Thankie thankie, Punishment. That was very informative :3

86 hours? ô_o No offense, dude, but do you leave your PS2 on over night or what

86 hours is a VERY long time but each to their own of how slow they'd like to take it, even I'm quite slow with my progress. Lately I honestly haven't been doing much in terms of any playing. It's not so much a lack of time but a lack of motivation .__.

Just beat the game yesterday with 75 hours. But I barely killed marks (just a few... like 5 >_>) and the extra espers so yeah... still a lot of work to do. Love the game by the way.

@kharaalaik
As mentioned, 86 hours seems little slow. I just left the Phon Coast last night at 53 hours and my characters are 56, 50, 50, 48, 46, 46. If you want to level up your characters super fast, just play another hour to reach the big city. You can buy accessories there which will give you double exp. Also, try buying the Grimoires which are 18k, 19k, and 20k first. The 25k one doesn't help you out as much as those will. If you don't see them for sale yet, go talk to each type of merchant (magic, weapon, armor, hunt board) at least 40 times to make the grmoires appear. To get the 18k grimoire you need to talk to the clan bazaar guy in bazaar area Rabanastre after you finish one of the early hunts.

@Freelance

Sorry to hear that, but I'm still wide-eyed with anticipation. I play every day, unless my sister has lots of homework.

@ashaman: Thanks, but someone already helped me with that :D

The reason i took so long was because:

A) underlevelled
B) moneyhungry

I would just constantly farm werewolves and the panthers for loot. And I finished off about 20 of the marks. Level wise I'm still low, so that proves an issue. I don't really mind to tell the truth, I just don't want to go against a boss and have to have it last like 10 minutes or whatever. And then lose, too LOL. That happened three times already, so that really pisses me off and I end up not playing the rest of the day. Also, I heard on the way to Archades you have two boss fights without save points. So i want to be minimum level 45 for my 4 main characters (Penelo and Ashe are only level 12 LOL).

edit:: I also bought all the Grimoires and have highest available armor right now, thats why I'm so long into the game. Things get expensive, I'm sitting on ~250,000 Gil right now.

I went on ahead in the story today after completing that bottle sidequest (used the funds to buy another Grimoire) and realizing I can't beat many rank III Marks. Nothing else to do but go forward.

Right now I am at the Phon Coast. After passing through the nasty Mosphoran Highwaste (there's one section with a mob of werewolves!), passing through the Salika Woods was a breeze. Pretty much the entire left section had neutral monsters. Why can't all the moogles take a break in one location? That doesn't make sense.

The Phon Coast is the location in the demo, right? Man, that'd be a perfect vacation spot if all those monsters weren't around. That place is so pretty. Square didn't skimp on the environs. Quite possibly one of the best in VG history.

I can kill werewolves and their kin, and the other neutral tough nasties (like the Wild Saurian in Esterland) now with ease.

Everyone in my team (save Penelo 'cause I don't wanna use her) is at level 29 now, except for Vaan at 30. I've no idea how many hours I've clocked in so far. I never bother to check, but I will next time I play.

I can't find Dispel and Haste anywhere. Help? Someone said they could be found in Eruyt Village, but I went there and I saw nothing.

Y'know, for someone who supposedly is supposed to be the lead, Vaan doesn't say much at all, other than his long speech at Jahara. Everyone else has more lines than him, it seems like. I suppose that's a good thing. He's not chattery like Tidus. Is 'chattery' even a real word?

I still am digging the game a lot so far, contrary to what other people are saying about it regarding the crappy story around halfway through or so, but maybe I haven't gotten along far enough yet. Don't tell me when it happens though, 'cause I want to find out for myself.

P.S. I listened to some of the OST earlier today and damn, I didn't know there was a FFXII rendition of Battle on The Bridge. That's a FFV theme, isn't it? This new version rocks. I didn't care about BGM too much when I first listened to the OST, but after spending more time with the game, I'm definitely warming up to the music. They fit the mood of the various areas they play in.

Dispel is in Nalbina, Haste is sold by the moogle in Eruyt and in Mt Bur after a specific story incident you have already seen. Remember to check all the merchants after major events in the game as they stock newer wares.


Well, he speaks more than Cloud and Squall. :) Actually, the game seems to go more of a FF6 route with no characters being the main character. I like how each character is important to the story and not just thrown in at the last second. Vaan and Penelo's interactions make me smile every time, especially at the Phon Coast.

See that's the thing, Vaan is not actually the lead character, as there are NO lead characters... like FFVI, the cast is an ensemble, which means while Terra and Sabin might take center stage at times, it doesn't mean its all about them.

Same thing for this game: The political and social problems of the world far overlap the misguided dreams of a 17 year old kid, as another person said in an earlier post (forgive me I forget who that was), Vaan (and to an extent, Penello) are just along for the ride. That may be why he doesn't have 10 million monologues. Its not "Vaan's Story", rather it is closer to being "Dalmasca's Story", as everyone is connected to that country in some way or another.

OH, and I just reached Mt. Burmense or whatever its called. Now to get the Liscense for Haste (Oh god I hated "X Enemy is casting Slow") and then do a bit of grinding.

Heh yeah I bought haste as soon as I saw that moogle at Eruyt with it since I had the license open already. I didn't have much money though, and there were Golden Amulets available to buy, too. I was torn :/

But I bought haste, ran through the Ozmone Plains for a bit stealing Iron Carapaces and other things, came back, sold all the loot, bought 3 Golden Amulets. Yay.

That's why I said supposedly the lead. Yes, I agree it seems to go on the FFVI route with no actual lead. Out of the group, Balthier and Ashe seem to have the most importance story-wise.

I disagree that Vaan talks more than Squall. Well, technically, it's true, but Squall's thoughts, which he did a ton of, far surpasses Vaan's words.

Thanks for the help with the magick, guys.

Oh, I played again after I posted that message (my little sister forced me to) and I checked my time. I've been playing for 42 hours already.

The enemies in Phon Coast are pretty tough. Ouch! I fought that T-Rex there and he didn't put up much of a fight. I was just mentioning that to my little sister when BAM! He pulls off this uber attack, killing Vaan in the process. No wonder he wasn't putting much of a fight. Oh well, it's a good place to do some levelling up, 'cause I think I'm underlevelled :(

So since I have the first Grimore, would you suggest Ozmone Plains for getting loot, or another area along the way so far?

As I mentioned in an earlier post (page 90), I suggest

Ok, I'll give those a go then -- stuff here at the Mt. Bur is too expensive ;_;

Darn...you answered already. I was gonna edit my post.

I forgot to add that someone else here mentioned another good place at the Golmore Jungle with those panthers. Either way is good.

I personally suggest the Jungle. You can get 12 panthers that average 250 exp each, and give 1 LP. If you have the Golden Amulets, you can make 24 LP (sometimes more with more panthers) and average 3000 EXP (sometimes more with more panthers). It is an amazing way to level up. You can make 3-4 levels in only a span of an hour. Not to mention the Coerhl (sp?) Pelts. Each of those sell for ~400 Gil. 99 times ~400 = A whole lot of Gil.

I suggest doing whatever hunts you have available now. Hunts earn you money pretty quick, give you new/better equipment to equip/sell, progress the (optional) storylines, and running through weak areas like Eastersand/Giza for a single strong mark will give you tons of LP since you can kill everything with one hit. Have one character only steal so you get double loot the entire time.

It beats running in circles in one area just to kill stuff. Because honestly, the equipment you buy at Mt. Bur (other than Golden Amulets) will only be sold once you get to Nalbina or the Highroad which won't take you too long to arrive. And then you will have to grind some more just to buy that stuff only to sell it and upgrade at the Phon Coast, then Archades, then x, then y, etc. You will learn that it is quicker to skip and upgrade every now an then because they come so quick and cost so much each time for diminishing returns. Especially since certain hunts give you better weapons/armor that you will not find something better for another 3 cities.

Get your three Quickenings for each character too. Make that high priority, even if you don't need the licenses you earn on the way. Once you have them all, even bosses 20 levels higher than you can fall without too much trouble. If you have the Demonsbane, try the sewers/waterway from the beginning of the game for exp. The enemies in there are probably 15 levels higher than you now, so they give great exp, super drops with the grimoires, and once you have your quickenings the rank 5 marks aren't too difficult even at low levels since you can easily get multiple +10 chains between the 6 characters. The common fiends won't be easy so treat each like a mini boss. There is always a save crystal a screen away to replenish you. After you beat them, try to Zal Caverns and get the optional esper. Or go to the Lhusa mines with the site 3 key (accept the antlion hunt) and kill those creature (avoid the antlion though). Killing these higher level enemies is also nice because the sometimes drop equipment that you couldn't buy for another 2-3 cities. Then move up the Highroad do the same there. Or get the key to the Barheim passage. The enemies there are super hard right now, but you can steal deathbringers from them which are the best swords in the game until the very end. The nice thing about the fighting system is you can flee from all of the enemies that can kill you instantly, and go straight to the enemies that you can steal the best items from and fight them as if they were a boss.

I my opinion, with so many sidequests and high level areas open to exploration at all times, you don't need to grind areas just to gain levels. By doing all the optional quests available at the time you will easily gain the levels and skills you need without running around just to kill stuff. When you run out of quests, progress the main storyline by an hour or so. That usually opens up even more areas/hunts for you. I was able to get to level 45 before I entered the Phon Coast, and that was only doing the sidequests. And I kick myself now, because if I had waited just a little longer, I could have bought double exp accessories and leveled up even more while doing those sidequests. The one time I can remember grinding for the sake of gaining levels was at the Yensa Sandsea.

But again, to each their own :)

I'm basically going to do quite a few hunts now. I think I've done so much extracurricular stuff that I forgot there's a story to attend too!

How do you get to the White Mousse hunt? When I'm in Lowtown, I can only go through the right side gate in Storehouse 5, but that leads down the the sewers which then leads to dead ends. The left side gate is locked. How do I go about this?

60 hours so far, a bit more than 300,000 steps and I think that in the last 15 hours, I haven't done anything story-relevant, only hunts and getting espers. My three main characters are all level 54 now which makes things a lot easier, especially since Vaan is equipped with Bubble Belt and has like 8,000 HP now. Yesterday, I tried to fight Fafnir in the Paramina Rift but holy shit, he was kicking my ass O_o

Dear GOD, I finally managed to get the hang of the Quickening system. Now all I need to do is get the rest of them for each character. Anyway, I finally managed to kill the first wall at level 31.

Good Quickening chain + Crap + Belias barely got me a win, but it did the trick. Unfortunately, both times when I went to go check the chest, I either got 7 gil or there wasn't a chest at all.

Anyone know the probabilty of the Demonsbane even appearing the chest? I'm level 37 now, grinding at the Ozmone Plain/Golmore Jungle and finally killed the gil snapper.

My Sandsea trip (two and from the lowest part of the tomb back to Rabanastre) left me with 1500+ LP, so I'm well off there. Any marks I can take down easily? The ones I have now are these:

- Ring Wyrm (III)
- Othros (V)
- White Mousse (V)
- Milithas or Malithis (it's a serpent/viper monster, V)

Which one of these is worthwhile, or should I just grind some more and continue the story?

Note: Also, why on earth do the bows/crossbows miss so much against certain enemies? Often times, against skeletons/toads/wolves I'll get consecutive misses. So much so that I switch to the character's secondary weapons (Penelo's bow swapped for dagger, Ashe's Xbow swapped for partisan, or my spiffy heavy lance).

I have to decide wich game to get for christmas. I'm rather undecided among ff12, tales of the abyss, and silmeria (even if i think i won't buy this one, since i can't afford to get an original copy of vp1).
So, wich one do you say would the best game to play during holidays?

Um, considering this is the FFXII thread, most people are going to say FFXII.

Since FFXII is the only game I've played out of your list, I won't be very helpful. FFXII gives you a lot to do though, so that should definitely keep you occupied over the holidays.

I really want to play ToA, but I haven't gotten it yet. People say it's great too, so I suppose it doesn't really matter which one you decide.

I've never heard of the third game you mentioned.

Where can you buy the amulet for doubling XP? I think I found one that was loot off an enemy, but I cant seem to find where I can buy it anywhere.

Well, I have no idea, but something else about bows. Since speed is a contributing factor in the damage rate, why do they make Fran out to be a bow user when she is the slowest character? Vaan plus longbow equals win. Gave Fran a pole. Also, I like how Penelo is wielding a goddamned katana that is nearly bigger than she is.