[PS2] Final Fantasy XII

I just love that prologue theme...I waaaant.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Jesus I finally managed to go pick up my game after hours of throwing hints and waving my receipt around. I need to learn how to drive.

When the clerk handed me the LE guide, I nearly smashed my fingers under it. That'll teach me to underestimate the weight of two books in a bulky but sexy cover. But those illustrations in the beginning of the artbook made my night. That and I got the Penelo cover, which just makes me super happy because her character intrigues me the most. I had just decked out my myspace with Penelo last night, too, haha, what luck.

Well, it's late and people are wanting to sleep but I don't care. It's time to pop the game in and play, woooo.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I forget how many hours I'm up to now between exploring, doing hunts, and levelling up, but I just got out of the Barheim Passage and am heading to the aerodome in Rabanastre to leave for the next part. So far I'm having fun, the voices are pretty cool. Balthier's voice is more...strong than I imagined but I've grown to love it (and Fran's accent is great, really perfect for her). Vaan's voice was a nice surprise (not whiny or whatever like I would've expected to come out of him from looks alone) but the actor seems to really keep his lines brief and quick. Like he just ...says them. Probably the only emotion I've heard so far is when we saw Basch for the first time since the opening.

Anyway, I was trying to hunt a Cluckatrice but got my ass handed to me when I found it so I think I'll get back to killing it and its little babies a bit later when I've levelled up more... It was already hard enough trying to beat the Wraith. Everyone had Doom cast on them but I had nothing to get rid of it. I was lucky enough to beat the Wraith, but I forgot that unlike other games...the infliction won't go away once the battle is over. So everyone still had Doom cast on them and everyone was on, like, count 2. So I hightailed it for the exit to Lowtown and JUST reached it by the time everyone hit 0, but was already on my way out and safe.

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

Originally Posted by Spatula

If you're in the Estersand, there's a rare encounter with Cluckertrice which has protect casted on him - you'll see the blue hexagon by the health bar of the enemy, and that's the one (use Libra to confirm it's called the Nehkbet, according to my guidebook). He has a very high HP and strong attack. I recommend you take him out (cast protect on yourself and work up some good cure gambits) when Basch is a guest character. This way you have 4 characters instead of the normal three. He's tough, but beatable.

I'm hunting the Cluckatrice in the Giza Plains North Bank right now, one of the elite marks given out by Montblanc. This Cluckatrice has a lot of HP, and even it's chicks are hard to dispose of. And when they all gang up on one character...oy. I don't have Basch as a guest anymore though I was sad when I learned I could only have three in my party. If I can't beat it just by levelling up, then I'll probably just resort to chaining Quickenings repeatedly....now that I finally have them worked out.

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

Wooo, killed that Cluckatrice early this morning. Just decided to chain Basch and Vaan's Quickenings since they were the only two that had them at this point for me. Took the Cluckatrice down in a hit chain of 9, and used Quickenings again on one Chickatrice and just hacked away at the others. Now I've just got the Rocktoise hunt to accept from Pilika which I can do on the way to where ever I'm supposed to go next in the story. I've spent so much time in the Giza Plains already...I kind of really love the theme now.

Originally Posted by soapy

How do you use quickenings properly? Are you supposed to spam the button that shows up? I managed to get everyone a quickening and did some combo thing which killed a boss instantly I don't know if I'm doing it efficiently.

Well that's more or less it. You wanna chain them to make a combo and then end with a Concurrence. Take my Vaan and Basch for example.

I have Vaan use his Quickening. Then on the screen, Ill see the timer going down. What I also want to see is Basch's name next to a button on the controller I'm supposed to push (like the square button), because that will allow me to chain with him. If I don't see his name, I'll hit the R2 button to "shuffle" until I see Basch's name pop up. As soon as I do I mash the square button because to make sure the command goes through.

Then it'll switch to Basch as he powers his move. Now I should see Vaan and Basch's name below. It'll basically be the same thing here, I shuffle until I see either Vaan (with a triangle button) or Basch's name highlight and push the button next to the name before time runs out. Sometimes you'll see "Mist Charge" instead of the name of the Quickening each character uses. You should try to select that whenever you can.

After chaining a few hits the timer will go down extremely fast. Depending on how many hits you chained and what level Quickenings you used, you will trigger a Concurrence. It's basically a final move. So far I got Inferno and Cataclysm (this one I got after my chain of 9 hits).

I was speaking idiomatically.

I don't think it actually matters what Quickenings each character has.

Vaan has Red Spiral for me, and Basch has Dark...something. But from what I've been reading, no matter what Quickening spot you open up on the board for Vaan (I had one on the very top by one of the Accessory licenses, and Basch's was one on the bottom near the Axe & Hammers licenses), he will always get Red Spiral for his Lvl. 1 Quickening, and it will be similar for other characters (Basch will always get Dark whatever first, Fran will always get Feral Strike first, I think...not sure since I don't have her's yet).

So you're basically just unlocking each character's personal set of Quickenings when you buy the license.

And I also saw a list of Concurrences on GameFAQs, it only matters how many times you chain it, and what the level of the Quickening is to get certain Concurrences. I don't know if the combinations are complete yet, but it's something to keep in mind, I guess.

Oh and Spatula, about the page thing, I'm seeing the same thing in mine, too. I have no idea why it's like that, it confuses me O.o It's like they made placeholders but forgot to put in the numbers before they printed or something...

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Made it to Raithwall's Tomb this morning (what a name, it's just asking for creepy shit to come and kill you). I was so, so, so, so tired...I just wanted to beat the bosses as fast as possible and LEAVE so I could sleep. So I was extremely cheap and I Mist'd them both to death in one move, then I ran back out, saved, and slept. And then I dreamt that a demon wall ate me

Oh yeah, and for some reason I felt really, really sad about

Spoiler:

the Urutan-Yensa that was dust'd by the creepy Queen, and the poor moogle was crying, awwww

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Freelance Wolf

Can't say that moogle was crying though. Sad , yes. Crying, no.

I dunno. It wiped its eyes several timesduring the scene and when I talked to it after so I assumed it was crying even if there were no visible tears. Either way, it was still sad.

Anyway, I bought that Grimoire thing from the bazaar and I have no idea if it's actually doing what it says it should. either way I saved over the wrong slot so if it's useless then I'm out of a lot of money. But I guess it's all right, I'll just sell stuff. I just got Penelo for the pirate den thing, too. I think I've only unlocked 7 of them, sneh.

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

Ooh, sweet. That's awesome then...that big loot netted me lots of money in the end and the protect/shell it cast was very helpful. I should go on a skeleton run, soon. Or..actually, I think I can probably try it out with the Urutan-Yensa in the sandsea. That'll be pretty awesome. I notice that I get more Rainbow Eggs out of Axebeaks but I dunno if that's actually an effect of the hunter book. Either way, it's nice to have all those eggs to sell!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'm at about 30 hours now and I'm just heading to the Ozmone Plains for the first time. I've spent several hours leveling up (lots of battle chaining going on), doing available sidequests (hunts mainly), and just exploring/completing maps and killing monsters for sage knowledge. Character levels range from 22-24 right now. I went to the Highwaste land in the Estersands...killed some of those wolfy things and then got chased by a Saurian and ambushed by 3 more wolfies. Near murder. So I ran off with my tail between my legs. Went back to Garamsythe for a hunt...ambushed by Malboro Kings, party was wiped out. Yeah, I think I'll just get on with the story instead of this for now >.<

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

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

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.

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

Originally Posted by TheXeno

Anyway through out the game I keep checking the two cactus's, I don't see a third and I'm stumped plz if anyone has done this side quest plz tell me. I've done all the hunts up to Gilgamesh so I don't think that has anything to do with it :P

There are only two Dynast-Cactoids in the area he's talking about. I found the item under the one farthest from the exit. There are two small "dead end" areas in the Westersand. You want the one farthest to the West, it can only be accessed from the most southern part of the Westersand, I think.

Originally Posted by Musharraf

What's the chance to get there when it's dry. I left and re-entered this area like twenty times and it was always raining

It changes from Dry to Rains and back every hour on your game clock. I spent an hour and a half in Giza once and it was raining the whole time, then I went back to Rabanastre and a Seeq told me "well it's the middle of the Dry now..." so I checked my game clock and the minutes were about 21 so it was about right.

If you haven't yet, you might have to progress to Jahara or something before it'll start changing on its own, I'm not too sure.



I'm still trudging through the Golmore Jungle. I decided to go try to fight White Mousse again, but I have bad luck. I have a good strategy worked out but every time I try to fight it, a fucking elemental is right there bothering me. 4 out of 5 times it has happened to me so I gave up for now (which I always say...). Same for Othros since it's in the same place.

I did go kill Ring Wyrm in the Westersand, as well as Marilith in Zertinan Caverns now. Those weren't too bad. It was much easier getting through the caverns this time around. I was considering fighting the Earth Tyrant but I'm already saved in the Ozmone Plains and I don't feel like running back -_-

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Spatula

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.

Aw why did you pay less?

I got my 2nd set at Jahara but I had to pay the 25,000...I think. Uh, I forget exactly...it wiped out my gil, though :x

Apparently each Grimoire is tied to a certain type of monster. Like the one set is for beasts and avions, one set is for undead, etc.

Originally Posted by Guest

Hey guys, just a quick question. Is there a factor that determines when a new spell or technique appears in the shops? If I learn the liscenses for or around them, will they show up for purchase sooner? Or is it really just a matter of story progression. I'm at Hennes Mines now and I think its kind of weird how I don't have certain spells yet, like Haste, Fira, Revive, Renew, etc.

I think it just depends on a point and place in the storyline. I just got Haste, Fira/Blizzara/Thundara, and some others at Eruyt after returning from Henne.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Spoiler:

Wowee, level 30? I only just started hitting level 30 with my characters in the jungle

But yeah Demonsbane rocks, gave it to Vaan and he's pretty much kicking ass, haven't found a better sword for him yet.

Quickenings worked for me but I literally just get lucky every time I use them in the game. Sometimes I will have names pop up immediately or right after the first shuffle. Other times I can't get ANYTHING. When it came to both Demon Walls, I had 2 Quickenings on two of the three people I used, one had one Quickening, everyone had full MP bars, so it was easier to get another chain in with the shuffle.

But there have been times where just nothing ever pops up for me regardless of having all the bars full. Sometimes I can chain up to 12 hits, sometimes I can barely chain 5 hits. It's just really random for me. I've seen people say they've chained 20+ hits and I have no idea how they did it. Even with all my characters having unlocked all of their Quickenings, I've never gotten past 15.

The only thing I can really think of is if you have more than one Quickening on characters, choose a Lvl. 1 move first to start it all off, then you'll have more MP for more chains before you have to Mist Charge. I often do that and I can get in 3 hits with just one character alone without having to shuffle, or just shuffling once.

Other than that...I guess you could button mash between shuffles :/

FELIPE NO

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.

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

I can only find an Ashe:

http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=181431

I love those wallpapers! *get*

Sigh, I haven't played this for awhile. Too engulfed in Wii. I plan to set aside some time for this game tomorrow. Left off on my way through Golmore after getting Mjrn so got a ways to go.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

...I had abandoned this game for a long time to play LoZ:TP...which I abandoned for a long time to play GTA:VCS...which I also abandoned to play GGXX#Reload...but then I finished VCS and TP so now it is time to finish FFXII. I just opened up the rest of that jungle area so I gotta get through. I'm gonna have one hell of a time readjusting to this game >.<

There's nowhere I can't reach.