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FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 |OT| Change the Future

RPGCrazied

Member
Wait until the 500 version. Lol. I'm not mean, so I'll give you a tip to make it easier. Get the upgraded floaty jump for Noel. Fragment skill.
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Those clock puzzles are crazy like shit. Simply insane. Thanks god they didn't put them during the main campaign. And luckily, there's that online guide...
 

jorgeton

Member
Even incompetent boobs realize when an encounter rate is high. There had to be some conscious design decision.

I guess plot wise it makes some sense? As it is the major city on pulse and all of its inhabitants are being turned into Cieth. I'm sure a couple of million people lived in that city.

It is the worst dungeon in the game for sure, though.
 

Tizoc

Member
Just the general tips I read online:

- Level to max
- Fuse with Pulse Gladiator, Cactuar, Mirochu (optional?)
- Gas him up with greens and see him go, at the choco rodeo

I'll be trying the Chocobo Racing myself this weekend, I gave up on the slots (though I got the fragment)

Thanks, so fusing those monsters to it gives it extra abilities for racing?
 

Lucentto

Banned
The fuck were they thinking with the clock puzzles. Can't believe I need to do this garbage, fuck this. Where can I find some of the stronger enemies post game? I'll just do that then I can just shelf this game.
 

ollin

Member
I'm about to attempt the clock puzzle again. Took one look at it previously and decided to wait till I'm almost done with the game.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
The fuck were they thinking with the clock puzzles. Can't believe I need to do this garbage, fuck this. Where can I find some of the stronger enemies post game? I'll just do that then I can just shelf this game.
I was doing
most of the Oerba 300 and 400 puzzles last night
. They aren't that much of a pain in the ass (well, the clock ones are sometimes), but they're so damn tedious sometimes, especially when they're timed and the running animation isn't fast enough.

Oh hey, EVERYONE liked
Oerba
, so let's put all the puzzles in there! :D
 
I was doing
most of the Oerba 300 and 400 puzzles last night
. They aren't that much of a pain in the ass (well, the clock ones are sometimes), but they're so damn tedious sometimes, especially when they're timed and the running animation isn't fast enough.

Oh hey, EVERYONE liked
Oerba
, so let's put all the puzzles in there! :D

They were probably like "So you want puzzles huh? HERE'S YOUR FUCKING PUZZLES! FUCK YOU!"
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Just did the Cie'th bum rush dungeon in Academia, thought it was pretty fun. Kinda ridiculous though beating most fights with a time of 4 seconds and not getting 5 stars!

Still really enjoying this goofy-ass game. Moogle-throwing is up there with Nier's giant-hog riding as far as batshit insane mechanics go.

I'm also still impressed by the quality of the voice-acting from the leads, considering how poor/random the script is they do a fine job.
 

Amir0x

Banned
Just go in to it with low expectations, and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the gameplay and 60FPS loading screens.

So far: gameplay is even worse and less diverse than FFXIII (except they add in lame awful puzzles and stuff, as if this is the crucial missing component to add variety?), story is even worse than FFXIII and the framerate during certain areas is making me nauseous. Monsters might seem like it adds a great variety, but it's an illusion: in reality you just find the right monster for you and they just adhere to the same basic classes variation... so the goal is just find the strongest monster in the class you want, do the same shit as if you just had a normal character in that class. It doesn't really alter much of anything as far as strategy or depth goes. Missions are boring as fuck most of the time, there are RANDOM GODDAMN BATTLES now - the fuck, how do you actually take such a huge step back in a basic design philosophy - and the music is all over the place, whereas FFXIII had a great soundtrack and that was its sole redeeming feature.

FFXIII-2 seems like preeeetty much the worst anything ever, as far as I can tell :(
 

Combine

Banned
story is even worse than FFXII

...how is this even possible??? Seriously, where the hell do JRPG devs get their writers? Failed shounen mangaka's?

Even worse to hear about the music. That was the real redeeming part of FF13. Can't believe the ruined that too. :(
 

Aeana

Member
So far: gameplay is even worse and less diverse than FFXIII (except they add in lame awful puzzles and stuff, as if this is the crucial missing component to add variety?), story is even worse than FFXIII and the framerate during certain areas is making me nauseous. Monsters might seem like it adds a great variety, but it's an illusion: in reality you just find the right monster for you and they just adhere to the same basic classes variation... so the goal is just find the strongest monster in the class you want, do the same shit as if you just had a normal character in that class. It doesn't really alter much of anything as far as strategy or depth goes. Missions are boring as fuck most of the time, there are RANDOM GODDAMN BATTLES now - the fuck, how do you actually take such a huge step back in a basic design philosophy - and the music is all over the place, whereas FFXIII had a great soundtrack and that was its sole redeeming feature.

FFXIII-2 seems like preeeetty much the worst anything ever, as far as I can tell :(

You are certainly oversimplifying the monster system, completely ignoring the infusion aspect. You can raise other monsters and infuse their abilities into new monsters to create much more powerful monsters. It has been my greatest joy in the game to do just that.

As for the battles, I certainly find the Mog Clock system superior because now you can actually get pre-emptive strikes when you want to - a perk that is supposed to be one of visible encounter systems, but that FF13 lacked due to the way the monster 'zones' were set up in that game. You can also run past monsters you don't want to fight in most cases without relying on deceptisol as in FF13. I think equating FF13-2's Mog Clock system to a "random battle" system is incorrect, because it has so many benefits of a visible encounter system, while lacking many of the cons to such systems.
 
I can't believe I still didn't see the ending yet, reached the final boss then I stopped to level up a little.... but I had to have an eye surgery ( Cross Linking ).

Now I can't see well with my right eye and I can't do any gaming for maybe A MONTH :(

I HATE MY STUPID RIGHT EYE ;_;
 

jorgeton

Member
Even worse to hear about the music. That was the real redeeming part of FF13. Can't believe the ruined that too. :(

The music is awesome, but not everyone's style. I personally think it's one of the best video game soundtracks of the last couple of years. Not even exaggerating.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
...how is this even possible??? Seriously, where the hell do JRPG devs get their writers? Failed shounen mangaka's?

Even worse to hear about the music. That was the real redeeming part of FF13. Can't believe the ruined that too. :(

Subjective comment. I think the music is some of the best in the series, and I'm not alone. But I'm not allergic to pop/rap/metal stylings, or ethereal female vocals.
 

Grisby

Member
I can't believe I still didn't see the ending yet, reached the final boss then I stopped to level up a little.... but I had to have an eye surgery ( Cross Linking ).

Now I can't see well with my right eye and I can't do any gaming for maybe A MONTH :(

I HATE MY STUPID RIGHT EYE ;_;
Damn, man. Hope you get better with it. Time to bust out the eye patch and get some girls.
 

Amir0x

Banned
Re: Music.

It's not that there isn't good stuff here. There is. It's just a far more disjointed soundtrack... there is some truly awful shit on here, and there is far more mediocre tracks. FFXIII is far more consistent and has far higher highs, and the lows are scattered and less consistent. This is of course subjective.


You are certainly oversimplifying the monster system, completely ignoring the infusion aspect. You can raise other monsters and infuse their abilities into new monsters to create much more powerful monsters. It has been my greatest joy in the game to do just that.

Well I'm early enough that I haven't really dug deeply into the infusion aspect, but so far I don't see how it'd be even necessary to get involved there since the game is stupidly, some would say even insultingly easy. FFXIII had a good difficulty level I think most would admit, at least as far as an FF game goes. It seems here they just said 'screw it' and made it so easy as to pretty much remove challenge altogether. Is there any difficult fights in the game? Genuine question...

Maybe the infusion aspect is cool I'll have to see, but without incentive to actually dig to that level, it's kind of pointless.

As for the battles, I certainly find the Mog Clock system superior because now you can actually get pre-emptive strikes when you want to - a perk that is supposed to be one of visible encounter systems, but that FF13 lacked due to the way the monster 'zones' were set up in that game. You can also run past monsters you don't want to fight in most cases without relying on deceptisol as in FF13. I think equating FF13-2's Mog Clock system to a "random battle" system is incorrect, because it has so many benefits of a visible encounter system, while lacking many of the cons to such systems.

In FFXIII-2 so far there are countless parts where every five steps I'm being interrupted by a random battle, and I have to arbitrarily decide to strike these jerks or try to run out of the window. It's so annoying. I understand you like random battles (we had that talk before), but I can't ever find any positive to them. They just irritate me. I want to see my enemies, want to avoid them where possible or pick and choose my enemy type, and want to be able to pre-emptive strike by simply walking into them from behind. FFXIII wasn't great either here, though, considering its limitations... but I think it is better than this for sure.

...how is this even possible??? Seriously, where the hell do JRPG devs get their writers? Failed shounen mangaka's?

Even worse to hear about the music. That was the real redeeming part of FF13. Can't believe the ruined that too. :(

I really don't know. At this point it's only slightly above Star Ocean 4 as far as I am concerned.
 

Aeana

Member
In FFXIII-2 so far there are countless parts where every five steps I'm being interrupted by a random battle, and I have to arbitrarily decide to strike these jerks or try to run out of the window. It's so annoying. I understand you like random battles (we had that talk before), but I can't ever find any positive to them. They just irritate me. I want to see my enemies, want to avoid them where possible or pick and choose my enemy type, and want to be able to pre-emptive strike by simply walking into them from behind. FFXIII wasn't great either here, though, considering its limitations... but I think it is better than this for sure.

But this was my point. In FF13, you couldn't do this most of the time. Enemies lay on a path with no way around them, and getting within 10 feet of them would alert them to your presence, keeping you from being able to get pre-emptive strikes as well. The system in FF13-2 fixes both of these issues quite well. It's not the best encounter system in a game or anything - Blue Dragon still does it best - but I absolutely do prefer it to FF13's terrible system.
 

Dunan

Member
I can't believe I still didn't see the ending yet, reached the final boss then I stopped to level up a little.... but I had to have an eye surgery ( Cross Linking ).

Now I can't see well with my right eye and I can't do any gaming for maybe A MONTH :(

I HATE MY STUPID RIGHT EYE ;_;

Can you cover up your right eye and do everything with your left eye?
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Re: Music.

It's not that there isn't good stuff here. There is. It's just a far more disjointed soundtrack... there is some truly awful shit on here, and there is far more mediocre tracks. FFXIII is far more consistent and has far higher highs, and the lows are scattered and less consistent. This is of course subjective.

Fair enough. XIII probably does have a better soundtrack, in that it was one of the greatest soundtracks in gaming history. It was also very traditionally "epic" and somehow comfortably FF, despite how experimental it was, so it was more assured to be crowd pleasing.

XIII-2's soundtrack takes incredible risks by leaning on popular music styles, and that aspect is likely to turn off certain people, and endear it even more to certain others.
 

Amir0x

Banned
But this was my point. In FF13, you couldn't do this most of the time. Enemies lay on a path with no way around them, and getting within 10 feet of them would alert them to your presence, keeping you from being able to get pre-emptive strikes as well. The system in FF13-2 fixes both of these issues quite well. It's not the best encounter system in a game or anything - Blue Dragon still does it best - but I absolutely do prefer it to FF13's terrible system.

People said this and I never had this problem too often, except when enemies were like in a doorway or something. I still managed to avoid the enemies I wanted, 7/10 times. The main thing is the ability to identify the enemy on screen from a distance and say 'no this isn't the enemy type I want' and then avoid it.

In FFXIII-2, it's like russian roulette. I have to keep rolling the dice on enemies to get the ones I want, instead of just glancing across a field and saying "oh there's a such-and-such, let me go there". It's ESPECIALLY important now that this game has the monster aspect. If the enemies were on the field and able to be visually identified (and avoided or engaged) from afar, it'd be perfect smooth fit.

I don't know. They are both poor systems, in FFXIII and FFXIII-2, but at least I could see the problem I was facing from a distance in one of them...

BocoDragon said:
XIII-2's soundtrack takes incredible risks by leaning on popular music styles, and that aspect is likely to turn off certain people, and endear it even more to certain others.

Hard to find fault here. I just think a lot of the 'popular' styles it leans on are fine, but executed really poorly. I think everyone knows the metal track that is just outrageously poor even by genre standards, but I think some of the vocal tracks are rough and kind of poorly done as well.

But there is some great stuff too, so far. I like some of what I've heard.
 

Thoraxes

Member
Music taste is pretty subjective, so see what you think of it. Asking for opinions on it I think is a horrible thing, especially in this game. I see many think it's shit, average, or in my case, one of the top-tier soundtracks in gaming from this generation (but I would rank it lesser than XIII and Nier). There's a ton of it on youtube, so give it a shot.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Fuck yes! I got the Giant Fist trophy! I did it on Long Gui.

But yeah, loved the tips in here. I put 3 power wrists on Noel. I took out his legs, used my cloudburst's feral link(buffs), used my Yakashini's feral link(even more buffs) rav/rav/rav him until he is staggers to 999%, switch to com/com/com. When the stagger is about to end, used Noel's Meteor Throw.

Oh yeah, and he had like 3 debuffs on him, deprotect, imperil and something else.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Music taste is pretty subjective, so see what you think of it. Asking for opinions on it I think is a horrible thing, especially in this game. I see many think it's shit, average, or in my case, one of the top-tier soundtracks in gaming from this generation (but I would rank it lesser than XIII and Nier). There's a ton of it on youtube, so give it a shot.

Pretty much. Arguing music taste is often like arguing food taste, or taste in mates. There's a reason why we use the word "taste" for all 3 things. There's no accounting for it, as they say... :p
 

Amir0x

Banned
Music taste is pretty subjective, so see what you think of it. Asking for opinions on it I think is a horrible thing, especially in this game. I see many think it's shit, average, or in my case, one of the top-tier soundtracks in gaming from this generation (but I would rank it lesser than XIII and Nier). There's a ton of it on youtube, so give it a shot.

I hate Nier and still think it has one of the best gaming soundtracks of the gen. I think tastes are subjective with music (they are!), but there are some soundtracks that are so good they grows a consensus. I think FFXIII-2 is going to be much harder to gain that consensus
 
You are certainly oversimplifying the monster system, completely ignoring the infusion aspect. You can raise other monsters and infuse their abilities into new monsters to create much more powerful monsters. It has been my greatest joy in the game to do just that.

If I'm not enjoying the monster ranching at 13 hours or so, do I still have fundamental mechanical shifts ahead of me? I can tell that I'm supposed to be loving the monster system, but without that love, the battle flow and strategy feels VERY reminiscent of FF13, so much so that I'm essentially just reusing all the tactics I developed in playing the first game. At this point I'm just trying to figure out if there's a "second half" to this game or if I've seen all the tricks it has up its sleeve and it's mostly a mechanical continuation of the first.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I hate Nier and still think it has one of the best gaming soundtracks of the gen. I think tastes are subjective with music (they are!), but there are some soundtracks that are so good they grows a consensus. I think FFXIII-2 is going to be much harder to gain that consensus

Consensus, no. It's going to be divisive. But there have been many longtime fans stating that it has immediately shot up to being of their all-time favorites. It's going to have some serious fans.
 

Raxus

Member
4 Paradox endings down. 4 to go. Just picked up Gigantar on accident.

I really need to level my Gold Chocobo and Chichu.
 

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.
XIII-2's OST is alright... Like FFX-2 alright. There are medicore scores and there are incredible scores like Noel's Theme. Overall, XIII's is still better in my opinion (actually, XIII's is one of my top FF OSTs).
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
I think XIII-2's soundtrack fits better than XIII's did. I always felt XIII was trying to tell a dark, serious, story which was undercut by the breezy, pleasantness of the soundtrack.

XIII-2 feels knowingly lightweight and goofy, and has a soundtrack that fits with that approach.

The first visit to Oerba with the lovely "Ruined Hometown" playing in the background stopped me in my tracks for a moment (the little toy robots beetling around added a bit of pathos), but other than that...

I'm still mystified that Toriyama would say this is a darker tale than FFX-2, it seems like the fluffiest FF I've ever played.
 

Thoraxes

Member
I hate Nier and still think it has one of the best gaming soundtracks of the gen. I think tastes are subjective with music (they are!), but there are some soundtracks that are so good they grows a consensus. I think FFXIII-2 is going to be much harder to gain that consensus

I kinda agree on that. I think the one thing I really like, is that they didn't half-ass it. Even though direction was a little eccentric in choice, I really like that they didn't skimp on the composition/production quality given the direction they took.

Pretty much. Arguing music taste is often like arguing food taste, or taste in mates. There's a reason why we use the word "taste" for all 3 things. There's no accounting for it, as they say... :p
Oh for sure. I still think some of the best music in gaming has come out of those Japanese studios. They're just really creative and seem to try new things more (as of recent).
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
13-2's soundtrack is alright but I can't imagine why they thought it was a good idea to loop music with vocals.

What makes a violin section inherently more loopable than vocals? Your thought hadn't even occurred to me. I think looping videogame music with vocals is just fine.

We've been looping "chants" in music ever since FFVII, and that became so common that you barely notice it now in games like Uncharted, God of War, etc.

Oh for sure. I still think some of the best music in gaming has come out of those Japanese studios. They're just really creative and seem to try new things more (as of recent).

I agree. This is just my opinion, but I think that music is one of the areas where Japanese games have not fallen off, they are significantly better than ever before, and they are infinitely more creative than much of the stuff in western games (exceptions abound, of course). I think it's one of of most experimental areas in all of music right now.
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Those clock puzzles are crazy like shit. Simply insane. Thanks god they didn't put them during the main campaign. And luckily, there's that online guide...

I just did a bunch of those last nite... are there any tricks to them? Honestly I just kept on guessing til I finally got it.

Combine said:
...how is this even possible??? Seriously, where the hell do JRPG devs get their writers? Failed shounen mangaka's?

Even worse to hear about the music. That was the real redeeming part of FF13. Can't believe the ruined that too. :(

Wow, I don't think I've ever seen you outside the Dating/Fitness age threads... must be a first haha. I really like the music in 13-2 (with some exceptions, like the lame Chocobo theme), I think it's very different from your typical RPG soundtrack, which is why I appreciate it so much. Plus there are some songs that are very EDM-influenced (house, drum&bass). There's also a number of RPGs with decent stories nowadays - the Kiseki series, Nier, and even Vesperia.
 
In FFXIII-2, it's like russian roulette. I have to keep rolling the dice on enemies to get the ones I want, instead of just glancing across a field and saying "oh there's a such-and-such, let me go there". It's ESPECIALLY important now that this game has the monster aspect. If the enemies were on the field and able to be visually identified (and avoided or engaged) from afar, it'd be perfect smooth fit. .

No kidding. It sucked especially in
AF1X
where the clock would pop, I'd hit the enemy... whoops, it's a Behemoth
even in the middle of the damned day
, time to reset the game. :-/
 

jorgeton

Member
Consensus, no. It's going to be divisive. But there have been many longtime fans stating that it has immediately shot up to being of their all-time favorites. It's going to have some serious fans.

I'm a long time fan and I think this is one of the best soundtracks of the series. I never listen to game music outside of games, but this score is special, it has its own playlist on my ipod. It mixes catchy as hell Jpop with really nice ambient tracks, like the track that plays in the final dungeon.

I'm still mystified that Toriyama would say this is a darker tale than FFX-2, it seems like the fluffiest FF I've ever played.

Not sure how far you are but
shit gets real later.
 

Owzers

Member
I'm up to the collect 5 core thing fetch quest, how much left of the main story is there?

I don't really like this game much at all right now: the lack of party members, having all the skills in the paradigm very early on, and the story are leaving this game as one of my least favorite i've tried to finish in a long time, but i'd still like to finish it unless i have a ton more to get through.
 
What makes a violin section inherently more loopable than vocals? Your thought hadn't even occurred to me. I think looping videogame music with vocals is just fine.

We've been looping "chants" in music ever since FFVII, and that became so common that you barely notice it now in games like Uncharted, God of War, etc.

I process spoken words differently than instruments and the former gets old very quickly. Also I should have specified "vocals with lyrics". Chants don't bother me.

also some of these lyrics are really bad
 
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