Final Fantasy XII: Struggle for Freedom- A Difficulty Mod- 1.9 Released!

[eternal248]

Download here: https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy12/mods/59

Hey guys! Those of you who've been in the FFXII Modding Discord channel know already, but I've been chipping away at making a FFXII mod for the past month or so. The great news is that it's almost done and is in its testing phase! Once I've tested everything, I'll be releasing a public beta for everyone to enjoy.

I mod games throughout the entire Ivalice Alliance, barring Revenant Wings and Vagrant Story. I've made mods for Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Final Fantasy Tactics A2. FFXII holds a special place in my heart as one of my favorite games on the PS2. I remember coming home every day after school and just spending hours getting immersed in the world, and when I found out there was a dedicated modding community for this game, I immediately knew I wanted to work on this. To that end, I spent a very long time figuring out exactly what I wanted to do to make the FFXII experience more interesting, yet accessible for both new players and vets alike. Struggle for Freedom (SFF), is my vision on how to go about that. Will the changes appeal to everyone? Probably not. But I'm hoping that at the end of the day, people will want to try it and they'll have fun with it.

What does this mod change? Here's a quick rundown!


Struggle for Freedom (SFF) aims to overall be a more challenging/balanced version of FFXII while still being fair and adding quality of life features. SFF doesn't aim to be cruelly difficult.

SFF is balanced around Normal Mode and isn't intended for use with New Game- or New Game+, although there's nothing stopping you from playing with those modes.

There are four versions of the mod included:

1) The Struggle/Freedom Jobs, which feature unique jobs for each character based on their canon roles, each with two set Espers and Zodiark being a Wild Card that can be assigned to anyone. Struggle jobs are linear with little room to diverge from the set License path, whereas Freedom jobs are more open, similar to FFXII's original boards.
Vaan (Sky Pirate) is a Thief/Ninja, focusing on swift attacks with Daggers and Ninja Blades as well as Stealing and evading attacks.
Penelo (Dancer) is a White Mage/Dancer, focusing on healing and buffing while striking enemies with Rods and Poles.
Balthier (Leading Man) is a Machinist/Chemist, focusing on Guns, Spears and Measures and boosting the effects of items.
Fran (Wood Warden) is a Black Mage/Archer, focusing on elemental attacks, both magickal and physical to snipe enemy weaknesses.
Basch (Paladin) is a Knight/Paladin, focusing on defending allies while doling out powerful physical attacks with Swords, Knightswords, Axes, and Hammers.
Ashe (Princess) is an all-rounder, being a combination of a Time Mage/Red Mage/Samurai, focusing on combos with Katana, Maces, Knuckles augmented by Time Magick and Arcane Magick.

2) The PS2 Board, which features the original PS2 board, albeit with TZA's new Licenses added.

3) Rebalanced 12 Jobs, which feature altered versions of the 12 jobs introduced in TZA.

4) Unchanged 12 Jobs, which feature unaltered versions of the 12 jobs introduced in TZA.

Characters have had their stats changed around to better fit their canon appearances:
-Vaan has the highest Speed of the party and decent HP, but has low Magick and MP. Vaan comes with the Foe: HP = 100% Gambit upon reaching the Gambit tutorial, allowing for easier theft.

-Penelo has the highest Magick of the party and decent MP, but has low Strength and Vitality. Penelo also now comes with the Cure spell innately as well as the Ally: HP < 30% : Cure Gambit.

-Balthier has the highest Vitality of the party and decent HP, but has low MP and Speed.

-Fran has the highest MP of the party and decent Magick, but has low Strength and Vitality.

-Basch has the highest Strength and HP of the party and decent Vitality, but has the lowest Magick and MP.

-Ashe falls right in the middle of the group, having an average stat spread among everyone in the party.

Each character has Brawler as an innate License, allowing True Unarmed to be a more viable gameplay type without needing to buy the License or use the Amber Armlet.

Espers have many, many more skills at their disposal and have custom Gambits set up to take advantage of their new skillsets. As such, Espers are far more powerful now. Each Esper also has new passive abilities to further augment their power. Most Espers have a theme to give them each a unique use. For example, Cuchulainn has the ability to corrupt and invert items that he uses, similar to the Nihopalaoa.

Guests can no longer set off traps.

Many enemies have had their stats augmented. As a general rule, most enemies have 2x HP and 1.3x stats, with certain exceptions to the rule.

Certain Steals and Drops have been changed to better fit the balance of the game.

Trial Mode enemies have had their stats severely increased, and no longer give LP.

Certain "broken" enemies such as Dustia and Negalmuur have been severely nerfed.

Many enemies have different pieces of equipment now, such as the Urutan Yensa, who can now Poison the party with their Bamboo Arrows.

Some enemies are now differently sized, making them stand out more.

The Treasure system has been completely changed. Many chests that were not 100% spawn are now 100% spawn, meaning there's less of an RNG element to finding treasure, particularly late-game. For example, the Cleanse chest in Cerobi is now a 100% spawning chest.

Diamond Armlet mechanics have also been changed- now, wearing the Diamond Armlet doubles the ceiling of potential Gil that can be obtained from a chest. Also, the Rare item found without the DA becomes the Common item found with the DA. Knots of Rust and the Meteorite items are now the Rare DA item.

FFXII PS2 players can rest easy- the Demonsbane is now once again in the post-Demon Wall chest.

The Invisible Equipment (Gendarme, Seitengrat, etc.) can now be obtained via the Bazaar and treasure chests. Seitengrat has been moved to a new location.

Certain Bazaar recipes have been changed for balance purposes.

Consumable item Bazaar recipes can now be repeated infinitely, allowing a capable hunter to farm the materials they need to get consumables for cheap.

Many shops have new items, with items like Serums and Teleport Stones being more readily available.

The Hunt Club sidequest has been made to be more interesting.

Each Trophy Rare Game now has a 100% drop of a rare or useful item.

Each of the prizes you can buy from the Hunter's Club salesman is streamlined, so you no longer have to worry about who you give what trophy to.

By getting all 30 Trophies, you are rewarded with the Wyrmhero Blade. The Hunt Club is now the only way to acquire the Wyrmhero Blade.

Many weapons have been completely changed, with weapon types having niches now, making each weapon type more viable and interesting and allowing for more interesting job combos.

-Swords are simple weapons, with many of them having an elemental affinity with which to strike down the foe. Their elemental affinity allows them to be easily boosted by element augmenting equipment.

-Daggers are quick weapons, focusing on quickly debilitating the target with debuffs.

-Axes no longer deal random damage, instead focusing on damage with a higher combo rate compared to comparable weapons.

-Hammers no longer deal random damage, instead focusing on raw damage and debuffs that impair the foe's ability to move and act.

-Maces are versatile weapons, focusing on debuffs and element augmenting with the boon of being able to be used alongside a Shield.

-Measures have been completely rehauled, with each Measure no longer inflicting damage and instead bestowing the target with two buffs 100% of the time.

-Greatswords can no longer Combo and are instead considered to be defensive weapons, with many Greatswords bestowing an Auto: Buff such as Protect and Haste on the user.

-Katana focus on dealing high amounts of damage with long combos. Masamune is now 1H, allowing it to be used with the Genji Shield.

-Ninja Blades are now 1H, allowing them to be used in conjunction with Shields and focus on combos, with Iga/Koga being a devastating combo that takes advantage of Oil and Fire.

-Spears are powerful weapons capable of hitting Flying units, with many late-game Spears having new elemental affinities to strike down targets more quickly, and many can also inflict debuffs.

-Poles can no longer hit Flying units, but are otherwise well-balanced between offense and defense, being able to allow the user to easily evade attacks while being able to string together long combos of attacks.

-Rods are now 1H, allowing them to be used in conjunction with Shields. Many Rods focus on either augmenting the user's magickal abilities or protecting their frail mage users from harm.

-Staves are now 1H, allowing them to be used in conjunction with Shields. Staves focusing on augmenting elemental damage- particularly those of spells- to devastate the enemy.

-Bows are now slightly faster, with many late-game Bows able to augment elemental damage, particularly those of their Arrows, with many Arrows having new elements, such as the Bamboo Arrows being Water Elemental, and the Parallel Arrows becoming the Silver Arrows, which are Holy Elemental.

-Crossbows are now able to Combo and ignore the weather, making them more accurate and ultimately able to inflict more damage.

-Guns are mostly the same, still capable of ignoring stats to deal decent damage regardless of level. Two Guns are now Gunblades, which can Combo and deal damage based on STR, but can swap out ammo to change the sword's element.

-Hand-Bombs are now Knuckles, weapons that deal damage based on Strength and Speed. Knuckles focus on raw damage and combos together to deal heavy damage. Knuckles use Claws as ammo, and Claws can be switched out to change their element and status effects. Certain Claws also have special effects, such as dealing damage based on Magick instead of Strength.

The FINAL FANTASY weapons (Vrscika, Mina, etc.) now have new weapon models. The Invisible Weapons also have proper models now.

Guest weapons such as Larsa's Joyeuse can now be obtained and used by the party by stealing from certain bosses.

The previously unused Hero's Blade is now Ashe's starting weapon.

Armor is mostly the same, with many differences being found with Shields and certain pieces of armor bestowing elemental augmentation.

Shields- in addition to focusing on evasion- now also focus on reducing elemental damage, with there being a Shield to guard against each of the 8 elements. Zodiac Escutcheon is now the best overall shield, Gendarme is now the most elementally resistant shield, and Ensanguined Shield bestows Auto: Decoy onto the user.

Many previously uninteresting pieces of armor such as Pirate's Hat and Bone Helm now offer new effects.

Accessories have been retouched, with many no longer having random elemental affinity.

-Thief's Cuffs have been fully removed and replaced with Giant's Gloves, which grant +HP and +Vitality. A new License, Master Thief, allows a character to permanently have boosted Steal rates.

-Firefly no longer cuts EXP gains to 0, rather, it grants immunity to Instant Death, Syphon, and Fractional Damage.

-Steel Poleyns no longer grant immunity to traps, instead it boosts damage dealt by the Attack command by 20%.

-Quasimodo Boots now reduce all damage taken by 30%.

-Winged Boots now grant Swiftness 2 (50 LP version) to a character if they don't have it already in addition to Auto: Float.

Many, many abilities have been altered in some form or fashion. This ranges from MP Cost changes, to element changes, etc.

-Black Magick is largely the same, focusing on elemental damage with some big changes. Aqua is now Water and comes with an upgraded form- Waterga- finally accessible to the player for use. Each elemental spell family has its own niche use. Fire spells can inflict Oil for increased damage, Blizzard spells are AoE, Thunder spells have reduced casting time, Water spells are MP efficient, and Aero spells can inflict Immobilize to pin down foes. Scourge now can inflict many debilitating statuses at once, and Toxify is able to inflict both Disease and Sap at once- making it the first time a player has access to a Disease spell. Flare is instant-cast to make up for its long animation, Poison is AoE, and Bio can inflict both Poison and Sap.

-White Magick still focuses on healing and buffing with some major changes. Protect and Shell last longer and Regen is AoE and lasts longer, making those buffs more viable early-game. The status clearing spells such as Poisona are now AoE, making them more useful compared to items. Esuna now clears statuses that those status cleansing spells don't, such as Stop, Slow, and more. Renew is worth the high MP cost now by virtue of it becoming instant-cast, and Holy is AoE now with a shorter animation, and has a small chance of Stopping foes.

-Time Magick remains a good blend of buffs and debuffs, but with some big changes. Gravity and Graviga have been replaced with Quake and Quakega, spells that deal Earth Elemental damage in an AoE, giving Time Magick users a reliable method of dealing damage with an element that wasn't seen often in Vanilla FFXII. Vanish is now AoE, with Vanishga being replaced with Gravity, which reduces HP by 50% in an AoE.

-Green Magick has seen some drastic changes. Reverse was very broken in Vanilla and has been replaced with Drainga- a spell that drains HP from multiple foes in an AoE, effectively fully restoring the user's HP while dealing that damage. Decoy is now considered a buff, has had its duration increased, and has perfect accuracy, while Oil is more accurate. Oil will now wear off over time.

-Arcane Magick has remained mostly unchanged from Vanilla, albeit with some minor MP and Power changes.

-Technicks have received the largest overhaul of all skill types in the game. First Aid now restores a flat 15% of the target's HP, making it useful for conserving MP between fights. Wither and Addle have been replaced with Blitz and Erase- the former dealing weapon damage in an AoE and the latter removing all statuses from a target. 1000 Needles is now instant-cast, making it great for finishing off bosses with damage resistance. Traveler now bestows Haste/Vanish/Float on the user, while Numerology reduces the HP of enemies in an AoE by 25%, while Horology removes Time Magick-based effects such as Slow and Stop from the party.

-Esper abilities and Finishers have been buffed, making them far more devastating than they were previously, with the exception of Zeromus' abilities, which were nerfed slightly for balance. Many Esper abilities now inflict debuffs as well.

Many consumables have been changed, although for the most part they have effects similar to how they were in Vanilla.

-The Fang items no longer deal percentile damage, instead dealing elemental damage similar to -ra level spells.

-Baltoro's Seed now bestows defensive buffs on an ally, whereas Domaine Calvados bestows offensive buffs on an ally.

-The Meteorite items have been renamed for clarity upon getting them from chests, and they have a variety of new effects, primarily focusing on dealing heavy damage to enemies.

-Black Orbs now act as normal drops from enemies in the Penumbra in addition to their "Press X to Collect" versions. This means you can get Black Orbs without needing to mash X to collect them if you don't want to.

-The "Foe: Vulnerable to X" Gambits have been renamed for clarity to "Foe: Not-Immune to X".

Thank you for playing! Please send any feedback, bug reports, or even just general comments on whatever thread or board you found this mod on. I'll do my best to keep an eye on everything and reply to feedback as it comes back!

[Wayfarer]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Hinnyuu:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Peterson:

I have another question, where can I get Shear technick in this mod?

Shear can be found on the vendor in Mosphoran, after Judge Bergan; it also has Expose.

I see, thanks you very much.

[MoonlitDNC]

Just had an encounter with the Demon Wall. I am beyond HAPPY as hecc to report that with my party swimming around the lvl 22 to 25 area (Guest is 28), I am now the proud owner of a Demonsbane sword on my first pass through the area.

Still running SFF 1.8.4 - am using the vanilla Zodiac Age jobs and have not pumped any HP boosts or Lore licenses yet, so as to have an experience that mirrors the original PS2 release's stat distribution as much as possible. It is working PERFECTLY. I am absolutely FLOORED at how perfectly the encounter captured the EXACT feeling and "spirit" of this boss fight, the first time I ran screaming from it back on my PS2.... but it also cant be cheesed with Aero spam now since Aero doesn't AoE (Cherry Staff don't buff it either I think).

So far as I can tell, a healthy party would typically be something around an average level of 15 when arriving at the fight (lower if rushing the playthrough a bit), and back on PS2, you'd probably be lucky at that point to get the Wall to 50% HP.... much to my dismay, most Zodiac Age playthroughs can Aero Demon Wall down easily around 15. Gross. That is absolutely ~not~ how I've been playing. I'm treating this like more of an MMO, grinding for drops, I know what I'm doing (mostly), and trying to grab as much completion as possible in each area as I go - so not only am I way past lvl 15, but vanilla Zodiac Age made this thing easier?

.....again, absolutely floored by how competent SFF 1.8.4 has hit this encounter on the bullseye. Multiple (expected) Game Overs as I try to strategise, finally was forced to start pulling out the Quickenings.... In the end, 3 characters with 2 Mist Charges, 3 with 1 Charge, I think I got a Torrent and two Cataclysms off, frantically burning Ethers.... Guest was trying to Expose the Wall, Fran trying to Oil & Fire the Wall by bouncing spells off Ashe, and Penello trying to bounce Blizzard. I've got Ashe doing some pretty good Bow DPS, so with the combat speed set as fast as possible, three rounds of (possibly lucky?) Quickenings and lots of party micromanagement finally dropped it.

All the while, it felt like the Demon Wall was doing a good job of trying to react to my party-swapping and attack styles - Blind if physical, Silence if magic, trying to throw Doom or Petrify in where it could.... really good stuff. The balance here hit the nail on the head, and this feels like the PS2 version has meaningful QoL and is appropriately challenging all over again. Bought the game just to play this mod and hotdang am I getting what I paid for.

[Darkomantis]

Did eternal finally finish his SFF mod? It's been 3 years since I last played the SFF mod and I remember he was still actively changing things. I see he hasn't made a comment in a few months.

[Hinnyuu]

Ursprungligen skrivet av xdarkomantis:

Did eternal finally finish his SFF mod? It's been 3 years since I last played the SFF mod and I remember he was still actively changing things. I see he hasn't made a comment in a few months.

It's pretty much complete. Features are there, no major bugs left, plus there's the extra-hard Proud Mode version, too.

Feel free to enjoy it! :)

[Darkomantis]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Hinnyuu:

Ursprungligen skrivet av xdarkomantis:

Did eternal finally finish his SFF mod? It's been 3 years since I last played the SFF mod and I remember he was still actively changing things. I see he hasn't made a comment in a few months.

It's pretty much complete. Features are there, no major bugs left, plus there's the extra-hard Proud Mode version, too.

Feel free to enjoy it! :)

That's cool. Yeah, I feel the changes are good.

Only thing I wish for is a mod for Stealing that makes it so if you successfully steal an item/enemies no longer have an item to steal, then Steal is ignored. Like a "Foe: Has item" type of thing. Seems like no has been able to mod it.

[Serafie1999AD]

Ursprungligen skrivet av xdarkomantis:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Hinnyuu:

It's pretty much complete. Features are there, no major bugs left, plus there's the extra-hard Proud Mode version, too.

Feel free to enjoy it! :)

That's cool. Yeah, I feel the changes are good.

Only thing I wish for is a mod for Stealing that makes it so if you successfully steal an item/enemies no longer have an item to steal, then Steal is ignored. Like a "Foe: Has item" type of thing. Seems like no has been able to mod it.

This mod adds a feature where the Steal gambit only activates if an enemy has items: https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy12/mods/218 I've used it together with SFF before, so the two mods should work together if nothing drastic has changed.

[Kule02]

Ursprungligen skrivet av xdarkomantis:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Hinnyuu:

It's pretty much complete. Features are there, no major bugs left, plus there's the extra-hard Proud Mode version, too.

Feel free to enjoy it! :)

That's cool. Yeah, I feel the changes are good.

Only thing I wish for is a mod for Stealing that makes it so if you successfully steal an item/enemies no longer have an item to steal, then Steal is ignored. Like a "Foe: Has item" type of thing. Seems like no has been able to mod it.

A mod like that has existed for awhile. You can grab it here: https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy12/mods/218

[Darkomantis]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Serafie1999AD:

Ursprungligen skrivet av xdarkomantis:

That's cool. Yeah, I feel the changes are good.

Only thing I wish for is a mod for Stealing that makes it so if you successfully steal an item/enemies no longer have an item to steal, then Steal is ignored. Like a "Foe: Has item" type of thing. Seems like no has been able to mod it.

This mod adds a feature where the Steal gambit only activates if an enemy has items: https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy12/mods/218 I've used it together with SFF before, so the two mods should work together if nothing drastic has changed.

I'm struggling to get this mod to work... After following user/LaharlChan's instructions to put the External File Loader and the LUA script loader files into the x64 game folder, I don't understand what to do to make the Insurgent mod work....

Honestly wish this was a simple click and install mod like with the other vortex mods instead of having to rely on the EFL/LSL mods to get this to work....

Nevermind... After restarting the game multiple times, it finally worked. Thanks

[Darkomantis]

Seems like the Ras Algethi (Gun) at Mt. Bur Omisace may be bugged. Balthier is meleeing enemies rather than shooting from afar. It's also doing half the damage of a Betelgeuse (gun) with 27 atk even though it has 65 atk.

[Serafie1999AD]

Ursprungligen skrivet av xdarkomantis:

Seems like the Ras Algethi (Gun) at Mt. Bur Omisace may be bugged. Balthier is meleeing enemies rather than shooting from afar. It's also doing half the damage of a Betelgeuse (gun) with 27 atk even though it has 65 atk.

That's not a bug, it's a design choice. Certain guns, such as Ras Algethi and Arcturus, are melee gunblades rather than guns. They use the sword's damage formula (use strength as the offensive stat, attack against physical defence) rather than a gun's damage formula. The gunblades can't cause critical hits, but they can combo, and the ammo still exploits elemental weaknesses. In addition, the CT of the gunblades is 32 (the guns typically have a CT of 50), so they're ~56% faster.

Source: the mod's documentation.

[ejohns1004]

I love that gunblades are in this game now but Balthier looks silly using them.
Like he doesn't really care. Just like... whatever haha

[Darkomantis]

It doesn't seem like anyone has discussed... But what are some good training spots? I had trained at Lhusu mines til near lv30 and then coasted to lv42 doing the main story to Archadia.

[Hinnyuu]

Ursprungligen skrivet av xdarkomantis:

It doesn't seem like anyone has discussed... But what are some good training spots? I had trained at Lhusu mines til near lv30 and then coasted to lv42 doing the main story to Archadia.

The reason it's rarely discussed is that levels don't matter all THAT much in FFXII. Gear is far more important, and so rather than spending time in some spot grinding levels, you're often better off using that time to advance the story and get better gear - that'll make you stronger faster.

If you really insist on grinding out XP, the best spots tend to be towards the end of the game. If you don't want to deal with the Lhusu Abysteel junction you can e.g. move along the path to Omega Mark XII in the Great Crystal and kill enemies there - there's a lot of them, and they give great XP.

Early game, you can use the Lhusu skeleton bridge if you like to get ahead some; though at that stage you probably want AP more than XP so there isn't really some magic number to level to.

Another decent AP spot is the Zaghnals in Ozmone (along with the Zu in the same area). They give 2 AP each and can be grouped nicely, and they have elemental weaknesses you can exploit for easy farming. Run in circles across the adjacent area and you'll have massive AP farmed in no time.

You may also want to farm gil in some instances, especially if you're using the Proud Mode version of SFF. One good early game spot is the Coeurls near the entrance to Golmore Jungle (from the Ozmone side) which you can easily chain for some nice money drops.

But as I said earlier: your best bet for power gains vs. time invested is gear. Know what you can get and where, and usually you'll get a lot stronger than you would from just grinding some extra levels.

[Darkomantis]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Hinnyuu:

Ursprungligen skrivet av xdarkomantis:

It doesn't seem like anyone has discussed... But what are some good training spots? I had trained at Lhusu mines til near lv30 and then coasted to lv42 doing the main story to Archadia.

The reason it's rarely discussed is that levels don't matter all THAT much in FFXII. Gear is far more important, and so rather than spending time in some spot grinding levels, you're often better off using that time to advance the story and get better gear - that'll make you stronger faster.

If you really insist on grinding out XP, the best spots tend to be towards the end of the game. If you don't want to deal with the Lhusu Abysteel junction you can e.g. move along the path to Omega Mark XII in the Great Crystal and kill enemies there - there's a lot of them, and they give great XP.

Early game, you can use the Lhusu skeleton bridge if you like to get ahead some; though at that stage you probably want AP more than XP so there isn't really some magic number to level to.

Another decent AP spot is the Zaghnals in Ozmone (along with the Zu in the same area). They give 2 AP each and can be grouped nicely, and they have elemental weaknesses you can exploit for easy farming. Run in circles across the adjacent area and you'll have massive AP farmed in no time.

You may also want to farm gil in some instances, especially if you're using the Proud Mode version of SFF. One good early game spot is the Coeurls near the entrance to Golmore Jungle (from the Ozmone side) which you can easily chain for some nice money drops.

But as I said earlier: your best bet for power gains vs. time invested is gear. Know what you can get and where, and usually you'll get a lot stronger than you would from just grinding some extra levels.

I'm not sure what you mean. Leveling up boosts up your stats, no? I have 3 party members that I haven't leveled up since gaining the whole cast and they die in one hit in the later areas. Also, grinding exp goes hand in hand with gaining the gil I need to buy gear/items to progress through the story. The Lhusu mine bridge farm was a great way for me to gain exp and also get enough money to tide my way thru to Arcadia.

Now with the increasingly difficult monsters in my somewhat blind playthrough, I'm running out of money buying gear/items. My party struggles to handles enemies if there is greater than 2. I've had a few times where I got wiped from accidental collisions from other groups of mobs that passed through.

I think Leveling in SFF seems a bit awkward since the exp of the mobs haven't seemed to be tuned to match their increasing difficulty in my opinion. Though this is coming from a more hardheaded type of player.

[Hinnyuu]

Ursprungligen skrivet av xdarkomantis:

I'm not sure what you mean. Leveling up boosts up your stats, no?

It does, but overall it has much less of an impact than in most other games, FF or others.

That's why this game has an entire game mode where you can't level up at all. And you can still beat the game, including all superbosses. At level 1.

Gear is far, far, FAR more important than levels. That doesn't mean levels aren't important - they do increase your power. It's just that when deciding how to spend your time to increase your power, you're almost always better off spending it getting more gear rather than more levels. Especially early on.

Ursprungligen skrivet av xdarkomantis:

I have 3 party members that I haven't leveled up since gaining the whole cast and they die in one hit in the later areas. Also, grinding exp goes hand in hand with gaining the gil I need to buy gear/items to progress through the story. The Lhusu mine bridge farm was a great way for me to gain exp and also get enough money to tide my way thru to Arcadia.

Farming gil is totally fine, especially in Proud Mode where there are no chests. In regular SFF you don't really need to, if you know where all the good chests are; but without a lot of meta knowledge it's fine if you just farm some money every now and then.

XP is of course a natural byproduct of fighting enemies. Take it as it comes.

Ursprungligen skrivet av xdarkomantis:

Now with the increasingly difficult monsters in my somewhat blind playthrough, I'm running out of money buying gear/items. My party struggles to handles enemies if there is greater than 2. I've had a few times where I got wiped from accidental collisions from other groups of mobs that passed through.

SFF definitely steps up the difficulty, even without Proud Mode. But FFXII is mostly a very mechanical game - knowing what to do when, and where to go when, those are highly rewarding. Try and improve your gear and manage your skills well, and you'll see things get a lot easier.

Ursprungligen skrivet av xdarkomantis:

I think Leveling in SFF seems a bit awkward since the exp of the mobs haven't seemed to be tuned to match their increasing difficulty in my opinion. Though this is coming from a more hardheaded type of player.

XP hasn't increased, no, and that's fine.

Don't try and "outlevel" things in FFXII - it doesn't work like it does in many other games. You could be level 9999, but if your weapon sucks you'd still do actual 0 damage against tough enemies. Level doesn't help there. Only gear does. That's how the game mechanics work, so don't expect an extra few levels to suddenly swing things around - they won't ;)