Support NeoGAF

[The Emperor]

It still surprises me as to how fond I grew of Noel.

 

[Dark Schala]

Might as well go for it, I think at this point publishers are going to force dlc down our throats whether we like it or not. Plus, $3 is nothing compared to what we spend on any given day on other things.

I pay $2 for my french vanilla cappuccino at Tim Hortons when I have classes/work. I dunno if that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make, lol.

I'll see. I'm not ready to revisit this game. I don't really know if I want to since I feel like I'm done. Given that I felt it was rather middle-of-the-road like its sister game, and given that I don't really remember a lot of stuff from it despite completing it a month ago, I don't really think I enjoyed it that much even though I was content with a few things.

The story stuff in this game really got me. I loved it. But the gameplay is pretty weak. The entire game was really easy. I used three Paradigms the entire game:
COM/COM/COM
RAV/RAV/RAV
MED/MED/MED

And nothing ever gave me even the slightest bit of trouble (even though I am terrible at games). I kept expecting a boss, but they were all no harder than regular fights. The longest fight was the last one, which took me a bit over 7 minutes, but was still incredibly easy and there was no pressure at all. Someone mentioned Proto-Behemoth earlier being harder than the final boss. When I ran into one I was like "OH!" but that fight lasted all of 40 seconds and I barely even took damage.

That's exactly what I disliked about this game. If anything, it wasn't the narrative or the ending that irritated me--it was the damned ease, lack of balancing, and the lack of support that the game's difficulty gave to CSB 1.5.

I know my playstyle is generally different from some people's, but... If I can make it through this game with two characters alone (outside of one part), there is something absolutely wrong here. Sure, I had some difficulty here and there (especially when I decided to stop grinding for drops), but I generally came out of battles almost unscathed or battles generally ended quick.

In Final Fantasy XIII, the balance that the game's late-postgame battles and Barthandelus battles showed us why CSB might actually be a nice system. I don't like CSB too much, but the late-postgame battles in FFXIII were a good showcase and final exam in all of the mechanics you should have been practicing so far (ex: looking at enemy animations to know when to switch, equipping certain items to down bosses and enemies faster like the RIC ability, making different Optimae in order to get battles done quickly and efficiently with 5-star rankings across the board for missions or for better drops, etc). The difficulty makes the system work and it forces the player to experiment with different jobs and different characters to suit their strategies and playstyle. Final Fantasy XIII forced you to use all of the jobs at your disposal, craft Optimae that work and execute them in an efficient manner. You needed to buff. You needed to debuff. You needed to defend. You needed to heal, and while doing that, you need to make sure the Break Gauge isn't decreasing rapidly, and you need to maintain it with Blasters and Attackers while making sure that your buffs and debuffs aren't running out so that the enemy isn't straight-up destroying you. And while doing that you want to synchronize animation speeds of the characters so that you're efficiently getting the job done in late-postgame. The increased difficulty and tactics I had to employ to finish battles during my platinum run is the sort of thing that made me look at FFXIII in a more positive light. CSB is supported better by harder battles. Easier battles feel rather boring by comparison because you aren't using CSB to its fullest potential.

If you've gotten the plat in FFXIII, you'll know that the last boss of the Titan's Trials is a bit of a jerk if you don't have a Defender, or the final mission is difficult if you're not using the Poison cheat. Or if you've beaten a Gui, you'll know that you should watch for animations, switch to a tri-defender Optima whenever it looks like it's starting to animate to attack you, time your daze spells with party members' attacks, buff your party members, etc. FFXIII-2 has watered-down versions of these battles which feel dissatisfying and unfulfilling because you're loosely employing some of these tactics to get through the battle because they're generally much easier than the original versions.

People are generally getting through FFXIII-2 with easier Optima, lacking the former essentials like Enhancers and Defenders because they don't need them. Bosses and enemies don't hit that hard, so these jobs are kind of gimped (and they really are if you look at their skillsets compared to the previous game's). It just feels like CSB is getting wasted this time. Watered-down difficulty was certainly not something I expected from this game, especially given that we got Blood Damage (which I thought would add to the difficulty, but it felt like a non-issue). Raspatil was probably my favourite enemy in the entire game.

Of course, this is just my opinion. I know others feel differently. I just had it in my mind that this game would share the same difficulty as the original, especially having experienced FFXIII's postgame.

I don't know if I'll bother with post game or collecting all the fragments. I ended the game with 129/160. Do I get extra story bits if I get the other fragments?

Paradox endings if you go back and do stuff with the Paradox Scope turned on (ex: fight certain boss battles again) (in general; sometimes you don't need the PS on). An extra 2-minute post-credits scene is unlocked if you have all 160, but it's better to YouTube that.

She's a really strong character - not whining or being a damsel in distress, but she is still very girly. People point to characters like Lightning as being strong female characters, but I disagree. I love Lightning, but if you were to replace her character model (and voice) with a male, it would still work 100%. But Serah is just as strong and definitely more relatable.

I... actually feel the same way. Serah dealt with issues better than I had initially imagined, and I felt that she was better-developed and had a better air of strength than her sister, whom I didn't like at all. Serah becoming more responsible and less dependent throughout the game was more believable than Lightning's development over the course of FFXIII, and that's because Serah's development was handled better.

Is there a difference if, at the very end, you choose

Spoiler

to kill Caius instead of show him mercy

?

Spoiler

Same outcome.

It still surprises me as to how fond I grew of Noel.

Noel is the bomb. I was surprised by how likeable and fantastic he was, and some of his attack animations were awesome. We need more snarky protagonists.

 

[R_thanatos]

I dunno if it's my play stayle but i felt that i had to use SAB & SYN a lot more this time.

Serah is a good character indeed but lightning as more presence in my mind ..i like both but i'll take lightning over serah any day of the week.

Noel is more than OK..but i felt nothing special about him other than being normal..it's indeed different from snow or hope(ff13 version)

The only reason it works that way is because there are no excentric personalities traits in both leads ..

 

[frequency]

Hmm... I guess I'll probably youtube the post game story stuff.

FFXIII really did make me use all my roles. Buffs and debuffs were absolutely essential for me to have any success. Almost every boss fight was an epic battle where I was barely able to hang on. I changed my Paradigm Deck a lot, had to wear resistance accessories, made use of the entire cast. It was challenging in a very good way.

FFXIII-2, I expected something similar. So I actually leveled SYN and SAB first because they were so useful in the last one. But I never used them. When I said I had those three paradigms for the entire game, I meant it. I literally never used anything else. In fact, COM/COM/COM was what I used for 90% of the game. I only ever switched to RAV/RAV/RAV if I really had to stagger - which was rare. MED/MED/MED when I had to heal, but that was rare too.
For accessories, I just wore 4 Delicate Power Wristbands and 4 Delicate Magician's Marks. I never changed them. I used a total of six monsters the entire game. I got my COM, RAV, and MED monsters at the beginning and used them until I got chocobos. Then I switched to the chocobos and never used anything else. I know that's probably not the best or most efficient strategy, but who cares? It was never an issue.

I think what I like about Noel and Serah the most is that they are believable characters. I mean, the way they act and their personalities are very realistic to me. They're not caricatures (

Spoiler

not sure I'm using this word right, but I don't know any other description in the language

) of something. This is very rare in the games that I play, the movies/shows that I watch, and the books that I read. Usually, all characters have a trait or two that is exaggerated and that's supposed to be their personality. But no actual human being is anything like those characters. But Noel and Serah feel like real people to me. That makes them both way more relatable and I am very attached to them because of it.


And sorry that this post is a confusing mess. I had a very hard time typing out my thoughts.


EDIT:

I thought 13 wasn't THAT challenging, but still challenging enough to be a lot of fun and use most of what the battle system had to offer.

My only interest in 13-2 was the return of the battle system so I expected more stuff like 13. In the end I felt exactly like you after I had completed the game after the jp release. Spend most of the time in 3xCom, I think I rolled through almost all of the game with the first accessory I found in the game and I didn't use too many mosnters either.

Really dissapointing in that regard.

It wasn't the hardest thing ever, but it was challenging enough to force me to learn and use the entire system. FFXIII-2, I did amazing even though I used only a fraction of the system.

 

[desu]

FFXIII really did make me use all my roles. Buffs and debuffs were absolutely essential for me to have any success. Almost every boss fight was an epic battle where I was barely able to hang on. I changed my Paradigm Deck a lot, had to wear resistance accessories, made use of the entire cast. It was challenging in a very good way.

FFXIII-2, I expected something similar. So I actually leveled SYN and SAB first because they were so useful in the last one. But I never used them. When I said I had those three paradigms for the entire game, I meant it. I literally never used anything else. In fact, COM/COM/COM was what I used for 90% of the game. I only ever switched to RAV/RAV/RAV if I really had to stagger - which was rare. MED/MED/MED when I had to heal, but that was rare too.
For accessories, I just wore 4 Delicate Power Wristbands and 4 Delicate Magician's Marks. I never changed them. I used a total of six monsters the entire game. I got my COM, RAV, and MED monsters at the beginning and used them until I got chocobos. Then I switched to the chocobos and never used anything else. I know that's probably not the best or most efficient strategy, but who cares? It was never an issue.

I thought 13 wasn't THAT challenging, but still challenging enough to be a lot of fun and use most of what the battle system had to offer.

My only interest in 13-2 was the return of the battle system so I expected more stuff like 13. In the end I felt exactly like you after I had completed the game after the jp release. Spend most of the time in 3xCom, I think I rolled through almost all of the game with the first accessory I found in the game and I didn't use too many mosnters either.

Really dissapointing in that regard.

 

[Liferebooted]

FF13-2 only requires you to sit in diversity and afk. ;(

 

[Perfo]

I don't know how many times already I've seen again cutscenes involving Caius on youtube. God, I love this villain so much *.*

 

[Dark Schala]

I dunno if it's my play stayle but i felt that i had to use SAB & SYN a lot more this time.

Serah is a good character indeed but lightning as more presence in my mind ..i like both but i'll take lightning over serah any day of the week.

Perhaps it's because I'd played late-postgame in FFXIII, but given that I was so used to looking at attack animations, there seemed to be little use for Syn. Not to mention both characters' Syn skillsets are utterly gimped (I guess to make use of monsters, but I never used monsters outside of two battles, and at those times, I just used DEF monsters).

I can't stand Lightning, lol. I'm in the 'protective older sister' category too--and I was the same age as her when I first played through the original game--but man oh man I can't empathize with her selfish brat attitude at all. She came off as incredibly foolish to me, even after she made her 15-minute "I developed" speech. Not really my type of character.

I thought 13 wasn't THAT challenging, but still challenging enough to be a lot of fun and use most of what the battle system had to offer.

My only interest in 13-2 was the return of the battle system so I expected more stuff like 13. In the end I felt exactly like you after I had completed the game after the jp release. Spend most of the time in 3xCom, I think I rolled through almost all of the game with the first accessory I found in the game and I didn't use too many mosnters either.

Really dissapointing in that regard.

Late-postgame offered a challenge, but most of FFXIII wasn't challenging either. Rather, most of FFXIII was boring until the Bart battles and late-postgame. With FFXIII-2, I was bored. A lot. I didn't feel like I was engaged in the battle system in comparison to the FFXIII battles. I hate auto-battle so I never used it, but even when I was manually selecting things, I didn't feel like I was very engaged because most of the enemies were simply fodder or easy to get rid of.

I didn't use monsters either to see if that would bump the difficulty up a bit but it really didn't. When I went for the Feral Link trophy and had to use monsters to get that trophy, the game ended up being an utter joke.

I'm extremely dissatisfied with the lack of difficulty. I felt bored, and I didn't feel like I got what I wanted out of the game entirely. As I confessed to kayos and parts of Sonic-GAF, I ended up playing the game for the sake of playing it/the plat trophy as opposed to trying to get something out of the quest system or the rest of the 'game' part of the game.

I still stand by what I said before: both games complement each other well. Each game has something the other doesn't.

With that said, I don't know if I want to get XIII-3, especially if the difficulty is going to be dumbed down like this game's was.

Hmm... I guess I'll probably youtube the post game story stuff.

FFXIII really did make me use all my roles. Buffs and debuffs were absolutely essential for me to have any success. Almost every boss fight was an epic battle where I was barely able to hang on. I changed my Paradigm Deck a lot, had to wear resistance accessories, made use of the entire cast. It was challenging in a very good way.

FFXIII-2, I expected something similar. So I actually leveled SYN and SAB first because they were so useful in the last one. But I never used them. When I said I had those three paradigms for the entire game, I meant it. I literally never used anything else. In fact, COM/COM/COM was what I used for 90% of the game. I only ever switched to RAV/RAV/RAV if I really had to stagger - which was rare. MED/MED/MED when I had to heal, but that was rare too.

Noel was rather-down-to-earth and didn't say stupid shit most of the time like some other characters. He poked fun at the dumb stuff, and he was rather snarky. That's why I liked him. And his Blitz was essentially your best friend in this game. I use it once and battles end instantly.

Syn was probably the last thing I levelled in this game. It's quite unfortunate.

As for FFXIII, I had more fun coming up with alternate strategies with different characters for some of the postgame missions than anything else. Much of the regular game didn't really pose a challenge, but when you hit those battles that make you learn how to use everything at your disposal, it felt better.

FF13-2 only requires you to sit in diversity and afk. ;(

*sigh* I know. :|

 

[Yoshichan]

I still can't get enough of the soundtrack - especially the later parts.

Spoiler

The Rules of Time and Space
Heart of Chaos
A Promise for the Future
Invisible Depths
Eternal Paradox
To a Land of Hope

All of the above are instant classics in my book. Who would've though that this OST would turn out to be my best soundtrack of this generation? Especially after I had heard the first "preview" of the mad Chocobo-song

 

[Lightning]

nevermind I figured it out.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

FFXIII-2 has watered-down versions of these battles which feel dissatisfying and unfulfilling because you're loosely employing some of these tactics to get through the battle because they're generally much easier than the original versions.

How are they watered down?

Same Long Gui, same Yomi.

And Rasptail is harder than any single optional boss from FF13.

You wrote some smart text but you forgot that especially after platinuming FF13 FF13-2 only "feels" way too easy. You know the drill, you know the battle system in and out, all of the tips and tricks. That's why it makes it easier. When I fought Long Gui in FF13-2 I already knew how the battle will plan out. I used the same exact tactic as in FF13 and *gasp* it worked because it is the same Long Gui. Same exact health, same exact attack patterns (Roar, Ultima) etc.

 

[WesternHeretic]

How are they watered down?

Same Long Gui, same Yomi.

And Rasptail is harder than any single optional boss from FF13.

You wrote some smart text but you forgot that especially after platinuming FF13 FF13-2 only "feels" way too easy. You know the drill, you know the battle system in and out, all of the tips and tricks. That's why it makes it easier. When I fought Long Gui in FF13-2 I already knew how the battle will plan out. I used the same exact tactic as in FF13 and *gasp* it worked because it is the same Long Gui. Same exact health, same exact attack patterns (Roar, Ultima) etc.

Are we playing the same game?

Long Gui in 13-2 is about ten easier than Long Gui in 13. Matter of fact the Long Gui in 13-2 is easier than the freaking Adamantoise. (Did the Long Gui in 13-2 even use roar? I swear I killed that thing at least 10 times and he has not once used roar. Which is still not as annoying as Bay from Shaolong Gui in 13).

Yomi is easier than Mission 64 Yomi, not to mention he dies in about 15 minutes faster.

And Rapsptail dies in about 3 minutes (with high speed clock), and 6 minutes on default just doing sab/rav/rav then com/com/com.

At least with the Long Gui in 13 you had to equip Gaining Rings, and Genji Gloves etc..

You can pretty much go accessory-less against all the bosses in 13-2 and be fine.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Hmm I just checked and indeed the new Long Gui is way, way weaker than the OG one (has only 25% of his HP).

Sorry!

I suppose the new Yomi is also dumbed down somewhat.

 

[Dark Schala]

And here I was typing up a rather large rebuttal with stats, proper Optima, and everything. :lol

Regardless, it's great that you feel like the difficulty is just right, but I just don't feel the same way. I wouldn't have felt so let down if I had been given a hard mode in the end. It's strange that they decreased the difficulty, gave players Easy Mode that removes blood damage, but they don't give players a hard mode.

inb4hardmodeisdlc

 

[WesternHeretic]

Yea no kidding I didn't think the difference would be so large either.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Long_Gui_(Final_Fantasy_XIII)
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Long_Gui_(Final_Fantasy_XIII-2)

14 million less HP, and 11,000 less STR.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

I guess hard mode can be NO MONSTER challenge.

 

[Dark Schala]

I guess hard mode can be NO MONSTER challenge.

I tried that (outside of

Spoiler

Void Caius--both regular and paradox with a SEN monster

and the Feral Link trophy), and it didn't really alleviate any of my issues. It's really too bad. :/

Raspatil was my favourite battle in the game, I think, because I did it with two people and I ended up almost dying half the time. It was pretty exhilarating.

I do know that people have tried No Crystarium Use runs, but that doesn't strike me as fun at all. I like having better abilities and having them at my disposal, so it sort of feels like I'm not taking full advantage of the system (especially since this game has skills like Boon, Reprieve, some of the Com skills like Jeopardize, Blindside and Ravage, etc. which do take advantage of the system to sync attacks appropriately with other characters).

 

[Diablos]

Wow, just beat the game. Some ending, eh? Looks like

Spoiler

Serah and Noel got trolled pretty hard! LOL!

I don't know what to think. It is, in a way, somewhat compelling that the canon ending happens in that way.

Spoiler

Serah dying surprised me.

The whole thing was pretty crazy. But, one has to wonder what

Spoiler

To Be Continued ultimately imples... FFXIII-3? DLC? Or nothing; just you, the player, getting the rest of the endings and coming to your own conclusion?

The ending got a lot of hate, but I thought

Spoiler

it was a fun way to throw a wrench in it. It's not like XIII's plot is anything that spectacular to begin with; might as well have some fun with it. Since most FF endings are usually uplifting in some fashion, it was cool to have it end in chaos.

If you think about it, the use of the theme song by Charice...

Spoiler

makes absolutely no sense, btw. The new world that right after being created ceases to exist. Yay? Seriously, why would that be the theme song? Celebrating 5 minutes of a new world? Hahaha.

Question: How exactly

Spoiler

does Serah actually become a seeress, though?

Really love this game. Wish I had more time before catching some sleep to work on getting the rest of the endings. :-(

I want to plat FFXIII-2. Unf.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

@Dark Schala: Wait aren't you the poster that I remember from FF13-2 demo thread? That kept levelling up Noel & Serah?

:O

 

[Dark Schala]

Question: How exactly

Spoiler

does Serah actually become a seeress, though?

I want to plat FFXIII-2. Unf.

Do it. The XIII-2 plat is way more bearable than the XIII plat outside of slots (oh God, slots).

It's mentioned in the spoiler thread somewhere, but

Spoiler

Serah gets the Eyes of Etro from Etro herself, the ability awakened after she's released from crystal stasis with the other FFXIII characters at the end of FFXIII

.

@Dark Schala: Wait aren't you the poster that I remember from FF13-2 demo thread? That kept levelling up Noel & Serah?

:O

Was that me? :lol

Probably. I was trying to see if I could beat full-powered Atlas in the demo, but I didn't think giving my PS3 a beating was quite worth it. I played the demo for 8-10 hours, maybe? I got pretty far in the Crystarium, though!

 

[Diablos]

It's mentioned in the spoiler thread somewhere, but

Spoiler

Serah gets the Eyes of Etro from Etro herself, the ability awakened after she's released from crystal stasis with the other FFXIII characters at the end of FFXIII

.

This doesn't make any sense...

 

[Dark Schala]

This doesn't make any sense...

Should be in the datalog somewhere in a fragment description.

The situation somewhat explains how

Spoiler

Serah's suddenly able to use magic out of nowhere. Etro saved them all at the end of XIII, so why not give Serah some cool powers while she's being uncrystallized?

 

[R_thanatos]

Yomi ff13 was a total pushover .i'm glad they dumbed down his stats ..

Long gui shouldn't have been touched however

It's mentioned in the spoiler thread somewhere,

Spoiler

but Serah gets the Eyes of Etro from Etro herself, the ability awakened after she's released from crystal stasis with the other FFXIII characters at the end of FFXIII

.

Spoiler

Etro did it during the miracle ( end of ff13). Probably the same reason why lightning reached valhala without trying ..etro pulling the strings BECAUSE Someone wouldn't be satisfied ( Caius )

i might be alone but the slots weren't a problem for me ...
i got the trophy from chocobos and for the slots i used my fighting stick during a hot summer day( L1 turbo,slow speed ) and came back 40 minutes later for my event..

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Yeah the Casino achievements difficulty is blown WAY over.

For the fragment just play the slots for 1-1.5 hour. Or you can use autoplay.

For the cash achievement just do the normal Chocobo racing. You will win some good stuff in the meantime (Adamantite, Collector's Catalogue etc.).

 

[Dr Frasier Crane]

Just throwing it out there, I predict the Lightning DLC in May will come with a Hard difficulty setting.

If they tie a trophy to that then once more into the breach dear friend.

 

[Fdkn]

About the easy difficulty, you just need to force yourself to use the same system XIII did.

Limit your leveling to one crystarium level per boss of the main history. There you have your balanced game. I did that on my 2nd run combined with using no monsters at all, and was a really challenging experience.

Spoiler

Serah vs Caius

was insane, but doable after figuring out and strategy and playing safe. (took a 17min battle to win)

If you level up too fast obviously game is gonna be easy. And to be honest, XIII was easy too, it's difficulty it's overstimated, and I certainly don't know why. I never died except on two randoms one-hit deaths of party leader on bart battles and 2 trys on Odin until I got the idea. Then we got the farming turtles part, but that was a matter of leveling and upgrading your weapons, when you're powerful enough they are cakewalk too.

 

[R_thanatos]

Just throwing it out there, I predict the Lightning DLC in May will come with a Hard difficulty setting.

If they tie a trophy to that then once more into the breach dear friend.

I'm pretty sure they said that they won't add new trophies...
( that's why the colliseum battles don't have trophies either )

 

[Dark Schala]

Just throwing it out there, I predict the Lightning DLC in May will come with a Hard difficulty setting.

It's too bad if they end up doing that because I'm completely done with the game. I don't really wish to touch it for a while.

No, actually, if they end up releasing one and charging for it, that's a pretty foolish thing to do, imo. Shit should've been built-in.

Yeah the Casino achievements difficulty is blown WAY over.

For the fragment just play the slots for 1-1.5 hour. Or you can use autoplay.

You should've seen me complain about the slots trophy for days in this thread. The damned thing won't let me get the fragment or the money even when I set it to autoplay for several hours. Even if I had the FFXIII item on.

I ended up getting the plat after 50-something hours (probably 56-57 hours), but still.

Spoiler

Etro did it during the miracle ( end of ff13). Probably the same reason why lightning reached valhala without trying ..etro pulling the strings BECAUSE Someone wouldn't be satisfied ( Caius )

Spoiler

I've discussed this in the spoiler thread, but I think Etro is a completely foolish deity, and she didn't do anything for Caius's sake. She essentially did it 'just because' since the game never gave an indication as to why she did anything except out of 'love' for the people whom she had essentially created. That's a rather twisted version of love and caring given that she does some extremely stupid things.

About the easy difficulty, you just need to force yourself to use the same system XIII did.

Limit your leveling to one crystarium level per boss of the main history. There you have your balanced game. I did that on my 2nd run combined with using no monsters at all, and was a really challenging experience.

Spoiler

Serah vs Caius

was insane, but doable after figuring out and strategy and playing safe. (took a 17min battle to win)

If you level up too fast obviously game is gonna be easy. And to be honest, XIII was easy too, it's difficulty it's overstimated, and I certainly don't know why. I never died except on two randoms one-hit deaths of party leader on bart battles and 2 trys on Odin until I got the idea. Then we got the farming turtles part, but that was a matter of leveling and upgrading your weapons, when you're powerful enough they are cakewalk too.

I stopped grinding after finishing Bresha Ruins, actually (was doing the 100 consecutive PS trophy until Cheska and I realized that you could just PS and then restart battles for the trophy instead, lol), and ended up playing the game normally. The dragon boss in the Archlyte Steppe was still a bit of a pushover, and I remember people saying they had difficulty with that one at the time despite likely being levelled higher than I was (since I was directly going from point A-> point B rather than mucking around and grinding for a bit).

I've said it in this thread before, and other people have said this to me at the time when I'd played the game, but my playstyle probably is quite different from other people's. I mean, shit, look at the Graces f thread: I'm one of the crazies who went through that game on Chaos. Twice. And I still had a few issues with some bosses on my second playthrough. And I'm still gonna do it on a third playthrough (the English one). Give me higher difficulty settings, though not necessarily ones that turn the enemies into bullet sponges (like Tales) as opposed to giving them different attacks or modifying their AI somewhat (like Ys, though Nightmare increases HP/damage output, in addition to handicapping the player).

I never really died in FFXIII either until postgame. I'd played that game in English and Japanese, so by the time my English playthrough rolled around, I had a bit of a better idea as to what to do, but late-postgame was completely new to me as I'd never attempted to get the platinum trophy on my Japanese playthrough.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

I did not grind in FF13-2 until post game. Here's where I died during normal playthrough:

- normal, story Royal Ripeness
- normal, story Gogmagog in the Yaschas Masiff
- last boss (last form of last boss)
- some random big-ass Cieth in Archylte Steppe
- first time vs Proto Behemoth

Every other boss I 5* on my first try including Pacos.

 

[Dark Schala]

Admittedly Proto Behemoth decimated Noel and Serah the first time they encountered it. :lol

I wasn't fast enough to get rid of it before it stood up on those hind legs. Damage output was pretty brutal until I'd levelled SEN up a little and got Reprieve, and levelled Noel's Enhancer somewhat. And got the chain attack bonus weapons/atb-speed weapons instead of the chaos crystal weapons (brute force never really seemed to cut it properly). I was very tempted to try to use a monster as bait, but I'm stubborn.

 

[turnbuckle]

Do it. The XIII-2 plat is way more bearable than the XIII plat outside of slots (oh God, slots).

It's mentioned in the spoiler thread somewhere, but

Spoiler

Serah gets the Eyes of Etro from Etro herself, the ability awakened after she's released from crystal stasis with the other FFXIII characters at the end of FFXIII

.


Was that me? :lol

Probably. I was trying to see if I could beat full-powered Atlas in the demo, but I didn't think giving my PS3 a beating was quite worth it. I played the demo for 8-10 hours, maybe? I got pretty far in the Crystarium, though!

lol, I put my PS3 through that trial and beat full-powered Atlas in the demo. I remember that battle being so fun and challenging that I only got more hyped for the final release...which sadly is just about the easiest RPG I've ever played. I'm having difficulty thinking of one that could be easier.

This game needs a new game + with all the Syn+Sab abilities available and all the monsters having better material drops + jacked up difficulty. It's sad to see so much wasted potential. Loved the monster collecting system, loved the battle system, loved the soundtrack...really, the only things lacking to me is the difficulty and the grinding necessary to collect materials to level up monsters. I'd have preferred monsters to gain CP through battles they participated in.

 

[frequency]

I didn't grind at all and my encounter with Proto-Behemoth wasn't any different than any other encounter. Maybe I got lucky?

I never died in this game.

I haven't done post game stuff and probably won't though.

 

[Dark Schala]

lol, I put my PS3 through that trial and beat full-powered Atlas in the demo. I remember that battle being so fun and challenging that I only got more hyped for the final release...which sadly is just about the easiest RPG I've ever played. I'm having difficulty thinking of one that could be easier.

This game needs a new game + with all the Syn+Sab abilities available and all the monsters having better material drops + jacked up difficulty. It's sad to see so much wasted potential. Loved the monster collecting system, loved the battle system, loved the soundtrack...really, the only things lacking to me is the difficulty and the grinding necessary to collect materials to level up monsters. I'd have preferred monsters to gain CP through battles they participated in.

Mine is a BC 80 gig, so I worry about it sometimes. *knocks on wood* I've probably played easier games than this, but it's just rather jarring given that the previous game was more difficult than its sequel.

I wish there was a way to lower your level/stats if you rewound time in the Historia Crux. Paradox Scope was an interesting way of tweaking the difficulty for a few boss fights, but I'd rather have the difficulty tweaked at all times. If only the game weren't so easy, I wouldn't be looking at it with indifference.

I didn't grind at all and my encounter with Proto-Behemoth wasn't any different than any other encounter. Maybe I got lucky?

I never died in this game.

I haven't done post game stuff and probably won't though.

You probably did get lucky since it's probably the case that he didn't stand up and replenish his HP if you were able to get the battle done quickly. It's only when he stands up and replenishes HP that you're in trouble since it sweep attacks quickly like a bastard.

I died at the hands of Proto-Behemoth, but not any other time. I imagine that if I'd used monsters for that battle, it may not have been as much of a struggle, especially with a SEN monster with Fringeward and other skills like that.

 

[Diablos]

How do I get the

Spoiler

Fate and Freedom

ending? I closed the gate... meh

edit: Wow, all of the post-game stuff is kicking my ass.

Spoiler

Caius in Oerba 200AF is rough, I keep losing. Atlas is a beast, can't beat him either. I don't even want to know what the Augusta Tower fights will be like. Holy crap are these paradox ending bosses HARD. Or perhaps I'm doing something wrong...?

 

[frequency]

You probably did get lucky since it's probably the case that he didn't stand up and replenish his HP if you were able to get the battle done quickly. It's only when he stands up and replenishes HP that you're in trouble since it sweep attacks quickly like a bastard.

I died at the hands of Proto-Behemoth, but not any other time. I imagine that if I'd used monsters for that battle, it may not have been as much of a struggle, especially with a SEN monster with Fringeward and other skills like that.

Ah so I got lucky in killing them before they regenerated health. All the Behemoths in the game stood up for me as they were about to die. Like, I kill them as they're in the standing up animation.

Those two cat-in-a-jar things in the Proto-Behemoth encounter took me longer to kill.


I might've been over-leveled too. I never grinded, but I never skipped fights either. I never skip fights in RPGs.

 

[Dark Schala]

How do I get the

Spoiler

Fate and Freedom

ending? I closed the gate... meh

It's been a few months, but if I recall correctly,

Spoiler

You have to close the gate at Academia 4XX, give Alyssa all of the cores again, send yourself into the void, fight Void Caius again, and then accept Lightning's proposal when asked.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Admittedly Proto Behemoth decimated Noel and Serah the first time they encountered it. :lol

I wasn't fast enough to get rid of it before it stood up on those hind legs. Damage output was pretty brutal until I'd levelled SEN up a little and got Reprieve, and levelled Noel's Enhancer somewhat. And got the chain attack bonus weapons/atb-speed weapons instead of the chaos crystal weapons (brute force never really seemed to cut it properly). I was very tempted to try to use a monster as bait, but I'm stubborn.

I was "in the dark" when it comes to this game and did not follow any official thread on it so I did not know the danger of Mr Proto. When I encountered him I immediately focused on Schrodinger's cats as I suspected they would heal him. Well I could not for a long time as he was hitting hard so I moved to him. Alas my paradigm was not the -X one and my full power was scattered on all the 3 enemies. I did not manage to kill him before he started his transformation.

When he stood on his hindlegs it was gameover for me.

You probably did get lucky since it's probably the case that he didn't stand up and replenish his HP if you were able to get the battle done quickly. It's only when he stands up and replenishes HP that you're in trouble since it sweep attacks quickly like a bastard.

I died at the hands of Proto-Behemoth, but not any other time. I imagine that if I'd used monsters for that battle, it may not have been as much of a struggle, especially with a SEN monster with Fringeward and other skills like that.

This is exactly the case.

You should never, ever allow him to stand on his hindlegs. With a maxed out party he still hits for 5000k damage in one sweep. The only strategy for this fight is use Cerberus-X and KILL HIM as soon as possible. No buffs, no debuffs, no staggering, no Schroedingers. Just concentrate on Proto and kill him before he stands up.

 

[Diablos]

It's been a few months, but if I recall correctly,

Spoiler

You have to close the gate at Academia 4XX, give Alyssa all of the cores again, send yourself into the void, fight Void Caius again, and then accept Lightning's proposal when asked.

Thanks. Now if only the rest of the endings were that easy to obtain (see my edited post). Having trouble. I figured my levels would be good enough.

 

[WesternHeretic]

I didn't grind on this game either, but I did do a lot of fragment quest before the main ending and the next thing I know I was damn near maxed out. Making the post game a cake walk....

 

[R_thanatos]

I didn't grind at all and my encounter with Proto-Behemoth wasn't any different than any other encounter. Maybe I got lucky?

I never died in this game.

I haven't done post game stuff and probably won't though.

You did get lucky..
There are several traps that might be avoidable but are there for any kind of rpg veterans.

Not to mention raspatil if you wish to go for the plat or the first time you reach proto bahamut.

For example there is this cieth in academia 400AF on a total dead end ( you have to actually explore to fight him ( he is a unique monster ) if you reach him normally he has enough strenght to one-shot you ( pretty much 5000 to 6500 damage ) if you don't know or don't have the necessary information you'll die .

Proto behemot is another example... anyone accustomed to ff13 or ff13-2 would think that getting rid of the schroddingers is the right solution when you have to focus on the behemot before he has any time to do a set of attacks..

i won't talk about raspatil that will inevitably summon a set of ceith samurais past the 18 minute mark and believe me 7 cieth samurais + raspatil is UNMANAGEABLE even for a well rounded party ..you have to kill raspatil before you reach that point

proto bahamut ....how can you manage to know that terra flare does so much damage beforehand ? you have to taste it first

It's too bad if they end up doing that because I'm completely done with the game. I don't really wish to touch it for a while.

Spoiler

I've discussed this in the spoiler thread, but I think Etro is a completely foolish deity, and she didn't do anything for Caius's sake. She essentially did it 'just because' since the game never gave an indication as to why she did anything except out of 'love' for the people whom she had essentially created. That's a rather twisted version of love and caring given that she does some extremely stupid things.

I hope that there is a united will behind etro ..because i certainly can't accept that ^^^alone as an escuse for everything she does.
Ps: if they patch hard mode ..i still won't play it

 

[Diablos]

or the first time you reach proto bahamut.

First time? You mean he's hard the first time, or you have to 5 star him the first time go get the trophy?

Perhaps I should collect all the fragments before I attempt to get all the endings... is that what most people have done?

 

[StoppedInTracks]

You did get lucky..
For example there is this cieth in academia 400AF on a total dead end ( you have to actually explore to fight him ( he is a unique monster ) if you reach him normally he has enough strenght to one-shot you ( pretty much 5000 to 6500 damage ) if you don't know or don't have the necessary information you'll die .

That and the other gigantic one in Archylte Steppe. Normal random encounter that can wipe you out in 2 turns.

Proto behemot is another example... anyone accustomed to ff13 or ff13-2 would think that getting rid of the schroddingers is the right solution when you have to focus on the behemot before he has any time to do a set of attacks..

Hehe, exactly see my post above.

i won't talk about raspatil that will inevitably summon a set of ceith samurais past the 18 minute mark and believe me 7 cieth samurais + raspatil is UNMANAGEABLE even for a well rounded party ..you have to kill raspatil before you reach that point

Exactly. I was doing pretty well against Rapstail for the first time (got him down to 50% health) then out of nowhere there were 5 Wladislaus around me. They literally minced me.

proto bahamut ....how can you manage to know that terra flare does so much damage beforehand ? you have to taste it first

Actually if you played any FF title before you should know that when you see a boss enemy saying:

COUNT 3
COUNT 2
COUNT 1

MAJOR problems are ahead, lol.

 

[Diablos]

Actually if you played any FF title before you should know that when you see a boss enemy saying:

COUNT 3
COUNT 2
COUNT 1

MAJOR problems are ahead, lol.

Such a pain in the ass. Thank goodness for Flantor and Hyper Rescue. Saved my ass. Not sure if I would have been able to get through the battle without him.

 

[frequency]

Yeah when I saw the count, I just switched to MED/MED/MED when it was at 1.

In any RPG ever, you should know a count down timer means some damage is incoming.

And I knew to kill Proto-Behemoth first because... I don't know. I just knew. Maybe it was a learned behaviour from FFXIII. If the small guys were MEDs I'd focus on them, but they weren't. They're like SABs or something.

 

[turnbuckle]

I didn't grind on this game either, but I did do a lot of fragment quest before the main ending and the next thing I know I was damn near maxed out. Making the post game a cake walk....

Yup, I had replayed the first 80% of the game a couple times. First time I grinded early to make my monsters strong...found myself maxed before doing 2/4 of the bosses in Archelyte

Second time I wanted to collect and upgrade just a couple of key monsters and didn't want to get too strong, but got maxed after killing Yomi.

Third and final time through I didn't hunt for any specific monsters, just wanted to get all the fragments I possibly could before continuing with the story and I still found myself maxed out before I got to A Dying World or whatever.

It's a shame that the game I'd really like to get some kind of "international version tweak" has ended up selling so poorly. Just a few tweaks to the game could have put this one solidly in my top 5 FF games, instead it lies squarely in the bottom half.

 

[Diablos]

Gancanagh is pretty awesome, btw. Really helps accelerate the amount of time it takes to stagger enemies. Goblin Rush is nice, too.

 

[R_thanatos]

First time? You mean he's hard the first time, or you have to 5 star him the first time go get the trophy?

Perhaps I should collect all the fragments before I attempt to get all the endings... is that what most people have done?

First time. One you have all the fragments , you probably will have a maxed crystarium and as such you'll probably get 5 star going for the secret ending.

You're required to fight the final boss at least twice anyway for the plat.

Exactly. I was doing pretty well against Rapstail for the first time (got him down to 50% health) then out of nowhere there were 5 Wladislaus around me. They literally minced me.

i know the feeling..the first time i killed them ..but i took too much time and then ... he summonned 7 (!!!) the next time i was like ... F.......

Actually if you played any FF title before you should know that when you see a boss enemy saying:

COUNT 3
COUNT 2
COUNT 1

MAJOR problems are ahead, lol.

I know but i was actually moving the camera with right stick because i wanted to look at the sphere he lands on the ground that will exploded if you don't destroy them first ... i wanted to be sure i had no more surprises ..so i moved the camera and i missed the countdown... i Saw a "1" but not the "2" or "3" and then ... BAM

Not to mention i had ( at the time only a MED - SEN - MED for healing ) i didn't need more untill that fight ... ( since i did the steppe post game )

Yeah bad luck...

 

[Ricker]

Damn I came so close to beating that whole last Boss section on normal,god so close...I will try and boost my Flanitor by merging him with the Spintharos(or whatever its called lol,it's the small plant thing that was my first real Medic after Cat Sith),his Rescue heal thing is really useful...I have a Pulse Soldier as a Sentinel and a good Synergist...also the Cactuar has a fettered something skill,what does that do...is he good to try in a party...

 

[rataven]

Going after this Giant's Fist trophy has been nothing short of a farce. Noel's cyrstarium is completely maxed. He's accessorized up to about ~1350 strength. Serah, similar situation, only with magic.

So I find my Long Gui buddy, and go through the routine to knock out his legs. When he's down, I hit him with DeProtect, and my party with Bravery. Next, I nail him with Relentless Assault while he's lying there until he's staggered and the chain gauge is at 999%. Switch to Cerberus, pound, pound, pound, and then ready Meteor Javelin just as the gauge runs out. 60K, 30K, 50K.....95K. I have done this over and over and over and can not get 99K.

So then, I throw on my Sergeant's Badge that dropped from the Amodar battle. Now Noel is poisoned, but his strength is ~1600. 1600!!! Go into battle, repeat all my steps. Meteor Javelin. 98K.........

What is wrong with my Noel? Why can't he break 99K?! I'm completely confused. I'm reading on the internet that people earned the trophy with only 800 strength. Argh argh what the hell?!

 

[Supermanisdead]

I think Smite does it better. That's how I got it and I only had 1100 Strength.