Fran and Ashe both have an innate license for White Magicks 1 and can use Cure right away regardless of job. First Aid is helpful too during that time of the game. I had no problems. I think Cura is available by that time too, so the Red Battlemage can be useful.

EDIT: I'm currently grinding the Leviathan now. I was wrong about Cura, but Raise is available for purchase from the moogle, and can be utilized by the Red Battlemage and Archer classes, which should save on Phoenix Downs. Charge is also available, which helps using Cure and other magicks. So long as your gambits cover blindness and poison, and you have Fran or Ashe using cure, you should be fine. Chaining enemies increases item drops, and there's almost nothing but soldiers, so it's easy to get 100+ chains, which will offer potions also. IMO, this is one of the best places for grinding in the game. ALL THE LICENSE POINTS.

EDIT2: if you don't deactivate the alarm, you can proceed far enough to get Penelo in the party, and still have time to grind before the fight with Judge Ghis. The party is complete.

Well it's too little too late for me to go back and change, plus I'm at that awkward point where I'm a bit too far in to just start over.

The Bone Zone in the Lhusu Mines is my preferred place for level grinding. Since they drop bone fragments frequently which sell for a hefty amount. I just turn on x4 speed and run two zones back and forth to respawn the undead enemies and I have about 99 bone fragments to sell in about seven minutes plus it levels the party at a decent pace to boot.

When do I get the secondary job for characters? Has anyone got that far yet? I want to know what it does to the license board because now that I screwed the pooch on Ashe/Penelo with both being WHM I wanna see how that's going to affect me maxing out the board.

Secondary jobs become available as a license on your main board after defeating Belias. If you've completed King Raithwall's Tomb, check the license board and unlock for 30 points.

I'm having trouble finding equipment. All my characters have lv.7 or 8 weapon/armor licenses unlocked but I'm mostly equipped with low level-2 gear from basic shops. Been trying to open chests on fields and "steal" from enemies, but nothing. How or where do I get better weapons that aren't sold in stores?

Unlocking all the weapon/equipment licenses right away is not advisable; save those points for stat bonuses until better weapons and such are actually available. Better stuff becomes available to buy as the story progresses, or can occasionally be found in the areas equivalent to their level. The only way to get weapons above par for the stage of the game you're in is to complete difficult hunts (which are unlocked by progressing the story). Stealing only yields item and loot drops, and not weapons or equipment.

What part of the game are you in?

About to go into the tomb with the demon wall. Wiki is telling me that stealing from certain enemies does get you weapons, but at a very low success rate.

The only known weapons and armor I know you can get from stealing is Genji Gear from Gilgamesh.

EDIT: Read the posts wrong. My bad.

After more experimentation, and starting the game over (well, from the save point after the gambit menu is available), I finally found a suitable team I'm comfortable with using to clear the game. Just cleared the Giruvegan part of the story, and I've been grinding in the bonus dungeon area of that map.

I realized I needed to revise my party once again when I found myself favoring Ashe, Basch, and Balthier as my main party, regardless of job. I decided to focus my efforts into making them a solid party, with the others a secondary concern. This is my party:

Ashe - Black Mage / Bushi: Primary attack magic and secondary tank. The katana takes magic power into account for physical attacks. Uses items as backup support.
Basch - Red Battlemage / Knight: Primarily a tank, offers secondary support and secondary attack magic.
Balthier - White Mage / Archer: Primary support, long range attack.

Why is there so much hate towards FF XII? It seems like mainstream media are happy with it but the comments and low-key critics are ripping it apart. It seems like the fanbase is just seeking to complain. "XV is boy-band roadtrip, XII is a boring political story with boring gameplay, XIII is a long corridor, X is Tidus cancer" - seriously? What happened to the fanbase..

I personally think XII is fantastic, and XV had plenty of fun sides to it, and even XIII had elements I liked. I thought people didn't like XV for it's edgy character designs and road-trip vibe, but nope, it seems no matter what setting is used in any new FF game, people complain and call it shit.

^
I think many people want every Final Fantasy to have the landmark impact FFVII had. If the game is "just good" it frustrates them.

You assume there's homogeny among the fanbase. Those people who complain about XV being a boy band road trip likely aren't the same people complaining about X. If they are, it's more of a ven diagram crossover. With such diversity among the fanbase, as well as in the style between games, it becomes impossible to please everybody simultaneously.

For example, VII is one of my least favorites, and is highly overrated, IMO. IX is the true classic that deserves more recognition than it gets. I don't want another VII. I want more titles with traditional fantasy settings, more like IX and XII, and less like VII, which has more of a sci-fi dystopian setting.

I for example played VII and VIII on "rich friend's" console since I couldn't afford my own as a kid and I enjoyed them. FF X was the first Final Fantasy I could get on my own and I loved it. FF X-2 was rather a let down and I couldn't enjoy it that much. Still I grinded it for what it's worth to get that damn deserved happy ending.

FF XII was not my cup of tea. I found the combat system annoying and the plot pretty much bored me. I couldn't immerse into it like I did with X. Still I will not bash it or say I hate it. It's just not for me. XIII I may have had enjoyed if I had console for it, but after milking that cow for this long, I don't think I would play it now. XV from what I saw does not appeal to me, so I just let others enjoy it, and stay away from it myself.

Sachi wrote:all of it

I see your point and you've swayed me. I stand corrected. (Not that my hypothesis was super though out in the first place, just a random guess that popped into my mind).

Stan wrote:but nope, it seems no matter what setting is used in any new FF game, people complain and call it shit.

It's everything Sachi said, PLUS the people that hate Final Fantasy for whatever reason wanting to call every new game shit. That group only got louder when both XV and Stormblood became raging successes that helped keep the brand alive. The series isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and as such, unfortunately neither are its haters.

Back to XII TZA, the x2/x4 options really made grinding SO MUCH less painful than the original. I'm only 21 hours in and I'm already at Balfonheim.

^Ditto to x2 and x4. I just finished the incredibly tedious Pharos of Ridorana dungeon, and with x4 I was able to stroll through it relatively quickly. It helped having completed all the hunts on the side beforehand, leveling my party to about lvl 65, and having acquired Excalibur for my knight. I could basically run straight through it, while my party would one-shot everything in sight. I never took advantage of the higher level magicks before, but Scathe is a helluva spell. I fucked up and missed out on the Genji Gloves and Shield, but I got the Helm and Armor, and gave to my Knight / Battlemage, Basch. Is it just me, or is the damage limit gone in the Zodiac version? My hits are easily breaking 9,999, even going upwards of 20,000. Everything is a breeze at this point. Except for that one spot in the Zertinan Carverns that has yet to be relevant to anything, but has incredibly difficult enemies.

^ Yes, the damage cap was removed in TZA/IZJS.

Anyhow, I've put a few more hours in and made it to Bhujerba. I stayed at the "bone zone" in the Lhusu Mines for a while and massively overleveled my battle party thanks to the speed boost function. I think my highest chain was 260-something before I backtracked to save my progress. My current battle party consists of Basch (Bushi and party leader), Fran (Black Mage), and Balthier (Machinist). I love watching Basch combo-chain stuff to death with a katana, it looks so awesome. I still wish there was an option to use the long-haired Basch model from the Barheim passage, I always thought he looked so much better with the long hair tied back and a full beard.

I've finished my business in the mines and completed the Nidhogg hunt, so I'll be going to the Leviathan pretty soon if I remember right.

http://www.novacrystallis.com/2017/07/f ... -detailed/

Welp, the FFXV Multiplayer Looks weird
I'm not on-board with custom characters, they look generic and their designs don't fit with the FF-universe at all. Also them using the King's magic goes against the continuity of the story, they can't be using magic unless this is a Kingsglaive prequel (but it seems to be set in the Dark World when Noct is away). Idk, there are other things they should prioritize:

^ Honestly, I've given up on FFXV ever since they announced those power ranger exo-suits a couple weeks ago. What the game needs is reconstructive surgery for its story. Instead of doing that, S-E would rather keep shoveling out pointless crap like mobile spinoffs, power ranger suits, cup noodle promotions, a VR fishing game, a multiplayer mode which baffles me as to why the hell it exists, a costume collaboration with Blue Reflection of all games, and now putting the Regalia in Forza Horizon 3:

http://gematsu.com/2017/07/final-fantas ... -horizon-3

I still haven't tried out that off-road Regalia update I was excited for. I'm just so sick of seeing all the FFXV brand shovelware that S-E is spewing out that I don't even want to touch the game right now. It's becoming more and more apparent that they have zero interest in fixing anything and instead have decided to whore out the FF brand wherever they can, in order to milk as much money as they can with brand recognition.

I know that back in the day, the FFVII Compilation and the FFXIII sequels got a lot of hate. But looking back and comparing those with what's happening to FFXV, they were actually some pretty good quality spinoffs by comparison.

I've enjoyed the off-road Regalia. I don't feel as suffocated when driving anymore, and taking shortcuts is nice.

But yeah, not really interested in many of the add-ons. That's just me though. I enjoy vanilla Skyrim.

If the game was perfect, or if they took a year to fully patch and fix the story - then I wouldn't mind for all these additional "jokes" updates and features. But considering the sorry state the game is in now, and considering the community is only asking for story fixes, it's almost comical how SE is doing literally everything but that..

As of now, these are the promises we're still awaiting:

-Power Ranger Suits (supposedly in a few days via update)
-Beastiary (unspecified date)
-More story cut-scenes (unspecified date)
-Episode Ignis (December)
-Multiplayer Expansion (beta next week)
-Heavily Hinted More On Ravus (maybe with Ignis, otherwise unspecified date)
-Heavily Hinted More On Ardyn (unspecified date)
-An 'Awesome Un-Annaunced Expansion' (unspecified date)
-Another Event Like the Chocobo Festival, Showed Interest in Decorated Insomnia with CEO Boss Battle (unspecified date)
-The Survey Results and What They Mean (Gamescom)