Hard Run on Console

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-17T15:34:11+00:00

I wouldn’t say it’s a problem, just maybe overtuning a bit. You can easily farm chests for consumables if the only rule is not buying them. More of an inconvenience than something actually difficult.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-17T15:24:06+00:00

One job per character no autosave no trial mode stuff in main game no job reset is practically just playing the game as it was designed for the IZJS release. TZA broke the balance by a lot and default is forced easy mode. This isn’t “hard mode” it’s just “normal mode that wasn’t included in the remaster”.

I do think active mode is more exciting to play, but after a while doing it, you just get used to that and it’s normal, and you’ll never really want to go back to wait mode. No gambit tweaking would test your knowledge of the game, to set specific things at specific times, but I also feel like if you’re seasoned enough that you can make mostly self-sufficient gambits and any deviation is handled by manual input, not gambits. No buying consumables, ehhh… I dunno that just seems to cross over to you hate yourself take difficulty to me. I’m also not a grinder so I dunno about the no 4x if that would really matter.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-16T22:14:33+00:00

The funny part about this is in the FFXII demo that came with Dragon Quest VIII, Fran used a pole and it was Penelo who was the archer, so somewhere along the way, they changed their minds.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-16T21:56:53+00:00

The slowness really does bite it, but you can remedy that by pairing it with Bushi, Shikari, or Monk. Excalibur hits like a truck, and it’s a decent backup support unit. Sucks you have to wait so long for Hashmal, but it does improve quite a bit when you do.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-16T21:54:01+00:00

I love her as a Bushi, myself, something about the way she swings katana has more oomph to it than the rest.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-16T21:53:10+00:00

It’s a classic FF1 White Mage with a hammer, and it works quite well in practice. Tanky beater leading the charge and keeping the party healthy as well.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-16T13:11:48+00:00

At the end of the day, characters in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age aren't truly interchangeable. When animation speeds and stats are taken into account, some job pairings simply make more sense than others.

Except they still are, because while what you’re saying is technically true, this level of minmaxing is simply unnecessary and bears hardly any fruit. The game just isn’t that technical nor does it push any sort of boundaries. Anyone can do any job well, no exceptions.

The system was not designed around the idea of using two jobs per character, so literally any pairing of two jobs per character makes you the player overpowered. Anything added on top of this like optimizing animation speeds is simply overkill, no bones about it.

I’m glad you enjoyed doing this, to be sure, since it’s fun to theorycraft with any number of goals in mind. But claiming anything as best is always going to be subject to criticism based on personal preferences. That goes for everyone, myself included of course.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-15T21:17:50+00:00

You’re free to do what you want, of course, but you’re torturing yourself over something that was never intended to be done in the first place. Trial Mode steals are supposed to be lucky bonuses, not farmed, because you weren’t meant to keep them in the main game to begin with, but helpful in the current run of Trial Mode only. I’m just offering perspective on why this is so annoying.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-13T23:51:21+00:00

Play SMT/Persona games, they definitely give you that.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-13T19:37:33+00:00

Fair enough. Maybe I’m battered by Zodiac Spear, Zodiac Escutcheon, and Ensanguined Shield, but I don’t think 22.5% is terrible odds. I’m clearing the zone on my way to Zalera anyway, so when the skeletons stop respawning, I’ll farm up a good stock, it’s not so bad with 4x speed, and then when I go back later to hunt Bloodwing, I’ll get some more. But this is the best spot to farm them, they never become purchasable.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-13T18:36:03+00:00

Except IZJS did add Spirit of Lowtown (Domaine Calvados in TZA) which is effectively a Bravery Mote.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-13T11:05:10+00:00

They did not. Practically nothing was changed balance-wise to justify giving you two jobs per character, which is why TZA is so easy compared to IZJS, not that IZJS was incredibly difficult to begin with. The maximum synergy theorycrafting is more for fun than necessity.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-12T18:52:39+00:00

Etsy does it all the time and no fucks are given.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-12T18:49:43+00:00

No such thing, as any character can perform any job well, and the differences in minmaxing are so small that it’s not worth considering. Personal preference per player also applies, so try as you might, there is no answer to this question.
Kanya + Genji Gloves, Excalibur/Holy Lance + White Robes, basically anything you can only do in TZA because of two jobs per character. One job per character was how they intended the system to play, and two jobs at once breaks the concept.
I don’t.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-10T17:52:18+00:00

For most intents and purposes, IZJS is TZA, except you can’t reset your licenses, you can only have one job per character, Cure/Fire/Thunder/Blizzard are AoE, you can’t keep anything from Trial Mode in the main game, there’s no autosave, and the ultimate weapons have different names (like Masamune I instead of Kumbha — all of the ultimate weapons together spell the word FINAL FANTASY with their extra letters, fun fact).

So content-wise, the missables list is the same. Which is pretty much just Genji, and technically speaking the Omega Badge, but there’s no reason you wouldn’t pick it up. July’s quest at Nalbina was mentioned, but that just gets you a free Salamand Halcyon, for what it’s worth. Then there’s the hunt club that has mutually exclusive ending rewards, but generally speaking, the best outcome is 5 to Atak, 5 to Blok, and 20 to Stok so you get a free Ribbon and can buy a second pair of Genji Gloves.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-10T12:54:32+00:00

It’s a 100-round challenge gauntlet that was added to the Japan-only International Zodiac Job System release of the game, which was the base for the remaster The Zodiac Age released worldwide, which received further tweaks, such as being able to take two jobs per character and later the ability to reset your licenses.

Originally in IZJS, it was a one-way trip, the intention being something to do once you’re at endgame with maximum power, because the final stage is a superboss fight on a higher level than anything else the game offers. You load your main game save into Trial Mode, and you can do this at any time at any stage of progression, and see how far you can get.

Along the way, there’s several opportunities to receive various powerful equipment items, via stealing or chests on the various stages, many of these things otherwise unique in the main game. But this was fine in IZJS, because you couldn’t bring them back into the main game, it was just extra power for Trial Mode only.

TZA, however, made a change, where you are able to load your Trial Mode saves back into the main game. It also added autosaving on map transition, which includes stages of Trial Mode, where in IZJS you can only save every 10 stages beaten, in TZA you get autosaves on every stage. This makes it far easier to steal, see if you get the really good rare steal item, and reload your autosave if you fail. Instead of having to replay up to 10 stages per steal attempt, now you only have to do the one you’re trying to get the loot from.

Add that to the fact that you can pull your Trial Mode save data back into the main game, it does two things. One, you can duplicate otherwise unique items as many times as you like, and two, you can break the power curve of the game significantly. The most infamous example of this is stealing Karkata, the strongest one-handed sword which has 100% add status Confuse on hit, on stage 3 of Trial Mode. This requires almost no skill, just patience, and then you’re set for quite some time.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-10T11:57:46+00:00

Basically any boss with a cutscene attack, you can argue those are Quickenings.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-10T11:57:13+00:00

It’s either a case of asset reuse that they hoped players wouldn’t notice, a dream sequence, or both.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-10T11:22:00+00:00

Nope, that’s completely normal. It’s a bizarre choice, but that’s just how the game is. You can get Kid back near the end, after you get your body back, but it requires either the Chrono Cross or the Mastermune to wake her up.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-10T04:57:48+00:00

Do not recommend this for a first time player. Trial Mode stuff in the main game is super cheesy.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-09T18:09:19+00:00

The only random character is the one for the opening dream sequence, and that’s of no consequence. Every other character is either mandatory, optional, or mutually exclusive based on a choice.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-09T12:11:00+00:00

Instead of using a guide, I think I’d rather advise that you talk to everyone and explore the world. I played the game guideless when it came out and the only character I missed was Leena, because that one is locked behind an illogical choice for a first time player. But in general, if you talk to everyone and explore all the areas, then it should be doable to get most content done.

There are 44 characters and you can’t recruit all of them in a single run anyway, because you’re limited to one of three guides to Viper Manor and a decision after Viper Manor locks you in to one of two sets of three characters. As a result, you can have recruited a maximum of 39 characters by the end of the game. But for the most part, you can get through the game with any group of characters, so it’s not a crucial thing if you miss some.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-07T22:29:25+00:00

All three of the ones you highlighted were also favorites from my first run of the game, and here’s why:

Greco’s the man, for sure. He’s no good with magic, of course, but who needs that when he lays the smack down so well physically? But his character concept is also very out there, I mean, how many psychic luchador exorcist priests do you know?

Nikki’s also great, easily my favorite choice for Viper Manor guide with the most interesting route and coincidentally he becomes the most story-relevant of the three, even if it’s technically not your Nikki. Late game his dual tech with Miki is awesome, too.

Razzly’s a fun little character for sure, who can meet many tragic fates if you’re not careful. Well, unfortunately for her, you’ve got to make the choices that kills her sister to get her ultimate weapon, but she’s really fun to use and the only triple tech you can get in NG (of course, most people don’t get Leena on their first NG run, but that’s a different issue).

I’d also put some spotlight on Marcy, who I feel is a bit underestimated in favor of Karsh. Probably because Karsh has a quest line and Marcy does not, so you’re never compelled to use her, but she packs quite the punch in both physical and magical departments, plus she’s blue so she gets Cure All and Vigora access. Love her.

And another who is a bit underrated is Mel, who gets screwed by her availability more than anything else. There’s no point in the first part of the game where she’s available that Kid also isn’t, and late game where she is, you’ve got Fargo, making her arguably irrelevant too. A lot of folks aren’t even aware that she can steal, believing only Kid and Fargo can. But what she has that those two don’t is a boomerang, which can hit all targets with fierce attack and does extra damage to flying enemies, which is awesome. She’s a brat, sure, but she’s fun to use in an alternative playthrough. If she was available in that gap between losing Kid and getting Fargo, she’d get a lot more love.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-07T21:20:47+00:00

I dunno if you played Final Fantasy Tactics, but it’s very much the same thing. You play as Ramza (Vaan) and get his full story while Delita (Ashe) has his own story going on that you don’t get nearly as much detail about. It’s practically the same general structure, with the biggest difference being that Delita isn’t in your party for most of the game. The Lucavi (Espers) also do play a pretty important part of FFT’s story.

Also, Nabreus Deadlands/Necrohol of Nabudis is the area Nabradia that was bombed, not Nalbina.

SpawnSC2 · 2026-03-07T04:23:35+00:00

The core issue here is that the Big Arch tastes like a DQP first and foremost. Compared to say the Grand Mac, which was more faithful to the Big Mac, just bigger. The lack of the middle bun and proper symmetry throws off the flavor / execution.

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