Final Fantasy XII

carbonkid

How many hunts are rest of you doing in between each chunk of storyline? Just finished killing vossler and ive done two rank1 and one rank2 hunts. Probably should do more to level up and buy more stuff but im dying to get back into the story.

AnCapaillMor

If it meant going out of my way i did'nt bother. Level up and then do them. Makes them a hell of a lot easier. Teleport crystals are the greatest things ever.

Orizio

What level should you be going to get the Espers.I'm at 37 right now and I only have the first two.

carbonkid

AnCapaillMor wrote:

If it meant going out of my way i did'nt bother. Level up and then do them. Makes them a hell of a lot easier. Teleport crystals are the greatest things ever.

Yea the teleport crystals are really handy on the hunts...never used them yet during the story but probably should for buying more potions n stuff.

AnCapaillMor

50+ i'd imagine, i got zalera at around 50 and he's meant to be one of the easiest, took me 2 attempts, tough enough.

CodeMonkey

I killed zalera when everyone was around 42 on my first attempt. I walked into him and his girlfriend by accident. I remember he starts with some zombie/skeleton helpers which were tough normal monsters to begin with so I unleashed a quickening chain on him to start with so the area damage can kill them. Think I used up all the mist charges from everyone and that didn't kill him and just fought it out when all the quickening were used up. He didn't hit hard so the mp i was getting back from having all those augment licenses and some potions in emergencies were more than enough for healing. Phoenix down or raise to deal with instant death. I had more trouble with adrammelech (thunder esper) and I ran into him accidentally when hunting marks.

I guess you fight the espers and marks as early as possible if you want a challenge. Sometimes you get semi useful rewards from marks which are useless when you're high level. Like you can get an icebrand pretty early on from killing that ring wyrm before they're available in the shops. I tried to kill most of the marks available after a chunk of story.

sme

i'm currently trying to get all the hidden espers to get into the hidden area in henne mines. i'm lv64/65 and so far they are simple.

AnCapaillMor

Tried Hell wyrm last night, he's doablw but with 8m hp i gave up after 39 minutes might go back if ever stick long enough and reach 9999 damage.

Juza1973

I really loved the game system but the story is not in the same league as other Final Fantasy. I am not happy about this game.

Mark Hamill

What level was any one at when they went for the Zodiac spear? I was 19
(took me 40-50 attempts to find the damn thing and get out of the dungeon its in, but it is so worth it)

AnCapaillMor

Apparently i opened a chest somehwere. I was about level 40, and had 1 or 2 problems down there, nothing major, i can't imagine what lvl19 was like.

Cina

Well, finished the game after 65 hours play time (That includes doing 70% of the hunts, getting 7 espers, and all characters level 50 !)
Decided to do this before trying any of the uber bosses/espers so the last area is actually still a challenge. Overall I'd say it's the most enjoyable FF I've played since VII. The battle/gambit system, which at first I was very unsure about and thought rather annoying, gets so good and so tactical the higher your levels get, absolutely fantastic.
I loved the story myself, a lot of people have claimed it's not as engaging as other games but I disagree, I think it's pretty complex because of the huge amount of characters but it's done very well and it all comes together towards the end.

Overall, awesome game, and I'm going to spend another 50+ hours getting everything now!

super_furry

Cina wrote:

Well, finished the game after 65 hours play time (That includes doing 70% of the hunts, getting 7 espers, and all characters level 50 !)
Decided to do this before trying any of the uber bosses/espers so the last area is actually still a challenge. Overall I'd say it's the most enjoyable FF I've played since VII. The battle/gambit system, which at first I was very unsure about and thought rather annoying, gets so good and so tactical the higher your levels get, absolutely fantastic.
I loved the story myself, a lot of people have claimed it's not as engaging as other games but I disagree, I think it's pretty complex because of the huge amount of characters but it's done very well and it all comes together towards the end.

Overall, awesome game, and I'm going to spend another 50+ hours getting everything now!

Couldn't agree more. Final Fantasy was a series rapidly circling the drain after the lack-lustre previous PS2 titles and the distinctly average VIII and IX. XII breathed new life into a stale series and by it's own rights is a deeply brilliant game.

Retr0gamer

I'm finding it deeply boring. Dungeons are too long and the combat is really boring, you basically watch the fights when the gambits are set up well. Boss battles are the only good thing since later on they become quite tactical. Thought I'd have to level up loads because of the recommended levels in faqs but it seems faq writers are terrible at games and I'm storming through the game at the moment on quite low levels. Story wise, I'm not impressed. It just seems to be a motley bunch running around on fetch quests for mystic items that will help them, nothing original. The most interesting thing is whats happening in arcadia. All the interesting stuff seems to be happening without any input from the main party.

Usually a FF game really grabs me and I can't stop playing it. In FFXII I force myself to play a bit of it and when I beat a dungeon I say to myself 'that was a chore' and play something else.

I think it's a major step backwards from the charm, fun and tactical battle system of FFX. I would have preferred a traditional FF game that had lost the random battles instead of the western hack and slash it has become.

Crucifix

Cina wrote:

The battle/gambit system, which at first I was very unsure about and thought rather annoying, gets so good and so tactical the higher your levels get, absolutely fantastic.

Good to hear.
I've only been playing a few hours, but I'm finding the combat gets a little dull. I had heard people say the new battle system was more hands on, but I feel more like I'm managing my crew, rather than commanding them.
The story hasn't grabbed me yet, and has been a bit confusing at points but some of that is probably intentional, and some of it me just not getting it.

Keith C

Any good tips for killing the white mouse?? Vaan is level 24 & the rest of the party is level 20? did a quicking but didnt get a good chain going then the marlboro & some other monster in the vicinity joined in with the mouse & kicked my ass!!

Mark Hamill

Keith C wrote:

Any good tips for killing the white mouse?? Vaan is level 24 & the rest of the party is level 20? did a quicking but didnt get a good chain going then the marlboro & some other monster in the vicinity joined in with the mouse & kicked my ass!!

First make sure you have full health/mp going into this fight (there is a save crystal 2 rooms away). When you fight him do a quickening immediately (at level 20 you wont take too much of his area magic attacks so don't bother trying to wear him down), when done, swap two characters out and do another quickening. Hopefully you will get a mist charge for the character with no mp. After that bring in last character and do quickening for last time. Hopefully mousse is dead, but you still might need to flee if marlboros are around.
The last quickening may only be a single attack if you are unlucky, but i have gotten an ark blast out of one character doing a quickening, so its possible to get good damage. (i am assuming that you have level 3 quickenings with most or all of your characters, if not, i suggest you get them: not only are they stronger, they triple you max mp)

AnCapaillMor

Wipe out out the marlboros and frogs first, if you're having probems with them forget about white moouse. Level up and come back later. can't remember what levels i was on but it was more than 20.

BTW the sub levels of ridorna, bloody hell, i'd 5 frogs and 4 horsey dudes attacking me at one stage.

The_Hustler

Mark Hamill wrote:

First make sure you have full health/mp going into this fight (there is a save crystal 2 rooms away). When you fight him do a quickening immediately (at level 20 you wont take too much of his area magic attacks so don't bother trying to wear him down), when done, swap two characters out and do another quickening. Hopefully you will get a mist charge for the character with no mp. After that bring in last character and do quickening for last time. Hopefully mousse is dead, but you still might need to flee if marlboros are around.
The last quickening may only be a single attack if you are unlucky, but i have gotten an ark blast out of one character doing a quickening, so its possible to get good damage. (i am assuming that you have level 3 quickenings with most or all of your characters, if not, i suggest you get them: not only are they stronger, they triple you max mp)

I would take that to a greater extreme. Sometimes you can get a great chain with only one person. So if you go in with one person in your party, do a quickening, bring in a second person, do a quickening, bring in the third, same again, and switch one for one afterwards. Granted sometimes you won't get a mist charge and get small chains but many times you do and the aggregate of all these chains can do a huge amount of damage.

It will be very hard at your level, I know, I did it at 18 and it took me many hours of repeated attempts. Another thing I'd do is have belias summoned beforehand and then hit the save spot so you still have full mist charges. As far as I can remember the mousse doesn't like fire. Try to stay near the entrance to the area and the other monsters should not get involved.

elekid

Just finished the game tonight after almost exactly 100 hours play. I got all but two of the Espers and did all but 3 of the hunts.

I really enjoyed the game, never found the battles boring and always had fun exploring the dungeons. I levelled up the characters equally so they were all roughly level 62 when I finished and I completely filled up the license board for everyone too.

The one downside to the game, as many people have mentioned, is the plot. I liked the characters but they all felt underused. There were no especially good character moments and I never felt I got to know them like other Final Fantasy characters. The plot was fairly boring too but this was made up for, as far as I'm concerned, by the gameplay. I can understand why some people would be disappointed though.

Orizio

How do I find Hastega?Anyone?

elekid

Orizio wrote:

How do I find Hastega?Anyone?

Hastega can be bought from the Unlucky Merchant in the South Bank Village in the Dalmasca Esterland after finishing The Pharos at Ridorana

The_Hustler

I finally got the black hole to occur. I only got a 16 chain but only one person had mist charges and I get the strong impression they take that into account.


Also Zalera was much easier than I expected. He never got to do anything. I sent one person in to do a quickening, got a nine chain which took about 1/4 of its health. Brought in a second and only got a 6 chain which didn't take off much and then I noticed he still had one mist charge left and I somehow got a 12 chain out of that ending in luminescence which nearly defeated him so bringing in a third person to do a quickening finished him off.
I doubt there'll be an easier fight, you read guides saying you have to be certain levels for these bosses but I'm always about half these levels and can defeat them.

Retr0gamer

Find that as well. FAQ writers must be awful at games

Getting my ass kicked by the little mandragora bastards atm. Why the hell isn't there a save point close by to them.

Keith C

Killed the white mousse, got more LP & level up & got a few swiftness 10% from licence board. Just killed the judge on that mountain, got a 14 hit summoning & vaan & penelo have level 3 summoning so it was quite easy.
I have 2 espers now. penelo has the fire guy but even though she has 3 full MP gauges (& other charectors would have full charge also) the summon icon is blacked out during battles (random & boss). I managed to summon him once during a battle but since then it always seemed to be blacked out.
Can they only be summoned for certain battles?? Am I doing summat wrong or do I need to collect summat

CodeMonkey

If you got the license then you should be able to summon the esper. When you summon an esper the other 2 characters disappears. So the game might stop you from summoning if one of the other 2 characters are being targetted, you did say you tried this durring battle. This is just a guess.

Keith C

CodeMonkey wrote:

If you got the license then you should be able to summon the esper. When you summon an esper the other 2 characters disappears. So the game might stop you from summoning if one of the other 2 characters are being targetted, you did say you tried this durring battle. This is just a guess.

Yeah that makes sense, same way you cant change party member when they're being targeted, ill check it out later.

Orizio

Finally finished it.The Bahamut battles are insanely easy.Not once did one of my characters go into critical,didn't have to use a quickening or esper, just kept haste,shell and protect up and equipped bubble belts.Characters at level 50, all far too easy imo.

sme

the easiness of the final section pissed me off somewhat. i'll longed for the difficulty of the end of vii or like that part of sin in x where it had to be defeated in 7 moves.

what i thought was funny was:

the second fight with gabranth, about half way through there is a cutscene where he says something like "look how i'm kicking your ass." clearly thats not verbatim, but its along those lines. i was kinda shocked at how the programming of the game was so stupid, as he had not done any damage to my characters. i thought, game do you not realise i'm kicking the **** out of you?

AnCapaillMor

Finally got me a ribbon. bloody hell the pharos subtera is tough, enemy love to swamp you. good items down there.