General Stuff #1
Final Fantasy XIII
Archive: 256 posts
Aside from me, is anyone else here excited?  | 2010-03-05 11:29:00 Author: Jazve  Posts: 341 |
| Aside from me, is anyone else here excited? No you're the only one. | 2010-03-05 11:39:00 Author: Rabid-Coot  Posts: 6728 |
| yeah take the week off to play trying to get my new level done befor it out >_< 4 day to go just ****** off with the song My hands being use for ads it was never in the game it just MS PR bull **** give me the song that was for the game and not some *bleep* song from leona lewis as a way to get wetsed game more into it look look we have leona lewis song >_< still *bleed* me off leona lewis never play a game in her life and the song have nothing to do with the game it just MS PR to try and win over some wested games give me Nobuo Uematsu msuic over *bleep* leona lewis | 2010-03-05 12:15:00 Author: jump_button  Posts: 1014 |
| yeah take the week off to play trying to get my new level done befor it out >_< 4 day to go Lol. That's kinda like what I'm doing too  | 2010-03-05 12:21:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| Well I sure am. I love Final Fantasy. 7 and 9 are my favourites. I wish they'd go back to the turn based battle system they used in 7 though. It worked by far the best. I hated the one in 12 and i never finished that one. That has a lot to do with LBP coming out though when I was 40 or so hours into FF12 and i haven't played it since. If I ever went back to it I'd have to start all over again because i can't remember how everything works. That's the trouble with the recent FF games. The battle systems are so complicated to learn and use that they simply are not games you can pick up and play now and again. You have to stick at them and play regularly and play to a finish before you move on to anything else. I'll still be getting 13 though and probably won't finish that either. | 2010-03-05 12:23:00 Author: mistervista  Posts: 2210 |
| I want a old school RPG give me HD over world map with airships and yes TOWNS did you know FF13 is like FFX in that you going in a line most of the time i want freedom like in FF 1 - 9 FF12 was more like a MMO I want full controll over all my party not one just to love ff games but i dont like what they are slowly becoming | 2010-03-05 12:31:00 Author: jump_button Posts: 1014 |
| 7 is definately my favurite final fantasy, I also like 6 but i definately will be getting 13. I enjoyed 10 aswell but same as you mrV I hated 12. | 2010-03-05 12:38:00 Author: robotiod  Posts: 2662 |
| Thanks for the comments, but I think I disagree with you about the new system in FF13. If they did the Turn-based system for every FF game they made, I'm sure it would get old. I'm not really a fan of the system in FF12, but the new one they have seems good. But I want TOWNS back!  | 2010-03-05 13:19:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| Well you know Jaz apparently towns are too difficult to make on the ps3, thats a bit stupid but Square said it. | 2010-03-05 13:22:00 Author: robotiod Posts: 2662 |
| i want freedom like in FF 1 - 9 Those were the days. Oh no Burmecia is under attack we have to go help them. But first lets get a chocobo and dig stuff up for an hour. | 2010-03-05 13:24:00 Author: Rabid-Coot Posts: 6728 |
| Well you know Jaz apparently towns are too difficult to make on the ps3, thats a bit stupid but Square said it. Really? I agree with you, it's kinda lame, but I hope they make up for it with the Gameplay. | 2010-03-05 13:29:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| You know, it never really dawned on me until you guys just mentioned Towns now... it suddenly clicked how in FFX there's no overworld map, unless you count the air ship that warps you instantly to save points. Lame! :o I haven't played any FF since X though, so I don't have any exposure to the non-turn based battle FFs. | 2010-03-05 13:34:00 Author: Foofles  Posts: 2278 |
| XII kind of had a world map but it wasn't like the other games. | 2010-03-05 14:24:00 Author: robotiod Posts: 2662 |
| to give you a idea how boring the map are in FF13 take a look at this dont looks to close http://www.notcliche.com/lbw/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/500x_straightmap.jpg | 2010-03-05 14:37:00 Author: jump_button Posts: 1014 |
WOW had to zoom in alot there.  | 2010-03-05 14:41:00 Author: robotiod Posts: 2662 |
| Hmm.. well there are bound to be areas like that. I don't know, I'm hoping it'll be good. This might seem a bit shallow on my part, but when looking at the game informer review + screenshots, I noticed something silly: The battles that take place outside, there's no tall grass! Just a flat ground plane with the ground texture. Bwahaha It looks so out of place since everything else is so detailed. I can't wait to see it for myself. | 2010-03-05 14:52:00 Author: Foofles Posts: 2278 |
| Final Fantasy Versus XIII will have a world map same go for Final Fantasy Agito XIII i really cant wait for Final Fantasy Versus XIII but it look to be more like KH then a RPG. Final Fantasy Agito XIII will me a turn base RPG so i have high hopes for that part from it being set in a school but then so was ff8 http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/127230/cloud-message-3_qjgenth.jpg they a bigger pic where where just cant find it | 2010-03-05 15:05:00 Author: jump_button Posts: 1014 |
| Final Fantasy Versus XIII will have a world map same go for Final Fantasy Agito XIII i really cant wait for Final Fantasy Versus XIII but it look to be more like KH then a RPG. Final Fantasy Agito XIII will me a turn base RPG so i have high hopes for that part from it being set in a school but then so was ff8 Whats FF13 Agito ? I haven't heard of that but if it's turn based that's more up my street and I would rather have that. There have been lots of polls in recent years for best game ever and more often than not FF7 has been the winner. Why is it then that Square see that and think to themselves " Eh people really love the characters and the battle system in FF7 so I'll tell you what we'll do. Let's change all that completely and never use that winning formula again ". It never ceases to amaze me how stupid big companies can be. It's a wonder they don't go bust. Anyway I have now decided not to get FF13 having seen the awful battle system in action. Apart from morphing with summons it looks identical to FF12 which I absolutely loathed. Also this review on the 'Orange' home page has made up my mind for me : Review - Final Fantasy XIII Formats: PS3 & X360 RRP from: ?49.99 Buy from: ?34.93 Released: 9 March We?ve waited four long years for the new Final Fantasy game - so any fan of the series is currently foaming at the mouth in anticipation at its release. And whereas normally a game that doesn?t live up to expectations might leave you a little disappointed, Final Fantasy XIII?s shortcomings is likely to leave some fans devastated. It's a crushing blow to a series that?s always shone out as one of the best in the RPG genre, but XIII falls far short of what we?d hoped for. Graphically, the game is beautiful: whether in cut-scenes or in-game, the characters and backgrounds push the boundaries of great graphics on a console. In this respect alone, XIII surpasses all its predecessors and current competition. But, sadly, there are other issues. The first comes in how long the game takes to warm up. And then there's the characters: your party consists of sullen or cowardly types and facile, annoying idiots. It's hard to care about them. What's more, the game is linear - not just in the respect of having few options as to where to go and what to do, but also because you?ll literally run in a straight line, fighting monster after monster, for a good 25 hours before you get to make any choices. The combat will likely divide players. Using an active time battle system, your attacks take place when you and your enemies' gauges fill up. The options of what attacks and spells to use are limited by what role you?ve assigned each player. You?ll be changing their roles on the fly more often than you?ll be changing their actual actions within that role. The whole thing is about timing - and its simplistic, pared-down nature keeps you out of menus and in the fray more than in previous games. For many, though, it's going to feel too pared-down. You might feel more of an onlooker ? like you?re not really in control of what?s happening. Still, Square Enix have really been brave with the changes they?ve made to the series so deserve credit for that. But it's simply not as engaging an experience as you?d expect from a game in this genre. Admittedly, its high production values should offer some entertainment to gamers, but it's not the enchanting adventure we'd all been waiting for. 7/10 Review by Kirsten Kearney | 2010-03-06 02:43:00 Author: mistervista Posts: 2210 |
| Whats FF13 Agito ? I haven't heard of that but if it's turn based that's more up my street and I would rather have that. It was originally intended as a phone game, but they are now making it for the PSP instead. There have been lots of polls in recent years for best game ever and more often than not FF7 has been the winner. Why is it then that Square see that and think to themselves " Eh people really love the characters and the battle system in FF7 so I'll tell you what we'll do. Let's change all that completely and never use that winning formula again ". It never ceases to amaze me how stupid big companies can be. It's a wonder they don't go bust. They'd be trashed for bringing out a carbon copy of FFVII. I like how they experiment, try to find new stuff that works. The FFX-2 system was actually pretty cool, except that you feel like playing Barbie dress up. Anyway, I'm looking forward to see what they came up with for FFXIII. And then there's the characters: your party consists of sullen or cowardly types and facile, annoying idiots. Meh, Cloud is an idiot, Squal is an idiot, Tidus is an idiot, Vaan is an idiot... there must be a rule or something. What does worry me is the lineair gameplay the review mentions. 25 hours of drudging forward!?  Anyway I have now decided not to get FF13 having seen the awful battle system in action. Apart from morphing with summons it looks identical to FF12 which I absolutely loathed. I thought FFXII was pretty good, actually. I liked playing around with the gambits, and I was quite free to roam about, something that FFX lacked. Still, I'm pondering whether to get FFXIII now. I'm having good fun creating a level, and it's still making good progress. I'd really like to finally publish something, and I fear FFXIII would only get in the way. Quite the conundrum... | 2010-03-07 23:14:00 Author: Rogar  Posts: 2284 |
| I dunno, I like the old jrpg formula, but I think what square Enix has been doing to the series is a great step forward to future rpg's. FF12 wasn't everyone's piece of cake, I know, but it was a unique experience that no other rpg I've played has replicated. Cut and paste can get boring after a while, so I'm happy with what square enix has been doing. They've been pushing the whole genre in new and exciting directions. Not to mention, I've come to trust Square Enix as a company, and I know that whatever mainstream FF game they release will be fun, engaging, and breathtaking no matter how they tweaked the formula. | 2010-03-08 02:17:00 Author: Duffluc  Posts: 402 |
| I'm looking forward to it quite a lot I find the idea of playing a new FF game quite exciting. With every other FF game i always seem to be catching up, and my friends are quick to hint at the ending to me or warn me about an upcoming boss. For once it'd be nice to play through WITH people instead, figuring out tactics and side-quests along the way. I have a bad habit of losing interest in games fairly quickly but hopefully this discovery aspect will keep me going until the end. Not to obsess over the graphics either but it's another thing i'm quite excited about for an FF game. The gameplay looks really interesting even if i can't decipher what's going on from the trailers, but the graphics add more of an artbook quality. From the trailer i can imagine myself just getting excited about seeing how cool the next boss or enemy looks | 2010-03-08 08:04:00 Author: Dexiro  Posts: 2100 |
| I agree with Rogar, Duffluc and Dexiro. Even though many people don't like how they made FFXIII, I can imagine how countless more would complain about them not making any changes with the old engine. :kz: Anyways, it's out tomorrow! | 2010-03-08 10:00:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| I am already 2 days and 4 chapters (of 13 ch. total) inside the game. The game is clearly a Final Fantasy, it has the vibe, the flavour. Until now, I think that Final Fantasy XIII is a quite good "gaming experience", but as a game in itself, it's not too far from Heavy Rain. The combat system is well thought, so well thought that it works so well with very few imputs from the player. The art direction is top notch and graphically it's beautiful, but not even near to Uncharted 2. The story is good so far, and even if almost every character is really annoying, you can grow some simpathy towards them anyway. Linearity doesn't bother me, even because in past FFs, most of the speeches were really useless. Even if I only highlighted bad points I must say that I'm pleased with the game, for me, for now, it's a solid 8,5. It has the magic that only FFs have. The magic is waning but it's still there, so if you're fans of the franchise, don't miss the game, wait for its price to drop or buy it second hand, but give this game a chance. | 2010-03-08 10:23:00 Author: OmegaSlayer Posts: 5112 |
| its unfortunate that i cant get this till the 13th of next month (My birthday) It was either this day 1 or heavy rain day one and i chose heavy rain. | 2010-03-08 10:49:00 Author: robotiod Posts: 2662 |
| I am already 2 days and 4 chapters (of 13 ch. total) inside the game. The game is clearly a Final Fantasy, it has the vibe, the flavour. Until now, I think that Final Fantasy XIII is a quite good "gaming experience", but as a game in itself, it's not too far from Heavy Rain. The combat system is well thought, so well thought that it works so well with very few imputs from the player. The art direction is top notch and graphically it's beautiful, but not even near to Uncharted 2. The story is good so far, and even if almost every character is really annoying, you can grow some simpathy towards them anyway. Linearity doesn't bother me, even because in past FFs, most of the speeches were really useless. Even if I only highlighted bad points I must say that I'm pleased with the game, for me, for now, it's a solid 8,5. It has the magic that only FFs have. The magic is waning but it's still there, so if you're fans of the franchise, don't miss the game, wait for its price to drop or buy it second hand, but give this game a chance. You played it already? Or is yours Japanese version? | 2010-03-08 13:06:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| yeah, many people have the Japanese Version, Im getting this one but i cant wait for FF13 Versus, KH PSP, and KH3. | 2010-03-08 13:47:00 Author: Bloo_boy  Posts: 1019 |
| No, I'm Italian. Here if you have friends that have a game shop, street dates don't exist. If you have some question about the game, I'll try to answer. | 2010-03-08 13:58:00 Author: OmegaSlayer Posts: 5112 |
| I'm playing it now and it's surprisingly awesome. I mean i wasn't entirely optimistic so hopefully that means this isn't entirely biased, but compared to other FF games this has definatly drawn me in the most. Still a lot to see because I've only been playing for roughly an hour but so far I'm enjoying it more than any other FF game. | 2010-03-08 18:08:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| LOL I wanna get it now Is the game really 50+ hours? | 2010-03-08 22:02:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| I've never spent less than a 100 hours on a PlayStation FF, so I'm assuming the answer is yes. | 2010-03-08 22:41:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| I've been playing for like 5 hours now, which is unusual for me xD Still stand by what i said earlier, infact it's gotten better! Once the combat really kicks off with the paradigm shifts and whatever it gets really interesting. Rather than controlling everyone you direct your team with different tactics, and each role has different stats and spells. For example you have everyone attacking and then switch to defensive with a tank and healer it regenerate - then it seems the roles get a little more obscure You're constantly forced into different and more difficult play-styles too because your party is constantly getting split up. The leveling system is really funky too, it's like a modernized version of the sphere grid from FF10 | 2010-03-08 22:56:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Honestly, I've loved every final fantasy so far. Including 12. It would get boring really if ALL the games were exactly the same, with a different story line. | 2010-03-08 23:28:00 Author: Stephanie_Ravens  Posts: 188 |
| KH3. Kingdom Hearts 3 was announced? Unkown fact: Ive a huge fan of KH. So if it hasn't.. | 2010-03-09 03:06:00 Author: Testudini  Posts: 3262 |
| Honestly, I've loved every final fantasy so far. Including 12. It would get boring really if ALL the games were exactly the same, with a different story line. I agree. If they were the same, I don't think I'd still be playing them. | 2010-03-09 10:55:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| If it can help, I think that XIII is a lot better than XII | 2010-03-09 11:11:00 Author: OmegaSlayer Posts: 5112 |
| I am 20 hours in (picked up my copy on Friday) and loving every second of it. In my 20+ years of gaming I can honestly say this is the most beautiful game I have ever played (ever made?), the visuals are simply jaw-dropping. Square is known for high production values and with XIII they went all out. The music is fantastic, the voice acting is great, the story is intriguing, the new battle system s sublime. No towns? I couldn't care less. As someone who has played every FF I applaud Square for making some bold changes to the formula which (to some of us at least) are a breath of fresh air. So far this year I have played Bayonetta, Darksiders, Bioshock 2, Bad Company 2 and FFXIII; FF is at the top of that list (I will also be picking up GoW3, Yakuza 3 and Blazblue this month so lots to play!). Being a husband and a father I can only game in the evenings. During my first two days with the game I played for 15 hours, THAT's how good it is (and I was very tired the next morning making breakfast for my daughter lol). The average score for the game is 8.5 which is very very good but still not what it deserves imo. If MGS4 got 10's (well deserved) and GTA4 got 10's (love the game but debatable) and UC2 got 10's (well deserved) then FFXIII deserves 10's. The thing with FF fans is that they (we) are the worst critics of the series they love so much. There is always a resistance to change but change is inevitable and when the changes make sense (as they do in XIII) they should be embraced. Anyway, the game is incredible and I am sure if you are an FF fan you will enjoy it. | 2010-03-09 11:59:00 Author: OCK  Posts: 1536 |
| Eh linearity has been in the series long before now, but stripping out the overworld (since FFX) seems to have made it more obvious to people. FFX was the most violent offender in that regard... and yet I don't recall that being a source of criticism then. Why is it such a big deal now how the maps are shaped? If it works in context of the story, then go for it. I don't really care what reviews say. The point is that people had formal expectations and the final product differs significantly from that. Does it make it a bad game? I doubt it. Since the Square-Enix merger, they've been very gutsy with making big changes to their most important series, but would the series have retained its' popularity with clone after clone? Innovation is just as much responsible for it's success as it's history. The only thing I can truly criticize at this point, given I haven't played the game yet (only hours to go!) is that there's no option for Japanese VA with English subtitles. Having watched some gameplay, I'm disappointed in the english voice acting, but I'll get over it. I haven't been able to put down any FF I've played, I highly doubt this will be any different. | 2010-03-09 17:43:00 Author: Thegide  Posts: 1465 |
| love it so far i dont like if the leader die it game over, your in a party and they is next to no freedom. The start was a bit boring fast boring but that why it was boring to fast A to B. Good to see they showing the history would love them too not just be a CS and give you freedom to take to everyone and stuff. | 2010-03-09 18:56:00 Author: jump_button Posts: 1014 |
| A guy at work wanted to buy my old iPod so I sold it and bought FF13. I like it so far. | 2010-03-09 19:45:00 Author: BasketSnake  Posts: 2391 |
| Just brought home my copy! I'll post up my thoughts shortly | 2010-03-09 20:12:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| I was gonna get it today, guess what?.....there out!, i guess Gamestop is SOOOO SMART, they only had 15 copies...........are you kidding me? FINAL FANTASY 13 ONLY 15 COPIES, whats the world coming to........ but ill get it tomorow . | 2010-03-09 20:59:00 Author: Bloo_boy Posts: 1019 |
Haha, well i have my pre order, but no PS3 to play it on  Guess i'll just play FF12 in the meantime on my PS2 | 2010-03-09 21:25:00 Author: Burnvictim42  Posts: 3322 |
| Eh linearity has been in the series long before now, but stripping out the overworld (since FFX) seems to have made it more obvious to people. FFX was the most violent offender in that regard... and yet I don't recall that being a source of criticism then. Why is it such a big deal now how the maps are shaped? If it works in context of the story, then go for it. In my book FFX is one of the lesser games exactly because of that. It's not even the map shapes, but the directions you are allowed to take. In FFXII you could visit the next town before the story required you to, and IIRC you were even rewarded by getting some piece of equipment slightly earlier. I'm not seeing this freedom in FFXIII yet, but we'll see. The whole Midgard beginning of FFVII was pretty lineair, too. | 2010-03-09 21:43:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| I was gonna get it today, guess what?.....there out!, i guess Gamestop is SOOOO SMART, they only had 15 copies...........are you kidding me? FINAL FANTASY 13 ONLY 15 COPIES, whats the world coming to........ but ill get it tomorow .Uuuh, you didn't expect it to be sold out everywhere on launch day? This is why pre-orders exist | 2010-03-09 22:41:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| Surprisingly i don't mind the linearity. Usually exploring is my no.1 thing in games, but this time i just see it as being given a rough tour of the game world, but the world is interesting enough for that to be ok! Infact i don't think I'd like the game as it is at the early stages of the game if it was non-linear. Due to story circumstances it seems like you have no choice really. Being able to run freely around the world 4 hours into the game would ruin the atmosphere a little bit I'm hoping it opens up a bit half way through when the side quests supposedly start, but if not then i can put up with that. | 2010-03-10 00:46:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Rumor has it that it opens up around the 25 hour mark.... Anyways I'm in the middle of chapter 2. Glad I didn't heed the reviews, I'm enjoying this. I've already got messages from people on PSN asking me how it is. Visually, amazing, nothing less than I would have expected. It's eye candy to the extreme, and makes Star Wars CGI look like a puppet show. Story... well, it's complicated so far, but I've been reading the dossiers in the datalog which basically explain things that aren't explicitly said. The story is pretty cool. You play as multiple characters each on their own storyline, intertwined and destined to come together at any time. The events so far are that this big artifact in the sky-city "Cocoon", dormant for a thousand years, opened up and was found to contain dangerous creatures from the surface (Pulse). In an attempt to quarantine Cocoon, they order an execution disguised as exile for the commoners living around the artifact. The exiles are rebelling against the ordering government (Sanctum) for their survival. Gameplay. Easy, very easy. So far, I've gotten hold of three different parties. In each party, you only control the party leader. You can either set the battle to auto (which automatically chooses commands for you) or you can manually input your actions. This had some people confused - they assumed that battles were more spectated than carried out actively. In reality, the choice is yours. For the classic feel, don't use auto, obviously. The easiness comes from the fact that so far the menu commands are simple (at most, all my characters have had no more than two attack options, plus item usage) and don't give you much change to build strategies (yet, I assume). Right now it's mostly mash attack with little threat of dying. Potions are used instantly and require no charge time and do not consume ATB meters. You enter battles with full health every time (no healing between them required) and if you die, you can restart immediately where you died. Sort of takes the point away from having save points every ten feet. Anyways, it's still fun and enjoyable, despite its lack of challenge. I'll post up with more later. | 2010-03-10 01:02:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| It gets a lot more challenging once Paradigms are introduced, not sure if you'd of gotten that far yet (think you get that at chapter 3). Summons seem to mix things up a bit too but so far i rarely use them. I never think to because they're tucked away in the menus, i rarely venture beyond auto-attack and frantically switching paradigms | 2010-03-10 01:17:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| It's not the linearity so much that's putting me off. It's moreso the battle systems. I really hate real-time battles, especially when the settings are so overly complicated. That grid thing in FF12 just did my head in. You needed a degree of some sort to understand it. I spent more time messing with that grid and trying to figure it out than actually playing the game. I just wish they'd give us at least 1 game with the turn-based battles as in FF7. That's why so many people still rate that as the best game ever. Simply because it was so easy to use and didn't frazzle your brain with statistics. Instead it let you spend more time enjoying the game itself and involving yourself in the story and the characters. I am a massive FF fan but when I saw they were continuing yet again with the same overly complex battle system I just lost interest and more importantly lost faith with Square. I've been looking forward to Front Mission Evolved too because Front Mission 3 on PS1 is still my absolute favourite game ever so I hope they don't mess that one up aswell by straying too far from what made it good in the first place. | 2010-03-10 01:22:00 Author: mistervista Posts: 2210 |
| Have you played FF13 yet? I think the battle system is actually extremely simple, it just looks a bit overwhelming in the screenshots. I understand that some people might like the battles to be a bit slower but i can only recommend that they play one of the other thousand rpgs out there or return to an older FF game | 2010-03-10 07:26:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Rumor has it that it opens up around the 25 hour mark... I am 24 hours in and based on what is happening in the story I believe it will open up very soon. I was finally given the chance to select my party (and had trouble choosing lol). Visually, amazing, nothing less than I would have expected. It's eye candy to the extreme, and makes Star Wars CGI look like a puppet show lol at puppet show but yeah, like I said, it is the most beautiful game I have ever played. You know when you play a great game and there are maybe 3, 4 or if your lucky 5 moments that make you say wow? Well in FFXIII your saying wow every 20 minutes and that is NOT an exaggeration! The CG work is mind-blowing and the first time you see Odin's summon spell your jaw will hit the floor, truly one of the single greatest moments I have ever experienced in a video game. Story... well, it's complicated so far, but I've been reading the dossiers in the datalog which basically explain things that aren't explicitly said. The story is pretty cool. You play as multiple characters each on their own storyline, intertwined and destined to come together at any time. The events so far are that this big artifact in the sky-city "Cocoon", dormant for a thousand years, opened up and was found to contain dangerous creatures from the surface (Pulse). In an attempt to quarantine Cocoon, they order an execution disguised as exile for the commoners living around the artifact. The exiles are rebelling against the ordering government (Sanctum) for their survival. I am loving the story and the characters. There are no exceptionally cool party members like Auron or Vincent Valentine nor villains like Kefka or Sephiroth but this does seem to make the characters somehow more "real". One review said you feel like you know these people, that they could be your friends and I agree with that. One thing that no "professional" review has mentioned is some of the major themes: xenophobia, the corruption/power/hypocrisy of church/state and the idea of fate and changing one's destiny. These are powerful and relevant themes and it seems like they have gone over a lot of these reviewers heads... Gameplay. Easy, very easy lol, it gets harder. During certain battles (especially boss fights) you will constantly be switching between Paradigms in order to survive and there is a lot of strategy involved (to the point where it is often times beneficial to "equip" a new paradigm before a battle in order to save a precious few seconds and give you an edge). One of the changes I love most is no magic points. MP is such a staple in RPG's but the change makes so much sense and it works so much better with the ATB system that you wonder why Square did not think of it sooner. I just wish they'd give us at least 1 game with the turn-based battles as in FF7. That's why so many people still rate that as the best game ever. Simply because it was so easy to use and didn't frazzle your brain with statistics. Instead it let you spend more time enjoying the game itself and involving yourself in the story and the character FFVII used the ATB system with Materia as the skill system (XIII uses "roles") and although that battles were "turn-based" I don't think that has anything to do with why it is considered one of the best games ever... Also, since it used the ATB system it meant that you could not sit there forever trying to set up a strategy because the longer you waited with inputing commands the greater the risk that the enemies action would take priority in the queue. In this sense, the idea that it was turn-based is almost an illusion. This game will not liquefy your grey matter with numbers and in fact, the battles are more streamlined then past FF's. You also have the option to Auto-Battle which I often use because it saves time and lets me actually appreciate all th eye-candy taking place on screen. You are also able to rotate the camera freely during battle using the right analogue stick, something NO past FF has allowed. Arguably, this FF gives you more time to appreciate the story characters then any other FF. There is literally story/cutscene every 20 minutes, I can't remember the last time (if ever) I played an RPG that had such a strong emphasis on the narrative. So far the game is shaping up to be my second favorite FF (after VII), it is neck and neck with FFX. I am interested in hearing more opinions from everyone, especially hard-core FF fans like myself | 2010-03-10 10:39:00 Author: OCK Posts: 1536 |
| Engh. I can't decide if I like it or love it or hate it. I can say unequivocally, though, that the person in charge of making the camera controls should be dragged out into a street and beaten to death with a buster sword replica. And yea, the Paradigms are kind of neat, but i'm still not getting that FF 1-9 ( and 12, i have to say i like 12) buzz that FF games gave meh. | 2010-03-10 12:52:00 Author: Memodrix  Posts: 879 |
| Alright, another few hours in. Got my paradigms. I finally was killed off for the first time just before this too. Unlike in previous FF's, if your team leader dies, it's game over/retry time. No phoenix downs to keep things going - you'll only use those to revive party members who are controlled solely by AI. My own fault, not because I had been slow or choosing the wrong actions, but because I had equipped my leader for pure offense leaving my HP low. Not what you want against a hard hitting boss like this one. Compared to all fights up to here, it was a pretty big leap in difficulty, although not truly difficult, just right IMO, especially with battle speed cranked (I like my games as hard as they come). I just wish they'd give us at least 1 game with the turn-based battles as in FF7. That's why so many people still rate that as the best game ever. Simply because it was so easy to use and didn't frazzle your brain with statistics. Instead it let you spend more time enjoying the game itself and involving yourself in the story and the character The game is based on ATB systems, and is still turn-based, but the "wait" option is gone. The pace of battles is much quicker and you're rewarded for completing them as fast as possible. I really like this. It encourages you to be more aggressive and risky in your strategy, and keeps the pacing up. Sit too defensively, and you might never come close to death, but you aren't going to reap the rewards either. As for your wish for "1 game with turn based as in FF7", I'm not really sure how to tell you this... but that's been every game up to this point. 8, 9, X, X-2, and yes even 12 could all be configured this way. As for simple, there's auto-battle if you can't be bothered... how much more simple do you want? Paradigms are not overly complicated. Whereas some recent games allowed you to change role on the fly (i.e. X-2), 13 does the same, although rather than change individual jobs, you change your party's focus (offensive, balanced, defensive, etc) via paradigm presets which essentially set jobs for everyone at once. An offensive paradigm is configured for damage output and no healing, but if you need to heal, change to another paradigm and one of your characters might become a healer (medic) and another a tank (sentinel). I still think the biggest thing FF fans need to get used to is evolution. Every FF game I've seen come out in the last 10 years has been met with people moping about the changes... we all have nostalgia of the predecessors and secretly we long for those we love. But, those are pretty dated game designs and redoing something like that now would be like making a modern FPS with medi pack pickups for health. Anyways, the reviews don't mean squat. This is a solid game. The maps aren't as linear as you would be led to believe. They don't feel much different from anything in X. | 2010-03-10 14:41:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| I would just like to say misterV wasn't FF7 ATB gameplay. by default atleast. | 2010-03-10 15:09:00 Author: robotiod Posts: 2662 |
| The only factor that bothers me a bit is that I feel compelled to open the Crystallium menu after every 2-3 combats to unlock abilities and raise stats. The system for the weapon upgrade is quite cool too, since it has a "gambling" vibe that I like. | 2010-03-10 16:21:00 Author: OmegaSlayer Posts: 5112 |
| Yeah, me too. Although can't say I didn't do the same with the licence board | 2010-03-10 16:25:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| The only factor that bothers me a bit is that I feel compelled to open the Crystallium menu after every 2-3 combats to unlock abilities and raise stats. The system for the weapon upgrade is quite cool too, since it has a "gambling" vibe that I like. I usually only do upgrades after every chapter (I am now on chapter 10), that way I have thousands of points to spend and it easier to think ahead about how to develop my party. It also means I won't be over-powered | 2010-03-10 16:31:00 Author: OCK Posts: 1536 |
| Infact i don't think I'd like the game as it is at the early stages of the game if it was non-linear. Due to story circumstances it seems like you have no choice really. Being able to run freely around the world 4 hours into the game would ruin the atmosphere a little bit I wouldn't want to run freely around the world, either. You have to open up some new areas once in a while to keep players interested. But I would like just a little leeway, a little choice, in stead of just running straight onwards. It doesn't even have to be exploring, it could be the choice of moving forward or staying to farm. There aren't even any weapons or accessories in the shops. It's not the linearity so much that's putting me off. It's moreso the battle systems. I really hate real-time battles, especially when the settings are so overly complicated. That grid thing in FF12 just did my head in. You needed a degree of some sort to understand it. I spent more time messing with that grid and trying to figure it out than actually playing the game. Yes, modern FF games take some time to get used to, but I wouldn't say you need a degree. There are usually some settings to help you; in FFXIII you can set combat speed to slow. In fact, I remember I started FFVII with some sort of slow/wait settings to get a feel for it, and later switched to speed up the battles. The pace of battles is much quicker and you're rewarded for completing them as fast as possible. I really like this. It encourages you to be more aggressive and risky in your strategy, and keeps the pacing up. Sit too defensively, and you might never come close to death, but you aren't going to reap the rewards either. I agree, it keeps combat interesting. Even if you already achieve 5 stars, it's still fun to see you managed to take a second or two off the time. And the preemptive strike makes approaching enemies a little less mindless, too. Very nice. It also means I won't be over-powered I like being overpowered. Counter Attack materia x8 for teh win!!! | 2010-03-10 17:34:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| I got the game on Tuesday but haven't play much of it yet. The graphics are really mind blowing! Hope to get many hours of fun, epic gameplay from it. | 2010-03-11 05:22:00 Author: Unknown User  |
| Got it just now. Had to hold my emotions in the shop, but when I got home, I was jumping for joy. Graphics are EPIC. How come I don't remember seeing an install screen? | 2010-03-11 11:49:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| How come I don't remember seeing an install screen? Because there wasn't one. The tech behind FFXIII is very impressive, no install with pretty much zero loading | 2010-03-11 13:37:00 Author: OCK Posts: 1536 |
| I wouldn't want to run freely around the world, either. You have to open up some new areas once in a while to keep players interested. But I would like just a little leeway, a little choice, in stead of just running straight onwards. It doesn't even have to be exploring, it could be the choice of moving forward or staying to farm. There aren't even any weapons or accessories in the shops. Yeah there is! Weapons and accessories are unlocked in the shops fairly early on. And enemies respawn when you backtrack so you can farm from them, as i found out once after running back to save once | 2010-03-11 17:59:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| I just beat Odin on my fourth try. It was quite tricky. You have to switch setups (paradigms) constantly. | 2010-03-11 18:43:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| Ok the boss after Odin is extremely hard xD Trying not to give any vague spoilers about it even though there isn't much to spoil. I died like 6 times before i figured out a strategy to get it's health down past half way, involving a lot of systematic healing and a summon. Then it gets some new attacks, one of which 1-hits my characters if they aren't at full health or being healed during the attack. At this phase i'm healing constantly, and the only chance i get to attack is when the boss does this 2 second elemental thing at the end of every attack cycle. No chance of a stagger at this point, probably take about 30 minutes just to get that last chunk of health down :/ | 2010-03-11 23:01:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Got final fantasy 13 2 days ago, its good but somehow not what i expected, its funny but when Square-enix made Ff13 all they were thinking about were transformers lol. | 2010-03-12 00:45:00 Author: Bloo_boy Posts: 1019 |
| the robawts are awesome :3 oh i beat that boss i mentioned too, seems in underestimated the usefulness of synergists | 2010-03-12 02:25:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| I just beat Odin on my fourth try. It was quite tricky. You have to switch setups (paradigms) constantly. I've heard people say Odin was easy and blah blah beat on first try. I couldn't understand the logic behind this at first, and then after the battle it made sense. Odin rewards you for chaining, like the Shiva sisters, but you can also beat him by spamming heal on Hope. This friends, is why you should use Libra regularly, especially on bosses. Arguably, beating Odin by pummeling him is the more difficult strategy, but the one I enjoyed more. I equipped doctor's code on Light and initiated battle with Hope as Synergist. Spend most of the battle chaining with Com/Rav, using potions for healing instead of Paradigm Shifting. Finished the battle very quickly! Ok the boss after Odin is extremely hard xD Trying not to give any vague spoilers about it even though there isn't much to spoil. I died like 6 times before i figured out a strategy to get it's health down past half way, involving a lot of systematic healing and a summon. Then it gets some new attacks, one of which 1-hits my characters if they aren't at full health or being healed during the attack. At this phase i'm healing constantly, and the only chance i get to attack is when the boss does this 2 second elemental thing at the end of every attack cycle. No chance of a stagger at this point, probably take about 30 minutes just to get that last chunk of health down :/ Yeah, this boss is troubling me too. I got him down to about 40% after one stagger and a cast of Odin. It's very annoying that he can take well over half your health away with a single hit, so it's very hard to form battle strategies. Will give him another go tonight. Of course, I'm a glutton for punishment and refuse to use auto-battle and am keeping battle speed normal. | 2010-03-12 15:13:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| Remember to make good use of your synergist against that boss!, it's pretty much essential for reducing the damage to take. | 2010-03-12 15:28:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| I open with Hope as a synergist... I didn't notice if my buffs were wearing off midway. I might need to add a recast cycle in there. | 2010-03-12 16:04:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| this is gold <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7BluDcAA4U0&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7BluDcAA4U0&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> | 2010-03-12 19:46:00 Author: jump_button Posts: 1014 |
| No love for the Xbox muhahaha! >=D | 2010-03-12 20:30:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Lol thats mean , anyway you know what dont really like about ff13? The camera Angles and Views OMG, theres so annoying.... | 2010-03-13 00:14:00 Author: Bloo_boy Posts: 1019 |
| Lol thats mean , anyway you know what dont really like about ff13? The camera Angles and Views OMG, theres so annoying.... You can change them with the right stick | 2010-03-13 01:29:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| not too far, only on Chapter 4 still ;-;. Been playing a lot, but yeah. Haven't read this topic, and probably won't, since I want to stay spoiler free. I'm really going to try that really desperately . But yeah, pretty good so far, and, uh... i'm playing it? XD /runs | 2010-03-13 17:07:00 Author: RockSauron  Posts: 10882 |
| Oh Rock, it gets so much better too. The characters become less annoying, and the boss battles are all memorable. I just killed Chap 7 boss... and wow. We're all going to try to keep this thread spoiler free, don't worry. | 2010-03-14 03:01:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| I'm still in Chapter 1 I can't touch my PS3 till March 25. | 2010-03-14 03:07:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| I'm at Chapter 11 I can go around and free roam etc. The setup I've found best is using Light, Snow and Vanille. Lightning = Commando Snow = Senitel Vanille = Medic It's almost impossible to die. I ofc. switch to triple ravager paradigm when it's safe, and when enemies are staggered I use Commando, ravager, ravager. Since I started using that strategy I haven't lost a single fight. | 2010-03-14 17:03:00 Author: Fredrik94 Posts: 342 |
| How many chapters are they btw? lol i barely play it im still using Lighting and Hope, i got Odin already btw | 2010-03-14 17:16:00 Author: Bloo_boy Posts: 1019 |
| 13 chapters 11-13 are apparently as big as 1-10 | 2010-03-14 17:42:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Yeah, theres alot more free roaming and you can walk around doing side-quests etc. | 2010-03-14 18:11:00 Author: Fredrik94 Posts: 342 |
| I'm on chapter 11 too, my favorite party is Lightning, Sazh and Vanille and my default paradigm is this: Light = Commando Sazh = Synergist Vanille = Saboteur I switch between this, Medic party and Commando, Rav X2 party during harder fights but for regular battles this is a strong set-up which consistently earns 5 stars. I am now busy doing side-quests, the world is finally my oyster | 2010-03-14 19:26:00 Author: OCK Posts: 1536 |
| Is there a variety of settings for the sidequests? Or is it all on one big field? | 2010-03-14 19:54:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Is there a variety of settings for the sidequests? Or is it all on one big field? So far all the ones I did have taken place in the same general environment (I have done 4) but time will tell | 2010-03-14 22:25:00 Author: OCK Posts: 1536 |
| Wow... i'm at Barthandelus and... wow. Looks awesomely creepy and evil, and has awesomely creepy music to back it up. It's like i've stumbled across the new Sephiroth. THIS is why i wanted to get a new FF game so much, i can be surprised by awesome bosses before everyone else in the world has ruined it for me xD It just kicked my *** though, if you've gotten that far you'll know which attack i'm thinking about right now xD Still kind of relieved that it isn't over yet, i can do some grinding and strategizing and relive the moment | 2010-03-15 03:49:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Oh Dex, just wait till next chapter. Bart will seem like a walk in the park. Just got to Chap 11. Story keeps getting better and better. Looks like I can start doing some sidequests finally. | 2010-03-15 04:27:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| I look forward to that xD First time i tried him i actually didn't do that bad. It's just when that instakill attack kicks in! Must of spent like 2 hours on this guy now. My strategy is getting better every time but one mistake and it's back to the drawing board. What i've got so far: Not that i need help, i just like writing these things down My team is Lightning, Hope and Snow. I chose Hope because he has Medic + Synergist, and i like my Synergists! Synnies, as they shall now be known, don't seem to make a massive difference in this fight though so i might swap him out. I've given my party leader as much magical defense as possible, and given Hope as much HP as possible because he didn't have much of it. Hopefully the magic defense keeps Lightning alive long enough to phoenix down people I've found that if you go all out on Barthandelus then the Destrudo attack can be weakened. But this only seems useful if you had near full health before the attack starts. I'd focus more on keeping my health full overall but i focus too much on staggering him before Destrudo kicks the stagger bar back to 0. Probably seems like i'm making too much fuss over a boss that a lot of you probably did fairly easily xD I'll probably do this for every really hard boss though, i'm not used to getting this far in FF games! | 2010-03-15 09:03:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Around how long does it take to get everything in this game? | 2010-03-15 11:51:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| Depends how much of a completionist you are. If previous FF games are any example, usually around 60-80 hours for everything. 25 hours has me at the start of chap11, which I've heard is roughly halfway. | 2010-03-15 14:39:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| im on chapter 12, and i have to say that you can go back in chapter 13. it seems pretty smooth at the moment, but the game play is about 80 hours to get everything. and over 40 million gil needed. each character has 4 ultimate weapons, and they are all called omega weapon for lightning, total eclipses for sazh, save the queen for snow, nue for hope, nirvana for vanille, kain's lance for fang. but at 40 mill gil needed to get them its going to be a long hard farming slog i think | 2010-03-15 14:47:00 Author: sorrowthedark  Posts: 125 |
| What i've got so far: Maybe some of these tips will help: Each of the 4 side-heads is resistant to a different element. Tossing a librascope at the start of battle is therefore much more beneficial than using Libra You're right to assault Barthandelus hard when he's charging destrudo, because that's the key to delethalizing it. When he makes that grunt sound, you're good Having a saboteur in your config is really recommended. I'd suggest swapping out Snow for Fang. You still get to keep SEN/MED/MED for quick healing, but you gain the ability to debuff the boss. Highly recommended. If you can forego having two medics, swap Hope for Sazh because Sazh can cast Haste. Keep your HP high. I chose to equip gear that maximized strength for my SEN/COMs and maximized magic for my RAV/MEDs. It's not a bad idea to equip a Doctor's code either in case you need to use a potion to top up your HP before a big attack or to save yourself from imminent disaster. I did beat him on first try, but I only got two stars. Some of the things I suggested are hindsight, with which I think I could get 5 stars easily next time. | 2010-03-15 15:08:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| Yeah there is! Weapons and accessories are unlocked in the shops fairly early on. And enemies respawn when you backtrack so you can farm from them, as i found out once after running back to save once Yeah, I found out this weekend it does get better. You get some more options just after the bit where I stopped last week. The setup I've found best is using Light, Snow and Vanille. Lightning = Commando Snow = Senitel Vanille = Medic It's almost impossible to die. I ofc. switch to triple ravager paradigm when it's safe, and when enemies are staggered I use Commando, ravager, ravager. Since I started using that strategy I haven't lost a single fight. I'm thinking about a similar setup, but it seems a little slow. Do you get 5 stars a lot? Wouldn't it be faster to start off with something like Relentless Assault and switch to defense if things get rough? | 2010-03-15 17:15:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| Maybe some of these tips will help: I did beat him on first try, but I only got two stars. Some of the things I suggested are hindsight, with which I think I could get 5 stars easily next time. Thanks for the hint, i think i'll save it until i've beaten it or i'm really desperate though How did you beat it first try though?! I must really suck at this xD Edito: Ok i beat it!! I got 0 stars though Just read your hint and that was the exact tactic i was going to try if that turn failed xD Only difference being that i was trying magical defence over HP items, but the result would of been the same. Another Edit: Erm this is kind of a half-spoiler, not story related I couldn't help saying how awesome the crystarium looks when the characters unlock every role  The game feels like it's finally taking me out of training, and once i'm thrown into the wilderness it'll finally be the end to a 25 hour long tutorial | 2010-03-15 17:59:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| How did I beat it first try? Well, I didn't die, that's how. I got hit with Destrudo a bunch of times, and first time it put two of my characters near death. Subsequent times I must have been more aggressive, because it would only put me a bit below half health. I would usually hit him hard and fast, then switch to SEN/MED/SYN before it landed. I'd have gotten 5* if I didn't waste so much time in the beginning killing the heads, especially that last one with all its buffs... I thought the battle with Brinhildr was harder tbh, moreso due to the time constraint than anything. Still both fights pale compared to the two in Chap 10. I'm very happy though that this game is actually challenging for a change. I remember deliberately walking around FF12 with no-exp bangles equipped most of the time so I didn't get overleveled and even then it was far too easy. Same could be said for X and X-2... and probably 7,8,9 too. | 2010-03-15 18:35:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| Which 2 are you saying were harder? Chapter 10 stuff: So far i've only been against some icy looking dude and Bahamut. Icy dude was stupidly unfair sometimes, spent hours on him D: Bahamut was super easy though Ah cool i'm on chapter 11 now I don't care how far away the non-linear bit is, i'm just happy to be out of chapter 10! | 2010-03-16 01:22:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Ah good stuff then. I had a harder time with fight #2, but glad you found it easy. More because I couldn't get him in gestalt in time... | 2010-03-16 02:19:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| I love the theme tune for this game.. The one that plays over the main menu. | 2010-03-16 23:37:00 Author: AgentBanana  Posts: 511 |
| Is anyone else horribly disturbed by almost every element of this game's design? I feel like I'm playing a bad dream about Final Fantasy. Summons are transformers. Shiva is twins that transform into a motorcycle. The adults look like children and the children look like adults. Basically everyone looks 12. There are no towns. It's nothing but cutscenes and combat. 99% of all areas you go through are straight lines that feel like you're on a path at a museum or national park - not allowed to step off, just hold on to the rails and keep moving forward. There are images like the one in the opening cinematic, where everyone is riding on some dragon-robot, looking very noble and handsome and androgynous and pre-adolescent... except for the black guy of course, with the chocobo-nest afro, he's flopping around in the back like proper comic relief. WHAT?? I'm in Chapter 11 currently, and I am properly horrified by nearly every aspect of this game. And I CAN'T STOP. It's a bit of a page-turner. The mythology is so strange that I really genuinely have no idea of the outcome. This is one thing that's actually brought me in - the overarching story is pretty engaging, even if the characters - every single last one of them unfortunately - are contemptible and useless. I'm trying to power my way through this because I am truly horrified by it, but it's mesmerizing like a really weird, bad dream. Am I the only one that's playing it in such a state? | 2010-03-16 23:56:00 Author: Teebonesy  Posts: 1937 |
| Is anyone else horribly disturbed by almost every element of this game's design? Thank you! I thought that it was just me. Am I the only one that's playing it in such a state? No, I kind of have that feeling, but I think of it more as an interesting thing than a memerizing one. I don't know how to explain it, but I just can't steer away from it. The whole environment is wrong, yet the plot and senerio just keeps bringing me in. Like a movie with bad actors, I hate the people, but their roles want me to continue on with their story, almost as though I "need" to know the ending, no matter how bad they are in the acting business. I don't know, I think I just described Twilight or something. What's your in take of this topic? | 2010-03-17 00:23:00 Author: CyberSora Posts: 5551 |
| Hi people, I thought I'd post here to ask for some advice! The thing is, I've played various FFs, but the one I love the most, the ff that sits in the first position of my ranking is with no doubt, FFX12. I just loved what they did in there. Nearly no sentimentalism in the story, just politics and more politics. You want to make me happy, just give me complicated plots. The combat system was perfectly combined with exploring, and the gambits thing just made my day. You could make your characters be whatever you wanted them to be. But what I loved the most was the artistic design. For once, FF felt european, with all those aristocratic looking cities and mediterranean setbacks, combined with the ability to free roam and do incredible amounts of side quests. And yes, I'm aware I'm not mentioning the low-downs. Like Vaan. But c'mon, Balthier is just to awesome, and Basch rocks just too much. The characters for once, weren't THAT unreal as in the previous FF. So, what I'm reading here, is that chances are that I won't like the 13rd installment of this series. Anyways, I think I'm open to changes, and if a game is good, good it is. Keeping in mind what my personal tastes are, would you recommend me to spend 60? on FFXIII? I'm waiting for an answer here! | 2010-03-17 11:13:00 Author: Keldur  Posts: 628 |
| my jaw droped when i got to ch12 Eden looks so good ooops | 2010-03-17 12:34:00 Author: jump_button Posts: 1014 |
| @Keldur: FFXII is high on my list, too. I have not played XIII much yet, but here are my considerations: Unfortunately, in terms of freedom, XII and XII are on opposite sides of the spectrum. No exploring, no sneaking ahead to the next town to get some equipment early. The Paradigm Shift system is a bit like the Gambit System made more abstract and dynamic (and less work). If you like automated combat, you'll like the FFXIII combat system, though you might miss the detailed control the Gambits provided. Character advancement is a lot more uhm... characterful, as each character has specialties, different advancement trees with unique abilities. As far as I can tell at this point, the cities of FFXIII is more high-tech than Ivalice, it feels more like X or VIII. So, if I judged your tastes correctly, that's two in favour, two against. Personally, even though it's lineair I think it's worth getting. It will probably not be in my top 3 FF games, but it is still a FF game. If you do get it, I recommend shopping around, as I got mine for 55 euro, and this week spotted it for 45. | 2010-03-17 12:39:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| ch 11 open up alot more and make up for the first part being lineair. if the first part was like more the 2nd part of the game then it would be a better game | 2010-03-17 13:05:00 Author: jump_button Posts: 1014 |
| By the way, any one else getting an urge to do a Final Fantasy LBP level? | 2010-03-17 16:52:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| ch 11 open up alot more and make up for the first part being lineair. if the first part was like more the 2nd part of the game then it would be a better game No then it'd feel like a single player mmo I think it's good how they did it, make you feel comfortable with everything and then throw you into the open world. Instead of throwing you into the open world first thing and overwhelming you. They could of made it a bit less linear though, just not at the same level as post Ch11. Also your post about Chapter 12 was kind of a spoiler :c Could you put it in spoiler tags please? | 2010-03-17 18:02:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| my jaw droped when i got to ch12 Eden looks so good As Dex pointed out this was a bit (a lot) of a spoiler. Please try to be more mindful in the future, the FF experience in particular should always be spoiler free. No then it'd feel like a single player mmo I think it's good how they did it, make you feel comfortable with everything and then throw you into the open world. Instead of throwing you into the open world first thing and overwhelming you. They could of made it a bit less linear though, just not at the same level as post Ch11. I agree, I like the set-up of the first 10 chapters. The pacing is perfect and really allows for great character development. It is arguably the best paced FF tale yet. I personally loved the linearity. This allowed a complete immersion in the story without any "distractions". Ultimately though I think this FF will divide fans more then any other. Shame really, for me it is one of the top 3 in the FF franchise (incl. VII and X). | 2010-03-17 20:31:00 Author: OCK Posts: 1536 |
| Eh I wasn't bothered by the linearity through the first 10 chapters. It kept the story moving along at a good pace. Much better than having 20 hour breaks for sidequests and then you finally get back to the story and you've forgotten half of what happened. That being said, the contrast of chapter 11 is staggering. I went straight for the yellow arrow and didn't get far before I realized that I needed to go grind for a bit. But, I feel a bit like a lost puppy, don't know where to go now that there's all this open area. Four hunts down and my first taste of jobs at level 4. | 2010-03-17 20:32:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| After almost 28 hours I got to Gran Pulse. What do you think of the first enemies you encounter? I tried but I couldn't beat the bigger enemies or the flying dragons so I'm sticking with the smaller enemies for now. I guess you're not supposed to be able to beat them all either but rather experiment with what you can and can't do. I know they're beatable at this point but I can't be bothered. I did get slaughtered pretty good by the flying dragons.. | 2010-03-17 20:35:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| Eh I wasn't bothered by the linearity through the first 10 chapters. It kept the story moving along at a good pace. Much better than having 20 hour breaks for sidequests and then you finally get back to the story and you've forgotten half of what happened. That being said, the contrast of chapter 11 is staggering. I went straight for the yellow arrow and didn't get far before I realized that I needed to go grind for a bit. But, I feel a bit like a lost puppy, don't know where to go now that there's all this open area. Four hunts down and my first taste of jobs at level 4. I went straight for the yellow arrow too, I thought it was where the mission stone thingy was telling me to go! I'm doing these missions very slowly though, i've only done 1 so far. I make a start and either go off on a tangent exploring or get carried away on my computer instead xD I don't feel a massive urge to storm through it anymore, and don't play as much. I find it really relaxing when i do play though, just pop on and have a wander around while i'm doing something else! | 2010-03-17 21:21:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Ultimately though I think this FF will divide fans more then any other. Shame really, for me it is one of the top 3 in the FF franchise (incl. VII and X). Oh, I dunno. FFX was similarly lineair, and people seemed to like that one. And I like the battle system better here (although I suck at it, I'll be glad to get 3 stars, even with shifting like crazy). Some games appeal more than others, it's a matter of personal opinion. Eh I wasn't bothered by the linearity through the first 10 chapters. It kept the story moving along at a good pace. Much better than having 20 hour breaks for sidequests and then you finally get back to the story and you've forgotten half of what happened. The point of side quests is that they are (supposed to be) optional. No one is forcing you to take a 20 hour side quest break, but FFXIII doesn't even give me the choice. | 2010-03-18 10:35:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| Even with a gigantic world you still need to keep it sensible if that makes any sense. I think the size of gran pulse is more than enough to keep me occupied. | 2010-03-18 12:16:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| Chapter 11 questions below... So Gran Pulse.... I'm still here. 9 hunts down and I finally strengthened my party to pass those Boxed Phalanx Fights, so I started to press on to the yellow arrow. Got as far as the watery area after the ride on Atomos (the giant ball) and those sahagin groups are tearing me a new one. This chapter is so very confusing, because the difficulty is so very uneven, and spikes very suddenly, so I'm wondering half the time if I'm doing the right thing at the right time. First, I assume you can return to Gran Pulse in later chapters, this is correct yes? I don't see how I'm supposed to take down an adamantoise now so logic lends itself this way. After taking the ride on Atomos and hitting a brick wall with those sahagin-type fish guys, I backtracked to the previous area and uncovered a bunch of paths that were previously blocked. At the end are more of those garage door structures with super-strong bad guys in them (i.e. Juggernauts, Centurions). Should I be strong enough to defeat any of these guys now? I was tempted to throw on some fire resist and try a Juggernaut now that most of my chars have two jobs that have role level 4. Anyways, just wondering what the hell is up with this. | 2010-03-18 16:56:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| spoiler below .... okay, you can return to grand pulse i think its at chapter 13 before end game boss, and juggernauts are hard at most levels. the big (mobs) monsters what ever you like to call them, are best to not try to defeat untill later. as the giant turtle things have 3m hit points on its legs 3.5mil on its body or hull as its called for some strange reason. the damage they do start from 1 - 2k per character. these stats are from libra in game and the offical strat guide - that saying im not sure if its possible to return to grand pulse or not as ive not yet tried, but the guide says you can. the guide is pretty relable in most cases but ill let you know for sure when i try myself. | 2010-03-18 17:09:00 Author: sorrowthedark Posts: 125 |
| i love this game deffo a favortie of the series for me. am i the only one that considers the weapon upgrade, dismatle systerm a side quest? its also very addictive love the story. reminds me of ff10 alot | 2010-03-18 17:49:00 Author: Ash_uk1 Posts: 255 |
| okay, you can............ill let you know for sure when i try myself. Spoiler tags dude. The point of side quests is that they are (supposed to be) optional. No one is forcing you to take a 20 hour side quest break, but FFXIII doesn't even give me the choice. I was a bit disappointed that they weren't optional. I thought it'd be like, ok here's the story and here's the sidequests, do one or the other. And you'd be able to do bits of story and return to sidequestland whenever you want. The discovery aspect just isn't there, it's like "HEY OVER THERE I'M A SIDEQUEST", which takes you to another part of a big field. There's no finding sidequests that you never knew existed when you thought you knew everything about the game, and you know once you get one you're probably just going to be walking across a field and killing a named version of the enemies you kill all the time. I do enjoy it but it could be better, it's basically just controlled non-linear grinding. | 2010-03-18 18:00:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| On the other hand, better slap in your face quests than those impossible to guess secrets like the Zodiac Spear. I understand there are no real missables here. I've been really panicky about them ever since I missed the Added Effect materia in FFVII, and it's nice to be able to play without worrying so much. | 2010-03-18 19:37:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| Chapter 11 questions below... So Gran Pulse.... I'm still here. 9 hunts down and I finally strengthened my party to pass those Boxed Phalanx Fights, so I started to press on to the yellow arrow. Got as far as the watery area after the ride on Atomos (the giant ball) and those sahagin groups are tearing me a new one. This chapter is so very confusing, because the difficulty is so very uneven, and spikes very suddenly, so I'm wondering half the time if I'm doing the right thing at the right time. First, I assume you can return to Gran Pulse in later chapters, this is correct yes? I don't see how I'm supposed to take down an adamantoise now so logic lends itself this way. After taking the ride on Atomos and hitting a brick wall with those sahagin-type fish guys, I backtracked to the previous area and uncovered a bunch of paths that were previously blocked. At the end are more of those garage door structures with super-strong bad guys in them (i.e. Juggernauts, Centurions). Should I be strong enough to defeat any of these guys now? I was tempted to throw on some fire resist and try a Juggernaut now that most of my chars have two jobs that have role level 4. Anyways, just wondering what the hell is up with this. I feel the exact same way but I'm pushing forward one step at a time. I'm dying a lot. | 2010-03-18 21:22:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| I'm at chapter 12 O_o | 2010-03-18 22:26:00 Author: Fredrik94 Posts: 342 |
| On the other hand, better slap in your face quests than those impossible to guess secrets like the Zodiac Spear. I understand there are no real missables here. I've been really panicky about them ever since I missed the Added Effect materia in FFVII, and it's nice to be able to play without worrying so much. My friend keeps telling me that the elemental rings that you get throughout the game are missable. Not sure if that's true though xD Un-blatant side quests can be bad too i suppose They need to be done well, i've always liked the idea of a sort of myth sidequest. Where you go and search for something based on maybe just one rumour and end up with a whole new quest on your hands. Or you randomly search a cave and find something which pieces together with similar items from other secret caves. Those examples are more for mythicy FF1 style games, but the basis is you're either rewarded for your own exploration or curiosity | 2010-03-18 22:35:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Well, you could miss something (or sell it when you should have advanced it), but if you're careful checking all corridors for treasure and you don't sell any accessories (quire doable), you're pretty safe (or so I read). I agree with your examples, that's what proper quests should be like. But please, keep them available for the whole game! | 2010-03-19 00:16:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| is it me or does the game have a linear path. i just think it does a bit but maybe its just me. oh yeah sorry about spoiler tag, i am still getting used to things here but post has been edited with spoiler tags | 2010-03-19 00:23:00 Author: sorrowthedark Posts: 125 |
| The game is linear, i gave up on it lol, and im a huge fan of Final Fantasy games, i dont know what square enix was thinking when they made the game....its sad | 2010-03-19 01:18:00 Author: Bloo_boy Posts: 1019 |
| I feel the exact same way but I'm pushing forward one step at a time. I'm dying a lot. I spoke too soon. Turns out the sahagin fights that were pwning me were optional, and correctly following the arrow path yielded much more doable battles. Just got to the end of Teijin's tower (or whatever its called), most of my characters maxed out their 8th tier chrystariums. The game is linear, i gave up on it lol, and im a huge fan of Final Fantasy games, i dont know what square enix was thinking when they made the game....its sad You can't be that huge of a fan if you gave up on it. Honestly, it's not THAT different. IMO, the biggest change to the feel of the game is the stagger-based combat system and the fact that it takes an inkling of skill this time to not die. I haven't missed the towns to the point of "wtf squeenix" and the linearity of the maps is more an illusion than anything. You still get access to sidequests, though apparently less abundant, after 25 hours or so. The maps themselves keep you running in between two walls, which is hardly different than most areas in XII or any previous FF - it's simply a case this time of the walls not being invisible barriers that keep you running along a predetermined path. If anything, I think the story is better quality this time around and it's nice to have some challenge put back into the series. My only gripe at this point is the weapon/accessory upgrading system is confusing. It's not very clear which gear is better and its very expensive to upgrade - so most people will end up wasting a lot of resources needlessly. Even more confusing is the fact that you could play through the game and never upgrade anything. I did quite a bit of FAQ searching before I figured out what weapons I might want to invest in upgrading. As for accessories, I still have no idea. | 2010-03-19 01:46:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| I barely beat the big shoulder mechanic dude in the tunnels after gran pulse. He has three thugs and theres no way around. I had to summon odin. Smaller packs are easy but that guy is buffing and summoning the others. You know the guy before vanilles eidolon. | 2010-03-19 09:54:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| I think you're referring to the boxed phalanx. Yes those fights gave me a lot of trouble too. You can sneak past them if you're lucky, but it's pretty rare to preempt them. I didn't have any luck with summons, but I did use deceptisol the first time which made the fight very easy. That eidolon fight was no cakewalk either. Took me 4 or 5 tries because I kept running out of time with like || this much room left on the gestalt bar. After that everything was pretty easy up until the boss fight at the end of Taejin's Tower. Just past Oerba now with maxed grids at lvl 4 woot. | 2010-03-19 15:38:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| The game is linear, i gave up on it lol, and im a huge fan of Final Fantasy games, i dont know what square enix was thinking when they made the game....its sad Let me get this straight, you're supposedly a huge fan of Final Fantasy and you gave up on this one because you want some forks in the road? Seriously? The only thing that's sad here is that you're punishing this game for something that nearly every FF game is guilty of. | 2010-03-20 00:52:00 Author: Reef1978  Posts: 527 |
| It's a bit annoying seeing everyone hating on FF13 because it's non-linear... apparently moreso than other FF games. Even FF7 was completly linear from what i remember, i played for hours and was still following the same grey and brown pre-rendered gif image, From what i've seen, complete non-lineararity (or at least the illusion of) only works well in the 2D FF games. It wouldn't work in one of the newer FF's because they're striving to gain a bit more realism. The guy you'd usually see on a zoomed out overworld running at 100mph would be replaced by an hour walk across a field. I'm surprised they managed to get that to work in FF13 to some extent, but it just shows how necessary that first linear part of the game was. I actually hope SE make a new 2D FF, just so some of the older mechanics can come into play. | 2010-03-20 13:41:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| If I want to play the old games I'll do just that. I still haven't played the original 4 and 5. Or 2 and 3 on the NES. | 2010-03-20 14:01:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| I'm at chapter 13, at the final boss.. And I just can't seem to beat him. | 2010-03-22 07:28:00 Author: Fredrik94 Posts: 342 |
| At the beginning of Chapter 12 now. I've heard it isn't too long until i can go back to Pulse Also it's taken me like 55 hours to get here, i must really suck! | 2010-03-22 09:46:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| You can go back to Pulse at the start of chapter 13, but there seems to be little point in doing so. Instead, I'd recommend going back after you beat the final boss, since that opens up your 10th level Crystarium. Not to mention, there's some sweet xp to be had if you press through 13. It's hard, but there are battles you can milk for 32000 CP. Hint: Delta Attack (COM/RAV/SEN) is a very good paradigm to have, as regular mob fights are routinely harder than most boss fights. I think I'm pretty much at the final boss(es) now.... 47 hours in? | 2010-03-22 15:41:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| I'm at 47 hours myself and I'm not quite sure where I am. I got killed by some plant rotating enemy. | 2010-03-22 17:17:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| I love the Final Fantasy series, So it pains me say this, but it must be said: "Square, you broke my heart." The plot is predictable, The writing is Amateurish and disorganized. The complete lack of text formatting doesn't help either. The only character I've managed to give a crap about what happens to is Sazh's pet. --BTW, what's up with Snow's betrothel and make-out scene with what appears to be a 12 year old girl?! The main character designs are deadly dull! no vampires, giant talking cats, android wizards, or mohawked amputees. Is "Skinny white girl with pink hair (X3)" really the best they could do? The menu systems are slow, clumsy, and visually boring. Game play is a Linear series of tiny little maps. Control is sluggish awkward, and inconsistent due to badly planned transition animations, and especially poor camera AI. The camera has a lot of problems (sucks in an epic way). Too much sway and zoom, too many camera zones packed too close together, will only move as fast as your character (so no looking back while running),etc.... Some of the collision detection behavior is kindof crude (like seeing a baddie lurch to the side as your side kick runs directly through it's zone). Not all of the voice-acting is gawd-awful, but some of it is. Poor dramatic timing, Terrible accents that slip and fade around the globe, and inconsistent recording quality. (did they phone-in some of the lines?!) The cut-scenes are beautiful, but they don't always jive with the text, and the character animation is often puppet-like. On the plus side, All the art (except the menus) is absolutely freaking gorgeous, and the music doesn't suck. It feels like an un-finished product. It also feels like some staff were asleep at the wheel. | 2010-03-22 17:20:00 Author: swanbrown  Posts: 898 |
| "Square, you broke my heart." Just about every one of your arguments could accurately be applied to every main final fantasy title in the last decade. Why bother starting to hate it now? ----- I'm getting more than a bit tired of reading people's complaints about this game. It seems like an endless flood of nitpicking which really serves to cover up the real fact that this game doesn't bring people the nostalgic feeling of the older titles, or that the combat is actually difficult at times. I get the general sense that most of the people who hate this game simply cannot be pleased by any realistic means. | 2010-03-22 17:55:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| I'm assuming you can return to gran pulse then once you've beat the final boss? | 2010-03-22 18:10:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| > It feels like an un-finished product. It also feels like some staff were asleep at the wheel. I feel exactly the opposite but I'm not entirely thrilled with this entry either. This game is very polished and impressive. Minimal load/save times, very fast menu response, and visually gorgeous. I actually like the characters/story, it's what I've come to expect from a JRPG. > Some of the collision detection behavior is kindof crude Complaining about collision detection in a rpg...really...how does this matter?!? That said I'm in chapter 9 and the combat is getting a little stale and I don't like the weapon upgrade system. I do appreciate that square tries to mix things up, I don't want to keep playing the same game afterall...but I think something along the lines of an improved gambit system would have been nice. With auto-battle I find myself wondering why it's even necessary for me to hit x. Up until now fights have been more boring than difficult...my fear is that later fights will be cheap instead of difficult. I don't miss talking to npcs until the text repeats (to make sure you don't miss anything) and the square concept of a mini-game has always been lacking, ex. dodge 200 lighting bolts (triple-triad in 8 was fun)...but some diversion from the combat would be nice, I liked the hunts in 12 and a good fishing mini-game is always welcome. I hear the game opens up in chapter 11? I'm looking forward to it... | 2010-03-22 18:45:00 Author: fullofwin  Posts: 1214 |
| Un-finished? What the ... I do hate the characters though. | 2010-03-22 18:50:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| I think it's one of those games where you either love it or hate it. I for one, love it. It gets off to a slow start but if you give it some time, it's fantastic. Or I found it anyway. And it somehow made me want to play ff10. | 2010-03-22 18:50:00 Author: AgentBanana Posts: 511 |
| Same here, i love it but i can see why some people hate it (sort of). I was gonna play FF10 afterwards, but i'm not sure i can take anymore FF xD I'm retreating back to Disgaea after this. | 2010-03-22 19:26:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Wow... I hardly understand some of the severe comments i can read here about this game... I played all the FF since the original FFIV. Each one had a particular and unique touch and i think it is what have made the success of the whole series. And in the same time, at each episode, there is ultra-positive as well as ultra-negative comments about it. This is how passion comes... However, when i read some people saying the game is not polished, and some of the ultra-negative comments wrote here, i think i didn't play the same videogames than their authors these last 25 years  Btw, the game gave me a strange feeling at start. A very strong "FFX" feeling (but without the great Blitzball feautures) mixed with some innovative gameplay elements. But i must admit that after 20 hours of gaming (Chapter 10), the game is absolutely gorgeous, visually and in term of gameplay. I love the awesome increase in tactical that the Paradigm shift induces, i absolutely love the Cristarium and the fact that Armors and weapons show an EXP level. And to finish, i found animation during battle very impressive, and far better than every previous FF game. I was thinking this game will be a good RPG, allowing me to patiently wait FFXIV (I am SOOO ANXIOUS for this one). Finally, i play a GREAT RPG, at the complete opposite of the adventures proposed by the two online opus (or at least the XI, since i didn't play the XIV yet)... | 2010-03-22 19:51:00 Author: Takelow  Posts: 1355 |
| Same here, i love it but i can see why some people hate it (sort of). I was gonna play FF10 afterwards, but i'm not sure i can take anymore FF xD I'm retreating back to Disgaea after this. Lol, ever played dragon quest? It's another great RPG if you haven't played it yet. Personally, I'm waiting for a Big Final God of Modern Metal Gear Warfare Zone 30000 + 1 and a half. It's gonna kick ***! | 2010-03-22 20:55:00 Author: AgentBanana Posts: 511 |
| I'm waiting for a Big Final God of Modern Metal Gear Warfare Zone 30000 + 1 and a half. It's gonna kick ***! It's been cancelled. | 2010-03-22 22:03:00 Author: Rabid-Coot Posts: 6728 |
| It feels like an un-finished product. It also feels like some staff were asleep at the wheel. Wow, take off those negativity goggles! I'll be the first to say XIII isn't perfect, but I really don't see most of your complaints. I'd almost say you're trolling! Maybe you built up an unrealistic expectation waiting for the first PS3 FF release? I'll agree that the game could have been a bit less lineair. With these maps, they should have at least made the system less lineair. Maybe if they did something with the components like the Bazaar loot in FFXII there would at least be some diversion. I think the characters are alright, and the story is pretty good. Giant cat or bunny species are pretty cheap ways of making a character stand out, you know. And the battle system is great, I really like the direction FF has taken in 12-13 there. I'm assuming you can return to gran pulse then once you've beat the final boss? So I hear. Still a long way off for me... | 2010-03-22 22:13:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| It's been cancelled. *Jumps off a cliff* | 2010-03-22 22:26:00 Author: AgentBanana Posts: 511 |
| Well, I finished it, and then spent some hours afterwards going back and trying to hit up a lot of the side-quests and stuff I missed out on my first time. While I was rewarded at one point with some hilarious and unrelentingly silly cactuar cutscenes (SWEET MERCY!!), I otherwise feel like I'm just completely wasting my time grinding levels and going through the motions. So I'm calling it quits. I'd still like to beat one of those giant adamantoises, so I might play a bit more to get that off my plate, but otherwise I just don't think I'm going to bother. Looking over the trophies after having beaten the game, I would like to plead with any FF gamers here to not give into it - don't do it! Don't go for the platinum! They're roping you in with some absurdly ridiculous trophies that would require nothing less than days and days of grinding and doing the same thing over and over and over and over with zero actual new content as reward. It is worth repeating that the graphics in places are absolutely mind-blowingly incredible. Some of the most amazing and sharpest graphics I've ever seen. Chapter 12, as others have said, for sure is an example. But there's still this feeling in all the most gorgeous areas, that you're not really THERE - that you're in a museum, or a path at Yellowstone, stuck on a tiny walkway. You can look, but you can't touch. You can admire the scenery, but you can't explore. Stay on your rails. Atta boy. Ultimately, all said and done, I am crushingly disappointed in this game. They do give you a pretty epic ending, and I'm pleased that there's more going on story-wise than in XII. with XII you had a big intro and a big ending, but EVERYTHING in between was basically non-story. It was just little piddly excuses to usher the party to the next location. "now we have to go here. now we have to go here..." So at least with XIII, things happened, things changed, the story actively progressed. It's a shame I just didn't care at all for any of the characters and actually despise to a great extent the character designs. It may be time to retire the Final Fantasy series. I feel like, as a franchise, the "fans" are starting to split pretty heavily, and expectations are becoming such a huge part of the series. Start something new. Or make one last one and tell everyone "this is it, the ACTUAL final fantasy". But I for one am more than a little disenfranchised. I'm tired of characters like Hope giving their incessant inspirational speeches. I'm tired of looking at these perfectly designed pre-pubescent faces that all look identical. I mean look at Heavy Rain - this is what's possible with characters in videogames. Characters that look like PEOPLE. Real people with real features that are distinct from one another. What a novel concept! I pine for the SNES days. 6 was the highlight of the RPG genre as far as I'm concerned, and one of my all-time favorite games. I'd love to see entirely new directors take on Final Fantasy and hire Amano to actually design the look of the world. anyway - final thoughts: Crushingly disappointed in XIII. I feel like I'm done with this series. But it was at least eye-burstingly gorgeous. | 2010-03-22 22:34:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| Well, I've been addicted the past few days... currently on what I guess will be the main boss of Chapter 9. Kinda important, and hard. Yeah. Don't wanna say more, but he is hard. And awsome. Yay. | 2010-03-22 22:55:00 Author: RockSauron Posts: 10882 |
| Am i the only one that things that Chapter 12 looks a bit rubbish? xD Maybe it's my SD tv not being able to handle the awesomeness of it. | 2010-03-22 23:29:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| "I'm tired of looking at these perfectly designed pre-pubescent faces that all look identical. I mean look at Heavy Rain - this is what's possible with characters in videogames. Characters that look like PEOPLE. Real people with real features that are distinct from one another. What a novel concept!" I wasn't going to respond to anything you had to say because frankly I think you are completely off your rocker, but I gotta say, you seem to have forgotten what a fantasy is, which is odd considering it's right there in the title. This is not the first time I've seen someone compare this to Heavy Rain and if you are doing that then you are completely missing the point. FF is a fantasy game and typically a fantasy is something that's better than reality. Everything is designed to be beautiful and not of this world and that includes the characters. This is a game where even the violence is beautiful. You hit people with swords and gorgeous flashes of light come out, and you can even bring people back to life when they die. Heavy Rain isn't going for fantasy, it's going for reality. Reality isn't filled with perfect looking people that can hit each other and create a spectacular light show in the process. It's ugly, it's dirty, and it's filled with people that bleed and die. You know all of this perfectly well, so don't knock the game for doing exactly what it set out to do. That would be like me trashing Heavy Rain for having a world containing people that look like real people. It's completely unfair and you know it.  | 2010-03-22 23:42:00 Author: Reef1978 Posts: 527 |
| Just finished the game. Here's my short pros and cons review. Pros: Beautiful graphics No HDD install and generally quick load time between areas or from save games Eidolons are much better than the weak Espers in FF12 Battle system and Crystarium skill system is great and fun, although lacking something I will get into later in Cons The world of Cocoon/Pulse and the lore behind them is really interesting Game is extremely linear for the most part but I like it, story is generally told well Cons: I really do hate a few characters in the game, most of you probably can guess who, unlike FF12 where everyone is likable. In fact, I don't think I've been so against some characters in any FF games before FF13. You can only control the leader in battle and the fact that you can't customize what your other 2 party members does ala FF12 gambit system. It's really frustrating when your AI MED is not reviving the other AI or casting cure/cura instead of curasa/curaja; or your AI SEN is not provoking/steelguarding; or your AI SYN is prioritizing buffs casting totally not the way you want! This really make some battles harder than it should towards the end. No mini games! They could have been a little more generous with teleport waystones. Chocobos need to run a little faster and access to more areas. I think that's it. It's still a very fun and enjoyable game. Recommended for RPG/FF fans. | 2010-03-23 02:00:00 Author: Unknown User |
| Man, that seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecwet spoiler boss is hard :kz: How do you beat old Bart? I defeat his armor, get him to half health, get Lightning and Hope to medic, get hope to use synergy on everyone, Snow is sentinel but lightning's leader so that doesn't really matter... how do I survive Bart's ultimate cannon thing? I used to be able to by getting full health without even Synergy, but then Lightning always dies and synergy didn't help D:. How do I survive that then, because I've got the rest of the fight down to half health of his final form, but he kills me off. How do I survive that? Do I just... grind? D: Odd, thought there was no grinding here... or haven't had to yet anyway. Maybe I shouldn't have skipped so many fights... hm And did Teebonesy just say he wants Final Fantasy to be gritty realistic? O_o | 2010-03-23 02:06:00 Author: RockSauron Posts: 10882 |
| Imma fan of rpgs…and I enjoyed some of the spin-offs of final fantasy (tactics advanced, crystal chronicles), and I was playing through VII and X till recently. worth my money? or should I splurge and get me some pokemans first for the road trip coming up this weekend/ | 2010-03-23 02:18:00 Author: Ragfell Posts: 729 |
| Definitely yes, it worth the money. It may be time to retire the Final Fantasy series. In an economic point of view, no! More than 5 milllions copy have been sell since the launch (more than 96 millions for the whole series). It is really encouraging for SE to continue this way. In a ludic point of view, no! I think that there is very FEW RPG in date to be as good as this FFXIII. The game is not perfect, but remains a piece of videogame art. Perhaps you should have better say: "It may time for me to stop playing Final Fantasy series". If you are tired about the series, nothing force you to play it anymore! | 2010-03-23 09:12:00 Author: Takelow Posts: 1355 |
| Lol, ever played dragon quest? It's another great RPG if you haven't played it yet. Personally, I'm waiting for a Big Final God of Modern Metal Gear Warfare Zone 30000 + 1 and a half. It's gonna kick ***! I might try that some time My ds is broked though so i'm sticking to psp games for the moment. I completed FF1 on psp last week. I really don't recommend it, it's too easy to be fun. Last boss can be beaten just by pressing one button xD | 2010-03-23 09:19:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| think ill finish 13 and get back to lbp. | 2010-03-23 09:34:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| It may be time to retire the Final Fantasy series. I feel like, as a franchise, the "fans" are starting to split pretty heavily, and expectations are becoming such a huge part of the series. Start something new. Or make one last one and tell everyone "this is it, the ACTUAL final fantasy". I wonder what people would have said if FFXIII was released under a new brand instead, without the burden of expectation. But I for one am more than a little disenfranchised. I'm tired of characters like Hope giving their incessant inspirational speeches. I'm tired of looking at these perfectly designed pre-pubescent faces that all look identical. I mean look at Heavy Rain - this is what's possible with characters in videogames. Characters that look like PEOPLE. Real people with real features that are distinct from one another. What a novel concept! I pine for the SNES days. 6 was the highlight of the RPG genre as far as I'm concerned, and one of my all-time favorite games. I'd love to see entirely new directors take on Final Fantasy and hire Amano to actually design the look of the world. Reef1978 already made a very good point about the characters. I also find it funny that you complain about perfect, identical faces and then immediately praise the SNES era, when all faces in all games were the same ten pixels. | 2010-03-23 10:45:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| In an economic point of view, no! More than 5 milllions copy have been sell since the launch (more than 96 millions for the whole series). It is really encouraging for SE to continue this way. In a ludic point of view, no! I think that there is very FEW RPG in date to be as good as this FFXIII. The game is not perfect, but remains a piece of videogame art. Perhaps you should have better say: "It may time for me to stop playing Final Fantasy series". If you are tired about the series, nothing force you to play it anymore! This is the main reason why I almost - almost! - deleted the comment that I think the series should retire. the fact is, it's an open-ended series, there's no real continuity with story. So they have a GIGANTIC built-in audience that would be difficult to secure without the series title. Rogar mentioned the question that he wonders what the reaction would be if this very same game was branded as something else (and let's assume minus chocobos and other references). I wonder the same thing. I have to assume that it would see a bit less of the complaints this one is seeing, which is a good thing - the people for whom the game is NOT for would be more likely to stay away. But, that also means less money overall, hence the FF branding. Where it has potential now is to be as different as they want, to completely depart from the current trend and even begin with completely new crew and direction, but maintain the same budget that giant franchise sales allow for. So, when I say "maybe the series should be retired", I'm heavily qualifying that statement, because one thing I love about Final Fantasy is that without any story continuity, it has the potential to stay fresh. And certainly they're changing up the formula a LOT with this iteration, and it just so happens to be one I fundamentally disagree with on many levels. Maybe Final Fantasy XV will blow my brains out and deliver exactly the type of thing I'm looking for. I certainly hope so, or maybe they've found their direction and are married to it for years to come. I wouldn't want a "fan service" game either. I like progress. I just happen to think XIII represents almost the complete opposite of it. Reef1978 already made a very good point about the characters. I also find it funny that you complain about perfect, identical faces and then immediately praise the SNES era, when all faces in all games were the same ten pixels. The thing is, there's NO EXCUSE anymore for characters in a game like this, ESPECIALLY in a game like this in fact, to all look the same and be so perfectly formed. On the SNES, they had only a few pixels to work with in order to get as much character through as possible, and I think they did an admirable job in that regard while sticking to the same, stupid "super-deformed" formula, but they were up against huge constraints. And the characters in the SNES days were often stereotypes, at least in the early stages, to make up for the lack of visual emotion that results from such a small pixel space with which to work. So you ended up with the grand opera, and that melodrama element is still definitely a part of the series. But with the SNES era, you also had text, and so in many ways the game was like reading a novel. The graphics only gave you the mood, and much of the character you filled in yourself. You gave them their voices and faces. And I should also mention that when I say "SNES era", I always have VI visualized in my head. This game, to me, is the pinnacle of the entire rpg genre, and in interactive storytelling. If they had today's tech and budgets to work with, I shudder to think of what that game may have become. But even replaying it now, it holds up astonishingly well. Scenes like Cyan's discovery at the phantom train are more heart-wrenching than anything I've seen in XIII, and you had absolutely incredible set-pieces and epic storytelling that frankly dwarfs - dwarfs to a laughable degree - anything I've seen in recent iterations of the series. you seem to have forgotten what a fantasy is, which is odd considering it's right there in the title. This is not the first time I've seen someone compare this to Heavy Rain and if you are doing that then you are completely missing the point. FF is a fantasy game and typically a fantasy is something that's better than reality. Everything is designed to be beautiful and not of this world and that includes the characters. This is a game where even the violence is beautiful. You hit people with swords and gorgeous flashes of light come out, and you can even bring people back to life when they die. Oh, I agree with you on all counts about what Final Fantasy attempts to do, and completely disagree with you that a fantasy is typically "better" than reality. Fantasy now encapsulates such an incredibly wide spectrum. Demon's Souls is fantasy, but it's a dark, miserable world a millionfold worse than our dingiest basements. I don't think Final Fantasy should be nearly as gritty as Heavy Rain or half as much as Demon's Souls, but is it too much to ask that characters' FACES be discernible from each other, that they should contain a modicum of actual CHARACTER? There's something greatly disturbing to me about how Final Fantasy fetishises its violence and technology and paints a picture of a world where everyone is the same beautiful pre-pubescent Aryan with a tiny chin and nose, and anyone different is either a villain or comic relief. This is on a platform and with a budget that could EASILY create characters with an incredible amount of character on par with what we see in certain other videogames. How am I supposed to feel when I see the opening cinematic, with Sazh flopping off the back of the shiny dragon-robot thing, with an afro big enough to nest a chocobo (which it is literally doing), while all of the beautiful white characters look solemnly, posed as Michaelangelo himself were carving their likenesses, off into the distance? I'm sorry, but I simply don't agree with Final Fantasy's sense of beauty, but more importantly, I believe that its presentation is insulting and negative - but certainly not purposely so. And I'm about to drop some giant spoilers regarding VI, so anyone who STILL hasn't played it but hopes to, you've been warned - Oh, and also some big XIII spoilers too: VI was a game that builds up an incredible mosaic tapestry about a group of people who become involved with saving the world. Halfway through the game, they fail. This is no joke or exaggeration. They fail, and the world is destroyed. The rest of the game takes place in its ruins, as the characters climb out of the wreckage, separated and strewn about the broken world, and hope only to salvage some last vestige of life and color. One of them has the conviction to kill herself. She actually jumps off a cliff to her doom. Celes wakes up on the beach, discovers she is alive and that there is an old man who loves her, and she stays by his side while he dies, his final knowledge that the world is ruined and that this girl, like a granddaughter to him, has attempted to kill herself. This was a game that cared deeply for its characters and story in spite of their severely limited visual representations, and I for one felt that compassion vividly when I played it. I remember another character, one with a chocobo baby living in his afro, who considered suicide for a brief moment in XIII, but literally - LITERALLY - five minutes later yells "That's right, let's DO IT!" while jumping into a sweet red hot rod that just transformed from a fire-breathing mech-god. It just so happens that this character had more than a handful of polygons and high resolution textures and facial animation and voice over and... you get the picture. We gained a shiny veneer, and lost a soul. In my eyes, XIII's fetishes are more important to it than character and meaningful storytelling. This hyper-emphasized obsession with design and beauty and technology do violence to it as a storytelling medium, and keeps me - and many others - from ever being able to fully invest in it. And there's good stuff in there. I can't deny that XIII has some interesting mythology, and the Coccoon-Pulse dynamic is a rich concept for a story. But I absolutely abhor its entire visual design and concepts, to such extent that they remove any possibility for me to care about it. | 2010-03-23 12:14:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| Are there any towns at all to explore in 13? | 2010-03-23 12:20:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| Are there any towns at all to explore in 13? Not really. There are "locations" that physically might resemble towns, but don't let it fool you, they aren't. They're just more backdropped corridors that usher you through to the next area while fighting swarms of enemies. | 2010-03-23 12:22:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| There's something greatly disturbing to me about how Final Fantasy fetishises its violence and technology and paints a picture of a world where everyone is the same beautiful pre-pubescent Aryan with a tiny chin and nose, and anyone different is either a villain or comic relief. This is on a platform and with a budget that could EASILY create characters with an incredible amount of character on par with what we see in certain other videogames. How am I supposed to feel when I see the opening cinematic, with Sazh flopping off the back of the shiny dragon-robot thing, with an afro big enough to nest a chocobo (which it is literally doing), while all of the beautiful white characters look solemnly, posed as Michaelangelo himself were carving their likenesses, off into the distance? I'm sorry, but I simply don't agree with Final Fantasy's sense of beauty, but more importantly, I believe that its presentation is insulting and negative - but certainly not purposely so. Is Sahz the only black character? I remember back in 7 and probably 8 the black population was so low that it felt like it was a freak occurance because there was no way a naturally occuring population could be supported by so few. | 2010-03-23 13:35:00 Author: Rabid-Coot Posts: 6728 |
| Ultimately though I think this FF will divide fans more then any other. Shame really, for me it is one of the top 3 in the FF franchise (incl. VII and X). Oh, I dunno. FFX was similarly lineair, and people seemed to like that one. And I like the battle system better here (although I suck at it, I'll be glad to get 3 stars, even with shifting like crazy). Some games appeal more than others, it's a matter of personal opinion. OK, let's have a look shall we? : i love this game deffo a favortie of the series for me. am i the only one that considers the weapon upgrade, dismatle systerm a side quest? its also very addictive love the story. reminds me of ff10 alot The game is linear, i gave up on it lol, and im a huge fan of Final Fantasy games, i dont know what square enix was thinking when they made the game....its sad You can't be that huge of a fan if you gave up on it. Honestly, it's not THAT different. Let me get this straight, you're supposedly a huge fan of Final Fantasy and you gave up on this one because you want some forks in the road? Seriously? The only thing that's sad here is that you're punishing this game for something that nearly every FF game is guilty of. It's a bit annoying seeing everyone hating on FF13 because it's non-linear... I personally loved the linearity. This allowed a complete immersion in the story without any "distractions". Is anyone else horribly disturbed by almost every element of this game's design? 99% of all areas you go through are straight lines that feel like you're on a path at a museum or national park - not allowed to step off, just hold on to the rails and keep moving forward. Eh linearity has been in the series long before now, but stripping out the overworld (since FFX) seems to have made it more obvious to people. FFX was the most violent offender in that regard... and yet I don't recall that being a source of criticism then. Why is it such a big deal now how the maps are shaped? If it works in context of the story, then go for it. is it me or does the game have a linear path. i just think it does a bit but maybe its just me. I love the Final Fantasy series, So it pains me say this, but it must be said: "Square, you broke my heart." Game play is a Linear series of tiny little maps. I'm getting more than a bit tired of reading people's complaints about this game. It seems like an endless flood of nitpicking which really serves to cover up the real fact that this game doesn't bring people the nostalgic feeling of the older titles It feels like an un-finished product. I feel exactly the opposite but I'm not entirely thrilled with this entry either. Un-finished? What the ... Wow... I hardly understand some of the severe comments i can read here about this game... when i read some people saying the game is not polished, and some of the ultra-negative comments wrote here, i think i didn't play the same videogames than their authors these last 25 years But there's still this feeling in all the most gorgeous areas, that you're not really THERE - that you're in a museum, or a path at Yellowstone, stuck on a tiny walkway. You can look, but you can't touch. You can admire the scenery, but you can't explore. Stay on your rails. Atta boy. I wasn't going to respond to anything you had to say because frankly I think you are completely off your rocker Crushingly disappointed in XIII. I feel like I'm done with this series. But it was at least eye-burstingly gorgeous. If you are tired about the series, nothing force you to play it anymore! In my 20+ years of gaming I can honestly say this is the most beautiful game I have ever played (ever made?) I think it's one of those games where you either love it or hate it. I for one, love it. I think my point has been proven. I can't remember the last time any game (let alone an FF title) has caused so much division amongst it's fans. I have a lot more to say (especially after reading some of the ridiculous things posted here) but right now I do not have the time/energy to write it all lol. Btw, a lot of the things written here are tame compared to some other forums. Many FF fanboys on the GAMEFAQS forums are foaming at the mouth in absolute disgust at the lack of towns and linearity rofl. Bottom line? If your not digging the game then trade it in and spend your time playing something you will actually enjoy. Many of us have fond memories of the NES era but most of us are looking to the future rather then dwelling in the past. The year is off to a fantastic start and there is plenty for all to play (I have been dividing my time between FFXIII, GoW3 and BF2). One more thing: long live Square! | 2010-03-23 14:07:00 Author: OCK Posts: 1536 |
| Bottom line? If your not digging the game then trade it in and spend your time playing something you will actually enjoy. I agree. As someone who hasn't played the game, I find all this interesting. I haven't played an FF game in a while.... simply because I wasn't a big fan of the earlier ones being so linear. I prefer RPG's where I have much more freedom such as Oblivion. But.... hasn't the series ALWAYS been linear? If you're a fan of the series, and you liked the linear gameplay style of the earlier releases - is it really fair to judge it based on the fact that it's linear? I thought the whole POINT of the game is it's linear? | 2010-03-23 14:23:00 Author: CCubbage  Posts: 4430 |
| Where it has potential now is to be as different as they want, to completely depart from the current trend and even begin with completely new crew and direction, but maintain the same budget that giant franchise sales allow for. So, when I say "maybe the series should be retired", I'm heavily qualifying that statement, because one thing I love about Final Fantasy is that without any story continuity, it has the potential to stay fresh. And certainly they're changing up the formula a LOT with this iteration, and it just so happens to be one I fundamentally disagree with on many levels. Maybe Final Fantasy XV will blow my brains out and deliver exactly the type of thing I'm looking for. I certainly hope so, or maybe they've found their direction and are married to it for years to come. I wouldn't want a "fan service" game either. I like progress. I just happen to think XIII represents almost the complete opposite of it. Like you say, Final Fantasy has little continuity, story-wise or gameplay-wise. I guess they went lineair because it fit with the story, and I expect there will be more exploratory FF's in the future. Most of the other stuff, like characters design, will probably change (maybe we'll see super deform again ).Except one thing: I doubt they'll go back to turn-based, menu-driven combat. I remember in the old days, clicking the same action for three characters over and over, maybe a heal thrown in once in a while, wondering why this wasn't automatic. And now with Gambits and Paradigms they fixed this (well, almost), so why go back? Edit: I think my point has been proven. I can't remember the last time any game (let alone an FF title) has caused so much division amongst it's fans. All that quoting just shows there are different opinions on FFXIII. My point was this thing happens every time. It's bound to happen, because of the nature of Final Fantasy. But I think we agree on the bottom line. | 2010-03-23 14:24:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| Am i the only one that things that Chapter 12 looks a bit rubbish? xD. Maybe it's my SD tv not being able to handle the awesomeness of it. I thought Chapter 12 was one of the most fantastic. 46" @ 1080p = drool I wonder what people would have said if FFXIII was released under a new brand instead, without the burden of expectation. Reef1978 already made a very good point about the characters. I also find it funny that you complain about perfect, identical faces and then immediately praise the SNES era, when all faces in all games were the same ten pixels. The franchise has become so large that I think people expect each new title to be some kind of miracle. I think for the first release in HD they did a great job. Yes it's not perfect and a lot of things were trimmed from the series, but I understand that the step up to HD was a huge increase in work for them. The next HD FF will no doubt be an improvement, just as XII was a big step up from X in terms of its design and environment. I agree. As someone who hasn't played the game, I find all this interesting. I haven't played an FF game in a while.... simply because I wasn't a big fan of the earlier ones being so linear. I prefer RPG's where I have much more freedom such as Oblivion. But.... hasn't the series ALWAYS been linear? If you're a fan of the series, and you liked the linear gameplay style of the earlier releases - is it really fair to judge it based on the fact that it's linear? I thought the whole POINT of the game is it's linear? Yes, it's always been linear until X point when X sidequests open up, at which point you can screw around for a while doing whatever you want then come back to the story, at which point it resumes being linear again. The big point of contention among people this time is that there are no areas to explore that don't lead to the next story segment. FF12 was very unique in that it's probably the least linear of any of them - we've got the biggest contrast happening between back-to-back releases, and I think that's added fuel to the fire. Many FF fanboys on the GAMEFAQS forums are foaming at the mouth in absolute disgust at the lack of towns and linearity rofl. Oh yes, GameFAQs, the sleazy alley in the red light district of the gaming community. So many bridges for trolls to hide under and so many fanbois shooting their mouths off. Again, people can't handle change very well, and they can't see past the changes and appreciate the new things that have been brought to the table, so they hate on it for what it's not rather than appreciate it for what it is. I say if you are miserable that it's not like FF[insert #], then maybe you should be playing that one and not this one. What I thought were huge and overdue improvements to the series: - battles are often challenging - emphasis on making use of buffs/debuffs. how many titles have gone by where you can just spam attack on any and every regular enemy and consistently win? - overleveling was capped by locking crystarium levels. early powering up of weapons didn't offer huge advantage - superbosses available post game. no more grinding to kill ultimate enemies only to have the final boss fight over in 3 attacks. - item usage pre-/during battle actually offered a tactical advantage. ive played through the last several FFs without consuming a single item, since magic was more advantageous to use Anyways, just beat the final boss last night. Great bunch of final fights and totally awesome end to the story. Looking forward to completing the rest of the hunts. Probably the shortest FF I've ever played but enjoyable nonetheless. It's not close to perfect by any means, but I'm satisfied. I look forward to the next major title doing something different again. | 2010-03-23 15:34:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| What I thought were huge and overdue improvements to the series: - battles are often challenging - emphasis on making use of buffs/debuffs. how many titles have gone by where you can just spam attack on any and every regular enemy and consistently win? - overleveling was capped by locking crystarium levels. early powering up of weapons didn't offer huge advantage - superbosses available post game. no more grinding to kill ultimate enemies only to have the final boss fight over in 3 attacks. - item usage pre-/during battle actually offered a tactical advantage. ive played through the last several FFs without consuming a single item, since magic was more advantageous to use Did you notice how all those improvements concern the combat/advancement mechanics. Anyway, I agree with your list, but about the difficulty level: at some point I was simply not enjoying the fights. Drudging through a long, tough fight and then losing your leader because you accidentally picked the wrong paradigm sucks. I suppose I shouldn't complain, though, I could have used Deceptisol (had I thought of it at the time ). | 2010-03-23 15:51:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| Its weird cause, Ive liked all FF games, Ive played every single one, even Chrono Cross which people said it was the worst one, and i actually liked it. I even liked FF12, which alot of people think it sucks, im a huge FF fans but lets face it square could have made ff13 alot better. | 2010-03-23 16:46:00 Author: Bloo_boy Posts: 1019 |
| OK, let's have a look shall we? : I just noticed my mistake in one of your quotes xD I was meant to say it's annoying seeing people hate FF13 for being linear when nowhere near as much fuss was made over FF10 Could of been a bit less linear, for example the vile peaks could have had some branching paths and slightly more open areas which all lead to the same destination. But the way it was didn't make it a bad game for me. Maybe it was a problem with disc space (and possibly the Xbox's fault muhaha). Like maybe they could only fit so much on one disc so they had to keep a lot of stuff minimal. I'd say that they shouldn't prioritize graphics so much but it's one of the games defining features. | 2010-03-23 17:01:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Did you notice how all those improvements concern the combat/advancement mechanics. Yep, I did. For all the strengths of the series, combat has been the one thing that hasn't really evolved, even though I'd argue it's the backbone of any RPG. Not that I haven't enjoyed the classical combat, but what is the point of having status effects and an inventory full of items when hack...hack....hack... is the most efficient means to bring down 99% of all enemies? Its weird cause, Ive liked all FF games, Ive played every single one, even Chrono Cross which people said it was the worst one, and i actually liked it. I even liked FF12, which alot of people think it sucks, im a huge FF fans but lets face it square could have made ff13 alot different. Uuuh since when is Chrono Cross a Final Fantasy game? Anyways, I fix'd your typo at the end there | 2010-03-23 17:28:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| Maybe it was a problem with disc space (and possibly the Xbox's fault muhaha). Like maybe they could only fit so much on one disc so they had to keep a lot of stuff minimal. I'd say that they shouldn't prioritize graphics so much but it's one of the games defining features. This thought also crossed my mind. If FFXIII had an open world where you could backtrack to the beginning, Xbox users would be swapping discs a lot. I knew it, it's all Microsoft's fault after all! | 2010-03-23 17:45:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| Regarding the combat system: I consider the combat in this game something like Final Fantasy: the Arcade Game. They've put a LOT of effort into cranking up the pace of the battle. Not necessarily the length of the battles, but definitely the pacing. You've got to GET THAT CHAIN GAUGE UP, HURRY! You can almost instantly switch paradigms. Your 2 non-playable characters don't hesitate, they rush right in with their actions every turn. You get rated on each battle. I feel like if I don't hurry I'll have to put in another coin to keep going. And I actually LOVE the fact that, as mentioned before, they REALLY make you use buffs and debuffs and all this stuff that often goes relatively unused. I like that they completely removed MP, essentially making most magic spells "free" - the only cost being time, really. I like that they make Libra a central spell, and the learning of enemies' weaknesses and the exploitation of those weaknesses totally streamlined. No jotting down notes and devising intricate plans - it's Libra, and then go go go. But the "long slog" was also mentioned... MAN did I ever get tired of just fighting, fighting, fighting. It got to where I just tried to avoid every battle I came across and PINED for anything else - anything! a minigame! a puzzle! An exploration area! Oh, god, ANYTHING but another looong series of fights! They crank the pacing up by moving the story along almost constantly, but at the same time they lost pacing to a much greater degree by tasking the player with doing only two things in the whole game: fighting, and watching cutscenes. And the truth is, it's not a whole lot more linear than X was, and to me, X was a WAY bigger shock than XIII. I'm not terribly surprised at XIII because in my eyes, it's simply another step in the direction that X and X-2 took. People are looking at it as a huge departure, but to anyone watching closely, XII was more of a hitch in the road of where they've been taking this series for some time now. It's not a terribly big surprise that we have this thing that we have now, this overly glossy science fiction connect-the-dots battle grind. And I'm all about progress - hell, anyone who follows my most fervent rants on these boards will know how deeply true that is. I just think that XIII represents "change" without the "progress" part - except for a few elements of the combat design. And even then, it's not really THAT much change compared to X and X-2, the biggest being that they have almost entirey done away with even the smallest pretense of being open-ended this time. But the instant game over if only the main character happens to die is kind of cheap. The fact that after a cutscene or an automatic change in party members, you might be thrown into a boss battle WITH RANDOM PARADIGMS is also cheap. The fact that you can't save bloody paradigm decks... WHAT?? What in the WORLD where they thinking?? If I just want to quickly cycle out a character, it resets the paradigms - AGAIN - and I have to rebuild the deck from scratch - again. I got so, so... so... sick of this... Why not just be able to save decks? What's so hard about that? A minuscule feature you'd think would have come up a million times in testing. Let me be clear: I don't want an old SNES era FF again. I don't EVER want to see sloooow turn-based battles again and I ESPECIALLY don't ever want to see random encounters again. I also think that if they attempted to recreate VI on new hardware, they'd only prove that one of the most magical ingredients in those old games was the fantasy-novel approach, the text-heavy, character graphics-light presentation. I'm almost entirely certain they'd just screw it up. I hope to little baby Jesus they don't attempt to remake VII. It would be a colossal waste of time and money, and they're guaranteed to **** fans off. Just let it go, please, Square. But I do hope to see some big changes in FF's future, and hopefully in some very very different directions. | 2010-03-23 20:38:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| Nearing the end of the game and I totally agree. Tired of constantly fighting with pretty much no exploration. Gran Pulse is big enough but I'm not sure I will grind up this time. I've fought enough battles. I was given the option to go back to Gran Pulse in chapter 13 and I did that. I think I'll look for a chocobo or something and then finish the game. I've hated the characters from beginning to end but I pretty much knew that already. I like the combat but after 50 hours I've had enough of it. The music doesn't do anything special for me. It's just ok. Playing this game makes me want to play one of the older games even more. | 2010-03-23 21:14:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| Oh, I agree with you on all counts about what Final Fantasy attempts to do, and completely disagree with you that a fantasy is typically "better" than reality. Fantasy now encapsulates such an incredibly wide spectrum. Demon's Souls is fantasy, but it's a dark, miserable world a millionfold worse than our dingiest basements. I don't think Final Fantasy should be nearly as gritty as Heavy Rain or half as much as Demon's Souls, but is it too much to ask that characters' FACES be discernible from each other, that they should contain a modicum of actual CHARACTER? There's something greatly disturbing to me about how Final Fantasy fetishises its violence and technology and paints a picture of a world where everyone is the same beautiful pre-pubescent Aryan with a tiny chin and nose, and anyone different is either a villain or comic relief. This is on a platform and with a budget that could EASILY create characters with an incredible amount of character on par with what we see in certain other videogames. How am I supposed to feel when I see the opening cinematic, with Sazh flopping off the back of the shiny dragon-robot thing, with an afro big enough to nest a chocobo (which it is literally doing), while all of the beautiful white characters look solemnly, posed as Michaelangelo himself were carving their likenesses, off into the distance? I'm sorry, but I simply don't agree with Final Fantasy's sense of beauty, but more importantly, I believe that its presentation is insulting and negative - but certainly not purposely so. And I'm about to drop some giant spoilers regarding VI, so anyone who STILL hasn't played it but hopes to, you've been warned - Oh, and also some big XIII spoilers too: VI was a game that builds up an incredible mosaic tapestry about a group of people who become involved with saving the world. Halfway through the game, they fail. This is no joke or exaggeration. They fail, and the world is destroyed. The rest of the game takes place in its ruins, as the characters climb out of the wreckage, separated and strewn about the broken world, and hope only to salvage some last vestige of life and color. One of them has the conviction to kill herself. She actually jumps off a cliff to her doom. Celes wakes up on the beach, discovers she is alive and that there is an old man who loves her, and she stays by his side while he dies, his final knowledge that the world is ruined and that this girl, like a granddaughter to him, has attempted to kill herself. This was a game that cared deeply for its characters and story in spite of their severely limited visual representations, and I for one felt that compassion vividly when I played it. I remember another character, one with a chocobo baby living in his afro, who considered suicide for a brief moment in XIII, but literally - LITERALLY - five minutes later yells "That's right, let's DO IT!" while jumping into a sweet red hot rod that just transformed from a fire-breathing mech-god. It just so happens that this character had more than a handful of polygons and high resolution textures and facial animation and voice over and... you get the picture. We gained a shiny veneer, and lost a soul. In my eyes, XIII's fetishes are more important to it than character and meaningful storytelling. This hyper-emphasized obsession with design and beauty and technology do violence to it as a storytelling medium, and keeps me - and many others - from ever being able to fully invest in it. And there's good stuff in there. I can't deny that XIII has some interesting mythology, and the Coccoon-Pulse dynamic is a rich concept for a story. But I absolutely abhor its entire visual design and concepts, to such extent that they remove any possibility for me to care about it. I realize that "fantasy" can mean many different things, but my point is that we typically fantasize about things that are better than what we have or what is possible, otherwise, why fantasize about it? I'm sure Demon's Souls is a dark, ugly place that nobody would want to go to, but I'm also pretty sure it has you fighting your way out of that hell against overwhelming odds and has you doing things you could never do in real life. That's appealing, that's a fantasy. FF embodies the most common definition of what a fantasy is and that permeates nearly every aspect of its design. I don't really understand how you can say you care so much about characters and story when your criticisms really boil down to this: "I hate this game because I can't stand the sight of these pretty sextuplets." Since when does the quality of a storyline hinge on the appearance of the main characters? You talk about dramatic moments that are supposedly ruined by fire breathing mech gods, then you debate the merits of a game that features a psychotic clown that throws around lines like "son of a submariner". I'm not seeing the difference. Besides FFX, you know what FFXIII reminds me of? FFVI. It's been a long time since I've played it, but I remember a game that was pretty linear for most of the game and it put you in charge of different characters that would eventually come together in a non linear portion that doesn't come until near the end of the game. Sound familiar? I think you are entirely too preoccupied with appearances. After reading what you've said here, it's no surprise that you like FFVI so much. It's the last FF that required the player to use their imagination to fill in the blanks when it comes to the characters. You seem to be remembering something that existed only in your imagination. Honestly, I think if FFVI were made with FFXIII's graphics, you'd probably be trashing it all the same. Anyway, that's all I really care to say about this. Sorry if I came off as insulting. | 2010-03-23 23:09:00 Author: Reef1978 Posts: 527 |
| I don't want to go back to the days of random encounters and turned-based combat either...but if the idea is to stream-line combat evolving 12's combat system would be preferable to 13's. I feel like I'm just performing the same menial steps over and over. I've attached a flow-chart depicting basically every fight I've been in until now (end of chapter 9). I've had no problems really, the only retries I've had have been from Odin (had some confusion about when to hit square), some flying motorcycle thing's machine gun attack that killed Lightening at full heath while fully buffed...or just inattention due to getting drowsy while playing. I see lots of comments raving about this battle system...I really don't get it...I feel like I'm a good ways into the game and I'm not expecting things to change much from this point?!? Triggers are better than roles, focus on healing and if no one is hurt do something useful! Maybe it's the programmer in me but I enjoyed setting up/tweaking gambits in 12...gambits made low-level mob fights painless. I don't know why but this paradigm shift thing reminds me of the craptastic garment grid/dress sphere mess from 10-2. Are the summons in 13 useful? They don't appear to be...but I only have 3...and have only tried the first 2... | 2010-03-24 00:46:00 Author: fullofwin Posts: 1214 |
| I'm at Chapter 12 and the summons have been no more than completly useless. They weren't much help with anything other than bosses earlier on, and then later in the game you easily too more damage with your full team. The summons seem to have some sort of level notation in gestalt mode though, maybe they level up the more you use them. I think you spoke a little too soon with the flow chart too. Chapter 10-13 are practically hard mode, it finally forces you out of the "attack, heal, attack" routine. There's still a lot of attacking and healing no doubt, but you'll have to integrate other roles a lot and do pre-battle preparations sometimes. | 2010-03-24 01:22:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| I've attached a flow-chart depicting basically every fight I've been in until now (end of chapter 9). Yes, it can be like that. But I found the experience more rewarding when you set your default cursor to Abilities rather than Auto-battle. I liked the gambit system of 12 too, but still found myself with gambits off for my active character. That's just my play style - micromanaging party member actions. Later in the game I did move over to auto-battle because the fights were moving too quickly to scroll through lists of buffs/debuffs every time I was hit with a status ailment. If you only ever control a COM, the fights are going to be pretty dull, since theres very little to do when your actions consist of either attack, blitz, or ruin. RAVs are only marginally better - pick your weak element and spam until dead. I had the most fun playing either SYN or SAB most of the game. Let the AI do the mundane work. Are the summons in 13 useful? They don't appear to be...but I only have 3...and have only tried the first 2... I didn't use summons at all until chapter 13, at which point, I used them periodically to clear out hard-hitting fodder enemies and once during final boss battle when I found myself down to two nearly-dead party members and didn't want to risk losing the fight. | 2010-03-24 03:49:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| But the "long slog" was also mentioned... MAN did I ever get tired of just fighting, fighting, fighting. It got to where I just tried to avoid every battle I came across and PINED for anything else - anything! a minigame! a puzzle! An exploration area! Oh, god, ANYTHING but another looong series of fights! They crank the pacing up by moving the story along almost constantly, but at the same time they lost pacing to a much greater degree by tasking the player with doing only two things in the whole game: fighting, and watching cutscenes. Near the end of the game especially I found myself avoiding a seeming endless supply of nigh-impossible fights (Humbaba + 5 sanctum elites??? srsly?) because I was getting more than a little worn out by too much battle. It's simply another step in the direction that X and X-2 took. People are looking at it as a huge departure, but to anyone watching closely, XII was more of a hitch in the road of where they've been taking this series for some time now. Which is too bad really. I thought XII was one of the best entries in the series, even if the gambit system was a bit convoluted and the story was anorexic. It brought that warm fuzzy feeling to me all over that I haven't had since 7 & 9. I just think that XIII represents "change" without the "progress" part - except for a few elements of the combat design. But I do hope to see some big changes in FF's future, and hopefully in some very very different directions. I do agree with this, and as much as I did enjoy XIII, I don't know that I would really look forward to the next string of FF's with this high-paced arcade style battle system. I already talked above what I thought the merits of these changes were, but I could do without the clock running and being rated after each fight. At times I felt more like I was playing devil may cry than final fantasy. I enjoyed manually controlling my SAB and SYN most of the game, but it got to the point where it was impossible to do because I'd have been annihilated long before I had my commands even selected. Late in the game, there was barely time to switch paradigms to stay alive, and countless chains would have been lost had I been under manual control... this was a bit disappointing, and so I felt compelled to just finish the story and didn't really care about fighting anymore. But yes, big changes this time around - refreshing, but not what I'd consider a mark of real progress either. They've tried something new, now they can try something else next time. The biggest being that they have almost entirey done away with even the smallest pretense of being open-ended this time. Honestly, I think the short-sightedness of the game in this respect is because they were swamped with getting the series moved onto an entirely new design platform and into HD. In one article it was mentioned that FF13 lacked towns because they were too much work to do on an HD console (http://playstation.joystiq.com/2010/02/05/final-fantasy-xiii-producers-traditional-rpg-towns-are-tough-to/). So perhaps the tradeoff of not having an open-ended game is that we have a 2010 street date instead of a 2012 date. The fact that after a cutscene or an automatic change in party members, you might be thrown into a boss battle WITH RANDOM PARADIGMS is also cheap. The fact that you can't save bloody paradigm decks... WHAT?? What in the WORLD where they thinking?? If I just want to quickly cycle out a character, it resets the paradigms - AGAIN - and I have to rebuild the deck from scratch - again. I got so, so... so... sick of this... Why not just be able to save decks? What's so hard about that? A minuscule feature you'd think would have come up a million times in testing. Yeah, this was annoying. Once Hope had learned Haste, my party never deviated from Fang, Lite, and Hope simply because it wasn't worth the hassle to reset paradigm decks. I hope to little baby Jesus they don't attempt to remake VII. It would be a colossal waste of time and money, and they're guaranteed to **** fans off. Just let it go, please, Square. Ok, then I won't tell you what's on Wada's mind: http://kotaku.com/5499449/ceo-well-explore-the-possibility-of-final-fantasy-vii-remake For anyone that needs to read an ever longer wall of text, this is a pretty good analysis of what FF13 is, and why it's the way it is. http://kotaku.com/5433455/final-fantasy-xiii-impressions-15-years-later-25-hours-in | 2010-03-24 04:32:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| Honestly, I think if FFVI were made with FFXIII's graphics, you'd probably be trashing it all the same. Didn't I admit to exactly that? I agree with this statement because I've seen what FF has become with high-end graphics and voice acting. But that doesn't mean that it COULDN'T be done justice. The graphics in FFVI's environments hold up amazingly well today. I can barely point to a game in recent generations that has the sheer texture of VI's world. This was a game that actually, for once, visually matched Amano's designs. The opera house, the phantom train appearing in the haunted woods, the steam and snow of Narshe. My god did that game ever have texture. I admit that much of the dialogue and translations can come across cheesy, especially Kefka's hyper-evilness. If you were to design another Final Fantasy completely around Yo****aka Amano, and you had a team truly dedicated to realizing a world that did justice to his textured artwork, I think we might really be somewhere today. Instead, they keep him around for the logos. They've got bigger fish to fry. Science Fiction fish. SPACE fish. It may seem like I'm too hung up on visuals, but with this game particularly, it's so, so much more than just how the characters look. Because it's the entire MOOD of the game and its storytelling that go along with the aesthetic. The hyper-glossy, unbelievably shiny and perfect and sparkling look to everything is perhaps the single defining characteristic of this game. The prepubescent man-children and women that look like schoolgirls are indicative of the larger choice in overall direction. Texture is replaced with sheen. Depth is replaced with gloss. "The World" is replaced by picture postcards. If there was something more to this, I'd be lamenting a visual design choice but praising a wonderfully-told story and characters. But I'm not - While the story has SOME potential early on, by the ending I honestly couldn't wait to just have it over. The truth is, I'm done with the glossy shiny sci-fi Final Fantasy. If XV is going to look like another one of these, and if the ABOMINABLE designs of Tetsuya Nomura are going to be within ten miles of the credits, and Kazushige Nojima is telling the story again, then that's it, I'm out, I'm hanging up my Final Fantasy hat. They've had plenty enough. What's it been, 5 or 6 Final Fantasies now with these guys? Call it quits. Get some new talent in, hopefully someone with taste, do it for baby jesus. --------- EDIT: I'd also like to bring up (whine about?) another issue, and my mentioning Nojima made me think of it. But the last several Final Fantasies - perhaps minus XII, because that one was a bit of an anomaly (an opening scene and a closing scene made up the "story", and then, somehow, a videogame took place in between) presented VERY strange mythologies very bluntly. There's no learning your way through the world, it's just: Here's Coccoon. What's a fal'cie and a l'cie and Pulse and eidolons and blah blah blah... well, that's not for you to properly learn because everyone else in the world already knows all of that stuff. Your job is to look it up in the codex if you want to know about it, or do your research BEFORE starting the game. X was also especially like this. What a totally strange and even alienating opener that had. The mythologies they present so quickly and without preparation are so alien that they risk completely turning off major chunks of the audience, certainly myself included. There's no grounding, they just start you off drifting around in trip-out land and then just stay there the entire time. Now, because I've been making a big to-do about VI, I'm going to point to that one as the perfect example of the complete opposite of this approach. VI begins with a text scroll telling you the background of the world. It's very simple. Once, there was magic which came from godlike creatures called Espers, and in the war of the magi, it was banished from the land, the espers seemingly gone forever. Now, many years later, the world has discovered steam power. It's a sort of steampunk idea of lords and castles and ancient empires. But no gods, no magic, the people of this world don't know of any completely alien way of living to our own. They have lived for generations without magic and know nothing of it. The story begins when what is believed to be a frozen Esper has been discovered in a mining operation in the frigid mountains near the steamy but frigid town of Narshe. Now THAT'S how to start a fantasy story. You present a world that isn't ALIEN, but does in fact have a slight fantasy twist - and then you introduce to that world and its characters the magical mythos that you want to tell. All of the greatest fantasy stories over time involve this concept of unearthing the fantasy element at its outset. The Lord of the Rings has the One Ring. Narnia has the wardrobe. Harry Potter discovers that there is a secret magical world hidden behind the scenes. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell takes place during a time when magic returns to England after generations of being lost. and Final Fantasy VI had the discovery of a frozen Esper. All of these stories have GROUND, and they have main characters that don't have first-hand knowledge of this magical realm. What does a hobbit need to know of dead ideas like Sauron and Mordor? X began with some totally bizarre nonsense, and XIII likewise, and the games stayed in this same surreal territory throughout. The fal'cie have branded people l'cie, and now there's a Pulsian Purge? THE ****??? I think they need to go back to some storytelling roots here and put this wacky anime cartoon business on the shelf for a few turns. I admire that they tried to do this with XII, but the problem with that game is that it didn't really HAVE a story to tell. Something happened at the beginning. Something happened at the end. But the entire game, everything in between - the only thing that really happens is, essentially, the main characters travel around a lot. The epic, the theater, the scope, the magic, the mystique, the mystery - all of that went by the wayside for some good ol'-fashioned political melodrama. So, even if XIII had mind-numbingly linear gameplay, incessant combat, and flat characters - if there was at least some real storytelling and texture for god's sake, I would find a way to genuinely praise it. As it stands, I pretty much hate nearly everything XIII is. Nomura and Nojima: You're fired. Forever. From everything. | 2010-03-24 10:27:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| And I'm all about progress - hell, anyone who follows my most fervent rants on these boards will know how deeply true that is. I just think that XIII represents "change" without the "progress" part - except for a few elements of the combat design. And even then, it's not really THAT much change compared to X and X-2, the biggest being that they have almost entirey done away with even the smallest pretense of being open-ended this time. But the instant game over if only the main character happens to die is kind of cheap. The fact that after a cutscene or an automatic change in party members, you might be thrown into a boss battle WITH RANDOM PARADIGMS is also cheap. The fact that you can't save bloody paradigm decks. I agree on the paradigm saving and leader death, though to be fair, if you die, you get a chance to reconfigure your paradigms (or spend CP, twiddle your accessories, etc). I don't recall FF ever having the pretense of being open-ended. The story is always lineair (pretty much has to be with all that pretty, expensive CGI), but the gameplay often isn't. I have some doubts about the concept of open-ended games anway. Sounds like you're just building X stories into one game, which means: either I play once and miss half the content; or I replay until I've seen it all, but suffer a lot of duplicate content. My favourite FF's get this right: great lineair story, but plenty of choice along the way on how and when to progress with that story. some flying motorcycle thing's machine gun attack that killed Lightening at full heath while fully buffed I think you're supposed to sneak past it. If you time it right, you can hide below to the right of the path, then when it's passed, run the rest. Those bikes are only manageable with a sentinel, and even then I sometimes have to restart because I accidentally select the wrong paradigm or in some other manner fail to get into steelguard in time. I enjoyed manually controlling my SAB and SYN most of the game, but it got to the point where it was impossible to do because I'd have been annihilated long before I had my commands even selected. Late in the game, there was barely time to switch paradigms to stay alive, and countless chains would have been lost had I been under manual control... this was a bit disappointing, and so I felt compelled to just finish the story and didn't really care about fighting anymore. You could try setting the battle speed to slow. I did at first to get comfortable with the new system. I have this feeling though that it interferes with the staggering or something, because my scores were much lower then. It may seem like I'm too hung up on visuals, but with this game particularly, it's so, so much more than just how the characters look. ... The truth is, I'm done with the glossy shiny sci-fi Final Fantasy. If XV is going to look like another one of these, and if the ABOMINABLE designs of Tetsuya Nomura are going to be within ten miles of the credits, and Kazushige Nojima is telling the story again, then that's it, I'm out, I'm hanging up my Final Fantasy hat. Sounds like you just don't like science fiction then. To me, the mix of sci-fi and fantasy is what drew me to the series. It's part of Final Fantasy, although the balance sways from game to game. There are plenty of fantasy RPG's already, and I hope, and expect, FF stays this way. Now THAT'S how to start a fantasy story. You present a world that isn't ALIEN, but does in fact have a slight fantasy twist - and then you introduce to that world and its characters the magical mythos that you want to tell. All of the greatest fantasy stories over time involve this concept of unearthing the fantasy element at its outset. Now you're being silly. Not every story has to start out in a setting nearly identical to your own. Do you discredit science fiction because the laser guns and spaceships aren't invented at the start of the story (come to think of it, I suppose you do)? It's an option, a choice of the writer, he just needs to take care to introduce the world in such a way that the audience can manage it. To get back to FFXIII, there's this nice datalog that gets updated with all the invented words and turns of events, so there's no reason to lose track of the story. | 2010-03-24 14:38:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| > I think you're supposed to sneak past it. I feel compelled to fight everything I see! When the game suggested that a couple characters might want to avoid fighting certain enemies I took it as a challenge. Of course this has contributed to why I'm getting burned out on the combat. The EXP reward also doesn't scale based on enemy difficulty, number seems like the primary determinate. At least now I've been given the option to choose my party...yay? > I enjoyed manually controlling my SAB and SYN most of the game I considered this but the game is really designed for auto-battle, like it or not I decided to not try and fight it. I played 12 by just overriding the gambit for the character I was "controlling" when things weren't going well or for a boss battle...they designed that battle system to be more accomdating to people that wanted more direct control. > I agree on the paradigm saving and leader death The leader death = fail is a really odd decision. It made a little more sense in Persona 3 where you only ever control a single character (but I didn't like it there either). In this game it makes little sense, just because it happens to be the character I have to hit X for they are somehow special and can't be raised?!? They could be doing the same role, and just not being baby sat by me and it's ok for them to die, huh? Of course death in this game has little consequence. If later fights take a REALLY long time and then a cheap attack wipes you out so you have to restart a lot...that's just a reason to move on to another game...when it stops being fun it's done. > I don't recall FF ever having the pretense of being open-ended. Some of the older games did provide a better illusion of having a choice...but I want the series to evolve, I don't care what older FF games did; it's not like the games are related in any way (exception being 10 and 10-2). I guess it comes down to why you like to play RPGs in the first place. I want an interesting story, cool places to explore with lots of weapons/armors to find, and epic boss battles. Fighting/grinding mobs doesn't really appeal to me...I've done enough of that. But the biggest problem with 13 has to be the size of that chocobo chick...there's no way a bird that large has a chick that small! Everything else is totally believable. | 2010-03-24 18:49:00 Author: fullofwin Posts: 1214 |
| I beat the final boss. Yay. Time to go hunt down trophies now. | 2010-03-24 21:48:00 Author: Fredrik94 Posts: 342 |
| Grats Fred! I'm hunting down a perfect save file myself. Currently working on acing the hunts and slowly building up that 10 million CP I need to max every character O.o | 2010-03-24 22:38:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| I feel compelled to fight everything I see! When the game suggested that a couple characters might want to avoid fighting certain enemies I took it as a challenge. Me too, I tried on two of those shielded hedgehog thingies (also for the treasure). But the instant death was a little too much. I hate having success hang on a 50% chance if picking your leader to gattle, so the hiding spot was welcome. I did worry a little that I might not see that particular velocycle again for my datalog, but that turned out be unwarranted. | 2010-03-24 22:52:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| Oh yes, GameFAQs, the sleazy alley in the red light district of the gaming community. So many bridges for trolls to hide under and so many fanbois shooting their mouths off. Again, people can't handle change very well, and they can't see past the changes and appreciate the new things that have been brought to the table, so they hate on it for what it's not rather than appreciate it for what it is. I say if you are miserable that it's not like FF[insert #], then maybe you should be playing that one and not this one. Hey now, I enjoy my time on gamefaqs. It's not quite the redlight district of the gaming community - it's not 4chan. THAT place is evil. EVIL, I TELL YOU. Yeah, sure, there's some trolls, but that's everywere. And of course fanbois shoot their mouths off. I'm one of them. | 2010-03-24 23:13:00 Author: Ragfell Posts: 729 |
| Man it's hard to get so much as a word in on the GF FF13 boards.... you post a topic and it's on page two in about 5 minutes. Kinda reminds me of cool pages | 2010-03-25 00:14:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| Ah, I posted a thread asking for help on ol' Ba a few pages ago, and no one responded? ;o ... Ah well. Still stuck on him. Tried changing strategies, attacking him when he charges his mega lazah... still die. in fact, now i die sooner, on his third outside thingie, with his blizzarra and all that. Halp/ D: | 2010-03-25 00:57:00 Author: RockSauron Posts: 10882 |
| To get back to FFXIII, there's this nice datalog that gets updated with all the invented words and turns of events, so there's no reason to lose track of the story. I'm sorry, but in my eyes, if you have to consult a datalog to be able to interpret what you just watched, then the act of storytelling has been essentially given up on. And I DID have to consult that datalog FREQUENTLY in this game. I especially like how they explain exactly what all of the characters are going through mentally and emotionally in the various cutscenes. And often, my own interpretations are proven to be wildly inaccurate. For example. What you would expect to see in a cutscene by way of characterization is this: Character stares at other character and gasps a few times. My interpretation: A. The game's interpretation: Z. In the next scene, another character says something, and a second character looks at him and gasps. Uh oh. Time to consult the datalog again, I learned my lesson last time. And that's the easy stuff. That's the character-motivation business. That's the stuff that has nothing to do with fal'cie and l'cie and shamwow'cie and whatever else is going on. All I'm really saying is that for a game whose main draw is story, they really aren't doing a very admirable job in my eyes of telling that story. And to be fair, I could certainly stomach a sci-fi Final Fantasy. In films and novels, some of my absolute favorite stuff is sci-fi. Much moreso than Fantasy in fact. It's the unholy trilogy of: 1. heavily sci-fi tinted Final Fantasy 2. designed by Nomura 3. written by Nojima If any future games have those 3 things all together, then I am officially through with it already. | 2010-03-25 01:36:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| Here's some advice on the fight with barthandalus... hope it helps! You're talking bout the first fight with him, right rock? The one with the 5 heads? yeah... that was tough. if you're having trouble pop a couple of those -sol things before the fight, so that you've got haste, protect, shell, etc... They last for 5 minutes which is more than long enough to take out the four mini heads. All i did was cast a librascope at the start of the battle, then bash each head's weakness until it was dead, and moved on to the next one. I think my setup was rav / rav / com then rav / com / med after he started hitting harder. You can also try rav / med / sen if you're really having trouble... it'll take forever but it seems to work. | 2010-03-25 01:37:00 Author: Duffluc Posts: 402 |
| Plenty of hints have been given for him Rawk I'll try to give advice even though you hate it muhaha, not that i did that boss that well. (in chunks incase you don't want loads of help) Make sure your healing role has 2 healers. Try to make good use of a saboteur and a synergist. Equip your team with the best defensive items you can find, or if one character has a lot of health an attack item could help too. Magic Defense and HP items are recommended. Make sure you're as buffed up as you can and fully healed so you can attack as much as possible during the Destrudo attack. Whatever you do make sure you're fully healed before you start attacking, even if you only get to attack a little bit. Oh and Duffluc. spoiler tags!!!! | 2010-03-25 01:38:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Teebonesy, why do you take so long time to write sooooooo loooooooong post.... for a game you hate??? I mean, i must have miss the point. When i don't like a game, being a FF, a Zelda or another Mario, i just say it and keep my time (and energy) for what i love. Here, you are saying us you hate the game.... but you take soooo much time for this... | 2010-03-25 08:58:00 Author: Takelow Posts: 1355 |
| I think it's a result of getting buyers remorse from something that everyone else is enjoying. I get it all the time with games. Many a time have i gone off on a rant about Fallout 3 xD | 2010-03-25 09:45:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| If you only ever control a COM, the fights are going to be pretty dull, since theres very little to do when your actions consist of either attack, blitz, or ruin. RAVs are only marginally better - pick your weak element and spam until dead. I had the most fun playing either SYN or SAB most of the game. Let the AI do the mundane work. I've given this some more thought while deciding who should be my party leader (once I get to pick, I'm only up to chapter 9), and from my experience so far I have to disagree. With synergists and saboteurs I'm always happy with what the game selects for me, but with ravagers and commandos I sometimes interrupt with triangle to kill off a nearly dead enemy before it attacks or to keep alive a chain. I'm sorry, but in my eyes, if you have to consult a datalog to be able to interpret what you just watched, then the act of storytelling has been essentially given up on. And I DID have to consult that datalog FREQUENTLY in this game. I especially like how they explain exactly what all of the characters are going through mentally and emotionally in the various cutscenes. And often, my own interpretations are proven to be wildly inaccurate. You're right that the datalog should only have a supporting role in telling the story, but in my experience it does. I've read every entry and only rarely did it tell me anything new (and even then it was mentioned in a later cutscene). Sure, the acting isn't the best in the world, but this is a computer simulation. FFVI didn't even have voice acting or proper facial expressions, but that didn't stop you from understanding that story. | 2010-03-25 10:16:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| Teebonesy, why do you take so long time to write sooooooo loooooooong post.... for a game you hate??? I mean, i must have miss the point. When i don't like a game, being a FF, a Zelda or another Mario, i just say it and keep my time (and energy) for what i love. Here, you are saying us you hate the game.... but you take soooo much time for this... Oh, baby. Welcome to Teebonesy Land! I'm not even kidding. Maybe it's the fact that I grew up mainly in Texas. It's the American in me. But I'll spend at least as much time moaning and whining about something I hate as I will raving about something I love. In fact, it seems that half of everything I've said here has been a passionate fondling of Final Fantasy VI. I probably wouldn't spend this much time complaining about a game that I just sort of tried and then put down. But Final Fantasy games, and I guess the RPG genre in general, is a special consideration because they are LONG. I put in over 50 hours in XIII. A handful of paragraphs analyzing that experience doesn't seem unreasonable to me, considering, in my eyes, 50 hours is actually a hefty chunk of your life to spend on ANYTHING. One or two more on an honest meditation and sharing of my experience - even if it's extremely negative - is just part of my process. Honestly, if I just played it and put it down, you'd have heard nary a peep. But I INVESTED! It didn't work out for me this time. In fact, you could say it was a disaster. I feel the need to share what I got out of it, I suppose. And I pride myself on not falling into the trap of being just a hateful troll. I spend a lot of effort trying to make clear points and really being honest, and you just won't see me going for cheap shots or taking sides in the console war, or any nonsense like that. I can hardly stomach the average post at gamefaqs or most official forums. I've tried to be engaged in those "places" with my particular brand of ranting, and you can just imagine the response. The sort of dialogue that has taken place here? Nowhere to be seen. It's hate and flaming and name-calling and all sorts of ridiculous message board nonsense. My long-winded opinionated bullcrap is simply not even tolerated. Here at least it's mulched and composted communally, and turned into helpful fertilizer. Or something? | 2010-03-25 11:23:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| Don't feed it. | 2010-03-25 12:45:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| Don't feed it. That's the sad truth. Trolls should live under the occasional bridge. Nowadays, most big public message boards are essentially troll cities. Manna falls from heaven for them in these places. You try to have debate or discourse and you realize that it all goes into some sort of dr seussian machinery and comes out the other end as roast-beast raining from the skies. | 2010-03-26 00:13:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| Oh, baby. Welcome to Teebonesy Land! I'm not even kidding. Maybe it's the fact that I grew up mainly in Texas. It's the American in me. But I'll spend at least as much time moaning and whining about something I hate as I will raving about something I love. In fact, it seems that half of everything I've said here has been a passionate fondling of Final Fantasy VI. I probably wouldn't spend this much time complaining about a game that I just sort of tried and then put down. But Final Fantasy games, and I guess the RPG genre in general, is a special consideration because they are LONG. I put in over 50 hours in XIII. A handful of paragraphs analyzing that experience doesn't seem unreasonable to me, considering, in my eyes, 50 hours is actually a hefty chunk of your life to spend on ANYTHING. One or two more on an honest meditation and sharing of my experience - even if it's extremely negative - is just part of my process. Honestly, if I just played it and put it down, you'd have heard nary a peep. But I INVESTED! It didn't work out for me this time. In fact, you could say it was a disaster. I feel the need to share what I got out of it, I suppose. And I pride myself on not falling into the trap of being just a hateful troll. I spend a lot of effort trying to make clear points and really being honest, and you just won't see me going for cheap shots or taking sides in the console war, or any nonsense like that. I can hardly stomach the average post at gamefaqs or most official forums. I've tried to be engaged in those "places" with my particular brand of ranting, and you can just imagine the response. The sort of dialogue that has taken place here? Nowhere to be seen. It's hate and flaming and name-calling and all sorts of ridiculous message board nonsense. My long-winded opinionated bullcrap is simply not even tolerated. Here at least it's mulched and composted communally, and turned into helpful fertilizer. Or something? You got the point | 2010-03-26 08:46:00 Author: Takelow Posts: 1355 |
| Interesting thread! I'm a fan of the series and genre, but I'm wondering what you all think. I'm mostly concerned with how the linearity affects gameplay. I understand that the game opens up near the end, and had a quick question for all of you: Was the amount of time spent getting to that point worth the return? | 2010-03-26 15:32:00 Author: schm0  Posts: 1239 |
| Was the amount of time spent getting to that point worth the return? You make it sound as though getting to that point was a pain For me, at least (I know many disagree) the first 30 or so hours of linearity were a joy. The story is fast paced and doesn't get lost due to huge amounts of side quests. The difficulty curve is just right, and the battles don't ever get tiring. Environments are constantly changing, which keeps the whole journey fresh and interesting.The openness later on is great too, but the events leading up to it are just as well done. Actually, when i finally had the option to start side questing, I found myself compelled to simply continue the storyline. I decided to finish the story first because i didn't want to lose the whole feel and pace that had been building up to that point. (the game allows you to save and backtrack after you've defeated the last boss, so you can do sidequests) And then, after you're done the game, you can go back and do all the exploring you want. There's a lot to see and do, and you don't have to wonder about the end of the story while you're side questing, as you've seen it already. So... No. the amount of time spent getting to that point wasn't worth the return, because the adventure is consistently fun throughout, and if you're expecting the linearity to be a chore than you may find yourself happily mistaken | 2010-03-26 17:22:00 Author: Duffluc Posts: 402 |
| I found the battles got a little tiring by the end, but that's because they become consistently difficult. Or perhaps it's because I just wanted to finish the story so I could get back to my sidequests. The linearity is not a chore or intrusive... it's not even really something that you notice. At the 25 or 30 hour mark when you're thrown into a big wide open area, it's a rewarding transition, but it's not like everything you've been waiting for. Mostly, it's a big area that you won't really know what to do with right away. The only thing that's starting to feel like a chore is wrapping up the mark hunts, maxing my crystarium, and getting the ultimate weapons. Unlike previous FFs, all of this work is really confined to one area, and I'm more than a bit let down to see marks re-used by multiple hunts. There seems to be very little point to investing the time to max your game, although I've heard some of the final mark hunts will require this. I guess you could say for me, the game peaked with it's story telling especially during the 2nd half of the game. 34/64 hunts done & 5*'d | 2010-03-26 17:37:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| The first bit is kind of like reading story, only with really good gameplay I don't see people complaining about books being linear! | 2010-03-26 18:26:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Was the amount of time spent getting to that point worth the return? FFXIII is like a box of chocolates... except the top layer is filled with praline covered in milk chocolate, and you have to finish it before you can get to the second layer which contains much more variety. The praline ones taste good, no doubt about that, but you'd like to be able to try something nougat or cream-filled. So uhm... I guess my conclusion is: the time spent is worth the time spent already, and the return is a bonus (but one that I'd like to get earlier). Sorry, that's the best analogy I could come up with. | 2010-03-26 18:33:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| Apparently you're not supposed to post if you don't think this game is fantatic...I'm going to anyway. I just got to Chapter 11...where I think the game is supposed to open up. I doubt the last 2 chapters will affect my feelings on this game much...the past 25 hours have done too much to dampen my enthusiasm...it's a good game with high production value, it's not a great nor is it a particularily fun game. The game could have really used some side quests/distractions from the main story...even something as simple as a sensible/worth-while weapon upgrade system would have been a blessing...instead all you get is a one-trick pony battle system. If you like the battle system I don't think the linearity will bother you and you'll probably enjoy yourself...being linear is not a big deal. I've found the battles quite dull, that anyone enjoys them makes me think I'm completely missing something fundamental. The basic mobs haven't been difficult...I believe the real issue is that some mobs take WAY too long to dispatch. I spent the entirety of chapter 10 switching between only 2 paradigms, commando, ravenger, ravenger and commando, medic, sentinel...I didn't skip a single battle, employed zero strategy (because none was warranted) and died only once when I spaced out mid-battle and starting playing with my cat. The various attack animations are very pretty and well done...but I mostly just stare at the main character's health bar since that's all that matters. I'm going to start skipping the battles with poor time vs. exp ratios now...I can't take it anymore. People claim the battles get better...but geez there are only 2 chapters left! At this point I'm planning to play through the last couple story chapters and call it quits. The side-quests I looked forward to early on now have little appeal since it's just more of the same dull as dish water combat...longer/more difficult fights will just make battles even more of a tedious chore as you'll just be doing the same paradigm switching...but just having to do it more frequently. How to fight a mob of flan: X, wait, X, wait, X, R1, down, X, wait, R1, up, X, wait...repeat. How to fight a behemoth: X, wait, X, wait, X, R1, down, X, wait, R1, up, X, wait...repeat. How to fight a boss: X, wait, X, wait, X, R1, down, X, wait, R1, up, X, wait...repeat. How to fight an eidelon: X, wait, X, wait, X, R1, down, X, wait, R1, up, X, wait...repeat. Press [] to win < OMG a difference! The battle system is lacking any sort of rock/paper/scissor strategic element. Creatures do have weakness, but you don't need to be aware of them, libra once and auto-battle chooses the most appropriate attacks. Question: Do either Hope or Dingbat (Vanille) learn haste? I'm trying to pick a 3rd to go along with Light/Snow and it's the only buf I care about. Alternatively are there auto-haste accessories to be found before the end of the story? Question: Do you get more than 2 accessory slots? If so, when? Question: What does increasing a role level (grey crystal) actually do...anything? | 2010-03-26 19:18:00 Author: fullofwin Posts: 1214 |
| How to fight a mob of flan: X, wait, X, wait, X, R1, down, X, wait, R1, up, X, wait...repeat. How to fight a behemoth: X, wait, X, wait, X, R1, down, X, wait, R1, up, X, wait...repeat. How to fight a boss: X, wait, X, wait, X, R1, down, X, wait, R1, up, X, wait...repeat. How to fight an eidelon: X, wait, X, wait, X, R1, down, X, wait, R1, up, X, wait...repeat. Press [] to win < OMG a difference! Apart from that not being true at all, you can make any game seem easy and repetitive by spelling out the controls You need to employ different attacks and shifts for different enemies, choose which enemies to attack, do pre-battle preparations, counter various attack patterns and whatever else. I don't think i've ever gone through 2 battles the same way. I'm not convinced that the "rock, paper, scissors" thing is the only way to make an rpg difficult. I usually find it to be the easiest aspect of a game, FF10 in particular wasn't challenging in that aspect at all. | 2010-03-26 20:25:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Question: Do either Hope or Dingbat (Vanille) learn haste? I'm trying to pick a 3rd to go along with Light/Snow and it's the only buf I care about. Alternatively are there auto-haste accessories to be found before the end of the story? Question: Do you get more than 2 accessory slots? If so, when? Question: What does increasing a role level (grey crystal) actually do...anything? Yes, Hope and Dingbat learn Haste. In fact, I'm pretty sure everyone learns haste, but at different times on the chrysarium. So one person might not get it until the very very top, whereas Sazh gets it pretty early on. You get a total of 4 accessory slots (as far as I know), but you're going to have to poke around in the chrysarium to find them. You're guaranteed to find them SOMEWHERE in the default 3 roles for each character. They won't be found in the other roles that you don't start with. The 4th one I think is at the very top on the 5th level, meaning, you won't even access it until AFTER you beat the final boss. Increasing a role level I believe increases the effectiveness of the abilities within that role. Not sure if it gives you a stat boost or not? But it DOES do something, it's worth sometimes skipping a couple of unneeded nodes (Strength nodes on Hope's grid for example) to reach that level-up crystal earlier. Also, here are a couple of paradigms that might help speed things up: Tri-disaster (ravager-ravager-ravager) Salvation (medic-medic-medic) OR Discretion (commander-medic-medic) Obviously that's depending on if you've got a team with available roles. But tri-disaster is great on certain enemies who have to be staggered to be beaten. Salvation, if you've got 3 medics, can heal up the entire party in a single turn. It's so blazingly fast, you can be back fighting again full-tilt in seconds. I used to use diversity (com-rav-med), but I eventually switched to discretion because it just gets you healed up so much faster, and you can switch to attacking full-tilt. Also prioritize having a paradigm with SAB and SYN - in fact i usually had BULLY as my default paradigm (com-sab-syn), and I would go for one turn before switching it up. In one short turn, you've got Haste on two people and if Libra has revealed the enemies are susceptible to any status ailments, they likely have one or two (or three) by now and you can switch to com-rav-rav and go bananas. For me, Chapter 11's opening-up really did NOT redeem the linearity of the game up until that point, and I just didn't care enough by then. I wasn't engaged to go and hunt marks. There was no story in it, mainly just yet more combat. So I didn't really bother. Just kept going on with the game. The ending area was pretty intense. I'd be surprised if anyone DIDN'T get combat-fatigue by the time they reached the final boss. Every single normal enemy you run across - and it's A LOT - is harder than many of the bosses you fight in the game. Going up against TWO of those flying bikes toward the end? Total insanity. Turns into 10 minutes of total intensity and then you have to do it again-and-again-and-again-and-again just to get through the area. I was dying in there! Literally! I must have used 10 deceptisols. | 2010-03-26 20:29:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| The basic mobs haven't been difficult...I believe the real issue is that some mobs take WAY too long to dispatch. I spent the entirety of chapter 10 switching between only 2 paradigms, commando, ravenger, ravenger and commando, medic, sentinel...I didn't skip a single battle, employed zero strategy (because none was warranted) and died only once when I spaced out mid-battle and starting playing with my cat. I guess you could win most battles by just switching to medic when required, but it's not the most efficient strategy. That might be why you experience long mobs. Some examples from the top of my head: with the Sazh-Vanille duo, some battles go faster with buffs, and against those velocycles in Palumpolum, a sentinel's really helpful. And according to http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Synergist, everyone but Vanille gets Haste, so pick Hope. I'm not so sure about those role levels, I haven't noticed any difference. | 2010-03-26 20:47:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| Early on I used Sazh a lot because he learns Haste so early. Eventually my go-to team ended up being Fang (party leader), Hope, and Lightning. Hope and Lightning were my medics, and I kept a gnarly assault paradigm ready to go on certain enemies (com-rav-com). but this gives you a solid team with a good sabateur and synergist. The only reason I played as Fang and not Lightning is that I always hate playing as a medic, although at the same time I'm often not too happy with the AI's choice of abilities as medic. When I DO play medic, at least after your AB gauge expands enough, usually spamming your team with cura works really really well, and the AI will do annoying things like just send one measly cure at someone and then sit around waiting, never anticipating enemy attacks. Grrrr. | 2010-03-26 21:00:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| Teebonesy/Roger Thanks for the answers and tips. I'll have to keep Tri-disaster in mind. I may stick with Sazh until Hope gets haste then...love haste. "You need to employ different attacks and shifts for different enemies, choose which enemies to attack, do pre-battle preparations, counter various attack patterns and whatever else. I don't think i've ever gone through 2 battles the same way." Sorry Dex, you're just wrong...For Ch. 10. on a whim I chose Light/Snow/Vanille, only 3 paradigms got defined for this trio (the 3rd that I never used had 2 medics and something else)...and I didn't bother generating any others. I really expected that I would run into trouble and would then choose different tactics/party members...I was pretty shocked actually when it never happened. As for picking who to attack...99% of the time I just attack whoever gets choosen as the default target...if there is one large enemy and some peons, I usually clear out the peons first so I occasionally do manually switch targets but it's a rare event. In previous chapters I played around with bufs/de-bufs but I was never sure that it was really necessary...SAB just seems to waste turns. Haste did help with Sazh/Vanille being able to stagger those shell beasts (and I had to kill every single one). Individual battles in chapter 10 weren't very long either, A commando and 2 ravengers stagger stuff pretty darn fast (Light's gladius is level 10, only weapon I've upgraded, don't know how much difference that makes)...there were just lots and lots of battles (and I did get a lot of 5 star ratings). What form do these pre-battle preparations take? Do you mean using the buf-a-sols? I'd think you'd only use them if you were having trouble with a particular battle...i.e. lost a few times. If you mean changing equips, again you'd only know that after losing...right? But you're right, not every battle was exactly the same...I lied about the flans, I just hit X for those! Same for a lone behemoth, with a pre-emptive attack it dies in the air without getting a single attack off...never necessary to heal. | 2010-03-26 22:00:00 Author: fullofwin Posts: 1214 |
| Haha... just wait until the endgame. You'll be fondly remembering the x-button bore-a-thons after fighting your 20th boss-level bad guy in a row. Something I have noticed is that if you can get deshell or deprotect on an enemy, it doesn't just make a slight difference - it's pretty huge. now, if you've got deprotect on an enemy plus bravery on your commanders, or deshell and faith on your ravagers... well you're going to absolutely fly through a battle that would normally take three times as long. So using some of the buffing/debuffing tactics aren't really about beating the enemies, it's more about just beating them FASTER. I ALWAYS hit R1 after using libra on an enemy to check their status immunities and if they're susceptible to anything particularly, and usually that's a hint that exploiting those weaknesses will really speed things up. Also, a tidbit on accessories: you'll come across a few critical-bravery and critical-faith accessories and the like. If you upgrade them to max (only takes one level I think), and then use a stone catalyst to synthesize the next version of the accessory, they become auto-brave and auto-faith. Give your commander an auto-brave and your ravagers auto-faith rings for the common battles and things will go a bit faster. | 2010-03-26 22:13:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| The first bit is kind of like reading story, only with really good gameplay I don't see people complaining about books being linear! I remember the good ol days of choose your own adventure books. Not linear at all! | 2010-03-26 22:19:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| > The first bit is kind of like reading story, only with really good gameplay More like: The first bit is kind of like reading a story, only with being forced to de-populate all the neighborhood wildlife between chapters! | 2010-03-26 22:28:00 Author: fullofwin Posts: 1214 |
| So I take it that you cant go back to parts of the game later on ch13 because 360 would have to put in discs? what a waste of some good looking areas really if i find out SE cut stuff out >_< | 2010-03-27 07:35:00 Author: jump_button Posts: 1014 |
| Ok, i reached 35h of play, and i am at Chapter 11, making level-up in the steppa. I continue to think this game is awesome. Each battle is a challenge and very tactical, and i love this so much. The linearity of the game is not a big deal for me. The storyline is very good and keep you focused (hmm.... are you a l'Cie?) on the mean: fun story, fun CG, fun gameplay and fun battles. I am stonished about people beingh tired of battles, arguing they are to hard and to frequent. Isn't it what was Final Fantasy since the first opus? Isn't it what you search in such games? The last part of all the FF was challenging, with a lot of battles, and most of the players i know (i don't talk about you guys....keep cool) never beat these games until the end. And now, you have a chance to avoid some of them: you can see the ennemies before the battle. | 2010-03-27 15:37:00 Author: Takelow Posts: 1355 |
| After 57hrs I finished the game. On the last bosses I only died once and that was the very final one. Second attempt I killed it quickly. Thank god I'm done with it. I miss the exploration among other things. I liked the battle system but this was a 57 hour long trip from A-B with too much of it. I don't ever want to hear Vanille's voice again. Or the rest of the characters for that matter. | 2010-03-27 16:19:00 Author: BasketSnake Posts: 2391 |
| I am stonished about people beingh tired of battles, arguing they are to hard and to frequent. Isn't it what was Final Fantasy since the first opus? Isn't it what you search in such games? The last part of all the FF was challenging, with a lot of battles, and most of the players i know (i don't talk about you guys....keep cool) never beat these games until the end. And now, you have a chance to avoid some of them: you can see the ennemies before the battle. That's true, and I don't think I've ever played a Final Fantasy that didn't make me absolutely sick of the battles at least once (or thirty times). The crucial difference is this: Those other Final Fantasies change it up by giving you areas to explore; mini-games; towns with residents to talk to and story to uncover while you play; puzzles to complete; and so, so much more variety to keep the combat-heavy areas from being too overwhelming or tedious. | 2010-03-28 10:38:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| Well stated Teebonesy. For example, I can't imagine playing another rpg with random encounters ever again... Now that I'm in ch. 11 I'm enjoying myself quite a bit more (just did mark 7). Exploring, hunting marks, grinding to upgrade weapons and cp, this is more like what I was hoping for...shame they couldn't have added some smaller sections like this earlier in the game. I still think the combat is pretty weak, I've started using a SAB and things do go a little faster. I wish I was still doing more than just switching paradigms...but at least now fights keep you occupied enough to be interesting. Also this weapon/item upgrade system seems like a poor attempt to sell strategy guides. They have yet to top materia from ff7 IMO... | 2010-03-28 16:25:00 Author: fullofwin Posts: 1214 |
| I don't have it. I was never really into the final fantasy series. My mate has it and he is pretty much always playing it. Is it really that good? | 2010-03-28 16:30:00 Author: Wardi96 Posts: 20 |
| A little over 60 hours in now. I started killing adamantoises to farm Trapezohedrons to upgrade my gear. This is going to take a while.... the drop rates off turtles is abysmal, and I got my hopes up early when a trap dropped off my first adamantortoise. Got my butt kicked by a 3x tonberry fight too - that was fun. They HEAL each other! | 2010-03-29 01:39:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| A little over 60 hours in now. I started killing adamantoises to farm Trapezohedrons to upgrade my gear. This is going to take a while.... the drop rates off turtles is abysmal, and I got my hopes up early when a trap dropped off my first adamantortoise. Got my butt kicked by a 3x tonberry fight too - that was fun. They HEAL each other! There was a brief period where I thought I was going to do the farming thing and make ultimate weapons and all that. I discovered that a couple of ultimate weapons, when dismantled, wield THREE trapezohedron. I know Fang's ultimate weapon is one example. You use one trap to make the thing, and then dismantle it and earn 3, for a profit of 2 traps. Then you can use those 2 to make more Fang-ultimates and dismantle those, etc. In other words, you only really need ONE trapezohedron, plus a crap-ton of goodies to upgrade level 1-and-2 weapons with in order to max them out. But farming money is undoubtedly easier than farming adamantoises with a 1-5 percent drop rate. But honestly, I never did it myself because before I ever made a single ultimate weapon, an epic shrug seized my body, a kind of profound shrug, like my nerves and muscles refused to let me go on any further. I haven't turned the game on since, but the many tens of hours I spent with it are still lingering. but perhaps this knowledge will help you, and a good thing shall come of it? | 2010-03-29 11:12:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| Yay, finally made it to chapter 11! I recall reading somewhere that you can't dismantle just any fully upgraded weapon of Fang or Vanille, it needs to be a particular base weapon... *google* ... a Shamanic Spear or Belladonna Wand (http://ff-13.info/trapezohedron/). | 2010-03-29 11:39:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| The weapon FAQ I read mentioned a fully upgraded Mistilteinn dismantles to 3x Traps. I haven't seen the dismantle output for many other maxed weapons, but I would expect other weapons would work as well. | 2010-03-29 14:08:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unskippable/1567-Final-Fantasy-XIII | 2010-03-29 21:01:00 Author: Rabid-Coot Posts: 6728 |
| Well I just finished it (took me 46.5 hours, a new forum record? lol) and I was happy with the ending. I have been showering this game with praise since my first hour of play but now having finished it I am ready to trade it in. I have absolutely no desire to grind, further level my characters, upgrade ultimate weapons etc. The reason? Because there isn't any point! A big disappointment for me is the lack of special attacks or limit breaks (I have the 6 specials unlocked but let's be honest, other then Army of One they are pretty lame). A major reason for me to grind post-game in past titles was to unlock high level attacks that would make my jaw hit the floor with the their special effects screen-filling extravagance. This also applied to the summon spells. I understand why there are only 6 summons to fit the context of the story but still. I remember grinding and exploring in FFVII to get Bahamut Zero, Knights of the Round etc and I really miss that here (the summons in FFXIII are beautifully flashy but close to useless...). Put simply, there is nothing new to see or do unless you consider the little "stories" that come with each Hunt quest. I loved the game, it was worth my time/money but it is time to move on. After my first 20 hours of play I posted that this game deserves a 10. Having now finished it I would revise that to a 9 which is still pretty good I was planning to write a long post with my thoughts on the story, examining the different themes as well as the Japanese psyche/design aesthetic (I did live in Japan for 3 years after all) but truth be told I would rather be playing games then writing marathon posts about them! Now it's off to play Yakuza 3, my favorite game of 2010 (sorry FFXIII and GoW3). I will be creating a topic on it soon, it's a must buy! Well that's that, I look forward to the next FF | 2010-03-29 22:09:00 Author: OCK Posts: 1536 |
| Can't get past the second fight with Barthandelus He uses Doom halfway | 2010-03-30 04:33:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| Can't get past the second fight with Barthandelus He uses Doom halfway He uses doom in both fights if you take too long to kill him | 2010-03-30 15:51:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Oh. haha I finally beat him anyway Has anyone had this glitch thingy where the menu doesn't appear during fights? I'm talking about the thingy below the ATB bar. It suddenly disappeared while I was fighting Orphan. I couldn't heal or change Paradigms, so it killed me | 2010-03-31 13:26:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| <embed src="http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.1.5.swf" flashvars="config=http://www.themis-media.com/videos/config/1569-7c754a052c740a3c35a48df6fa9fba0b.js%3Fembed%3D1" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" width="650" height="389" wmode="opaque"></embed> dont take anything he say to heart he all ways like this lol | 2010-03-31 17:21:00 Author: jump_button Posts: 1014 |
| Grr you beat me too it xD I'm surprised Yahtzee reviewed a JRPG, this is a rare occasion | 2010-03-31 17:28:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| This "hope" guy has been established from the start as a whiny, weak, inept, cowardly, socially retarded mommy's boy. So presumably he's the character most of the audience is meant to project onto.... but then combat starts, and he LITERALLY pulls a boomerang out of his **** and joins the fray? Consistency is nice!! Hilarities! It's exceedingly rare that yahtzee positively reviews ANY game, and FFXIII really had no chance in hell. But this was pretty funny. | 2010-03-31 23:06:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| Yup, that was great...those Hope comments were priceless. I really got a laugh out of the character graphics too...the hair styles were spot-on! | 2010-03-31 23:24:00 Author: fullofwin Posts: 1214 |
| I'm still playing it and it really lloks great. The characters are nice and the story is very interesting but I'm still disappointed about this game. There is allmost nothing to interact with, no proper cities with shops or anything, you only can buy stuff you already have, you can't buy anything at all because you dont get money what makes the shops pointless, it's very repetetive sometimes and gets boring, you can't upgrade your weapons for a long time because you still need more money, your charakters are healed after every fight which makes it too easy and a lot of other things. It's ok to change things but if changes are just stupid and useless that's BS! | 2010-04-01 13:49:00 Author: Chrree  Posts: 554 |
| I'm still playing it and it really lloks great. The characters are nice and the story is very interesting but I'm still disappointed about this game. There is allmost nothing to interact with, no proper cities with shops or anything, you only can buy stuff you already have, you can't buy anything at all because you dont get money what makes the shops pointless, it's very repetetive sometimes and gets boring, you can't upgrade your weapons for a long time because you still need more money, your charakters are healed after every fight which makes it too easy and a lot of other things. It's ok to change things but if changes are just stupid and useless that's BS! Trust me, it'll get harder when you get to chap 11 | 2010-04-02 04:20:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| Chapter 11 is indeed better...game started being fun for the first time. Now the marks are starting to insta-kill my whole party or just take too darn long (have done about 35 or so)...may be time to move on with the story. The story bosses haven't presented any problems...I still think this battle system is weak. The final boss of ch 11 was defeated easiily 1st try in 5:21...for this battle I only used rav/rav/com and med/med/sen...deep strategy! So far the only strategy I found to employ was to fight a juggernaut, use saboteurs so that he does steam-clean instead of insta-killing everyone...this was actually a tougher fight than the chapter boss. | 2010-04-02 05:40:00 Author: fullofwin Posts: 1214 |
| I think a game should be fun when you start it not when it's almost over. | 2010-04-02 12:58:00 Author: Chrree Posts: 554 |
| Chapter 11-13 is longer than 1-10, so it's fun way before it's over. Got my growth egg yesterday, yay. | 2010-04-02 18:07:00 Author: Fredrik94 Posts: 342 |
| Am I the only one that practically didn't bother AT ALL with sidequests and Marks in Chapter 11? At that point, this attempt to open up the game and make it nonlinear was too little, too late, and I didn't care at all by that point to grind levels and do sidequests that were nothing more than fighting nearby enemies over and over. I did about 3 or 4 and then I just moved on with the story. The main thing I wanted to do was just be done with the game and not have to put in another dozen or more hours. That being said, I did return after beating the game to do some marks and see what opens up. So yeah, I got chocobos, I beat the most annoying version of the giant cactuar I've ever played in a Final Fantasy, I got the growth egg (used the death trick), and then found myself actually grinding levels until I got everyone's 3 roles maxed out. Then I tried some more difficult marks and got absolutely decimated, and for a moment I glimpsed the kind of grinding and the sheer hour-age it would take to properly finish this game, and I decided to put a lid on it, for the sake of my own sanity. It's on the shelf now, and maybe I'll sell it, or maybe I'll return to it in 6 months' time and try to beat an Adamantoise. but I do want to make the point to everyone playing this to be very mindful of what you're spending your time doing. Grinding levels is an incredibly time-consuming process - incredibly time consuming. Ask yourself, is it worth it? Are you enjoying yourself? Is the payoff worth all this time? What else could you be doing? Do you feel you're being "had" by inethical game design? Is THIS the game you want to 100%? At the very, VERY least, I implore you to put on some audiobooks, youtube debates by scholarly gentlepersons far smarter than yourself, entertaining podcasts, or something to this effect while grinding. Don't let them suck days out of your life doing the same nothing over and over for no real reward. Make it rich somehow on your own, learn something new while you're doing it. | 2010-04-02 21:45:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937 |
| Am I the only one that practically didn't bother AT ALL with sidequests... Gawd Teeb, i get that you don't like the game but you don't have to be so cynical about it at any given moment. Just give it a rest for a moment, i'm losing respect quickly :c | 2010-04-03 00:17:00 Author: Dexiro Posts: 2100 |
| Am I the only one that practically didn't bother AT ALL with sidequests and Marks in Chapter 11? I jumped at the chance to finally veer from the beaten path. I first turned backwards and plodded around the Yaschas Massif, then did a bunch of missions, and now I'm chocobo digging. I missed this so much! At the very, VERY least, I implore you to put on some audiobooks, youtube debates by scholarly gentlepersons far smarter than yourself, entertaining podcasts, or something to this effect while grinding. Don't let them suck days out of your life doing the same nothing over and over for no real reward. Make it rich somehow on your own, learn something new while you're doing it. Heh, I can see the commercials now. "Final Fantasy 13 is great, I learned Spanish and finally finished the Discworld series!" Edit: By the way, is anyone else getting motion sickness from riding the chocobo for too long? I'm starting to feel like I sat in the back of a car, reading. | 2010-04-03 01:36:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| I feel compelled to attempt everything as early as possible...I've gotten squashed repeatedly now. I like that they cap the stats so that you don't over-level too much for the story. I currently have quests 1-50,52-63 available. I've done all the low and mid marks and a good number of the rest. I think what's left just isn't possible at the current character level. It's a shame that it's gg when the lead dies, could have had more challenging fights...as it is if there's a chance of a one-shot kill you just have to come back later. I'll probably max the 3 main roles and move onto ch 12. The marks were a nice diversion, but the hunts in 12 were done better (conditons to find target, etc.). There is little chance I go for 100%. What's a growth egg? | 2010-04-03 02:37:00 Author: fullofwin Posts: 1214 |
| @ Fullofwin: I think it doubles the CP you get after each fight. I had a hard time with the Ch.11 boss, so I grinded on the 6 bombs in the mine. 7.1k CP every 30 seconds | 2010-04-03 03:13:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341 |
| Mission 55...one of the ones I didn't think was possible until later! Got my egg, pretty hilarious how lucky I was...barely survived the peons after taking out the big sucker...Vanille only has about 6k hp and Fang 8k. I think the remaining 10 hunts can wait until the post-game...I used up my last couple sols and all my luck on 55. Now I can get over 13k CP in 15 seconds on those 2 creatures that fight in the north...was able to finished maxing 3 roles for everyone real quick! | 2010-04-03 05:01:00 Author: fullofwin Posts: 1214 |
| Ok, so I got this instead of BBC2, so I want to know, was it a mistake? | 2010-04-03 10:56:00 Author: talbot-trembler  Posts: 1114 |
| Mission 55...one of the ones I didn't think was possible until later! Got my egg, pretty hilarious how lucky I was...barely survived the peons after taking out the big sucker...Vanille only has about 6k hp and Fang 8k. I think the remaining 10 hunts can wait until the post-game...I used up my last couple sols and all my luck on 55. Now I can get over 13k CP in 15 seconds on those 2 creatures that fight in the north...was able to finished maxing 3 roles for everyone real quick! EDIT: Found 55... now that's a fight! Woo now I can finish my Crystarium! I presume you Death'd him? Even with 25k HP & 49% physical resist on Snow(SEN) this was still a tough fight. I used Fang/Hope to take out the Picochu's first, then concentrated on the big guy. Having dual SYN's, as well as a Genji glove really helps. I finished the fight with Highwind doing 545k damage to him I've got all the traps I need now, but still short on gil to upgrade. Maxed my main roles for everyone... and the subs are leveling slowly. 62/64 marks 5*d now | 2010-04-03 21:59:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| I finished the initial missions (1-18?), went on with the story and got a new eidolon, when the game went in pause mode with a spinning disc symbol. Looks like the bluray drive died, I can't get any game or movie discs to show up in the XMB. I guess that's it for now for FFXIII... or LBP. At least I still have LBP PSP. | 2010-04-04 22:24:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284 |
| Thegide, yup getting lucky w/death was my only option. It was well-worth the 15 minutes it took to get...got tons of CP in 12 and 13. I think I'm done now. Just finished the story, I enjoyed ch. 12 a lot, 13 was a chore...I kept thinking...are we there yet?!? I tried one of the remaining 9 marks...fully buffed Fang with over 12k hp and sentinel still got K.O.ed in 1 shot...seems like a lot of grinding to upgrade stats/weapons/acc is needed for the remaining marks...doesn't seem worth it... I doubt there's anything cool left to see...if they do something cool with 51 or 64 let me know (extra movies, etc.)...I'm pretty sure I know who you fight for 51...no idea for 64. I'm itching to get back to my LBP level and I've got all 3 GOW games to play as well... Roger, that's a shame about your console dying...hope you can get it fixed soon. | 2010-04-04 23:04:00 Author: fullofwin Posts: 1214 |
| Been playing Crystal Chronicles Crystal Bearers enjoying the story more then i did FF13, really a good light hearted game. Dont think the gameplay worked that well but can see what they was trying to do. I love the crystal chronicles world and hope that they do a old school RPG like FF9 with the crystal chronicles world. and the music in FFCC better then FF13 nothing really good in my head http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK4WfX2DAx4&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc1NgeXx3ww&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKj6fQ0Hf4o&feature=related | 2010-04-04 23:12:00 Author: jump_button Posts: 1014 |
| Yahtzee has posted the follow up to his FF13 review. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/7379-Extra-Punctuation-Yahtzee-vs-the-JRPG | 2010-04-08 08:57:00 Author: Rabid-Coot Posts: 6728 |
| Wow, after reading the majority of posts on this I'm really glad I didn't buy it becasue it sounds like it was exactly what I was worried it would be. Repetitive fights for the first 25 hours, overly difficult boss fights after that, totally confusing battle system ( after reading TheGide's and Teebonesy's posts with all the weird made up names for stuff, I couldn't even remember them 5 minutes later ! ) and worst of all no towns to explore to give you a respite from all the tough battles. I would have hated that. Thanks for this thread. It saved me wasting my money on this ****e. I certainly won't be buying FF14 either because that is stupidly online only like 11 which I also didn't buy for the same reason. Looks like Square have just about killed off the FF franchise with this one. | 2010-04-08 11:20:00 Author: mistervista Posts: 2210 |
| Thegide, yup getting lucky w/death was my only option. It was well-worth the 15 minutes it took to get...got tons of CP in 12 and 13. I think I'm done now. Just finished the story, I enjoyed ch. 12 a lot, 13 was a chore...I kept thinking...are we there yet?!? I tried one of the remaining 9 marks...fully buffed Fang with over 12k hp and sentinel still got K.O.ed in 1 shot...seems like a lot of grinding to upgrade stats/weapons/acc is needed for the remaining marks...doesn't seem worth it... I doubt there's anything cool left to see...if they do something cool with 51 or 64 let me know (extra movies, etc.)...I'm pretty sure I know who you fight for 51...no idea for 64. I'm itching to get back to my LBP level and I've got all 3 GOW games to play as well... Aye, I preordered GOW3 and still haven't cracked the plastic on it thanks to FF13. Anyways, I finished the marks last night and maxed my Crystarium. I've got one trophy left before platinum. Mark 51 is called Attacus, and despite having 10 million HP, he's not overly difficult. It's not Titan, unfortunately - that would have been cool. Attacus is an agile humanoid Cieth and every quarter of his HP he gets a new, more devastating move. Mark 62 was a pain. It's a pair of Cieth that have those protective shells and very damaging moves. Fighting one was bad enough (an earlier mark) but the pair is deadly. If you can manage to kill off one, it's not so bad. Mark 64 is bar none the toughest fight of the game. This is the reason for grinding CP and gil for maxing weapons. Again, it's another Cieth fight with that protective shell, and the mark is called Vercingetorix. This fight is hard, hard, and different from the other shelled Cieth in that you don't stagger him to make the shell drop. Instead, he shells at will and it lasts 15 or so seconds. The annoying part? As soon as he shells the combo meter returns to 100% AND he rids himself of all debuffs AND he regenerates HP AND he buffs himself with at least bravery. Worse, the lower his HP is the more HP he generates each tick (with 16 million HP total, when he's down around 50% he regenerates over 100,000 HP per tick... probably amassing another 500k HP in the process) He shells so frequently that it's very rare to stagger him (at 300%). You barely get time to stick your debuffs (as SAB/SAB/SAB) and if you're lucky a couple of rounds of real assault before he shells, shedding his debuffs and going into regen mode. Succeeding at this fight comes down to whether you can deal enough DPS to offset his regen. When he is vulnerable, he primarily does AoE attacks and has a move called Putrescence that strips your buffs off. Like his increasing-strength regen, the more damage you do to him the quicker he gets rid of your buffs. In the beginning, you might only lose 1-2 buffs per person per round, but near the end, your party is bare after 1-2 casts. Every time he shells the process is similar: rebuff and heal, then get ready to dispel him as soon as he is vulnerable again. Near the end though, it's really impossible to rebuff your party - there's not enough time to get more than a few buffs on each person. At half health, he gains a new move called wicked whirl - and it truly is wicked, especially because he likes to use it while buffed with Bravery as soon as he drops his shell. You have to switch to SEN/SEN/SEN to absorb it or you will most certainly die. This move involves him spinning and with each spin he throws off some AoE damage. The spin finishes with a massive AoE hit, and even while turtled, your party will almost certainly be in the red (we're talking 15k+ damage to sentinels wearing imperial armlets at 20% damage reduction). Essentially the entire fight is a distraction to keep you doing things other than finding time to hit him offensively. The closer you get to killing him, the more you end up doing maintenance rather than killing and the more regen potential he has. I had several fights where I ended up in a stalemate, with him sitting pretty at 4-6 million HP left. Shaolong Gui/Long Guis Once you beat all those missions in the circle on Archelyte Steppe (marks 56-62) all the Ademanchelids, Adamantortoises and Adamantoises are replaced with tougher versions called Shaolong Gui (Adamanchelid) or Long Gui (the big guys). The big difference aside from more HP is that quake and ultima will 1-shot your party unless you cower in SEN/SEN/SEN. Stomps are extremely deadly, so the general strategy is paradigm hopping to SENx3 immediately before each stomp/spell. Oh, and they can't be killed by Death. If you are going for platinum, you will need to farm some Shaolongs for Dark Matter (at least 5). These guys are more deadly than the Longs because they do not have killable legs that will turn them into harmless beasts for 60 seconds. At 10 million HP, they can be dropped in one stagger if your party is fully buffed & genji gloved. If you don't drop them in one stagger, good luck surviving. Long Guis are worse. Although less deadly than the Shaolongs, I've been unable to kill them in one stagger (16 million HP). Like the Adamantoises, you have to take out the legs first before you can assault the body. And the legs have 1 million HP each. Those great summon-based strats don't work as easily on the Longs because you will still need to take out the legs a second time without a summon handy. Killing one of these guys will net you a trophy and that's about it. If you want to farm ingots for cash or traps for upgrades, I suggest you kill the Adamantoise at Edenhall instead. Anyways, it's been fun. I think I will try to grab my platinum tonight. I can't say that 10 hours of farming ingots via turtles was much fun - this has been merely repetitive grinding, but some of the ultimate fights were fun and really test your skill. I do feel a sense of accomplishment and still enjoyed the game, although there was a little more to do postgame other than grind. -85 hours in. | 2010-04-08 15:09:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| Thegide, Thanks for sharing the nice post-game synopsis...and good luck snagging your platinum. I'm pretty happy about my decision to leave those last 9 marks alone now (trophies don't motivate me). FF13 was worth a play...the bosses in the main game weren't "overly difficult", I found this to be one of the easier games in the series (primarily because I don't like grinding and this game didn't require any for the main story). Also, the battle system isn't "totally confusing"...if anything it's too simplistic and takes too many decisions away from the player (my biggest disappointment). I've never quite understood people's fixation with towns...this game does need more to do outside combat...but just having towns and npcs to talk to doesn't equate to fun...talking to npcs is usually tedious. | 2010-04-08 16:27:00 Author: fullofwin Posts: 1214 |
| I've never quite understood people's fixation with towns...this game does need more to do outside combat...but just having towns and npcs to talk to doesn't equate to fun...talking to npcs is usually tedious. I don't think it's so much an issue of making a game fun but immersion, which is important in JRPGs, especially past FFs, which tended to emphasize story and setting. It's hard feeling that you are in a fantastical world when most of that world you travel in is relegated to linear pathways. Some of the past FFs I liked the most like 7 and 9 I don't think I would have as much if they cut out all the towns and railroaded you path of travel. Imagine that you were playing 7 and were learning about the events of Nibelheim entirely through cutscenes, and weren't able to explore it yourself and interact with it's new "inhabitants," or if you were going to the Capital City of Ancients and basically headed straight to the underground alter without being able to explore the rest of the ruins. I don't know about everyone else but I feel like the game would lose a good chunk of the mystery, tension, and fantastical aura that defined the game, combat system entirely aside. Not that this can't be done well, Final Fantasy Tactics (the original PSOne title) basically streamlined it's approach to towns and optional npc interaction to the absolute bare essentials (shops, recruiting schools, bars) and no real traditional dungeons in order to emphasize its battle system, but the setting and story still came off strong though this is partly due to the story being heavily political, with just about all physical action relegated to playable battles. And while it eschewed the traditional overworld map of other FFs, it did have a sort of locations map you traversed with multiple paths and assorted destinations and fittingly had the appearance of a stragic map, keeping in tune with the theme of war and strategy of the game. Take note that FFXIII doesn't have towns not because of a stylistic choice, but because it was hard and they didn't want to take the time to do that (during the years of development for the game): http://playstation.joystiq.com/2010/02/05/final-fantasy-xiii-producers-traditional-rpg-towns-are-tough-to/ I actually don't have the game yet to make a more concrete analysis of the game itself but as it stands, at best I'd get a used copy or rent it rather then get a new copy which would be a first in regards to the FF games I do have. | 2010-04-08 18:13:00 Author: Dapiek Absaroka  Posts: 512 |
| I'm not sure if I'm going to get it or not, I've never played a FF game before and i know each game has a seperate story, but i've play rpg's like KOTOR (but it's not my favourite gameplay type), so should I? I think that the graphics are immense, and i also heard that the length of the game is incredibly long. but on the other hand I heard that it gets boring after awhile and gets kinda repeatitive... but then again i bought the first AC which was in my top 5 favourite games and that was repetitive. | 2010-04-08 18:29:00 Author: Pattington_Bear  Posts: 777 |
| I have FFXIII and the game isn't bad once it opens up, but the problem is that it takes too long for it to open up. BUT, for those of you disappointed with this game or even want what is considered by many the best JRPG out right now, play Resonance of Fate. It is a great game by the makers of Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, etc. Sadly, it came out almost simultaneously with FFXIII and therefor was swept aside from the hype of FFXIII. But everyone that has played it loves it. FFXIII has a better story and more interesting environments, but everything else including gameplay makes Resonance of Fate far greater. Go anywhere and this game gets either perfect or close to perect scores. Go to Amazon and see customer reviews and most are 5 stars, 4 stars, etc. This game deserves the notice its suddenly getting. | 2010-04-08 20:38:00 Author: Unknown User |
| Well that wraps things up. Platinum in the bag! Last trophy I needed was Treasure Hunter, which requires you to have in your possession at one point or another every weapon and accessory in the game. In any other FF, this isn't a big deal, but this time around, this means you have to upgrade almost every item to it's tier 2 (or 3) counterpart. This involves upgrading somewhere around 40-50 accessories and all 48 weapons (8 per character). For the accessories, this will cost you just under 2 million gil, and for the weapons, somewhere around 4-5 million gil. For the weapons, you need to buy the 8th weapon for each character, then upgrade them all to tier 2. You also need to upgrade one weapon for each character to tier 3. It gets expensive as the catalysts cost 30k-220k apiece (most are either 30k or 45k) and a few use dark matters (farm them, don't buy for 840k). If you're interested in platinum, I'd suggest you wait until you have 5-7 million gil in the bank before starting this. The reason is that you will want to save your game before you start upgrading because most of the upgrades are a waste of cash and you will never use them. Save that gil for upgrading weapons to lvl 100!! I'm not sure if I'm going to get it or not, I've never played a FF game before and i know each game has a seperate story, but i've play rpg's like KOTOR (but it's not my favourite gameplay type), so should I? I think that the graphics are immense, and i also heard that the length of the game is incredibly long. but on the other hand I heard that it gets boring after awhile and gets kinda repeatitive... but then again i bought the first AC which was in my top 5 favourite games and that was repetitive. Well FF13 isn't too much like it's predecessors. If you want to see what all the hype is about, FF7,8,9 are on the PSN for $10 apiece. This IMO, is truer to the final fantasy experience. Expect to spend 60-80 game hours for a full completion, significantly more if you're a perfect-save kind of person. The fancy graphics of FF13 are nice, but I don't miss them at all when I replay the classics. You can always try FF12 (PS2) if you want something that's a little of both. | 2010-04-08 23:59:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465 |
| i've been playing through this game and ehhh. Games not that bad but not amazing either glad i didn't buy it, definitely worth a playthrough though! | 2010-04-15 02:47:00 Author: Frank-the-Bunny  Posts: 1246 |
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