As the Final Fantasy Wiki admin, I feel compelled to join this forum. I noticed that it says the compendium might have been “afraid” of us. Don’t be. We try to stress that each Final Fantasy site is important in its own way, and the FF Compendium is #1 on our list for a reason. (I know it’s inappropriate for n00bs to make intro topics, but I felt compelled to do this in a reasonable way, heh).
Now for the more serious stuff: I have a bunch of FFXII related questions:
I wonder, where do you get some important swords in FFXII? Such as the Claymore, Excalibur, and some of the Level 2 Katanas.
What Halcyons are worth getting besides the Gnoma, Lesach, and Diakon ones (the ones I have) because I don’t like facing Entites. They creep me out.
How do I start the Medallion sidequest?
Where is the Grand Mace? I need it because I want to get to the Quickenings in that area.
Don’t worry about intro topics. We’re used to them here and we’re getting better at not snapping newbies in two and hanging them on clotheslines. I personally was never really afraid of Wikis, but I’ve gotten some feedback from people who suggested that we turn this site into one, which is why I detailed our differences.
Yeah, you can just learn the licenses when and as you want. It’s a good idea to give different characters different areas of the license board to specialize in, just so they can make a beeline for the various Quickenings - resulting in triple the MP. The Quickenings themselves (along with the Espers) are largely useless.
A great resource is the Loot/Bazaar FAQ on GameFAQs. Most of the good weapons can be gotten that way, and it also details the loot required. However, speaking as someone who spent literally dozens of hours farming enemies he didn’t need to, I can say that the only weapons you’ll really need if you want to do the optional areas are:
2 Masamunes
1 Tournesol
One Masamune you get from a Hunt, and the other you can unlock together with Tournesol if you keep all the required loot and sell it all at once (this way you only need 3 Gemsteels, not 5). Admittedly the Tournesol will take some time to collect, but you honestly don’t need any other weapon at all; every other weapon, including Ultima Weapon and Ragnarok, will be worse. Definitely don’t waste your time looting enemies for it, because you’ll slowly go insane. You’ll do that anyway for the Tournesol, but not for as long.
The Medallion sidequest can be started by talking to the nu mou in the Nabreus Deadlands; however, you’ll need to beat a couple more marks to finish it. sephirosuy’s guide on GameFAQs has pretty much everything you’ll ever need. Look under Espers -> Chaos.
I find it funny how you’re allegedly a “wiki admin” and you have to post in a forum asking for info instead of just looking it up yourself, like any 10 year old knows how to do.
If there is one thing in this game that really says it was made by the Vagrant Story crew, that’s the absolutely horrid drop rate
Speaking of which, I STILL have an almost done Ultima Blade that’s just missing a Gnoma Halcyon. Are there any tips on getting that asshole to drop it easier? I’ve killed it like thirty times (having the Sage’s Monograph) and stole from it twice as much (Wearing Thief’s Cuffs) and so far got a buttload of Earth Crystals and Feystones, but no Halcyon ):<
The best way is to make it appear, steal from it with the Thief’s Cuffs, then exit the screen and re-enter. It’ll be back to neutral and you can steal from it again. Repeat until it drops it or you commit hara-kiri out of frustration.
Still, though, I’d recommend not bothering. I used the Ultima Blade for about ten seconds. Even the Ragnarok and Excalibur are better than it. (Excalibur is actually quite good except for the fact that I found it just a little bit before the very last hard battle - against someone who absorbs Holy.)
The awful thing about randomness is that what, for one person, is a ten-minute jaunt can be, for someone else, literally a five-hour process whereby the brain slowly turns to cheese. There’s simply no guarantee that anything will EVER happen. Every time you steal from that stupid enemy, you have the exact same chance to get your item that you did the first hundred times.
And don’t even get me STARTED on the RANDOM CHESTS. steam blows out of ears
OH HELL FINALLY GOT IT. The minute I spent running back to the closest save point had my heart pounding. I think I still have emotional scars from the time my mother accidentally kicked the power wire right after I had beat Ozma for the first time.
I’m with you completely on the random drop thing. It’s retarded.
Though I have to say, this is the ugliest non-monster Ultima Weapon to date. I was hoping something translucent and crystalline like in FFVII or IX, or at least flashy like Sora’s keyblades, but it really looks like just a big broadsword with minor coloring. Tell me Tournesol is prettier.
Right in front of Miguelo’s store in Rabanastre, there’s a Seeq and a Bangaa talking to each other. When speaking to the Bangaa, he always say something along the lines of “My friend here says that there are [number] stones in the Southern Plaza but… 'course, he could be counting the cornerstones too. That would be another matter altogether.”
The same conversation changes as you progress through the game, always the same structure but changing the objects in question. Well, right after Reddas, I had talked to them and written a peculiar version down:
“My friend says that o’er 430 revelers came through the Southern Plaza during the big fete! But even if you count the bards… ‘Course, he could be countin’ the spoony bards, too. That would be another matter altogether.”
I think I forgot to mention that on the FFCompendium so far. I also think there was some sort of pair of soldiers whose names were anagrams of Biggs and Wedge, but I forget where. -_-
I’ve found quickenings to be highly useful, I’ve used them to take down pretty much every boss since the optional Doom Wall. You just have to be smart about using them and make sure you leave at least one mist charge from one of your characters unused so you can start another one as soon as the first one finishes. I can consistently get two 8 or 9 hit chains with at least a torrent concurrence and that does somewhere between 28-35k. Hell, I one hit killed the first boss when I was getting the Sword of Kings (the one where anyone wearing metal is slowed down), and I used them to kill the King Bomb last night. I’m sure they really start to lose value when monsters start getting obscene amounts of hit points, but for now I’ve been tearing shit up.
Perhaps they do a lot of damage for mid-game, but with good weapons and buffs, you can do the same amount of damage in slightly more time without leaving you vulnerable and MP-less. And the randomness inherent in the system means that I often was stuck with no MP and with only a 3 or 4 chain of Quickenings, meaning jack crap damage.
Yeah, but who wants to lose?? EVER? Quickenings are good if you can get them early enough, but they really start to lose value by the time you’re on your way to Archades. IMO, anyway…
Nalbina, they were right by the desert exit IIRC. There was some girl over there too hiding behind a fence or something, I never really followed up. I caught the spoony bard line too, thought that was pretty funny.
I found that Quickenings are great to finish off bosses when they rage @ critical. I’d say I average 8 or so too, but sometimes I’ve gotten screwed when all I get is gray after a few hits. It’s luck; if you blow all three levels of your quickenings early in the combo and no mist charges happen to come up, you’re done - reflex has nothing to do with it in that case. 14 hits is my high so far.
I personally was never really afraid of Wikis, but I’ve gotten some feedback from people who suggested that we turn this site into one, which is why I detailed our differences.