Well, I just got into the forest with Sazh and Vanille, still a little unsure about how I really feel about the game.
A question though. Does anyone know of a guide for upgrading weapons (the best way)? Haven't been following this thread too carefully, so I don't exactly know if someone actually posted one. The guide doesn't really talk about this, and there's no faq on GameFAQs yet.
If you want to read it now: (Spoilers to other characters as well! up till Chapter 9)
when Fang and Vanille awoke the entrance to Bodhum Vestige opened, and Serah stepped in (in Prologue she was waiting there for Snow). She got branded a L'Cie, Fang and Vanille carried her out
Yeah I can't understand the datalog love. It's like defending a shitty movie script because they passed out a pamphlet at the theater which explains everything important.
I absolutely love reading, which is why I would rather spend that time with a good book and not Final Fantasy fluff
Well, I just got into the forest with Sazh and Vanille, still a little unsure about how I really feel about the game.
A question though. Does anyone know of a guide for upgrading weapons (the best way)? Haven't been following this thread too carefully, so I don't exactly know if someone actually posted one. The guide doesn't really talk about this, and there's no faq on GameFAQs yet.
I cleared chapter 11 without grinding or mission running.. I won every encounter including some of those silly ones like
3 Vampires right before the tower boss.
Mostly 5 star results. I mostly used Light/Sahz/Hope, except in that watery area vs the frog like creatures.. I had to pull out Snow in place of Sahz to handle all the reinforcement spawns there. By the end of the chapter I had 80% of stage 8 crystarium filled. So when is this game supposed to get difficult? Chapter 12? 13?
Here is my preferred paradigm set for Light/Sahz/Hope.
Cancel Set 1 (stagger): rav/rav/rav, rav/rav/rav.. they don't call it tri-disaster for nothing.
Cancel Set 2 (buff) : com/com/syn, com/syn/syn
Cancel Set 3 (heal): com/com/med, med/syn/med
Cancel Set 4 (start of battle buffing vs high damage enemies): com/syn/syn, med/syn/med
Cancel Set 5 (commandos vs staggered target): com/com/syn, com/com/med
I'm eagerly awaiting Hope to get Haste so I can replace Sahz, because Sahz is an awful commando.
Paradigm Cancel - Switching to any Paradigm config after charging a full bar in another Paradigm config results in a free fully charged ATB bar. Charge - switch - free - charge - switch - free, etc. You can do this with two Paradigms of the same type, so it's sometimes beneficial to have two RAV/RAV/RAVs to switch between, or something similar.
And here's a 5 star strat for the final Ch 11 boss everyone complains about.
Chapter 11 boss #2 5 stars.. no grinding
Crystarium about 80% finished if you haven't been grinding.
Party: Light, Sahz, Vanille
Weapons: Lv.* Gladius, Deneb Duellers, and Belladonna Wand
Accessories: +hp, +atk/mag
Cancel Set 1 (stagger): rav/rav/rav, rav/rav/rav
Cancel Set 2 (buff/debuff) : com/syn/sab, rav/syn/sab
Cancel Set 3 (heal): com/com/med, med/rav/med
If you farmed for uber weapons/accessories and max crystarium, or if you use a Fortisol/Aerisol you will have an easy time of this boss. However, none of those things are necessary to get a 5 star rating on this fight.
This boss comes in two phases. During the first phase he doesn't have any really dangerous moves, so this is your opportunity to seriously wail on him and take most of his health off. Switch between set 2 to get up buffs/debuffs - the Imperil debuff is what really puts the hurt on him, so make sure that is up before even bothering to attack. Next switch between set 1 to stagger him, then once he's staggered drop as many commando attacks on him as opssible. Once he shows his face (phase 2) stagger him then summon Odin and keep beating on him so you can ignore his phase 2 attacks a little longer. Your goal is to spend as little time as possible fighting him in phase 2.
The second phase begins when the boss shows his face. He will gain an ability that erases all your buffs and all his debuffs, and you will have to reapply them. He also has the same face laser attack as before, which still deals a good amount of damage - immediately switch to the med/rev/med set when you see him charging this. Hopefully he has very little HP left by phase 2 because he deals much more damage and you will have to play more defensively reapplying buffs/debuffs and healing. If you want 5 stars you will have to kill him in about 7-8 mins out of a 13 min goal.
Warning: don't read the following unless you want spoilers about characters other than Serah.
Castor Krieg said:
If you want to read it now:
when Fang and Vanille awoke the entrance to Bodhum Vestige opened, and Serah stepped in (in Prologue she was waiting there for Snow). She got branded a L'Cie, Fang and Vanille carried her out
This game has a lot of good ideas but it seems like every single one is poorly executed.
For example, the battle system with three players is pretty damn good. Its obvious it was designed for three characters. So why does the game handicaps you for HOURS with two characters?
Chapter 5 and 6 were not fun. They were boring and tedious. They seemed to be filler plot wise, they were way way too long, and they kept you with two characters which is extremely frustrating with certain character pairings.
Then Chapter 7 comes along and atleast presents an interesting scenario and FINALLY lets you use three characters near the end. It was like a revelation for me. "Man this is the way the game was supposed to be played."
Its just so frustrating because I want to like this game and the end of Chapter 7 shows such promise. But the first 14 hours of this game have left me with such a bad taste in my mouth.
Hm, got some weapons ready to be upgraded (someone recommended getting Super Conductors after getting the X3 experience bonus), but I'm not sure where to find them in Chapter 9.
I'm currently at (Chapter 9 of course)
the soldier's headquarters hall, where you can go straight to go to a dead end / save point, or go right to press on through the area.
Should I continue on to find them, or just hold what I got for now?
You know what this game needs more of; human(oid) boss fights. I know monster bosses outnumber human bosses in pretty much any given JRPG but still. There's just something about fighting your own kind and possibly killing him/her over some monster that you'll never hear about again.
Virulent Ooze - apply 36 to get 300% EXP bonus, then eiter buy Perfect Conductors (1 600 gil a piece) or Ultra-Compact Fusion Reactors (50k gil a piece)
Refuses to focus fire if there are two commandos and multiple targets (this is a big one).
Hastes/buffs itself first instead of my leader. The leaders buffs are the most important because you paradigm cancel based on your ATB bar, not the AIs.
You're feeling that way because you haven't studied the AI well enough yet.
I don't care about controlling the allies, but I wish S-E had made the leaders auto-battle less effective, so you would at least have to control your own leading character.
In any case, I'm not finding chapter 11 very difficult.. even without grinding. The game hands you enough mats to get 3 Lv.* first tier weapons without grinding at all. Add that to the +100 str/mag accessories in the shops and they are packing serious heat even nowhere near the level 9 stat caps.
Sorry, no. I'm all the way through the game and it's been like that the whole time so the "you haven't played enough to see where it's broken" isn't a good counterargument. I really don't see that.
Magnus said:
I'm afraid this line of argumentation doesn't work man. It's a fact that after you've chosen roles for characters, that you are out of control of them until switching roles again. They have their own priority lists which, from my vantage point, can only be affected by casting Libra, at which point they begin using abilities to exploit enemy weaknesses.
I don't really get how that supports that my argument doesn't work. What's your point? I wasn't arguing that you don't directly control the other characters. I'm simply saying, you're arguing for a different game's battle system if you want to control them directly. There's literally no way you could successfully do it without totally altering the flow of battle (and essentially turning it into FFX-2's battle system)
My god, that entrance to Oerba Village was spectacular, mindblowing so beautiful. My jaw literally drop while I ran up the steep. I thought it was Snow but actually it was crystal dust.:O I wish there was a capture function.
Sorry, no. I'm all the way through the game and it's been like that the whole time so the "you haven't played enough to see where it's broken" isn't a good counterargument. I really don't see that.
Playing through a game does not mean you fully understand its mechanics. This is especially true of RPGs due to the availability of grinding. If you haven't already I suggest you read the Battle Mechanics guide here, which has a section fully dedicated to AI behavior.
OMG, I'm a dope. I forgot I used up all my potions in the last Vanille/Sazh (ugh) boss. Since I never quit and kept retrying, I thought maybe Snow just didn't have access to the potions :lol
Playing through a game does not mean you fully understand its mechanics. This is especially true of RPGs due to the availability of grinding. If you haven't already I suggest you read the Battle Mechanics guide here, which has a section fully dedicated to AI behavior.
Ravager
=======
Aims for the same opponent as the Commando. If there is no Commando in the
party, it will aim for the same enemy as the leader. If the leader is not
targeting an enemy, it will aim for the same target as another ravager or
simply auto-target if there is no other Ravager.
When attacking, the AI chooses attacks more suited to raising the chain
bonus rather than choosing attacks based on damage.
The AI will use attacks that the enemy is weak to and, in turn, will
never use an attack that the enemy will absorb. The AI can only know this if
the information is displayed in the Libra menu.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. Combat's been pretty intuitive so far. I can understand some of the complaints against the game, but saying that the loss of control is crippling when it just trims some of the fat in favor of focusing on flow of combat is dumb.
Ahahaha. The Hope and Snow interactions are great. Every lame word out of Snows mouth is just pissing off Hope more. It's also hilarious how Snow's beach bum group coincidently has the same name as Hope's mum, I can see how that could piss Hope off. Hope is a great character and I can't wait to see how he develops. Only character I'm not liking is Vanille.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. Combat's been pretty intuitive so far. I can understand some of the complaints against the game, but saying that the loss of control is crippling when it just trims some of the fat in favor of focusing on flow of combat is dumb.
'Trimming the fat' is probably not the best way to say it.
It is the way it is because that is just how the combat system works, not because it fixes any perceived issue with a combat system that offers more 'control'.
Other than that, I fully agree with you.
Also:
I really like the idea of AI behaviors being based on classes. Very impressive in both thought and execution. I would have loved basic gambits for each class(not character), but this work fantastically.
I've only played one ff before (7) and veerrry few turnbased rpgs in my life- I tried Lost Odyssey but it was way too linear/plodding/boring for me---- However I love the style of this game: GAF will I like it?
32 hours into the game, just started Gran Pulse. Story so far has held up and been pretty consistent, characters are only getting better, and the combat system is as awesome as ever. This is most likely going to end up being my favorite post SNES Final Fantasy game ever.
I'm kinda digging the fact that there really isn't a central villain figure in the game and its more about the characters fighting their own fate.
I've only played one ff before (7) and veerrry few turnbased rpgs in my life- I tried Lost Odyssey but it was way too linear/plodding/boring for me---- However I love the style of this game: GAF will I like it?
I'm addicted to the hunting missions. Feels like FFXII all over again!
At the final boss now, can't wait to unlock the final crystarium level and pump those stats up high so I can finally start slaying some turtles.
Oh and I must say, I'm in love with Lightning's Army of One special attack. Its her own version of the Omni-Slash (although right now its pretty weak for me). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQQVBZHT17I&fmt=22
Apparently there was a passage in the game where you could jump on the Titan, however this was removed from the game. I think this was mentioned in one of the japanese Ultimania guides.
Just beat it What great game and a huge step above XII in my opinion. Some of the bosses rocked me harder then I ever wanted to be but it felt that much better after I finally bested them. Now I guess there is nothing much to go besides hunts and other side quests! (ok I guess that's a lot)
I don't know where I should post anymore...but I'm at the end of chapter 9 (JP version). Wow that boss is a bitch, got owned 4 times so far. Have to think of how to beat him. :lol Chapter 9 was looooong as hell though, but I rather enjoyed it.
So this might seem crazy, but Hope, who coming in I figured I'd hate, has slowly become one of the most fully developed, and interesting characters in the game. Go figure.
So this might seem crazy, but Hope, who coming in I figured I'd hate, has slowly become one of the most fully developed, and interesting characters in the game. Go figure.
Sorry. Don't worry too much about it, it's not much of a spoiler. After all, it's only logical that party members would be interacting with each other, I just like this particular one. Hope and Lighting make a nice combo too.
Sorry. Don't worry too much about it, it's not much of a spoiler. After all, it's only logical that party members would be interacting with each other, I just like this particular one. Hope and Lighting make a nice combo too.
Lightening keeps coming off as very motherly towards Hope :lol
I really like that the group of characters is becoming really more and more of a family. Out of all the Nomura FFs, this has without a doubt ended up with the strongest cast imo.
Sorry. Don't worry too much about it, it's not much of a spoiler. After all, it's only logical that party members would be interacting with each other, I just like this particular one. Hope and Lighting make a nice combo too.
I didn't really mind, it was just the bit about Nora being Hope's mother's name that I was surprised by. I was more concerned about flipping open some ending spoiler or something, which I'm liable to do if I keep coming here before I beat it.
