^^ Thanks. How good does it look on an HDTV and do you think its worth getting component cables for?

12/3/2006 2:57:47 PM

It looks good on my Sony 32-in CRT. I use S-video since most PS2 games don't support progressive scan.

[Edited on December 3, 2006 at 3:04 PM. Reason : .]

12/3/2006 3:03:58 PM

i just saw that some nerds figured out how to autolevel to 100 using gambits on negalmur in the stillshrine

12/3/2006 9:00:50 PM

link? out of curiosity

12/3/2006 9:13:10 PM

http://faqs.ign.com/articles/746/746485p1.html

12/3/2006 9:29:08 PM

yeah, I'm about to go do that


if you set all the gambits up right you can just leave it on while you sleep and level up a ton

12/3/2006 11:00:23 PM

heh, i'm smacking myself. somehow, I never noticed the Charge ability.

12/3/2006 11:10:19 PM

lol, self: <10% mp :: charge

12/4/2006 1:35:17 AM

gilgamesh is my bitch

12/4/2006 7:32:41 AM

^^where do you get that?

12/4/2006 7:42:01 AM

^ im pretty sure that gambit becomes available to buy from a vendor

12/4/2006 8:17:35 AM

Damn WoW. I rolled a horde warrior with some guildies and I have been so preoccupied between that and my normal raiding that I have been unable to play FFXII in a few weeks.

12/4/2006 9:32:49 AM

i just beat catopblepas in 15 seconds.

12/4/2006 5:59:34 PM

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=448759&page=1

help this guy out you nice nice people

12/6/2006 10:07:51 PM

I can't find this game in any of the video rental stores around here...do any of you have a copy I could "rent" from you? I'll pay you the going rate if need be, I just want to play the damn thing. If you can help me out, shoot me a PM...thanks

[Edited on December 6, 2006 at 10:09 PM. Reason : hahaha thanks dnl]

12/6/2006 10:09:01 PM

just beat the game... not impressed with the final bosses or the ending

12/7/2006 1:06:51 AM

after you beat the game, is it just ending > credits > mainscreen

or

does it go back into the world and let you try to find the other marks?

12/7/2006 8:15:15 AM

ending > credits > mainscreen

12/7/2006 8:44:34 AM

the plot bosses are never impressive...its the optionals that are the true challenge of any final fantasy.

12/8/2006 9:36:37 AM

bingo.. hence the mark with 50 million HP

12/8/2006 9:57:29 AM

there are 45 marks in the game

that's enough of a challenge, who cares if the plot bosses are easy

12/8/2006 11:31:51 AM

I'm not tooo far into the game (out of the mines and back to Rabanastre with that weird stone), but I've spent a lot of time leveling up, and so far nothing I've encountered has given me any trouble (except rare things like the Saurian and Werewolf monsters that are waaay over my head), not even previous marks. I'm working on my fourth mark now, the Cluckatrice, and it's kicking my ass. I've tried casting all kinds of magic on it (as well as things like protect and shell on myself), but nothing seems to stick except blind which doesnt last long at all.

What does first aid do? I can't really tell from the description and it hasn't been used in-game. I've tried all kinds of gambit combinations (I have 6 gambit slots on Vaan now, could spent a fe LP to get a couple more if I wanted) and attack strategies, but I refuse to admit this thing is beyond my capability. Any advice?


BTW, I'm the guy above that was trying to find a copy of the game...borrowed it from a friend temporarily but he'll most likely want it back when he leaves for break, so if anyone out there has a copy I can buy/borrow/rent, the offer still stands...

12/8/2006 2:20:36 PM

damn.. i've had this game forever and you are already past me... i'm still really early in the game.. liek 4 hours into it... I just escaped the dungeon.. lol

12/8/2006 2:24:09 PM

hahaha which is EXACTLY the reason I never should have started playing this game. I don't really ever play video games anymore, but I'm a huge fan of the FF series so whenever I get my hands on a new one it's an all-consuming thing until I'm finished with it.

That said, I really really like this one. There is a lot of depth to the gameplay, and I like the three dimensional visual aspect. I do kindof miss the oldschool turn-based interface, but it's really nice now that I can fight and level when I want and run right by everything when I'm just trying to get to point B without hassle.

[Edited on December 8, 2006 at 2:38 PM. Reason : more]

12/8/2006 2:35:14 PM

okay, got the ghost thing too, and i have a full party and still can't beat the cluckatrice. fuck it, on with the game

12/8/2006 4:06:56 PM

what lvl are you?

12/8/2006 4:55:52 PM

Vaan is 12...I'm on Bhujerba now so the cluck will have to wait

[Edited on December 8, 2006 at 5:04 PM. Reason : sf]

12/8/2006 5:03:26 PM

I tried to keep this relatively spoiler-free.

So what do the people who've finished it think of the game? The battle system is second-to-none IMO. The quickenings might've made some bosses too easy, but I still had a great time. The most important point to me about the battle system is that it always kept me engaged and rarely, if ever, felt tedious or monotonous. This the only FF that I can say that for.

The story was OK, but the character development was lacking. It saves us the pain of sitting through melodramatic BS, but it made the finale feel kind of weak. Penelo is pretty much just along for the ride. Sometimes it felt like a "fetch quest", even though the story has a good justification for each part. "Go here to get this, wait that's not going to work, let's go talk to this guy. He says we should go here and get this, hey that thing is good, but now that guy is dead. Wait, let's go here, etc."

Soundtrack was great, but it doesn't have the catchy themes I'm used to. A few FF Tactics remixes would've been nice, since they take place in the same world. I'd be fine with the "Marks" sidequests if you didn't have to take so many steps to go on a hunt. I never cared for most of the minigames in other FFs anyway.

12/8/2006 5:46:07 PM

^^ Where is that one? I can't remember if I beat that one or not. I'm not that far ahead of you, but if that mark is anything like the Nidhogg in the Lhusu Mines, then you're fucked at that low level.

12/8/2006 5:54:36 PM

The cluckatrice is in the giza plains south of rabanastre, if you find the mark you have to talk to the girl in the pen in the little nomad village.

I'm out of the magacite mines in bhujerba, but inside them is an AWESOME place to level up...one of the bridges in the mine has an unlimited spawning of skeletons, i got about a 60-chain (each one giving about 97exp) before I continued. Afterwards I bought that 18,000gil hunter book thing so now supposedly I'll find better loot now. let's hope it pays for itself

i think i'm done for a while...i need to attend to my life

12/8/2006 6:22:06 PM

to quickly increase your loot level (color of the dropped loot, little bags to black bags to eventually big gold coins) avoid picking any loot up while chaining and after about 20 kills you will be on the big gold coins (top loot drop) then you can start picking all of those up

if you just pick up everything that drops you can get into the 100s and still not have the top loot level.

12/8/2006 6:36:33 PM

its not what loot you pick up...its the type of mob...if you kill 10 mobs that are the SAME like the skeletons in the lhusu mines, they'll start dropping better loot with buffs like +hp, +mp, or shell. as soon as you kill another TYPE of mob, like a bat, the chain is cut.

as for cluckatrice, its an ELITE mob, and its around lvl 17, plus the 4 elite adds, its babies, are lvl 12. don't attempt till at least lvl 15 character average, and try to get some quickenings. i dont think you'll have haste or berzerk by then...but the fight is all about crowd control. kill the babies first. have decent cure and pheonix down gambits on everyone but your tank.

parabol - first aid is only allowed to be used when one of characters is already in critical condition, i.e. below 10% health. i would put it on top of your normal cure gambits as a last ditch, no mp cost, effort to stay alive.

PM me if you have any other questions. im pretty far. ive only got 5 hunts left and a couple other side quests.

12/8/2006 7:37:12 PM

forget the cluckatric thing, its a beast, ull need to do plenty of level upping to kill it. so just go on with the story.

i thought the game way extremely fun, but it didnt contain the quality of story that most FF have (except ff 9, i remember that game sucking). the story never really changed like most games. theres always that one part of the game where you feel like everythings changed (world blowing up in ff6, being able to go ot the moon in ff4, etc)

once u own the genji gloves and the sword from gilgamesh, the games rediculously easy. i never used quickens that often, id rather just jump the clown im fighting.

As for having better chains, when u see the chain number flashing, u have a few seconds to kill the next one to level up the chain. i had 3 chain level under 15 chains b4. and buy all the books from the bazaar, they give u better loot from bad guys.

another piece of advice, id pic your 3 favorite characters the whole game and stick with them. i had vaan baltheir and fran at level 65 and the rest were at 11.

penelos useless. and get quickens as soon as u can, not so u can actually use them but they boost mp big time.

12/8/2006 7:47:25 PM

my picks are vaan, ashe, and penelo...vaan is the best tank, ashe is the best black mage, and penelo has the most MP for healing and support.

12/8/2006 7:54:55 PM

all of my characters have every spot on the license board

I don't like dedicating one person as a tank, mage, etc. etc

12/8/2006 8:40:05 PM

Quote :

"its not what loot you pick up...its the type of mob...if you kill 10 mobs that are the SAME like the skeletons in the lhusu mines, they'll start dropping better loot with buffs like +hp, +mp, or shell. as soon as you kill another TYPE of mob, like a bat, the chain is cut. "

what im saying is you can kill 100 bats in a row working on chain and still not be on the top loot level (big gold coins) by skipping the first few loots you can skip up the loot chain much faster.

12/8/2006 8:56:21 PM

I'll have to try that next time I'm leveling, sounds interesting. Right now I'm stuck at this damn part where I have to run around shouting that Basch lives...can't get the bar to go fast enough and I keep running into those guards

12/8/2006 11:24:44 PM

there are some guys standing around with some sort of official title (not guards) that you shout near and they bump you up 20-30 % each time

12/8/2006 11:31:35 PM

yeah, this is getting pretty annoying

[Edited on December 8, 2006 at 11:55 PM. Reason : nevermind, found the pub and hit a goldmine ]

12/8/2006 11:51:57 PM

man you guys have to get farther in the game.
much better leveling up toward the mid and end of the game.

12/9/2006 12:14:52 AM

shout at the parahias...or however its spelled.


and im sorry about the loot thing...skipping loot is dumb. its just your notion of some coincidence that happened for you once early, but thats not how it works. the loot is made upon the kill, not when you pick it up. your first description of how to get the "gold coins" as you put it robbed you of your credibility...

honestly, if you want the best loot, buy the grimores and steal from every mob with theif gloves. chains dont mean shit. if you got one past 50, you get the sky pirates trophy, thats all you really need.

and i dont care if everyone's got all the liscenses...their stats dont equal. penelo will ALWAYS have the most MP on an equal level playing field. vaan will have the speed, strength and vit combo to be the best tank. ashe will have more magic power...there are still roles to be defined and when this is so, you are more efficient.

12/9/2006 3:38:22 AM

perhaps you should give it a try, as its described here. i even bolded the relevant parts.

reaching the top tier loot drops within ~20 kills consistantly


http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/final_fantasy_xii_e.txt

Quote :

"viii. CHAINING | [CHN1] o----------------o As you fight through the game's leagues of enemies, you'll often find a chain counter that tallies up a number of creatures you've killed. Chaining occurs when you kill one enemy (ex: Gespenst) or one type of enemy repeatedly (ex: Striker & Wendigo). The chain breaks when you kill a different type of enemy than the ones you've been killing or enter a town area, thus resetting the chain. So just what is the chain for? Well, chaining allows you to go up "levels" which govern the amount and rarity of the enemies' dropped items. Most rare items have an extremely low percentage of being dropped regularly, but by going up chain levels, their probability of occuring rises. Anyone can simply kill stuff and go up a level, but what may not be obvious is that by avoiding the dropped loot, you can go up chain levels sooner. As the chain levels rise and you get more items of better quality, you'll also find that picking up bags of loot can cure your current party members as well as give some positive statuses on occasion (Protect, Shell, etc.). The loot bags gain qualities gradually, healing first and incidental statuses after that. One tip for chaining is that using Break on monsters does NOT break chains, but lets you get good drops from them just like you had chained them over and over. For example, if you kill a bunch of Wyldhares and petrify a Sprinter, the chain remains intact and you may get a rarer item from the Sprinter than normal. This "trick" is useful for getting better drops from enemies that are a pain in the rear to chain manually (Entites, rare game, etc.) "

12/11/2006 3:39:09 PM

I cannot touch this game again until after finals

12/11/2006 3:43:41 PM

^ i stopped playing weeks ago for projects + finals.

cant wait to get back at it next week (over 40 hours in, this break was hard XD)

12/12/2006 4:22:31 AM

Here are some CGI from the FFXII DS game





I don't know if I should be annoyed that Vaan and Penelo look like kids now or disturbed at what a piece of jailbait Penelo's become.

12/13/2006 12:20:39 AM

~

12/13/2006 6:10:45 AM

She's 18 when she's wearing those pants. Age of consent is like 12 in Ivalice anyway.

If you're low level and trying to kill the cluckatrice try getting two characters with at least level 1 quickenings. Use Vaan's and get him to do 3 red spirals to trigger the Inferno area attack. Your other character can do the same (e.g. Fires of War x3) to let you dispose of the Chickatrices. Use the same technique to take out the werewolves and run back to the save point and try again if it doesn't work the first time.

12/14/2006 3:11:58 PM

Thanks...though I took care of him a long time ago

Workin my way through the Henne Mines now, characters are all at lvl 25

12/14/2006 3:14:42 PM

There's a great room in the Henne Mines where like 25 blue flans will appear. If you teach everyone Fira, it's a great place to experience/loot/LP.

12/14/2006 4:45:11 PM

yeah i leveled up my entire party there right after my last post haha...all at 26 now haha

i saw all those jellies drop and i was like "ooooh hell yes."

12/14/2006 4:57:03 PM