R_thanatos
Member
Oh right ... Perfectly understable , then ..
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 |OT| Change the Future
- Thread starter Kagari
- Start date
Oh right ... Perfectly understable , then ..
I've been asking this shit like three times so far, and I'll I get is "LOL LOL ENDING LOL".
I can forgive a shoddy ending if the rest of the game holds up within a reasonable level. Are the characters likeable? Are there entertaining scenarios?
But more then anything I just want to know if it's equal to, better, or worse then Third Birthday.
I can forgive anything else as long as it doesn't reach those levels of stupidity.
Also, I'm pretty sure there are people who believe Versus won't come out. Or is going to be automatically terrible based on nothing.
ZephyrFate
Banned
The story is very similar to Chrono Cross', with a bit more mystery thrown in. If that isn't your cup of tea, neither will XIII-2 I think.
Rahxephon91
Banned
I don't think it's going to automatically be terrible, but I don't have hype for it. Which is probably a good thing because any game can go anyway. But I do have reasons. I hate Advent Children and don't like Kingdom Hearts. Those are the last things the same people who worked on Versus did. That doesn't inspire confidence. Not only that, they have set their bar high. They are talking about bringing a lot of high concept things to FF and talking about how they are going to do all this stuff. I mean that could easily fail. Then the fact that the game is taking forever to come out. I think some cynicism should be allowed, hell a lot more if you aren't actually pleased with Square's other recent games.
At least with XIII and it's sequels its working with a base I know and like.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
But I like FF. D:
And the reaction does not seem to be limited to GAF.
To be fair, only 2-3 people got their game last week. Regardless, a few people who have been watching streams or have been playing through it have tried to answer some of these questions since the game's release. It certainly isn't the same, but again--only a few people got it last week. The majority are going to get it this week.
I think it's mostly a few people who are saying that tongue-in-cheek.
Noel is a reasonably good lead character, imo. I think he's a much better male hero than Snow is. He seems to take the initiative in a more logical fashion. And, uh,
I think his friendship/comradery with Serah is far, far, far more believable than Serah's relationship with Snow.
A few of the paradox endings are pretty entertaining. If I talked about some of the characters, though, I feel like I'd be spoiling it for you. There is one particular character whom I've come to genuinely dislike due to his/her mannerisms and dialogue, and in one
optional
he/she gets his/her comeuppance
Chocolina's just like... she comes out of nowhere. @_@
Edit: There's one scenario bit that I thought was pretty intriguing, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone. I thought the way it was presented to the player was pretty cool.
Eh... the story's kind of confusing now that I've seen the entirety. Sometimes you
go into the future to change things in the past. There's one part of the game that's pretty interesting with a neat artstyle... and I think parts of that bit are written in an interesting way, but after that, the story takes a tumble. There's one character in particular whose behaviour/stuff that happens to him/her that's just a little confusing.
Riposte
Member
It seems this part of the game, which is to say the main part of the game, really suffered because they removed power limits on the player.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Yeah, there was one player who
was fighting a Long Gui, had sub-par Optima and still won against it. The Gui's HP was high, but it seemed much easier to fight this time around. There are, however, some enemies that require you to design prime Optima, and these are the rare encounter enemies. Players who used the same Optima throughout the game had issues with these particular encounters, even if their Crystarium is maxed. But yeah, removing the level cap (as much as I like the idea) seems to have given the game some balancing issues... this is especially evident when the player is looking for extra fragments, are maxed out and are just taking on quests that you'd expect to be hard but end up being easy.
I would be inclined to disagree with you, but in either of the two streams, I have seldom ever seen some one bring out the Saboteur/Synergist roles. It's pretty much all Ravager or a mix of something and medic, usually just being able to power on through.
ZephyrFate
Banned
There are still plenty of encounters where even power limits aren't good enough.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
...which stunned me a little because I relied on those roles + Defender quite a bit to spice things up in FFXIII.
But... (late game enemy spoilers)
the rare encounters like against the Metal Gigantuar or against the powerful, high-HP monster that kept summoning high-level Cie'th as backup would probably push the player to do it.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
To be honest, I thought the ending was (this isn't game spoilers at all, and if I mention an ending, it's very vague)
kind of a funny cap on the confusing saga of FFXIII-2. Random stuff happened sometimes in the game, and a load of random stuff happened in the ending (actually one thing made a lot of sense after reflecting on some of the story events, but I wasn't really expecting it to happen). I wouldn't expect much from the story, but the ending itself is pretty batshit (in an amusing way). I imagine that some fans will not be happy at all about... well, not just the ending, but also some of the story bits. I think cancelling a preorder based on the ending is a little silly, though I definitely understand where people are coming from with their argument and disappointment.
As I've stated before, I'm in this for the game part of it... and there's a lot of game, looking at some of the clocked times (even if some of it does seem like padding). The gameplay's improved a lot because they've added formations, used the weapon modification system for something else that seems to make more sense, introduced more enemies
and rare encounters
In fact, I heard that some people (not on GAF) have been complaining about the complexity of the maps for some reason. :O
UberTag
Member
Based on what I saw on the streams it still sounds like that.
Have to completely agree Kagari. Its a shame too considering the game itself looks awesome to play and it is filled with content. However this story issue needs to be addressed. I am all for more story from DLCs but I think people to know something is coming.
edit: oh my! member status achievement!
Gratz on your member status. Anyway, from the impressions of the story from what I hear on this thread, I don't think I should expect anything.
ZephyrFate
Banned
I think people should be going for this game due to how fun the gameplay is. Story shouldn't be that big of a turn off and it's your own fault for not liking an ending YOU spoiled yourself on.
AlphaDragoon
Member
Oh, I fully expected disappointment after The Third Bomba.
It's just hilarious HOW badly Toriyama fucked it up this time.
From what I hear, the battles aren't as good as XIII. That means that I'm probably not going to enjoy it. By good, I mean difficulty.
Sounds fantastic to me!
ZephyrFate
Banned
There are plenty of tough battles in to be had in XIII-2. Just as many as XIII, I'd wager.
I would disagree, but then I'm overleveled... which didn't happen on purpose, mind you.
Seriously?
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Not getting a game because of disliking the ending is pretty silly. I think some people on GameFAQs are considering not getting the game as a result of the ending itself.
I do, however, get where some people are coming from on one side of the argument, though.
Noel is pretty good. And Caius is a better villain than the ones in XIII by far... he's far more threatening, tbh.kayos90 said:
For anyone curious how this runs on PS3/360
Cutscene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YBUHlBIOUs
PS3 gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj2G4AOuypk&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
360 gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsd4twr1CSY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Cutscene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YBUHlBIOUs
PS3 gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj2G4AOuypk&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
360 gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsd4twr1CSY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
ZephyrFate
Banned
From what I've read of impressions on SomethingAwful, the ending does actually make sense, it's just incredibly depressing. The immediate thought that there will be a XIII-3 is silly.. they're clearly setting up Story DLC.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
No, no... parts of the ending actually do make sense when you think about a few of the things that happened in the game.
I think it's more because it
does end on a sour note and closure for the events of XIII and XIII-2 isn't given to the player
AlphaDragoon
Member
This is what I figured. There's no way they could seriously intend to make people wait to buy yet another sequel...but what if they did? XD
http://blog.livedoor.jp/ps360/archives/53310037.html
Full comparison.
Framerate is better on PS3 according to the tests there.
So is the game more FUN than FFXIII?
Rahxephon91
Banned
Looks like they are pretty close. Good for those who game on the 360.
More of the
former, combined with a pretty lacking sense of closure.
Yeah, nothing like the XIII debacle. PS3 one seems a little smoother overall though likely due to the engine. Compression in the FMV is still fairly bad, however, and framerate.
Therein lies my issue with the situation because what I see of the story. it is not too bad at all. I was hoping for
the main story to be resolved and then new DLC scenarios focusing on side stories.
Well so far, I've read about people complaining about...
-Maps being too complex
-Game having DLC
-Story being too surprising and complex and not, quote, "the cliché that XIII was"
I swear, you guys will never be happy.
And for people who supposedly "really hate the XIII mythos and Toriyama's writing", you all seem really hyped to the point of going to watch the endings on japanese streams a month before the game's release
I kinda get why most of GAF didn't like XIII now...
-Maps being too complex
-Game having DLC
-Story being too surprising and complex and not, quote, "the cliché that XIII was"
I swear, you guys will never be happy.
And for people who supposedly "really hate the XIII mythos and Toriyama's writing", you all seem really hyped to the point of going to watch the endings on japanese streams a month before the game's release
I kinda get why most of GAF didn't like XIII now...
After playing three of his games, one of which having one of the worst written stories ever seen in an piece of fiction, I would like to find out sooner rather than later how this next foray into time-travel is.
With that out of the way, I can just resign hopes to focusing on the actual game part of the game.
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
Wait... so is this Prince of Persia 2008 all over again? Buy DLC to get the proper ending?
That makes absolutely no sense at all...
Other than the fact that you're obviously showing interest for something you find so terrible, there's also the fact that any story will look like shit if you watch the ending before everything else...
You guys have to admit that at this point, you actually want to hate Toriyama's story no matter how it turns out.
Or in my case, not buy it and don't care about the proper ending.
.... How, exactly? Should most just be like "Even though Toriyama has burned us multiple times before, we'll just hope that he's learned a thing or two since then" and start letting themselves get hyped? Might as well watch it so you know exactly what to expect. Or potentially, some people don't actually care that much about being surprised about the story in a game like this.
This is getting pretty conspiracy-esque for no real reason. If Toriyama's story was good, I don't think people would have a problem admitting that. "Oh no, I HATE good stories in my video games!" I mean, come come on. And if it did turn out good enough, more people would be like "Cool, I'll wait until the English version to fill in most of the gaps" and that's it. You can construe this as a conspiracy about wanting to hate him, but given his writing so far, he's not leaving a lot to work with.