Damn, is it possible to beat stage 100 of the trial mode without the nihopalaoa ring?
It's the one piece of equip I didn't get before entering trial mode, no way I'm going through ALL of the hundred stages just for that.
Spamming Zodiark's ultimate attack doesn't do much as they always find a time frame to use an elixir on themselves.
It's the only trophy I need for the platinum ;(
Damn, is it possible to beat stage 100 of the trial mode without the nihopalaoa ring?
It's the one piece of equip I didn't get before entering trial mode, no way I'm going through ALL of the hundred stages just for that.
Spamming Zodiark's ultimate attack doesn't do much as they always find a time frame to use an elixir on themselves.
It's the only trophy I need for the platinum ;(
I beat the level without nihopalaoa, but you will need "something" that causes disease. I had the club you can steal from Ultima in trial 99 (Does like 10 damage but almost guaranteed disease) or you can use the meteorite item that causes the same effect.
I started the fight with hitting Drace once (The other two weaklings will just die from Zodiark), causing disease. Spammed Zodiark until only Gabranth and Zargabaath where alive. Then i just chained sleep Zargabaath (You can manually recast sleep while he is sleeping to keep him out of the fight forever, you can even use the reverse trick on Gabranth since he only throws hi-potions that do a lot less damage than his normal attacks )
But, not really talking about his thoughts on the game, he mentions that Zodiac Age was tuned to be even easier, aside from the extra job you can now have. How true is this? It's killing me as I think 12 is one of the games that badly needed a HARD mode. I haven't paid attention to anything regarding straight game numbers and balance aside from the extra job, so this is news to me and I'd be feeling pretty disappointed.
But, not really talking about his thoughts on the game, he mentions that Zodiac Age was tuned to be even easier, aside from the extra job you can now have. How true is this? It's killing me as I think 12 is one of the games that badly needed a HARD mode. I haven't paid attention to anything regarding straight game numbers and balance aside from the extra job, so this is news to me and I'd be feeling pretty disappointed.
While Weak mode is an option, I find it a kind of meh.
The problem with a level 1 only mode is that it makes a third of the rewards from fighting null, throwing the balance I loved in this game off. I found 12 and International rather balanced in it's pure level scaling, and later on, say 50-60 or so levels mattered less and gear more. So a weak mode would then make it more about having the best gear as early as possible with as little risk as possible, instead of an overall balance of your strategy, equipment, spells, etc.
In 12, I could get by 90% of the game just having two characters take guns, and one take Decoy and shield. Neverending pop pop killed nearly everything with ease, and ten once you got bubble and haste on everyone the game was ezpz. You were guided to at least get the same licenses as everyone by virtue that the espers were of little use, and it was simply easier at times to buy the same weapon for everyone instead of letting someone languish with a weaker one until a later point.
In zodiac, the different job choices were great at fixing the above points, i could slot characters into a specific job and play around with dealing with enemies efficiently around that. I stopped using decoy whatsoever, instead falling back to having a healer who was also a magic damage dealer, I'd use different weapons more to fit the job, etc.
The second job in Zodiac Age excites me, but that they tuned the game's numbers down instead of up to compensate confuses me.
While Weak mode is an option, I find it a kind of meh.
The problem with a level 1 only mode is that it makes a third of the rewards from fighting null, throwing the balance I loved in this game off. I found 12 and International rather balanced in it's pure level scaling, and later on, say 50-60 or so levels mattered less and gear more. So a weak mode would then make it more about having the best gear as early as possible with as little risk as possible, instead of an overall balance of your strategy, equipment, spells, etc.
In 12, I could get by 90% of the game just having two characters take guns, and one take Decoy and shield. Neverending pop pop killed nearly everything with ease, and ten once you got bubble and haste on everyone the game was ezpz. You were guided to at least get the same licenses as everyone by virtue that the espers were of little use, and it was simply easier at times to buy the same weapon for everyone instead of letting someone languish with a weaker one until a later point.
In zodiac, the different job choices were great at fixing the above points, i could slot characters into a specific job and play around with dealing with enemies efficiently around that. I stopped using decoy whatsoever, instead falling back to having a healer who was also a magic damage dealer, I'd use different weapons more to fit the job, etc.
The second job in Zodiac Age excites me, but that they tuned the game's numbers down instead of up to compensate confuses me.
I definitely wish the game had a REAL new game plus mode, resetting your levels/bazaar progress/esper progress but allowing you to actually keep every ability and item of equipment you'd obtained in the course of the game. Getting six ribbons is an accomplishment way more worth preserving than level up to 90.
So if I mostly just auto-battled Hunt #44 with minimal difficulty without changing any of my core party gambits I should be okay for Yiazmat and hopefully Trial 100? I have this extreme sense of dread going into those battles for some reason, I don't know if it's because I never did them (well, Yiazmat) on PS2 or not. Party is all 64-68 except my WHM/TM who is 81 since I never took them out of the party, and I've done all other possible main game content other than getting all of the other rare monsters, Hell Wyrm and Omega. I think reading up on how crazy the bosses were and certain strategies I've never used or employed like the Reverse stuff (didn't fight Omega on PS2 either) seems scarier than it is
On a directly related note what should I go for with the Phon Coast trophy rewards? I still need to get the last two or three monsters for that, haven't turned any of that in. Only really care about stuff in terms of helping me clear Yiazmat and Trials really I have 2 Ribbons and 2 Nihopalaoa's FWIW. Maybe 16+ to Stok to get a 2nd Genji Gloves and 3rd Ribbon?
Just beat Vorpal Bunny. What a piece of shit lol. Once it took me to a spot where there were like 5-6 hellhounds...yeah it didn't go well that time. Piece of shit was immune to immobilize, slow, disable and slow.
edit: apparently it's not immune to berserk however
I'm trying to finish the game up before starting MarioxRabbids and I was doing the Gilgamesh Hunt for the Genji Armor before going after the rest of the optional Espers. Anyways, I was chasing him for the second battle and I couldn't quite remember where he was at so I was wandering around past site 11 and BAM, Disma. I've had zero issues with rare trophy hunts so far except for keeping them alive long enough to steal from them so i was like whatever. And then all of a sudden my party is wiped and i'm sitting there like WTF for a few minutes. At first I thought maybe I killed my own party because of reflect but nope I had opal ring on. This motherfucker is doing over 4000 dmg per person per spell and casts faster than my healer.
So i'm like fuck it I will come back for that ass later for revenge but let me take care of Gilgamesh first. I head off in a different direction because I think it was a dead end in the mines not leading to Gilgamesh and then BAM Disma again in a different area fucking stalking me!! Ok, fine, bring it, i'm ready for your ass this time. Wipes my 1st string but thats ok I got him down to only a quarter health, hit quickening with second string. He fucking punches Fran and kills her before the quickening triggers! Get a couple mist charges not too bad, hes still alive with like a sliver of red on his health bar. Phoenix Down Fran, hit her quickening, I get 4 mist charges and an Ark Blast. Ok sweet jesus this has to be over...NOOOOOOO! The fucker is still standing and does something that immediately wipes everyone! HOW! HOW! HOW!
I've scoured Gamefaqs for hours and I haven't got a clue as to what jobs should I assign to each characters. There are so many different builds and options and I don't think there is a clear consensus for the absolute best job combinations.
And the worst part is I haven't even started playing this game. I literally just bought this game today and now I'm too scared to even open it. What if I end up with a subpar party or worse? What if I'll just end up regretting my choices for each character's roles?
So please, help me out here. I don't care about repeating jobs or lore friendliness. Just spoonfeed me with whatever you think is the best job combinations for each characters.
I've scoured Gamefaqs for hours and I haven't got a clue as to what jobs should I assign to each characters. There are so many different builds and options and I don't think there is a clear consensus for the absolute best job combinations.
And the worst part is I haven't even started playing this game. I literally just bought this game today and now I'm too scared to even open it. What if I end up with a subpar party or worse? What if I'll just end up regretting my choices for each character's roles?
So please, help me out here. I don't care about repeating jobs or lore friendliness. Just spoonfeed me with whatever you think is the best job combinations for each characters.
Just make sure you have a black mage, a white mage, a time mage, and a red mage. Don't worry about getting them all right away, you can wait until picking the second classes to get them. Just make sure they aren't all the same person. Spread it out over two or preferably three or more characters.
For example black mage goes well with red mage since it gets big damage and decent healing, but if you do black mage/monk you'll get every kind of damage spell.
White mage/red mage gets you good healing with some decent magic damage potential.
Black mage/white mage gets you all magic damage types and good healing, but you want the black mage to focus more on damage than anything else so it's not great.
Time mage/white mage gets you the GOAT support character, but there aren't enough gambits to take advantage of all their abilities so it might not be ideal. Time mage/red mage has a similar issue, only with damage spells.
Shikari/White mage will get you a GOAT tanking character once you start unlocking green magic and go deeper into late game stuff. I've heard Knight/White mage is similar.
Some people like White mage/machinist because it adds some decent damage to a class that doesn't normally deal it, but I feel like it's a wasted combo and you could get something more versatile.
Shikari/Ulahan is pretty insane in terms of damage done, especially in early- to mid-game if you're using spears due to all the battle lores you can easily get. Everyone else catches up in late-game though, unless you go out of the way to get the really good spears. Holy Lance is crazy strong on this guy in late game, due to almost everything in that stretch being weak to Holy, and you can buy it.
There's no bad class combinations, you just want to make sure you have enough magic, melee, and support skills for any conceivable situation.
Magic damage will usually outdo physical, especially if the enemy is weak to something. The only time you shouldn't be using magic is if the opponent is weak to nothing.
I beat the level without nihopalaoa, but you will need "something" that causes disease. I had the club you can steal from Ultima in trial 99 (Does like 10 damage but almost guaranteed disease) or you can use the meteorite item that causes the same effect.
I started the fight with hitting Drace once (The other two weaklings will just die from Zodiark), causing disease. Spammed Zodiark until only Gabranth and Zargabaath where alive. Then i just chained sleep Zargabaath (You can manually recast sleep while he is sleeping to keep him out of the fight forever, you can even use the reverse trick on Gabranth since he only throws hi-potions that do a lot less damage than his normal attacks )
I did it! The curse club helped a lot, thanks. The worst part was coming from stage 99 all reversed and having to fix everyone up before the fight, but in the end it was an epic fight. Almost 6 hours to beat the trial mode, whew.
What a game, still my favorite FF even with the nostalgia effect totally out of the way.
I've scoured Gamefaqs for hours and I haven't got a clue as to what jobs should I assign to each characters. There are so many different builds and options and I don't think there is a clear consensus for the absolute best job combinations.
And the worst part is I haven't even started playing this game. I literally just bought this game today and now I'm too scared to even open it. What if I end up with a subpar party or worse? What if I'll just end up regretting my choices for each character's roles?
So please, help me out here. I don't care about repeating jobs or lore friendliness. Just spoonfeed me with whatever you think is the best job combinations for each characters.
Relax. Why the need to have the BEST possible build in the game for everyone? It's not worth it, it's not a mmorpg, you're not competing with other people. I would just make sure to assign each of the 12 jobs to the characters, so you can experience all of the abilities in a single playthrough (it's a lenghy and kinda "heavy" game). I certainly didn't have the perfect party, far from it (poor penelo was forced to do both healing and support most of the time, a mess) but I still beat trial mode, so have no fear and just pick the jobs you feel most suited for each character. The game is on the easy side and now it's even easier to grind so there's really no need for minmaxing and making it even easier, unless you want to beat newgame- or something.
Magic damage will usually outdo physical, especially if the enemy is weak to something. The only time you shouldn't be using magic is if the opponent is weak to nothing.
I also want to point out that the higher level elemental spells are AOE, so you'll be hitting entire groups of enemies all at once. You can't really do that with physical weapons. A well set-up black mage has insane damage potential.
When I'm playing a game that has a writing system invented for it, I always try to read it, even if no one ever has before. In today's HD era the graphics don't get in your way and it's just a matter of being clever enough, but back in the day, graphic blur was a big problem.
For this game, they designed a simpler alphabet that you can basically figure out if you look at the game's map, because all the place names correspond to their English-version names:
; probably more a shout-out to Vagrant Story than to Shakespeare or Tom Stoppard.)
I enjoyed being able to read all of that back in 2007. But then there was this sign that appears in the disused subway stations in Barheim. See that overhanding sign, all the way at the top?
When I first played this game, at the PS2's lower resolution, there just wasn't enough resolution to figure it out. The last two characters looked a lot like the Japanese *hiragana* syllables "shima しま" or "jima じま", which mean "island" and could be one of the producers sneaking his name in there. But wait.. it's eight characters long? No Japanese name is that long. Maybe it's not Japanese. What could it be? Too many letters for "Barheim"... and it can't be "Dalmasca" because it begins and ends with the same letter. Maybe we'll never know.
But in HD now, it's doable. And the hardcover FF Encyclopedia, released in Japan around 2010 or so, has a transcription of this alphabet, which corresponds roughly to the simpler one above but is more "gothic"/Fraktur-looking.
And with that you can finally puzzle this word out. It's really boring. All it says is...
ENTRANCE
.
Ten years, Gaffers. Ten. Years. Finally deciphered. (I'm still happy to be able to read it at last, even though it is totally uninteresting.)
I have a long-awaited discovery to share!
When I'm playing a game that has a writing system invented for it, I always try to read it, even if no one ever has before. In today's HD era the graphics don't get in your way and it's just a matter of being clever enough, but back in the day, graphic blur was a big problem.
For this game, they designed a simpler alphabet that you can basically figure out if you look at the game's map, because all the place names correspond to their English-version names:
And with those you can read the writing that scrolls down those horrible red traps that are all over the place.
(It says
ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD
; probably more a shout-out to Vagrant Story than to Shakespeare or Tom Stoppard.)
I enjoyed being able to read all of that back in 2007. But then there was this sign that appears in the disused subway stations in Barheim. See that overhanding sign, all the way at the top?
When I first played this game, at the PS2's lower resolution, there just wasn't enough resolution to figure it out. The last two characters looked a lot like the Japanese *hiragana* syllables "shima しま" or "jima じま", which mean "island" and could be one of the producers sneaking his name in there. But wait.. it's eight characters long? No Japanese name is that long. Maybe it's not Japanese. What could it be? Too many letters for "Barheim"... and it can't be "Dalmasca" because it begins and ends with the same letter. Maybe we'll never know.
But in HD now, it's doable. And the hardcover FF Encyclopedia, released in Japan around 2010 or so, has a transcription of this alphabet, which corresponds roughly to the simpler one above but is more "gothic"/Fraktur-looking.
And with that you can finally puzzle this word out. It's really boring. All it says is...
ENTRANCE
.
Ten years, Gaffers. Ten. Years. Finally deciphered. (I'm still happy to be able to read it at last, even though it is totally uninteresting.)
Damn Dunan I love your posts so much, I still remember when you deciphered the writing system in the original Gravity Rush (remember the hint that gave the final little push to unlocking it all, "pillar" at the center of the town map? ).
I didn't know the traps were nodding to Vagrant Story (now that I'm done with TZA I guess I'll give it another go, one of my favorite games ever) and it's so fascinating that you were able to decipher, and still remembered about, the writing at Barheim.
My second black hole concurrence in 90 hours was a 15 chain against a low health Zodiark in the mines that finished him off.
Praise RNGesus for that one. Darkja sucks.
Damn Dunan I love your posts so much, I still remember when you deciphered the writing system in the original Gravity Rush (remember the hint that gave the final little push to unlocking it all, "pillar" at the center of the town map? ).
I didn't know the traps were nodding to Vagrant Story (now that I'm done with TZA I guess I'll give it another go, one of my favorite games ever) and it's so fascinating that you were able to decipher, and still remembered about, the writing at Barheim.
I remember that huge puzzle piece you contributed very well, Tomodachi! That Gravity Rush alphabet was by far the most fun of all the ones I've worked on (though not the most mind-blowing; Nier would get that crown).
There are a few more examples of this alphabet in this game but they don't seem to say much. There is a poster in the Clan Headquarters (and in many other places) that just says GHIJ, and there is another one in many shops that has a number on it (15000, or something like that). It's clear that in the PS2 era they were still copy-pasting and dummy-texting a lot of stuff, knowing that it didn't really matter with that level of graphics. I'm really excited about what interesting writing systems this generation will bring us; I wish I could work on designing one!
After a super long ~12 hour day of grinding the game out I finally managed to get the Platinum!
FF12 was is one of my favorite games of all time but I could never bring myself to grind out the last few things in it (Hell Wrym/Yiazmat/Omega) and it's bothered me for like 9 years I never did everything in it but I finally trudged through it all here. x4 speed and the breaks (Addle etc) make the main game content pretty doable. I had a few wipes late in the Trials (fucking Red Chocobos) but ultimately wasn't as bad as I thought.
Speaking of Trials, I did Trial 100 with this method that got posted a few weeks ago that I didn't see posted here (unless I missed it):
All you need is one Niphoalaoa, a few Elixirs and Zeromus on a high level character. I started the battle in bad shape from the previous floor, messed up the timing a bit but still did it first try in less than a minute. It's super dumb. Only even easier way I've seen is using a bunch of Dark Matters but fuck farming for those.
This game is amazing and I love it to death, but it's also incredibly dumb and all over the place with things like incredibly absurd things like super easily missable core abilities and items, useless Technicks and abilities, and so on. It's kinda crazy.
That depends entirely on what you use said character for. Is it primarily a spell caster? A melee damage dealer? Go with weapons and armor that will enhance those attributes.
That is if you want to buy it for 999.999 gils (iirc) together with the zodiac shield.
You get a zodiac spear for free if you give all 30 trophies to the brothers, and at least 16 of them to atak.
Made my way to Ultima only to find I'm underleveled and got destroyed. So now I have to back out and level up and then go through the bullshit that is the crystal again.
Knight is a really easy class to double up on as it gets a ton of support spells through Esper unlocks but a combo like Knight / Bushi is really best as a Berserk'd DPS bot.
This party is fine but I dislike the Shikari / Foebreaker combination. That combo is pretty much obsolete now that the math has been done that shows Germinas Boots being a better DPS increase for Ninja Swords than Genji Gloves. Shikari is best with Mystic Armor classes that give access to Heavy Armor through unlocks. So either Red Battlemage, Black Mage, or Bushi.
Made my way to Ultima only to find I'm underleveled and got destroyed. So now I have to back out and level up and then go through the bullshit that is the crystal again.
Waystone XIX near the peak goes back to the start of the upper crystal and creates another waystone to return. I don't think you need to actually kill Ultima to use it, but I could be wrong.
