[PS2] Final Fantasy XII

Oh mann. The developers in Square Enix are assholes. Actually, it's nothing painful but it kinda pissed me off xD Right after I beat Ahriman, I exit to the next area. And I step on a trap right in front of the door, instant kill. Thank god I could change to the other characters + raise.

Is it me or are most of the bosses extremely difficult (compared to the other Final Fantasy's)? Especially the bosses with ailment status attacks.

edit: I forgot to ask. Is it me... or do the the voices of the characters sound like they're speaking through a Darth Vader mask? It sounds muffled. Could it be my speakers?

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

Interesting comments on plot vs. characters for this game. I didn't think many of the characters "grew" much during Shadow Hearts for example, but by the end of the game they were definitely well fleshed-out. Perhaps I will try this game; everything else looks really kiddie atm sadly (Dawn of Mana, Odin Sphere, etc.)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Quote:

edit: I forgot to ask. Is it me... or do the the voices of the characters sound like they're speaking through a Darth Vader mask? It sounds muffled. Could it be my speakers?

No, it isn't just you. The voices are heavily compressed, both data compression and audio level compression.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

yeah there's a a lot of complain about that (even if I didn't really notice it, probably from my crappy TV XD)

it's a shame since this game has like the best voice acting in a video game so far :\

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

Originally Posted by Mucknuggle

I just re-started this game on the weekend, playing it solo this time. I'm about where I was before (didn't beat the game), rescuing Ashe from the airship (the Leviathan I think). It's really fantastic. I was wondering if I could get some advice for setting up gambits? Specifically for just roaming about while advancing the story. I'm not getting too great results with the stealing gambit I had set up.

Furthermore, should I put heavy armor on my tank now? The official guide recommends that you stick with light armor for the first part of the game.

Last question: what are good weapon/role setups for three member parties? So far it looks like I'm turning Vaan into a dagger/light armor/shield tank, Basch into a sword/heavy armor/shield tank, Fran into a bow/light armor magic girl and Balthier into a gun/light armor magic/support dude. I don't have Ashe or Panelo yet (although I think I'm about to get Ashe).

Thanks.

Not sure what everyone else or the guide will tell you to do, but once I finally noticed the differences between heavy armor and the rest, I had Basch wear heavy armor all the time, while Penelo and Ashe got magician's clothing and the rest got light armor (barring a few rare cases where I improvised and used whatever best armor I had).

Basch was my tank, Ashe will be your best magician, as her magic stats will be much higher than the others (even without equipment).

Second best at magic will be Penelo. She is also your fastest character, so she and Vaan were my thieves, Penelo usually being the active thief, armed with a good dagger and a shield. Everyone eventually had the steal skill, but I had the rest use it only in very tight spots.

It was usually best to arm your mage with a long range weapon and have them as leader. Set a "attack leader's target" for everyone else and keep the leader at a distance the fights usually go well.

The only gambits I really learned to love and cherish were a simple healing gambit that overruled everything else (say, "Cure Ally HP<50%", later moving to stronger healing spells and changing the HP %), followed by "Attack leader's target" for everyone, with you controlling the leader's attacking manually (or with "Attack nearest visible" when strong enough in a relatively familiar area).

At one point I also included an "Attack Enemy HP Critical", which made it so that whenever an enemy's HP went critical, everyone would focus on him before moving on to the next target. This removed the trouble I'd had with a bunch of enemies ganging me up and my teams focusing on a strong foe while several wounded but barely alive (10HP etc) enemies kept attacking us and I'd have to do everything manually to get rid of them.

Everything else was stuff I turned on every now and then.
For instance, I never found an "item > 0" gambit, so my improvised thief gambit was "Steal Enemy HP=100%". It was usually enough. By the time one of my team hit the enemy, my thief had already stolen and could move to the next "untouched" enemy. It did need some guiding, since if left unattended, the thief would try to steal over and over from a full HP enemy while the rest battled with another. To make sure, I usually manually commanded the thief to attack the enemy after a succesful steal.

Other stuff was gambits for curing any status abnormalities ("Esuna Ally:any") and reviving a KOd character automatically, but I don't think you have these spells for a while.

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

Quote:

Is it me or are most of the bosses extremely difficult (compared to the other Final Fantasy's)? Especially the bosses with ailment status attacks.

Not really, just have a Ally:Any -> Esuna(ga) or Ally:Any -> Remedy ready, if you have the proper augment licenses for the effects of remedies, though. Else you'll just have to prioritise the status effects the boss casts and adjust your gambits accordingly. I never had much trouble with bosses, though. Hell, I had more trouble with the 'trash' in the Great Crystal than the boss.

Maybe you're just a bit underleveled or poorly geared?

Also, Q. Why not use a Foe HP >= 70% - Steal for stealing? It might slow down your grinding or farming, but it'll increase your chances to aquire some loot.

Spoiler:

200000 gil in 45 minutes when farming in Feywood with this setup

How ya doing, buddy?

Has anyone used so obvious combo Oil + Firaga/Flare? It deals at least 8000+ damage to normal enemies, and if you have "Gain MP after dealing Magick damage", no MP is lost - or rather, you gain MP.

Btw, does anyone know where I can get the Thief Cuffs (or whatever it's called)?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Sepharite

Btw, does anyone know where I can get the Thief Cuffs (or whatever it's called)?

I remember buying a pair and later getting them from chests, but looking at an Accessories FAQ:

=================-------------------------------
Thief's Cuffs - Increases chance of stealing
=================-------------------------------

1. Treasure:
- Paramina Rift/ Silverflow's End
2. Shop:
- Bur Omisace .............. 3000 gil
- Mosphoran Highwaste ...... 3000 gil
- Phon Coast ............... 3000 gil
- Phon Coast Hunt Shop ..... 2700 gil (give 1 Trophy to Stok)
3. Steal:
- Vinuskar ................. Stilshrine of Miriam

Originally Posted by Bukkake Bandit

Also, Q. Why not use a Foe HP >= 70% - Steal for stealing? It might slow down your grinding or farming, but it'll increase your chances to aquire some loot.

Well practically every enemy only had one item to steal usually, so with something like that, my thief was likely to continue stealing from the same enemy over and over unless I constantly watched over them, which beats the purpose of a gambit anyway.

When I had HP 100%, and my thief was my leader, the steal command would make my party members target the enemy. By the time the steal is completed, the enemy would be below 100% so the thief would automatically move to another target, so not so much need to watch over them.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Metal Sphere

Oh, good then you're ready. Without their irritating breath effects, the Forbidden will be doing little more than wasting their time trying to hit you with status effects while you waste them.

Yeah, I could see that. On my way back from Omega I unintentionally started building a nice chain, and as I want to get to lvl.99 asap, I put Tippets on and really cleaned up. Now at lvl.97

Quote:

Heh, that bit about your brother got my laughing, since my sister clammed up as well. Especially when he hit Penelo and Vaan with 9-12 slashes because the random OHKO effect hadn't kicked in yet. Death Strike and Cyclone only added to the insanity. Man, after I beat this bastard I immediately remembered that other uber boss from a few FFs back (Shinryuu was it?).

Ah, that was the other thing I was so mad at! The more I'd try and Curaja my ally's, the higher his combo would reach. Goddamn it was frustrating!

Quote:

Oh, definitely PN. If the monsters are coming rigged, so am I! The problem is, if you use it against Omega you have to uber-micromanage to the point where you might as well take him on normally. On top of that, Decoy & Reverse were intentionally made to avoid this and their duration time often ends up working against you.

Lastly, bad luck will instantly send that setup out of control. The one reversed could have it come off at an inopportune moment (during this fight, that's ALWAYS the case) and they're offed right there and while trying to revive + recast, your other two guys are wasted.

And that's why I haven't used it. I despise having to solely rely on statuses being on 100% of the time. All the recent boss battles I've been in, at some point I've not had any buffs on whatsoever and still been able to hold myself up well, and I like that. I can't explain the reason very well, so I'll just say I'm a lazy bastard and can't be arsed once I'm plugging away at them

Quote:

Omega's easy enough if you keep on top of things, though that gets hard as fuck after his attack power goes through the roof and he speeds up substantially (as well as quartering your damage).

Heh, no shit. It took over 5 minutes to take the last slither off him, as I ended up with 2 members KO'd, and the time it took for him to attack twice (and kill the surviving member) was also the time it took for them to cast Arise on another. An endless loop. Woop.

Anyway... he bit the dust and now I'm gonna have a go at this fishing lark. I have a feeling I'm not gonna enjoy this bit.

Originally Posted by Sepharite

Btw, does anyone know where I can get the Thief Cuffs (or whatever it's called)?

Out of all the places Quarky mentioned, the Mosphoran Highwaste is the earliest and easiest place to find them. The shopkeeper has them as well as Golden Amulets, which is also the earliest place you can get the rest of them (the first one being a reward for the Dalmascan Patient side-quest). Although if you're using Flare, I have a feeling you won't be needing that latter part of info...

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

Can somebody recommend me a decent gambit setup for just running around clearing dungeons and what not normally?

Does poaching a monster eliminate any XP/LP gains?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

What is "chain" anyways? Is it just consecutive random attacks in a row?

Mucknuggle: Nope, poaching just slows down the process as you're obviously losing an attacker. But if you have embroidered tippet (sp?) which 2x the exp pts. gained, then you don't have to worry. Besides, stealing takes ~5 seconds. Anyways, I have my characters caste oil on the enemy while my magic caster (Ashe) spits Firaga -- instant kill. (Y)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Sepharite

What is "chain" anyways? Is it just consecutive random attacks in a row?

Yes, but it has to be the same monster that you kill, otherwise the chain will start again.

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

Oh! No wonder. What does chaining do? Extra experience points?

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

Well, the higher the chain, the better chances of getting rarer loot, and you get other benefits too, like free health charges on occasion and you get a nice prize in the sky pirate den for chaining 50.

A good place to chain in the early stages is the skeletons in the mines or the little Jawa guys in the Sandsea. Another place is the Grimore Jungle.

I was speaking idiomatically.

It gives Uncommon and/or Rare Item drops. But keep in mind that the chain breaks once you:

* Touch a save crystal
* Kill a monster other than the type you're chaining
* Enter a town of some sorts

Also, if you LEAVE all the loot, you'll reach the highest chain level much faster (around 25 kills, I think). Then you can start cashing in those rare items.


Edit: wolf beat me to it.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I chained a good 210 moving around the sandsea Ogir-Yensa before getting too tired. The amount of loot and EXP you got was hilarious. Just watch out for Salamand entities.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Sepharite

Mucknuggle: Nope, poaching just slows down the process as you're obviously losing an attacker. But if you have embroidered tippet (sp?) which 2x the exp pts. gained, then you don't have to worry. Besides, stealing takes ~5 seconds. Anyways, I have my characters caste oil on the enemy while my magic caster (Ashe) spits Firaga -- instant kill. (Y)

Not true. If you poach an enemy, none of your party receive XP or LP. I generally have one active member with Enemy=HP critical -> Poach so occasionally a monster gets poached but more often than not you get the experience/license points.

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

Silly me. I was thinking about Steal. I've never heard of Poach till today, quite sad.

Thanks for the info on Chaining. I'll try that a little later tonight. except, what's sad is I haven't brought any new weapons/armor for ages so I'm not sure if I need the money.

Btw, does it seem lazy that you can basically make every character have the same equipment. It takes away any customization, since I'm basically optimizing my character to whatever I have/can afford, whch probably isn't a good tactic. i

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Wait, larger degree of choise takes away from customization? Pray tell how the hell that works out in your logic =/

As for Poach, I used it avidly to whore items, but once I learned I don't get LP or EXP with poaching, I just stopped using it. You get enough items from chains as is.

Most amazing jew boots

Gay, I worded it wrong. I meant that every character is the same, and it doesn't really matter which one you choose. So it has too much customization -- and not structured like the previous Final Fantasy's. Not complaining though, I still like it.

It's just the story I don't like. If there is a story... =(

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

If you look at their stats, you CAN make your characters different.

For example, Penelo has a high Magic stat, so she can be a mage.

You don't have to have everyone wear the same armor or accessories--that's where the fun is.

And there is a story--it's political in nature!

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

Stats really don't differ enough that it matters, though. I do agree that based on how the board was set up it was just far too easy for everyone to wind up mostly the same by the end of the game.

I think if anything the game would have benefitted by having a much less forgiving license board; so that it took massive effort (maybe with penalties based on their stats) to duplicate characters. I dunno, I'm sure there was a better way to do it at any rate.

How ya doing, buddy?

This is true--since some of the bosses can be tough, and you can change out characters any time you want.

But, the REAL strategy is this: Can you play the game by limiting the customization of the characters? You don't HAVE to use all the licenses, you know.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I loved the system. I earlier thought it's a bit "cheap" since you teach everyone the same really useful skills anyway, and limiting since in the end you'd be insane not to make Ashe your mage, or Basch your tank. Later on you often have characters wear the same stuff and everyone can use everyone's weapons, but then I wondered, why on earth would this be bad?

They've created this wonderful, welcoming, forgiving, flexible system that encourages customization and player personality (Fran just looks great with a katana), and people complain and wish they'd make it more limited and.. you know, crap? Because THEY can't help playing it cheaply and would rather it play like every other RPG?

I'd have it no other way. I see one more RPG with characters who can carry an axe while the other one can't and I will weep (though Grandia 1 is exempt).

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Leknaat

And there is a story--it's political in nature!

Which is a nice change, in my opinion.


Anyway, I beat the final boss yesterday,

Spoiler:

and although he went down a bit too easily, the ending was satisfying for me. It provided enough closure and didn't really give me the feeling that there was supposed to be more coming. Now to get all the hidden espers and other optional stuff.

Quote:

Stats really don't differ enough that it matters, though.

I think it will matter for the optional content. Like Leknaat said, Penelo has an higher magick stat than the rest, with Ashe being the closest (only if you're around level 45 or so). That's without any kind of equipment to boost their stats, too. Although I haven't touched much of the optional content yet, I think you'll need those higher stats to beat the hidden espers, and you'll be glad you made them the magick users.

But like I said, I haven't touched any of the optional content yet, so I could be wrong.

How ya doing, buddy?