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Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age |OT| You Had One Job!

Nohar

Member
Heh, even with Larsa, some hunts are really tough (I took 3 weeks off the game).

Although, I found something rather odd: my Fran, wielding a Main Gauche and a Shield, with 65 in Parry, doesn't seem to be able to parry anything from high-level hunts once they turn red ( < 20% HP). That's rather annoying, especially when I am counting on her to soak up damage with Decoy and Bubble. Do hunts suddenly gain perfect accuracy once they get angry?
 
Yeah a lot of Hunts get a bunch of invisible buffs when they hit low health: basically anything of the "defense/magic attack/strength doubles when in critical health" skills the player can get, plus ignore evade and ignore vitality (which impacts status effect success rate/duration).
 
Although, I found something rather odd: my Fran, wielding a Main Gauche and a Shield, with 65 in Parry, doesn't seem to be able to parry anything from high-level hunts once they turn red ( < 20% HP). That's rather annoying, especially when I am counting on her to soak up damage with Decoy and Bubble. Do hunts suddenly gain perfect accuracy once they get angry?

Some of them gain Ignore Evasion, increased defense, or have the ability to reduce action time to 0, meaning they can spam their special attacks/spellcasting as much as they like without waiting for the action to queue.
 
When you first get to it.

I wrecked it with reflect/aero spam on the first meeting but even if that's a real mechanic, I consider it cheesing.

Just tried this on the first wall and it barely puts a dent in it. It regains all of its health by the time I can cast aero again.

Used my only reflectga mote too, so I'm going to just load my previous save.

Any ideas?
 

8byte

Banned
Just started playing this today. Are there any "missable" items or things I need to look out for like FFXII Vanilla? Or just the maps trophy?
 

Shahed

Member
Just started playing this today. Are there any "missable" items or things I need to look out for like FFXII Vanilla? Or just the maps trophy?
I'm not even sure if the Maps trophy is missable, but whenever you go to places that may seem like one time areas (of which there are few), just try to go into every room at least once to be safe.

As for other potential missed stuff? If you use a Shikari, be careful which Quickenings you unlock. As long as you unlock the most expensive one (125Lp?) that leads to Yagyu Darkblade & Mesa, you're good though. The only other thing I'd say is you'll do a Hunt early on in Bhujerba/Lhusu Mines that will reward you with a Great Serpentskin. Don't sell it since it can lead to you getting a Golden Amulet for double LP early inna sidequest chain when making some medicine. I mean it's not the end of the world if you since you can get additional Golden Amulets later, and you'll reach the point where you have more LP than you can use. It just lets you get it faster but it doesn't really matter.

But in general you can play however you want, whenever you want. Nothing much at all that can be missed in the Zodiac version of the game

Yo how do you get giza plains to change from dry weather to rainy weather?

It's based on time iirc

Yeah it's based on time. Not sure what the exact formula is, but it will change eventually. There's a Seeq near the southern gate who'll tell you if the transition is close or far away
 

Cornbread78

Member
So how far into the game before you can choose a subclass? I finally got Penelo back in my party last night, but for sone reason she was an archer.... I wanted her to be a black mage.. now I have Fran and Penelo as archers with no black mage, wtf...
 
So how far into the game before you can choose a subclass? I finally got Penelo back in my party last night, but for sone reason she was an archer.... I wanted her to be a black mage.. now I have Fran and Penelo as archers with no black mage, wtf...
Right after tomb of Raithwall boss (first esper).
 

Vashetti

Banned
So how far into the game before you can choose a subclass? I finally got Penelo back in my party last night, but for sone reason she was an archer.... I wanted her to be a black mage.. now I have Fran and Penelo as archers with no black mage, wtf...

You must have made her an archer when she was first in your party.

The game never chooses for you.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Yeah, at no point will the game assign jobs to your characters. It 100% requires user input, and there's even a confirmation prompt before it's locked in.

You unlock everyone's second jobs at around the 25% point. I actually got that far before deciding I was dissatisfied with my selections and wound up restarting and quickly catching back up. I would never have done that were it not for the x2 and x4 fast forward options.

Someone above asked about missables? There are a bunch of "soft" missables that could potentially net you later loot earlier than normal. But they did a pretty decent job of getting rid of the "hard" or one-time missable traps that irked folks a decade ago. One big exception is the Genji armor set (four pieces) that have to be stolen from two one-time battles with Gilgamesh, a special elite hunt that you can optionally engage in much later in the game. The hunts aren't missable (just optional), but the two fights provide the only means for acquiring the full armor set from within the campaign. Some or all of these pieces may be acquired via the Trial mode, but I can't actually speak to that. If you're not familiar with Gilgamesh from earlier FFs or his catchy battle theme, just make a mental note of the name and look it up before finishing the fights.

I've read in a few different places that the maps for the one-time dungeon locations do NOT apply towards the Cartographer trophy. I'm not taking any chances, but it seems like only the maps to the main, repeatable parts of the game world apply.
 

Ludens

Banned
Can you tell me what I should get in Great Crystal in order to 100% the game in terms of trophies (spells, tech etc, bosses etc)?

I did the following:

-killed Ultima and got the Excalibur
-got the supersecret invisible shield.

Since I'm still at the save crystal, I would clear out this area now so I can forget about it (also, do I need to come back later for hunts etc?).
 

Vashetti

Banned
Can you tell me what I should get in Great Crystal in order to 100% the game in terms of trophies (spells, tech etc, bosses etc)?

I did the following:

-killed Ultima and got the Excalibur
-got the supersecret invisible shield.

Since I'm still at the save crystal, I would clear out this area now so I can forget about it (also, do I need to come back later for hunts etc?).

Hastega.
 

sotojuan

Member
Beat the game last night - didn't do much side content so I feel like I missed out. I have a NG+ save file but the Level 90 might ruin the challenge of some hunts.

All in all - pretty good game!
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Nah, I'll just truck through since I can "fix" the issue pretty soon.

If you care about being able to utilize all 12 jobs the game has to offer, you won't be able to "fix" having two archers. Jobs don't get replaced, they stack. With 6 party members, each capable of learning 2 jobs; the only way to have access to all 12 jobs is to give each of your characters unique jobs. With 2 archers on the team, you'll have full access to only 11 of the 12, at best.

It's NOT a big deal, because the game is not balanced around having access to 12 jobs at once. Almost every party combination you can think of is viable since the game's difficulty is utterly broken. Hell, for min/maxers, the most optimized team builds do involve having duplicate jobs and leaving some of the weaker jobs out by the wayside.

Just making sure you have all the info before you make a decision.
 

Cornbread78

Member
If you care about being able to utilize all 12 jobs the game has to offer, you won't be able to "fix" having two archers. Jobs don't get replaced, they stack. With 6 party members, each capable of learning 2 jobs; the only way to have access to all 12 jobs is to give each of your characters unique jobs. With 2 archers on the team, you'll have full access to only 11 of the 12, at best.

It's NOT a big deal, because the game is not balanced around having access to 12 jobs at once. Almost every party combination you can think of is viable since the game's difficulty is utterly broken. Hell, for min/maxers, the most optimized team builds do involve having duplicate jobs and leaving some of the weaker jobs out by the wayside.

Just making sure you have all the info before you make a decision.


Meh, I don't think there are any trophies associated with it and I probably won't use many of the skills anyhow, so I'll just suck it up..
 

Holmes

Member
So how far into the game before you can choose a subclass? I finally got Penelo back in my party last night, but for sone reason she was an archer.... I wanted her to be a black mage.. now I have Fran and Penelo as archers with no black mage, wtf...
Bleh, Archer's the worst job, so to have two really sucks.
 
Yeah a lot of Hunts get a bunch of invisible buffs when they hit low health: basically anything of the "defense/magic attack/strength doubles when in critical health" skills the player can get, plus ignore evade and ignore vitality (which impacts status effect success rate/duration).

Yeah, it really gets nuts in these Hunts in those last moment. Gil Snapper already had Slow inflicted on it, but on its last sliver of health goes really nuts casting Blizzara all over the damn place with Haste speed. Seems like the debuffs get ignored as well when they're on their last legs, which I like as a last desperate attempt to survive kind of thing but it does make it frustrating when they suddenly knock all of my party out who were previously buffed up and on full health. All of the party are busy healing up whilst you have to cast a chain of Quickenings which you hope line up to give that finishing blow. Trickster is another one that just insane in the last moments, gets intense.
 

Shahed

Member
Stop twisting the blade in my heart will ya!

Oh well.

Which is the "worst" and least useful job that I can skip?
I didn't have an Uhlan since I went double monk accidentally, but I didn't feel like I missed out by it, even if my Zodiac Spear went to waste. If it wasn't for Burning Bow and the fact Archer also have access to Addle/Shear which can be nice, I'd be perfectly happy dropping them too. Even still I'd only have an Archer if paired with a Red Mage, otherwise I'd say they're superfluous as well.

I'd like to have all the rest though. But ultimately there's no worst. This time around it's so much easier than the original FFXII.

I mean, machinist sucks though. Don't have one in my party and I'm not sorry.
Oh yeah MCH I found was barely useful. I overlooked it since I used Balthier a lot, but that was because he was my WHM. The best thing MCH did is give WHM good passive abilities like the Remedy Lores and Swiftness
 

SkylineRKR

Member
Machinist is useless. Early game it did kill some birds, and I guess Silent shot is nice at times. Archer is shit too, but it has higher damage than machinist and it can do breaker technicks. They also have phoenix down lores which is pretty good. The sole reason I like MCN is that you can pair it with a white mage and deal ranged damage if there is nothing to buff of heal.

Well I guess i'm sort of done with the game. I created Tournesol, beat Hell Wyrm and grabbed the shield with RNG manipulation (fuck those spawn rates). Then I went on to beat Yiazmat and finally Omega.

I have to say Hell Wyrm was great fun and didn't take long (Excalibur tears him apart). Yiazmat is just a bore fest and Omega I couldn't beat with anything other than using bubble belts, Self: Reverse and Any ally KO = Arise, I tried some things but he seems to ignore defense and everything. I never used the invisible stuff in this game though.
 

SMK

Member
The Mithuna with Dark Shot and Black Robes is a great combo for Machinist/Priest. Set up a gambit for Dark: Vulnerable = Attack and a secondary gambit for non elemental (I use Drain) or Holy attacks and you'll be set.
 

Balphon

Member
Stop twisting the blade in my heart will ya!

Oh well.

Which is the "worst" and least useful job that I can skip?

Time Mage probably offers the least. Red Mage and Machinist (w/ Famfrit) get all the useful time magic and crossbows are nothing special. The only thing you lose is Float.
 

semiconscious

Gold Member
Time Mage probably offers the least. Red Mage and Machinist (w/ Famfrit) get all the useful time magic and crossbows are nothing special. The only thing you lose is Float.

& haste. &, considering how long it takes to get hastega, it can come in pretty handy :) ...
 
Time Mage probably offers the least. Red Mage and Machinist (w/ Famfrit) get all the useful time magic and crossbows are nothing special. The only thing you lose is Float.

Nonsense. You get haste and slow, both of which are really useful against Hunts and more difficult enemies such as the rare enemies.
 

Shahed

Member
Time Mage will also give you 3x Swiftness passive ability which is probably the best thing on thre license board. You can then pair that with slower jobs like Knight

Until near the end of the game when my MNK/BLM got access to the higher Tier spells, I found my KNI/TIM to be the easily the best all round character I had in the party due to what they both offered
 
Got Ultima and Hastega, theres no way were expected to be able to do that without a guide.

They either needed to give us a map, or permanently remove the gates once we push the button.
 

Maledict

Member
Got Ultima and Hastega, theres no way were expected to be able to do that without a guide.

They either needed to give us a map, or permanently remove the gates once we push the button.

Half the game is like that. As much as this remaster has convinced me of the game's genius, it definitely serves as a prime example of old game design. A lot of this game was deliberately obscured, and one can only presume that was to sell strategy guides. It goes out of its way to conceal stuff from you,
 

Lightning

Banned
I restarted my game and made a master save after the Tomb of Raithwall without activating any jobs on my characters. It was actually harder than I thought it would be. Not being able to change your starting weapons meant i really had to rely on Vossler to dish out my damage.

But now I can restated from this save and choose any jobs and combinations I want when I want to play again or don't like a job combo rather than start from the beginning which is annoying as fuck.
 
Half the game is like that. As much as this remaster has convinced me of the game's genius, it definitely serves as a prime example of old game design. A lot of this game was deliberately obscured, and one can only presume that was to sell strategy guides. It goes out of its way to conceal stuff from you,

SE has a nasty tendency to do this for at least some high end quests in their mainline games.
 
I restarted my game and made a master save after the Tomb of Raithwall without activating any jobs on my characters. It was actually harder than I thought it would be. Not being able to change your starting weapons meant i really had to rely on Vossler to dish out my damage.

But now I can restated from this save and choose any jobs and combinations I want when I want to play again or don't like a job combo rather than start from the beginning which is annoying as fuck.

Vosslier killed that bird boss by himself on my playthrough. Telekensis is a late game technique for some reason, and i didnt have any ranged weapons.

This game is brilliant and dumb in so many ways.
 

Balphon

Member
Nonsense. You get haste and slow, both of which are really useful against Hunts and more difficult enemies such as the rare enemies.

Red Mage gets slow. Earlier access to haste is useful enough but single target buffs are annoying to maintain.

I'd still say it's the least useful class, overall.
 
Vosslier killed that bird boss by himself on my playthrough. Telekensis is a late game technique for some reason, and i didnt have any ranged weapons.

This game is brilliant and dumb in so many ways.

No Mages at all in your party either? No pole wielding party members either? Either of those would have attacked the bird enemies.

Red Mage gets slow. Earlier access to haste is useful enough but single target buffs are annoying to maintain.

I'd still say it's the least useful class, overall.

Not when compared to Archer or Machinist class. If you're talking about Mages specifically, maybe, but even then Haste is too good of a buff to say that. It's not like I would perm have my Red Mage in combat all the time, sometimes would have the Time Mage as the substitute to throw Slow at an enemy.
 

Balphon

Member
Bows and Guns are better than Crossbows which is reason enough to prefer Archer/Machinist to Time Mage. Machinist even gets all of the best time magic as I mentioned earlier.

Time Mage just doesn't offer a lot, even as a secondary job.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Meh, I don't think there are any trophies associated with it and I probably won't use many of the skills anyhow, so I'll just suck it up..

Yup. You'll be fine. That's why I started off my response with a big, fat "if."
No trophies for maxing out jobs, just one for accruing a large number of license points in total. And that should easily happen loooooong before you finish the game, so no big deal there either.

Enjoy!
 
Bows and Guns are better than Crossbows which is reason enough to prefer Archer/Machinist to Time Mage. Machinist even gets all of the best time magic as I mentioned earlier.

Time Mage just doesn't offer a lot, even as a secondary job.
I like TBM with KNI because KNI is pretty self-reliant as it is, and TBM is a good way to compliment the KNI as a Buffer. Gives your KNI with Bravery, Faith also Bubble, Berserk, Decoy, and Hastega + Swiftness 3. No other Mage gives the same selection of buffs + Swiftness 3, and the other ones that give Swiftness 3 (ARC or MCN) give not nearly as many buffs.

It's a good support buffer + healing when you're not rolling a main WHM. E.g. 2 main DPS characters (e.g. SHI/FOE +BSH/MNK or BSH/KNI) and you don't feel you need WHM levels of healing and just want support healing but all the important DPS buffs (Faith, Bubble, Berserk, Decoy, and Hastega).
 

SkylineRKR

Member
My Penelo is a Monk/TBM and shes prolly my fave char to use along with Ashe Knight/BLM. Shes fast as fuck, casts haste, bravery, float, slow has 99 STR and kicks the shit out of enemies with Kanya. Also heavy armor. She lacks a Genji glove license though, true. Fuck crossbows though.

But this is about the only FF where I love to nuke enemies with spells. Which is why I love Black Mages also. Because of the real time approach magic can really shine here, unlike in FFX where Lulu becomes fucking useless halfway through. Magic does outperform melee against groups and continues to do so endgame as well (for example, walk through Necrohol with Blizzard/aeroga gambits and you won't get ganked) and your magic pool even increases if you keep murdering. For single targets it can't cope with a melee combo but then there are the physical palings. The good thing about TZA is that you can pair this up, so my BLM can also go ham with Tournesol (still about 95 str I think, with the right gear).
 

Mendrox

Member
Game was good but too easy. In 4 hours I got flare and holy, grinded my party in the Hennes Mines secret area, got all the break skills, fought Omega and Ultima and got hastega (was easier than I thought) and killed Yiazmat (what?). Also sold all my shit and got a second ribbon. I only need the map trophy, rare mobs, magicks, techniques and ending. Hmm. Maybe I should go for it. Also Trial 100 urgh,
 
My Penelo is a Monk/TBM and shes prolly my fave char to use along with Ashe Knight/BLM. Shes fast as fuck, casts haste, bravery, float, slow has 99 STR and kicks the shit out of enemies with Kanya. Also heavy armor. She lacks a Genji glove license though, true. Fuck crossbows though.

But this is about the only FF where I love to nuke enemies with spells. Which is why I love Black Mages also. Because of the real time approach magic can really shine here, unlike in FFX where Lulu becomes fucking useless halfway through. Magic does outperform melee against groups and continues to do so endgame as well (for example, walk through Necrohol with Blizzard/aeroga gambits and you won't get ganked) and your magic pool even increases if you keep murdering. For single targets it can't cope with a melee combo but then there are the physical palings. The good thing about TZA is that you can pair this up, so my BLM can also go ham with Tournesol (still about 95 str I think, with the right gear).
Gambits do wonders for making Black Magic a more practical random battle staple.

That, and Shades of Black is just pure fun, especially on some hybrids like SHI/RDM where the Shikari feels a bit like a FF XI Ninja + Ninjutsu elemental spell via Tanking + Shades of Black.

Next time I play the game I'm going to run two SHIs... a SHI/RDM Vaan as a sort of FF XI Ninjutsu magic Tank, and a SHI/FOE Balthier again as my sort of Germinas Boots, Yagyu [Darkness] Darkblade, and Scorpion Tail FF Tactics Ninja.
 
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