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Final Fantasy XIII-2 E3 Information Thread [Trailer, BioWare Storytelling, More]

Despera

Banned
matmanx1 said:
Tons of info in the updates. Very nice! Thanks!

Oh and, Lightning better not be dead. She's the best character in XIII!
I love how you thank the OP for the updates, and still don't know whether Lightning is in the game or not :lol
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Aeana said:
Look, Snow is voiced by Troy Baker which gives him 5000 points by default.
Troy's attractive, yes (and he can sing!), but that doesn't make Snow amazing by default. Snow's dialogue, for the most part, was absurd... in both English and Japanese.

It's just like me saying that I find Crispin Freeman and Cam Clarke
and Johnny Yong Bosch, lol
very attractive, but some of the characters they voice do things that make me bang my head against the wall. But their voices are so alluring sometimes. :D


dramatis said:
I would laugh if they changed the names of the roles to English names too.
I was just gonna say... :lol


And although every soundtrack has its detractors, FFXIII's soundtrack wasn't bland imo. Sure, a lot of the tunes weren't catchy like in the previous games' (and you can argue that this happens for a lot of game soundtracks this generation), but they were wonderful pieces showcasing the capabilities of the composer. They were wonderful to listen to.
 

Aeana

Member
Dark Schala said:
Troy's attractive, yes (and he can sing!), but that doesn't make Snow amazing by default. Snow's dialogue, for the most part, was absurd... in both English and Japanese.
His dialog isn't bad enough to turn me off. He's a small step above your average shounen lead guy, but for once isn't 14 years old.

Dark Schala said:
Johnny Yong Bosch ... voices are so alluring sometimes. :D
We are enemies.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Aeana said:
His dialog isn't bad enough to turn me off. He's a small step above your average shounen lead guy, but for once isn't 14 years old.
I'll agree to disagree here. I reeeeeally disliked Snow, not even Troy Baker could save him.

Aeana said:
We are enemies.
Excluding Johnny Yong Bosch! The guy can't do alluring very well. :lol

...I can see him voicing Asbel Lhant in English right now. Although I like Bosch, it's a step down from Takahiro Sakurai, imo.
 
I thought Snow was a rather effective subversion of the typical shounen hero. He fails in almost everything he does, and all of his bravado about being a hero is just a defense mechanism to cover up for his insecurities. I thought he was a pretty good character, honestly, and I liked his evolving relationships with Lightning, Hope and Fang.

There's also the great scene where he tells Sazh to take care of the kids, and Sazh tells Snow that he's one of the kids, too.
 
Anyone get serious Chaos Rings vibes from this?

I wonder what kind of cross pollination is going on over there. Maybe some staff was picked up by the FF13 team or SE was surprised by the reception of CR and is trying to copy some of it

Either way something is going on there I bet
 
HamPster PamPster said:
Anyone get serious Chaos Rings vibes from this?

I wonder what kind of cross pollination is going on over there. Maybe some staff was picked up by the FF13 team or SE was surprised by the reception of CR and is trying to copy some of it

Either way something is going on there I bet

Bioware influence..., soon we'll have sex scenes on our FF (no that FFVI dosn't count).
 

MechaX

Member
Fimbulvetr said:
Snow < Vanille < Hope < Light < Fang < Sazh

To Snow's benefit, he at least shuts up halfway through the game. And whenever he does do his "I'M DAH HERO" shtick, the party pretty much ignores him.

Aeana said:
Look, Snow is voiced by Troy Baker which gives him 5000 points by default.

Oh, I wish awesome voice actors could save characters alone despite horrendous direction and/or scripts. Because it sure as fuck didn't save Welch in Star Ocean 4 despite being voiced by Laura Bailey.
 
I was looking at the map of the demo area and realized that the place has at least 3 gates, meaning there will be at least some level of inter-connectivity and an actual point to returning to old areas.

KuwabaraTheMan said:
I thought Snow was a rather effective subversion of the typical shounen hero. He fails in almost everything he does, and all of his bravado about being a hero is just a defense mechanism to cover up for his insecurities. I thought he was a pretty good character, honestly, and I liked his evolving relationships with Lightning, Hope and Fang.

There's also the great scene where he tells Sazh to take care of the kids, and Sazh tells Snow that he's one of the kids, too.
I think they attempt to deconstruct him but fail. They acknowledge he's a cliche and try to take it somewhere, but then completely contradict it in the latter half of the game.

There's some stuff about thinking before he acts and dealing with the implications of his mistakes, but then the entire party takes on his "wing it and hope for the best" approach and then the game reveals that he ended up saving a huge number of people who we thought were dead off screen. Oh and everyone is forcing enthusiasm, and cliche'd lines despite being in pretty deep shit juts like he was.
 
I hated Hope and Vanille more then Snow. I rather have an annoying bastard then an angst whiny brat and I don't know what the hell Vanille is, but she's the most annoying character I've ever stumbled upon.
 

DaBuddaDa

Member
Finally watched the videos. The voice of the Moogle is the most depressingly awful thing I have ever heard. I can't believe they're doing that.
 
Random thought: FF13's characters didn't really make sense given the game's premise. OK, so something happens turn the characters against the world, and you go and make the characters random people? What would have more impact, a renowned doctor/famous high ranking soldier/etc becoming the public enemy, or a random teenager that nobody knows or cares about?

A missed opportunity I think.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Crakatak187 said:
I hated Hope and Vanille more then Snow. I rather have an annoying bastard then an angst whiny brat and I don't know what the hell Vanille is, but she's the most annoying character I've ever stumbled upon.
At least Hope had the decency to nearly stab Snow in the face, and to explode, sending Snow to hang off a cliff or whatever. I might be in the minority, but I didn't mind Hope as much as I did Snow. Until he started making the inspirational "WE CAN DO IT" speeches towards the end of the game like everyone else.

The Xtortionist said:
Random thought: FF13's characters didn't really make sense given the game's premise. OK, so something happens turn the characters against the world, and you go and make the characters random people? What would have more impact, a renowned doctor/famous high ranking soldier/etc becoming the public enemy, or a random teenager that nobody knows or cares about?

A missed opportunity I think.
To be fair, Lightning was a sergeant in the Guardian Corps and was scheduled for her Officer rank training prior to the beginning of the game. It's in the prologue novel, I think. Sazh was an airship pilot, iirc. Cid probably counts here as well.

But I see what you're saying and I can agree with that. It was a little unfortunate.
 
Dark Schala said:
At least Hope had the decency to nearly stab Snow in the face, and to explode, sending Snow to hang off a cliff or whatever. I might be in the minority, but I didn't mind Hope as much as I did Snow. Until he started making the inspirational "WE CAN DO IT" speeches towards the end of the game like everyone else.

Then they un-develop his character because they forgot to give him an Eidolon. derp
 
The Xtortionist said:
Random thought: FF13's characters didn't really make sense given the game's premise. OK, so something happens turn the characters against the world, and you go and make the characters random people? What would have more impact, a renowned doctor/famous high ranking soldier/etc becoming the public enemy, or a random teenager that nobody knows or cares about?

A missed opportunity I think.
Hmm. What's wrong with having normal people bestowed with destiny changing powers? That's a very common thing in fiction. X-men, all about normal people who then find out they have powers. It makes perfect sense in the story as a big point is they are just everyday people forced to deal with the fact that everyone hates them. There's nothing wrong here.
 
Rahxephon91 said:
Hmm. What's wrong with having normal people bestowed with destiny changing powers? That's a very common thing in fiction. X-men, all about normal people who then find out they have powers. It makes perfect sense in the story as a big point is they are just everyday people forced to deal with the fact that everyone hates them. There's nothing wrong here.

His idea is that if these were people with a very high standing within Cocoon society, it would be even harder for them to adjust to being despised.

Lightning and Sazh are the closest to this, but Sazh had given up his dream job long before the beginning of the story and Lightning doesn't really give a rat's ass as long as Serah is fine.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Fimbulvetr said:
Then they un-develop his character because they forgot to give him an Eidolon. derp
The beginning of Chapter 11 was so random. I kept thinking, "Didn't his character development happen already? He faced his dad whom he had loathed so much, he faced Snow, he stood up sgainst PSICOM. It would've made far more sense to give him Eidolon in Chapter 7 instead." :lol
 
Fimbulvetr said:
His idea is that if these were people with a very high standing within Cocoon society, it would be even harder for them to adjust to being despised.

Lightning and Sazh are the closest to this, but Sazh had given up his dream job long before the beginning of the story and Lightning doesn't really give a rat's ass as long as Serah is fine.
Well I don't think that exactly makes for a better story or that FFXIII needed to do that or was hurt because it did'nt. It just as interesting to have normal people who you could possibly relate to more find themselves in perils situations.
 
Fimbulvetr said:
His idea is that if these were people with a very high standing within Cocoon society, it would be even harder for them to adjust to being despised.

Yeah basically. Take a society that loves/idolizes said character and turn them against each other. I think it would create a more compelling scenario. As it stood in FF13, who would even care if all six l'cie were executed? Almost no one.

Also, whoever wrote this should do the rap music for 13-2. What I've heard so far is lackluster.
 
The Xtortionist said:
Yeah basically. Take a society that loves/idolizes said character and turn them against each other. I think it would create a more compelling scenario. As it stood in FF13, who would even care if all six l'cie were executed? Almost no one.
Well I mean is'nt that kind of the point of the plot?
 
The Xtortionist said:
Yeah basically. Take a society that loves/idolizes said character and turn them against each other. I think it would create a more compelling scenario. As it stood in FF13, who would even care if all six l'cie were executed? Almost no one.

Also, whoever wrote this should do the rap music for 13-2. What I've heard so far is lackluster.
I would actually cheer if that happened.
 
Dark Schala said:
The beginning of Chapter 11 was so random. I kept thinking, "Didn't his character development happen already? He faced his dad whom he had loathed so much, he faced Snow, he stood up sgainst PSICOM. It would've made far more sense to give him Eidolon in Chapter 7 instead." :lol

They don't even give a good reason for Vanille to get hers.
 
The Xtortionist said:
13's plot had a point? : /
Yes it did and if you listen to Snow's speech when the party is attacked at Hope's home they very point is that "hey we are just normal people like you guys, but this shit happen to us".
 
Rahxephon91 said:
Yes it did and if you listen to Snow's speech when the party is attacked at Hope's home they very point is that "hey we are just normal people like you guys, but this shit happen to us".

Yes and imo giving the l'cie actual reputations would create a more interesting morally grey scenario. As it stands now, Cocoon peoples have to reason to challenge the witch hunt because the characters have absolutely no stake in the world. Have the characters engage the world on a more personal level and people are forced to either side with them based on reputation or side against them simply because they're l'cie. It'd be interesting to watch society crumble based on having to make that decision.

And I guess nobody likes the 3rd Strike track : (
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Fimbulvetr said:
They don't even give a good reason for Vanille to get hers.
Did they even give a reason? I don't think "I kept secrets from you all this time, and I'm so stressed out from it!" is a good reason.

In fact, a lot of the cutscenes in Chapter 11 seemed a little disjointed and oddly arranged, imo. I found it was odd that Fang and Vanille were alone during the Hecatoncheir battle, when in fact the entire party was supposed to be RIGHT THERE in that little meadow. It bugged me that no one even bothered to join in. Either the rest of the party didn't care, or there was a segment taken out of FFXIII that would have explained the scenario a little better.

The Xtortionist said:
And I guess nobody likes the 3rd Strike track : (
I do! IIRC, Infinite & Hideki Okugawa wrote the lyrics. If they're going for a rap/hip-hop situation for the soundtrack, it'd make sense.
 

neoism

Member
Kitase: We actually didn’t take any inspiration from any western RPGs. Not cautiously anyway. On the other hand, the Paradigm Shift system from Final Fantasy XIII was quite popular but most people liked it so we actually carried it over to make it a different version—not completely the same. Two examples, in XIII-2, you can actually recruit monsters and make them work for you, and there are more than 150 types of monsters there for you to capture, and they can help you. They progress the same as characters do in any RPG. Second, you’ve got one called Cinematic Action, so like in a big battle against a boss character the Cinematic Action element is put in so it’s more dynamic. And in every single way we want to make sure the player has some kind of interaction with the gameplay.
vader.jpg
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
Zoe said:
Maybe it's just speculation since changing it for the Japanese trailer would be a graphical change rather than a subtitle :\

Nope. Jump scans show it, with JP text. Role names remain unchanged though, so Attacker, etc is in.
 

ZoddGutts

Member
Good to hear the team admiting they mess up with FXIII and learning from their mistakes to make sure they wont mess up again for FXIII-2. Willing to give the sequel a chance if this time we wont get a mediocre story and characters. It being non linear and giving players choices is also a plus. This game cant possibly be a disappointment like FFXIII turn out to be.
 

Andrefpvs

Member
The Xtortionist said:
I'll be massively disappointed if there isn't an achievement titled "Gotta Catch 'Em All".

Do it, Square.

I don't think they can, "Gotta Catch 'Em All!" is a trademark.

But yeah, "more than 150 monsters to capture." lol!
 

Despera

Banned
ZoddGutts said:
Good to hear the team admiting they mess up with FXIII and learning from their mistakes to make sure they wont mess up again for FXIII-2. Willing to give the sequel a chance if this time we wont get a mediocre story and characters. It being non linear and giving players choices is also a plus. This game cant possibly be a disappointment like FFXIII turn out to be.
X was the last time they did it right.

Improving over XIII's story should be the easiest thing to achieve in the sequel.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Despera said:
X was the last time they did it right.

Improving over XIII's story should be the easiest thing to achieve in the sequel.

But X had a mediocre story and characters!
 
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