Final Fantasy general

I dunno, I think her arc with the nethicite is pretty cool. Outside of Cloud or maybe Tidus I think she's probably the FF protagonist I find the most interesting (I'm considering her the main character and not Vaan because he's just a viewpoint character).

I also found Eruyt to be pretty memorable and atmospheric so I guess that possibly accounts for some of the difference in opinion.

I think there's multiple issues at play in regards to how XII's characters turned out. For one, a lot of Penelo's content about her brothers who died in the war that would have made her more interesting got cut. Then there was Vaan, who only became the character he did for marketing reasons (honestly, the fact that SE needs to cater to japanese teenagers so heavily is understandable but probably one of the worst things for the games artistically). And well I dunno, I love Matsuno and his work but his writing style isn't very character-driven and mainline FF has always been front and center about the characters.

edited 24th Jul '17 10:09:04 PM by Draghinazzo

Personally, I'd say Kimahri was a better character in X-2 than in X.

All the Ivalice games are more about politics, about the saga and events taking place. It does make XII the odd man out, but not necessarily in a bad way. The characters aren't quite as strongly defined as elsewhere in the series, but the actual lines are quite well-written and acted, for the most part.

To me, it sounds like XII is a plot-driven story rather than a character-driven story. So long as the core concept of the main characters is more or less the same, the details of their personality are completely irrelevant.

XII is Star Wars and everyone got the same amount of characterization as in that movie.

Pretty much. Even in character, Ashe and Basch (...makes them sound funnier than they are when you put it like that) are people whose sense of self is largely consumed by their role and position in life. This is unusual for a Final Fantasy game, or at least it's unusual for a Final Fantasy game to make such characters playable, but it makes perfect sense in terms of the plot. Meanwhile, Penelo and Vaan are mostly observers, ordinary people swept up in events far above them in a somewhat more realistic medieval/Renaissance setting that we usually get in FF.

FFXII seems to pick its characters based on who can most conveniently navigate its story as a jRPG, rather than choosing its characters and telling its story about them.

Also pretty much.

edited 26th Jul '17 2:03:31 AM by Unsung

I'm not sure if this is entirely true but it feels like in XII the story is driven by more characters in smaller but still significant roles.

"You wear the mummer's motley well, Bergan."

XII is absolutely story driven, but that's not a minus for me since I find Ivalice interesting and fun. I do agree that Penelo had nothing of even remote interest going on for herself, and that Vaan's inclusion is more or less solely to appease demographics. Thing for me is, I still liked the cast enough because they worked for their setting and their interaction with the politics therein.

edited 25th Jul '17 5:04:20 AM by VeryMelon

The only mention of Penelo's brothers was in the instruction manual for the original XII. She got screwed when XII entered development hell.

So Unsung asked me earlier if I got Ragnarok. Well, it doesn't appear to be a Ragnarok in this game. Or if it is, it isn't where it used to be. I checked a guide just to make sure and the Blacksmith in Narshe is supposed to give you a choice between Ragnarok Sword or Ragnarok Magicite. Here, all my choices were Apocalypse (a sword for Terra) or Illumina (a sword for Celes)

I'm probably going to get bashed for this, but I think FFXII and Revenant Wings were supposed to be one whole story. Come on, the last scene of the former is the first scene of the latter. Also, it fits well with standard JRPG progression of "the evil empire being defeated is just midgame; suddenly everything goes wrong again post-timeskip, and the cause of this is some god-like entity".

And to the one who complained about Balthier x Fran being disproven in Revenant Wings, you probably misinterpreted the scene. That scene you were talking about goes like this: Tomaj flirted with Fran, and then she outright rejected him. Vaan then asked why she could reject someone's advances so non-chalantly, but she just answered that she "used to deal with something like this numerous times before". Vaan assumed that it's Balthier, and Fran's reaction? She left off-screen before Vaan finished muttering that. Besides, with how the game clearly wants you to make parallels between Balthier and Feolthanos, the two might as well be a thing ever since the very beginning.

And speaking of Ivalice, Ashe's event in Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia is ending soon, while Final Fantasy Brave Exvius will have its third Tactics event soon.

edited 25th Jul '17 9:12:46 AM by IrueruPunch

Poor Zargabaath. He never got to show up again after XII. Especially since Basch's game got canceled.

I don't remember much of XII but I remember playing the shit out of Revenant Wings and liking it.

So, I finally made to the boss on Chapter 9 in Final Fantasy XIII. I've been trying to beat him since last night. Today, I used a combination of Lightning, Fang and Hope to beat him. I managed to destroy all four of his heads. And I inflict plenty of damage to the main body. But then he one-shots me using that destructo technique of his. Any ideas on how I can not die so quickly?

A story about FFV.

Here's the go-to strategy for Bart

First off, you have the right team - Light/Fang/Hope is the optimal party for the duration of the story. End/"post" game gives you more options with the others, but for now they're the default.

Basically what you want to do is use aegisol and forsol to start with buffs, target the heads weakness to kill them quickly, and the rest is basically playing with the stagger gauge. Keep attacking while he charges Destructo to weaken the attack and get his stagger gauge as high as possible. Paradigm shift so Fang tanks the attack as Sentinal and have Light and Hope heal and rebuff as needed. Stagger ASAP after Destructo. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Also, for fights where you need a medic, make that character the one you control. AI doesn't always make the wisest choices while healing.

edited 25th Jul '17 10:53:42 AM by TheAirman

What if you don't have Aegisol or Fortisol? Are they located in the place before you're in the boss arena?

edited 25th Jul '17 2:07:37 PM by pointless233

Some FFXV VA's won a few prices.

I think you might be able to buy them, but it's been some years so I don't remember. They're more of an optional head start thing, I never really used them.

@Hobgoblin: But he just showed up in Brave Exvius' FF12 collab one week ago as a Global-exclusive 5-star unit. He's useful, but not too meta.

And pretty sure you can buy Shrouds in the shop you can access starting from Chapter 12.

edited 25th Jul '17 12:38:32 PM by IrueruPunch

@Nikkolas Apparently a few items and espers were shuffled around, apologies. You get Ragnarok when you defeat the Eight Dragons, which originally netted you Crusader, and you get Crusader out of a chest on Fanatics' Tower— a chest which originally gave you Air Anchor, a tool for Edgar which was fairly useless in the original game, which has in turn been replaced on Edgar's Tools list by the Defibrillator.

I looked at just enough to see I get it when I defeat the dragons. Thank you.

But here I am, ready to roll out and save the world. Thoughts be appreciated as I'm going to eat first.

I'm still lost on where the last five or so espers could be besides Ragnarok. (this is going by the blank slots in the Espers screen which there are five of) Optional Espers I have: Odin,Phoenix, Golem, Zoneseek, Fenrir, Terrato, Palidor, Tritoch, Starlet, Bahamut, Crusader

least I think those are all optional. There's a noticeable blank slot between Golem and Fenrir and then between Fenrir and Terrato. Then three more at the absolute bottom. I figure at least some of them might come from the dragons. I got Crusader from the Fanatics Tower dragon.

Speaking of which, it taught Celes Doomsday - er, "Merton." (what the hell kind of lame name is that?) But I went and traded in Illumina at the Colosseum for the Minerva armor which negates Fire, Ice and Bolt damage which means I no longer kill myself with what I guess is Celes' best spell. Sabin has Royal Jacket which negates Fire damage so he's okay and I can equip Strago with Flamegaurd to absorb it but Cyan seems SOL and bound to die if I ever use it.

I did a whole lot of grabbing up items at the Colosseum. Worried about losing Illumina which was the only way I can do Holy damage outside of Sabin but oh well. I'd rather have protection from half the elements in tehe game. I also got a Crystal Orb which increases magic damage by 25% which is lovely. Traded in Gem Box for Soul Box, reducing MP cost by half. Probably gonna give that to Strago. Got Nirvana Band which increases all damage by 25% and that's cool but I really want that Muscle Belt you get if you trade in the NB and beat this stupidly powerful thing called Ogre Nix. None of my attempts at beating it have succeeded and given the AI-controlled nature of the fight, I am left to concede defeat and go gain levels or maybe even equipment that can help in the upcoming dungeon(s?). If Strago had a bit more HP, he could pull it off. Relm too, probably.

Celes is Level 38 with standard equipment layout being Zantetsuken , Genji Shield, Circlet and Minerva. C yan is Level 36 with Mutsunokami(best Katana I've found, can cast Aero), Genji Helm and Genji Armor.

Sabin is Level 35 with Stormfang(Bolt damage, can cast Mute) and Frostgore (Ice damage, can cast Doom), Red Cap(HP/MP+) and Royal Jacket.

Strago is level 30 with Punisher (can cast Dark and do Poison damage), Red Cap and Dragon Hide(know it halves Fire and I think also Wind.)

B Team:

Level 33 Edgar with Longinus (hey, a Holy weapon. Forgot about this), Genji Helm and Armor.

Level 32 Gau with Dark Hood and Dark Gear. (I am missing a lot of Rages I'm sure but I think the ones i have are sufficient. Maybe I'm wrong)

Level 35 Setzer with Avenger, Force Shield (auto-shell), Crystal Helm and Diamond Mail.

Level 39 Relm with Diva Brush, Cat Hood and Chocobo Hide.

And the rest... Level 21 Terra, Level 21 Locke, Level 18 Shadow, Level 28 Mog, Level 24 Gogo, Level 34 Umaro (he joined up at this level, lucky me)

And I already feel like this post is too long so suffice it to say that Esper Levels in BNW help you boost certain stats and I haven't boosted "the rest's" stats much at all. Their EL's are as pathetic as their regular levels.

But that's where I stand ready to take on Kefka. Or maybe not. If I rally need Terra and co. to be of some use, I will go farm dinosaurs with Mog's Snare again. Dunno what to do about equipment, though. They're getting the leftovers' leftovers.

edited 25th Jul '17 2:10:41 PM by Nikkolas

You're going to want a C Team at least. The final dungeon has you build 3 different teams to explore it.

It's true, though if you spread out your weaker party members Kefka's Tower can work as a place to grind. If it's getting too hectic, bear in mind that you can leave and come back without losing progress (other than having to fight through all the random encounters again), unlike a lot of Final Fantasy final dungeons.

Odin used to turn into Raiden (if you approached the petrified queen in the Ancient Castle with Odin's magicite in your inventory, her tears would transform him into Raiden^note who had a better level up bonus but taught Quick instead of Meteor— everything used to be *very* different, as you can see), the two of which were mutually exclusive. That doesn't happen anymore in BNW, so that leaves a blank spot on the list, or at least it used to.

Do you have Seraph? You can buy her magicite from this one shifty guy in Tzen. She's actually first available in the WOB, but since you're in the WOR now, the guy's price has dropped from 3000 GP to 10. If I'm thinking of the right guy, he's in the upper right corner, ducking in and out of the treeline.

I mentioned Alexander before, who's easy to miss. There's a magicite shard that shows up in the throne room in Doma after Cyan's dream. Alexander, Doma/Dumas, get it?

Once you grab Ragnarok, I think that's all of them.

Merton is mangled Engrish for 'Meltdown', phonetically translated into Japanese and back. And as for how Cyan survives that...he's Cyan. He's a one man army. And if he drops, there's always Life and Rerise.

edited 25th Jul '17 3:02:48 PM by Unsung

Kay, went and got those. Thank you.

And man, grinding will be needed. I went into the Tower, got stuck with my first team so figure I needed to do something with my second team. They got obliterated, nevermind Team C with Level 18 Shadow and his 300 HP.

I like what isaw though!