About to start FF 12, need some tips.

[axillarypuma]

So while I wait for august 19th for sao hollow fragment, I wanted to play something to keep me entertained, and ff 12 is on my ps2 backlog because I knew nothing about english at the time and ff 12 is complicated as fuck (not ff tactics level but still complex).

So give me some tips about the game in general.

 

[Roofstone]

Level your first character! Find a way to farm levels, since every other character starts with his level. A bit of a exploit perhaps, but you really need the levels. It takes about 80 hours to get max level with him alone, which might be worth it depending on your commitement.

Also get the zodiac spear as early as possible (look it up, I can't be bothered).

 

[scotth266]

The game will at first look to be working in real-time, and you may feel a bit overwhelmed. Do not be - this is an illusion. Bringing up the menu at any time to issue orders pauses the game, and while orders are executed automatically after a period of time, it's basically the FFX system of turn slots - with the advantage that it can go as fast as you want it to go.

Gambits allow you to program troop AI so that your characters will automatically perform certain actions you don't want to micromanage - healing below certain percentages, for example, or using items to counter status effects. If you'd prefer to do all that stuff yourself, then just don't use gambits.

Licenses are important, if you want to be able to use gear at will.

 

[Roxas1359]

I'll assume that you're not playing the International Zodiac Job Edition, so these tips refer to the vanilla game.

Number 1- Do not open these chests
1: There is a treasure chest outside of Dalan's place. Dalan's place is in lowtown. Do not open this chest.

2: Just before you get the Goddess Tear in the Rabenastre Palace, there is a cellar full of chests. In the cellar, do not open the two chests that are in the southeast corner.

3: In the confiscatory, the place where all your weapons and armor are given back to you, there are lots of treasure chests here. Do not open any of the treasure chests here. This is actually more than one treasure chest that you don't open, but they are all in one location.

4: On the island by Phon Coast there are sixteen treasure chests. The fourth chest in the sixteen should not be opened. For best results, it is advised that you just bypass all of the chests and not get any of them. The chests only contain Gil and not any other treasures.

If you open any of these chests, you will lose the ability to get the Zodiac Spear, the strongest weapon in the Vanilla game. There is another chance to get it, but you have a 0.2% chance of getting the spear instead of the more common item, and it is a non-respawnable chest.

Number 2- Train Early

While grinding in JRPGs isn't always the best, it's recommended that you do this early on. Reason is because whenever you get a new party member, they will be stronger or just as strong as you. That and they'll have a large amount of License Points. For example, you start off with Vaan (Reks is just for a little bit and doesn't return so don't train him), and the next person you get is Penelo. If you raised Vaan to say level 20 before you get Penelo, and then you hit the plot point in which she joins, she'll be level 20-22. This applies to guests as well, however there is a catch. When guest party members are in your party due to plot events, their level depends on the average of your team's levels (you get all 6 controllable characters before your first guest). But, something the vanilla game does is that guest party members can't level up with you. This was fixed in the International version, along with the ability to break the damage limit of 9999.

Number 3- Beware of Rare Game

There are special monsters in the game known as Rare Game, and they are more powerful than regular enemies. Certain rare game also can only be hunted once, so if they possibly drop a rare item, save before going after them if you want to get that item. Most of the 80 Rare Game enemies in the game require certain criteria to be met, but some will just randomly show up and they can wreck your shit early on if you're not over leveled. Most of the time, you'd have to attack the ones early one. The worst one I can think of early on is Rare Game Cockatrice, the Nekhbet.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

My advice is to go on the clan/notice board hunts whenever possible. The experience just getting to most targets is good. They give you decent loot and money. When you have a guest, do any that were too hard to do alone. Don't even worry about the guest except to revive them if you have a spare turn, they generally heal themselves when not dishing out pain.

Look up how to get the bazaar items. You have to sell certain amounts of certain types of loot to be able to buy them. Most items are either powerful, either rare or early, equipment or really good healing item bundles. It's not too hard to come by most loot drops even when just going for the main story.

Also if you want, get the early Demonsbane Sword in Raithwall's Tomb. You have to fight a Demon Wall you can run away from. After you defeat it, keep going in circles around the side paths opened up by defeating the optional DW(not the weaker one you HAVE to fight), checking the chest in the back passage every lap, this will also help you level up since bats or some undead things pop up to annoy you every so often. (You have to go 2-3 areas away to get an area to reset. This also works for fighting monsters to build up a type chain.)

Good luck and enjoy the last good FF Square has made.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Try not to lapse on training your reserves too much, maybe 10 levels below average minimum. One useful thing you can do in a tight spot is to switch one of your reserve party members in for a fallen one instantly. In fact there's an optional uber-Esper who practically expects you to do this because he has an all-hitting instant death spell that ignores immunities, and unlike in FFX Zombie won't save you.

But I digress, you might not want to go that far. My biggest beef with this game was just how much of the extra stuff required a walkthrough to grasp, as seen with the various chests you want to avoid opening until later. If you can find and defeat an Esper, do so- they're not all that useful when summoned, but each one gives the character you give it to an additional segment on their MP meter, allowing them to use their Quickenings (aka Limit Breaks) more often and without draining their MP to 0 and leaving them helpless. Again, some late game bosses expect you to do this because they have a 'desperation mode' when they're about to die where their attack speed more than doubles, prompting you to fire off all your Quickenings and pray that finishes them.

EDIT: Upon a second glance, it's actually the Quickenings themselves that give you additional MP segments, so just try to unlock those on the License grid ASAP. Sorry, been a while since I played it.

While bosses and marks will give you good loot, most of your money is actually earned through the sale of vendor items like in MMORPGs, but this game has a chaining system where you get better rewards the more baddies of the same type you slay in a row, and the best location I've found for this in the early game is the Nam-Yensa Sandsea. The nomads never stop coming around the 'oil rig' area, and despite their numbers they're easy kills for the most part. Just be sure to avoid the Elements (the big glowing spheres) that show up there sometimes, as even if you're strong enough to take one down, it will break your chain. Good luck!

 

[TheIceQueen]

Know who's going to be your main party, what you want their main duty to be, and map out their quickenings as soon as possible. Have a strategy for attaining these quickenings in the fastest and cheapest way possible for you. I don't believe there are enough for every character to have three, the max, so be warned, plan ahead, and be prepared to ditch certain characters, like Penelo, in favor of others, like Baasch.

 

[Roxas1359]

One more thing I forgot, and this is a big one:

4- Do not load a large amount of Espers onto one character
I think this one would be somewhat reasonable, as if you load too many summons on one character, if you rely on that character and they go down with no way for you to bring them back, then you've just lost out greatly. Take it from experience from a really stupid first playthrough I did back in 2006... >.>

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

My advice would be not to play it, because you will end up losing sooooooo much time. It takes forever to finish it unless you just rush through and avoid optional stuff.

I don't like to think about how long it took to make the Sunflower sword, and I don't think I ever killed the dragon with a billion hp. I KNOW I never beat Omega because that fight is ridiculous, and you need to have a VERY specific set up to not just die instantly.

Also its really not that great of a game.

 

[Roofstone]

Another tip: Do not make the archer use ranged abilities. Fran is extremely slow and not suitable at all for actually using ranged stuff. I tend to put her on heal duty, but you can look up guides all over that discuss what character should do what. Decide for yourself on the most part.

But do NOT give Fran a bow or gun.

Also its really not that great of a game.

I frequently hold it up as the best Final Fantasy, so who knows.

 

[axillarypuma]

Thanks for all the help guys! this is great, one question tho, what battle mode should I pick active or wait, I've been doing fine with active but when hunting that giant mutant rainbow colored wolf shit got a little chaotic with 4 monsters at the same time, also I can't imagine how it would be to manage everyone in real time.

Are some characters better with some weapons or I can equip anything I want on anyone ( I did read from one of the comments here fran shouldn't use a bow).

And my last question would be, should everyone learn EVERY SINGLE MAGICK?

 

[lord canti]

Here's my advice, do not look at Va'an or Penelo as the main characters. Also, the story has a lot more to do with politics than the other games, but damn if it isn't one of the best stories in a FF game.

 

[krazykidd]

Just play the game. It's not hard. You really don't need tips to play final fantasy 12. The only thing i'll say is that those gambits read them properly and put them in logical order.

 

[syaoran728]

I suggest viewing the game from the perspective as though Balthier as the main character.

 

[L. Declis]

I suggest you break the disc in half and play Final Fantasy IX instead, because this is the 2nd worst FF, just beaten by Lightning Returns.

Here's my advice, do not look at Va'an or Penelo as the main characters. Also, the story has a lot more to do with politics than the other games, but damn if it isn't one of the best stories in a FF game.

This does help. Balthier or Ashe or Basch make better characters.

Level everyone up. Make sure everyone is well equipped. The ability to bring in other party members can help, so make sure they don't suck

Kill every enemy that you come across. The experience is important. Make sure to level up all your characters equally. If you're having trouble with an enemy, it's a sign you need to level up.

If you can't beat a boss, go and level up 5 levels. You'll be amazed in the difference.

Always have the latest gear. If you're new, "the more expensive it is, the better it is" is a good rule to follow.

You get money by selling loot. This one took a while for me to get used to.

Thanks for all the help guys! this is great, one question tho, what battle mode should I pick active or wait, I've been doing fine with active but when hunting that giant mutant rainbow colored wolf shit got a little chaotic with 4 monsters at the same time, also I can't imagine how it would be to manage everyone in real time.

Are some characters better with some weapons or I can equip anything I want on anyone ( I did read from one of the comments here fran shouldn't use a bow).

And my last question would be, should everyone learn EVERY SINGLE MAGICK?

If you're willing to spend the time, making every character able to use all armour, weapons and magic is certainly worth it. I would personally suggest making sure that everyone can use at least all White magic, and then any buffs like Protect, Shell and Haste.

You CAN equip everyone with anything (I remember a party with everyone using guns, which was amusing), but honestly, give Vaan a hammer, and then have everyone use a different weapon. The spread of weapons looks more interesting, and sometimes it can be helpful to have certain types of weapons at certain times.

Also, get the Quickenings as soon as possible, and make sure you get them on your favourite characters. If you can't decide who are the best characters, it's Basch, Balthier and Ashe.

But honestly, my advice is to not play it.

 

[Rattja]

Here is one I didn't catch until the final boss (witch I never got to beat as my disk was scratched...)

Weapons have chain attacks, some chain easier and more often than others. What I did was to just go for the ones with the highest power, usually a mace type with a shield or something. This works but you will never chain this way.

Not sure if I missed the explanation of this in the beginning or something, but it's worth noting as I thught the game lacked info about everything in general.

 

[Odbarc]

Level your first character! Find a way to farm levels, since every other character starts with his level. A bit of a exploit perhaps, but you really need the levels. It takes about 80 hours to get max level with him alone, which might be worth it depending on your commitement.

Also get the zodiac spear as early as possible (look it up, I can't be bothered).

I did this mostly by accident and was able to get max stats with everyone. The game itself mostly bored me though. The story wasn't very engaging and the battles were very MMO and relied on those gambit systems. Or it's a different FF I'm thinking of.

Is this the one with Lightning or that kid who looks like he's transgendered?

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Thanks for all the help guys! this is great, one question tho, what battle mode should I pick active or wait, I've been doing fine with active but when hunting that giant mutant rainbow colored wolf shit got a little chaotic with 4 monsters at the same time, also I can't imagine how it would be to manage everyone in real time.

Are some characters better with some weapons or I can equip anything I want on anyone ( I did read from one of the comments here fran shouldn't use a bow).

And my last question would be, should everyone learn EVERY SINGLE MAGICK?

I think I've only ever played with it set to wait. It's just like the old ATB games. Set it to active if you want a little more of a challenge.

I've read on a wiki(TVtropes?) that Fran's animation for bow attacks is slightly slower than other characters' animations and her magic sat isn't particularly impressing (contrary to the story implying her and her race being well suited to magic). Balthier's animation for guns is also slower. Give both a melee weapon asap. They aren't too slow but it can help. Everyone has their own animations for different weapons, but those two examples are the only really noticeable ones.

You can teach everyone every spell. But I recommend what someone else said, get the Quickenings(I'm getting Highlander flashbacks.)The first one just gives you a limit break attack, but the second and third double and triple your original max MP. That's definitely useful even if you don't want to use Quickenings. Also, invest in some augments for a few characters before unlocking all the spells/equipment licenses. Quicker charge times, more hp, more damage, etc that you can use from the get go are betting than having a license to use a spell/accessory that you wont be able to buy for hours.

Another late game tip I can offer that you wouldn't think about. Don't spam the super powerful magic spells unless you are NOT being surrounded by enemies. The game engine will prioritize physical attacks if too many graphic intensive spells are queued. Having 3 Holy or Scathes lined up while fighting 2 or 3 Behemoths will end up with them getting free punches while your party just waits there patiently for their turn to cast their spell. It sucks but I guess they were pushing the PS2 to its limits.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Number 3- Beware of Rare Game

I'd add Beware of Elementals and Entites to that. Like rare game they show up randomly or when certain conditions are met (generally weather conditions) and they do NOT like you using magic. They are damn powerful early in the game and are best avoided.

And yeah, I'd heartily recommend getting a few quickenings early on for your party members. They give you nice limit break special attacks that can be chained for good damage, sometimes enough to one-shot early game bosses. And as mentioned, they boost your MP pool. I'd look around they license board a bit for an efficient way for all party members to get their maximum of 3.

 

[DrOswald]

The Final Fantasy 12 battle system is all about creating an effective script (gambits) by which your party members act. Setup a list of actions by priority. It has been some time since I played the game, so I might get some of the details wrong, but this is the basic shape of how you should set up your team.

Your priority should look like this:

1: revive on any downed party member (only if at > some% mana, say 20%) (everyone should have this)
2: phoenix down on any downed party member (this should only trigger if your people are low on mana or if they do not have revive) (everyone should have this)
1: Level appropriate Potion at around 20%-30% health (everyone should have this)
2: Level appropriate heal spell at around 40%-70% health (everyone should have this, but your main healer should have the highest % activation so they heal the most often.)
3: debuff removal actions (2 people assigned to each debuff in the area or fight you are in, 3 if it is a bad one like silence) Both spell removal and item removal should be used.
4: Buff actions (2 people assigned to each useful buff)
5: Debuff actions (only the useful ones, and make sure the enemies you are fighting are vulnerable to them. 1 person per debuff is fine, but 2 is better)
6: MP consuming offensive actions. only cast if above some% MP (You don't want to fall below a certain % or you can't spell heal and you will waste all your money on potions.)
7: Basic attack (everyone should be doing this whenever they have nothing better to do)

Manually ether when necessary, but it generally should not be required.

Other info:

MP is your most important resource. It prevents you wasting money and keeps you buffed and alive. When the MP runs out you die. Your parties overall mana% more accurately represents party health than your HP. Anything that uses mp but does not buff or heal is suspect. Especially summons, quickening, and other things that use huge amounts of MP - these things are flashy but largely useless. They cripple a party member for a highly inefficient nuke. Far better to cast multiple less impressive damage spells. Again, limit your damage and debuff spell use to a certain high percent of your MP to make sure you can always heal.

When you have chosen your main party, get them all level 3 quickening as soon as is reasonable. You should not be using the actual attacks (apart from using them for the joy of seeing the flashy animation) but the MP boost they give is among the best buffs in the game.

Buff spells are more powerful than damage spells.

Quickening and summons can be useful in killing some low health bosses or enemies - just understand that if it doesn't kill them outright you are doing more damage to yourself than to the boss.

Don't be afraid to adjust your gambit scheme or break away from the guidelines above if they are not working. Some fights require a different approach.

Pay attention to what status effects and elements the boss is using and adjust your gambits and equipment to counter these effects.

Buy gambit effects as often and as soon as possible. The only thing more important is better white magic.