Caught me off guard and now I can't stop laughing
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FINAL FANTASY Community Thread: XV Mainline Entries and Counting
- Thread starter Kagari
- Start date
Caught me off guard and now I can't stop laughing
HAHHAA, oh, I'm so sorry.
I was thinking of including that music in my post as well to show another example of electronic music working really well.
RAV/RAV/RAV can be useful during the process of staggering, not just once staggered (if you're trying to quickly power through the chain gauge and finish the enemy). Similarly, COM/RAV/RAV can be a good team during the stagger itself, depending on the enemy and the part of the combat cycle you're in, since the COM can lay out loads of damage (and provide stuff like the Launch ability).
Also, SAB/RAV/RAV is sometimes a reasonable alternative to COM/RAV/RAV, particularly during the process of building up the chain gauge, since you can set the enemy up to get well and truly screwed once stagger hits; both COM and SAB have the impact of slowing chain gauge drop, and the COM often won't be doing much damage during the chain gauge buildup anyway.
//==================
COM/MED/MED is an "emergency" team? That sounds more like a "chill out and relax" team, used for maintaining the chain gauge while you heal up.
True panic in FFXIII consists of SEN/MED/MED or even MED/MED/MED if you're living on the edge.
These are by Mitsuto Suzuki I believe, and they're a totally different breed in my opinion. His stuff is much more melodic and I don't remember hearing anything similar.
Yeah, I meant LR and FFXIII-2 in a general sense.
You could definitely see a progression from FFX (although that was still pretty traditional as Uematsu was the primary thing there) to FFXIII which stylistically retained and expanded on some of that flavor (Nakama calls it 'European' and I tend to agree) and then FFXIII-2 which was really experimental with all its vocal BGMs, and then LR which experimented in different ways while bringing other core material back to FFXIII.
Heck, even Lightning's Theme in LRFF shares a few similarities with To Zanarkand, despite being by different composers. (Hamauzu vs Uematsu)
While neither Uematsu nor Hamauzu are with Square Enix anymore, I do believe that that style of music isn't going away. It's almost like a coherent, identifiable sub-genre, if you will, in what defines Final Fantasy music.
You could definitely see a progression from FFX (although that was still pretty traditional as Uematsu was the primary thing there) to FFXIII which stylistically retained and expanded on some of that flavor (Nakama calls it 'European' and I tend to agree) and then FFXIII-2 which was really experimental with all its vocal BGMs, and then LR which experimented in different ways while bringing other core material back to FFXIII.
Heck, even Lightning's Theme in LRFF shares a few similarities with To Zanarkand, despite being by different composers. (Hamauzu vs Uematsu)
While neither Uematsu nor Hamauzu are with Square Enix anymore, I do believe that that style of music isn't going away. It's almost like a coherent, identifiable sub-genre, if you will, in what defines Final Fantasy music.
With Shimomura handing the next entry, I just hope it doesn't become generic with the inevitable sequels and FFXIV expansions. I just don't see similar music on the horizon for FF. I just really enjoyed the music from the last generation and would love to hear more of it.
Shimomura writes the best final boss music though. (KH 358/2 spoilers)
The same way FFXII was a welcome orchestral break for the series, I'm highly anticipating FFXV, although I suspect it'll be a lot more than just that.
edit: Derp, actually meant to link this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttZ7WKNroYE but the Memoria arrangement is next-level as well.
Thank you for your suggestions HTupolev, and YoungBlade. I have made the following adjustments:
Staggering: Commando, Ravager, Ravager.
Staggered: Saboteur, Ravager, Ravager.
Emergency: Synergist, Medic, Medic.
Please let me know if there are any further adjustments needed. Thanks again for your help.
Staggering: Commando, Ravager, Ravager.
Staggered: Saboteur, Ravager, Ravager.
Emergency: Synergist, Medic, Medic.
Please let me know if there are any further adjustments needed. Thanks again for your help.
For the most part the L'Cie in Type-0 seem to work the same way. They have all have a Focus in service to their Fal'Cie, the Four Crystals, and completion of these Foci results in Crystal Stasis, whereas failure to complete them results in turning into a Cie'th.
The major differences, though are that 1) It would appear that the Fal'Cie are much more direct with the Focus. No guess work necessary. 2) Even if they're not, they grant the L'Cie actual immortality to accomplish the task. 3) They come in two flavors: Type-A and Type-B or rather Combat and Support. 4) The longer one is a L'Cie the less human one becomes as emotions and memories fade away. However, at the same time L'Cie can be exempted from the Fal'Cie meddling with memories of the dead.
Type-0 is also interesting in that it includes a nonhuman L'Cie in the Soryu Dragon. Also, all of the L'Cie in the game, regardless of which Crystal they serve, are Pulse L'Cie.
Makoto Yuki
Banned
Yeah, I remember that thing. It looked pretty awesome actually. While on the topic Square Tech Demos, I really enjoyed the FFVIII PS2 tech demo. Also that FFVI tech demo was rad. Agni's Philosophy was aite.
They probably have none of the source material anymore. Which is a bummer. I mean Halo CE Anniversary was awesome. Recently the REmake "REmaster" is another game where I wonder if they kept the original data, or they are reverse engineering there own games to strip assets.
If I recall correctly they had to rebuild KH:FM from the ground-up and the results were pretty damn good.
StoppedInTracks
Member
FF13-3 has one of the best soundtracks in the whole series history.It is *criminally* underrated.
Ganon Dragmire
Member
I saw some enemies of the game, but what do the Cie'th look like?
Heh.
I know Lindsay is in there too. Also Etro getting a breif mention, plus her gate is seen.
Hell, all the deities could come back(in different form) for XV. We know Etro in in, and the game mentioned those who see the light of expiring souls. Which is this:
or this stuff:
The only one that might not come back is Bhuni (God) and we might never see Mwynn because of she died before Bhuni made everything.
Cieth are mentioned, but never seen. Since Lcie have no time limits the only way to become one is open rebellion. And since they lose memories and emotions so quickly, they rarely have cause to rebel.
Ganon Dragmire
Member
That concept was explored in LR, and not just with Lightning.
Don't use Auto Battle.
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
Completely different situation:
She wasn't a L'cie, she was being groomed to be the next "Goddess of Death". Apparently beings like what Lightning was becoming and what Etro was can't feel emotions. Snow was a L'cie in LR yet was angsting like crazy and the entire party in XIII never suffered from lacking emotions and memory loss.
Personally, it was poorly handled and outright contradictory to what was stated in XIII. The XIII-2 Novella where this was revealed about Etro also couldn't make up its damn mind about whether she was emotionless, just didn't understand emotions, or just didn't have human emotions. It switched between the three constantly, sometimes in the same damn sentences. Same thing happened with Lightning: *Basically sobbing after meeting Serah* "I felt nothing" *Going into hysterics with Snow* "I felt nothing".
Personally, it was poorly handled and outright contradictory to what was stated in XIII. The XIII-2 Novella where this was revealed about Etro also couldn't make up its damn mind about whether she was emotionless, just didn't understand emotions, or just didn't have human emotions. It switched between the three constantly, sometimes in the same damn sentences. Same thing happened with Lightning: *Basically sobbing after meeting Serah* "I felt nothing" *Going into hysterics with Snow* "I felt nothing".
I will never understand women.
Yeah, sure. When Shimomura is on, she's on this completely ethereal level that's completely different from Mitsuda, Uematsu, and Hamauzu. She's also by far the least consistent, though, as exemplified by the music here.
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
Edit: Eh, the reference I made was probably too far out there.
Ganon Dragmire
Member
That I know, but I was referring to the fact
that God wanted to destroy the souls of the dead so ones that remained to not remember them, being purified without the pain of the past.
Not too sure what your problem with the music there is. Seems more of a stylistic preference than anything. A -lot- of her music uses marimba, pizzicato and woodwind lines that way. Implementation might leave a little to be desired (there's a objectively noticeable drop in sample usage from KH1->KH2) but that's more on the shoulders of her synth jockey than the composition itself.
I also may be closer to this than the average person about KH2.5 specifically so maybe I'm biased
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
Shimomura wrote SMRPG: Legend of the Seven Star's ost... your arguments are invalid!
Not really. Haven't actually heard much by her.
Ganon Dragmire
Member
That's an understatement since he killed his mom and everything else he did.
And reading Tracer of Memories, especially the Hope parts, adds to dickery.
And he's
a perv(in the Jp version of LR)
I do love
the fights I had with him
Though that adds to the SE is anti-religion bs.haha
Street Fighter 2? Guile's Theme Goes With Everything? D:
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
I'll look it up
I did love SMRPG's OST though. And what I've heard from KH is pretty good. Just haven't heard enough to make a truly informed opinion on her.
Meccanical
Member
Ganon Dragmire
Member
Lightning battle cry [LR SPOILER]
"God is Dead!"
A compassionate Deity sounds nice. Hopefully not as bad as Etro or even Cosmos. haha
Random Painted HIghway
Member
How is The After Years IOS/Android compared to Wiiware? I have it on wiiware but was wondering if I should go for it on my ipad instead (going on a week conference soon and want some late night entertainment). I preferred the snes ff4 to the ds ff4 stylistically but it isn't a deal breaker.
Well, it's like this, TYPE-0 SPOILERS
Doctor Arecia Al-Rashi, whom the children of Class Zero refer to as Mother (since she raised them), is in fact a Pulse Fal'Cie. The other Fal'Cie in Type-0, the Four Crystals, are beholden to her. There's apparently a Lindzei Fal'Cie who isn't ever seen, and the Lulusanth Judge is a Lindzei L'Cie (being the L'Cie Arbiter).
So technically, the Gods, Pulse and Lindzei, aren't in the game at all. But inasmuch as Arecia is the reigning figure in the game, she's pretty damn compassionate. You could argue she's harsh since she has a part in keeping the kids trapped in the Endless Cycle, but she's stuck doing that on orders and in an attempt to prevent her counterpart from doing something worse.
But she's a good deity because when her subordinates confront her about all this, she takes pity on the entire world and sets them free. As opposed to Cosmos, who did no such thing.
So technically, the Gods, Pulse and Lindzei, aren't in the game at all. But inasmuch as Arecia is the reigning figure in the game, she's pretty damn compassionate. You could argue she's harsh since she has a part in keeping the kids trapped in the Endless Cycle, but she's stuck doing that on orders and in an attempt to prevent her counterpart from doing something worse.
But she's a good deity because when her subordinates confront her about all this, she takes pity on the entire world and sets them free. As opposed to Cosmos, who did no such thing.
Ganon Dragmire
Member
thanks for the write up, but I can't read that. sorry
despite spoiling quite a bit of type-0 already, I still want to be surprised.
So the non spoily version is the resident deity does a really nice thing.
Ganon Dragmire
Member
gottcha
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
Just want to say, great write up on Type 0, Corvo.
Can you blame her, lol?
The Fal'cie are ass hats who run off of troll logic when it comes to giving out focuses and are just plain dicks when it comes to dealing with Humans.
Etro is mind boggling in regards to her incompetence. And she's the closest to a good deity in the XIII universe even though she
Pulse and Lidenzi are more than willing to have all of humanity sacrificed to get at Etro.
Bhunivelze is a nigh "lulz, I R EVILZ" level of a villain
Crap, even when she's ripped from her own universe she still has to deal with incompetent ass hat deities in the form of Cosmos.
Can you blame her, lol?
The Fal'cie are ass hats who run off of troll logic when it comes to giving out focuses and are just plain dicks when it comes to dealing with Humans.
Etro is mind boggling in regards to her incompetence. And she's the closest to a good deity in the XIII universe even though she
mind fucks Lightning and causes unimaginable death and suffering due to her idiocy
Pulse and Lidenzi are more than willing to have all of humanity sacrificed to get at Etro.
Bhunivelze is a nigh "lulz, I R EVILZ" level of a villain
he tortures Hope to death and brings him back 13 times for a total of 169 years to create his "perfect vessel", kills his mother, spites Etro for his own mistake of making her look like his Mother and wants her dead as well, sees humans as servants and wants to wipe any and all emotions and memories from humanity so as to forever enslave them, holds Serah's soul hostage and discards it on a whim (which would have killed her if not for Lumina), does secret experiments creating absolute monstrosities in his spare time so he can find a "better servant race" than humans, and after finding out that Lightning stopped the "Soul Song" he is ready to just kill all of humanity... and that's just off the top of my head
Crap, even when she's ripped from her own universe she still has to deal with incompetent ass hat deities in the form of Cosmos.
Ganon Dragmire
Member
Never, she had the right idea.
"I will lead the dead...and drag you down into the Chaos"
ULTROS!
People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
I used these paradigms all throughout and it worked for me:
Lightning / Fang / Hope
COM / COM / RAV - Standard attacks
RAV / COM / RAV - For quick staggering
RAV / COM / MED - Healing mode
COM / COM / MED - Healing + attacking during stagger
SYN / SAB / MED - Buff/Debuff
any / any / any
Blood Diamonds
Banned
It's crazy how much I'm enjoying the FF XIII saga so far. I'm actually invested in these characters and what happened to them after FF XIII. There is some unforgivable shit they did tho like ignoring Hope's character development for his Eidolon battle and pretty much a lot of stuff from Chapter 11 onward in FF XIII.
I want to try it because I hear it's challenging (well, until you find out how to break it). But I'm waiting til it is 20 dollars or less.
I should note that I haven't finished it (got sidetracked by other things) yet, but:
It's tricky.
The media's response was completely predictable. It's an extremely weird product, and by supposed "AAA" standards, the budget was rather low for the design goals, so it's also a fairly sketchy product. Also, the global time system has an oppressive vibe when you first start the game.
That's not the same as me calling it bad, though.
The narrative is actually quite enjoyable if you're not bothered by its quirks and enjoy the extent to which it screws around and makes fun of itself in lieu of actual production values. The battle system seems pretty good, though it takes a little time to get used to its modified stagger setup and the way it gives visual feedback. The time system loses some of its edge as you go, and planning out your large-scale approach and executing it is a bit of an interesting something. If classical-AA-esque graphical sketchiness doesn't bother you, the visuals are clean and palatable, and the game can sometimes look pretty good. The soundtrack itself is damned phenomenal (although people do have some reasonable complaints about how it was implemented).
tl;dr It can be good, but you have to really engage with it, because it's not going to sell itself to you. And there's also a chance that it just won't click with you.
Dat non-overshipping.
badcrumble
Member
it's fine to use auto-battle
Ganon Dragmire
Member
It's a weird, funny, challenging, interesting, fun game. You'll be entertained. haha
(Don't let the clock scare you.)
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
My personal feelings:
Pros:
-The soundtrack is sublime.
-The battle system is an interesting hybrid. There is depth to the combat system if you really get to know it.
-I did like the feeling of exploration due to good atmosphere.
-The timer system was an interesting choice to apply to an RPG.
Cons:
-They had next to nothing new to say about the characters that we didn't already know. Especially with Lightning. In fact, most characters are boiled down to their simplest components.
-They, as they did from XIII to XIII-2, dropped quite a few things they were building up.
-There are points in the story where I swear that was the rough draft version of the script and they never bothered with any revisions. Several major plot points are rather inconsistent and the dialogue is pretty bad at times.
-There is a chasm like divide between the tone of many of the sidequests and the tone of the main story.
-The visuals are utterly inconsistent due to being rushed (talking early 2006 level textures). That wouldn't be a problem for me if it wasn't so inconsistent. Parts of the game look pretty great like the Cathedral in Luxerion... and then other parts right next to it has stretched textures that barely resemble what they are supposed to. So I guess my issue is more down to the fact that it looks extremely rushed.
-Heck, the game overall has an extreme lack of polish due to being rushed (the AI pathfinding is horrible, the framerate is pretty bad at times, the fucking cats in Luxerion that only have one sound clip that NEVER STOPS PLAYING, etc)
-The voice acting is a marked step down from XIII and XIII-2, especially Lightning for story reasons.
-While I liked the amount of exploration, the map system is pretty bad and is very lacking.
-I don't like how they handled staggering or guarding (too loose, should have been a L, R, etc. command and not a A, B, X, Y command since it eats up space from my command list since it is all but required enable to beat the game). The difficulty level also varies wildly at times due to the open world nature of the game. One moment I can easily take down a flan and then in the very same area a moment later a Chocobo Eater is punting my ass across the planet. Platforming also hasn't been improved from XIII-2, only there is more of it now. I also feel that only having 12 abilities at a time is too limiting. I have to set it up to compensate for not having an entire party with me, so generally I feel I can't experiment with the 100+ abilities since I have to make the most of my 12 (at least one of which will always be taken up by Guard).
-I don't like most of the costumes. They are too overdone, and I refuse to believe that a no nonsense character like Lightning would be wearing even half that stuff. XIII Guardian Corp uniform 4lyfe. From a gameplay standpoint I found that they were poorly balanced and that I found no use for probably 90% of them.
-Why, oh why, did they lock out gameplay mechanics from Easy mode when they heavily suggest you play easy mode your first time through? Seriously: Weapons, Shield, and Garb upgrading are not available on easy mode even though the game issues a written warning to play on easy the first time through.
-The timer system's actual execution was rather poor. Chronostasis utterly breaks it (you weren't originally supposed to have Chronostasis: they only added that as a band aid when play testers got too frustrated) and because you feel pressured first time through, most people naturally spam it. That causes you to have way too much extra time.
I can't say that I got no enjoyment out of the battle system and the overall game, but it was all overshadowed by the fact that this game is extremely rough around the edges due to being rushed as hell and due to the story being, in my opinion, horribly written. Then again, I didn't like XIII-2 (I liked XIII for what it was and what it tried to do... which isn't to say it always succeeded in what it tried to do), so this game wasn't exactly made for me. So just go in with an open mind. You might like it. It seems quite a few people did.
Makes the game a massive drag early on when things aren't very hectic. Even at hectic times, using the classes with clean menus (commando, medic, sentinel) is just way more fun if you're not autobattling.
Heck, there's literally nothing meaningful to do in the first two chapters if you're not timing battle finishes and manually placing area attacks.
IMO autobattle can get reasonable in the late game when some classes' menus get very large and when there's a lot to be paying attention to, but otherwise it's simply far more fun to play without it.
There are a lot of (subjectively legitimate, depending on the type of game you were expecting) complaints about the story and the ending, but I went in with the same mindset I did with X-2, even with their massively different mood/setting.
Truth be told, maybe it was also the fact that I'd been pretty much spoiled prior about the story and conclusion, and that I played (and platinumed) the game in Japanese to help boost along my rudimentary kanji reading, but I really was focused on the gameplay. For what it's worth I played it again in English just because. It's got its fair share of hilarious 'coincidences' and deus ex machina, but like I said, I wasn't expecting Shakespeare going in in the first place.
In many ways it's got this very subtle nostalgic factor in terms of the old Final Fantasy tropes. You have the whole stage show/performance trope. You have fireworks. Nova Chrysalia reminded me a lot of FF6's World of Ruin if you will - where you explore the aftermath of a cataclysmic event and how people are reacting to it - where the civilization that everyone once knew (Cocoon and Pulse of the previous two games) are but a memory.
If you could pick it up for $20, I'd say go for it. More depending how curious you are. Especially if you like Square Enix's ARPG offerings like Kingdom Hearts. (Though the game offers way more ability customization and less actual battlefield movement outside of dodge abilities)
edit: This video is always good linkage when talking about the battle system. Some spoilers etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ENVk0AHGpk
Truth be told, maybe it was also the fact that I'd been pretty much spoiled prior about the story and conclusion, and that I played (and platinumed) the game in Japanese to help boost along my rudimentary kanji reading, but I really was focused on the gameplay. For what it's worth I played it again in English just because. It's got its fair share of hilarious 'coincidences' and deus ex machina, but like I said, I wasn't expecting Shakespeare going in in the first place.
In many ways it's got this very subtle nostalgic factor in terms of the old Final Fantasy tropes. You have the whole stage show/performance trope. You have fireworks. Nova Chrysalia reminded me a lot of FF6's World of Ruin if you will - where you explore the aftermath of a cataclysmic event and how people are reacting to it - where the civilization that everyone once knew (Cocoon and Pulse of the previous two games) are but a memory.
If you could pick it up for $20, I'd say go for it. More depending how curious you are. Especially if you like Square Enix's ARPG offerings like Kingdom Hearts. (Though the game offers way more ability customization and less actual battlefield movement outside of dodge abilities)
edit: This video is always good linkage when talking about the battle system. Some spoilers etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ENVk0AHGpk