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[Cep]

Eh, I don't think the story seems bad. It just seems like SE tried to cram too much information into the story, so rather than let the game provide the information as you progressed, they threw it all in the datalog and called it a day.

Keep playing.

 

[Celcius]

What did you think of Fighting Fate?

Spoiler

Barthandelus

theme.

For me, it was the best piece of music by a long way. I loved it a lot.

It's a really good song: it fits the epic boss fights perfectly and also sounds great on its own. I was listening to it on my ipod the other day.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Keep playing.

Can't be worse than the 'lol memory loss' story of FF VIII, can it?

 

[Cep]

Can't be worse than the 'lol memory loss' story of FF VIII, can it?

Let us not speak of that. Makes me sad every time.

 

[Crash Station]

Can't be worse than the 'lol memory loss' story of FF VIII, can it?

Depends on how much you can forgive in a story. I was able to look past the plot holes and odd character motivation and still find something to like in it but not everyone is as tolerant as me.

Of course I also liked FF8's story so maybe I shouldn't be the one to answer this.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Eh, I don't think the story seems bad. It just seems like SE tried to cram too much information into the story, so rather than let the game provide the information as you progressed, they threw it all in the datalog and called it a day.

Personally, I really enjoyed reading the datalog to get more background information on the world, but that's the kind of thing I always enjoy doing. I feel like XIII's biggest strength in terms of story is the world, which is pretty interesting (and probably one of the better fleshed out worlds in a Final Fantasy game). The characters themselves are also pretty good, but I feel like the main plot is probably the least interesting element of the story.

Which isn't to say it's terrible (and it does have some interesting moments), but Final Fantasy XIII feels a lot more about the characters than about what's actually happening to them.

 

[Trent Strong]

OH MY GOD!!! Chapter 13 is a nightmare!! I can't take it anymore! If FF 13 is too easy, then what are Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata? They were a hell of a lot easier than FF 13 is. Something like Resonance of Fate would probably kill me.

 

[ZephyrFate]

OH MY GOD!!! Chapter 13 is a nightmare!! I can't take it anymore! If FF 13 is too easy, then what are Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata? They were a hell of a lot easier than FF 13 is. Something like Resonance of Fate would probably kill me.

DIFFICULTY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Edit: I just watched the (super freaking beautiful) Chapter 12 opening again, and I don't understand how it doesn't make sense. It's not difficult to see what's going on. It's just got a lot of quick shots.

 

[Lightning]

OH MY GOD!!! Chapter 13 is a nightmare!! I can't take it anymore! If FF 13 is too easy, then what are Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata? They were a hell of a lot easier than FF 13 is. Something like Resonance of Fate would probably kill me.

Chapter 13 is hard.... Chapter 9 was hard as well but Chapter 13 is really fucking hard especially if you are haven't upgraded your accessories or maxed your crystalium to the max of the 3 main roles.

I still can't believe how anyone can say this game is too easy....

I dunno though, I find the game a lot easier if you upgade and equip your damage reducing accessories and priortised on damage reduction over stat boosting acc. For Chapter 13 I ended up having a fully upgraded Royal Armlet on everyone, along with a fully upgraded Black Belt/Rune Armlet, and combined they made the damage bareable.

DIFFICULTY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Edit: I just watched the (super freaking beautiful) Chapter 12 opening again, and I don't understand how it doesn't make sense. It's not difficult to see what's going on. It's just got a lot of quick shots.

Spoiler

The party's goal was to save Cocoon and so they return, show their Pulse l'cie brands, summon their Eidolons, start demolishing the Sanctum defence all on the big screen for all of Eden to see which would achieve nothing more then create the mass panic that the fal'Cie were hoping for.

How was that supposed to make sense?


Then again,

Spoiler

Why would the party fight and destroy Orphan knowing that it would destroy Cocoon when from the beginning their goal was to protect cocoon?

The story was a joke, and everytime it tried to take itself seriously it just showed how stupid and poorly thought out it really was.

 

[mjemirzian]

FF13 is relatively difficult as far as RPGs go, assuming you don't grind and try to get 5 stars on every fight. But do you want to see some relatively far more difficult single player games? These ones will give you nightmares.

 

[firehawk12]

The secret to chapter 13 is to just skip as many battles as you can (collecting the chests that you need).

 

[Cep]

FF13 is relatively difficult as far as RPGs go, assuming you don't grind and try to get 5 stars on every fight. But do you want to see some relatively far more difficult single player games? These ones will give you nightmares.

Has that been updated? I do not remember Rekka no Ken being on the list.

I always found it odd that there are so few games on the list that I have played/have interest in, despite the fact that I usually welcome a challenge (I think it is because challenge is always a welcome plus, not the main course).

Also, FF13 is mildly difficult if you do not grind (and I never grind), but I do not feel that it is enjoyably so.

Does not feel genuine in its difficulty.

 

[Papercuts]

The developer reason for time limits on fights is because you have infinite resources and your defensive options are extremely good. It would be possible to beat most main story bosses with 1 medic, 1 sentinel, and 1 ravager with a turbo controller and the X button taped down to autobattle if you had no time limit.

From a difficulty perspective, time limits are an entirely legitimate way to encourage more efficient play, although the game should warn the player ahead of time about it.

Just bringing you your daily dose of logic and game design. I've already resolved this argument on the same thread a dozen pages back, but nobody reads that stuff anyway..

I realize that the game lets you abuse the system and with the option of med/med/med to fall back on in the worst case scenario, I understand that the game would be nearly impossible to make hard if people wanted to do it like that. However, I don't really see why it matters...in most RPGs you can just over level by grinding and the rest of the game is easy. If someone in FFXIII wants to spend 30 minutes on a boss battle playing it extremely safe, they can't because the game wants to once again control the experience you have and force you to play it by their rules.

Just off the top of my head I can already think of a way to prevent it, just add another line to the boss for libra to uncover that says something like "Will heal up if certain damage thresholds aren't met". Then someone who is playing it extremely safe will have the boss heal up, the common reaction to that is getting mad and wanting to go on the offensive to beat the shit out of a boss. This way the player doesn't auto lose because of arbitrary shit. I never even lost to a non-eidolon boss casting doom, but the very fact I know it exists is insulting...there are much less frustrating ways to force a player to attack

Also, a dose of logic and game design is basically looking at this game and doing everything the complete opposite way.

 

[Lightning]

The secret to chapter 13 is to just skip as many battles as you can (collecting the chests that you need).

You mean exploit the Deceptisol cheap? I refuse to do that since I feel that enemies are placed before me to fight.

The only time I exploit that is when I can use it to get into an ideal position where I can use a Deceptisol and get behind an enemy, enter into the fight, select retry, you will still be behind the enemy and if you are quick you can trigger another pre-emptive strike and you will keep your Deciptisol. :lol

The main time I genuinely use Deciptisol's is for missions as they greatly help in 5 starring them.

 

[mjemirzian]

Has that been updated? I do not remember Rekka no Ken being on the list.

I always found it odd that there are so few games on the list that I have played/have interest in, despite the fact that I usually welcome a challenge (I think it is because challenge is always a welcome plus, not the main course).

Also, FF13 is mildly difficult if you do not grind (and I never grind), but I do not feel that it is enjoyably so.

Does not feel genuine in its difficulty.

Hi Cep, yes the list has been updated. I'm unfortunately not a gaming expert on every genre under the sun and I appreciate advice and suggestions.

Many of the games listed are score or ranking based, so the challenge is more like a 'welcome plus' if you want to go and get S ranks on everything. The only games on that list that are just brutally, insanely hard to just clear (let alone score on) are the Cave shoot em ups, and super high level rhythm game charts.

The reason I didn't like FF13's difficulty is that the strategic depth is pretty shallow, and the game rarely forces you to explore all of your (limited) options in the first place. I give them credit for adding a scoring system, though, even if it's not legitimate.

If someone in FFXIII wants to spend 30 minutes on a boss battle playing it extremely safe, they can't because the game wants to once again control the experience you have and force you to play it by their rules.

Interestingly, most games do this, just not a lot of RPGs. RPG players tend to heavily resist any encouragement to play more efficiently and hate being judged by scoring systems. So it makes sense there's a lot of distaste for the time limit, but that doesn't make time limits an illegitimate form of game design.

Then someone who is playing it extremely safe will have the boss heal up, the common reaction to that is getting mad and wanting to go on the offensive to beat the shit out of a boss.

There's no difference between the boss instantly full healing itself and a game over screen. At least the game over gives you an opportunity to reshuffle your party.

Also, a dose of logic and game design is basically looking at this game and doing everything the complete opposite way.

If you'd like to back that up with some points, I'd be glad to take a look. Otherwise it just looks like a flippant/sarcastic comment.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Say, come to think of it; what does the star rating for battles (and those weird points you get, not the CP points, but those other points) actually do? The game hasn't mentioned anything about those yet IIRC.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

The developer reason for time limits on fights is because you have infinite resources and your defensive options are extremely good. It would be possible to beat most main story bosses with 1 medic, 1 sentinel, and 1 ravager with a turbo controller and the X button taped down to autobattle if you had no time limit.

From a difficulty perspective, time limits are an entirely legitimate way to encourage more efficient play, although the game should warn the player ahead of time about it.

Just bringing you your daily dose of logic and game design. I've already resolved this argument on the same thread a dozen pages back, but nobody reads that stuff anyway..

But that's bad design.

Instead of designing their bosses around the game they've created they make the same bosses as they've always done and plug the hole with CheatDeath.

 

[Cep]

The reason I didn't like FF13's difficulty is that the strategic depth is pretty shallow, and the game rarely forces you to explore all of your (limited) options in the first place. I give them credit for adding a scoring system, though.

Not only that, but it gives so little leeway(unless you do grind, and even then) that only certain specific strategies become viable.

Anyway, you do a much better job with explaining my frustration with the game.

 

[ZephyrFate]

None of this stuff bothered me. But then again, I really liked this game.

 

[mjemirzian]

But that's bad design.

Instead of designing their bosses around the game they've created they make the same bosses as they've always done and plug the hole with CheatDeath.

Any kind of boss balancing would have to involve some kind of feature that functions like a time limit. Soft enrage? Time limit. Hard enrage? Time limit. Boss heals itself to full? Time limit. Make the player resources no longer unlimited? Time limit.

It's unavoidable. If the developers want to challenge you, they will. They've certainly given you enough free outs to kill the bosses skill-free anyway, like shrouds and grinding.

Plus who wants to spend 30 minutes on one boss when you could use some skills and kill it in 5?

 

[Cep]

Any kind of boss balancing would have to involve some kind of feature that functions like a time limit. Soft enrage? Time limit. Hard enrage? Time limit. Boss heals itself to full? Time limit. Make the player resources no longer unlimited? Time limit.

It's unavoidable. If the developers want to challenge you, they will. They've certainly given you enough free outs to kill the bosses skill-free anyway, like shrouds and grinding.

Plus who wants to spend 30 minutes on one boss when you could use some skills and kill it in 5?

Implementation really is the biggest issue here.

The time limit is extremely inelegant and shows an unwillingness/inability to properly balance the game.

In a better balanced game, you probably would not be able to survive for 30 minutes.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

Any kind of boss balancing would have to involve some kind of feature that functions like a time limit. Soft enrage? Time limit. Hard enrage? Time limit. Boss heals itself to full? Time limit. Make the player resources no longer unlimited? Time limit.

It's unavoidable. If the developers want to challenge you, they will. They've certainly given you enough free outs to kill the bosses skill-free anyway, like shrouds and grinding.

Plus who wants to spend 30 minutes on one boss when you could use some skills and kill it in 5?

There's ways around that with a little creativity! It's just that they didn't bother.

Example: the boss regens as much as the highest damaging character hurts. Effectively makes it unwinnable unless there's some effort. Concerns about turbo pad making the kills? Enrage at regular intervals that overpowers a single medic on a sentinel.

CheatDeath is a lazy solution. It's not a challenge by the devs, rather an admission they weren't willing to do the work. The same reason random doom in a game where leader death means game over is assinine.

 

[mjemirzian]

Not only that, but it gives so little leeway(unless you do grind, and even then) that only certain specific strategies become viable.

Anyway, you do a much better job with explaining my frustration with the game.

Well there's a difference between strategic depth and challenge, but I agree that the game doesn't give you many options to explore when formulating a strategy. Glad you like my explanations.

Maybe you'll like this article, SRPG/TBS 101. It was written for SRPGs but most of it applies to RPGs and other games as well.

In a better balanced game, you probably would not be able to survive for 30 minutes.

And how would you propose to implement 'not being able to survive for 30 minutes' without making it equivalent to being game overed for taking too long?

Example: the boss regens as much as the highest damaging character hurts. Effectively makes it unwinnable unless there's some effort. Concerns about turbo pad making the kills? Enrage at regular intervals that overpowers a single medic on a sentinel.

That won't prevent overly defensive victories that take 30+ minutes, which is what the developers were aiming to stop. It might stop someone from taping a turbo controller and using one paradigm, but that's an extreme example. Most people are taking the full 20 minutes even switching paradigms around frequently. The solution has to keep the player from spending too much time on the fight while not making them feel like their previous 20 minutes worth of effort were just wasted time (assuming they didn't learn anything, which they should have).

 

[M°°nblade]

Phew finally got the platinum trophy. Took me about 100 hours, but ofcourse the in-game counter doesn't count the numerous resets during platinum farming.

Next game in line is mass effect 2.

 

[mjemirzian]

Phew finally got the platinum trophy. Took me about 100 hours, but ofcourse the in-game counter doesn't count the numerous resets during platinum farming.

Next game in line is mass effect 2.

So.. from earning platinum to farming it?

Probe launched, baby.

 

[Trent Strong]

Chapter 13 is hard.... Chapter 9 was hard as well but Chapter 13 is really fucking hard especially if you are haven't upgraded your accessories or maxed your crystalium to the max of the 3 main roles.

I still can't believe how anyone can say this game is too easy....

I dunno though, I find the game a lot easier if you upgade and equip your damage reducing accessories and priortised on damage reduction over stat boosting acc. For Chapter 13 I ended up having a fully upgraded Royal Armlet on everyone, along with a fully upgraded Black Belt/Rune Armlet, and combined they made the damage bareable.

Spoiler

The party's goal was to save Cocoon and so they return, show their Pulse l'cie brands, summon their Eidolons, start demolishing the Sanctum defence all on the big screen for all of Eden to see which would achieve nothing more then create the mass panic that the fal'Cie were hoping for.

How was that supposed to make sense?


Then again,

Spoiler

Why would the party fight and destroy Orphan knowing that it would destroy Cocoon when from the beginning their goal was to protect cocoon?

The story was a joke, and everytime it tried to take itself seriously it just showed how stupid and poorly thought out it really was.

Oh crap. I haven't upgraded any accessories, and I only have one royal armlet. Oh well.

 

[M°°nblade]

So.. from earning platinum to farming it?

Probe launched, baby.

Yeah, platinum ingots, the terminology truly is spot on.

 

[Cornbread78]

I finally got to Chapter 11 and

Spoiler

Gran Pulse

and Holy $hit, I have a world map now! I'm actually impressed with it as well because of all the interaction going on around you. Word of advice for new visitors....

Spoiler

See those giant walking Dino-elphants: Do Not Appraoch them, LOL

I did the first three missions and now I'm lost, how do I get back to the main area? I saved the game after a random cut scene with

Spoiler

Vanille and Hope

What is that whole thing about anyway? It was pretty confusing.

 

[Barrage]

Just finished the game. The fuck was that ending? It's weird how FF7's ending was just as cryptic and vague, but 10X more satisfying.

I'm confused on where to place this game. I know it's on the bottom end of FFs for me, but where? For example, I played FF12 for 60 hours, said "Fuck it" and Youtubed the ending. I finished this one, but I don't know if I would've been able to ride it out for 10 more hours.

Oh, and I figured i'd post some tips for beating the Final Boss

Spoiler

his first form

since I didn't find anything on the internet that helped me.

Spoiler

I rolled out a Light/Hope/Vanille line-up. No Sentinel? No problem.

A KEY Paradigm is MEDIC/SYN/SAB. I always switched to this after one round of MED/MED/MED. This way, I was able to Buff my team, Debuff our Rocky horror Picture Show lookin'-friend, and Heal at the same time.

Plus, I could use Esuna to immediately take care of any status ailments, meaning I used no status affecting accesories. I used HP+ stuff instead.

I didn't max the Crystarium yet, and I finished the fight in 6 minutes.

 

[Blader]

In which chapter do you get a full six-member party that I have control over? I'm liking the game so far, but my only major annoyance is having no control over my party (and being limited to only 2 at a time makes it even worse).

 

[xs_mini_neo]

From what I've seen and played so far...it looks like I was right about this turning into another FF8.

However, it seems to be suffering from complaints that aren't that big a deal and things that are.

The characters are ugly and lame, but the world is nice. The battle system is alright, but the FFX-esque no worldmap and hyper linear dungeons still suck. I hate the sphere grid, but I don't consider it bad in general. I'd rather it be the job system, especially with the whole paradigm shift feeling like a cheap bone throw to those of us who miss that shit hard.

Weirdly enough, it seems like we now know what Kitase & co were doing the whole time FF13 was being "developed." They were playing Persona 3. The vocal tracks during dungeons (hee), the party leader dies = game over, even the retries match the beginner option in P3 (you get several continues that start you at the boss or enemy you died at). Not being able to control party members, hyper-linear with the only break coming from missions. Thankfully none of those missions involves dating monsters. But I can't say I wouldn't.

Of course, it is not all like P3. So don't kill me for that. On the bright side it's actually on the hard-ish side. Surprised that we finally got another hard FF! So they copied something good from P3. The summons are fucking weird. Bahamut looks like a a freakin persona. And that Shiva on Shiva motorcycle action I don't even understand why. What is that thing pretending to be Ifrit??

Anyway, my point is that in a strange twist of fate I somehow almost kinda like FF13!

*cue horror track*

It's like FF8/10 and P3 had ugly sex and gave birth to the weirdest mainstream RPG ever.

 

[Crash Station]

From what I've seen and played so far...it looks like I was right about this turning into another FF8.

However, it seems to be suffering from complaints that aren't that big a deal and things that are.

The characters are ugly and lame, but the world is nice. The battle system is alright, but the FFX-esque no worldmap and hyper linear dungeons still suck. I hate the sphere grid, but I don't consider it bad in general. I'd rather it be the job system, especially with the whole paradigm shift feeling like a cheap bone throw to those of us who miss that shit hard.

Weirdly enough, it seems like we now know what Kitase & co were doing the whole time FF13 was being "developed." They were playing Persona 3. The vocal tracks during dungeons (hee), the party leader dies = game over, even the retries match the beginner option in P3 (you get several continues that start you at the boss or enemy you died at). Not being able to control party members, hyper-linear with the only break coming from missions. Thankfully none of those missions involves dating monsters. But I can't say I wouldn't.

Of course, it is not all like P3. So don't kill me for that. On the bright side it's actually on the hard-ish side. Surprised that we finally got another hard FF! So they copied something good from P3. The summons are fucking weird. Bahamut looks like a a freakin persona. And that Shiva on Shiva motorcycle action I don't even understand why. What is that thing pretending to be Ifrit??

Anyway, my point is that in a strange twist of fate I somehow almost kinda like FF13!

*cue horror track*

It's like FF8/10 and P3 had ugly sex and gave birth to the weirdest mainstream RPG ever.

You know FFXIII was in development before P3 even started development, right?

 

[xs_mini_neo]

You know FFXIII was in development before P3 even started development, right?

Do you know FF13 wasn't really in development until 2008, right?

 

[Crash Station]

Do you know FF13 wasn't really in development until 2008, right?

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

 

[xs_mini_neo]

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

It's true. They even admitted it.

It didn't take five years to make a no town, no mini-game version of FFX. At first they wanted it on PS2, then changed to PS3, then took their time with that white engine, then changed it to crystal tools, then announced "The Port", then gave us something that would take two years or less to pump out. Unless someone at SE wants to counter the interview bit that (unintentionally?) revealed the 2008 "bombshell."

 

[Green Mamba]

In which chapter do you get a full six-member party that I have control over? I'm liking the game so far, but my only major annoyance is having no control over my party (and being limited to only 2 at a time makes it even worse).

You finally get all six party members together and the ability to change your battle team near the end of Chapter 9, but you're still not allowed to change your party leader until Chapter 10.

 

[Let me in]

It's true. They even admitted it.

It didn't take five years to make a no town, no mini-game version of FFX. At first they wanted it on PS2, then changed to PS3, then took their time with that white engine, then changed it to crystal tools, then announced "The Port", then gave us something that would take two years or less to pump out. Unless someone at SE wants to counter the interview bit that (unintentionally?) revealed the 2008 "bombshell."

This is made especially apparent by the Advent Children demo. They didn't even have the entire battle system nailed down a year away from release. They spent all their time building an engine.

 

[Kagari]

It's true. They even admitted it.

It didn't take five years to make a no town, no mini-game version of FFX. At first they wanted it on PS2, then changed to PS3, then took their time with that white engine, then changed it to crystal tools, then announced "The Port", then gave us something that would take two years or less to pump out. Unless someone at SE wants to counter the interview bit that (unintentionally?) revealed the 2008 "bombshell."

There was a complete alpha build done by June 2008.

 

[Rpgmonkey]

I did the first three missions and now I'm lost, how do I get back to the main area? I saved the game after a random cut scene with

Spoiler

Vanille and Hope

What is that whole thing about anyway? It was pretty confusing.

There are several random (optional) cutscenes scattered around Pulse.

They don't really add that much to the game, but they're something to watch and considering the extreme lack of dialogue on Pulse, it helps to remind you that your party is capable of making sounds other than little grunts in battle. :lol

And how would you propose to implement 'not being able to survive for 30 minutes' without making it equivalent to being game overed for taking too long?

As said, the bosses work in such a way that due to your various, near-infinite resources, if you play in a certain way you end up throwing the game off the rails into a near-infinite loop. The game is heavily focused on speed and offense, which is implied by that little orange bar in the upper right corner that lets you pull off gazillions of points of damage in an instant, and haste being more powerful/useful than it's ever been.

Because so many bosses (many enemies in general, really) have an easily discernible routine, people who enjoy using a defensive style end up figuring it out and then they pick at the enemy bit by bit while the enemy repeats that same routine over and over with no ability to defend itself in an adequate way. They're left with no option but be "cheap" and cast Doom when they notice that the battle is neither dynamic nor quick. Doom brings "chaos" to the battle that was lacking before, forcing you to both switch things up and get it done faster. Good proof of this is Chapter 11's boss, whom is the one most people get "Doom'd" on, because he has such simple routine that many people react to it in the same manner every time, as they slowly whittle his HP down.

Not every battle is like this of course, such as the final boss

Spoiler

getting a random instant-death ability and its second form using Doom from the start

, and this is a big part of why these battles catch people off guard (not necessarily in a positive way, but eh), because they don't have a routine that you can easily react to, or their specific routine starts out dangerous and it only becomes more so as time goes by.

The solution, or at least one, is that for a combat system like this, your typical Final Fantasy boss...can't be a typical Final Fantasy boss. They shouldn't be throwing instant-death at you constantly or something, but the structures they've been reusing for years now, like the enemy changing its weakness every two or so turns, or repeating "single target attack->single target attack->status effect attack->super multiple-target attack" over and over, doesn't work when the player is capable of properly reacting to these an infinite number of times. The idea is to stop with the artificial reactionary combat and move on to genuine reactionary combat that takes advantage of your ability to react to various things a near-infinite number of times.

 

[Cep]

Maybe you'll like this article, SRPG/TBS 101. It was written for SRPGs but most of it applies to RPGs and other games as well.

I actually have already read that article and very much agree with most of your points (if not completely with the tone).

 

[starsky]

I'm really enjoying FF13 so far (chapter 8), the characters and battle systems. This is pleasantly unexpected!

 

[Zzoram]

So now that I'm in post-game, I just finish the missions and grind turtles to get all the trophies?

 

[BeeDog]

So now that I'm in post-game, I just finish the missions and grind turtles to get all the trophies?

:lol I wish it was as easy as you're making it sound. The item trophy is a frickin' pain in the ass.

 

[Cornbread78]

:lol I wish it was as easy as you're making it sound. The item trophy is a frickin' pain in the ass.

Great something to look forward to. I started dong some of teh Missions before finishing Chp. 11, but forget it, I need to level up ALOT more so I can finish them all.

Do you really have to get 5 stars on all of the missions to get the trophy?

 

[Hela]

:lol I wish it was as easy as you're making it sound. The item trophy is a frickin' pain in the ass.

It's the only one I gave up on doing. I'd sooner lose the will to live than get all the gil needed to upgrade everything, it's just too tedious and boring.

 

[ULTROS!]

I spent 2 days straight for the All Equipments Trophy.

 

[BuckRobotron]

Given that I was forewarned and thus avoided the shock about the linearity, I'm enjoying the game. I'm also now at the point where things have really opened up, Ch. 10. But the last two chapters had already begun to shift the (surprisingly well-measured) balance between story and gameplay toward the latter.

Characters have grown appreciably through the story, though my patience was being tested with Hope. Most importantly, Lightning's character development was well-paced and went where it needed to, an

Spoiler

apology to Snow

. I was actually getting a bit annoyed with the spoilered latter having to put up with frustrated smacks and punches early on.

More importantly though, the gameplay has been quite entertaining. Having always liked the active pace and jobs of FFX-2 and the visible enemies and smart gambits of FFXII, this is a solid union of those two. It doesn't eclipse either, but is yet another solid new twist in the history of FF battle systems. The ever-changing battle system is one of the things that I enjoy about the FF series.

Lastly, it of course shines graphically, though coming right off no-slouch Lost Odyssey it had to work at it a little harder for me. Which it certainly has now. Some environments invite just rotating the camera around for a little bit. As Sazh quips at one point when exploring, "where's a camera when you need one?".

 

[Brazil]

Great something to look forward to. I started dong some of teh Missions before finishing Chp. 11, but forget it, I need to level up ALOT more so I can finish them all.

Do you really have to get 5 stars on all of the missions to get the trophy?

Isn't the description clear enough?

 

[Cornbread78]

Isn't the description clear enough?

I should just check the strat. guide. I try not to read to much, so I don't spoil anything.

 

[Brazil]

I should just check the strat. guide. I try not to read to much, so I don't spoil anything.

I see.

Well, yeah, you need to get five stars in all of them.

And don't think it'll be fun. 'Cause it won't D: