So I just started playing and just wondering where I can redeem my familiar tickets? I'm at the trials right now. Did I miss something/someone? Also, how long will Griffy and Gold Hurly last me?

Originally Posted by navalg1337 So I just started playing and just wondering where I can redeem my familiar tickets? I'm at the trials right now. Did I miss something/someone? Also, how long will Griffy and Gold Hurly last me?

Did you finish the trials? If so, turn right around and talk to Solomon again. Griffy will last you the entire game. He's incredibly broken paired with Esther.

Originally Posted by Jodou Did you finish the trials? If so, turn right around and talk to Solomon again. Griffy will last you the entire game. He's incredibly broken paired with Esther.

Thank you.

Any suggestions/ideas for familiar setup with both characters? Just finished the volcano area.

Originally Posted by navalg1337 Thank you. Any suggestions/ideas for familiar setup with both characters? Just finished the volcano area.

You should be headed south soon, so pick up a Purrloiner on the way for Oliver. Other than that, it's really up to you want to do.

Originally Posted by navalg1337 Thank you. Any suggestions/ideas for familiar setup with both characters? Just finished the volcano area.

I'll reiterate what others have told me and have helped me a lot (and this is long after I left these areas), and some of my own experiences.
1. The next area you're going to will have Purrloin (or something like that, it's a cat with a knife) and Monoliths (robot tombstones). Catch both. The Purrloin is like your Mite with lower defense, but attacks much faster. After leveling it, it's pretty fierce. The Monolith, after like 10 levels, is basically invincible against physical attacks. It doesn't have much of an attack or magic defense but for most fights, he's great to have as a tank.
2. The next ally you get (in about a few hours) starts of with the crappiest familiar... trust me, I spent 28 levels with it and then dumped it. Make sure you train a familiar for him.
3. The sprite (little fairy you got in the forest) has terrible attack but later on, its high magic and super fast movement speed makes it a fantastic healer and magic attacker. The monkey and the penguin are pretty balanced, with the monkey having more of a focus on attack power/speed and the penguin having higher defenses.

I'm sure others can give you more in depth feedback.

EDIT* Oh, and catch one of those sun familiars... you don't need to use it, but it'll be important for a quest later on (much later on, but it'll save you a trip).

Originally Posted by Vinny 2. The next ally you get (in about a few hours) starts of with the crappiest familiar... trust me, I spent 28 levels with it and then dumped it. Make sure you train a familiar for him.

Bonehead works well, so he could grab one in the desert now and have it leveling. I did that myself and they never used anything else for the entire game lol.

The boss @ the end of fairy island was hard to beat man

I think I died over 4 times, barely beat it.

Seems like I'm lacking something.

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Sorry to steer off the current topic.... I really want this game but the cag in me says to wait. Especially considering my daunting backlog. So I guess the question is will this become really hard to find if I wait around for a drop or a sale?

Originally Posted by Brainberry The boss @ the end of fairy island was hard to beat man I think I died over 4 times, barely beat it. Seems like I'm lacking something.

Mighty Mite with Cut Loose would have saved you a lot of time.

Originally Posted by Rumors Sorry to steer off the current topic.... I really want this game but the cag in me says to wait. Especially considering my daunting backlog. So I guess the question is will this become really hard to find if I wait around for a drop or a sale?

Tough to say, but more than likely yes.

Originally Posted by Rumors Sorry to steer off the current topic.... I really want this game but the cag in me says to wait. Especially considering my daunting backlog. So I guess the question is will this become really hard to find if I wait around for a drop or a sale?

Given that the game is on PSN, you can probably wait to get it since the digital copy will be available indefinitely (or unless Namco pulls it, which is unlikely).

Namco Bandai is releasing free DLC for a Familiar called "Draggle" on Feb. 12th.

So after almost completing the desert (Summerland area) I decided to head back to the Ding Dong Dell area and pick up some familiars that Oliver & Esther have an affinity for. A water familiar found deep inside Ding Dong Well is a beast when it comes to raw strength. You're able to psyche him up too. Also picked up a Teeny Booper (Dragon familiar) for Oliver. Super high attack speed and movement. I still need to level him some more.

I must've tried 30-40 times fighting the Monoliths and still haven't had a chance to get one.

But I have to say I find the whole starting at level 1 thing a chore. Is there anyway later on where you don't have to grind them so much to make the effective?

I try to convince myself that I have a love/hate relationship with JRPGs but then I start wondering if it's really hate/hate. I'm really wanting to pick this up but I just wanted some general advice based on what I'm about to say.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm just too stupid for these types of games or something. Like something doesn't "click". I look at a game like this that appears to be geared towards a younger audience and wonder what's wrong with me when I struggle.

I don't want to have my hand held the whole time but I don't want to hit a wall (which happens in EVERY RPG for me) where all of a sudden I'm expected to grind for 10 hours just to get by one boss. The demo sucked IMO simply because of the lack of tutorial and I had no idea what I was doing. Sure it looked awesome and I really want to enjoy it but am afraid of everything I just mentioned.

So is it user-friendly to casual players and only as overly-complicated as you make it?

Originally Posted by Rumors Sorry to steer off the current topic.... I really want this game but the cag in me says to wait. Especially considering my daunting backlog. So I guess the question is will this become really hard to find if I wait around for a drop or a sale?

This game leapfrogged past my whole back log and even made me stop playing WoW, which was the source of my backlog. I love it. I'm a huge cheap ass, but this game is well worth $60 to me.

Originally Posted by Rodimus But I have to say I find the whole starting at level 1 thing a chore. Is there anyway later on where you don't have to grind them so much to make the effective?

Once you take to the open seas not too far in the game, you can visit an island north of Ding Dong Dell called Ugly Duckling Isle. It has a rare monster worth 2k exp.

Once you take to the air, you can visit a forest area west of Hamelin. You'll have 2 nice spells to compliment farming a rare monster there Travel to near-by city to respawn monsters, and Veil to sneak up on them , that gives 8k exp, and some battles have 2-in-1 so 17k+ exp. I had Oliver level up twice in 1 battle, to show you how much exp that is.

It's all optional, you have to decide how much you want to do before tackling the next area/boss, if at all.

Originally Posted by chriscolbert I don't want to have my hand held the whole time but I don't want to hit a wall (which happens in EVERY RPG for me) where all of a sudden I'm expected to grind for 10 hours just to get by one boss. The demo sucked IMO simply because of the lack of tutorial and I had no idea what I was doing. Sure it looked awesome and I really want to enjoy it but am afraid of everything I just mentioned. So is it user-friendly to casual players and only as overly-complicated as you make it?

The demo doesn't work because the in-game tutorial is spread out over a long period of time. It might be 3 or 5 hours until you even get a 2nd party member?

The "need to grind" only comes up on certain bosses (one instance before you get 2nd party member, you're supposed to skip mobs because they'll hurt you bad). And you can either turn the game to easy, or use those EXP tips I said. Either way, it is not a long grind, and you can actually over level on accident with toko's.

"Grind for 10 hours" is not this game. I've only ever had it set to normal, and the grinding may take 30 minutes and you should be able to smash the boss after. Or use a different strategy. It really sucks you get "All-Out-Defense" sooooo late in the game, along with the Travel spell. Both should be given at/around Desert/Cast-a-Way-Cove, but weren't.

"Grind for 10 hours" could be this game if: you want to collect them all, and/or evolve them all to 3 forms. Which is why I loved the guide, I was able to see lvl.99 max stats and abilities and pick which familiars I wanted before I leveled them, and which final form I preferred in advance.

Originally Posted by Rodimus But I have to say I find the whole starting at level 1 thing a chore. Is there anyway later on where you don't have to grind them so much to make the effective?

Tokos ease the grind a lot but keep in mind your main party is always leveling, so after only an hour or two you will have broken the fragile balance and make the game a lot easier. By the time I beat the game, everyone was level 99 except for my familiars who were in their 90's. Suffice to say, I steamrolled the end bosses and failed to find anything of challenge post-game. I felt a bit cheated honestly, because I like grinding towards goals and the Tokos are too exploitable.

Originally Posted by Kazaganthi Once you take to the air, you can visit a forest area west of Hamelin. You'll have 2 nice spells to compliment farming a rare monster there Travel to near-by city to respawn monsters, and Veil to sneak up on them , that gives 8k exp, and some battles have 2-in-1 so 17k+ exp. I had Oliver level up twice in 1 battle, to show you how much exp that is.

Wait til you get to the final area and they give 28k exp per kill.

Originally Posted by Jodou Tokos ease the grind a lot but keep in mind your main party is always leveling, so after only an hour or two you will have broken the fragile balance and make the game a lot easier. By the time I beat the game, everyone was level 99 except for my familiars who were in their 90's. Suffice to say, I steamrolled the end bosses and failed to find anything of challenge post-game. I felt a bit cheated honestly, because I like grinding towards goals and the Tokos are too exploitable. Wait til you get to the final area and they give 28k exp per kill.

wish i had more time to spare to play like you but with work and house matters... i get lucky to get an hour or 2 a day of play time. btw, thanks for the info on tokos... i might look it grinding that enemy later in the game. just got the boat and backtracking to the previous maps trying to collect all available familiars in those areas before moving on.

quick question though... is there any benefit in maxing out first form familiars? or are you guys morphing all your tames to its final forms? having the OCD of collecting all familiars, it feel like its hard for me to morph any of my current 1st level forms...

Originally Posted by CAGkrazy quick question though... is there any benefit in maxing out first form familiars? or are you guys morphing all your tames to its final forms? having the OCD of collecting all familiars, it feel like its hard for me to morph any of my current 1st level forms...

That's a loaded question but the short answer is no, unless you absolutely want to min/max.

Very few familiars have average growth and are early bloomers for first and second generations, which means they get the majority of stats very quickly and taper off until hitting level cap. In layman's terms, the longer you wait, the more you get from the stat carryover but each level gives less and less. The cumulative return is roughly 5-7% of stats overall once the familiar is hard capped, if you max out each generation. It's up to you if grinding the added exp is worth those stats.

I finally found North Billy Goat Bluff (I knew of the southern part, but figured the northern part was the blocked/dark/rainy part, didn't think it'd be just west of the southern part). I got one into fight with a Tokotoko... that was crazy. A while later, I got into to fight with two of them. Seeing one of my familiars go from level 1 to 28 was pretty funny.

The best part was that I actually caught one. I was surprised to see the prompt and then even more surprised to see that they still gave me the experience. I wonder if it's worth leveling?

EDIT* Tokotoko needs 15K exp just to get to level 2. 15,000! His magic defense jumped up 69 points but his defense only went up 8. I'm guessing he makes a beast if you level him, but it'll take forever because he needs 30,000 for level 3.:-S

I don't know what a Tokos is yet, but I'll head to the Ugly Ducking place and see what I can find.

I can't believe some people have beaten this already.