Final Fantasy XII

[everdred12a]

"Oh look. Elemental. Better take off my Cure gambits.

Solution: Kill the elemental. They take like, 3 minutes to kill by normal means, and you can often enough get one with a good Quickening. And there's always the 'flee' command. Toss on Flee and run right by the elementals, if you don't want the fight (personally, I fight 'em. They give good license points).

Oh, this enemy causes Sleep status, better put on an Alarm Clock gambit. Now they're gone, and this enemy causes Blind, better put on an Eye Drop gambit.

Solution: Ally-Any: Esuna/Remedy. You will automatically cast Esuna on any ally with a status affliction Esuna can cure. The only ones I've discovered it can't are Stop, Slow, Doom, and Disease. Remedy can clean up the rest.

Oh, now they're casting Protect, better put on a Dispel gambit. Now they're casting Haste, better put that on a Dispel gambit."

Solution: Enemy-Any: Dispel. While it doesn't always work this way, in this case, the Enemy-Any gambit will look for any enemy with a positive status on it. If it doens't find any, then it won't cast. To be honest, a majority of the enemies I fight with Haste/Shell/Protect aren't that difficult to beat anyway, so there's no real need to have a dispel gambit. Wastes MP. Plus, I've never had dispel miss, so it's not much of a pain to have to cast it once per fight.

Speaking of which, that's ANOTHER thing I have to keep going in the Gambit menus for, because I have them set up to constantly have Protect (or Shell), Regen, and Haste cast on themselves...so then they die, and I use a Phoenix Down on them, and they start casting those spells again, so I have to go into the Gambit menu and turn off those Gambits so that I can attack the boss again...

Solution: Put the gambit under your attack gambits. The gambits are ALMOST always executed in the order they're placed in your list, very very very rarely are they done otherwise. So take this setup for instance:

Ally-Any: Phoenix Down
Ally-HP<50%: Curaga
Ally-Any: Esuna
Ally-Status=Slow: Haste
Ally-Status=Stop: Chronos Tear
Enemy-Flying: Attack
Enemy-Closest Visible: Attack
Self: Libra
Self: Haste

This is the setup my Balthier is using (I chose Balthier because he is the only one I use with an auto-status gambit). Note the order the gambits are listed in. Healing is my priority]More than half of my fights with marks are me using tons of Phoenix Downs to revive my party members because they got wiped out by a spell. And granted, that happened sometimes in the old games...but never THIS often.[/QUOTE]
I don't find my party being wiped out by single attacks/spells against much of anything, be it marks, espers, or bosses. Yeah, sometimes a few Phoenix Downs have to be used, but Phoenix Downs are cheap, so just go buy 50 or 60 and you should be good for awhile.

I think the major issue some people have with the gambit system is that they're trying too hard to make it in-depth when some of the most simple combinations are the ones that work the best. No, not all of the obvious gambits are good. Enemy-Any: Steal seems like it would be a good gambit, but it's not. That's why you have to make a practical change to it - use Enemy-HP=100%: Steal instead, or something to that effect.

[Azier the Swordsman]

But, you could always use Eye Drops, Dispell, Antidote, ext. all from the main screen menu manually rather than having to keep changing gambits so much, which is how I played, with exceptions.

[everdred12a]

But, you could always use Eye Drops, Dispell, Antidote, ext. all from the main screen menu manually rather than having to keep changing gambits so much, which is how I played, with exceptions.

That's true, and it's what I did at first, but I think Nate wants to eliminate the use of the command menu.

[Nate]

Actually, I would vastly prefer using the Command menu if I didn't have to a) open it up manually all the time and b) it wouldn't always go straight to the leader.

[kaji]

I agree with everdred, a solid grasp on how to use the gambit system effectively can be the differance between a good an bad experiance with the battle system.

In most cases I have an all-purpose set up for gamibits and only change it for boss battles. I dont see what the fuss about having to open the gambit menu, is for anyway. In old FF games you had to open the magic menu (out of battle) all the time to heal or remove status effects, now your party just does it automatically... ^_^

I am still haveing fun with this game. I just completed the Stilshrine dungeon, but things have been pretty easy for me since I stole a few Deathbringers early on (and a few Deamonsbanes before that). You can actually pick up unlimited Gladius daggers from the very onset of the game. At attack +35, you will be good to go untill you get to the Tomb of Wraithwall.

I also spent a while upgrading my licance grid so I could get Adramalech as soon as he became available.

I just noticed I have a bunch of new hunts to try, so its off to side-quest-world for me.

[MasterDias]

Alright, I have the game and played up through the Leviathan.

Gambit system is decent. I agree with Nate in that the characters feel basically the same.

The "real-time" aspects of the battle system do eliminate the loading times for battles and allow weak enemies to be dispatched quite easily. Both are positives. On the other hand, I can't see how this is a major improvement over the old Final Fantasy games as far as avoiding battles go (as some were assuming earlier in the thread.) Enemies can be difficult to avoid and tend to chase you all over the map when you try to run...

Now for the Hunts. I beat the first four, but the last several have completely wiped the floor with me, specifically Cluckitrice and Nidhogg. I find the fact that they are labeled "Rank 1" laughable. I guess I'll try again later in the game. All of the Hunts are available until the end of the game, right?

I've pretty impressed with the atmosphere and the city architecture although I wish the shops were closer together. Running back and forth across town gets tiring.

[Nate]

I agree with everdred, a solid grasp on how to use the gambit system effectively can be the differance between a good an bad experiance with the battle system.

I guess ultimately that's my problem with it. The experience of the battle system shouldn't be dependent on the Gambit system. I guess what it boils down to is, I don't like "gimmicks" in my games. Part of the reason I didn't like Tactics Advance was there really was no point to the Law system other than for there to be a gimmick. The Gambit system in XII is the same way. I just prefer no-frills based combat, which is why I love Dragon Quest and the older FF games.

Again, the reason I dislike this so much is that it more or less eliminates strategy from battles, a big reason I'm an RPG fan. In other FF games when I went up against strong bosses I had a battle plan on how to beat them. With this it just seems like more than half the time I'm too busy trying to cure or revive my party members to even HAVE a plan. It's just "Try to survive and hope I can kill the boss before I run out of MP or items." Like I said, there have been bosses like this in other FF games too. I don't deny that. But they were never this frequent.

In old FF games you had to open the magic menu (out of battle) all the time to heal or remove status effects, now your party just does it automatically... ^_^

True, but it wasn't so involved. I also didn't have to turn off a Gambit whenever I got near an Elemental. Which, by the way, the advice of "Just kill the elemental" doesn't really work when you're level 20. Yeah, I know, I'm way past level 20 now, but going into the Gambit menu when I WAS level 20 to constantly turn on and off my Cure Gambits was pure crap.

Enemies can be difficult to avoid and tend to chase you all over the map when you try to run...

Yes, and that's another reason I hate this combat system, it makes it pretty much impossible to run from battles. The enemy just chases you down making it a race to see if you can get to an area exit before they kill you. They could have at least made it like Chrono Trigger where when you run from a battle the enemy disappears.

Also with a battle system like this it pretty much destroys the chances of having the "Encounter None" ability I'm so fond of in the other Final Fantasy games.

All of the Hunts are available until the end of the game, right?

As far as I know they are, though of course certain Hunts in the Giza Plains are only available in certain seasons. From what I've seen on the internet it'll be the dry season in Giza for two gameplay hours, then the wet season for one gameplay hour, and it alternates. There's also a Seeq in Southgate who will give you a rough estimate of how long it is until the next season change.

[everdred12a]

I find the fact that they are labeled "Rank 1" laughable.

Dude. They have levels. Just like the other enemies in the game, you have to progress to kill 'em. That's like trying to fight the Headhunters on Giza Plains at level 7. The Cluckatrice is ~lv 15. Try being level 17-ish when you fight it and it should just pose a moderate challence. Not to mention that the Cluckatrice is an Elite Mark, if I remember correct. The ranks get progressively harder. The Cluckatrice, like all other Elite Marks, is like a "boss" mark. It's supposed to be tough to kill.

[MasterDias]

That's the plan.
They appeared to have a vast jump in power over the previous ones which is what had caught me off guard.

[Yojimbo]

Dude. They have levels. Just like the other enemies in the game, you have to progress to kill 'em. That's like trying to fight the Headhunters on Giza Plains at level 7. The Cluckatrice is ~lv 15. Try being level 17-ish when you fight it and it should just pose a moderate challence. Not to mention that the Cluckatrice is an Elite Mark, if I remember correct. The ranks get progressively harder. The Cluckatrice, like all other Elite Marks, is like a "boss" mark. It's supposed to be tough to kill.

I fought the Cluckatrice by pure accident and killed him at like level 8 or 9 with not too much of a problem. Granted I healed alot and one person died and was rezed but it wasn't too hard.

[Nate]

I took out the Cluckatrice when Vossler was a guest in my party. It was a struggle, but I managed to do okay for myself (put a dent in my Phoenix Down and Soft supply though).

Actually I took out a majority of bounties when Vossler was in my party. He's a big help.

[everdred12a]

That's the plan.
They appeared to have a vast jump in power over the previous ones which is what had caught me off guard.

Same here. I remember doing the first one and annihilating the Tomato head guy, then going to the next one and barely living... then I went to the Flowering Cactoid and it took me 4 tries to kill XD

EDIT: WOW. I just fought Cuchulain (Cuchulain is an esper, for those of you who might not know).... and all I can say is wow. This is the most challenging and entertaining fight I've encountered in the whole game thus far...

[SPOILER=Cuchulain]This fight actually kept me on my toes, as compared to the other ones that I usually just sit back and watch... The constant sap effect in place during the fight is such a pain, but it makes it fun. The only thing I think they shouldn't have done, despite the fact that it makes sense, is give Cuchulain the ability 'Invert.' I was spending massive amounts of MP on Curaja, only to have them restored every time he casted Invert. And Invert rarely killed anyone... somoene was always mid-Curaja whenever he used it.[/SPOILER]

I use a spoiler here because, not everyone may want to know a couple of the details of how that fight goes. I know I wouldn't have had as much fun with it if I had known :d

[uc pseudonym]

I'll be renting this on and off this winter break (around family events and work as possible). To save on renting costs I'll be playing it fairly hard-core while I have it, though. Right now I'm not too far, just to the Nam-Yensa Sandsea.

Various thoughts so far, but they don't do anyone much good so I'll brief. I'm enjoying the battle system so far and I'm alright with the License Board. However, I'm disappointed by how few weapons go with each one and it leads to me being very annoyed every time I have to re-equip. The way I compensate is by not caring too much about equipment. Whenever something significantly better than what I'm currently wearing comes up I purchase enough for the characters close to that license. Eventually they'll have to specialize, though, to take advantage of the ultimate weapons I presume I'll eventually find.

So far I like the Gambit system. No real problems with it, but I'm not trying for much either: everyone has healing first at varying levels depending upon how much of a fighter they are and then attacking. There is only one issue, to be addressed shortly.

Three questions for the collective wisdom of the thread:
1) How do you get the Target option of a dead party member? I'd really like to have Phoenix Downs used automatically.
2) Is it worth levelling up all your characters, or should I focus on a primary three? Right now I'm rotating between characters as they gain levels.
3) Are the mark hunting sidequests worth it in the end? So far I've found them to be a large consumption of time for the limited rewards and enjoyment factor.

[Nate]

Eventually they'll have to specialize, though, to take advantage of the ultimate weapons I presume I'll eventually find.

Just a sad note, you definitely won't be able to get the strongest weapon in the game (the Zodiac Spear) unless you use the strategy guide. The requirements for getting it are to not get four treasure chests, at least one of which is at the very start of the game. These treasures look no different from any other chest, nor do they have any indication that they are special.

It's Square's way of saying "Hey, you can't be REALLY awesome unless you buy our strategy guide!" which is ridiculous, and a punch in the nose to those who like playing games WITHOUT the guides. :\

1) How do you get the Target option of a dead party member? I'd really like to have Phoenix Downs used automatically.

If I remember correctly, the first place you can buy the "Party Member: KO" target is about 50 hours into the game. Unless you can find it in a random chest somewhere, but even then it'd probably be in one of the dungeons around that area, so you won't get it for a long time.

2) Is it worth levelling up all your characters, or should I focus on a primary three? Right now I'm rotating between characters as they gain levels.

Primary three, the only purpose to levelling up all of them equally is to get one of the statues in the Clan Primer (for average level of all party members being 50). So if you don't care about that, it's pointless to level them all equally.

3) Are the mark hunting sidequests worth it in the end? So far I've found them to be a large consumption of time for the limited rewards and enjoyment factor.

Yes, they increase your clan level when you hunt marks. In the Bazaar at Rabanastre there's a clan shop, and the higher your clan level the better items you can buy. This shop is the only place you can purchase the Bubble spell, which doubles your max HP and is therefore an extremely useful spell. It also sells accessories which do such things as double the effect of restorative items. So the reward for the marks is less the stuff you get for the quest itself, and more the increase in clan level (though there are some neat things you can only get via the quests, like the Shell Shield).

[uc pseudonym]

Hey, thanks for answering so quickly.

Just a sad note, you definitely won't be able to get the strongest weapon in the game (the Zodiac Spear) unless you use the strategy guide. The requirements for getting it are to not get four treasure chests, at least one of which is at the very start of the game. These treasures look no different from any other chest, nor do they have any indication that they are special.

Yeah, I read about that beforehand (I don't like to use strategy guides, but I generally check online for this type of unfair thing). But after hearing about the ridiculous requirements for this weapon I decided to ignore it.

If I remember correctly, the first place you can buy the "Party Member: KO" target is about 50 hours into the game. Unless you can find it in a random chest somewhere, but even then it'd probably be in one of the dungeons around that area, so you won't get it for a long time.

That's unfortunate. Ah well, the item menu isn't too slow.

Primary three, the only purpose to levelling up all of them equally is to get one of the statues in the Clan Primer (for average level of all party members being 50). So if you don't care about that, it's pointless to level them all equally.

Ack. Then I wasted a good bit of the experience I got running around Ogir-Yensa (which is so massive it's almost absurd, by the way). Thanks for telling me so I don't waste any more time. Since all party members seem interchangeable I guess I'll just use Balthier, Fran, and Basch because I like them.

Yes, they increase your clan level when you hunt marks. In the Bazaar at Rabanastre there's a clan shop, and the higher your clan level the better items you can buy.

I guess I'll have to pursue some more of them, then. When I found the shop I was a Moppet, so all he sold was Potions (whoo hoo!). Haven't been back since.

Random question on the subject: at what level would you guys recommend trying to fight the Cluckatrice and how exactly do you start up that quest? I've talked to the client and I ran around a bit to find the kids who supposedly know what to do, but I got distracted killing Werewolves and I don't want to go back unless I'm sure I won't waste time.

[MasterDias]

Primary three, the only purpose to levelling up all of them equally is to get one of the statues in the Clan Primer (for average level of all party members being 50). So if you don't care about that, it's pointless to level them all equally.

But, isn't it useful to have backup if a character gets KO'd and you don't feel like using/ran out of Phoenix Downs or such?
This saved me actually at a boss battle a short ways into the game. And I change party members if someone runs out of MP. Although, admittingly I'm not that much farther than UC.

Or will rotating between party members force me to power level later in the game?

[Azier the Swordsman]

I never had a problem with only leveling one set of three characters. It IS useful at the end of the game where the last several boss battles are fought in sets of 3 in a row, but, trying to keep all the characters equally takes a lot of gil, and I found it more cost effective to just blaze through the game without the backup. Three level 60+ characters shouldn't have too hard a time completing the game, and playing with only 3 will get them leveled fast with little work on your part.

There IS a good use for your backup party, however, in the fact that Quickenings deal the same amount of damage no matter what the character's level, so they can be quickly switched in during a boss fight to quickly deal some serious damage.

Case in point, an enemy like the one which drains your MP rapidly can be defeated in seconds by having your backup party first unleash a chain followed by your main party which releases another chain and then finishes off with physical attacks.

So as you see, it's handy but not extremely important for every character to share the same level, and you can still strategize with your backup party to a degree.

[everdred12a]

Eventually they'll have to specialize, though, to take advantage of the ultimate weapons I presume I'll eventually find.

It doesnt' really matter what you do early on. I specialized from the beginning... I mean, some weapons have advantages over others. Katanas, Daggers, and Ninja swords may not be the most powerful weapons in the game, but they combo ability makes up for it. Match one with a Genji Glove and you'll do a combo almost every attack. That, in my opinion, makes up for some of the higher attack power weapons. Yes, the game allows for you to be a power gamer and buy whatever weapons have the strongest attack powers, but different weapons do different things. Also, there are two Zodiac Spears in the game. The one Nate mentioned is avaialable much earlier in the game (found in the Necrohol of Nabudis), while one is found when the party goes to kill Zodiark. The latter of the two is NOT subject to special requirements, if I'm correct.

Swords, Spears, and Greatswords are your basic "Let's kill EVERYONE" weapons. No strategy.

Daggers and Ninja Swords. Not quite as powerful as swords, but both have considerably higher combo ratings, and have their damage determined by both Strength *and* speed.

Katanas and Maces are more powerful than ninja swords and daggers, but have damage determined by both strength and magic power. Katanas are two-handed weapons with the second best combo rating in the game, and Maces are one-handed weapons.

Poles are another high-combo weapon. I don't know much about these weapons since I don't use them often. They are two-handed weapons.

Axes/Hammers and Bombs can be powerful weapons. The damage for them tends to be extreme, though, either hitting very hard or not very hard at all. You could hit for 3000 damage, then the next attack hit for 300. I don't have too much experience using them, so I can't really say much.

Rods augment a character's magic power, and their damage is determined the same way a Katana's is. I dont' have much experience with these weapons, so I can't really say much.

Staves augment elemental damage, mostly. I don't really have much experience with them, so I can't really comment on them.

Bows are a good, solid ranged weapon. They do damage based on speed and strength. They can hit very hard, and some of the arrows have neat added effects, especially Assassin's Arrows (adds an On Hit: KO to your attacks).

Crossbows are similar to bows. They have some decent added effects on the bolts, however the damage is calculated solely by strength and enemy defense, rather than strength and speed compared to the enemy's defense.

Guns are another good ranged weapon. They are considerably slower than other weapons, however I can't recall Balthier missing very often. Also, the damage is done directly rather than using a stat to calculate damage. It's simply the power of the gun and ammunition to determine damage.

1) How do you get the Target option of a dead party member? I'd really like to have Phoenix Downs used automatically.

Ally: Any = Phoenix Down. This gambit automatically looks for dead party members and will NOT have your party members spamming Phoenix Downs on living allies.

2) Is it worth levelling up all your characters, or should I focus on a primary three? Right now I'm rotating between characters as they gain levels.

Matter of opinion. I have three level 77 party members, two level 12, and one level 13 and I get by fine.

3) Are the mark hunting sidequests worth it in the end? So far I've found them to be a large consumption of time for the limited rewards and enjoyment factor.

They're not really NECESSARY to complete the game, but they can be helpful. A couple of the ultimate items can be found through hunts, plus they offer good opportunities to level up and get license points.

Random question on the subject: at what level would you guys recommend trying to fight the Cluckatrice and how exactly do you start up that quest? I've talked to the client and I ran around a bit to find the kids who supposedly know what to do, but I got distracted killing Werewolves and I don't want to go back unless I'm sure I won't waste time.

Level 15-ish. At this level, it should be a challenge to fight, but you should still be able to win. This is a 4-on-3 fight, if I remember correct; you have to kill the Cluckatrice as well as its 3 Chickatrices.
I'm not sure EXACTLY how to get the quest to work, but this is how I did it (I had to do the quest twice because I got a Game Over XD ):
On the big map, the area where the Cluckatrice is located is the screen southeast of where the Giza Plains goes into Rabanastre. To trigger this hunt, go into that screen and kill all the enemies, then leave and come back without killing any. This isn't a very scientific method for doing it, but it worked for me.

[Nate]

As I said earlier about the Cluckatrice, I was able to finally take it out when Vossler was a Guest in my party. I don't remember about what level I was though. Make sure you have lots of Softs.

[everdred12a]

Make sure you have lots of Softs.

Softs = Golden Needles in this game... I looked for Softs for a long time, and never found any XD

[Yojimbo]

Ughh I'm up to the Ridorana Cataract dungeon and I don't want to start it... I hear it takes at least 4-5 hours to get through it. I might try to get to the first save point tonight after family stuff. I did promise myself I would beat it though before break ends so I guess I must.

[uc pseudonym]

Now that I'm a bit further in the game (I just reached the Stilshrine of Miriam, and that's likely where I'll be for a while because I have to return the game and Christmas will be busy) I have one further observation: the License Board is getting old for me. It was fun while I was getting the Lore Licenses, but now all my characters have that part maxed. The equipment part is still annoying, though without many other drains I should have enough LP to get a lot for everyone. I guess I should start aiming for the edges in hopes of getting more Quickenings.

It doesnt' really matter what you do early on. I specialized from the beginning... I mean, some weapons have advantages over others.

Right now I'm not being very imaginative. Fran uses Bows so I have someone with ranged attacks, Basch uses swords because I keep finding more, and Balthier uses Poles. I like them, though not having shields is unfortunate. But without any special equipment Balthier combos about half of the time and it isn't unusual to see 4-5 blows.

[quote="everdred12a"]Level 15-ish. At this level, it should be a challenge to fight, but you should still be able to win. This is a 4-on-3 fight, if I remember correct]
Ah, one of those. Given that I've put this off, I'm going to slaughter the poor beast.

[everdred12a]

Your weapon setup isn't bad by any means. Two melee characters and one ranged. A suggestion, if you haven't already - make Fran (since she's ranged) a support character. Make her the priority healer and recovery person. Since she won't be on the frontlines often, she's the ideal support fighter. Of course, that doesn't mean the enemies won't go after her, but the enemies usually go for the melee fighters first.

I'll also agree about the License board. Once you get what you want out of it, it's not interesting anymore. I have 4 characters who have completely filled up their license boards, and it's just a chore to get the other to to finish theirs.

[uc pseudonym]

I do indeed have Fran on support, and for those reasons. Actually, everyone has curing first on their Gambit lists, but at varying percentages based on their roles.

Given that I've put this off, I'm going to slaughter the poor beast.

This happened. It and the three chicks were dead before the petrify timer on Basch (everyone else didn't get hit by it) went down very far, so I just ran to a save crystal instead of using a Gold Needle. Hunts aren't quite as fun when high level, but they certainly are easier.

For when I get the game again, I have one question: how would you (plural) recommend I take out flying enemies? So far this has been my only difficulty with the combat system. Ranged characters can hit them, or melee ones can if you time it right, but both of those options tend to take a while. I've only experimented some with spells, so maybe that's my problem. Right now I just ignore them, but that might not always work.

[Radical Dreamer]

Well, though it seems it's too late for me to jump into the conversation now (too many spoilers, aah! XD), I now have my own copy of the game, and I've LOVED what I've played of it. The opening sequence was absolutely epic, and while the battles took me a minute to get used to, I actually think they're really fun. XD I have yet to figure out Gambits and all of that, but it's really helping that this game kind of has a similar setup to that of FFTactics/Tactics Advance--it's easy to get the hang of the equip menus and all of that. XD

[everdred12a]

For when I get the game again, I have one question: how would you (plural) recommend I take out flying enemies? So far this has been my only difficulty with the combat system. Ranged characters can hit them, or melee ones can if you time it right, but both of those options tend to take a while. I've only experimented some with spells, so maybe that's my problem. Right now I just ignore them, but that might not always work.

Well, unfortunately, there's not a whole lot you *can* do to them. Ranged weapons, as you've already discovered, can hit a flyer. I wasn't actually aware that melee weaponry could hit them at all. The main way to fight them for a long time is just to make a gambit like this: "Foe: Flying - (magic attack)" My party was two melee and a ranged fighter, so I put Vaan and Ashe to each have a different elemental spell. A majority of fliers are weak to Earth, Wind, Thunder, or Ice. There are no earth elemented spells available, only earth elemented weapons, and an earth elemented concurrance, so you're limited to Wind, Thunder, or Ice. I had one character with Blizzard/Blizzara/Blizzaga and one with Thunder/Thundara/Thundaga. Later on, when you reach the Salikawood, you *CAN* go into the Necrohol of Nabudis and attempt to get Telekenesis, which is a technique that allows characters to use Melee weapons to perform Ranged attacks. Beware, though, that the enemies in the Necrohol of Nabudis are in the 40-50 level range, and they will hurt you pretty badly if they hit you. I'd say that if you ran the whole way, you MIGHT be able to reach it. What you do is enter from the Salikawood and, on that first zone in the Necrohol, run all the way west, towards a single, extremely long hallway with a small room at the end. This hallway has about five or six Elvorets in it, which may foil your attempt to reach the room. Go past them and into that room at the end, then go through the door in that room into another room not on the map. There will be a Mimic treasure box in the middle; I wouldn't recomment fighting it. Instead, walk to the far left corner of the room and look for the ! to appear, then use it to find a secret shop. In this shop, you can buy Ethers, Maximillian armor, Magepower Shishak helmets, Telekenesis, and, much later in the game, this is where you purchase the Black Magick Scathe. It won't be easy by any means to reach this shop the moment you get into the Salikawood, but if you go there when you're level 40, you should be able to make it.

[uc pseudonym]

Ah, I hadn't tried using Gambits to make spell usage automatic. Perhaps I'll have to do that for some of my non-healers. Also, I'm not a big fan of running through areas, so I'll have to leave that secret shop until I'm at a more reasonable level.

I wasn't actually aware that melee weaponry could hit them at all.

They can, it's just tricky. Any enemy that swoops down to attack someone is briefly vulnerable. But since your characters attack automatically they tend to whack at the air, and so the only way to time it is to stay just out of range while the enemy is targeting another character, then try to run toward them just as they descend. It's difficult and involves luck as much as timing, hence why I generally avoid them.

[everdred12a]

It would make sense that you could hit them as they swoop in, but you're also correct about the automatic attacking making that a difficult thing to do. I was content throwing out a couple of Blizzards whenever I met one, but to each his own.

EDIT: While I'm thinking about it, there are a few good auto-magic gambits you can make. A good one, if you don't have it already, is "Self - Libra." I'm not sure if you can use "Ally: (name of ally using Libra) - Libra" for the same effect, but it's not a bad gambit to have. Definitely put this one on the bottom of the list. A good set of gambits to have is "Self - Protectga/Hastega/Shellga." I know that these spells aren't available until much later in the game, but they're good gambits to have around. Another good one that I use on my party leader is "Self - Bravery," to beef up her attack power (my leader is Ashe), mainly because the Kantanas don't quite stack up to greatswords in power.

[Rocketshipper]

ok, I finally started playing FF12 tonight, and I've got 2 hours and 45 minutes on the clock now. I've completed two of those hunter request things and just finished charging up the sunstone thing. So far the graphics are awesome and the storyline is really intriguing. I like the characters who;ve shown up so far too. But the most relevant question when it comes to this is how is the gameplay. Well, so far I've only played a little bit of the game (I havn;t gotten any gambitds yet, and I've only had Penelo in my party) so maybe I don;t have enough information to judge the styem yet, but going by just what I've played so far I have to say...I HATE this battle system!!!! It is the worst battle system EVER for any RPG I've played.

It's annoying how you have to wait for the little action bar to fill up before you character wull do anything, and how you have to stay close to the enemy in order to hit them. The licencing board is my worst nightmare come true; it would still annoy me if it was just devoted to magic and teqniques and stuff, but they had to make equiped items unlockable from the board too. Um...O_O?!?! Now not only do I have to buy/find armor, accessorys, and weapons, but I also have to spend points to unlock licences for them on the boards, and since you can only unlock stuff that is next to stuff you;ve previously unlocked, you have to unlock other possibly useless abilities/equip categories so that the character can equip some usefull stuff or get a needed magic attack/ability. And since I've always had an insane OCD-ish need to unlock as many possible attacks and stuff for every RPG I play, I won't be satisfied unless, between my characters, I can unlock everything on the board and see what it does.

And this game suffers from major overdrive "AP-syndrome" ONE freakin LP point from every monster??? It will take ages to unlock a decent amount of stuff on the licence boards, unless the amount of LP gain increases soon. And it feels like the amount of exp the monsters in this game give is also extremely low. It feels like I should at least be at like level 6 or something with the amount of fighting I did, not measly level 4. I can understand now how other people in the forum have been mentioning being rather far in the game and yet at seemingly very low levels.

The previously mentioned things are all annoying problems, but I think they really pale in comparison to my one really big complaint with this battle system. Can someone please explain this to me, because I just don;t get it. Tell me, what is the *cencored* point of having real time battles in which you can control where your character moves and everything...if you can't *cencored* avoid the enemies attacks!?!?!? Why should I even bother moving my character if the enemy's attack is just going to home in on me like a heat seeking missile? You might as well just have the characters stand in one place like in all the previous Final Fantasy games. Unless you can *shock gasp* AVOID your enemies attacks, like in Parasite Eve or Kingdom Hearts or Zelda, there is no point to having real time battles. I can't imagine how this factor managed to slip past the notice of the square people.

When I first heard about the drastic change of the battle system, I was a little dissapointed, but at the same time I didn't think it sounded that bad, it sounded like it would inject a little Zelda like gameplay into things. But the final product is nothing like that. It's more like they just created a normal final fantasy battle system (I could easily see the licence board at least being part of a traditional FF system) and then thought "hey, lets allow the players to run around the battle field while they are waiting for their ATB gauges to fill". Yeah, what an amazing innovation.

[uc pseudonym]

I have the game again, but due to highly irritating renting policies I'm going to have to give it back by midnight. Considering I'm only to Giruvegan I'm going to have to rent it again, which I was hoping to avoid. Ah well, I guess that means I'll have more time for sidequests.

By the way, I got oddly stumped on the second area of that dungeon. I've already crossed the first glowing green path, and I manipulated the switches to let me get to the bottom. I could see the place where there was supposed to be another path, but for the life of me it wouldn't let me use it. After wasting almost an hour running around the area last night I went to sleep, and this morning I checked online... apparently there's nothing I'm not doing. It had better work when I go back.

EDIT: While I'm thinking about it, there are a few good auto-magic gambits you can make. A good one, if you don't have it already, is "Self - Libra."

Because trying to find the Licenses for accessories is annoying, I've left one of my characters with one that has auto-Libra. Eventually I'll ditch it for a Bubble Belt, when I can get another one, or if I come across something really good. But I will start using Gambits to buff my characters more. They seem to have tons of MP all the time except boss battles and having Bubble cast constantly is proving very helpful.

Rocketshipper: I have good news for you]And this game suffers from major overdrive "AP-syndrome" ONE freakin LP point from every monster??? It will take ages to unlock a decent amount of stuff on the licence boards, unless the amount of LP gain increases soon.[/quote]
It won't. Even at my stage in the game the tougher of enemies only grant 2 LP. However, this actually doesn't matter. I had everything I really wanted on the License Board about 10 hours of gameplay ago, and now my LP just piles up and I use it only occasionally for new equipment.

Tell me, what is the *cencored* point of having real time battles in which you can control where your character moves and everything...if you can't *cencored* avoid the enemies attacks!?!?!?

Heh. I thought the same thing. However, being able to move does affect things. For one, numerous opponents have attacks that only affect the area around them. Because the system informs you when they ready something, you can often get out of the way (your AI characters will foolishly keep hacking, though).

Also, movement plays a bigger role once you have a party. For example, if a monster is chasing you with an attack readied, if you run your party members bars continue to fill while it wastes its time. Often my party can kill it before it gets its attack off. Or another example: in the area I'm currently in there are Behemoths that can do some hefty physical damage and attack in pairs. But they tend to get focused on one character, so what I do is circle one Behemoth attacking it while the other trundles around and around after me until I kill the first one.