I finished off Final Fantasy XII yesterday, and it was over a lot quicker than I expected. I popped back into the Necrohol to pick up the Zodiac Spear, get a few last things from the merchant there, and kill the second boss (didn’t bother with the Esper that unlocks), and then it was off to Bahamut, where it was really just a rapid series of boss fights.

Most of those fights were pretty easy, probably thanks in no small part to the Zodiac Spear. There was one spot in the final fight where my entire party got knocked out thanks to some really bad timing and a couple lucky attacks, and I had to bring in the backup characters to revive them. The backups were still only around level 16, but they lasted long enough to do their job, and the boss fell soon after.

So, that’s it for FF12, after around 90 hours total. There are still hunts and sidequests to do and Espers to collect and all that, but I think I’ve spent enough time on it already. The next RPG to finish off will be Persona 4, but I’m going to take a bit of a detour before that…

I’m still trying to finish off Final Fantasy XII, but it’s taking a bit of grinding. It was a bit harder than expected to get the Sagittarius bow; I had to collect some loot items, but that required unlocking a new area, fighting a boss in the new area, and then repeatedly killing one monster there and traveling away and back again to force it to respawn numerous times until it finally dropped enough items. And then I had to open up some new areas somewhere else and grind enemies even higher level than me in order to get the drops for the best arrows for it.

I also figured I’d take a shot at getting the Zodiac shield, since the guide I was following said it had a 30% chance of appearing in a certain chest, though the chest itself didn’t always appear. After nearly a whole afternoon of farming it I started to wonder if something was wrong, and upon checking another guide, it said that it was a 1.8% chance of being in the chest, not 30%. That makes…quite a bit of difference. So, I’ve given up on that. I did manage to get two demon shields in the previous grinding though, and those are still quite good.

I’ve started working on the Necrohol, though it’s smaller than expected and shouldn’t take too long to finish off. The enemies in it are quite annoying though, taking quite a bit of magic to either burn them down quickly or heal the large damage they do. I’ve defeated one of the bosses, with two more to go, and next time I head in I’m going to have to check on that Zodiac Spear location…

I finished off the Pharos tower in FF12 tonight, culminating in a series of three boss fights without any breaks, but they weren’t really that tough. Just making it through the previous sections with a decent amount of mana left was the real challenge, since there was an extremely long stretch without a save point. That tower was probably the longest single dungeon in the whole game (so far, at least), and there isn’t really much more to go now.

Now is the time to do a bit more exploration and prep work, though. I bought all the best new items and spells I could, I have some loot items to track down to make other stuff (like the Sagittarius bow for Fran), I could do some more hunts if I want to, and…I have a spear to go fetch.

The Necrohol of Nabudis will be next, both for the Zodiac Spear (I hope I did the requirements properly), and a merchant there with some more high-end items.

And after those diversions, I got back to Final Fantasy 12 with a vengeance over the weekend.
Continue reading →

Woo, over 40 hours into FF12 now… Spoilers:
Continue reading →

I’ve been playing a lot of FF12 lately, though it’s been a bit of a slog. Spoilers:
Continue reading →

As promised, I dusted off my Final Fantasy XII save game (idle for over three years!) and played it for a bit tonight. And had no idea what to do.

I found myself in the town of Bhujerba and near a mine and popped in there, and saw that there were still areas of the map darkened, so I figured that I still had some exploring to do. But, after wandering around for a while, those areas turned out to be unreachable because of barriers. Clearly, I need to do something else first, but I couldn’t find it in the mines. At least I got my main characters from level 14 to 16.

Back in town I wandered around a bit and upgraded a couple of pieces of armour, but otherwise I’m pretty much maxed out on available weapons and armour. I finally discovered that apparently the Marquis was expecting me and I had the option of visiting him when I talked to some guards. Doing so triggers a cutscene so clearly that’s a path forward, but it was getting late and I’ll leave that until next time.

I returned to Persona 4 today, but didn’t really get too far. There’s an optional boss available in Yukiko’s Castle, but it’s too tough for me right now, since it can wipe out my group with a single attack even when it’s weakened. I did a bit of grinding instead and picked up a couple of levels and new personae, but nothing too exciting.

The next dungeon hasn’t started up yet, but I have at least opened up some more S-links, including Hermit, Temperance, Hierophant, and Justice, and upgraded most everyone’s weapons.