Support NeoGAF

[Mejilan]

Factoring out the like terms:

Best FF since VI. Buy now.

Edit - Ami, I still think that the combat and music suck, but I don't even care. Everything else about the game is crazy fun, and that's what matters to me. It's a lot like FFTA, in that sense. Well, that one had great music. But it had lame, crazy easy combat, but everything else about the game was so addictive and entertaining, it kept me coming back for over a hundred hours. So far, FFXII might just be the same kind of game.

And for those of you following my comments for the duration of the thread, YES, the game starts crazy slow, but if you stick with it... it really is worth it.

 

[Amir0x]

MEJILAN HAS LEVELED UP HIS GRAMMAR SKILLZ

man Mejilan if I hated the combat I'd just leave! This game is so full of combat, I can't imagine sticking through if I wasn't having fun with it

 

[ant1532]

Well, it's better if all your characters are able to do everything.

I have two swords and a bow, I mean, everyone knows how to use the bows and the swords, but one of them always carries the bow, just in case (Range magics to avoid and flying bastards to kill, you know). Buuuuut... everyone knows how to use every spell in the game.

This game gets pretty hard if you have an underleveled party. I mean, VERY hard. Specially where you are going to enter


My advise is that you should take your suicide lemmings to the Henne Mines and keep going in circles until they learn all the magicks they can purchase. You'll have increased everyone at a rate of a level, 150 LP and 15.000gil every 20 minutes. If you want to make money just keep doing circles killing just the bats. In three complete routes you'll aquire about 40.000, including 5-10 ice shields and a pair of flametongues, chaining 140 batmans or so.

Woh. Lol, thanks hella lot though, I'm going to do this. All my guys are going to be at least 26 before I enter this. Back to the mine!

HURRAY FOR TELEPORT PORTS!!!!

 

[Error]

heh, I think the combat is the least rewarding part of this game imo that and exploration.

I dont see how this battle system is so brilliant. maybe I just missed something.

 

[Mejilan]

MEJILAN HAS LEVELED UP HIS GRAMMAR SKILLZ

man Mejilan if I hated the combat I'd just leave! This game is so full of combat, I can't imagine sticking through if I wasn't having fun with it

I don't hate it. I'm just totally indifferent to it. But it's the things around the combat that I like.

I love the license and Gambit systems, amusingly enough. I also love the loot system and bazaar systems. I wish there was a job system, it'd be so amazing. But I suppose FFV tomorrow, and FFIII the week after will do the errr, job, there.

I'm having fun putting together increasingly complex Gambit "programs" and watching them work flawlessly, first individual strategies, and now more complex team strategies. I'm indifferent to the combat itself (which means that the combat engine hasn't set my world on fire), and the Gambit system also has a side benefit of automating it for me, which means that I'll be able to enjoy FFV and FFIII as I grind loot, exp, and LP, and continue to test and refine my Gambit strategems! It'll be great!

The LB system offers a shit ton of passive skills to customize my guys with, and that gives me the same sick joy that FFTA did, and will keep me amused for a disgusting number of hours.

And to top everything off, you've got a lot of non-linear exploration and even a rudimentary clan/hunt/guild system there to give you an excuse to explore and grind. And the story and gameworld are both surprisingly grounded and believable, by FF standards.

I've said it a few times throughout this thread (though without giving as much detail), I'm not a fan of the combat engine, but I don't find it OFFENSIVELY bad, so it doesn't get in the way of the REST of the enjoyment this great game offers!

 

[demi]

Man, I thought the skeletons pop up no matter what, I killed all the Mimics. Oh well.

 

[Amir0x]

Man, I thought the skeletons pop up no matter what, I killed all the Mimics. Oh well.

yeah you had to leave one Mimic alone in the last room before the boss, and then when everything turned dark just go crazy

 

[demi]

I was gonna hit Lvl 30 before fighting the boss too

 

[Amir0x]

heh, lvl 30 at that part of the game... that would have been crazy!

Don't worry, there's another mine where you can keep going back and forth over a bridge and the skeletons pop up over and over too

 

[Teasel]

so i have to go to the mines... who said that summon sucks? i can do tons of damage using them and killed all the marked monster thanks to them,also some question
1) what the hell happened with mark hunt? the last one i did was rank 2 and suddenly i find myself being able to do rank 5 hunts! what happened to rank 3 and rank 4?
2) exactly how do you unlock new items at the bazaar? i thought the more you sold,the more item got unlocked but by reading some description it seems that some item unlock only if you sell certain loot instead of generic loot (fire stone + lumber + malboro wine = fire sword?)
3) i found and killed some monster that the bestiary file under rare game,what's the point of these guy? they are pretty strong but they don't drop anything interessing and i wasn't able to steal anything from them
also it is just me or are guns overpowered? balthier can do around 400 damage (with a 19 attack gun) while all the other character (with 30 attack weapons) do only around 200 and basch equipped with a 41 attack weapon and the best heavy armor i can found now only do around 300

 

[Mejilan]

heh, lvl 30 at that part of the game... that would have been crazy!

Don't worry, there's another mine where you can keep going back and forth over a bridge and the skeletons pop up over and over too

I'm at that bridge now, grinding for all its worth. I've already gone back to the town a few times to unload 99 Bone Fragments. Woops, almost time for another run back to town! :lol

 

[Coop]

That mob hunt against the big turtle is 'hard'..i had him down to barely any HP but all of sudden he starts casting ice spells that do 800-900 damage each. I couldnt get silence on him before my team died...

 

[JayDubya]

Seriously though, Balthier. What is he particularly good at? I have him with 258 unused license points right now.

Fill out the Augment section until all that's left is potion boosts, extra gambits you don't need yet, and I'd recommend leaving magical boosts for last. Go down the gun line until you get to the Quickening nearby. Otherwise, obviously get the equipment you already own and want to use filled out. Other than that, I'd recommend heavy armor and always something two-handed. Poles and guns are all the man really needs. Guns are kind of slow, but haste and berserk take care of that problem.

Speaking of which, I like to have Balthier self-buff. Pick up the augment that doubles spell duration, then the spells that you want Balthier to use on himself - I'd recommend Protect, Berserk, and Haste as mainstays.

The man doesn't require much work, honestly. He sucks at magic just as bad as Basch does, so don't make him a primary healer or nuker - keep his spell use to buffing himself and removing debuffs.

 

[AniHawk]

Again, do you get EXP for killing bosses? I might give that second Demon Wall a go if that's the case.

 

[demi]

Again, do you get EXP for killing bosses? I might give that second Demon Wall a go if that's the case.

I don't think I received any when I killed the Firemane, I hope that's not the case, that is garbage.

 

[JayDubya]

Again, do you get EXP for killing bosses? I might give that second Demon Wall a go if that's the case.

I've never seen the little numbers, but I'm fairly certain you get something - I think I got a huge amount for beating Earth Tyrant, but I'm not sure.

What you DO get, bare minimum, for each boss killed is a simple reward from Clan Centurio, including one for each Demon Wall.

 

[Holtz]

traps in this game were really stupid I remember in the mines traps were clearly spotted on the field and well I tried to avoid them but then in comes my retarded partner AI and bam damage to everyone -_-

I had the same problem, Float solved it. In small corridors that you know have traps, leave Float equipped as a Gambit for one character, so he will keep casting it.

1) what the hell happened with mark hunt? the last one i did was rank 2 and suddenly i find myself being able to do rank 5 hunts! what happened to rank 3 and rank 4?

There are quite a few intermediary hunts (level 3 and 4), like

Spoiler

the Mine Flayer

and the

Spoiler

Vorpal bunny.

.
They show up on the boards once you do some more hunts.

 

[RevenantKioku]

MEJILAN HAS JOINED THE FREEDOM LOVERS WINNING TEAM.
MEJILAN HAS LEVELED UP TO 40

Sorry Mejilan, you're associated with Amir0x now. ;_;

 

[charlequin]

also it is just me or are guns overpowered? balthier can do around 400 damage (with a 19 attack gun) while all the other character (with 30 attack weapons) do only around 200 and basch equipped with a 41 attack weapon and the best heavy armor i can found now only do around 300

IIRC, guns attack more slowly.

 

[Mejilan]

Sorry Mejilan, you're associated with Amir0x now. ;_;

Ami and I have agreed in the past, you know. I can't help it if Matsuno made a great FF!

 

[Lonestar]

you do not get exp for bosses, you get a larger than normal amount of LP for them though. I think

Spoiler

Vossler

was 30 LP. You get gil from montblanc for each beastly boss you face, not imperial or whatever soilders/judges.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Ami and I have agreed in the past, you know. I can't help it if Matsuno made a great FF!

But the game isn't even FF. Wtf. Then again most of you people like Vagrant Story so the point is moot!
Oh well, they can still redeem themselves with FFXIII, I guess. Maybe three games came make up for one?
I'm almost past the part I stopped at in the Japanese version so maybe thing can change for the better, but who knows. Story needs a big kick in the ass, that's for sure.

 

[Mejilan]

FFXIII might be decent. It'd be a good start if the drop the Advent Children-like antics we saw at E3. :lol

 

[LevelNth]

Yup, it's amazing. Probably the best since VII, which means the second best FF ever IMO. The localization is just astounding, MAJOR props to SE. I'm not really digging Vaan, but I really like how quickly he sort of falls into the background (and he's already out of my party). Balthier, Fran and Basch are just too ****ing awesome though, probably some of the best and most enjoyable FF characters in a long while. I can't wait to meet more of Ashe too, as I'll be using her as my main as soon as I can. Amazing NPC supporting cast as well. And the judges! They are just too badass, and they haven't even done anything but speak yet! I just arrived in Bhujera or whatever, and I'm just past the part where you have to run from the bounty hunters. I'm thinking I'll grind for a bit in the mine there.

I've been really impressed with the direction in the game's cutscenes as well, and the visuals on the whole are just simply phenomenal. This is probably the best looking PS2 game I've ever seen, and if not it's damn close. I'm not totally enamored with a few of the music tracks, but for the most part I'm really enjoying Sakimoto's work in this.

And as for the gameplay, well it's just flat out fantastic. I adore the battle system, as it just oozes FFXI in style and execution, and the amount of stuff to do is really exciting. I'm of course just stratching the surface of the Gambit's, but I think they did a great job in implementing them. I've been playing in Wait mode the entire time, as I enjoy it a lot more than Active.

If the game keeps up this quality, it'll easily beat out Okami for my GOTY (and I think Okami is absolutely brilliant). Incredible.

 

[Aeon712]

Which style of weapons are you all using for the characters. So far the only one I switched was Ashe's to the spears just so I didn't want her and Vaan to be the same since I think I'm gonna either be using her or Penalo for my 3rd member. And is it wish to switch Vaan to 2handed swords. Just saw Vossler's and it looked cool.

 

[RevenantKioku]

FFXIII might be decent. It'd be a good start if the drop the Advent Children-like antics we saw at E3. :lol

Lets not get into that again.

 

[Mejilan]

Lets not get into that again.

You brought it up!

 

[RevenantKioku]

You brought it up!

I didn't bring up Advent Children!

Yup, it's amazing. Probably the best since VII, which means the second best FF ever IMO

;_;
Good thing you said IMO at the end, but oi.

 

[frogg609]

about Libra, how come when I try to assign it so that I can see more detailed info about enemies, I'm only allowed to target myself? (I'm level 10 right now).

thanks

 

[Mejilan]

Libra is a Technick that can only be cast on oneself.

I didn't bring up Advent Children!

You might as well have!

 

[Green Biker Dude]

Argh, I was going after the Vorpal Bunny and it started running. I decided to kill all the enemies on the area to make the job easier, then stupid strong skeletons started popping out of nowhere. I had to run away and when I came back after healing I couldn't find the bunny.

I checked FAQs and saw nothing about that; they all say it's on the screen on South of the forest and that's it. If you let it run away will it go to another area of the map? If so, does it follow a fixed order or does it just pick a random place to go?

 

[Vaandaviii]

about Libra, how come when I try to assign it so that I can see more detailed info about enemies, I'm only allowed to target myself? (I'm level 10 right now).

thanks

Libra is a status. If one member of your active party is "libraed" you can see traps and several info about enemies.

 

[MoxManiac]

Is there any problem with sticking with 3 characters and ignoring the rest? My chosen party is Vaan/Basch/Ashe and I haven't been using the others at all. They all are about 10-12 levels behind my active party, haha.

 

[Mejilan]

The inactive party members WILL continue to accrue LPs at a normal clip, but not Exp. So you can easily catch them up in spells, technicks, and equipment, and once they are thus readied, a bit of grinding can catch them up in levels without too much difficulty, I'd imagine.

 

[DeathbyVolcano]

Is there any problem with sticking with 3 characters and ignoring the rest? My chosen party is Vaan/Basch/Ashe and I haven't been using the others at all. They all are about 10-12 levels behind my active party, haha.

No, not really. The License Board pretty much makes the characters all alike after you grind a bit, so sticking with three characters isn't a bad thing.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Argh, I was going after the Vorpal Bunny and it started running. I decided to kill all the enemies on the area to make the job easier, then stupid strong skeletons started popping out of nowhere. I had to run away and when I came back after healing I couldn't find the bunny.

Lols, he should have picked and chose!

 

[Error]

Lols, he should have picked and chose!

:lol

 

[Red Scarlet]

Is there any problem with sticking with 3 characters and ignoring the rest? My chosen party is Vaan/Basch/Ashe and I haven't been using the others at all. They all are about 10-12 levels behind my active party, haha.

A thousand times no, there is no problem.

 

[Doom_Bringer]

Just got raped by the Judge boss fight on Leviathan. Damn this game is tough!!! Any tips?

 

[John Harker]

Quick question, I can't find my manuel.

How do you change party leaders and swap in party members during a fight?

 

[demi]

Quick question, I can't find my manuel.

How do you change party leaders and swap in party members during a fight?

You can change Party Leader during a fight by pressing Up

Swapping, no idea, don't have enough chracters to do that

 

[Red Scarlet]

Quick question, I can't find my manuel.

How do you change party leaders and swap in party members during a fight?

To change party leader, press up or down on the d-pad. To change party members, hit triangle and choose the formation option (or something like that). If a character's name is red, you can't take that character out (they're either doing something at that moment or are being attacked, or are 'recovering' from something).

 

[Error]

Quick question, I can't find my manuel.

How do you change party leaders and swap in party members during a fight?

go the menu and as long as there isnt a party member executing an action or being targeted you can swap him/her for another character.

 

[RevenantKioku]

I also wish to say something about the up and down buttons.

And Scarlet, that's freaking hilarious.
I know you like to play all female parties, but I gotta break something to you.
Vaan is a dude.

 

[Mejilan]

A thousand times no, there is no problem.

Holy shit! The US version of that screen looks SOOOOO much better than that! :lol

 

[Mmmkay]

A thousand times no, there is no problem.

Unless you want Ashe in your Sky Pirate's Den...

 

[Vaandaviii]

A thousand times no, there is no problem.

Oh shit, that's pretty stupid.

One great thing in this game is being able to switch between members on the difficult fights. Congratulations, you have made the game worse.

 

[demi]

Unless you want Ashe in your Sky Pirate's Den...

Those things offer no bonus, and are completely worthless.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Holy shit! The US version of that screen looks SOOOOO much better than that! :lol

Er..wtf you smoking?

 

[Red Scarlet]

You know, I'm really happy so many people are enjoying FFXII, but I think this thread really exemplifies why I didn't; it's page after page of people talking about levelling up tactics and mob hunts.

FFXII failed for me because of balancing issues; as you've all rightly pointed out, the flow of the narrative is somewhat disjointed because you can spend so much time on the bounty hunting and just running around fighting things (precisely what I hate about MMORPGs; it's all of that for no real goal, IMHO, but that's a whole other can of worms). Whilst that obviously appeals to more people than I thought it would, it's just not for me; the pacing of something like Valkyrie Profile 2 was much more to my liking, even though I've been stuck "grinding" for ages (I've had it since JP release and I'm still only on Chapter 3 with about 30 hours on the clock because I'm shit!) there's a nice manageable spread of story and gameplay.

I know it's hard to talk about the storyline without spoilers, but given how much levelling most of you seem to have done have you got any opinions on it thus far? Is it really worth just playing FFXII to do a bunch of sidequests which are pretty much identical and buy things you don't really need to progress?

I'm genuinely curious as to what people think; given that I tend to associate Red Scarlet with "gameplay above all else" in RPGs and she wasn't that fond of FFXII in the end I'd have thought there would have been a few more people not totally gushing over the game.

My guess is that I am in a very small minority (which I am), so that wasn't going to happen in this thread anyway, and a lot of people in here do enjoy setting up gambits for low-input battling. I'm vehemently against them, but it seems most people (when it comes to this game) are not. I am much more in preference of standard input systems (I hate AI controlled party members) so while these guys are doing their thing, I'm doing mine with a different game.

If you ask most people that play rpg's, they tend to say at a much higher rate (85%+ or higher, random guestimate out of my ass) are more into the story. Personally, I find the 'gameplay' in this to be the opposite of what I play these for, but simply 'turning gambits off' does not fix the problems (the game still auto attacks with gambits off and the control system is clunky for manually using everyone every time).

I'm just being patient waiting for people to finish to see what they really think and ignoring the 'BEST GAME EVER' comments by people 5 hours into the game (Fady K). I thought the game was fun (as a game, not an FF) for most of my initial playthrough, largely in part to having gambits set up incorrectly for healing. It was the replay; the combination of understanding gambits better, just going through the game, that is when I really decided that the game was a jump backwards in personal enjoyment/what I play these for.

But I surely don't mind people having fun with it, hell, I was too for 3/4 of it. It does make me cringe when I see some people say some things though, but I also have to be aware that I'm an extremely peculiar/bizarre gamer, so yeah.