Final Fantasy XII

[Kkun]

Also, in regards to the comment about it taking forever to gain LP...the Golden Amulet is the most useful accessory in the game, in my opinion. It doubles the amount of LP you gain. Wear it during some of the bigger hunts and you will absolutely rake in the LP. I've had six equipped on my entire party for a good, long while now and we've almost completely mastered the License Board.

[Rocketshipper]

Cool, where can you get Golden Amulets? Is here an acessory like that for exp too?

Another thing that I'm finding a litle weird. What's up with treasure chests
? Are they like randomly placed or something? I have a stratigy guide, but I've discovered that not all the treasure chests listed for an area actually appear. When I was in that desert charging the sun stone, I kept finding new items in areas I'd already visited. And when I ended up having to restart and go through the lowtown area again, I noticed that the chests gave out different items. O_O.

[Kkun]

Cool, where can you get Golden Amulets? Is here an acessory like that for exp too?

Another thing that I'm finding a litle weird. What's up with treasure chests
? Are they like randomly placed or something? I have a stratigy guide, but I've discovered that not all the treasure chests listed for an area actually appear. When I was in that desert charging the sun stone, I kept finding new items in areas I'd already visited. And when I ended up having to restart and go through the lowtown area again, I noticed that the chests gave out different items. O_O.

Check out your guide. The list of treasure chests next to the map at the beginning of each section guide for each city/area/whatever has a column marked "App.%" That's the rate of appearance for that treasure chest. Then, it varies (that's what the other percentages are for in the other columns of the treasure list are) as to what is going to be in the chest.

As for Golden Amulets, there is a treasure chest in the Ozmone Plains in the area that can only be reached by chocobo. It's difficult to get them this way, but I just saved at Jahara village save point, and would ride a chocobo to get to the chest. Then, in the event that the treasure chest wasn't there or the chest gave me an item that wasn't the Golden Amulet, I would just reset my game and start over. Then, when I would get a Golden Amulet, I'd just ride the Wandering Chocobo that's near the treasure chest back to Jahara and start over. I got six Golden Amulets with about an hour of time spent, and only 180 gil (riding a chocobo six times) this way, as opposed to spending 27,000 gil and waiting later to get them at Mt. Bur-Omisace.

Also, the item that doubles EXP is the Embroidered Tippet. It's very cool, as well, but I'm more concerned about mastering the License Board first.

[chibiphonebooth]

i love this gammmeeeeeeee




my faves are fran, penelo, and balthier. XP

*is totally a fran+balthier shipper*
lmaooo


i really really like the battle system too. I always got REALLY sick of that 'la la la walking walking walking HOLY CRAP A BATTLE AHHHHH ZOMGGGGGGGGG!1!1ELEVEN!1" it made me really mad. I love seeing the creatures and then like... avoiding them if i have to, or going straight for them if i want. instead of like.. running around in circles trying to find a random battle. >.<


:3

[everdred12a]

...so maybe I don]
Chill, kid. Wait until you get Basch into your party. By the time you get out of the Barheim passage (where you get Basch) the gambit system will be much better. After you get out of the Barheim passage, go straight to Nalbina Fortress and buy some gambits (or Rabanastre, whichever you choose).

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.

Once again, chill. Every enemy you fight gives you LP. So as long as you're not constantly running from enemies, the LP will come fairly quickly. If you think about it in terms of 'I have to kill XX amount of enemies to unlock this (name of thing to be unlocked!" then yeah, it's going to take forever. Just sit back and kill a few enemies, then check back and buy a couple of things. I've *never* had the issue of not having the licenses for something when it became available in shops.

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.

Once again, you're basing an entire game off of the first couple of hours of gameplay. To be honest, 1 LP is the 'standard.' Other enemies will give you 2, bosses will give more than 10 (they don't give exp though), and Elementals give 4. And there again, you don't have an actual party, so you don't NEED to be over level 4.

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!?!?!?

Uh, you have beginner gear. You won't be evading much at all until you get better gear.

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.

Oh, I recommend either Golden Amulets (for all 6 party members) or Embroidered Tippets (only for the active party). Golden Amulets double the LP intake a character gets, and Embroidered Tippets double the exp they get. Other good Accessories are the Bubble Belt and the Genji Gauntlets. I will admit, though, that I don't have much experience with other accessories.

I need to play FF12 again XD All this talk has got me hyped up >:D Time to go show Zodiark who's boss...

EDIT: I'm glad this thread seems to have some life again. I could talk about this game for hours XD

[Rocketshipper]

I got past a few more dungeosn and now I'm back in the desert with Basch as a guest. I am slightly less anoyyed with the battle system now, I actually like gambits because with the right ones I can just sit their and do nothing while the party kills the monsters on their own. I also gave one of my guys a "enemy HP greater than or equal to 50%, then steal" gambit so I could get some items too.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can you really not buy Phoenix downs? If it's true then that really sucks. I ended up going through like 4 of them fighting the mimic queen. I hope I can get a ressurection spell licence sometime soon.

And what's up with the whole "dividing exp between the characters thing"? It's like being forcibly equipped with an expierience share in Pokemon. Why can't all the characters recieve the full number of points from every monster? The only reason I can see a developer putting a system like this in is just to stretch out the time it takes to level even further.

Another question, are their any spells or teqniques that can hit more than one enemy at a time? It's so annoying to get surrounded by like three wolf monsters and be hacking away at one while all three gang up on me. I've never wished for an All materia more than I have in this game.

Uh, you have beginner gear. You won't be evading much at all until you get better gear.

My problem with this is that in a game with a REAL TIME battle system, avoiding an enemy's attack shouldn't be based on your stats or your equipment, it should be based on if you move your character out of the way of the attack. But since most attacks I've encountered so far seem to either home in on the characters or cover the whole screen (like those cinematic attacks the bosses do) there doesn't seem to be much of a point to moving, other than to replenish your MP.

[Nate]

What actually annoyed me more was that characters attacked automatically... I wanted to press a button and feel more directly involved.

For some reason after I got the Gambit system, my party leader stopped automatically attacking. I have to open the menu EVERY time I want to attack, which is frustrating...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can you really not buy Phoenix downs?

You're wrong. :p

Another question, are their any spells or teqniques that can hit more than one enemy at a time?

A lot of spells are area effect, so they'll hit monsters standing around the target monster.

I actually like gambits because with the right ones I can just sit their and do nothing while the party kills the monsters on their own.

This is actually why I hate Gambits and don't play the game anymore. I should NOT be able to put down my controller and get a sandwich during a boss fight, and come back and find the boss dead. That's a bunch of crap. I want to actually fight bosses. If I wanted to watch people do something, I'd be watching a movie, not playing a game.

[Radical Dreamer]

i love this gammmeeeeeeee




my faves are fran, penelo, and balthier. XP

*is totally a fran+balthier shipper*
lmaooo


i really really like the battle system too. I always got REALLY sick of that 'la la la walking walking walking HOLY CRAP A BATTLE AHHHHH ZOMGGGGGGGGG!1!1ELEVEN!1" it made me really mad. I love seeing the creatures and then like... avoiding them if i have to, or going straight for them if i want. instead of like.. running around in circles trying to find a random battle. >.<


:3

I love that part, too! While I'm really used to random battles, I've always liked battle systems where you can see your enemies before you're launched into battle with them. XD And the battle system is SO fun! I'll go running after all the enemies I can see so I can get 3 and 4-chains. XD Well, all except for that one time, when I ran up to the big T-Rex in the desert, which killed me the moment I engaged with it. XD

Another part I love about this game is the fact that, not only can you pause at any time, but you can also completely skip over extra scenes. When I got killed by that T-rex in the desert, I realized that I hadn't saved since the scene with Reks. XD; But, since I could skip over all the movie-like story scenes, I got back to where I was with Vaan in about 5-10 minutes. That was awesome. XD

Another thing I love about this game? The graphics. Yes, games aren't only good for their graphics, but OH MY GOSH. These are so amazing. XD I mean, the hair moves realistically in the actual gameplay. I was floored when I saw how smoothly Fran's hair moved in gameplay. Speaking of Fran, she and Balthier are GREAT. XD I've only just gotten them in my party, since I've been out of town for a few days and haven't been able to play, but wow. I'm so impressed with this game. XD

[everdred12a]

And what's up with the whole "dividing exp between the characters thing"? It's like being forcibly equipped with an expierience share in Pokemon. Why can't all the characters recieve the full number of points from every monster? The only reason I can see a developer putting a system like this in is just to stretch out the time it takes to level even further.

I've never played an RPG that *doesn't* do that. Every Final Fantasy game, save for Final Fantasy Tactics, had that system in place.

My problem with this is that in a game with a REAL TIME battle system, avoiding an enemy's attack shouldn't be based on your stats or your equipment, it should be based on if you move your character out of the way of the attack. But since most attacks I've encountered so far seem to either home in on the characters or cover the whole screen (like those cinematic attacks the bosses do) there doesn't seem to be much of a point to moving, other than to replenish your MP.

The thing about this you seem to be missing is that this isn't like other RPG's. This isn't real-time. It's ATB. It's what Final Fantasy games have traditionally used. The only difference is that they changed it to a 3d environment where you can actually move around so that combat would be seamless. Something tells me you've been playing a tad bit too much Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts was made by a different development team than Final Fantasy 12, to my knowledge, so the game IS going to be different. If the game was the way you seem to want it to be, it really wouldn't be a Final Fantasy game.

[Radical Dreamer]

The thing about this you seem to be missing is that this isn't like other RPG's. This isn't real-time. It's ATB. It's what Final Fantasy games have traditionally used. The only difference is that they changed it to a 3d environment where you can actually move around so that combat would be seamless. Something tells me you've been playing a tad bit too much Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts was made by a different development team than Final Fantasy 12, to my knowledge, so the game IS going to be different. If the game was the way you seem to want it to be, it really wouldn't be a Final Fantasy game.

This is very true. The way the system is set up made me think that it was real-time battle at first, since you can move freely during battle. But, the truth of the matter is, it's exactly like ATB, except for the fact that you CAN move. XD I love it, personally.

[everdred12a]

This is very true. The way the system is set up made me think that it was real-time battle at first, since you can move freely during battle. But, the truth of the matter is, it's exactly like ATB, except for the fact that you CAN move. XD I love it, personally.

I agree 100%. This game reminds me SO much of Final Fantasy VIII for some reason, in terms of the battle system... I know it's noting like it at all, but it just seems like they took a battle from FF8 and made it so you can move around (as well as making it prettier XD )

[Cognitive Gear]

My problem with this is that in a game with a REAL TIME battle system, avoiding an enemy's attack shouldn't be based on your stats or your equipment, it should be based on if you move your character out of the way of the attack. But since most attacks I've encountered so far seem to either home in on the characters or cover the whole screen (like those cinematic attacks the bosses do) there doesn't seem to be much of a point to moving, other than to replenish your MP.

Actually, you can avoid the AOE attacks through movement. I know it's not what you are looking for, but think of it as a consolation prize. I know I do. xD

[Rocketshipper]

For some reason after I got the Gambit system, my party leader stopped automatically attacking. I have to open the menu EVERY time I want to attack, which is frustrating...

When I first got the Gambit system, Vaan's gambit was "party leader's target, - attack" which made me have to choose his target all the time. If you change it to something like "target nearest enemy - attack" then I don't think you'll have to choose his target manually all the time.

This isn't real-time. It's ATB. It's what Final Fantasy games have traditionally used. The only difference is that they changed it to a 3d environment where you can actually move around so that combat would be seamless.

It's still pointless. If you going to be able to move wherever you want during a battle, then logically you should be able to dodge around enemy attacks and stuff. If all the attacks are just going to home in on you anyway, then you might as well just stand in one place, like in all the previous Final Fantasys.

I never noticed Exp being divided up in any FF games other than 4 and 12. If it was then it wasn't enough to be that noticible. It was really bad in 4, to the point where I had to purposefully kill all my characters except 1 just so that character could fight and level up at a decent pace.

[Nate]

When I first got the Gambit system, Vaan's gambit was "party leader's target, - attack" which made me have to choose his target all the time. If you change it to something like "target nearest enemy - attack" then I don't think you'll have to choose his target manually all the time.

But see, this is why I hate the Gambit system. At the beginning of the game, BEFORE Gambits, I didn't have to open the menu all the time. I chose a target and Vaan hacked at it. I was fine with this.

When I got Gambits, I didn't have an attack Gambit. I did not place an attack Gambit anywhere in his list. Now, whenever he attacks, after he finishes attacking he stands there like a big dumb rock. WHY? It's stupid. So I thought, "Okay, I'll put the Gambit 'Party Leader target: attack' as his Gambit." I figured since he is the party leader, if I pick a target he will continue attacking that target because he is the leader and that is his target. Makes sense, right?

NOPE. He STILL stands there like a freaking IDIOT after he's done attacking once. The only way to remedy this is to relinquish COMPLETE control over the game which I do not want to do, this is a freaking GAME and not a MOVIE, and give me ZERO control over who I want to attack, or not have a Gambit at all and have the tedious action of reopening the menu EVERY TURN.

Now I remember why I hate this game so much... *goes off to curb murderous rage, begins praying for the deaths of Square-Enix employees*

[Radical Dreamer]

I never noticed Exp being divided up in any FF games other than 4 and 12. If it was then it wasn't enough to be that noticible. It was really bad in 4, to the point where I had to purposefully kill all my characters except 1 just so that character could fight and level up at a decent pace.

Really? I never really noticed it having a big effect on my characters in FFIV. And in FFXII, it's worked fine for me so far. And you get to move around in FFXII's battles because it's fun. XD

[Rocketshipper]

*shrug* I don't know, maybe the problem wasn;t the leveling up pace but the "recomended levels" that the guide I looked at kept using. It was rather ridiclous, one world map area would have a recomended level of like 12, and then the next dungeon would have the recomended level of something like 16, and then the VERY next area after the dungeon would have a recomenced level of 20, so it was like you had to level up 4 or 5 times in each area, when normaly I'd only level once.

[Radical Dreamer]

Ah, see, I didn't get to use the guide when I played it. XD I also haven't played it in about 2 years, so I'm not remembering much, other than the fact that I progressed pretty smoothly (in other words, I didn't encounter lots of battles that seemed way too hard). Oh well. XD

[everdred12a]

When I first got the Gambit system, Vaan's gambit was "party leader's target, - attack" which made me have to choose his target all the time. If you change it to something like "target nearest enemy - attack" then I don't think you'll have to choose his target manually all the time.

That's because, if Vaan is the party leader, you're creating a broken loop in the system. The game looks for the party leader's target. If Vaan is the leader, then the loops ends there (Vaan looks for party leader's target -> Vaan has no target -> end of loop). If you change your leader, however, the loop is fixed (Vaan looks for party leader's target -> leader targets enemy A -> Vaan attacks enemy A -> loop continues).

It's still pointless. If you going to be able to move wherever you want during a battle, then logically you should be able to dodge around enemy attacks and stuff. If all the attacks are just going to home in on you anyway, then you might as well just stand in one place, like in all the previous Final Fantasys.

If you're having trouble with taking too much damage, take measures to prevent that. One way to do that is to make a healing gambit for yourself. Not difficult. If you've been to a Gambit shop, it should be simple. Do something like "Ally HP <70% = Potion/Cure." If status effects are getting you, use "Ally status: (status effect) = (item to cure status)."
Also note, that you don't have to run around during combat. With a character's gambits turned on, the character will move by themselves.

I wish people would stop complaining about the gambit system's shortcomings. Maybe it would be perfect if they had been using it over and over and over in every game, but Final Fantasy games pride themselves on being different in every installmlent. If you look back, each game had its own special thing in it, even if they weren't all that polished and amazing. Final Fantasy 12's system is no different. It just requires a little more thought than other games, which isn't a bad thing by any means. Just relax and learn the system. It's not difficult.

I never noticed Exp being divided up in any FF games other than 4 and 12. If it was then it wasn't enough to be that noticible. It was really bad in 4, to the point where I had to purposefully kill all my characters except 1 just so that character could fight and level up at a decent pace.

It's been that way in every FF game that let you choose your party. I was mistaken in that sense. If the game had more available characters than you could have in your party at a time, it did do division of experience.

[Radical Dreamer]

I wish people would stop complaining about the gambit system's shortcomings. Maybe it would be perfect if they had been using it over and over and over in every game, but Final Fantasy games pride themselves on being different in every installmlent. If you look back, each game had its own special thing in it, even if they weren't all that polished and amazing. Final Fantasy 12's system is no different. It just requires a little more thought than other games, which isn't a bad thing by any means. Just relax and learn the system. It's not difficult.

Right. Every FF has had a different system of equipping yourself and stats and all of that. FF7 had Materia, FF8 had Junctions (which I loved to pieces...even if it took me forever to fully grasp all of what it could do XD), FFX had the Sphere Grid, and this one has Gambits and the License Board (which is so similar to the Sphere Grid, it's not even funny). Since the way the weapons and armor, items, etc. were layed out was so similar to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (which I put a good 100+ hours into), that was pretty simple for me to grasp even if I'm not that far yet. The License Board is extremely similar to the Sphere Grid, so that hasn't been hard to get a hang of, either. Really, the only thing I'll have to "learn" in this new installment of the FF series is Gambits, and it doesn't seem like it'll be too hard.

From what I've observed in conversations here, it seems like it all depends on how you use the system and how you equip your Gambits. For instance, in FF8, if you Junctioned five Firas to your HP, it really wouldn't help that much. But if you Junctioned 50 Cures, your HP would skyrocket. It's all in how you use the system, so you've got to make sure you fully understand it before you start saying it's not that great. The Junction system used to confuse me, but once I understood it, I wanted every game to use that system. XD It's really efficient once you learn it well.

[chibiphonebooth]

[quote="Radical Dreamer"]I love that part, too! While I'm really used to random battles, I've always liked battle systems where you can see your enemies before you're launched into battle with them. XD And the battle system is SO fun! I'll go running after all the enemies I can see so I can get 3 and 4-chains. XD Well, all except for that one time, when I ran up to the big T-Rex in the desert, which killed me the moment I engaged with it. XD

Another part I love about this game is the fact that, not only can you pause at any time, but you can also completely skip over extra scenes. When I got killed by that T-rex in the desert, I realized that I hadn't saved since the scene with Reks. XD]


OMG. i saw that t-rex and i was like lemme go fight it! WAIT JUST KIDDING RUN AWAWYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY


XD


oh i know, the graphics are gr8t. gr8t.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR8T!

<.<

great.


and i really like the battle system. cause i dunno... i hated going back and doing the same attack over and over and over in the other ones. >.<

[everdred12a]

Really, the only thing I'll have to "learn" in this new installment of the FF series is Gambits, and it doesn't seem like it'll be too hard.

From what I've observed in conversations here, it seems like it all depends on how you use the system and how you equip your Gambits. For instance, in FF8, if you Junctioned five Firas to your HP, it really wouldn't help that much. But if you Junctioned 50 Cures, your HP would skyrocket. It's all in how you use the system, so you've got to make sure you fully understand it before you start saying it's not that great. The Junction system used to confuse me, but once I understood it, I wanted every game to use that system. XD It's really efficient once you learn it well.

You're absolutely right, it's not difficult to learn at all... it's all trial and error... and common sense XD If you have a gambit and notice it's not doing what you want it to (or just not working at all), all you have to do is go back into the gambit screen and change it until it does what you want it to do (and in the case of Steal gambits... get rid of them altogether =p ). And as complex as it may seem, sometimes the simplest thing can be the solution to the problem.

[Rocketshipper]

I'm not complaining about the Gambit system, I said earlier that I liked it. When I made the comment about Van's leader Target gambit I was responding to something someone else said. At the moment I do have my characters equipped with "ally HP less than 70% then cure" gambits and that works well. All I'm saying is that it just doesn't make sense to allow you to move during battle and yet not allow you to dodge attacks. I don't understand why avoiding attacks couldn't have been included, it would only improve the system, IMO, because then you would need to use less items and cast fewer spells (if you were good at dodging) and how much damage your leader would take in battle would be as dependant on your skill as on your stats or the armor you bought.

[everdred12a]

I'm not complaining about the Gambit system, I said earlier that I liked it. When I made the comment about Van's leader Target gambit I was responding to something someone else said. At the moment I do have my characters equipped with "ally HP less than 70% then cure" gambits and that works well. All I'm saying is that it just doesn't make sense to allow you to move during battle and yet not allow you to dodge attacks. I don't understand why avoiding attacks couldn't have been included, it would only improve the system, IMO, because then you would need to use less items and cast fewer spells (if you were good at dodging) and how much damage your leader would take in battle would be as dependant on your skill as on your stats or the armor you bought.

You have to realize, though, that that would defeat the purpose of the entire system. The entire point of the ADB engine (which refers to both the gambit system and the combat system as a whole). The whole point of the system is to be hands-off; more strategic skill than button-mashing skill. That's why the gambit screen was included. Like I said before, this isn't a real-time combat engine, it's an Active Dimension Battle engine, which is a take off of the Active Time Battle engine present in a majority of other FF games.

[MasterDias]

Yeah.
Final Fantasy XII is not an action RPG. Star Ocean is an action RPG. Tales is an action RPG. Seiken Densetsu is an action RPG. Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG. Final Fantasy XII is not an action RPG.

But, anyway, I'm right after the Shiva. I don't know. I'm having some trouble getting into this battle system so I've been playing the game rather slowly.
Running back and forth all over the city (to like seven stores) to restock items and upgrade equipment is rather tedious so I don't particularly look forward to upgrading. And what's with the miniscule amounts of money I seem to find in most of the treasure chests?
I would have prefered that inactive characters gain some experience, but I've just come off from Tales of the Abyss (where everyone gains equal exp) so...

But, regardless, I have several questions (for whoever cares to answer):

1. Where can I get Teleport Stones, aside from Montblanc?

2. Are those insanely expensive Grimoires that the Bazaar sells seriously worth anything....because there is no way I'm going to be able to afford any of those anytime soon unless my cash intake increases substantially?

3. What Technics would you suggest I look into. I find Steal useful, when it works. And First Aid has helped me out on occasion.

[Rocketshipper]

You have to realize, though, that that would defeat the purpose of the entire system.

Not being able to dodge attacks defeats the purpose of being able to control movement in battle, as far as I'm concerned. Either let us move and dodge attacks, or have the characters stand in one place and take attacks like in traditional RPGs. I know Squenix is trying to be all new and innovative with this psuedo-real time hybrid system, but that doesn't mean I have to like it or think it was a good idea.

Final Fantasy XII is not an action RPG.

Neither was Parasite Eve, but you could dodge away from enemy attacks in that game.

[everdred12a]

And what's with the miniscule amounts of money I seem to find in most of the treasure chests?

You should sell the Loot enemies drop, if you aren't already. The only items under the Loot category I *DON'T* suggest selling are Teleport Stones and Gysahl Greens. Everything else, just get rid of it XD

1. Where can I get Teleport Stones, aside from Montblanc?

There are a few ways. Montblanc can give you them for leveling up your clan rank (as you know already), some hunts give them out as part of the reward (especially Elite Marks, the earlier ones almost always do), when your battle chain reaches level 5, they can drop from enemies, and finally, when you reach the Port of Balfonheim, there is a shop that sells them. This is the earliest I know of]2. Are those insanely expensive Grimoires that the Bazaar sells seriously worth anything....because there is no way I'm going to be able to afford any of those anytime soon unless my cash intake increases substantially?[/QUOTE]
I think they are, personally. There are several different ones, each for different kinds of monsters. The Grimoires make monsters drop higher rank Loot. There is also an Urn you can buy for 250,000 gil that makes all enemies able to drop Arcana.

3. What Technics would you suggest I look into. I find Steal useful, when it works. And First Aid has helped me out on occasion.

Steal, Libra, Telekenesis, Shear, Expose, and Shades of Black. You already know Steal's usefulness. Libra is a skill that has the same effect as the accessory Bracers, revealing enemy information. Telekenesis is a Technick that allows your characters with melee weaponry to attack flying enemies as if they were using ranged weaponry. Shear lowers an enemy's magic defense, while Expose does the same to their normal defense (useful against marks and bosses, especially the ones who use palings). Shades of Black is sort of a gamble, but dropping some high-level Black magick can be pretty neat early on. Best used while Silenced or out of MP (yes, this skill can use ANY black magick, from Fire/Blizzard/Thunder all the way up to Scourge and Scathe).

[Rocketshipper]

Running back and forth all over the city (to like seven stores) to restock items and upgrade equipment is rather tedious so I don't particularly look forward to upgrading.

I know, lol. What ever happened to having all your items in only a few shops? I was definitly happy when I ran into that shop guy in the underground area who sold stuff from all the categories.

[everdred12a]

I know, lol. What ever happened to having all your items in only a few shops? I was definitly happy when I ran into that shop guy in the underground area who sold stuff from all the categories.

It's not really so bad, though. There is a shop in most areas, save for one or two, as well as a teleport crystal. It's best to restock while you can. I wouldn't recommend buying the grimoires at first, either. Wait until you reach Jahara or so, then you might be able to buy the first one. There are actually like, 7 or 8 of 'em, but you have to unlock them by talking to merchants. Also, don't forget the aerodromes in each town. If you need to go from one area to another, they can be helpful when you reach a town.

[Azier the Swordsman]

*cut* Wrong thread.

[everdred12a]

So uh, I just beat the game... got fed up with the treasure boxes in the Henne mines (stupid things wouldn't spawn), and I just figured, 'Eh, whatever.' I'm not sure if I'll start a new game or finish this one, though.