Is There an Overkill on Bribes?

I'm looking at the Final Fantasy X bribes bestiary.

Each bribe amount is followed by parenthesis. What does that mean?

For example, the Chimera Brain's bribe field reads: 196,000 Lv. 4 Key Sphere x 1(2)

Is there an Overkill for bribes or something? I just keep getting 1 every time I try.

3

2 Answers

Bribes appear to have a minimum value, and a maximum value. As found in this thread, the rewards can range between 50% and 150%. When working with small values, like 1 or 2 items, this is rounded by the game. So, in your example, this would mean that 1 is the minimum value, and (2) is the maximum value.

Furthermore, there's some speculation that bribing can even succeed with a lower amount than listed, but with a much lower chance. I haven't much experience in regards to this myself, though.

Bribe doesn't overkill, if they accept the bribe the enemy simply leaves the fight.

To prove this you can go to some enemies in the early game after you get the airship and save, then bribe an enemy using all your money, it still just simply succeeds - no overkill.

More money does mean more of the item, but it depends on how much you give and what item you're getting, my advice would be to save scrub it, and work out what the best figure is for the item you are trying to accumulate.