Support NeoGAF

[KZObsessed]

Behemoth King = ma bitch

 

[RedAssedApe]

I'm really liking the soundtrack to this one. Except I wish they had fanfare in there after winning a battle. What they have in place right now seems so bland.

Kind of surprised there are no Uematsu tracks on this one. I know he's on FFXIV but I doubt that one will sell anywhere near the numbers as a regular FF game.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

I actually farmed there. I fully upgraded both my characters and then kept going. By the time I was almost done the chapter, I had way too much CP. Now when Chapter 6 began, I just mass upgraded my characters.

I was thinking of doing that but somehow I ended up with a lot of CP from the previous chapter and as I go through this place, Ive essentially got no more places to even spend the CP, lol. Im so ready for the crystarium areas to open up even more.

 

[Styles]

Chapter 12:

Spoiler

My god that opening CG. O_O Did any of you guys managed to beat that Warmech right after the opening with just Lightning and Odin's gestalt mode?

 

[Unknown One]

Just got to Chapter 11 and this game is great. I would give it a 9/10 if it wasn't for the beginning of having no party choices I would have given this game a 9+. So many things to do it's kind of overwhelming.

 

[Peff]

Was anyone else a bit annoyed by the lack of Battle Theme in Chapters 7, 8 and 9? Having the field track overlap with battles is cool when done right (like with Beatrix and Steiner defending Alexandria in FFIX), but these stretches were too long, especially in Chapter 9 with all those Vikings who have 140.000 HP

 

[DangerousDave]

For all people complaining about the unidimensional characters... I suppose that this is your first Final Fantasy ever, isn't it?

Final Fantasy XIII is Hamlet, compared with the completly archetypical characters of, for example VII, VIII or X. And I don't even compare it with XII because their characters are even more unidimensional than in the rest of FF.

Almost any FF character motivation is "Ey, we're gonna save the world, wanna join" "Sure!"

 

[MrDenny]

Hey guys, I have a quick question about the collector's edition guide. I bought one with the game and they are supposed to be sequentially numbered. Of all the guides I seen online, the number appears in the front cover saying something along the lines of No. xxxxxx/xxxxxx. My guide does not have a number to be found anywhere. I bought it at gamestop, so I don't know what the deal is? Is it a misprint? By the way it is the white hardcover in case of any confusion.

It should be on the first page (black/white character art), bottom left corner, Maybe it's a missprint?
One thing I don't like about the CE guide is, it wont stay open.
I have to put my jacket/remote on the page to make it stay.
Anyone else have this problem?

 

[Y2Kev]

Was anyone else a bit annoyed by the lack of Battle Theme in Chapters 7, 8 and 9? Having the field track overlap with battles is cool when done right (like with Beatrix and Steiner defending Alexandria in FFIX), but these stretches were too long, especially in Chapter 9 with all those Vikings who have 140.000 HP

The sound programmers hate Masashi Hamauzu, I'm sure. Stretching Fang's Theme out for basically the entirety of Chapter 9 was cruel and unusual. There's no way he could have composed a 2 hour theme :lol

 

[Fun Factor]

It's bad writing, objectively bad when characters like Vanille and Hope hit the screen and take up 15 minutes of your time with nothing but awkward angst and misunderstandings that no other human being can relate to.

Christ almighty, his mother died in front of his eyes just hours ago & you want him to be a happy go lucky sort of soldier?

As for Vanille, apparently there is a twist to her story about a dozen hours in that explains her attitude.
The characters in this game outside of Snow are far & away the least cliched in a jRPG in a long while.


edit:

For all people complaining about the unidimensional characters... I suppose that this is your first Final Fantasy ever, isn't it?

Final Fantasy XIII is Hamlet, compared with the completly archetypical characters of, for example VII, VIII or X. And I don't even compare it with XII because their characters are even more unidimensional than in the rest of FF.

Almost any FF character motivation is "Ey, we're gonna save the world, wanna join" "Sure!"

YES! thank you.

 

[Unknown One]

For all people complaining about the unidimensional characters... I suppose that this is your first Final Fantasy ever, isn't it?

Final Fantasy XIII is Hamlet, compared with the completly archetypical characters of, for example VII, VIII or X. And I don't even compare it with XII because their characters are even more unidimensional than in the rest of FF.

Almost any FF character motivation is "Ey, we're gonna save the world, wanna join" "Sure!"

Exactly, the characters actually develops. I hated Hope at first and now he manned up and he is ok now. I can't speak for FF12 though I got turned off from the start.

 

[Zeliard]

As for Vanille, apparently there is a twist to her story about a dozen hours in that explains her attitude.

Does it involve a lobotomy?

 

[Godslay]

It should be on the first page (black/white character art), bottom left corner.
One thing I don't like about the CE guide is, it wont stay open.
I have to put my jacket/remote on the page to make it stay.
Anyone else have this problem?

Thanks MrDenny, but the problem is that there is nothing there at all.

 

[7Th]

One dimensional character development, much like melodrama, is not a narrative style or a preference. Both of them are words/ expressions with negative meanings. There's no such thing as good melodrama or good one-dimensional villains, because the very moment they become good, they stop being one-dimensional/ melodramatic.

Totally wrong; some of the best literary comedy out there, such as Voltaire's Candide, is effective because it uses one-dimensional, extremely stubborn characters going through ridiculous, although cleverly described, ordeals.

And Vanille

Spoiler

isn't really unaware of the drama that unfolding around her; she is actually the only character that from the very beginning understands what exactly is going on and it is because she understand that she decides to run away from Eden as fast as she can.

 

[Peff]

The sound programmers hate Masashi Hamauzu, I'm sure. Stretching Fang's Theme out for basically the entirety of Chapter 9 was cruel and unusual. There's no way he could have composed a 2 hour theme :lol

Not only that, the goddamn alarm too. PEWPEWPEWPEWPEW. Opening the menu was a relief :lol

 

[Dresden]

Well, I can see now why it can fit in some kind of situations, but most of the times, blowing out of porpotions a situation for the sake of it being more dramatic tends to be amateurish and feel forced.

It's Final Fantasy, I didn't start playing expecting some bloody political drama. It's going to have heroes and heroines doing the usual save-the-world shit with feathery hair and anime-esque faces. And along those lines, XIII does a damn good job.

I mean, I'd like another FF game similar to what was done in Tactics, but it's unlikely that SquareEnix will ever do anything like it ever again. So I'll just enjoy the fluffy JPOP goodness that they seem content to produce.

 

[Hcoregamer00]

I have been playing the game for a while, the battle system is superb. It is action packed, very fast pacing, and has a very strong strategic element to it. I hope that the battle system doesn't end with one game, like many RPG's. There is so much potential to develop it further and make it even better.

As for the characters, I do like Sazh and Lightning a lot, Vanille is tolerable, and I just plain hate Snow and Hope. Every time Hope talks I just want to push him off a cliff. Snow sounds like a reject from Naruto or One Piece.

The music is so great, I love the battle theme and the boss battle theme. The graphics are amazing. I am liking this game a lot, this may end up being one of my favorite games in the franchise. I just wish that there were towns to explore and that it wasn't so darn linear, if they did that FF13 would be my near the top of the list, as opposed to being somewhere near the middle.

 

[Unknown One]

Was anyone else a bit annoyed by the lack of Battle Theme in Chapters 7, 8 and 9? Having the field track overlap with battles is cool when done right (like with Beatrix and Steiner defending Alexandria in FFIX), but these stretches were too long, especially in Chapter 9 with all those Vikings who have 140.000 HP

Stagger them. Hit them with a Commando and then switch to a double ravenger to stagger and switch to a commando to launch it in the air and kick it's ass.

 

[Peff]

Stagger them. Hit them with a Commando and then switch to a double ravenger to stagger and switch to a commando to launch it in the air and kick it's ass.

Oh, it wasn't a problem of difficulty, it's just that they took way too long to die even when they could do nothing but be hit. It took a while to build the meter to around 5000 HP per hit so I could do nothing but to listen to the looping music

 

[fistwell_old]

It's bad writing

Yeah, for reals. This game is a cavalcade of fail. Story and (most) characters are shit, combat's rubbish... either tedious grind or complete breeze... what the shit is this?? Or did i need to be 12 to enjoy this game?

 

[Rpgmonkey]

The song on Archyite Steppe makes for a good field map song. Makes it feel like a classic world map in a way.

The soundtrack's been pretty boring outside of a few tracks, but this one is really nice. About the only "atmospheric" song I've heard so far that I like.

 

[Zoe]

Chapter 12:

Spoiler

My god that opening CG. O_O Did any of you guys managed to beat that Warmech right after the opening with just Lightning and Odin's gestalt mode?

I didn't have any problem there...

 

[DangerousDave]

For example, there are a lot of parallelism between Snow Resistance group and Barret Avalanch.

In FF VII, because of Avalanch, all the people in district 7 died (that's like 1/8 of all Midgard population?), including Avalanch people. But, well, Barret daughter is saved, so nothing matters. Barret don't feel any kind of responsability with the dead of those thousand of people, when they exit from Midgard. And, as soon as the world map is displayed, all that thousands of people that have died (including friends and families) doesn't matter anymore.

Now compare it with how FF XIII (chapter 7 spoiler)

Spoiler

manages the feeling of Snow and Hope, when Snow is as responsable of the deaths of the initial chapter as Barret of the Sector 7 destruction.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Yeah, for reals. This game is a cavalcade of fail. Story and (most) characters are shit, combat's rubbish... either tedious grind or complete breeze... what the shit is this?? Or did i need to be 12 to enjoy this game?

no, but good taste helps.

 

[Kyoufu]

Beat the game yay. Fantastic game.

Going to try and get the platinum trophy before I decide how much I liked it. Battle system is definitely my favourite from any FF though!

For chapter 12:

Spoiler

use left+X (or O) over and over until its staggered and dies

 

[Unknown One]

This game seems like a pain in the ass to platinum. Hold every weapon and accessory in the game will take forever and that includes 2nd tier weapon upgrades and upgraded accessories.

 

[Castor Krieg]

This game seems like a pain in the ass to platinum. Hold every weapon and accessory in the game will take forever and that includes 2nd tier weapon upgrades and upgraded accessories.

90-120 hours for Jp version, not too much for an RPG. It doesn't have crazy requirements, and once you are strong enough to fight big turtles it's smooth sailing.

 

[ElFly]

Hahaha, got to gran pulse, then a stupid eidolon rapes me.

 

[Llyranor]

either tedious grind or complete breeze

Either or? Did you just grind then find it too easy?

 

[Kai Dracon]

I'm quite far into the game now and must admit that I'm forgiving it some of its sins. This happened really, after I realized that more than anything the game draws on FFVI as much as FFX, because (I assume EVERYONE knows about Gran Pulse and the open area in the middle of the game) the first part of the game is essentially World of Balance from FFVI where you have scripted party switches dependent on plot, and Gran Pulse is World of Ruin where you have a full deck of party members and full control, and a large world to explore for sidequests before committing to the endgame.

The thing is, the story in the game is making this structure feel very organic. So it works.

I am glad to know that there is actually actually a postgame this time, with a save after the credits to reload the game world. I do wish they'd gone the extra step however and done new game+ to play through the entire game with super versions of the Cocoon enemies and such and new mobs with your character builds carrying over.

 

[Teknoman]

Yeah, for reals. This game is a cavalcade of fail. Story and (most) characters are shit, combat's rubbish... either tedious grind or complete breeze... what the shit is this?? Or did i need to be 12 to enjoy this game?

What?

 

[diss]

It's bad writing, objectively bad when characters like Vanille and Hope hit the screen and take up 15 minutes of your time with nothing but awkward angst and misunderstandings that no other human being can relate to.

You might like bad, you might find it a guilty pleasure, that's fine, but don't try to make some big equality spiel to 10, 15, 20 year genre vets who find their own things to enjoy in the games and make it some catch all for the anime addled teens.

I like JRPGs, I've liked them since I was a kid. I like this game and it's world mythos and a few characters, it's fun, but really dont want to be included into this "It's OK to make your game as fucking reprehensible as possible COZ JRPG FANS LIEK IT ^_^" gig.

The creepy modern moe watching crowd does not equal the entire JRPG crowd. Certain elements are just poor, pandering form and shouldnt be in the game (Vanille, Vanille, Vanille).

But in some parts, It's probably just a lot easier to throw in a pigtailed idiot with loli themed antics or a blockade of extremely senseless character "development" than genuine charm or color. That's what needs to be recovered. No one cares when a JRPG is a JRPG, they care when it tries to reach out to the slums of the anime crowd.

Agreed!

 

[mjemirzian]

I hate the chapter 12 boss. I tried a bunch of times to kill the bastard and he starts out really easy but then at the half way point he almost one shots me. I can't recover enough before he does it again and I'm dead.

Spoiler

Stagger it when it's on the ground then juggle it, use a sentinel to tank the hit, or use a summon.

Yet another boss is destroying me At the end of Chapter 11

I posted a strat for this boss recently on this thread.

The shroud that gives you Haste and the two other buffs is invaluable right now.

Try challenging yourself and not using shrouds or grinding.

 

[SixStringPsycho]

how do I switch leaders?

 

[jiien]

Hey, so now that I have a choice, I use Lightning, Fang, and Vanille. I see a lot of people like using Hope though. So anyone want to break down why they like using particular characters? I know that

Spoiler

you can ultimately make any character any role

, but since that takes a crazy amount of time, let's pretend you can't.

how do I switch leaders?

You'll know how once you are able to.

Spoiler

Doesn't happen till chapter 9, I believe.

 

[firehawk12]

It's probably because Fang and Vanille both have Saboteur. I think Vanille is the better healer though.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

90-120 hours for Jp version, not too much for an RPG. It doesn't have crazy requirements, and once you are strong enough to fight big turtles it's smooth sailing.

Thats all, then thats pretty short, I have that many hours in Disgaea 3, and only have 1 trophy (120 hrs), lol.

I will try to platinum this game, seems kind of easy to be honest.

 

[Y2Kev]

The soundtrack's been pretty boring outside of a few tracks

offensive

 

[datruth29]

I never posted in a official thread before, and while I have many thoughts on FFXII, the only one I have to convey right now is that the fight music in this is so fucking awesome. There's a particular section that is around 0:50 seconds in that is so incredibly sublime. I just love it. Okay, going back to playing now!

 

[Peff]

Hey, so now that I have a choice, I use Lightning, Fang, and Vanille. I see a lot of people like using Hope though. So anyone want to break down why they like using particular characters? I know that

Spoiler

you can ultimately make any character any role

, but since that takes a crazy amount of time, let's pretend you can't.

Because you get every role for the AI-controlled characters, which allows a huge potential of combinations, and Lightning acts as reinforcements. Hope is a pretty good healer and ravager since he has the most magic power, whereas Fang is a great Saboteur and Sentinel. Also,

Spoiler

yes, you COULD in theory get any role with any character, but the CP cost is absolutely insane for non-starting roles. The first level is 3000 CP per sphere and it only goes up.

 

[RPGCrazied]

ahhh.. that ambling hunt in teh tower.. i died so many times on that one.

 

[AcciDante]

Chapter 12 has

Spoiler

the greatest looking cutscene ever! Holy shit, that was incredible!

 

[Alex]

For example, there are a lot of parallelism between Snow Resistance group and Barret Avalanch.

There's a lot of these points in every Final Fantasy game. I personally think XIII draws on VI the hardest by far. A LOT of the game structure is taken straight from VI, it's just not as noticeable with 15 years of technology on it.

The same initially hyper linear, specific set piece heavy, oppressed magic using fugitive style, party splitting, primarily character driven, dual world design.

You can scramble that to link to quite a few, but its never as blatant. This game is basically FFVI in FFX's shoes with a whole bunch of wonkyness dropped on top of it.

Little less stupidity and they can get it a little more open and evenly paced and start trying to take a modern spin on that traditionalism.

It's a good game, I like the game a lot, but I also think it needs a new director. I mean I liked X-2 also, but the same things that prop up XIII propped up X-2, it's certainly not the direction. Still, there's a lot of good elements to the game that I hope don't get thrown out, again, due to internet angst.

They should probably be tech sharing with XIV for the next single player title, but I have no idea how these dev houses work, especially Square. But I can't imagine getting some detailed towns and explorable segments outside of a big, secondary field environment would be too terribly hard when another team is writing that now using the same engine.

Edit: Oop, looks like Kaijima said a lot of this too! Well at least I know I'm not the only one who noticed this stuff.

 

[Castor Krieg]

Hey, so now that I have a choice, I use Lightning, Fang, and Vanille. I see a lot of people like using Hope though. So anyone want to break down why they like using particular characters? I know that

Spoiler

you can ultimately make any character any role

, but since that takes a crazy amount of time, let's pretend you can't.

I'm running with Lightning for the muscle, Vanille for cheap wins with Death and great Saboteur spells, and Hope for Synergist and Ravager. This way I can have 3xMedic :lol

 

[Rpgmonkey]

offensive

I like the character themes and battle themes, but a lot of the songs for certain areas have been really bland, and the fanfare is plain bad. The (first) Chocobo song is...interesting, but I'm kinda indifferent on it.

The songs in Pulse are better than the one in Cocoon though, there's two I've heard so far that are great.

I like Hamauzu a lot, but what he did with XIII's OST isn't really my thing I guess.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

Finally made it to grand pulse! Time to grind!!

What items to i need to harvest and what weapons should i upgrade to tier three for each character? i want the best dammit.

 

[Styles]

I'm running with Lightning for the muscle, Vanille for cheap wins with Death and great Saboteur spells, and Hope for Synergist and Ravager. This way I can have 3xMedic :lol

I am going to replace Sazh when Hope finally get's haste. :lol

Chapter 12 looks amazing especially

Spoiler

once you've fought that Adamantaimine

:O And the music that goes a long with it is just the icing on the cake. I love this game.

 

[Scythesurge]

Getting into Chapter 7 now and I'm loving the battle system very much, it's such a unique and interesting beast.

 

[mjemirzian]

Want to be good at FFXIII? The game will be easy if you follow these tips!

How to stagger enemies:

1. Commando or Saboteur: The Commando or Saboteur will cause the stagger gague to decline more slowly.
2. Ravagers: Ravagers will be able to quickly increase the stagger gague, which is now slowed from the Commando or Saboteur attacks. You may need to occasionally switch back to commando/saboteur to refresh the stagger gague decline rate bonus.
3. Commandos: Once an enemy is staggered, switch back to Commandos to deal heavy damage and perform air juggles.
4. Against later bosses and enemies you'll need to keep up buffs and debuffs so don't forget to rotate syn and sab classes in there.
5. If your party is fully Hasted and paradigm cancelling (see below) between 2x rav/rav/rav, you can break any bar without needing a commando/saboteur to slow the decline rate, because you can refresh the meter faster than it can decline.

Paradigm Cancel - The game awards you a free full ATB bar for every other paradigm switch as long as you filled the ATB bar entirely before switching. Charge ATB - switch - free full ATB - Charge ATB - switch - free full ATB, etc. You can do this with any paradigm config, even something like 2x rav/rav/rav.

So for example you start the battle. Your ATB bar charges up, and you perform your actions. Now switch to another paradigm and your ATB bar will be fully charged without having to wait. Then since you just got a free full bar, you have to wait to charge that one up again before switching. Note that after using your free bar you can still switch to other paradigms in the meantime, but you won't get another free one until you let the bar fully charge again then switch.

Paradigm Cancel sets - It's best to set up your paradigms assuming that you are going to cancel between two similar sets to double up on whatever goal you're got in combat. That means at least 3 'cancel sets' made up of two paradigms each, and possibly more if you can work them in. Here are two examples:

Lightning, Sahz, and Hope
Cancel Set 1 (stagger): rav/rav/rav, rav/rav/rav
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

Lightning, Snow, and Hope
Cancel Set 1 (stagger): rav/rav/rav, rav/rav/rav
Cancel Set 2 (buff) : com/com/syn, com/com/syn
Cancel Set 3 (heal): med/sen/med, med/sen/syn
Cancel Set 4 (start of battle buffing vs high damage enemies): com/com/syn, med/sen/syn
Cancel Set 5 (commandos vs staggered target): com/com/syn, com/com/syn

Minimizing the paradigm switch animation delay - You can maximize the benefit of paradigm cancel by switching at the very second your character starts the animation of their last attack. For example, Lightning always does a backflip on her last attack, so as soon as you see her start her backflip animation, switch paradigms (make sure you have the paradigm menu open already). Now, you'll notice that every time you paradigm switch she will flip her sword around and there's an animation delay. But when you switch at the moment she starts her final attack animation, the game accepts her final attack animation in place of the sword flipping delay, allowing you to switch faster and take advantage of that full free ATB bar waiting for you. This is something that will take practice, timing, and skill.

Take charged ATB actions immediately - press triangle to immediately execute the charged actions. This is useful if you want to immediately pick off an almost dead enemy that just needs one more hit to go down. This is also useful for commandos early in the game because you can keep an enemy permanently juggled with repeated Launches.

Cancel queued action - Press circle to immediately cancel actions in progress. You can use this to go into emergency defense/heal mode. Or if you are playing as a medic and your current move no longer makes sense, press circle to cancel and do something else.

Always use Libra on enemies. It makes your CPU controlled allies perform more effective attacks vs the enemy weakness, and your own auto-battle command chooses abilities more intelligently as well.

You get a rank from 1-5 stars after every battle. The amount of stars you get is based on how fast you completed the battle, and the time requirement is based on allied and enemy stats. Star ranking affects item drop rates and TP recovery. You have a higher chance of getting Deceptisol if you win fights with 0 stars.

There are few enemies in the game that require a sentinel or saboteur. The most effective parties are heavy on dps, buffs, and healing.

When leveling up your crystarium, always go for abilities first.

You can quickly remake a paradigm set by using the Generate feature then touching things up.

Weapon upgrades - Creature scraps (sold by Creature Comforts) increase XP bonus up to 3x, mechanical parts (sold by Lenora's Garage) reward more XP but reduce XP bonus. The two component types have different icons, one looks like two crossed horns, the other is a screw/bolt. So you want to use scraps to increase XP bonus, then cash in the multiplier with parts. Even without grinding the game hands you lots of upgrade materials.

You never need to grind or use shrouds to get through the game. You can get 5 stars on every boss fight without grinding or using shrouds. Challenge yourself.

 

[Mr.Squirrel]

Im on chapter 7 and uhhhhhh, yeah this game is pretty bad. I'm hoping to god it'll get better but so far it's been just so fucking linear, the story isn't that great, and the battle system is pretty much just mash x. no real strategy involved so far.

I'm praying to god versus gives me the JRPG fix that I need.