Effect Capacity



Effect capacity is a hidden measure in Final Fantasy XII to determine how many actions - other than basic physical attacks - can be executed simultaneously. If the total effect index exceeds the maximum capacity, the action charged last can only be executed when the animation sequence of the earliest action ends. This is likely due to the hardware limitation of PlayStation 2 being unable to handle too much graphical processing.

The maximum effect capacity is 8. The effect index for most tier 1 spells is 1, tier 2 (-ra) 2, tier 3 (-ga) 4 and the strongest spells 8, meaning the most advanced magicks can only be executed exclusively when no other special actions are taking place. Some animations such as Darkga may look simple, but have equally high effect indices as other -ga magic spells.

While most of the time this system hinders player from performing special actions or magick spells, knowing the enemy's pattern allows skillful player to stall the enemy by saturating the effect capacity, regardless of the enemy-exclusive skills with zero Charge Time.

Effect Indices
Note that in the International Zodiac Job System, some spells have been re-categorized into different magick classes, but the effect index remains the same.