I was just wondering how everybody thinks the Liscense Board system of learning spells, abilities, and new equipment stands up against previous systems. Much like FFVII, it allows you to use any character for pretty much anying. You can choose who your Knight, Black Mage, White Mage, etc. will be, and develop them at whatever pace you would like.

I am somewhat undecided personally. I really like how it is going so far but the problem I am running into is that I can train up to a really high level of, say, White or Black Magic so I have Curaja, Curaga, Cura, etc. but the only spell avaliable to me is Cure. I don't have access to those other spells because you need to buy them from vendors to be able to use them.. nor would I even have the mana to cast them. Seems like wasted Liscense Points until I'm high enough level to use them. The same problem happens to me with new equipment. You have access to only low level swords or daggers but can train up to high level ones quite early, even though I won't have access to some of these weapons for quite some time.

I think it would have been better off if certain squares on the Liscense Board had level requirements, as well as LP requirements. Whats the point in training all the way up to Swords 8 if swords that are still in Swords 3 still aren't avaliable to me yet?

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the customization, I can use whatever character I want for whatever class I want, but I think a bit more thought would have gone into it. Not as good as the class system which is probably still my favorite (FFV would be a prime example) or the Sphere Grid from FFX and Materia from FFVII. I like it better then FFVIII's Junction system, however, and FFIX's system of learning spells and talents through weapons.

As for Gambits, I am quite happy with this introduction into the ATB system. They are useful so you don't have to cure a character everytime they drop below 50% health, you can set Gambits for very specific things. Healing a specific character if they drop under a specific percent of health for example, or using some eye drops on a blinded character. It is alot more convinient then bringing up the action menu every time. However, it also feels as though battles are somewhat automatic, everything is done for you...

So, what does everyone else thing of the new Liscense Board system and the use of Gambits in battle?

I love the License board. Absolutely, hump-worthy, hugs and kisses, romantic evening on the beach, love the License Board! Learning Quickenings, the Augments which boost the character stats and really help if you get to them early on in the game, the magick and all levels, working your way towards the Greater Weapons...oh man, I think I'm a little too excited now.

I've made a great dent in the License board with most of my characters right now and just got Vaan and Basch's final Quickenings, and damn, I'm love'n it. The whole deal with as you unlock the 2nd and 3rd Mist Charges for characters essentailly doubles and triples your MP total, respectively.

My only complaint with the system is the Technicks are not too apealing except for Steal and the MP charge as of now; that is the section I have neglected to focus on the most. I still don't like the idea of Espers only being assigned to one person...permanently, and they do drain almost ALL of your MP...which is very vital in this game. Never before have I greatly appreciated the usage of MP until now.

Which brings me to my next point: This games tough.

I have my characters leveled up, but I've never died so many time before! Mostly because damn Penelo, my weakest char will run after a damn Happy Bunny and I'll get ass-raped from a creature nick-named "Giga Death" or some souped up monster.

Thanks a lot Penelo. Enjoy your permanent role as a reserve player all game. Dumbass.

Actually though I'm trying to elvel up my characters fairly even bar Vaan and Basch who are quite a few levels ahead of the rest.

The gambit system on the other hand is one I need to spend more time on. Right now I just have slashers, and HP restorers, which will get me killed even more down the road if I do not adjust my gambits soon. I guess I'm just into the battle system, License Board, sidequests, and all that jazz...

Great game. Hard game at times. Long game. Enticing story. Throw it in a blender and you get = my stamp of approval.

Heh. Penelo's actually currently my highest level character Bustamo ^^;; But seriously, quickenings are very powerful when used in combination. I just hate them because they have to drain all their MP Points and if the monster isn't dead yet, my healers don't have the MP left to use cure or anything. I'm trying to get around it by using quickenings of non-spell casters, but it's kinda bleh.

I really really agree with Ross about the abilities though. I get the licenses to learn all these cool spells, but I can't even get them until like 5 dungeons later and even then, the price for it is ULTRA high and it makes me go broke if I buy it. I agree with Bustamo (heh your screenname reminds me of my orchestra teacher ^^;;) that Techniks are really... useless in this game? I really haven't found any to be of use thus far. Even First Aid lost its valuableness because your characters increase HP but the amount healed doesn't increase too much. When do you get MP Charge? I've been wanting that one for a while -_-

I really love how a lot of the guests have auto high potion though (a little off topic but oh well...)

Hmm..i don't use quickenings, cuss i'd rather keep my MP, and quickenings just don't seem to work for me, even when linked :(

Anyway, I like the Gambit system, I set Vaan, my magic-person, to cast protect on everyone, and I set my other characters to only attack monsters that the leader is attacking, and i set them to do other things like healing and stuff; etc. it's really convenient.

As for the liscences, I don't think you should use all your LPs on magic and weapons you don't even have yet, i suggest you use them on augments, because otherwise, theyre kind of being wasted.

The LB and GS are by far the most advanced customization systems in any RPG Ive ever seen...short of DnD. It does take a hell of alot of time to get used to, but when you do its just wow.

One word of advice, dont spend LP until you are absolutely sure you need to. Concerning Ross' problem, I dont have that problem. I wait until I am actually able to use the abilities and equips before putting LP into the square.

Also one thing I made sure to do as soon as possible was to buy the accessory "Golden Armlet" for 4500 Gil for each of my characters. It doubles LP gained and since even your reserve characters earn LP from battles, you can easily wipe out a dungeon of beasties and come back out with a reserve character having close to 200-300 LP sometimes if you spend time battling.

This speeds up the License board process big time.

Where can you get the Golden Armlet? for me it probably wont be for awhile as I havent had much time to spend with the game. Just made my sunstone >.<

Ok, hmmm...I know I bought my pack of 6 in the Euryt Village with all the Vieras. As soon as you enter the Village after the Gilmore Jungle, there will be a moogle elling them there on the right. I won't say anything else about the Village though, because it seems to be some sort of spoiler.

There is a chance you could get them earlier, I just didn't know about them until Aztec told me when I got to the Village. They are one of the best pieces of accessories to have, especially for random leveling up.

Ok so as I go through the guide now, it says you can buy them in Lowtown from a Traveling Merchant in the South Sprawl. Good luck man.

I started buying mine when I reached Bur-Omise...or however you spell it

Yeah, definitely dont have a problem with the LB. I just get the license in conjunction with buying the skill/magick/whatever. I love the liscense board as well. Top notch in my opinion. As for going broke after buying magick/skills/weapons/etc... wow... gil is actually a valuble commodity in this game finally. I've NEVER had a problem with gil in any other final fantasys so I kinda like it that it's not just always there. As for the solution to being out of MP after using quickenings: Items are your friend in this game. I've probably used more items in this game in 25 odd hours than I have in all my other final fantasy expirience... probably not actually, but seriously, hi-potions and ethers and you're back to good in no time.

Nooowwww... as for the GS... I don't have the patience to fuck around with it =P plus I like to be involved with my battles. Yeah, I play on active time, so what? Makes it more difficult too. The only gambits I have are for everyone to attack the nearest visible enemy and for fran (my healer person) to use curaga on anyone with below 50% health. Other than that... I choose everything myself.

but you forget, they don't sell ethers. I keep those reserved for boss battles

hmm... fair enough. Still, use hi potions after quickenings/espers and then charge until you have a decent amount of MP back. Of course, quickenings and espers should really only be neccessary for boss fights so... ethers should be fine to use. I just beat mateus... that was a bitch of a fight and I only had 1 ether when I started, but I still went ahead with the quickenings in hte beginning. I thought I was toast at one poitn when I had to use my reserves (who are like level 11...) to resurect my main people, but I was able to pull through. Granted I had to use one of my 2 elixers, but it was worth it.

mateus..is the ice esper right? oh, i didnt have to use elixers on that battle. instead of wasting my MPs on quickenings, i used it to cast shell on my characters and thundara on the ice elementals :P

Oh man I ahve to be in active mode versus wait mode. Wait mode just took too much damn time while trying to fight even the simplest of battles. I can understamd if it was for a boss battle, but that was one of the first things I did was change "wait" to "active".