FF12 Replay, some Q's

[Boyiee]

So I'm replaying FF12, I only really ever played it when it first came out, got pretty far and never played again.

Starting over the game is pretty new to me again, so any tips early on I should know about? I know not to touch the zodiac chests, but what about licensing anything important I should aim for early? Chars are only around level 10 and I just stepped foot on to the leviathan, got about 1 or 2 quickenings so far. Think since vaan has good all around stats he'll be my plate wearing tank, sword/shield, with basch and balthier in my party using sword>katana>gsword and bows for balthier. Fran seems pretty weak, vaan will probably play a paladinish roll with some heals. Will that work good for just a normal playthrough to just finish the game in an effective manner?

Anything else I should know? I did a few FF12 searches and the "XII/12" gets excluded and most of the search results are on like page 10 of search with not too much good info, mostly "i hate this game" threads and ending/discussion threads.

[Ragnus]

One thing that I loved doing was the auto leveling thing while I was at school. You can find a guide on gamefaqs or something if you're interested. >.>;

Other than that I stuck Vaan with Masamune, buffed his offense to insanity / equipped Genji Gloves, and stuck him with berserk.

I can't really recommend doing the final bounty hunt against Yiazmat. That fight is prenerf PW retarded.

[Ratatapa]

Can you deactivate the lines when you attack?

[ArchDizzle]

In earlier levels I stuck Vaan with a dagger/shield combo and made him a psuedo paladin, there is a dagger early on that has huge evasion which worked well for tanking. I used Basch as my main melee later giving him G. Katana and mostly genji gear and kept berserk on him as he tore through shit. Later on I went axe/shield with Vaan for more damage cause there bonus outweighs there weakness, had Balthier as my third of course and stuck with guns and used his silence bullets when couldn't get the spell to stick.

[Fhloston]

I've tried playing this a couple of times again, but the story really never pulls me in. I'm pretty much where the OP is at. The most fun I had in the game was the combat. Friend of mine told me the story picks up later in the game. It's just odd since every Final Fantasy game I have played so far has had a story that pulled me in from the beginning.

But yeah, sorry to go off-topic. I have the BradyGames guide and it was great for how far I got. The license "poster" that comes with it is really helpful too.

[Eaglestrike]

I've tried playing this a couple of times again, but the story really never pulls me in. I'm pretty much where the OP is at. The most fun I had in the game was the combat. Friend of mine told me the story picks up later in the game. It's just odd since every Final Fantasy game I have played so far has had a story that pulled me in from the beginning.

But yeah, sorry to go off-topic. I have the BradyGames guide and it was great for how far I got. The license "poster" that comes with it is really helpful too.

The story is more of a "Political drama" than a "Character drama" which I'd say the higher number FF's normally fit as. I personally love the FF12 story and it "fits" better than most. It may be harder to identify with the characters more than previous installments, but I think the story overall is top notch and possibly the best yet.

Spoiler: show

At least in this one you don't have a main character that goes from seemingly unaware, unimportant guy to savior of the world who had been prophesied to do this years before. Which you can apply in some fashion to FF7/8/9/10 heroes. Vaan is a little orphan kid the entire way that's just along for the ride.

IMO, don't get the zodiac spear early, avoid the chests so you can get it and all, but wait to get it for when you're of level to get it. It really takes a lot of the difficulty out of the game.

Also, Balthier is actually the worst person with guns, he has an extra delay penalty on them that other characters don't have with guns. Not sure why, but that's what some FAQ's I've read say. From what I remember, the affinities go:

Vaan: Dagger/Katana
Ashe: Great Katana
Basch: Polearms
Penelo: Staves (I think)

I don't really recall Balthier/Fraan ones, might be bow for Fraan.

[Altanass]

i prefer to play ff12 with defined jobs. Unfortunately, i dont have the international version, so i followed this faq over at gamefaqs to gain a similar result.

GameFAQs: Final Fantasy XII (PS2) Enforced Class System Challenge FAQ by atma6


Its a lot more fun this way^^;

[sephir]

Ashe is amazing with a gkatana because of her naturally high agility. Basch (can replace with Balthier) is a pretty good tank and Vaan is amazing at DD.

I would suggest doing the quest to go accross the Estersand by Ferry asap (I think the earlier is just after Raithwalls tomb) and you can buy Golden amulets and Thiefs gloves. This will make filling out the board so much easier because you will be getting double the LP much earlier (the first spot you can buy them if you dont do the quest is Mount Bur Omisace).

Also I would highly suggest going to the secret shop in Necrohol of Naubudis as soon as your story brings you to the Saikalawood because you can then buy Telekenisis and Maximillian.

As far as the story goes, its decent. I prefer the character drama myself, but they sort of tossed that idea out when they decided on not having Basch as the hero. I honestly would have prefered him being the hero because I thought he was the person with the most depth and was the one I could most identify with in the whole story.

[Boyiee]

The way I saw it was Vaan and Basch had the most STR and it was equal, so both made good DD's but vaan had the highest VIT so I thought he'd be best as a tank.

Supposedly Balthier sucks with guns, and Fran sucks with bows, but Balthier is better with bows I guess until you grab that good Crossbow to use. I like having a ranged so I wanted Balthier in my group.

@eagle, did you mean ninja swords on vaan and not katana, or did you mean gkt. So far it seems I'm going archdizzles route. I really really wish I could have a 4th person in my group so i could have a more dedicated caster. I really don't want to swap out a melee for a BLM, and really don't want to take away my bow/gun/xbow user, but if I have to it'll be the ranged that gets swapped.

I'd like to have a dedicated healer in the group, does it work having ashe use melee weapons and melee, but also focus on black and white magic? Or am I better off not hybriding her, or just making everyone learn the white magicks and hybrid all of them somewhat?

Basch seems like he'd be great with 2handers and letting me have vaan tank with the overpowered swords that I should be coming around to soon. I'm not really a fan of spears after researching some weapons on a few faq's, so I thought my choices for the moment were ok (again only level 10 on the leviathan.) Last playthrough I remember being at least 15 and grinding the mobs in the bujerba mines a lot longer, but my group was just not prepared for that this time around it seemed, so I'll probably do some grinding on the guards on the ship now.

[Eaglestrike]

Yeah, ninja swords = katanas for what I said.

Polearms aren't that amazing until the Zodiac spear (most powerful weapon in the game, hits the 9999 damage cap earliest).

Hybrid-ing is fine. It makes it more difficult to not, but what I generally did was gave healing spells to everyone and just had certain people cast them earlier. For instance Ashe would heal under the HP<70% gambit, then Vaan would be HP<50% and Basch would be HP<30%. So that usually only Ashe would heal, but a big AOE would have everyone start throwing it out. Eventually this doesn't really matter much as you get an AOE full-cure heal which is terribly OP, lol, but for earlier in the game that's how I did it.

Overall, the game is pretty easy if you max out people and get above level early. The extra Licenses and gear go really far in making you too strong too early, so if you want a challenge just go straight through the game. And pick up and attempt most hunts asap, some aren't possible when you pick them up, and others will really challenge you but are possible.

Also, different weapon types use different stats for damage. Daggers use STR + SPD for their damage and G. Kats use STR + MAG for theirs, making Ashe the best with G.kats because she has good STR and high magic.

[Ragnus]

Wait. How can Fran suck with bows when it's her default weapon?

[Elcura]

The story is more of a "Political drama" than a "Character drama" which I'd say the higher number FF's normally fit as. I personally love the FF12 story and it "fits" better than most. It may be harder to identify with the characters more than previous installments, but I think the story overall is top notch and possibly the best yet.

Spoiler: show

At least in this one you don't have a main character that goes from seemingly unaware, unimportant guy to savior of the world who had been prophesied to do this years before. Which you can apply in some fashion to FF7/8/9/10 heroes. Vaan is a little orphan kid the entire way that's just along for the ride.

IMO, don't get the zodiac spear early, avoid the chests so you can get it and all, but wait to get it for when you're of level to get it. It really takes a lot of the difficulty out of the game.

Also, Balthier is actually the worst person with guns, he has an extra delay penalty on them that other characters don't have with guns. Not sure why, but that's what some FAQ's I've read say. From what I remember, the affinities go:

Vaan: Dagger/Katana
Ashe: Great Katana
Basch: Polearms
Penelo: Staves (I think)

I don't really recall Balthier/Fraan ones, might be bow for Fraan.

Isn't Vaan really good with Great Swords? I remember Vaan + Tournesol being awesome.

[Eaglestrike]

Isn't Vaan really good with Great Swords? I remember Vaan + Tournesol being awesome.

Vaan has the highest overall stats, so he's good with them all. That list was for special affinities they have. Vaan will have the highest crit/extra attack rate with daggers/ninja swords of all the characters. And Tournesol is the best weapon in the game (in most situations) so best character + best weapon = awesome.

[MisterBob]

Fortunately, none of that matters. The game is great, but very easy with any character config you want.

[ArchDizzle]

Never used a FAQ so I am sure there are better combo's then I used. Having Vaan setup in a paladin type role for tanking worked really well, curing yourself and others and doing good damage like Vaan does made it easy to keep the enemies attention on him the majority of the time. Basch is a beast with 2 handed weapons, + berserk + genji armor. Really would have been nice to have a 4th spot to dedicate to a mage focused ally but it was still ok with 3. I still remember having Vaan tank that Adamatoise NM early on in that area that is raining and you have to go there a certain way? I think I beat him around level 16, took forever but with Vaan using the dagger/shield combo he was able to tank it w/o problem.

[Brill Weave]

I have to agree on the story for 12. It was a very interesting story. But I can't go so far as saying that it "fit" with the series. Like it or not Final Fantasy has taken a turn towards romanticizing their entries into the series. We saw it with Locke and Celes. And that was back in the Super NES days if I'm not mistaken. It went a few steps further with Cloud/Aerith/Tifa. Then it turned into a full blown romantic rpg with Squall and Rinoa. Yuna and Tidus, another one.

Personally I don't mind the romance in the series. I think it plays off of every fanboy's dreams of being the savior of the world who walks tall with a big sword and always gets the girl. It's the same reason why most people play through games the first time being a "hero" like in Mass Effect. I thought that the characters that had the most potential in 12 were by far and away Basch and Ashe. It would have been extremely easy for SE to push them into a romance, the groundwork was laid from the start. Man supposedly kills her father, the young widow who finds out he isn't what she thought he was, young widow is conflicted over her feelings for her dead husband and her new friend etc etc.

The plot was good. I enjoyed it. I didn't really like the character development. I'm not saying to take it so far as to make it another romantic deal, but 12 had some phenomenal characters that could have ended up being amazingly memorable. I can't help but feel that they let that opportunity slip away a little bit. Who do you remember when you first think of 12? Fran the bunny chick with the hot ass and strangely hot voice and Balthier cause he's a pirate.

[Eaglestrike]

Well, to be fair, Balthier IS the leading man.

[Brill Weave]

Well, to be fair, Balthier IS the leading man.

Thanks for not letting me down dood lol.

[Boyiee]

There are other threads to discuss the story, this was not intended to be one of them. My intentions were a gameplay discussion on weapons/license board musts etc.

Please don't spoil anything as I never finished the game.

[MisterBob]

Spoiler: Believe everything Ondore says, ever.