You guys see that FFXV VR fishing game at Sony's Conference? Oh God, why Tabata? Why do you put your resources into that crap when there is so much the game could use instead??

Sachi wrote:Omg. I just got to the part where you can rent a chocobo in FFXV. I'm as happy as Prompto. I'm going to go everywhere with this guy.

See, the greatest joy is randomly exploring the world. Enjoy your time with it and don't worry about the bad story

Stan wrote:and don't worry about the bad story

Story is good though. Better than the XIII trash-heap.

ANYWAYS, for anyone other than me still playing FFXIV, the launch trailer for Stormblood has been out for a while now. MUH PROUD ALA MHIGO.

Stan wrote:You guys see that FFXV VR fishing game at Sony's Conference? Oh God, why Tabata? Why do you put your resources into that crap when there is so much the game could use instead??

That was my reaction: why even make that when you could use the money and resources to finish the main game you already released instead? And why would someone buy a FFXV fishing game? There are games out there already that have far better fishing mechanics. Hell, Ocarina of Time had a better fishing minigame, and that game was made decades ago.

See, the greatest joy is randomly exploring the world. Enjoy your time with it and don't worry about the bad story

Yeah, I've put another 10 hours in just doing side stuff and grinding XP, and I'm having more fun doing that than I did playing the story. But I will say, as butchered as XV's story is, it's still a hell of a lot better than the XIII trilogy's stories.

Tonight I cleared the Costlemark and Daurel Mines dungeons, and got the last two royal arms I needed to complete the armiger. That was the last unfinished side quest that I felt I needed to finish before I moved on. Since I've beaten the final boss and completed the armiger, I now consider the game to be finished with for all intents and purposes. I have no inclination to start a new playthrough, and I'll come back and do the rest of the side quests at a later date, so now it's time to stop dallying and finish another game on my ever-growing PS4 backlog.

New DLC for Prompto trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ7gs2bp9cU

I'm around the final act of my latest run-through of FFX HD, and omg, this game is brilliant. I've probably gone on long rants in the past about how great this game is, particularly the story, so I won't go into terrible detail. Here's just one thing that's standing out to me this time around:

The relationship between Tidus and his father is quite interesting. On the surface, it's nothing special, and for the most part runs with the regular cliche of daddy issues. However, when you add Sin to the equation, and everything Jecht did on his adventure during Braska's pilgrimage along with Auron, it gets kinda of interesting. Sin is the embodiment of Spira's suffering, as well as a literal representation of the father as a powerful monolith that the son is in competition with. The theme of competition between Jecht and Tidus runs deep, symbolized by the sport Bliztball; Jecht was a beloved sports champion, and Tidus wants to outdo him in order to be free of living under a shadow. At the same time, Tidus was also in competition with his father for his mother's attention, something he admits as a root cause of his hatred for his father (how very freudian). While Tidus hated his father for these reasons, we soon learn how much Jecht actually loved his son, and how he pushed him hard in order to toughen him up. As Sin, Jecht had to once again become an antagonist to his son, yet for good and noble reasons; Jecht's ultimate plan as Sin was to break the cycle, and for Auron to guide his son to find a way to once and for all kill Sin. This was Jecht's final gift to his son. Tidus was able to rise to the challenge and save the day, hooray. and then he fades into nothingness, hooray!

Guys, guys.

FFXII Zodiac Age is downloading on my PS4.

When I get home tonight, it's back into the world of Ivalice. Good timing too. In FFX, I'm at the point where there's only side stuff to do really, which I need to be on a certain mood for. FFXII should fill that gap in my heart. I'm really excited, and at the same time nervous, about the new Zodiac job system. One thing I enjoyed about the original license board was the flexibility in jobs, and the ability to create custom jobs if desired. I liked having Ashe as a Paladin type character (white magic medium knight). I'm not sure how the new job system will affect that, but I'll report back once I find out

Make sure to give Vaan the Bushi job to wield katanas. Vaan wielding katanas while equipped with the Genji Glove and berserked is a combo monster.

I hate Berserk as a status. I'll probably pass on that.

When I last played several years ago, I had a pretty solid setup which I might try to emulate again as much as possible. Vaan had a dagger and shield, light armor, stealing and casting haste on party members (time thief), Ashe had a one-handed sword and shield, medium armor, would cast bubble on the party, and would be first to use white magic (paladin), and finally Basch would have a two-handed axe, sword, or katana, with heavy armor (warrior).

I was able to get them to a point where I could be 99% hands off during battle. DPS doesn't matter as much to me so long as my party is for the most part self-sustaining.

This first playthrough with the Zodiac job system will likely be me experimenting a lot and getting familiar with the game again, and I'll eventually start another playthrough with more of an idea of how to use the jobs.

Sachi wrote:I was able to get them to a point where I could be 99% hands off during battle. DPS doesn't matter as much to me so long as my party is for the most part self-sustaining.

I tried to play the game that way but reached a point where it just didn't seem feasible, like I was fighting the game to get it to let me set up my party that way. Given the limitations on the Gambit system that you have to lift as the game goes along if you want an as-hands-off-as-possible party, how far did you have to be to get your party to operate that autonomously?

I can't quite remember exactly when I felt confident in my party. I want to say that it was sometime around the port city with the pirates (Balfonheim). Like you point out, there are limits on the gambit system early in the game, particularly the lack of commands available and the limited number of commands per character. It took constant experimentation, especially with the prioritization of commands. Then again, I loved grinding so damn much in this game, that my character's higher levels and number of licenses may have attributed to my success.

One trick I did was diversifying which characters handled which status effects in order to cover a fuller range. One would use antidote or the equivalent magic for poison, while another would cure some other ailment, etc. Same for boosts, like bubble, protect and haste. To a limited extent, I was able to do the same with attack magic: one character may use fire magic when coming across fire-weak enemies, another would use lightning magic, etc. Same with steal and other techniques.

Prioritizing restoration commands took the most effort. I ended up using (imaginary) jobs to my advantage. One character would be primary support, and would be the first to stop attacking and start curing. Simple restoration at first: for example (percentages may not be exact) <70% would be cure, <50% cura, <30% curaga, <20% curaja. Another character may start jumping in at <50%, and finally the last will join in to help at <30%. During emergencies, everybody stops and cures each other.

Naturally, attacking enemies is lower on the list of priorities (don't attack until defenses are secured). However, I like to keep my tank character on the offensive until emergencies. He'll have the most diverse attack commands, and will use powerful items like x-potion for a quick, effective recovery when necessary.

It's been years since I've actually played the game though. I can give you a better answer once I get through the re-release a little bit, and granted that the zodiac job system doesn't screw up my method.

EDIT: for some reason, PS4 downloads have never been quick for me. FFXII has been downloading all day, and only requires a 1/4 of the data in order to start, and now that it's past midnight on the east coast and the game is officially released, my console is still only halfway through the 1/4 of the data necessary to start. Guess I'm waiting until tomorrow.

THE ABS! GUYS, THEY FIXED THE ABS!



Seriously though, they did a fantastic job remastering FFXII. The game looks gorgeous, even by modern standards. It hardly shows its age at all. They even remastered the old CG cut scenes! That's something I've never seen them do before in any remaster. I'm still iffy on the re-orchestrated soundtrack, can't decide whether or not I like the original better. Luckily, switching back is always an option. I've played the Japanese IZJS version a little via emulation, so I know what to expect from the new job system. IIRC, the game should give you an option to use the old open-style license board instead if you don't like the zodiac job system, though it's a one-time option per playthrough.

By the way, I bought the Steelbook edition. The Amano artwork both inside and outside is beautiful.

Ditto to the updated graphics. Absolutely gorgeous.

I've gotten a chance to blaze through a couple hours of the game.
Currently on the airship after Ashe officially joins the party. While limiting, the Zodiac jobs look far more promising than I initially thought they'd be. I've got Vaan as a Shikari (daggers), Penelo as a White Mage, Balthier a Red Mage, Fran a Monk (unarmed, poles), Basch a Foebreaker (axes, hammers), and Ashe as a Knight. Feeling pretty confident in this set up. Main party will likely be Ashe as leader with Basche and Balthier.

As for gambits, they seem more natural to me now. On the imperial airship, there's a part when the alarms go off and enemies constantly spawn until you leave the room. As I've been typing this, my party has been let free to ravage, and I'm racking up experience.

IronEvangelion wrote:By the way, I bought the Steelbook edition. The Amano artwork both inside and outside is beautiful.

Akihiko Yoshida did the artwork for the steelbook IIRC, Amano had very little involvement in XII originally as well if memory serves me right.

Sachi wrote:I hate Berserk as a status. I'll probably pass on that.

I mean, it's annoying having to wait for it to fade on its own rather than being able despell it but other than that I don't think you give it enough credit (unless you don't like it cause it's overpowered in which case that's what makes it so good IMO). Some of the more difficult endgame hunts like the Behemoth King and Fafnir are significantly easier with how laughably broken Berserk is on Vaan. It made the original FFXII's difficulty much more fair having Vaan spamming more 9999's than Cloud's Omnislash.

Other than that, I too got the steelbook edition of the game and even only being able to play roughly 45 minutes of it before having to go to bed for work, I'm in love with the game all over again. I was so excited I stubbornly peeled the 30th Anniversary sticker off of the shrink wrap and stuck it to the slip cover where I believe it rightfully belongs.

TIP I saw from watching a leveling guide on Youtube: You can easily get the 50+ chain trophy in The Lhusu Mines by farming the respawning skeletons on the bridge, if they stop respawning, just flee two areas back and flee back again to the bridge without killing enemies.

^In that case, if the berserk bushi combo is most effective during the endgame, I might as well wait and choose it as a secondary job later.

Also, I must say running that through the field at 2x speed is way more fun than it should be.

I rented FFXII from blockbuster back in the day, never really got too far in the game (and perhaps was too young for the story). I really like the Zodiac Age, seriously, the gameplay is so fantastic and the story and voice acting is very mature and grounded in realism. I honestly feel invested in the politics the game is presenting more than all of FFXV's struggles.

I'm finally in the part of the game where exploration has significantly opened up, and I'm going to forget about the story for a bit in favor of hunts and license point grinding.

I didn't realize how quickly you could acquire the secondary license boards. I'm hesitant to give them all out quickly, but I'm quite proud of the White Mage/Archer setup I've given to Penelo. She's out of direct attack range, and she can provide both offense and support. I also now have Fran as a Monk/Black Mage. The rest will come to me when the time is right, although I am considering making Vaan a Bushi in addition to a Shikari.

After a bit of practice, I've successfully worked Steal into the gambits:

TheFriskyIan wrote:Akihiko Yoshida did the artwork for the steelbook IIRC, Amano had very little involvement in XII originally as well if memory serves me right.

Sorry about that, it just looks similar to Amano's work.

Anyhow, I'm a bit further in now. Still haven't snuck into the palace yet, I've mostly been overleveling and doing hunts. I've just finished the sunstone quest, and have Vaan and Penelo set up as Knight and White Mage respectively. Nice to know the characters can be given sub-jobs later on, I was wondering how this new system would affect my endgame/secret boss builds. Also, I'm disappointed that there's no option to use the original open license board. I remember there being one in IZJS, when you first get access to the license board. Hopefully it will be patched in later. And I love how you can now highlight any square on the license boards and see what they are without being anywhere near them. This is a massive improvement over the original.

After getting familiar enough with the game again, as well as with all the new jobs and license boards, I've decided (as I said I probably would) to start the game over before I get too far and rebuild my team with optimal jobs, using all the available jobs (IOW, not repeating any). Here's what I've come up with, followed by a brief explanation for each:

Sachi wrote:After getting familiar enough with the game again, as well as with all the new jobs and license boards, I've decided (as I said I probably would) to start the game over before I get too far and rebuild my team with optimal jobs, using all the available jobs (IOW, not repeating any). Here's what I've come up with, followed by a brief explanation for each:

Tell me how The Leviathan goes without a white mage. I made Penelo my White Mage and having not getting her back until right before fighting Ghis, I was at the mercy of potions and hi-potions which really suck once you hit level 7 and above. I had to forego seeing every job and making Ashe a White Mage cause I was desperately out of potions/hi-potions and gil to buy more. The only thing that bugged me was that I was able to OHK Ghis with a single Quickening Chain.