Final Fantasy XIII [Archive] - Page 3

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Flußkönig

02-11-2010, 09:08 PM

^Major Nelson guy said it was a pre-order bonus for the bundle.

Soushi_Grapple

02-12-2010, 07:46 AM

I have my Star Ocean faceplate, but that FFXIII one is spiffy. When they set them on Ebay for $50 a peice, I might consider it. (Maybe I'll get lucky and a Gamestop employee would save me one... I could preorder the bundle, then cancel it >>; Feels so... illegal though.)

Rumor is, PS3 might get a limited edition, but it could just be a press error. I actualy put off getting the game since I can't afford the $60 right now when Im already shelling out for the LE guide.

Saburo Hikari

02-13-2010, 04:42 AM

I'm taking all reviews with a grain of salt as well. I haven't heard anything bad besides lack of side-quests and really linear map so far, which I really don't care too much about. And I heard the story and characters are actually quite likable. Even Lightning, who is supposed to be a female Cloud (except better?).

Ultimately, what matters to me is how fun the battle system is, and how good the story and graphics are. Battles are usually the only thing gameplay-wise that I care about in J-RPGs anyway. I rarely enjoy doing side-quests too unless it has something to do with battles.

I'm debating if I should get the collector's edition guide. As a Final Fantasy fan in general, I'm incredibly tempted. I used to collect guides for every J-RPG I purchased, but money and the fact that I like to do things on my own now pretty much made me stop getting them. But as long as this game doesn't pull a "Open these treasures and you'll never get the Zodiac Spear" FFXII thing again, then I probably won't actually use the guide.

Foobar

02-13-2010, 06:04 AM

A lot of the "impressions" posted from Japan were the typical knee-jerk reactions they've posted in regards to other FF games in the past after only playing a few hours. Dale North gave a more articulate perspective on the pros and cons of FFXIII over on Destruction.

It wasn't a review, just stuff he liked and disliked. He has completed the game, too.

If its a Square game, I know I have at least ten hours of tutorial to endure just based on who made it. Kinda like I know that I'm going to have up to three hours of exposition in a Persona game before there's actually anything to really play.

Some people just forget this stuff.

That said, though, Infinite Space, SMT: Strange Journey and Pokemon all just look too content rich for me to worry about FFXIII anytime soon. I was dead-set on getting FFXIII and a PS3, but FFXIII's going to be in steady supply for months and months to come.

I was also turned off by the DLC comment Kitase made. I want to wait and see the nature of such content before jumping in. I don't like anything that resembles withheld content. it is a lame, shady practice. If its crap like alternate costumes, that's one thing, if its challenging optional bosses like the standard Omega/Ultima weapons, I'd take issue with it.

iloveatlus

02-13-2010, 07:43 AM

this game is awesum

Vyse of Arcadia

02-13-2010, 07:58 AM

Dale North gave a more articulate perspective on the pros and cons of FFXIII over on Destruction.

Dale North of OCRemix fame? Or some other Dale North?

Y'know, I kinda wish the PS3 had swappable faceplates. Not necessarily for FFXIII, just in general.

SlaughterX

02-22-2010, 02:18 PM

1up (http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3178035) cover story.

Ark

02-28-2010, 01:55 AM

No special editions in the US, but Amazon had a special that if you pre-ordered the game, you would be able to get $10 off your next game purchase. And Square-Enix NA is selling the soundtrack for $30 (Its directly shipped from Japan hence the high price)

Looking forward to getting it next week alongside my new computer!

affinity

03-02-2010, 04:12 PM

gamestop gives a free special guide for the game for pre-orders. its a miniguide.

Flußkönig

03-04-2010, 05:33 PM

DigitalFoundry article comparing the technical aspects of the two versions of FFXIII. (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-final-fantasy-xiii-face-off)
:grouphug:

Vyse of Arcadia

03-04-2010, 06:48 PM

DigitalFoundry article comparing the technical aspects of the two versions of FFXIII. (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-final-fantasy-xiii-face-off)
:grouphug:

Well damn. It sounds to me that either the 360 version was something of an afterthought that only got started after the PS3 version was significantly complete, or the PS3 really is superior to the 360. I wish it was the latter, but it's probably the former.

Flußkönig

03-04-2010, 07:04 PM

The 360 port was only in development for around a year, so it is basically just a rushed port.

Vicious1915

03-05-2010, 05:02 AM

DigitalFoundry article comparing the technical aspects of the two versions of FFXIII. (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-final-fantasy-xiii-face-off)
:grouphug:

Personally, I couldn't tell a difference, but then I couldn't tell the difference between DVD and Blue-Ray. Maybe ignorance is bliss... It would probably drive me insane if I could tell and felt I had an inferior version of something.

Raptorg

03-05-2010, 05:23 AM

I'm not surprised by that outcome at all..

4 years ago, I told myself I'd get the PS3 version, no matter what. Though at that time, I think we didn't even know there was going to be an Xbox 360 version, though I was honestly expecting it somewhere.. And I bought the PS3 as my first "next gen console"..
Anyway, I guess that mindset is now paying off. Though I have all 3 the next gen consoles.. Still, if I wasn't such as Sony fanboy, I probably wouldn't have bought one and just have went for the Xbox 360 version, sucking up the fact that it's much worse.

Andy

03-05-2010, 05:45 AM

http://www.edge-online.com/magazine/review-final-fantasy-xiii

Fatney

03-05-2010, 06:46 AM

Too bad the series took such a sudden step downhill, considering how awesome FFXII was (and please do not start another discussion about it). But, I am still looking forward to the music and the battles.

Also, let's hope Versus will be the true FFXIII.

SlaughterX

03-06-2010, 09:17 AM

Though I am disappointed bt the quick and dirty port of the 360 version of this game, I can understand why. However after seeing the comparison videos on DF I have to say I am far less worried than I was before. I'm sure the difference would be more noticable on my TV, however you can barely tell there is a difference between the two unless you focus on the hair. At least there's nothing that affects gameplay like a bad frame rate or anything like that.

With that said, I am still buying and playing through the 360, however I did managed to snag the UK CE of the PS3 version. :)

Fatney

03-06-2010, 10:32 AM

Why do you want to play this game on the 360 when you have a PS3? (If I remember correctly you do have one)

SlaughterX

03-06-2010, 11:10 AM

Because I want to support SE's decision of putting it on the 360 in the first place, I have the 360 version preordered for less @ Amazon, I already have the PS3 CE preordered (and I don't want two copies of the PS3 version). Perhaps if my CE somehow got here on Tuesday I wouldn't bother with the 360 version, but since it's coming from another country I don't want to sit here waiting for it while everyone else plays. Also I'm not sure if the PS3 version is going to switch resolutions between gameplay and cutscenes (since they are both different resolutions). It takes a moment for my TV to adjsut resolutions and I can see that getting pretty annoying pretty fast if the PS3 version does that on my TV.

sdragon21

03-06-2010, 11:13 AM

After seeing reviews on XIII, i think i might just rent this, and save my money for the other 3 games that's coming out between now and the end of july, i.e. Sakura Wars,SSF4,and Other M.

Juanblue85

03-06-2010, 01:08 PM

I just pre-ordered the game at Amazon.com I played my friend's JP version so he told me the gist of it and I actually like it I thought I would end up hating the game.

Vicious1915

03-06-2010, 03:55 PM

Also, let's hope Versus will be the true FFXIII.

What does that even mean? :tongue:

AlexDM

03-06-2010, 05:25 PM

XP i'm guessing it means, because more good things were heard about versus, it will be the true "FF 13" out of the three.

Dead to Rights

03-06-2010, 05:59 PM

I completely agree with you AlexDM.

I was going to pick up the PS3 version of FFXIII, but then I changed my mind and decided to support Microsoft's moneyhat instead. I figure unless you have 20/20 vision (and who does nowadays?) and a television set bigger than 27 inches you're not going to notice any difference between the two. Plus you can install all three discs to the Xbox 360s hard drive so multiple discs are not an issue, and the 360 version has achievements.

AlexDM

03-06-2010, 07:33 PM

I'm still debating but i think i'll get this maybe....i'd rather get FF13-V or Kingdom Hearts birth by sleep...i was happy to know 2/3rds of my prediction were right

EvilHero

03-06-2010, 08:32 PM

I'm not sure why people are so upset over FFXIII, it's the linearity, right? That seems to be the biggest complaint.

TBH, I feel open endedness(?) is overrated. Final Fantasy VI was similar, the first half of the game was pretty linear and opened up when you got to the WoR. Most people complained the game went downhill from there.

In most RPGs, I prefer getting straight to the point, you can't really find much exploring on your own until the end game anyways. I'm playing through FFV right now, and it's pretty much going from point A to point B, sure, I can explore in between, but theres not much there outside of a random town or two or a summon wandering around in a forest. Is that really open ended? I'd prefer my exploration be cut just so I can get on with the game's story quicker.

I hear this game is the polar opposite of FFXII. If so, I think i'm going to enjoy it quite a bit because i'm playing through XII and I can't stand it.

And please note, I am not trying to start a flame war here! :P This is just my personal insight and how I prefer playing my games. I'm sure you guys have other opinions on how you feel about an RPG's open endedness, i'd like to hear it.

Vicious1915

03-06-2010, 08:32 PM

XP i'm guessing it means, because more good things were heard about versus, it will be the true "FF 13" out of the three.

Each game is its own entity and so I'm confused about how one could be more true than another. I guess some folks are disappointed about something and I missed out on what it was...

Flußkönig

03-06-2010, 08:54 PM

^Referring to it as a true Final Fantasy just means it will focus on what that particular person likes or expects from the series. You are probably just putting to much thought into it.

Vyse of Arcadia

03-06-2010, 09:25 PM

I'm not sure why people are so upset over FFXIII, it's the linearity, right? That seems to be the biggest complaint.

TBH, I feel open endedness(?) is overrated. Final Fantasy VI was similar, the first half of the game was pretty linear and opened up when you got to the WoR. Most people complained the game went downhill from there.

I think the big difference is that FFVI, and most previous FFs, at least offered the illusion of exploring. Even when the game told you where to go and what to do, you could wander around a little.

Then again, if you look at my username and avatar, you'd notice that I'm pretty biased towards exploration, illusion or not. At least Skies of Arcadia actually had stuff (discoveries) that encouraged exploration. And the awesome world map music (even though the entire OST was awesome.) The only other games I've ever played with even half as much a feel of discover were Dragon Quest VI and VIII.

If FFXIII offered even the illusion of exploration and braving the unknown, I'd be much more interested. But that's just my personal preference. I love games in which you feel like you're exploring, even if you're not, like Justin's quest to be the world's greatest adventurer, despite Grandia being an incredibly linear game. For some people, exploration just isn't that important though, and that's cool too.

Saburo Hikari

03-07-2010, 01:26 AM

People seem to be complaining about the lack of towns and stuff. But...aren't the characters being hunted down by the government or something? They shouldn't be in towns in the first place! It also might explain the lack of "exploration".

and the 360 version has achievements.The PS3 version has achievements too. They're called Trophies. And I don't know about the 360 version, but the PS3 version gives you wallpapers or themes for your PS3 XMB when you earn Trophies.

iloveatlus

03-07-2010, 07:19 AM

really? ps3 version gives free theme if u unlock trophys?

People seem to be complaining about the lack of towns and stuff. But...aren't the characters being hunted down by the government or something? They shouldn't be in towns in the first place! It also might explain the lack of "exploration".

and the 360 version has achievements.The PS3 version has achievements too. They're called Trophies. And I don't know about the 360 version, but the PS3 version gives you wallpapers or themes for your PS3 XMB when you earn Trophies.

Hitoshura

03-07-2010, 07:47 AM

Vyse of Arcadia

03-07-2010, 08:01 AM

People seem to be complaining about the lack of towns and stuff. But...aren't the characters being hunted down by the government or something? They shouldn't be in towns in the first place! It also might explain the lack of "exploration".

This! I wish SE hadn't said something lame like "putting towns in HD games takes too long" because I thought this was a perfectly reasonable explanation, and quite a logical conclusion. Definitely a case of "open mouth, insert foot". :(

Well, even the superior explanation forwarded by Hitoshura begs the question, "Did they include that story element to explain why there aren't any towns?" Y'know, a sort of chicken and egg question.

Vicious1915

03-07-2010, 09:03 AM

Fatney

03-07-2010, 09:20 AM

People seem to be complaining about the lack of towns and stuff. But...aren't the characters being hunted down by the government or something? They shouldn't be in towns in the first place! It also might explain the lack of "exploration".

This! I wish SE hadn't said something lame like "putting towns in HD games takes too long" because I thought this was a perfectly reasonable explanation, and quite a logical conclusion. Definitely a case of "open mouth, insert foot". :(

You know, they have said that about other things too, like a FF7 remake would be too hard to make because it's hard to recreate the backgrounds/towns in HD or something. I have no idea why, though. What's the problem with just creating a 3D version of Nibelheim for instance, and keep the static camera? With this said, I do not want a FF7 remake at all, it's just that Square's excuse for not making it baffles me.

Flußkönig

03-07-2010, 09:27 AM

and the 360 version has achievements.The PS3 version has achievements too. They're called Trophies. And I don't know about the 360 version, but the PS3 version gives you wallpapers or themes for your PS3 XMB when you earn Trophies.

Lol, too funny. Anyway, the 360 version has gamer pics and a (rumored) premium theme or something attached to the achievements.

Foobar

03-07-2010, 09:28 AM

^Referring to it as a true Final Fantasy just means it will focus on what that particular person likes or expects from the series. You are probably just putting to much thought into it.

Final Fantasy is redefined on every installment. even the spin-offs go a different direction. To assert there is a "true" Final Fantasy is a fallacy to itself. We're talking about series that changes the nature of character growth each time, does away with EXP and MP then brings them back again and changes how combat is done each time.

The only ones with any common ground were FF, FFIII and FFV and even then there's lots of deviations to be found.

Flußkönig

03-07-2010, 09:29 AM

Great?

Manic Expressive

03-07-2010, 03:29 PM

Because actually <3 MS

Fixed for accuracy.

inb4slaughter####storm.

Saishu

03-07-2010, 06:33 PM

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6630/xboxu.gif

I love this image.

Dead to Rights

03-07-2010, 06:36 PM

I'm not sure why people are so upset over FFXIII, it's the linearity, right? That seems to be the biggest complaint.

No, no it isn't. At least for me it's not. All JRPGs in general are linear, so FFXIII making it painfully obvious to the player shouldn't matter to most people who have played a JRPG.

The biggest problems I have with FFXIII are:

1. Your party members are chosen for you for the first what? 15-20 hours? #### off.
2. Each chapter having a level cap so players won't over level overpower their characters.
3. Forcing players to fight monsters over and over again for rare drops to create weapons and to sell for gold.
4. Job system not opening up until you're 100 hours in (I'm exaggerating of course).
5. No characters in name sounding like or even remotely close to Edge Maverick.

I'll pick up FFXIII for sure, but after a few weeks when it ends up on eBay, CAG, GAF and other sites for a cool $35-40. ;)

and the 360 version has achievements.The PS3 version has achievements too. They're called Trophies. And I don't know about the 360 version, but the PS3 version gives you wallpapers or themes for your PS3 XMB when you earn Trophies.

Lol, too funny. Anyway, the 360 version has gamer pics and a (rumored) premium theme or something attached to the achievements.

Excellent point, RK. Not only does the 360 have gamer pics, but there are tons of free FFXIII wallpapers you can use as well. Not to mention S-E gave 360 owners a free exclusive Chocobo avatar item. There's also an awesome FFXIII faceplate and a Xbox 360 FFXIII themed bundle. What does Sony have? Nothing. It's been nearly three years now and Sony can't even be bothered to update their free selection of avatars. What a joke.

AlexDM

03-07-2010, 07:43 PM

:P and here we go again in a different thread....360 has this~ Ps3 has that~....can we just stick to actually talking about the game and not the systems seriously ._.; grinds my gears (Family guy) when people diverce from a topic about a game and they then make it about the systems.

FF 13 i will find better then 12, even though their battle system is the same, i need good characters to actually be into it (Not that 12 didn't have good characters "but" the first character you play as in 12 the knight, was better in my opinion then who you then change next too.)

Mellusia

03-07-2010, 09:41 PM

From what I've seen and read of the game without spoiling myself, there's nothing that's making me upset enough to not play it. Pretty much every FF game I've played, I've enjoyed immensely, so I have more faith in that precedent than other people's thoughts on what FF should be.

I've had the game pre-ordered for a while now, and I'm anxiously waiting to get the game. I think this is the first time I've decided I'm gonna get up in the morning to get a game just so I could spend as much time as I can on the first day xD

Saburo Hikari

03-07-2010, 09:44 PM

I too am getting excited. Less than 48 hours people! :D

Like I said before, I'll take every review with a grain of salt and keep an open mind when playing this game, as I am with any game I play, and try to enjoy it as much as possible while dealing with the stuff I don't like. I like Final Fantasy in general, so why stop there. And if I don't like this one, there's still Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII.

I'll also keep in mind what I said earlier about the characters not being able to go to towns and shops probably because they're being hunted by the government.

Foobar

03-07-2010, 10:51 PM

I had big plans ot get a PS3 for FFXIII, but when they mentioned DLC it kinda got pushed back to a wait-and-see. Outside of how Gearbox has done it with Borderlands, I don't like how any other developer has handled DLC this generation.

Plus PS3 is still sorely lacking in RPGs, outside of Valkyria Chronicles and FFXIII, I haven't seen any RPGs that on the platform that rise above mediocre. I don't even know If I'd want PS3 for Boarderlands, seems I'd be better served (and more quickly) on PC or 360. I'd probably just get it on PC.

I guess it doesn't help that DS and PSP only add to the fact that I feel a lack of urgency in getting a "next gen" console. My RPG itch gets scratched on handhelds a lot more these days.

Basically, its going to take the announcement of an SMT game for PS3 or the arrival FFXIV for me to jump on getting PS3, whichever comes first. I have a lot of friends hopping on FFXIV, so I want to be there with them when it happens. FFXIII I can wait on.

As for why I wouldn't just get FFXIV for PC - I can't get keyloggers on a gaming console.

Dead to Rights

03-07-2010, 11:26 PM

Plus PS3 is still sorely lacking in RPGs, outside of Valkyria Chronicles and FFXIII, I haven't seen any RPGs that on the platform that rise above mediocre.

Not a fan of Demon's Souls I take it? It's anything but mediocre.

Flußkönig

03-08-2010, 10:35 AM

I had big plans ot get a PS3 for FFXIII, but when they mentioned DLC it kinda got pushed back to a wait-and-see.
Who is they? The only thing S-E has said about DLC is that they have no plans for any at this point.

SlaughterX

03-08-2010, 03:29 PM

Got my faceplate today thanks to the fine folks at my local GameStop. :)

RayFoxSith

03-08-2010, 07:34 PM

Gonna go tonight and get this. Been waiting quite sometime for this day.

Olethros

03-09-2010, 07:10 AM

Mine should be in my mail box tonight when I get home from work. LE guide comes tomorrow.

Won't be starting it for a little bit though as I have every intention of playing out Deadly Premonition to conclusion before moving on.

syl

03-09-2010, 08:06 AM

Vyse of Arcadia

03-09-2010, 10:47 AM

Olethros

03-09-2010, 10:54 AM

I'll be getting both...and then some. Disposable income due to a well spent youth FTW! :D

SlaughterX

03-09-2010, 11:16 AM

It just got here, yay. Exam be damned!

ViolenceJack

03-09-2010, 09:40 PM

Impressions anyone?

poiuiu

03-09-2010, 10:25 PM

The first two full hours of the game dedicated to mashing X until something dies (or mash Auto-battle to wear out the X button less) is distilled bullschit. Add to the fact most of these first two hours are mostly cutscenes with pointless minion battles in between, when the entire thing could have been much better as just an extra long cutscene, is poor design imo.

It's literally end of cut scene, walk three steps, kill something, walk three more steps, the next cutscene. What's the point of THAT!

And then the game finally drops point of the battle system on you. Schit like that should be available from the beginning of the game. But fortunately, you can skip all cutscenes.8)

Hitoshura

03-09-2010, 10:30 PM

Mine should be waiting for me in the Greatest Hits section six months to a year from now.
As mentionned by previous posts, this title isn't going to be in short supply or sell badly.
Call it poor taste on my part, but I'm getting Resonance of Fate instead of FFXIII.

HA HA! Poor taste? You must be joking. Anyone who would yell at you for that hasn't seen Resonance of Fate in action. FF13 is pretty amazing to be honest, but if it was a choice between the two, RoF is definitely the way to go.

Impressions anyone?

Fantastic. I couldn't care less about the linearity, because the game itself is fun as hell to play. It's got a rough start battle systemwise (what FF doesn't, they don't want to turn off a new player by overwhelming them right from the beginning), but the battle system itself is severely reminding me of Chrono Trigger with way more adrenaline. This is some fun stuff.

kaijura

03-10-2010, 12:00 AM

First things first.. I'm just a passerby watching the internet criticism and praise of the game so far. I don't own the game yet, and am reading across from opinion to opinion to see if it's worth warranting a launch purchase.

"RPG resume here" for flameproofing - is that I have all NA FF's except 1,2, and 12 sitting on the shelf.. I know what I am talking about when I speak FF. I have not played 12 yet so I can't toss in my opinion on that.

But digressing onto purchasing FF:XIII, really what get me thinking the reason why many people are getting it is due to new-ish hype from one average gamer to another. All my old friends who were gamers are hyped out as usual at the moment.

I can see the linearity being an issue for the avid RPG gamer. Linearity is the prime example of the staple between what is action/platform and what is true RPG. Any "hardcore" gamer will always prefer games suited to tailor their needs (ie, like some of the posters in the Demon's Souls section).

It's alright in the sense that the story is laid out for the player and they don't have to do much, except, progress on their own towards what's ahead. But that's just about it to it.

All the Final Fantasies and pretty much many other Square / Square-Enix RPG titles except Final Fantasy X and X-2 had a world map with an exploration concept. Instead of "let's go out and save the world from impeding doom", you could sidetrack to some semi-quest, a little mini game, or some minor subplot, or head over to the town nearby and see what the random fellows had to say. You could see all that in all the other series, except X saga.

The battles will, always be battles. You just update the game engine with the new eyecandy out there and make it up-to-date. There isn't much else to them except if they're tied with some of the story, revealing plots (FF5/FF6, earliest predecessors, comes to mind.)

Back to the hardcore gamer concept. I didn't exactly mean that the game needs to be hard to be enjoyable, much rather I think a better word for lack of choice would have been "True RPG". If you think and look at it, many past "True" RPG games always included a:

World that can be explored
Customizable characters and/or party
Customizable equipment and items
Plot execution is controlled by the player

It's what defines other games such as Zelda or heck, even Grand Theft Auto. And why they're still enjoyed by people today.

Although, I think all the recent games or even the marketing / money heads in SE figured out that there were more average gamers who would go for a "watered down" RPG where they don't have to spend as much time as compared to a veteran RPG player.. So they decided money was the focus and went that route instead. Less need for developing, less need for graphics artists, etc etc.. Just a hypothesis.

That's just my two cents though. With that even said I need to go buy the darned game and see what's this fuss all about.

Dead to Rights

03-10-2010, 12:51 AM

kaijura

03-10-2010, 01:41 AM

BTW, thought I'd toss this in for what it's worth for people who may've missed it.

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3178060

According to producer Yoshinori Kitase, though, that's absolutely what the FFXIII team was aiming for. As far as Kitase is concerned, FFXIII isn't even really a role-playing game.

"We didn't really intend to work within with the RPG template," he says.

"We wanted to create a new game, even a new genre. The way we look at it, there's isn't a certain format that we have to keep to and build a game around. Rather, it goes the other way around. We create a game and, depending on what works or doesn't work within that game, it ends up reflecting different staple elements."

Not ranting on the game being bad at all, just showing that it's not what some of the gamerbase has been expecting and even a top head mentions so.. I guess everything has a beginning and and end, or uh?

Vicious1915

03-10-2010, 05:24 AM

I didn't get to pop it in until late last night and only played for about half an hour. I'm sure once it gets past the intro and opens up more it'll be more fun.

MY BF got really frustrated because I was trying to play with the menu and trying to change the leader and see what abilities and equipment they had and generally explore the game as much as possible (which isn't much at all sadly) and said: "I see we can't play the same game together afterall, just get me a copy for the 360 and I'll play myself."

He doesn't even play JRPGs (Zelda is the only RPG series he plays or has played and not the cartoon ones) and he's excited for it.

I wonder if this supports some of the claims that this game appeals to average gamers.

Hitoshura

03-10-2010, 05:40 AM

Fantastic. I couldn't care less about the linearity, because the game itself is fun as hell to play. It's got a rough start battle systemwise (what FF doesn't, they don't want to turn off a new player by overwhelming them right from the beginning), but the battle system itself is severely reminding me of Chrono Trigger with way more adrenaline. This is some fun stuff.

Whenever you have the time Hito I would appreciate you taking the knife out of my back. Thanks.

Aww, Deeter ;_; It really is fun, but like I said elsewhere, RoF is way more important. Then again, this is coming from someone with a severe hardon for VP2, and the similarities are rather apparent.

kaijura

03-10-2010, 03:53 PM

We all know the negativity the game's generated and it's been out just barely some few months, only a day in the Americas. Take a look at what the team replied thus far.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27619/GDC_FF_XIII_Director__Production_Drove_Content_Dec isions_Elements_Will_Return.php?

GDC: FF XIII Director - Production Drove Content Decisions, Elements Will Return

March 10, 2010

At GDC, Gamasutra had the chance to speak to Final Fantasy XIIII director Motomu Toriyama about the game. Released this week, the game has drawn both strongly negative and positive reviews and fan reactions.

One area of criticism that the game has consistently faced is that major traditional RPG elements that the series is known for, such as explorable towns, are not present in the game that was released.

Toriyama chalks this up to a mix of his own personal strengths, the advent of the challenging production required by high definition consoles, and production of the Crystal Tools engine which drives the game.

"Personally, the Final Fantasys that I have worked on have been very story-driven, so in terms of the development I wanted to, of course, use my personal strengths which where those," said Toriyama.

However, he says that production on the current consoles does not allow the freedom the team has known in the past. "In the Final Fantasys on previous non-high definition consoles, we were able to kind of take everyone's ideas and include them in the games -- I call it a bento box system, where you have all of the different little things in there. So we had minigames or towns were you were able to talk to all of the townspeople. But with the HD console you're not really able to do that because it takes so long to develop," said Toriyama.

"If you think about how long it's already taken to develop this game, to have to have included all of those other aspects, it would have been too long. So what we did instead was define what was truly important to the game, and include those aspects and really emphasize those items we wanted to include," he continued. "We had to consider the amount of time it took to create the game engine, which we built from scratch, as well, and so with that additional time included we had to decide what we could and couldn't do."

However, this will not continue for future games, he said. "Now that we have that base technology... The next time you see a Final Fantasy, we might be able to pack in more of those elements that existed in the past. And I also think that a game doesn't need to have all of those items in the future. We can create additional downloadable content for people to add, too. It doesn't have to come with that game itself."

So far Square Enix has not announced any plans for Final Fantasy XIII DLC, though the game's creators have left the door open to the possibility in prior interviews.

When asked if the team should have striven to improve elements such as towns, rather than cut them, Toriyama laughed and said "You can wait longer for the game where we can improve those elements!"

However, he said, "The next title that we will create will have those elements, and the improvements to those elements that you were mentioning. However, it's important for us to choose what we can and cannot include, and that's the role of the director to decide what we can accomplish in that amount of time."

The full interview with Toriyama will appear on Gamasutra in the near future.

Hitoshura

03-10-2010, 04:18 PM

And I also think that a game doesn't need to have all of those items in the future.

Amen. Glad someone finally said it.

iloveatlus

03-11-2010, 01:16 AM

im gettin this game on friday for the ps3

chito

03-11-2010, 01:43 AM

Final Fantasy 13 somewhat feels like they ripped off some Shin Megami Tensei games. Little pieces here and there.

Vicious1915

03-11-2010, 04:16 AM

Final Fantasy 13 somewhat feels like they ripped off some Shin Megami Tensei games. Little pieces here and there.

Umm...huh?

SlaughterX

03-11-2010, 04:43 AM

I guess becasue it now has autobattle? That's all I can think of...

iloveatlus

03-11-2010, 10:08 AM

my mom might be gettin this for me today:D:D:D:D:D:D

Nephlabobo

03-11-2010, 11:58 AM

The one thing that really baffles me the most about the arguments of the XII-haters is the one where they criticize the battle system. It's basically the same system as in every Final Fantasy, except that the characters doesn't line up in a nice row like in the rest of the series, making the battles more believable

It is nothing like the old battle systems. I have no idea what you're talking about.

Olethros

03-11-2010, 12:12 PM

Hey Hito, You wanna take this one? :p

Hitoshura

03-11-2010, 12:26 PM

HIRO

03-11-2010, 01:24 PM

i returned xbox360 13 for ps3 ver.

chito

03-13-2010, 12:14 AM

Vicious1915

03-13-2010, 05:53 AM

Final Fantasy 13 somewhat feels like they ripped off some Shin Megami Tensei games. Little pieces here and there.

Umm...huh?

You don't see the similarities to the Persona games? As well as some of the common battle mechanics. And I really wished they would have gone all the way with the auto-battle. I don't like that we have to change jobs so often and still select battle actions.

I see the same similarities that I see in Persona games and other JRPGS, yeah. The autobattle in FFXIII never requires you to input commands. It (usually) chooses the most appropriate ones. I honestly don't feel like one is reminiscent of the other aside from multiple party members, fight scenes, good music, and (I assume further into XIII) elemental weaknesses, but these are things you can find in most JRPGs (Not always good music, but for the msot part in my opinion.).

That's cool, though, if you do. I would say finding Megaten qualities in any game would inspire me to play it also, have fun! :)

Fatney

03-13-2010, 09:07 AM

Jackstar

03-13-2010, 01:58 PM

20 hours in, and I've just hit chapter 10. I'm still mashing "O" button, but at least now I have to pump brain juice into party setups and keep my eye on more than just HP. I'm monitoring the chain bar, the HP bar, and keeping track of buffs and debuffs. This is awesome, finally my brain needs to work! As plenty have said, the battle system truly opens up at this mark, if you didn't farm for chips in chapter 9 to upgrade all members' weapons to the current highest level (* rank at level 26), you should hit chapter 10 around the 18 hour mark.

Summons are still pretty weak at this stage though... they don't kill fast. Meh, here's to farming over-sized turtles in the next 10 hours...

affinity

03-13-2010, 05:47 PM

oh wow look! 5 pages of fanart.
http://s883.photobucket.com/albums/ac33/fangvanille/

lol! the one where Vanille uses Fang's clothes as a hankerchief is soo kawaii! ^.^

Raptorg

03-13-2010, 07:58 PM

I've finally gotten around to play this game :) It started out extremely boring, with far too simple battles (I mean, all you got was attack) and a bit confusing storyline with l'cie, fal'cie, burg'cie etc. thrown right at you with no apparant explanation for what the heck they're talking about. Luckily, some of the stuff gets clarified a little bit further in.

The combat seems to improve too, with the new Paradigm system and Crystarium "board". Battles are potentially challenging at times. I think I'll like this game.

Check your Datalog, it's there for a reason.

The game's good, but it gets a little tedious after a while.. With battle after battle.
But I think I'm just spoiled by great games like Persona where you get to do other stuff(social links!) other than continuously fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight.
And in SMT games, hitting weaknesses actually does more than just deal more damage.. Which is something FF and most other jRPGs lack..

Jackstar

03-13-2010, 09:07 PM

Just wanted to share something that's roughly common knowledge at Gamefaqs by now, but I was totally in the dark about it.

There is a canceling trick in this game that lets you take advantage of a free ATB bar every other turn you shift paradigms. It isn't game breaking, but it does help to keep your chains going. As MasterLL pointed out though, the moment you get Haste permanently in your party this technique's value will drop.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=928790&topic=53858322

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=928790&topic=53427023

...and this game just turned into something enjoyable! :D Now I might have to revise my score to 8.5, just for the fast paced shifting I'm practicing to master now.

Andy

03-14-2010, 03:44 AM

20 hour tutorial

Fatney

03-14-2010, 04:08 AM

RayFoxSith

03-14-2010, 12:03 PM

Fatney:
There are different kinds of fal'Cie. The ones that maintain the lives on Cocoon and ones that are on Pulse. Pulse fal'Cie are the ones branding people and making their Focus to destroy Cocoon.

Manic Expressive

03-15-2010, 05:21 AM

Camanche

03-15-2010, 03:23 PM

I'm not a fan of the story either. Everything feels either dry or overdramatic. Battle system is fun. I really miss towns, having little things to do and people to talk to. I'd rather interact with NPC's to figure out what's going on then consult the Datalog. Feels more realistic.

I'm only about 20 hours in and this is my least favourite FF.

Nice graphics, though.

Manic Expressive

03-15-2010, 04:18 PM

It's like we are soulmates. ;)

Tivor

03-15-2010, 06:55 PM

In the middle of Chapter 7 now.

The ultra-linear map is definitely off-putting, but I'm actually OK with that because it lets me focus on the battle system which is very, very fun (and I understand it'll get more fun still). Combined with frequent save points and no random encounters, I find myself being addicted to the game and repeatedly going "ok I'll stop after just one more save point".

Yeah, it's missing a lot of things that you'd expect to find in traditional JRPGs, but in the end, it's all about having fun, and I'm having fun, so it's all good with me. Besides, I have my DS and the big backlog of DS RPGs to satisfy my thirst for more traditional RPGs.

The graphics are awesome, the music is gorgeous, and even the English dubs are pretty good. With the exception of Vanille. Ugh, I hate her voice, especially her extremely fake British accent. Hell, I can do better British accent than Vanille's VA, and I'm Korean too. There is more to doing a British accent than just dropping the ending R sound, dammit! I understand that there is a story reason for Vanille having that accent, but whatever. If they needed Vanille to have that accent, then they should have hired a VA who can actually do that accent. What an earsore.

Hitoshura

03-15-2010, 06:59 PM

It's probably not supposed to be a British accent.

Tivor

03-15-2010, 07:14 PM

It's probably not supposed to be a British accent.

Then what accent do you think it's supposed to be?

Actually it doesn't matter what her accent is "supposed" to be. It just sounds like a horrible version of British accent, and it's drawing unnecessary attention to itself. Very bad.

Raptorg

03-15-2010, 07:24 PM

It's Australian.

Her and Fang's voice actresses are Australian.

kaijura

03-15-2010, 07:36 PM

From what wiki shows on FF13 voice actors in the NA version:

Oerba Dia Vanille - Georgia van Cuylenburg
Oerba Yun Fang - Rachel Robinson

Georgia van Cuylenburg (born March 8, 1987) is an Australian actress and voice actress. Originally from Melbourne, Australia she moved to Los Angeles in 2005 to pursue her career in entertainment.[1] She is best known for voicing Oerba Dia Vanille in the video game Final Fantasy XIII.[2]

Rachel Robinson via imdb (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1271019/resume):

Has done television commercial voice over work for, among others: The Discovery Channel, The Jim Henson Company, McDonald's, Omni Hotels, Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas, Macy's Department Store, Tahiti Tourism, Zila Pharmaceuticals, Minute Clinic, and Armed Forces Radio and Television Services (AFRTS)

Is the current voice for the Coca-Cola Company's 'Make Every Drop Count' TV campaign. Has also done voice work for VH1's 'Games are Cool' interstitials.

Hitoshura

03-15-2010, 08:03 PM

It's Australian.

Her and Fang's voice actresses are Australian.

Ah. Then it doesn't sound like a horrible version of a British accent at all, but something completely different. Well then.

Tivor

03-15-2010, 08:39 PM

Then that is the weirdest Aussie accent I ever heard. I wonder if Melbourne has its own accent that I simply never heard before. (I imagine they do have different regional accents just like Americans and Brits?) Fang, I thought she was either Aussie or South African. Her voice, I like.

Camanche

03-15-2010, 09:06 PM

I think it was specified somewhere that they have south Australian accents, which are different I guess.

kaijura

03-15-2010, 09:18 PM

It seems Rachel Robinson isn't from Australia nor of immediate British ancestry from what I read.

But her imdb has a long list of accents she can do!

Raptorg

03-15-2010, 11:35 PM

Oh, guess I didn't actually check Fang's voice actress.. I just assumed because they have similar accents..

But yeah, Vanille's voice actress is australian, though..

Fatney

03-16-2010, 04:17 AM

Right now the biggest joy for me when playing this game is singing along with the songs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JC1niqJkdU)...

I was amazed by the battle system at first when we got access to paradigms (Crystarium is boring though), but that could only last for so long when all you do is running in a basically straight line with no real variation in your surroundings. Every dungeon plays out the same, only with a different coat of painting. (As a side note, Persona 3/4 also does this but at least in those games that's not the only thing you do) Storywise... It's very uninteresting and nothing have happened in the course of the 10 hours I've spent. People tell me that soo much good happens eventually, but that's 20 hours in. Even 10 hours is too much when there's nothing happening, I have to play for 10 more?!

So far, this is my least favorite Final Fantasy and I am so glad it's not my game.

Jackstar

03-16-2010, 05:56 AM

Well it certainly isn't my least favorite FF (try playing the original Crystal Chronicles solo..), but it is a mediocre ride for the first 20 hours. Frankly, this type of game design kills the pacing, because 20 hour tutorial sounded like a gross exaggeration when I first read it from importers' impressions, but they are actually brutally honest about it. I don't see myself going through chapters 1~10 again anytime soon.

The story is definitely weak compared to previous entries, especially FF Tactics. It isn't utter crap, but it does come off as a poorly written high school essay for drama. I'm also let down by the music. This new guy isn't quite the genius that Nobuo Uematsu is, and even Hitoshi Sakimoto, Jeremy Soule and Michiru Yamane are 2 tiers above him. That said, I'm enjoying the CG and monster hunts in Gran Pulse, so I might just platinum it for Serah's theme on my PS3.

As a Final Fantasy, XIII is disappointing. As a JRPG, it delivers, but you have to count me among those who think that Final Fantasy after X has been steadily dethroned as king of RPGs by other titles: Persona 3/4, Tales of the Abyss, Shadowhearts 1/2, Suikoden V - I even consider Bioshock to have a better script even though it is strictly a shooter!

Tivor

03-16-2010, 07:26 AM

As a Final Fantasy, XIII is disappointing. As a JRPG, it delivers, but you have to count me among those who think that Final Fantasy after X has been steadily dethroned as king of RPGs by other titles: Persona 3/4, Tales of the Abyss, Shadowhearts 1/2, Suikoden V

I really agree with this. If it wasn't a FF title, I think XIII would be well received as a rather refreshing attempt at the genre, ultra-linearity and all. But it is a FF title, and people expect it to deliver on everything that people expect out of a traditional JRPG -- to be the most epic of all JRPGs, if you will -- and well, clearly that wasn't S-E's goal here.

I'm also in the camp that stopped thinking of FF as the epitome of JRPG, and that's probably why I'm more forgiving and willing to enjoy what is there instead of lamenting over what isn't there.

Fatney

03-16-2010, 07:34 AM

I tried to think like you guys do, and embraced the linearity and changes, but these changes aren't good at all. It just feels like they tried to do something entirely else but in the end they screwed up on some part and then just rushed the rest of the game, which probably isn't far from the truth.

I really hope they are a bit more experienced on their next games, and make them better, but right now Final Fantasy is dead to me.

By the way, Jackstar: The original Crystal Chronicles is awesome. You're not supposed to play it by yourself, and the music and atmosphere is amazing.

Vicious1915

03-16-2010, 12:48 PM

By the way, Jackstar: The original Crystal Chronicles is awesome. You're not supposed to play it by yourself, and the music and atmosphere is amazing.

Totally not trying to derail the thread here but, I have to comment:

Every player having to have a GBA just to play together was such a rip-off. That whole game was a huge disappointment, and waste of time and money for me. Just my opinion, just saying. Sorry, sorry. Carry on.

Fatney

03-16-2010, 01:22 PM

Yeah, the whole GBA-stuff sucked. It was okay as long as each bought their own cable (and GBA of course), but they should've implemented a better system with just regular controls. But alright, enough about that.

I wish they took the combat from FFXIII, tweaked it a bit to make it a tad more strategic and less automatic and put it in a game with a giant world map and most of the other stuff from the earlier games. People can say what they want about XIII just trying out something new and fresh, but all they really did was remove everything other than dungeon crawling.

Jackstar

03-16-2010, 01:28 PM

I actually had 2 Virtua Fighter buddies that were supposed to go through CC with me, and I even bought a 2nd copy of it, you guys remember the Gamestop exclusive thingy? The one where they bundle FF:CC with a GBA cable in a neat plastic casing? I bought that and it is still in its plastic casing, mint condition. As for the other copy that I bought meant for playing...

One guy got married.

The other had his family business to deal with.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=/

I told them that at 60 when we're all retired, the 2 of you OWE me 2 weeks of FF:CC, your personal life and commitments be damned!

Back to FF XIII, these are my thoughts on the weaker points of the story. Feel free to read through it if you're at chapter 11, that's where I'm currently at. If you're not, come back after you've hit Gran Pulse. There are some pretty heavy spoilers there, be warned.

Hope's father - initially Hope portrayed him as uncaring as he left Hope and his mum. Suddenly when his son is a l'cie, ostracized by Cocoon's society he becomes this protective fatherly figure that sacrifices everything? I actually like the scene where Hope's father shouted with passion about how "You're my son! This is your home!". The animation and voice acting combined beautifully to expound paternal love that over-rides social stigma. The problem is its place in the grand scheme of things. The foreground to explain away Hope's parents' split is not dealt with, and his change wasn't documented. I don't even know if this "uncaring father" bit is all in Hope's head and if so, what event/scene made Hope feel that way?

Hope forgiving Snow wasn't exactly artful. The script first showed him full of pent up hate for Snow, and when the climax came to reveal Snow was indirectly responsible for Vera's death, all it takes is for Snow to be himself - aka playing hero - that made Hope do a 180 turn in attitude towards Snow. This act of forgiving is inconsistent with the foreshadowing of Hope's loathing for Snow. All those moments of building up anger and thoughts of revenge are erased by one selfless act - the very same selfless mindset that killed Hope's mother?

There was actually good room for moral ambiguity here, but it was likely swept away by the dev's desire to keep everyone in the party with the sunshine and the rainbows in. If this is a game with actual role-playing involved, the branching paths will be interesting:

i.) Hope could have murdered Snow there and then, and become a fugitive that hunts down all hero types from both sides of the conflict.
ii.) Hope could have let Snow live with his guilt, and consistently reminds him of how his selfless action cause pain and suffering for those around him. Hope can deviously attempt to wage pyschological warfare on Snow and demolish his way of life without resorting to murder.
iii.) Snow could have killed Hope while attempting to save Hope, and in doing so destroyed 2/3 of a family with his own hands. He will start to question his values and how far should he take the hero role, and to what extent are his acts actually benefiting Cocoon and staying constant with Serah's wishes. There should be a part where he will live in depression when he comes to terms that his bravado is in direct contradiction of his values; hence making him an unintended hypocrite but a hypocrite nevertheless and a murderer to boot, and the game should give Snow a choice to seek redemption or to sink further into despair.

None of these drama took place and we get feel good, let's forgive everyone and take on the monsters together! Yawn.

Cid - One Winged Angel fight that hopes to defeat the L'cie in his last act of defying fate. He could have, y'know, talked to the party about it instead of fighting them if he is that keen about rebelling against destiny. For someone who made general he is more brawn than brains. His goal and the party's aren't that different. I would have preferred generic general no. 3 to be the One Winged Angel wannabe, if SE is that desperate to put in this as a boss fight.

Heh, I'm now trying to emulate MasterLL's RAV/RAV/RAV x 2 setups with shift canceling. So far it is fun, and I see myself working on the 5* rankings for all 64 missions. After that I'll call it a day, and it is unlikely I can dump it off cheap on eBay, since most players will be finishing off at the time that I am, and competition for sales will most definitely drive prices to the point where I can't care about selling it.

Maybe when I'm really bored in 3~5 years I'll dust it off and replay this. :p

Thaumogenesis

03-16-2010, 03:17 PM

Hey, anyone else got massive Freezing Problems with FF13 too?

There really seems to be an issue... i just googled for this and many people seem to have those exact same problems. Most of them, includign me even returned their disc, just to realize replacing it wont change a thing.

my ps3 feels rather broken atm. some games cannot even be started and im getting error codes i didn't know they existed.

just be wary... some ppl had it happen after 100 hours...

Saishu

03-16-2010, 03:24 PM

Sounds like FF13 is doing what MGS4 did to my PS3. What'll happen is your PS3 will stop reading discs, and you'll have to send it back to Sony to be repaired.

Thaumogenesis

03-16-2010, 04:41 PM

Funny enough it gave me 8001002B's for Star Ocean ever since i freezed on FF. I got a Slim 120 btw, thought these babies were bug proof finally.

Raptorg

03-16-2010, 11:35 PM

It froze once for me..

I figured it happened because there was an overload or something cause I used Ruinga at the same time the other two casters used their AoE spells and my old ass PS3 couldn't handle it all at once.

I haven't had any issues with FFXIII since then, but I also haven't tried other games.. Maybe I should check it myself.. Since I've got Resonance of Fate coming up soon.

kaijura

03-17-2010, 12:01 AM

Really, Thaum, how old is your PS3? How many games/ game hours do you reckon you've put onto it?

Hitoshura

03-17-2010, 06:14 AM

People can say what they want about XIII just trying out something new and fresh, but all they really did was remove everything other than dungeon crawling.

Supposedly, as others have said, Chapter 11 has plenty of sidequests and various other things. Other than that, I'm okay with this. I consider towns to be superficial, nothing but fluff tossed in the game for no reason than to be "like every other RPG ever".

Raptorg

03-17-2010, 07:32 AM

Honestly, sidequests are really just monster hunts.. Nothing spectacular in particular.

The game is really just going from "dungeon" to "dungeon".
But then again, what RPG isn't?

I think FFXIII's biggest issue is that you're never given a break.
It's battle after battle after battle.. Puzzles? Very rare.

Minigame? Non existent.. Unless you want to consider the monster hunt a minigame.
I guess you could scour the steppe on your chocobo for items.. But could you really call that a minigame?

I guess this is why Persona attracts me, you get to do more than simply fight all the time.

Also, FFXIII's combat system is fun and all. But I think it's still pretty flawed.
The AI isn't that stupid, which is nice, but I'd rather just control all party members myself.. This also bothered me in Persona 3, especially on hardmode, the AI can't improvise, so making you too dependant on them can seriously screw you over.
An example from Persona 3, was my fight with the reaper. I had a pretty good thing going on with Aigis doing buffs, Akihiko doing debuffs and Yukari healing while I did damage.. However, because Yukari was spamming mediarahan to heal through megidolaon, her mana drained quite rapidly and at one point, she didn't cast mediarahan because her SP was getting low, which nearly made my heart stop cause the reaper was almost dead and another megidolaon would've wiped my party. I got lucky there because I received a turn for the MC before the reaper had a chance and could use a Soma.

If I could control Yukari myself, I could have continued to use mediarahan, despite getting low on SP, and didn't have to waste a Soma, or in worst case, had to start all over again from the last save..

Well, anyway, it's one of those situations where a human mind is far superior to AI..
And this is why I prefer turn based combat over real time, because in most cases it allows you to pick every character's turn.

HIRO

03-17-2010, 08:36 AM

sold 360 ver after a few hours of play. finally got ps3 and ff13.

Thaumogenesis

03-17-2010, 09:06 AM

Really, Thaum, how old is your PS3? How many games/ game hours do you reckon you've put onto it?

Rather new i'd say. I bought it new last September. I barely played anything other than Demons Souls. All in all id say the Console has seen about ~800 hours of playing in total.

Jackstar

03-17-2010, 09:28 AM

Playing on my 120 GB slim, Asian PS3. 31 hours in, no freezes so far.

There are 2 towns in the game and you get to "explore" both of them, albeit not in the traditional sense. You will have NPCs to talk to that adds to the atmosphere, but there are no shops. You cannot enter a citizen's house and see what the their abode looks like; you will get to enter a house of your party's member in chapter 7.

As everyone knows by now, shopping is done at the save point. Though I don't have an issue with linearity, I do miss exploring towns in the traditional sense. I want to run fetch quests for the local blacksmith; I want NPCs with minor problems that require me to fix, even if it is just more fetch quests; I want NPCs to complain to me about the general state of affairs, let me know your fears, your hopes, your aspirations so I can actually give a damn about saving your sorry ass. Otherwise really, Cocoon can rot for all I care. I haven't invested one shred of emotion in the world of FF XIII. I care about getting stronger in the game and getting 5* a whole lot more, since the game isn't making any effort to craft the ties that bind me to Cocoon.

There are sidequests in the game, the primary being monster hunts. The text in the monster hunt quests adds context to the whole l'cie deal, but it would have been better had there been actual cutscenes to bring these NPCs' ordeals to life. I've just unlocked the chocobo treasure hunt, and these 2 are probably the core sidequests. There is also another fetch quest that is supposed to nab the player some serious gil. It is a one time deal though. The good news is you don't have to dodge lightning 200x to get an ultimate weapon. The bad news is you have to farm quite a bit to get ultimate weapons. I'm not sure which is the lesser evil of the 2 deals.

Speaking of gil, I believe there is some mis-information about ch. 11 being the ultimate spot for $. CP grinding is easy here with the King Behemoth method, but players who have just arrived in Gran Pulse will never be able to take on the Adamanchelid (no horn giant turtle) and Adamantoise (horned variant). You need to do some serious upgrading in terms of equipment and CP before your party can stand a chance of killing either. If you're planning to farm, I agree that casting Death is not time-efficient. Your party should be able to kill the giant turtles without relying on summon > debuff > hope that Death sticks. Every debuff that sticks on a mob will add 1% to the chance of Death spell hitting home run, so... well. Odds aren't good.

I'm going to run a couple of tests and post back later about my findings for the various farming methods. Thus far though, M7 isn't a good way to farm gil. You're supposed to do it with Collector's and Connoisseur Catalogs to farm the crowns, which you want to upgrade to Sprint Shoes. Along the way you will get 3000 gil from completing the mission (sell the 5 bomb cores), and that's slow. Also, M7's mob isn't a pushover when you first arrive in Gran Pulse, so killing him can take a while.

edit:

My thoughts on popular farming methods:

Chapter 7 (gil/CP: 1/5)

The soldiers here respawn, and you can run around in a circle in Hope's house killing them all. However, the drop rate for Incentive Chip is horrible. Combined that with the fact that the next popular spot is chapter 9, and chapter 8 is basically 3~5 battles, no one should really bother with this spot.

Chapter 9 (gil/CP: 3/5)

This is a far better spot to farm for money. You will fight on an airship and halfway through there will be groups of PSICOM Raiders with PSICOM Huntress. They come in groups of 3~4, and there is a save point nearby. Incentive Chips (2500) and Credit Chips (500) are common drops, as you're guaranteed to get at least 1 per fight; sometimes you can get up to 2 Incentive Chips and 1 Credit Chip, resulting in 5500 gil per battle! You shouldn't waste too much time here, this area is to max out your CP until you hit the cap for chapter 9, and if possible max out your party's weapons at lv 26 (* level). You should only linger here for 60~120 min tops.

While you don't need to do this, it will make the boss fights of ch. 9 and 10 easier. You still need a good strategy to emerge victorious.

Chapter 11: King Behemoth (gil: 0/5, CP: 4/5)

Follow the quest marker for the main storyline until you come into a valley where you see 2 large beasts fighting each other. They are at the entrance to the mine. It is an auto preemptive fight no matter how you trigger the encounter.

King Behemoth + Megistrotherian. That's Behemoth and giant wolf in English. If you've just arrived in Gran Pulse, chances are good you cannot hope to launch (COM attacks after stagger) KB before he stands up and does a full heal to his HP and status ailments. That's fine, you can still kill him by buffing and debuffing, in particular Deprotect and Deshell. Once you've got those stuck onto KB, stagger and launch him. He should go down in a couple of hits, and the wolf at 50% life will turn its attention to you. Stick 1 or 2 debuffs on the wolf and let loose with Tri-Disaster or Relentless Assault, depending on who are the strongest attackers in your party.

6600 CP is guaranteed, and you can respawn them easily by running up the ledge where the save point is.

Chapter 11: Chocobo Treasure Hunt (gil: 1/5, do it for the trophy)

You must complete M11~M14 before you can ride chocobos. Some of the monsters are pretty tough, so I will suggest some grinding for CP until you've reached job level 4 (stage 8 ) for your static party's primary and secondary jobs. As each character has 2 jobs they are good at, 1~2 they are average in and 2~3 where they are completely hopeless with, there is little need to grind CP for more than 3 jobs per character.

There are 20 treasure digging spots in Gran Pulse. However, every time the game loads only 5 of these treasure spots will be active. As some Gamefaqs members pointed out, the best way to beat the system is to abuse save and reloads. So each time you dig 1~2 treasures, save > reload > redo until you've gotten the trophy.

The gil making from this method is painfully slow, as the only things worth selling are gold nuggets (60 000) and gold dusk (15 000). The drop rates? 6.32% and 9.52%. For every 20 digs you do, expect to see 1~2 of each. It takes approximately 30 min to perform 20 digs, so that's 30~90 grand/30 min on average.

For the first 20 digs, you get static items after x amount of digs. They are: gold nugget x 1, Tetradic Crown, Tetradic Tiara, Entite and Ribbon. Ribbon isn't as powerful as before, it starts off at 20% ailment resist, and upon reaching max (* level) it gives a whopping 30% resist stat. Tetradic Crown can be upgraded into Tetradic Tiara, and Tetradic Tiara can be upgraded fully and then dismantled into Sprint Shoes. Entite Ring gives 10% elemental resist (crap) and can be sold for 60 grand, but it can also be upgraded into Goddess' Favor. Don't sell it if you're looking to get that trophy where you must have 1 of every weapon and accessory in your inventory.

Sources: personal experience, Piggyback's official FF XIII guidebook, input from Gamefaqs posters who care more about playing the game and perfecting their technical analysis of the combat system than giving opinions.

Saburo Hikari

03-17-2010, 01:20 PM

I still think the game revolved around the story instead of the other way around, which is one of the reasons why I think it was designed that way. Linearity is not a bad thing. It keeps the story going. There are no shops because these guys are fugitives anyway, and these guys rarely are able to come in contact with civilization. Worse yet, why would people, who are scared of l'Cie, sell stuff to them anyway?

But I know it doesn't make the game good either. I wish there were more side-quests on Gran Pulse than just hunting monsters and riding Chocobos. But even so, keeping in mind why I think the game was designed this way in mind, I'm enjoying the game greatly.

...Until I get my hands on Resonace of Fate...

Oh, and for those who think Lightinging is a betch: she stops being one by the middle of the game. This pretty much makes Lightning cooler in my eyes than Cloud will ever be. Cloud goes the total opposite direction from awesome (Crisis Core), to emo (FFVII), to still emo (Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberous[?]). :/

Fatney

03-17-2010, 01:36 PM

Cloud is pretty awesome in the original game (best quote: "Let's mosey!"), it's AC that ruined him. I don't consider AC canon.

FFXIII just got a lot better in PalomPalum (or whatever it was called), partly because of Fang. She's extremely hot, and not to mention cool. I hope she actually has a romance going on with Vanille, she seems the type to be into girls.

Camanche

03-17-2010, 09:46 PM

Is the mark on her left arm just a tattoo or a l'Cie brand?

It's kind of an ugly tattoo...

The whole l'Cie brand thing makes me think of DDS.

Raptorg

03-18-2010, 07:42 AM

Is the mark on her left arm just a tattoo or a l'Cie brand?

It's kind of an ugly tattoo...

The whole l'Cie brand thing makes me think of DDS.

It's a tattoo.. Her brand is on the other arm.. That white thing.

RayFoxSith

03-18-2010, 07:45 AM

The whole l'Cie brand thing makes me think of DDS.

Oh damn, I totally forgot about that.

SlaughterX

03-18-2010, 07:59 AM

sold 360 ver after a few hours of play. finally got ps3 and ff13.

Didn't you do that a week ago? Please STFU is you have nothing to add to the conversation about this game except for that fact that you returned one version that you probably never even owned for another.

Fatney

03-18-2010, 09:15 AM

SlaughterX: You were worried that the monitor would use time to switch resolutions between cutscenes on the PS3 version, but that's not an issue at all as the whole game is upscaled to 1080p.

ShinGundam

03-18-2010, 10:49 AM

Nomura Interviewed at Twitter
1. Current progress of games you're currently working on, games currently playing and non-gaming hobby?
Nomura: I want to release two games within this year. Just recently finished "Battlefield 2" and started playing "Heavy Rain". For other hobbies, I try to watch all sorts of motion pictures.

2. I would like to know the current progress of Versus 13, Agito 13 and 3rd Birthday, and also when new information will be revealed.
Nomura: Producer Hashimoto isn't letting me.

3. You used to be on Kojima (Hideo)'s net radio for awhile, but how are things between you two now?
Nomura: Sometimes Kojima invite me to lunch.

4. I would like you to start using Twitter.
Nomura: I have... nothing to tweet about.

5. I'm curious over what happened to your consideration over a Dissidia FF sequel!
Nomura: I'll try my best to work on Dissidia FF's sequel!

6. Until of what age do you think you'll be actively working in this job?
Nomura: I haven't thought much about my future.

7. How much percentage of Versus XIII is done so far?
Nomura: Not everything is connected yet; each part of the game is progressing differently. Oh, but we got the airship to fly on the World Map now.

8. You've done all sorts of character designs for FF, KH, Parasite Eve, Subaseka and so on; who is your most favourite?
Nomura: I like all of the characters I created but Sora is the most special because of the many associations he brought to me.

iloveatlus

03-18-2010, 10:59 AM

im on chapter 10 23 hours into it

SlaughterX

03-18-2010, 11:35 AM

SlaughterX: You were worried that the monitor would use time to switch resolutions between cutscenes on the PS3 version, but that's not an issue at all as the whole game is upscaled to 1080p.

Yeah I found that out not long after posting via the GAF forum since people there had played the JP version. I already got the PS3 CE, but I might not even open it as I haven't had any complaints with the 360 version.

Jackstar

03-18-2010, 12:06 PM

Chapter 11: Bahtik sidequest (gil: 4/5, one time affair)

Pushing further through into chapter 11, at the village of Oreba is home to this fetch quest. After locating the 5 items, Bahtik will reward you with different items depending on how many steps you've walked in Gran Pulse. You need to hit 10 000 steps for all the money items to roll in. They are:

platinum ingot x 3 (150 000 *3)
perfume x 5 (12 500 *5)
gold ingot x 1 (60 000)

total: 572 500

Things to note:

- you have to beat the mid level boss of ch 11 in Taejin's Tower to access Oreba. He wasn't hard for me, but that's because I did grind for CPs with KB. I've read that those who skipped all sidequests in ch. 11 might have a tough fight to deal with.
- the 10 000 steps requirement may feel like work. I've completed M1~M14, did the chocobo treasure hunt and stopped after I've gotten the trophy and fought KB for my levels. When I reached Bahtik, I was awarded the items in succession. No further walking was required to qualify for the rewards.
- if your party walked < 5000 steps, you will be rewarded with 10 deceptisols. I missed this naturally, and thankfully there isn't any trophy or otherwise important items associated with it.

Chapter 11: Collector's Catalogs

You can find 2 in ch. 11. One is from M8, relatively easy mission and the other is in Taejin's Tower, 7th tier. Upgrade one of them to Connoisseur's Catalog, slap both of them on your party members, and you've raised the success rate of common and rare drops. You've also saved yourself 100 grand by avoiding a purchase from the shop.

Chapter 11: Mah'habara runs

Another method that is popular but I did not try it myself is to do runs in Mah'habara. Your goal is to run through the mines and kill every grunt in sight, taking special care to engage the bomb enemies - Cryohedron - that drop bomb cores. These are the same cores from M7 that sell for 600 gil a piece, and when used to upgrade your equipment they offer 1000+ exp with 3* multiplier, which is awesome until you have the means to buy ultracompact reactor.

Ignore the Juggernauts. Their HP is simply too high to make for effective farming at this stage (don't think anyone has 5* them when they first arrived in ch. 11), and their drops aren't worth much. Well at least, no one has yet to find a reason to farm them.

Chapter 11: M7 (CP:1/5, bomb core material: 5/5, gil: 3/5)

I returned here to farm this at the end of chapter 11, after finishing up the Bahtik sidequest. I can kill Bituitus and get 5* on a constant basis, so my rare item drop rate just increased to 5% base (rare drop: 1% *5 = 5%). 5* rankings do not affect the chances of common drops; it only helps with rare drops. I have no idea by what percentage the catalogs boost the success rate, but I'm not seeing a single crown or tiara drop after 6 runs, and I decided this isn't worth my time. Without those drops, every run gives 2250 CP and 5 bomb cores, which you can sell or use to upgrade equipment.

edit: The more I think about this mission, the more I'm convinced the original intention was to farm for bomb cores and not gil. With a truckload of gil, just buy 99 each of the 80 gil organic materials, use 36 of it to raise your target equipment to get 3* exp multiplier, and use bomb cores to get your * level. This is probably intended for those who wish to powerlevel their equipment by the end of ch. 11 the cheap way.

edit II: Crap. Connoisseur Catalog raises rare drop rate by a freaking 1.1*. So with 1% drop rate, 5* ranking and the Connoisseur, you get a grand total of 5.5% success rate. Collector increases the odds by a wider margin at 1.5* - with 25% drop rate at base it raises it to 37.5% drop rate.

Chapter 11: M24 (CP, gil: 4/5)

This is by far the better place to get gil if the initial 600k from sidequests isn't enough. For every run you get 6000 CP and 6000 gil by selling the Moonblossom seed. You only get 6 Moonblossom seeds by completing it the first time; every subsequent attempt will give the player only one seed.

This should round up the list of basic activities to pursue when a player first sets foot in Gran Pulse. I'm sure there are more, I'm currently looking at ways to stack up ice damage while buffing up earth and physical resistances, and maybe it is possible to farm Adamancheild.

...and FF XIII continues to amaze me with gorgeous artwork in HD. Taejin's Tower and Oreba are just oozing atmosphere to marvel at.

Fatney

03-18-2010, 01:22 PM

Aw yeah, just did the boss on the end of chapter 9. Now this truly feels like a Final Fantasy.

Jackstar

03-18-2010, 06:39 PM

Just another headsup for 5* hunters who are looking to perfect your combat skills: you should have noticed by now that for every battle, the first time you initiate a paradigm shift, the animation takes ages to complete, even if you're canceling it.

The solution? Shift when your leader is performing an air combo.

Also, it is time to learn about synthesized abilities. I wonder if using equipment that support synthesized abilities will eventually overshadow the need for an ultimate weapon?

Saburo Hikari

03-19-2010, 05:31 AM

Aw yeah, just did the boss on the end of chapter 9. Now this truly feels like a Final Fantasy.That boss fight was rad. Loved his design. Battle theme was epic too.

Gotta love the Archylte Steppe too. While the only thing you can do is still just running around and fight, exploring these plaines looking for treasure and marveling at all the wildlife is breathtaking. I await the day I can take on those humongous animals.

And later on, watching Atomos burrow around is fun to watch too!

Jackstar

03-19-2010, 12:44 PM

Ch. 12 is such a snooze fest. =/

After the awesome open world that is ch. 11, SE decided the old formula of boring, useless fights > cut scenes > more boring and useless fights > awesome cut scenes is what their fans are paying them for. To their credit, they got half of that formula right. All the monsters that I've seen thus far in ch.12 are recycled from previous chapters, admittedly some of them have some stats upgrades and palette swaps.

I want to wrap this up and push through endgame.

Fatney

03-19-2010, 01:56 PM

Just got to chapter 11 and it's AWESOME. The sights to see are breathtaking and hunts are fun.

Jackstar

03-19-2010, 08:12 PM

Bah, I knew this will come and bite me in my ass later. The 5* timings scale in accordance to either stats or job levels. My fastest timing for M8 is 00:32 and that still gives me 4*! If you watch MasterLL's Japanese run on M8, he got 5* from 1:04 because he did it at a modest level.

This is something the official English guide fails to mention. Their advice is "come back and do the monster hunts after you've completed the game, it is easier that way." :bs: The official guide is also lacking in exp formulas and tables, and currently it is up to the community to provide these important numbers so we don't overuse the expensive components.

/endrant

Piggyback's guide is actually pretty decent, it is just 2 steps short of being the ultimate FF XIII bible.

Thankfully ch. 12 is short, and ch. 13, oddly, is paying tribute to Digital Devil Saga!

edit: finished the main story. Yeah overall I'm going to give this game a 8.0. The build up to the climax is disappointing, although the ending...works. That's being kind to FF XIII. The weakest links of FF XIII are the story and the music. The strengths lie in its graphics and combat. It is the journey that counts, and the most impressive chapter goes to 11, no contest. Chapter 13 scores silver. Come here for the HD sightseeing, you won't be disappointed. Along the way, fulfill your fantasies of hunting monsters. Just don't come to this party expecting an epic and original tale that highlights the complex workings of the human mind. Anticipate the cliche trappings of a JRPG script and you'll be fine.

I'm going to try to sell this off together with my guidebook, and if that takes too much effort I'll come back to it later when there are more faqs and information available for 5* hunts. Since completing the game nabs me 3/7 themes (Sahz, Lightning and Hope) I figure I can live without Serah's theme. :p

Saburo Hikari

03-20-2010, 05:04 AM

I just realized another thing. People complain about the shops only being accessible at save points but...no one had a problem with that in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- now did they. ;)

Fatney

03-20-2010, 07:00 AM

Saburo Hikari

03-20-2010, 05:58 PM

That's probably because Crisis Core was a spin off, and people didn't expect the full Final Fantasy experience from it. Honestly a bad argument, Saburo.

I personally don't hate the shops in FFXIII, but I have to admit it's kinda boring. It's not like in the previous games, where you would come to a new town and the first thing you would do was going to the stores to look what new equipment this town had.I know it is. Just thought I'd throw it out. After all, I'm sure more people like Crisis Core than thay do FFXIII. And I'm not good at arguments to begin with. >_>;

Yeah, it is boring when you think about it. But there's no civilization on Gran Pulse, so where would you find shops? xD

Vyse of Arcadia

03-20-2010, 06:51 PM

Saburo Hikari

03-21-2010, 03:53 AM

Aside from which it was a spin-off to the most omgs3phyrulez!! (popular) FF. People are willing to overlook an amazing amount of stuff in the name of FFVII.Indeed. While I honestly thought Crisis Core was an excellent game, I really didn't think the DMW deserved that much praise since you couldn't control the damn thing. It was all based on luck.

Squeenix could probably release a peace of cardboard with Sephiroth's name on it and sell for $15 a pop.They probably did.

Fatney

03-21-2010, 03:58 AM

I hated the DMW. It was OK in boss fights, but in regular battles it was extremely annoying having to watch a cutscene in the midst of battle.

MonkeySlime808

03-23-2010, 08:35 AM

when i saw ff13 xbox360 version first i said ew

Rednusander

03-23-2010, 09:08 AM

^ We frown on this type of system war troll bait, MonkeySlime. Keep it to yourself.

iloveatlus

03-24-2010, 04:52 AM

im on chapter 11 35 hours into it, i did all the missions i could find. and theres certain mission i cant do because those statue thing are on the ground sleeping, how do i unlock them

Fatney

03-24-2010, 05:19 AM

Probably after you have finished it, because then the last Crystarium level unlocks too.

Olethros

03-24-2010, 10:15 AM

That's correct I believe. There's some stuff that has to wait for the post game and a great many other things that you technically can do but would be better served waiting on as well.

Fatney

03-24-2010, 05:06 PM

Just finished it now. Good game, boring ending. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the last dungeon at least.

Tivor

03-24-2010, 06:29 PM

Currently in Chapter 11, done about 12 missions....

Boy, this chapter sure does make you run around back and forth like crazy!!

For all the streamlining and "casualizing" of the game S-E has done for FF13 (which, as I've written before, I'm ok with), did they really have to put the teleport stones so few and far between?

I can't wait until I get a hold of a chocobo (which I assume I eventually will, right?).

Hitoshura

03-24-2010, 06:54 PM

Yeah, you get a Chocobo pretty early, Mission 14.

CurryStorm

03-24-2010, 09:01 PM

That's probably because Crisis Core was a spin off, and people didn't expect the full Final Fantasy experience from it.

Aside from which it was a spin-off to the most omgs3phyrulez!! (popular) FF. People are willing to overlook an amazing amount of stuff in the name of FFVII. Squeenix could probably release a peace of cardboard with Sephiroth's name on it and sell for $15 a pop.

There was a pretty darn good RPG I played a few years ago with shops in the save points, but I can't for the life of me remember it.

It also could be because Crisis Core was a PSP game and this is a PS3 game. I expected things to get cut down in Crisis Core since it had amazing graphics on a portable device- I just assumed things would have to be eliminated in order to accommodate the amazing graphics. The thing that bothered me in CC:FFVII wasn't the shops at save points, but how few people were shown in Midgar. You walk out into this huge city only to see about 4 people in the entire thing. It just felt empty.

Chronoshale

03-25-2010, 02:18 PM

Am I the only one who was horribly confused during the final cutscenes? There seemed to be a lot open to player speculation. More than I'm comfortable with, at least. Either that or I failed at paying attention, since the music decided to drown out what the characters were saying during the most important plot points. Yay.

Really like the game though. And I quite enjoyed it on the 360, despite all of the annoying console wars.

Oh, and the soundtrack is amazing. My favorite thus far, actually.

Fatney

03-25-2010, 02:31 PM

You got to be using subtitles, bro.

Chronoshale

03-25-2010, 02:41 PM

You got to be using subtitles, bro.

I was going to, but I don't like neglecting the beautifully synced lips. I'm re-playing it with headphones though so it's a lot easier to hear what's being said this time around. The final scenes had the music so loud that I had to lose on purpose just to turn the subs on. :|

Hitoshura

03-25-2010, 07:29 PM

Chronoshale

03-25-2010, 07:31 PM

It makes X impossible to play.

Vincent Alexander

03-25-2010, 11:38 PM

I hate when character's mouths open completely when they grunt, sigh, hurumph, etc. I might be picky, but the synching didn't impress me. It wasn't bad---just didn't impress me.

Hitoshura

03-26-2010, 01:24 AM

Well, just finished it. Kind of overleveled a bit, but I tend to get carried away when games are this fun to play. Easily my favorite FF. Easily. I'm going to be sad when I get that platinum. :(

Fatney

03-26-2010, 06:53 AM

I hate when character's mouths open completely when they grunt, sigh, hurumph, etc. I might be picky, but the synching didn't impress me. It wasn't bad---just didn't impress me.

Haha, I agree. I always mimicked them whenever they would sigh or whatever while their mouths went up and down like they talked.

Saburo Hikari

03-27-2010, 01:52 AM

Anyone else having/had a hard time with Barthandelus at the end of chapter 11? Even after maxing my characters' role levels, I still can't defeat him before Doom goes to zero. :/

Fatney

03-27-2010, 02:50 AM

My setup was Fang, Hope and Vanille, then I just had Fang and Vanille debuffing the boss (most important is slow, otherwise just debuff him all you can with deprotect, deshell, imperil etc... With all you got, really) and wait until Hope has buffed the entire party with every buff he know. Then just go all out with Relentless Assault and heal when needed. Eventually rebuff the party and "re"debuff the boss when needed. I didn't have any problems at all.

Tivor

03-27-2010, 03:58 AM

My setup for that boss was Lightning (Commando), Fang (Sentinel), and Hope. Hope started the battle as Synergist, and mainly kept buffing everyone, and then switched to Medic and Ravager as needed. And when I felt I could afford to go all out attack, I'd switch to Aggression (Commando-Commando-Ravager). I didn't even try any debuff.

Very mundane setup, I know, but surprisingly I had no trouble dispatching that boss. My friend had warned about the boss too, so I was fully expecting to fail on my first try and then try different paradigm and/or character setup, but I was surprised how easy the battle went.

I think it was because I had their equipments pretty much maxed out. Lightning and Fang had maxed-out Tier 1 weapons, and Hope had a maxed-out Tier 2 weapon. Also, Lightning and Fang each had an accessory that gave them +150 (or so) strength bonus, and Hope had +130 (or so) magic bonus.

Back in chapter 9 or 10, there was a section where enemies would drop Incentive Chips very often (and respawned very often too), so I decided to farm there for a bit, and used the money to upgrade equipments. That really paid off, I guess.

Fatney

03-27-2010, 05:57 AM

Both Fang and Hope had maxed out tier 2 weapons in my game, and Fang had 3 pretty good accessories which gave her about 400-500 STR all added up while Hope had the same setup only with MAG instead. As for Vanille I only had a couple of catalogues to get better loot.

Chronoshale

03-27-2010, 10:10 AM

I took forever to beat him (20 minutes wutwut), but if you keep a Sentinel out pretty much all the time and switch to Combat Clinic when you're getting in the yellow, you should be okay.

Tivor

03-27-2010, 02:22 PM

Saburo Hikari

03-28-2010, 11:46 AM

Well damn! It worked! Better yet, he didn't even use Doom! Gotta love how you can play most of FFXIII without having to have to grind if you use good strategy. More games need to be like this, in my opinion.

Fatney

03-28-2010, 11:59 AM

Generally, most jRPGs that actually requires any excessive grinding sucks. Of course, depending on how good the rest of the game is, it can be forgiven.

Tivor

03-30-2010, 02:23 AM

Gaaaaaarrrgghh, stupid final boss!!!! :x

My usual set-up of Lightning-Fang-Hope -- with whom I've been able to dispatch all the enemies in the final dungeon without too much problem -- is getting slaughtered by the final boss. 1, 2, 3 strikes and I'm out. :(

It's clear to me that I need to rethink my strategy.... Got to try a different lineup of characters and paradigms and equipments. I usually don't debuff my enemies (just buffing my characters was usually enough), but I guess I'll try that.

Tomorrow, that is. Too tired tonight. *shrug*

Fatney

03-30-2010, 02:41 AM

The final boss just removes the debuffs anyway. The team I used for the last 10 hours of the game consisted of Fang, Vanille and Hope. There you have one awesome commando (you don't need anymore anyways to fill up the stagger gauge), two crushing saboteurs (slow+curse+imperil+deshell=instawin), one godly synergyst (Hope have every buff in the game including haste, which you already know, and when he's using buffs like enthunder on Fang she can double as a ravager in a way) and two crazy ravagers. I rarely had any problem with that setup.

Tivor

03-30-2010, 08:58 AM

Yeah, I was thinking of doing exactly that -- switch out Lightning for Vanille.

As a character, I prefer Lightning over Vanille million times over, but as a battle party member.... Fang is a better Commando than Lightning, Hope is a better Ravager than Lightning, and Vanille is a better Medic than Lightning. Lightning is almost too well rounded that she doesn't excel at anything, IMHO. :|

I'm also thinking of switching out Fang for Snow. I really haven't used Snow much, so I'll have to experiment a bit, but from just looking at the stats, I think he'll be a comparable Commando and a better Sentinel than Fang.

On the other hand, I'd much rather be looking at Fang than Snow. ;)

Fang <3

Fatney

03-30-2010, 09:14 AM

Remember that Fang has slow which already makes her a lot better than... Snow. Ugh. And sentinel isn't really that useful.

Chronoshale

03-30-2010, 01:22 PM

Remember that Fang has slow which already makes her a lot better than... Snow.

Bahaha, I used Snow over Fang until Chapter 13. Lightning/Snow/Vanille. :P But Fatney's set-up is the best boss killer. Either that or the generic LFH set-up that everyone and their mom uses.

Fatney

03-30-2010, 01:35 PM

I just wound up with my good setup because they were my favorites (Well, I actually don't like Hope so much better than Lightning. In fact, the only ones I actually like are Fang and Vanille, though she can be a bit annoying. One of the worst parts of this game were the cast) and the team just kinda worked wonderfully. I initially used Lightning at the start of Pulse, but like Tivor mentioned she doesn't really excel at anything, and Hope had haste.

Chronoshale

03-30-2010, 01:47 PM

(Well, I actually don't like Hope so much better than Lightning. In fact, the only ones I actually like are Fang and Vanille, though she can be a bit annoying. One of the worst parts of this game were the cast)

Aw. I agree that Hope was annoying (the chapters spent "developing" his character were the worst in my opinion), but I really liked the cast. Vanille was awesome too, even if she sounded like she was choking on a loaf of bread.

Fang was the most consistently awesome character, though.

Tivor

03-30-2010, 02:12 PM

Hope grew on me, to be honest. It helped that I found Vanille (more specifically, her voice) hundred times more annoying than Hope and his annoying character development.

In all fairness, Vanille's type of voice (squeaky and spunky) never seems to translate well into English dub, so it's not entirely her voice actress's fault, but still. *shrug*

But yes, Fang rules. :D

Chronoshale

03-30-2010, 02:19 PM

Saburo Hikari

03-30-2010, 05:51 PM

In all fairness, Vanille's type of voice (squeaky and spunky) never seems to translate well into English dub, so it's not entirely her voice actress's fault, but still.

I dunno, I thought Rikku was done incredibly well.Same here. It might have something to do with Vanille having her Australian accent mixed in it, as well as her entire personality being all otaku fanservicey. I heard her Japanese voice, which I prefer much more.

...How come no one's talking about how awesome Sazh is? :( I also like Lightning because she's not actually emo and a bitch like everyone thought at first (instantly makes her cooler than Cloud or Squall will ever be), Hopeless hope gained hope (I honestly thought I was going to hate him througout the entire game. But that instead went to Vanille), and Fang is just too (lesbian?) cool. Don't care for Snow much... Probably has something to do with him being too heroic and proud (only works for Zack), and how it looks like his fiance is a 16 year old.

Tivor

03-30-2010, 07:20 PM

and how it looks like his fiance is a 16 year old.

That indeed. Every time I see a cutscene involving him and Serah, I'm like "****ing lolicon!!"

Anyway, Sazh is easily the coolest guy in the whole game.

If I had to rate the main characters in terms of how cool/awesome they are (and not necessarily how useful they are in battle), it would be:

Fang > Sazh >>> Lightning >>>>>> Hope > Snow >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Vanille

Fatney

03-31-2010, 03:44 AM

I don't hate Lightning, she's just a bit annoying because of her tough act. "A target's a target" is one of her most frequent lines during combat. YES WE GET IT YOU ARE SO TOUGH THAT YOU DON'T CARE WHAT'S IN YOUR WAY YOU'RE GOING TO DESTROY IT ANYWAY. I like her whenever she softens up, and hugs Hope (why couldn't they develop a relationship? I would love a kissing scene between them just because of the wrongness in it. And the d'awwwness.), but otherwise she's the perfect example of the "tough guy"-cliche.

I also don't hate Hope, I almost like him actually. His problems with Snow are understandable, the problem is that those problems are the only things we hear from him in the first 15 hours (why the hell did Cocoon have to last for so long, the place was so boring) and it made him appear as a whiny little ####. But when he finally resolved his problems we could see how okay he could be, and he was about the only one keeping the group together along with Vanille.

Sazh is cool, yeah, but he pretty much became invisible after arriving at Gran Pulse. He was rarely featured in any cutscene, and since he is probably the worst character in battle he just never was around. Another problem with him is how blatant it is that he's the comic relief/the "old man" in the group. I don't have anything against comic relief, but it could've been a bit more subtle, and despite him looking very fit he always complained about how tired he is and how old he is and how the youngsters should relax. It annoyed me, to be honest.

Snow is annoying, I'M A HERO DURR. I'LL DO WHAT I WANT HURP. The one positive thing about him is his voice actor. He was very convincing and it truly sounded like he was in love.

Vanille was endearing, but again this is mostly because of the Cocoon-part. You barely hear anything about her until you're out of Cocoon, and instead all you hear is pointless squealing and some stupid dialogue. Later though, you saw another side of her which went great with her optimistic and innocent nature, so all in all I just couldn't hate her. Again, the real problem here was the first 15-20 hours.

Fang is just cool, determined, I love her design (I can't believe Nomura designed her) and she's adorable together with Vanille. Too bad that part wasn't fleshed out more.

Edit: I wrote that I liked it when Lightning hugged Snow- which never happens. I hope no one read that :(

Hitoshura

03-31-2010, 10:14 AM

EDITING IS NOT SUPPOSED TO DOUBLE POST, wtf forums! >:(

Hitoshura

03-31-2010, 10:14 AM

Same here. It might have something to do with Vanille having her Australian accent mixed in it, as well as her entire personality being all otaku fanservicey. I heard her Japanese voice, which I prefer much more.

Er... how is Vanille otaku-fanservicey? She's not moe, and she's not tsundere. She's just bubbly, which I don't believe is any sort of anime archetype. Lightning is more otaku-fanservicey than Vanille is. :(

Fatney

03-31-2010, 11:04 AM

Vanille barely wears clothes, she is involved in many "sexual scenes" ("HEY VANILLE LET ME CHECK OUT YOUR L'CIE MARK... ON YOUR BUTT"), she doesn't seem to be embarrassed by any of these scenes, and last but definetily not least SHE SQUEALS AND WHINES FOR NO REASON. It's like she constantly has a vibrator in her panties wherever she goes.

Chronoshale

03-31-2010, 11:06 AM

("HEY VANILLE LET ME CHECK OUT YOUR L'CIE MARK... ON YOUR BUTT")

Lightning's was between her boobs.

Just sayin'.

And the thing about Vanille is that she faked a lot of her over-the-top cuteness so she didn't have to face her problems.

Lightning's just straight up tsundere.

Hitoshura

03-31-2010, 11:32 AM

Fatney

03-31-2010, 12:13 PM

I didn't realize this was what the general male was attracted to, the only places I've seen girls like Vanille is in anime.

Hitoshura

03-31-2010, 12:18 PM

I've um... never seen them in anime. Except in Queen's Blade which is terrible for just being generic male fanservice, so.

Tivor

03-31-2010, 12:33 PM

(why couldn't they develop a relationship? I would love a kissing scene between them just because of the wrongness in it. And the d'awwwness.)

Ditto here. Along with Misato-Shinji and Clare-Raki, it would have completed the trifecta of older girl x young boy kissing scenes. (surely there are others, but those two are the only ones popping up in my head at the moment)

I don't really follow doujinshi scene, but I expect there are tons with Lightning x Hope stuff. Maybe I'll go find some.... *cough*

Anyway, I beat the final boss last night. Fang-Vanille-Hope lineup, on a first try. :D

Chronoshale

03-31-2010, 01:11 PM

Tivor

03-31-2010, 01:20 PM

I don't really follow doujinshi scene, but I expect there are tons with Lightning x Hope stuff.

I think you mean Snow/Hope.

Snow already fits the pedo role and Hope was obviously desperately in love with him. The game practically screamed it.

Oh I'm sure there are tons of Snow x Hope stuff too.

As well as Fang x Vanille (really obvious), Lightning x Snow, Snow x Lightning, Snow x Lightning x Serah, Lightning x Snow x Serah, Sazh x Vanille...............

Oh and Snow x Rosch (or vice versa). There has to be a yaoi artist out there who'd be into that coupling.

Chronoshale

03-31-2010, 01:24 PM

LOL.

Snow can be paired with anyone. Might as well make XIII-2 about his side-action.

Fatney

03-31-2010, 01:51 PM

There's not one hot guy in this game, Snow is too douchey. I almost puked when I saw that blue haired #### in in the beginning.

Fang is actually the only character in this game I'd see myself going to bed with.

How embarrassing that we're actually discussing this. I haven't seen this kind of talk in this forum before.

Saburo Hikari

04-01-2010, 05:02 AM

Finished the game. Wow, this was probably the fastest Final Fantasy game I've ever completed. Overall, I liked the story and the ending (gotta love how you find out what the meaning behind the game's logo is) even though it isn't the best in the series.

I really want to get Lightning's and Fang's XMB themes. Although I'm actually more motivated to start the game over again than do that, ha ha. Beautiful game is beautiful after all.

Chronoshale

04-01-2010, 01:55 PM

Even though the strategy guide flat out told me what the logo is, I still don't see it. I always thought it was Shiva and Odin, and I still think it looks that way.

Tivor

04-02-2010, 04:35 PM

Overall, I liked the story and the ending (gotta love how you find out what the meaning behind the game's logo is) even though it isn't the best in the series.

I didn't really like the story too much (the whole fal'Cie, l'Cie, yaddi yaddi stuff didn't really click with me), but I did love how the ending was presented. I also thought the whole logo thing was really awesome. I love the whole sense of coming around full circle. Very satisfying ending.

Anyway................

Can someone tell me where the Stone for Mission 64 is located?? I feel like an idiot asking this, but I have no idea what I'm overlooking. :? Do I have to complete a certain mission before it becomes available?

I get the sense that the answer will make me go either, "wow, I can't believe I didn't look there" or "I can't believe I didn't see it. It was right there all along!!" :oops:

Never mind, I found it. :D

I feel less stupid about not finding it until now though. Heh.

iloveatlus

04-02-2010, 11:41 PM

i beat this game yesterday. chapter 13 is really short to bad theirs no game plus

Fatney

04-03-2010, 04:08 AM

I wouldn't want to play this game all over again with the same stats I beat the game in. If there was no challenge in battles, there would really not be any fun in this game.

iloveatlus

04-03-2010, 02:22 PM

yea but i would like to play the story again without havin to do all those hard work

ViolenceJack

04-26-2010, 09:10 AM

I'm diggin' Vanille's voice.

SlaughterX

04-26-2010, 09:30 AM

i beat this game yesterday. chapter 13 is really short to bad theirs no game plus

How many chapters are there in total? I am at the end of Chapter 10 getting my ass whupped because they keep seeming to randomly shuffle my party for Fang.

Vincent Alexander

04-26-2010, 09:57 AM

13 Chapters

SlaughterX

04-26-2010, 09:58 AM

Wow... so there's no way in hell this game is gonna take me anywhere near 50 hours to beat when I'm almost at Chapter 11 and under 20 hours...

Fatney

04-26-2010, 10:10 AM

Depends how many of those hunts you're willing to do in Gran Pulse.

Olethros

04-26-2010, 10:45 AM

Wow... so there's no way in hell this game is gonna take me anywhere near 50 hours to beat when I'm almost at Chapter 11 and under 20 hours...

It's all about the post game, Slaughter. You can lose countless hours there if you're into it. I lost interest half way through.

Tivor

04-28-2010, 11:59 PM

I imagine I'm probably about the only person here who would be interested in this...., but here goes.

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/3226/ruliwebff02.jpg

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/3276/ruliwebff01.jpg

South Korea is finally getting a localized release of FFXIII. Japanese voice with Korean subtitle/text.

Aside from the normal game-only version (57000-won, or US$51), they are also getting "Lightning Edition" (top pic, 105000-won or US$94) and "Original Soundtrack Special Package" (bottom pic, 115000-won or US$103).

I must confess, I'm rather interested in getting the "Lightning Edition," partly because I would love to play FF13 in my native Korean (and with Japanese voices this time around), and partly because I always wanted a white controller anyway. :D

Saburo Hikari

04-29-2010, 12:53 AM

That's a really awesome limited edition! I would've preferred this one over anything Japan or America got.

SlaughterX

04-29-2010, 01:04 PM

Much better than the Euro LE, I wouldn't mind having that controller.

SlaughterX

05-16-2010, 09:09 AM

Tivor

05-16-2010, 10:40 AM

So I am pretty sure I am at the end of the 11th chapter. What I want to know is if I continue on will I be able to make it back to the previous part of Gran Pulse to complete missions? Also how the hell do I fight that thing at the bottom of the tower?

Yes. After you beat the game and watch the end credit, you'll be able to save the game. And when you load that save file, you'll be able to go back to Gran Pulse to do all the missions. So no worries.

As for the mission at the bottom of the tower (you mean the flying one that you fight after you go down from the top of the tower to the bottom with the elevator making musical notes, right?)...... I sorta remember it being tricky, but not terribly difficult -- meaning I don't remember doing anything special to beat it. While you could just come back to it after beating the story (and hence have grown more powerful), you really ought to be able to beat it before completing Ch 11. Maybe switch up the party configuration, or equipments? Often, having a certain class and/or equipping a resistant item can make a huge difference. Sorry if I'm not being particularly helpful. :|