Hello AP members,
I purchased "FFXII" the other night (Best buy I could have ever purchased by the way), anyway, if by chance you have as well I'm sure you have a copy of the strategy guide to go along with it. But along with it comes many questions that I need answers to. So lets begin... I have logged close to 15 hours and am coming along very well but... I belive I have missed afew key things, I think I have overlooked the "Espers" your supposed to find early on; if you can answer please inform me on the locations of the ones you find earlyier. Also, I am wondering if I have messed up the few key and vitial Licenses on the "License Borad". All the charecters in the party I have are roughly lvl. 15, but I have only gained Penelos' "Quickining" I belive I should have had at the minimum 4 charecters by this point with a "Quickining". I am at the moment on page 119 of the guide the area where your party is searching for the "Raithwall Tomb", I wonder if anyone else has ran into a "Salamand Entite" within this place? Theses in particular monsters are lvl.45 and cast "Reflect" and "Shell" upon themselves also casting "Sleepaga" then folowing closely behind by "Fireaga" and "Thunderaga" hence destroying your party. So with that said I wonder if maybe I am to low of a lvl? I also wonder how your charectes builds are set. I have "Vann" set with a sword, "Fran" set with a bow (as she should be), "Balthier" I have set with a dagger; now I don't know if that was a good choice but... in the long run they do great damage. I set "Ashe" with a sword, and "Basch" with a spear (for now), "Penelo" I set with a staff. I figure I would give these builds a try I set "Ashe" as black magic, and "Penelo" as a white. The rest are support and the males are close range. I would love to hear any feed as to what you think I should do diffrently, please respond in detail ok. Any responces welcomed.
-Detailed

First off your characters are very underdeveloped. I just arrived at Raithwall's Tomb and all of my characters are at level 23. All of my characters except one has at least one Quickening and I have two characters with all three of their Quickenings. Right from the beginning I explored every nook and cranny of Ivalice that was available before advancing into the story so I leveled up my characters quite a bit. This is something you probably didn't do since you are using a guide. Did you go straight to the story objectives? I think your going to want to level up your characters before you reach Raithwall's Tomb because right from the beginning it is overkill because you have to fight two bosses in a row. So your gonna have some trouble if you don't level up your characters. When you see Salamand Entite just run away from it or avoid it all together because its too powerful for you at this point.

Also you should have went for the Quickenings as fast as possible because they help immensely when fighting bosses. A good 5 hit Quickening can bring down a Boss with just one turn in the beginning of the game.

I don't really have a setup for all my characters I buy the best equipment available to me that bests supports each character and I equip them to all my characters. As of right now All of characters besides Panelo are equipped with a Iron Hammer, but Panelo has a killer bow. Its good to have at least one ranged who can also provide some healing.

As for my Gambits they are all the same for all my characters so everyone takes healing first priority and they will heal using items and then heal using Cure or Cura because of how precious MP is in the game you should have them use Potions and Hi-Potions first and if those run out use Cure or Cura to heal your characters.

Well than thats official lol, I need to replay my way through, who knows maybe because I have a better concept on the game my charecters should fair better this time around. Umm, I still am curious as to where I may find some of the "Espers" that I belive are located early into the gameplay, so if anyone cares to comment on that please do so. Also why have you made your charecters build through axes and hammers? is it because of the damage? well thanks for the replys thus far keep them coming please. I want to make this the most in-depth forum of the game and its strategy as possible.
Thanks,
-Detailed

The Iron Hammer up to where I am is the best weapon you can buy at shops.

Ok. well, I have hence started over in the game... due to the advice of a certin someone, I have already sealed my fate on the ultimate wepon in the game the "Zodiac Spear" I opened one of the four chests your not supposed to open, because I disregared my strategy guide. Well, my main focus of concern are these hidden "Espers" your supposed to locate early on in the game. I really hope I don't pass any of these up, so if someone would please refer to me the locations of these I would be most humbled. Thanks for your posts, please keep them coming.
-Detailed

I'm past Rathwalls tomb and my characters are only around lvl 21 and I'm doing fine. I don't think they are underdeveloped at all:P They all have quickinings.

The first Esper is in Rathwalls Tomb as far as I know. What are you talking about with this Zodiac Spear? Fill me in. I don't have a guide because I was a little strapped for cash when I bought the game.

If it matters My characters have:
Vaan= spear
Fran= Bow
Balthier= Rifle (looks like I'm going to have to change that soon)
Basch= sword and shield (soon to be 2H Sword when I find the block to put the LP into)
Ashe= sword and shield
Penelo= dagger and shileld

Ashe is acting as a paladin and hacking/ healing. Ashe is also the summoner of my only esper. Fran is acting as my arcane and black "magik" user. They both have some overlap in magiks but only for the more basic ones. I think everyone has white magic lvl 1. Penelo is focusing more on the support magic like the time and green magics, though she also has some basic white and intermediate black magics at the moment.

Ironlynx

The first Esper is in Rathwalls Tomb as far as I know. What are you talking about with this Zodiac Spear? Fill me in. I don't have a guide because I was a little strapped for cash when I bought the game.

The Zodiac Spear is the strongest weapon in the game and you are not suppose to open four specific treasure chests to be able to obtain it. If your most people who open every chest they see then you miss out on this weapon.

Yes. Exactly this specific spear has a atk. rate of 245! ^_^ I want it so I have indeed restarted the game over in hopes of developing my party the way I belive it should be, (unbeatable! lol). Upon further details in the strategy guide I found there a total of 13 Espers to be obtained and sevral of which are hidden through side-quests, so I will take a more stratgeic aproach to finding theses ones. The Quickingings however are limited to one per charecter, meaning when you purchase one from the Licsence Board (L.B.), the slot you obtained that Quickining from is no longer on the other players L.B. I think this is ment for obtaining a better string of mist-charges while using these in hopes of bigger combo. So I have begun to work out the kinks and am hoping by the end of tonight, to be on the right track. Now as far as the builds of charecters go; this is based souly on the Gambit choices you make. You have I belive a total of 7 charecters in a full party, (not to mention guest charecters to which you have no control over) so I find it may be best to have at the least two made for long-range. Also figure it may be better suited to have two set for melee atks. such as Basch and Vann. I will try to make my ranged players set mainly for healing purposes, and supporting the Melee charecters. I would like to set a summoner charecter and a black magick charecter along side, for the big boss fights. And would like a buffed out reserve charecter incase of set back or two to clean up ^_^. Now the tough part is gaining Gil I am finding it only successfull by spending long periods of time in one area focusing on the same enimes and gaining long attack chains, but I suppose thats the only way. If anyone would be able to tell me the location of the "Thief Cuffs" I would greatly appricate that. And if someone could help me better understand Montblacs hunts that she orders, I would also be thankfull. Oh! and one more thing I belive it best when you have alot of Gil saved, to purchase as many magicks as possible from the shop, reson being, because you may find yourself needing them at a critical point in the game and not having access to a shop for long periods of time. Dont forget to purchase some much need Gambits as well such as say "Ally: 80%" or "Foe: Flying" afew like these may come in very very usefull. I also would like to know where I gain the "Bubble Belt"! thats a must have! ^_^ Thank you all, and keep posting!
-Detailed

I hate buying guides with games totally ruins it for me cause I read entire thing b4 I even play

I'm farther than you guys and I'm trying to get all my character to level 20...o.0. Anyways, actually I have half of the lisence done on every single character, I like to go around and get lp points, it really helps in the long run. At Raithwall, I only had 3 main and 1 using white magic. Very simple, there were no hard monsters except for the two demon walls and the esper was very well easily beaten, I'm just guessing you need to level up and maybe get better weapons and armor...(though you need to have the lisences for the weapons...that is so annoying -_-)

So, no matter how far you are in the game, You can still go back and get the esper side-quests right? If not, that's uber-lame.

I've done every side quest I could find a hint of, but I still havn't found another esper. I'm currently searching for this "Treasure of the Sandsea" but I'm having trouble finding anything just going on that one moogle's hints. Any info for me O Ye Guide-Holders?

I have a question about ff12 also. i have a few quicken but i am not exactly sure on how to use them. what do you push when in the quecking screen can some one that gotten to 5 quicken screen help me please. thanks in advance. also my char. build are
vaan- spear
basch balthier and ashe -swords. going to have balthier katana and basch great sword later on
panelo- pole
and fran bows

I am currently working on having at least one Quickining per charecter and have re-logged 5 hours of gameplay, I belive I have done all I can do up to this point correctly I assume. I have made sure not open the chests that will prevent the Zodiac Spear from appearing! ^.^ I will be at the tombs shortly again, and in search of my first Esper. I currently am doing what Cloud AC had previously posted and just working on the LP part of the game, my L.B. is somewhat minimal but growing. I don't belive I have made and drastic changes in my charecters builds thus far, but I am sure to eventually. For the most part I'm taking a slower pace, and working the thread so to speak. This game is so immence lol, theres so many things to do right and wrong, and they all have there own outcomes. I wish there wasn't the whole "50% chance" thing when opening chests though, it would make some of the more desired items easier to have, such as Gambits or rare items. I know that later in the game you MUST! have support charecters ( I'm a guide reader as well lol, I can't help it :P) so I am waiting on better Magicks to buy. Trust me buy the entire shop out if you have to just make sure you have the spells ^^. Well it's late in the U.S. so I am going to sleep and I hope this thread keeps growing. Thanks people keep posting!
-Detailed

tkdzero

i have a question about ff12 also. i have a few quicken but i am not exactly sure on how to use them. what do you push when in the quecking screen can some one that gotten to 5 quicken screen help me please. thanks in advance.

You start off by pressing any button that is shown next to the names if you can. If no button is being shown, tap the R2 button to scramble the options and hopefully make a button available to press. Quickening work much better if you have at least two characters ready to use them at the same time because you can jump back and forth between them and create long chains sometimes.

If a character does not have a full charge, but has a quickening, they can still add to the chain when the "mist charge" option comes up. Simply press the corresponding button once to instantly charge them (and scramble the other possible attackers) then press the button again to select their attack (or select another characters attack if you wish to save the newly charged attack for a later time). Saving their guaranteed attacks by mist charging whenever you can helps to make your quickening chains as long as possible.

The maximum seems to be a 9-hit chain before the final move as I never can get an available attack after nine. If you chain three or more quickening attacks together you get a finishing move that hits all surrounding enemies as well. Depending on how long your chain is the finishing move is either Inferno or Cataclysm.

Hope that helps ^_^


:EDIT:
Oh and about those espers... What's the verdict? Can they be completely missed or can you eventually go back and get them? It's a load of crap if you can miss them entirely. I don't mind missing out on the Zodiac spear (never got the best weapons in FFX either, Then again I MADE better ones that could break the damage limit and what-not) But missing out on something as fun to watch as a summoning would seriously piss me off.

Ironlynx

The maximum seems to be a 9-hit chain before the final move as I never can get an available attack after nine. If you chain three or more quickening attacks together you get a finishing move that hits all surrounding enemies as well. Depending on how long your chain is the finishing move is either Inferno

Actually their is no maximum Quickening chain. So far I have heard people able to do 16 hit Quickening chains and yes its possible I got up to a 11 hit Quickening chain before. Also there are other finishing moves besides Inferno and Cataclysm. There is Whiteout, Windburst, Ark Burst, Blackhole, Torrent, and Luminessence. Each one has their own requirements for example you need to perform 4 Level 1, 4 Level 2, and 4 Level 3 Quickenings to get Blackhole.