[PS2] Final Fantasy XII

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I know I'll be replaying this game over and over. It has the same potential as FFVIII for luring me back when I get ideas for weird character set-ups. I'll want to try a solo game, a game with no magic, with no weapons, etcetera....

Yeah I see this game has quite a bit of replay value of one has a bit of time on ones hands. For example using certain weapons, not power leveling <.<, not taking on advanced marks and doing all the side quests...

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I don't use any gambit. I'd rather manually tell them what to do because I'm just used to it after playing lots of RPGs. I'm doing just fine without them. Does anyone else feel the same way?

Freelance Wolf I would recommend messing around with the gambits, I do that and stop when I want to cast a certain spell I usually don't use or a technique. It can make things go quite faster.

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

i do fine without them but i like being able to control them when i need to and just let them attack non stop

i also like the attack enemy with lowest hp gambit

How ya doing, buddy?

Amazing game. This may end up with Tactics and VI as my all time faves of the series. I'm currently 52 hours in, with my entire group being 39/40 (leveling them all equally, its been really helpful too).

Spoiler:

Just got the Treaty-Blade, and I have defeated Belias, Mateus, Shemhazai, Hashmal, Adrammelech, Cuchulainn, Exodus and Zalera. So far Zeromus has been kicking my ass, but my only attempts against him were me testing the waters more than anything, I did nothing to prepare, so he'll hopefully go down soon. I've also defeated about 30 of the hunts, including several rank 5's and a rank 6.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Did anyone else do the Zodiac Spear run? I just ran it last night at level 35 and it changed everything. It's fun being half-way through the game and having the most powerful weapon in the game (or so I read).

When you first get to Salikawood, if you have done everything correct (not opening 3 specific chests, the 4th being in an area you haven't visited) you will have access to the Necrohol of Nabudis. The monsters here will kill you in one or two hits, but luckily they are pretty slow. If you just "flee" the entire time, you can run through the area straight to the chest that contains the Zodiac Spear and then run away again. If you have been using Golden Amulets, getting the 235 LP needed to use the weapon shouldn't be too hard. My Vaan went from 1000 hp damage per hit to 3000-4000 damage and twice as much when berserk. Should help with all extra Espers and hunts at this point. If you are spending a lot time leveling up before this point, just skip it and try to get to Salikawood ASAP because the weapon will change more than grinding levels will.

It is choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend it

How ya doing, buddy?

i regret not looking up the game before playing and lookin at walkthroughs, i could really use that zodiac spear dude, lol, im gonna play a little before i sleep, goodnight all

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by ashaman

Did anyone else do the Zodiac Spear run? I just ran it last night at level 35 and it changed everything. It's fun being half-way through the game and having the most powerful weapon in the game (or so I read).

When you first get to Salikawood, if you have done everything correct (not opening 3 specific chests, the 4th being in an area you haven't visited) you will have access to the Necrohol of Nabudis. The monsters here will kill you in one or two hits, but luckily they are pretty slow. If you just "flee" the entire time, you can run through the area straight to the chest that contains the Zodiac Spear and then run away again. If you have been using Golden Amulets, getting the 235 LP needed to use the weapon shouldn't be too hard. My Vaan went from 1000 hp damage per hit to 3000-4000 damage and twice as much when berserk. Should help with all extra Espers and hunts at this point. If you are spending a lot time leveling up before this point, just skip it and try to get to Salikawood ASAP because the weapon will change more than grinding levels will.

It is choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend it

I kept trying but the monsters kept killing me despite my constant hold on R2. I gave up after the fourth or fifth attempt.

I was speaking idiomatically.

The gambits at first seemed somewhat annoying or pointless, but now that I'm a bit farther in (and got everyone to Level 19, Vaan @ 20), the Gambits are coming in more handy.

One particularly useful Gambit I have is that when nothing else is going on, (I have this setup on two-three of my people): One of my characters cast Protect on all allies, and then if the MP is low enough (I have the conditional set to less than 10%), cast Charge to gain some MP back.

There are lots of more useful combos I'm sure but that's been helping me out in tackling some Red Titled beasts (Where the text for the monster's name is in red, indicating a tough opponent).

Also, to sandmonkeys: I would suggest (but by no means impose) that you improve the way you communicate. I understand you might have some good ideas and have worthy items to contribute to this and other threads. However the lack of proper punctuation & editing in your posts leave me to shy away from reading them, and I know I'm not alone in this viewpoint (Generic Badass pointed this out earlier in a much shorter form). In other words, your lack of punctuation & common/proper writing style is detrimental to people reading what you have to say, and reflects a certain element of... amateurism.

Continuing on, I'm about to go to the Ozmone Plains to see about story advancement.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

One thing that helped me was platinum armor. I tried to do the antlion hunt, which gives you a key to the Lhusa mines. The antlion slaughtered me instantly, but luckily some of the enemies I killed before him gave me some good drops. When I sold them to the bazaar, I received a set of Platinum Armor. It cost an arm and a leg, but my Vaan gained 20 armor points which was enough to keep me alive in the Necrohol of Nabudis.

Also, buy the the forgotten grimoires ASAP (or at least the cheapest 3). They are very easy to earn in the bazaar (talk to merchants 100 times, etc) and you can usually earn enough to buy them after 2-3 hunts. I got them early on instead of upgrading my weapons/armor/magic and the drops I started getting were phenomenal. Even level 4 enemies would drop expensive items, and the better items they drop, the better bazaar items you can buy before they would be normally available in the game!

FELIPE NO

On the topic of Gambits, I only have one Gambit set on each character. "Foe: Any" or "Foe: Party Leader's Target" --> Attack.

Sometimes, if I'm at a boss and I know the weak element, I'll change it up and change the Attack command to a spell I know is strong against it, but it goes right back to Attack afterwards.

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

Where is the entrance to the Necrohol of Nabudis? I can't seem to find it lol. Unfortunately I opened up those treasure chests so I can't get the Zodiac Spear. I'll do it in my next playthrough. I'm just interested on how the devastated capital of Nabradia looks.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by ashaman

Also, buy the the forgotten grimoires ASAP (or at least the cheapest 3). They are very easy to earn in the bazaar (talk to merchants 100 times, etc) and you can usually earn enough to buy them after 2-3 hunts.

Can you elaborate a bit on the "Talking to Merchants 100 times, etc.," to get the Grimeores, because one I see would go for 18k Gil, and I can't afford to gain all of that for one item. ... or would this be something covered in the FFXII Gamefaqs section?

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Punishment

Where is the entrance to the Necrohol of Nabudis? I can't seem to find it lol. Unfortunately I opened up those treasure chests so I can't get the Zodiac Spear. I'll do it in my next playthrough. I'm just interested on how the devastated capital of Nabradia looks.

You can exit the Salikawood [I think that's the zone] to either the Necrohol of Nabudis, OR the Nabudis Deadlands. If you enter the deadlands, you can get to the Necrohol on the other end of the map, but I wouldn't recommend going that way unless you're really strong. I was running through that place with Flee/R2 most of the time. XD

If you're looking to get to the Necrohol for the Zodiac Spear, the entrance is on the west side of the Salikawood. Going north in the Necrohol takes you around the long way, through the deadlands.

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

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well so far the game is good i hate the fact that ensuna doesnt heal all bad stats like stop and disease- disease sucks it makes max health = to curent health till u can only have 1 health it so annoying i had to use remedys to cure myself of it

Um, Esuna is basically one of the best spells available at where I am now. In a way it almost rivals the usefulness of cura. Of course I'm not surprised it's not the miracle cure all. If that were the case, would you know how much it'd cost to cast that spell everytime? Even curing the more "rare" cases such as doom, oil, petrify, sap and the like. Rare meaning I don't encounter those as much as say poison or blind. Yes, as you have mentioned, which is why Remedies (especially once remedy lore 3 is unlocked) can it help clean up the rest of the maladies. Having Esuna being the cure all for every single maladie would make most boss fights (namely the Elder Wyrm coming to mind) ridiciously easy, which in they rely on status ailments against the human player.

As of now, I haven't even bothered getting to my destination, Mt. Bur Orimise, or whatever the heck it's called. I took courage and ventured in just slightly to the Feywood, which it looks like you can get in through the snowy area, or just keep heading south in the jungle area. Now I understand why people fear those small tomatos in the form of something called "Nightshade" or Night something, dishing out anywhere from 500-800 damage to my party. No wonder Feywood was not as advised in my walkthrough, saying that we'd be dead meat. The hellhounds are nothing compared to those guys.

Since I've taken down quite a few dinosaurs, I honestly think I can squash that friendly dino that lurks in the Estersand. That thing should be a piece of cake.

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One particularly useful Gambit I have is that when nothing else is going on, (I have this setup on two-three of my people): One of my characters cast Protect on all allies, and then if the MP is low enough (I have the conditional set to less than 10%), cast Charge to gain some MP back.

I had the same set up for the longest time. I put auto protect (a fancy way of saying Ally: any --> Protect) for all my characters, so they share the burden of MP usage eqaully. When you get to where I am, just after beating one of the bosses I mentioned earlier today (namely one of the Wyrms that people have mentioned), I start to get some pretty handy spells

My "general-dungeon crawling" line up is something like this:

Ally: any --> pheonix down (this goes as number 1. It's amazing how fast your guys can pop back up if you use this)
Ally: any --> esuna
Foe: any --> attack party leader's target
Foe: any --> attack any target
Ally: any --> HP < 70% Cure/ or Hi Potion
Ally: any --> protect
Ally: any --> regen
Ally: any --> haste

As you can see, this set up does look like it will drain my MP supply, however, I spread this out for every single member that's active in the group, so not all of them will be double casting protect, for example. I let the computer decide which ally to cast protect, regen etc. Plus since I have all three quickenings, my max MP is somewhere around 300, so it's not too bad. If they do start draining the MP needlessly, then I just turn off gambits, or hold down R2.

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

@sandmonkeys
Jesus man, if you are going to spam this thread with your incessant and unnecessary posting at LEAST make it legible. Gah.



I've got a question, do the hunts matter what level you do them on? Because when I did some of the earlier hunts the enimies still had a larger xp so do the hunt levels match your own?

I was speaking idiomatically.

I"m sorry but this side quest is giving me hell, and there are no side quests faqs and I went through gamefaqs yesterday and found nothing so I'll reask it, At one point in the game a lizard guy from Arcadia is at the western entrance. He needs to get to the wyrms area in Western Rabanasture. Well the wind is blocking the way so you talk to a guy in the plaza, then in lowtown and I did that. The guy from lowtown said he hid the leaf under a cactus in the dead end part of West Rabanasture, keep going left right as you leave W Rabanasture and it is right there real close check your map if you have problems you will see it. 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

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by seanne

Yeah, you'll only find her in the village during the dry period. She is standing in the pen, among the cockatrices.

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

Oh, and something else..... does anyone know how to cure "slow"? Esuna doesn't help and as for items, well, I guess there are remedies, but isn't there something like Echo Herbs for Silence or Handkerchiefs for Oil?

FELIPE NO

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

My guess is that it will clear up once you progress somewhat story-wise. I've taken that mark to the backburner (And by the time I get around to it, I'll be stronger so it'll be easy).

Originally Posted by Musharraf

Oh, and something else..... does anyone know how to cure "slow"? Esuna doesn't help and as for items, well, I guess there are remedies, but isn't there something like Echo Herbs for Silence or Handkerchiefs for Oil?

Damm, and I had JUST gotten Esuna too for that very reason, because I thought it would cure Slow (I've only got a few remedies on me)... but apparently not =\

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

Ha, that got me thinking for a minute, Cast Haste Heres another tip when encountering Hunts/Bosses Always cast Dispell if you have it and recast it if they rebuff. Some bosses are Immune to this once they hit critical health Like Gilgamesh 2nd form.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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 -_-

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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

As kupomog said, the weather at Giza changes at certain set time intervalls (as opposed to other areas in the game where the weather can change every time you exit->enter). So just leave it for like an hour or so and then return. And I don't know if you've noticed, but if you look at the sky over Giza from the south exit of Rabanastre you can actually see what weather it is there currently.

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Oh, and something else..... does anyone know how to cure "slow"? Esuna doesn't help and as for items, well, I guess there are remedies, but isn't there something like Echo Herbs for Silence or Handkerchiefs for Oil?

As some people have already pointed out, the best cure for Slow is actually Haste

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

Later on in the game, there are herbs you can pick up (I don't think they are herbs per se though), that are called Chronos Tears (sp?) and those cure slow. I have a question though. Where can we buy better gambits? Are all the gambits we can buy the ones in the store? Because i want the ones that allow for curing for poison, sap, etc etc. I can't seem to find those in the shops anywhere.

Did anyone else find this difficult? Also, I can't find the KO gambit. Did you guys find all these in dungeons and stuff?

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

From what I recall, you don't need to specify poison, silence, etc... if you have a specific cure for it.

For example:

Ally -> Poisona
Ally -> Stona

These gambits will ONLY activate when someone is poisoned or petrified.

Ally -> Haste

This gambit will ONLY activate when someone doesn't have haste anymore.

I was speaking idiomatically.

That's right Jazz. I just keep a gambit on for esuna (put it as a pretty high priority) then it will automatically cast to dispell the status effects.

And the ally --> haste is great to immediately cure slowness, since the computer will detect that the conditions that all allies are not met with haste, therefore they will cast it once, and it will turn from slow to haste.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by kharaalaik

Later on in the game, there are herbs you can pick up (I don't think they are herbs per se though), that are called Chronos Tears (sp?) and those cure slow.

Chronos Tears cure Stop and not Slow. And you'll be able to buy Gambits like the ones you specified from Gambit stores eventually. Though, as JazzFlight said, if all you want to do is say, have Blindna cast on allies that have been blinded, you can just as well use the Ally: Any Gambit.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Dark Nation

Can you elaborate a bit on the "Talking to Merchants 100 times, etc.," to get the Grimeores, because one I see would go for 18k Gil, and I can't afford to gain all of that for one item. ... or would this be something covered in the FFXII Gamefaqs section?

Page 291, where it talks about Bazaar packages. It even says to buy these instead of upgrading, and it is right. This "one item" will make your drops so much better you will gain money quicker and thereby upgrade quicker as well. I bought the three cheapest so far and in the last two hours have amassed 60,000 gil just by doing hunts in areas with easy enemies.

Originally Posted by TheXeno

he guy from lowtown said he hid the leaf under a cactus in the dead end part of West Rabanasture,

This is confusing as there are two dead ends. I thought it was in the first, and I assume that is what you are doing as well. The dead end he is talking about is in the westmost area of the plains. After you leave Rabanasture, head west to the next area, then south, the west (past the cave entrace), the next area should be the last area but you are in a seperate southern part of it. There will be three cacti there you can check.

EDIT: Meant to say this earlier, but do NOT try to complete this mission if you can't easily handle rank V hunts. The monster in the windy area is extremely difficult (for the point in the game he is available) and you can't run away. I tried to fight him in my early 20 levels and was butchered. This is the only time I've "Game Over"ed in the entire game and I lost 2 hours worth of work. Needless to say I've leveled up to 44, got the Zodiac Spear, and am going to take out some serious revenge on the boss tonight.

Plus, I don't even think you get anything for beating him. The "reward" is the boss itself.

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