Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System - Revisiting

[Niiro]

Yes the tiles separated from the rest of the board are reached by unlocking Espers.

[Krandor]

If you're bothered by job choices you've made, there's an editor available for playing it on PC. Let's you hook into the PCSX2 process and change values, including jobs.

http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-FFXII...or-FF-XII-IZJS

[Teknique]

Fuck yes. that was the only thing holding me back from playing, i was terrified of making the wrong choices.

[Silenka]

If you're bothered by job choices you've made, there's an editor available for playing it on PC. Let's you hook into the PCSX2 process and change values, including jobs.

http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-FFXII...or-FF-XII-IZJS

Well that's pretty awesome, thanks for sharing. Good to know if I do need to switch jobs around.

[Yuri-G]

That's the one downside to the job system; you can't switch around and tailor it to specific battles like you could in most other games. It adds another layer of challenge but it's also odd to see spells in the shops and think "Well, I literally can't ever use that... sucks."


I chose Knight (Vaan)/Monk (Basch/Samurai (Ashe)/Archer (Fran)/Machinist (Balthier)/White Mage (Penelo) and it's working ok so far. Up to the Tomb of Raithwall and let's just say, without a time mage there is absolutely no way I'm taking down the first wall. About the only method that might work is some really lucky quickening chains. This is what bugs me about IZJS; in any other FF game I could just switch things around and come up with a strategy, but not here. I'm not complaining though; it's interesting to face challenges with a limited set of resources at your disposal, and it's oddly refreshing to see optional content and go "Well, I certainly can't beat that... ever." I wouldn't want every game I play to be this rigid but it's a nice change of pace.


Also I reiterate my earlier statements: the amount of detail that went into the assets for this game despite the PS2's limited ability to actually display them is fucking mind-boggling. I just fought the Cluckatrice and that guy's face/beak area is detailed beyond what I would have ever noticed or expected, just for one example.

[Krandor]

Pretty sure face textures for most of the important characters are higher res then the PS2's native resolution.

While alot of other textures in the game look pretty bad by modern standards, the faces still look really good.

[Auspice]

With filters the game looks stunning in 1080p

[Yuri-G]

Pretty sure face textures for most of the important characters are higher res then the PS2's native resolution.

While alot of other textures in the game look pretty bad by modern standards, the faces still look really good.

Jesus Christ. the eyes in this game (on the main characters at least) put the eyes in even current-gen games to shame. So simple, so well-done.

[Alkar]

I hope they try to fix the International version a bit more if they make an HD port, some things were poorly implemented (job system, new weapons having no skins, etc.). Maybe add an option to play with the original board as well? (FFX had that)

[Silenka]

So far my team of Vaan(time mage)/Fran(monk)/Ashe(Rdm)/Basch(uhlan)/Balthier(mch)/Penelo(sam) is working out great but I am slightly worried about lack of healing later on. Rdm is broken as fuck though and gets practically every early game spell so not much of a problem there honestly, but I may have to go in and change them if it stops working out.

I read up on many people's impressions about what the "best" team is and what the "best" characters are for each job and they were all completely different opinions, even backed up with numbers no one could really agree and all conclusions made were basically "just do what you want because it doesn't really matter in the end" which I was somewhat surprised about. Games with job systems usually do have a clear best/worst that actually impacts the game, but perhaps because XII wasn't designed with jobs in mind they don't hold as much water as they would if that was the intention from the outset. I hope I've hit on a combo that lets me do everything through endgame but if not, well I guess there's room for some fiddling >:D

[Charismatic]

So far my team of Vaan(time mage)/Fran(monk)/Ashe(Rdm)/Basch(uhlan)/Balthier(mch)/Penelo(sam) is working out great but I am slightly worried about lack of healing later on. Rdm is broken as fuck though and gets practically every early game spell so not much of a problem there honestly, but I may have to go in and change them if it stops working out.

I read up on many people's impressions about what the "best" team is and what the "best" characters are for each job and they were all completely different opinions, even backed up with numbers no one could really agree and all conclusions made were basically "just do what you want because it doesn't really matter in the end" which I was somewhat surprised about. Games with job systems usually do have a clear best/worst that actually impacts the game, but perhaps because XII wasn't designed with jobs in mind they don't hold as much water as they would if that was the intention from the outset. I hope I've hit on a combo that lets me do everything through endgame but if not, well I guess there's room for some fiddling >:D

You have a monk, no need to worry about healing.
If you really want to, you can give your monk espers to unlock curaja, protectga/shellga and arise.
I wouldn't go for all of those personally, but you could.

[Krandor]

The only thing I would argue that is truly important is having the characters with Steal as an innate ability as your non-DD classes. The popular examples are Vaan on MNK and Balthier as WHM.

Also Ashe as a SAM is a very popular choice since her base stat spread lines up so well with Genji Armor.

[Yuri-G]

I have steal on Vaan (knight), Balthier (machinist) and Fran (archer) so... eh. It could be worse.

I hope they try to fix the International version a bit more if they make an HD port, some things were poorly implemented (job system, new weapons having no skins, etc.). Maybe add an option to play with the original board as well? (FFX had that)

I agree about the job system. It's a neat idea, but the way it's implemented is very rigid, when the entire point of the job system in previous FF games (V, Tactics) has been the insane level of flexibility and adaptability it provides for every encounter if you're willing to invest in it. For example I now realize having steal on a knight is going to make things a little awkward (I wish I had thought of that; the last time I played XII my whole farming routine was foe: hp 100% > steal on one character, and have everyone else attack, so my stealer would go around stealing from everyone as the other characters whacked away at them). It's not the end of the world and the game is still fantastic, and it does make for a more strategic and challenging game in some ways - but it's also so limiting :/ Like, I'll never be able to use BLM spells... ever. That kinda sucks.

[Niiro]

A more modular (but still limiting) system would have been ideal but they kind of had to work with existing assets and game elements.

To make a system that would have a lot of customization while still keeping roles defined would have been kind of hard, and lets be honest they've never really been able to do it right (which isn't to say that broken customization isn't fun, but it's still broken).

They kind of came to the half-way point of locking the roles, but you have 6 characters to choose from (only 3 of which you're using at any given time), so it's meant to allow you to diversify by switching out your team as needed (a bit like 10).

[Mrbeansman]

So I started playing this over the weekend and now I'm getting BSODed every couple of hours. Is pcx2 fucking with something?

[TheDirtyHobo]

You'd have to check the dumps to see what errors you're getting. Most likely cause for BSOD on that would probably be something overheating.

[Mrbeansman]

I've been monitoring my 960 temps and they've never went above 47-50C.

[Krandor]

Is your CPU undervolted and/or overclocked?

Could also be a sign that your RAM or PSU is potentially shitting the bed.

[Silenka]

Or maybe there's a conflict somewhere?
Additionally, I noticed my antivirus was flagging the uninstaller as a general worm and locking it down.
Unlikely to cause BSOD but you could check out if your antivirus is freaking out over any components.

[Mrbeansman]

Yeah my PSU just died looks like I'm gonna have to pick up a new one when I get paid on Friday. I don't wanna make a new thread in tech so I'll ask here whats the PSU tiers looking like right now for 850w?