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Final Fantasy XIII |OT|

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Fun Factor

Formerly FTWer
DangerousDave said:
Final Fantasy XIII, the only game where even the haters play it during 50 hours.

That thing is very strange. I'm not able to play 50 hours (or even 5) hours, with games that I hate. I'm not able to play that amount of time in games that are simply ok, or even some good games.

But in this thread I see a lot of people hating the game, but playing 50 hours. That's some kind of videogame related masochism.


QFT

The game is great! J-RPG of the year.
 
Fimbulvetr said:
It really really isn't.

We get top hats.

Wait, I'm a partial snob too thanks to my love of FF9/Tactics/X-2. That means I have a top hat too! I'm gonna wear it ALL day tomorrow.

FTWer said:
QFT

The game is great! J-RPG of the year.

It's not that out of the ordinary. There's been 13 entries so some people that aren't too keen on this one but have loved the rest of the series will force themselves to finish it just for being FF. Hell, I hate 12 and played it for more than 100 hours.
 

Cep

Banned
FTWer said:
QFT

The game is great! J-RPG of the year.

As cosmic so well put, fans can be crazy sometimes.

Besides, the opposite works too. Rez loves the game but he had enough at about chapter 11 and stopped playing.

How do you explain that?

Also, SJ and RoF would like to have a word.

cosmicblizzard said:
Hell, I hate 12 and played it for more than 100 hours.

Damn, that is just crazy. I could never do this.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
To me, the ONLY reason I'm seeing this to the end is simply because of how dull the game starts lasts so long. It took 25 hours for me to get to an open part, I put the game down for a week or two for GoW3 then jumped back in.

I needed the break and if more games came out right now I was interested in, I probably wouldn't have come back. But the fact I already put over a day of my life into a game and got to where people said it gets good just makes me want some closure. I was close to ragequitting the game at the chapter 9 boss and kept trucking for a similar reason, I don't like to stop playing an RPG just because of the time sink.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
cosmicblizzard said:
Hell, I hate 12 and played it for more than 100 hours.

Then you didn't hate it.

If you actually forced yourself to spend 100 hours of your life playing a video game that you hate, you need to seek help. :lol
 

Threi

notag
I can't get over how good the boss theme is. I love it so much.

Going through the game pretty slowly though, only at chapter 9. Still enjoying the battle system. Characters are eh, story is eh, but that isn't stopping my enjoyment of the game. What I find strange though is out of the number of flaws that the game has, the Nomura character design is the least offensive...I really thought the opposite would be true :O
 

Narcosis

Member
Just posting to say I think FFXIII is a good game.

Yeah, there's not much exploration outside of Gran Pulse, but I haven't had this much fun with JRPG combat since X-2. I guess the linear nature of it didn't bother me because I sort of expected it coming from Kitase. Then again, I gloss over the whole fan bickering over most FF topics because I haven't encountered a main-series game in FF yet that has let me down (and yes, I have played all of the main ones except for XI).

IMO this is the best console JRPG we've gotten this gen so far, with Lost Odyssey being the only other current gen game in the genre I have been able to finish without wanting to sell it off or trade in (Valkryia is great too, but that to me is a different type of game). For the record my favorite JRPGs of recent years have been the SMT and Persona titles, they are better than anything that's graced the PS360 or Wii.

Perhaps the FFXIII situation and the reaction to it is a case of people expecting something Kitase wasn't going to give them. Were people expecting literary masterpiece from the plot when they saw a chocobo living inside Sazh's 'fro or the ice summon being a set of Shiva-esque twins who go all Voltron and merge into a vehicle in Famitsu scans over a year ago? Were they really expecting a world map exploration from the man who gave us FFX?

While I do agree the learning curve seems to have been dumbed down a bit too much in the early sections of the game, I think the actual point the game starts to pick up is roughly around the 8 hour mark and not 20-30 like some say, and when I recall the previous entries, that's about how long it took for the others to really get going as well. I don't think it's a case of Final Fantasy having changed THAT much, but more a case of the gamers themselves and their expectations having changed in the years since the SNES and PSOne installments. Yes, XIII is a bit stripped down to the basics in many respects, but it's not so far off the mark when compared to other games in the genre or the series.

So in conclusion, after having finished the story and working on the last few Gran Pulse missions, I guess I'd grade the game as a B+.
 

neoism

Member
Character 12's beginning CGI cut-scene!=
explode1.gif

Seriously that was infuckingsane! I know I'm late, but I just decided to leave Gran Pulse, only have 72 hours!:lol I acually thought I over-leveled:lol :lol :lol 200k CP got me like 6 things:lol :lol
Also Dust to Dust is my favorite song in 13 now... :eek: I was sooo happy they didn't change it during battle in Oerba sooo awesome!
 
omg rite said:
Then you didn't hate it.

If you actually forced yourself to spend 100 hours of your life playing a video game that you hate, you need to seek help. :lol

Probably.

FF had been my favorite series for a majority of my life. There are 4 games in my top 10 of all time in the series, 1 of which is my favorite game of all time. I didn't want want to believe there could be an entry I was completely indifferent about. For those 100 hours, I was in denial even though I knew it was true.

To this day, FF12 is the only game I disliked that I played for more than 5 hours.

Edit: Actually, I also didn't like TWEWY but I played that for 10 hours. 2 games then.
 

dramatis

Member
Narcosis said:
IMO this is the best console JRPG we've gotten this gen so far, with Lost Odyssey being the only other current gen game in the genre I have been able to finish without wanting to sell it off or trade in (Valkryia is great too, but that to me is a different type of game). For the record my favorite JRPGs of recent years have been the SMT and Persona titles, they are better than anything that's graced the PS360 or Wii.

Funny thing is, it would be, but then RoF came out. So 13's a rather short-lived king, which is a testament to how far behind the design of the game is already. Aside from the graphics and the polish, nothing much about FF13 puts it above a lot of other JRPGs this gen.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
dramatis said:
Funny thing is, it would be, but then RoF came out. So 13's a rather short-lived king, which is a testament to how far behind the design of the game is already. Aside from the graphics and the polish, nothing much about FF13 puts it above a lot of other JRPGs this gen.

Don't agree at all. FFXIII is much better than RoF and is one of my favorite experiences this gen.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
cosmicblizzard said:
Probably.

FF had been my favorite series for a majority of my life. There are 4 games in my top 10 of all time in the series, 1 of which is my favorite game of all time. I didn't want want to believe there could be an entry I was completely indifferent about. For those 100 hours, I was in denial even though I knew it was true.

To this day, FF12 is the only game I disliked that I played for more than 5 hours.

Edit: Actually, I also didn't like TWEWY but I played that for 10 hours. 2 games then.

WUT.

TWEWY is one of the best games this past generation, whether it be handheld or console!
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
I still need to try TWEWY again, bought it after all the gaf love and just couldn't get into it...feels like I had to have missed something.
 
omg rite said:
WUT.

TWEWY is one of the best games this past generation, whether it be handheld or console!

And now you know why I spent 10 hours on it before giving up. When someone reccomends me something, I try my hardest to get into it. Usually my limit is 5 hours but I extended it for that with all the critical acclaim it got. Just couldn't get into the battle system even though I was enjoying the story.
 

neoism

Member
dramatis said:
Funny thing is, it would be, but then RoF came out. So 13's a rather short-lived king, which is a testament to how far behind the design of the game is already. Aside from the graphics and the polish, nothing much about FF13 puts it above a lot of other JRPGs this gen.
:lol
 

Rpgmonkey

Member
Narcosis said:
Just posting to say I think FFXIII is a good game.

Yeah, there's not much exploration outside of Gran Pulse, but I haven't had this much fun with JRPG combat since X-2. I guess the linear nature of it didn't bother me because I sort of expected it coming from Kitase. Then again, I gloss over the whole fan bickering over most FF topics because I haven't encountered a main-series game in FF yet that has let me down (and yes, I have played all of the main ones except for XI).

IMO this is the best console JRPG we've gotten this gen so far, with Lost Odyssey being the only other current gen game in the genre I have been able to finish without wanting to sell it off or trade in (Valkryia is great too, but that to me is a different type of game). For the record my favorite JRPGs of recent years have been the SMT and Persona titles, they are better than anything that's graced the PS360 or Wii.

Perhaps the FFXIII situation and the reaction to it is a case of people expecting something Kitase wasn't going to give them. Were people expecting literary masterpiece from the plot when they saw a chocobo living inside Sazh's 'fro or the ice summon being a set of Shiva-esque twins who go all Voltron and merge into a vehicle in Famitsu scans over a year ago? Were they really expecting a world map exploration from the man who gave us FFX?

While I do agree the learning curve seems to have been dumbed down a bit too much in the early sections of the game, I think the actual point the game starts to pick up is roughly around the 8 hour mark and not 20-30 like some say, and when I recall the previous entries, that's about how long it took for the others to really get going as well. I don't think it's a case of Final Fantasy having changed THAT much, but more a case of the gamers themselves and their expectations having changed in the years since the SNES and PSOne installments. Yes, XIII is a bit stripped down to the basics in many respects, but it's not so far off the mark when compared to other games in the genre or the series.

So in conclusion, after having finished the story and working on the last few Gran Pulse missions, I guess I'd grade the game as a B+.

Well yes, I like to expect improvement, and it's something I think the series and its creators are entirely capable of, based on what they've done in the past.

Of course I'm not expecting a literary masterpiece or anything, but there's not a whole lot about this game that I find particularly special and unique (especially in a positive way) among the series, or even among many JRPGs.

neoism said:
Can you go back and fight the last boss, in post-game, you now when I'm all level 5 on everything!!??

Yes.
 

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
Do you guys have any tips on weapon/accessory upgrading or dismantling? Like when to do it, best things to use, etc? I've read a few of the FAQs on GameFAQs and while I did get some good intel from there (didn't know about the hidden point system that effects your multiplier) it's still really hard to figure out what's going to be a good weapon to upgrade, which ones to dismantle, etc.

Basically, for example, I'm using Lightning strictly as an attacker (not much magic) so I've got her with a Gladius LVL 5 and broke down the Flame Saber or whatever. Good move? Bad move? (Yes, I'm still fairly early in the game. Just going thru with Vanille and Sazh thru that green foresty area.) How high do the levels on these weapons go? I'm going to go broke buying pieces to upgrade these things! :lol
 

Fun Factor

Formerly FTWer
dramatis said:
Funny thing is, it would be, but then RoF came out. So 13's a rather short-lived king, which is a testament to how far behind the design of the game is already. Aside from the graphics and the polish, nothing much about FF13 puts it above a lot of other JRPGs this gen.

? ROF is rated across the boards lower than FFXIII nearly everywhere.
From what I seen of the reviews & videos, the barbie dress up aspect is the most exciting part of the game.
It looks like a game I would consider buying when it's dirt cheap in a bargain bin.
 

Raw64life

Member
So when can you expand the Crystarium to level 5? I just started Chapter 13 and I can expand past level 4 but not to the point where I can get level 5. I'm figuring I'm pretty much at the end of the game at this point and the enemies are starting to kick my ass so I'm wondering if I should keep saving up the 300,000+ CP I have for each character and get a head start on getting to level 5 once I have access to it, or just level up the other classes to level 4 now.

On a related point, the CP distribution is just ridiculously dumb by the time you get to Chapter 13. 2400 CP for the flying bike thing that takes forever to beat and kills me half the time? I can go back and kill groups of enemies that give me the same or more CP in 20 seconds at this point. It seems like after Chapter 10 the enemies continue to get progressively more difficult but the CP you get from them stays the same for the rest of the game. Frustrating as hell, and it basically just makes me avoid anything that looks like it's going to give me a hard time.
 

Fun Factor

Formerly FTWer
whytemyke said:
Do you guys have any tips on weapon/accessory upgrading or dismantling? Like when to do it, best things to use, etc? I've read a few of the FAQs on GameFAQs and while I did get some good intel from there (didn't know about the hidden point system that effects your multiplier) it's still really hard to figure out what's going to be a good weapon to upgrade, which ones to dismantle, etc.

Basically, for example, I'm using Lightning strictly as an attacker (not much magic) so I've got her with a Gladius LVL 5 and broke down the Flame Saber or whatever. Good move? Bad move? (Yes, I'm still fairly early in the game. Just going thru with Vanille and Sazh thru that green foresty area.) How high do the levels on these weapons go? I'm going to go broke buying pieces to upgrade these things! :lol

Lighting has two weapons that are better than that.
One that gives you faster ATB recharge & one that has better strength & magic attack power than the Gladius. You get both in the latter half of the game (ch. 11-12).

You also upgrade like this:
Buy ether 36x Sturdy Bones, Barbed Tails or Vibrant Ooze at a cost of 80 Gil a piece.
Use 36 of them to get a 3x multiplier & then use one of all the parts with higher experience like any of the conductors (super, perfect, ultra etc..).


Raw64life said:
So when can you expand the Crystarium to level 5? I just started Chapter 13 and I can expand past level 4 but not to the point where I can get level 5. I'm figuring I'm pretty much at the end of the game at this point and the enemies are starting to kick my ass so I'm wondering if I should keep saving up the 300,000+ CP I have for each character and get a head start on getting to level 5 once I have access to it, or just level up the other classes to level 4 now.

After you beat the final boss.
 

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
FTWer said:
Lighting has two weapons that are better than that.
One that gives you faster ATB recharge & one that has better strength & magic attack power than the Gladius. You get both in the latter half of the game (ch. 11-12).

You also upgrade like this:
Buy ether 36x Sturdy Bones, Barbed Tails or Vibrant Ooze at a cost of 80 Gil a piece.
Use 36 of them to get a 3x multiplier & then use one of all the parts with higher experience like any of the conductors (super, perfect, ultra etc..).
Sweet. Thanks!
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
FTWer said:
? ROF is rated across the boards lower than FFXIII nearly everywhere.
From what I seen of the reviews & videos, the barbie dress up aspect is the most exciting part of the game.
It looks like a game I would consider buying when it's dirt cheap in a bargain bin.


Reviewers with RPGs don't really mix. WRPGs are one thing, but JRPG is usually all over the place. For example, Vesperia is lower rated than FFXIII but was a much more even experience, at the least. I had a great time with that game but was confused at the reviews docking it a lot of points for no real reason...even if you love FFXIII it's hard to argue that it atleast has quite a few major points that it would make sense to dock a game for.
 

Zoe

Member
Raw64life said:
So when can you expand the Crystarium to level 5? I just started Chapter 13 and I can expand past level 4 but not to the point where I can get level 5. I'm figuring I'm pretty much at the end of the game at this point and the enemies are starting to kick my ass so I'm wondering if I should keep saving up the 300,000+ CP I have for each character and get a head start on getting to level 5 once I have access to it, or just level up the other classes to level 4 now.

It's going to take a hell of a lot longer to get up to level 4 on the non-default roles than it would be to just wait, finish the game, and complete level 5 on the default roles.
 

Raw64life

Member
Zoe said:
It's going to take a hell of a lot longer to get up to level 4 on the non-default roles than it would be to just wait, finish the game, and complete level 5 on the default roles.

Yea, when I said that I meant getting to level 4 on just the 3 main classes everyone starts out with. I just didn't want to spend all my CP getting everyone to level 4 on the 3 main classes and then find out that shortly before the final boss you get expanded to level 5 or something like that.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Raw64life said:
Yea, when I said that I meant getting to level 4 on just the 3 main classes everyone starts out with. I just didn't want to spend all my CP getting everyone to level 4 on the 3 main classes and then find out that shortly before the final boss you get expanded to level 5 or something like that.

Keep in mind CP caps at 999,999. I lost 200k CP because I didn't spend it when I beat a boss. :(
 

Dresden

Member
This is weird, GAF is acting up on me. It says 4/4/10 on my pc but I'm pretty sure this conversation about the quality of the game happened three weeks ago.
 

hamchan

Member
omg rite said:
WUT.

TWEWY is one of the best games this past generation, whether it be handheld or console!

Good man. TWEWY is easily the best JRPG this generation.

I feel FFXIII is great but has failed in multiple areas. I love the graphics, music, world, characters and the battle system. Where they failed for me was the lack of sidequests, bad level design (good god chapter 10 is terrible) and a story that only reveals its depths when you read the datalog. 83 metacritic sounds about right.

Now all aboard the hype train for Versus XIII!
 

jiggle

Member
famitsu and jump each promising a surprise too
hope they're related!






edit: i want a platinum but i don't think i can get the 5star all mission one XD
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
jiggle said:
famitsu and jump each promising a surprise too
hope they're related!






edit: i want a platinum but i don't think i can get the 5star all mission one XD

Jump too? Sure it's not related to that Pokemon reveal?
 

jiggle

Member
Kagari said:
Jump too? Sure it's not related to that Pokemon reveal?




http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/04/04/decasporta_in_jump/

In other Jump news, the preview section of the magazine is apparently teasing the following for the next issue: "Big feature on the new entry in that very popular series!! Must see!!".

Is this in reference to an unannounced title, or will Jump be doing a big blowout on a game that was previously announced? We'll find out when info from the next issue leak out, probably around this time next week.



could be pokemon
 

JJD_BR

Banned
I just finished FFXIII. Wow...I wasn't expecting that ending, very, very cool.
As far as the whole game goes, I'm torn. I believe it's a good game, but all I can think now, right after finishing it is:

What a HUGE, HUGE opportunity Square missed...AGAIN!

It took me 30 hours to get to the "open" part of the game on chapter 11. Until that I wasn't really enjoying the game, I just wanted to finish it, as I have done the last seven FF games released.

The battle system is really good (even with so much "Auto-Battle" choosing. I wonder why many people who complained that XII fighting was bad, and automatic think XIII's great ...sigh...), but as everything else in the damn game it takes too long to explore it fully. Up until
boarding the Palamecia and the first Barthandelus fight
most of the game is played on 2 characters teams. But the battle system really shines with teams of 3!!! Why did it take 20 plus hours to get there Square???

The story is great, but it only grips you after chapter 11. Before that point it's kind of bland, it's missing something. But as soon as I learned
that Dysely was really a fal'Cie
, and other stuff, I was hooked. I wasn't expecting that, it's just too bad it takes so long to discover it. Then everything goes into high gear and it's a twist after another. Really gripping stuff. From that point on I really needed to know what would happen, instead of just playing to get to the end on auto pilot.

The characters are nice, even Snow (he could have been handed better thought), and I was shocked when I realized that
Fang and Vanille are really the main characters in the game, and not Light, Snow or Serah
. What a nice twist! As I said the end is great, even if the last boss is kind of a let down, he could have been handed better also. It's a nice cast with Hope beign the only weak link IMHO.

The graphics and the music are incredible. The soundtrack is very powerful, one of the best Square has ever produced, and the graphics, art direction, production, etc., is top notch.

How could they mess a game with such potential??? I guess it was the need to innovate that hurt it the most. I don't agree completely with Greg Zeschuk opinion that JRPGs lack innovation. Most of then do, but not the FF series...as far as I can tell it was innovation that broke FFXIII. Had Square stick to a more traditional RPG style with towns and exploring meshed with the great battle mechanic, great story and setting, and cool and likable characters FFXIII would be a classic. Maybe not as commercialy big as FFVII (that was another time), but as big as, on the heart of FF fans. As it is, it's just a divisive mess.

I really believe that until Chapter 11 everything that happens on the game could be summarized to just a couple hours, or the just the first chapters of the game if Square had nailed the pacing. Talk about a decompressed form of story telling! Up until Ch. 11, almost nothing really interesting happens and you take 20 hours to gather your party again, but from Ch. 11 foward what a huge roller coaster follows!

They should have compressed the first 11 chapters and developed the story more. There's tons of potential unexplored!
Jihl Nabaat and Yaag Rosch are utterly wasted, as is Rygdea the Cavalry and Cid (this one to a lesser extent). The Pulse fal'cie are wasted, even the Cocoon fal'cie are wasted! Why we can only fight Barthandelus and Orphan??? What about the others (besides the one in Tenjim Tower)??? Who is that cool Pulse fal'cie that appears to you when you get your brands on the Vestige? Because he looks really different from the one you fight just before.
. That's just the stuff that I remind on the tip of my head after finishing the game with more than 60 hours logged.

As I said if they took the setting, the story, the characters and the battle system and paired it with more traditional FF exploring mechanics, a better pacing and developed the concepts a bit more the game would have been a classic!

As it is, it's bright spots are really clouded by it's flaws on my eyes. It's just a missed opportunity...

I've played every FF since VI (with the exception of XI), and I hate that the last two entries in the main series are plagued by issues that ruin the great foundation upon they're build. FF XII missed it's designer and it's story and the later part of the game suffered. FF XIII story's great, but a couple design choices hampers it's enjoyment immensely.

On a final thought I can say that I liked the game, but I can't recommend it to everyone but the RPG crownd, and FF fans. How many people must have abandoned the game out of boredom prior to chapter 11 I wonder...not even the hunts are unlocked earlier!!!

Get your shit together Square, everything I've seen in XIII makes me hopeful for the future of the series, and FF XIII Versus and XV, but you've messed a potentially great game two times in a row now, I don't know if I will take a third one, Bioware and Bethesda's RPG are really growing on me. >:-(






PS> I'm sorry for the rant and the bad english guys, it's been a long time since I've been so passionate about a FF game...
 

Dresden

Member
jiggle said:
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/04/04/decasporta_in_jump/

In other Jump news, the preview section of the magazine is apparently teasing the following for the next issue: "Big feature on the new entry in that very popular series!! Must see!!".

Is this in reference to an unannounced title, or will Jump be doing a big blowout on a game that was previously announced? We'll find out when info from the next issue leak out, probably around this time next week.



could be pokemon
It could well be some gameplay footage along with a note that says Spring 2011.

Believe.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
cnizzle06 said:
Guys, I can't find the post, but can someone tell me again how to take advantage of mission 7??

What specifically? Mission 7 is used to grind for Tetra Crowns/Tiaras in order to get the Sprint Shoes.
 

cnizzle06

Banned
firehawk12 said:
What specifically? Mission 7 is used to grind for Tetra Crowns/Tiaras in order to get the Sprint Shoes.

Alright, thanks, I guess that's what it was. So I max out the crown and then break it down?
 

The_Dude

Member
I don't want to spoil anything by looking at a FAQ, but is it possible to finish all the missions before finishing the game, and is there a point of no return? I've just reached
Taejin's Tower
and am up to mission 20.
 

Styles

Member
jiggle said:
famitsu and jump each promising a surprise too
hope they're related!






edit: i want a platinum but i don't think i can get the 5star all mission one XD


It's pretty easy, just use shrouds.
 
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