Electivirus
Member
Caught the NA Final Fantasy XIII-2 commercial on TV earlier today. Pretty hyped. 
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FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 |OT| Change the Future
- Thread starter Kagari
- Start date
Slayer-33
Liverpool-2
Hahaha...made me laugh.
Ive been listening to the OST on Youtube, and there are some definate stand out tracks for me:
Invisible Invaders
Eternal Fight Tell me that this song is used in a boss battle?
Historia Crux
Parallel World
Getting pretty hyped. Two weeks to go..
WORLDS COLLIDE
http://youtu.be/DU7g_rFFfy0
That shit is god sauce.
Sounds better in game imo since the lyrics are muffled a little.
The track it self is awesome.
Electivirus
Member
Hahaha...made me laugh.
Ive been listening to the OST on Youtube, and there are some definate stand out tracks for me:
Invisible Invaders
Eternal Fight Tell me that this song is used in a boss battle?
Historia Crux
Parallel World
Getting pretty hyped. Two weeks to go..
I'm pretty partial to Interval of Time and Space, myself. Especially the solo violin bits.
I think it's pretty awesome how Mizuta and Suzuki managed to emulate Hamauzu's style almost perfectly.
Electivirus
Member
"He is beyond death.", I believe. And yeah, that's the one.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Do they have much choices? Nojima was busy with other stuff, Matsuno went away, and I don't know anyone in there so much better than Watanabe. I think they can keep Toriyama as director if they can find one day a better writer though.
Lady Bird
Matsuno's Goebbels
Nojima at least. No really, he is busy with what? FFXIII has been in the making before Versus, and it took priority over Versus as well. If Nojima wasn't in charge of its story, it's probably because Toriyama wanted to give himselv (and Watanabe's a chance). Fine. After that, Versus script has probably been finished since then, but if they kept Toriyama/ Watanabe for FFXIII-2, it's because it's the sequel of their own story, and because they wanted to improve upon everything.
But for a future Kitase/ Team 1 FF game? Either SE starts searching for better writers, or I can easily see Nojima come back to Kitase's(/ Toriyama's) projects.
Tabata seems like he has promise, or at least the stories in his games aren't all bad, like Toriyama's are.
Rahxephon91
Banned
Isn't Nojima not a part of the company? I think so and at that point I don't think they need someone who is a part of SE. Why not get outside writers like Masato Kato? even they must know that Toriyama is not what anyone wants.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
He was also busy writing for Black Rock Shooter the Game and that novel of Final Fantasy VII released just recently.
Hajime Tabata is just credited for writing the scenario of Type-0 isn't it? I haven't heard anything good about the story of that game though.
He was involved with Final Fantasy X development, and that's probably one of the most beloved episodes in the series. Maybe Watanabe is the real problem here
lol, that's absolutely pathetic... they dont have any talent left in the company? Crazy...
It's not the best thing in the world, from what I've gathered, but it seems to be much better than anything Toriyama has ever done. With a bit more practice, he could perhaps crank out stories that don't make you go o*\ & cringe every few seconds.
Apart from a couple of decent writers like Matsuno and Nojima's best stuff, it's not like they've ever had some incredibly talented writers. And they have plenty of talent left in the company, just very little in the writer department.
I think they should hire Sawako Natori & Yoko Taro to do more games for them in the future.
ULTROS!
People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
He was involved with Final Fantasy X development, and that's probably one of the most beloved episodes in the series. Maybe Watanabe is the real problem here
Well, I guess if you look at his works:
Final Fantasy X Scenario Planner
Final Fantasy X-2 Scenario (with Kazushige Nojima)
Final Fantasy XII Scenario (with Miwa Shoda)
Final Fantasy XIII Lead Scenario Writer
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Scenario
Final Fantasy Type-0 Scenario Writer
Dissidia Final Fantasy Scenario
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy Scenario Supervisor
Was Type-0's story/scenario any good?
Lady Bird
Matsuno's Goebbels
Nojima is the FFX's writer. Toriyama directed the cutscenes, which weren't that special, not at least when compared to real good event directors like the guy behind Vagrant Story/ FFXII/ KH1/ Versus cutscenes. He gave some ideas for the story, but then again, FFXIII was full of good ideas, the problem was execution. He was behind some decisions like the map linearity, and I highly doubt FFX would have been worse with better maps - besides, FFX compensated it with sidequests, lots of meaningful NPCs, towns or shops to break pace, etc; something Toriyama didn't realize when he made FFXIII.
The guy's basically a shallow director. His game design phylosophy can be summed to "remove gameplay to make the story presentation better" - and he doesn't know how to properly present a story; or "add lots of gameplay ideas and see if they work". His event direction is nothing special to talk about, but it's probably what he's better at. Let's not even go into his storytelling talent...
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
He surely had inputs being one of the three directors of that game, mostly as event planner and you're right in saying so, but more probably on everything else too with the three directors deciding how the game should shape as whole.
I get the feeling Final Fantasy XIII's results have more to do with messed development cycle than not the ideas of some director. Final Fantasy XIII-2, Final Fantasy X and X-2 are games directed by M.Toriyama and they're all very different from Final Fantasy XIII (or better). It's pretty clear that something gone wrong with XIII's development and I think people should stop blaming Toriyama entirely for it. Give the man the right team to work with, and I'm sure he can do better. XIII-2 is already proof of that, at least from a gameplay-point of view, so he can clearly direct a good game. As a scenario writer, we already know him and I agree in saying that he should create the scenario but let someone else better than him and Watanabe take care of the script itself.
RPGCrazied
Member
I want more pictures of the NA CE. The inside will be nice. I guess I won't get to see that until I go pick it up. lol
The inside will be nice. I guess I won't get to see that until I go pick it up. lol
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
I think it's pretty difficult to guess if one of them was more important than others in deciding various aspects of the game, but surely even being one of three he had his influence. If they chose him to work also for X-2 and XIII, I guess they have trust in his work. The problem is, did the troubled XIII's development gave the man the tools to express his talents at best? I have my doubts. That's why I still want to give trust to him and see one more main Final Fantasy directed by him.
jimmypython
Member
Nojima has been a freelancer since 2003. He has his own company now.
I liked it a lot, plus it links to the FNC mytho way better than XIII/XIII-2 did IMO.
I liked it a lot, plus it links to the FNC mytho way better than XIII/XIII-2 did IMO.
Lady Bird
Matsuno's Goebbels
Toriyama himself admitted that the project only got an unified vision after the demo was out. That's like failing one of the most basic and fundamental duties as a director.
Toriyama was not FFX's "main" director, though, so we're left with FFX-2, which took the assets of an already existing game.
Toriyama is the director of one of the greatest teams at Square-Enix and of the entire gaming industry. He has/ had excellent game designers (Tsuchida, the guy who directed Pulse's gameplay had had done a good job), excellent artists, and I bet excellent programmers, because it's team nº1 of SE. If anything, the entire team wasn't used to its full potential because of Toriyama.
Most of the things people disliked from FFXIII were directly related to him. The decisions he made to make towns feel like dungeons (yes, towns are there) for the sake of "having a revolutionary gameplay structure". The linearity of the maps for the sake of making the story better. The story execution itself. Etc.
I do think he has some strengths for gameplay, though, but they are still underdeveloped. He always makes sure his designers create a fun battle system, and when he tries it, he can direct fun non-serious, non-linear games.
Let the team be handled by a good director (and a good writer), and we can start having 9.5-10/10 scored games instead of 8/10 "better in everything than a main FF game" sequels.
The problem isn't only the script writing. The whole story was messed up. The thematics went nowhere or were downright contradicted. The characters that were more relevant were not given enough emphasis, while a lot of screentime went to nearly irrelevant characters and their development. The conclusion of some characters is downright insulting. The structure of the story was terrible, with most of the character development being immediatly told at the space of single cutscenes, most of the cutscenes focusing on repetitive plot ideas, and half of the relevant stuff being left to the datalog in the process. A lot of character details that could have been used to make several scenes emotionally stronger were left at external sources and novellas. And the build up, other than for a few things, was basically non-existant.
The story could have hyped itself up for great things, if it wanted, and then present them with a show; all it needed for that was to remove half of the filler it has, and in their place build up the relevant plot points and character development that were thrown to the database or to boring villain monologues. Then, use the budget for the CG sequences for the more ambitious story moments, instead of wasting it in useless movies that are only there to look pretty.
Toriyama should stick to giving some ideas out, and leave to a competent writer the script AND the scenario.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Let's not forget XII had similar problems and the ending result was sort of bad too. It seems to me the problems in Square Enix go beyond the faults of one director and has alot more to do with general way of handling game development from every single aspects, production included.
Basically not his game, being a sequel with reused assets, so he couldn't yet express freely himself. Still, it was not a bad game at all if you just ignore the story.
The same with Y.Matsuno and Itou just few years before? Can't be a chance.
Is this what he really wanted or is this what they were forced in doing in less than two years of actual development? I don't think we should give too much credit to interviews, it's obvious they're going to defend their game in some way or another. With Final Fantasy XIII-2, it seems he made a totally different game while being constricted somehow with what has been created before. Can't be this proof he actually wanted to pull out something quite different for XIII too but he couldn't in the end?
Here I agree, but I enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII story and characters while recognizing faults in there. I especially enjoyed the universe they created. Also, I can't remember a Final Fantasy that was really perfect in its scenario, that's why I don't have any particular complain about XIII's one. I think the only real problems of that game compared to past games in the series were all in the gameplay.
Yeah, Type-0 handled it a lot better.
D
Deleted member 20920
Unconfirmed Member
Have you looked at Amazon? It shifts between "no we don't ship" to "yes we do" for products that are supposed to be US only, at least for me. My CE wasn't shippable to Singapore (chose to use a third party shipping service instead) when I first ordered but when I checked last week it suddenly does so I switched to my local address successfully.
I know they ship to Europe and Brazil. I don't know if they ship anywhere else but I hope this helps:
http://www.videogamesplus.ca/produc...19690&osCsid=8a81e985a80d8b7accd07d060e44f749
http://www.videogamesplus.ca/produc...19691&osCsid=8a81e985a80d8b7accd07d060e44f749
Just itou! Let's hope!!
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
IGN has once again put online a new exclusive trailer on their site, this time focusing on time travelling. Click here to watch.
edit. youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2lA3y-ewxI
edit. youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2lA3y-ewxI
Seems like 8's are going to be the magic number for this game, pretty much what most of us expected anyways. It's interesting to read different approaches to the story, and I'm honestly really eager to see for myself whether it's as unfulfilling as it's been reported. After a few more times playing the demo, the monster aspect is growing on me, mainly because some of them are so darn cute
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Paid off my CE today. I hope I have fun with the entire game this time around. I spoiled the narrative and endings for myself (and I'm kinda glad I did), so the systems are what I'm looking to enjoy.
The Uridimmu monster (the wolf-like monster) looks SO CUTE with the hat. :3
Anyone know if in the retail version you can name the monsters anything you wanted? Some of the recommended names they give you can be great, but I wanted to name some of my monsters something else.
The best part of that was putting little hats on my monsters.After a few more times playing the demo, the monster aspect is growing on me, mainly because some of them are so darn cute
The Uridimmu monster (the wolf-like monster) looks SO CUTE with the hat. :3
Anyone know if in the retail version you can name the monsters anything you wanted? Some of the recommended names they give you can be great, but I wanted to name some of my monsters something else.
Lady Bird
Matsuno's Goebbels
FFXII had a lot problems, but it was still a well-designed game. Many of FFXIII's problems are inherently design problems. And not exactly the same way as gambits that could be tweaked but have depth by themselves. FFXIII's maps are large enough, that they could easily take out a bit of the road, and add a bit more space, and a bit more diversity. The linearity was on purpose. The towns are there, they just were treated as dungeons with different scenary instead of being re-used to full potential. That was done on purpose, so the game could break the traditional RPG structure (world map -> town -> world -> dungeon -> repeat). It just so happens that Toriyama took out something (towns, sidequests, worldmap), without adding much to compensate. Much like the map system of the game, the strategy is always the same: remove gameplay for the sake of innovation. The traveling between maps feels disjointed, but that's because Toriyama wants to (as he did again for FFXIII-2 when he could very well take another path, like building upon Pulse's world, etc). The character customisation systems are there, they just suck.
The problem isn't only the lack of time and budget, but how that time and budget were used.
The best gameplay system FFXIII had to offer was the battle system that Tsuchida designed, and someone else later improved. This has a lot to do with the individual talent of those two, because FFXIII-2 has the same battle system, yet apparently is far more shallow and mindless according with the reviewers so far.
This is mostly because Toriyama isn't even a game designer. He started his position as event planner, and grew from there. If we are to compare him to a real game designer like Itou, look at how the later dedicates so much to improve and perfect the gameplay, like re-editing several cutscenes to be more interactive, creating from the ground several systems that actually feel very different from each other and have very different functions (license board + gambits + traditional equipment system with a customisable twist AND he still modified every single piece of equipment by himself), fill the towns with lots of hidden treasure that rewards exploration, improve every single treasure and the LB mechanics for FFXII:Zodiac (to further reward exploration and customization), etc. All this doesn't even requires that much of a budget. It requires a lot of dedication, yes, but also knowing how to design a game.
In Ito's games, there's usually a huge attention to detail, but also workable systems that work together greatly and vary from each other greatly, each one offering something unique to challenge the player. The towns in Ito's games are usually more efficient and rewarding than normal JRPGs, the character growth systems are usually full of hidden and/ or subtle details, and everything meshes so well together.
On the surface, Toriyama's FFX-2 and FFXIII-2 are identical to that in their own way, but FFXIII-2 still seems like a mesh of different, unrelated ideas, where I wonder if they even mesh well together, or if they are as polished as they should be or if simply thrown there for the sake of more quantity. The reviews so far and the demo seem to point out at a bit of all those: lots of ideas, many with a questionable execution, but overall a fun 8/10 product. Kinda like FFX-2.
However, one of the things that worries me the most in this later gameplay style, is that usually the story presentation suffers for the sake of "lots of funny, random mini-games/ sidequests/ systems". Ito's gameplay direction, which isn't even supposed to be story-driven, is excellent at enhancing his games stories while properly balancing each other (FFXII to be the exception, for obvious reasons). Ito's direction never breaks world immersion - it actually improves upon it, the pace never gets too monotonous (again, FFXII might be the exception, yet still only at times), the structure is not inconsistent (if his games have mini-games, they are present and build up through the entire product; if his games have exploration, it is present since the beginning and build up from then, etc), and so on.
It's ironic, really, that Ito can properly present the story through gameplay, while Toriyama must either remove gameplay "for the sake of the story" or add content that distracts too much the player from the story. It's the difference between a good game designer and a mediocre one, IMO.
It's similar to what he did for FFX. And after all the hate, he made something more like FFX-2 in 1.5 years. So yes, I'd say it's what he wanted.
You probably liked the ideas behind the story, the characters and the world, which are good. A good writer could have made the story experience mindblowing with those ideas.
EDIT: Sorry from the long-ass post.
That's my favorite one so far. I guess what initially worried me was that the characters along with the monsters would annoy me, but I admit that everyone is growing on me.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
When I used the Uridimmu in combat once, Serah said, "good boy!" a few times when it defeated an enemy. I didn't catch Noel saying much in terms of what the monsters did (though I didn't use monsters a lot, so that must be why I didn't notice much).
I thought Serah at least acknowledging the monster in combat was neat (perhaps what she says is different for each monster, since the soundbyte sounded like it was tailored for canine monsters).
So I finally tried the demo today. My expectactions were low but overall what I played was okay. Demo was really easy though. Once you get 5 stars often, you quickly get materials to boost monsters at a ridiculous rate. In the demo I already boosted monsters to the max and I wasn't really trying. Enemy encounters rate seems to be fairly high and that Mog clock thing sure is annoying. Is this an early area in the game? I already got the 4th ATB bar but maybe that's because it's a demo?
Like XIII, I felt more like I was mashing the confirm button while switching roles once in a while than actually controlling what was going on.
Monster system is fun. I tried some infusions in the demo and was able to pass over passive abilities and even select the action command I wished to transfer. This is a huge bonus to me.
Story seems awkward but once again it's only a demo. As long as it isn't like others recent Toriyama stories where theplot is nonsensical and poorly executed (as in you need to read case files / data log to know some crucial details about what's going on) then it should be ok.
Will definitely get at some point but not at 60$.
Like XIII, I felt more like I was mashing the confirm button while switching roles once in a while than actually controlling what was going on.
Monster system is fun. I tried some infusions in the demo and was able to pass over passive abilities and even select the action command I wished to transfer. This is a huge bonus to me.
Story seems awkward but once again it's only a demo. As long as it isn't like others recent Toriyama stories where theplot is nonsensical and poorly executed (as in you need to read case files / data log to know some crucial details about what's going on) then it should be ok.
Will definitely get at some point but not at 60$.
brandonh83
Banned
Oh thanks for the responses on the last page to those who answered. I won't go in expecting some legit continuation.
Zoe
Member
It's not completely random... it deals with the consequences of the end of the first game.
legacyzero
Banned
GAF, I need your help. I'm not gonna sugar coat this, but, I HATE XIII. I really dont have to list the reasons why, as they're typically the same that you would hear from normal XIII hater.
thing is, I loved the demo. There was just something about it. It was decent enough to play for 3 hours straight. A DEMO.
For those of you that have played the full game: my question is as follows. Is the sequel good enough to not pass it up strictly on the principal of how much I hated the first game?
I was going to pass this game off entirely, but decided that I'm not THAT vain of a person, and decided to play the demo. I was impressed.
Is the game consistent with how good the demo was?
thing is, I loved the demo. There was just something about it. It was decent enough to play for 3 hours straight. A DEMO.
For those of you that have played the full game: my question is as follows. Is the sequel good enough to not pass it up strictly on the principal of how much I hated the first game?
I was going to pass this game off entirely, but decided that I'm not THAT vain of a person, and decided to play the demo. I was impressed.
Is the game consistent with how good the demo was?
jimmypython
Member
if you hate XIII for its gameplay i.e. linearity, not much to dig, no mini game, corridor, etc., XIII-2 fixes all.
if you hate XIII because of the story, then probably you shouldn't expect anything better this time...(actually
i think XIII-2 is even worse
added: since i haven't play the demo, i cannot do the comparison, but i would say the whole game is pretty consistent...
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
I understand your point and though certain connections is possible to realize that maybe XIII was all the way what he wanted. Still, not everything was trash. The idea of breaking the rules of the genre it's actually a good one, if it was managed just a little better at least. The sense of progression you get through XIII it's sort of accomplished (from through the way you travel the world to the ending bosses of every stage and the bonuses you unlock by moving forward) and, even if I haven't played XIII-2 yet (except the DEMO of course), I think slicing the game in "stages" makes up for variety and again, great sense of progression and achievement. I understand others would prefer a more traditional approach, but his ideas mixed with some gameplay's uniques features seem to give the game a fresher approach to the genre. It's just that sometimes, like you said, he just throw some of these ideas in there while not making sure everything works in that structure. Still, I think the approach with XIII-2 it's quite original for the saga and promising for the future of it.
This could the problem we were hinting at, again. Still, compared to XIII seems an overall improvement. About the reviews I guess we will see more of them converging to the same opinion, with lots of 8 instead of seeing what happened with XIII, scoring from 5 to 10. If so, I guess this is a good sign.
If we talk about Final Fantasy IX, I will not deny that the game is widely better than XIII in its game design. Talking of XII though, you can't find me agreeing on that. Without going much into details because my english sincerely sucks, I see XIII and XII suffering of similar problems - united also by the same troubled development – both retaining linearity to extremes (one just gives you larger corridors, forgetting what level design really is), both lacking gameplay outside of battles (both games center their experience solely on battles), both lacking an original strong idea that can make the gameplay sort of unique and unforgettable. In both games I felt I was wandering around just to reach the next cutscene and not in search of some challenging gameplay (being that a dungeon, a town, a minigame or battle). From a gameplay point of view, both games felt shallow to me. Empty of possibilities, free of chances. Both featured giant maps, still both are nothing more than empty boxes lacking possibilities. That's why I'm pretty entusiasthic in hearing what they achieved with XIII-2, it seems they improved on this adding something worth to do outside battles. What they did try to do is looking to other genres and taking out from them some gameplay mechanics. Something the series forgot to do for quite long, caged in its eternal crystal sleep.
I never denied the script had faults, I'm just not dissatisfied with the ending results. I had more problems, even if the script itself was better written, with XII's story which didn't catch me much.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
What about the people that loved XIII's story? What can we expect?
Apparently something approaching the apocalypse of bad stories. If what people are saying is true.
Lady Bird
Matsuno's Goebbels
I disagree. What was lacking in FFXII gameplay-wise? Maybe some mini-games, maybe a more meaningful license board and treasure chests (both fixed on the Zodiac version), maybe some tweaks to the battle system to be less automatic?
FFXII was FFXIII's Pulse from the beginning to the end. It was filled with optional monsters and entire optional maps, which did add challenge to the game as long as you weren't just following the story. There's real, intense dungeon-crawling where you can possibly get killed at every battle if you attempt to do all hunts the moment you unlock them, and are rewarded big if you go through it all. The equipment system, much like FFIX's and other Ito's games, is very meaningful and feels like it matters the moment you get obtain stronger ones, which FFXIII was greatly lacking. The LB, although poorly implemented, gave you some meaningful choice and options, other than manually leveling up your characters. And there were towns, really big towns, several times optional towns (entirely or that simply could be accessed earlier than in the story), filled with shops; and all the optional explorable maps that lead to those or are unlocked from those feature new enemies, with new loot, for new bazaar items that can be gotten earlier than normal.
Both FFXII and FFXIII were flawed and suffered from development times, but Ito designed a wanderful game that only needed to be further tweaked (he himself admitted so), while Toriyama made something almost devoid of game design for 2/3s of the product (no meaningful item collecting/ rewards; no meaningful exploration, not only for the lack of expansive maps, but in the growth systems, and by the lack of towns, etc; no sidequests; simplistic battles that mostly served as a tutorial) until the game abruptly opened to Pulse then, and we abruptly got half of what FFXII got (the sidequests, the expansive maps, the optional stuff, a sense of progression; but it was still lacking the towns, the maningful and addicting character growth and item collecting systems, and it was just 1/3 of the game).
Breaking the rules for the sake of it is usually a bad idea, especially when you sacrifice elements of RPG that make the experience better, and add nothing.
Itou's design for FFXII was far more revolutionry than Toriyama's, the later which mostly failed and had to be overhauled. FFXII's gambits influenced Dragon Age Origin's AI system, FFXII's overall style influenced one of the best JRPGs of this gen, Xenoblade, FFXII's overall style was one of the two things people liked the most from FFXIII, ironically (Gran Pulse), the other aspect people liked the most out of FFXIII was its battles, which took both from FFX-2's and FFXII's battles (Speed & flashyness + AI, no random encounters, and smooth flow), and now the entire FFXIII-2 product is as close to FFXII in some aspects as it is to FFX-2 in others.
Yeah, I think Toriyama still needs to grow up as a game designer, before he takes another FF; but the problem is that Toriyama is there mostly for the stories. A good game designer, like Ito among others + a good, profissional writer would lead to a more amazing game than Toriyama + a different writer othan than Watanabe.
EDIT: Wasn't Watanabe the script writer for FF Type-0?
Zoe
Member
I liked it.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
I think XII had several problems with its level/dungeon design and the lack of puzzles thus action outside of battles. Also the characters' development system made every character a copy of each one, and the GAMBITs while interesting at start, removed every fun and interaction from the battles; turning out as being the most automatic (/auto-played) Battle System in the series.
I don't know, but I can't really think of XII as an overall better game than XIII. Infact, I think XII is my least favorite in the series mostly because of the bland game design behind it and the story lacking purpose and focus. It's worth mentioning that Pulse is also my least favorite part in XIII. I guess there's a connection to it
Yes, he should be the one. H.Tabata is taking care of the scenario though. I'm pretty interested in playing the game by myself and see if H.tabata is indeed a better director than M.Toriyama and a more fitting scenario writer for the series.
That's reassuring. Which is then your favorite story, XIII's one or XIII-2's?
EDIT: Just out of curiosity, in the "platforms stages" in XIII-2 is possible to fall and die?
Lady Bird
Matsuno's Goebbels
14k 5th week, seems like this game won't have legs neither.
But I understand what you mean, at least FFXIII's battle system added paradigm shifts and had the chain bar to give meaningful control/ interaction with the player, while the AI took care of the repetitive stuff. FFXII had a more customisable set up pre-battles, but the battles themselves were very passive.
However, the hardest fights of FFXII were very interactive in contrast. I had to go to the menu so many times.
These kind of AI-based mechanics need to be challenging, or else the AI does everything by itself. The problem is that this is FF, and FF games are usually easy unless for optional stuff and/ or for harder modes of play, when those even exist.
Depends if you consider mashing the X button to manually attack or use steal each time fun.
But I understand what you mean, at least FFXIII's battle system added paradigm shifts and had the chain bar to give meaningful control/ interaction with the player, while the AI took care of the repetitive stuff. FFXII had a more customisable set up pre-battles, but the battles themselves were very passive.However, the hardest fights of FFXII were very interactive in contrast. I had to go to the menu so many times.
These kind of AI-based mechanics need to be challenging, or else the AI does everything by itself. The problem is that this is FF, and FF games are usually easy unless for optional stuff and/ or for harder modes of play, when those even exist.
In the demo, there were invisible walls to prevent big jumps.
Zoe
Member
Hmm... it's hard to say. I guess I felt more vested in the story with XIII-2. I zoned out a few times with XIII.
There's really only one platforming stage. You won't die die (mostly cause there really is no death anymore), but you'll be sent back to a checkpoint.
This only applies to trash mobs. FFXII had over 150 optional hunts spread across the massive world, many of which required some serious adjustment and prep to the Gambits based on the puzzle-like conditions those encounters would often require to survive. It's fickle to assume that anyone that dislikes FFXII would even attempt some of that stuff, but it was a big boon as to why us fans proclaim the game as one of the most engaging in the franchise.
As someone that did everything in FF13 as well, there was absolutely nothing comparable to the tactics and planning that FF12 regularly can deliver in regards to advanced encounters(tortoises did require a specific tactic with interesting paradigm timing to survive, but the game was sparse with anything comparable). At a base level though(facing trash mobs to the final boss), both games are equally...well simple. FF12 just delivered a staggering amount of content beyond the critical path to give fans reason to justify the gambits and fighting options. FF13 did not, especially the first 2/3rds of the game where an obscene amount of the game were spent with teams of two party members, a poor decision that dragged on well beyond the tactical options could sustain merit.
jimmypython
Member
i liked the settings of FF13. and i think i am far from hating the story...
for XIII-2 i didn't like the story yet there are still some shining points to me....so every hard to say..
Perfo, I captured some footage of the platforming level:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPG1Ea2Ura8&context=C3a89abcADOEgsToPDskJy9flGIO5TtKkQnIdnSVob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_SVs6tJU4o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPG1Ea2Ura8&context=C3a89abcADOEgsToPDskJy9flGIO5TtKkQnIdnSVob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_SVs6tJU4o&feature=related