I just downed my 7th mark, and want to go for another one to raise my rank. I did quite a few side quests, which I find once you get the Dawn Shard, quite a bit of side quests and hunts are opened up for you, so that's what I've been spending my last 3 hours doing. :3

Really? Huh. The only status effect he used on me was oil. I didn't find the battle difficult as much as long. It helps that there's a helpful guest in your party. I didn't get a game over in this battle (although most of the bosses in this game have given them to me).

Also, fighting the Rocktoise hunt, I first used my quickenings, but then when that sorta ran out, I wanted to test my new ULTIMATE WEAPON*

I distinctly remember using Esuna, which does not cure oil so I know he does much more than just oil.

Of course, I did rush my entire team around him so they were all succeptable to the ailments. That was my fault. Also, my first attempt, I wasted all my MP on a 21 hit quickening chain which... barely dented 35% worth of his HP. It was around this time I stopped relying on quickenings and only used them on recover abusing bosses (near death) and marks that liked to super boost their def also near death. ^^;

Hell, that boss casts Blind, Petrify, Oil, Confuse and the like. It's certainly not just Oil. Best to make sure you have at least one person immune to Confuse or something so he/she can heal everyone. Otherwise, you're pretty much screwed.

Mist Quickenings are best used when you've already chipped the boss low enough. Using it at the beginning of the battle won't help you at all.

I recently got FF12 last week, and have been playing it along with PSU. Firstly I'd just like to say this game is awesome, and the hype was well deserved. It really rekindled my interests for the over-exploited Final Fantasy series. The battle system is perfect, yes, very perfect. No random encounters, no button mashing, no repetative spamming, etc. Whoever thought of the Gambit system should win an award, I don't care what anybody says, its pure genious. It may make the game ridiculously easy, and I wonder what made GameSpot label it as 'hard,' but for me, its just makes the game more fun and less hassle. This is like Final Fantasy XI without spending hours LFG then partying up with morons.

So far I'm only 10 hours into the game and I have one pet-peeve. Theres something I just can't figure out for the life of me and no one seems to have mentioned it no matter where I look. Maybe its just me, or perhaps maybe its something everyone gets accustomed to after playing for a while, or something no one else noticed (highly unlikely) ... Why does Vaan sound like such a fucking fag?! Seriously, I know Tidus was BAD but goddamn, this guy makes me want to go out and hit somebody, like the guy who did his voice. Everytime he speaks I want to scream OMG STFU at the TV screen or skip the cutscene entirely. Is it just me or do Final Fantasy characters keep getting gayer? At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if that chick from the Final Fantasy XIII trailer turns out to be a guy.

Please don't say that ;___;

Yes, I'd put up with Squall emo trip or Cloud's funny case of amnesia, but I'd have to place Vaan over Tidus, actually. He sounds like a fag for sure, but I honestly don't find him as annoying as Tidus. Gee..I guess I better not tell these folks I'm from Zanarkland!. :tpg:

I guess I must be the only person who doesn't think his voice is HORRIBLE. Voice wise and personality wise, he's a lot better than Tidus. I don't mind him at all, and I think the only girly type guy in FF is Irvine, but that's just me. I honestly can't see the whole feminine thing in other FF males. Maybe I'm just abnormal :D

P.S. Squall's my favourite >_>

But isn't Irvine the wannabe-ladies-man? Unless he's shooting to get a sex change and then be a pseudo-lesbian. We all know that Edgar would be the hero ^__^.

Yes he is, but he still looks girly :D

All the other male characters in FF sure look like guys to me, but I seem to be in the minority.

If you think Irvine looks less like a dude than Squall, Tidus or Vaan, then yes you are in the minority. I don't especially think they look like girls, but they definitely look a level of feminine which is far less than normal. I don't even think that can be argued as opinion, either. They just do.

But being in the minority also makes me unique and special! :D

I've seen anime guys who looked more like girls, but I don't see that much with video game characters. Maybe it's just me : /

Oh, I see what it's doing now. When it does Mist Charge, I press it and charges my MP, then it'll do the shuffle animation, then let me do the quickening. Thanks for clearning that up, Jazz and kharaalaik.

Haven't read the thread for a couple pages so if someone mentioned this already feel free to point it out, but was I the only one ssuprised when I learned that "Lamont" aka Larsa was a Guy? The face and hair and height, and the voice as well all made me think the character was a woman. While Vaan I could tell was just a teen kid with a bad haircut, Larsa suprised me in being a guy.

Also, but then he basically killed who he targeted with 4-5 hit combos one by one :(

You might want to spoil that individual mentioned in your 2nd paragraph, especially since said individual is in your party prior to. Keep Fran in the fray, since she has berserk, and summon your new found friend while you're at it. Also, I'm Larsa and I'd hit Penelo. LOL.

Done and Done.

Well I'll give it a try tomorrow evening when I get home and we'll see what happens, as I must get to bed soon for work tomorrow.

While I decided to put the first summon on Ashe, what about future uh... 'friends'?

I did the same, since Ashe had pretty kickin' stats, with quite a few augmentations. I can't start boasting that this boss and that dude was easy, considering I've only just recently got the Dawn Shard, and I'm over 35 hours into the game. Which means that much of the rest of the time was either spent level grinding (quite a bit) or hunts or recent side quests. So I can understand that you're having trouble with him (he almost KO'ed my Basch, which had over 1600 HP down to less than 100 with his "alligator-sword chomps"). Try casting slow on him and see if that works.

You work on Saturdays? Damn son.

Some people say abnormal, most people say functionally retarded.

1600HP huh? Yeah I think I should have grinded levels a bit more in the area with the sandpeople... but we'll see what happens. Would "Immobilize" or some of the other status effects "Blind, Poison" or "Dark" have any effect?

I figure I'll do the first play through for the story, and then later on go back for all of the bonuses and secret stuff.

Also yeah I work the weekends. It sucks but my days off are for class-days, so right now I have a full schedule during the days. I don't work nights though :) Its somewhat-but-not-entirelly almost all about the money right now.

I hate Gil Snapper. So, so, so, so, so... *trails off*

But I beat it the first try (using up tons of Ethers for magic to impair Snapper, and for ending Quickenings, and even Belias had to help out, and plus a fucking respawned Silicon Tortoise was pestering us and making it very hard to finish the fight) and I made turtle soup with it after some time. Also hunted Enkelados which, thankfully, was WAY easier. Since I have Larsa in my party now, I'm going to try to kill White Mousse again, and I'll go for a bunch of other accepted marks in the process. Hopefully it'll be possible this time. I've got about 11 of them done right now, and more than enough points for the next few ranks, probably.

My friend made a real big deal about how extremely difficult the Ozmone Plains are to get through but I just went through them and it wasn't bad at all. Maybe he was underleveled or maybe I'm overprepared but it was no hassle getting through or even hunting the mark there. The only thing that's annoying is if 3 enemies or more swarm you but getting out of that isn't at all hard for me to do.

Characters so far range from Lvl. 26-28, I've got 3 Quickenings on everyone, and they've all got their Swiftness and HP boosts, plus lots of other very helpful Augments. And now I have a Golden Amulet from...somewhere...Enkelados hunt maybe. But yay. License boards are coming along nicely now, woo.

I had to run from all the enemies in the Ozmone plains... until I went and got better equipment. After that, the place was a breeze.

I found the area in Estersand where you have to take the ferry quite the jump in difficulty, with the enemies - mainly level 25 wolves, dealing close to 300 dmg to my guys, and tehre's two Wild Saurians (T Rex) that like to chomp me down. The only reason I ventured up north is to get the three medicine thingies for the side quest. But I think that place isn't too too hard, just as long as the wolves don't gang up. I get about 350 exp points.

How hard are the marks when they jump up a level? I think I've cleared most or all of the available level 1 marks, so how high a jump is the level 2 marks in terms of difficultly?

Oh the Highwaste was horrible for me. I wanted to go explore it as soon as I opened it for the sidequest there but I was getting murdered by the wolves teaming up on me all over the place, and then the stinking Saurian tried to eat me, so I got the hell out of there and just continued the story to the Ozmone Plains instead.

Rank II marks aren't really difficult to me, they just take a little longer to kill. But anything above that scares me. Gil Snapper was a Rank III mark, I believe...and I was having a hard time with it, mainly because of that stinking Silicon Tortoise that butt in about 75% through the fight and caused all the damage that I managed to keep the Snapper from dealing out up until then. And the White Mousse I'm trying to get is like...Rank V x.X

Of course if you go in prepared then it's always easier (Berserk on the White Mousse works wonders), but yeah, Rank III and up traumatizes me right now. I'll probably be saving a lot of hunts until I've advanced the story more and gotten more technicks/magicks.

Holy shit you should have seen me hightail it, having like 5 wolves and a dinosaur after me. Yeah I didn't want to put up a fight, considering this was the 2nd last step in one of the longer side quests.

I just need 1 more mark to get 8 marks in total, which is very little.

i only finished off 10 marks and have 3 left, Gil Snapper, Ixtab, and Orthros, and im kinda nervous about going after them after the hellhounds in the jungle tore me a new one. I spent about 2 hours levelling up and LP-ing and those things murdered me, which makes no sense because i had two level 32 characters LOL

i got murdered, and no prob about that mist charge, i forgot what it was called exactly =\