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Thread: FFXII: TZA Impressions

  1. #16
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    • Former Cid's Knight

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    Quote Originally Posted by Karifean View Post

    • As I feared, early access to the Elemental Weak/Vulnerable Gambits makes offensive mages game breakers. Seriously, if it wasn't for the Salamander Elemental wandering around the map, Fran would be destroying almost everything before my party got a chance to reach it.
    • I don't even feel like I've been seriously trying to grind here but I feel way overpowered for this part of the game. I remember the Sandsea kind of being a "Grind Stage" where it was purposely made long to force you to gain a few levels before the game knocks the difficulty up a bit but I am destroying things left and right here. I'm starting to look forward to the Lv. 1 Only Game you can unlock cause it may finally give this game back it's teeth.
    Not sure how much of that is really up to the gambits or more that this is kinda the "tutorial stage" on AoE Black Magic casting. If you have the Cherry Staff you're using the first AoE Black Magic spell in the game (Aero) with the Wind-boosting staff, in Wind-boosting weather, against tons of Wind-weak enemies. Pretty sure it's not a coincidence that all those things play together at the same time here.
    I actually can't even use the Cherry Staff because I don't have a Black Mage yet, this is just Fran as a Red Battlemage. Even with Aero destroying the Uhrtan, she's crushing anything with a magical weakness that she has a spell/Gambit setup for. I jumped into the Zertinan Caverns and she was making short work of the few creatures I can fight in there. I hate to imagine what's going to happen when I do unlock a Black Mage.

  2. #17
    Skyblade's Avatar
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    Can you still just set up a set of Gambits and walk through 90% of the game without touching anything but an analog stick? 'Cause that (and the empty yet expansive dungeon/overworld) was what killed the original.
    My friend Delzethin is currently running a GoFundMe account to pay for some extended medical troubles he's had. He's had chronic issues and lifetime troubles that have really crippled his career opportunities, and he's trying to get enough funding to get back to a stable medical situation. If you like his content, please support his GoFundMe, or even just contribute to his Patreon.

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  3. #18
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    • Former Cid's Knight

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    Finished Raithwall's Tomb and obtained the Dawn Shard, heading to the Garif Village but stopping to do some Mark Hunts and quests first.

    Pros:
    • Okay the second Zodiac Job element is a bit more balanced than I thought it would be, which I am grateful for. So basically any Licenses your two boards share are already grabbed when you jump to the second board, this means that unless the first job was seriously light on Lore skills or didn't have the ability at all, you're not going to be doubling up and transforming your party into a one-man army with lores. This alleviates my fear of the second board breaking the game.
    • I received my first Esper, but I don't know who to give it to, I may have to do some research first.
    • Unlocked my first Elite Mark Hunt that has a Clan member come to help me. Giza Rains will be fun.
    • Of my starting classes, the MVP award goes to Red Battlemage, Time Battlemage, and Knight.
    • I almost forgot how useful and broken the Blood Sword is. Not surprised it's relegated to it's own License like a few other legendary weapons.
    • Belias put up a bit more of fight than I thought he would which was nice.
    • Rereading some of the lore, it's been amusing seeing all the shout outs to previous FF and Ivalice titles.


    Cons:
    • Yeah, the difficulty was definitely toned way down for this game. I killed the Garuda Egi before I even had a chance to use the Esker Berries on it. I mean the fight was so fast I was stunned, but not as bad as...
    • ...the true testament of how easy this game has gotten, I beat the First Demon Wall, the one you're suppose to run away from, on my first try. Easily took him down to half health and beat him with a Quickening Chain afterwards. Thankfully the Demonsbane is no longer the prize for beating him, and it's something a bit less useful, but it's kind of sad watching one the nastier challenges go down so easily. My party level average is 22-23 and it's not like I was seriously grinding or anything either.
    • With that said, I'm probably going to resist using Quickening from here on out. The fact it has its own meter and no longer has the difficult choice of gambling all your MP away makes them easily into a gamebreaker. I kind of wish this element had not been changed for them and the meter was exclusive to the Espers instead.
    • Not terribly content with my choices for each character's second class but we'll have to wait and see. Penelo is a bit screwed in the equipment/lore area of things, but the other party members are a bit more balanced, though I don't know how well some of the classes are going to compliment each other.

  4. #19
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    It looks like one of my Cons will be rectified with a patch pretty soon. They're going to restore the Sky Pirates Den in an upcoming patch. Now if they could restore some of the difficulty, we will be golden.

  5. #20
    Witch of Theatergoing Karifean's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno View Post
    It looks like one of my Cons will be rectified with a patch pretty soon. They're going to restore the Sky Pirates Den in an upcoming patch. Now if they could restore some of the difficulty, we will be golden.
    Honestly, I don't think the game was made any easier on the technical side of things. It's a combination of being better at exploring, being better at allocating license points, LP being more efficiently usable (due to the abundance of useful lores right next to each other most of the time) and not having trout gear most of the time.

    Not saying I've looked this up tho.

    Edit: FTR I had a party average of ~23 when I was at the Stilshrine myself, so you seem a little overleveled to me. Though I still wrecked everything, not like levels matter that much compared to gear.

  6. #21
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    • Former Cid's Knight

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    Quote Originally Posted by Karifean View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno View Post
    It looks like one of my Cons will be rectified with a patch pretty soon. They're going to restore the Sky Pirates Den in an upcoming patch. Now if they could restore some of the difficulty, we will be golden.
    Honestly, I don't think the game was made any easier on the technical side of things. It's a combination of being better at exploring, being better at allocating license points, LP being more efficiently usable (due to the abundance of useful lores right next to each other most of the time) and not having trout gear most of the time.

    Not saying I've looked this up tho.

    Edit: FTR I had a party average of ~23 when I was at the Stilshrine myself, so you seem a little overleveled to me. Though I still wrecked everything, not like levels matter that much compared to gear.
    No, it was actually made easier sadly.

    https://www.polygon.com/2016/7/7/121...m-hd-whats-new

    I mean granted, it's not helped that I know what I'm actually doing and I've been prioritizing Lores and abilities over equipment and accessories since I know it may be awhile before I get access to them. So experience is also partly to blame but even in my last run through of XII, I remember several sections being a bit more challenging than they have been for this game. I might feel differently once I try Trial Mode though.

  7. #22
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    • Former Cid's Knight

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    I'm suppose to be heading to the Garif village of Jahara but stopping to finish some side quests and do a few Mark Hunts still.

    Pros:
    • Hey, the new update gave me my Sky Pirates Den back and I get a Viera theme for the PS4, neato!
    • Coming back to what Karifean said about tackling greater challenges earlier. My fist real battle where I was killed and not due to my genuine stupidity, like accidentally wandering into a high level area, kicked in when I took on the Earth Tyrant so I can get access to the rest of the Westersand and finish up the Patient in the Desert Quest. I even resorted to a Quickening Chain despite saying I wouldn't and it barely scratched him. He destroyed me but I was able to use the auto-save to better prep and then fought a long hard battle before he finally fell to my blade. Having access to the Gladius helped for this fight.
    • Thank god for the auto-save feature. I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about it, but considering how annoying finding the Weathervane item was, I was happy that my overconfidence that kept me from saving that evening didn't completely bite me in the ass.
    • I actually did the July Streetear quest and finally met Gibbs and Deweg.
    • I forgot how cute the Cauctoid Family Quest was, and again, solid proof that XII did Mark Hunts right as opposed to XIII and XV's half-hearted attempts. The quest in question is a follow up to a previous Mark Hunt that makes for a real fun moment. Also, those villagers must be badass to wander into the Salikawoods and Necrohol of Nabudis and return to tell the tales of it.

    Cons:
    • Sky Pirates Den doesn't look like it was formatted for the HD remake.

  8. #23
    Witch of Theatergoing Karifean's Avatar
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    Ah man I don't think I ever had a challenging fight with the Earth Tyrant. I just always forget it exists

  9. #24
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Still just doing sidequests at the moment, but I'm getting ready to dive back into the main plot because the only Mark Hunts left are ones I probably can't handle yet as they involve going into Zertinian Caverns and the Garasmythe Waterways. I barely eked out a victory against the Gil Snapper who was a Rank III Mark Hunt, doubt I would fair well against Rank V ones.

    Pros:
    • For the most part, I'm pretty content with my class choices for the party. There is probably one I have some misgivings on but I'll elaborate below on that one. Having access to a samurai this early has been pretty nice and Ashe was certainly the best choice for this due to her optimal stats and and the Swiftness bonuses I picked up in Time Battlemage, the Magick Lore upgrades have also benefited her previous class as well. Archer allows Fran to stay out of unnecessary conflicts and stay a long range fighter, Ulhan gives Balthier far greater versatility and better attack options while waiting for gun/ammo upgrades. Black Mage allows me to take advantage of all of the Gambit slots Penelo has and makes her finally useful in battle. Monk gives Basch even more Battle Lores and way more HP lores which will transform him into a pretty tanky knight. The fact both have access to different White magics can further add versatility to him. Vaan... well we'll get to that.
    • The Gil Snapper was a real doozy of a battle and I only remembered after my first party wipe that I waited until I got the -ra level elemental spells to deal with him, but a little reworking of my party and gambits, combined with learning that it's susceptible to Silence allowed me to pull a victory on my second attempt. In a lot of ways, this and the Earth Tyrant fights remind me of why I love FFXII and the Gambit system as it's all about tinkering and getting that perfect well-oiled machine going that makes it so satisfying.
    • There are a lot of minor background elements I either forgot or missed out on in previous playthroughs. I never noticed that Nono, the moogle mechanic for Baltheir and Fran hans out at the Aerodromes and kind of explains why you have to walk everywhere. Going back to places like Bhujerba and talking around town has added some clairty to certain plot points, and I'm noticing even more references to Matsuno's works and FF in general.

    Cons:
    • I am not feeling the Foebreaker class. I feel like it would have been better to make a class based around either a Green Mage or Arcanist with the axe/hammer weapons instead of another pure melee class. As it stands, it's just an odd mix of Knight and Monk with a funky weapon selection. I may have liked the class better had I mixed it with a mage class like Red Battlemage or White Mage, but unlike some of the other melee classes, it doesn't have a whole lot of synergy with other melee classes as I would like. I may change my mind later, but as it stands, it's my least favorite of the classes.

  10. #25
     Master of the Fork Cid's Knight Freya's Avatar
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    Freya Meow (Sargatanas)

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    Just got this over the weekend on the black friday deals. This game deserved the PS4 treatment. Upscaling it as they have made me realize how great it looked when it came out but the PS2 just couldn't do it justice. It still looks great. Just started though. Not sure about this class wheel selection thing though.

  11. #26
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Got a lot done. Decided to take down those two Rank V marks anyway and was pleasantly surprised to find a fair but manageable challenge. Reached Jahara, the Golmore Jungle, Henne Mines, and finally Mt. Bur-Omascie (sp?) before deciding to take a break and check out the new line of Mark Hunts that opened up.

    Pros:
    • Guests characters are far more interesting in this version. Since you can actually control their Gambit set ups, they now all have several more skills than they did in the original. Larsa is nice for having access to Cura and Bubble so early and his Shades of Black is surprisingly useful, Vossler had a wealth of debuff skills like Expose and Shear, along with strong attacks like Souleater to give him much better variety in battle. Having the infinite potion thing removed also removes their gamebreaker status. The Hunts I've been doing with Larsa ended up being a bit harder since he couldn't just spam Hi-Potions to keep himself and the party alive.
    • While I still have to play around with it some more, the Espers also seem to have been improved with the ability to actually directly control them and the fact they seem to have way beefier stats. Being able to access their Ultimate Attack from the get go will certainly improve the usefulness for people who just want to treat them like classic summons, not to mention bypassing the BS requirements in the original that made it an act of fate to see Hashmal and Ultima's specials.
    • I feel like Fran is such an underrated character. Her story with the Viera and her sisters is actually pretty heartfelt and bittersweet. I'm still a bit surprised people whine about her not having much character development.
    • It's kind of interesting how much this game really foreshadows things. I mean there are major plot points like Balthier's connection with Cid and Nethicite, or Vayne plotting with his dad to stop the Senate for Larsa's sake, but even Mark Hunts and Espers get some heavy foreshadowing if you bother to walk around and actually talk to everyone around town after story events.
    • Also, while I never hated Vaan like other players, I still find it amusing how much the party treats him like trout. He gets more "what a smurfing idiot" looks and lines from the party than any other FF character I can think of. While it's mean spirited, I still find it pretty funny considering how much the Western fandom hates him yet seems to never notice this about his character in the story.
    • I still appreciate the fact that Mark Hunts sometimes require certain conditions to be met in order to face them. Having to find Orthros with an all-female team is still just a neat concept and doubles as a great shout out to the character he's referencing. As I said, it boggles my mind how much this game has shown up SE's later entries in clever design and playing this game again is just solidifying my feeling that it really is the last good FF game the studio has put out.


    Cons:
    • Man, why does it take so freaking long to unlock Greatswords and Ninja Blades in this game?
    • While XII does a decent job of enemy variety, Wolves are the lone exception and their seems to be some variation of the creature in almost every area that isn't a tomb or cave, in which case it's skeleton warriors instead.
    • After dealing with the Viera and certain Clan Hunts, I feel it showed me once again that one of the game's biggest missed opportunities was not having other races in your party. I would have loved to have a Bangaa, Seeq, or Moogle party member and see how they saw the world.

  12. #27
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Tactics Ogre is consuming my free time. I did finally get some more Mark Hunts in. I'm suppose to meet the Gran Kilitas (My Vagrant Story memories are coming back to me) but opted to do a few hunts while I still had Larsa on the team.

    • Oh thank god, Ninja Blades. Did the Antlion Elite Mark Hunt in the Lhusu Mines and found a bunch of Ninja blades and a few other weapon types I've been missing. Now if I could just get a non-story plot trinket Great Sword...
    • While the main plot has been pretty easy, the Mark Hunts have been another story and again, I'm reminded of why I liked them and how they were a great idea in this game.
    • I have successfully unlocked all of the Monographs in the game, though it will be sometime before I can even afford the Canopic Jar unless I seriously grind for it, but I'm planning on waiting and just let the funds come naturally.
    • The Trickster fight ended up being both easier and harder this time around. On the one hand, the beast went more on the offensive, so it wasn't just twenty minutes of me watching my party run back and forth across the map taking pot shots the rare time they pass each other. On the other hand, his last phase where he becomes immune to every element but one and physical damage for a short time while spamming Choco-Meteor was not fun and if I had remembered he did that, I would have used a Quickening to finish it off at the 1/3rd health mark.
    • I finally have access to Haste, Bubble, and Berserk.
    • With the increased speed mode, and the new overlay map, Zodiac Age is incredibly user-friendly and makes trudging some of the game's larger maps less of a chore. I breezed through the Yensa Sandsea, but was reminded again how awesome these features are when I was cruising through the Site 2 Lhusu Mines with them on.

    Cons:
    • Despite having the individual boards, and even access to two at a times, I'm not terribly far from maxing out my parties Job Boards. Thankfully the better focus keeps them from being clones of each other but it's a bit sad for me to see that beyond some high tier weapon/armor Licenses and a crap ton of Accessory Licenses I've kind of been ignoring, there isn't much left to the boards besides the skills locked behind the Espers.

  13. #28
    Witch of Theatergoing Karifean's Avatar
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    I don't think you really get Greatswords until much later tbh, around or after Draklor. They're more or less a late branch off regular swords (more attack power at the cost of being two handed) rather than their own distinct weapon type. Also Berserk really is so stupidly powerful in this game, isn't it.

    Re:job maxing, the fact that you can get up to 4 Golden Amulets relatively easily (1 from the sandsea, 1 from the Barheim key quest, 1 from the bazaar and 1 from a hunt) and you don't really have a reason not to keep them on your reserve party at the very least probably plays a big part in that. At least you get a way to still make something of your superfluous LP soon, IIRC.

  14. #29
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    • Former Cid's Knight

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    Quote Originally Posted by Karifean View Post
    I don't think you really get Greatswords until much later tbh, around or after Draklor. They're more or less a late branch off regular swords (more attack power at the cost of being two handed) rather than their own distinct weapon type. Also Berserk really is so stupidly powerful in this game, isn't it.

    Re:job maxing, the fact that you can get up to 4 Golden Amulets relatively easily (1 from the sandsea, 1 from the Barheim key quest, 1 from the bazaar and 1 from a hunt) and you don't really have a reason not to keep them on your reserve party at the very least probably plays a big part in that. At least you get a way to still make something of your superfluous LP soon, IIRC.
    I have surprisingly not used the Golden Amulets yet. In fact most of my party only has up to level 8 and 9 Accessory Licenses since they didn't seem as important in the early game. I'll probably start using them for the high point items like Ribbon and the Ultimate Weapons, but I'm frankly doing pretty well with filling up the board without them.

  15. #30
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Finished the Stillshrine of Miriam and Gran Kiltias sequence. I'm now on what most people call the momentum killing "trek to Archades" part of the game, but to compound to the hours it will be before the plot moves again, I had like seven Mark Hunts open up and I have access to four Espers. I took down Adrammalech already and explored the Zertinan Caverns, and I'm debating about taking on Zalera the Death Seraph.

    Pros:
    • Going back through the game, I have to give XII props for having some underrated dungeon design. I blame it more on people remembering the boring places like the Yensa Sandsea and the Westersand that seem to go on forever, but theTomb of Raithwall, Baraheim Passsage, Henne Mines, and Stillshrine of Miriam actually have some clever puzzles and sequences that I liked.
    • I forgot how interesting the Stillshrine of Miriam is, largely because it's one of the few non-Occurian structures in XII's Ivalice that actually predates the Dyanst-King. Totally forgot it was a former Temple to an ancient god Miriam the God of Swords. Even more interesting when you see the Sumerian/Egyptian style aesthetic they gave the place and the fact Miriam is possible a Goddess since it has features of both a man, woman, and reptile. Pretty neat.
    • While I have been a broken record about the challenge in this game (I was able to enter the Feywoods and held my own pretty well, wtf?!) Adrammalech raised my hopes that the Espers will retain their BS level of difficulty. He's the easiest of the optional enemies, but his combination of being a flying enemy and the freaking amount of undead that come to his aid was enough to overwhelm my initial group and I had to finish him off with the backup team. It's made me reconsider whether I want to chance dealing with Zalera. I'm already dreading Cuchalain cause he's easily the first nightmare Esper people hate fighting, and I don't really think I can touch Zeromus yet since he's still a good fifteen levels higher than my party and anything five levels higher than me can be a handful. Not to mention he begins the whole "restrict one of your commands" handicaps. So it's been kind of exciting.
    • I honestly find the way Summons and Quickenings are utilized for the License Boards to be a very clever idea. What I mean is that for Quickenings, there are multiple spots they pop up in on the board, and often they are blocking access to some skills or lores, the issue is you can only open it once so you have to choose what skills you want. Espers do the same thing except they run through all the boards meaning that depending on which jobs you gave out, you can have two different characters fighting over an esper to gain access to their additional blocked off licenses. Right now, I have to figure out who to give Adrammalech to, Vaan will gain access to a few more Battle Lores while Ashe will gain access to the useful Cura and Raise spells. I'm waiting to open up a few more Espers to see what rewards I can get before making my choice. As it stands, I feel like Fran may end up being Esperless.
    • I got a really good Katana from an enemy drop while wandering around Zertinan Caverns.
    • I am either very lucky or the requirements for their appearances have been altered a bit, but I've been running into far more Rare Game than usual. Almost makes getting the Ba'Gamman Sky Pirate Trophy feel like it's in reach. Not the mention all the cool rare items you can steal off of them.
    • I have obtained all of the Monographs. Got a crap ton of money from the loot I got in the Caverns.
    • The Carrot Mark Hunt has opened, and the Ivalice tradition continues. I had a Good Feeling!

    Cons:
    • I'm starting to really look forward to the Judge Battle in Trial Mode, simply because the guys are a little lackluster as bosses in the main story. I crushed Ghis, and Bergan didn't put up much of a fight either. This is an absolute shame because the characters have such great presence in the story proper.
    • I must have incredibly bad luck or the game is glitching on me, cause I can't get the chest with the Thief's Cuffs to spawn in the Zertinan Caverns. This is frustrating because A) it's spawn rate is pretty high and the item is 100% guarantee, B) I took down the boss that carried the item before I could steal from him, C) The Zodiac version has changed how you get the item, so I can't buy them anymore, and D) this is all just reminding me how much I hate the spawning treasure chest mechanic in this game.
    • Speaking of mechanics I don't care for, I still wish XII had kind of dropped the Bazaar mechanic, or at least made the improvement from TA2 to it, so I can start saving and looking for the items needed for certain items. Overall, I'm not wild about making ultimate weapons as much as I am about earning them through a quest. Probably why the Masemune is one of my fave weapons in this game.

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