Final Fantasy XII

Haven't seen any topics for it. o.o But it's like, the greatest FF game ever, right after FFX. I can't be the only one who loves it. XD

Kitty? Where are you? Help me fill this topic? D:

Dude, I love this game. I replayed it, along with FFVIII, and gained a new love for them. Granted there are holes but, there have been holes ever since SE took over. *cough*garments*cough* It's not enough for me to not like the game though.
There were subtle changes, marked with one on one talks, and you could really see that our main character, Ashe, was having trouble choosing which path to take to get to her goal, she needed help from the others throughout the game.
People say Vaan is useless to the plot but he's got key points throughout, and sure someone else could have taken his place but it would have gone differently.
Penelo on the other hand, only has one use. When she gets kidnapped, afterward she does nothing to the plot.
She could have been replaced by Reks, that would have added a nice dynamic, imo.

What amazes me is that Vaan actually manged to catch Ashe when she jumped off the ledge. I though he'd like, drop her cause he's kind of a derp.

I should replay 12. My mem.card was clean out so I was replaying FFX-2. and FFX. And FF7 Though FF9 Just Cause I Bought on My PS3. :3.

FFXII... What can I say? It's my favourite Final Fantasy ever! :D

Although I only like three characters - Ashe, Balthier and Vaan (in that order) - I think the main party is like a family. I was kinda sad that there was no romance between Ashe and Balthier... I mean, c'mon! Rasler is cute and nice but Balthier is so much more Ashe's type! There will never be a character as Balthier. SE can try it, but they can't do it. Keep in mind that Tetsuya Nomura didn't create the FFXII characters! Akihiko Yoshida did a fantastic job with the characters' outfits and looks.

What I loved most about Final Fantasy XII was the different kinds of locations we could travel to - from deserts to snowy and icy paths, from jungles to forests, etc. And you can't forget about the different types of weather - snow, rain, thunder, sandstorms, sunny, etc. SE did an excellent job trying to make the game as realistic as possible.

The gameplay is fabulous! Although I also like the typical turn-based battles, FFXII is way more realistic because monsters would never wait for you to attack like in the previous FF games! The hunts were also a great sidequest.

Of course there's also many things I don't like. I don't like the Espers and the way they have to be used. I don't like the fact that magics have to be bought. I don't like the License Board. But many of these things were remade in the International Zodiark Version of the game, which is also amazing!

I honestly don't know why so many people hate FFXII. I think that after playing FFXIII, many will give FFXII a chance and see how amazing the game is. I spent more than 200 hours playing it and I will play 200h more when I have the time. The game got a 40/40 score in the Famitsu magazine for some reason, right?

I just...I love this game so much! It's really well executed!

Personally, I'm pissed that Vaan and Ashe didn't get together. They have that great bond with being able to see Rasler, so you'd think that would have led SOMEWHERE. But then again, I haven't finished the game (I'm freaking stuck right before I fight Cid), so maybe there's still hope? *shot;;*

I love Ashe; she's strong-willed and powerful and I love that. She refuses to give up on her country even though things look bleak and she knows when she has to place trust in others although she'd rather rely on herself.

I don't get why everyone says Vaan is useless, because he really isn't. I gues because he smiles and likes to make jokes he's automatically a stupid bimbo (same reason why people don't like Tidus or Sora; happy protagonists are no fun. Unfortunately, most RPG gamers would rather fangirl over an emo kid), which is totally not the case. Deep down, he's really sincere. I started to cry with that scene where Vaan picked the flowers because he remembered that Reks liked them so much.

The gameplay is fun, too. I liked this sytem more than other FFs, mainly because it was a step closer to the type of fighting I like; which is the on-edge sword battle that Kingdom Hearts sort of has. That feels more real, in my opinion.

Anywhose, I'm managed to remain mostly spoiler-free thus far; I only hope I can beat that stupid esper and move on, because I've been stuck on it for like, a year. ><

The only thing that makes sense on Ashe's outfit is the gold embroidery. :l

I've never really used the Espers, they're kind of useless at a point. However, I really liked the board. This coming from the girl who loves the Sphere grid.

Vaan is, to a fault, honest and at the start of the game a little naive. But he develops brilliantly, personally.
People don't like Sora cause he's kind of naive, really actually. I just can't, when it comes to Sora.

I never saw Ashe and Vaan as a couple, they could have, in the beginning of the game, but later on they really develop a platonic relationship. IMO. I just draw to the platonic shit.
Something I like about this game is that it really allows multi-ships, a lot of different things are possible. I'm a fan of Balthierxeveryoneexceptpenelo.

How are you stuck on Famfrit? Haven't you leveled enough yet? Or are you like my brother and you just, decide not to.

I just wish we could have gone to Rozzaria.

ThaliaAnderson, if you need help or tips to defeat the Esper you're talking about (I presume it's Famfrit) talk to me. I think I can help you :)

It probably is Framfrit, hahaha. But it's weird to think I'm not leveled enough (I have Vaan at about level fifty and everyone else at forty-three [Vaan is the only one I never exchange out of the party]), because I /never/ run away from a battle. I've beaten every hunt there is so far, except for maybe two or three I just haven't gotten around to, and I'll run to every corner of an area to make sure I've killed everything before going on. And even then, I ran around in a few different places, came back, and I still couldn't kill it. ;-;

I got reeeeally close once, but he pulled a special attack and killed my last character.

I usually pull everyone's Quickening's at the beginning to strike bosses down fast and leave three characters out of my party until I'm desperate and near the end of the life gauge and then use their Quickening's. I almost killed it that time, but like I said, struck me down again.

Kitty, to be honest, I get pissed off when people run away from enemies because they just don't feel like dealing with them. So I'm not like your brother I don't think. XD

But yeah, any tips you guys have would be great. Now that I finished Ico, I need something else to do (got stuck on Ursula in KH, blahhh), and I'd love to get to the backstory that I know is probably waiting for me on the other side of this esper.

(I love the Sphere Grid to death, so naturally, I'm digging all over liscences.)

So, when I'm maxed level, I should fight all the enemies, because they're there? :l Sounds like a waste of time.

He doesn't run away, he just doesn't level. I grind, he doesn't. Sometimes it's better to run off, then just flat out dying.
I suggest holding your quickenings till he's low on health, that way you can just wail on him with them. Keep in mind, you'll have to fit Cid still. Using all of your Mp at the start isn't the best move, unless you use an axillary party.

Hmm, the thing is, my attacks don't do much damage unless I try a Quickening. And if I wait until later, I don't have enough MP to do so. So I'm probably just gonna find somewhere to level some more and hope for the best.

I don't know; I get antsy if I leave enemies running around, especially when I could level up some more.

It sounds like you're trying to take large chunks of it's health at once, whittling it down with some fighters works. Berserk, haste, and bravery on a main fighter character.

Don't you have an axillary party you could do those quickenings with? Ethers work as well, so long as you can get Mist Charges.
Buffing the crap out of your party could help as well, if your not already doing that.

I don't think leveling is your problem, you should be able to take the final boss with your level in the 50s.

I think it's a fun game. I mean, sure. The protagonist has almost nothing to do with the actual story and he went on my nerves about his sky pirate thing...
But FFXII had Balthier. And Fran.
And the game literally almost played itself. You barley had to do anything than wait for the attack bar to load up.
I almost finished the game, I was leveling the whole time. My sister beat me because she went and won when she was around level 40. I was around level 75 when she started a new game and overwrote my file. It was heartbreaking. I never actually beat the game because I wanted to get all the mobs beforehand.

i can't say i loved it but i did like it a lot.
At first i hated it though. it took me a year to beat since the battle system pissed me off so i NEVER leveled up!
but in the end i thought it was a pretty good game. I thought the story is what really brought it together. :3
vaan and penelo i didn't so much mind them but i didn't understand why there were there o.o; and i hate vaan and ashe together it just ruins everything she had with rashler! i just think ashe should stay single :3
So in my opinion
charcters were ok (a lot just i ddin't care about)
story was pretty good
battle system sucked.
graphics- amazing
and yeah!
have any of you played the sequel? revenet wings?

XgoldenyunaX wrote:The protagonist has almost nothing to do with the actual story

That's what everyone thinks! Vaan has EVERYTHING to do with the story! Remember that Reks was killed by Gabranth. Vaan decided to join Ashe in order to find his brother's assassin! That's why he is a member of the party. And Square Enix already said FFXII has no protagonist, just like FFXIII. Everyone in the party is a protagonist.

XgoldenyunaX wrote:And the game literally almost played itself. You barley had to do anything than wait for the attack bar to load up.

You do know you can turn off gambits, don't you?

FoudroyantSun wrote:
have any of you played the sequel? revenant wings?

I have! Can't say I loved it... I think it was ok for a sequel... The gameplay was fun but the game had way too many characters! I got to the end of the game but I stopped playing it right before the final boss xD

ashe12mariana wrote:That's what everyone thinks! Vaan has EVERYTHING to do with the story! Remember that Reks was killed by Gabranth. Vaan decided to join Ashe in order to find his brother's assassin! That's why he is a member of the party.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought he was just caught by Balthier and Fran while he was stealing nethicite and ended up thinking he found his brothers killer. He didn't believe Basch. In the end he was just tagging along.

XgoldenyunaX wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought he was just caught by Balthier and Fran while he was stealing nethicite and ended up thinking he found his brothers killer. He didn't believe Basch. In the end he was just tagging along.

That's true but Vaan believes Basch as soon as they exit the Barheim Passage, which is pretty early in the game. Balthier and Fran were the ones who ended up following Vaan and Ashe. After Jahara, Balthier said something like "as long as I'm here, I might as well see how this all ends". Remember that after Rabanastre, Balthier and Fran had nothing more to do with Vaan. He asked them for help to rescue Penelo and eventually, because of their friendship, Balthier decided to join Ashe.

ashe12mariana wrote:

XgoldenyunaX wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought he was just caught by Balthier and Fran while he was stealing nethicite and ended up thinking he found his brothers killer. He didn't believe Basch. In the end he was just tagging along.

That's true but Vaan believes Basch as soon as they exit the Barheim Passage, which is pretty early in the game. Balthier and Fran were the ones who ended up following Vaan and Ashe. After Jahara, Balthier said something like "as long as I'm here, I might as well see how this all ends". Remember that after Rabanastre, Balthier and Fran had nothing more to do with Vaan. He asked them for help to rescue Penelo and eventually, because of their friendship, Balthier decided to join Ashe.

I think Balthier just joined them because of the nechicite. His father went mad on that stuff and that's why he followed them.
Damn. You can interpret a bunch in the acting of the characters.
You're right. I was forgetting Reks for a moment there. ._.*

I have! Can't say I loved it... I think it
was ok for a sequel... The gameplay was fun but the game had way too
many characters! I got to the end of the game but I stopped playing it
right before the final boss xD

aww you should finish it! just final leap!
i have not played it so i wanted to know if it was any good! i'd probably play it even if it did suck! xD

And, in my opinion (I can't claim to know all I'm talking about, since I haven't finished; just my thoughts), Vaan is Ashe's only actual friend. He can see Rasler when he appears just as plainly as Ashe and he's the one she talks to about it. So, in my opinion, he's pretty dang important. Vaan brings the whole story together; if it weren't for him, Balthier and Fran would have carried on their merry way doing whatever it is they do for a living, Ashe would have tried to keep working at undermining the government with her pitiful resistance and eventually, she would have been caught by guards, because, if I remember correctly, it was Vaan who got her out of that little pickle.

The way I see it, Penelo is the useless one. It might be because I just don't like her (the way she oggles at Vaan sometimes it a bit irritating) and her only real point was getting kidnapped and making Vaan not one of those little emo kid orphans who have no friends.

So, to sum it up, no Vaan, no story. The way I see it, Vaan is the main character here (but that might be because I always choose him for party leader, hahaha).

As for Framfrit, I might sound totally stupid, but what do you mean by axillary party? I think for bosses, I usually play whoever is in my "cycle" at that time, plus Vaan. I cycle through all the characters depending on when they level up so I don't have some characters way out in the leveling stratesphere and some way below (if I played like that, Penelo would still be at like, level nineteen). I think I usually end up with Vaan, Balthier and Fran or Vaan, Ashe and Penelo.

I keep Ashe and Penelo on mainly healing, but I have Ashe attack much more often than Penelo. And Vaan I generally just try to beat the crap out of Framfrit with the highest possible strength weapon in my inventory. I always keep gambits off on Vaan so I feel like I'm actually playing him and letting the other characters do what they will with what I've assigned them. I guess I do like to take out big chunks of health at one time; I feel like if I don't then he's going to chew me up and spit me out again.

(for all leveling games I play, no matter what "beating the game" takes I generally level as far as I can go, just because it gives me this weird sense of accomplishment, hahaha.)

An auxiliary party is the three you're not using when the battle starts. Like, I stick with Basch for heavy hitting, Ashe for healing/magic using, and Fran for overall support. the other three stay in the background with full HP and MP. They come in and revive as quickly as possible if needed.

I'd suggest, equipping Ashe with a long range weapon since she has low HP, and make sure that your mage has soft armour on, mage/leather. If you have bravery, use it. I don't remember when you get it though.Here are the stats, in case you're interested.

Sometimes a grind is more useful though.

Hmm; I'll have to see if I have any long-range weapons; I may have sold them all since they're pretty low in strength.

Oh yeah; I keep a party waiting for "just in case" moments, but like I said, I never really know who it is depending on who was in my party when I entered the battle. I'm not really strategic when it comes to stuff like that, I guess.

Define "soft armor"?

Do you even use ranged weapons? You're worse then John. >.> Having ranged weapons can get you out of an enemies range. You know that area of effect attack that espers do? You can totally step out of that, ranged weapons help you do that. Just because they have a lower attack doesn't make them useless.

Well, It doesn't matter who you start out with, you can always switch characters/weapons/armour during combat. But before hand is the time you want to do all that stuff.
There are three types of armour Magic, Leather, Metal.

The softs are:
Magic/Mage armour is the lightest/softest, it isn't very good defense-wise physically, however, it raises a characters MP, magic, and magic defense more then the other two types.
Leather armour is the other light type. It's the middle point between heavy and light. It doesn't impend on your speed, I'm pretty sure, which makes it useful for bows/crossbows/guns as they are the slowest weapons, and doesn't take down magic much.

When I need to use ranged attacks, I tend to use spells rather than weapons; so I'll generally have a person equipped with a dagger or something, but have their gambit set to cast some devastating spells; not just on physical attacks. I used to use ranged weapons quite a bit, but it came to be that my characters were out of range with the rest of the party. I know that I keep Fran with bows alone; she always has a ranged weapon, and I try buy ones that have a high strength so that I keep things balanced. I'm just not sure if I kept guns or low-strength bows around for other party members when I had things like axes that were much better for my other party members at that time.

Ohh, I see what you mean; it's been awhile since I picked it up (a couple months maybe), so I'm out of practice with the lingo and all. I'm pretty sure I have my "mage" characters set with all that sort of armor, but I'd have to go back and doublecheck to be sure.

Oh, by the way, if you ever decide to have a straight up mage in your party, I'd suggest getting a Rod. Or a staff. They make your spells so much better. they may be useless for physical attacking but with spells they're totally beast.

Oh, okay; I'll definitely look into that. I'm probably gonna have to head elsewhere and stock up on some new gear and then go back to fight Framfrit.