Game Progress (No Spoilers)

[Andromeda]

Well since a lot of people are getting the game and there is probably going to be subject of how far long in the game everyone is, I figured I would get in and try to have it all in one place.

It is pretty straight forward, how many hours you got, what level are your characters, what city are you in or dungeon and anything else that is relevant to where you are now. Just remember to keep is spoilers free. If the city says too much about the story or something then restrain.

Feel free to add what other little achievements or things you have done like getting 10 chains or 50 chains or something like that.

[LocoColt04]

Well, I haven't played since last night, but I did get about three and a half hours in before I went to bed. I did a LOT of exploring (talking to everyone, visiting every area available to me, etc.), so I haven't actually done much yet in terms of the game. I'm still in Rabanastre right now, just about to walk into Old Dalan's door. I'm not sure what comes next.

Vaan is my only party member, level three.

Clan Rank is Moppet with 807 points.

Highest chain so far is six.

I'm moving Vaan into daggers and light armor, and will continue to build his thief-like skills. I'm really liking the character so far. A pleasant surprise, if you will.


...what about yourself, Andro?
Also, I think I'll sticky this. I doubt Alucard or Djinn would argue.


edit:
And now Vaan is level five. I had Penelo in the party for a while, but now that I'm at the sewers, she's gone. (Well, actually, I'm past the sewers and into the castle now, but I won't give any more details than that.)

Clan Rank (henceforth CR) is still Moppet;
Clan Points (hencefort CP) are 2879.

[Walter Sobchak]

Well, I haven't played since last night, but I did get about three and a half hours in before I went to bed. I did a LOT of exploring (talking to everyone, visiting every area available to me, etc.), so I haven't actually done much yet in terms of the game. I'm still in Rabanastre right now, just about to walk into Old Dalan's door. I'm not sure what comes next.

Vaan is my only party member, level three.

Clan Rank is Moppet with 807 points.

Highest chain so far is six.

I'm moving Vaan into daggers and light armor, and will continue to build his thief-like skills. I'm really liking the character so far. A pleasant surprise, if you will.


...what about yourself, Andro?
Also, I think I'll sticky this. I doubt Alucard or Djinn would argue.


edit:
And now Vaan is level five. I had Penelo in the party for a while, but now that I'm at the sewers, she's gone. (Well, actually, I'm past the sewers and into the castle now, but I won't give any more details than that.)

Clan Rank (henceforth CR) is still Moppet;
Clan Points (hencefort CP) are 2879.

Wow. This really makes me think. I dont even know how to begin those things yet.

I just got to Rabanastre, after the whole Dalmasca scenario. Just met Penelo and such.

[Dimi]

I've only played for about an hour and a half. I must say the game looks reall really beautiful. Anyways after the Dalmasca scenario as well. I met up with Penelo and now I'm doing the Tomato mob Hunt. nother thing I must say is Rabanastre seems really big. Hmm...right now I'm gonna try to get Vaan more of a warrior(using swords) ang to learn white magic too.

[Victoria]

Yeah, I just started it. You know me, first way through, I do the story itself, and then the next time I just do every thing there is, hah. ^^; Oh well, I'm only a few minutes into the game anyway, I can just restart.

Vaan is level 3, I think.

[Georg Prime]

Well i've barely gotten past the beginning, i've been too busy to play much today. I haven't even gotten to play Vaan, i'm only at the very first savepoint when you are playing as Recks. I took a short nap which i just woke up on so i'm plannin on staying up as late as i can tonight playing without passing out. I'm gonna need all the caffeine i can get tonight. More updates to come later.

So far though..my opinion is wow. This game looks to be incredible, in my opinion lightyears beyond X.

Best chain i've gotten is only 4, though honestly i have no idea what chains are or how i get them. Guess i didnt read into the battle system well enough.

[LionheartVIII]

This game is incredible I have been playing it for a couple hours now. Its simply a masterpeice.

Its so fun Im still at the begginning doing the hunts and such.

[Kyle]

Yeah this game is really, really good. I'm about 2 and a half hours into it and I just got out of Robanastre and am looking for Jinn or something for some Nomad lady.

[Bryan 2.0]

I'm about six and a half hours into the game. I met up with two big characters earlier. I just finished up what I thought was a really cool part in the game. Kinda gave me a feel from the film Gladiator. I'll just say..."knots of rust" and leave it at that.

If you know what I'm talking about, I've just finished that part in the game. If you don't, you have something really, really cool to look foward to. I thought it was fun, anyway.

I don't have the game on now, so I have no idea what level I'm at. I may fire the PS2 up again tonight sometime and play it some more, but I'm kinda drowsy and not feeling so well, so I may just go to bed in a few minutes.

[Andromeda]

Well I finally got the game home and I am at 2:21 right now on my time still hanging around Rabanastre. Vaan is level 4 right now, close to 5 and I am a Hedge Knight Rank now since I just defeated my second mark. I killed the Rogue Tomato and just now Thextera which was a pain in the neck, since it killed me twice. I had to equip some better armor to survive its Fang ability that takes out like 100+ HP.

Also the highest chain I did was 16 so far. I could have continued, but I wanted to kill the Rogue Tomato.

[Bryan 2.0]

Vaan is at level 6. I'm going to take out my second mark after I wrap up what I'm doing now (granted nothing huge happens preventing me from doing so).

My current time playing the game is 6:20:05. I'll keep checking in.

[Dimi]

Right now Vaan is at level 7 and I'm doing my third hunt (the cactus one). I've managed to make Vaan learn lv.1 white, black, time, and green magic. I haven't made him learn arcane yet though. I did finished my third mob hunt but as I was going back to Rabanastre as I was fighting monsters I accidently attacked the T-Rex and I died. So now I have to start the mob hunt again. My current time is 4:02 and my highest chain was 14.

[Georg Prime]

Hahaha..wow i tried to do the same thing Fishie! I guess what's i get for having a level 5 Vaan and trying to attack a huge dinosaur..got a hit in before getting my ass handed to me on a stick.

Anywayz, only about 2 or so hours into the game..Vaan is level 5, largest chain is 10.

[LocoColt04]

I have all playable characters except Penelo. She's... missing in action, to keep this spoiler-free. Kinda sucks though... I really like her character and I'm hardly getting a chance to even see the poor girl.

I'm at Leviathan right now.

You'll know what that means when you get there.

My active party:
Vaan @ 11;
Basch @ 13;
Ashe @ 12.

Balthier is at 09 and Fran is at 11 -- I've no idea what level Penelo will be when I re-acquire her.

The gambit system is a lot of fun once you start getting more and more options. It's incredibly intuitive, complex yet simple.

And the license board? Absolutely love it.

I've built my Vaan to be effecient with poles -- he's got some damn sweet moves with them. Each of the characters has his or her own unique animations for every weapon type, and the attacks always vary.

Sometimes Vaan will thrust, other times he'll swing, and sometimes he'll sweep. Once in a while he hacks from above and the enemies crumple to the ground.

Square-Enix really paid attention to detail in this one.



edit:
Oh yeah, and my longest chain so far is 43.


Vaan is still built primarily as a thief, with monk-type vitality.

Basch is my heavy hitter, with two strength boosts already. He wields an axe (finally! Took me forever to find one) and hits for 200+.

I just acquired Ashe; she's pre-set as somewhat of a White Mage, so I figured I would just expand upon that. When I got her, she had 449 LP... I had fun.

Balthier is still using guns, and also has the fun techniks like Poach.

I turned Fran into a Paladin of sorts. I'm not sure if there are techniks for Jump, but if there are, she's definitely going to be my Paladin/Dragoon. She's got first and second level white magic, and the first level of black magic, green magic, and time magic. She's using a spear and it does wicked damage, but I just pulled her out of my party to give Ashe a try.

Penelo... I'm not sure what I'll do with her yet. I was thinking Dark Knight of sorts... black magic, arcane magic, and then power. We'll see what happens.

[Andromeda]

Well, I'm calling it a night for myself, four hours of sleep. I stop are 7:26 right now, with Vaan 9, Balthier 9, Fran 9, Basch, 11, and Lamont 10 a guest. I defeated my third mark, Wraith, which was a royal pain in the neck. Killed my guys a lot. I actually didn't lose, but I had to change around my gambits mid fight since I figured out a strategy and method to combating it. Still a Hedge Knight though, but I got 14,047 points.

I have Basch built more as a power house, so he got some strength bonuses and HP ones. Vaan more a middle of the road warrior with a little of everything. Balthier, less on the heal and more of a heavy ranged fighter. Fran is more my healer right now, more MP, and ranged fighter with black magic. Vaan has a lv 1 Black, White and Green Magic and Lv 2 White Magic. I need to work on some of the techniques so that the battles are a little better.

I actually put everyone on Gambit while I was reading Loco's post and just ran around making money and exp. When down right, the gambit can do the easy battles yourself.

I just arrived in the city of Bhujerba, though I'm thinking about going back and leveling more and getting some more money tomorrow for somethings I want. I found a good leveling grounds too.

[Bryan 2.0]

Hey just dropping in i wanna know what game you guys are talking about!>!>!>?????Hey just dropping in i wanna know what game you guys are talking about!>!>!>?????Hey just dropping in i wanna know what game you guys are talking about!>!>!>?????Hey just dropping in i wanna know what game you guys are talking about!>!>!>?????

Hey, how about you stop? Hey, how about you stop? Hey, how about you stop?

What you're doing is spamming. Sure, you'll get one liners and lack of contents to posts, but this is just uncalled for. I'm going to give you a warning for two reasons...

1. Posting spam as you did above.
2. You know as well as I do what the topic is about. You had to click the link in order to get in here. It's obvious.

[Neon Shadow]

WOW amazing i never knew this game could be so addictave i might buy it as soon as it comes out in Australia that is !!!!

[Bryan 2.0]

Yes, it is quite addictive. Technically, you just spammed again because this isn't really the place to be discussing the game in general, just the progress. Please refrain from doing it again in the future.

Anyway...

I'm off to bed. My current progress is:

9:34:04

Vaan: Lvl. 8
Balthier: Lvl. 9
Fran: Lvl. 9
Basch: Lvl. 10

I'm a Hedge Knight now...woohoo! I'll check back in later tomorrow.

[Walter Sobchak]

I was just reintroduced to Basch, and at this point the game is unforgiving if you suck at the License and Gambit systems. The enemies around here are destroying me. Vaan is Level 5, Fran and Balthier are level 6, and Basch is level 8. It looks like I am going to have to fight and save until I can make it through the whole dungeon.

[DragonHeart]

How frustrating, I had the game sitting on my table since 12:28 P.M. yesterday and I didn't get to start until about 6:30 this morning. ; ; Damn work, of all the days to get a special shift...GRR!

Anyways, I'm exactly 2:30 in right now, just messing around. Didn't want to do too much cause I have work this morning, blah. Vaan is level 4 and I gave him Libra and Cure. Did the first hunt without any trouble and I have Thextera's hunt started. I haven't really decided what to do with him yet but I might keep playing on his THF-ness and work that up.

~DragonHeart~

[Georg Prime]

Right now I'm working my way through the Nalbina Dungeons..all three of my characters are on level 8. (Vaan, Balthier, Fran)

Highest chain is 16

Vaan i'm teaching swords, white magic, etc.
Balthier is sticking with guns but i'm teaching technics such as poach
Fran i'm teaching green magic in addition to the magic she already has

Yeah the license board is great..i love the way you develop your characters, it gives you so much freedom. So far i haven't had much trouble with the way i'm leveling up the characters, the only trouble i had was at the beginning of the game with Vaan. So far bosses have not been bad at all but i'm sure things will get harder.

and i'm only a hedgeknight as of now. I tried to take on that flowering cactus soley with Vaan awhile back, but not only were his attacks not doing much but the damn thing blinded me and i had no eye drops. I'm gonna have to take him to school once i have the chance again

EDIT:

about 10 hrs into the game now, just arrived at Bhujerba.
Vaan, Fran, Balthier at Lv. 10, Baasch at Lv. 11, Lamont (guest) at Lv. 10

Just glad to be done with that dungeon with the Mimic Queen (my first challenging boss battle, only vaan and fraan survived). Baasch was hilarious trying to fight flans with no weapons . Nice that the third hunt was on my way back through the easterlands, killed that flowering cactice. Haven't finished another hunt, but signed up for three. Tried to fight the wraith but decided to come back later.

[LionheartVIII]

My characters are all level 10 right now ecxept Basch who is level 12. Ive only done two hunts so far, im planning on doing more soon. Im still kinda experimenting with the whole gambit system, its a lot more fun to tinker with then I thought it would be. I think it adds a bit more strategy to the battle system.

Just glad to be done with that dungeon with the Mimic Queen (my first challenging boss battle, only vaan and fraan survived). Baasch was hilarious trying to fight flans with no weapons .

Lol yeah, I fought that thing the first time and just concentrated on the queen itself and failed cause she used her breath of life thing on me like 4 times and I couldnt recouperate fast enough. The second time I went in to the battle thinking and stomped the queen fairly easly.

In the story Im saving Penelo or whatever.

I have to say now that Ive played with this battle system its going to be hard to go back and play RPGs where you run into battles and they have to load and all that.

The license board is amazing. In a lot of the other FF games weapons really didnt play that big of a part. For example you could beat FFVIII with out upgrading at all easily. I also love the ability to use whatever the hell I want for whatever character. One of my playthroughs Im going to make Basch an axe weilding white mage.

God I love this game.

[Georg Prime]

Yea i really have to mess around more with the gambit system. I think i just got lucky on that Mimic Queen fight, i basically just had Fran as a healer, as well as Vaan. I had ran out of healing items completely going thru the dungeon so basically i had vaan and fran lay in the cut using cure on balthair and baasch as they went balls to the wall attacking. Once those two died though i had no phoenix downs but vaan and fran were able to finish him off.

Haha i know it will be hard going back to normal battle systems..this makes things so..quick and fun. Standard turned based battles will start to feel like a chore again.

I feel like with the look of the game and the battle system, the whole game feels like a strange mix between Vagrant Story and traditional final fantasy titles. It's amazing all the freedom the game gives you with your characters. I'm kinda still thinking over good combinations for my characters.

Anywayz, just made it thru the Bhujerba mines. Now it's time to "testify"..i'm probably gonna go back to the mines to do some leveling up before advancing more in the story though. Also upgrade my weapons and armor. Vaan is really the only one with a brand spanking new set of weapons and armor. I am always so low on cash.

Anywayz, good luck everyone! I'm talking a little break for the time being but probably will be back at it within an hour or so. I know that Lamont guy seemed fishy, come on he had a sword that was bigger than he was!

[LionheartVIII]

LOL. Im starting to do more of the hunts now and I went to kill that Cactular flower thing. I only had Vaan out when I was fighting it at the time. I used a bunch of fire magik on it and was killing it with ease. He was running away untill he had almost no health. He then turned around and proceeded to rape Vaan with the 1000 needles attack. I then pulled out Fran, Baltheir, and Basch they automatically started to attack it and I had Fran start to caste the fire spell that would kill it. The Cactular again used its 1000 needles attack killing Basch before being hit by Frans fire spell... It was an epic battle.

Im still deciding on where to go with my characters.

So far:

Vaan-Well rounded he knows all types of magic and he uses the assasins blade which rapes all.

Fran-Im kind of thinkin im going to make her into a mage. Ill have her use bows so she can stay at a distance and heal my characters.

Basch, Balthier- havent really messed around to much with these characters yet. Im not sure where ill go with them.

[Walter Sobchak]

Im in the Leviathan, about to fight the Judges. I fought them once before, and I got slaughtered. I have levelled everyone up to Level 13, and taught Balthier and Vaan a Strength Up License, and Fran and Basch are just levelling up. I should be able to beat them now, think I just got caught not healed up.

[LocoColt04]

Yeah, I managed to beat them with ease while everyone was level 12 (and Basch was 13).

Nothing has actually changed since my last post except for my location: Sandsea -- and not the bar. Again, you'll all know what that means when you get there. Many of you are catching up to me.

...silly job, detracting from FFXII time.

[Georg Prime]

i guess i'm just lucky that i'm a loser bum with no job at the moment which means all the time for FF XII. I might even slow down my pace on the game, it'd be a shame to get this game over with as soon as possible. I'd like to spend a good amount of time on it.

Just started on the Leviathan. I feel like my team is not leveled up enough so hopefully i won't have a hard time. Might have to do a little leveling up before going on. Honestly, i haven't used much magic at all thus far into the game, Penelo was the one i was making out to be my main magic user but unfortunately she isn't in my party. Barely even bought many spells.

Vaan Lv. 11, Balthiar Lv. 11, Fran, Lv. 10, Baasch Lv. 12, Vossler (guest) Lv. 15

[Walter Sobchak]

I just got out of the Leviathan, and have all six characters now. I am going to some major monster hunting to get levels and money to buy equipment, because what I have now is terrible. Ashe learned a Quickening, but I did not get a chance to use it in the last Boss Fight.

[Dimi]

After finishing my third mob hunt(Cactuar Flower), I went back to town and now I'm in the dungeon with the mimics. Right now my party is Vaan, Fran, and Balthier, with Basch as a guest.

Vaan is at level 10 with Fran and Belthier at level 11. My game time is 7:18. I'm still a hedge knight after doing three mob hunts. As for Vaan on the license board he's using swords and is like a Warrior that knows magic. As for Fran, I made her use swords as well and she is like my Red Mage. As for Bathier he's still using guns and he knows a little bit of magic as well. Right now I'm gonna try to level up little bit more and get past the dungeon.

[Andromeda]

Well I finished with the Leviathan an hour so or ago and have been making money since I've been short on it for a while. I have two Quickenings now, Ashe and Basch have one each. I've used them a couple times, but it is going to be hard to get used to. I'm currently at 11:19.

Vaan 15
Balthier 14
Fran 9
Basch 16
Ashe 16
Penelo 14

Hedge Knight still with 35478 points.
I made a 62 chain just now during my leveling, which was great for making money. I know where I'm going for my money needs. It is good exp too.

I have been trying to kill Nidhogg for a while and utterly failing. It has not killed me yet, but I can't survive. I go in with 20 potions and 10 phoenix downs and use my Quickenings right off. Since I'm so bad with them I probably do not much damage. And then everything is fine until the last 15% and it just goes nuts and does not stop attacking and I can't heal fast enough. So I'm coming back to that later.

I have my License set up more or less in the same fashion right now, because I'm aiming towards specific things. Though I'm going to need to start looking at some armor license soon. I've been focusing a lot of the others lately. Everyone has two Swiftness, a bunch of extra HP and MP after kills. They also have increase attack bonus. I'm going to be needing to get money and buy some spells or something.