Final Fantasy XII (Official Topic)

[therealjohnpeat]

Gambits>Levelling in this game.

Early-on tho, there's not a lot you can do - you'll be lucky if you can have a char curing, a char un-poisoning/blinding or whatever - and the rest attacking the easiest target first...

Once you get more gambit slots and more gambits/abilities I imagine it could be quite interesting - but a lot of people seem to be saying that you end-up doing a lot of this manually anyway

[RubberJohnny]

Once you get more gambit slots and more gambits/abilities I imagine it could be quite interesting - but a lot of people seem to be saying that you end-up doing a lot of this manually anyway

The only times I even touched the buttons in combat was in boss fights, I just steered the group towards the enemy and they did the rest.

[sprite]

I can't believe the day has come when I agree with therealjohnpeat!

[SuperCat]

Just beat that dragon which casts Sporefall. Fuck me, that was rock hard. I had to level up for 2 nights.

[Estuans Vehementi]

The Licence System is majorly retarded - I have to use points to buy the ability to use something - which I then have to buy - or in some cases I buy a piece of armour which gives an ability but I have to have the licence to use that ability AND the licence to use that piece of armour and...

I think it's a perfectly reasonable system. Like I said before, if you get a driving licence you still need to buy a car & if you get a hunting license you still need to buy a gun (etc).

I despise games where the solution is more about buying a shitload of potions/cures etc.

Maybe you've just not got good at it yet as I've only ever really had that problem a couple of times - and that's because I hadn't levelled enough. Healing is a big factor obviously but it's not like that's all there is. Just don't run around like a madman attracting yet more enemies to you & don't be afraid to jump in and do things yourself if you need to.

The whole idea of 'gambits' is nice - but my initial assessment is that they're a bit shit - there's nothing like watching your ENTIRE party manage to cast First Aid - apart from your Leader using a Potion - and despite all the MP being used AND the Potion 'hitting' - the character is KOed anyway - sensational that (Yes, I realise that's probably not using Gambits properly - but MP being used and chars still being KOed is retarded - ditto potions)...

Well the gambit system isn't perfect right from the beginning, but First Aid doesn't use MP and you've still got thumbs... if you don't think that you have the right gambit set-up you can still heal manually when you feel it's necessary.

I accidentally wandered into the Necrohol of Nabudis & the Henne Mines 2 yesterday and they weren't enojyable experiences.

[sprite]

I think it's a perfectly reasonable system. Like I said before, if you get a driving licence you still need to buy a car & if you get a hunting license you still need to buy a gun (etc).

It makes logical sense, sure. But in RPGs, usally, you collect points of a certain nature for one thing. Grandia II is a good example. For monster kills you'd get:

- Special Coins (to buy your Special Moves)

- Magic Coins (to buy magic)

- Gold Coins (to buy Actual Stuff in shops, like items and gear)

The thing about FFXII which has a lot of people frustrated is the crossover. You need Gil to do EVERYTHING on top of also needing License Points.

And in the ONE game where they have decided that you need to get Gil for EVERYTHING, Gil is actually harder to come by than previously! And items themselves are more expensive! It's perfectly reasonable to have issue with it IMO

And the other thing is the whole 'not levelling enough' part. The fact that you need to do it to progress - it was never this bad in previous RPGs. And that it's actually quite hard to do for a few different reasons. Mana Regen, randomness of enemy targetting are two things that come to mind.

I think one of the things I miss the most is not knowing when the enemy will strike, as such. I'm sitting there praying for my cure to land in time. Again, Grandia II had a superb time management system, FFX and FFX-2 you knew as well. Previous FFs were always just completely turn based.

[Rez]

I don't really think gil is that hard to come buy. It on itself is fairly scarce but if you always sell all the rubbish the monsters drop then you should easily have enough. So, 50 wolf pelts or fire stones or whatever and you can buy a few things.

[Matt Defis]

Kill a shed load of undead, each sturdy bone sells for 1.5k ish, chain enough and you'll make plenty of gil.

[DrunkenMonkey]

I just run about between areas of the Phon Coast and got shit loads of money. Ended up with 550k gil and went to buy the latest gear then start levelling again.

[sprite]

But the problem with chaining mobs, at least at lower levels, is that you are easily pwnt and you can run out of mana quickly so you spend a lot of time running in circles.

There's just a lot of timewasting in this game, moreso than any other offline RPG I've played. IMOIMO.

[Estuans Vehementi]

Chain easier enemies then. Also, look out a map of the licence board and try to get the 'gain mp after defeating a foe' etc licences.

I make back 1MP every 1-2 seconds so it's not really that much to wait. Or fight near a save point, you don't necessarily have to chain.

[DrunkenMonkey]

But the problem with chaining mobs, at least at lower levels, is that you are easily pwnt and you can run out of mana quickly so you spend a lot of time running in circles.

There's just a lot of timewasting in this game, moreso than any other offline RPG I've played. IMOIMO.

True. When I was at Paramina Rift, I got myself into a routine. Not chaining but still making shit loads as there was an area where you could steal Sturdy Bones off from Dark Skeletons and Skull Knights, Something like a giant tanned hide off of the the croc, then stealing things like 1000 gil, crossbow or Tanned Giantskin from the yeti. Then when I went to quickly zone, I could get some Quality Pelts and maybe a Crossbow from the Wolfs. The Crossbow sold for like 1000g aswell as the Tanned Giantskin. I think the item you got off the croc also sold for about the same while the Quality Pelt sold for about 400g and Sturdy Bones for 800g but they're are alot of skeletons and they are easy to steal. Made alot of money there.

[RubberJohnny]

If you equip the Thief Cuffs and set up a gambit to steal from each enemy you come across, you'll never suffer with money. I turned up on the Hunters Camp on the Phon Coast with 150,000 Gil, and had 200,000 spare when I got to Archades.

[Andy_Tanner]

I stuck this on for the first time yesterday. Beautiful looking game as expected from the series, but this one really is so well presented. I've hardly played it, and I won't continue til I've finished DQ8, but the game it reminded me of the most in terms of it's quasi realtime battle system, was Knight Of The Old Republic. I think i'm really gonna enjoy this.

[hobo]

If you equip the Thief Cuffs and set up a gambit to steal from each enemy you come across, you'll never suffer with money. I turned up on the Hunters Camp on the Phon Coast with 150,000 Gil, and had 200,000 spare when I got to Archades.

So true, even before you get the Thief Cuffs having a gambit on your tank:

enemy = 100% - STEAL

Will get you all the cash you need comfortably.

[RubberJohnny]

Double post

[DrunkenMonkey]

First time I'm using the gambits to full effect. Normally, I would just have the basics like "Ally:HP<70% - Curaga" and "Foe:party leader's target - Attack" but now I'm in the Tchita Uplands and not really bothered as I can kill anything there but the occasional stop to remove any status ailments did get annoying , so I used the gambits to full effect in this area so I would not need to stop and interfere and I will say, it is quite good but I feel that it is encouraging to be lazy and just run around and they will do the work for you. Infact, I am running around killing things while I steal, use magicks like Curaga, Stona, Blindna, Poisona, Haste etc. while I am typing this post.

[imp]

phew! I just had the most intense battle in the game so far...

Just took down Cuchulainn at lv. 42. I learnt 2 things from that battle: having your HP constantly sapped is not fun, and having reserve team-mates with pre-cast buffs is really really useful!

I'm 60 hours in now, which means that it looks like it's going to beat Dragon Quest and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne for sheer length. I can't Imagine how long all the side quests will take me as well...

[Estuans Vehementi]

How long did it take you to beat DQ8? I got about 80 odd hours out of it (factoring in the optional bosses after you complete it).

I'm 55 hours in and have

just recieved the treaty-blade

I can't tell if

Vayne and Venat are the bad guys or not... tis weird ...not that I want anyone to tell me till I finish

[Polmon]

I spent 270 hours on FFXII doing everything (though, I didnt quite finish off the two toughest optional bosses - couldnt be arsed). That said, the game timer was a little misleading as a lot of that was time spent afk.

[imp]

Yeah, that was the last plot point I did as well.

I think I got around 65 hours for the main game for DQVIII, and I had done a lot of the optional stuff afterwards, so maybe 70 hours in total (unfortunately my ps2, and my memory card got nicked before I had the chance to finish them, and I'm not about to play that through again just to try, well, not now anyway!) Thinking about it, doing all of the optional bosses in FFX and completely upgrading the sphere grid took me just under a hundred hours...

[Estuans Vehementi]

WHAT

Maybe I just wasted too much time, but I still haven't dreamed of facing Penance and I'm about 110 hours. Doing him in <100 seems rather good (or like I said maybe I wasted too much time lol)

[DrunkenMonkey]

Just completed Final Fantasy XII a couple of hours ago. Think I did it just under 90 hours.

I was left a little dissapointed with the Bahamut fortress. My main party was level 53 and my second party was level 52 so I went with the second party to level up on what I thought was going to be a long journey. Soon as I was in, I went left and fought some imperials that seem to just keep coming so I eventually fleed and went to a room in the middle and carried on until I reached the elevator. I did not have anymore running to do and was all ready about to face the final bosses. Unlike the likes of other Final Fantasy games. Usually you have to go through some area with some kick ass enemies, and those aren't even the bosses. I remember in FFIX, taking me ages to get to the end of Memoria. Anyway, since I wasn't really expecting it.

I went into all the fights with my not-so-strong-but-still-decent party. Rid of Gabranth with ease, and Vayne, and Vayne Novus. I managed to last awhile against The Undying but running out of MP I wasn't going to make it through the whole way with my second party but not a problem. By the time they died and my main party took over, it seemed that although they did alot, the hard part was just starting but after the whole immune to physical or magical or both attacks was over, he was rather easy. To sum it up, only 2 rooms till the boss fights, crappy enemies that die with in 2-3 hits, 3 bosses which are really easy and 1 which is just easy. You also have Lord Larsa helping you in one fight and Gabranth (sort of) in another fight. And the fact that you can easily complete it at low as 50. Not what I expected. The only real hard boss I remember fighting was the Elder Wyrm although that was optional. In the end, I was expecting this to be some kick ass place and the bosses to really get me thinking. Especially as I remember IGN saying that if you don't use the Gambits properly, you would probably get your ass kicked. Here where my Gambits for the final bosses.

I had no Gambits for Basch as he was party leader.

Fran:

Ally:Any - Raise

Ally:Penelo - Vox

Foe:Party leader's target - Attack

Penelo:

Ally:HP=<70% - Curaga

Foe:Party leader's target - Attack

When I replaced them in the final boss fight, my other party had the same corresponding Gambits. Vaan - Basch, Balthier - Fran and Ashe - Penelo. As you can see, my Gambits were not very creative and have basically stuck by that system all the way through the game and have barely had a problem (Once again apart from the Elder Wyrm.)

So closing moments. I enjoyed the game, but was disappointed with the last area (Bahamut Fortress.) Reviews that like Official PlayStation Magazine awarding the game 10/10 and the several Game of the Year awards which it clearly isn't. Also IGN's review saying you will need to level up alot before bosses and about how you need to use Gambits carefully etc. The end scene was okay but it could have been more difficult.

[Polmon]

FYI, the difficulty of the last dungeon depends on your level. I did it at level 90 odd, and it was fairly tough. Did you do any of teh optional stuff; Mark hunting, Espers, sidequests, etc?

[Hackign]

FYI, the difficulty of the last dungeon depends on your level. I did it at level 90 odd, and it was fairly tough. Did you do any of teh optional stuff; Mark hunting, Espers, sidequests, etc?

Lv90

You are talking about Bahamut Fortress yeah? I did it at lv40 give or take a few levels and found it pretty easy.

[Estuans Vehementi]

I read that Excalibur was in the Great Crystal and so had a look around for it before I walked all over Shemhazai... but I looked up a map and it was talking about areas that didn't seem accessable to me (i.e. places like Virgo ...is there another way in, or did I miss something?

[cassidy]

Christ this game is now at the stage its effecting my sleep. I'm up till 1.20 ish every night playing it. Then when I try to get to sleep. I'm planning the next days play and what Gambits I shall try out.

No game has done this to me for a good while and not to this level.

[Puck]

I've had the PAL version since release, but havnt started it yet as I'm half way through FFVII. It sounds ace though and can't wait.

Question: for those that have played Knights of the Old Republic, is the combat in FFXII kind of similar, i.e, pause, issue comands, pause, continue etc?

[cassidy]

I've had the PAL version since release, but havnt started it yet as I'm half way through FFVII. It sounds ace though and can't wait.

Question: for those that have played Knights of the Old Republic, is the combat in FFXII kind of similar, i.e, pause, issue comands, pause, continue etc?

If you want it to be then its exactly like that. IIRC the only difference I can think of is you cant actually queue many moves in advance. Although setting your Gambits up properly is basically the same thing its just done before the Combat.

[Puck]

If you want it to be then its exactly like that. IIRC the only difference I can think of is you cant actually queue many moves in advance. Although setting your Gambits up properly is basically the same thing its just done before the Combat.

Thank you - I'm liking the idea of this even more now. What an inccentive to wrap up FFVII, I've been grinding like a psycho for some reason.