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Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age |OT| You Had One Job!

Ralemont said:
I like turbo mode in any game I'm replaying. It's why Chrono Cross had the greatest New Game + ever.
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For sure, the game doesn't even have to have large areas or particularly long fights or anything like that. Many games are just a bit too slow at times for their own good.
 
Gala said:
So I just freed
Ashe
and I think I want to grind now to get my parties up. Can anyone recommend me good place or way to grind around level 13?
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Just running around killing things should be more than enough. The second bridge in Lushu Mines (Bhujerna) has quite a few respawning skeletons, from which you can gather quite a few sellable loots and level-up a bit (but there are way better options, and it is more interesting to farm this place while Lamont is with you).
 
Remembering that feeling of CGI cutscenes being the 'treat' for getting through sections.

As much as I love FF14 I wish it had more CGI. I know it's mad expensive to make but square were always the kings of it.
 
What loot am I supposed to sell vs keep? Can I sell everything I have in the loot pile? I've been making a fuck ton of money selling the Diamond Bangles you get in the first Trial level so I've completely neglected selling any piece of loot up to now (the Mines).
 
I love this game so much, the remaster really delivered. FF12 soundtrack is probably GOAT FF soundtrack on my list (REALLY closely followed by FF14). As a long term FF fan I couldn't believe how much I loved it over Uematsu who is a legend.

One thing that really stuck out back when FF12 first released was how glorious and optimistic the boss battle sounded compare to the intensity and seriousness of Uematsu's boss battle music. Listening it all again orchestrated this time just makes me want to buy the soundtrack immediately.
 
This might be a really basic question and I'm still pretty early in the game
(just released Basch from that prison
but why are some techniques and spells highlighted in grey when I unlock them in the Licenses board? Do I need a specific weapon equipped on that character to make them active?
 
Man they really didn't do this game any favors by just adapting the faux widescreen from vanilla. Half the time I only see the feet of bosses. At least let me position the camera farther away :/
 
Received this today, played the first hour or so.

Like settling back into a comfy chair from 10 years ago. I didn't actually finish the game first time around (got 40 hours or so in iirc and then other things got in the way) but I'm looking forward to working my way through it this time.

Love what I've heard of the remastered soundtrack so far, and the ability to fade in and out of the old and remastered soundtracks on the fly from the pause menu without the tracks 'restarting' is fantastic.
 
MikeBison said:
Remembering that feeling of CGI cutscenes being the 'treat' for getting through sections.

As much as I love FF14 I wish it had more CGI. I know it's mad expensive to make but square were always the kings of it.
Click to expand...

Arguably Blizzard were kind of the kings, but the feeling is mutual on missing the CG cutscene spectacle.
 
JJShadow said:
This might be a really basic question and I'm still pretty early in the game
(just released Basch from that prison
but why are some techniques and spells highlighted in grey when I unlock them in the Licenses board? Do I need a specific weapon equipped on that character to make them active?
Click to expand...

In FFXII, skills/techs need to be purchased or found in chests to be added to the global party pool. Learning something on a license board only allows the use of it. Can't use what you don't have.
 
JJShadow said:
This might be a really basic question and I'm still pretty early in the game
(just released Basch from that prison
but why are some techniques and spells highlighted in grey when I unlock them in the Licenses board? Do I need a specific weapon equipped on that character to make them active?
Click to expand...

I think those just refer to the spells and technicks that you haven't purchased yet. Once you purchase them from a merchant, they will be active on your license board.
There is a bangaa in the jail area where you release basch who sells you a lot of early game spells
 
JJShadow said:
This might be a really basic question and I'm still pretty early in the game
(just released Basch from that prison
but why are some techniques and spells highlighted in grey when I unlock them in the Licenses board? Do I need a specific weapon equipped on that character to make them active?
Click to expand...

You need to buy the skills, magic, and abilities from a vendor still in order to use them.
 
I forgot how bland and repetitive the environments are. The game has good mechanics, but but I can't handle this massive amount of copy paste. The closed levels are the worst, linear copy-paste corridors. Same goes for the towns, they barely have any identity and are filled with uninteresting assets.

The contrast is extreme compared to a game like FFX where everything feels unique and hand crafted.

I'm at the part with the circular platforms on the sand sea and had to quit because I was just too bored. You just have to walk passed the same copy pasted platforms for like an hour while watching uninteresting battles.

This game has qualities but it's really not for everyone.
 
I wish I still had my PS2. My gambits were so finely tuned that I killed yiazmat hardly even touching the controller. I bet I could reuse a lot of that work. Oh well. Fresh experimentation 20 years later never hurt.

Bluenoser said:
Haven't reached a point where I can choose 2nd jobs yet, but here is what I've chosen and why.

Vaan - Knight (will be taking Bushi) Vaan has really good magic stat (3rd to Penelo and Ashe) and his animation speed for greatswords and katanas are top tier. For lore reasons I would have liked to give this to Basch but his low magic stat was a roadblock.

Basch - Shikari (will take Foebreaker) he has the fastest dagger and ninja sword animation in the game (actually he's great with pretty much all weapons) and this combo does not require any magic at all. His low vitality will mean slightly weaker damage with hammers or axes, but he won't really be using them that often.

Balthier - Uhlan - Balthier has top tier speed swinging spears, so he's perfect for this role. I believe I'll be taking time battlemage as his 2nd job, but there's an outside chance of taking machinist- I'll decide later. Both of these jobs will provide "swiftness x3" and both give some access to time magic. Heavily leaning on time battlemage though since I'd rather not give it to my white mage.

Fran - White mage - she doesn't have a great magic stat, but decent enough, and if there's one category of magic you can use with non-optimal magic stat its white mage - you want your offensive spell casters to be your best magic users. 2nd job will be machinist or time mage, depending on what I want for Balthier.

Ashe - Black Mage (Monk) best magic user in the game combined with tons of buffs and utility from monk, including high level white magic (holy)

Penelo - Red Battlemage (Archer) - natural combo here as Fire Bow can power up ardor significantly. Only other option to do this is black mage / red mage so you can use flame staff, but I'd rather separate my offensive mages. With Penelo's high magic stat, she will decimate enemies. Having ranged attacks from bow is nice for some situations, and the swiftness x3 from archer ensures faster cast times.
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I really like your reasonings. I know my job combos but I'm still torn on who gets what. I was going to go knight/bushi with basch but hearing your explanation, I like it better on vaan as well. Leverage that magic stat and basch will perform well as the shikari/breaker role. I thought if I was going to make vaan a knight then I'd have to make balthier the shikari/breaker and by default basch would be the uhlan. Yours seems a better fit stat and animation wise. Have you put thought into espers and quickenings? :)
 
Just started playing this and I am 3 hours in:

Game is just as great as I remember and it holds up incredibly well. Truly one of the greatest final fantasy games. I basically spoke to every NPC in Rabanastre because unlike most other games they have an awful lot of worthwhile stuff they tell you. Be it world building, stuff about your characters, etc. The writing helps a lot as does the excellent voice acting. What a treat of a game.
 
Sorry if this has been answered, but does anyone know if the Japanese version has an English text option? I know the OP says it has both voice tracks. I'm in Japan and I'd prefer to get the physical version if possible.
 
Gyoru said:
In FFXII, skills/techs need to be purchased or found in chests to be added to the global party pool. Learning something on a license board only allows the use of it. Can't use what you don't have.
Click to expand...

ObsidianG said:
I think those just refer to the spells and technicks that you haven't purchased yet. Once you purchase them from a merchant, they will be active on your license board.
There is a bangaa in the jail area where you release basch who sells you a lot of early game spells
Click to expand...

Brandon F said:
You need to buy the skills, magic, and abilities from a vendor still in order to use them.
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Cool, thanks guys! Didn't know about it
 
TheExodu5 said:
  • Ashe - Knight & Time Battlemage
  • Basch - Samurai & Uhlan
  • Balthier - Machinist & White Mage
  • Fran - Archer & Red Battlemage
  • Vaan- Foebreaker & Shikari
  • Penelo - Black Mage & Monk
Click to expand...

I'm also using this plan for jobs. Anyone else using it figure out the optimal esper allocation yet? Just got my first one and now I'm going to worry about this too, haha.
 
Jinroh said:
No, I would only use that kind of thing for late game farming. I'd just feel guilty rushing through the main story with a "cheat".
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You're a trooper for tolerating normal speed. I'm about to head to the sandsea and I've had 2x speed on almost the entire time. Game is a fucking grind without it, but with the speed boost I'm having a great time.
 
The battles are plenty fun for me with Gambits off for my leader and on Active mode. It's like people who complained about FFXIII's Auto Battle. You don't have to use it. I never did, and I had plenty of fun.
 
lol I stole the Karkata the first time I tried to get it, but I died

I'm trying it again and again (now that I've got the first guest character with me) and it's been nothing but long swords and a single mythril blade
 
Jinroh said:
I forgot how bland and repetitive the environments are. The game has good mechanics, but but I can't handle this massive amount of copy paste. The closed levels are the worst, linear copy-paste corridors. Same goes for the towns, they barely have any identity and are filled with uninteresting assets.

The contrast is extreme compared to a game like FFX where everything feels unique and hand crafted.
Click to expand...

I feel instantly forgiving of this because what you're basically saying is "it's a PS2 open world".

No it's not the handcrafted vignettes of FFX, which was basically the polygonal equivalent of those PS1 games where you run across pre-rendered backgrounds (i.e. FFVII-IX, RE1-3). You couldn't even move the camera in FFX. Fixed camera angles and everything is prescribed.

XII feels like an actual open 3D space. FFX feels like you're running through a series of dioramas. I like both for different reasons.
 
Jinroh said:
I forgot how bland and repetitive the environments are. The game has good mechanics, but but I can't handle this massive amount of copy paste. The closed levels are the worst, linear copy-paste corridors. Same goes for the towns, they barely have any identity and are filled with uninteresting assets.

The contrast is extreme compared to a game like FFX where everything feels unique and hand crafted.

I'm at the part with the circular platforms on the sand sea and had to quit because I was just too bored. You just have to walk passed the same copy pasted platforms for like an hour while watching uninteresting battles.

This game has qualities but it's really not for everyone.
Click to expand...

FFXII has some deeply ingrained flaws that a HD remaster with a few gameplay tweaks simply can't fix. The repetitive environments put me off the game when I first played it.

Incidentally, I felt boredom/annoyment strongly the first time in the exact same area as you: the circular platforms in the desert. Bland and empty environment, with an overly big area filled with sparse monsters We have the 2x/4x speed feature now, but people who experience the game the first time never had to navigate this area at regular speed. It was one hell of a slog.

I disagree with you regarding towns though - partially, at least. I feel that they all have their own identity, and they can be quite charming in their way (well, Rabanastre in particular... but then we have the perfect counter-example with the Lowtown, which really isn't that interesting to navigate).

All in all, FFXII suffers deeply from his troubled production. I don't know if the copy/pasted environments were added after Matsuno left, but those are one of my biggest issue with the game. Still, it was fair for its day (still a massive downgrade from previous Final Fantasy titles, for the reasons you mentioned), and Rogue Galaxy pulled the same uninspired trick.

Oh well, we all know what happened to the last Final Fantasy game which dared to have truly bland and copy/pasted environments (among many, many, many other problems): it died, plain and simple. I'm still profoundly amazed that Yoshida managed to salvage that mess. Never would have thought such an feat possible.
 
Jinroh said:
I forgot how bland and repetitive the environments are. The game has good mechanics, but but I can't handle this massive amount of copy paste. The closed levels are the worst, linear copy-paste corridors. Same goes for the towns, they barely have any identity and are filled with uninteresting assets.

The contrast is extreme compared to a game like FFX where everything feels unique and hand crafted.

I'm at the part with the circular platforms on the sand sea and had to quit because I was just too bored. You just have to walk passed the same copy pasted platforms for like an hour while watching uninteresting battles.

This game has qualities but it's really not for everyone.
Click to expand...

I do get where you're coming from re: the Sandsea - it is my least favorite part of the game - but if you can push past it, there is an incredible variety in the upcoming locations. Bright sunny green fields, damp mossy jungles, snowy mountains, gloomy foggy forests, beautiful sandy beaches, high hill-y green cliffs with nowhere to run from the flying monsters who want you dead, ghostly ruins (with barely any fucking save points shudder), creepy-ass caves, old tombs, a city of
gods
.... that doesn't take into account how the locations change with weather conditions (I think there are 18 that change?), and how that will also alter the monster spawns. The locations are one of the big assets to FFXII for me, and one of the aspects that makes the game quite unique and memorable outside of the localization and the art direction. I understand the logical geographical reasons why FFXII primarily starts with deserts and old mines, but it doesn't really show off what the game has to offer - the Sandsea doesn't need to be nearly as big as it is, either.
 
I have caved to the optimization itch after all.

Balthier - Foebreaker/Shikari
Ashe - White Mage/Machinist
Basch - Bushi/Uhlan
Fran - Black Mage/Monk
Vaan - Time Battlemage/Knight
Penelo - Red Mage/Archer

I like attack speed, so I gave each character the weapon type they excel in.

Balthier - Ninja swords
Basch - Katanas
Fran - Poles
Vaan - Swords (1h)

Fran's mediocre(relative) stats don't matter much at all in the latter half of the game as they can be maxed through equipment. Ashe and Penelo are just good mages in general. I thought about switching their roles, but I don't think it matters. I intend to combo the shit out of everything with the occasional flashy explosion.
 
Nohar said:
All in all, FFXII suffers deeply from his troubled production. I don't know if the copy/pasted environments were added after Matsuno left, but those are one of my biggest issue with the game. Still, it was fair for its day (still a massive downgrade from previous Final Fantasy titles, for the reasons you mentioned), and Rogue Galaxy pulled the same uninspired trick.
Click to expand...

Not likely. XII was clearly envisioned as an FFXI-style open world from the beginning. These "copy/pasted environments" are inherent to that game design.

As I said above, I wouldn't consider it a downgrade from FFX, just an entirely different design philosophy. FFX might be pretty, but it's also not a real 3D space that you can look around and explore in.
 
AlphaSnake said:
For some reason I thought this also had the 'auto heal' option like FFVII Re-release does?
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Quoting myself here. I guess that's a no?

In anticipation, I started playing FFXII on my PS3 (OG BC) and made it far enough and was hoping to just blast my way through to the same spot using a cheat.

:|
 
First time ever picking up this game, I am in LOVE. Combat is fantastic so far IMO. Could use some advice with my Theorycrafting since I know nothing:

Vaan - Shikari/Foebreaker.

Idk, picked shikari because it sounded cool for Vaan. I've heard foebreaker can be good complement to this? Same with Bushi, but only for a certain armor set or something?

Ashe - Bushi/Monk

I love love love the idea of Ashe with Katanas, kicking butt in the frontline. Heard it scales really well with her magic stats. I think I heard monk complements this too? Allows some white magic? Is BLM or RDM better as a secondary?

Balthier - NOT machinist, maybe RDM/Uhlan? Or uhlan/Timemage? OR WHM??

I like the idea of breaking convention and not making Balthier a machinist. I want him to do something unique and cool, since he's the coolest dude to me, and I'd like a fun class to complement him. I've read he's a good WHM, buuuut idk if I like the idea of him as a healer.

Fran - Knight/Timebattlemage

Again, I wanna break convention and make her not an archer. Fran with a shield and sword in the frontline sounds like fun, and I think TBM has good buffs for this?

Basch - ???

Maybe archer? I've heard he can be good for that. I love Basch as a character but have no idea what to make him. I kinda like the idea of him being some kind of mage? But apparently that's non optimal?

Penelo - ???

To be honest I reeeeeeally hate penelo so far. I don't like the idea of using her a lot but I know I should. That being said, maybe BLM or WHM? But both those classes scream cool, classic final Fantasy to me, and idk about assigning them to the character I like least.


Anyways. I don't know too much about synergy later on, let me know if I'm off at all!
 
No auto-heal. MP is virtually infinite, thanks to it regenerating over time (the less MP you have, the quicker it regenerates). Also, you have the Charge technik, allowing you to regain your MP a little quicker when you are really low (the % of failing is inversely proportional to your remaining MP %, i.e. if you have 5% MP remaining, the skill has a chance of success of 95% - well, more like 94%, but I digress).
 
Really struggling with job selection. I chose monk for
Vaan's startlng job... what pairs best with that? Preferably a melee class.
 
I always felt XIV was heavily influenced by XII gameplay-wise (story-wise too with the judges, the dialogue) but I guess I didn't realize exactly how much because there's so much I see in XII and am like.. whoa. Makes sense why they had that Return to Ivalice event.
 
How does this look for jobs, lore friendly is important.

Vaan: Shikari/Foebreaker

Balthier: Machinist/White mage

Basch: Bushi/Uhlan?

Penelo: Black Mage/Monk

Fran: Archer/Red Mage

Ashe: Time mage/Knight?

So the issue that I'm having is Ashe and Basch, the rest are basically set for me. Bushi/Uhlan just seems like an odd choice since Bushi uses Katanas and Uhlan uses spears. Should I switch this up?
 
Meowster said:
I always felt XIV was heavily influenced by XII gameplay-wise (story-wise too with the judges, the dialogue) but I guess I didn't realize exactly how much because there's so much I see in XII and am like.. whoa. Makes sense why they had that Return to Ivalice event.
Click to expand...

Haven't played XIV in a while but yeah; always seemed most influenced by VI and XII aesthetics.
 
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