Small "flaw" in job/exp point system...

[Gunboat Diplomat]

Final Fantasy Tactics is my first and favourite Final Fantasy game. I've played a couple of the others but have only finished FFIX. I've played FFT through twice now and have introduced the game to my other gamer friends.

Something I have noticed while playing is that you only get job points and experience points when you successfully do something. So, moving into position and "waiting" gains you nothing. If the tide of a fight goes my way, I tend to deliberately waste time gaining job and experience points. For instance, if the number of opponents has been reduced to one and only one character is in range of that last opponent, I'll actually have the rest of my characters fight each other because they'd otherwise be doing nothing and, this way, they'll be gaining precious job and experience points for it.
While this may sound perfectly reasonable (or maybe it just sounds neurotic, you tell me), it can easily get out of hand. For instance, I found myself in a position where I can heal three of my characters at a time with a cure spell! Sounds like basic FFT strategy but those three characters were surrounding an opponent who would also get healed by my spell. I just shrugged and thought "oh well, he'll just live longer to give my characters more experience points..."
As you can imagine, it's easy for this neurosis to worsen...

Now, one method of "fixing" this problem would be to make FFT more like the other FF games by making the character states persistent. That way, damage from one battle carries over to another and, thus, you will be using up precious resources to gain those job and experience points. However, I have always hated this aspect of the other FF games. Having character states reset after every battle in FFT means that all you have to do is survive the battle to make it through the next and this allows you to make FFT battles more challenging. I can't tell you how many times I've been down to my last one or two characters frantically trying to take down that last opponent before my character's crystalize out of the roster...

So, has anyone else found this to be true for them? Will you, now that I have explained it to you? Do you not give a second thought to characters just sitting around, doing nothing? Can you think of any ways FFT can be different to avoid this?

Thanks for you input!

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

The Calculator has two abilities that will give you points just for moving. One is for EXP, and the other is for JP.

[dodhungry]

I don't find this a problem at all. I actually like the fact that I can kill Algus a dozen times and get experiance and Jp for it :shoot:


I think you will find most will agree with the above statement

[conan]

Haha, dont worry, I'm sure everyone reading this attacks their own characters for exp and jp, and I can identify with scrambling around trying to kill off the monsters before your dead character's timer hits zero.

Try not to move your characters either, that way they'll get their next AT quicker.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

I like the system that awards you for doing actions, it can be abused, yes, but if you have the patience to do it then good for you, you deserve to reap the benefits. It's no different than if someone were to power level in a normal Final Fantasy. Since Tactics battles take longer, it makes more sense to have the progression of your abilities effected by each action, not a lump sum at the end.

That was actually one of the things that somewhat irritated me about Tactics Advance, the AP system.

[Zeromus_X]

"When in doubt, Accumulate! Or Yell, same difference."

But yeah, if I have nothing else to do, I'll just Accumulate. I'm guessing it gets better when Calculators are available.

[Octorok]

I just wish we could get credit for countermoves like in FFTA; I always end up trading counterattacks for blocking/healing moves (I think all of my characters have Blade Grasp equipped) so I can get more moves in.

[feioncastor]

My first time through, I did not abuse the "flaw" you're mentioning. However, since then, I have learned it's much easier to master a job class when you do a few things. Just enter a battle with everyone as the classes you want to have them master, but with "Basic Skill/Guts" and make sure you know Accumulate. Oh, and you should have at least one Knight*. Kill everyone except one guy, then power/speed break the heck out of him until he hardly gets a turn, and then only does like 1 damage every turn. Just have everyone accumulate after that for about 45 minutes straight, and everyone will have a few thousand JP to spend.

To the newbies of Final Fantasy Tactics: DO NOT DO WHAT I JUST MENTIONED YOUR FIRST TIME THROUGH. A huge part of what makes this game fun is how challenging it gets, and trying to strategize and make your team work for you, even against tough bosses. If you use the technique I presented, you'll make the game way too easy and you will miss out on a great deal of what makes this game so freaking amazing.

*Knight can be replaced by any job with the ability to incapacitate an enemy, such as Leg Aim/Arm Aim, Beowulf's "Chicken", and many, many others

[Zeromus_X]

It's too late now! I just can't stop Yelling!!

See what you've done.

[BG-57]

I use feion's strategy for leveling up generic humans, but most nongenerics don't have Accumulate. I simply have them surround the surviving foe and Steal Gil instead. Also, I tend to equip Gained JP Up.

[Skyblade]

My only real problem with the system is that there is no real way to gain JP without gaining Exp as well. My time with FFTA taught me to access all the jobs as soon as possible, so that I can then focus on growing my character how I want stat-wise seperately. As it is, training abilities in FFT means that I gain levels too, and not necessarily in jobs that have good stat growth. It's making me have to rethink my strategies somewhat.

Although, if it is true that I can reduce my levels with certain abilities/traps, I could fix that problem too (unfortunately, FFTA doesn't have that ability).

[Gilthanes]

My first time playing through I didnt do much of any "extra skilling up". I remember the fight with Algus at end of chapter 1, I was using one of those skeleton mobs in my main group. My whole group crystal'd cept ramza and the skeleton, who barely managed to finish off Algus. Then I got the new characters at start of chapter 2 and I was good to go again.

Then I had to completely trash the game cuz I got to Wiegraf, and did NOT have Auto Potion, or a Full battle Skill, or anything capable of letting me beat him. After beating my head on the wall against him for days straight, with my game saved in the castle where I couldnt go train, I just deleted the game and started over, and thats when I started building up JP/XP before I went to any hard battles lol

[DoaJ]

Haha, dont worry, I'm sure everyone reading this attacks their own characters for exp and jp, and I can identify with scrambling around trying to kill off the monsters before your dead character's timer hits zero.

Try not to move your characters either, that way they'll get their next AT quicker.

Actually, I dont hit my own characters.....and also, I started playing it for my first time yesterday. But, Im gonna start hitting them now, hahaha.

[Gansx]

I just kill everything and frog the last one. Str and spd break with "don't move" is a plus too! Then I just have everyone Accumulate/Yell.

If you guys want, there's trick I got from another site to get a character (cloud) to level 99 in one night.

[DJZen]

I always exploited that because it makes levelling take slightly less time, and because I've played FFII. However, I like the way Shining Force handles it better.