Attackthebase
Member
I better not go to Japan with my purple hair then...
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FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 |OT| Change the Future
- Thread starter Kagari
- Start date
I better not go to Japan with my purple hair then...
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Yeah, I'd suggest toning down expectations with regards to the narrative, and even the principles of time travel. Based on the Japanese cutscenes, the time travel aspect isn't really explored in-depth like it is in in CT and CC (or even OoT, for that matter), so I wouldn't expect complexities or deep thought regarding that subject matter.
The main character writing in the game seems good, though. Noel seems nicely developed, and Serah's not bad either.
The GT review has some scenes and bosses that I'd personally consider spoilers, but meh. I think it's common knowledge at this point to not watch GT reviews if you don't want to be spoiled on anything at all, though.
I'm interested in Kagari's piece regarding the localization changes, though. I'm a little nervous about the difficulty, since the demo wasn't difficult, and apparently the Japanese version was easy.
The main character writing in the game seems good, though. Noel seems nicely developed, and Serah's not bad either.
The GT review has some scenes and bosses that I'd personally consider spoilers, but meh. I think it's common knowledge at this point to not watch GT reviews if you don't want to be spoiled on anything at all, though.
I'm interested in Kagari's piece regarding the localization changes, though. I'm a little nervous about the difficulty, since the demo wasn't difficult, and apparently the Japanese version was easy.
Aye, the GT review is really well done and it has sold the game for me.
Twilight Princess
Member
I can't wait for ffxiii-3, hopefully it will star light, fang and vanilla. Three girls aving the world, yeah!
So you have 98% reviews saying the story is shit and 2% saying its good. And obviously you take this as a chance to tell people to buy the game and then experience a shit story :|.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
More than that, I didn't calculate but probably 1/3 of them. And we're not speaking of opinions in the middle: there's who dislikes it alot, and who loves it alot. On one thing almost all of the reviews agree: Serah and Noel make up for a great pair of protagonists.
RPGCrazied
Member
I'm sure I'll like the story. I'm easily amused. Now understanding it is a different story, specially since its throwing in time travel and stuff.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
desu, now that you've had some time to mull it over, would you say that your current opinion of FFXIII-2 is still consistent with your postgame impressions?
RPGCrazied
Member
Well... desu and kagari both have, and they both say the story is pretty weak. But to each his own. 
brandonh83
Banned
I won't lie, I don't even remember what happens in FFXIII, or I just didn't get it. None of the ending events made any sense to me. I didn't know who I was fighting or why I was fighting them.
I would replay the game before XIII-2 but that would just give me about a day and a half and it doesn't even sound like XIII-2 has much of a plot or any content that would be made better by knowing the events of XIII.
I would replay the game before XIII-2 but that would just give me about a day and a half and it doesn't even sound like XIII-2 has much of a plot or any content that would be made better by knowing the events of XIII.
Well... desu and kagari both have, and they both say the story is pretty weak. But to each his own.
My boyfriend who is playing the game now mentioned to me that he thought the story was really "non-existent" for the most part. As in it's never really a driving point for the game. He also thinks that you shouldn't go in expecting any sort of amazing story to begin with.
I agree with that.
RPGCrazied
Member
Do you think they will have the DLC up day 1?
Probably not.
RPGCrazied
Member
Not even Omega? It has to be on the PSN, cause the Amazon order comes with that code. I wonder if that will be for sell and how much. Its just one boss battle right? No more than $2.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Every preorder DLC is on the PSN. You have to download it somewhere.
That doesn't mean they'll actually sell it though.
This.
RPGCrazied
Member
Ok. I wonder how they will price stuff. $9.99 for costumes for Noel and Serah, Omega, and the first story based DLC? Yeah right, SE isn't that nice. I bet one costume will sell for like $4 or $5. ;/
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I'm surprised people have any kind of expectations for a good story in this. It gives you clues that you shouldn't, right in the title.
The first part is "XIII" (like its a sequel to XIII.. OMG)
The second part is "-2" (X-2 was quite a silly, aimless romp)
The only expectations I have for this are good music, and good battles. Maybe some interesting art design here and there.
The first part is "XIII" (like its a sequel to XIII.. OMG)
The second part is "-2" (X-2 was quite a silly, aimless romp)
The only expectations I have for this are good music, and good battles. Maybe some interesting art design here and there.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
I wouldn't be surprised if they took the Namco Bandai route at all and priced them similarly!
Though I do not regret the money I spent on some of the School Uniform DLC for Tales of Xillia since the battle BGM kicked ass and it ended up being my main battle theme for the rest of the game, lol.
Well I played through the whole game, and I'm fluent in Japanese, and there are many many things that bother me about the story.
For one, it seems to be all over the place. There just isn't much constancy with the story they're trying to tell here. Two, it feels to me like they having set any specific rules to the universe and are just coming up with new things to add to it at random, logic be damned. I like fantasy, but there is plausible suspension of disbelief and they break that constantly. Three, it suffers both from mid-trilogy-itis and tacked-on-sequel-itis in that it felt sort of unnecessary and the story didn't really go anywhere that told us anything (just a lead up to the next part.)
Its hard to explain, my review has been focused a lot on the bad sides of the game, leaving out lots of the small improvements that make the game just better overall.
In the end, I liked 13 but I never got over just how much better the game could have been. Now we get 13-2 and certainly improves on a lot of things and makes them as they should have been from the beginning. However, all the things I disliked like the story, difficulty, boring post game content (bosses), kind of dumbed down fighting system pretty much nullified all their improvements for me.
I am looking forward how people will receive the game here, especially the ending.
brandonh83
Banned
Just not sure what the point of making a direct sequel is if they're not going to really tell a story or resolve anything. I know, money and all that but it is kind of shameless.
I was at least hoping for some cool mythology or... something along those lines.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
It's nice to want things.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Yeah, I was wondering if you put parts of the game in a positive light after a while. But I guess stuff like the difficulty, combat and optional content would nullify the positives about the game overall, huh? It does seem like a better overall package based on what you said before, though.
And regarding the ending...
Goodness gracious, I wonder how people will receive the ending in the long run. :|
To be fair, I understand Japanese.
My friend who imported it is more fluent in the language than I am, and he didn't like the narrative at all. He found it quite inconsistent (ie: unlike the Chrono series, which had rules in place for time travel and dimensional differences (and allocated time and dialogue to explain this stuff), FFXIII-2 doesn't really set a lot of rules and boundaries for its universe or time-travel components), and he didn't like the ending one bit. And he liked FFXIII's narrative a lot, so he ended up feeling a little disappointed.
He did feel like the battle system improved since party leader dead =/= instadeath anymore, though.
Im probably a third of the way through the game and I've had one, maybe two hard boss fights.
So far it feels easier because you aren't "handicapped" for half the game like in XIII.
And yeah the level that people complained about in regards to not being able to avoid fights, that was annoying.
So far it feels easier because you aren't "handicapped" for half the game like in XIII.
And yeah the level that people complained about in regards to not being able to avoid fights, that was annoying.
brandonh83
Banned
Fans will buy anything, they'll profit no matter what... which is why we sometimes can't have nice things.
For example, being the dirty consumer whore that I am, I have decided to go ahead with the CE because I guess I just want to give S-E even more of my money. I can't think of any other reason why.
I hate being part of the problem.
Electivirus
Member
Heh, I don't mind being part of the problem, so long as it gets me more stuff I like. /selfish
brandonh83
Banned
I'm sure I'll like it but the whole FNC thing feels like such a wasted opportunity. They could have really established some great mythology but apparently they don't really have much of a story or mythology to tell going by impressions. I mean the proof is in the pudding; if they had a good story to tell we'd be seeing it, especially since we're on XIII-2.
I think the FNC series could have made for a swell and grand epic, especially with how many games they're setting in the same universe and how long it's going to take before they're done with it, but as of now I can't really figure out what motivated them to even bother.
Versus XIII could come out and almost totally justify it though.
Fair enough for people who speak Japanese, but not if you've only watched the streams...
Anyway, I know I'll probably enjoy the story a lot more than some people around here. I, for one, actually expect convoluted non-sense from FF. They've always been like this, and I've always appreciated them. I can handle a little dose of Anime melodrama, as long as it doesn't go overboard (ala Tales/SO...)
Anyway, I know I'll probably enjoy the story a lot more than some people around here. I, for one, actually expect convoluted non-sense from FF. They've always been like this, and I've always appreciated them. I can handle a little dose of Anime melodrama, as long as it doesn't go overboard (ala Tales/SO...)
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
The FNC is indeed a wasted opportunity. It could've been so much more, it's unfortunate they created something so original and wasted almost all of its potential. The concept's behind it is very cool, the execution in the single titles and management of the entire brand... embarassing.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Sadly, you're right.
The mainline FF team at Square kind of has George Lucas syndrome, where they're pretty universally regarded as flawed, but "they sell", so no one would bother or dare to rock the boat and change the team up.
I also think about that when they're making misguided tweaks to the western versions with Leona Lewis tracks or whatever. They've already got their core base locked into a sale, so I'm sure they feel free to tweak it and milk a few sales from little girls, or whatever.
brandonh83
Banned
I think the concept is pretty great and ambitious, and the production design has been pretty stellar, but ultimately people want a good (or at least entertaining) narrative and mythology out of something like that.
I know the majority of my posts about XIII have been pretty negative, but I wasn't one of the XIII haters and I just simply expect more out of the franchise. And when you decide to go forth with a direct sequel to something, it should absolutely justify itself with the story and introduce narrative reasons as to why it exists.
I would have been a lot more accepting of My Hands if it were a song written for the game, but the fact that they just plucked it right out of Lewis' pre-existing works is all too telling. The song meant nothing in relation to the actual story and it was a terrible song to boot. That whole ordeal was just pathetic. I'm surprised that they didn't tack on "Someone Like You" from Adele to XIII-2.
Zoe
Member
This game is really more about the mythology than the cast from XIII.
brandonh83
Banned
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
lol, fair enough. If it makes you feel better, my friend recently had me play through the entire bit where it's hard to avoid enemy encounters to gauge how long it took to irritate me (it can get a kinda annoying if you're in the middle of doing something (ie: trying to find treasure, or going into various rooms), and his guys were already overpowered making the entire thing rather tedious; it's a little annoying that cannon fodder will still run at you to initiate combat as opposed to running away from you). ^_^
I also played through one of those clock puzzles. It isn't very good, but at the same time, I kinda liked playing around with it. I mean, if you take a piece of paper and map out what your moves should be while using mathematical logic (there's a bit of a really long "formula" for this, actually, but it's kind of time-consuming to implement, and sometimes you're under a time limit for these), it makes for a bit of an interesting quasi-math puzzle to come up with a proof for (which, admittedly, is right up my alley; it made me peek into my copy of QED and my copy Spivak's Calculus when I got home). But I'd imagine that the majority of people playing the game wouldn't like it. In all, the puzzles generally feel like filler material (especially since you have multiple stages to complete before you solve the anomaly).
Based on the demo and what I'd played, though, I didn't think it was so bad. I dislike that the balancing was thrown away in favour of making the game easier for players to get through the story, and I get the feeling it's going to bug me the entire way through, despite my plan to use a Noel/Serah party for the majority of the game.
? (I don't listen to radio.)brandonh83 said:
brandonh83
Banned
It's a popular song these days.
RPGCrazied
Member
Sweet. Thats the one I want. But, does that say February 1st? Not really day 1, but one day is cool.
RPGCrazied
Member
Yeah. Just a save. Doesn't have to be a clear file or anything.
Thanks. I don't have the will power to complete it (I nearly did with the PS3 version) and just rather skip to XIII-2. Besides, the monster catching mechanics is addictive, something which I sorely missed when I went back to XIII.
RPGCrazied
Member
I have a question. Does this game go by chapters like XIII? Or is it different? Just curious.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Yes.
Yes.