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["God's Beard!"]

XIII's Japanese sales were pretty great. But I guess context dosent show in graphs.

I'm also not sure how that graph shows how gamers vote with their wallets. Did gamers want more teen angst in 9?

Debut sales have a lot to do with reputation, which could help explain why ffix debuted higher than X, despite X having much higher lifetime sales. VIII was coming off the heels of the incredibly popular VII, but wasn't as well liked in the long run.

 

[desu]

I think it does. Many of the new environments are gorgeous.

It's superior to x-2 for sure, but IMHO the amount of new awesome environments is rather low. Only neo bodhum and academia sticked out for me, the rest was rather bland and mostly recycled stuff from the past game.

 

[ZephyrFate]

It's superior to x-2 for sure, but IMHO the amount of new awesome environments is rather low. Only neo bodhum and academia sticked out for me, the rest was rather bland and mostly recycled stuff from the past game.

Vile Peaks snow version was awesome to me. As was the redone Archylte Steppe.

 

[desu]

Vile Peaks snow version was awesome to me. As was the redone Archylte Steppe.

To each is own I guess, my better half and me thought vile peaks was totally boring. The steppe only nice thing is the added higher grass, but that's sadly about it.

 

[desu]

So I got my platinum today and I thought I should write about the game once again since my earlier impressions weren't all that kind to the game, not sure if my feelings towards the game have changed all that much.

Story part (without doing too much side quest stuff)
Can't say I had too much fun here, except the final boss the game is just so easy that it hurts (on normal difficulty which is sadly the highest in the game), even quite a few of the bosses are just fodder. Therefor its no wonder that you will need only three roles (atk,bla,hlr) and like 3 paradigms (atk-atk-atk,atk-bla-bla,atk-bla-hlr) to finish almost everything in the story part. Staggering seems kind of harder so I played probably 50% with triple attacker since this was the fastest way to get rid of the mobs. Due to the low difficulty the fighting system cannot really shine and it felt really boring and downgraded to me most of the time (which was the worst for me since I mostly played this for the fighting system). Combined with a meh story and an even more meh ending this was really extremely disappointing experience.

Post game
I enjoyed this a little more than the story part, even though the offered content isn't all that great. For the optional bosses and some stronger enemies you will finally need def/jam roles, syn is kind of useless for the whole game. Still, its sad that most optional bosses are recycled from the last game and their difficulty isn't all that great either. Then you obviously have to find the 100+ fragments you might be missing. Lots of those are just item fetch quest, some however involve the annoying casino or rather stupid puzzle mini games.

General game things

1. Roles/Skills
As pointed out, some roles are only needed for post game. Even worse is SYN for me. At least Noel/Serah cannot learn any useful skills in that role, skills like Elemental Weapons/Armors as well as Bravery are Monster exclusive and I kind of feel mad that they gimped this role so much. There is no more castable Haste in the game either and the ultimate attacks can only be performed once a fight due to balancing.

2. Weapons/Accessories
Honestly, I feel they are so pointless for the story as well as post game time. As said, the game is easy and putting a lot of time into getting some weapons seems pointless to me, especially since the ultimate weapon(s) in this game are not one the ones a player can hold but your monsters … but more on that later. Accessories now have a weight limit so you will need to put more work into finding the right combination, not that the game ever really requires you to even use them at all (maybe once or twice to have better resistance against negative status effects).

3. Monsters
I don't really like monsters and wish we had more real characters, but I admit that the best part of the game are the monsters. I still wish the the system itself was more complex but there is a fair share of cool monsters and the ability to put on accessories is kind of neat too (at least my gf liked some of the very funny combinations you can do). Overall I think the monsters with the right training will be better than any of your characters in any role. For instance my ATK monster could be pretty much called ultimate weapon. He stomps Noel and makes him look like a character without any leveling, its just not funny anymore. I am sure its possible to make a ultimate SYN that is better than any of the main character too.

4. Mog clock
Kind of a step backward, kind of a step forward. Compared to 13 its totally annoying that you cant see who you will fight, also finding rare monsters ends up into ages of running around, hoping for that one important encounter you need. Some areas also have incredible high encounter rates so that there is a new encounter like every 5-10 steps which is rather annoying.
On the other hand the fights are super short now, if you hit the enemy within the time limit you will have auto haste and most normal encounters will end before haste even runs out. This is obviously rather practical if you need to farm items or gil, the days of long and hard fights against normal mobs are certainly gone (compared to 13).

5. Environments
Lots of recycling here, at least a couple of new environments made it into the game, my favorites are clearly Neo Bodhum AF700 and Academia. The rest is mostly a mix new environments with designs that existed in 13 already. The Casino looks cool but the mini games are totally lack luster and downright horrible. I really wish there had been more completely new designed environments. It also doesn't help that most of the areas in different times are just reskins, they don't actually change their layout all that much (or rather if at all). Also areas are a little more open now and sometimes allow alternative parts, but its really not all that different to 13, at least they can claim they worked on it now ...

6. Recycling
There is fair share of new stuff, much more than X-2 had. However the recycling is still very bad, there are like 5 new normal enemies and all the others are old ones with color swaps. Most of the bosses are new but even most of the optional bosses are recycled from the last game. I really wish there had been more real new content.

7. Optional endings
There are 9 but only 2 are worth it. One is the Flan ending which is rather funny, the other one is actually pretty cool because you can change time so that really bad things don't happen to begin with. However I feel like there is lots of lost potential here. Instead of just a short ending I wish they would rather have made separate playable story paths of what could happened after you changed some important decisions.

8. Story
The title for this game is just wrong, a better title would have been 13 Reloaded … combined with the fact that once again you might not really grasp a good portion of the story if you don't read the data log entries. When you see the ending you will probably be left with tons of questions and it certainly doesn't help that the game ends with "to be continued …". Because the question is when will be continued? Will we wait another 2 years for Final Fantasy 13 Revelations (which might not happen due to console life span and bad sales?), will we need to buy their dlc to get some answers or do we just need to buy the next novel and wait that someone translates it for us …?

9. DLC
I don't get why anyone would want to spend a cent on dlc for this game. The weapons are totally not needed because equipment is pointless in this game anyway. Costumes like the AC one are probably really cool but unless ALL of them are available on release date I don't see why anyone would go back to get some customs for a game he beat ages ago. The arena is boring too, Omega should have been in the game from the start and he isn't really a monster you need, just save the money and watch his fight once on youtube. Leaves us with the story dlc which apparently includes Sazh. Judging by the game, I doubt his story will be all that interesting, you're probably better of with youtube again.

10. OST
Overall it has some really good tracks, however until now I never had a FF game that had music that made me mute the music. Well that is over now, some of the vocal tracks are so horrible, it really freaked me out, I really hope that his massive vocal trend wont continue in other FF entries. However there are also some vocal tracks that are pretty cool and really fit the mood when they appear in the game.

Concusion

Overall this feels like FF13 redux for me, I always felt like 13 had tons of good ideas but they just threw away all of the potential they had. The same can be said about this game, it could have been so much better, however one of the big factors in this is probably the super short dev time, I am still kind of amazed that they got all this together in about 18 months. Like I said in my last post, 13 felt to me like everything was intended the way they wanted it, while in in 13-2 it feels like they just threw some shit together to make some quick extra bucks. Overall its a not a total shit game but its also far from super awesome game. If I had to rate it I would probably place it under 13 for me, I just enjoyed it overall far more than this game.

 

[MrDenny]

This guy on ebay has the standard edition for 35-45$. He flucuate the prices.
He also has the CE edition for 60$. Orders also come with a strategy guide.
He doesnt have much feedback though.

http://myworld.ebay.com/twotimemcwchamp/?_trksid=p4340.l2559

 

[Dark Schala]

Sounds like something that should be in every game.

Oh I went there.

With 2x fast-forward, it even speeds up the voice-acted dialogue. Unfortunately they don't sound like chipmunks. Damn it, SE!

it's a lot more quicker than Xillia that's for sure, in XIII-2 you unlock a lot of them very early, I think I only need the casino coins but it's only because you can spend an hour on it for absolutely nothing. I hate luck trophies -_- and even more when it's clearly rigged.

For the other trophies well it's easier or at least quicker than XIII for the most part, the big problem being getting all fragments. It's the only real time-consuming one because it implies doing almost all the other trophies ^^;
I'm at 154 myself, still need

Spoiler

2 big monsters, 2 paradox endings, 1 luck coin, "complete" enemy report

Thank you. My friend said he got a few trophies early on in the game during battle, but I'm surprised they could come quickly like that. So the FFXIII save barely does much to improve odds at the casino when looking for the "accumulate X amount of casino tokens" trophy? That kinda sucks. :/

Nice to know that the trophies this time around are a bit time-consuming rather than difficult. I heard/saw that the Guis are way easier this time around... ie: their difficulty seems to have been reduced to Adamantoise difficulty or slightly higher than that.

Also, for the trophies

Spoiler

defeated a powerful enemy with graceful poise, defeated a powerful enemy with valiant skill, and defeated a powerful enemy with perfect execution

what exactly do you have to do for these? They're quite vague... (lol, yeah, I'm preplanning strategies as to how to get trophies in the English version).

Story part (without doing too much side quest stuff)
Can't say I had too much fun here, except the final boss the game is just so easy that it hurts (on normal difficulty which is sadly the highest in the game), even quite a few of the bosses are just fodder. Therefor its no wonder that you will need only three roles (atk,bla,hlr) and like 3 paradigms (atk-atk-atk,atk-bla-bla,atk-bla-hlr) to finish almost everything in the story part. Staggering seems kind of harder so I played probably 50% with triple attacker since this was the fastest way to get rid of the mobs. Due to the low difficulty the fighting system cannot really shine and it felt really boring and downgraded to me most of the time (which was the worst for me since I mostly played this for the fighting system).

1. Roles/Skills
As pointed out, some roles are only needed for post game. Even worse is SYN for me. At least Noel/Serah cannot learn any useful skills in that role, skills like Elemental Weapons/Armors as well as Bravery are Monster exclusive and I kind of feel mad that they gimped this role so much. There is no more castable Haste in the game either and the ultimate attacks can only be performed once a fight due to balancing.

2. Weapons/Accessories
Honestly, I feel they are so pointless for the story as well as post game time. As said, the game is easy and putting a lot of time into getting some weapons seems pointless to me, especially since the ultimate weapon(s) in this game are not one the ones a player can hold but your monsters … but more on that later. Accessories now have a weight limit so you will need to put more work into finding the right combination, not that the game ever really requires you to even use them at all (maybe once or twice to have better resistance against negative status effects).

3. Monsters
I don't really like monsters and wish we had more real characters, but I admit that the best part of the game are the monsters. I still wish the the system itself was more complex but there is a fair share of cool monsters and the ability to put on accessories is kind of neat too (at least my gf liked some of the very funny combinations you can do). Overall I think the monsters with the right training will be better than any of your characters in any role. For instance my ATK monster could be pretty much called ultimate weapon. He stomps Noel and makes him look like a character without any leveling, its just not funny anymore. I am sure its possible to make a ultimate SYN that is better than any of the main character too.

4. Mog clock
Kind of a step backward, kind of a step forward. Compared to 13 its totally annoying that you cant see who you will fight, also finding rare monsters ends up into ages of running around, hoping for that one important encounter you need. Some areas also have incredible high encounter rates so that there is a new encounter like every 5-10 steps which is rather annoying.
On the other hand the fights are super short now, if you hit the enemy within the time limit you will have auto haste and most normal encounters will end before haste even runs out. This is obviously rather practical if you need to farm items or gil, the days of long and hard fights against normal mobs are certainly gone.

This hurts. I wanted more difficulty out of the CSB after playing FFXIII because the more difficult battles in FFXIII were the only times that the CSB was actually fun to play around with. If this is truly the case, I would hope that SE patches it with a Hard Mode. Making the CSB boring... even more boring than it was in the main game save for the Bart fights is disappointing, especially when the system finally showed its potential in the post-game Mark Hunts. I was hoping that FFXIII-2's iteration would build upon that and deliver battles with greater difficulty to finally let the system shine, but unfortunately, based on impressions, it's gone in the opposite direction?

Did you play with formations at all?

You're kidding. I was reading the JP wiki for this and looked at the ENH role abilities, and thought that the omission of Haste or En-/Bar- was just a mistake or people hadn't gotten it yet. That's quite unfortunate since ENH was a main part of my strategies, and seeing it gimped like this is slightly irksome. Was Jammer gimped in a way? In fact, was Defender gimped a little, because all you really needed was Mediguard/Steelguard for a super-good Defender.

I was wondering how the accessories system worked since my friend said you couldn't just equip all the accessories you wanted. So each accessory has a weight? Does your character have a limit out of 100 points, and the accessories need to add up to 100, or do their limits just increase as you level up the Crystarium?

It's unfortunate to see that the monsters have the possibility of trouncing the main characters' stats. I wasn't expecting that.

Your impressions of the Mog Clock are pretty interesting. My friend outright hated it, but it's mostly due to the fact that he hates random encounters now, apparently the encounter rate was quite high to him.

It's a little unfortunate that it seems like the only way to get Haste on the party is via a PE Strike. Heck, I think it's unfortunate that you can't pre-party buff at will anymore, since I barely used them. Getting PEs for the trophy sounds like a good idea, but after that? Ehhhh... It just seems like the game was made to be easier since the Mog Clock seems to run a little slowly to allow for equal footing or PE strikes. Though it's nice that enemies get buffed if you fail.

 

[jiggle]

sounding more and more like a wait4 19.95 bomba purchase

 

[The Last One]

What about the magics? There are more than XIII's?

 

[Lissar]

I was wondering how the accessories system worked since my friend said you couldn't just equip all the accessories you wanted. So each accessory has a weight? Does your character have a limit out of 100 points, and the accessories need to add up to 100, or do their limits just increase as you level up the Crystarium?

Yeah, it's a bit weird. You CAN get more points as you level up your Crystarium (with the max being 100), but when you gain a level you have to choose between several different upgrade options. More accessory points is only one of those options, and not really the most exciting one. Between an extra ATB bar, new rolls, and roll upgrades, who has time for accessory points? Short sighted perhaps, but the flashier things are more enticing. Then you have to pick which accessories to use with your available points. There are a variety of options for some accessories, with heavy and light options which take up less space but have a larger or smaller effect. But then there are the heavy hitters, like Ribbons, which take up all 100 points on their own.


Anyway, I finally started reading through some of the Fragments today. You can get a bit of what happened with Snow and Sazh out of that (and even that--get this--the chocobo chick is a girl and her name is Chocolina!) Unfortunately not much and I'm guessing they're waiting for DLC to give us the rest of the story. Either that or some of it is in the novel somewhere, which I haven't had time to read but I'm going to get to it today.

 

[sublimit]

Thanks for your impressions desu.The recycling of environments and monsters are some of the most disappointing aspects for me.I guess i'll wait for the price drop.

And "to be continued?"Lol.
For God's sake SE just focus on Versus.

 

[Zoe]

Anyway, I finally started reading through some of the Fragments today. You can get a bit of what happened with Snow and Sazh out of that (and even that--get this--the chocobo chick is a girl and her name is Chocolina!) Unfortunately not much and I'm guessing they're waiting for DLC to give us the rest of the story. Either that or some of it is in the novel somewhere, which I haven't had time to read but I'm going to get to it today.

Anything of particular interest in the fragments? I sit a little too far away from the TV to read them comfortably >_<

 

[jiggle]

The recycling of environments and monsters are some of the most disappointing aspects for me.

it's not surprising considering what happened in FFX-2
but at least that game tried to offer completely different gameplay

 

[Kagari]

Anything of particular interest in the fragments? I sit a little too far away from the TV to read them comfortably >_<

Shines some light on story crap... like

Spoiler

how Lightning just 'gives up' at the end. How stupid.

 

[sublimit]

it's not surprising considering what happened in FFX-2

X-2's recycling of Spira's world initially was one of my biggest disappointments in gaming ever.I felt like SE had stole my money.

but at least that game tried to offer completely different gameplay

Agreed.On my second playthrough i appreciated the game much more for what it offered.

 

[Lissar]

Anything of particular interest in the fragments? I sit a little too far away from the TV to read them comfortably >_<

There are a few things that are interesting (though especially in the Autoclips since it outlines major plot points that you don't get otherwise... kind of ridiculous.) Most of the Fragments stuff is fluff though. If you are heavily invested in the characters and world I'd say read them (extra stuff about Sazh, Snow, Nora, and Mog are of interest. There are a few small blurbs about other characters like Cid, Amodar, and Hope's dad.) but if not it isn't necessary to understand what's going on.

 

[Kagari]

What about the magics? There are more than XIII's?

There's actually less. IE, you can't get the Haste ability :|

 

[Flying Wonkey]

^^ Really? So not even a single monster has it or something?

 

[Kagari]

^^ Really? So not even a single monster has it or something?

Not that I've seen... the main characters can't get it at all though.

Also, desu is really spot on in his impressions. Everyone should listen to him!

 

[ZephyrFate]

Not that I've seen... the main characters can't get it at all though.

Also, desu is really spot on in his impressions. Everyone should listen to him!

So that... what, more people don't buy the game?

 

[Lissar]

Anyway, since I have a post here I might as well post an actual post.

So (major spoilers for end game)

Spoiler

What is with the whole making a man-made Cocoon anyway? I get that they seem to want to prove that they are as good as/better than the Fal'Cie by creating their own Cocoon and making a Fal'Cie to power it. But really, aside from the ego trip thing, is there a reason? I haven't been able to get one out of everything that I've read. They've done so much by creating a life for themselves. No one (aside from Hope and Alyssa) were even alive during the Cocoon years by that time. Why would they want to move there when they have lived their whole lives in this city on Pulse? It doesn't make any sense! I really want there to be a reason, and a good one. Otherwise it seems like a whole lot of wasted labor.

 

[InternHertz]

Gawd, finally got that stupid casino trophy. You need to win the coins in the chocobo races and not from slot machines -_-

But at least I got the lucky coin, so I'm down to 5 fragments left. And for that I'll need to grind ingredients to make a beast attacker and one armored defender.

 

[Kagari]

So that... what, more people don't buy the game?

I'm saying he's honest.

 

[desu]

Also, for the trophies

Spoiler

defeated a powerful enemy with graceful poise, defeated a powerful enemy with valiant skill, and defeated a powerful enemy with perfect execution

what exactly do you have to do for these? They're quite vague... (lol, yeah, I'm preplanning strategies as to how to get trophies in the English version).


This hurts. I wanted more difficulty out of the CSB after playing FFXIII because the more difficult battles in FFXIII were the only times that the CSB was actually fun to play around with. If this is truly the case, I would hope that SE patches it with a Hard Mode. Making the CSB boring... even more boring than it was in the main game save for the Bart fights is disappointing, especially when the system finally showed its potential in the post-game Mark Hunts. I was hoping that FFXIII-2's iteration would build upon that and deliver battles with greater difficulty to finally let the system shine, but unfortunately, based on impressions, it's gone in the opposite direction?

Did you play with formations at all?

You're kidding. I was reading the JP wiki for this and looked at the ENH role abilities, and thought that the omission of Haste or En-/Bar- was just a mistake or people hadn't gotten it yet. That's quite unfortunate since ENH was a main part of my strategies, and seeing it gimped like this is slightly irksome. Was Jammer gimped in a way? In fact, was Defender gimped a little, because all you really needed was Mediguard/Steelguard for a super-good Defender.

I was wondering how the accessories system worked since my friend said you couldn't just equip all the accessories you wanted. So each accessory has a weight? Does your character have a limit out of 100 points, and the accessories need to add up to 100, or do their limits just increase as you level up the Crystarium?

It's unfortunate to see that the monsters have the possibility of trouncing the main characters' stats. I wasn't expecting that.

Your impressions of the Mog Clock are pretty interesting. My friend outright hated it, but it's mostly due to the fact that he hates random encounters now, apparently the encounter rate was quite high to him.

It's a little unfortunate that it seems like the only way to get Haste on the party is via a PE Strike. Heck, I think it's unfortunate that you can't pre-party buff at will anymore, since I barely used them. Getting PEs for the trophy sounds like a good idea, but after that? Ehhhh... It just seems like the game was made to be easier since the Mog Clock seems to run a little slowly to allow for equal footing or PE strikes. Though it's nice that enemies get buffed if you fail.

You get those trophies for killing certain monsters like Antilla or a boss in the final dungeon with 5 stars, not too hard.

Jammer seemed okay, Defender is still pretty powerful.

I didnt use formations at all, kind of sad.

Lissar already explained the Acc system very well, pretty much spot on.

After I got platinum I checked some YT videos out. Seems you can get some nice role improvements and ATB regen from accessories. That player's Noel dealt far more damage than mine and closed up the damage gap to the team monster a lot. However it doesn't change that you basically don't even need to bother with all of that. Just get one strong monster and you can already beat everything in the game without breaking a sweat. For me personally there is no reason to put in another 50h of my limited time to be able to beat a random boss in half of the time I needed previously (which was still more than enough to 5 star the boss...).

As for the Mog Clock, I can totally understand people absolutely hating it. What annoyed me a lot was that monsters spawn behind you, you need to run back to them to get the haste bonus. After the fight you need to remember that you were running into the opposite direction that you actually wanted to run ... so I sometimes ended up running into wrong directions due to the fights.
Also with high encounter rate, you run back, fight, run forward, encounter and you run back again ... which means you barely make ground at all.

 

[Toth]

Now given that there have been an ample amount of impressions, all signs appear to indicate to me the game is simply a fun look at the world after FF13 with a decent story but one lacking resolution and relativity. The difficulty also is a big concern for me seeing as people are having so little trouble and leveling appears too quick and easy. I really wanted to believe SE was trying to make due on their promises for the game but it appears they have only partly succeeded, a very strange oddity considering how boisterous they were about listening to fan requests.

Still super psyched for the release though and I hope to enjoy it as much as I enjoyed X-2 (outside of the overly 'girly' scenes). I am just hoping SE will let fans know soon if the main story of 13-2 will be resolved through DLC.

 

[Riposte]

Has anyone done a "level 1" run yet? Maybe the only way the game is fun. In any case if SE patched in a hard mode or, better yet, good level caps I would be back on day one.

 

[ZephyrFate]

Has anyone done a "level 1" run yet? Maybe the only way the game is fun. In any case if SE patched in a hard mode or, better yet, good level caps I would be back on day one.

I don't think because the game's easy that it's any less fun. In fact, it sounds even more fun for me, and I love hard games.

 

[Jeels]

So what are the chances of a hard mode day one for the western launch?

 

[The Xtortionist]

Not liking these impressions, but I'll probably still get it, if only because there's not much else around that time...SSX comes out a month later.

 

[desu]

I don't think because the game's easy that it's any less fun. In fact, it sounds even more fun for me, and I love hard games.

That ... Doesn't make sense to me at all ... Rather sounds like some tries to make a game or rather an aspect of an game look good, even though it isn't.

Even on normal the games difficulty is a total joke, I guess even more so for people that already played 13. I really would have wished that it required at least a little more than just 3 paradigms/roles to beat like 99.99% of the story.

 

[ZephyrFate]

That ... Doesn't make sense to me at all ... Rather sounds like some tries to make a game or rather an aspect of an game look good, even though it isn't.

Even on normal the games difficulty is a total joke, I guess even more so for people that already played 13. I really would have wished that it required at least a little more than just 3 paradigms/roles to beat like 99.99% of the story.

Easy difficulty isn't a negative for me, and I don't see why it's a big deal. Neither is hard difficulty really. So long as the gameplay is fun, then I don't mind. Not like FF games are hard anyway.

 

[Flying Wonkey]

Not that I've seen... the main characters can't get it at all though.

Well how about monster infusion? And on monster infusion is it worth the effort through it? Or just find the strongest monster you can get and breeze through the game with it?

 

[desu]

Well how about monster infusion? And on monster infusion is it worth the effort through it? Or just find the strongest monster you can get and breeze through the game with it?

It is worth it, I infused like 10 monsters into mine, the result is a total killing machine.

My monster:

Most of the abilities are what you can get as maximum, like 30hp up, mag&phy resistence, atk up, plus some other neat abilities. His own crystarium also gives him quite a few nice abilities. Additionally I gave him some extra attack commands and abilities.

 

[InternHertz]

Mmmmh, lovely beast! How did you train him? 90% of PhysATK ingredients and 10% HP ingredients, or 100% PhysATK, or even something else? I need to farm PhysATK crystals before I can level him so I'm asking to see how much I'll need to grind ^^
And I really need to invest time into monster fusion, what I'm seeing here is clearly showing me why I can't beat some bosses yet (Attila owned me after 1mil...)

A broad question to whoever has the game, how do you train the different classes of monsters?
Until now I was using All-Status Up every time but I think I'm only getting so-so monsters.
So I thought something like this :

ATK, lots of physatk + a few hp
BLA, lots of magatk + a few hp
DEF, all hp
JAM/ENH/HLR, well if magatk affects sticking percentage or healing effects then fifty-fifty between magatk and hp

Thoughts?

Also, when you know you won't be able to choose every bonus after a crystarium level up, do you prefer ATB+1 or role bonus, if already at 4 bars?

 

[FateBreaker]

So that... what, more people don't buy the game?

Defensive!

Not liking these impressions, but I'll probably still get it, if only because there's not much else around that time...SSX comes out a month later.

There are a ton of RPGs coming out in the first quarter...just saying.

 

[The Xtortionist]

There are a ton of RPGs coming out in the first quarter...just saying.

In January? SSX, Mass Effect 3 and Twisted Metal will keep me busy through the rest of the first quarter. FF13-2 just comes out way before them.

 

[desu]

question

I always thought STR only items would be the best, but I think the ones with all 3 up are the best. I tried this with crystals: one str item gave me 1 str extra while the other one gave me 2 mag, 2 atk and some extra hp. Dont know if there is more to the items than that, like for example on what kind of crystarium node you put it. So i just farmed the crystal from kochus, by far the easiest and fastest way unless you buy them for 6k each. I farmed about 175 to 250 of those crystals in the stepps.

Also you dont need my monster, Kichu is a awesome attacker too, the guy that beat Attila in 2min used a Kichu as well.

For the abilities I followed this guide but added some own abilities, because the Nara already had Auto Brave:

&#12461;&#12481;&#12517;&#12540; &#21147;&#20840;&#25391;&#12426;&#20363;&#12288;HP5837&#12288;&#29289;1533&#12288;&#39764;448

&#20803;&#12450;&#12499;&#12522;&#12486;&#12451;&#12288;&#12471;&#12531;&#12463;&#12525;&#21152;&#36895;&#65291;&#12288;&#12450;&#12531;&#12469;&#12531;&#12502;&#12523; &#25915;&#25731;&#12375;&#12390;ATB&#22238;&#24489;
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&#12510;&#12483;&#12489;&#12501;&#12525;&#12483;&#12464;&#8592;&#12491;&#12515;&#12458;&#12510;&#12458;&#65288;&#39764;&#27861;&#32784;&#24615;35&#65285;&#65289;
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&#12510;&#12483;&#12489;&#12501;&#12525;&#12483;&#12464;&#8592;&#12493;&#12467;&#12510;&#12479;(HP30%)

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From: http://blog.game-de.com/ff13-2/f132-mons/

If you check the link, they have 2 pretty good Kichu builds there. That kichu will blast everything in the game away.

Other than a Kichu, you really dont need anything, except maybe a nice SYN with bravery and all other SYN skills but thats just for killing things even more faster than a Kichu enables you to.

In case you dont know where to get the Kichu, you get it by throwing the Mog into the flower field in the sunny stepps version.

As for what upgrade, I mostly have gone with role up, and if there is space left with atb up last.

 

[Perfo]

Speaking of the story's lenght, does this sequel feature less cutscenes than the previous one? I always play FF for the story so it'll be sad if they're drastically reduced.

 

[The Last One]

There's actually less. IE, you can't get the Haste ability :|

Well, that is something I wasn't expecting. It's really a shame, it should be at least the same amount of magic =/

 

[Zoe]

130/160 fragments, 44:35:17, 1 paradox ending

Still have to finish up Archylte Steppe, get all the fragments from AF4XX and Xanadu, and get the rest of the paradox endings

There are two fragments I missed though...

Spoiler

Vanille's and Fang's fragments...

Anybody know which gate I reverse time for? AF4XX?

 

[InternHertz]

For the abilities I followed this guide but added some own abilities, because the Nara already had Auto Brave

There's something don't understand with your &#12490;&#12521;&#12471;&#12531;&#12495; custom...if I level up that monster he's got the &#24369;&#32905;&#24375;&#39135; ability at level 15, and I don't see it on your screen.
How do you erase abilities you don't need, like that one?

Sometimes I want to infuse some abilities from a monster without adding them all, but I don't see anywhere how it's done, if at all possible.

EDIT : well I went with the kichu they propose, Attila down in 5m53 without breaking a sweat, and Yomi/Long Gui too

 

[Shawn6661]

Gamekult.com Import Review

The developers of Final Fantasy XIII-2 carefully noted all the bad things the Internet has criticized of their previous game to give us just the opposite. Too many hallways? We will give multiple paths. No NPCs or sidequests? We'll swing a ton of cats stuck in trees. Otherwise, the game continues on the solid foundation of its predecessor, namely the nervous and efficient combat system, good graphics, and a soundtrack that keeps on cutting bridges with the previous titles, and we eventually learn to accept it. Strange on paper, the result is very good despite a soft and misleading start. After four to five hours, the adventure finally takes off and the player begins to gain more freedom, discovering the richness of the parallel universes possible to explore. Very promising, the capture of monsters finally shine on the end where the game gets really difficult and demanding. Rich, varied and full of sidequests that are revealed gradually, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a great success. An encouraging return to the RPG as we knew it in the 90s.

+ a bold and full of surprises scenario
+ the bold concept of parallel worlds
+ capture and breed monsters
+ the fights are still dynamic and catchy
+ the awesome last boss

- fights are very easy on the first hours
- visiting always the same spots
- the multiple choice answers are useless

8/10 (editor's pick)

 

[RPGCrazied]

To be fair on the reuse of areas. X-2 was nothing but using of the old area's. So that really shouldn't be an issue.

 

[B.K.]

To be fair on the reuse of areas. X-2 was nothing but using of the old area's.

No it wasn't. X-2 had some new areas.

 

[ZephyrFate]

No it wasn't. X-2 had some new areas.

X-2 had the Bevelle underground, the Farplane Abyss, and that one weird puzzlefest machina dungeon. I can't recall anything else new.

 

[B.K.]

X-2 had the Bevelle underground, the Farplane Abyss, and that one weird puzzlefest machina dungeon. I can't recall anything else new.

I didn't say it had many new areas. It had a few, but you can't say that the game is only the old areas from X.

 

[Kagari]

The more I think about XIII-2's story, the more it irritates me.

 

[xion4360]

from what Ive seen Oerba is the only area thats taken directly out of 13 and even that is arranged slightly differently. Everything else even if originally from 13 is still basically a new area....

Its nothing like X-2 where stuff was taken directly out of X

 

[Rahxephon91]

That review sounds pretty good. Well I pre-orderd the CE. I'm pretty excited.

 

[Kagari]

I like how they give it an 8 yet say it returns to the '90s era RPGs.' I think FF Agito XIII is more suited for that description. And the last boss isn't really that awesome...