Gambits

I didn't use Gambits because they made me feel lazy and I have a major obsession with micromanaging as much as I can when I play a game. Well I tell a lie; I had Libra on one person's Gambits because the icon indicating that it was active got covered up by the constant buffs I was casting and I didn't want to waste an accessory slot on the Bangle.

That said, I didn't find that not using them made the game any harder. They weren't exactly as essential to beating the game on your first try as, say, Materia or the Junction system. Besides, there wasn't a Gambit to not make your allies stand around like a bunch of lemons when charging their spells while you could run around while doing yours >:| But anyway, this consequently made me scoff a bit when I saw a "No Gambit" challenge video on YouTube some time ago.

Yeah I'm sure this conversation's been had plenty of times before but what did all y'all think of them?

I thought the gambits were a good way to be able to set the boring, repetitive things you always do in battle to automatic and not worry about them. Certainly stream lined the fights a little, but like you said, hardly necessary. With enough fine tuning though, you could really make everything work automatically and perfectly. The system was flexible but not essential, so if you were rubbish at it, you weren't going to throw the game down in frustration. I like that Square Enix tried something new and I feel like it was a fairly moderate success, tbh.

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Originally Posted by Jiro

I like that Square Enix tried something new and I feel like it was a fairly moderate success, tbh.

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Certainly not denying that :)

Maybe if I ever play through the game again I should impose a Gambits ONLY challenge on myself and see how it goes.

I hardly used it beyond basic attack and cure, I manually did the rest so it would still feel like playing, but I enjoyed it.

To be fair, Gambits are not the same as Materia and Junction since one offers the ability to micromanage your control setup and the other actually grants abilities and spells. The License Board is more like Materia and Junction. So Gambits are different by function, which is why they made it completely optional.

Gambit's just allow combat to go faster since you're not constantly needing to switch to every character to input commands. In my experience, they only make the game easier by reducing stress and making battles run more smoothly.

I build jobs so, the game can be challenging since I don't have my whole party with a Gambit+Cure set-up. I don't even teach everyone every magic or skill cause I prefer specializing my characters over making clones.

I used to specialise my characters as well, but eventually an abundance of licence points would make everyone become somewhat similar. It was still fun to do, though.

I just ignore the abundance, I'll let it max out and still leave 3/4 of the License Board empty for a character just so I don't submit to temptation of having my Dark Knight character pull a Cure spell out of his ass. I play my job roles hard and without compromise. ;)

Commendable. I for one cannot stand to leave such things incomplete. When I do a job classes run on VII for instance I make sure every piece of Materia goes to at least one character, seeing as there's technically enough room when doing that :P

Y'all are making me want to play XII again so bad.

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Originally Posted by ReloadPsi

Commendable. I for one cannot stand to leave such things incomplete. When I do a job classes run on VII for instance I make sure every piece of Materia goes to at least one character, seeing as there's technically enough room when doing that :P

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I was like that too before, but I began to realize that my OCD was getting in the way of enjoying the game, and I just find some terrible twisted pleasure in denying myself the satisfaction of completing the board. Still, trying to stay strict with your advancements is pretty challenging. Especially in the augment section. You really begin to appreciate what they do for you cause you can see two different characters do noticeable damage difference without certain augments.

I thought the gambit system was great. Override the gambits when I feel like it, which is generally during the harder fights, bosses and such.