(FFX) Not going for 100hrs but want to get stronger

[Artrucho]

Hello, a little backstory first: On my first FFX playthrough, I got to Sin without getting any Ultimate Weapons, extra Aeons, etc. I got my a$$ kicked so hard despite using different strategies, I abandoned the game for a time.
So now in my second playthough (just got the Airship), I wanted to get to Sin a little stronger/better equipped; what would you suggest I do, without spending 20 extra hours on it? I just want to enjoy the last battles, (EDIT) I already have 37 hours in the game and to be honest, I just want to finish it
Thank you!

[Casurin]

wait what? 50 hours and you can't beat SIN!?!?!
Uhm.. i do not know what you are doing but you are doing it very slowely it would seem.
If oyu only want to beat the main story and nothing else - go to the highest area you can comfortably farm (likely zanarkand near a sphere) and get to the end of the sphere-path with 3 characters. Thats about all you need.

before any bossfight max out the overdrive of those 3 chars and 1-2 Aeon and you should be good to blast through the story easily.

Getting to that should only take a few horus at best - just use the speedup and more encounters for farming

[Hinnyuu]

There's nothing specific you need to do to beat Sin.

If you're not interested in endgame content and just want to beat the story, do as suggested above. Might also want to pop into Omega Ruins to see if you feel comfortable with the fights there, as it's a very good source of AP (albeit a little challenging for the ill prepared).

[Mikasa Ackerman]

Originally posted by Casurin:

wait what? 50 hours and you can't beat SIN!?!?!
Uhm.. i do not know what you are doing but you are doing it very slowely it would seem.
If oyu only want to beat the main story and nothing else - go to the highest area you can comfortably farm (likely zanarkand near a sphere) and get to the end of the sphere-path with 3 characters. Thats about all you need.

before any bossfight max out the overdrive of those 3 chars and 1-2 Aeon and you should be good to blast through the story easily.

Getting to that should only take a few horus at best - just use the speedup and more encounters for farming

imo the best place to get to the end of the "sphere path" is on the bevelle bridge , the enemies arent that hard , you dont need magic or armor break for anything so really anyone can level up there fast , and you can always level 6 characters at once by just switching them in and defending

[Mikasa Ackerman]

Originally posted by Artrucho:

Originally posted by Casurin:

wait what? 50 hours and you can't beat SIN!?!?!
Uhm.. i do not know what you are doing but you are doing it very slowely it would seem.
If oyu only want to beat the main story and nothing else - go to the highest area you can comfortably farm (likely zanarkand near a sphere) and get to the end of the sphere-path with 3 characters. Thats about all you need.

I never said I couldn't defeat Sin, I haven't tried on this walkthrough. I can't remember why Sin was so difficult on my 1st walkthrough (less play time/lower stats?), but I remember I got wiped pretty bad.

Based on the suggestions, I think I need to take Yuna to the end of her sphere grid, I already finished Tidus, Auron, Lulu & Wakka's.

All right, I'll go ahead and give it a go after that. I'll let anyone interested know how it goes. Thanks Casurin, Hinnyuu and Sakura

i can assure you , its not the playtime , that has nothing to do with anything i had a file where i barely was at 19 hours and already reached the final savepoint before the final boss ( cheated my way through with the boosters ) if you got whiped by sin , you probably were underlevelled

one thing you should do if you have a friend sphere , move yuna to lulu once shes done with her section , yuna is a beast black mage

[Casurin]

Originally posted by Artrucho:

Based on the suggestions, I think I need to take Yuna to the end of her sphere grid, I already finished Tidus, Auron, Lulu & Wakka's.

You don't need her, but when you got her the Aeons can be a decent help.
Bahamut should be able to do like 30k Damage with his Overdrive - quite a boost for a throwaway helper.
But as you said you have several characters finished their path you should not really have any trouble (at least not with the main story). Yunalesca is imo the hardest fight you will have in the story. She has some good stats and nasty abilities.

[Jubejubes]

game is beatable without the sphere grid, game is beatable with the sphere grid in leass than 35 hours..you are doing something wrong. game is beatable with the sphere grid, without savign, without dying once in less than 60 hours.

you are doing something wrong.

[Mikasa Ackerman]

Originally posted by Hinoutoumei（火王刀明）:

game is beatable without the sphere grid, game is beatable with the sphere grid in leass than 35 hours..you are doing something wrong. game is beatable with the sphere grid, without savign, without dying once in less than 60 hours.

you are doing something wrong.

why does without saving and without dying once take so long ?

[Artrucho]

Originally posted by Hinoutoumei（火王刀明）:

you are doing something wrong.

Yeah, I'm playing at a regular pace. I never said I was speedrunning. If you can beat the game in under 35 hours that's cool, I'm not going for that.

[Mikasa Ackerman]

Originally posted by Artrucho:

Originally posted by Hinoutoumei（火王刀明）:

you are doing something wrong.

Yeah, I'm playing at a regular pace. I never said I was speedrunning. If you can beat the game in under 35 hours that's cool, I'm not going for that.

you dont need to speedrun to beat the game in under 35 hours , the speedrun of the nemesis% category is 22 and a half hour , and thats by far the longest category , any% times are between 10 and 11 hours

[Artrucho]

I'm editing my original post to correct my play time, which wasn't 50 hours (that was another game I am currently on) but 37 hours.
So I played yesterday and made some progress. My results so far:
Sin Fins and Core - No real strategy except timing the orders to lean in or pull back with the Airship correctly.
Sin Head - Race against time, still not that hard IF you equipped items against Stone/Confuse/Zombie statuses (I only had against Zombie and Petrify). Started with Cheer, Luck, and Hastega until Sin was close enough.
Seymour Omnis - OK, I died once here. I didn't take into account the Mortiphasms behind and the spells destroyed me. So I equipped items against Fire/Ice/Lightning and it went a lot better (Lulu had something that was -proof against those three so she was never hurt). I started using Ifrit until he switched his element, then Shiva, then went back to my characters when Seymour went with Water. His Ultima didn't hit me that hard because he used them against my Aeons while Shielding.

I'm 3 nodes away from Yuna's Holy, so I'll grind a bit before the next phase. I got Doublecast from Lulu, it rocks.

Originally posted by Sakura Haruno:

you dont need to speedrun to beat the game in under 35 hours , the speedrun of the nemesis% category is 22 and a half hour , and thats by far the longest category , any% times are between 10 and 11 hours

I feel you are deviating from the topic, I meant I wasn't going for speedy gameplay. I've been taking my time, even did a couple of sidequests.

[Mikasa Ackerman]

Originally posted by Artrucho:

I'm editing my original post to correct my play time, which wasn't 50 hours (that was another game I am currently on) but 37 hours.
So I played yesterday and made some progress. My results so far:
Sin Fins and Core - No real strategy except timing the orders to lean in or pull back with the Airship correctly.
Sin Head - Race against time, still not that hard IF you equipped items against Stone/Confuse/Zombie statuses (I only had against Zombie and Petrify). Started with Cheer, Luck, and Hastega until Sin was close enough.
Seymour Omnis - OK, I died once here. I didn't take into account the Mortiphasms behind and the spells destroyed me. So I equipped items against Fire/Ice/Lightning and it went a lot better (Lulu had something that was -proof against those three so she was never hurt). I started using Ifrit until he switched his element, then Shiva, then went back to my characters when Seymour went with Water. His Ultima didn't hit me that hard because he used them against my Aeons while Shielding.

I'm 3 nodes away from Yuna's Holy, so I'll grind a bit before the next phase. I got Doublecast from Lulu, it rocks.

Originally posted by Sakura Haruno:

you dont need to speedrun to beat the game in under 35 hours , the speedrun of the nemesis% category is 22 and a half hour , and thats by far the longest category , any% times are between 10 and 11 hours

I feel you are deviating from the topic, I meant I wasn't going for speedy gameplay. I've been taking my time, even did a couple of sidequests.

why equip items against elements when yuna has nul spells , and rikku has hyper null all

and taking your time is fine , but you dont need to be a speedrunner to go through the game fast