If I'm playing a JRPG for the first time should I use a walkthrough so I can get everything and experience the game in...

If I'm playing a JRPG for the first time should I use a walkthrough so I can get everything and experience the game in full or should I do a blind run?
Hypothetical question by the way. I'm also hypothetically going to be playing Final Fantasy XII for the first time.

For any good JRPG I can think of I'd suggest doing a blind run first then a second run with a guide if you really like the game. Haven't played FFXII though.

How do you guys not feel like you're ruining the game by looking up guides before finishing them?

Blind of the fucking course, always and ever.

Blind followed by a second with a walkthrough, if it's good enough to warrant wanting to 100% it.

Do I look like I've the time to play the same fucking game twice?
Also
>play FF7 blind
>miss out on Yuffie, Vincent, and half of Sephiroth's backstory
>miss out on development of other caracters

The type of game does not matter, you are ruining it for yourself by constantly following a checklist of objectives. Play it the way it was meant to be played. Explore and discover things on your own. Play like a man or don't play at all. You should feel pathetic for even asking.

The thing is it does matter, because for some JRPGs playing with a guide will help you with playing it "the way it was meant to be" because otherwise you'd miss half the story and have a thousand plot points unresolved because you only get them through sidequests. They'd did this so you'd buy the "official" guides or whatever.

>not having friends tell you about all the super ultra bullshit secrets you can find in a game, and figuring out for yourself which ones are true and which aren't

If you miss out on everything you're just a fucking retard. You're meant to find every last thing, the game is designed so that there is enough hidden content that you're always going to find stuff, there's enough there to satisfy anybody and give the game a sense of discovery and mystery. If you want to dig deeper away from the main story and explore you'll be rewarded with more and more things. You'll also miss things.

>waaah I don't have enough time to play twice
You sound like a spoiled brat who hates video games. These games were made in an era where you came home from school and played it everyday for months and months searching every last inch of the world, and you never got bored because there was always something to find. Call of Duty is probably more your cup of tea.

Go blind til the end, when you reach the obvious point of no return look up a guide to see what you missed and what you can go back for

Have you considered doing exploring? On your own?

100% is for autists.

just play the god damn game.

To be fair, games like XII do have legitimately bullshit secrets that require a guide. Not even just the spear nonsense. Like the one pilgrim's door that won't open unless you enter and exit certain screens in a certain order. Unless I'm just a brainlet, how the fuck do you figure that out on your own?

That's a load of toss. You get secrets by expending effort to find them. And secrets are not mandatory. Blind is literally The Way It Was Meant to be Played™, ya homo.

See I always do a blind run and examine/search/explore everything I notice. Then on the second playthrough I look for things I might have missed using a guide. It feels more rewarding doing it that way the first time through, and then I have an excuse to play through the game again.

I always play myself into a corner in JRPGs so at least look up what party members you should be focusing on.

>I always play myself into a corner
What games actually make it impossible/too difficult if you use the wrong party members?

That's pretty much the only thing I ever pull out a guide for first playthrough, if I've run into a riddle or something and cannot figure out how to get past it. Some secrets in games are actually made to sell guide books, but with stuff like gamefags they've mostly fallen by the wayside.

That is simply untrue. There's a lot of important stuff you can lose permanently and that 100% relevant to the plot, and that the game purposefully locks you out of getting at a certain point.
My friends never played FF.
What about the "relevant and important to the story that you can completely miss out on and be permanently locked without" stuff I was talking about, have you guys never played any Final Fantasy games, because from my experience that happens all the time even if I explore every corner dry.

Jesus calm down.

If the JRPG has ng+ then play it blind.
If you're going to be playing the Zodiac Age version of XII, then try to do a no jobs run and create the perfect save where you have all your team together and the ability to subclass unlocked. You get enough tools that this isn't as hard as you'd think and in the end you get to play around with job combinations.

I always use a guide for JRPGs. Finding out shit on your own is annoying and time consuming. I don't want to miss any items and I want my characters to be as overpowered as possible.

I look up if there is anything missable. Otherwise blind.

If it's an old game go to the highest rated or biggest FAQ on GameFAQs and type in "missable"

Then go to the forums and make a search for "missable"

If there are more than 20 missables and you don't plan on playing through twice follow a walkthrough if you want to get everything. Otherwise just make a checklist and keep multiple saves

If a game is new you're pretty much fucked. I remember I used this method for Last Remnant the month of release and people still didn't know precisely what was missable and I got screwed over

FFXII is fine though, just look up the method to get the Zodiac Spear and then once you get it play through worry-free. You'll probably need a guide to fill out the Clan Primer but do what you can on your own after you get ZS until you get near the end of the game

>What about the "relevant and important to the story that you can completely miss out on and be permanently locked without" stuff
You'll live without seeing all of it

I only find it time consuming in rpgs where NPC dialog changes after every little thing you do. Its a nice touch, but then you start to worry about missing out on extra content because you didn't run through the whole game again talking to people over and over.

how can i get a chocolate bunny gf?

Is the Zodiac Spear just a powerful weapon? I'm much more concerned about missing plot-related events or character backgrounds because FF6 and 7 fucking traumatized me.

Wait for Easter.

ZS is the most powerful spear in the game. Nothing plot-related in FFXII is missable. In fact ZS isn't missable, it's just if you don't use the proper method to pick it up the first time it is a godawful RNG induced pain in the ass to get it later on

Oh thanks that's the answer I made this thread for. Guess I'll be going blind, maybe look for the spear. Cheers.

Honestly I always felt the Zodiac Spear kinda sucked. A lot of misses. Which is made worse when it misses while doing combos.

It's the weapon with the highest atk in the game but but katanas do more damage because you get more attacks with them. If you don't open certain chests and urns you have a 100% chance of getting it some time in late game. Otherwise it's a random drop.

I don't think anything is missable in ff12.

The odds of you finding it by coincidence are slim, but good luck nonetheless

> "relevant and important to the story that you can completely miss out on
This literally never happens. It's some optional bonus backstory that you get to see by doing a sidequest. It's your reward for poking about, if you don't find it you do not deserve to see it, quite simply. It is not at all important, it's a nice reward.

In the original, the spear is entirely missable, and isn't a random drop. Not even a 1/225 drop or whatever. They fixed it in the International and TZA versions where it could be found either in a chest with a low spawn rate (but if the chest does spawn it will always be the spear), or by collecting enough trophies for the Phon Coast hunts.

I tend to go blind but I would definitely makes an exception with FFXII. It's next to impossible to get everything without a guide because their is so much cryptic bullshit with zero indication. Many of the hunts have really specific or obtuse requirements that are not hinted at anywhere. One of the methods of obtaining the Zodiac Spear is also insanely stupid requiring you to not open specific chests early in the game which you would definitely open if you even explore a little bit. The other method of obtaining it takes stupid good luck.

>and isn't a random drop.
Yes it is. You can have more than one. It is not missable even if you open the wrong chests.

>In the original, the spear is entirely missable
Not it's not there's a chest in the Henne Mines that you can get it from in the original but it's a chest with a 1% chance to spawn and a 1/100 chance to have the spear effectively giving you a 1/1000 chance to get it from the chest. I've done it because I opened one of the chest that makes the other one disappear on my first playthrough.

>years later someone found out how to RNG-abuse the chest to 100% find the spear

Most games have objetive markers, you can turn it on to avoid walking into the big 'go here' sign on your map and explore without worry. At least that is what i did in Xeno Chronicles and both bravelys

Blind.
If you like it the first time you will want to replay it anyway
if you don't then why does it matter if you 100% it or not

>what is FF7