[PS2] Final Fantasy XII

My top guys (Ashe, Basch, Balthier) are all at about level 35, with about 2400 something HP, but I don't think that's going to mean much in the upcoming parts. I'm at the foot of Mt Bur Omisce, but even though the enemies there are generally easy, I'm gearing up for a THIRD expedition into the Feywood. I want to get 99 sturdy bones (48,000 gil right there) from the ice snowy area.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Denicalis

Not counting pebbles, of course.

Wait, pebbles I just sell, even though it's minute in value. This is a good thing right, for me to sell it.

ooooh a pebble!

I didn't read of any amazing qualities in the description, so I just sell them.

How ya doing, buddy?

Guns have almost 100% accuracy, and I think they can penetrate all types of armor no matter what armor class the enemy is wearing, but I might be wrong, I have to check my guide again.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

So basically you did most of the skimming process then?

I'm shy of 50 hours in and not even really reached much more than the foot of Mt. Bur Ormisce, talk about SLOOOOOW. And I haven't really done much hunts either, around 10 or so.

I got the 2nd set of Grilmore forgotten notes or whatever they are. I got them for 22000 surprisingly, instead of 25000. I got them at Eruyt village.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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 .__.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Metal Sphere

- Ring Wyrm (III)

I was afraid after looking at this guys massive HP amount, but he's not that bad.

Spoiler:

I had all six characters at full MP, and started just knocking him around with regular attacks. Cast slow and try poison on the guy. He'll shoot out breath which is a fire attack, but it's great if you have Belias out to help you, since he'll do about 3000 dmg per hit. Keep your summoner focused on healing both him/herself and the summon, not fighting. I had Ashe as the summoner and she had 3 full bars, so I summoned Belias three times.

After that, I switched out my active party with my reserve and got them all the quicken with level 3 quickenings, and this took off quite a bit. After I switched back to my first party, then continued fighting and healing where needed. Make sure you have Esusna on your active party. After that just quicken with your active party.

Quote:

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).

If youre having trouble with the aiming and missing (which Balthier was terrible at) then switch back to guns. Guns are weaker but have basically 100% accuracy, and can deal equal damage regardless of enemy class or armour, I think, but Guns are slow, and even if you have haste, it'll be slightly slower than your melee comrades.

Speaking of hunts, most of the 16 I've done so far haven't been anywhere near hair raising. Going to the Feywood is about three times more challenging than the most difficult hunt so far, maybe the Gil Snapper would be the hardest, but not too hard. I like how the dudes in Clan Centurio are basically acknowledging my hunting skills now. GOOD JOB SON, YOU'RE LOOKING MORE LIKE A HUNTER NOW!

I was speaking idiomatically.

Again, I thought I'd never say this, but I'm very bored of FFXII now. Its like I'd rather just chat on AIM and half heartedly watch an anime episode rather than play that. I don't know, I've just lost steam on it, with much surprise. I remember the days where I could imagine where I couldn't stop playing for hours, and now... =/

[/emovideogamerant]

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yeah, I've clocked 51 hours strong, and doing mob hunts after hunts. I'm still, after about 15 hours of "other stuff", still at the foot of Mt Bur Omisce, or whatever it's called. In a way I'm playing FFV Advanced at the same time whenever I'm away from my PS2, and I'm almost, dare I say, missing random encounters. In FFXII, I almost find myself going "oh god not another one", which is generally harder to say that in random encounters when you don't know about it. I'll try to pick it up again tomorrow after work.

Reflecting back now, I never really had this problem with Valkyrie Profile 2, despite the MASSIVE level grinding I did in Palace of the V Dragon. I guess that's testiment to how much I loved the battle system for VP2. Maybe it's such a radical change from micromanaging everything in VP2 to now mainly sitting back and letting the computer do the work. I know the option of turning off gambits, but I find gambits do a better job than myself manually doing everything.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Dr. Uzuki

If not, as burned out on it as you may be, I like the jungle for grinding because the area is a line you can just plow through. Much better than wide open fields in my opinion. The snowy area not only has a lot more travel to it but those dark skeletons bug the hell out of me. Maybe the mines as well, I dunno, but the jungle is a lot more dense with enemies.

I don't mind the skeletons at all, considering I still have Larsa in my party, and I want to exercise that as much as posible. I think some of my guys are level 30 plus, but Vaan is my lowest still sitting at 20, since I hate that guy. Golomore Jungle is a pretty good spot to level up, since it's such a confined space and you can get 4 Malboros or 4 panthers all just sitting around taking a crap and doing nothing. I've had Larsa for the longest time, and took him along quite a few hunts just as an extra hand. Handly little fellow, he is.

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From Mt. Bur-Omisace to Archades is the so-called "dead spot" in the middle of the game.

Ah shit, just when I just wanted to get back into the story of the game ;___;. Now I think I'll put the game off to the side now. Nothings worse gaming wise when I'm FORCING myself to play, and be bored of it more.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

250,000 gil, holy cow. Even I tremble at 10% of that in my pocket. Well 25,000 isn't too hard to acquire, but 250,000, damn son! I have about 3 of the Grimore stuff. Which page in the walkthrough talks about these forgotten grimores again?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

HELL YES.

I got to Ancient Egypt Stillshrine of Mblahblah. that's not the HELL YES part. When I fought the three dragons all at the same time, I just did some quickenings, not expecting much, but then DAMN, my concurrence was the Black Hole. I think I got everyone to do all three levels of their attacks, ESPECIALLY the 3rd final attack, and that's what triggered it. DRAGONS BOW DOWN TO THE ADVENTURERS GREATER THAT YOU!

How ya doing, buddy?

No, I also quicked on the two bosses in the shrine, the first was a joke but the second meant serious business.

Tonight was the night for a few first for FFXII.

First time I've chained past 12 for my mists.

First time I've seen Black Hole and Illuminescence or something.

First time I've actually enjoyed some dungeon crawling.

First time I HONESTLY thought I'd die and get whiped out (but still beat it on first try). Damn I wasted a Megaelixir too. The boss was Mateus.

Spoiler:

CAUSE I FORGOT TO TURN ON GAMBITS, . I turn off Gambits right before boss fights so I can have max MP for Quicks, but it's a matter of turning it back on.

Most amazing jew boots

Not really dragons, you see them dancing around in a circle. The book just said to quicken them, and I did, and they died. RIP.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I find the license board a bit more friendlier than the sphere grid, and I seem to see results much sooner. However, most of my guys have already cleaned out the augmentations and most of the basic spells. I find that I'm cleaning up the license board than the sphere grid ala FFX.

Hachifusa, don't worry, you're not the only one. Sometimes when I'm not in story mode, I find myself just about as compelled to do stuff (Read, not very compelled) much like in San Andreas. In San Andreas, I really only bothered with story elements and not going on my own rampages. Similarily, in FFXII, I find myself having to drag myself doing level grinding to mainly aim for 3 items: EXP, LP, and loot for gil. After a while this grind gets pretty ... annoying, as with most level grinding I've experienced in most RPGS.

The treasure chests are pretty annoying yes, however Final Fantasies are notorious for Lost Forevers. Think of FFVII where you needed Barrett in your party to climb the stairs before you fought Hojo. Or where in FFVIII you needed to talk to Cid to get the magic lamp to acquire Diablos, one of the best GFs in that game, which was a lost forever if you left the screen without talking to him. Or worse, fighting boss NORG and forgetting to draw the GF from him?

I think if FF actually didn't piss me off in terms of lost forevers, it was FFX for the celestial weapons. Yes they were hard to obtain via chocobo racing and getting the celestial mirror, but all in all it was doable, even dodging 200 lightning bolts (which after reading a few FAQs, I made my own little technique). There were Al Bhed primers which were lost forevers in the wedding area, but who really cares for some damn dictionary vs CELESTIAL WEAPONS?

I was speaking idiomatically.

I thought of two points I wanted to address. The first being lost forevers. As hard as it might be to have the notion of almost in a way "forfeiting" a special weapon without knowing about it can be pretty nerveracking, I think so far FFVII's Vincent as being a lost forever is much more "heart breaking". I wouldn't honestly have found out about Vincent if I weren't reading the guide. I don't remember ever seeing any notes around the ghost mansion when you entered in, but it's been a while since I've last played FFVII so bear with me. But losing out on a character is FAR worse than a weapon, in my opinion, and from what members have been saying here, isn't all that great and flashy and there are other more viable weapons available later in the game.

The second point is when Ashe and company visited the old elf guy at Mt Bur Omiscene, I have to say the character animation really did show how much it progressed since FFX. Sure some parts were a bit jerky and the like, but the textures, shading, and hair were dramatically improved from the previous FF game, so that's a big kudos to this game really bringing out what the PS2 can do for character models.

Compare that to the laughing scene featured in FFX, which did try to invoke some human emotion in the faces, but is quite jerky compared to FFXII. I'll try to find a FFXII cut scene to help with the comparisons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU8-e-C4Uy0

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I liked the polished floors on the airships and just outside the Stilshrine.

Quote:

Oh, the models in this game are downright amazing

YES! I think the biggest improvement is in the eyes and that they look more fleshy and watery, as well as the hair. For example, the old elf guy's hair was quite well done, similiarly with Larsa's and Al-something Cid, the "hip fashion" guy.

FELIPE NO

One thing I want to make sure though, is are any of the Esper summonthingamajigs lost forevers? I've completed basically the Stilshrine of Miriam, but I've just got my second esper which is story related. I honestly wouldn't have mind if they brought back triple triad into FFXII. Why not? it's Squaresoft's (note the date) invention anyway, and one of their most addictive minigames, so seeing it in FFXII wouldn't be a rip off I'd think. Unless they're aiming for originality and don't want any "cross referencing" besides FFTA ;___;

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Freelance Wolf

Man...I just came back after a grueling battle with the nasty Wyrm in the Westersand (the one that only comes during a sandstorm). After more than five tries, I managed to kick its keister. Like geez, all these Hunts rank III and up are uber tough for me, but you get a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside when you beat them. Now I have to stock up on more ethers. I had to use a lot just to scrape a win, and my entire party was down to a few HP.

What levels are you? I found myself pretty much near cake walking this guy. Sure I had to use a hell load of hi potions, but I had Larsa in my party as well, so that probably helped. I did do the "quickening-switcheroo" which basically you pull out your reserves with full MP right away and let them do a quickening, then I got Ashe out to summon Belias. Belias did about 3000 damage per hit so that drained down the Wyrm somewhat. Then when he was down to about 25% health, I did a quickening with my guys in the active party to clean it up.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I went through the side quest portion several times to make sure I didn't miss out on anything. I had about the same stats, with guys about 2500 while Penelo at 1600 at the time. Yeah your type of armor is important for most battles up. Do you have an esuna gambit? A lot of bosses now are going to unleash status ailments on your party, because they are very nice folks.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'm finding the boss battles increasingly difficult. I just finished beating

Spoiler:

Judge Bergen

I thought this guy was somewhat of a pain, because I couldn't get his three minions around him to pull of a quickening, so I just went ahead and did THE WORST quickening chain EVAR. It was basically 1X lvl 3, 1X lvl 2, and 1X lvl 1, which resulted in NO concurrence, obviously. It did take off like 80% of the dudes health, which at that point the boss went APESHIT on my party, dealing easily 500-1000 damage at any time, and I had to use probably a good 5 phoenix downs for that fight. It so happened that Balthier had one bar left, and I went with a quickening for him, and that chain was much better.

At any rate, what should I do now? I'm trying to find that Trickster hunt, and I'm supposed to go to Arcadia via the Salikawood. Would you recommend I hike all the way there and make a pit stop in Rabanastre to pack up? I'm pretty low on gil, so maybe I should.

Has anyone tried fighting Zeromuse in the Shrine, because I got a stone of the condemned, and would like a 3rd esper, if possible. Mind as well since I'm close. I just need to do some level grinding and perhaps get more loot, since I have exactly 666 gil in my bank account ^__^.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Alright, I find my guys reacting pretty slowly, even though they have haste now. I think I'll have to do some grinding to keep up, since I find my weaposn aren't too great. I got Balthier to go Melee now, since he's missing TOO MUCH and guns that are available are just too week. I'm about 56 hours into the game now, just defeated the 2nd fightable judge.

Basch is at 38
Balthier is at 37
Ashe is at 36
Penelo is at 31
Fran is at 23
Vaan is at 21, since I hate him, but I might have to start using him so he can put up a fight later on, since he'll be my reserve character.

With your espers, how do you increase their levels? Do you just have to keep summoning them for them to fight and get XP? Man this is going to take a LONG time if that's the case. I found the AP system in VIII and even the other item system in X pretty easy to boost your GFs and Aeon stats.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I neglect her because well, she's not hot anymore.

Spoiler:

She's like 70 years old?

I was speaking idiomatically.

ABOUT 70.

Spoiler:

This number I’m throwing around, but didn’t they say that she did leave the woods on her own, not when she was a baby? I’m guessing she’s at least 20 when she left, of the decision she made 50 years ago. I dunno.

Most amazing jew boots

As for the Forgotten Grimore, I think I got something called the "Warmage Something", which obviously isn't what it's really called, but it's called something similiar to that. This is my fourth Forgotten Grimore I've got today. Also I returned the unopened FFXII regular edtion to Best Buy, since that's basically $50 sitting there doing nothing, while I have the CE already. Talk about letting go of some pointless things, especially when I can get this game in 1 years time for half the price, which I doubt it.

Finally Basch has been the first to reach level 40. I've racked up over 500,000 clan points and am a Brave Companion for my rank, which I hope that Moogle will reward me somewhat handsomely. I've decided to go do some stealing while I make my way to Rabanastre, especially in the Ozmone Plains, where all the enemies are pretty weak now and can be taken down in about 2-3 hits.

As a matter of fact, I'd actually like to make a trip down to the Z caves, which I think are about has hard as the Feywood, but I can't remember. I just remember the first time I went down there, some crazy ass horse whipped my whole partys ass to me, and then I basically GTFO ASAP.

FELIPE NO