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[ValiantTraveler]

I bounced off FF XII for some reason originally, the story bored the younger me who hated cut-scenes. But it was bugging me I never finished it when I've completed all other mainlines, so I picked it up as a physical cart for dirt cheap on the Switch expecting to play for 10 minutes, remember why I got bored of it, and bounce back off it.

I've played like 20 hours in like 2 days, the gambit system is fucking awesome - it's a nice little meta game where you program your team, optimise it, then run around grinding EXP and items with them like pets. Quite why no game after has stolen or used this system is criminal, it's so much more rewarding and customisable than just assigning generic behaviours like 'healer' or 'damage dealer'

Story is still fucking boring, it has a similar vibe to the Star Wars prequels where they try to make politics sexy and exciting but it just comes off as pompous. Currently having to loot a tomb for some magical ball as the princess has no proof she is the princess, despite the fact everybody from the fucking continent came to her wedding in the CGI intro. I would say the music is also a stand-out, but this is a Final Fantasy thread so I guess that's just a given

Interesting how players come to appreciate XII more as they get older.

No other developer has the balls to take the Gambit system and run with it, everyone is playing it safe with classic turn-based or action combat. Square had the guts to innovate in XII and XIII but now they've gone full action to ensure commercial viability sadly. Likewise, no other RPG will build up XIII's battle system which was getting close to the ideal mix of turn-based but with seamless action where characters are almost moving and acting non-stop.

The political focus in the story is not for everyone, I guess if you don't care much about geopolitics the dialogues will be boring. I still find the dialogue writing to be fascinating regardless of the story.

 

[Kev Kev]

FFXIII LTTP

Chapter 1

it’s about what I remember, but I’m not as filled with disappointment and bitterness this time lol. I’m going to give the game a solid chance, knowing that it isn’t going to be exactly what I would personally want out of an open world FF, but hoping that I still enjoy it for what it is.

That being said I’ve made it through chapter 1 and so far so good. The beginning sequence was actually pretty fucking rad. The battle has been fun too! It feels like a mix of turn based and FFXII style gambit/auto fighting, and I’m digging it. The paths are very linear but there is still some hidden stuff to find along the way which, although not that well hidden, Is still very appreciated.

I actually like the star rating at the end of battle. It’s been fun trying different abilities and faster ways to defeat enemies. It’s also pretty easy so far, which I prefer in my games so yay.

The camera is too slow and sluggish tho. It’s a real shame because that’s a pretty big part of the game, moving the camera around, looking at stuff and finding hidden chests. And there are very little option for settings in this game, so no changing to speed. I’ll learn to live with it, but that is a big no bueno for me. We’ll see how those decisions age as I play through.

Over all I’m enjoying it. The codex or whatever it’s called is giving plenty of info and I haven’t minded reading through it so far. Seems less confusing this time around but still a lot to take in, even for an FF fan. The voice acting and cut scenes have been alright so far. Again with the options thing, I really wish they gave us the option to turn off VAs and adjust volume for music, effects and voice (really square? This is standard), but at least they aren’t annoying yet. Again, we’ll see how that decision ages.

Okay onto chapter 2

FFXIII LTTP

Chapter 2 and 3

so I'm still having trouble with the camera and i dont think its going to feel better anytime soon. it just feels like im in a constant fight with it. after playing around with it and trying to figure out what exactly it is thats giving me so much trouble, i discovered that the camera will move by itself as you run through the game. but i dont want that, so i try moving it myself but then it wants to go its own way, so i literally am fighting with it constantly.

so ive taken to just letting the camera do its own thing, and if i want to look around i stop moving completely and swivel it around as much as i need to, before pressing L3 to snap it back behind me and keep going. another problem i have is that the camera is never centered directly behind you, its always off to the left or right just a little bit, and it just never feels good or comfortable. its a massive complaint from me so far, and i cant ignore it or leave it out of my LTTP. if i dont get used to it, its going to be a big black eye on this whole game. thats the last ill speak of it tho. hopefully it will feel better soon and i can circle back and say that i jsut needed to get used to it, but that remains to be seen...

the battle is getting a little better for me too, but im still not crazy about it. i think to give it more time tho. they are still slowly introducing new things in battle, even now 8-9 hours into the game, so im gonna let that cook for a little bit more before criticizing it too much.

im loving pretty much everything else. the story is pretty good! I read all of the material provided and i have a really good grasp with the backstory, characters, main story, side stories, etc. im okay with the reading as long as its engaging and good, and i think they have done a great job making it easy to understand and not too complicated.

the VAs, animation, script, and the grunts, moans and squeaks from vanille are pretty annoying so far, but if im stoned enough i can tune the weird anime/jrpg elements out and just enjoy the rest of it. and im just kind of used to it in jrpgs now. i really wish theyd stop it with the groans and moans and "uuhhhs" and "aaahhs". its just dumb and doesnt add anything to the game. and with no volume options, i dont have a choice but tho try and filter it out and just focus on the meat and potatoes of the story bits in each cut scene.

over all im still enjoying it and looking forward to where the adventure is going to take us next. oh and the cut scenes are fire! i really like how action packed they are, even tho thats not usually my thing, they just do it really well in this game. it helps that im really engaged with the story and know what is going on. as much as i hate to say it, having all that reading material really has helped. its nice when the gameplay ad NPC interaction can flesh out the story for you, but FF worlds are so big and intricate that you almost need a codex ala mass effect to really dig your claws in and understand what is going on.

thats it for now. onward to chapter FO'

 

[Kev Kev]

FFXIII question

how do I know what spells my team mates are casting?

I have check marks next to all my enemies in enemy intel, so I imagine they cast a de shell if the enemy has shell, or conversely synergist cast shell on a team mate. But like, what if I need them to cast the spell on multiple enemies, how can I tel they are finished and I can switch back to a more attack oriented paradigm? And what if I need them to cast multiple different spells on enemies? How do I know they are casting what I want them to cast? How long do I have to stay on my “support paradigm” before switching back to an “attack paradigm”?

Its so fucking weird and ambiguous. I can’t tell what’s going on bc everything goes by so fast, and the game punishes you for changing the setting to slow battle speed lol, wtf? Why couldn’t it have just compensated for players who want to relax? Why is a FF game rewarding you for break neck speed battles? that’s so bizarre to me…

also, I can’t tell why it’s happening, but if I just attack with three ravagers (because none of them have commando) and I’m attacking like crazy, I can’t fucking fill the chain up. But then after a round of synergist and saboteur attacks, his chain is suddenly easier to fill. I’m not even sure why? Because they are weaker to magic now? But these enemies don’t have shell on them to begin with. Is one of my spells weakening them to magic? It’s like it’s impossible to fill unless they are weak to your magic or physical attacks. I also noticed that commando just fills up chains faster than ravagers, in general, is that true?

man this game really leaves you in the dark on some of this stuff. This is how I felt with ffvii remake. The battle is waaaaay way way too fast. And it’s limiting too. Like if I don’t fight exactly how the game wants me to fight, it’s over I’m dead.

Any help would be appreciated. I’m just going to take to grinding the shit out of every area I can and hopefully I’ll be so strong that strategy won’t matter. As it is now I’m having almost no fun with the battle. I was at first. But it’s just fucking annoying atm because I can’t tell when my spells are landing, when it’s time to switch back to an attack oriented paradigm or which attacks/magic are going to fill the chain up faster or if I need to weaken them to magic or physical attacks first or blah blah blah it’s just kind of exhausting and not fun atm

EDIT: and all the while the game is reminding me of how much I suck at the end of every battle thanks game, that’s really helping a lot

 

[Kagey K]

FFXIII question


also, I can’t tell why it’s happening, but if I just attack with three ravagers (because none of them have commando) and I’m attacking like crazy, I can’t fucking fill the chain up. But then after a round of synergist and saboteur attacks, his chain is suddenly easier to fill. I’m not even sure why? Because they are weaker to magic now? But these enemies don’t have shell on them to begin with. Is one of my spells weakening them to magic? It’s like it’s impossible to fill unless they are weak to your magic or physical attacks. I also noticed that commando just fills up chains faster than ravagers, in general, is that true?

Commando and some Sab spells slow the stagger bar down, RAV can't fill the bar by themselves. Rav fills the chain faster, but need a com to keep the bar up. If you are running 2 or 3 RAV and notice the bar is declining quickly swap in a COM to slow it back down, then switch back to rav.

Same thing once they are staggered the COM takes their life quicker, while the RAV ups the stagger percentage, but does less physical damage.

I usually do COM RAV RAV (Or RAV RAV RAV, and swap one to COM about every 3rd turn) while I'm trying to fill the bar and then COM COM RAV once they are staggered.

 

[Kev Kev]

Commando and some Sab spells slow the stagger bar down, RAV can't fill the bar by themselves. Rav fills the chain faster, but need a com to keep the bar up. If you are running 2 or 3 RAV and notice the bar is declining quickly swap in a COM to slow it back down, then switch back to rav.

Same thing once they are staggered the COM takes their life quicker, while the RAV ups the stagger percentage, but does less physical damage.

I usually do COM RAV RAV (Or RAV RAV RAV, and swap one to COM about every 3rd turn) while I'm trying to fill the bar and then COM COM RAV once they are staggered.

ok thanks! that clears things up a lot

a couple things tho, is there a difference between "stagger bar" and the "chain"? i thought they were the same thing? and when you refer to the "bar" is that the little red line that sticks there even if the part that fills up is falling? so COM will fill the bar but RAV will push that little red line further up?

i might try to look up a couple tutorial videos as well. its hard to keep up with the terminology without a visual reference. but yeah thanks agin Kagey K youve been a big help!

 

[Kagey K]

ok thanks! that clears things up a lot

a couple things tho, is there a difference between "stagger bar" and the "chain"? i thought they were the same thing? and when you refer to the "bar" is that the little red line that sticks there even if the part that fills up is falling? so COM will fill the bar but RAV will push that little red line further up?

i might try to look up a couple tutorial videos as well. its hard to keep up with the terminology without a visual reference. but yeah thanks agin Kagey K youve been a big help!

Stagger bar is the one in the top right corner that fills up yellow and turns red as it drains, might be called the chain, I just always called it stagger. You have to hit a certain % (different on each enemy) and then they stagger, when they stagger you do bonus damage to them with a COM as it slowly drains, while a ravager increases the bonus % during that time.

The red is the current percentage up the bar you are towards staggering him, provided you hit him again before yellow empties.

Ravager fills it towards the 130% you need to stagger it, and the COM slows the yellow from running down too fast and resetting to 0. If the yellow completely drains then you have to restart the stagger (or chain) meter.

The idea is you use COM so it never empties out while RAV pushes bigger numbers towards getting it full and staggers the monster for bonus damage from the COM.

On the average monster the COM will only push the meter up 1% or so off a full ATB, while a RAV can push it 8 or 9, but if a COM doesn't hit it either before or after the RAV, the bar drains almost immediately.

Hopefully I'm not confusing your worse by trying to over simplify it.

Edit: Here I stole this guide to try to help explain it better than me.

# Stabilizing and Filling up the gauges

Staggering an enemy (filling up the Chain Bonus gauge) is always faster if you use the Ravagers (RAV) attacks, but there's also a rule that you have to keep in mind: the faster you fill the Chain Bonus gauge, the faster it will tend to deplete. Because of this (the fact that the Chain Bonus gauge can fill up, but also empty-out), it's important to balance the roles that you use with your attacks to stabilize (that is to say, slow down the inevitable Chain Bonus emptying process) and fill the Chain Bonus gauge.

The Commando (COM) role is particularly good to stabilize the Chain Bonus gauge, and just a few attacks of a COM will typically be enough to stabilize the gauge for good. On the other hand, the COM role will fill up the Chain Bonus gauge very slowly. Vice-versa, the RAV role is particularly good to fill up the Chain Bonus gauge quickly, as we already said, but if you were to use only RAV to fill the Chain Bonus gauge, the gauge would probably empty and go back to 100% in less than a second.

The third offensive role, SAB, is somewhat in the middle: it fills the Chain Bonus gauge faster than COM but more slowly than RAV, and it stabilizes the Chain Bonus gauge more than RAV but less than COM.

When you want to fill the gauge of an enemy therefore it's important that you use a balanced Paradigm: COM/RAV/RAV is one of the best Paradigms to fill Chain Bonus gauges, because it provides both a "stabilizing" character (the COM) and two characters that will fill up the Chain Bonus gauge (the two RAV).

Also keep in mind that different enemies have different "Chain Resistance" values: some Chain Gauges fill up fast, others don't.

# Stagger

Once you reach the threshold of the Chain Bonus gauge, the enemy will be Staggered. Upon Staggering, the Chain Bonus gauge receives a +100% instant bonus, the Chain Resistance is set temporarily to zero, and most of the enemies' resistances are weakened (the enemy will take more damage and often become vulnerable to status ailments).

Staggering is a fundamental process to kill most of the enemies of the game: no Stagger = small damage. Keep in mind that Stagger time is limited though: after a set amount of seconds (which varies depending on the enemy), the Stagger time will end, and the Chain Bonus will be set back to 100%.

Some special conditions can also reset the Chain Bonus gauge to 100%. These include special attacks of some bosses, Snow and Fang's "full ATB" attacks, and the Gestalt Final Attack of the Eidolons.

 

[Kev Kev]

Stagger bar is the one in the top right corner that fills up yellow and turns red as it drains, might be called the chain, I just always called it stagger. You have to hit a certain % (different on each enemy) and then they stagger, when they stagger you do bonus damage to them with a COM as it slowly drains, while a ravager increases the bonus % during that time.

The red is the current percentage up the bar you are towards staggering him, provided you hit him again before yellow empties.

Ravager fills it towards the 130% you need to stagger it, and the COM slows the yellow from running down too fast and resetting to 0. If the yellow completely drains then you have to restart the stagger (or chain) meter.

The idea is you use COM so it never empties out while RAV pushes bigger numbers towards getting it full and staggers the monster for bonus damage from the COM.

On the average monster the COM will only push the meter up 1% or so off a full ATB, while a RAV can push it 8 or 9, but if a COM doesn't hit it either before or after the RAV, the bar drains almost immediately.

Hopefully I'm not confusing your worse by trying to over simplify it.

Edit: Here I stole this guide to try to help explain it better than me.

aaahhh i see, that makes sense now. im in a particular part of the game where you have no COM (beginning of chapter 4 right with sazh, hope and vanille). so that explained why i was having trouble with the stagger bar falling too quickly.

but what confused me is that sometimes it would fall slower, seemingly randomly, which of course doesn't make sense because i dont have a COM. and the reason the chain gauge was slowing down is because i would switch to a paradigm that included a SAB who (as the thing you copied and pasted stated) can be thought of like a third attack type. so the SAB was doing some kind of attack (what kind of attack are they doing? i thought they only hit enemies with buffs/debuffs?) that was slowing down the gauge, allowing me to fill the stagger bar and take them out. makes sense now!

however, that sort of brings me back to my original question: how do i control which attack my SAB or SYN uses? do they just use the most effective attack? how do i know they have hit the enemy with whatever they need to hit them with to slow the stagger bar depletion (hell i dont even know what exactly they are hitting them with lol)? it seems ambiguous and weird, and everything happens so fast i dont have time to focus on exactly what attacks they are doing and when.

i guess the best strategy is to switch the a paradigm with a SAB (for this particular chapter 4 part im in where i have no COM's) and just let them do one round of 3 ATB bars, and then switch back to a RAV heavy paradigm and attack like crazy?

i think im starting to get it. i gotta go teach a guitar lesson and ill come back tonite and test it out. thanks again dude!

 

[Kagey K]

aaahhh i see, that makes sense now. im in a particular part of the game where you have no COM (beginning of chapter 4 right with sazh, hope and vanille). so that explained why i was having trouble with the stagger bar falling too quickly.

but what confused me is that sometimes it would fall slower, seemingly randomly, which of course doesn't make sense because i dont have a COM. and the reason the chain gauge was slowing down is because i would switch to a paradigm that included a SAB who (as the thing you copied and pasted stated) can be thought of like a third attack type. so the SAB was doing some kind of attack (what kind of attack are they doing? i thought they only hit enemies with buffs/debuffs?) that was slowing down the gauge, allowing me to fill the stagger bar and take them out. makes sense now!

however, that sort of brings me back to my original question: how do i control which attack my SAB or SYN uses? do they just use the most effective attack? how do i know they have hit the enemy with whatever they need to hit them with to slow the stagger bar depletion (hell i dont even know what exactly they are hitting them with lol)? it seems ambiguous and weird, and everything happens so fast i dont have time to focus on exactly what attacks they are doing and when.

i guess the best strategy is to switch the a paradigm with a SAB (for this particular chapter 4 part im in where i have no COM's) and just let them do one round of 3 ATB bars, and then switch back to a RAV heavy paradigm and attack like crazy?

i think im starting to get it. i gotta go teach a guitar lesson and ill come back tonite and test it out. thanks again dude!

Sazh has a com role, you might not have a paradigm set up for it though. That would certainly make the game harder running through fights with no com.

As far as what your companions are doing, they do what is automatically best for the enemy, at first they don’t know, but once you stagger an enemy or lose the ???? Off the bar they learn something. The more of that enemy type you fight and stagger the more they learn.

You can also use Libra to get information on enemies (but that still doesn’t get all the info in one go) or a Librascope which gets the most info.

Once they learn it’s weakness, it exploits that, like if it’s weak to water and your Ravs have a water spell they will throw that at it.

With Sab or Syn the only way to tell what they have casted is by checking the status symbols on your Heath bar and under the enemies health bar (Note that Sab doesn’t always cause a status effect and my have to throw it multiple times.) If I had to guess the Sab was casting slow, which treats it like an attack on the stagger (chain) meter.

 

[Kev Kev]

FFXIII LTTP

Chapter 2 and 3

so I'm still having trouble with the camera and i dont think its going to feel better anytime soon. it just feels like im in a constant fight with it. after playing around with it and trying to figure out what exactly it is thats giving me so much trouble, i discovered that the camera will move by itself as you run through the game. but i dont want that, so i try moving it myself but then it wants to go its own way, so i literally am fighting with it constantly.

so ive taken to just letting the camera do its own thing, and if i want to look around i stop moving completely and swivel it around as much as i need to, before pressing L3 to snap it back behind me and keep going. another problem i have is that the camera is never centered directly behind you, its always off to the left or right just a little bit, and it just never feels good or comfortable. its a massive complaint from me so far, and i cant ignore it or leave it out of my LTTP. if i dont get used to it, its going to be a big black eye on this whole game. thats the last ill speak of it tho. hopefully it will feel better soon and i can circle back and say that i jsut needed to get used to it, but that remains to be seen...

the battle is getting a little better for me too, but im still not crazy about it. i think to give it more time tho. they are still slowly introducing new things in battle, even now 8-9 hours into the game, so im gonna let that cook for a little bit more before criticizing it too much.

im loving pretty much everything else. the story is pretty good! I read all of the material provided and i have a really good grasp with the backstory, characters, main story, side stories, etc. im okay with the reading as long as its engaging and good, and i think they have done a great job making it easy to understand and not too complicated.

the VAs, animation, script, and the grunts, moans and squeaks from vanille are pretty annoying so far, but if im stoned enough i can tune the weird anime/jrpg elements out and just enjoy the rest of it. and im just kind of used to it in jrpgs now. i really wish theyd stop it with the groans and moans and "uuhhhs" and "aaahhs". its just dumb and doesnt add anything to the game. and with no volume options, i dont have a choice but tho try and filter it out and just focus on the meat and potatoes of the story bits in each cut scene.

over all im still enjoying it and looking forward to where the adventure is going to take us next. oh and the cut scenes are fire! i really like how action packed they are, even tho thats not usually my thing, they just do it really well in this game. it helps that im really engaged with the story and know what is going on. as much as i hate to say it, having all that reading material really has helped. its nice when the gameplay ad NPC interaction can flesh out the story for you, but FF worlds are so big and intricate that you almost need a codex ala mass effect to really dig your claws in and understand what is going on.

thats it for now. onward to chapter FO'

FFXIII LTTP

Chapter 4

ok so good news and bad news. ive finally figured out the battle, thanks to Kagey K and a little bit of reading through an ff13 wiki. bad news is im just not a big fan of the paradigm management.

going into more detail about the good news part... i discovered that SAB actually does magic damage to enemies with each move. so although a SAB uses spells like deprotect and deshell (in the beginning of the game at least) it also does a little bit of magic damage with each move. so in the beginning of chapter 4 when you have no COM available, youre supposed to use your SAB basically as a COM in order to keep the chain/stagger gauge from depleting too fast. i dont remember the game telling me this, i could go back and look through the tutorials to check, but either way, utilizing that bit of info did the trick and i had a much easier time with battle form that point on. shortly after that you gain control of a COM and then i have the option of using either a COM or a SAB to stop chain gauge depletion. and i had fun messing with different paradigms, in that sense.

going into more detail about the bad news part... after playing for a few hours with my new, better understanding of the battle mechanics, i realized that i was switching paradigm constantly in battle. maybe itll change in the future, but as of now, the flow goes attack/switch paradigm/attack/switch paradigm/etc... if i get hit for a little too much damage then ill have to switch to a medic oriented paradigm real quick, then go back to attack/switch/attack/switch/ rinse repeat until they are dead. and i guess i just find it to be tedious and not that satisfying.

now heres the thing... if the game was easier then i feel it would be a lot more satisfying. as it is now, some of the enemies can be taken out in one volley of attacks, but others require several attacks and several switches of paradigms before they go down. so when you have a battle that has multiple different enemy types, you have to do a lot of paradigm management while getting your ass kicked by the more difficult enemy, and its pretty easy to find yourself in a pickle if one of your attacks gets interrupted, or you have to switch to a medic (which happens often enough to annoy me, but not too often as to be broken).

heres the other thing about all of that... if the game dealt out more CP to me then I could level up my chars quicker and the fights would be easier, but the game tends to put cap on how much you can grind/overpower your characters. and for me, that is a big negative. one of the things i love of FF is that it gives you the freedom to grind your chars and make them powerful, the reward for that being that fights and boss battles become much easier. but this game really limits you on how much you can level. you just get to a point here you can no longer use CP points and you just have to use strategy to beat the enemies.

and all of that just makes me feel like i dont have any freedom playing the game, like i have to play the game exactly the way the devs want me to play it or im toast. so int he end, im glad i figured out the battle but it remains to be seen if ill get used to it, or feel a little more liberated. they are introducing some new battle mechanics (like eidolons), and ive only just started to upgrade weapons and accessories, so im going to reserve judgment and just try to enjoy the battle as much as i can. but overall, it just feels very tedious and like i have to constantly manage and switch paradigms, and im not a fan so far.

the levels are getting a bit less linear, and there was actually some puzzle like elements and (kind of) hidden items to collect, so i appreciated that. the story bits are the most interesting part so far, im enjoying that. the music is decent, but nothing remarkable. i really like the idea of collecting items to upgrade weapons, so im going to enjoy grinding for components (i love grinding), and CP (well, as much as it will let me get at least ).

overall, its going pretty okay, but i have a lot of complaints that i hope will be resolved, or ill just get used to the gameplay (and the camera, which still feels like garbage to me).

thats all for now, thank for coming to my FF13 ted talk. next up: chapter 5 with pussy boy taking the lead (talking about Hope of course )

 

[Kev Kev]

FFXIII LTTP

Chapter 4

ok so good news and bad news. ive finally figured out the battle, thanks to Kagey K and a little bit of reading through an ff13 wiki. bad news is im just not a big fan of the paradigm management.

going into more detail about the good news part... i discovered that SAB actually does magic damage to enemies with each move. so although a SAB uses spells like deprotect and deshell (in the beginning of the game at least) it also does a little bit of magic damage with each move. so in the beginning of chapter 4 when you have no COM available, youre supposed to use your SAB basically as a COM in order to keep the chain/stagger gauge from depleting too fast. i dont remember the game telling me this, i could go back and look through the tutorials to check, but either way, utilizing that bit of info did the trick and i had a much easier time with battle form that point on. shortly after that you gain control of a COM and then i have the option of using either a COM or a SAB to stop chain gauge depletion. and i had fun messing with different paradigms, in that sense.

going into more detail about the bad news part... after playing for a few hours with my new, better understanding of the battle mechanics, i realized that i was switching paradigm constantly in battle. maybe itll change in the future, but as of now, the flow goes attack/switch paradigm/attack/switch paradigm/etc... if i get hit for a little too much damage then ill have to switch to a medic oriented paradigm real quick, then go back to attack/switch/attack/switch/ rinse repeat until they are dead. and i guess i just find it to be tedious and not that satisfying.

now heres the thing... if the game was easier then i feel it would be a lot more satisfying. as it is now, some of the enemies can be taken out in one volley of attacks, but others require several attacks and several switches of paradigms before they go down. so when you have a battle that has multiple different enemy types, you have to do a lot of paradigm management while getting your ass kicked by the more difficult enemy, and its pretty easy to find yourself in a pickle if one of your attacks gets interrupted, or you have to switch to a medic (which happens often enough to annoy me, but not too often as to be broken).

heres the other thing about all of that... if the game dealt out more CP to me then I could level up my chars quicker and the fights would be easier, but the game tends to put cap on how much you can grind/overpower your characters. and for me, that is a big negative. one of the things i love of FF is that it gives you the freedom to grind your chars and make them powerful, the reward for that being that fights and boss battles become much easier. but this game really limits you on how much you can level. you just get to a point here you can no longer use CP points and you just have to use strategy to beat the enemies.

and all of that just makes me feel like i dont have any freedom playing the game, like i have to play the game exactly the way the devs want me to play it or im toast. so int he end, im glad i figured out the battle but it remains to be seen if ill get used to it, or feel a little more liberated. they are introducing some new battle mechanics (like eidolons), and ive only just started to upgrade weapons and accessories, so im going to reserve judgment and just try to enjoy the battle as much as i can. but overall, it just feels very tedious and like i have to constantly manage and switch paradigms, and im not a fan so far.

the levels are getting a bit less linear, and there was actually some puzzle like elements and (kind of) hidden items to collect, so i appreciated that. the story bits are the most interesting part so far, im enjoying that. the music is decent, but nothing remarkable. i really like the idea of collecting items to upgrade weapons, so im going to enjoy grinding for components (i love grinding), and CP (well, as much as it will let me get at least ).

overall, its going pretty okay, but i have a lot of complaints that i hope will be resolved, or ill just get used to the gameplay (and the camera, which still feels like garbage to me).

thats all for now, thank for coming to my FF13 ted talk. next up: chapter 5 with pussy boy taking the lead (talking about Hope of course )

FFXIII LTTP

Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8

*sigh* well, ive got a very negative update, but TLDR, im still enjoying the game (mostly) and im gonna keep playing, but it doesnt feel like im playing a great FF at the moment, which is always a disappointing feeling. anyway, here are my brutally honest, unfiltered thoughts so far...

So I'm very familiar and comfortable with the battle in this game at this point. it works fine and there is a bit of strategy involved, but its honestly not that much fun and just feels like im switching paradigms at the right time, multiple times per battle. it does what it needs to do to be a serviceable combat mechanic but it doesnt do anything particularly good or enjoyable. but at least i understand it and im not struggling with it anymore, so thats good.

the camera is still bad but im getting used to just letting it do its thing, as opposed to trying to control it myself. why thy made that choice i will never understand. its just one more thing that decided to take control away from the player and make the game more limiting, which im seeing is quite a trend with this game so far.

the level design is pretty much a straight forward, never ending hallway in every chapter. im surprised once in a while by a little hidden thing off the beaten path, or maybe a little back tracking you have to do to unlock something you couldnt unlock previously in the level. but for the most part the level design is the same as the battle: nothing particularly good or enjoyable about it, its just kind of there. the graphics and scenery are pretty from time to time, and there are plenty of times where the "hallway" will loop around or criss cross or go under and over, but for the most part its just a skinny, linear pathway. its like they went out of their way to keep it as pencil thin as possible. the times where it does open up to a little bigger area is very welcomed and appreciated it, but unfortunately it happens far too rarely.

the general flow and gameplay loop of the game is getting really, really old after 25ish hours. its been the same thing over and over again. fight your way through a linear pathway of enemies, find a few chests here and their, and do some menu maintenance along the way (upgrading gear, leveling chars, reading chapter summary and checking enemy intel, etc.). there has been almost no mini games, no NPCs to talk to, no side quests, no interesting towns to explore, no find hidden things to find, etc... its just very limited in stuff to do. i dont feel like im exploring a world or going on an adventure, which is essential in an FF for me.

i usually love at least grinding and buying/selling stuff, but this game really limits you in those ways too. finding/saving gill is stupidly hard, there is a cap on how strong you can make your chars in each chapter, and the gear/items is so expensive that i have barely had enough money to buy anything (thankfully i am at least finding most of those items in the game world). but for the most part, there isnt much to actually do other than fight, upgrade stuff, and continue pushing forward. i reeally, reeaallly need this game to do something else, this game play loop is getting lame fast...

the story is great! it remains my favorite part of the game. im really enjoying it and cant wait to see how it plays out. they really did an amazing job explaining everything in an easy to digest manner. i actually really enjoy reading the summarys, as it gives you an already analyzed version of what it going on, in case your analytical skills are sup par or you just didnt quite catch something. good job on that square, i welcome more of this kind of stuff in future FF titles.

on the flip side, the character scripts are slowly stating to turn cringy and abysmal. its just cheeseball and corny to no end. the VAs are doing a decent job i believe, but the material they are giving them just have me literally laughing out loud at times. they need to let the scenes breathe and have a little nuance, bc sometimes they are just hitting it on the nose too hard and comes off as feeling like i watching an episode of sesame street where they are over explaining whats going on or what they are thinking. and in general, the "lets all hug and hold hands" moments are just overdone and make my face look like that clint eastwood gif where he appears to be disgusted lol

i gotta tell ya, i dont feel like im playing a final fantasy game. it feels more like a third person action game with FF elements mixed in. i hear the game opens up a little more later on, but at this point its too little too late for me. the damage has already been done, and i understand why people will make it 30 hours through this game and just give up. its just kind of boring and bland and feels like a plastic FF simulator. but i bought an extra month of xbox ultimate just for this game so im going to finish it damnit. but yeah, so far, the first half of this game is not really impressing me, as disappointed as i am to say that.

im remaining optimistic tho and i am really looking forward to (hopefully) getting to a point where acquiring gil and components is easier, and the levels/traveling/exploration opens up a bit more (itd be nice to be able to travel back to certain places). im not holding my breath for towns or NPCs or mini games, but thatd be a nice addition.... i mean, its an FF game those things should be standard but i havent seen one yet so...

oh well, onward to chapter 9 (and beyond)!

EDIT: i was going to splice this in with the body of the post but i have to add this at the bottom for everyone to clearly see: the CG cut scenes in this game are fucking incredible! some of the best, if not THE best in any FF. im blown away nearly every single time. they need to get the team who did these to make FF movies because they are by far some of the best parts of the game. they really feel like a treat, just like they used to back in the day. so in that sense i get a bit of old school FF vibe. well done square

 

[Kev Kev]

FFXIII LTTP

Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8

*sigh* well, ive got a very negative update, but TLDR, im still enjoying the game (mostly) and im gonna keep playing, but it doesnt feel like im playing a great FF at the moment, which is always a disappointing feeling. anyway, here are my brutally honest, unfiltered thoughts so far...

So I'm very familiar and comfortable with the battle in this game at this point. it works fine and there is a bit of strategy involved, but its honestly not that much fun and just feels like im switching paradigms at the right time, multiple times per battle. it does what it needs to do to be a serviceable combat mechanic but it doesnt do anything particularly good or enjoyable. but at least i understand it and im not struggling with it anymore, so thats good.

the camera is still bad but im getting used to just letting it do its thing, as opposed to trying to control it myself. why thy made that choice i will never understand. its just one more thing that decided to take control away from the player and make the game more limiting, which im seeing is quite a trend with this game so far.

the level design is pretty much a straight forward, never ending hallway in every chapter. im surprised once in a while by a little hidden thing off the beaten path, or maybe a little back tracking you have to do to unlock something you couldnt unlock previously in the level. but for the most part the level design is the same as the battle: nothing particularly good or enjoyable about it, its just kind of there. the graphics and scenery are pretty from time to time, and there are plenty of times where the "hallway" will loop around or criss cross or go under and over, but for the most part its just a skinny, linear pathway. its like they went out of their way to keep it as pencil thin as possible. the times where it does open up to a little bigger area is very welcomed and appreciated it, but unfortunately it happens far too rarely.

the general flow and gameplay loop of the game is getting really, really old after 25ish hours. its been the same thing over and over again. fight your way through a linear pathway of enemies, find a few chests here and their, and do some menu maintenance along the way (upgrading gear, leveling chars, reading chapter summary and checking enemy intel, etc.). there has been almost no mini games, no NPCs to talk to, no side quests, no interesting towns to explore, no find hidden things to find, etc... its just very limited in stuff to do. i dont feel like im exploring a world or going on an adventure, which is essential in an FF for me.

i usually love at least grinding and buying/selling stuff, but this game really limits you in those ways too. finding/saving gill is stupidly hard, there is a cap on how strong you can make your chars in each chapter, and the gear/items is so expensive that i have barely had enough money to buy anything (thankfully i am at least finding most of those items in the game world). but for the most part, there isnt much to actually do other than fight, upgrade stuff, and continue pushing forward. i reeally, reeaallly need this game to do something else, this game play loop is getting lame fast...

the story is great! it remains my favorite part of the game. im really enjoying it and cant wait to see how it plays out. they really did an amazing job explaining everything in an easy to digest manner. i actually really enjoy reading the summarys, as it gives you an already analyzed version of what it going on, in case your analytical skills are sup par or you just didnt quite catch something. good job on that square, i welcome more of this kind of stuff in future FF titles.

on the flip side, the character scripts are slowly stating to turn cringy and abysmal. its just cheeseball and corny to no end. the VAs are doing a decent job i believe, but the material they are giving them just have me literally laughing out loud at times. they need to let the scenes breathe and have a little nuance, bc sometimes they are just hitting it on the nose too hard and comes off as feeling like i watching an episode of sesame street where they are over explaining whats going on or what they are thinking. and in general, the "lets all hug and hold hands" moments are just overdone and make my face look like that clint eastwood gif where he appears to be disgusted lol

i gotta tell ya, i dont feel like im playing a final fantasy game. it feels more like a third person action game with FF elements mixed in. i hear the game opens up a little more later on, but at this point its too little too late for me. the damage has already been done, and i understand why people will make it 30 hours through this game and just give up. its just kind of boring and bland and feels like a plastic FF simulator. but i bought an extra month of xbox ultimate just for this game so im going to finish it damnit. but yeah, so far, the first half of this game is not really impressing me, as disappointed as i am to say that.

im remaining optimistic tho and i am really looking forward to (hopefully) getting to a point where acquiring gil and components is easier, and the levels/traveling/exploration opens up a bit more (itd be nice to be able to travel back to certain places). im not holding my breath for towns or NPCs or mini games, but thatd be a nice addition.... i mean, its an FF game those things should be standard but i havent seen one yet so...

oh well, onward to chapter 9 (and beyond)!

EDIT: i was going to splice this in with the body of the post but i have to add this at the bottom for everyone to clearly see: the CG cut scenes in this game are fucking incredible! some of the best, if not THE best in any FF. im blown away nearly every single time. they need to get the team who did these to make FF movies because they are by far some of the best parts of the game. they really feel like a treat, just like they used to back in the day. so in that sense i get a bit of old school FF vibe. well done square

FFXIII LTTP

Chapters 9 and 10

so im going to keep this short, only bc i dont really feel like typing that much... or at least, i will try to keep it short lol, wish me luck

edit: ok its not short at all lmao, but its way more positive than the last one at least... ill break it up into sections...

GRAN PULSE

so, im sure all 3 of you who have been reading this are wondering what i think about gran pulse. and the short answer is: i love it! its what ive wanted this game to be for the past 40 or so hours and its finally here. like a breath of fresh air i actually feel like im playing an FF game now.

but it took 35ish hours and several horribly designed, mind numbingly boring, never ending hallway simulator levels to get here, and im honestly just kind of baffled. like who thought that was a great way to play the first half of the game? who played through this thing and "yeah theyre gonna love this!"??? why didnt they stop to think about how much more awesome gran pulse is and consider that perhaps the rest of the game should share some of that awesomeness?? smh. i will never understand it. im happy the game opened up and it feels like FF now, but im honestly just kind of bitter about the first half of the game to really enjoy it as much as i should. well, anyway, moving on, ill try to forget about the first half and just see how the remaining parts of the game go...

...DID I MENTION GRAN PULSE?

more about how much i love gran pulse... its beautiful, of course. but not only that but it feels so alive. monsters flying aound, animals running through giant open fields, giant sized monsters slowly roaming around, packs of wild dogs and slimes guarding chests and areas you need to access. it looks stunning, it feels great and the only thing im missing is a chocobo for me to be in FF heaven rn. the areas are open with little hidden places to find, criss crossing in and out, over and under, and its not impractical at all. it looks aesthetically pleasing but also functions with the world brilliantly. i cant praise it enough. i wish the whole game was just like this, it would have been amazing. for real running around that first open field in gran pulse is a top 10 FF moment.

BATTLE

the fighting is gettin much more interesting. im having to try out a lot of different strategies to take down fiends. just hammering them with com/rav/rav doesnt always do the trick. ive found myself having to utilize sab, syn and sen character types quite a bit in order to take down monsters in a timely manner. for many of them, if i wnat to get 5 stars, i have to use some of those other types. its similar in the way i feel about gran pulse: im glad it finally opened up but i wish it would have done more in the first half of the game. i was able to get by mostly with a combo of coms and ravs, without having to use much buffs and debuffs (im using those like crazy now!), and it would have been nice to have a bit more of that earlier on.

UPGRADING WEAPONS/ACCESSORIES

the upgrading weapons and accessories is fun, but it take far too many items to level stuff up. additionally, having figured out that upgrading weapons and accessories early on is pretty much useless, i have to say im pretty pissed off with how much time and items i wasted trying to level up shit like iron bangles and power wristbands. i mean thousands of thousands of exp spent and items used only to find out i completely wasted my time? are you fucking serious square? why even put it in their? or maybe only limit players to upgrading to level 2 or 3. but no, i leveled those bitches up to 4 or 5 in some cases, only to finally look up some walk throughs online and figure out that was a waste of time. UUUGGHHH!!! im so mad about that. not much more to say. it works great as long as you understand that upgrading anything before chapter 11 is going to be a huge waste of resources and EXP, but i didnt know that, because the game doesn't give you any idea that that is the case... so sucks to be me i guess... smh

MARKS

i love the marks/hunts! whatever they are called, that is what i was looking for in earlier chapters. something else to do other than fight and move along the path. wish there was more side stuff to do like NPCs to help or mini games to play or collectibles to find, but ill take what i can get...

STORY/SCRIPT/VAs

the overall story is still great but the scripts are vomit inducing cringe. i am openly laughing at some of the kumbaya moments characters are having with each other. some of those exchanges are the height of bad in FF. not much else to say. the characters have interesting stories but they need to re fucking think up the scripts because they are soap opera levels of bad.

MUSIC

the music is sooooo much better here too! i hadnt mentioned the music much until now because it was just unremarkable and sometimes down right bad. the first half of the game has some of the worst music ive heard all of FF, but gran pulse music is amazing so far.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

well, over all my feelings are that the first half of ffxiii is some of the worst ive experienced with an FF game, but everything thats happened since i got to gran pulse is a million times better. its not enough to forgive the first half tho, unfortunately. but at least im really enjoying the game now and feeling like its adventure and i have a big world to explore and check out. looking forward to exploring more, doing more marks and finding (hopefully) some other side stuff to complete.

onto the remaining chapters and probably the end of the game. i dont see myself trying too 100% or do every little i thing i can, so ill probably only do one more update...

but we'll see...

 

[YukiOnna]

FFXIII LTTP

Chapters 9 and 10

so im going to keep this short, only bc i dont really feel like typing that much... or at least, i will try to keep it short lol, wish me luck

edit: ok its not short at all lmao, but its way more positive than the last one at least... ill break it up into sections...

GRAN PULSE

so, im sure all 3 of you who have been reading this are wondering what i think about gran pulse. and the short answer is: i love it! its what ive wanted this game to be for the past 40 or so hours and its finally here. like a breath of fresh air i actually feel like im playing an FF game now.

but it took 35ish hours and several horribly designed, mind numbingly boring, never ending hallway simulator levels to get here, and im honestly just kind of baffled. like who thought that was a great way to play the first half of the game? who played through this thing and "yeah theyre gonna love this!"??? why didnt they stop to think about how much more awesome gran pulse is and consider that perhaps the rest of the game should share some of that awesomeness?? smh. i will never understand it. im happy the game opened up and it feels like FF now, but im honestly just kind of bitter about the first half of the game to really enjoy it as much as i should. well, anyway, moving on, ill try to forget about the first half and just see how the remaining parts of the game go...

...DID I MENTION GRAN PULSE?

more about how much i love gran pulse... its beautiful, of course. but not only that but it feels so alive. monsters flying aound, animals running through giant open fields, giant sized monsters slowly roaming around, packs of wild dogs and slimes guarding chests and areas you need to access. it looks stunning, it feels great and the only thing im missing is a chocobo for me to be in FF heaven rn. the areas are open with little hidden places to find, criss crossing in and out, over and under, and its not impractical at all. it looks aesthetically pleasing but also functions with the world brilliantly. i cant praise it enough. i wish the whole game was just like this, it would have been amazing. for real running around that first open field in gran pulse is a top 10 FF moment.

BATTLE

the fighting is gettin much more interesting. im having to try out a lot of different strategies to take down fiends. just hammering them with com/rav/rav doesnt always do the trick. ive found myself having to utilize sab, syn and sen character types quite a bit in order to take down monsters in a timely manner. for many of them, if i wnat to get 5 stars, i have to use some of those other types. its similar in the way i feel about gran pulse: im glad it finally opened up but i wish it would have done more in the first half of the game. i was able to get by mostly with a combo of coms and ravs, without having to use much buffs and debuffs (im using those like crazy now!), and it would have been nice to have a bit more of that earlier on.

UPGRADING WEAPONS/ACCESSORIES

the upgrading weapons and accessories is fun, but it take far too many items to level stuff up. additionally, having figured out that upgrading weapons and accessories early on is pretty much useless, i have to say im pretty pissed off with how much time and items i wasted trying to level up shit like iron bangles and power wristbands. i mean thousands of thousands of exp spent and items used only to find out i completely wasted my time? are you fucking serious square? why even put it in their? or maybe only limit players to upgrading to level 2 or 3. but no, i leveled those bitches up to 4 or 5 in some cases, only to finally look up some walk throughs online and figure out that was a waste of time. UUUGGHHH!!! im so mad about that. not much more to say. it works great as long as you understand that upgrading anything before chapter 11 is going to be a huge waste of resources and EXP, but i didnt know that, because the game doesn't give you any idea that that is the case... so sucks to be me i guess... smh

MARKS

i love the marks/hunts! whatever they are called, that is what i was looking for in earlier chapters. something else to do other than fight and move along the path. wish there was more side stuff to do like NPCs to help or mini games to play or collectibles to find, but ill take what i can get...

STORY/SCRIPT/VAs

the overall story is still great but the scripts are vomit inducing cringe. i am openly laughing at some of the kumbaya moments characters are having with each other. some of those exchanges are the height of bad in FF. not much else to say. the characters have interesting stories but they need to re fucking think up the scripts because they are soap opera levels of bad.

MUSIC

the music is sooooo much better here too! i hadnt mentioned the music much until now because it was just unremarkable and sometimes down right bad. the first half of the game has some of the worst music ive heard all of FF, but gran pulse music is amazing so far.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

well, over all my feelings are that the first half of ffxiii is some of the worst ive experienced with an FF game, but everything thats happened since i got to gran pulse is a million times better. its not enough to forgive the first half tho, unfortunately. but at least im really enjoying the game now and feeling like its adventure and i have a big world to explore and check out. looking forward to exploring more, doing more marks and finding (hopefully) some other side stuff to complete.

onto the remaining chapters and probably the end of the game. i dont see myself trying too 100% or do every little i thing i can, so ill probably only do one more update...

but we'll see...

Curious to see what you'll think when/if you play FFXIII-2. It's very different.

 

[Kev Kev]

Curious to see what you'll think when/if you play FFXIII-2. It's very different.

as it is now, im totally down to try out ffxiii-2. ill go in blind too, so as to not taint my true opinion of it. i have no idea what kind of game it is or how much it was loved/hated. but i wouldnt buy it after playing this game. itll have to come to gamepass and ill try to beat it in a couple month so itll only cost me $20

but yeah im down to try it out after this game. after that i just need to finally beat 1-5 and that will be all the main FFs beaten for me (minus 11 and 14)

 

[Kagey K]

FFXIII LTTP

Chapters 9 and 10

so im going to keep this short, only bc i dont really feel like typing that much... or at least, i will try to keep it short lol, wish me luck

edit: ok its not short at all lmao, but its way more positive than the last one at least... ill break it up into sections...

GRAN PULSE

so, im sure all 3 of you who have been reading this are wondering what i think about gran pulse. and the short answer is: i love it! its what ive wanted this game to be for the past 40 or so hours and its finally here. like a breath of fresh air i actually feel like im playing an FF game now.

but it took 35ish hours and several horribly designed, mind numbingly boring, never ending hallway simulator levels to get here, and im honestly just kind of baffled. like who thought that was a great way to play the first half of the game? who played through this thing and "yeah theyre gonna love this!"??? why didnt they stop to think about how much more awesome gran pulse is and consider that perhaps the rest of the game should share some of that awesomeness?? smh. i will never understand it. im happy the game opened up and it feels like FF now, but im honestly just kind of bitter about the first half of the game to really enjoy it as much as i should. well, anyway, moving on, ill try to forget about the first half and just see how the remaining parts of the game go...

...DID I MENTION GRAN PULSE?

more about how much i love gran pulse... its beautiful, of course. but not only that but it feels so alive. monsters flying aound, animals running through giant open fields, giant sized monsters slowly roaming around, packs of wild dogs and slimes guarding chests and areas you need to access. it looks stunning, it feels great and the only thing im missing is a chocobo for me to be in FF heaven rn. the areas are open with little hidden places to find, criss crossing in and out, over and under, and its not impractical at all. it looks aesthetically pleasing but also functions with the world brilliantly. i cant praise it enough. i wish the whole game was just like this, it would have been amazing. for real running around that first open field in gran pulse is a top 10 FF moment.

BATTLE

the fighting is gettin much more interesting. im having to try out a lot of different strategies to take down fiends. just hammering them with com/rav/rav doesnt always do the trick. ive found myself having to utilize sab, syn and sen character types quite a bit in order to take down monsters in a timely manner. for many of them, if i wnat to get 5 stars, i have to use some of those other types. its similar in the way i feel about gran pulse: im glad it finally opened up but i wish it would have done more in the first half of the game. i was able to get by mostly with a combo of coms and ravs, without having to use much buffs and debuffs (im using those like crazy now!), and it would have been nice to have a bit more of that earlier on.

UPGRADING WEAPONS/ACCESSORIES

the upgrading weapons and accessories is fun, but it take far too many items to level stuff up. additionally, having figured out that upgrading weapons and accessories early on is pretty much useless, i have to say im pretty pissed off with how much time and items i wasted trying to level up shit like iron bangles and power wristbands. i mean thousands of thousands of exp spent and items used only to find out i completely wasted my time? are you fucking serious square? why even put it in their? or maybe only limit players to upgrading to level 2 or 3. but no, i leveled those bitches up to 4 or 5 in some cases, only to finally look up some walk throughs online and figure out that was a waste of time. UUUGGHHH!!! im so mad about that. not much more to say. it works great as long as you understand that upgrading anything before chapter 11 is going to be a huge waste of resources and EXP, but i didnt know that, because the game doesn't give you any idea that that is the case... so sucks to be me i guess... smh

MARKS

i love the marks/hunts! whatever they are called, that is what i was looking for in earlier chapters. something else to do other than fight and move along the path. wish there was more side stuff to do like NPCs to help or mini games to play or collectibles to find, but ill take what i can get...

STORY/SCRIPT/VAs

the overall story is still great but the scripts are vomit inducing cringe. i am openly laughing at some of the kumbaya moments characters are having with each other. some of those exchanges are the height of bad in FF. not much else to say. the characters have interesting stories but they need to re fucking think up the scripts because they are soap opera levels of bad.

MUSIC

the music is sooooo much better here too! i hadnt mentioned the music much until now because it was just unremarkable and sometimes down right bad. the first half of the game has some of the worst music ive heard all of FF, but gran pulse music is amazing so far.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

well, over all my feelings are that the first half of ffxiii is some of the worst ive experienced with an FF game, but everything thats happened since i got to gran pulse is a million times better. its not enough to forgive the first half tho, unfortunately. but at least im really enjoying the game now and feeling like its adventure and i have a big world to explore and check out. looking forward to exploring more, doing more marks and finding (hopefully) some other side stuff to complete.

onto the remaining chapters and probably the end of the game. i dont see myself trying too 100% or do every little i thing i can, so ill probably only do one more update...

but we'll see...

To get the most out of Grand Pulse you need to beat the game and then go back to it. That way the crystarium is fully opened up and you can grind and level your guys up as much as you want doing all the missions and fighting random monsters out there.

 

[Kev Kev]

FFXIII LTTP

Chapters 9 and 10

so im going to keep this short, only bc i dont really feel like typing that much... or at least, i will try to keep it short lol, wish me luck

edit: ok its not short at all lmao, but its way more positive than the last one at least... ill break it up into sections...

GRAN PULSE

so, im sure all 3 of you who have been reading this are wondering what i think about gran pulse. and the short answer is: i love it! its what ive wanted this game to be for the past 40 or so hours and its finally here. like a breath of fresh air i actually feel like im playing an FF game now.

but it took 35ish hours and several horribly designed, mind numbingly boring, never ending hallway simulator levels to get here, and im honestly just kind of baffled. like who thought that was a great way to play the first half of the game? who played through this thing and "yeah theyre gonna love this!"??? why didnt they stop to think about how much more awesome gran pulse is and consider that perhaps the rest of the game should share some of that awesomeness?? smh. i will never understand it. im happy the game opened up and it feels like FF now, but im honestly just kind of bitter about the first half of the game to really enjoy it as much as i should. well, anyway, moving on, ill try to forget about the first half and just see how the remaining parts of the game go...

...DID I MENTION GRAN PULSE?

more about how much i love gran pulse... its beautiful, of course. but not only that but it feels so alive. monsters flying aound, animals running through giant open fields, giant sized monsters slowly roaming around, packs of wild dogs and slimes guarding chests and areas you need to access. it looks stunning, it feels great and the only thing im missing is a chocobo for me to be in FF heaven rn. the areas are open with little hidden places to find, criss crossing in and out, over and under, and its not impractical at all. it looks aesthetically pleasing but also functions with the world brilliantly. i cant praise it enough. i wish the whole game was just like this, it would have been amazing. for real running around that first open field in gran pulse is a top 10 FF moment.

BATTLE

the fighting is gettin much more interesting. im having to try out a lot of different strategies to take down fiends. just hammering them with com/rav/rav doesnt always do the trick. ive found myself having to utilize sab, syn and sen character types quite a bit in order to take down monsters in a timely manner. for many of them, if i wnat to get 5 stars, i have to use some of those other types. its similar in the way i feel about gran pulse: im glad it finally opened up but i wish it would have done more in the first half of the game. i was able to get by mostly with a combo of coms and ravs, without having to use much buffs and debuffs (im using those like crazy now!), and it would have been nice to have a bit more of that earlier on.

UPGRADING WEAPONS/ACCESSORIES

the upgrading weapons and accessories is fun, but it take far too many items to level stuff up. additionally, having figured out that upgrading weapons and accessories early on is pretty much useless, i have to say im pretty pissed off with how much time and items i wasted trying to level up shit like iron bangles and power wristbands. i mean thousands of thousands of exp spent and items used only to find out i completely wasted my time? are you fucking serious square? why even put it in their? or maybe only limit players to upgrading to level 2 or 3. but no, i leveled those bitches up to 4 or 5 in some cases, only to finally look up some walk throughs online and figure out that was a waste of time. UUUGGHHH!!! im so mad about that. not much more to say. it works great as long as you understand that upgrading anything before chapter 11 is going to be a huge waste of resources and EXP, but i didnt know that, because the game doesn't give you any idea that that is the case... so sucks to be me i guess... smh

MARKS

i love the marks/hunts! whatever they are called, that is what i was looking for in earlier chapters. something else to do other than fight and move along the path. wish there was more side stuff to do like NPCs to help or mini games to play or collectibles to find, but ill take what i can get...

STORY/SCRIPT/VAs

the overall story is still great but the scripts are vomit inducing cringe. i am openly laughing at some of the kumbaya moments characters are having with each other. some of those exchanges are the height of bad in FF. not much else to say. the characters have interesting stories but they need to re fucking think up the scripts because they are soap opera levels of bad.

MUSIC

the music is sooooo much better here too! i hadnt mentioned the music much until now because it was just unremarkable and sometimes down right bad. the first half of the game has some of the worst music ive heard all of FF, but gran pulse music is amazing so far.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

well, over all my feelings are that the first half of ffxiii is some of the worst ive experienced with an FF game, but everything thats happened since i got to gran pulse is a million times better. its not enough to forgive the first half tho, unfortunately. but at least im really enjoying the game now and feeling like its adventure and i have a big world to explore and check out. looking forward to exploring more, doing more marks and finding (hopefully) some other side stuff to complete.

onto the remaining chapters and probably the end of the game. i dont see myself trying too 100% or do every little i thing i can, so ill probably only do one more update...

but we'll see...

FFXIII LTTP

Chapters 11, 12 and 13 (Final)

Welp, I made it about halfway through chapter 13 and I’m just done. I can’t take it anymore and after looking up the rest of the chapter on a YouTube video, I’m glad I quit because it was just battle after battle after battle and it doesn’t look fun or appealing to me at all. I uninstalled it and I honestly feel relieved it’s over. I just wasn’t having fun anymore and the flavor of FFXIII just isn’t for me.

I’m not going to shit all over the game because I actually think it’s a decent game. But for whatever reason it just never clicked with me. I feel the same as I did in my updates, not much has changed, so if you want to see specifics about what I liked and didn’t like about the experience just read through those.

Overall I just found it to be monotonous and borderline on boring. The first half of the game just felt like run, fight, run, fight, menu maintenance, rinse and repeat. Gran pulse was amazing, but it still lacked hidden stuff, towns, side quests (the marks were fun tho!) and other things that make a FF feel like FF. It was unfortunately too little too late, and short lived, as the sections after that just went right back to run, fight, run, etc. I will say the maps and level design were way less linear and way better in chapter 12 and 13. So that kept me going along, but it just wasn’t enough for me to commit even one more minute, bc I just wasn’t having fun anymore, and I don’t think I had that much fun in the game at all tbh. Gran pulse was the breath of fresh air the game needed, but it needed so much more of it throughout. And it needed some god damn towns and NPCs and hidden stuff and… well you get the idea.

The battle was difficult to understand at first but I figured it out, and there was a sweet spot somewhere before grab pulse where I was really enjoying. But from Gran Pulse onward the fights just got more and more tedious. Every fight in Chapter 23 felt like a boss fight. I’d be fully buffed out, fighting against enemies who I debuffer as much as possible, and even then every fight just crawled along. It’s not even that I couldn’t beat the enemies, I could! I was just bored and almost angry at how much I was actively not enjoying the process. I would literally be sitting there with one arm over my head, and the other just pressing the A button over and over and over. I just couldn’t take it anymore because I simply was not enjoying anything about the game at that point.

I stopped caring about the story and the characters somewhere around chapter 12, but I will say that I think this is the best Square has done at really telling a well explained, easy to digest and interesting story. And the characters were really great. I felt that I liked all of them for their own reasons by the end of the game. I’m happy to have experienced an FF where I actually understand every little thing about what’s going on in the game world and the interactions between all the ally’s and enemies. The reading really helped a lot and I seriously welcome that in future FFs. Good job on that square.

FFXIII is an okay game. It doesn’t do anything really bad or wrong, but it doesn’t anything great imo. If you really like the battle system in this game, then I imagine you’re going to love it. But if you’re looking for an adventure and freedom to explore the world and do side quests, mini games, find hidden areas, find new towns with new NPCs and extra stuff to do, then you’re going to be very disappointed. Apparently there are chocobos in the game but I explored pretty much every area I could and never found one so Oh well, I just didn’t care much to find all the things in this game because, as I said already I just wasn’t enjoying the process. And thank f you’re not enjoying be the process I’m after 70 hours then I don’t see any reason to beat myself up, forcing myself to finish the game just to say that I did.

Thanks for all the help along the way! It was worth the time and I’m glad I went back to it. Can’t see myself ever playing it again but at least I know what it’s all about and I can safely say that it’s just not for me.

Maybe it’s time to finally revisit FF 1-5

 

[NahaNago]

My feeling on ff13 from back then was that it was a great jrpg but a terrible final fantasy game.

Squareenix went from the corridors of 13 to the empty open world and towns of 15( at least what I've played of 15).

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Damn Kev Kev couldn't hack FF XIII and I just knew what I was getting myself into replaying it.

Game has serious flaws, early game narrative feels like a first draft. Snow is an awful character, Vanille narrates for NO FUCKING REASON, it's not like Tidus in FF X like he's catching us up to speed or internal monologues like Squall has. Late game it gets better and irons out the problems but the back half of the game can't help salvage the beginning. The best character in the game is Sazh, he's a man who is caught in the middle of all this shit and has to deal with a lot going on in the background.

Music has a few notable themes I really like but otherwise I don't care for the OST that much. It isn't as memorable as people like to shill, I think the XIII-2 OST from what I've heard is better.

Battle system is auto pilot and the Crysatrium system is really basic but late game once again the battle system does shine and you can break out the mold doing the Cie'th Missions. Got the Growth Egg last night with Vanille spamming Death. It was fire.

I could probably go for the Platinum, I'm on Chapter XIII right now about to fight Orphan and I've maxed out everyone's mandatory roles the gave gives you and with the Growth Egg grinding won't be a thing anymore.

Character models and CG honestly... If this game dropped today it'd still look good and I'm playing it on PS3. Fuck knows what the amped up Gamepass or PC version looks like.

I've had moderate enjoyment with it but it does have problems. The game is a good history lesson, I'm less brutal on it than I was because at the time of release everyone assumed it was an example of the new standard for Final Fantasy moving forward. But that isn't the case, it had a bit of troubled history between Square making a whole new engine, only being able to focus on one game at a time coming through the pipeline, Toriyama not being as hands on with the direction of the game through the cutscenes and his notes being misinterpreted, the localisation completely getting things wrong or making characters say different things.

I'm partially sympathetic towards it but I still can't give it a pass. I'm feeling a 6 overall. I'd rate it higher than FF X but only because the side quests are a lot more fun and actually worth doing.

 

[Kev Kev]

Damn Kev Kev couldn't hack FF XIII

lol wtf? thanks bud appreciate the dig

i could hack it, its a pretty easy game after all. i just wasnt having fun anymore and thats the whole fucking point lol

 

[Werewolf Jones]

lol wtf? thanks bud appreciate the dig

i could hack it, its a pretty easy game after all. i just wasnt having fun anymore and thats the whole fucking point lol

It wasn't a diss boss. You REALLY gotta have patience to play it and you gave it a go. Don't blame you for it.

 

[Kev Kev]

It wasn't a diss boss. You REALLY gotta have patience to play it and you gave it a go. Don't blame you for it.

now that i can agree with.

unfortunately for me my patience ran thin somewhere around chapter 7 or 8. i just couldn't take the never ending fighting and running anymore. by the time i got to gran pulse, i was already over it. from there i just tried to got through the motions of the game to the end, but id stopped having fun many hours before. so beating the game was utterly meaningless at that point, for me.

im glad i tried tho. at least now i can genuinely say i played the game, and i genuinely did not care for it.

now, square, bring those 1-6 pixel remasters to consoles you swine!

 

[YukiOnna]

FFXIII LTTP

Chapters 11, 12 and 13 (Final)

Welp, I made it about halfway through chapter 13 and I’m just done. I can’t take it anymore and after looking up the rest of the chapter on a YouTube video, I’m glad I quit because it was just battle after battle after battle and it doesn’t look fun or appealing to me at all. I uninstalled it and I honestly feel relieved it’s over. I just wasn’t having fun anymore and the flavor of FFXIII just isn’t for me.

I’m not going to shit all over the game because I actually think it’s a decent game. But for whatever reason it just never clicked with me. I feel the same as I did in my updates, not much has changed, so if you want to see specifics about what I liked and didn’t like about the experience just read through those.

Overall I just found it to be monotonous and borderline on boring. The first half of the game just felt like run, fight, run, fight, menu maintenance, rinse and repeat. Gran pulse was amazing, but it still lacked hidden stuff, towns, side quests (the marks were fun tho!) and other things that make a FF feel like FF. It was unfortunately too little too late, and short lived, as the sections after that just went right back to run, fight, run, etc. I will say the maps and level design were way less linear and way better in chapter 12 and 13. So that kept me going along, but it just wasn’t enough for me to commit even one more minute, bc I just wasn’t having fun anymore, and I don’t think I had that much fun in the game at all tbh. Gran pulse was the breath of fresh air the game needed, but it needed so much more of it throughout. And it needed some god damn towns and NPCs and hidden stuff and… well you get the idea.

The battle was difficult to understand at first but I figured it out, and there was a sweet spot somewhere before grab pulse where I was really enjoying. But from Gran Pulse onward the fights just got more and more tedious. Every fight in Chapter 23 felt like a boss fight. I’d be fully buffed out, fighting against enemies who I debuffer as much as possible, and even then every fight just crawled along. It’s not even that I couldn’t beat the enemies, I could! I was just bored and almost angry at how much I was actively not enjoying the process. I would literally be sitting there with one arm over my head, and the other just pressing the A button over and over and over. I just couldn’t take it anymore because I simply was not enjoying anything about the game at that point.

I stopped caring about the story and the characters somewhere around chapter 12, but I will say that I think this is the best Square has done at really telling a well explained, easy to digest and interesting story. And the characters were really great. I felt that I liked all of them for their own reasons by the end of the game. I’m happy to have experienced an FF where I actually understand every little thing about what’s going on in the game world and the interactions between all the ally’s and enemies. The reading really helped a lot and I seriously welcome that in future FFs. Good job on that square.

FFXIII is an okay game. It doesn’t do anything really bad or wrong, but it doesn’t anything great imo. If you really like the battle system in this game, then I imagine you’re going to love it. But if you’re looking for an adventure and freedom to explore the world and do side quests, mini games, find hidden areas, find new towns with new NPCs and extra stuff to do, then you’re going to be very disappointed. Apparently there are chocobos in the game but I explored pretty much every area I could and never found one so Oh well, I just didn’t care much to find all the things in this game because, as I said already I just wasn’t enjoying the process. And thank f you’re not enjoying be the process I’m after 70 hours then I don’t see any reason to beat myself up, forcing myself to finish the game just to say that I did.

Thanks for all the help along the way! It was worth the time and I’m glad I went back to it. Can’t see myself ever playing it again but at least I know what it’s all about and I can safely say that it’s just not for me.

Maybe it’s time to finally revisit FF 1-5

Final chapter is really rough, lol. I also fell asleep playing on the Lindblum Chapter lmao.

 

[plushyp]

now that i can agree with.

unfortunately for me my patience ran thin somewhere around chapter 7 or 8. i just couldn't take the never ending fighting and running anymore. by the time i got to gran pulse, i was already over it. from there i just tried to got through the motions of the game to the end, but id stopped having fun many hours before. so beating the game was utterly meaningless at that point, for me.

im glad i tried tho. at least now i can genuinely say i played the game, and i genuinely did not care for it.

now, square, bring those 1-6 pixel remasters to consoles you swine!

No shame in giving up, I haven't played the game but my friend echoed similar sentiments such as yours and he got fed up with endless fighting as well.

 

[YukiOnna]

Think that was the biggest difference between ffxiii and its sequels. Lot more to do that broke up the battles and the pace of the sequel made sure it didnt overstay its welcome, but had a lot of replayability.

 

[Cutty Flam]

Kev Kev which one do you think you'll play next?

 

[Kev Kev]

Kev Kev which one do you think you'll play next?

well i actually wont be playing 1-5 until those pixel remasters come to consoles. but ill probably play 5 first, since i hear thats a good one. then ill possibly go to 4, and then 1-3.

might play through XV again, i only beat that once and theres a ton of stuff i never completed

 

[GeekyDad]

well i actually wont be playing 1-5 until those pixel remasters come to consoles. but ill probably play 5 first, since i hear thats a good one. then ill possibly go to 4, and then 1-3.

might play through XV again, i only beat that once and theres a ton of stuff i never completed

Never been a huge fan of the ATB, so it'll probably be 1-3 for me.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Still getting the Plat on XIII. Takes effort god damn.

Also played FF VII INTERmission, I HATED 30 hours in Midgar but liked the Yuffie DLC a lot. Am I the only dude who felt this way?

 

[DGrayson]

well i actually wont be playing 1-5 until those pixel remasters come to consoles. but ill probably play 5 first, since i hear thats a good one. then ill possibly go to 4, and then 1-3.

might play through XV again, i only beat that once and theres a ton of stuff i never completed

FF5 was my first FF. Great game!

 

[DelireMan7]

So I am done with my replay of Final Fantasy X. 79 hours of pure enjoyment. This game is phenomenal.

I love Spira, the entire cast of characters, the battle system, the music, the blitzball...

The battle system is the best of the serie for me (from what I have play). A true turn based with a lot of flexibility since you can change characters and gear during battle.

So I decided to stay in Spira and go for X-2. I play it only once back in the days (89 hours save file) but I really don't remember a lot from it.

I played a bit more than hour yesterday... The gap in tone is pretty crazy between the 2 games. I guess it was to show how the world changed after X but it's still rough to see.
Then you're throw directly in a battle without much explanation... Then after it's all about the silly Leblanc & co... I'll be honest, the first mission was a pain.

I am not a huge fan of the battle system. I always found the ATB system "stressful" and this one is like ATB on steroïd. Everything go fast and it's difficult to analyze everything that is going on and make strategic decision.
I don't like "real time menu based" combat. Give me turn based or real time, not a mix of both.

However, I like the costume system and abilities system (you choose which one you want to learn). I am also digging the accessories system that gives you resistance and unlock some spell in any costume.

Another complaint is how the game is overwhelming at first. You have directly access to the ship and all the location of the previous game. I can't decide where I want to go because I want to revisit everything to see how the world changed after we defeated Sin.
Same with the battle/progression mechanics : when you open the menu the first time you have access to everything (dress sphere, accessories, competence,...) It was a bit too much for me. I would have prefer to be progressively introduce to each stuff.

So a rough start for X-2 but I'll continue. I am intrigued by the plot with the sphere (I really can't remember where the story is going with it).

 

[GeekyDad]

...I don't like "real time menu based" combat. Give me turn based or real time, not a mix of both.

...

Pretty much my feelings as well. But glad you enjoyed it.

 

[DelireMan7]

Pretty much my feelings as well. But glad you enjoyed it.

I can't say I enjoyed the battle system so far. Pretty much the opposite xD.
I curious to see how it works in difficult boss battle. Till now, it feels like I could just smash X to attack mindlessly it (with some healing here and there) and it would have worked.
But I dig the costume system with different abilities.

 

[GeekyDad]

I can't say I enjoyed the battle system so far. Pretty much the opposite xD.
I curious to see how it works in difficult boss battle. Till now, it feels like I could just smash X to attack mindlessly it (with some healing here and there) and it would have worked.
But I dig the costume system with different abilities.

Honestly, the DS FFIII is still my favorite FF (main series) game. Love the chibi characters, battle system, not too much overdrawn drama. It's just a good ole-fashioned RPG. But it is challenging, requiring quite a bit of grinding, and as I recall, far too many random encounters. Adorable, though.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Got the Plat on XIII and started XIII-2.

A lot more variety in OST and choice of what do and I like Noel and Caius but it feels off somehow.

 

[Kev Kev]

So I am done with my replay of Final Fantasy X. 79 hours of pure enjoyment. This game is phenomenal.

I love Spira, the entire cast of characters, the battle system, the music, the blitzball...

The battle system is the best of the serie for me (from what I have play). A true turn based with a lot of flexibility since you can change characters and gear during battle.

So I decided to stay in Spira and go for X-2. I play it only once back in the days (89 hours save file) but I really don't remember a lot from it.

I played a bit more than hour yesterday... The gap in tone is pretty crazy between the 2 games. I guess it was to show how the world changed after X but it's still rough to see.
Then you're throw directly in a battle without much explanation... Then after it's all about the silly Leblanc & co... I'll be honest, the first mission was a pain.

I am not a huge fan of the battle system. I always found the ATB system "stressful" and this one is like ATB on steroïd. Everything go fast and it's difficult to analyze everything that is going on and make strategic decision.
I don't like "real time menu based" combat. Give me turn based or real time, not a mix of both.

However, I like the costume system and abilities system (you choose which one you want to learn). I am also digging the accessories system that gives you resistance and unlock some spell in any costume.

Another complaint is how the game is overwhelming at first. You have directly access to the ship and all the location of the previous game. I can't decide where I want to go because I want to revisit everything to see how the world changed after we defeated Sin.
Same with the battle/progression mechanics : when you open the menu the first time you have access to everything (dress sphere, accessories, competence,...) It was a bit too much for me. I would have prefer to be progressively introduce to each stuff.

So a rough start for X-2 but I'll continue. I am intrigued by the plot with the sphere (I really can't remember where the story is going with it).

Got the Plat on XIII and started XIII-2.

A lot more variety in OST and choice of what do and I like Noel and Caius but it feels off somehow.

im looking forward to trying both of these games out in the future. i played a lot of x-2 back in the day but just couldnt bring myself to finish it lol. i dont even remember caring for the battle system that much, just cringing at how corny everything was. but i have noticed that my taste in everything has changed as i get older, so who knows, maybe ill find something that pulls me in.

and yes the battle system in X is one of the best, if not THE best in the series.

XIII-2 i have never played and am really looking forward to seeing what that's like one day. i didnt care for XIII too much, but i did make it all the way to the end of that game at least. but i was so fed up with it i quit before the final boss (i did a LTTP in this thread a few pages back). that being said i did enjoy the story quite a bit, in fact i think its the best laid out story in FF in terms of digestibility and organization. so ill at least be looking forward to more of that, and hopefully they change up the game play enough so it isnt run-fight-run-fight-run

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Started Heavensward. This is peak ff right here. Loving it

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Almost wrapped up another FFXV playthrough. Gotten as close to 100% as I ever have this time around. Played all the DLCs at the proper storyline junctures and watched Brotherhood/Kingsglaive/Episode Ardyn Prologue, along with reading the intro script/novella. Currently playing Episode Ardyn and have a save literally right before the final battle in the main game. Gonna try and clear the Menace Dungeons and Pitioss in post game for the first time afterward, and then hunt down Dawn of the Future for some post game closure.

Overall, my opinion of this game/universe goes up a touch every time I replay it.

 

[Tschumi]

Bless me brethren for I have sinned.

I have tried to play FFVII, X, XII, XIIZA, XIII, XIII-2 and XIIILR, and XV, and I've never gotten into them.

The closest I have got to is FF12 ZA.

I've triple dipped in this game, I believe. PC, PS4 Pro and now Switch.

I really thought I got into it with Switch. I have really enjoyed it on the smaller screen, somehow. I've got about as far as I had got in my previous longest play; just past the sandsea segments. First time I did it, I was not really paying attention and when I took a look at the temple and noticed i had no potions left I ran back to whatsitcalled, Dalmasca, then forgot what i was supposed to do next.

This time however I've gone into the temple (I learned to have a healer, rather than relying solely on potions, haha took me long enough ey), but even though i've deliberatly ground on the bridges in the lhusu mines, and I fully explored the sandsea zones and killed every mob i could find, my toons are all around 15-17... and google tells me i aught to be level 20 to take on the demon walls.

i mean, i don't totally think so, i've tried them once with zero idea what i'm supposed to do and i was dealing decent damage, and yeah i reckon tossing up reflection and beserker on vossler might make a bigger difference, but shit... only MMOs should require grinding, imo.

I love FF12, I think it's a work of art, I love every inch of what I've played, but man, my bubble is ever so slightly deflated with this knowledge that I need to grind about 5x longer than I have been grinding to keep up with the story.

Totally open to suggestions That's why I shared my story here <3

 

[Werewolf Jones]

I can't speak on the game design aspect of XII because I haven't played it since I was 16 but the story is literally Episode IV of Star Wars.

If you liked that then maybe just play Yasuomi Matsuno games? Instead of playing FF. Although Hiroyuki Ito had a hand in salvaging XII so maybe look into his new game Dungeon Encounters.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Bless me brethren for I have sinned.

I have tried to play FFVII, X, XII, XIIZA, XIII, XIII-2 and XIIILR, and XV, and I've never gotten into them.

The closest I have got to is FF12 ZA.

I've triple dipped in this game, I believe. PC, PS4 Pro and now Switch.

I really thought I got into it with Switch. I have really enjoyed it on the smaller screen, somehow. I've got about as far as I had got in my previous longest play; just past the sandsea segments. First time I did it, I was not really paying attention and when I took a look at the temple and noticed i had no potions left I ran back to whatsitcalled, Dalmasca, then forgot what i was supposed to do next.

This time however I've gone into the temple (I learned to have a healer, rather than relying solely on potions, haha took me long enough ey), but even though i've deliberatly ground on the bridges in the lhusu mines, and I fully explored the sandsea zones and killed every mob i could find, my toons are all around 15-17... and google tells me i aught to be level 20 to take on the demon walls.

i mean, i don't totally think so, i've tried them once with zero idea what i'm supposed to do and i was dealing decent damage, and yeah i reckon tossing up reflection and beserker on vossler might make a bigger difference, but shit... only MMOs should require grinding, imo.

I love FF12, I think it's a work of art, I love every inch of what I've played, but man, my bubble is ever so slightly deflated with this knowledge that I need to grind about 5x longer than I have been grinding to keep up with the story.

Totally open to suggestions That's why I shared my story here <3

If you play XV without the notion of a big epic, twisting storyline in store for you (the second half is more linear, but people got disappointed that the storyline was basically an afterthought for the first half of the game) then I'd say FFXV is pretty close to the actual *feeling* of XII. Not exactly the same, but....

Basically, do the main quests as you happen upon them incidentally, but take on as many sidequests as you can, walk places, discover dungeons, find treasure, take on the Mark Hunting (favorite part of XII, it operates basically the same in XV) and just have fun in the world. The point of no return (though you can actually come back to the open world later) is when you get to the lighthouse (speaking vaguely for spoilers sake)

But I had a FANTASTIC time with XV this last playthrough (gonna make a RTTP soon) playing it like it was just a road trip across a big open world. The plot will sometimes make it feel weird ignoring the urgency of the storyline, but it's really easy to get over that luedonarrtive dissonance. XV has hunts, sidequests, upgrades to transportation, minigames, chocobo raising/racing, fishing, photography, cooking, dungeons, bonus dungeons, super bosses, secret weapons, a skill tree, it's a REALLY full game that gets a bad reputation for it's troubled development and not matching up to what people cooked up in their brains over the ten year wait, but I'd seriously give it an honest go.

The opening is pretty slow and it's easy to lose a player's interest, but by chapter two or three you should have seen enough of the gameplay loop to understand it's rhythm.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Bless me brethren for I have sinned.

I have tried to play FFVII, X, XII, XIIZA, XIII, XIII-2 and XIIILR, and XV, and I've never gotten into them.

The closest I have got to is FF12 ZA.

I've triple dipped in this game, I believe. PC, PS4 Pro and now Switch.

I really thought I got into it with Switch. I have really enjoyed it on the smaller screen, somehow. I've got about as far as I had got in my previous longest play; just past the sandsea segments. First time I did it, I was not really paying attention and when I took a look at the temple and noticed i had no potions left I ran back to whatsitcalled, Dalmasca, then forgot what i was supposed to do next.

This time however I've gone into the temple (I learned to have a healer, rather than relying solely on potions, haha took me long enough ey), but even though i've deliberatly ground on the bridges in the lhusu mines, and I fully explored the sandsea zones and killed every mob i could find, my toons are all around 15-17... and google tells me i aught to be level 20 to take on the demon walls.

i mean, i don't totally think so, i've tried them once with zero idea what i'm supposed to do and i was dealing decent damage, and yeah i reckon tossing up reflection and beserker on vossler might make a bigger difference, but shit... only MMOs should require grinding, imo.

I love FF12, I think it's a work of art, I love every inch of what I've played, but man, my bubble is ever so slightly deflated with this knowledge that I need to grind about 5x longer than I have been grinding to keep up with the story.

Totally open to suggestions That's why I shared my story here <3

Also, lol double posting, but if you want to stick with XII, do some hunts in Rabanastre, just traveling the Estersand and Westersand to reach the marks should net you some levels. Furthermore, if you've picked up a few Quickenings from the License Board, it's entirely possible to beat the mandatory Demon Wall battle by spamming a couple of Quickening chains. You have to get GOOD numbers, like preferably close to 20, but that's how my maiden playthrough went. The Demon Wall is, logically enough, sort of a Wall for progress. Most other mobs in the dungeon you should be able to fight off in small enough groups and get assloads of EXP, it's just getting past that boss.

 

[Tschumi]

If you play XV without the notion of a big epic, twisting storyline in store for you (the second half is more linear, but people got disappointed that the storyline was basically an afterthought for the first half of the game) then I'd say FFXV is pretty close to the actual *feeling* of XII. Not exactly the same, but....

Basically, do the main quests as you happen upon them incidentally, but take on as many sidequests as you can, walk places, discover dungeons, find treasure, take on the Mark Hunting (favorite part of XII, it operates basically the same in XV) and just have fun in the world. The point of no return (though you can actually come back to the open world later) is when you get to the lighthouse (speaking vaguely for spoilers sake)

But I had a FANTASTIC time with XV this last playthrough (gonna make a RTTP soon) playing it like it was just a road trip across a big open world. The plot will sometimes make it feel weird ignoring the urgency of the storyline, but it's really easy to get over that luedonarrtive dissonance. XV has hunts, sidequests, upgrades to transportation, minigames, chocobo raising/racing, fishing, photography, cooking, dungeons, bonus dungeons, super bosses, secret weapons, a skill tree, it's a REALLY full game that gets a bad reputation for it's troubled development and not matching up to what people cooked up in their brains over the ten year wait, but I'd seriously give it an honest go.

The opening is pretty slow and it's easy to lose a player's interest, but by chapter two or three you should have seen enough of the gameplay loop to understand it's rhythm.

I appreciate your write-ups hugely

I'm really interested in 15. I do prefer this kind of world to, for example, what was offered up the little bits of XIII-2, etc, that I played. I also like the characters, the visual style, the buddy dynamic etc... I am seriously turned off by driving though, I just wanna drive that car and I've yet to figure out how to do it lol...

I haven't played enough to get into the story, I think the furthest I got was the first car ride you.,.. direct after the starting gas station. Actually no I think I made it to the first 'town' but I went exploring inthe surrounding hills and never really found my way back to progressing

It's defintely one I might try. I was interesteed in the Switch version of the game, but I saw that it wasn't just a downgraded full game but rather something else, and wasn't as interested. Also think the way they cartoonified the characters was pretty bad.

The FF games that get good reputations, for me, are a bit limited. Yeah like I said I hugely prefer 12 to 10, for example.

Also, lol double posting, but if you want to stick with XII, do some hunts in Rabanastre, just traveling the Estersand and Westersand to reach the marks should net you some levels. Furthermore, if you've picked up a few Quickenings from the License Board, it's entirely possible to beat the mandatory Demon Wall battle by spamming a couple of Quickening chains. You have to get GOOD numbers, like preferably close to 20, but that's how my maiden playthrough went. The Demon Wall is, logically enough, sort of a Wall for progress. Most other mobs in the dungeon you should be able to fight off in small enough groups and get assloads of EXP, it's just getting past that boss.

I have no idea how to use quickening, there's a timer right? and i eventually started trying to, i dunno, press x to get vaan to do it, then y or something to send it back to basch, then one more time to vaan and that fucked up Garuda but good, but it was all guess work... And like I don't know what I need to do while that timer's running down - I tried spamming one button or another but that didn't seem to do anything... yeah i missed the tutorial on how to get that to work, i think

So you're saying if I do all the side content, hunts and stuff, I should hit lvl 20 etc without having to do excessive grinding? That my grinding is just standing in for those missions? That probably makes me feel a bit better about putting more time into it...

 

[TheInfamousKira]

I appreciate your write-ups hugely

I'm really interested in 15. I do prefer this kind of world to, for example, what was offered up the little bits of XIII-2, etc, that I played. I also like the characters, the visual style, the buddy dynamic etc... I am seriously turned off by driving though, I just wanna drive that car and I've yet to figure out how to do it lol...

I haven't played enough to get into the story, I think the furthest I got was the first car ride you.,.. direct after the starting gas station. Actually no I think I made it to the first 'town' but I went exploring inthe surrounding hills and never really found my way back to progressing

It's defintely one I might try. I was interesteed in the Switch version of the game, but I saw that it wasn't just a downgraded full game but rather something else, and wasn't as interested. Also think the way they cartoonified the characters was pretty bad.

The FF games that get good reputations, for me, are a bit limited. Yeah like I said I hugely prefer 12 to 10, for example.


I have no idea how to use quickening, there's a timer right? and i eventually started trying to, i dunno, press x to get vaan to do it, then y or something to send it back to basch, then one more time to vaan and that fucked up Garuda but good, but it was all guess work... And like I don't know what I need to do while that timer's running down - I tried spamming one button or another but that didn't seem to do anything... yeah i missed the tutorial on how to get that to work, i think

So you're saying if I do all the side content, hunts and stuff, I should hit lvl 20 etc without having to do excessive grinding? That my grinding is just standing in for those missions? That probably makes me feel a bit better about putting more time into it...

For the Quickenings, it's kind of confusing at first, but basically, you choose the first Quickening to start the chain, and while it's being performed, you'll see your party listed in the corner, with one of their attacks listed, for example

Basch: Ruin Impendent
Vaan: Red Spiral
Fran: Whip Kick

Or whatever. Now, their names will either be grayed out, or they'll have a corresponding button icon beside them, like

Whip Kick: O

In which case, you'd press circle to perform the next attack and continue the chain. If all the names are grayed out, you have to press another button (I think it's one of the shoulder buttons, I can't remember) to shuffle your Quickening "deck,"

From here, the names will either be all A. grayed out again, warranting another shuffle

B. You'll have the option to use another Quickening, or

C. You'll see something like

Basch: Mist Charge: O

In which case you'll press that button to refill that party member's Quickening gauge and then perform the attack. I may be explaining it in a way that's super convoluted, but tl;dr:

Press buttons on screen to do attacks. If there's no buttons on screen, shuffle until they are.

Quickenings aren't something to rely too heavily upon, by the endgame you'll be powerful enough that you can outclass the damage of a Quickening chain with regular attacks in half the time, but in the beginning of the game, they can kind of be a crutch if you find yourself in over your head.

 

[Tschumi]

For the Quickenings, it's kind of confusing at first, but basically, you choose the first Quickening to start the chain, and while it's being performed, you'll see your party listed in the corner, with one of their attacks listed, for example

Basch: Ruin Impendent
Vaan: Red Spiral
Fran: Whip Kick

Or whatever. Now, their names will either be grayed out, or they'll have a corresponding button icon beside them, like

Whip Kick: O

In which case, you'd press circle to perform the next attack and continue the chain. If all the names are grayed out, you have to press another button (I think it's one of the shoulder buttons, I can't remember) to shuffle your Quickening "deck,"

From here, the names will either be all A. grayed out again, warranting another shuffle

B. You'll have the option to use another Quickening, or

C. You'll see something like

Basch: Mist Charge: O

In which case you'll press that button to refill that party member's Quickening gauge and then perform the attack. I may be explaining it in a way that's super convoluted, but tl;dr:

Press buttons on screen to do attacks. If there's no buttons on screen, shuffle until they are.

Quickenings aren't something to rely too heavily upon, by the endgame you'll be powerful enough that you can outclass the damage of a Quickening chain with regular attacks in half the time, but in the beginning of the game, they can kind of be a crutch if you find yourself in over your head.

Thanks bro <3

I guess I'll really just have to give it more tries, next time i cbf going up against those demon walls.. i hear you can get a special sword by beating both so I'm doing that, but it's definitely a barrier to my continued devotion at the moment

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Thanks bro <3

I guess I'll really just have to give it more tries, next time i cbf going up against those demon walls.. i hear you can get a special sword by beating both so I'm doing that, but it's definitely a barrier to my continued devotion at the moment

The way I see it, the challenge is part of the reward. This game has A LOT of wandering around, exploring places and fighting. You'll get to a point where the Demon Wall is laughable, but there'll always be something more difficult to butt your head against. XII is great.

 

[Sub_Level]

New CG model for Rinoa



She uh got upgraded a little.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

New CG model for Rinoa



She uh got upgraded a little.

That poor dog (isn't me)

 

[Irobot82]

I am currently replaying FFX on steam. I have the Special K mod installed. I wish doing that didn't disable achievements.

Anyhow. I love this game. It's burned into my soul. I still remember playing the demo on the PS2 like 100 times.

I remember I never did unlock everyone ultimate weapons and all that. This time my goal is to crush the end game.

 

[NahaNago]

I am currently replaying FFX on steam. I have the Special K mod installed. I wish doing that didn't disable achievements.

Anyhow. I love this game. It's burned into my soul. I still remember playing the demo on the PS2 like 100 times.

I remember I never did unlock everyone ultimate weapons and all that. This time my goal is to crush the end game.

was the dodge a bunch of lightning strikes for a summon or an ultimate weapon cause I gave up on that one back then?

 

[Irobot82]

was the dodge a bunch of lightning strikes for a summon or an ultimate weapon cause I gave up on that one back then?

Lulu's Ultimate Weapon I believe. I could never do it either. Apparently there is a trick. Equip No Encounters weapon. Go south from the travel agency. There is a lightning rod with two little circles on the ground and a pit. If you run from the rod to the pit lightning always strike the pit. People say you can do it in about 20 minutes. One of the hardest things I think but I am going to do it this time. Takes 200 dodges...

 

[Andyliini]

I have been mixed on how the new Pixel Remasters look, but seeing Final Fantasy V in motion looks really good, definite imprivement over the SNES version. I really hope FFVI is the same quality, but that is a tall order.