Final Fantasy XII (PC): The Struggle for Freedom - A Difficulty Mod

Hello everyone! This is my first post here on NG+, but I'm excited to be able to share this project with this community. I've been out of the modding scene for the past few years aside from some minor projects, mostly due to work and real life stuff consuming the vast majority of my time and energy. I was working on FFTA2 for the most part until I stumbled upon the FFXII (PC) modding community. To that end, I was able to work with some of the many talented folks who are working hard on making tools and doing research on XII's inner workings. With their help, I was able to create the first difficulty/rebalancing mod for FFXII, called The Struggle for Freedom (SFF), designed for The Zodiac Age on PC, for English-speaking communities.

XII, and Ivalice in general, hold a very special place in my heart. FFT was one of the first RPGs I ever played, and XII was the first numbered FF I ever finished. Even when I was younger, I always thought XII had a lot of potential and wanted to mess around with it. Why did First Aid have to suck? Why did all Black Magick have to feel the same? And why do those three invisible items added in IZJS not have models? And further, why can't every character feel unique, like they do in other FF games? Those are all some of the founding things I wanted to change with this mod, among many other changes. Here's what the biggest changes are:

• Enemies have 2x HP and a 1.3x boost to their other stats, making them hit harder, faster, and actually able to survive for a bit longer, without making enemies super tanky and feeling like a drag. Many enemies now use abilities that people have never even seen them use before because of the added survivability.
• If you use the default version of the mod, each character is assigned a set role and License Board to give them a unique role within the party. Vaan is fast and excels at evasion and combos, Fran is able to wield offensive magicks, Balthier is the best item-user, etc. There are two versions of each board for each character- a Struggle Board, and a Freedom Board. Struggle Boards are linear and have set growth, similar to FFX's Sphere Grid and FFXIII's Crystarium, and Freedom Boards are more open, similar to XII's original License Boards. For those not wanting set roles, there is also a version of the mod included that has the original 12 jobs and the PS2 version of the License Boards.
• Espers are now far more useful and, if you use the default SFF boards, are assigned to each character. Each character gets two Espers, each having very different playstyles and abilities that compliment their summoner, and Espers have completely revamped AI to take advantage of their skillsets. For example, Belias excels at helping Basch tank by using Bubble/Decoy on him while Belias uses magick, and Adrammelech uses Hastega/Slowga/Blindga and Thunder magicks to aid Vaan.
• Many abilities have been completely revamped to either fill a new niche, or to be more useful.
• Equipment- primarily weapons- have been greatly rebalanced. The three invisible items now have models and are more balanced to be on par with other late-game weaponry, and are now available through the Bazaar (albeit requiring rare Loot). Most late-game weaponry within each category is competitive with each other. For example, the Arcturus has enhanced Range compared to other Guns, the Fomalhaut has an increased Critical Hit Rate compared to other Guns, and the Mithuna has the highest raw Attack of all Guns.
• Character stats have been revamped to better fit a character's role. For example, Basch now has some of the best VIT/HP in the game as befitting his role as a tank, whereas Vaan is the fastest, and Fran has the highest Magick.

What will happen in future versions?

• Currently, FFXII modding is still very much in its infancy. There's many things we can't do just yet, and even things like editing text is very time-consuming. To that end, there are some minor text inaccuracies and other very small bugs that are being slowly but surely snipped for future versions.
• We're also working on a Treasure Chest Editor, which will hopefully be done within the next few weeks. Once that's completed, treasure chests will be a 100% spawn, 100% set item, and will no longer respawn, much like traditional FF treasure chests. Those chests will have set items, generally the rarest item that would have normally been found in that chest to begin with.
• AI is currently not editable for enemies. Hopefully, in future versions, we'll be able to make enemy AI more interesting.

I think that covers most of the bigger things... I would definitely add, however, to read the Readme/Master Guide included with the mod download prior to playing. It has a variety of useful information, as well as accurate info about Abilities/Equipment/Items that can't be found in-game at the moment due to text modding limitations. SFF isn't perfect, but I hope that it'll allow people to enjoy XII in a new way.

A lot of love went into making SFF, and I'm excited to share it with others who love Ivalice as well. If anyone has any questions or feedback, feel free to ping me on Discord (eternal248#1817) or shoot me a message here. I try to be as responsive as possible, and I'd love to hear from you guys! This is my first post here, so if I've done anything wrong, just let me know and I'll fix whatever I need to.

Thank you!

Download it here.

Holy shitballs a mod for FFXII?

I like you already.

Woah, and here have I been recently playing XII and noticing how unfortunately easy it is to overlevel and just roflstomp everything without even trying, and noting that regualr enemies usually die too fast for setting statuses on them to be worth it when you can just kill them in 2 hits.

Unfortunately I only have the PS4 version of FFXII:TZA and not the PC version, so I won't be able to play it, but I'm definitely interested in how this continues to develop. (Certainly gives me a good reason to pick up the PC version on a sale at some point.)

Thanks! I'm just happy that it's something we were able to make.

A Dummy, the timing is rather unfortunate, since you just missed a fairly decent deal on it on Steam via the Summer Sale. That being said, the FF games get discounted pretty often on there, so I'm sure there'll be another sale on it soon!

Looks really great sadly I can't get the PC version of FFXII (first have to invest into a better PC) right now but I will keep in mind the existence of this mod for when I will get the opportunity to play it.

For those who want to play it, but don't really have the money to pay full price, XII: TZA is on sale for 50% off on Humble Bundle.

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/final-fantasy-xii-the-zodiac-age

1 hour ago, Eternal said:

For those who want to play it, but don't really have the money to pay full price, XII: TZA is on sale for 50% off on Humble Bundle.

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/final-fantasy-xii-the-zodiac-age

Hey hey, if anyone's getting something from the Humble Store it should be through my affiliate link  https://www.humblebundle.com/store/final-fantasy-xii-the-zodiac-age?partner=nowea
More seriously. Squenix does sales on FF stuff very often, to the point where half the time the 'sale' price is the standard. Might be the first time TZA's on one due to newness though.

For some more substantial feedback on the mod itself. I can't speak on FF12 much as it wasn't really my jam. But I kinda figured when I saw the post that this was gonna be another time where "Someone we don't recognize drops a poorly thought out difficulty hack then leaves." This looks like it was well thought out and I'd be curious to see how things go once some more tools come up as I imagine AI scripts aren't exactly the best.

Kudos

Thanks! Had I known there was an affiliate link, I'd have just used that to begin with, haha. Apologies about that.

As far as the mod itself, AI is a tricky thing right now. XII has some very weird quirks regarding AI, but the people working on going through XII's coding are slowly figuring it out. At the moment though, the AI isn't particularly terrible except in a few small cases.

Just got through Giza for the first time and I already love what you've done. The only major critique I have is that Vaan is still a bit squishy at the start of the game so a lot of my strategies so far have involved legging it in the direction of the nearest save crystal to get HP back, but that's earlygame in a nutshell so I really can't gauge how much of an influence your enemy stat boosting has over that. Plus, again, Vaan isn't the sturdiest knife in the tool shed, and he doesn't have his spray-on abs to block incoming hits anymore (thanks HD upgrade).

I really like the design of all the license boards, I can see that a lot of care was put into what licenses lead to what and which charachters' archetypal boards get to have which equipment and spells available. Changing the elemental spells up to be more varied than just the same attack with a different element is super neat, I'm looking forward to trying out all the wacky new attributes so I can find which spells I gravitate towards the most during my playthrough. 

One of the big things I like about FFXII is that, personally, I tend to make different builds for each character every single run. Not quite certain how that would work with having license board "presets" but I really appreciate putting a new twist on the game itself through the changes you've made. If nothing else, these changes are like looking at the game through a new pair of glasses, and I like what I'm seeing so far (so to speak).

You get the Letha's Seal of Approval so far. Good on you!

Haha, thanks! I appreciate it!

In regards to Vaan, he's actually a tank, just not in the usual way. Early/mid-game, Vaan is an Evade Tank, similar to how it can be done in FFT. Vaan gets access to some early Shields, Main Gauche, and has exclusive access to the Jade Collar, further boosting his Evade. One of Vaan's final Ninja Blades also gives him evasion almost comparable to the Main Gauche. Late-game, there are a lot of enemies that ignore evasion. That's the point where Vaan kind of evolves and takes on a new role- DPS. Vaan is hands down the fastest party member in the game and can debuff his enemies quickly with his array of Daggers. Late-game, he gets the Iga/Koga Ninja Blade combo to Oil the enemy and then blast them with Fire Elemental strikes, and the Mesa for Auto: Haste. Mesa + Thief's Cap + Berserk + Germinas Boots = Vaan attacking almost instantly, and fairly hard. He doesn't strike as hard as Basch, but with Vaan it's death by a thousand cuts. Sometimes literally. Vaan also gets Drain to steal enemy HP to help keep his HP topped off and Reverse, allowing him to soften enemies up for Penelo's healing spells to deal heavy damage to them.

As far as squishiness is concerned, with enemies doing more damage now, that's something that'll be commonplace. My general advice to people is to Gambit First Aid ASAP. First Aid restores a flat 10% of HP, and it's a great way to top your HP off between fights while conserving items and MP. First Aid is particularly useful in Garamsythe and Barheim, where you're somewhat trapped and may not have a lot of Gil to play around with. Later on, buffs and debuffs are vital. Sometimes a casting of Blind is worth its cost in Cures, and Protect (and Shell, for most boss fights) is particularly important. Basch makes for a decent emergency healer/buffer, and Penelo can easily keep everyone's Protect topped off. Penelo with a Healing Rod to Regen everyone is a great way of keeping HP topped off as well. SFF rewards out-of-the-box thinking, so it pays to use things you may not have in Vanilla.

Thanks again for your feedback! I appreciate it, and I look forward to hearing more about your playthrough!

Dang, it's been forever since I played this... played through the International ps2 version with an english patch. The mindless difficulty of the main game just put me off so much near the end that I didn't even bother with the post game...
Zodiac Age got me hyped again but when I read that they lowered the difficulty further that was just a straight nope.

I have one concern about "number hard modes", where you just apply a flat multiplier... Did you test them with post game stuff / superbosses? Straight up multiplying superboss stats just seems like a bad idea in general.

Quote

We're also working on a Treasure Chest Editor, which will hopefully be done within the next few weeks. Once that's completed, treasure chests will be a 100% spawn, 100% set item, and will no longer respawn, much like traditional FF treasure chests. Those chests will have set items, generally the rarest item that would have normally been found in that chest to begin with.

Basically just waiting for this until I give it a go!

Hey there Leer! Great question! The majority of late game enemies have been tested, with the exception of some super late game stuff, namely due to me hating things like the Great Crystal and such. They're in process of being tested by myself and others as we speak. That being said, there are plenty of ways to tactically take them down a few pegs. Fun fact- enemy stats (mostly) cap at 99, and a lot of them as such can't get a full 1.3x boost because a large majority of the superbosses are already very close to that number. Will I likely have to make readjustments in the future? Of course, nothing is ever perfect. For now though, things are pretty much where they should be. In regards to HP, certain enemies such as Yiazmat and Hell Wyrm didn't even get an HP boost (because that'd be ridiculous), and things like Behemoth King didn't get the full 2x HP boost just to ensure they're not tedious to fight.

EDIT: I also agree with you normally on number patches. I was actually pretty shocked when I tested initially, because by doing 2x HP and 1.3x stats, everything was basically where it should have been! It felt very natural to play, and I was absolutely shocked. I was expecting to have to spend a lot more time tweaking everything. That being said, there's a lot more than just number changes here!

Thanks for clarification, that's reassuring. Good thing when such a simple tweak is a successful step towards more enjoyable balancing.

Good luck on the treasure chest editing, hope everything goes smoothly. I just hate the idea of chests containing mainly random garbage and having to mindlessly farm chests to get the good stuff which you can't even know beforehand without consulting resources...

So, we just made some developments tonight about treasure editing that makes things infinitely more difficult.

To give you some backstory, each item that doesn't respawn is assigned an ID between 1 and 254. This is how items like Silence can appear in two locations, but disappear once you pick it up at one of the locations- they share the same ID between locations. In order to make an item respawn, it needs its Respawn ID set to something below 255. Essentially what this means is that, as of what we know right now, we can only make up to 254 treasure chests not respawn. Otherwise, if you pick up an item with the same Respawn ID, it makes the other treasure associated with that ID disappear, and I bet that's how they did the Zodiac Spear trick in the PS2 version. We aren't sure at the moment just how many treasures currently have unique Respawn IDs, but it sounds like it would be very difficult at the moment to make every treasure not able to respawn as we thought we could do before.

We're still digging into it, but that's where things stand as of about an hour ago.

Maybe keep the minor random loot chests around that just contain consumables and Gil but appear at random and respawn, but major chests that contain gear and spells would be the 100% spawn chance one time only chests?
Vanilla TZA already kinda does it like this, but many of the major chests still don't appear 100% of the time for some reason so you end up having to go through a specific room 2 or 3 times just to make sure you actually got everything.

Yeah, that's the plan right now. The challenging part is that as of right now I have no idea how many free Respawn IDs there are, but I know that there are already at bare minimum 92 slots already used by the game. I'm sure we'll figure something out.

What a nice little coding surprise!

Good luck with the workaround.

(Would color coding be possible? Like garbage respawn chests -> brown, unique chests -> blue? Low priority of course... just something on my mind.)

I'll be honest, I'm not sure yet. Treasure stuff is mostly still being figured out. I kinda want to make each chest an actual chest, like the ones found in Raithwall's Tomb, but that'd be silly, haha.

Escaped Barheim Passage. 

Fuck Mimics.

Not having access to Blizzard for the Mimics, Batteries, and Mimic Queen sucked hard but it was honestly a rough dungeon--in a good way. I couldn't just breeze through it like usual; I had to decide between progressing at a steady pace and risk the lights going out and fighting those fucking ghosts or prioritizing the power supply bugs and risking taking fleeing damage while pursuing them. It was tense and it was fun.

I'm not sure how I feel about the layout of the quickenings on the summon boards. Getting any slots that aren't the three in a row on any given board locks you out of some pretty big stuff, which feels like it's penalizing early game hard if they opt to pick a quickening early. I get the idea but I'm mixed on the execution. 

Still loving the game so far, though! Everything else has been fascinating so far!

Holy. Shit. I don't have the PC version but I'd try this once I get a copy!

 watching how this goes, i'm considering getting the pc version if this continues to get updates (have ps4). great work

Also just to clarify: Yiazmat doesn't have double HP, right? (Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please!) And about evasion...does it still, suck? In the late game I mean.

Just finished Raithwall's Tomb.

Not getting a second job board after The Gigas is kinda depressing but I understand why you removed it. That said, getting the option to pick a struggle board or an otherwise limited version of someone else's job for a second board would be pretty neat to allow some branching out into hundreds of combinations. I personally would love that forever but I know FFXII modding is still in its early development so I can't presume to know the feasibility of that complex of a mechanics change.

I'm only at Raithwall's Tomb because holy shit Vossler is a goddamn monster to an unprepared team.

(also lol at the de facto black mage of the party having forced berserk for that boss battle. I know that's beyond your control, but I found it humorous enough to mention)

Hey everyone! My apologies for the delayed reply, I've been out of town the past week with awful internet.

@Dr. Letha: I'm glad you're enjoying everything so far! In regards to Barheim, Barheim was an awful area to balance, haha. There's a lot going on between the Mimics, being stuck in there, the Undead, etc. I -think- if you're super risky you can get Blizzard from the Estersand Village prior to Barheim, but I'm not 100% certain on that. In regards to the Quickenings, it's kind of a compromise because of a few things:

1. Quickenings are super powerful and game breaking early on. Because Quickenings are necessary especially late-game to finish off tough enemies, I couldn't just nerf them because then they'd be useless later on as finishers.

2. I wanted people to have to choose what was more important to them and give them some control over how difficult things are, when. If you pick the Quickenings early, you're going to have an easier early/mid-game and a tougher late-game. If you pick the Quickenings later, you'll have a tougher early-game, but that's balanced out by having more options late-game. If you want to be really hardcore, you'll never take any Quickening Licenses, so you won't have Quickenings or a Bonus Board.

In regards to the Second Job, the original idea was to have the post-Quickening Licenses act as that Second Job, but I figured it'd make things too easy. I'd love to have a set Second Job for everyone, but everyone already gets a pretty large amount of Licenses, so giving them even more would make things far too easy and make people a little too similar to one another, IMO.

In regards to Vossler, he definitely got an upgrade. (Don't forget to Steal from him!) That being said, Basch really helps, as does Belias. In fact, that fight is a great tutorial for Belias, since Belias' magicks pierce Vossler's Reflect. He may not do a lot of damage, but Belias will keep Basch alive and very healthy while still doing some free damage to Vossler. That's a trend- human enemies that were previously very weak are now incredibly strong. They were pushovers in Vanilla, but here, they act as actual bosses.

@Cross: Yiazmat's HP hasn't been doubled. It was originally, but I reverted it back. Why? Well, for one, I didn't want to risk there being any bugs with him. If HP or MP is set too high, it reduces it to 1 due to overflow. Imagine that- fighting Yiazmat and him going down in one hit, haha. Also, more HP doesn't necessarily mean a tougher fight, especially when it comes to that. Yiazmat has a few dirty new tricks to make cheesing the fight a lot harder, but doubling his HP just would've made it more tedious.

In regards to Evasion, Evasion is more-or-less the same as it was before. I can't edit what Augments enemies have, so I can't really remove the Augment many late-game enemies have to ignore Evasion. That's why late-game, Vaan is more about Speed and DPS/debuffing as opposed to earlier in the game where he's focused on Speed and Evasion. Same with Basch- early-game he's great with a Shield but late-game, he's more about using Greatswords and such. It's also why his late-game Shields give secondary effects as opposed to just more Evasion. Ensanguined Shield gives him Auto: Lure, Shell Shield is good for Auto: Shell, etc.

Did you...you know, at least tone down his own cheesiness? (I fucking hate his insta-death normals) Too bad on the evasions tho, well I'll just wait for the day that the modding scene matures for that to happen. Yiazmat is my only gripe, thanks for clearing that out. Oh and I'd like to one shot that a-hole for once, 1 HP isn't that bad. 

I haven't even played it yet but I can already tell that it's gonna be amazing, great work!

I think I've found a bug: The game sometimes freezes when I enter clan centurio.

It just happened a second time and it never happened once while I was playing vanilla.

@Cross: I'd argue that he's a little more gimmicky now than he was before, mostly out of necessity due to some new mechanics IZJS/TZA introduces that make the player able to cheese the fight. That being said, it's nothing terribly frustrating (and it's something you'd likely be doing anyways), but you'll know what I'm talking about when/if you ever fight him, haha.

@Joelback03: Unfortunately, as of right now, you're the first person reporting that bug. I'm not sure why it would do that, as nothing was changed with the Clan Hall or even Clan Centurio itself. I think it might be an isolated incident. Have you had freezing issues in other places? Also, did you make sure to replace the FileSizeTable file as noted in the Readme?

The game froze for me when hovering over "unequip all" in the equipment menu when playing vanilla, so the freezing here was probably connected to that.

And yes, I followed every step in the readme. It was the greatest readme I've ever read tbh.

That's definitely very weird, since I haven't encountered that, nor has anyone else who's been playing through it. I really wish I could be of more help, but my only suggestion would be to uninstall, reinstall, and then repatch the mod, but I'm not sure if that would fix it.

Let's just say that..."Die monster, you don't belong in this world!" line comes to mind whenever I see a Yiazmat vid or me just hacking away at his ass.

Hey folks, update 1.3 will likely be released Friday. Here's what's on the changelog so far. Overall, not a huge update like 1.4 will likely be, but this should fix a few bugs and balance issues that were plaguing previous versions.

1.3 Changelog:

-The PS2 License Board can now be used without issue.

-A version of the mod has been included that rebalances each of the 12 original jobs for TZA's dual job system. A Readme has been included with details on each of the jobs, and the old Tweaked 12 Jobs version is being phased out.

-Demon Wall (Strong) now drops a Demonsbane.

-Lindbur Wolf now has the Assassin's Dagger as a Drop, rather than the Chopper found in prior versions.

-White Robes and Black Robes have been rebalanced and no longer boost elements, rather, White Robes focuses more on Resistance and Black Robes focuses more on Magick.

-Seitengrat's stats are no longer bugged.

-Kumbha now no longer ignores Licenses.

-Ardor has had a slight increase in power.

-Darkga's animation has been reverted to increase the speed of the spell.

-Dark/Darkra/Darkga have had their power increased to match their original TZA levels.

-Dark/Darkra/Darkga have had their MP decreased to match their original TZA levels.

-Dark/Darkra/Darkga now have 6 AoE, rather than 8 (Dark/Darkga) and 4 (Darkra).

-Dark Mote is now AoE, to match the regular Dark spell.

-Decoy now has 100% accuracy.

-Painflare's animation has been changed to properly be AoE.

Yiazmat even having his vanilla HP is still ludicrous.  That fight was never fun.  It was an absolute chore.  Hell Wyrm was a decent length in vanilla, but again, with the set attack pattern, it was more a chore than anything.  I'm not familiar with the cheesing of Yiazmat in the vanilla other than briefly reading about a way to attack without getting attacked yourself or something (I believe it took a short time to set up or something).

Agreed with Cross.  His insta-death attack was a joke when you still have to chop off 15 million health and he's attacking with 10-16 hit combos, with a (5%?) death on each hit.  Reduce that % or something.  No sane person enjoyed that fight - not because it was hard.  Because it was tedious.

While XII's story didn't offer devious, sinister supervillain(s) like VI or VII, the antagonists' dreams were romantic (not in the usual definition, of course) and even relatable, and the gameplay itself was top-notch.  The license board system you've implemented sounds interesting.  Last time I played was the IZJS English patch a few years back.  I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

I think they should have take Trial Mod version of Yazmat and put it in the main game rather than keeping him as he was, they reduce his HP to 3 millions which make the length of the fight way more reasonable additionnaly he uses Growing Threat sooner in Trial Mod version, this version of Yazmat is IMO more enjoyable than his regular Giga HP sponge version.

yazzie fight was around 35-40 min for an optimized group in vanilla and a little more than half of that in izjs, even with that bs instant kill mechanic. He really isn't a huge issue and totally optional. Should keep him as is or maybe even buff him a bit (I don't mean more hp). 

5 minutes ago, Limlight said:

yazzie fight was around 35-40 min for an optimized group in vanilla and a little more than half of that in izjs, even with that bs instant kill mechanic. He really isn't a huge issue and totally optional. Should keep him as is or maybe even buff him a bit (I don't mean more hp). 

The time was sadly kind of RNG depending of how he succefully land Instant-kill on your character not to mention that from what I've read the Decoy + Reverse strat that was necessary for doing that kind of time is no longuer possible, but the main problem is 40 minutes for a fight as repetitive as this one isn't interesting it just make the boss boring, clearly a thing that for some reasons Square like to do for their ultimate superboss in this period (Penance in FFX has basically the same problem), you don't need supidly High HP to make a fight interesting and/or challenging so in my opinion Yazmat's HP should be greatly reduce but he should be made over all Harder (they did the first part in IZJS's Trial Mod giving him 3 million HP only making more reasonable), or keep his HP as they are but making him so that he changes his behavior during fight to keep the player

"legendary" monsters like that should be a bit of a grind imo, it doesn't really bother me fighting one for 40min ish. I view it as resource management and grinding it down, but i'm probably the oddball of most rpg players as I really enjoy long fights where I have to be on the ball constantly with buffs, debuffs, etc. 

5 hours ago, Limlight said:

"legendary" monsters like that should be a bit of a grind imo, it doesn't really bother me fighting one for 40min ish. I view it as resource management and grinding it down, but i'm probably the oddball of most rpg players as I really enjoy long fights where I have to be on the ball constantly with buffs, debuffs, etc. 

Well I enjoy that kind of fight to but Yazmat wasn't really one :

-99 Gold Needles and 99 Chrono Tears is more than enough even in the fight would last over 2 hours
-Reverse + Decoy suppress the need to heal outside of death
-Syphon on your physical damage DPS (that thanks to combo of the Masamune in Vanilla + the License that allow you to regain MP when dealing damage (forgot the english name of that license) will always have a lot of MP to take) suppress the need of MP management

So it all come down to running around in circle while having Decoy and Reverse on while your 2 physical damage dealer are killing him in Critical HP and Berserk while occasionnaly casting Syphon on them and the fight never vary from that only occasionnal variation are when he manage to Insta-kill your Decoy/Reverse tank.

that was my first point about being able to kill him in 20 min. he isn't a challenge to being with even with that hp pool, he isn't difficult even in trial mode either  now if the mod could make him immune to reverse or decoy or even both, now that's something for me personally to get excited about. 

Great conversation, guys! SFF has been updated to 1.3 and can be found here, as well as a full changelog:

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

As far as Yiazmat is concerned, I was tempted to curb his HP, but I feel that would kind of defeat what he was known for. He's dangerous in other ways now though, and he's much harder to cheese. As for Reverse, Reverse only works on enemies now, so you can't cheese fights with it any more. Decoy has also been slightly changed, acting as a buff now with better accuracy. It's not broken any more however, as it can't be combined with Reverse.

oh man i love that news Eternal, gilgamesh2 and yizzie could drive people crazy lol (and i love the thought)

12 hours ago, Eternal said:

As far as Yiazmat is concerned, I was tempted to curb his HP, but I feel that would kind of defeat what he was known for. He's dangerous in other ways now though, and he's much harder to cheese. As for Reverse, Reverse only works on enemies now, so you can't cheese fights with it any more. Decoy has also been slightly changed, acting as a buff now with better accuracy. It's not broken any more however, as it can't be combined with Reverse.

Yeah that was my point you can't cheese him anymore with Decoy + Reverse so I assume it's not possible to beat him as fast as it was possible in vanilla which is why I think you could let him with 15-20 millions HP instead of 50 would still make him an endurance fight like he is suppose to be without seems like the fight is taking needlessly to long, then again I  can't try this mod out (and probably will not be able for a very long time) so I can't test anything.

eternal you sly dog, you're tempting me into buying the pc version (I have the ps4 version) just for this mod. I truly love this game, and I always wished for a "hard mode" for storyline fights and the "legendary" hunts would be bonkers. 

Been playing with the struggle boards, and I think the tradeoff of how much is locked off if you go for an early quickening is a bit extreme (as it's very difficult to beat the mimic boss without either tons of grinding or using at least a couple quickenings). My suggestion would be to only lock the extras on the struggle boards behind two quickenings rather than three, for at least Vaan/Fran/Balthier. (I grinded about 80 potions to use in lieu of cures and it's still a difficult fight).

Also, the 10% heal on first aid feels a little low even for what it does, as at 4x speed it still takes 20-30 seconds to top off. I'd suggest doing somewhere between 15-20% on the heal, which would let it be potentially useful in fights on occasion (as right now all it really does is take the place of hp regen outside of battle).

Hey there Intri, thanks for your post!

In regards to the Quickening shortcuts, it's meant to be a huge tradeoff. You either get to cheese the first half of the game's bosses with Quickenings and sacrifice some power later on, or you be patient and wait until late-game to get your Quickenings (which are still amazing at that point, especially as finishers, because they're free, uninterruptable attacks). Much like in IZJS where choosing your jobs had permanent and heavy ramifications, so too here is choosing when to take that power. At its core, SFF (and the Struggle board in particular) emphasizes using strategy to destroy your foes, and Quickening spam runs counter to that. Honestly, I'd love to completely change the Quickening system to make them more similar to traditional Limit Breaks, but there's a great amount of hardcoding behind them that doesn't make them viable at the moment.

In regards to Mimic Queen, she's probably one of the most straightforward bosses in the game. Probably even moreso compared to Firemane, as he can Poison and Oil you. Most people don't need anywhere near 80 Potions to beat it. Barheim itself is probably worse than the Mimic Queen, at least in my own opinion. The key to Mimic Queen is making sure your gear is as up to date as possible and fighting everything you come across beforehand to get the LP for said gear. Silver Bow, Mage Masher, and especially Balthier's latest Gun will make short work of it. Guns in particular are important against Mimics as they bypass their decently high Defense. Fran can also use Fire on the Mimic Queen repeatedly to try and Oil it, which will make future Fire casts inflict 3x damage. Overall, keeping Basch alive is also crucial as he adds some DPS to the fight. The biggest trick the Queen has is Breath of Life, which restores 5% of her HP. If you're playing too defensively, she'll likely come close to at least nulling most of the damage you do, which is part of the reason why keeping Basch alive is important.

On the topic of First Aid, in very early SFF builds, it restored 15% HP. The challenge then became that it was making Potions and Cure spells useless in comparison. To that end, First Aid was dropped to 10%. First Aid isn't meant to be used in battle. It's meant to be set as a low-priority Gambit to heal between fights. And remember, multiple characters can use it, so it can patch you up pretty quickly between fights to conserve items and MP. For fights though, you're definitely going to want to use items or Cure.

Apologies for the double post, but SFF 1.4 is out! A full changelog can be found below, but the update can be downloaded here:

https://mega.nz/#!Hf40GaSQ!q_Uz5dZ_uxHCY1FHbOfGYazyVYGnaEzuVEvjL1yD8Rs

Changelog:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uOQG4JCTF4njgFNPXxO31B8iSVBb2wWxmfl1OiqVaRM/edit?usp=sharing

Sorry for the triple post. Version 1.5 is out and is probably one of the bigger changes to the overall game since 1.0. Essentially, almost every weapon has been retouched in some way to make them more tactically viable. This opens up an array of different builds you can try out depending on which version of the mod you're playing.

A full changelog can be found here on Google Docs.

The mod itself can be downloaded here on Mega.nz.

I look forward to seeing what stuff will be broken, haha. As always, let me know if you have any feedback or such. Looking forward to it!

Apologies for the noise, everyone. A fellow modder noticed that some of the enemy changes I made for 1.5 didn't take, so this is a corrected version. Not a huge deal, it mostly just affects early-game enemies at Garamsythe and Barheim.

It can be downloaded here.

This FFXII mod sounds fucking awesome. I've been wanting a IZJS mod for years, so you got a new player here. And I coincidentally bought FFXII not so long ago. Cheers.

Also, btw. Which link should I download, the one in your last post, or the one in the original post? I'd recommend always keeping an updated link in the original post.

Hey Hart, my apologies, I usually update the main post but I apparently forgot, heh.

I was actually going to post that there's a fix for the fix (some folks have had issues with character limits in regards to the file name in 1.5.1). I'm at work, so I can't access it at the moment, but the 1.5.2 update is the one you'll be wanting to go for and is on the Nexus (if you just search for FFXII Struggle for Freedom Nexus it should pop right up).

I'll be updating the main post when I get home with the most corrected and updated link so it's on here as well. I'm not sure what the policy is for linking to modding sites outside of here, so I don't want to step on any toes by linking to the Nexus page.

Thanks for your interest, let me know how your playthrough goes! I'm always looking for feedback.

Update: Here's the latest update.

Hey NGPlus community, and happy New Year! It's been a while, but I've released a few big updates since the last time I posted on here. SFF is currently at 1.6.2, and I figured it was time to update you all!

This will (hopefully) be one of the last updates, as SFF is more or less where I want it to be. Future updates will primarily focus on bugfixes and balance issues. There are many, many changes, but here are the biggest changes made since 1.5:

• Quickening shortcuts have been removed from the Struggle boards, since they weren't adding much to the game, and they were just causing confusion and frustration for people missing out on some stuff late-game.
• Hand-Bombs have become Knuckles, which allow the player to see Unarmed animations and actually use (pseudo) Unarmed combat more often. Also, each character now begins with Brawler learned, allowing for True Unarmed gameplay runs.
• The Brawler License has become Master Thief, giving the character the ability to have more accurate Steals, and allowing them to Steal two things at once sometimes. It's basically the Thief's Cuffs, without the need to sacrifice an Accessory slot.
• Wither/Addle have been removed and have been replaced with Blitz/Erase, the former dealing AoE physical damage and the latter removing every status- good and bad- from a single target.
• Most Technicks have been completely retouched in some way. Numerology now deals percentile damage to enemies in an AoE, Traveler bestows Haste/Float/Vanish on the user, First Aid restores 15% HP now, etc.
• Five-Star Trophy Hunts now have 100% drops, making it more worth the player's while to seek them out.
• Certain enemies have been rebalanced, with many late-game enemies receiving careful nerfs to make them less tedious fights.
• Some weapons have been changed around to have more use, such as the Platinum Sword becoming the Liquid Steel, adding a Water physical option mid-game.
• Accessories have been reworked, with many giving DEF/RES or additional effects to make them more universally useful.
• Aquaga is now usable, replacing Shock. Gravity/Graviga have become Quake/Quakega, and Vanishga has become Gravity. Bio/Scourge are back to being Non-Elemental and inflicting debuffs. Reverse (which became basically useless) has been replaced with Drainga.
• Decoy lasts longer now.
• Many shops have been edited, allowing things like Teleport Stones and Serums to be purchased earlier.
• Black Orbs now drop from enemies as normal items, allowing you to collect them more easily, while still being able to pick up the Orbs via pressing X as you could before.
• Guests now come with the Ignore Traps Augment, making them unable to accidentally trip traps.

It can be found here!

Well shit, I still don't have a copy of FFXII.

The good thing is that it's on sale a lot these days. There was just a really good sale for it during the Steam Winter Sale where it was like 50-60% off. I'm sure it'll come back on sale again soon, probably during the Spring sale (if not earlier).

1.7 of SFF has been released on the Nexus (link below). It's a very large update and will likely be the last large content update, with future updates focusing on balance tweaks and small changes. There are several large changes, but some of the major ones are the following:

-Axes/Hammers no longer deal randomized damage.
-Rods and Crossbows are more useful now, with the latter now being able to Combo and ignore Weather.
-The Hunt Club sidequest is now far more interesting, has been completely revamped, and is how the player obtains the Wyrmhero Blade. 
-Holy is far better now, dealing AoE damage with a chance of inflicting Stop, similar to FFXIV.
-Treasures have been completely revamped- all 1600+ chests now have the chest's rare item as the Diamond Armlet's common item, making those wearing the DA more likely to find genuinely good, rare treasure.
-Many enemies with one 3% Steal have had Steal rates increased to reduce tedium.
-Protect/Shell/Regen last longer, making them more viable early game.
-For those playing with Struggle/Freedom boards, Penelo has been buffed to be a better caster and survive longer.
-There are many other changes- be sure to check the changelog on the Nexus!

I've put my heart and soul into this project, and I hope that everyone who has played it, is playing it, or will come to play it enjoys the world of Ivalice, improved.

A full 1.7 changelog can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dvvnTsHiJk-bP-WDkXU_MHql37uiMjEU8L0sSzqctRo/edit?usp=sharing

1.7 can be downloaded here: https://mega.nz/#!aLJV1CqC!_hmF2k-AsOwtmNrGacCseId46eRtBrYrNtqq3ML9TT4

I'm sure that certain numbers will need to be changed in the future, but that just comes with the territory, so feedback is greatly appreciated!

Any reason why the files for this have all been deleted? Was quite looking forward to playing it myself after finally getting around to buying the game during the steam winter sale.

edit: Never mind, I'm dumb and can't read. Looking forward to playing this anyways! Thanks for the hard work man.

Will there be a gambit for "Foe: has something to steal"? One annoying thing from the original was that you couldn't have a proper gambit to attempt a steal from only enemies that had stuff to steal.

i love everything about your mod EXCEPT the double hp on bosses, just finished lushu mines and I think they just take way too long to kill. i wanted to ask what tool did you use to edit the bosses? Is it on the nexus?

If so, after i download it, what file(s) are the boss hp values stored in? I also know how to do basic hex editing so if you tell me what files i can try doing it that way too.

I think with boss hp only x1.5 instead of double your SFF mod will be PERFECT.

I wouldn't seek for balancing around the bosses of Lhusu Mines, they are 4 ennemies so of course they take longer than most bosses that are alone, and they are optionnal bosses (you are suppose to run away from them as Balthier say in the cutscene prior) so they are meant to be harder than regular story bosses if you choose to fight them.

14 hours ago, Nesouk said:

I wouldn't seek for balancing around the bosses of Lhusu Mines, they are 4 ennemies so of course they take longer than most bosses that are alone, and they are optionnal bosses (you are suppose to run away from them as Balthier say in the cutscene prior) so they are meant to be harder than regular story bosses if you choose to fight them.

Problems started in Barheim. With the HP boost SFF gives to bosses the Mimic queen is impossible to defeat without the charge running out. Anyway i am not here to argue about whether it's right to balance something or not, i am here asking to do something that will make me enjoy the mod more. If not then the mod is useless to me and i will have to remove it.

So after all these years I FINALLY got the PC version of FFXII and can finally try out this mod, saw that since then a Hard Mod version has been made, but I wanted to try the original version for now.

So far I got up to Raithwall Tomb (just defeat the first Demon Wall), going mostly blind (aka not watching the docs for finding gear and stuff, I only read the doc for when something isn't clear to me like Diamond Armlet's reworked effect), I think before anything I should emphasize that as I'm used with FFXII I'm trying to explore as much as I can and doing Hunts and optionnal Bosses as early as possible, so now about what I have to say on the mod :

Characters :

So since I want to play the mod as intended I opted for the the custom License Boards, opting for the Struggle Boards, so the obvious good thing is it makes each characters feel unique, basically it's like playing similar to FFIX where each character are preset with lower customization, I do admit that I find the reduce customization unfortunate but it allow for more balancing game, the Struggle Board being also very linear remove potential to get access to better gear early, but pretty much remove the decision making in regard to getting the Licenses, but I knew what I was throwing myself into and in that regard the Freedom Board are an option as for the characters themselves :

-Vaan : Basically the speedy fighter and Thief (and I do steal a LOT just saying XD), not much damage but attacks fast and he has a decent Evasion and good utility with access to Immobilize and Blind (Statut Effect are good in this game, vanilla is just sadly to easy to make them truly shine) and other statut effect on his Daggers, also really like that Master Thief license not having to equipped an accessory for that is a welcome QoL, also earliest character to get access to the Focus Augment will see if this is good on him as I just got it.
Also for him, Balthier and Basch First Aid has become a very usefull skill to recover between battle.

-Balthier : The Leading Man has proven quite usefull so far, one thing to note Guns are great at this stage probably a result of ennemies defense being increase, but so far Balthier with Guns has been consistantly the hardest hitting character unless the ennemy has the license that reduce damage from Guns, on top of that I got Blazer Gloves through the Bazaar during the Sandsea, and he is currently the only character who can use it, since with Guns he can stay out of range it's not hard to keep his HP top. On other utility he is so far the only character with Decoy this gives him a great synergy with Basch (more on him later), and Oil which I sadly lack good Fire damage option to truly take advantage of but it was usefull early on with Fran's Fire spell.

-Fran : So far she has been the least usefull character for me, magick is lacking for mobs early on due to the lack of AoE spells, and sadly the spell that could have remede that Aero has been revert to a Single Target spell and the Cherry Staff doesn't boost it anymore (it was still usefull for Sandsea where pretty much everything is weak to Wind), got Silver Arrows quite early which made her with a Bow decent for Lhusu Mines, and Blind is a usefull statut effect which she has better chance to land than Vaan thanks to an higher magick stat, her best contribution other than that is when she can hit a boss elemental weakness or Oil + Fire (mainly during the Barheim section).

One thing for these 2 I don't understand tough is why the Light Gear License 2 are unlocked immediatly and they come with equipement for it, yet the Light Gear License 1 is still in their path, not a deal breaker just a nitpick.

-Basch : The straightforward tank character, I have been enjoying the Axes much improve combo rate and non-random damage tough ^^, as mentionned earlier great synergy with Balthier early on with Balthier having Decoy. One balance issue tough in the Sandsea you can found a Rare Monster called Imdugud, similar to how you removed the Gladius from Lindbur Wolf, I was expecting you removed Imdugud's Shielded Armor, turns out that wasn't the case and Basch with this armor completly cheese the Sandsea, as thanks to a pretty high defense and Auto-Protect litterally every mob in the Sandsea were hitting Basch for 0 or 1 digit damage with their physical attack, and with Decoy from Balthier this basically trivialize the Sandsea (and I'm honnestly expecting it to be pretty effective in Raithwall Tomb), and in general having Basch has the Decoy with Balthier and Ashe attacking at distance has been a working strat even for bosses and even more with this armor.

-Ashe : I'm honnestly surprise in how you decided to go for her, one would be expecting to make her a Magic heavy character, but instead she is a very well Balance character, and quite customizable since she has access to both Heavy Armor and Mystic Armor (and by the way she can also equipped the Shielded Armor and it's just as effective), so far I mostly played her with Heavy Armors and Crossbow from distance, Crossbow are pretty good so far decent damage and speed and their ability to combo is nice, but she can also work as a Mage with Mystic Armor and access to Dark and Quake (which by the way are early on the best spell available for the Reflect Strat) or go Hand to Hand combat with Katanas, very usefull character so far.

-Penelo : I feel the Shielded Armor gotten on Basch has somewhat made her look worse than she is for the Sandsea section, as prior to getting the Armor her Cura was pretty valuable, after that tough since Basch is negating most of the mobs damage her Cura become less valuable and she was just good for healing Statut Effect and dealing some damage with Poles, doesn't help that Basch get access to Protect and Shell by himself so once he do Penelo isn't even needed for that. I feel it's just a case of being at a point where support is still not needed enough for a character to be fully dedicate to it. Didn't get much use for her Shade of White skill outside of fishing Bravery and Faith for Balthier and Ashe to beat the First Demon Wall ASAP.

So for now I feel Balthier, Basch and Ashe are the most usefull characters of the bunch, Vaan is decent but Fran and Penelo feel a bit lackluster compare to the other, I of course expect this to change as I'll progress through the game.

As for guest character not much to say about them, Lamont isn't here for long but he does his Job of acting as a support and Shade of Black makes him funny (Scathe let's go XD), Vossler deal damage comparable to Basch, his Blitz Skill was good for the fight before getting Ashe and Expose is good for trying optionnal bosses early, and explore area (Zertinian Cave's Slimes and Frogs have quite a high defense which makes him good for managing).

Difficulty :

So at first I admit I wasn't sure about the Double HP and +30% stat increase, but it turns out really fine actually I'll admit that the beginning can feel a bit slow but eventually you get more option and stronger, and so this Stat increase feel natural, mobs doesn't die in one hit like Vanilla but aren't to long to defeat and they are sturdy enough to make statut effect worth casting on them, bosses feel good to you still have some option to speed them up (like for Mimic Queen you can Oiled her and cast Fire with Fran and get some Rime Fang before the fight for a good amount of damage), also makes some debuff more valuable like the difference between a Slowed ennemy and non-slowed ennemy is much more noticeable, making Slow a really good debuff.

I'll say tough like Vanilla there is a gap in difficulty between Optionnal Bosses and Storyline Bosses but for one this is expectd and for 2 the difference isn't, Storyline Bosses are still fairly easy and contrary to Vanilla are tough enough to actually make Statut Effect usefull, doing Optionnal Bosses as soon as they are available is the real challenge and is where you have to strategize the most which is how it should be, Hunts in particular like doing Cluckatrice Hunt or Rocktoise Hunt before going to the Leviathan was quite a tough challenge and satisfying to pull off.

I want to emphasize that while I do explore a lot and take my time to kill every ennemies I encounter, I didn't do any excessive grinding section and the difficulty is well tuned so far.

So for now I'm really enjoying this mod, it gives a nice freash experience on my favorite Final Fantasy, especially this Zodiac Age version which I felt was way to easy (way more than base FFXII and even easier than PS2 IZJS), I'll try to do everything even tough I saw somewhere that Trial Mod was very VERY brutal but I'll see that for myself ^^"

Well I've been continuing a LOT since last time, so lot of thing have change since last post especially in regard to the characters :

-Vaan : Has evolve quite a lot, he started as a sort of all rounder with some debuff and decent damage, has a small period where he was an evasion tank, but lately has been really shining as a DPS monster, ever since I grab Orochi and Germina Boots, buff him with Haste, Berserk and Bravery and he attacks almost instantly and he hit like a truck, definitly my go to single target damage dealer at the moment no one else come even close. On other small utility his Sight Unseeing has been usefull for quick Poaching farm ^^.

-Balthier : Has other character picked up in speed his Damage with Guns was still respectable fall from grace, however he got a good swap in becoming one of the best support character, only character that have access to Bubble spell, measures allow him to quickly buff (and if you get them early buff that you might not have access yet with spells), and with Pheasant Netsuke his healing through items is great particularly MP Recovery with Ether and Revive with Phenix Down (with Pheasant Netsuke and all Phenix Down Lore, Phenix Down are effectivly instant arise with Balthier) as well as statut effect healing with Remedies. I'm really not sold on the spears tough.

-Fran : She really picked up compare to the early game, access to Staves that Boost elemental damage and stronger version of spells makes her much better, and surprisingly with Bows and Elemental arrow as well as Kaiser Knuckles (this Knuckle in particular is great cause it uses the Gun's damage formula) with Elemental knuckle and access to Berserk Bracers she can be a surprisingly good Physical Damage dealer if you want to save MP, I'd say however unfortunatly Magic other than Blizzard line of spell took quite a nerf due to losing their AoE property, I don't really like this change as in all honnestly what was making Magic good in Vanilla was how potent it was at cleaning group of mobs, now that it isn't the case (only with Blizzaga, and maybe once I get Scathe or Scourge), for Fire spell for instance I see ne reason to lose MP on Firaga when I can just take a Bows with Fiery Arrows and Berserk Bracers.

-Basch : Probably the character that change the least as the playthrough goes, he is tank and absolutly everything he get just server to make him in that role, which is fine goes he does the job very well, he can Decoy, Protect and Shell himself so he is totally self-sufficent buff wise, a gigantic HP pool especially with Bubble and a Shield for every element, altough recently got the Ensanguined Shield and I have to say having Auto-Lure on him is so damn convenient, as an added utility he get Expose and Shear to reduce defenses of the target and make his allies hit harder.

-Ashe : Now let's jump right into the big one, the big game changer for Ashe is without any questions the Indigo Pendant once she grab that accessory Ashe goes from being good to being amazing, thanks to Immobilize and Disable these 2 spells alone can trivialize a TON of mobs including high Level mobs like the Necrohol of Nabudis and the last part of Lhusu Mines, Ashe's presence alone make these 2 area 10 times easier to go through thanks to Disable and Immobilize, as mobs susceptible to these might as well be considere dead. Really the rest doesn't matter this ability to neutralize mobs is so invaluable, it help that she is also an all-rounder and can dish good damage herself, she isn't as usefull in Boss Fight (mainly for Slow, Immobilize sometime) for the moment tough.

-Penelo : Yeah Penelo during the sandsea part/Raithwall was really taking a dump because of Shielded Armor issue, thankfully this has been the only instances where you could easily get an equipment that made her support less good than it is, while Balthier gives her quite a competition as far as support goes, she still definitly has the edge as far as AoE healing goes with Cura and later Curaja, she was also a better single-target heal for the time she has Curaga and Balthier didn't have X-Potions, which made her a good pair with Basch, acces to Sage's Ring also make MP management much easier, and Curaja made her a good damage dealer against Undead, she is also catching up on Buff side as she is getting the spells for them, really the only downside of Penelo is that outside of Undead her damage are Abysmal.

So yeah I'm quite liking how the character are turning on, on the difficulty side I still think the story is sadly a bit on the easy side even if it's nowhere near as easy as vanilla Zodiac Age, but the optionnal quest are proving challenging enough and the rework on the gameplay really keeps things fresh, I also experiment a little with the Espers and they are pretty good, Mateus help me a bit against the Baknamies in the Deadlands thanks to them being weak to ice, Addramalech almost solo the Mateus fight with Thunder, and Belias was good when there was a fire weakness to exploit, haven't try Zalera tough, admitadly never being fan of Instant-Kill in FFXII as it prevent you to gain any EXP, LP or items which is annoying and just got Zeromus (aka the most OP esper in Vanilla) but haven't try him yet.

Almost at the end only have Omega and the Trial Mod left to complete, not much to add in regard to the character outside of Penelo becoming a real beast in the later area of the game once you grab Holy and the Holy Rod, since later area are fill with monstre weak to Light she wrecks them.

On subject of weapon balance tough :

-Knuckles : Now that's an interesting weapon, unfortunately it's on the wrong character Fran's strength is just not good to really take advantage of these weapon, with 2 exception being the Kaiser Knuckle since it doesn't require any stats, and the Magick Knuckle which use the Mace formula which obviously makes it good on Fran.

-2-Handed Sword : I like the concept, but feel on Basch I have a hard time justifying picking these over his other type, with the exception of the Excalibur (Holy Damage + High Attack power + Auto-Haste = Best weapon for Basch for mob fights in post-game area), most of the time I find it not worth dropping a Shield for Greatsword, most noticeably Ensanguined Shield Auto-Lure is so convenient and was my go to Shield in most boss fight (switching to Elemental Shield when I saw a big attack coming) as the Lure effect persist through Stop and no need to reapply it after a Death, plus Basch has access to the Golden Axe which is fairly easy to get, and have a high Attack power and decent Combo unless there was an Elemental weakness Golden Axe + Shield was my go to set up with him.

-Hammer : Honnestly found these useless, the statut effect they provide is covered by Ashe (which once she get the Indigo Pendant inflict them more reliably) and once you get the Nihopalaoa by Balthier.

-Spears I found them underpower personnaly, maybe it's because Balthier is not a Physical Powerhouse but as a result of ennemies's Defense increase and Balthier lack of strength option, the damage of his Spear is consistantly inferior to the damage of his Guns and by a margin, not mentionning Guns have more versatility in elemental damage, maybe that's just me not knowing how to exploit the Spear's potential.

As to progress recently beat Yazmat, took me about 1 hour and 56 minutes without x4 speed (I don't like using this when fighting bosses) at LV75, my strat was :

-Basch as the Tank and decent damage with Golden Axe after Yazmat being fully expose he was hitting for 8000 per hits (5000 after the Defense Bonus kicks in) and the Gendarme for Elemental reduction against his Breath and Cyclone, I let him do his own buffing work with Decoy, Protect and Shell MP isn't a concern for him, since he can't equipped Ribbon I had to cycle through his Accessorie to avoid Statut effet (Bowling Sash for Stone Breath (and Cyclone if I have the time to react), Power Armlet for White Breath and Black Belt for his normal attack).

-Ashe definitive Damage Dealer for this fight, like she was design for this fight in short : Murasame (Dark Elemental Katana) + Demon Mail (boost dark damage) + Rood Inverse (Auto Critical HP aka permanent Adrenaline) + Bravery + Berserk = 11,7 damage multiplier on her damage, after full expose she was hitting Yazmat for over 40k per hits (about 30k when his defense goes up mid-fight).

-Balthier : Since Yazmat isn't to dangerous early on I use him as a support, was healing Basch with X-Potion, keeping the Bubble on Basch and Bravery on Ashe and dealing some damage himself Mithuna and Dark Shot (about 10k per shot so respectable), once I run out of X-Potion Penelo take his place and from then I was just bringgin him to refresh Basch Bubble and as a resurrection if Penelo died (pretty much after every Cyclone in the final phase).

-Penelo : Pure support was healing Basch with Curaga, refreshing Ashe's Bravery, toward the end when Yazmat become relentless pretty much have to spam Curaga with her for Basch to not die, as if Basch die I was fucked.

In the end it did go very well just one moment in the 5 last bars where I have to go out of his range to regroup as I was losing the control of the situation, for the most part the 5 last millions where he stop doing breath and instead keep attacking non-stop with occasionnal Death Strike was by far the hardest part of the fight, not helping that at that point Basch was the only one surviving Cyclone.