Great. That was the only aspect of the game that I totally hated. Other than that, the game is very sophisticated and requires alot of time. That's a major plus. I probably won't purchase a Strat guide. They take away the fun.

11/9/2006 1:19:07 AM

Yeah, I'm a purist. They're making traversing FF games so easy that it's pretty difficult not to know where to go. I might check out the guide when I'm on my second time through the game so I can experience stuff that I missed out on the first go-around.

I personally miss the "order" that random battles had. Though the gambit system is nice, I still kinda have the urge to want to keep track of everyone's HP during boss battles.

11/9/2006 7:32:13 AM

I so just kicked Rogue Tomato's ass

11/9/2006 11:02:54 AM

Quote :

"I'm at work and wanting to go home and play, but for all of you who have played a lot.. how much do you use the quickenings and summons? I can see the quickenings being nice but they take all your MP if you only have one... How long did it take you to get them? "

In my opinion quickenings should be used for one reason and that is a boss fight. Many of the bosses will throw some big damage spell or effect when the HP his HP gets to a certain %. The idea is fight normally until right before he gets ready to cast his evil spell and then start q-chains. Hopefully you will get a good chain and this will finish him off.

In the later part of the games it has become easier and easier to dispatch of bosses without even casting any quickenings. I do this by complete attack power. With all my passive skills acquired, I have 2 of my fighters with heavy damage weapons, berserked, and hasted. In this fashion, each of my characters can do up to 4k of damage each hit. Considering a Q-chain might pull off 20k of damage for an average chain you can see how quickly just attacking can kill off enemies. In this setup most normal enemies don't even get a hit off before they are dead. For bosses, its nice because they can be dead ~20-30 seconds after the battle starts. Downside to 2 berserkers is the lack of stealing so I usually have just 1 berserker in battle during normal gameplay.

As for espers, I haven't really used em that much. Honestly haven't needed to. This reminds me of a discussion I was having with someone one time about FF8. His style of play centered his play around using Guardians and I centered my play around junctioning strong spells to my attacks. Both would do crazy damage but considering to warmup and cooldown time for summons, regular attacking was way more efficient.

============

Quote :

"Are the battles still random like the previous ffs'? "

As has been mentioned the answer to this is no. However, you should know that there are random-esq battles in the game. These aren't random so much as an enemy is triggered to intersect your path as you go by. In this manner you can't avoid the fight. Many corridors and narrow passages are like this so that when you go down it, things will converge on you from above/side. In many cases taking an alternate path would mean preventing the enemies from spawning and you wouldn't have to fight.

============

hydro290, Good counterpost to the Mist charges. I believe you have captured the very essence of why it is important to use Mist Charges versus using a quickening when given the option. During the first few quickenings, using a Mist Charge versus a Quickening is a good idea. This will allow 1 or 2 of the characters to chain several times before the others have to pitch in. Eventually, the timing becomes an issue with less than a second left on the timer. At this point you prob want to unleash the quickenings that you have available.

11/9/2006 9:35:49 PM

^Thats awesome. I was always swept away by these ff games. You spend so much time wrapped up in them, that you inevitably develop a connection with the characters. I guess that also why the developers make the game so long. A great story line + length = hooked.

However, the last ff game I came close to beating was 7, with Cloud Striffe. Then I think the next one was X or so. It was the one where you begin as a cadet, you later fight a witch (then she joins your team). I cannot remember what ff game it was. I ended up giving up on it for some odd reason.

11/10/2006 1:29:46 AM

that would have been the next one, 8

11/10/2006 2:54:07 AM

so i finally broke down and bought it a few days ago

so far so good

not sure i understand the quickenings yet

11/10/2006 4:01:20 AM

^What about the GRE's???

I guess I'm gonna have to break down as well and cop this shit

11/10/2006 8:12:13 AM

i know right

11/10/2006 1:46:59 PM

I'm sort of stuck at the part where Ba'Gamnan ambushes your party in the Bhujerba mines. Well, not stuck, but the first time I faced him, I died because my entire party was silenced. Need to give it another shot tonight.

11/11/2006 8:11:00 PM

I see right now, I'm going to have to purchase this game.

11/11/2006 8:24:46 PM

^^ you don't have to fight them, you can just run

11/11/2006 8:27:08 PM

^^^ Yes, just haul ass. They stop chasing eventually.

11/11/2006 8:48:02 PM

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=459841&topic=31482828

Great technique for earning 200k in about 20 minutes. You have to be pretty far into the game to do it though.

11/12/2006 8:23:01 PM

awesome

that's EXACTLY where i am in the game

and i'm always poor

[Edited on November 13, 2006 at 1:40 AM. Reason : but i'm nowhere near level 50 so never mind]

11/13/2006 1:39:19 AM

Yeah, I'm about there at level 20, and this asshat said he was at 68 already.

11/13/2006 7:20:14 AM

this sucks.. I have not been able to play for over a week now with work and being out of town.. and I read this thread a lot while at work.. its like a damn tease!

11/13/2006 8:58:06 AM

So I'm curious to see what sort of gambits you guys are using. Since I'm not very far, I've got everyone basically attacking the party leader's target, and if unavailable, attacking anyone. One or two people will first check to see if ally's HP < 30%, then cast cure. So far it's been working out pretty good for me, but I really need to go buy new gambits.

11/13/2006 9:29:21 AM

My roomie got this on gamefly and I made the mistake of picking up the controller Friday afternoon.

20 hours of gameplay later, and I'm screwed. I know I'll just end up heading straight home after work to kick the roomie off the ps2 so I can play some more. It's so addictive.

11/13/2006 9:37:50 AM

thats all ive really got as far as gambits go

ive got a couple set up for flying creatures too, either attack or magic

is there a way to set up a gambit to do something only once? like, can i get my guy to attempt to steal once every enemy?

11/13/2006 11:52:27 AM

Quote :

"is there a way to set up a gambit to do something only once? like, can i get my guy to attempt to steal once every enemy?"

yeah, use the 'enemy HP = 100%' gambit

11/13/2006 12:26:40 PM

where are the gambits for enemies that are weak to certain elements??

11/13/2006 12:44:16 PM

ahhhh
that makes sense

11/13/2006 1:17:39 PM

like said: enemy = 100% hp and have the person who has that gambit assigned as party leader.

everyone else attack leaders target. That's just how I like to set mine up (plus some thief gloves equipped). I normally like to have a few before those, such as attack critical foe and other random critical heals assigned, but normally steal, attack, steal attack, kill lowest is how it works.

Also, yesterday I did get a foe=ice vulnerable gambit. Out in front of the second temple (which I am currently getting my ass whooped in).

11/13/2006 3:21:06 PM

just curious if i'm reading it right.. is this how a battle with two enemies would go?

ABC are our characters

A (leader): steal from 1
B/C: attack target 1
A: steal from 2
B/C: attack target 2
A/B/C: attack one with lower %?

for however many enemies...

11/13/2006 3:27:07 PM

that's how i have mine set up.

only time it really sucks is when i don't steal on first go round, but then I realize I'm being lazy and just do it manually

[Edited on November 13, 2006 at 4:07 PM. Reason : addon]

11/13/2006 4:06:45 PM

ugh damnit, this game is starting to consume my life

11/13/2006 8:33:02 PM

i tried using gambits to 'auto-steal' but it's just easier to do it manually

11/13/2006 11:06:31 PM

Gambit system needs an AND or something. Should be able to do someting like if Enemy HP = 100% and Is leader's target.

11/13/2006 11:35:46 PM

just have your party leader attack enemy hp=100% and everyone else attack party leader target.

Once I started looking at the gambit system as a set of logic gates, I've found that you can really set up just about anything.

11/14/2006 11:06:14 AM

The Bhujerba mines are a great place to level up and get items to sell early in the game

I got a chain of 111 on the skeletons and ended up making like 20,000 which I think is pretty good for early in the game...not to mention all the leveling up

11/14/2006 5:49:46 PM

The Nidhogg mark hunt in the bhujerba mines can be rather difficult at level 12

11/14/2006 8:19:00 PM

velias is by far the cheapest boss in the game so far, fucker just randomly casts firaga whenever he wants and usually kills 1-2 members of ur party

11/14/2006 9:17:22 PM

****spoiler on even cheaper method to beat velias****

Start out with quickenings. You can take a huge chunk of his health. At 50% he'll begin to cast his barriers and shells. This means he is about to cast his first firaga. At this time, all the party members are untargeted. This means you can remove all members from your party, and leave just 1 guy in (maybe equip that accessory that halves fire magic). After he's done, get a full party and pwn him.

11/14/2006 10:01:56 PM

Aha, I just beat that bird thing and the wall at the Tomb of Raithwall without being hit a single time. This game is fun, but it's kind of retarded.

11/16/2006 8:57:52 PM

OMG, im trying to play through Bully as fast as i can

11/16/2006 9:03:11 PM

I cannot play this game longer than an hour or two without getting a headache due to the damn camera angle... I'm still VERY early in the game

11/17/2006 10:39:51 AM

Quote :

"Aha, I just beat that bird thing and the wall at the Tomb of Raithwall without being hit a single time."

yeah that guy was easy

the next boss, though, ho ho!

11/17/2006 12:34:30 PM

did you beat both walls?

the first one was hard, especially since the bridge is so short compared to the second.

now im torn because i finally got ff3 too...

11/17/2006 12:50:26 PM

nah i ran from the first one, took out the second one though

i came back much later and beat the first, but forgot to get the treasure >_<

11/17/2006 12:58:08 PM

Quote :

"did you beat both walls?"

I beat both walls, the bird before, and the esper after, without being attacked once.

It's kind of stupid how easy the bosses are compared to the mobs.

11/17/2006 1:40:47 PM

wtf

how is that possible

are you super-leved? mist chains?

that's ridiculous

11/17/2006 1:46:40 PM

Vaan and Ashe are level 18, everybody else is between 15 and 17. I don't know if that's super leveled or not. I haven't spent a lot of time grinding, but I haven't just gone straight through the game either.

And yeah, basically, at full MP I can generally get off 15k-20k in the first quickening chain, and 5k-6k in each additional one (of which I can do three more).

11/17/2006 1:50:50 PM

It sounds like you've gotten farther along on the license board than I was at that point. I think only one character had a quickening when I was at the Tomb.

11/17/2006 2:01:15 PM

I have the second level quickening for everybody except Fran.

11/17/2006 2:02:26 PM

Damn, you're WAY past where I was on the quickening front. I can't even conceive how you pulled that off.

11/17/2006 2:21:35 PM

I'm just baller, I guess.

11/17/2006 2:37:24 PM

Game sounds fun, but I've decided not to get any more games until January 07. I've got at least 5 games this month.

11/17/2006 2:57:12 PM

Quote :

"I beat both walls, the bird before, and the esper after, without being attacked once. It's kind of stupid how easy the bosses are compared to the mobs."

pretty soon you'll get to the point where you won't even need use quickenings/espers. the last 3-4 boss battles i've just had my guys attack and 45 seconds later i win. My original opinions have changed a lot and the more I play the game the less and less I like it.

11/17/2006 5:21:27 PM

didn't FF8 have scaling mobs that were always your level.

something like that would be helpful

11/17/2006 6:20:51 PM