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Final Fantasy XIII |OT|

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Game is beautiful and I am finally starting to have some fun with it (Chapter 5), but man this is a huge step backwards from FF12. Totally agree with the poster that said the stage progression is almost like a platformer. Taking out all sense of exploration whatsoever is eliminating a huge aspect of what makes RPGs fun to play.
 

Lost Fragment

Obsessed with 4chan
CcrooK said:
Explain what this means, "The young Aussie comedian-cum-writer-cum-producer".

–preposition
with; combined with; along with (usually used in combination): My garage-cum-workshop is well equipped.

Siliconera's taking it back.

Randal-1.jpg
 

levious

That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us.
phinious said:
I'm having a problem following the story. It seems like cut scenes conflict with each other. in particular where
Snow gets captured and is handcuffed. He talks wit the Sanctum army commander. Then later he is fighting the commander's forces? wtf


yeah that's a good question, I haven't gone back to read the datalog yet from that point of the game, I'm into chapter 8 now, but the dialog from the scene you're referring to certainly didn't make it clear to me until he reappears.
 
kinggroin said:
5 hours in, and I'm slowly starting to do a 180 on my opinion.

The game feels so regressive that it makes me feel like the Edge score was being generous. I simply can't shake this feeling that I'm going through levels, like in a platformer or something.

I HATE not having a world map. I HATE no being to explore. I HATE the absolute linearity of it all. Nothing feels cohesive at all; just a bunch of pretty looking stages.

Story is also beginning to lose my interest.

Oh, and I still hate only controlling one character and using the others through gambits. It's not a hard system or anything, but I at the very least wish I could have full control over everything.

Anyone out there significantly past Chapter 4, that can reassure me things get better?

I'm at Chapter 3
where you see Lightning and the gang fly off on that cruiser thingy; And Snow fights Shiva(or rather the Shiva sisters lol) before getting captured
and I'll be glad when we actually get to a freaking town like area. All of these, large vast "environments" are okay but I would like some civilization.....

On another note, have been close to death like twice. The battles are Fast & Furious and not hard to get "knocked out" if you're not paying attention
 

depths20XX

Member
I really don't understand how the world in this game is supposed to be. I mean it tells you Cocoon is above Pulse or something, but I don't understand how it's designed. Are there any pictures of a world map in this game out there? Is Cocoon the size of a whole country, or a large city? How does a beach exist on Cocoon if it's above Pulse? It just really seems strange to me.
 
depths20XX said:
I really don't understand how the world in this game is supposed to be. I mean it tells you Cocoon is above Pulse or something, but I don't understand how it's designed. Are there any pictures of a world map in this game out there? Is Cocoon the size of a whole country, or a large city? How does a beach exist on Cocoon if it's above Pulse? It just really seems strange to me.

I'm not far into the game but Cocoon is this gigantic floating spherical paradise with some barrier/shield around it miles up in the air. The planet below is Pulse, where there's all of this wildlife running around and is supposed to be "dangerous and uncivilized". I guess you can think of Cocoon as a small, inhabited Moon that's floating above Pulse(Earth). So far, the beginning of the game has taken place on
the outskirts of Cocoon near Boldum and a used to be trade town called The Hanging Edge
 

orion434

Member
Peff said:
Provoke and Challenge will redirect most enemies to attack your Sentinel, who in turn will have a huge defense boost thanks to his/her abilities. This leaves two charaters free to pummel the enemies or build buffs and debuffs freely.

I guess this is more of a preference because I tend use Relentless Assault and then Heal with "Med-Med-Com" Are there any abilities of the Sentinel that will increase the Stagger-meter?
 

Widge

Member
I'm going through Chapter 4 and I really like it. From where I'm sitting, it takes the best elements of all the PS2 games (X's strong story focus, X-2's sparky battle system and XII's tactical battles - plus Pulse's big side mission section but obviously I'm not there yet) and bungs it all into one game, the stealth element to battles is quite interesting and the environments are absolutely massive. Unlike the last 2 FF's I went hands on with (X-2 and XII), the story and party really draw me in and keep me wanting to play.

One thing that is absolutely awesome is magic points - gone. No need to horde ethers or not using magic "just in case", its there, ready to be used whatever scenario comes up. Makes you more inclined to use magic rather than be put off for "wasting" it. Often found in FF games that I physical attacked my way through as it was much more effective and efficient on resources than using magic. Probably why I liked the defined roles of IX and X too. I like that XIII is effectively encouraging your characters to take certain roles as it helps flesh out their personality.

After fizzling out on the last two FF games, its nice to see things back on form, and I reckon this might be a rare game where I want to take it to Platinum (with Fallout 3 being the other). Definitely better than what was offered up on the PS2.
 

Zoe

Member
rayner said:
I guess this is more of a preference because I tend use Relentless Assault and then Heal with "Med-Med-Com" Are there any abilities of the Sentinel that will increase the Stagger-meter?

Provoke

I prefer Med/Med/Sen because Provoke will keep the chain alive, and the rest of the time the Sen will be building up HP.
 

Naeblish

Member
depths20XX said:
I really don't understand how the world in this game is supposed to be. I mean it tells you Cocoon is above Pulse or something, but I don't understand how it's designed. Are there any pictures of a world map in this game out there? Is Cocoon the size of a whole country, or a large city? How does a beach exist on Cocoon if it's above Pulse? It just really seems strange to me.
The story is very vaguely told, they throw all these factions and terms at you without properly explaining what/who they are. There is pulse, cocoon, the purge, fal'cie, l'cie, eden, sanctum, psicom and many more. Although i have to admit i haven't checked the datalog yet, but i hate reading in games. Anyone have a link where it is nicely explained? I'm in chapter 5 btw.

edit: nevermind, found the wikia.
 

Zoe

Member
depths20XX said:
I really don't understand how the world in this game is supposed to be. I mean it tells you Cocoon is above Pulse or something, but I don't understand how it's designed. Are there any pictures of a world map in this game out there? Is Cocoon the size of a whole country, or a large city? How does a beach exist on Cocoon if it's above Pulse? It just really seems strange to me.

Not sure if this appears in the datalog, but Cocoon is a sphere with several cities spread out on the inside edge of the sphere. The sky is actually just the space between one side of the sphere to the other.
 
Yay, I finally received my copy. I have only played trough the first chapter, and so far I'm loving it. The technic is flawless (no loading, no install, fuck awesome graphics and image quality). The battle system seems great, but I would like to have more than one or two techniques to attack (including the classic attack command :lol ), but I have no doubt that it will quickly get more complex.

I can already understand the hate for Hope, Vanille and Snow though. Snow is already pissing me off with its hero shit :lol I don't have any problem with Hope and Vanille though. Vanille seems to be acting super positive to hide her true feeling and to cheer Hope up, and I can understand Hope being in shock with what just happened in the first chapter. Sazh and Lighting are pretty awesome though :D
 

jett

D-Member
So what's the general GAF-consensus of this thing? I'm still a bit interested in this game. Is it worth $60?

I also have to ask...I know the game has a LOT of cut-scenes...but are they long? I can't stand long-ass cut-scenes anymore.
 

Wizpig

Member
I'm loving the game, Chapter 3.

avatar-body.png


Is this horrible costume the only one?
Are there others to unlock?

Kind of an off-topic, but I never played FF 10: was it as linear as this one?
I'm sure there were differences though, because that game got a big amount of love, this one not so much.
Maybe it had cities? overworld?

@RockmanWhore: it gets more complex around the 3-hours mark.
 

levious

That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us.
Zoe said:
Not sure if this appears in the datalog, but Cocoon is a sphere with several cities spread out on the inside edge of the sphere. The sky is actually just the space between one side of the sphere to the other.


oh, so whenever the environment opens up, the sky you see is all within the cocoon? That's what was confusing me the most I think.
 
Got the game this weekend and made it half way through chapter 5.

The progression of the game reminds me of FFX so much. I'm almost 30 though and welcome a polished linear experience more so then I used to though. Love the paradigms.

I'm sure it changes at some point, but right now Lightning is a crusty vagina. :lol
 

orion434

Member
Zoe said:
Provoke

I prefer Med/Med/Sen because Provoke will keep the chain alive, and the rest of the time the Sen will be building up HP.

I use the Com to keep the chain alive, I assume that a Com's attacks will do more damage than Provoke. I hope there is an auto-cure accessory in the game that way you wouldn't have to change paradigms as often and I'd use Com-Rav-Sen to cruise through normal encounters.
 

Zoe

Member
levious said:
oh, so whenever the environment opens up, the sky you see is all within the cocoon? That's what was confusing me the most I think.

What do you mean "when the environment opens up"?

rayner said:
I use the Com to keep the chain alive, I assume that a Com's attacks will do more damage than Provoke. I hope there is an auto-cure accessory in the game that way you wouldn't have to change paradigms as often and I'd use Com-Rav-Sen to cruise through normal encounters.

If there is, I haven't found it.
 
Wizpig said:
Kind of an off-topic, but I never played FF 10: was it as linear as this one?


I'm at chapter 5 so I can't say when or if this game opens up. In FFX, you didn't get a world map and air ship until almost end game. It was linear up until the last 5%.
 

Skilletor

Member
Um, yeah, I don't know what Chapter I'm on (9, I think), but I have not used anything other than auto battle. I'm about ready to give up on this game. I'm bored as hell, and I don't like the characters. I don't like forced parties, and apparently I'm quite a few hours away from being able to choose my own. I've got like 15 hours and I'm STILL getting tutorial prompts.
I just got Sentinel! Huzzah... :mad:

Ugh.
 
RockmanWhore said:
Yay, I finally received my copy. I have only played trough the first chapter, and so far I'm loving it. The technic is flawless (no loading, no install, fuck awesome graphics and image quality). The battle system seems great, but I would like to have more than one or two techniques to attack (including the classic attack command :lol ), but I have no doubt that it will quickly get more complex.

I can already understand the hate for Hope, Vanille and Snow though. Snow is already pissing me off with its hero shit :lol I don't have any problem with Hope and Vanille though. Vanille seems to be acting super positive to hide her true feeling and to cheer Hope up, and I can understand Hope being in shock with what just happened in the first chapter. Sazh and Lighting are pretty awesome though :D

Snow's words were pretty cheesy("Heroes never run from fights!") but I never found them annoying. I also like his VA, the tone is deep and the sound mature. Didnt notice that Vanille had an accent until Chapter 2(I think you just meet up with her in Chp 1). She also seems to be on a little too much Koolaid. I feel impatient with Hope. His initial impression was weak and pathetic. He didnt get better until towards of the end of Chapter 2 IMO. Now I can see he's just going to let it build up before he talks to Snow

Sazh though, definitely is a humorous but down to earth character. Shit, one of the better "Black" portrayals that have been done in video game history TBH. Lightning just has an attitude problem. She kinda started off like Cloud in FF7 but I realized she just doesnt handle emotions well(through Chp 3 at least)
 

ASIS

Member
phinious said:
I'm having a problem following the story. It seems like cut scenes conflict with each other.
in particular where Snow gets captured and is handcuffed. He talks wit the Sanctum army commander. Then later he is fighting the commander's forces? wtf
I am not sure where you are right now, but if you're talking about
when Lightning and Hope reaching hope's hometown
and you
watched the CG
then open the next spoiler, if not then STAY AWAY :p :


he was recruited by the cavalry, not PSICOM. Cavalry is an "elite" Gaurdian Corps organization and their leader, Cid raines, wants to collect the L'cie in order to bring an end to the rule of the fal'cie. Snow, along with fang, just did their job to fight against PSICOM and rescue the L'cie
 

levious

That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us.
Zoe said:
What do you mean "when the environment opens up"?


I just mean when I can see the sky I guess... I think I was confused due to not realizing how huge the cocoon was to begin with.
 

ElFly

Member
Yeah, I was thinking about that.

Chapter 10:
the sphere in the sky is cocoon, but is it a moon, or a space station?

The forest you traverse with Sazh and Vanille is in cocoon or pulse?
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
Zoe said:
Not sure if this appears in the datalog, but Cocoon is a sphere with several cities spread out on the inside edge of the sphere. The sky is actually just the space between one side of the sphere to the other.
There are a couple things in the datalog that sort of indicate that, but I don't think it's stated explicitly. The only time I've ever been able to actually notice the shape of the environment reflecting that fact so far was when you're up high on one of the buildings looking out over the ocean in
Palompolum
in chapter 7. The horizon looks like it's sort of curving up and away rather than down. The only thing I haven't been able to understand is why you can't actually see the land wrapping around or the opposite side of the shell. I guess the atmosphere is fairly dense, but it seems to me the place would have to be absolutely gargantuan for the opposite side to be invisible even at night (or forget the opposite sides, even the curving sides around you).

I also haven't figured out how sunsets work. :lol I mean, I know how the sun and the climate stuff works, but I haven't been able to wrap my head around scenes were the "sun" is "setting."
 

BluWacky

Member
Wizpig said:
Kind of an off-topic, but I never played FF 10: was it as linear as this one?
I'm sure there were differences though, because that game got a big amount of love, this one not so much.
Maybe it had cities? overworld?

FFX had towns and the ability to go back to all the places you'd been previously by the end of the game, plus one small area that was a bit more open-ended. Otherwise, it's very similar in its linearity (no real world map), although the map design is slightly different - with FFXIII there's only really "forward" and "backward" with branches off the path for battles/treasures, whereas FFX's locations frequently have two "forwards" (althouguh most of the time one or other path is blocked off for story reasons).

So FFX is a bit less linear, but not drastically so IMO.
 

Widge

Member
Yeah FFX wasn't really that branching or varied. On the whole, it was a straight line romp through Spira, plus the environments didn't have anywhere near the size of XIII's.
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
You could also go backwards to previous areas if you really felt like hoofing it a lot of the time in X even before you got access to the world map as well, something you can't really do in XIII.

So yeah, it's still a pretty linear game, but slightly less so than XIII. Plus, you know, towns, stores, people to talk to.
 
I am very surprised on how much I have been enjoying this game. Does it feel like a Final Fantasy game? NO! but I give SE props for having the balls to take their most popular series in wild directions.

The world in this game is well....very alien and unique, by gaming standards. I dont know how to describe it because I dont remember the last time I have seen a world as crazy. The missing towns dont bother me THAT much. The battle system is amazing and the game is one of the most beautiful games I have ever seen graphically and artistically.

All that aside, as a long time Final Fantasy fan I think its about time the series returns to its pre FF7 roots. I would love to return to a world thats more "magical and mythological" I want my flying boat ships, victory fanfare, prelude, godly villain like Kefka, world map, towns etc. Like the Resident Evil series, Final Fantasy must return to its roots for #15. No more futuristic worlds (leave that for the new Zelda ;))
 

Synless

Member
ElFly said:
Yeah, I was thinking about that.

Chapter 10:
the sphere in the sky is cocoon, but is it a moon, or a space station?

The forest you traverse with Sazh and Vanille is in cocoon or pulse?
The forest is Cocoon
 

depths20XX

Member
It would be way easier to understand how the world is designed if you could actually get a good view of Cocoon from the outside. I can't believe they don't have any artwork of that. It still seems really abstract to me, even with the explanations.
 
MetatronM said:
I also haven't figured out how sunsets work. :lol I mean, I know how the sun and the climate stuff works, but I haven't been able to wrap my head around scenes were the "sun" is "setting."

Easy.
THere is no sun like Earth's Sun. Instead Fal'Cie Phoenix is responsible for sunsets and sundowns.
 

Zoe

Member
MetatronM said:
I guess the atmosphere is fairly dense, but it seems to me the place would have to be absolutely gargantuan for the opposite side to be invisible even at night (or forget the opposite sides, even the curving sides around you).

Well apparently the "stars" are actually the lights of other cities.

Skilletor said:
Um, yeah, I don't know what Chapter I'm on (9, I think), but I have not used anything other than auto battle. I'm about ready to give up on this game. I'm bored as hell, and I don't like the characters. I don't like forced parties, and apparently I'm quite a few hours away from being able to choose my own. I've got like 15 hours and I'm STILL getting tutorial prompts.
I just got Sentinel! Huzzah... :mad:

Ugh.

You are not on chapter 9 if you just got a new role. Look at your save file or the datalog.
 

Dead

well not really...yet
Host Samurai said:
I am very surprised on how much I have been enjoying this game. Does it feel like a Final Fantasy game? NO! but I give SE props for having the balls to take their most popular series in wild directions.

The world in this game is well....very alien and unique, by gaming standards. I dont know how to describe it because I dont remember the last time I have seen a world as crazy. The missing towns dont bother me THAT much. The battle system is amazing and the game is one of the most beautiful games I have ever seen graphically and artistically.

All that aside, as a long time Final Fantasy fan I think its about time the series returns to its pre FF7 roots. I would love to return to a world thats more "magical and mythological" I want my flying boat ships, victory fanfare, prelude, godly villain like Kefka, world map, towns etc. Like the Resident Evil series, Final Fantasy must return to its roots for #15. No more futuristic worlds (leave that for the new Zelda ;))
you say that is if there hasn't been an FF like that in over a decade

IX - Fantasy, airships, etc
X - Fantasy, airships, etc
XII - Fantasy, airships, etc
XIII - Sci-fi
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
Host Samurai said:
I am very surprised on how much I have been enjoying this game. Does it feel like a Final Fantasy game? NO! but I give SE props for having the balls to take their most popular series in wild directions.

The world in this game is well....very alien and unique, by gaming standards. I dont know how to describe it because I dont remember the last time I have seen a world as crazy. The missing towns dont bother me THAT much. The battle system is amazing and the game is one of the most beautiful games I have ever seen graphically and artistically.

All that aside, as a long time Final Fantasy fan I think its about time the series returns to its pre FF7 roots. I would love to return to a world thats more "magical and mythological" I want my flying boat ships, victory fanfare, prelude, godly villain like Kefka, world map, towns etc. Like the Resident Evil series, Final Fantasy must return to its roots for #15. No more futuristic worlds (leave that for the new Zelda ;))
So...FF IX, XI, and XIV? :D

I do agree, though, it would be nice to have another offline single-player FF with a more traditional "fantasy" style again. For diversity's sake if nothing else.

I do think it does feel like "Final Fantasy," though, or at least in terms of how the series has evolved in the past decade (I can't believe it's coming up on 10 years since IX, by the way). I do agree with pretty much all the other sentiments about XIII, though. I'm honestly genuinely shocked how much I'm enjoying the game so far, and maybe even more shocked by how much I like (most of) the main cast.
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
Castor Krieg said:
Easy.
THere is no sun like Earth's Sun. Instead Fal'Cie Phoenix is responsible for sunsets and sundowns.
I understand that. That doesn't explain the physics of how the sun "sets" over the horizon, though.

Phoenix is just a nice big fireball/airship/thing flying around in the sky, which makes sense as the "sun" and source of light in the world. I just don't get the scenes where you see it setting over the horizon, like some of the flashback scenes in Bodhum or in the middle of chapter 7. I guess...it's coming in for a landing somewhere for the night?
 

Amneisac

Member
I'm not finished yet (chapter 11) but I'll say this:

I have been terrible about not finishing JRPGs lately, even some really good ones:

Blue Dragon, Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, Persona 3, FFXII, etc.

I am actually loving this game and I'm going to finish it. For some reason I care about the characters, even the ones I really hate (Vanille). Count me among those who are enjoying a linear experience.

Something about all the FPS's I've been playing lately had almost gotten me burned out on video games. This is just a breath of fresh air at the right time. It's been fun taking in this amazing world they've created. It's by no means perfect, but I'm having a great time.
 

Naeblish

Member
depths20XX said:
It would be way easier to understand how the world is designed if you could actually get a good view of Cocoon from the outside. I can't believe they don't have any artwork of that. It still seems really abstract to me, even with the explanations.
From the wikia page i posted previously:

800px-FFXIII-ReArt01.jpg


Pulse below, cocoon in the top.
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
BocoDragon said:
The way this game has chapters where the scene music plays through the battle sequences is great. This game basically gives us both classic FF-style "battle music" and later FF12-style, which maintains the driving level music through battles.

I would be okay with that if three out of four times that song wasn't either the battle theme song or the pianoesque boss theme song.
 

Zoe

Member
depths20XX said:
It would be way easier to understand how the world is designed if you could actually get a good view of Cocoon from the outside. I can't believe they don't have any artwork of that. It still seems really abstract to me, even with the explanations.

That picture that lots of people were hoping would be the Western cover has Cocoon on it.

Ch 11:
And you can see it pretty clearly from Pulse.
 
Quick Question:

When I should I start upgrading weapons? I got the ability, but am wondering if I should save my spoils for weapons later on in the game.
 

depths20XX

Member
Naeblish said:
From the wikia page i posted previously:

Cool, that actually makes more sense now. I didn't realize Cocoon was like a moon over Pulse. Didn't read much on the story before this came out.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
would a sent help with the boss on the tower?

I just cant seem to take the impact of the flominus wrath attack, kills hope isntantly an leaves light an sazh near death
 

ASIS

Member
RPGCrazied said:
would a sent help with the boss on the tower?

I just cant seem to take the impact of the flominus wrath attack, kills hope isntantly an leaves light an sazh near death

I never really used a sent BUT I think it would really help if you switch Lightning with fang here. Debuffing is extremely important and you'd still get a sent. Whenever things get a little too rough just summon an eidolon. They will help take off some HP from the boss and restores everyone's health back.
 
Dead said:
you say that is if there hasn't been an FF like that in over a decade

IX - Fantasy, airships, etc
X - Fantasy, airships, etc
XII - Fantasy, airships, etc
XIII - Sci-fi


Yea but most like IX. X...well felt more "Technoish" than fantasy to me. Not really futuristic as VII or VIII but I wouldn't place it with I-VI or IX. Yes XII had the right idea with the art style but the story was lacking those awesome godly villains like Kefka, Kuja etc. If I was in charge of the next Final Fantasy game I would have a cast like VI and a villain like VI.
 

DarkKyo

Member
Question here!
For end of chapter 9:
About to go fight the fal'cie sanctum pope(keep retrying). I want to grind first. Is there any way to get on the platforms to the left and right of the room in the long room before fighting him? I see item balls and plenty of enemies over there so I feel like I should be able to get across to fight/grind somehow. Thanks!
 
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