FFXII The Zodiac Age
Fishing Guide
by: Ishamaelxx
............................................................................... Availability ............................................................................... The fishing game itself becomes available after you visit Draklor Laboratory. However, you must have done the Cactuar Family side quest as well. It cannot be completed however, until you finish both the Patient in the Desert side quest for the Barheim passage key, and defeat Gilgamesh. ............................................................................... Introduction ............................................................................... The fishing game is basically a test of controller knowledge, finger dexterity, and reflexes. There are six opportunities to catch either a fish or an empty bottle in each go. Quite simply, all you have to do is enter the sequence of buttons that float across the screen either horizontally or vertically. If you're too slow, or make a mistake, the fish is lost. Also, there are five different areas you can fish in, with the potential rewards becoming greater for each one. These areas are as follows: 1. Downstream 2. Midstream 3. Upstream 4. Hidden Shoals 5. Den of the River Lord The first three areas can be accessed immediately after reaching Balfonheim. For the last two though, you will have to do some serious trekking about to obtain the mysterious Matamune rod. ............................................................................... Beginnings ............................................................................... To begin the game, speak with Ruksel on the west dock in South Bank Village in Dalmasca Eastersand. He mentions that he wants to take up fishing, but doesn't have a rod. Teleport from their to Balfonheim and head to the area with the Aerodome. Talk to the fishing enthusiast in this section twice, then run down to the entrance of the Aerodome without entering. When you return to the spot where the enthusiast was, they will be gone, and the Muramata rod will be propped up against the wall where they were. Return to Ruksel and speak to him again to initiate the game. Downstream The only area available when you begin is the Downstream region. This area is very easy with short, basic commands, so it's a good opportunity to get yourself familiarized with the aspects of the game, and you should have no trouble getting perfects after a couple tries. Also, the commands only move from side to side across the screen, so you don't have to waste time looking for where they're going to appear. Multiple perfect scores are required to unlock Midstream, but they don't necessarily have to be consecutive. Midstream Midstream is a little tougher, as the shoulder buttons come into play and the commands start to appear at the top or bottom of the screen as well. Also, the commands are a bit longer, so you'll have to be faster to get them all. Once again, obtain enough perfect scores, and the next area will become available. In this case, Upstream. Upstream Upstream is just a continuation of the previous two areas, with the exception being that the commands are much more likely to be five buttons instead of four. To reach the next area, perfect scores only play a role in that they are required for you to obtain the Cactoid Compact. However, you also have to be using the Matamune at this point, or you can fish forever without getting it.
............................................................................... Bottles ............................................................................... Here's where the workload starts to pick up. The first thing you need to do is make sure that you've completed the Battle on the Big Bridge Clan Hunt. Defeating Gilgamesh is not only a challenging and rewarding experience in and of itself, but also the key to unlocking the rest of the fishing game. I'll explain exactly why later, so for now, just go beat him, and make sure you steal since it's the only place you can get those wonderful Genji Gloves. Now then, after you've finished him off, you'll notice that some of the bottles you catch while fishing will be different colors. There are five total, and when viewed in your key items menu, each displays a different cryptic message for you to decode. Blue Bottle Clue: Truth lies just beyond falsehood, CDZCKZMCRANZS Explanation: Sounds like babble? Think of each letter as a lie, and the truth lies just one letter beyond. In other words, the next letter in the alphabet is the right one. Do this for each letter, and you end up with the clue DEADLANDS BOAT. Where is this you may ask. Well the answer to that should be obvious: Nabreus Deadlands. The specific area is a little harder to pin down, so I'll share it as well. Look in the Echoes of the Past area in the southeast corner. There is a mostly sunken boat with a faint glow emanating from within. Examine this glow and the bottle shatters, netting you an X-Potion and a Wanly-limned message that says only "River...unde...o". Green Bottle Clue: Skip on stones to far banks shore, by skipping stones return once more. SSADLNIAKLADHAUETDNREA Explanation: More gibberish? Not really. This is one of the easier clues to figure out. Simply start at the beginning and write down every other letter. When you reach the end of the line, go back through it backwards, still skipping every other letter, and the clue should come out nicely as SALIKA HUT NEAR DEADLANDS. The particular hut that you're looking for is in the center of the Piebald Path in the Salikawood. Check the faint glow in the entrance and the bottle shatters, netting you a Green-hued message that says "Forest..rgro...w". Red Bottle Clue: Foothills rise in mountains' shadow. NhIiQsTUrEe Explanation: Again, a little thought should provide the answer on this one. Simply separate the capitalized letters from the others and then it's a simple word scramble. In case you suck at those, or simply can't be bothered for the time, the answer is QUIET shrine. Now if you've really been exploring at all you should remember where all the different shrines where in the game...right? Well if you can't, they were in the Mosphoran Highwaste, and the particular one that you're looking for happens to be in the northwest corner of the Babbling Vale area. Again with the faint glow and exploding bottle. (It's a wonder they never cut themselves with all this shrapnel flying about). Anyways, their non-cut luck holds and you receive a Holy Mote and a Vermillion Message, which reads "Fire...undb...h". Yellow Bottle Clue: Dragons stir among the eaters of the wind. 1 2 - - 5 - 7 - 9 - Explanation: A bit more cryptic this time around, but I'm sure good ol' Sherlock would have gotten it right away. Why you ask? Simple logic, of course! Where was the first place the you encountered dragon type enemies on a regular basis? Think about that one and you should come up with the same answer I did, which was Cerobi Steppe. Upon arriving there, it should become readily apparent what the "eaters of the wind" are (windmills...but you knew that...right?) Anyways, the rest of the clue simply tells you which windmills should match up, and by that I mean their status of on or off. If you choose to have #1 on, the obviously all others listed should be on, and the windmills represented by a '-' should be off. Now if you haven't touched the windmills to this point (and there was no reason to beyond curiosity), then simply head to windmills #2, 3, 5, and 8. Switch their current status, whether on or off. When you fix the final one, the exploding thing happens again and you receive only an Auric Message reading, "Ash ridge e." (of course the most annoying one doesn't give you any other reward it's almost like the treasure chests of the game in that sense) seraphfene emailed me and claims she recieved a Hi-Ether upon completing the windmill puzzle. While I don't recall having ever recieved anything for it, it's possible that I just have a bad memory. Black Bottle Clue: Easy as a, b, c, so count yourself luck. 19-12-21-9-3-5-7-1-20-5-18-1-20-19 Explanation: It's like those encoders you got in cereal boxes when you were a kid...or at least like when I was a kid. Regardless of your age, write down the alphabet, and match the letters up with the numbers 1-26 (1 and A being the start of course). Afterwards, just pick out the letters you need to end up with the clue SLUICE GATE RATS. These crazy guys are hanging out around the sluice gates, which are of course located in the Garamsythe Waterway located beneath Rabanastre. Look for the little critters scurrying around the south side of the room. Follow them to the hangout spot by a faint glow. Examine it for one last ballistics message, an Elixir, and an Onyx Message. This message reads, "Darkness eton e." ............................................................................... Matamune ............................................................................... Now you just have to put it all together! At this point you should have five more messages with the following clues: River...unde...o Forest...rgro...w Ash...ridg...e Darkness...eton..e Fire...undb...h The first five words can be used to determine order, since they're complete, and ultimately unrelated to the location clue. Now a River flows through the Forest, which catches Fire, leaving behind only Ash and Darkness ...at least that's how I saw it. If someone has a better explanation, feel free to email it to me. Now then, arranging the messages in that order to connect the middle, then end portions of the clues leaves you with the following: unde/rgro/undb/ridg/eton followed by o/w/h/e/e. This last part is missing a letter, which makes it a little cryptic, but if you put it all together, you should end up with the clue underground bridge to nowhe'r'e. Now where have you seen a bridge underground the doesn't really go anywhere? But of course, Barheim Passage. Head into Barheim, following the same path you did to reach Zalera. When you reach the end of the Zeviah Span, go ahead into West Annex, then stop immediately. If you look on your map there is a little section of Zeviah Span that can only be reached by going into West Annex. So hang a U-turn, but make sure you're going into the area slightly to your left, back on the main part of the bridge and not the part you just left. Now simply approach the rubble at the far end and watch the magic happen. Now you know why you had to beat Gilgamesh first don't you? ............................................................................... Finale ............................................................................... With the Matamune safely in hand, head back to the Estersand and Ruksel. Select the Upstream area and start fishing up a storm. After what sometimes seemed like an eternity and innumerable perfects, you are finally rewarded with the Cactoid Compact. This item allows you to access the Hidden Shoals area, and you're now only one step from the big one. Hidden Shoals The commands here aren't all that different from those of upstream (in fact, some are the same). What makes it more difficult in my opinion is the appearance of an additional cactoid each time you input a command correctly. These things will always be in the corner of your vision, and will distract and annoy the crap out of you. Once you learn to ignore them though, the area is pretty easy, and you simply have to keep getting perfects until you receive the Cactoid Commendation. This bad boy opens up the Den of the River Lord. Den of the River Lord This is it. The fish depicted in every drunken fishing story since the beginning of time. The King of Nebra has an eight-button long command that is difficult to complete when it appears side to side, and nearly impossible from the top or bottom. In addition to this, you have to catch him nine times before you can land him and reap your well-earned reward. However, the upswing of this is that you don't have to catch him in one trip, or even get all nine in a row. Also, in my game his command has always been the only one to appear until I get him for the ninth time, so at least I know what's coming. I'll go ahead and post his command, since it's better to just memorize and practice putting it in quickly. When you finally do land him, you get the Lu Shang's Badge, the ultimate reward for this lengthy side quest. King of Nebra: R1, L2, Up, Square, R2, L1, X, Right ............................................................................... Thoughts and Mysteries ............................................................................... I'm not sure if it's necessarily the number of perfects you get that opens up a new area. It seems like it may be that you have to catch a certain number of each type of fish. If this is true, then the perfect score theory would lend itself weight simply because you catch more fish when you catch them all...? Also, perhaps the key to getting the Cactoid Commendation isn't perfect scores, but getting a certain number of cactoids out there cheering for you. Once again, a perfect score would only mean more cactoids, and thus reaching said goal faster...? ............................................................................... Credits ............................................................................... Thanks to Square of course for another great game. Thanks to Brady Games for their guides, which help me when I'm having a stupid moment. Also, this is where I got the commands and statistics for each area. Thanks especially to Gamefaqs.com for the last 8 years. The help I've gotten has been tremendous and unparalleled in it's quality. Thanks to the reader, you're the reason this is here. Thanks to my GM, for finally giving me a day off, so I could finish this. Thanks to seraphfene for pointing out the possibility of treasure during the yellow bottle puzzle. Thanks to jamescroc for pointing out my error in the King of Nebra command. And I suppose thanks to me, for all this typing. This guide is written and compiled by Ishamaelxx. It is copyright (c) Ishamaelxx (no_h (AT) hotmail (DOT) com) You may not copy or reproduce it under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of the guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Let me know before you want to use it, as I would like to know where you plan to post it.