FF12 Questions

[Wilfredo_Martinez]

I’m planning on playing FF12 soon so I just bought the official guide, which I’ll proceed to read and takes notes from before I begin playing (I’m not committing the same playing errors I did with Wild Arms 5 again.) However, I have a few questions and I thought I’d ask them here:

First, I want to obtain all the License System (dumb game concept btw) abilities. I want the characters to specialize, in other words, to have one learn White Magic, another Black Magic, etc. distributing everything evenly but without having more than one character learn the same license (exceptions being armors, augmentations and maybe accessories.) I know there are 6 playable characters, so dividing them up shouldn’t be too hard. However, I need to know if all six characters will stay long enough in the party to learn all the Licenses I will assign them, for example: Does Penelo stay in the group enough times to learn all White Magic? Or does she drop off at a certain point and never return? I cannot find this out until I’ve read the whole walkthrough, so I’d like your comments on this now. Specifically, do I have ALL 6 characters in the party by the end?

Along these same lines, I hear the Japan-only version of the game has Job classes (!) If so, what are they, and are they/will they be listed in the FF Compendium?

Also, I just started a RP in the RP Board titled FINAL FANTASY INFINITY that combines elements from all the games in the series, so I invite everyone here to read it, comment or even join it if you like. (OK, that’s not a question, it’s a blatant plug. Sorry. I’ll make it up by checking the guide and posting any FFXII data that the Compendium may be missing later.)

[Cidolfas]

1. All six characters will be in your party permanently, and by the end of the game I had the entire License board full for absolutely everyone. Specializing is a good idea, but eventually you’ll outgrow any individual role. I found the best way is:
   -Aim for each corner of the board with a different character; this way you can learn Quickenings faster, which isn’t useful in and of itself but it doubles and then triples your MP.
   -Don’t learn any armor or weapon skills which you can’t use yet. Ditto for technicks and magick.
   -Always keep 20 or 30 LP around for when you do find a new armor/weapon.
   -Technicks are mostly useless, especially when you don’t actually have them yet.

2. Yes, the International version has pseudo-Job classes. I’d love to cover them but I lack credible information at this point.

[Seraphim_Ephyon]

I’m sorry to say this, but if you want to get anywhere in the latter half of the games, you’ll need your three main characters to be exact clones of each other, sometimes even down to equipment and weaponry. Simply speaking, the game doesn’t give you enough freedom to decide who will be your tank or your healer, but will instead just buttrape everyone indiscriminately.

It’s very boring, I know, but well… it’s not exactly a very stellar battle system on the whole to begin with. There IS a reason they made so many changes in the International version. Now if they would be just so kind to FUCKING RELEASE IT HERE.

[Mateva]

No kidding big green blob. License system is a travesty. Doesn’t even make sense. Who are you giving your license to in order to see if you are allowed to use legendary weapons? And in dungeons to boot?

[Dragons_Revenge]

I have Ashe as a support/mage, Basch as the “Tank” and Vaan as the… Katana wielding mystic armour wearing guy… anyway, I’m doing just fine for the most part. Vaan’s kicking ass from a phyisical standpoint, and can heal and cast strong magic too boot. Everyone is able to cast strong healing and support spells while causing major damage for their individual roles. No problems. Fran is another powerhouse character, as her bows do massive damage and she’s great with magic, and bathier’s guns do passable damage without having to worry bout defense. I too got the quickenings early on, but didnt fully understand how they worked until a bit later.

Just about got all the hunts out of the way (at least those that wont kill me in two hits or will take a week to take down- fucking 50 million HP? Are you joking?) And I can probably get the rest of the espers at this point. I’m just about done with the game and can probably finish it in an afternoon if I so choose.

[Wilfredo_Martinez]

Cid: Yeah, I was afraid that buying Licenses when the abilities themselves have to be bought at shops was going to be inconvenient (not to mention illogical, like the others said.) So I’ll be careful to check all the shops before buying anything. In any case, I specialize more out of a desire to have the characters be distinctive than having a “perfect” party. But I’m not going to try to “recreate” Jobs, for example my healer may use powerful weapons as well. I’ll keep things balanced.

And 50 MILLION HP??? What’s that, a Disgaea crossover?? How do you even kill that??

[Dragons_Revenge]

Yiazmat. Apparently, you can run and revisit it later, and it wont regenerate, meaning you can pick away at him here and there as you see fit.

[Cidolfas]

Yeah. It’s more a test of patience than difficulty.
I specialized, myself.
Ashe: swords, healing
Penelo: daggers, black magic
Fran: bows, grey magic/whatever it was called
Bach: Axes/swords
Balthier: Guns, technicks
Vaan: Staves/spears, time magic

It worked quite well for the most part.

[Dragons_Revenge]

Grey…? Arcane? I suppose that would’ve fit Fran. I tried specializing, and like I said, I did kind of. At the least, I kept them to what I felt fit their personality, or their default weapons. Kind of. Not really. Whatever.

[Killmore]

Basically I agree with most of what both Cidolfas and Seraphim Ephyon said (though I stuck Penelo with sticks, Vann with 1h-swords, and the two of them as backup healers).

That said, the way I would go about the board is to focus on the character attributes first while building on Quickenings, Magiks, Weapons, Armours, Techniks, Gambit Slots, and Accessories with priorities in that order as money does not flow freely early in this game, and neither does your natural MP. Also those character attributes become essential by mid-game (but in the end it’s up to you on how you want to play).

Another point is that your characters won’t usually fall too far behind as it’s much easier to bring neglected characters up to speed than to level the whole party in one overly long grindfest namely due to the inactive party members gaining JP and the fact that it’s much easier to take on enemies that are stronger than your party when you have a party stronger than them in your reserve. And should your entire active party fall you can still swap them out with any of your inactive members provided that they’re not incapacitated either (which is very convenient).

The only thing that I’ll be very happy if they addressed for the international version is the damn guest characters. At first they start alright but they tend to become obsolete rather quickly (if we could see their license board they’d have like six licenses and none of them would be any good even relatively early in the game), all the while they’re still running around picking fights like they’re within ten levels of any member of random enemy group that you might happen across (and unfortunately gambits have trouble discriminating between the finer points of it’s function like how many steal attempts are enough or which characters should this healing spell go to first or do I have to drop everything to cast a spell, including moving, or vise versa and ect…), and you have absolutely no way to curb these bad habits of theirs. In fact, the only good thing about these guys aside from being an extra sword/target is the fact that they have unlimited potions (and no other item) at their disposal which doesn’t cut into any of your resources (The later guests can and usually will spam the X variety though they do so at a noob’s level as mentioned above)

[demigod]

I kind of specialized.
Bosch: Swords, axes, greatswords, Techniques (blind strike was pretty awesome sometimes), general tank and damage dealer.
Balthier: Started with guns, but switched to poles because guns were too slow and a few spells were usually enough for the flying enemies. Steal, as well as decent damage dealing and tanking.
Penelo: Staves and rods, Black and Arcane magic, Green and Time magic when points were available (often). After the half-mp accessory, I didn’t have to worry about MP anymore.
Fran: Bows, Black and Arcane magic, Green and Time magic when points were available.
Vaan: Daggers, ninja swords (I think). Mainly I used him as a thief, so I everything else was window dressing. Some Green magic.
Ashe: Katanas, Arcane and Green magic, eventually Time magic as well.

Initially I just had my mages learn white magic, but eventually I figured I’d give everyone healing spells for convenience between battles. By the end everyone had all the accessories and techniques, most buffs, and lots of magic (even for the melee fighters).

[Wilfredo_Martinez]

My current plan (judging from what I’ve read so far in the Guide) is to have each character master one type of Magic (there are 5 types, so the one who doesn’t get magic will get Techniques instead.) I’ll also give everyone two Espers and the full three Quickenings. Everyone will get all the same augmentations, though. There are 16 weapon types, so they’ll get 2-3 weapon types each, with at least one long-range and one melee weapon each. The characters with the lowest HP get the Heavy Armors. One-handed weapon users get the shields. Accessories will be distributed evenly. Who gets what depends on when they appear in the game.

Opinions? Note I don’t care if this is not the “best” combination, as long as it isn’t fatally flawed.

About the FFXII International Jobs: I poked around Gamefaqs and they have a fan guide there, though of course that’s not official. Still, it sounds interesting: The “Jobs” are actually alternate License Boards, with the choices limited to resemble a FF Job. Thing is, once you choose one, you’re stuck with it- you can’t switch back! There’s 12 Jobs, one for each Sign of the Zodiac (does this actually matter in the game?) and each board is shaped in the form of a sign of the Zodiac. Ohh, cute. One of the Jobs is “Breaker” which gets the Break abilities that once were the province of the Knight Job, except there’s also a Knight Job; no I don’t know the difference yet. More details later.

Btw, is it true this game has TWO characters named Cid? And one of them is a villain!? How do you like that, Cid?

[fractyl2]

Wilfredo Martinez: True on the gambits

Sinistral: Sorry, I thought I was not giving any actual spoilers.

[Killmore]

Unfortunately there are only four types of long range weapons. Guns, Bows, Grenades, and Crossbows. Spears and Sticks don’t count (along with everything else) since they can’t be used to attack aerial enemies.

The Measures are primarily buff weapons (and yet they are still weapons O.o).

Axes/Hammers and Grenades do random damage (much more reliable than the random weapons in FFT were though).

Guns are weak but they also ignore defence but aren’t really useful on non-solid enemies like flans and ghosts.

Katanas and Ninja Knives both have the ability to string high combos (think FFs 1-3) but the knives are all dark elemental.

And Knight Swords are the best weapons in the game.

Most accessories aren’t worth it but the earlier and later ones are.

Money’s really tight in this game. As in enemies don’t drop money except on the rare occasion. They do however drop loot which is sold to shops for money along with making various bazaar items available to you.

Which I should point out that of all the things that the guide mentions the bazaar item requirements are by far the most important. Cid knows more on that subject than I do, but it’s a very important point.

Also don’t forget to keep up with the purchases of gambits. Some of them can be really useful like Target Enemy Weak vs. Ice and ect.

[Seraphim_Ephyon]

Whereas Quickenings are nice at the beginning and then become less and less useful as you get better normal spells, Espers are COMPLETELY useless from the moment you get them until the game ends. You need to summon one at one point to open a door, and that is basically it.

Long-range blows, no exceptions. You’ll need some manner of ranged weapon for a few enemies along the line, but you’ll eventually get Telekinesis which will allow you to attack with melee just the same. Don’t spend too much on that.

Make absolutely certain the guy with the shield has the respective block-bonus licenses.

Everyone MUST be able to use some manner of healing or you’ll get nowhere. You don’t have the money to waste in a zillion potions, so everyone will have to learn white magic.

[Sinistral]

I have a COMPLETELY different approach to FFXII.

My advice would be to completely disregard everything that people here said. There are 6 playable characters and who you pick to play through the game honestly doesn’t matter.

Having said that, here’s what I found good and not good:

Espers: relatively useless. Don’t worry about who gets what. You’ll rarely ever use them.
Quickenings: very powerful, also very cheap to use in combat. There aren’t really necessary either as my way of playing through the game makes them relatively useless anyway.

The big usefulness of quickenings is how they’ll allow you to have more MP. Basically, every quickening level adds more MP. If you have 2 quickenings, you ll have double MP. If you have 3 levels, you’ll have triple MP.

Only 2 magics are ever of any use:

White magic is great for obvious reasons.
Stat magic is AWESOME.

Having said that, what do I do?

I create [b]gambits [b]that make my characters always cast protect, bravery (increased physical damage), berserk (increased physical damage, increased attack rate) on each other. I give either maces or later in the game, 2h swords and I let them loose unto the world. Other useful gambits are bubble (2x hp), stuff to cast heal at specific times, stuff to cast esuna whenever a status effect is on anyone and very importantly, a gambit to use a phoenix down / revive on anyone who dies.

Berserk and protect you get very early. Bravery and bubble are spells you get late in the game through your guild. Esuna you get midway through the game. The phoenix down gambit is something you want to get very quickly. Maximize your use of gambits by concentrating on boosting your characters with status effects.

I alternate who is not berserk depending on MP status. The non berserked character is the one I control and is the one doing the healing. With quickenings, you’ll have MP out the ass.

This essentially turns my entire party into lawnmowers. The game plays itself out. Its fucking hilarious. The only thing I really do is use my left hand to direct where my characters are walking.

This is what you need to do about the license board:

Ignore the majority of the equipment area (bottom) as equipment doesn’t progress very fast.

On the upper board, you want to focus on the bottom left part where the gambits are and where you’ll find things to boost your attack rate, damage, block rate and ESPECIALLY hp. You also want to gradually add the few white magic and status effect spells in the upper part as they become available. Doing this maximizes your use of the board as you won’t have squares that will have been bought early for nothing.

CHARACTER SPECIALIZATION DOES NOT MATTER AND IS INEXISTANT.

[Wilfredo_Martinez]

Wow, this game certainly seems to have polarized opinions.

Personally, I’m not a powergamer; I don’t care if my characters are not killing machines. I like challenges. And I like to use what the game gives me, even if it’s not very practical. As long as the game doesn’t get too hard, I won’t mind. I intend to use the Espers and Quickenings during Boss fights, even if it isn’t really necessary, just because I feel it’s proper. And I will use gambits most of the time, because I get bored of fighting minor monsters all the time; but I will fight the Bosses on my own. That’s the point of playing the game to me.

Only one thing still gets me… 50 MILLION HP. Honestly, who thinks that fighting the same Boss for hours upon hours, especially with the same strategies, is FUN? According to the guide, the most damage any attack does is 50-60,000 points. I don’t suppose Gravija affects that thing? Or poison? Maybe Doom? Probably not. :thud:.

[Sinistral]

Gambits streamline going through the game. You will find that the game has _A_LOT_of minor monsters for you to kill so making it easier to kill those (and survive!! ie protect!!) will make your life a lot less frustrating.

If you want to handle real stuff like boss fights differently, I actually suggest you do. Having your guys on berserk in boss fights can work but typically I didn’t have more than 1 because you really need to have a lot of maneuvrability to compensate for dead people or heals.

You 'll find that having heal and revive gambits will just save you time from doing what you would’ve done anyway and will be doing repeatedly otherwise. As you’ll see, you’ll have little other use for gambits anyway as there are few convenient and straightforward uses for them past auto-steal / auto- poach, auto attack, auto- heal and auto-self-boost. Ask yourself this: why wouldn’t you want all your chars to always have protect? Why wouldn’t you want them to automatically res or heal themselves? The only answer is that you want to make yourself do the same tasks over and over.

Use espers all you want. You’ll just see what I mean when I say they’re a waste because they cost 1/2 to 1/3 of your mp for little relative output.

You’ll notice that your characters don’t specialize when:

-you have to give them all the same healing spells
-you have to give them all the same stat spells
-you have to give them all the same stat boosts (get mp when killing, get mp when doing damage, get mp when damaged, more hp, more hp , more hp, etc).

Any variability is short lived. You might give 1 faster cast times while another gets faster melee strikes but its only a matter of time before they catch up to each other. As Cid said, by the time you get to the end, you covered the whole board anyway. Save yourself time, all the useful stuff is in the bottom left quadrant of the top board.

[Ezboarder]

It’s not that using Quickenings or summoning Espers is unnecessary because they make boss fights easier - it actually has the opposite effect and makes them harder. Using Quickenings or summoning Espers drains your MP bar, depending on the “level” of what it is you use. So if you use a character’s L3 Quickening, their MP is zero. You can get it back using the slots that come up, but that is a crapshoot at best. And if you have no MP, you will get raped by bosses because you can’t buff and you can’t effectively heal.

The only conceivable use for Quickenings is to try and kill a boss/Mark/rare monster when it’s near 10% life and before it throws up a Paling. And of course, if the slots fail and you don’t kill the mob, you’re fucked anyway. ‘-’)b

[Sinistral]

Precisely.

Just to add: I think gambits are the most amazing thing ever and being able to stream line tedious tasks like that makes playing through conventional RPGs very hard afterwards. Its just not the same o_o.