Yeah, that sword sounds kick ass. Highest attack rating I think I have is like 67 right now, and that's with a hammer (sometimes does around 1400 damage in one swing). And the place I did the most leveling was the Lhusu Mines, and I didn't have a guest character then, no, so I suppose that could be part of the difference. I was using guest characters to help with hunts before, and that doesn't net one XP (just LP, maybe). But I've been spending some good time at the Jungle now because of those panther things. Man, you can get skins off them like crazy and the things sell for nearly 500 bucks a pop. Get 20 of those babies and head back to a shop and you're golden.
So I *almost* beat the fucking turtle again another 2 times and still can't do it. I'm missing Larsa now and so even though I can get really, really close, I just can't quite make it. It's just impossible without a perfect run or the ability to dispel its protect+haste combo. I got my main mage to silence it okay, but that doesn't avoid the physical damage, and toward the end I just can't keep up. I think his armor rating must increase toward the end, because my hits stop doing much, and even a high-end quickening chain just doesn't do enough damage at all. Belias is utterly useless. His final attack got me like 500 points of damage or something idiotic like that. So yeah... without dispel, things have to go just perfectly in order to win. Actually, I *did* win. I fucking killed the thing. I threw a knot of rust at it as a last-ditch effort to take it down, and it killed it... but only after it had already killed my last character standing. Had I thrown the knot like 2 seconds earlier I'd have won. Weak.
Anyway... the story is just great. The last few sequences have been much more interesting than the earlier stuff, and as much as I liked the characters before, I'm starting to like them all a lot more now. And the script is really well written for the most part... so even the cheesy stuff doesn't sound too cheesy, and there aren't as many stilted lines as there were in X.
Oh, and does anybody agree with me that Fran's voice actress is like the best thing ever? I absolutely love her voice. I could sit and listen to her talk all day long. It completely makes the character, it's amazing.