jumps up to 1200+

>
>Summons.
>The last time i used a summon, the boss just targeted Ashe.
>She died right away and the summon was dismissed. Ashe is left
>with 0 MP.

dunno what to tell you. i make sure to keep my distance from any enemies before i summon. most of the time the foes will target the esper while i throw spells at it from a distance

>Quickenings.
>When i use quikenings the damage is always random. I think ive
>only gotten good results once. And once again the characters
>are left with 0 MP.
>One example: I tested it out on a small mob. I chained two
>quikenings and it wasnt even enough to kill the mob. How is
>that worth draining two MP bars?

you need to chain more quickenings to take out a mob. i'm not positive on the # of hits but i think once you get a 4 hit quickening, you'll get an extra attack that hits all enemies in a radius. and quickenings get REALLY powerful when you chain a bunch of them together. i think i've done 15000+ damage with a 9-hit quickening

>Im beating all the bosses pretty easily with my melee/healing
>method, but this game has to be more complex than that. What
>am i doing wrong?

hey, do you. if you're still beating bosses with that method, sounds to me like you aren't doing anything wrong at all

>Some things about the gameplay seem sooo broken..
>Ive got questions
>
>Black Magic.
>Is any of the magic(black/de-buff spells) even useful? Seems
>like its all a waste of MP. Consistent weapon damage and
>healing is all i do. It works, but it just doesnt seem right.

use the augments to increase magic potency and decrease MP use by 10%...my Ashe is a serious magic user if I need her to be. Also, get the charge technique which charges about 20 mp everytime you use it(however, if it misses, your MP goes back down to 0, so only use it when you are at low MP and it usually misses when your MP is relatively high anyways)

>
>Summons.
>The last time i used a summon, the boss just targeted Ashe.
>She died right away and the summon was dismissed. Ashe is left
>with 0 MP.

Run away once you cast it, and once your esper starts attacking, the enemy will target the esper.....or thats how its worked everytime for me(the target may get one hit on me before switching)

>Quickenings.
>When i use quikenings the damage is always random. I think ive
>only gotten good results once. And once again the characters
>are left with 0 MP.
>One example: I tested it out on a small mob. I chained two
>quikenings and it wasnt even enough to kill the mob. How is
>that worth draining two MP bars?

You have to chain them to get serious damage and once you get more than 3 or 4, you will get an extra attack called inferno which will attack everyone, and if you get around 9-10 hits, you get the torrent extra attack(ive only got it once). Also, use the aforementioned Charge to get your MP to usable levels.

>
>Im beating all the bosses pretty easily with my melee/healing
>method, but this game has to be more complex than that. What
>am i doing wrong?

AInt nothing wrong with that, but imo the marks will take much more than that.
>
>and ill post about the story in a bit..

holy crap did the bosses decide to get fucking difficult at this point. This means i have backtrack all the way to the last teleport crystal to stock up on phoenix downs. This shit is great, I'm at the edge of my seat fighting these bosses now.

im on the rainy giza plains right now (fleeing for my mfing life when i see thunder elementals), trying to upgrade my weapons and armor, but shit is SO expensive. and sadly i really havent figured out where to best spend them either.

i feel a little overwhelmed w/ all the options, anyone getting they ass kicked around here? my party is at like level 18ish average. tried to fight those ivory tortises and barely can beat them (petrify is my only hope, and pray my dudes dont get wrecked during the countdown).

do you have a steal gambit? i have Vaan constantly stealing for loot, unless its a hard part or boss fight. so that works for cash. for even more cash keep track of the mobs that drop loot that sells for a lot, then just "farm" that mob. the first one i farmed was those little cactus things in the beginning of the Sandsea mission. they drop 'Succulent Fruit' that sells for 380gil each. i spent a couple extra hours just kill/stealing those which was more than enough to buy top gear for my party.

dont know what to tell you about LP. i guess just take extra time to level.

really havent pursued maximizing my orders to get the most out of my travels, gotta explore more options like that.

damn this game is deep though.

They are really easy to find, and you will get bone fragments which go for like 150 each. With about an half hour, you will get some decent experience, decent LP, and a tone of bones. On the 2nd bridge thingy you go on, the skeletons keep on coming if you walk back and forth.

Or you could do like I do and prioritize. Know what you want to do with each character and plan accordingly. You want Fran as a mage? Work on her spells. Then when you know a towns coming soon, save LP for upcoming stuff and do magical armor. ALWAYS stay in your lane because it keeps you safe LP and gil wise. Now you'll still be short so you're going to need to know what you need and in what order. You got a weapon last town? Focus on armor this time around and make sure its only armor with a big increase, otherwise screw it and save the gil. Also, keep your focus on your three main characters. Most people advise against this, but if you're not going to level, don't bother with the others. If you have no chart showing the LP board use your spare characters to explore the board and find where things are before you waste your main characters precious LP. Above all make sure you keep up to date on necessities: potions, phoenix downs etc. Items get priority over everything else. Pick a set number you want and always keep it at that point. I usually have 5 of every status remover, 20 hi potions, 10-15 phoenix downs ALWAYS on hand. If you have a white mage, all the better. Then you'll need to tap into your reserve much less. Just a couple of tips.

i kinda feel that, with no real 'specific' role characters like in prior ff's, and w/ the liscence board being able to take any character where i want them, i really dont feel like its that necessary to use all characters. no one has too much of an advantage, i will consider that.

who do you recommend sticking with? obviously bashe is a beast with attacking, but i have no idea how much magic will come into play. thoughts?

thats my philosophy, and it helps that Basch is one of the top 3 coolest cats too. I really enjoy Balthier, Ashe, and Basch so I enjoy seeing them beat cats down, plus I also like Fran so I keep her at a decent level and also so I have another character with a quickening ready to go and a good backup character if anyone goes down.

Enjoy the game man, dont worry about it...and for me, alot of that comes through what characters I use, regardless of if it makes the game harder(which in this case it doesnt because, for everyone outside of Basch, everyone has the same stats). Also like Nate said, I also make them go down specific paths so I can really develop them in certain areas. Well my strategy is one powerful warrior(Basch), one powerful mage(Ashe), and then Balthier who I have focused on attacking and white magic.

Basically the differences between everyone is minimal. So pick your top 3 favourite characters to use. Then for each character pick what you want them to do. I'll use my own party as an example: I use Basch, Ashe and Fran. I have Basch specializing in heavy armor and heavy weapons. So this is the man with spears, katanas and great swords. Ashe I have using regular sword/shielf combo and light armor. She lacks the strength and defense that Basch gets from heavy but makes it up with light's HP bonuses and the shield's evasion. Then I have Fran in the back as my magical armor long distance fighter using bows/crossbows. The important thing is to pick a path for well balanced team members and stick to it. It saves you a good chunk of gil and LP if you focus your strengths. So when I go to new towns I only have to buy equipment for 3 characters because they compliment each other. Moreover since I'm only using 3 my EXP stays up and I'm at competitive levels. The major draw comes from not having anyone to swap out with in your party, but if you plan your three correctly, you shouldn't ever have to.

A money saving note: Learn quickenings (to get your EP up) and basic white/green magic. Have a gambit set for curing, protect and if necessary shell. It'll reduce your dependency on healing items if every character knows at least a little white magic. Since EP recharges it can make the difference in long treks.

my mindframe still thinks that if i use magic gambits, my dudes will be strapped for mp nonstop. with this much walking, and mp naturally coming back, why not have protect and shell gambits?

thanks guys.

it's FFXII'ng til i pass out now ^_^

That game is a personal classic. One of those games I love but never seem to remember for top game lists.

just need to keep the fix going

(just so i could see if XII made any references/links to it, actually)

the scene after the ending credits...DAMN, i was just speechless, didn't know what to feel, it was crazy

its on the second tier of my GOAT gaming pyramid.

and holy crap do these bosses get insane. They're unrelenting and keep you at the edge of your seat, even if you have all the right gambits.

anybody attempt to fight KING BOMB yet? It took a few tries but i came back after bulking up a few levels, with better weapons and armor, and kicked his ass. Even though it fucking took forever seeing as how he kept casting restore when he was low. Also Oil + Self Destruct = Big Trouble

It was my first time through the Salikawood(going to Archades), I had no idea there was gonna be a boss right there considering I wasnt even supposed to go that way plus I thought King Bomb was a mark. However, it was kinda tough at first because all those little bombs, I used up my quickenings only to see King Bomb use restore, Ashe was dead from oil+ self-destruct, but then I brought Maltheus out who proceed to flash-freeze all of the little bombs and did like 15 thousand damage on King Bomb. It wasnt over yet as King Bomb did restore again, but then I timed my quickening really well as I had about half of the Kings power down and had Fran start the chain, around 9 hits later, duke was no more.

That Necrohol of Nabudis seems hella scary though, I wanna see how it looks after you clear it out and the moogles restore it.

Also, in Jahara, have you gotten the geomancer to actually let you in on the monster that is sealed in the Henne mines?(he talked to me about it, but said that I wasnt ready yet, I think I need to kill more marks before he decides im worthy).

after a very undamaging mateus summon, i got sick of the little bombs and warped them away. king bomb loved targeting ashe for some reason and i had to revive her like 5 times. after his first renew and call for help i warped his minions away again and haste'd and berserk'd my katana-wielding basch (most effective boss-killing strategy ever; he's like nightcrawler on xml2, haha) and he just went crazy with the combos, pulling back to back to back 4 and 5 hitters and doing like 25% damage over the course of 8 or 9 seconds. fran and ashe stayed back and tossed spells and arrows at him until he got down to about 20% health and i hit him with a 9-hit quickening chain to finish him off

Although Im damn sure hes powerful as hell with it, hes a knight with a British accent son....he's born to wield a western blade.

ashe is my main sword/shield user anyway

the rate of combos is ridiculous.

FFXII version

http://download.yousendit.com/3E75F075510ABD2B

original FFV version

http://download.yousendit.com/79C6F77C1D369E49

yo, just thought id start this so people can throw out some stuff that is working for them.

i ditched vaan, fran, and penelo, and am sticking with the other 3, and they are getting beast.

its true above, you NEED someone w/ a steal gambit on to get cash. looking for a good place to get $$/LP? if youve passed the mines already, go hit up the western sandsea again, and just chain the little sand guys, got a 100 chain combo, and my dudes are beast.

if your fighting the silocon tortises in the giga plains wet hidden island, keep an ancient sword, especially if your on lower levels. one that thing gets petrified, stand back so he cant do physical attacks, and countdown to a lot of experience and hopefully a tortise shell. also, steal from it while fighting it, the generals cap or something like that can get stolen and sold for like 3000 gil.

one gambit thats been working great has been casting regen on ally hp < 70%. instead of my dudes wasting a ton of mp by casting cure after they go down under 50%, regen should get em back up to full quickly and they should be able to maintain it for a while.

if your an ashe fan, get a katana as fast as possible for her. she will hit for almost as hard as basche.


that being said, i really am having fun w/ this game. even was cool with spending a good amount of time leveling up. post your hints and tips for people.

What sort of weapons, armor, accesories should I equip her with?

...that increase magic power?

Rods add both MP and MAG to your stats. Staves power up certain elements.

I dont like Ashe running up into the thick things....but I just got the Yoichi Bow from killing the White Mousse and her attack is SERIOUS.

i'm sure most of you have something like this: have one character with foe: hp critical = steal and another character with foe: hp critical = poach. you'll end up getting at least 2 items from any given enemy 90% of the time. combine these gambits with thief gloves and/or grimores and money is literally no problem, ever. just make sure to disable the gambits during boss battles and such...

i haven't really messed with gambits outside of the ally: any -> esuna and restorative spells

i'm working on a gambit involving the balance spell, reverse, and poison/sap. i'll post it up if it turns out to be worthwhile, tho i'm sure some nerd on the gamefaqs boards has beat me to it :\

Everyone on there is like 12 pretending they're in their 20s and sleeping with all of these hot girls while gawking over game characters. "OMG! Ashe is teh HAWT grrrl LOL. I'd do her and Penelo at the same time!!!111!!!" I can't even go on those boards anymore because it's like that one cheeto munching nerd with the mirrors on his shoes and the awkward pick up lines you knew from high school multiplied across a thousand users.

Later on on the game shit gets so expensive that the Llusu Mine/Bone Fragment technique will only by you 5 or 6 pieces of equipment.

However if you go to the Henne Mines, head to that third gate switch that you need to hit. When you flip it, flans will drop from the ceiling. Hit the switch 4 more times so that they keep dropping, then chain away. They'll drop yellow liquid that sells for at least 400 gil.
when that's done, clear 2 screens, then return to the spot and do it all over again. by the fourth or fifth time, if you don't break the chain by attacking bats inbetween, you'll have 99 ellow liquids, and over 40,000 gil

one of my favorite battles in FFXII hands down. He sounds a lot like the Santa Claus from Futurama though hehe. I keep thinking he's gonna yell out "HO HO HO, Merry X-Mas"

and as a side note, John DiMaggio, voice of Bender, plays Migelo & Gilgamesh in FFXII according to the liner notes

Wasn't he Wakka in X as well?

and holy shit is he hard the 2nd time around. It took me a couple of tries against him, but i got him after an intense battle that lasted a good 15-20 minutes, lol

dude was a pushover first time, dont have a prayer now. what are your levels?

did a 10 hit quickening on his dog and took off maybe a 9th of his hp.


im at like upper 40's level wise, and i think i need stronger levels/equipment.

what were your stats? any strategies?

shoot, the monster IN the mines were wrecking me. i had to fight them like one at a time.

i WANT the masamune though.

i don't see a place on the license board for either of them tho :(

and how in the hell did you get to him a second time? my team has an average level of 39 and i got straight stomped by a fuckin high-ass level bat about halfway into site 5. you're supposed to go through site 11, right? i think i'm going to try again and pray that vanishga does what i think it does

however, i wouldnt recommend trying it til your at least around late 40's/early 50's level wise. those enemies are lightweights compared to gilgamesh the 2nd time, took me a half hour to beat him w/ a level 50 party. you WILL get your ass stomped.

good job on the gengi gloves/sheild, i forgot to steal those, if you steal the 2nd time you fight him you get the gengi helmet and armor, they are at the very end of the liscence board toward the armor/sheild side.

Im around level 48 with Ashe, Basch, and Balthier in Barfonheim....Ive gotten lazier with the marks, but the possible equipment I can get(like the genji gloves and shield you mentioned) has made them too enticing now. I really wanna move the storyline along, but I want some damn genji gloves lol.

or any of the other more powerful weapons in the game?

yeah, hit it up from the clan marks, dude is pretty tough but once you beat him, you get balthiers best gun, dude is hitting for like 3-4k damage now, cant wait to get better ammo.

man i had no clue this game was so extensive though, you get the level 11 key after the fight, and can open yet ANOTHER area in the mines, i got my ass kicked straight up w/ around level 40 party.

seriously, im pushing 50 hours on this game and i dont even know where i am at in the story, almost unlocked all the magic liscences for ashe, all the stat bonuses are unlocked for my 3 dudes, and i feel like i still have 20+ hours to go just doing story stuff. this game is GREAT regardless of my early skepticism. although i think i gotta step my gambit game up or ill get my ass handed to me in later fights......


also that relic that lets you steal better/more valuable loot is no joke. im rolling in dough right now.

>also that relic that lets you steal better/more valuable loot
>is no joke. im rolling in dough right now.

say word. i racked up 60,000+ gil going thru the sochen cave with my 'patented' foe: hp critical = steal/poach gambits and the thief's cuffs. got something like 41 maggoty fleshes and that was without grinding or even getting a chain level :)

I did it, I got a rare item (some scythe) and the Bubble Belt(which doubles your HP), and the duke said that he dropped the area 11 level key into the ocean (im guessing its somewhere on the phon coast considering thats the only ocean I have seen so far).

I do have a save right before fighting em though(he actually wasnt that hard imo, I did 3 quickening chains, one being only 5 hits, to get rid of his fucking mantis compadres, so once it was 3 vs 1, I just kept healing and esuna....he went down eventually).

should be a treasure with it there, i dunno if its a random one, keep resetting it till you get it, balthier is a beast now.

I never thought cannobilize could make one of those mantis's THAT much stronger....I wasnt even taking it serious, and then all of a sudden im down to my backups, and had to finish off with a Fran quickening.

However, GOTDAMN does Baltheir do fucking damage, shit is ridiculous. He's just chilling back and straight annihilating everything.

go to phon coast, and talk to the guy up on the hill who lost his memory, and the key is right beside him.

but take note:

enemies deep in the mine will FUCK you up.

my dudes are level 53 and i have to fight the guys one at a time if i can help it.

feel free and try the man of mystery mark if you feel like getting deep in the mine, but your in for the fight of your life....

I just left that area. No treasure chest in there. Looks like I'm going back to see if I can get the damned thing to pop up.

am i really losing out?

but you shouldn't rely on them too much, it becomes less fun if you do like one Quickening, sub in another character, do another Quickening, sub in another character...and so on

or if a mark/boss gets that damage reduction when their hp is critical thing going on

Yeah I use them to finish off bosses or to take out extra enemies that spawn with bosses. Most bosses go into overpowered mode when they get low on HP. I'll put out the Quickenings there, but that's about it. They're just so damned long to use that any other time I'd rather just fight normally.

worth coppin? I mean seriously...I need a bangin' story line....in order to hook me into the game...




The camel never sees its own hump but that of its brothers is always before its eyes - North African proverb

my mom called me up saying she wanted to play this game, and she hasn't touched a video game since the Atari 2600 1st came out

The camel never sees its own hump but that of its brothers is always before its eyes - North African proverb

After you go through the Stillshrine the first time and return to Mountain, you get this item that will take you to hidden area in order to fight an esper.

I been trying to go at this one for about a week, constantly getting my ass kicked. I finally suited up ready for all sorts of war, and pulled off the win. I feel all vindicated and shit.

what level were you? according to gamefaqs, that's one tough-ass esper battle

Damn son. Those waterway steps are freaking ridiculous. Every platform with a host of enemies waiting to decimate me and I can't even run because the last step's enemies have respawned. Difficulty just went through the roof.

damn there are some geeks on here

On a high tech message board. Talking about video games. Yeah, who would have figured?

:wears his geek badge proudly:

as when i stepped foot in that damn place. Behemoths ganging up on your ass, not just any Behemoths, but fucking BERSERK BEHEMOTHS.. with big ass swords, who do 5 fucking hits at a time bringing the pain more than Method Man ever could..

but those aren't even that bad compared to the damn Vivians, fuck them and their putrid breath. It was so damn satisfying to just go back there after i went through it, and leveled the hell up searching for a mark and unleash hell on those bastards

What were your levels and how long did it take?

I was hearing it was a short (compared to most RPGs) game but I've been playing straight through and I'm already at 35 hours.

i used Balthier, Fran and Ashe, they had a average level in their late 40s. It was pretty damn tough. The final boss gets ridiculous towards the end. The ending was damn good though.

I died at the Elder Wyrm boss in Golmore Woods, with my party at levels 17-20. So I looked up some FAQs, and apparently these people were fighting it with levels at 24-27! WTF!

I guess it doesn't help that I don't have Esuna, guess I'll have to make that long trek back to Rabanastre(I'm saving my Teleport Stones)

my characters are around 25-26, and i still had to work pretty hard to get its HP down to 0...i love how challenging the bosses are in this game

and normally i'd go explore every inch of a dungeon before moving on with the story, but there's noway i'm going further south in Golmore Forest, what with those crazy ass phantom hyenas everywhere (forgot the name but i'm pretty sure y'all know what i'm talking about)...

and c'mon man, you GOTTA have Esuna, and get Haste as well! (if you don't already have it)


>I died at the Elder Wyrm boss in Golmore Woods, with my party
>at levels 17-20. So I looked up some FAQs, and apparently
>these people were fighting it with levels at 24-27! WTF!
>
>I guess it doesn't help that I don't have Esuna, guess I'll
>have to make that long trek back to Rabanastre(I'm saving my
>Teleport Stones)

I don't want to think about restoring HP.

no actual game play yet. I'll get back to y'all on that.
Why it look like they tried to put all of the Star Wars Prequels
and LOTR battle scapes all into one intro movie, though?

Yes, even with that gaping plot hole of "why don't just use guns instead of swords?"

n/m

i've hit it a couple of times with my lvl 41 ashe (word to magick gloves, full health, faith, and the judicer's staff) off of flares and ardors from shades of black

i.e. not counting quickening chains

i haven't even tried to play it on there yet since my girl said it didn't look good without having component cables. I don't have those just yet

5 hours...i'm fight electricity draining spiders underneath the dungeon. got wipe out by some 'Flans' what's the best attack against them ugly fuckers?

n/m

on the last mission, the tower at phron is really long but really not tough as long as you have magic and reasonably high levels. my party is at mid to high 50's and cid and his flunkies were a piece of cake.

im 70 hours in and after i beat it i think im done w/ it/video games for a while, i realize that i miss you know, talking to people and having a life. i was looking at some of the faq's, am i the only one who misses figuring out how to do/get the most powerful stuff? i figured it all out in ff 6, now w/ these random, convoluted missions, its near impossible to figure out how to get the best weapons and espers without looking them up. i want a girlfriend much more than i want to play this game for another 40 hours to get powerful weapons against a final boss i can easily beat now.

thoughts after almost beating it:
there really isnt much strategy for combat besides grinding for high levels, buying the best equipment, and setting big heal gambits. which is cool, but i miss the strategy the turn based bosses gave you (remember the boss in ffx where you had to have your party zombified for the majority of the fight, then turn them back right before you heal them? the combat system in this doesnt seem to really allow for real strategy based fights like that, its just let your dudes wail on the enemy until you heal them).

are summons EVER useful? sure they are cool to have, but in tough battles when id try and summon, theyd get their asses kicked in 2 seconds. i havent used one ONCE, its not worth wasting all my mp.

also kinda dissapointed in the lack of enemies. it seems they have like 6 enemies, just color em different and make them stronger. are you telling a small ass bat can kick my ass in the lusu mines simply because its red? what happened to cool looking monsters?

finally, really kinda disappointed at the lack of characterization. the only characters they really go into anything in this one is balthier and ashe, what have they done to make me care about vaan or penelo at all? this makes me miss cloud and tifa, or locke and celes.


dope game, but they def couldve improved it.

any thoughts?

basch rocking a defender owned him with like 3 minutes to spare. i really should have fought him like 10 lvls ago...

Is there some way to get rid of the HP decreasing status? It takes away HP like sap X 5....the boss doesnt even seem that tough because he only hits for like 850 and the flans are pretty easy too, but that damn area condition is a fucking real pain in the ass.

Cuchulainn? I've been a little scared to face him because of the sap effect. Yeah, there's nothing you can do to be rid of it. You just have to tough it out. Crazy huh?

some of the Esper battles give you certain limitations while fighting them. Zeromus, just like in FFIV, nullifies magicks so you can't use them. Exodus nullifies all item use so you can't use items, and Chaos doesn't allow you to use weapons or physical attacks. I fought Zeromus last night and it was a little easier than the last time i fought him, but damn was it ever a pain in the ass

my cousin showed me his copy on thanksgiving....holeeeshiiit

yeah, i can't do that to myself

GONE....like 90+ to go. it's fun but it's a total time eater.

11 hit combo with the sword (not even the pole or the katana). Basch was down to 150/3000 HP and just starts WAILING on Tyrant. Coolest freaking thing I've seen in this game.

earlier today i managed to beat the Hell Wyrm, took me almost an hour to do that. That thing's got over 8,600,000 hp. It was no fucking joke. Now i'm running around trying to face the Espers i haven't yet (Cuchulain, Chaos, Zodiark) but damn is it a pain in the ass to get to these. Especially Ultima, holy crap if i didn't have the strategy guide, i would have never been able to find it without spending hours upon hours exploring those areas.

Omega Mark XII is next, from what i see here, he's got 2,000,000 more hp than the HEll Wyrm, shit

so i'm rolling thru there with my early 40's lvl party and making some good headway, killing overlords and such without too many problems. i get to the area where deathscythe is supposed to appear when 2 fucking overlords, a zombie mage, helvinek (who had like 99999 hp), and deathscythe all pop up at the SAME FUCKING TIME. wtf. long story short, they mopped the floor with me, and it was even worse than it sounds because i couldn't flee (helvinek and deathscythe can teleport)

and that's why i be like FUCK yasumi matsuno

Any idea what are through those doors(door of horrors and door of something I cant remember)? And what is this deathscythe you speak of...is it an esper? At one point, I had like 3 of those flying things, one zombie mage, and then hevenir (the horse) appear, but after seeing its HP, i bounced out to a locale where I was able to fight it 1-1. Also, I think the flying thingies drop maximillian armor (very rarely but I luckily got it, its a level 9 armor, so I skipped over level 8, its most excellent). I got to like the 4th area and it was 1 am, so Im gonna go back in when I have more time.

The mist reflections constantly scare me a little though, I keep thinksing something wild is gon appear but its only my characters reflections lol.

All these damn sidequests are straight killing my time man, Ive been supposed to go to Giruvegan for like 15 hours now lol (im already around 65 hours).

it looks like an overlord and i think it hangs around the west part of the second area. i actually haven't even played the game since that beat down. i'm still recovering from seeing my entire party getting annulled in 2 turns :(

i don't know what the doors are for. i wish i knew what was up with those dozen or so treasure chests in that one room. all i got from them was knots of rust. there's got to be some special way to open them and actually get something of value

you should probably go for that one 1st. What's behind those doors are 2 bosses. One's a behemoth type creature (Humbaba Mistant, with a BIG ASS FUCKING SWORD ready to beat your ass into the ground with) and the other's a rabbit (like the rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail though. RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!).

also, once you take both of those out, Chaos is waiting behind that 3rd door. If you go up against him, hope you have plenty of offensive magic.

i've only managed to take out about 1,000,000 of his hp so far. I'm not even sure i'll even be able to handle it. I'll keep posted about it though. Anybody else attempting this monstrosity?

however, thats quite alot of mass to take down. Try decoying a dirty magazine and then unleash all hell.

Decoy and Reverse (yeah, i'm using Reverse, so what, wanna fight about it? i'm not at lvl 99) on Ashe while she unleashes hell with the Zodiac Spear and Genji Glove (multiple hits of 9999 ftw). All while Fran uses buff spells on Ashe and hits Yiaz with Expose to lower his defense hitting him multiple times at once with an Orochi (dark attribute) and Cat Ear Hood (makes you fast as fuck). Balthier just stands on the side lines shooting his ass with Dark Shot and healing him and Fran tossing Chronos Tears when his attacks do Stop and Stona when they petrify. I managed to get him down to 40,000,000 last night. I'm hoping to knock a bit more tonight.

things got REALLY nasty at this point. He's fucking relentless, not only is he doing 5-6 hits at a time at 3,000 damage and some change, he does this damn move called DeathStrike that's instant death (unless it misses, which it rarely ever does). I kept getting killed everytime i got him down to 3,000,000. Good thing i saved at the 5mil point or else i would have been tossing my ps2 out the window.

i took a break from that bastard to level up some more (my characters were all averaged at about lvl 90, now they're 99) and i took out Zodiark which suprisingly was made easier with the aid of Black Masks (they absorb darkness, makes his Darkja move a little easier to bear). So i'm gonna go back and try and knock out the rest of that today. That bastard

So I go into the Necrohol to rumble with Goliath(straight beat his ass down), and im looking for Deathsycthe(hes not showing up, I have no idea how to get him).....so I guess the fucknig prick shows up when a character is in critical, and im fighting some of the flying thingies the big robot thingies right...so i flee to go 1-1...he does that pilar(immune to physical), bio wreaks havoc on his ass, he was pretty easy.

This is where it gets bad, so Im on the way out to the Salikawood(second to last area Id say), some enemy drops the Runeblade(one up from diamond sword), im feeling pretty good about myself, relaxing. Then while im fighting couple enemies, oversoul appears and does his fucking silence and starts doing his dimensional rift shit, somehow this fight goes from easy W to running for dear life, and then when everyone excep the backups(sans Fran who I didnt fucking revive after I sacrificed her earler to deathscythe) penelo and Vaan. Im running for dear life, the horse is on my tail, I think im on the way right, I check the map(im actually headed into a dead-end, the door to Gammbubba or whatever), so I start heading to the exit to the 1st stage....Penelo is killed(she only has like 500 hp lol), im ALMOST there, right about to hit the stairs with Vaan, motherfucker snake lashes me for 1k, im dead. I lose 1.75. hours of playing time, 2 marks, 1 rare drop, and fucking TWO levels(56-58). I was pissed as fuck at myself.

So needless to say, I did that shit again real quick, beat Golaith and death again, made one run through the Necrohol destroying everything(got another Maximillian), and gained 1.5 levels at least. Going to Giruvegan fucking finally, and am thoroughly enjoying how bad-ass Cat-hood is, and Save the Queen.

that damn teleporting horse

I kept high tailing it to room exits and casting arise right after the scene change...fucking Penelo did me in at the end with her level 17 health; she got killed in one hit while casting the spell

Basch with great swords and that combination above is killing everyone. Im thinking about getting one for Balthier too.

As for Giruvegan,....the Necrohol prepared me for everything in there lol. Behemoths were going down in 3 hits, and the bosses were just cakey. Now im trying to do alot of the marks while Deddas is in the party(he seems like a beast).

just beat the SHIT outta Vossler that traitorous bastard and now south to get more Super Nethicite!

Hov.

those monographs are great investments, rare loot dropping everywhere

and the katana is my fav style/type of weapon in the history of mankind

i was kinda bored with my party (basch, fran, and ashe, all around lvl 43) but mainly disappointed in fran and balthier's complete lack of magick power so i decided to bring up penelo (then lvl 18) and vaan (lvl 10) with balthier (lvl 33) acting as, i dunno, a guardian or something

long story short, i wrote some all-purpose gambits, gave penelo a gun (!), vaan a sword and shield, and threw embroidered tippets (you can steal them from the couerls in the cerobi steppes) on vaan and penelo. about 2 or 3 hours of chaining malboro overkings (~2000 xp each whilst rocking an embroidered tippet) in the tchita uplands later and everyone is above lvl 40 and, more importantly, i have another (actually superior) magic user in penelo to lighten ashe's load a bit. plus i'm like 60000 gil richer, what with all the malboro fruit drops

right now i've got ashe rocking a bow/mace (don't sleep) & shield + all magicks, basch with large 2-handed weapons, and penelo with a gun/staff + black and white magick and i am absolutely DESTROYING the necrohol with a low-40s level party. having 2 characters who can do 9999 damage to element-weak enemies is a godsend

i can't imagine having the patience to bring up a very low-level character (much less two) up to my main party's lvls in any other game and even if i did have the patience i know i couldn't do it as quickly as i did in this game. square enix has truly accomplished something here, lol

its not that hard anyways if you traveled between cities the whole fashioned way.

i've been pretty much ignoring them while playing.

what are the must haves?

it's like Haste x's 2 all the time. Equip it to somebody who has either a katana or a ninja sword and they're fucking beasts.

Bubble Belt, double's your HP all the time? Hell yes.

Battle Harness, increases your chances for a counter attack almost always.

Genji Glove, increases the chance of multiple hits. You gotta steal this one from a certain enemy though.

Embroidered Tippet, double EXP, awesome for levelling up. There's also an accessory that doubles the license points earned but i can't think of the name right now

Pheasant Netsuke, increases potency of potions, hi-potions, x-potions and the such.

I found the greatest leveling/lp combo is get your main party with embroidered tippets so they get double LP whilst travelling, then get your reserves with golden amulets so they reap the license benefits. Walk from the henne mines to golmore jungle and back through to the tchita highlands and stomp malboro overkings or saurians. have one character in each party (main and reserve) set up with a steal: enemy HP 100% and make that person party leader. they'll snap at the enemies first, stealing before your beast of a party kills them off. swtich at whatever interval you choose. you'll be swimming in gil/exp/lp in no time.

my avg party level is 52 and I'm not even to old archades yet.

equip it on a character with all the 'remedy lore' licenses and have that character throw remedies at an enemy. instant sleep/slow/blind/poison/silence/etc. status for the enemy. it's great for marks, bosses, and rare game. it probably works with phoenix downs, too but i imagine it misses a lot

you can buy it from the clan provisioner in rabanastre for like 30000 gil once you hit the 3rd or 4th rank

this one is essential if you want to get marks and such. and the phoenix down works on a lot of enemies, and it's bailed me out many a time.
______________________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


to the beat and ya dont stop

http://www.myspace.com/djlino
http://www.myspace.com/linotype

I still gotta work on beating Fafnir, and like 4 other hunts.....but I enjoyed the final stage and boss, plus I really liked the ending. The cgi scenes were SICK.

Bout damn time... Haha.

40 hours in and totally hooked.

haven't used gambits much...I got like two on per character -- attack and heal.

this has to be the most graphically impressive PS2 game ever though.

I don't know why I stayed away so long. I guess I'm still just a DQ partisan.

But yeah, I'm like level 37 right now, and I'm starting to worry that it's getting in the way of my work. Might have to pull myself away from it for a while.


>this has to be the most graphically impressive PS2 game ever
>though.

I've been thinking the same thing.

is that leveling up/getting license points/gil farming/mark hunting is actually not a chore

I've spent half the time mucking around, stealing expensive items and trying to unlock as much as the board as possible

I had maxed out the gambit slots and was wishing for more....the normal battles just fly by if you have a righteous gambit logic stream, and boss/mark battles become easier as well(especially if you have specific gambit settings that you use for only bosses and marks).

I got mad bored w/ it and let my neighbor borrow it like 7 months ago and he ain't gave it back yet. At this point, I really don't even care.

And then gave up. It was like, getting all the dopest shit is just a retarded hassle that requires a guide and without all the dopest shit your characters are just the same by the end game.

But now I've restarted.

No 360, no Wii, no PS3. Whatcha gonna do?

What a beast, I mean DANG.

And the boss fights in this game are hard, yo. ESPECIALLY if you aren't at least the same levels as the enemies in the area. I had to overkill that first Judge and Vossler with Mist Attacks (I'm like..."WTF, didn't this negro only have like 600 HP when he was in my party??? This is Seifer all over again!"), and even that screwed me 'cause my healers had no MP left! Are there ever any one-on-one (or however many you have in your party) boss fights after the first one? 'Cause that's some bull when you can easily beat a boss on your own, but you always die because of his cronies (I had to level Vaan up forever to take on the giant multicolored wolf mark).

180+ hours, finished every mark, main 3 characters lvl 80+, havent touched it in a while. But i think I might play through it again sometime.

Eff the Giza Plains, I swear. I'm all drowsy and sick of fighting Hyenas, then I drift toward a lake a big 'ol frog jump out...@#$%^&*&#%@.

I just finished going through Final Fantasy IX, and that game had something that XII really lacks...Character Development.

The story was ambitious, but the characters (other than Balthier) sucked.

cause IX is mt favorite game ever, and specifically for the character developement. I think IX has that over ever other final fantasy though.

literally, I cannot believe how fast time goes by playing this game. most RPGs I play for an hour then get bored of leveling up and switch it off.

It's officially been placed on my highest-tier of games, let alone RPG's.

too bad the characterization and storyline don't match up to the all-time classics. so I got to put it *right* under the HOF -- but miles ahead of most console RPGs ever released.

A sudden twist of fate ending in Penelo's (and maybe even Vaan's) death may have got it past that threshold.

i forgot where i was

It's been a couple months now since I played, which is too bad since I was starting to get into it (10+ hours if I remember right). I'm hoping I might have saved in a manner where I know what to do next (probably not lol).

__________
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers. (c) Kno

but this time on Active.

It's much more enjoyable on active, IMO.
Raises the challenge ever so slightly, and really makes you think about your gambits.