ck's archive: final fantasy xii

I gave Mel the first of her Christmas presents last week: the official Final Fantasy XII strategy guide. I bought myself the game at the same time, and since, we've been spending our evenings with me playing and her advising.

Final Fantasy XII does quite a few things differently from its predecessors, but the biggest change for me has been its gambit system. Each character in your party can be programmed with a series of conditionals and actions, and most of mine look like this:

if(any ally is dead) {
    bring that ally back to life;
} elseif(any ally is low on health) {
    heal that ally;
} else {
    attack the monster;
}

I ran up against a particularly hardy boss last night (Tiamat, for anyone else playing) and he kicked my ass. My characters were doing what I told them to, but people kept dying, and I repeatedly had to override their gambits with specific instructions to try and keep things going. On the second try, I adjusted my character's gambits a little bit and ended up killing the boss entirely on autopilot. After Tiamat had fallen, I told Mel:

"I just programmed my way out of a wet paper bag."