[PS2] Final Fantasy XII

I have no main party. My highest-leveled character is at level 28 right now, and my lowest is 26. As soon as one of them levels up, I switch him or her for another one. Leaving some characters at a very low level is a mistake, one that I've made far too often. I swore I wouldn't do it this time. And I haven't.

I haven't bothered to specialize my characters, though. All of them are good at everything. However, this means that if I do need to specialize them for a particular battle, it will only take a few gambit and/or weapon changes to make them into whatever I want.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Quote:

I, on the other hand didn't really see any points in using more than three characters during the main storyline. I mean unless you really like all characters and want to use them all, what's the point?

So you can have an entire team of strong fighters in case something happens to some of them.

Quote:

Especially early on, it's easily better to use only three as you'll want to get enough LP to unlock all three quickenings. The value of the MP boost you get from that is really hard to overestimate.

I just hung around and power leveled to do that. I'm not even 1/4 of the way through the game yet, but I already have nearly the entire right half of everybody's license board completed. Now I just need to do the left half where all of the weapons are, although I won't be getting a lot of those weapons for quite some time...

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

Quote:

But the argument was whether to use three or six characters with the same amount of time spent leveling.

It was? Since when? I thought the argument was about having a well-balanced party with plenty of backup in case of emergencies...

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

Quote:

You're sorta contradicting yourself there.

I apologize. Sometimes I just have an incredibly difficult time properly articulating my thoughts.

Quote:

As I said, I would rather spend x hours on leveling three characters than x hours leveling all six. Thus ending up with three characters that are much stronger than the other three. Instead of having all six be somwhere inbetween.

Or, I could have six characters that are all extremely powerful. For me personally, time spent levelling up never enters the equation, because I have an extreme tolerance for tedious, boring tasks.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Well, I just got to the Mountain.

Spoiler:

LOL at Al-Cid. How badass. Also, poor Drace. That was so awful! I've never seen anything like that in any other FF game, except Tactics. But it's so much more shocking when it's ultra-realistic like that.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

The Antlion? Hah, I couldn't even get that far into the mine. The damn headless monsters absolutely killed my party. Well, I never actually game-over'd, but it was close, so I had to leave. Does anyone have any tips? My characters are all pretty well-levelled and have strong weapons.

I'm wondering if I should use the Negalmuur auto-leveling trick...

FELIPE NO

Well, one on one, I can kill them in just a few hits, but two or more and I have trouble managing things. The desperation attack they use is the worst, though. I actually had to use my other three characters because my current party got killed in one hit! Even Bubble doesn't help much. I need better armor.

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

So, I saved my game in the rest area of the highwaste, only to now find that I cannot load my game. I swear to God, if my save is corrupted, I'm going on a shooting spree. It says that the file has been loaded successfully, but the game never loads.

I'm so pissed right now. All of that time spent leveling, all of those marks hunted, 70 hours put into the game and I'm not even halfway through, and then everything fails.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

No worries. I'm going start a new game, then use a cheating device to give myself the same levels, armor and weapons that I had before, and then speedrun my way back to where I was. It shouldn't take too long. The only reason I logged 70 hours is from all of the leveling up. Just running through back to where I was should only take a few hours tops. What really pisses me off is losing all of my mark hunts and clan ranking. I worked damn hard killing some of those guys.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Quote:

That man has never created a fun, interesting song in his life.

That is just so wrong on so many levels. Sakimoto's work is utterly brilliant.

How ya doing, buddy?

One save file, and one card. The save file itself doesn't seem to be corrupted. I noticed that the CD itself is riddled with scratches and gouges. Somehow, my PS2 scratched the hell out of my nice collector's edition CD. I am going to aquire a new CD and see if it fixes the problem.

Also: I started a new game, and it crashed hard when I tried to fill in a license panel, leading me to believe it might be the CD and/or game programming itself.

And: Just for safety's sake, I went out and bought a codebreaker and a usb drive today and backed up all of my save files. I should have done this a long time ago.

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

So, I downloaded an ISO of FFXII, burnt it (which is OK, because I already own the game), and now everything works again like it is supposed to. There IS a God. Now I can finish those mark hunts in the Giza Plains too.

I was speaking idiomatically.

So, I managed to get the Zodiac Spear. Unfortunately, I'm now trapped in the Necrohol. All of the zone transition areas are backed up with enemies that followed me through the first time. Wish me luck getting out of there. (And back out of the Deadlands!)

Edit: Killer. It was actually a lot easier getting out than it was getting in...

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Quote:

Wow, congrats.

Yep. This thing rules. I'm doing 3000+ damage even on tough enemies. And I'm only level 40. Right now, I'm trying to get the golem mark in the deadlands, and I'm having a hell of a time of it. The skeletons keep respawning over and over, and I can't handle all of them. Oh well, at least I managed to beat the Antlion. The spear took care of him easy.

FELIPE NO

Two simple questions: I just arrived at Giruvegan. Roughly how "done", am I?

And: How long did it take you to beat the Pharos dungeon? I've heard it puts even the Snowfly Forest to shame...

Double Post:
Say, has anyone else used the Negalmuur auto-leveling trick? I thought I'd give it a try, and I must say, this is pretty cool. It isn't so good for gaining levels quickly, but LP and money? Hell yes. Especially now that I've set two of my party members to steal from the Ghasts that spawn. Pretty soon I'm going to have a ton of Paramina crossbows to sell, at G3330 each, not to mention all of that festering flesh, dark magicite, and float motes. And I didn't even have to watch the game. I went for a walk, did some other stuff, and the loop was still going by itself when I got back.

This really shows the true beauty of the gambit system, IMO.

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

Quote:

Almost done

Seriously? Damn, if you remove all of the leveling and mark hunts, the actual body of the game itself is surprisingly short. That's really disappointing, because I didn't want it to end this soon. If you could just run through the game and not have to level or hunt monsters, the actual gameplay time would probably be shorter than even Chrono Trigger's.

Quote:

Never tried it as the Deadbones leveling is a bit mroe involved but the rewards and money are even better.

I dunno. I'm going to leave the Stillshrine with over 400,000 gil in loot. I've already killed several thousand enemies. According to the guide I looked at, I'm earning 216000 EXP per hour. You can earn more elsewhere, I'm sure, but when you consider the fact that this way, the game is running on full-auto pilot, (which means zero effort from me, and no time wasted in front of the TV) the Negalmuur method looks a lot nicer.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Incomplete is right. What a big let down. They didn't even go into any detail about the nature of the Rozzarian empire, something that I've really wanted to know about. They must not be that bad, though. You can tell because whenever someone says 'The Empire" it always refers to Archadia. There are no references to Rozzaria invading or otherwise subjugating other lands, either.

But we can never know for sure, because so much is left unelaborated!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Musharraf

Interestingly, I didn't think that FFXII had too many awesome "movie-esque" scenes, yes okay, the intro was quite awesome, but as for the rest, I dunno...

Spoiler:

What about the scene where Drace is killed? Or where the party confronts Judge Bergan? There are so many awesome scenes I can't even count them all.

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

Man, is that giant rock in the middle of the Giruvegan hall nethicite? Because if it is... Jesus Christ!

Double Post:

Spoiler:

VENAT IS A HERETIC!

I had my speakers turned up very loud, and this was very startling. Totally wasn't expecting that. That was definitely the best cutscene yet.

Spoiler:

I'm still not sure how I feel about the Occuria. They seem as though they have some kind of ulterior motive, possibly even something sinister. On the other hand, I have to agree with them about what Venat is doing, and about guiding the flow of history. Clearly, in the wrong hands, Nethicite is incredibly dangerous. Nabudis is evidence enough of this, so I can see why they would be angry with Venat for just handing out such knowledge. Everything they said about humans is true. Being guided by our base desires, wasting our too-short lives in things that, in the end, don't even matter. I am reminded of VIKI's quote from I, Robot: "You are so like children." And, like children, we can be pretty ornery at times. It takes humility to admit that you may not always be right. Perhaps, even more to admit that you need help and guidance. If the history of the humans in Ivalice is anything like ours, they certainly do need the guidance of the Occuria, whether they want to admit it or not.

Oops, got a little carried away, heh.

How ya doing, buddy?

Spoiler:

I think that Venat is up to something. Something about her (its?) voice and appearance is noticably darker than the other Occuria, which I actually find to be quite beautiful in appearance. This may possibly be some type of misdirection, however. Personally, I think Venat has been misleading Dr. Cid and the others for some nefarious purpose. The manner in which she speaks, I can just sense that she is playing on the sense of superiority and pride that stems from their own human nature. For the time being, I trust the other Occuria, they seem to be alright to me. Gerun seemed genuinely upset about Venat's doings, so I don't think they're in on anything.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Quote:

If you near-endgame guys want, we could beat the game on the same day and have an ending discussion.

That would be pretty awesome. I'm heading to Pharos today. Let's hope I don't go all FPS_Piccolo trying to beat it.

And also,

Spoiler:

I have to agree with you about the merciless part. All their talk about passing judgement on humans (and not only that, but using Ashe to pass more judgement) and "Let live some, and crush the rest" is evidence enough of that. However, their thoughts on humes are remarkably lucid, and I can't really bring myself to disagree with them.

Something I've been thinking of. Did anyone else ever feel bad about killing the cute, innocent creatures, like the Mandragora or Happy Bunny? I was walking along the Phon Coast, and I came upon a group of adorably cute little plant-men. They had green life bars, so I left them alone. They followed me for a long time, dancing around all the while. They weren't in my beastiary yet, so I had no choice but to kill them. They were helpless to resist as I snuffed out their little lives.

...Heh.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Ugh. Do you have any tips for beating Ultima? I am NOT leaving the Crystal until she is mine. It took too damn long to get there.

FELIPE NO

No! I had her down to 1/16 HP, and then she killed my party. The MP drain is what did it, because then I couldn't Arise or Curaja anyone. Also the fact that she overrides my attacks. I'll pick an attack, charge my attack bar, and then she attacks first. And then again. And again. Fucking cheapass. I know that my party is strong enough to beat her. My gambits are the problem. I'll admit it: I'm a piss poor strategist, and I've brute-forced my way through the whole game.

I need some gambit tips for Ultima.

Double Post:
HAH! Got her. Take that, you stupid mother bitch.

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

Quote:

You can take advantage of this by putting on the Firefly accessory on 2 of the highest level characters in the active party. Since they'll be gaining 0 exp per enemy, all the experience points go to the person without the fireflies equipped.

Are you quite sure? Because I just tested this and that is not how it is working. I had F-flies on 2 of my members, and an Embroidered Tippet on one, and he still only got twice as much. One deadbones = 1598 EXP; with the Tippet, I got 3196. According to what you said, I should be getting 9588 EXP each time, (1598 for myself, plus the other 3196 that would have gone to the other two members, times two because of the Tippet) which has yet to happen.

Unless I'm totally misunderstanding what you're saying.

Double Post:
I'm starting Pharos right now. Wish me luck. Also, that boss was awesomely disgusting, sprinkling maggots everywhere with each step!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Quote:

Reverse + Lure was working for a bit, but the former misses too often and in general it's time consuming.

As long as you can stay alive, I recommend that route. I had to use the same setup to defeat Gilgamesh.

Most amazing jew boots