i love watching these videos man, very entertaining and it makes me feel so much better about picking classes in this game, having to choose was giving me a panic attack but knowing you can beat the game with, so far, any class without even a subclass makes that panic go right away
Gotta say this was a great bit of fun to watch. Love finding interesting challenge runs like this, and subscribed to see more. Hope you do FF5 with Time Mages one day there.
FF5 with time mages is definitely on the list to do as a one-off at some point. Time magic has a fun variety of spells (and time mages in FF5 also have a weirdly large variety of weapons they can access).
@@Xephrost_Gaming It's also fascinating how time magic works mechanics-wise, and acts as a massive force multiplier for everything else in the game, especially in the Merged World. And that's not even getting into shenanigans that can be done outside of a challenge run like that.
Haste + Berserk + Ranged Weapons is so cheesy in FF XII as you can keep your main character away from your allies so that AoE issues don't come up... I know you mention this but so many people don't understand how **powerful** of an option that is. Especially when enemies need to move to get to each character! Especially, especially, when you get the status ammo! Free Slow, Disable, Immobilize, Blind, Doom, and Sap are all great when combined with a hasted party. The magiks aren't useless once you get these as the chance to hit is like 25% (which is why you want to be hasted). Time Battlemages, funny enough, work rather well by taking their time with an enemy... Though when things are immune you really feel it. Also, they get some neat Technicks, a feature that people tend to overlook. Also, also, you can get access to some rather strong one handed swords (Durandal and Simha) with one Time Battlemage if you wanna get the Zodiark esper (kinda hate this only one person gets it system but whatever). Side note, the Japanese name is Timespace Warmage, which I think sounds 110% more metal. The thing about FF XII is that people tend to judge jobs against other jobs and not the jobs versus the game. This means that people think that some options are bad instead of just less optimal.
I swear, if you ever found a way to do this challenge in FFT I would watch it at least 20 times minimum! I recognize that it is not likely to be doable, but if you ever find a mod or come up with some kind of trick to make it happen, it would bring me much joy! Love the content!
I don't know you deliberately avoided mentioning this, but there are a handful of weapons that don't require licenses to use, such as the 'Sword of the Old Order' Basch gives you (I forget its name in the inventory) so if you are sick of crossbows or have gone too long without a weapon upgrade, this is always an option. I think most of these can also be picked up in Trial mode for multiple copies of unique items, as well. It's only useful for the early and mid game since there's only 3 swords and 2 nethecite accessories, but it does allow you to have the advantage of having 1 character with a 2-handed weapon whilst the others stand back with crossbows.
Crossbow accuracy isn’t affected by indoors vs outdoors. It is affected by weather; specifically reduced by 50% during sandstorm, heavy rain, blizzard and windy weather. There is no accessory that can bypass this weather penalty.
It might end up quite easy late game, but all the same I'd be really interested to see if an esper only run is possible? I imagine it'll be pretty tough immediately after Raithwall's tomb, I'm not sure if Belias can even solo any other espers for you to be able to unlock them but it'd be real cool to see what's possible with a generally underutilised mechanic in FFXII ^.^
That is an interesting idea. I have been floating around a solo character series of final fantasies, but just using Espers might be interesting in FF12 specifically. Belias could probably make it work, he does get cura and fira in the zodiac age release.
I remember doing an all time mage run way back with the izjs fan translated rom. I just always had a time mage bias eversince. Xbows with haste are fun and safe and drop enemies fast as you've noticed here. It's the combination of range, speed, armor, etc. that makes time mage runs viable. Even moreso now with 2 jobs.
The missing mechanic on bows is because of weather, if its clear skies there is no penalty to accuracy, cloudy rain blizzards will cause accuracy penalties
Balance is a time spell and insanely powerful. The difference beatween your max hip and current hp is the damage you deal. This can get you dealing thousands per hit when your autos would do far less. It’s not end game strong but it’s extremely powerful through the beginning and all mid game
As good as it is early on, bosses and some enemies have the "safety" augment, which iirc also makes them immune to Balance :/ This isn't exclusive to Time Battlemages if you can get a hold on enough Balance Motes
I honestly completely forgot about balance because it's a bit difficult to set up a gambit for it. Specifically when leaving a character at low hp would usually get them killed. I should have given it a try though. It definitely would have out-damaged my crossbows.
@@Starkatcher Something like Foe: Character < 30% HP, if memory serves right, will target a foe if the character drops to below 30% HP And as the command, Balance or the eponymous mote will do The problem is that it's not easy to make full use of Balance as you need to drop your HP dangerously low (easy enough with measured attacks or Infuse) and come up with a safe way to throw it, hopefully doing more damage overall than with just physical attacks If you have the time (har), give it a try, see how it goes
during normal playthroughs where you can actually optimize, haste+berserk is an even more cracked strategy for a large portion of the game. Also, I'm surprised you didn't know about the diamond armlet from trial mode. I figured you'd been ignoring it on purpose, as picking it up right away has always felt like a staple thing to do in a normal playthrough for me. It might be against the spirit of the challenge runs, but you can pretty easily manipulate chest rng as well. It looks like you're playing the ps4 release? If you keep a separate save file with rex in the beginning at the first save crystal, you can find your rng seed based on his cure values, then load your actual file with your rng set up. So long as nothing advances your rng before you next open a chest (ie: you don't start any fights or cast any spells) you'll be in the same part of the rng sequence, and be able to guarantee your drops. Because the game auto-saves during every room transition, this is pretty doable in a lot of situations. Completely against the spirit of the challenges, you can use this to guarantee seitengrat drops. This doesn't work on pc because (iirc) the rng on startup is random on pc whereas the rng on console is fixed. PC has third party tools that tell you your current and upcoming rng values though, so its actually way easier if you're willing to use them. The argument can be made that's sort of cheating though, but somehow rng manipulating sort of feels like it fits in with the core gameplay loop of ff12 to me.
I mean if you're gonna do all that hard work then simply download the mod called "Less BS". It makes all non-repeatable chests spawn 100%. Same result, less time wasted.
The thing about the time battle mage is mostly as the secondary job like you said it's probably the most important one for the red or black mage in my opinion. And the crossbows are some of the most weird things I have every used right up there with the gun. Bows are the best in terms of good damage
Thanks so very much for this!! I think using a Crossbow they are good for taking out sertain creatures that fly at a distance and smaller beasties, but on most adversary's it's almost useless"" I think Fran the Vera is by far the best character because I always build up her license board making her character the most powerful so she can use every kind of weapon' including Spears 13:11 s❤
It's basically, can you use any status effects on enemies? If yes, time mage good. If not, they are not great (though they can usually apply some measure of buffs).
Time Battlemages and Crossbows aren’t as bad as people make them out to be. I always double up on time battlemages but that is mainly because they are the only class that can cast Float.
Hey Xeph, a neat addition to your vids would be a 3 or 4 second boss info card when you're meeting one that gave you trouble. Just put a pic and name and something interesting or funny....just a way to indicate to those watching that this isn't part of a montage. Plus, it's been so long I don't really remember these guys and especially in ff12 the camera doesn't like giving you a solid look at them. Not a criticism, I love your eloquence and pacing, just a thought that might help the less familiar keep up
That's not a bad idea. I'll need to take a look into this to see how much work it would be, because that could be useful to bring the viewer up to speed. And yeah, I do what I can with the camera in 12 to keep things in view, but the camera is... very clearly from the early 2000s. lol
@@Xephrost_Gaming Even if it's just subtitles at the bottom of the screen, I love that extra info. Also, if you haven't played it give Crosscode a try (not sure if it would make a good video, but its an amazing semi-RPG game anyway)
I wonder how FFV Time Mage would hold up. Quick + Meteor can probably destroy mostly everything, but until you reach that part... especially world 1 without comet, I assume it's a rod spam fiesta lol
You have haste+slow+regen+knives or flails for bosses with high def, it is not going fast, but if you have ~4x ATB speed compared to normal it would be relatively safe even without rod breaking cheese. After that you have Comet, a.k.a. baby's first meteor.
Definitely an interesting class to consider. FF5 is also better about making offensive status effects... usable. With bosses being more vulnerable to status effects.
To address that Maximillian you acquired late in the video: IIRC, the Elvorets in the Necrohol of Nabudis can drop them on occasion, so that’s most likely where you got it from 👍
Ah, that would make a lot more sense. I was very confused but didn't want to carefully comb through 2 hours of footage to figure out where that came from.
Bravely Default would work for these types of video tbh, it's just FF with the serial numbers scratched off (granted I don't think we're ever gonna see 1 and it's sequel on modern platforms). But ya, it's always nice to see FF12 in these challenges.
I know you're playing time mages only run, but if anyone is interested on playing a "main" time battle mage character in the zodiac age. Time battlemage/Archer works great as ranged dps + item healer. Same with time/uhlan but you willl probably drop crossbows for spears
Yeah, Time Mage actually makes quite a good second class with haste, slow, berserk, float. It's really just as a solo class that it stumbles (which is not unique to Time Mage).
So I looooooooove single class challenges and have done a lot of them myself to varying degrees (inclding getting to about Archades for all of them in this game). So of course I'm religiously watching yours. Anyway, it's interesting you seem to railroad yourself into mainly story only stuff. Just started the video but for instance you can buy crossbows (as well as the other mage job weapons, so it'd have been relevant for Red Mage as well) in Nalbina (which also has Dark and would have made THAT run even sillier at the beginning). Edit as I watch: Huh, didn';t pick up reflect? I suppose it's probably not too useful but still. LOL. The 'speedrunner walk of shame', not getting Bur-Omnisece crystal. And I'm guessing you also don't know about the Berzerker's Bracers in the Eastersand just south of the Highwaste? Much better than Basch casting it on himself as you can just talk it off when needed. As for Adrammelech, you can just Diamond Armlets to nullify Lightning damage. There's one in the caves, one in the Westersand and if you really want can grab as many as you need in the first stage of trial mode.....and I see you figured it out :D As far as someone being an 'item healer' you can grab the Pheasant Natsuke from Jahara to help with that (....ah I see you found one later too) Noticed you used Float on Deadalus but didn't mention it.... All this stuff is just to say this game has a lot to it that you can engage with and it's interesting to see what people do and don't do to get through challenges like this.
I mostly stick to story stuff because I make a video a week and don't have time to really do a lot of optional stuff. So while I know I can go to other areas early/do optional content, it's usually not that time efficient (unless I'm stuck on a boss, which is why I do a lot more optional stuff near the end of the game when not doing side content catches up to me a bit). Reflect is only dubiously useful as it makes magical healing more difficult. I'm also not sure if any major encounters would really be helped by reflect. I learned about where to get berserker bracers only AFTER recording this as research for a future run. And yeah, pretty embarrassed about the time I wasted not knowing about the diamond armlet. I didn't mention float because I always have it active (when possible) to avoid traps. Until your comment, I completely didn't realize Daedalus had a ground attack. That would explain why the fight was easier than normal.
While I do love FFXII and have since its original release, magic in this game is so damn ludicrous to use. I remember wanting to play mages in this game and trying to do a similar approach as the FFXI "manaburn" parties where a bunch of black mages would synchronize magic spells to cast at once and obliterate enemies in one volley, or immediately put them to sleep after the cast for a second and third volley lol That... that did not work at all lmao This was a really fun watch and makes me actually reconsider playing the game again and actually trying to use a magic user effectively
Magic is a bit awkward to use effectively, but it's very fun. I love in the remaster that they made the "Element:Weak" gambits available way earlier. In the original release, they weren't available until near endgame which made magic effectively very manual and tedious.
16:34 idk why I think it's hilarious to imagine basch just going absolutely ape shit on some sewer rats to the point that his friends have to magically stop him
Going into it, I wonder why you would do this to yourself, good luck 🫡 E: 36:03 😦 You probably picked up the maximillian in necrohol; the flying enemies there have a rare chance of dropping maximillians. I usually get at least one or two just by doing necrohol things. Also I really like your narration, it’s really nice to listen to.
I think Time mage might be the strongest class in the game, aside from maybe foebreaker. I 100% completed FF12 only needing to look up the judge fight because i could figure out how to stop the mega elixir spam. Foebreaker is great for applying defuffs but my timemage shikari was my highest dps character and my timemage bushi was my second. They scale so insanely well with speed. I used no range, my white mages and foebreakers were able to keep my party alive from O13 and Yizmat without resorting to positioning techniques I also used no offensive magic. Timemage shikari Timemage bushi Foebreaker ulhan Forbreaker monk Whitemage knight Whitemage knight
This, is my third playthrough, NS OLED, i have the difficult to find actual Zodiac Age official game book hard cover! This time i am trying to go "by the book" . I was a total noob first playthrough and awarded Vaan almost all the Espers acquired! No book then, now i understand it! Except that hidden chest with op Bow on upper deck of Nalbania to where ever .... never acuired that op Bow etc! I keep trying though etc with the Shields and weapons ....
What is next, white mages? It seems you startet with all magic classes . I wanted to try WM run myself but it might impossible so I thought I'll add summons as well, but I was gonna only use one character in case it was easy
As mentioned on black mage only White mage is horrible early. You really want to do the hunts so you get the drain magic and then you're basically sorted for the entire game. I will say base game is pretty easy once drain comes into play. Ignores reflect, non elemental and ofc it heals. It's a massive win win. I am doing trial mode and planning on trying it against Yiazmat 😂😂. I managed to eventually kill fafnir...which took me getting to level 99 and i still only just managed it and Behemoth King took 40 minutes on double speed... So i can't wait to see how long Yiazmat takes 😂😂.
Yeah, I'm not looking forward to it, but I have been cursed to complete the game with every class, so nothing I can do. Good info on drain though. I will be remembering that.
@@Xephrost_Gaming definitely get it before Mateus. Just to remove those pesky azers. Naturally white mage the undead are free exp so I grinded at lhusu and stillshrine. I also took advantage of Fran being berserk against vossler. Weirdly enough I used vaan ashe and Basch. Basch with his health pool becomes a great lure target you can just keep healing up and buffing. You don't need it but holy rod in great crystal is very nice for Pharos too. Those purobolos are weak to holy and holy rod buffs it's own damage. It out damages drain. You given me the idea to try this on other classes. Foebreakers seems both good and bad at same time? Gotta love rng damage. Honestly white mage is just the hardest one. You have survivability to a point. If you don't count it as cheating. Use the sword of kings and treaty blade too on ashe if you don't use Basch at all. I got very lucky and unknowingly stole one (sword of kings) from belias in trial mode. There are very little decent main story espers to use unfortunately. I think one may give a battle lore 😂. Chaos is the best esper as he gives access to health and defender and save the queen. Also despite being a healer. You get no ether, potion, phoenix or remedy lores 😭😂😂 Sorry for the info dump but I have spent a good 60-70 hours figuring stuff out 😂😂
@@Xephrost_Gaming could've sworn I sent my reply. 😂😂 But maybe this is better than me giving you all the answers which I basically did in the reply haha. Not a challenge if I give it all away. Can't wait to see it come to fruition however. Wanna see how you tackle it. Also... I thought archer only could be the single worse job cuz bows struggle more than any weapon I believe...but I noticed archers get like...almost every technick so it's possible it doesn't suck as much as I think 😂
at opening: in 5, they can be fairly broken (especially if you abuse glitches -- not as broken as Blue Mage, Chemist, or Samurai can be), especially when abusing glitches, so I won't say the class is UNIVRSALLY BAD. But, RE: 12: since I never even realized time mage was a thing in 12, I'll defer to your superior expeience nd just nod my head in agreement that it's probably bad in 12 (and I suspect because you say the class in bad in general, I suspect it's REALLLY BAD in 12) Curious to see what horrors you go through before the finish :D -- good luck!
I more meant that FF12 time mage is bad, not time mages in general. And that was my opinion pre-run; I would now say they are still not great solo, but better than expected. I actually really like time mages in other games, because they have a lot of support and debuff potential. I'm partial to 5 and Tactics as those were the first time mages I got to use. I think they mostly suffer in FF12 because status effects don't work against most bosses (other than slow, which is nice).
Max is rare drop in nabudis from those flying shaits that is most likely where you got it. All you need is to grind for long enough and you would have whole set. There is metric ton of gear availible across nabudis, honestly if you just drop there right before tomb of raithwall and get everything from there and shaft from barheim you can coast the entire story without ever stopping ...... Granted you can do the same by using trial mode or picking up that invisible bow but honestly I find invisible weapons to cheesy for my taste and trial mode makes the game to easy so I prefer not to touch those. ( I am not saying you should not, I just prefer not to do that!)
Your party is wearing full heavy armor, so they are much tankier against physical attacks than you are used to. That's why Daedalus and Bergan were a joke
Agreed. If time mages had one good, consistent offensive spell, the class would be very much improved. I suspect that if the game had been designed with time mages from the start, they probably would have had some comet equivalent.
FFV: let's do the time warp again~ literally resetting the fight was probably the most annoying thing to code ever, so it makes sense they never got that power again XD
@@Xephrost_Gaming How about a Synergist only run on FF13? Or a Songstress only run on FF 10-2? Now that I think about it, I don't think the Synergist has any attacks at all so that would be impossible, how about a Saboteur run instead?
I'll be honest, I always forget Vanish even exists. I should really remember that for other runs. Though, it looks like access to it is pretty limited.
@@Xephrost_Gaming Pretty much. Not only do you need to recast it every so often, monsters will still notice you if you get close enough, and it breaks if you do anything besides move. Which means if libra runs out need to recast stuff. I got the windy esper way earlier than I was supposed to with it since the undead die to healing and I could Reflect/Spell spam the esper down. Of course I nearly died escaping afterward due to running into ghosts and a room with two disease dragons. It's specifically useful for the Time Mages. who already had their run.
@@onernoa with times 4 speedup and skipping cutscenes its actually not all that long, especially when you're skipping things like hunts and only leveling half the party. That being said, a normal playthrough for me is closer to 60 hours, lol.
Yeah, having the speedup options, skipping cutscenes, and a lot of content being optional is great. FF12 may have the most content of any final fantasy but thankfully, at least for my purposes, a lot of that is optional.
@@Xephrost_Gaming you've inspired me if I ever pick up 12 again to try to use my time mage with a crossbow for the yiazmat fight. Keeping one party member doing damage at range to try to game that awful AI
In terms of time mages this game lies. ( I mean in numbered final fantasy games this is true! But I'm a huge fan of final fantasy tactics and it's a final fantasy game! But should have a nimber itself as first tactics style game I loved followed by the early tactics ogre game
The way I farm the Maximilian armor is to keep track of how many Oversouls need to die before he spawns, then do a zone transition (ie, autosave) right before. Then, if it doesn't drop, reset
Like the video? Want to support the channel? Financially stable enough to do so? Check out my Patreon. patreon.com/Xephrost_Gaming
curious what platform did you play this?
I played the game on PS5.
i love watching these videos man, very entertaining and it makes me feel so much better about picking classes in this game, having to choose was giving me a panic attack but knowing you can beat the game with, so far, any class without even a subclass makes that panic go right away
Yeah, if you really want to min-max your choices you certainly can. But you can absolutely beat the game just picking classes off vibes.
Gotta say this was a great bit of fun to watch. Love finding interesting challenge runs like this, and subscribed to see more. Hope you do FF5 with Time Mages one day there.
FF5 with time mages is definitely on the list to do as a one-off at some point. Time magic has a fun variety of spells (and time mages in FF5 also have a weirdly large variety of weapons they can access).
@@Xephrost_Gaming It's also fascinating how time magic works mechanics-wise, and acts as a massive force multiplier for everything else in the game, especially in the Merged World.
And that's not even getting into shenanigans that can be done outside of a challenge run like that.
Babe wake up a new Xephrost video dropped
YESSSS
I'm up I'm up
ff12 content??? in 2024?! you have to sub to that
Love the final fantasy 12 content!! Keep it up!
Thank you I enjoyed listening too ur play through. Very soothing voice you have. ❤
Looking through your recent videos, it looks like you post Final Fantasy, Pokemon, and Souls games. I am here for all of those, so I have subbed.
My favorite Game! Thanks for the Video.
Great run in my favorite game! You should expand this and include the optional content and secret Espers to see how far it goes
Haste + Berserk + Ranged Weapons is so cheesy in FF XII as you can keep your main character away from your allies so that AoE issues don't come up... I know you mention this but so many people don't understand how **powerful** of an option that is. Especially when enemies need to move to get to each character! Especially, especially, when you get the status ammo! Free Slow, Disable, Immobilize, Blind, Doom, and Sap are all great when combined with a hasted party. The magiks aren't useless once you get these as the chance to hit is like 25% (which is why you want to be hasted).
Time Battlemages, funny enough, work rather well by taking their time with an enemy... Though when things are immune you really feel it.
Also, they get some neat Technicks, a feature that people tend to overlook. Also, also, you can get access to some rather strong one handed swords (Durandal and Simha) with one Time Battlemage if you wanna get the Zodiark esper (kinda hate this only one person gets it system but whatever).
Side note, the Japanese name is Timespace Warmage, which I think sounds 110% more metal.
The thing about FF XII is that people tend to judge jobs against other jobs and not the jobs versus the game. This means that people think that some options are bad instead of just less optimal.
Last thing is a very common logical pitfall in strategy games! Worse than something else or in a similar niche as something else doesn't mean bad
Keep FFXII alive!
I swear, if you ever found a way to do this challenge in FFT I would watch it at least 20 times minimum! I recognize that it is not likely to be doable, but if you ever find a mod or come up with some kind of trick to make it happen, it would bring me much joy! Love the content!
(You could include Bravely Default, that's three more Final Fantasy Time Mages right there)
great video loved the challenge!
I don't know you deliberately avoided mentioning this, but there are a handful of weapons that don't require licenses to use, such as the 'Sword of the Old Order' Basch gives you (I forget its name in the inventory) so if you are sick of crossbows or have gone too long without a weapon upgrade, this is always an option. I think most of these can also be picked up in Trial mode for multiple copies of unique items, as well. It's only useful for the early and mid game since there's only 3 swords and 2 nethecite accessories, but it does allow you to have the advantage of having 1 character with a 2-handed weapon whilst the others stand back with crossbows.
Though the jobs are bit unique in FF10, I consider Tidus to basically be a time battlemage if you stick to his section of the sphere grid.
Yay FF12 video! I love this game
love me some ff12! subbed
Crossbow accuracy isn’t affected by indoors vs outdoors. It is affected by weather; specifically reduced by 50% during sandstorm, heavy rain, blizzard and windy weather. There is no accessory that can bypass this weather penalty.
Yep, Your awesome!!!! Just great work !!!
It might end up quite easy late game, but all the same I'd be really interested to see if an esper only run is possible? I imagine it'll be pretty tough immediately after Raithwall's tomb, I'm not sure if Belias can even solo any other espers for you to be able to unlock them but it'd be real cool to see what's possible with a generally underutilised mechanic in FFXII ^.^
That is an interesting idea. I have been floating around a solo character series of final fantasies, but just using Espers might be interesting in FF12 specifically. Belias could probably make it work, he does get cura and fira in the zodiac age release.
@@Xephrost_Gaming Thanks for considering it, would be awesome to see! ^.^
I remember doing an all time mage run way back with the izjs fan translated rom. I just always had a time mage bias eversince. Xbows with haste are fun and safe and drop enemies fast as you've noticed here. It's the combination of range, speed, armor, etc. that makes time mage runs viable. Even moreso now with 2 jobs.
This seems like a fun run. I've done a mage only run, but not a specific mage type.
It was certainly surprising in some ways. I expected it to be way more miserable.
The missing mechanic on bows is because of weather, if its clear skies there is no penalty to accuracy, cloudy rain blizzards will cause accuracy penalties
Balance is a time spell and insanely powerful. The difference beatween your max hip and current hp is the damage you deal. This can get you dealing thousands per hit when your autos would do far less. It’s not end game strong but it’s extremely powerful through the beginning and all mid game
As good as it is early on, bosses and some enemies have the "safety" augment, which iirc also makes them immune to Balance :/
This isn't exclusive to Time Battlemages if you can get a hold on enough Balance Motes
I honestly completely forgot about balance because it's a bit difficult to set up a gambit for it. Specifically when leaving a character at low hp would usually get them killed. I should have given it a try though. It definitely would have out-damaged my crossbows.
@@Starkatcher Something like Foe: Character < 30% HP, if memory serves right, will target a foe if the character drops to below 30% HP
And as the command, Balance or the eponymous mote will do
The problem is that it's not easy to make full use of Balance as you need to drop your HP dangerously low (easy enough with measured attacks or Infuse) and come up with a safe way to throw it, hopefully doing more damage overall than with just physical attacks
If you have the time (har), give it a try, see how it goes
Missed out on Drain, Reverse and especially Graviga - anything not immune to death loses half their HP in AoE
Disable, Stop, Numerology, Horology are also good
during normal playthroughs where you can actually optimize, haste+berserk is an even more cracked strategy for a large portion of the game. Also, I'm surprised you didn't know about the diamond armlet from trial mode. I figured you'd been ignoring it on purpose, as picking it up right away has always felt like a staple thing to do in a normal playthrough for me.
It might be against the spirit of the challenge runs, but you can pretty easily manipulate chest rng as well. It looks like you're playing the ps4 release? If you keep a separate save file with rex in the beginning at the first save crystal, you can find your rng seed based on his cure values, then load your actual file with your rng set up. So long as nothing advances your rng before you next open a chest (ie: you don't start any fights or cast any spells) you'll be in the same part of the rng sequence, and be able to guarantee your drops. Because the game auto-saves during every room transition, this is pretty doable in a lot of situations. Completely against the spirit of the challenges, you can use this to guarantee seitengrat drops.
This doesn't work on pc because (iirc) the rng on startup is random on pc whereas the rng on console is fixed. PC has third party tools that tell you your current and upcoming rng values though, so its actually way easier if you're willing to use them. The argument can be made that's sort of cheating though, but somehow rng manipulating sort of feels like it fits in with the core gameplay loop of ff12 to me.
I mean if you're gonna do all that hard work then simply download the mod called "Less BS". It makes all non-repeatable chests spawn 100%. Same result, less time wasted.
The thing about the time battle mage is mostly as the secondary job like you said it's probably the most important one for the red or black mage in my opinion. And the crossbows are some of the most weird things I have every used right up there with the gun. Bows are the best in terms of good damage
Thanks so very much for this!! I think using a Crossbow they are good for taking out sertain creatures that fly at a distance and smaller beasties, but on most adversary's it's almost useless"" I think Fran the Vera is by far the best character because I always build up her license board making her character the most powerful so she can use every kind of weapon' including Spears 13:11 s❤
An interesting (and very easy) run you could try is unarmed monk only. Only issues is flying enemies, which is solvable.
Time mages are always either useless or massively OP.
There is no inbetween
It's basically, can you use any status effects on enemies? If yes, time mage good. If not, they are not great (though they can usually apply some measure of buffs).
Time Battlemages and Crossbows aren’t as bad as people make them out to be. I always double up on time battlemages but that is mainly because they are the only class that can cast Float.
You imght be surprised to find out time mage is.. much stronger in 5. But that's mostly cause of how 5 works.
Hey Xeph, a neat addition to your vids would be a 3 or 4 second boss info card when you're meeting one that gave you trouble. Just put a pic and name and something interesting or funny....just a way to indicate to those watching that this isn't part of a montage.
Plus, it's been so long I don't really remember these guys and especially in ff12 the camera doesn't like giving you a solid look at them. Not a criticism, I love your eloquence and pacing, just a thought that might help the less familiar keep up
That's not a bad idea. I'll need to take a look into this to see how much work it would be, because that could be useful to bring the viewer up to speed.
And yeah, I do what I can with the camera in 12 to keep things in view, but the camera is... very clearly from the early 2000s. lol
@@Xephrost_Gaming Even if it's just subtitles at the bottom of the screen, I love that extra info.
Also, if you haven't played it give Crosscode a try (not sure if it would make a good video, but its an amazing semi-RPG game anyway)
I wonder how FFV Time Mage would hold up. Quick + Meteor can probably destroy mostly everything, but until you reach that part... especially world 1 without comet, I assume it's a rod spam fiesta lol
You have haste+slow+regen+knives or flails for bosses with high def, it is not going fast, but if you have ~4x ATB speed compared to normal it would be relatively safe even without rod breaking cheese. After that you have Comet, a.k.a. baby's first meteor.
Definitely an interesting class to consider. FF5 is also better about making offensive status effects... usable. With bosses being more vulnerable to status effects.
To address that Maximillian you acquired late in the video: IIRC, the Elvorets in the Necrohol of Nabudis can drop them on occasion, so that’s most likely where you got it from 👍
Ah, that would make a lot more sense. I was very confused but didn't want to carefully comb through 2 hours of footage to figure out where that came from.
I was gonna say it was probably a drop in necrohol.
Bravely Default would work for these types of video tbh, it's just FF with the serial numbers scratched off (granted I don't think we're ever gonna see 1 and it's sequel on modern platforms). But ya, it's always nice to see FF12 in these challenges.
I know you're playing time mages only run, but if anyone is interested on playing a "main" time battle mage character in the zodiac age. Time battlemage/Archer works great as ranged dps + item healer. Same with time/uhlan but you willl probably drop crossbows for spears
Yeah, Time Mage actually makes quite a good second class with haste, slow, berserk, float. It's really just as a solo class that it stumbles (which is not unique to Time Mage).
So I looooooooove single class challenges and have done a lot of them myself to varying degrees (inclding getting to about Archades for all of them in this game). So of course I'm religiously watching yours.
Anyway, it's interesting you seem to railroad yourself into mainly story only stuff. Just started the video but for instance you can buy crossbows (as well as the other mage job weapons, so it'd have been relevant for Red Mage as well) in Nalbina (which also has Dark and would have made THAT run even sillier at the beginning).
Edit as I watch: Huh, didn';t pick up reflect? I suppose it's probably not too useful but still.
LOL. The 'speedrunner walk of shame', not getting Bur-Omnisece crystal.
And I'm guessing you also don't know about the Berzerker's Bracers in the Eastersand just south of the Highwaste? Much better than Basch casting it on himself as you can just talk it off when needed.
As for Adrammelech, you can just Diamond Armlets to nullify Lightning damage. There's one in the caves, one in the Westersand and if you really want can grab as many as you need in the first stage of trial mode.....and I see you figured it out :D
As far as someone being an 'item healer' you can grab the Pheasant Natsuke from Jahara to help with that (....ah I see you found one later too)
Noticed you used Float on Deadalus but didn't mention it....
All this stuff is just to say this game has a lot to it that you can engage with and it's interesting to see what people do and don't do to get through challenges like this.
I mostly stick to story stuff because I make a video a week and don't have time to really do a lot of optional stuff. So while I know I can go to other areas early/do optional content, it's usually not that time efficient (unless I'm stuck on a boss, which is why I do a lot more optional stuff near the end of the game when not doing side content catches up to me a bit).
Reflect is only dubiously useful as it makes magical healing more difficult. I'm also not sure if any major encounters would really be helped by reflect. I learned about where to get berserker bracers only AFTER recording this as research for a future run. And yeah, pretty embarrassed about the time I wasted not knowing about the diamond armlet.
I didn't mention float because I always have it active (when possible) to avoid traps. Until your comment, I completely didn't realize Daedalus had a ground attack. That would explain why the fight was easier than normal.
While I do love FFXII and have since its original release, magic in this game is so damn ludicrous to use. I remember wanting to play mages in this game and trying to do a similar approach as the FFXI "manaburn" parties where a bunch of black mages would synchronize magic spells to cast at once and obliterate enemies in one volley, or immediately put them to sleep after the cast for a second and third volley lol That... that did not work at all lmao This was a really fun watch and makes me actually reconsider playing the game again and actually trying to use a magic user effectively
Magic is a bit awkward to use effectively, but it's very fun. I love in the remaster that they made the "Element:Weak" gambits available way earlier. In the original release, they weren't available until near endgame which made magic effectively very manual and tedious.
bro these are cool
I actively enjoy these videos. Any chance of Monk or Knight runs in the future?
I'm committed to beating the game with every class, eventually. May take a while to get through them all.
@@Xephrost_Gaming Awesome
I would be interested in FFV's Time Mage only actually.
It's definitely one I'm thinking about as a one-off at some point. Time Mage in FF5 is very interesting.
time mage in FFT is fun
16:34 idk why I think it's hilarious to imagine basch just going absolutely ape shit on some sewer rats to the point that his friends have to magically stop him
Is it posabull to to beat the game with the assassin dager ? The ko dager. U can get in the mine wen savine penalo ?
There was a time mage in ff tactics but that involves some job grinding
Going into it, I wonder why you would do this to yourself, good luck 🫡
E: 36:03 😦
You probably picked up the maximillian in necrohol; the flying enemies there have a rare chance of dropping maximillians. I usually get at least one or two just by doing necrohol things.
Also I really like your narration, it’s really nice to listen to.
Ffxii video one month ago? Subscribed
Time mages are also in FF Tactics Advance, and you get to see Montblanc, Kupo! Good luck making a whole team of them in good time though…
At some point I really need to do a series of the tactics games. Because they are very fun.
I think Time mage might be the strongest class in the game, aside from maybe foebreaker.
I 100% completed FF12 only needing to look up the judge fight because i could figure out how to stop the mega elixir spam.
Foebreaker is great for applying defuffs but my timemage shikari was my highest dps character and my timemage bushi was my second. They scale so insanely well with speed.
I used no range, my white mages and foebreakers were able to keep my party alive from O13 and Yizmat without resorting to positioning techniques
I also used no offensive magic.
Timemage shikari
Timemage bushi
Foebreaker ulhan
Forbreaker monk
Whitemage knight
Whitemage knight
❤❤❤❤
This, is my third playthrough, NS OLED, i have the difficult to find actual Zodiac Age official game book hard cover! This time i am trying to go "by the book" . I was a total noob first playthrough and awarded Vaan almost all the Espers acquired! No book then, now i understand it! Except that hidden chest with op Bow on upper deck of Nalbania to where ever .... never acuired that op Bow etc! I keep trying though etc with the Shields and weapons ....
What is next, white mages? It seems you startet with all magic classes . I wanted to try WM run myself but it might impossible so I thought I'll add summons as well, but I was gonna only use one character in case it was easy
As mentioned on black mage only
White mage is horrible early. You really want to do the hunts so you get the drain magic and then you're basically sorted for the entire game.
I will say base game is pretty easy once drain comes into play. Ignores reflect, non elemental and ofc it heals. It's a massive win win.
I am doing trial mode and planning on trying it against Yiazmat 😂😂. I managed to eventually kill fafnir...which took me getting to level 99 and i still only just managed it and Behemoth King took 40 minutes on double speed...
So i can't wait to see how long Yiazmat takes 😂😂.
Yeah, I'm not looking forward to it, but I have been cursed to complete the game with every class, so nothing I can do. Good info on drain though. I will be remembering that.
@@Xephrost_Gaming definitely get it before Mateus. Just to remove those pesky azers. Naturally white mage the undead are free exp so I grinded at lhusu and stillshrine. I also took advantage of Fran being berserk against vossler.
Weirdly enough I used vaan ashe and Basch. Basch with his health pool becomes a great lure target you can just keep healing up and buffing.
You don't need it but holy rod in great crystal is very nice for Pharos too. Those purobolos are weak to holy and holy rod buffs it's own damage. It out damages drain.
You given me the idea to try this on other classes. Foebreakers seems both good and bad at same time? Gotta love rng damage.
Honestly white mage is just the hardest one. You have survivability to a point.
If you don't count it as cheating. Use the sword of kings and treaty blade too on ashe if you don't use Basch at all. I got very lucky and unknowingly stole one (sword of kings) from belias in trial mode.
There are very little decent main story espers to use unfortunately. I think one may give a battle lore 😂.
Chaos is the best esper as he gives access to health and defender and save the queen.
Also despite being a healer. You get no ether, potion, phoenix or remedy lores 😭😂😂
Sorry for the info dump but I have spent a good 60-70 hours figuring stuff out 😂😂
@@Xephrost_Gaming could've sworn I sent my reply. 😂😂 But maybe this is better than me giving you all the answers which I basically did in the reply haha. Not a challenge if I give it all away.
Can't wait to see it come to fruition however. Wanna see how you tackle it.
Also... I thought archer only could be the single worse job cuz bows struggle more than any weapon I believe...but I noticed archers get like...almost every technick so it's possible it doesn't suck as much as I think 😂
at opening: in 5, they can be fairly broken (especially if you abuse glitches -- not as broken as Blue Mage, Chemist, or Samurai can be), especially when abusing glitches, so I won't say the class is UNIVRSALLY BAD.
But, RE: 12: since I never even realized time mage was a thing in 12, I'll defer to your superior expeience nd just nod my head in agreement that it's probably bad in 12 (and I suspect because you say the class in bad in general, I suspect it's REALLLY BAD in 12)
Curious to see what horrors you go through before the finish :D -- good luck!
Nice work on the time mage! Shame the final boss was a pain in the neck, but looks like you blitzed everything else at least!
I more meant that FF12 time mage is bad, not time mages in general. And that was my opinion pre-run; I would now say they are still not great solo, but better than expected.
I actually really like time mages in other games, because they have a lot of support and debuff potential. I'm partial to 5 and Tactics as those were the first time mages I got to use. I think they mostly suffer in FF12 because status effects don't work against most bosses (other than slow, which is nice).
Monks!
It is on the list for someday. I will be doing every class (eventually).
Max is rare drop in nabudis from those flying shaits that is most likely where you got it. All you need is to grind for long enough and you would have whole set. There is metric ton of gear availible across nabudis, honestly if you just drop there right before tomb of raithwall and get everything from there and shaft from barheim you can coast the entire story without ever stopping ...... Granted you can do the same by using trial mode or picking up that invisible bow but honestly I find invisible weapons to cheesy for my taste and trial mode makes the game to easy so I prefer not to touch those. ( I am not saying you should not, I just prefer not to do that!)
Your party is wearing full heavy armor, so they are much tankier against physical attacks than you are used to. That's why Daedalus and Bergan were a joke
I wish they had access to meteor and space magic.
Apparently the Japanese translation of Time Mage is more akin to Space-Time mage.
Agreed. If time mages had one good, consistent offensive spell, the class would be very much improved. I suspect that if the game had been designed with time mages from the start, they probably would have had some comet equivalent.
”and the FF12 videos get vieeews”
I feel so called out by this comment
😂
FFV: let's do the time warp again~
literally resetting the fight was probably the most annoying thing to code ever, so it makes sense they never got that power again XD
Your charge gambit should be AFTER the healing spells, not before. That way if Ashe has MP to heal still she will do that first.
Yeah, I always put my charge gambits after all my spells and before regular attacks.
@@Xephrost_Gaming I think I also liked having a
Now white mage only !
It is definitely on the list.
@@Xephrost_Gaming How about a Synergist only run on FF13? Or a Songstress only run on FF 10-2? Now that I think about it, I don't think the Synergist has any attacks at all so that would be impossible, how about a Saboteur run instead?
I mean, it's not Red Mage.. But Time mages are cool too... (Specially Time Battlemage)
I want to do one of these challenges runs. Has anyone done no shop no mist charges no summons no quest soeed runs?
Also FFT has time mages but it isn't a mainline game.
time mage in FF tactic??
You don't know Bazaar recipes?
😊
The fact you didn't try and abuse Vanish in a solo party astounds me. No need to fight every enemy if they don't notice you.
I'll be honest, I always forget Vanish even exists. I should really remember that for other runs. Though, it looks like access to it is pretty limited.
@@Xephrost_Gaming Pretty much. Not only do you need to recast it every so often, monsters will still notice you if you get close enough, and it breaks if you do anything besides move. Which means if libra runs out need to recast stuff. I got the windy esper way earlier than I was supposed to with it since the undead die to healing and I could Reflect/Spell spam the esper down. Of course I nearly died escaping afterward due to running into ghosts and a room with two disease dragons. It's specifically useful for the Time Mages. who already had their run.
No tactics time mages? Heh
Final fantasy tactics falls a bit outside the series I normally do. And while I love Final Fantasy Tactics, it is not a short game.
@@Xephrost_Gaming I'm legitimately amazed that FFXII is a "short game" in your estimation
@@onernoa with times 4 speedup and skipping cutscenes its actually not all that long, especially when you're skipping things like hunts and only leveling half the party. That being said, a normal playthrough for me is closer to 60 hours, lol.
Yeah, having the speedup options, skipping cutscenes, and a lot of content being optional is great. FF12 may have the most content of any final fantasy but thankfully, at least for my purposes, a lot of that is optional.
@@Xephrost_Gaming you've inspired me if I ever pick up 12 again to try to use my time mage with a crossbow for the yiazmat fight. Keeping one party member doing damage at range to try to game that awful AI
In terms of time mages this game lies. ( I mean in numbered final fantasy games this is true! But I'm a huge fan of final fantasy tactics and it's a final fantasy game! But should have a nimber itself as first tactics style game I loved followed by the early tactics ogre game
What about final fantasy tactics? Lol 😂
Also next time if you do another one of these you can just skip the tutorial most people know about the first part
You say the entire game but you don't do the hunts or side content
The way I farm the Maximilian armor is to keep track of how many Oversouls need to die before he spawns, then do a zone transition (ie, autosave) right before. Then, if it doesn't drop, reset
Hmmm. That sounds really obvious in retrospect. A little annoyed with myself that it didn't even occur to me.