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FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 |OT| Change the Future

Tizoc

Member
Grats! How long did it take you?

Under 70 hours actually (why do I keep forgetting to mention that lol). I spent lots of hours grinding for Gil at the Eden Hallway before you take the portal to inner Eden/Orphan's Cradle. It was boring but I did it ;.;
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Hold on a minute, did they remove Elude?!? That was my favorite Sen ability. First Haste now this? Bah.
Both Serah and Noel are tank-type Defenders (like Fang, Vanille, Sazh and Snow) rather than evade Defenders (like Lightning and Hope). They would not need Elude since it would somewhat contradict with their tank ability set. The agile ability set doesn't really function very well against magic, and I'm guessing that there's a lot of magic usage in this game on the enemies' behalf. Edit: It's possible that some SEN monster allies might have this ability. Not sure. Maybe someone who's played the game may know.

I do find it strange that they only have seven abilities each (at least according to the wiki) and not much setting them apart, though. I would have expected Serah to share more of Lightning's more agile ability set, but instead, she shares Snow's. Noel is the one whom I had expected to share Snow's ability set. I think it's weird that one has Mediguard while one doesn't.

Some of the ability distributions in this game are kind of strange to me. In FFXIII, they kind of made sense for the character. For instance: Snow's the hero--he gets the best abilities in terms of being a Defender. Lightning's agile, so her Defender abilities play upon that strength. Hope is almost like Lightning's pupil, so he inherits her Defender abilities by default... and he has the "revenge"/counterattack abilities as well. Vanille is good as a support or mage character, like the yin to Fang's yang. And so on, and so forth...

It seems like monsters are there to substitute for deficiencies in Serah and Noel's ability sets...

Curiously, Noel has more Healer abilities than Serah, making him a superior healer to her.

Well I finally got it folks-

Major thanks to Dark Schalla for the tips, I took down that big blue turtle easier than I thought lol.

Looking forward to FF13-2, and hopefull the difficulty is upped in the Eng. release.
No problem. :D Which one was your last trophy? Treasure Hunter was mine and I got the Plat right after that one dinged for me.

And welcome back.

Can SEN pets attack?

My Iron robot thing has really high attack stats and HP but he doesn't really hit anything lol
They can counterattack provided they have the right skills like Vendetta and/or Entrench. Since the demo doesn't seem to provide items for the Crystarium Expanded monsters to level up (I'm assuming that you've maxed him out and the Crystarium expanded), and if you're saying that he can't counterattack, it's likely he doesn't have those abilities yet.

As for attacking normally, no. Sentinel monsters do not have the ability to attack normally. That's what COM monsters/characters are for.
 

Tizoc

Member
No problem. :D Which one was your last trophy? Treasure Hunter was mine and I got the Plat right after that one dinged for me.

And welcome back.

Thanks. My last one was taking down the big blue turtle. Good thing I didn't need to repurchase Lvl. 1 weapons again =3 I got bored from all those repeated battles haha.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Thanks. My last one was taking down the big blue turtle. Good thing I didn't need to repurchase Lvl. 1 weapons again =3 I got bored from all those repeated battles haha.
It's at times like those I wished I had a turbo controller and a rubber band or something lying around. -_- A lot of the trophy stuff during postgame was so boring.

Aha, speaking of which, apparently someone's gotten to level 99 COM for Noel and level 99 RAV for Serah in the demo likely by using a rubber band and a turbo controller. I'm a tad curious to see if he can beat Atlas at full strength, then...

I know that one of the FFXIII-2 streamers, Leta, did the boting thing while he slept to be overpowered in many instances.
 

Teknoman

Member


Glad to see more people who feel that way about XIII-2's soundtrack.

There are no real ultimate weapons in the game, there is a stronger weapon, giving you no abilities, or a weaker weapon that gives you an extra atb bar. Best fact for last, both are pretty useless since the game is so easy that these weapons make no difference, aquiring them is not worth the effort either ...

Well that sucks...
 
Aha, speaking of which, apparently someone's gotten to level 99 COM for Noel and level 99 RAV for Serah in the demo likely by using a rubber band and a turbo controller. I'm a tad curious to see if he can beat Atlas at full strength, then...

How did that work? Wouldn't they eventually run out of the area with enemies in it?

Interested in trying it out with my arcade stick since I don't have a turbo controller lol
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
How did that work? Wouldn't they eventually run out of the area with enemies in it?

Interested in trying it out with my arcade stick since I don't have a turbo controller lol
It's like how you'd do it back in the day: rubber band on the left stick forward so that the character runs against a tucked-in corner of a wall or cliff... OR manoeuvre the band and stick in such a way so that the character runs around in a circle. Tape down X with a stack of coins or battery, and keep it there with another rubber band OR set the turbo on X if you have a turbo controller. Kinda like this.

Test to see if it works. Go sleep/go to school/do something else if your setup is competent. Come back to either find dead party members or everyone at higher levels, or have more AP or CP, whatever.

I personally find that method unsatisfying but apparently it works.
 

CloudV

Member
Looking again back at the Defender role, I guess they both are even. I think I had it in my mind that they had made both Sera and Noel proficient in 3 roles each.

The truth is it's a waste to use them as a Defender I thought because the game gives a great defender (Inicheri?) that has regen guard and you can use him till chapter 4 easy. I ended up using him as defender in most of my paradigms and had a behemoth as an attacker and that was it. Once I got the Silver Chocobo I switched to him as he had a higher HP, and I used that till end game. The Silver Chocobo would use revenge guard more then regen guard and therefore attack back quite a bit. It had around 750 ATK so it would do some damage. In the long run, Kshatriya is probably the best defender but I never managed to get him to join and unfortunately by end game there is no reason to.

Also, with the overpowered Kichu I really stopped using any other monsters but the silver chocobo, and never strayed from ATK, BLA, or HLR for Sera and Noel save for the occasional Jammer role (which is a must against Yomi)

Reading Kagari's review, one thing I really agreed on was that yeah, Kichu and how you raise your monsters can break the game somewhat, but that was actually enjoyable. Like the old FF's, you can put in the time to invest and overpower yourself, and that's part of the fun. While I enjoyed FF13, I have to admit I think I liked 13-2 much better in that respect. Now we can only hope they flesh out what happened to some of the other characters like Sazh rather than the token appearances they're given.
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Are save files in this game account-locked or can be utilized by different users if imported?
 

PK Gaming

Member
Both Serah and Noel are tank-type Defenders (like Fang, Vanille, Sazh and Snow) rather than evade Defenders (like Lightning and Hope). They would not need Elude since it would somewhat contradict with their tank ability set. The agile ability set doesn't really function very well against magic, and I'm guessing that there's a lot of magic usage in this game on the enemies' behalf. Edit: It's possible that some SEN monster allies might have this ability. Not sure. Maybe someone who's played the game may know.

I do find it strange that they only have seven abilities each (at least according to the wiki) and not much setting them apart, though. I would have expected Serah to share more of Lightning's more agile ability set, but instead, she shares Snow's. Noel is the one whom I had expected to share Snow's ability set. I think it's weird that one has Mediguard while one doesn't.

Some of the ability distributions in this game are kind of strange to me. In FFXIII, they kind of made sense for the character. For instance: Snow's the hero--he gets the best abilities in terms of being a Defender. Lightning's agile, so her Defender abilities play upon that strength. Hope is almost like Lightning's pupil, so he inherits her Defender abilities by default... and he has the "revenge"/counterattack abilities as well. Vanille is good as a support or mage character, like the yin to Fang's yang. And so on, and so forth...

I see. Thats really unfortunate, having them them being the same type of Sen class was really silly. One of them should of have had different skillsets (either of them i don't really care) To me, the abilities in this game feel like 2 steps back since they took a bunch of them away.
 

exhume

Member
I have this game preordered and enjoyed the demo well enough, but I might be one of the only people on the planet that would really have loved an XIII prequel rather than a direct sequel. Y'know, something that goes into the history of Cocoon and particularly Pulse. Hoping XIII-2 touches on that but not holding my breath.
 
I have this game preordered and enjoyed the demo well enough, but I might be one of the only people on the planet that would really have loved an XIII prequel rather than a direct sequel. Y'know, something that goes into the history of Cocoon and particularly Pulse. Hoping XIII-2 touches on that but not holding my breath.

XIII-0?
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
I have this game preordered and enjoyed the demo well enough, but I might be one of the only people on the planet that would really have loved an XIII prequel rather than a direct sequel. Y'know, something that goes into the history of Cocoon and particularly Pulse. Hoping XIII-2 touches on that but not holding my breath.

Yeah, about that...
 

RPGCrazied

Member
How big is that Episode 0 book? Its an Best Buy preorder, saw it in the ads today with the paper. I'm getting the CE at gamestop, so I guess I'm getting a weapon and costume for Serah?

Nothing for Noel? Bleh.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
I see. Thats really unfortunate, having them them being the same type of Sen class was really silly. One of them should of have had different skillsets (either of them i don't really care) To me, the abilities in this game feel like 2 steps back since they took a bunch of them away.
I think that's part of what makes the balancing so strange. A lot of the skills seemed to have been distributed to make the monsters more efficient. But in a way, that takes the balancing away from Noel and Serah, and makes the monsters more overpowered. I know that Noel and Serah aren't supposed to be powerful like the FFXIII characters, but I don't like the idea of Syn being gimped so much, or abilities being distributed oddly... or abilities omitted entirely.

exhume said:
I have this game preordered and enjoyed the demo well enough, but I might be one of the only people on the planet that would really have loved an XIII prequel rather than a direct sequel. Y'know, something that goes into the history of Cocoon and particularly Pulse.
Actually, I would have preferred this; a game about Vanille and Fang's journey to complete their Focus or something. It would have explored both Vanille and Fang's characters more in-depth (let's face it; Fang's pretty one-dimensional, and Vanille is... Vanille), and probably would have done some world-building for those ruined civilizations that the crew travelled across during their stay on Pulse. The monster-taming aspects would make more sense there, I'd think, as well.
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Actually, I would have preferred this; a game about Vanille and Fang's journey to complete their Focus or something. It would have explored both Vanille and Fang's characters more in-depth (let's face it; Fang's pretty one-dimensional, and Vanille is... Vanille), and probably would have done some world-building for those ruined civilizations that the crew travelled across during their stay on Pulse. The monster-taming aspects would make more sense there, I'd think, as well.

That would pretty cool as I suggested too in the past, but never say never lol
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
FFXIII-0. Do it, Square!

I can already see a spin-off coming on 3DS or VITA focusing on that lol. I don't know why, but I still think they haven't finished with XIII's story. Great sales or not, they're pretty stubborn with these type of "collections". And if so, I'll enjoy it... Cocoon and Pulse are my favorite FF's worlds afterall.

On a side note, PlayStation Magazine says this in their review of XIII-2:

"Beneath the emotional tale and a superb cast of characters lies an abundance of shallow filler content with no real purpose It's disappointing to see a game with so much heart struggle under the burden of artificial mechanics."

What does it mean exactly?
 
Cocoon could have been the most interesting FF world had it been fleshed out somewhat instead of a set of scenic footpaths.

The best realized world has got to be Ivalice. If every FF was set in Ivalice I wouldn't even be mad.
 

Raonak

Banned
Totally loved the demo. It was great. I actually liked FFXIII, so this feels more of the same, but better.

My biggest annoyance with FFXIII was the stupid padding of length. By making the maps very long. each area of the game took me 3+ hours to get through. It was VERY annyoing. Just walking. battling, finding an item, cutscene, rinse and repeat. I isn't ususally a problem, but because of the sheer length of these areas, it made it exponentially worse.

Looks like thats fixed with XIII-2, padding it the right way by having lots of optional stuff.
 
Yeah, about that...

So, what the hell is the game about exactly? Does it not expand upon anything or actually continue the plot points presented in XIII? Am I just going to find a cash-in sequel that doesn't answer anything?

I know FF games aren't known for amazing storytelling and things are often convoluted, but I'd rather have crazy convoluted twists and answers than nothing.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Out of curiosity, is there a limit to how many monsters you can hold in your inventory at one time, or is there no limit at all?
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
So, what the hell is the game about exactly? Does it not expand upon anything or actually continue the plot points presented in XIII? Am I just going to find a cash-in sequel that doesn't answer anything?

I know FF games aren't known for amazing storytelling and things are often convoluted, but I'd rather have crazy convoluted twists and answers than nothing.

Serah's gotta save her sister Lightning and Noel wants to change the future! So no... it doesn't expand on anything in XIII, nope. Well, in the datalog there is a bit, but lol.
 
Quick question: But I remember back when FF13 came out, SE said that there were parts that they cut due to time constraints, namely an explorable Lightnings home. Did they add to the sequel?
 
Thats disappointing. Why would they have hinted at it being DLC then. LOL Square Enix.

I don't think they ever hinted at DLC of that. The art director just said they had a lot of cut stuff that could make a whole new game.

But I don't think we know for sure if they put any of it in XIII-2.
 
From the link: "Kamikokuryou shared a few locations with the magazine. Apparently, the design team created a full area surrounding Lightning's home. This area resembled a park. There was also a secret base for resistance group Nora inside a shop somewhere. Nautiuls Park, an amusement facility, at one point also included a zoo.

The content was already running on actual PS3 hardware, it seems, but was left out due to considerations for game volume and overall game balanace."

Odd that they had all this content and didnt add to XIII-2.
 

frequency

Member
Do we know what the pre-order novella thing from Best Buy looks like? How big is it/is it good quality?

I have several pre-orders at several places and it's getting close to release so I have to cancel some of them. I don't think I really care about DLC so the main two I'm looking to choose from right now is Best Buy and Future Shop.

Best Buy has that novella and I would love to read it. But I want a good quality thing, not some cheap brochure-esque booklet. My Future Shop order has a steelbook. Since the CE doesn't come with an actual game case, a steelbook would be great so I can keep the game and the soundtrack separated. And the game would fit on my shelf.

I guess I should also note I am totally a collector. So physical collectible items are worth infinitely more to me than some downloadable weapon or whatever.
 
D

Deleted member 20920

Unconfirmed Member
From the link: "Kamikokuryou shared a few locations with the magazine. Apparently, the design team created a full area surrounding Lightning's home. This area resembled a park. There was also a secret base for resistance group Nora inside a shop somewhere. Nautiuls Park, an amusement facility, at one point also included a zoo.

The content was already running on actual PS3 hardware, it seems, but was left out due to considerations for game volume and overall game balanace."

Odd that they had all this content and didnt add to XIII-2.

I don't think Andriasang got this totally right. I read the chinese edition of the magazine and it seems that he wasn't saying that all his cut arts assets were running on hardware. Just some. He seems to be saying that half of the art was cut and not half of the running assets was cut. I always thought that the "half a game was cut" rant was unfair because it implied that the cut content had gameplay. It probably didn't. That FF13 post mortum also mentioned assets being created and discarded because they were not needed. Teams were making assets without checking back with other teams to see if they were needed. So I think that the cut running content probably had nothing in them or are of poorer quality.

As for the FF13 DLC part, they were actually making one but shelved the project because the quality was bad.

It would have been nice if they had actually added more Gran Pulse areas into FF13 or this game. THe FF13 Ultimania Omega had some nice art for Pulses places that didn't make it...


Do we know what the pre-order novella thing from Best Buy looks like? How big is it/is it good quality?

From what I know it's hard cover. Someone already posted the text online because it's only about 20 pages or so.
 

frequency

Member
From what I know it's hard cover. Someone already posted the text online because it's only about 20 pages or so.

Thank you... but hard cover makes the decision that much harder. :(

I suppose the steelbook would be a more "collectible" item since it's FutureShop exclusive, which is only in Canada.
I wonder if I'll be able to find the Best Buy thing on ebay for reasonable prices at some point.

EDIT: I guess I should also note I collect just for myself. I like looking at the random trinkets I've amassed over the years. I don't care about monetary value of the things I own.
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
So, what the hell is the game about exactly? Does it not expand upon anything or actually continue the plot points presented in XIII?

From what I get their intention was not to expand XIII's story but to create a new game in XIII's universe, so that everyone could pick it up and play. I don't know if my feelings are shared here, but when I played the DEMO last week except some re-used assets and recycled enemies, it didn't feel I was playing a sequel of XIII but more a new game set in that same universe. The general atmosphere itself is totally different, so is the gameplay, characters, probably storytelling ect. To cut it short, it's as if they tried to make a new Final Fantasy re-using elements from the previous game.
 
D

Deleted member 20920

Unconfirmed Member
So, what the hell is the game about exactly? Does it not expand upon anything or actually continue the plot points presented in XIII? Am I just going to find a cash-in sequel that doesn't answer anything?

Well a common theme that runs through in both FF13 and FF13-2 (and Type-0 actually) would be about how the gods (Pulse, Lindzei & Etro) screw up their creations (fal'cie, l'cie, humans and other living beings) and their worlds with their action or inaction, presence or non-presence.
 
I can already see a spin-off coming on 3DS or VITA focusing on that lol. I don't know why, but I still think they haven't finished with XIII's story. Great sales or not, they're pretty stubborn with these type of "collections". And if so, I'll enjoy it... Cocoon and Pulse are my favorite FF's worlds afterall.
Two words:
Versus XIII
 
From what I get their intention was not to expand XIII's story but to create a new game in XIII's universe, so that everyone could pick it up and play. I don't know if my feelings are shared here, but when I played the DEMO last week except some re-used assets and recycled enemies, it didn't feel I was playing a sequel of XIII but more a new game set in that same universe. The general atmosphere itself is totally different, so is the gameplay, characters, probably storytelling ect. To cut it short, it's as if they tried to make a new Final Fantasy re-using elements from the previous game.

XIII-2 was made with the same principles in mind that governed X-2, since both X and XIII had pretty conclusive endings already.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I just noticed that GameStop.ca/EBGames.ca (just the Canadian site) is sold out of the FFXIII-2 Collectors Edition for PS3.

I'd call that the canary in the coal mine. This will probably run out in other territories too? Better get it if you want it.
 

Gambit

Member
Even if I'm pretty sure it'll give birth to a new series.


Recent Reality?
;-) It is a fantasy based on reality, after all.


I think you might be right. I could see it introducing a new series and Square-Enix could certainly do with more of them.
 
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