How difficult is this game? I am 15 hours in, at the tomb of raithwall. I have a good bit of Licenses filled, and Belias was a sinch, as well as Ghis, and the Mimic Queen. Is there any way to know if you're training too hard?

Um, things are too easy for your liking? Also, there is no such thing as training too hard. There is always benefits to being overlevled in XII. You could actually go grab the ultimate weapon right now if you're around lvl 40.

Yes, it's a bit too easy, especially when compared with the earlier bits(I died a few times in Barheim). I'm only level 15 against Belias.

Well I meant that as the criteria you could use to determine if you've "trained too hard." Hold off on leveling for a while. Just barge through the story and it'll "even out."

Alright, I'll do that. I actually started a new file up, and am already at the Leviathin. I'll just try barreling through lol. I do love this game!

It can be as hard as you want I guess. If you continue through the game in a straight line, don't take much time doing Mark hunting and area exploration and all that jazz, the game will be more challenging.

As for me, I do as much as I possibly can and get alot stronger then I minimally should be. So to me, the game isn't too hard. Unless you want to go do the hard stuff in the game, Yiazmat, Omega XII etc. Those are hard regardless.

Hmm. Well, I wanted to make my first run through pretty hard, skip all of the side quests and such, then, on my second run, do the side quests.

Well, if you're consitently (sp.) grinding your characters like an MMORPG, then yeah; It is going to be an easy game. You kind of have to pace yourself when you want to gain levels because in FFXII you can get ahead very easily.

You can either go straight-through the storyline or you can do the side-quests and finish the game MUCH later. For a better challenge, I would suggest doing most of the hunts and side-quests because some of them are extremely challenging. Regarding side-quests, I would highly recommend all of the espers. The only problem with side-quests is that they basically make you forget about the storyline. Even most of the side-quests don't get cut-scenes to explain some of them which annoyed me.

I wouldn't recommend doing that. I think you might be disappointed in the game if you skip the side quests and 'such'.. because that's mostly what the game consists of for a large part. FF12 is extremely light on the FMVs/cutscenes/character interaction as compared to FF10. Because of the emphasis on hunts and side quests, i'd compare the game more to FF10-2 than FF10.

When I played the game, I also thought that it was generally very easy. The problem was that the battles felt to be basically all or nothing. To me, it seemed that either my characters were strong enough to win, or they weren't. I couldn't find much of a middle ground to work in strategy. To make the characters strong enough, I had to spend an enormous amount of time grinding away in each dungeon to level up in order to move the story forward. I hated that. I didn't find there to be much strategy once a solid gambit setup was in place, aside from the last fight (though that too might just be because I was rushing to get the game over with.)

It can be as hard as you want I guess. If you continue through the game in a straight line, don't take much time doing Mark hunting and area exploration and all that jazz, the game will be more challenging.

As for me, I do as much as I possibly can and get alot stronger then I minimally should be. So to me, the game isn't too hard. Unless you want to go do the hard stuff in the game, Yiazmat, Omega XII etc. Those are hard regardless.

Yiazmat isn't hard. Its just time consuming really.

Funnest fights in the game imo are Behemoth King, Fafnir, and Omega. The Seer was just wtf..

I actually started off the game grinding for about 8 or so hours at the very beginning of the game (bless you, programmers, for those two impossible werewolves at Giza), grabbing the Zodiac spear ASAP, and blowing through the rest of it.

What can I say, I was addicted to the story. Best Final Fantasy. EVER.

i grinded my characters in the lhusu mines at the start of th game against the skeletons getting up about three or four 300+ chains so i found the start of the game extremely easy.

But then eventually the enemies started to do reasonable damge again.

If i started again i would go through the entire story just doing enough levelling up to get through it until just before bahamut, then i would do every single side quest there is, so you could have a challenge for most of the game and then youd have a really big challenge at the end aswell with the likes of yiazmat and omeg xii and hell wyrm

The game can be as hard as you want. If necessary, place some artificial restrictions upon yourself. Assign each characters "jobs" and limit them to discreet regions of the License Board, for example. That's just for the main quest though. Endgame, there's no such thing as being overpowered. Even with all characters at Lv. 99 with all licenses and the best equipment you'll still need good tactics to bring down Yiazmat or Omega Mk. XII.

It can be moderately challenging and sometimes a little too easy. It really depends on how you play. For one the Gambit system allows for more relaxation (guess that's the word?) and obviously much easier than giving commands to every character in battle. However, if you miss manually controlling your characters' moves, then you can always put the battle speed on wait if you're the strategizing type. I really didn't feel the game was too challenging. It's just a bit tricky to get around some bosses. Also, the game sort of requires patience because you'll find yourself having to level all the time. You'll know when you train too hard if you suddenly find yourself overwhelmingly jaded or maybe dark circles are forming around your eyes XD and the bosses (at least the storyline bosses) are not doing crap to you. However, Bergan really gave me a good whoop in the arse and the esper Zodiark T____T Oh and finding the most powerful weapons/buying from Bazaar can be very vexing since treasures/drops are RANDOM/difficult and sometimes, you may not find the ingredient you're looking for until a veeerrryy long time.

I found the bazzar quests for the ultimate weapons more difficult than any of the optional bosse. Anyone can take out yiazmat but it takes true endurance and perserverance to get the tournesol