Final Fantasy 12

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Just an update....I bought a new controller and its whuppin some serious booty. I can open up the party screen and world map as needed. Its awesome to finally be able to play this awesome game. :D

[MaxofSteel]

Just an update....I bought a new controller and its whuppin some serious booty. I can open up the party screen and world map as needed. Its awesome to finally be able to play this awesome game. :D

Congrats SUPERECWFAN1. Now all you have to worry about is gettin' your game on!:p

[gary987]

Your controller was fine... it was square enix that was fubarred... Make sure you tell all your friends about the "high quality" customer support at square enix.


Gary

my live customer support @ square-enix


We are aware of any issue where certain makes or models of Sony DUALSHOCK2 controller are experiencing problems working with our title. These controllers are signified by the letter 'A' on the back of the controller, next to the 'Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.' brand.
SER Wesley S: As this is a hardware issue, and not a software issue, the only thing we can suggest at this point in time is to use a different Sony DUALSHOCK2 controller.
Gary Hunt: well that would've been nice to know earlier... as I have a game which is useless, any probably now cannot return :(
Gary Hunt: Would square-enix take the game back, seeing that I can not play it properly, or perhaps pay for part of a compatible controller?
SER Wesley S: We did not sell you the game, nor do we have your money for your purchase of the game. So, no, we cannot take the game back. Also, the problem is not with our game. The problem is with the Sony controller. The only suggestions I can make are to try a different PS2 controller that isn't the first release of the PS2 controller, or take the game back to the place of purchase and see if you can get a refund with them.
SER Wesley S: Are there any other issues I can assist you with right now, Gary?
Gary Hunt: okay thank you anyways... I will probably not buy any more square-enix products for some time. I expect a certain degree of quality from square-enix to make sure their games work properly with a stock ps2. I will make sure to mention the bang up job square-enix has done to anyone planning to purchase a new game.
SER Wesley S: Thank you for visiting our Square Enix Chat line, Gary!

[the_coldest_sun]

Your controller was fine... it was square enix that was fubarred... Make sure you tell all your friends about the "high quality" customer support at square enix.


Gary

my live customer support @ square-enix


We are aware of any issue where certain makes or models of Sony DUALSHOCK2 controller are experiencing problems working with our title. These controllers are signified by the letter 'A' on the back of the controller, next to the 'Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.' brand.
SER Wesley S: As this is a hardware issue, and not a software issue, the only thing we can suggest at this point in time is to use a different Sony DUALSHOCK2 controller.
Gary Hunt: well that would've been nice to know earlier... as I have a game which is useless, any probably now cannot return :(
Gary Hunt: Would square-enix take the game back, seeing that I can not play it properly, or perhaps pay for part of a compatible controller?
SER Wesley S: We did not sell you the game, nor do we have your money for your purchase of the game. So, no, we cannot take the game back. Also, the problem is not with our game. The problem is with the Sony controller. The only suggestions I can make are to try a different PS2 controller that isn't the first release of the PS2 controller, or take the game back to the place of purchase and see if you can get a refund with them.
SER Wesley S: Are there any other issues I can assist you with right now, Gary?
Gary Hunt: okay thank you anyways... I will probably not buy any more square-enix products for some time. I expect a certain degree of quality from square-enix to make sure their games work properly with a stock ps2. I will make sure to mention the bang up job square-enix has done to anyone planning to purchase a new game.
SER Wesley S: Thank you for visiting our Square Enix Chat line, Gary!

After reading this, I checked my controller to see if it has that "A" on the back. It does. BUT I was able to play this game with no problem. Hell, I just beat it the other day. My Playstation 2 is pretty damn old. I believe it was purchased back in 2001/02 sometime, and I've had no problems playing any game since I received it back then. Actually, the only time I have a problem is if I stand the PS2 on its side (vertical stand), then it takes FOREVER to read/load a game, movie DVD, or music CD. Everything loads fine once I lay the system back down. Other than that, my PS2 has worked like a charm.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Well if you have the bangle quip you will see Ghis is at level 14. This should make you at a descent level to engage him.

Let see.....Judges are mostly heavy hitters with aggression as their key strength. They won't try anything fancy with status effects so don't bother with many item/effect gambits. Me I'm a pure attacker I don't really bother with magic (besides healing) until the high level spells coe into play.

A good team to have.
Basch - he's your heavy hitter. With a good sword and shield he makes for a pretty good offensive character.
Balthier - Armed with gun he makes for a good distance fighter. This way he overrides Ghis's defense.
??? - Depending on the license you open this position could be anyone. Make sure the have MP cost reductions and healing spells on hand. Don't forget to use potions. While the don't have the impact when heavy healing spells calong. They are quicker to use than healing spells and give the relatively same amounts early in the game. Distance is also important here, especially with Fran who is frail to close combat early in the game. If you want to use her and Balthier. License him for melee weapons and keep Fran with a bow and healing.

The key to victory is armor and healing.


You should take out the 3 other smaller enemies 1st though. Then concentrate on the Judge. A good strategy that I'm using is called " softening the Boss up " . Its where I keep the characters I have Quickenings on , in the back. This allows my heavy hitters/spell casters to take an enemy way down. Then I bring in my Quickening callers and its not even a hard battle.

The Hunt involving tbe Niddleborg was the toughest foe I've ever faced and I didn't even have a full party to beat him. Just 4 characters...and he was ROUGH. I believe in lots of luck and potions takin him down. :p

[cactusmaac]

I'm about twenty hours in and I like it. Unsure where I'd rank it though. The graphics are well tasty and it feels like a huge amount of effort went on crafting the story and all the different personalities involved. Based on those alone I'd rank this (so far) as the best FF after 7.

However the game's really stingy with save points, gil, weapons and accessories such that you don't see anything like the continual improvement that you do in other RPGs. There hasn't been any other game where I've been stuck with the same equipment for so long. Most of the character improvement comes from tedious hours of levelling up your stats. The licensing system blows.

There's no specialisation to speak of and all the characters end up being capable of doing the same things. FF8 somewhat suffered from that but the different Limit Breaks partially made up for that. Most of the time I spend my license points on stuff like Black Magic 5 which I'm hours off from getting. Offensive magic really sucks. I'm still stuck using Fire, Thunder and Blizzard and I'm twenty bloody hours in! Apart from using Cure\Cura, sticking Protect on occasionally and removing status effects to save buying things like Eye Drops, I'm mostly just using melee attacks.

The lack of specialisation really hurts the fun you could get from the game. In FF6, Chrono Trigger and FF9 the specialised skills of each character made party selection quite strategic and allowed for a variety of different ways to take down bosses. FF10 had this and supplemented it by allowing you to switch members in and out, thus allowing you to bring in Auron to destroy enemy defences, drafting in Lulu to blitz it with magic and then Yuna to heal everyone. The materia system in FF7 allowed for hours of fine-tuning. Every new accessory, armour and weapon you got, allowed you to optimise your party for offensive damage, materia growth, healing etc. and got you to think strategically.

What really does piss me off is the lack of save points. I'm being forced to rely on faqs on boss battles because I'm not going to slog through a long and tedious set of dungeons for another two hours because I didn't buy any Hankerchiefs for fighting Belias.

All those elements I'd rank as being only a bit better than the woeful dress-sphere system of FF X-2. So right now I'd rank FF12 slightly below FF8. In part also because your summons are terribly weedy and quickenings suck ass. You have to go through some finicky chaining to do any appreciable damage and they reduce your MP to zero making them a bit useless for boss battles.

How I rank the FFs

FF7
FF6
FF10
FF8
FF12 (provisional)
FF9
FF X-2

[Xero Kaiser]

However the game's really stingy with save points, gil, weapons and accessories such that you don't see anything like the continual improvement that you do in other RPGs.

Gil, weapons and accessories grow on trees. Steal from every enemy you come across and just plow through the dungeons normally and you'll be rolling in money. Early on you can go through some of the beginning areas and easily rack up huge chains for easy money.


FF10 had this and supplemented it by allowing you to switch members in and out, thus allowing you to bring in Auron to destroy enemy defences, drafting in Lulu to blitz it with magic and then Yuna to heal everyone. The materia system in FF7 allowed for hours of fine-tuning. Every new accessory, armour and weapon you got, allowed you to optimise your party for offensive damage, materia growth, healing etc. and got you to think strategically.

Isn't that the same thing? In FF10 and FF7 the characters were whatever you made them. FF10 and FF7 have the same lack of specialization that FF12 does. They use spheres and materia instead of licenses but the idea is exactly the same. The characters are whatever you make them. You didn't take everyone down the same sphere grind in FF10 did you? You didn't give everyone the exact same materia setup in FF7 did you? Then why give everyone the exact same licenses/gambits in FF12 and then complain about the lack of diversity?


In part also because your summons are terribly weedy and quickenings suck ass.

Summons do suck tremendous amounts of ass, but quickenings are insane. I've blown through several bosses in one turn with quickenings. You sure you're using them right?


What really does piss me off is the lack of save points. I'm being forced to rely on faqs on boss battles because I'm not going to slog through a long and tedious set of dungeons for another two hours because I didn't buy any Hankerchiefs for fighting Belias.

That's pretty impossible. There's a save point before every boss fight in the game and in the middle of every dungeon

[Titan76]

However the game's really stingy with save points, gil, weapons and accessories such that you don't see anything like the continual improvement that you do in other RPGs.
Save points are pretty much everywhere so I don't know how you are having a problem there.

Once you get further into the game more powerful weapons, accessories, and armor will be popping up in every new city/place you go into. And the best way to get Gil is to go on Hunts and steal from the monsters you fight.


There hasn't been any other game where I've been stuck with the same equipment for so long.
That should change later on but make sure you have lots of gil because prices go up through the roof.


Most of the character improvement comes from tedious hours of levelling up your stats. The licensing system blows.
Get use to it, it stays that way through the entire game.


There's no specialisation to speak of and all the characters end up being capable of doing the same things.
Pretty much yes. You just have to decided what you want so and so to be. For me I used Vann's friend(forgot her name) and Fran as my healers because they have the most MP and gave them long range weapons. Then I found out the princess has more MP then Fran does later on but I just stuck with Fran anyway.


Most of the time I spend my license points on stuff like Black Magic 5 which I'm hours off from getting. Offensive magic really sucks.
Yes it does and don't waste your license points on it first. Black magic is really only good on fliers and certain boss who have weakness against it. Other then that its worthless.


I'm still stuck using Fire, Thunder and Blizzard and I'm twenty bloody hours in!
Don't worry you really won't use much black magic in this game.


Apart from using Cure\Cura, sticking Protect on occasionally and removing status effects to save buying things like Eye Drops, I'm mostly just using melee attacks.
That's pretty much how the game will go. I also recommend using shell as well to help against spell casts.


The lack of specialisation really hurts the fun you could get from the game. In FF6, Chrono Trigger and FF9 the specialised skills of each character made party selection quite strategic and allowed for a variety of different ways to take down bosses. FF10 had this and supplemented it by allowing you to switch members in and out, thus allowing you to bring in Auron to destroy enemy defences, drafting in Lulu to blitz it with magic and then Yuna to heal everyone. The materia system in FF7 allowed for hours of fine-tuning. Every new accessory, armour and weapon you got, allowed you to optimise your party for offensive damage, materia growth, healing etc. and got you to think strategically.
In this game though all the characters specialize in everything. There's not one character that you can say is stronger then the other character in someting. Unless you take in account MP.


What really does piss me off is the lack of save points. I'm being forced to rely on faqs on boss battles because I'm not going to slog through a long and tedious set of dungeons for another two hours because I didn't buy any Hankerchiefs for fighting Belias.
I highly recommend you take that extra time in fighting the lesser enemies because leveling-up is the most important part in the game, especially if you are doing the Hunts.


In part also because your summons are terribly weedy and quickenings suck ass. You have to go through some finicky chaining to do any appreciable damage and they reduce your MP to zero making them a bit useless for boss battles.
The summons do suck big time and I never bother to use them in the game.

As for the Quickenings they can sometimes suck and sometimes do heavy damage. It all depends on how many hits you get off and what level the mist attack is.

[The Fury]

Oh...forgot when i last posted in this thread but since then. I have the game. :D

But some real bad happenings recently. My PS2 will not read the disc.:( No scratches on it, the PS2 reads any other disc i put in fine (tried KH2, Twisted Metal:Black, FF8 and Ridge Racer Type 4). Pissed me off a tad as i can't work out why it doesn;t work as it worked not yesterday morning but since then, nothing....



...Anyway, my thoughts on the game as I have finished the story but not some extras.

First, graphics are amazing for a PS2 title. To prove this, a ex-housemate actually stopped walking through the room as i played and did like a double take and said how great they looked. (current scene was the close up of the old wise guy in the temple).

The battle system though is what i know would most concern me, lack of random battles i think took a certain aspect away from the game. Random battles i liked. It also takes a HUGE amount away from any strategy that was in the game. You can at times just leave your characters to hit away without telling them to do anything...this makes me think that I'm not actually playing the game. Also, when you are just doing nothing, you can boost yourself up before you even go into a battle, extra stay through to the next battle...

That said, it still works and flows nicely.

But my biggest probelm with the game. Leveling up...Like cactusmaac said, it drags on. In all the other FF games i can level up as the game goes and maybe, that will be enough to beat the next boss...if not, i'll struggle through. Of course by 50 hours I kinda caught on that you are meant to only level up 3 characters, pick 3 and stick with them. Before then I liked to rotate my team, get used to everyone....bad idea that was. I've been wearing the items that give you double EXP since I could buy then and I'm at level 63 in 80 hours.


Aside from all the complaints though...this game is still good and still addictive.

Ranking wise...story is odd, but good and game over all is good, but I do not think it is as good as FF6, 7 or 8.

[cactusmaac]

Gil, weapons and accessories grow on trees. Steal from every enemy you come across and just plow through the dungeons normally and you'll be rolling in money. Early on you can go through some of the beginning areas and easily rack up huge chains for easy money.


And you have to do a whole lot of it. Getting something like 7,000 gil isn't much use when a decent piece of kit costs upwards of 3,500.

I haven't done much stealing since I'd rather use the turn on an attack. Still I'll start doing more as you advise.



Isn't that the same thing? In FF10 and FF7 the characters were whatever you made them. FF10 and FF7 have the same lack of specialization that FF12 does. They use spheres and materia instead of licenses but the idea is exactly the same. The characters are whatever you make them. You didn't take everyone down the same sphere grind in FF10 did you? You didn't give everyone the exact same materia setup in FF7 did you? Then why give everyone the exact same licenses/gambits in FF12 and then complain about the lack of diversity?

I don't see the same scope for it over here. FF10 was hardly analagous. Auron's sphere grid was set up so you'd specialise in breaks, Lulu in black magic, Yuna in white magic, Tidus on speedy physical attacks etc. and the summons added a whole different dimension.

With FF7 you could use materia to provide the exact team balance you wanted with some characters being heavy hitters, others healers etc. Here I mostly seem to be giving them the same stuff because I don't seem much scope to specialise. Offensive magic is basically useless and the technicks aren't very helpful. Nobody's got any particular strengths which stick out.



Summons do suck tremendous amounts of ass, but quickenings are insane. I've blown through several bosses in one turn with quickenings. You sure you're using them right?

I'm chaining them OK but like I said, finicky and the burning of your MP is something I could live without.



That's pretty impossible. There's a save point before every boss fight in the game and in the middle of every dungeon

Didn't see one before Mimic Queen or Belias. Had to slog through a whole bunch of guards before getting to Ghis. There's like one save point between the huge expanse of the Tomb of Raithwell and the Dalamascan Entersand.

[The Fury]

And you have to do a whole lot of it. Getting something like 7,000 gil isn't much use when a decent piece of kit costs upwards of 3,500.

I haven't done much stealing since I'd rather use the turn on an attack. Still I'll start doing more as you advise.

You're selling the loot right? Because I at first didn't know you needed to do that.

I personally never steal, enemies are strong enough already without spending time stealing something from them.

[Xero Kaiser]

I haven't done much stealing since I'd rather use the turn on an attack. Still I'll start doing more as you advise.

Yeah, just set one person's gambits up so they'll start the battle with a steal. You won't miss that one attack much and it adds up


I don't see the same scope for it over here. FF10 was hardly analagous. Auron's sphere grid was set up so you'd specialise in breaks, Lulu in black magic, Yuna in white magic, Tidus on speedy physical attacks etc. and the summons added a whole different dimension.

Right, but you could take any character to any part of the sphere grid. If you wanted Yuna to be an physical attack character you could set her up that way. Everyone started off in a certain spot but they weren't restricted to it


With FF7 you could use materia to provide the exact team balance you wanted with some characters being heavy hitters, others healers etc. Here I mostly seem to be giving them the same stuff because I don't seem much scope to specialise.

I had one person as my melee/white mage/thief, another as my range/support/green mage and another as melee/black mage/tank. If you want your characters to specialize the options are there but you won't get them if you give them all the exact same licenses

[Titan76]

Right, but you could take any character to any part of the sphere grid. If you wanted Yuna to be an physical attack character you could set her up that way. Everyone started off in a certain spot but they weren't restricted to it
You could do that but the thing is though Yuna's physical attacks will be no where near Auron's or even Tidus and it would be dumb to make her like that when she has the most MP in the whole party and is the strongest magic user.

Also didn't each character in that game had weapons only they could use? Because I don't remember ever being able to put a sword in Yuna's hands if I wanted to.

[Lester C.]

My real problem with this game is with the pacing of the story. It's starts off running then after the prologue it moves very slowly and never picks up.

[LordKaos]

You could do that but the thing is though Yuna's physical attacks will be no where near Auron's or even Tidus and it would be dumb to make her like that when she has the most MP in the whole party and is the strongest magic user.

Also didn't each character in that game had weapons only they could use? Because I don't remember ever being able to put a sword in Yuna's hands if I wanted to.

Actually it's not dumb. Near the end the game my Yuna was hitting for 99999 damage.

In FFXII you specializes as much as you want to. Just like in FFVII, FFVIII, and FFX.

[Citizen V]

I would say that its average time to beat this game.But there is a extreme amount of extras and side quests.My characters are 77-78 and there is still things for me to find,but the fighting engine of this game is great.Very addicting game play.

[Titan76]

Actually it's not dumb. Near the end the game my Yuna was hitting for 99999 damage.
By just using your staff as a sword and no magic like Holy, black magic, etc?

[yeoman]

My real problem with this game is with the pacing of the story. It's starts off running then after the prologue it moves very slowly and never picks up.

Actually, I felt the pace started picking up a lot in the last two thirds to half of the game. That first part though is talky politcal drame hour, and only Balthier got me through that.

[cactusmaac]

Was going to post this a while back, but Benoit went mental and I've been putting it off since then.

FF 12 is an odd game to rate. The disparate parts i.e. the creature design, locations, cut-scenes, music, graphics, voice acting are excellent. Overall though, it's less than the sum of its' parts.

The major problem is the lack of plot development and character development of your party members. In most of the FFs to date, you gradually get to know more and more about your team members such that by the time you get to the final boss, you actively start caring about them. Here that's pretty much ignored and I only felt that Fran got any sort of development. That's a shame too because Ashe, Fran, Balthier, Vaan and Basch all had potential. I really don't understand why more wasn't done with the Basch\Grabanth backstory since it would have been easy enough to set a portion of the game in their old homeland. Instead you wade through dungeon after dungeon and you don't feel any real bonding.

That's what defines FF for me, the classic moments like the death of Aeris, Zidane's friends all coming to his rescue, Auron urging everyone to band together and fight Yunalesca, the slow (re)gathering of the forces before the final confrontation with Kefka. FF12 didn't have anything like that. That is disappointing especially since the early scenes with the Emperor and Senate gave hints of a plot that would be complex and mature, not featuring moustache-twirling villains out to conquer the world. The introduction of the alien, god-like overseers came somewhat out of left-field and felt unnecessary.

Another criticism is the difficulty curve is really out of whack. You have to do lots of levelling up early on to keep up with monsters and then when you approach the end, bosses become ridiculously easy to beat.

1. FF 7
2. FF 6
3. FF 10
4. FF 8
5. FF 12
6. FF 9
7. FF X-2

[The Fury]

Many of the things you say i can agree with, strongly.



The major problem is the lack of plot development and character development of your party members. In most of the FFs to date, you gradually get to know more and more about your team members such that by the time you get to the final boss, you actively start caring about them. Here that's pretty much ignored and I only felt that Fran got any sort of development. That's a shame too because Ashe, Fran, Balthier, Vaan and Basch all had potential. I really don't understand why more wasn't done with the Basch\Grabanth backstory since it would have been easy enough to set a portion of the game in their old homeland. Instead you wade through dungeon after dungeon and you don't feel any real bonding.
This was a major flaw, I thought. Plot and story, while good still didn't come anywhere near past games for me, all from 5 upwards that I have played have had in my view better stories.

Character development wise, alot was left to be desired. In previous games we even got to learn alot about not only our heroes but the villians as well, as well as side villains. The Turks and Rufus or Seifer and his crew got far more story then the Judges ever did. Although there was one scene that was good for the Judges, the main character involved had such little screen time before I cared little about what was happening.

Most FF games do have that extra feature exploring a characters past, I guess this was tried to do featuring into the game but lacked in as much substance as previous games.

I do feel personally, that more time was spent on the battle system then anything in this game, the extra bosses, hunting and summons and all manor of other tasks made the game, sadly not the story.


Another criticism is the difficulty curve is really out of whack. You have to do lots of levelling up early on to keep up with monsters and then when you approach the end, bosses become ridiculously easy to beat.
The flaw here is that you have to ignore 3 of your characters to be able to level up enough and then as soon as you can, attached that accessory that double EXP to all you party. My first play through I was at about 1 level per hour or more.

After being whooped numerous times by bosses, the last few bosses came as a surprise.


1. FF 7
2. FF 6
3. FF 10
4. FF 8
5. FF 12
6. FF 9
7. FF X-2
Ranking mine.

1. FF7
2. FF8
3. FF6
For the rest, it's too close to call, I love different aspects of each one.
If I had too it would go FF9, FF12, FF10, FFX-2.

[Citizen V]

Months later,and i have still not been everywhere in Final Fantasy 12.One thing that is nagging me,is that in the Feywood there is a passage into the Lushu mines..and even though it's a dead end..it hints of another way into that part of the mine.How can you get there?

[The Fury]

Months later,and i have still not been everywhere in Final Fantasy 12.One thing that is nagging me,is that in the Feywood there is a passage into the Lushu mines..and even though it's a dead end..it hints of another way into that part of the mine.How can you get there?
Get above 12 or 13 Summons and the A Garif War-lord will open the path for you.

I think you enter via where you fought the Wyrm when you first met Mjrn...not actually been there yet myself yet the Garif have opened the path apparently.

Crystal comes first on my list of to do places.

[Shades0077]

I've been playing for about the past month or so on and off, after finally picking it up when the price dropped to 30 bucks.

I'm just about to get to Giruvegan, though with all the sidequesting and leveling and such, I've clocked in almost 80 hours. This is definitely the most I've ever played a single game. Even other RPGs, I believe I've always topped out around 50-60 hours max.

I dig it though. The license board was annoying at first, but I like it now, especially since I've got everyone's just about complete. I do wish your non-active party members still earned some experience, like in Rogue Galaxy. It is frustrating that my main 3, Vaan, Balthier, and Basch are all at level 63, whereas Fran is 17 and Ashe and Penelo are both 20. It makes it damn near impossible to swap out dead characters in boss battles because the lower level ones get killed almost instantly.

[Wesley Dodds]

I dig it though. The license board was annoying at first, but I like it now, especially since I've got everyone's just about complete. I do wish your non-active party members still earned some experience, like in Rogue Galaxy. It is frustrating that my main 3, Vaan, Balthier, and Basch are all at level 63, whereas Fran is 17 and Ashe and Penelo are both 20. It makes it damn near impossible to swap out dead characters in boss battles because the lower level ones get killed almost instantly.

Fortunately, they do get license points, and the item that doubles license points works on non-active members. So when you begin to level up the characters you weren't using you should have enough license points to equip the best weapons and armour.

[The Fury]

I'm just about to get to Giruvegan, though with all the sidequesting and leveling and such, I've clocked in almost 80 hours. This is definitely the most I've ever played a single game. Even other RPGs, I believe I've always topped out around 50-60 hours max.
I've only played through twice and have easily 120 hours plus so far. Well worth my money.


I dig it though. The license board was annoying at first, but I like it now, especially since I've got everyone's just about complete. I do wish your non-active party members still earned some experience, like in Rogue Galaxy. It is frustrating that my main 3, Vaan, Balthier, and Basch are all at level 63, whereas Fran is 17 and Ashe and Penelo are both 20. It makes it damn near impossible to swap out dead characters in boss battles because the lower level ones get killed almost instantly.
Although, yeah, this is a shame. My mind forgets but while in FF7 characters not in the party do level up as you do, in other FFs they do not but other things help this. In this game, the characters on the field get the points, while in FFX for example, all you have to do is use them, even if it's making them 'defend' and they get the points. FF8 made up for it by having monster level as you do.

The problem is the battle can go fast and suddenly in a couple of hits, your character could be dead...beside the annoying moment when I'm trying to quickly revive him and it freezes the game and says "Your party leader is dead, pick a new one."

As I said before, alot of time was spent on this battle system during game development and the more I look at it the more flawed it is. Enemies can overwhelm you sometimes, random larger enemies for example, some common Wyrms focus on a character and can perform mulitple hits each doing 1500 plus damage. Before you know it, that character is near dead and it takes time to cast the spell you want, less time then it take for said wyrm to attack again on the focused character. And these are common enemies, the things you are meant to beat comfortably so that bosses are made easier.

I miss ATB.


Fortunately, they do get license points, and the item that doubles license points works on non-active members. So when you begin to level up the characters you weren't using you should have enough license points to equip the best weapons and armour.
Indeed they do, and with bubble belt attached they can have decent amount of HP too and MP with the Quickenings active.



On a side, note, I tried to venture into the Great Crystal where stronger monsters and cooler stuff lies. I was just wondering about for like 2 hours getting no where. I go through and couple of gates and such alike and all is well but 2 hours and not a single save point. I haven't got the time to spend waiting for the next one, and I'm not going to go back to find the last one (outside the crystal). It was talking too long, in the end I gave up, I only gained one level and found 2 treasure which were jsut Gil anyway,.

[Shades0077]

Fortunately, they do get license points, and the item that doubles license points works on non-active members. So when you begin to level up the characters you weren't using you should have enough license points to equip the best weapons and armour.

Yeah, I had the double LP accessory on everyone for a good while and am keeping it on the inactive members until their boards are complete.

Here's a question. Other than reading about it in a walkthrough, is there any in-game mention of how to acquire the Zodiac Spear? I think having to not open a few abitrarily chosen treasure chests is about the dumbest idea for unlocking a weapon ever. What happened to just killing something really tough?

[Shades0077]

The problem is the battle can go fast and suddenly in a couple of hits, your character could be dead...beside the annoying moment when I'm trying to quickly revive him and it freezes the game and says "Your party leader is dead, pick a new one."

I agree, this annoys me to no end. I find it hard to believe that this never came up during the play testing. Why couldn't they just make it default to your next party member? Or party member with the highest current HP? Pausing the game and making you manually select a new leader is inordinately clumsy, especially when you consider how automatic everything else is thanks to the Gambit system.

[Wesley Dodds]

The Great Crystal is one of the worst areas of the game -- it's so easy to get lost. And the teleports are so complex that you can't really draw a map to keep track of where you are.

[The Fury]

I agree, this annoys me to no end. I find it hard to believe that this never came up during the play testing. Why couldn't they just make it default to your next party member? Or party member with the highest current HP? Pausing the game and making you manually select a new leader is inordinately clumsy, especially when you consider how automatic everything else is thanks to the Gambit system.
Yeah, exactly. As the fights happens so quickly as well sometimes. I on time have even realising my party leader is dead started to pick a new one on to have the warning come up anyway.


The Great Crystal is one of the worst areas of the game -- it's so easy to get lost. And the teleports are so complex that you can't really draw a map to keep track of where you are.
No kidding, I personally can't sees the point of it at the moment, What do you get? a slightly better weapon and a summon.

This I think is one of the only FF games where I felt that defeating these option boses and going into dungeons seems somewhat pointless at times.

[Citizen V]

Thanks,as for the Great Crystal..i had a feeling it was a hard area.I did not even go inside until i was in my late 70's,the whole party was like that.But it's worth it,for the Esper..

Speaking of Espers,why is it that i have some espers that do their final attacks,and some do not.They simply attack,no special move before they dissaperar in battle?

[Jmacq1]

Speaking of Espers,why is it that i have some espers that do their final attacks,and some do not.They simply attack,no special move before they dissaperar in battle?

They final attacks are determined by a specific set of criteria that's different for each Esper. For instance, I think one Esper only does its' final attack if the person summoning it was at critical HP (or something like that).

Either way, the final attacks have specific triggers. I know it's in the strategy guide, but I'm sure the info can be found online somewhere.

[The Fury]

They final attacks are determined by a specific set of criteria that's different for each Esper. For instance, I think one Esper only does its' final attack if the person summoning it was at critical HP (or something like that).

Either way, the final attacks have specific triggers. I know it's in the strategy guide, but I'm sure the info can be found online somewhere.
I thought it was that the Esper (which ever it is) is at critical HP?...either way, I hardly use them.


Just beat the Hell Wyrm....that was a mighty waste of my time.