[Final Fantasy] Known side effects of Dissidia include:

I'm ready go tonight. There's a party, alright. We don't need the raisin for joy, oh yeah. Tick down to midnight.
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Delthazar
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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Delthazar » Sun Feb 04, 2018 8:31 pm

Did XII always have that single letterboxing bar at the bottom of all its cutscenes? If so I guess I never thought much of it back in the day but man does it stand out as an odd stylistic choice today.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by True Perception » Sun Feb 04, 2018 10:52 pm

If your not Libra'd, do not attack enemies with red names. That means they are a good amount of levels over yours, and you likely won't win, unless you do a Concurrence.

Edit: I fully explored the Salikawood. Not going to touch the Necrohol. Without Float, that place would fuck me over! Unlocked the Barheim, and reunited the cactoids. Now off to explore Westersand, and maybe some of those underground tunnels. Complete some Hunts and such.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Falcon Critical » Mon Feb 05, 2018 12:04 pm

Delthazar wrote:Did XII always have that single letterboxing bar at the bottom of all its cutscenes? If so I guess I never thought much of it back in the day but man does it stand out as an odd stylistic choice today.
Don't know, but I turned subtitles back on just so it didn't look so odd.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Delthazar » Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:02 pm

I should do that too. At first I thought something was wrong with my video card. :pacdown

Ugh, fine, I caved and made Vaan a Shikari. Going with Monk for Penelo 'cause why not. I'm gonna stick with the game's own depictions and keep Balthier and Fran as Machinist and Archer respectively.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by True Perception » Mon Feb 05, 2018 5:30 pm

I don't even remember if I have subtitles on. I usually turn them on automatically, so I probably do.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by True Perception » Mon Feb 05, 2018 9:22 pm

Hunted down the Ring Wyrm, Marilith, White Mousse, and Orthros. ...Man that fucker was hard. Ate up all of my Quickenings, and had to spend most of the battle removing statuses, reviving people, and swapping people in and out of combat. Definitely early for that fight. The other three remaining Hunts should be very easy.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Falcon Critical » Tue Feb 06, 2018 3:25 am

I'm crossing the sandsea at the moment, have been hunting down the swiftness tiles on the License board. At what point in the game do you unlock secondary classes?

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Delthazar » Tue Feb 06, 2018 3:32 am

I think it's around the first Esper fight, which should be close, if I'm remembering correctly.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by True Perception » Tue Feb 06, 2018 5:33 am

As soon as you unlock Belias. They unlock them at the same time.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Delthazar » Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:17 am

I'm at the I'm Captain Basch section. Hopefully I can get through this as quickly as possible.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by John Layfield » Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:21 am

Delthazar wrote:I'm at the I'm Captain Basch section. Hopefully I can get through this as quickly as possible.
Don't believe Ondore's lies!

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Delthazar » Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:39 am

Basch lives!

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Falcon Critical » Wed Feb 07, 2018 11:27 am

It was frustrating doing that section and getting like 2% from shouting at people. Basically though you just have to go to the inn and you can get it to 100% quick as. You're probably past there already now, but yeah it falls on deaf ears unless you literally head into the resistance HQ.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by True Perception » Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:00 pm

Hmm. I never knew that. I always just roamed the streets. I guess it makes sense on a replay, but the bar was locked off before that section. I didn't even know you could access it during that part.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by John Layfield » Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:06 pm

Don't believe Falcon Critical's lies!

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Falcon Critical » Wed Feb 07, 2018 7:26 pm

Vaan: "I'm Basch von Ronsenburg from Dalmasca!"
Bar Patron: "You don't look like you're old enough to be Basch."
+40% awareness

There's like 3 people in that bar who challenge you and super-raise awareness.

I just left the Garudo village or whatever they are. They totally look like Garr though. My Ashe Monk is a damned good tank. I presume later on sheilds start to block more than staffs, because she blocks like a boss right now. Also I kept casing Blind on Werewolves and they were burning Eye Drops to try to hurt me.

It runs a lot smoother now that Balthier and Fran are ranged.

Also ( Ally Status: KO > Phoenix Down ) is hilarious in how fast party members come back to life, it's practically immortality. I just learned Regen on Fran, so she will now keep protect and regen on Ashe 100%.

Do you have any recommended Gambits?

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by True Perception » Wed Feb 07, 2018 7:39 pm

The Garif, you mean? I don't usually use items with Gambits. Burns through them too fast.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Delthazar » Thu Feb 08, 2018 12:18 am

Falcon Critical wrote:It was frustrating doing that section and getting like 2% from shouting at people. Basically though you just have to go to the inn and you can get it to 100% quick as. You're probably past there already now, but yeah it falls on deaf ears unless you literally head into the resistance HQ.
Jeez. I figured out pretty quickly that testifying to the city guides gets you a 20% boost each (makes sense as the game tells you later the guides are resistance members) and also that you'll get a -20% penalty if you're within earshot of a city guard. So it was barely a five minute sequence, but I guess it could've been five seconds if I thought to go to the inn. :pac

I'm headed into the dynast-king's tomb now, at least if I don't decide to grind a few marks first. I vaguely recall something about fighting Demon Walls in there which can be cheesed somehow, but that was 12 years ago and I have no idea what has and hasn't been rebalanced in this version.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Falcon Critical » Thu Feb 08, 2018 11:25 am

True Perception wrote:The Garif, you mean? I don't usually use items with Gambits. Burns through them too fast.
I use a couple, Penelo has ended up as my alt-team healer even though her classes are Shikari/Foebreaker - so her heals are weak and she burns out fast. I put ( HP < 50% = Cure ) right over ( HP < 50% = Potion ) meaning she will cast cure every time till she runs out of magic, then throw potions instead. With all the stealing I do I typically have 99 potions.

Phoenix Downs aren't used all that often even when gambited (at least for now), and they're pretty cheap so it's not really a waste I feel. I tried ( MP < 10% = Ether ) on my white mage, but it meant when he got low he just burned through a bunch of them - that's definitely one to control manually.


I've been taking and completing all the hunts as soon as I can, though I messed up with the cockatrice hunt in Giza plains because it had to be done in the dry season, so that's on hold for now.

I tried the first Demon Wall which is optional and couldn't kill it fast enough, the second one you have to fight and have plenty of time. It doesn't like dark elemental magic if you have anyone who can cast that.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Delthazar » Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:44 pm

I would've had the first Demon Wall if it hadn't X-Zoned Ashe so quickly. I'll go back and run cleanup later.

Re: burning through items too fast, there's a gambit that can control that somewhat by only using the associated item if you have more than 10, but I don't remember how it handles targeting.

I also have a lot of thievery going on. Steal is a great opener that I like to have one squaddie running against any full HP or 90% HP target, possibly along with Poach, but that doesn't proc as often 'cause usually by the time a target is HP critical it's also dead before it casts. Plus I'm pretty sure it pulls from the same loot table as Steal. I don't remember if Mob/Mug is in XII but I'd like to switch to that ASAP.

Anyway, I'm through the tomb, so I'm ready to mull over my second license board choices. How are the Red and Time Battlemage jobs? I'm almost certain I'll want a vanilla White Mage as one of my main three's secondary, and likely a Black Mage secondary, but if the two flavours of battlemage are strong enough I could consider rolling out the Black on one of the backups. I've heard that Red Battlemage in particular can be devastating later on with an Archer, so Fran in my case.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Falcon Critical » Thu Feb 08, 2018 4:14 pm

Apparently if you're going for 'all classes used' people tend to pair Time Mage with Uhlan because spear dudes are slooooow.

My main party are (in the order I chose them):

Ashe - Monk/Black Mage
Monk is doing a ton of work for me, staves having 30 defense means I block a lot. Slowly working my way around black mage board/chasing swiftness nodes, but probably will mostly be using melee attacks against most mobs. It's a nice option to start throwing giant spells when I find a weakness though. ( Self = Libra ) and as party leader has ( Enemy lowest HP = Attack ).

Fran - Red Battlemage/Archer
Her spells currently are mostly focused on buffs, she buffs herself and Ashe but also has ( Enemy weak to Air = Aero ) since that spell is pretty strong. Once I get haste wherever that is, she'll be throwing that around also. She has ( Enemy HP 100% = Steal ) which for the most part is nice because I don't have to use menus to do it, but occasionally she will run off and just keep trying to steal from a mob that she already stole from instead of fighting.

Balthier - White Mage/Machinist
Mostly focused on healing, so I'm trying to keep the majority of his MP for that purpose. Now that he can use guns he stands back and snipes fools. Adding ( Ashe = Regen ) to Fran is saving him MP and letting him shoot more. I'm considering changing his behaviour from ( Party leader Target = Attack ) to ( Highest HP = Attack ) as a way to get Fran more engaged, but I don't know if that will draw more agro his way.

I have ( Ally status Silence = Vox ) on both Fran and Balthier because silence can ruin my day.

Probably the worst synergies right now are Fran as an archer/my thief, because it means she gets in close to steal before backing away - but for the most part she only needs to stand back against bosses.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Delthazar » Thu Feb 08, 2018 6:38 pm

Folks seem to talk-up the Archer/Red Battlemage combo in particular 'cause one of the bows can buff the Red Mage's best spell, which is already one of the biggest nukes in the game, at least when fired at enemies with Oil status. So I might build Fran specifically for that synergy and hope Red also gets enough White/Black spells to be practical when nukes aren't necessary.

Penelo will almost certainly get the Monk/White Mage combination, which means Ashe becomes Bushi/Time or Bushi/Black with the other going to Balthier. Normally I'd prefer my big casters to be full ranged but I hear great things about Monk/White tanks.

I wonder just how much I'm likely to need/want Time spells, or if putting Black on my frontline melee party leader in Ashe will feel super awkward, or if not having a Black Mage in my main party at all will hurt me later, even with some Black spells mixed into the other mage classes.

I really appreciate the depth of this system; it's probably the closest FF has ever come to the older systems-heavy RPGs from the west.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Falcon Critical » Thu Feb 08, 2018 11:30 pm

Yeah especially with the cross class system, it's a smart way around the three character battles.

My Red Mage Fran has Protect/Shell/Regen/Haste which are all great buffs, so definitely not lacking in useful spells. She also has silence and slow which I can throw at hunts and other large beasties. With Ashe now having Blind I can mitigate a lot of damage with control.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Delthazar » Mon Feb 12, 2018 10:57 am

It occurs to me now that FFXII might actually be my original podcast game. It was 2006, people were only just beginning to throw around the term "podcast" on a regular basis, and sites like 1UP and Joystiq and Gamespot were probably the best at it in the games space. I probably listened to months worth of their shows while wandering around grinding marks or whatever in XII.

And now here I am in 2018, I'm playing a FFXII remaster and listening to a lot of those same people podcasting at different places. 1UP and Joystiq are long dead, but most of their hosts are still around at places like Polygon or doing independent podcasts like Rebel FM, and nearly everyone who was on Gamespot's The Hotspot in 2006 is at Giant Bomb now.

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Re: [Final Fantasy] We are all Basch.

Post by Falcon Critical » Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:29 pm

I'm actually finding myself more engaged in the story than I expected, creating a wrinkle for podcast/stream watching at the same time. It runs nicely in a window though, so it's easy to tab out and it pauses when you do.