okay so i got this game last night and i am now in the dungeon place after you fight the big flaming horse thing.

here are my first impressions of the game:

-gil is hard to get

-the battle system is real real annoying but now i'm used to it so it's not as annoying

-leveling up takes for frickin ever

-vann is a tidus wannabe

-balthier is a dork

-the girl... whats her name... amelia or whatever looks like the girl from the beginning who was getting married

-licensing=confusing

-the storyline is real real cool

i like it overall, except for the battle system which i am not too crazy about.

Balthier is a badass, no dissing him.

your dumb. Licensing is about the easiest system ever. Want to use something, buy the license. Done and done. I love the battle system personally and I actually found that leveling up goes fairly quickly. Atleast at a reasonable rate.

I don't personally see much of a similarity outside of looks between vaan and tidus. Vaan is somewhat cool, imo. And how is balthier a dork?

So... I basically disagree with EVERYTHING you said except... gil is hard to get, the girl looks like the one who got married, and the story line is really cool.

Keep playing...that's all I have to say about that. :p

I started off the game really thinking Basch was going to be my favorite character, and a ways into it, he still was. However, this dork you speak of named Balthear, is now forming into my favorite. Why? Because of his accent, intelligence, or quick and smirky remarks at times? No.

2 words: PHON COAST

Get there. Cut scene. Crazy spoiler junk. I Loved it! I'm a backstory/"history of characters" whore!

Yea Busta and I have been talking about how there isn't enough character background for the characters. We're not all the way through it but so far it's been very spread out. Although, when you do get some info... it's good.

As for the game itself, just give it time like Busta said. The game is wonderful. And the liscense system really is incredibly easy but I admit I didn't get it at first. Honestly I didn't like it til I found the enhancements to the lower left of the upper section. They really help. Definitely get those first.

The battle system, which is another large complaint of the game, is really actually very good once you get used to it. There's a couple different ways to play. I know Busta and me have completely different play styles. He levels everyone up evenly, uses Gambits on everyone but the person he's controlling (and only to the basest extent) and uses the ATB system. I have only leveled up Vaan, Fran, and Basch, I use Gambits on everyone in extreme detail, and I use the Wait system. Also, I typically use summons when he uses quickenings. There's a lot of different ways to play the game but it's good either way. It just takes a while to get warmed up with.

It's so easy to get underleveled in this game though if you aren't careful about how many battles you skip (although really it'd be better if you didn't skip any). I really learned this the hard way. I was so excited and wanted to get the whole story ASAP, but then I ended up like 5 levels underleveled. Bosses got harder, normal enemies got harder, started running out of LPs and Gil until eventually I got completely stuck on this one boss. So I'm spending hours trying to level up to get un-underleveled. I'm definitely not skipping anymore battles now lolz.

way to give it away loser =)


Okay so I am now at the Sandsea, I just crossed all those oil rigs and such, and here is my next round of observations.

-Licensing is not so hard anymore
-I am still hard up for gil
-That series of battles on the Leviathan ship was some tough shit, I died like 40 times cuz I kept tripping the alarms by accident
-Amelia = Ashe... I am so perceptive.
-Basch is a badass... I love him
-Balthier is still a dork... because he is. What with his snooty accent and his fruity mannerisms and always asking for a change of clothes and whatever.
-Vann is not so bad
-Same with Penelo, I had pegged her to be like Rikku but she's far more competent
-Fran is cool
-Leveling up is still some tough shit, I'm at the Sandsea and I'm only level 12-13-14
-I'm getting used to the battle system and kinda liking it... it's kind of Diablo-Warcrafty.
-This game is rad

yea, it was really wierd. When I first started playing the game I whipped through it and got behind in levels, like you were saying. But when I got farther into the game, I really just wanted to slow down and take my time. I wanted to go back and check out some of the places I hurried through. I don't know what part you're at so I won't spoil anything but I'm really just having fun going through and leveling, perfecting my gambits, and doing some of those mark hunts right now. It's just nice goofing around once you get some of the story under your belt.

You should get used to that one, I'm 60-70 hours through it and it doesn't get much kinder with regards the moneys.

That's approximately the level i was at when i first arrived there. To be comfortable you should aim to get your main battlers up to around 19 for the Tomb. After that you should be fairly comfortable for a while. The Tomb is a sort of milestone if you like for the early part of the game.

I'm sweet on gil right now. I spent most of my early money buying Grimoires (Monographs) so I would get better drops. It really pays off. I have about 200,000 gil right now.

stupid monographs, i bought one of those and the first thing i noticed was that the wolves started dropping pebbles which cost like 2 gil each. but i guess i should buy the other ones too...you seem to be having much luck with them.

hey, what'd you expect? You're like... 1/16th of the way through the game, maybe, you wanted to be level 99 already?

Lol yea, it really does help. Basically the items they usually drop are pieces of magicite or something like that which go for 80 - 200, depending on what they are. If you get the monographs, the creatures drop things 1000 - 2000 on a more regular basis. All it does is move common to kinda-non-existant, kinda-rare to common, and the unachievable rare to only kinda rare. It just makes those items more available.

Yeah, I've bought all of the Monographs so far except the Elementals 25,000 Gil one. Pebbles suck. But yeah as you go through the game you'll def find more useful items being dropped your way.

I've also used Steal quite a lot with Vaan just to start off a fight. I'll just go up and rob "whatever" to start it off, then Basch and Ashe come behind me and kill the enemy with at the most 2 hits.

ya i dont know if i have any monographs yet...not sure if i've ever even seen any through the bazaar but i'm definetly gonna get some though as soon as i see some and as for money, u just need to find that one place in the game where there are enemies that drop expensive items and get massive chains with those enemies so that u can sell the loot and theres ur money. I know i made about 70,000 gil in around an hour in a half when i found my place to fight, but i had like a 285-chain lvl so it became somewhat simple after a while.

I am about 60 hours through the game and still need money my advice to anyone would beto by the monographs because unlike me the reward is well worth it othewise you'll be like me and have to spends hours getting loot to sell to gat money to buy armor, weapons and items.

I beat the game last week and man at the end of the game, Gil piles up quick in your pocket once you have all those Monographs and have access to some of the toughest places of fighting fiends.

I've got a ton of change that is just sitting in my pocket, not used. In the beginning you'd do almost anything for some spare Gil, but at the end, you gloat in your abundance.

Give it time, you'll be rich before ya know it.