So I'm Finally Gonna Play XII

All you need to know is don't treat it like the next version of Final Fantasy. It's the next version of the Ivalice sub-series of Final Fantasy, in the line of FFTactics, Vagrant Story, and especially FF Tactics Advance.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

Crop knows it :p.

I really don't give a crap if I miss out on a single item that will let me inflict 20 more damage for an hour until i find something better, There aren't many games, especially not RPGs because it's usually laughably easy to get through their "main story" anyway, that are so hard that you absolutely must get every single secret useful item to beat the last boss. Probably not even to beat the optional bosses. When was the last time you were unable to defeat a boss because you forgot an item pre-endgame?

The first time I'm playing through a game, I'll rather actually play it than dig my face into a walkthrough. I guess that's not as important as getting cookie cutter character builds to some people.

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I sympathize with you guys, but I assume you'd be willing to concede that a guide is necessary to get things like the Zodiac Spear (The most powerful weapon in the game) and especially on how to encounter some of the mark hunts (the serpent one in the caves in the westersand (i think, if that's even the name of the area)).

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Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover

The shipper in me is curious. Does RW confirm Vaan x Penelo?

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Do you really want us to spoil it for you? If you do, then (SPOILER)yes, it does.

BTW I play just as much, if not probably more, RTS than anyone in this forum and I thought Revenant Wings was a great game on the DS. It did what it needed to do, and that was be a fun game to play, with some depth and optional stuff to frustrate you :)

You're not spoiling it for me.
I can't play DS games.

As for Vaan and Penelo, here's what I was told elsewhere.

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it's hinted at fairly strongly, but there are no overt romance scenes between them.

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So it's not confirmed.

And I finally started 12. The compressed audio is strange but the ye ol' speak is more what I envisioned in an FF than the voices in any of the other games.

I loved this game mostly because of the battle system. Gamibits are an awesome way to improve the AI of your party members. Not to mention being able to attack without mindlessly pushing the same button over and over is sweet. I like the real-time feel of it where multiple things are happening at the same time, too. :choc2:

As for using guides, I didn't use one for the game at all. In most games, I won't use one unless I just get stuck and can't figure out what I'm supposed to do to progress. I've found that following a guide really really slows me down, actually.

I heart Axes. xD

I love FF12. It's a fantastic game. It has a pretty good story, I think, if a little (lottle) slow. Especially when you throw in everything else the game has to offer. By the time I got to the next cutscene, I'd usually have to try to remember the last one. But it's a small effort compared to the large benefits of FF12 being freaking brilliant. The License system, I always thought, is pretty good. It adds to the story, in a sense, whilst giving a really simply to use platform to build your characters on. One of my favourite parts is absolutely the Gambit system, though. Argh, I love it. Love it love it love it. I am pro.

I played this game sans guide. I don't like wasting money on games I don't know I'll like. Then I fell in love with it, and wanted to know EVERYTHING. So I bought the guide. I also own guides for 7, 9, Lost Odyssey, Oblivion and Fallout 3. I only ever buy games that I'm in love with.

12 is different than the rest. I beat it last year, but never really touched it again. However I still rank it above 7 and 8 mostly due to their desire to avoid emo characters. That being said it has its flaws. Story is actually short, hunts and other quest was more of the game more similar to X-2. The treasure system is extremely broken. Mostly because any idiot goes online to find a guide that has printed what each box "may" contain. So naturally if it's a wanted item aka Excalibur (with it being the best weapon for undead areas) one will just find the closest save point and try to get the box or urn over and over again via reset until they get what they want. It would have been much better just to have set items as before or at least have the major good weapons and armors as set chests and randomize the regular item urns.

After playing 12, I have my own theory as to why FF10-2 was even made. They wanted to test the ideas so they said hey we have a game without a happy ending we can expand this, maybe make a little cash on the side and try out all our new ideas before we completely commit them to 12. Diff developers, but same Corp. decisions need to be made. Example. Unrestricted access mostly fairly early into the game. Airship vs teleport crystals. Battle system. Face it, they were basically the same, actions had different times it took to execute. Side quests galore. People hated most of 10-2's non combat quests, as such most of 12's quests had combat, tried the mini-game thing and it was annoying, so it was a no go for 12. From a design standpoint, I see many similarities though it is just speculation.

As for Revenant Wings. It makes good use of what the DS is capable of. Expands a little bit of the story on the Occuria. But beyond that it is just a simplified RTS. Without resource management. But it gets old fast. Every battle same thing. It's basically the Fort Condor mini-game battle from FF7. That game had a triangle effect too. aka guy a strong to guy b. But guy a weak to guy c. You had a melee, a ranged, and flyer, and then the 3 were divided into element. You were basically given all enemies that will appear in the pre battle screen so you could easily plan your counters accordingly. However some bosses were actually quite hard. Took me forever to figure out how to beat Feolthanos Bahamut. It also took me awhile to realize that Bahamut was the best Rank III as Mega Flare has a larger radius and also inflicts disable vs Final Eclipse from Zodiark. No radius at all on his attack. And since someone asks Panelo only kisses Vaan on the cheek at the end of this game.

Finally. FFTA2. Nothing really to do with 12. A few hints. Mountblanc and Vaan and Panelo appear and become recruit able, but you get them late which means low level. You won't use them. Al-Cid comes joins after you beat it. A few references are made to 12 but you aren't missing anything if you don't get this game. Revenant Wings before this game.


The only game I'm missing in the Ivalice world is Vagrant Story never fully finished it. But it and Tactics appear to take place way after the events of the other games.

So here's my most recent thoughts on FFXII.
-I felt like an idiot after consulting a guide and realizing the reason I couldn't escape the Dreadnaught was because I was going the wrong way the whole time.

-Judge Ghis was the hardest boss I've fought as of right now.

-The Sandsea is my favorite area so far. I went up about 4 levels and got a crapload of new Augments. My favorite is the one where you actuallY gain MP from beating enemies. Invaluable.

-Garuda was absurdly easy.

-I feel kinda stupid after blowing all my License Points on crap and now I can't get he new and ultra-powerful weapons the merchant is offering. I settled with giving Vaan an Ancient Sword, Ashe a Spear and Penelo a Long Bow.

-Oh yeah, my main party is now definitely gonna be Vaan, Ashe and Penelo. I'm gonna miss Balthier but I have this weird thing where I like to keep the main characters in my party for....some weird sense of keeping it all sensible. Vaan and Ashe are suposed to be the main protagonists. And Penelo is there because she's hot and adorable. Also they seem to fight just as well as Balthier or Fran. So why not. Actually, when i first got Ashe, she seemed like a better version of Fran gameplay wise.
And apparently some consider Basch and Ashe the real heroes but from where I'm at, it sure seems like Vaan is really the one moving the plot... But I guess I'll find out more as I go along.

So that's where I am. I'll go into this Tomb or whatever when I next play.

Now for a question. I need a little advice.
I finally got to my first Quicekning with both Penelo and Ashe. However it tells me you can only get one Quicening per tile. So it's either I get Ashe's "Northswain's Glow" or Penelo's "Intercession." But I can't get both. So which to get?

Also since I've never gotten a Quickening yet, how does it work? I'm told they're like Limit Breaks so can you only activate them when damaged? Is there a little bar that fills up?

Oh and as for the story, it's really starting to get interesting. The scene with the King and Gabranth was quite cryptic. Of course it would seem to be it's the traitorous adviser plot but Vayne is also an antagonist. I am very curious to see how this turns out.

Don't worry, there are enough Quickening panels so all characters can gain all three quickening that they have. Also, the second and third Quickenings you gain will double and triple your MP just for acquiring them.

Quickenings consume a chunk of your MP and once you start using Quickening chains it will begin blowing all your MP. Your party is allowed three Quickening each and each is stronger than the last but consumes more MP. When two party members gain Quickening's you can start using Quickening chains, basically you have one activate their Quickening and during the animation for it, you'll see a list in the right bottom corner listing applicable party members (they have to be in your active party) which will either list three options next to their names:

Grayed out Quickening name = Can't use a Quickening
White colored Quickening Name = Can use that particular Quickening
Mist Charge = Recharges all their MP and allows them to perform a Quickening on the next turn.

A timer is also on the bottom showing how much time you have to input commands. You can press R2 (I might be wrong, its been awhile) and it will shuffle your Quickening options and so you basically shuffle until you either get a highlighted Quickening name or Mist charge then you activate them.

What this all does is allow all your party members to chain together their Quickenings, think of it like this:

Cloud uses Omnislash and during the attack, the game gives you the ability to let Tifa activate her Limit Break immediately after with no break for the enemy, so you chain them together; but while Tifa's is doing her limit break the game gives you that ability to recharge Cloud's Limit gauge so he can use another Limit Break after Tifa finishes. Of course their is a timer going on that prevents you from doing this indefinitely. Also, even if Barret your third member has a full Limit Gauge, he can't use it until you get a shuffle that will allow him to use his and many times after everyone goes, you may run out of time shuffling through the options to get a recharge.

Now once you start acquiring level two Quickenings, your Quickening chains can start making use of the Concurrence system. As I mentioned earlier, all Quickenings have three levels of power and that is actually important when you are making Quick Chains cause you can activate special damage bonuses by making Quick Chains consisting of specific Quickenings of a particular level. Course you don't have too much control over this but luckily the game doesn't need you to go into any specific order and it will always do the most powerful Concurrence you are qualified for. So really in the end, the game gives you even bigger damage bonuses for just keeping the Quick Chain going. :D

This may all sound very confusing right now but believe it will make perfect sense once you start using it and its actually much simpler than I probably explained. Of anything, unlock Quickenings so you can get the MP bonus.

Thanks WK.

And YES.
smurf YES.
YES YES YES YES.

I finally beat the optional Demon Wall. It took hours of grinding to get everyone up several levels and to get gil for better equipment and to get Quickenings but I did it.

I did it mainly because I figured this be a good time for me to figure out how Quickenings work. I did that and after a lot of trial and error, I think I'm pretty decent at it now.

The main problem was I was too focused on my main party of Vaan, Ashe and Penelo. Once I realized you can switch other party members in for a reason, I decided to let Fran jump in and save the day. Vaan got taken out by the Cheap ass N-Zone but Fran, even though she's like 8 levels below us, was still able to get hers and Penelo's Quickenings off and finish the damn thing.

Now I better get one helluva sword for this. The guide promised me a good sword if I could beat this thing.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

People who don't use guides actually want to use their brains when they play. Have fun following a guide like a mindless drone.

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I just give you a few examples as to why you are a "mindless" troll.

KH2 deluxe guide, X-2 deluxe guide and finally the FFX13 deluxe guide. Your generic "mindless" statement means you really do not know what a good guide is, nor have you seen the special art work or additional things that are not in the game in the least which are in these books. But you did a good job of flaming up this thread and making a mess when the person just ask a simple question. I own every single guide to the Square games that is out there and I consider them all to be extension of the games themselves.

FF12 has lot to offer in sequels. I know many people who play 12 over and over trying to get certain goals and it is the most used of the series i have seen for speed runs.

Good luck with the game Forsaken Lover.

(see bottom shelf for those "mindless" guides...)
http://www.rgonotsayz.com/forum/inde...;in=39;preview

It's a good game. Not a top 5 story in the history of the series, and a very different fighting system but I liked it. Also if you're a big fan of summoning you may be dissapointed.

FL: The sword you can get is freaking AWESOME. But it's not guaranteed. You'll have to do a lot of running to and fro to get it. But once you do....hoo boy. It'll keep you for aaaaaages. Same with the katana the Werewolves in the Westersand (or the other one) drop if you chain them. Well worth getting both, and well worth getting two Demonsbane. Also, congrats on killing the optional Wall. Really really congrats. xD

A word of advice on Quickening chains: only ever activate your lowest level Quickening. Even when all party members have all three Quickenings, only activate the weakest. This makes epic chains a piece of cake, because the characters keep their MP for longer. You can easily get 10+ chains this way, which end up dealing a good 50K damage!

I thought XII was really fun to play through, my 2 favorite characters being Fran and Balthier. As a few people have said, it does have a very different feel to it, which takes a little getting used to. Enjoyable game overall though.

Dammit I was afraid of this. My friend warns me the party will split up at some point. So now I gotta go and level up Basch, Balthier and Fran.... Ugh. They're like 14 levels behind at this point.

I just left Fran's home village so I sure as hell hope I have some time until the split.

It's totally worth levelling up your vanguard. Seriously, it'll save your ass multiple times. And it's a breeze really. They get LP, so you can get them all the best licenses. Then you just give them really powerful weapons, and they can take out monsters well above their own level. Not necessarily at your main party's level, but not too far away. So they level up nice and fast!

Well on the note of getting powerful weapons, is there an easier way of getting Gil than simply sellin gloot after every dungeon? I mean, it gave me a nice chunk of cash early on but at this point (just got to Nalbina so we can go and sneak into Archades) I'm broke after buying mayb two weapons and some spells.

I got tons of crap from fighting untold dozens of monsters in that place to get the Sword of Kings and I am pretty much broke after buying just the Avenger, the Magoroku and the Dispel spell.

I figure I can hold off on buying a new set of armor; my main party all has Shield Armor which gives 24 Defense + Auto-Protect. The other armors don't seem to give that much greater defensive power right now.

Still, this doesn't solve my money woes. I suppose I can do more Hunts but that' gives me like 1000 Gil at the moment. That's not very much at this point.

Anyway, a quick recap of my current thoughts on the game:

1. smurf the Elder Wyrm and its status effects. Hardest boss to date for me because of that cheap :bou::bou::bou::bou:.

2. I now have Level 2 Quickenings for my main party and boy is that a lifesaver when it comes to MP. Can cast even my strongest spells and not have to worry about draining myself for a while.

3. The plot thickens. Vayne is a real douchebag. But Judge Kain is awesome so all is well.