Let's Play Final Fantasy 12 Together - Week 12. Bahamut.

Shen

Ultima is like, "What if we somehow made Alexander even radder?" You wouldn't think it possible, but there you are.

Ilpala

Didn't play much last night, just enough to gather all the cockatrices and do the wild malboro hunt, who was unimpressive compared to carrot. Either Bhujerba or a second run through Ridorana for marks is next..though honestly, what I should probably do is talk to the hunters on Phon and unlock some of those rare marks, get started on them.

SilverWind

Activating the trophy hunts ASAP is great, as you encounter a lot just by advancing the story. And you suddenly run into a way stronger enemy when knocking down chumps. (But it's also not great for that same reason, as demonstrated by Wyborn's hilarious game over.)

PiptheFair

man, where do you grind in the izjs

it's been so long I forget where a good spot is

Wyborn

Either in the Nabreus Deadlands on the Precipice Overlooking Eternity (or whatever it's called) or in the Henne Mines, through the passage you need 10 Espers to get to

Ilpala

Yiazmat's at the back of the line for sure. I got at least six more hunts to do before then, plus some level grinding, rare game hunts, other minigames, weapon bazaaring. There's shit to do.

Wyborn

Oh my God, F the special charter shaft

Wyborn

OK

If you need to grind but the deeper area of the Henne Mines is a bit much for you, go to Overlooking Eternity at the Nabreus Deadlands. Kill everything there. Run around and kill the respawns. Get two zones away and then come back to respawn everything else.

It's not as fast as the Henne Mines but it's not too bad. I took a team of 3 from 61 to 75 in about half an hour, though the International version gives you the advantage of Turbo Mode, there.

Ilpala

Chaos get (on the second attempt which given I didn't save after the other two bosses was a headache). In fact I was so mad, instead of going back for round 2 immediately, I got Tournesol ingredients! Didn't actually buy it in time for the fight since I got the last Soul Powder during the same visit, but hey, got it now!

Didgeridoo

Brought down the behemoth king, Ixion, and pylraster. Only the "God or Devil" quest left, and after that I assume Yiazmat?

Getting to where this Shadowseer fella is seems to be a massive pain in the neck. No minimap, have to collect black orbs, AND endlessly respawning tough enemies? But man. only TWO hunts left. I can't give up now, right?

Wyborn

I'm on the edge of going after Chaos, then Ultima, then Zodiark

I've already killed more people what than I ever whipped in the first time I played this game

Everything past this point is so much work

turtleant

Yeah, I'm probably going to do the not crazy people hunts sometime this week, but I'm not doing any of the high end stuff.

Might go get Andramalach, but the rest of the espers seem like more trouble than they're worth, considering they're useless in the original version.

Didgeridoo

I'm probably skipping the espers, mainly because as you said they're useless in the main game. I'll read up on the lore though, it seems interesting!

SilverWind

Definitely use a guide in the subterra about how many black orbs you need!
In fact, here you go:

B1F Southwest: 6 Southeast: 3 Northwest: 9 Northeast: 18
B2F Southwest : 18 Southeast: 15 Northwest: 9 Northeast: 15
B3F Southwest : 12 Southeast: 27 Northwest: 21 Northeast: 15

Also, since it's really hard to see all the espers' final moves in the vanilla game, you can watch them here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5IxbwAyzK4

I really love the lore of the espers, and how it's clear they lost in a war with the Occuria. Wyborn is skeptical of the lore and how it characterizes them as servants of the Occuria from the start (since the only stories that remained would have been ones left by the Occuria and their followers). There are certainly other myths that don't fit in lying around the place (the Kiltias religion, and this one http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Seeq_Thief#Page_2:_The_Riddle_of_Myth


edit: Actually, rereading that bestiary entry, the way it would match the rest of the lore most would be if the Fabar were the Occuria, Ahnas' people were the espers (scions of dark, and apparently with scions of light as the counterparts). Which leaves the mysterious other group of people, the Danan.

Ilpala

Oh man, it's already Tuesday. I'm gonna need a week 13 AT LEAST. Postgame postparty!

Wyborn

Zodiark is basically an adorable little snake baby

An adorable little snake baby who hits enemies for 17k per shot, uses Renew on itself and its summoner when no enemies are around, and has a limit break that hits for 50k to a big area - 60k in the international version

It was worth the fight to get you, you little bastard

Shen

I was going to ask how you lot assigned your Espers, but then I remembered that IZJS has them as bridges to different parts of the Sphere grid, so it's probably all calculated.

I always give Famfrit to Balthier and Ultima to Ashe.

...Would really like to play a version of the game where they're actually useful, sigh.

Didgeridoo

I gave Belias to Ashe, and yes also Famfrit to Balthier. Just seems wrong to give it to anybody else!

Fandaniel went to Basch, what with the whole 'protector' subtitle.

All the rest were randomly assigned, because sadly espers are useless

SilverWind

Funnily enough, since we made Ashe a knight, she took like 75% of the espers--nearly all of them to start, since they opened up the best license board options. It was funny picturing the rest of the party sideeying her power-hungry esper grab in tandem with the story.

Didgeridoo

SilverWind wrote: »

Funnily enough, since we made Ashe a knight, she took like 75% of the espers--nearly all of them to start, since they opened up the best license board options. It was funny picturing the rest of the party sideeying her power-hungry esper grab in tandem with the story.

"Lusting for ever greater power, blinded by the Nethicite. Is that how you see me??"

*giant flame monster, thunder goat, and devil-guy crackle with energy in the background*

Wyborn

I've decided that if I'm going to kill Yiazmat - and a few others - I'll need to do it after beating the game proper

I'm going to do some story bits! Those are nice motivators.

Didgeridoo

DONE

Just a few notes on the ending, more in-depth discussion to follow once people have started finishing:

Great ending, although it felt SUPER rushed. Like... ridiculously rushed, especially compared to the opening act of the game. I still enjoyed it, and FF12 has skyrocketed to my favorite FF and one of my top 10 games in general, but it could have been mindbogglingly good with a bit more time. Feels like the designers got a bit crunched for time toward the end of the development cycle.

Also the ending montage was great except for the music which was distractingly bad and also obscured the gosh darned monologue which is an executable offense.

Gabranth is awesome-- I actually kinda thought he was dead, and was pleased to see him again. Powerleveling for hunts trivialized the fight though, which made the mandatory cutscenes in the heat of battle a bit... comical.

"BASCH, MY HATRED FOR YOU MEANS I CAN NEVER DIE"

(three hits later)

"*gasp* how"

Overall I really loved his character arc, and wish it had paralleled a bit better to Basch's. I'll drag @a steak! in here later to pontificate on his Vaan/ Basch theory relating to this.

Loved the callbacks in this sequence. The voice modulator was introduced what... fucking 50 hours ago?? I love it! And Fran & Balthier's fist bump after taking Vayne down is fantastic.

Poor Larsa. He's had a real rough go of it. He clearly loves his brother, but realizes he has to turn on him. Then his favorite guard up and dies in front of him. Well... at least there's a spare...?

Hmmm. Ashe sure was pretty upset when Balthier stayed behind. Didn't hear her frantically begging Fran to please come back.

Meanwhile Vaan's in the background all



Ring payoff! An invitation on a royal treasure hunt, eh? I can only assume the treasure rightfully belongs to the sovereign nation of Dalmasca in some way. Not gonna lie, I was pretty worried Balthier and Fran weren't going to make it out of there. Until, you know, we cut to a year later and the Bahamut is just kinda sitting there, mostly intact. I was expecting some unsurvivable-looking wreckage.

Last thought-- did Vaan just leave Penelo in the dust?? What a goose!

Didgeridoo

OH WAIT Okay two things

First, spoilers

The concept art of Cid with widdle baby Balthier was a goddamn punch to the gut, I tell you what.



Aww man.

The kid Ashe with pet chocobo was also adorable.

Second! I have entered into a contract to play Witcher 3, now that FF12 is finished. Question! Silverwind, Wyborn-- PS4 or PC? Please keep in mind that I cannot play with a keyboard and mouse to save my life-- a controller must be involved. I do have a PC-compatible Xbox controller, however.

Wyborn

Oh Lord, I think it'll be time for shipping discussions as soon as we beat Bahamut (hint: SilverWind ships Ashe and Basch pretty hard but not in the typical way)

And, uh, whatcha got running in your PC? My instinct is to always suggest PC as a matter of course just for the possibility you might want mods and all, and the PS4 version kind of groans under the weight of the game, but that might not matter if your computer hasn't got the GUTS

Didgeridoo

Oh I'll talk shipping all right, you just lemme know when y'all wanna have that discussion

And my PC's pretty decent, I ran Inquisition on it with no trouble. Which game has the higher requirements?

Wyborn

Witcher 3, but if you can run Inquisition that comfortably you can probably run Witcher - Witcher's better optimized for what it does, I think? What graphics card you got in there?

SilverWind

Yay, I'm super happy you finished, Didge!

I think the expression Larsa gives Basch when he reads the letter about Ashe missing him is what tipped me over the shipping fence. Stupid promises to brothers...!!!

FF12 has such a wistful ending. Things are still going on, but the party is separated and on their own paths. I always feel a little bit mournful when stories end in that way.

Didgeridoo

Lessee... I've got an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M

Didgeridoo

SilverWind wrote: »

Yay, I'm super happy you finished, Didge!

I think the expression Larsa gives Basch when he reads the letter about Ashe missing him is what tipped me over the shipping fence. Stupid promises to brothers...!!!

FF12 has such a wistful ending. Things are still going on, but the party is separated and on their own paths. I always feel a little bit mournful when stories end in that way.

All right you've gotta let me know when y'all are finished 'cause I've gotta talk details

Wyborn

I'm not familiar with that card but if you're running the 800 series at all (or anything at or above a 660 really) then you should be able to run Witcher comfortably at 1080p, though I don't know how fancy you'll be able to set it

Are you going to read some books first? I remember you mentioned intending to

Didgeridoo

Do you recommend it? I can probably whip through the books first if you think it would add to the experience

SilverWind

Yes! You don't have to go through all the books--just The Last Wish followed by Sword of Destiny if you want. Familiarity with the characters does increase the game exponentially.

Meanwhile I should... open up the DA Keep? So many choices I'll have to make for what my Inquisitor should be...

Didgeridoo

Roger that! Kindle copies purchased, will read through soon.

As to DA Keep, the choices don't impact Inquisition too much, since they follow a different character entirely... the only thing I'd recommend is setting Hawke to being a snarky asshole and Leliana to being alive by default.

SilverWind

Aye, my Hawke was definitely snarky as heck, and none of my party members ever di-- ... I can't remember if I killed ******. Time to check.

Ilpala

My priorities are clearly in order. I just spent like two hours fishing/hunting down another fishing rod/fishing some more.

Wyborn

Now I'm second-guessing my platform recommendation because I don't know nothing about gaming laptops or hoozits

I bet FF12 will clear my head

Didgeridoo

Went ahead and bought the PS4 version, since it was on sale and I need more than Bloodborne to justify my purchase of the console.

And now I'm working myself up to do the final two hunts. I am NOT looking forward to that dungeon.

turtleant

And game done.

Total playtime just short of 80 hours. Main party level 49, backup party level 39-41.

Overall I still like the game a ton. But everything after Draklor (coincidentally where my previous run petered out) feels extremely rushed.

I think the long ass segment from Bhujherba to the Still Shrine where you're just wandering around looking for macguffins could have used some serious trimming and used that time to flesh out the back 1/4 of the game. Or maybe cut some of the many completely optional areas, something.

Also most of the optional content requires WAY to much grinding for my taste, but in fairness that is not a FF12 specific problem, by any stretch.

FF12 has the most optional content in a FF game by far. But I feel the focus on that robs the main game somewhat.

Ilpala

Oh man. I forgot how real the Penumbra is. Shit. I BARELY got my ass outta there alive.

Wyborn

@Didgeridoo Hey it turns out you can go after Yiazmat if you kill the Hell Wyrm

So you can skip those last two hunts if you want (I might)