i read in a few different walkthroughs that MQ combos dont work well against him, you need to have a party healer with esuna, and cura etc etc. And have ALOT of things to take away status effects, like alarm clocks and handkercheifs and the like. The combo's dont take too much off his health, at least when i tried it, i got about a 6 mq combo and only took a smidgen of red off lol, at that point he pulled that complete status effect damage garbage and everything went straight to hell.
ALso, be a decent level, i faced him on 25/26, im going to go back at level 33 and try then.

You can skip that boss if you really want by going south through the Feyewood and northeast into the Rift, which leads to the same place you are headed. The elder wyrm is pretty nasty if you are low leveled. Best advice is to wear something to null confuse and keep some esuna gambits ready. Otherwise, try and fight it later. Also, dont bother with mist quickenings. You NEED the MP against him.

I think I can articulate just what exactly is wrong with the battle system.

It's not that the game plays itself. The automatic aspect is a red herring on the road to why things feel slightly empty with FFXII. A lot of games have auto. Two of my favorite rpgs of all time saw me abusing auto much of the game (Nocturne, Phantasy Star 4).

No, the reason something's off about this game as a rpg is because it's not a rpg. It's a rts hybrid on a very small scale. They needed to slow things down. Because in a heated battle with many enemies, the action never stops. All you end up knowing is that Fran just got knocked down to critical hp. You don't know exactly which out of the five enemies hit her or for how much each unless you've got eagle eyes. Provided she was on screen for the hits in the first place.

The game doesn't seem to allow much room for tact. All they needed to do was pause and focus for character and enemy action. The game would of been lightyears better than what it is. I mean, comprehending everything that's going on around you is important. It was sacrificed for fluidity.

And while we're at it, they could of given the camera a better go.

Still enjoying the game, though, it is Ivalice, after all.

Are you playing Active or Wait setting?

I could see how Active is so fast paced that it's hard to keep track of everything, but with Wait, all you have to do is hit X and everything stops.

Wanna see who's hitting Fran, look for the red line going her way. If she's not on screen, zoom out some more or move the camera. I agree it's more like an RTS, but there are ways to stop the action and think.

My main problem is with the dungeons being boxy corridors with no real story connections or examinable objects.

Yeah, the Elder Wyrm is pretty nasty. I suspected you'd have problems because I found Tiamat easy but the Elder Wyrm took some more work. Make sure you're at a decent level and that you have top-of-the-line equipment (the latter is ESPECIALLY important). He's not too bad as long as you keep up on curing the status changes.

That's what I thought a while ago: that part of what always made RPG battles cool was the emphasis on each individual attack, so while FFXII has more realism, we lost the theatrics. I like the Mist stuff in FFXII, though. I think those are pretty much sufficient, but people like ME would have liked at least an option to kind of zoom in and masturbate over each move in battle.

I'm constantly pausing to keep track of what's going on and zooming the camera around to keep my eye on all the characters.

I find myself staring more at the radar screen and navigating using that, since the physical aspect of the dungeon itself can at times be misleading. I think the closest game I've played with somewhat similiar gameplay would probably be Dungeon Siege, but I can't remember how the AI was done for the other 7 party members in your team.

I also agree with the dungeons in a way lacking that "adventure" mode sometimes, but rather makes you go "select button", figure out where the hell I am, then keep moving on to the exit or unexplored areas, whereas your earlier RPGs didn't focus so much on where you were going as opposed to what you were doing in the respective environment.

These youtube links basically contain spoilers, but it's amazing with the 2nd boss of the 2 demon walls, I think. The 2nd clip has the player only using Vaan to take on the boss all by himself, while the Guest character is KOed.

1st boss (nice stats and equipment, from what I can see): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZkE1jB_1Rg

2nd boss (solo fight): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFxvjjfml98

Question on Quickening (not on how it works, just something weird).

So for the people that know how quickening works. You know how when you have the option of pressing one of the buttons to choose the next part of the chain, sometimes do your presses not work and you have to spam the button? Also, sometimes when you hit the button (let's say square), it will waste about .5 to 1 second looking like it's shuffling the quickenings even though I'm not pressing R2. Do these things happen to you guys?

Yeah, with the quickenings, I guess it's just how fast you can mash on the R2 with your index finger, while using the thumb to cover the triangle and circle button, while your left hand thumb to mash the X and square buttons.

That's the technique I use so far to try to get it ;__;, and have chained up 7 times.

Alright!
I made it out of the Tomb of Raithwall.

I think you misunderstood me. I was wondering if you guys are experiencing these "bugs" that I am experiencing. When I have a quickening option (we'll say it's square as an example), sometimes when I hit square, it won't execute and I'll have to press it again. Also, sometimes when I hit square, it will look like it will shuffle before executing the attack even though I am not pressing R2. Are you guys experiencing this as well?

Sorry for misreading. Yes sometimes there's a half second delay or something, or the buttons don't seem to respond correctly, as you have mentioned. As for solving it, I'm not too sure, unfortunately. :(

Simo, I just got to that part where you were experiencing technical difficulties and my disc seemed to work fine, which I'm glad it did ^__^.

Ah np. I have a hard time explaining stuff online. :tpg: I guess the bugs aren't that big of a deal, but they do cost precious little seconds, haha. I've tried the mashing thing as well, but my fingers aren't fast enough so I have to do it the slow way and hope to get lucky. I'm trying to beat that optional wall boss in the beginning of the tomb, but I can't seem to finish it off. =(

I just made it to Archades. For all of you who haven't got there yet,

i dont think thats a bug, if u notice when the button comes up next to someones name, it usually says something to the effect of "mist shuffle" or something like that, it is just an additional shuffle, and i found that if u press a button and nothing happens, press it again right away, and u get it immediately, i've gotten up to a 9 combo before (not that much but didsomething like 12000 damage) :edgarrock:

"Mist Charge" recharges your mp meter back up to full so you can continue your chain.

Remember, every time you use a quickening, it takes off the number of circles that you have (select a 2-circle quickening, you have only 1 left, so you can only use a 1-circle quickening unless you get a mist charge).

Yeah, the Elder Wyrm is a bastard. I'd wiped a few times on previous bosses that were extremely close to dying, but the Elder Wyrm was the first boss to hand me my ass. I believe he had about 50% of his health left. Those special attacks are vicious.

Back to leveling, I guess.

Similiarly, I fought the 2nd one (which succumbed instantly to my 5 chain quickening + Inferno), but the 1st one is much more tougher. My quicks did only like 1/4 damage to it, and I got the HP down to about half, but then ran for it, since I knew I couldn't finish in time =/.

I just beat the Elder Wyrm yesterday with no real problems. That might be because I've been leveling up for the Ring Wyrm (a mark) that I think is supposed to be prettymuch impossible at this state of the game, but I made a crack at it.

Is it just me, or is money a damn near precious commodity. I've never felt more frustratingly behind in terms of technicks and equipment.

really.... I was way behind in cash, so I farmed 200 bone fragments in the mines, which along with other vend trash was enough for me to upgrade my stuff fully with 50000 left over. I just completed the dungeon right after that, and I'm nearly broke again....

- WraithTwo -

Ah what the hell!

He doesn't drop it. The person who posted the Mark gives it to you :3

I didn't have time to play today, but I did play a lot of Digimon World DS. Ah, the advantages of a handheld system. I love that game too. I'm currently juggling between the two games.

HAHAHAHAHAH I JUST GOT THAT TOO!

I was like WHAT THE FUCK. Then I thought I should maybe just head back to the guy.

Also, see the guidebook because it's says "The hunt DROPS the loot that you need". Seriously who ever wrote this book didn't get the facts right. I was panicking because I thought I killed it and didn't get the dropped loot.

: 3

Sup Wolf <3.

:3

Sup Spatula

The guide also says to use Quickenings in the fight when that's wrong :D I've seen other false information in guides before too. I think it's because guides are made long before the game is actually completed, so info could have changed during production that the guide cannot update.

Thank god I can skip that battle and continue onwards. Its status effects are a killer!

Honestly, if you're not able to beat the Wyrm, you're not going to fare any better if you move on ahead with the game. It doesn't get any easier.

That's not really true. I beat it, but I found it to be pretty much the most difficult boss in the game for me, given it is the only one that ever actually gave me a game over. Multiple status-effects, one of which being confuse really makes the fight a hair puller.