Final Fantasy XII

[Rick]

Did anyone notice the star destroyer shaped building in the empires capital city?

[revlob]

Can someone explain to me what this whole Quickening thing is all about then? The manual doesn't make it very clear, and I'm not sure I'm using them as I should.

I've reached the point in the game where I've just managed to acquire all six party members for the first time (after

->Open Spoiler<-

beating Judge Ghis on the Leviathan

). My characters are all at level 15, and all but two have a Quickening. The first time I used one, it fired off on its own, and did moderate damage. This was during a Hunt (the

->Open Spoiler<-

Wraith in the Waterways

), and I was pretty unimpressed, expecting something on a larger scale. At that time I only had two characters with Quickenings though.

Fast forward to Bhujerba, and I decide to let one rip on a bat in the Mines. Now I read in the manual about inputting commands, and I when I read it I expected something like Auron's Limit Breaks from FFX (press up, down, x, triangle, etc for a larger attack). I don't know if I missed it before, but now I notice the commands at the bottom, and it lets me press square or triangle to unleash another attack, or R2 to "shuffle". Without thinking too much, I manage to chain together about 5 of these things, and it all finishes off with a super attack called

->Open Spoiler<-

Inferno

.

That unleashes about 4000 damage, and I'm beginning to see the point in spending all your MP on them. The chaining aspect is a little weird though, sometimes I can chain and sometimes I can't. Is there any reason for that? Does it make more sense when I unlock multiple Quickenings for each character? What's the point in shuffling?

Fitting them in tactically is a little difficult, as using them obviously leaves you out of MP. What's the best way to recover from that? Just stock up on Ethers? Only use them to finish bosses off, rather than at the start of the fight? Never let your mages use them?

Should I be worried about which Quickening I assign to whom? Are they all just damage-dealing attacks? Does chaining things in different ways unleash different super attacks?

Am I just thinking too hard about them? Am I going to get even more confused when I run into Espers?

[powkisser]

all i have found with them so far is that they just chain together, upto 9 in all .. but they never seem to do that much damage overall..

[Jusatsushi]

Just use the full 6 members for tough bosses/hunts. Have the first group unleash a big mist attack to take a good chunk of HP, then don't worry about them dieing as you'll have your well ballanced final three to come in and finish off - maybe using another quickening if you think you can finish it off in one go. That's how I use them anyway.

[AdamJW]

I've said this once before somewhere, but you are also better off going to the huntmarks, and some of the bosses whenever there are guest members in your party because they can sometimes perform support acts without you having to worry too much about doing it all yourself.

One extra character on your entire full party can sometimes turn the tide of battle in your favour. Especially if you are struggling on the harder level hunt marks, and rare game. Using all your party members is part and parcel of the strategy to, but the 1 extra member can sometimes make all the difference, and can sometimes make the micromanaging of support and healing a bit easier depending on who the extra unit in your party is at the time.

What's the best way to recover from that? Just stock up on Ethers? Only use them to finish bosses off, rather than at the start of the fight? Never let your mages use them?

Thats part of the risk of the chains and you have the right idea about regaining MP but also there's a skill called 'Charge' that helps regain a bit of MP. It can also reduce it to zero though if the charge technique misses.

About using ethers though basically you are better stocking those as much as you can and even try to avoid using them alot is also advisable because they are invaluable in the later game. They are quite hard to come by really. Although you do end up with quite a few so you can use them if you wish just be wise is all I can say.

[SuperBeatBoy]

Thats part of the risk of the chains and you have the right idea about regaining MP but also there's a skill called 'Charge' that helps regain a bit of MP. It can also reduce it to zero though if the charge technique misses.

combine charge with self=10%mp that way they will keep doing it until it works and you won't loose any substantial mp. it works a treat.

[AdamJW]

Thats what I have been doing - fella. I was just trying to help with an earlier question for someone saying he was upto a certain point in the game, and wanted to know how to keep his MP up at that stage of the game. He wasn't upto anywhere near where that gambit is available yet anyway. Besides It still misses on the odd occasion anyway, and sometimes its one Gambit too many when there's alot of other things to keep on top of in the heat of battle, so I don't use the 'Charge' skill much, and certainly not in battle - if it can be helped of course.


@Spoilers@


Another thing I've been doing when out in the field, going into battle with bosses, hunts, or rare game is to set up gambits of Protect/Hp regen/Shield/haste and whatever other positive status effects you have at your disposal to 'party leader' on a few characters, and then just manually change the leader when the status effect runs out run. This keeps all the team in positive status effects quickly, and also constantly. It also frees up gambit space, and keeps them all in positive status out in the field when fighting, and on the move all the time. Especially when changing characters to keep them all levelled nicely. It works a treat before any major battles, and saves time when you are having to fart around going into the main menu switching between characters.

[GordonJ]

What's wrong with just using "Ally = any > haste" etc, that will keep everyone hasted and keep it refreshed, same with the rest.

For some things the "Ally = any" seems a bit too powerful, eg. with esuna it will just cast esuna on whoever needs it when there's an effect on them that esuna can clear. So the first two gambits I have set are ally=any>raise and ally=any>esuna (I'm not using haste too much as I haven't needed it for battles, so it's just on a "ally=slow" at the mo)

It makes most of the ally = status gambits redundant.

[revlob]

For some things the "Ally: any" seems a bit too powerful, eg. with esuna it will just cast esuna on whoever needs it when there's an effect on them that esuna can clear.

That's interesting, at first I assumed if you used the "Ally: Any" target, it would cause the character to perform the associated action non-stop (until a higher-priority Gambit condition was met). I've been using it for stuff like Protect (don't have too many white magic spells yet), and there is a certain amount of background intelligence going on because "Ally: Any > Protect" will only cause someone to cast Protect once it wears off.

So you are probably right, many of the "Ally: <status effect>" targets will be redundant. However, I suppose it does give you more control over your characters if you require it. If you're into conserving MP, you could heal sleepers with an Attack rather than an Esuna, or use the relevant item. Although as Gambit slots are limited, that seems like an expensive way of doing things.

[AdamJW]

What's wrong with just using "Ally = any > haste" etc, that will keep everyone hasted and keep it refreshed, same with the rest.

For some things the "Ally = any" seems a bit too powerful, eg. with esuna it will just cast esuna on whoever needs it when there's an effect on them that esuna can clear. So the first two gambits I have set are ally=any>raise and ally=any>esuna (I'm not using haste too much as I haven't needed it for battles, so it's just on a "ally=slow" at the mo)

It makes most of the ally = status gambits redundant.

It just helps give more freedom for setting other Gambit slots up in a more aggressive way, and also gives you more control over when they perform the various status skills that keep you beefed up. Most of all it frees up more gambit slot space for other characters when its at a premium by making some of the gambits redundant. Which at certain stages in the game is what you want when the game gets that bit harder.

I was just fiddling around and found this way to be a much more controlled way of doing it than setting 'ally any' and waiting for them to do what they are supposed to and stops them using it of their own accord when they shouldn't like they can do with 'ally any' on the odd occasion.

You don't have to do it like I've suggested, such is the freedom of FXII, and of course there's still ones that require activating to counteract being stung by other negative status affects like you mentioned. In FFXII there are certain positive status affects that are most advantageous to your units by having them on all the time like with many SRPGS in general, and moreso the games that share this games mechanics like FFs and mainly FFTactics of this world.

Shell/Protect/Haste/Hp regen are some of those such spells, and by doing it the way I suggested does give you more control over when it occurs than the 'Ally any' gambit. It is also more for when you don't have the later versions of these positive status spells and their corresponding gambits. I also still have other curative spells set to counteract these negative affects aswell on some characters, of course I do. I only do it this way with certain units keep you beefed up, but it can be applied to other situations aswell.

Besides since I've started doing it this way I won't go back to the other way because I found it more helpful when my units gambits and gambit slots were at a lower premium early on, also when units were all doing things at the wrong time, and mostly when their slots can be used to other more aggressive advantages. Its merely a suggestion that I've found has worked alot more effectively when I've needed it to out in the field, and helps me keeps it flowing better by having more control.

The good thing is that there is plenty of freedom to be found within the strategies of this game to discover things little like this anyway, and also to do it in whichever way you feel, so its what ever works best for you at the end of the day. I've just found the way I mentioned to make it much easier - for me, thats all.

[SuperBeatBoy]

I haven't had a boss fight in ages, ive been busy looking around the maps and going on hunts. Atm im fighting this secret summoning type creature, which i was i noticed a cool graphical effect. the mist you see when you have this type of fight, you can see a reflection of your characters in the mist. I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but i thought it was pretty darn cool.

[Sergeant Syphillis]

Yeah I noticed that, thought it was just tiredness tho as it was at the end of an 8 hour run on it lol, very nice effect, the graphics are really nice on this one. Just completed the main quest an hour or so ago, really good game, the best Final Fantasy game since seven i would say. In a bit of dilemma now tho as I want to fight all the secret bosses and get the best weapons and what not but havent really got the time to search for them endlessly, on the other hand im not a fan of using guides and what not, will have to find a compromise!

[SuperBeatBoy]

i would highly recommend getting the guide. Its fantastic, its so think you could use it to bench press. Has information for everything. Go for the limited edition if its still available.

[AdamJW]

I have a few complaints about the guide myself, but its definitely a decent thing to own. I've found there's just too many important details missing for me. Things that should have obviously been included - in my opinion.

I'm doing the hunts thing myself aswell instead of progressing with the story as much as I can because the items you receive from the hunts seem to run in conjunction with the progress thats being made in the story and dungeons alot of the time, so I always try and do as much as I can. The extra stuff aquired from the hunts you are capable of beating at the time they become available or soon after does seem to tie in with progression.

Also I'm a big spend thrift aswell because I try to make sure I can buy everything I possibly can in any area or wherever I'm upto at that particular part in the story before moving on - thats if I can help it, of course.

I did notice those mirrored images in the mist aswell this afternoon. It reminded me of moments in Metroid on the GC where Samus's eyes reflected up onto her visor for a few seconds in certain light conditions. I thought I was tripping when I first saw that on Metroid, and its a similar effect to that in a way.

Loving this game now though after hearing all the niggles of other people earlier on, and now after spending so long a time with it I can see why it got rated so highly. Also alot of people seem to have forgotten about this now Gears of War has come out. I bet they come back to this one soon enough because there's no way they would have had this finished in a weekend (Lol) .

[Briareos]

Well this has taken a back burner when GOW arrived, but now that's completed it's back to grinding on those werewolves! Story wise i'm just at the point where you get all 6 for the first time

->Open Spoiler<-

after fighting the first judge on the airship

and i was level 11 at that stage. After a few day mindless levelling i'm level 25 with my team now, and the all have +50 kotesu katanas! I'm going to get them all to level 30 and then beat down some storyline...