FFTA2 First Impressions?

[ljkkjlcm9]

What exactly is the special effect of Sequencer and Peytral? All it says in the description is "attack/defense increases under certain conditions". What are these conditions?

When you get an opportunity turn, it increases the stats.

Special Note: I'm playing on Hard!
I've beaten all the way up through the black king, and my party is level 30ish. The White King (last one) rocked me though. Granted, he's level 88, so it was to be expected.

Red King was easy as pie
Blue King I attacked with long range stuff, and kept them all apart so if he did get to use magic frenzy, it was only on one guy.
Green King basically tried to apply SE's the whole time, so easy.
Black King was a bit of a pain. But eventually I got him trapped between my Green Mage with dodge magic, and my Bangaa with the mirror armor. He couldn't hurt either of them. Only problem was he'd cast the spell on him and my Bangaa, and heal for 300 HP. Eventually my sage built up enough to use Ultima blow, combined with strong attacks from other characters before his turn came back, and I managed to kill him.

On another note, I adore the auctions. Just got some Ninja tabi, the book that teaches magic frenzy, and Ultima shot for my hunter(main character). So I'm pretty much rocking right now.

THE JACKAL

[Roto13]

I have Magic Frenzy on a Seer who has mastered the Illusionist class. I'm currently doing a fight where an unlimited number of Mimics attack you six at a time. I can take them all out in one shot with my Seer. :P Then they all come back and I do it again. You have to keep going for four rounds. I'm getting an assload of loot. It was taking forever, though, so I had to save before I finished. :P Whenever the Mimics respawn, they get to act pretty quickly afterwards.

[Zeromus_X]

Just beat Green King and Black King. Green King tries to use this spell to raise her accuracy, but I had Eerie Sound Wave (Malboro) to debuff her every time.

Black King was hard because he'd keep healing himself with his level three spells (on top of damaging everyone). At first I thought I'd just be able to throw stuff at him again until everyone died except Adelle...it was pretty funny, for a few turns, he'd keep attacking her, and she'd counter except she had the fire katana on so it'd just heal him. So then I thought of something else. I made Luso a Blue Mage with Precision, and used Focus. Apparently Self-Destruct (Bombs) counts as a physical attack, so it works with Focus. And it has a 100% hit rate. So, from behind, Luso was able to explode and deal over 200 damage to him, so it was awesome. And he auto-revived, so I was able to do it again. I had my other Blue Mage do the same, except he could only do it once (although with Adelle throwing weapons at him this was all I needed). I love Blue Magic.

I want to get into these auction things. I was able to win all the areas the first time the auctions came around, except for one, so I don't think I can bid on items yet.

[Roto13]

The first time the auctions took place, you had access to two towns with auctions, right? If you swept one of the auctions, it should have items the next time you go there.

I think a good rule of thumb for the Kings is to take them on when your party is at least half the King's level. :P

[Skyblade]

What exactly is the special effect of Sequencer and Peytral? All it says in the description is "attack/defense increases under certain conditions". What are these conditions?

The Attack of the Sequencer and the Defense of the Peytral increase by 1 (SPOILER)whenever you get an Opportunity command.

Actually, Roto, I swept both towns, but due to the fact that you must win 5 auctions before you can gain access to the item auctions, I can only get items in one of the towns.

I found it impossible or nearly so to sweep the third town in the first auction season. Even with the +1 to 2, 3, and 5 tokens, the Culinary Crusade pushes too hard in the first auction. If you go for the bonuses, it becomes impossible to catch up even if you spend all your highest level tokens once you get the +5s, and if you don't, you run out of tokens in the later auctions. So I got second in Moorabella and first in all the other areas. Since that gives me +1 coin and tie-win rights to those areas next time, I should be able to clean sweep it no problem.

[Zeromus_X]

(SPOILER)Is that by 1 permanently, or is it just for the battle?

I just slept for a few years so I could become champion of all the areas. Being able to buy tokens with your CP is pretty nice, I don't think I could've won them all without those extra 3 and 5 tokens.

And has anyone payed attention to this one Moogle Clan? It was in Moorabella. Mooglygoug, I think it's called...they had nearly 70 of every token (over 70 of some of them)! Thankfully they didn't decide to just spam 5 point tokens because there would've been no way for me to win if they played smartly.

[Skyblade]

(SPOILER)Is that by 1 permanently, or is it just for the battle?

I just slept for a few years so I could become champion of all the areas. Being able to buy tokens with your CP is pretty nice, I don't think I could've won them all without those extra 3 and 5 tokens.

And has anyone payed attention to this one Moogle Clan? It was in Moorabella. Mooglygoug, I think it's called...they had nearly 70 of every token (over 70 of some of them)! Thankfully they didn't decide to just spam 5 point tokens because there would've been no way for me to win if they played smartly.

Permanently.

Oh, and about Self-Destruct. It does 3 times the damage of your standard attack.

Yeah, that clan is scary, but apparently is so successful that they don't care about the areas.

[ljkkjlcm9]

That clan has never actually bid anything worthwhile against me anytime I've seen them.

I mastered the three towns on the first continent, and just recently (just gotten to the 2nd continent) mastered the 2 over there. 2 fairy shoes, and 2 ninja tabi, among so many other weapons and armor. It's gotten to the point that I've learned how to manipulate well enough that I don't need to buy any tokens for the 3 towns on the first continent to get all the items.

When I finally finish skill learning on my Paladin, giving him both Peytral and Sequence, he'll have one of the ninja tabi (+2 jump from items, +2 move from tabi.) My main character has the fairy shoes, because he's a hunter. My other fairy shoes are on my Fusilier. Ranged people get so much more benefit from it, being able to go way up mountains and etc to shoot people. My Bangaa has my other Ninja tabi.

As for the auctions, I do them over and over again. I have over 1000 CP so why not? Just do the auction, sleep for 200 days, then 20 days, and do the auctions again. You don't lose anything by passing the time, and you can get some awesome equipment early that way.

I honestly never cared for Blue Mages, and therefore never use one.

THE JACKEL

[Dragonsoul]

Whoa! A ton of posts recently, this game is extremely popular. Just checking in. I'll beat Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core today, and that will give me more time to play Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift. Although I may buy Final Fantasy I(PSP) today, not sure yet. I better decide in 2 hours before the store closes though!

I'm at a part where I have to collect a pearl.

[Skyblade]

You're missing out, Jackal. Blue Mages are very powerful characters. Training them can be a problem, but they have a really awesome skillset if you can master it, and they have quite good all around stats.

Early on, spells like Sandstorm (easy way to do AoE Earth damage, and it blinds enemies) and War Dance (strength buff for 5 people) are quite helpful. Later you'll augment those with moves like Quake, Angel Whisper, White Wind, Doom... They are a really balanced class, with one of the largest skillsets. Plus, many, if not all, Blue Magics can be cast while silenced, so they will be one of the most helpful casters in some missions.

[Zeromus_X]

Yeah, it can be a pain to get all those abilities (especially since you essentially need to have a Nu Mou with all the Beastmaster abilities), but I'd say it's worth it. I still have yet to find any instruments that teach Sprite or Dragon Beast Lores, since those are the only monsters I have left that have most of the Blue Magics I need, although I'd guess the auctions would be my best bet.

Still don't have those Ninja Tabi, although I was able to find Faerie Shoes in a treasure urn. I gave them to my Luso who's also a Ranger. I love using Focus-> Sidewinder to utterly destroy any monster enemies. I got a Rangetsu-denbu from the auction house, I gave it to my Adelle so she could assassinate things (giving her the faerie shoes if I'm not using Luso). I'd like to get more, because if it's the same as FFTA, you learn the ability faster if you have two of the same equipments that teach the same ability.

For whatever reason, I always end up finding a random clan entry character on the months when Nu Mou always appear. I think it's a sign that I should try out that Magick Frenzy thing, so I've begun raising them as Illusionists.

[Roto13]

Nu Mou can't learn Magic Frenzy. :P

[Zeromus_X]

Oh man. Guess I'll have to raise a bunch of humes for that strategy...=/

[Dragonsoul]

I wonder why this game isn't as popular on the ffshrine.org forums? There's a thread there about the game also.

[wylantar]

Anyone else notice they got kinda lazy with the way certain abilities look? Jump and the breath attacks for Dragoons looked cooler in FFTA to me. And casting ninjitsu looked cooler too. But other than those 3 minor things, this game freakin rocks.