So... I'm giving FFXII another shot

[nix]

Long ago, Xanatos convinced me to give FFXII another shot. I found it boring as fuck on my first play through and ended up abandoning it, which i had never done with a FF before.. ANYWAY!!

I'm currently making my way through a jail/dungeon prison with the well dressed/spoken pirate and playboy bunny, we just found Bash or whatever his name is.. whats odd is i dont remember doing any of this last time i played and i usually have a good memory for games.

Is the zodiac age different from the original game in terms of story progression?

Anybody got any tips for a pretty much first timer? Its got a battle system im not fond of and there are too many gambit options that finding out which are useful/useless seems very time consuming.

What skills should i unlock above others? Majority of what i can choose from is just unlocking what i can equip gear wise or more gambit slots.. Whats hot? whats not? help a brotha out

and any tips you think would be useful are welcome

[Rowan]

Is the zodiac age different from the original game in terms of story progression?

Yes it is. In the original, the entire license board was unlocked for every character; there was no job system. Every character could do literally everything. Then came FF12 internation where they introduced the job system, then FF12 the zodiac age, where they enhanced the job system by allowing each character to have 2 jobs instead of 1 (you will unlock this feature soon). Zodiac age shits on the original in this regard as it gives the game a whole lot more depth by creating job specific weapons, armor, skills, magic etc. You could imagine how easy the original was if everyone could use and do everything. Some other slight changes are the locations of certain magic can be found in the world as opposed to everything being able to be bought from shops. Gives more meaning to some optional quests.

Anybody got any tips for a pretty much first timer? Its got a battle system im not fond of and there are too many gambit options that finding out which are useful/useless seems very time consuming.

Make yourself a breaker at some stage. Breakers have access to all the debuffs and one of the MASSIVE changes in the zodiac age, is that all bosses can be debuffed and debuffing stacks. So debuff an enemies attack, then again and again and again and it will hit you for next to nothing (debuffs last the length of the battle, they dont wear off). Its important in some of the tougher boss battles. You may want to set up a gambit for your breaker to be on debuff duty, however im not sure of a good gambit setup that will switch from stacking debuffs to stacking to another debuff. Also, make sure to SAVE ALL YOUR LOOT, DONT SELL UNTIL CLOSE TO THE END. this will allow you to craft a lot of shit without having to gain multiples of them later on. If you want more info on this let me know and I'll go into more detail.

What skills should i unlock above others? Majority of what i can choose from is just unlocking what i can equip gear wise or more gambit slots.. Whats hot? whats not? help a brotha out

Gear is hot. Weapons and armors.

and any tips you think would be useful are welcome

Have fun with it. Theres a lot of hidden areas on the world map and sidequests to have fun with.

[nix]

Whats a breaker? is it a specific character, I'm a bit disappointed i can only have two characters in my team

How do i learn magic? is it unlocked on the board or do i learn it from a weapon/armour?

[Rowan]

Whats a breaker? is it a specific character, I'm a bit disappointed i can only have two characters in my team

How do i learn magic? is it unlocked on the board or do i learn it from a weapon/armour?

A breaker is a job class, any character can be any job class however there are characters who have stats naturally suitied to specific jobs, but only if you're a maximist (or whatever its called), otherwise its completely okay for any character to utilize any job.

Magic is obtained from shops and from certain chests in the world map. You unlock it on the board so that character can use it, then buy it from the shop to you own it.

[loaf]

Farm chains. Play whatever jobs you want. A lot of abilities and spells in this game that are great.

Top 3 FF title.

[nix]

Farm chains.

Top 3 FF title.

What chains? you mean gambits?

Whats your top 3?

Thanks lads, keep em comin!

[Rowan]

What chains? you mean gambits?

Whats your top 3?

Thanks lads, keep em comin!

You start a "chain" when you kill the same enemy multiple times in a row (without killing other enemies in between) and the higher the chain, the more loot and exp you gather from them. It will say 'Chain" and whatever number you are on that chain visable on the screen. so if you've killed 5 enemies it will say "chain 5" when you kill the 5th one, 'chain 6' when you kill the 6th one etc.

I remember a really good place to do this is the nam-yensa sandsea (I think) with those little tomato things.

[nix]

Ok so i see alot of wolves at the moment, so i just kill them and nothing else and i level like a mofo?

[loaf]

Your first real chain should be in the Lusu Mines against skeletons.

FF9,
FF12,
FFT

[nix]

I'm finding navigating the zones in this game to be an absolute mess, i just got passed the part where i rescued Ashe and Panelo and we're now heading towards a tomb to get a crystal so she can prove shes royalty or whatever..

Anyway im running around this giant oil rig, it has about 10 exits, none showing on the map to where they lead so id have to go to each exit to see where it leads, which is an absolute chore, on top of that, ive no idea which one is the one ive to actually go to, am i missing something?

So i pick one of the exits after exploring most of the north part of the oil rig, i rest up, level my shit and save, i then see a mog chatting to one of the dudes who ive been slaughtering, he tells me the dude needs help, some sorta boss giving them guff and the promise of treasure, im like cool, ill do that, go into the part where the dude runs to and its another fucking maze... WTF! Gimme a world map and random encounters any day over this endless mind fuck, feel like im about to run into David Bowie any minute

[GypsyElder]

I still find XII boring af. Still haven't finished it, but It's probably still better than 15 looolz