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[Rahxephon91]

Pssh at the game having no replay value. I've played through the game three times now.

Since I don't have to do a lot of boring jrpg stuff, the game s a lot more tolerable to replay.

 

[Cornbread78]

Pssh at the game having no replay value. I've played through the game three times now.

Since I don't have to do a lot of boring jrpg stuff, the game s a lot more tolerable to replay.

With that many replays, you need to by White Knight Chronicles, where those replays will help you greatly.

 

[Rahxephon91]

With that many replays, you need to by White Knight Chronicles, where those replays will help you greatly.

Have it and playing through it as well. Battle system is very boring though imo, so I think one playthrough will be enough for that game.

 

[Cornbread78]

Have it and playing through it as well. Battle system is very boring though imo, so I think one playthrough will be enough for that game.

I haven't done it yet because of FFXIII, but when skippign through all the cut scenes, you should be able to shoot right through the 2nd time through. I actually really enjoyed WKC and I'm looking forward to play through it again once I cu some of my backlog down. I play that online once in awhile still though.

 

[Cels]

Well, since the prospect of this game was the main reason I bought my PS3, It's worth it, I still do not have a single platinum trophy, so it is only fitting I spend the extra 50 hours to get it for this one. I mean, I just finished the story Friday night, so now goes for the long grind to Plat. I started by getting 5 stars in the first 9 marks, and just started the
10th. Where is the best place to get CP at this point, I looked through the manual, but their spots are only OK.... Also, how long until you can get the growth Egg? These 30K and 60K cyrstals are ridicules, there has to be a better/easier way....

Spoiler

Growth egg is Cieth Stone 55, located on top of the schoolhouse in Oerba. Even if you are not strong, you can deathspam the mark and then kill his minions the normal way. You need to have chocobo riding (Cieth Stone 14) completed to access Cieth Stone 55.

If you are going for Platinum, my advice regarding CP is to get the Growth Egg as early as possible but not to grind specifically for CP. You can kill Adamantoise/tortoise for 80K CP a pop (with Growth Egg equipped, if you are weak then Death is your best bet ) and at the same time get Ingots/Traps to help you work on Treasure Hunter, which is probably the most time-consuming trophy followed by the trophy to finish all marks with 5 stars. You WILL have a maxed out Crystarium (Master's Seal) long before you have upgraded six weapons to their ultimate form, which is the most expensive part of Treasure Hunter.

 

[Cornbread78]

Spoiler

Growth egg is Cieth Stone 55, located on top of the schoolhouse in Oerba. Even if you are not strong, you can deathspam the mark and then kill his minions the normal way. You need to have chocobo riding (Cieth Stone 14) completed to access Cieth Stone 55.

If you are going for Platinum, my advice regarding CP is to get the Growth Egg as early as possible but not to grind specifically for CP. You can kill Adamantoise/tortoise for 80K CP a pop (with Growth Egg equipped, if you are weak then Death is your best bet ) and at the same time get Ingots/Traps to help you work on Treasure Hunter, which is probably the most time-consuming trophy followed by the trophy to finish all marks with 5 stars. You WILL have a maxed out Crystarium (Master's Seal) long before you have upgraded six weapons to their ultimate form, which is the most expensive part of Treasure Hunter.

Sweet, thank you! I'll have to tray and get the next few mission before I unlock the choco, then, I'll go for the gold with stone 55!

 

[Liabe Brave]

I thought it held up fine till the end. Aside from nonsensical tertiary characters, Rorche, already-forgot-the-bad-womans-name, Cid, etc, who were useless plot drivers, the story was pretty simple and I thought the characters motivations were solid. Then you get some weird, hard to understand end boss where a whole bunch of random stuff throws it out the window and you're like - huh

Here's my understanding of what happens:

Spoiler

Barthandelus' whole deal has been to cause so much rage and despair in one of the PCs that they can't help but become Ragnarok. Because several hundred years ago it was Fang that succumbed, he concentrates on that target again, showing an illusion of the rest of the party turning into Cieth. She does indeed give in, but then the rest of the party breaks the illusion.

At this point, they decide to kill Orphan anyhow. Yes, this is exactly what Barthandelus has been trying to get them to do. But if you've been listening closely the past couple chapters, they've been talking about breaking the cycle. If they don't kill Orphan, the fal'Cie will simply find someone more willing (or breakable). So they're going to choose what they think is right, then hope to avoid the claimed consequences. (Like much of the game's structure, this is borrowed pretty wholesale from FF X.)

And in the end, they succeed. They rid Cocoon of fal'Cie control, and Fang and Vanille both sacrifice themselves to become a twin Ragnarok capable of stopping its utter destruction.

 

[Darthdevidem01]

Pssh at the game having no replay value. I've played through the game three times now.

Since I don't have to do a lot of boring jrpg stuff, the game s a lot more tolerable to replay.

Meh like I said chapter 1 - 5 are BORING in terms of battles.

I have seen every cut scene in the game like 10 times, LOVE the characters, like the story & music so on.

And then I roam around pulse.

But actually replaying it meh.

Oh and don't listen to the other guy White Snore Crapicles is a terrible game & a snorefest.

 

[Chris R]

Treasure Hunter done Just over two hours of final turtle farming to get my ingots to buy dark matter

Now off to kill a Long Gui (got it down to about 60% with one summon, so I just need to elixer spam it ) and then 5star final boss

edit: Long Gui down, didn't even need to use my elixer. Killed the legs easy as pie, stagger once, do a ton of damage, summon, stagger, kill. 5 Star final boss took me two tries though due to the target time being only like 1:40. I spent too much time buffing and just said screw it the 2nd time and did no buffs for a 40 second kill.

 

[Teknoman]

Just got to Chapter Ten, and now the

Spoiler

whole crystarium

is open for everyone. Thats great and all, but do I still have to have other party members set as leader before I can use their summon? Is going to change at any point during the game?

One thing i'm not liking about FF XI-XIII is that summons/summoners have been either weakened, not all that important in battle or serve a different purpose then what they should, or with XIII (where you actually have cool looking/powerful summons) you can only use one summon, and thats the leader's.

EDIT: FF games are usually a one time through experience for me as well. 60+ hours and then i'm done...unless I replay the game years down the road as a port or remake. Then again, I try to do everything the first time through.

 

[Cels]

Just got to Chapter Ten, and now the

Spoiler

whole crystarium

is open for everyone. Thats great and all, but do I still have to have other party members set as leader before I can use their summon? Is going to change at any point during the game?

Nope, you can only use the party leader's summon. Just Square's design choice, for the same reason you cannot issue commands directly to the other two party members. I never really even used summons in the game except when

Spoiler

I was too weak to kill turtles without using one

, other than that you probably won't use them often. For example, if I screwed up and my whole party was in bad shape then I would summon to top everyone off and remove all status ailments.

 

[imtehman]

I really keep meaning to go back and do all the little things like the sidequests but after finishing it, it kind of seems worthless. I feel more compelled to play XII than this now. I hope they do a part 2 or something though because it could have been so much more.

what are you talking about worthless!

if you have it for ps3 you get some cool wallpapers.

been meaning to go back and get that platinum so i can get all of them, but really all i want is fang's

as for x360, i think you get some shirts if you get 1000 ach pts>?

 

[Teknoman]

Nope, you can only use the party leader's summon. Just Square's design choice, for the same reason you cannot issue commands directly to the other two party members. I never really even used summons in the game except when

Spoiler

I was too weak to kill turtles without using one

, other than that you probably won't use them often. For example, if I screwed up and my whole party was in bad shape then I would summon to top everyone off and remove all status ailments.

Yeah I see they really aren't that strong. Its just, coming from the days of "OMG NEW SUMMON!" it's still takes a little getting used to summons not being all that important anymore.

Not controlling other party members, I can get used to though. Dont like that it seems to be the new trend these days...but I can deal with it.

 

[Cels]

Yeah I see they really aren't that strong. Its just, coming from the days of "OMG NEW SUMMON!" it's still takes a little getting used to summons not being all that important anymore.

Not controlling other party members, I can get used to though. Dont like that it seems to be the new trend these days...but I can deal with it.

if you ever played ffviii, like the only thing you did in that game was summon GFs all day...well close to the end you would probably only summon

Spoiler

Doomtrain for debuffing, and Eden whose summon sequence took years but did lots of damage

but seriously anyone who's played it understands what i'm talking about with regards to the prominence of summoning in the game

 

[lastplayed]

I picked this up with almost 50% knocked off the price thanks to EB Games' local birthday sale. This will be my first FF and my first JRPG experience (does Demon's Souls count?), wish me luck!

 

[Teknoman]

I picked this up with almost 50% knocked off the price thanks to EB Games' local birthday sale. This will be my first FF and my first JRPG experience (does Demon's Souls count?), wish me luck!

Demon Souls sorta counts, but not in the traditional sense of the genre. Its japanese and its an RPG, but most people think of FF, Dragon Quest, SMT, Breath of Fire, etc. when it comes to JRPG.

 

[CryingWolf]

I picked this up with almost 50% knocked off the price thanks to EB Games' local birthday sale. This will be my first FF and my first JRPG experience (does Demon's Souls count?), wish me luck!

Please, don't think that this game in any way represents the things that people like about the RPG genre or even the past Final Fantasy games, some of which were actually worth playing.

FF13 is a horrifying, unspeakable abomination that represents a conscious design effort to strip all of the fun, all of the charm, and all of the wonder out of the old school JRPG formula.

 

[Rahxephon91]

I picked this up with almost 50% knocked off the price thanks to EB Games' local birthday sale. This will be my first FF and my first JRPG experience (does Demon's Souls count?), wish me luck!

Hope you like it enough to give other FFs and jrpgs in general a try. I think XIII's a pretty fantastic game and good entry level game ,but its no where near a good view of the entire genre as a whole.

Please, don't think that this game in any way represents the things that people like about the RPG genre or even the past Final Fantasy games, some of which were actually worth playing.

Its actually got a lot of what I like about jrpgs and FF in it. I'm not sure whats not FF about XIII. Its linear? Every FF is liner? It doesn't have a lot of meaningless extra stuff? Thank god.

FF13 is a horrifying, unspeakable abomination that represents a conscious design effort to strip all of the fun, all of the charm, and all of the wonder out of the old school JRPG formula.

No its an almost successful attempt to get rid of the tedium found in other jrpgs. Its no abomination.

Oh no. Now you hate me.

 

[Chris R]

The game isn't bad, but isn't as great as FFVI or FFIX either. It certainly isn't as bad as some people are making it out to be.

Sure the game is extremely linear, but that has to do more with the audience and times we are in when people crave 6-8 hour shooters. Would the game be better if it was more open and had a deeper combat system similar to FFXII? Well as a fan of the series, hell yes it would be, but then would the game attract the same audience? I think SE was trying to capture a larger audience with this game (putting it on the lead HD console in the West (betrayal!), sponsoring the NBA All Star game, ect).

The game has a solid core, with a decent plot. Sure it has plenty of cliches, and some of the worst dialog I've ever seen in ANY RPG, but for the most part, the story makes sense and can be followed, which fixes a problem some previous FFs had.

I say go into the game with an open mind, knowing that there are several major issues with the core game, and try to just have fun. I know I did. In the end I think the core of the game is solid, and there are parts of brilliance, but if you can't try to enjoy the game or get past the obvious flaws (even though I think they are really only minor flaws), you probably won't enjoy it.

 

[Teknoman]

I like the battle system more than FFXII since its closer to "standard FF", but I agree on the story. Missed actually understanding what was going on in an FF game (aside from XI).

 

[Dr Frasier Crane]

Some of the FFXIII hate is understandable. The first 6 or 7 chapters are just boring and not helped by being limited to two person parties. As soon as you start with the threes and the game opens up its great fun. Comes down to that 10-15 hrs of boredom then the game starts.

The battle system is good but it's not FFXII good, which is the pinnacle for me. I never understand the hate that game gets. If XIII had some elements of the Gambit system (so I could tell fucking Hope to just spam Curaja instead of being a little twat) it'd be my number one.

 

[BocoDragon]

The battle system is good but it's not FFXII good, which is the pinnacle for me. I never understand the hate that game gets.

That game gets massive love too. I dislike when people try to paint its reception one way or the other.

It's different from what had come before, so it was divisive. Those with an affinity for what it brought to the table loved the hell out of it.

 

[Cep]

That game gets massive love too. I dislike when people try to paint its reception one way or the other.

It's different from what had come before, so it was divisive. Those with an affinity for what it brought to the table loved the hell out of it.

To be fair, the game has really loud fans.

I am pretty comfortable in saying that more people disliked the game than liked it (anecdotal evidence obviously).

 

[Darthdevidem01]

I picked this up with almost 50% knocked off the price thanks to EB Games' local birthday sale. This will be my first FF and my first JRPG experience (does Demon's Souls count?), wish me luck!

Great choice, it was many of my friends first JRPG experience and it blew them away.

 

[Zoso]

Made it to Gran Pulse. Wow, it's way bigger than I expected. I did a few missions and got killed by a Behemoth. I really like this place

 

[Cornbread78]

if you ever played ffviii, like the only thing you did in that game was summon GFs all day...well close to the end you would probably only summon

Spoiler

Doomtrain for debuffing, and Eden whose summon sequence took years but did lots of damage

but seriously anyone who's played it understands what i'm talking about with regards to the prominence of summoning in the game

I felt that summons were pretty useless, other than looking absolutely fu(king amazing in the

Spoiler

chapter 7 and chapter. 12 intros

in this game IMO. I can count on 1 hand how many times I've used Odin in this game, since I've pretty much played with Lightning(leader), Fang and Hope the entire time. Maybe I'll try mixing it up to at least look at the others while completing all the marks...

 

[Dizzy-4U]

Is there a rough estimate on how much money do I need to spend to upgrade everything for the "Treasure Hunter" trophy? I don't have much yet (2 million + 10 Platinum Ingots) but I don't want to farm 99 Platinum Ingots to then realize that I only needed 50 or something.

 

[H_Prestige]

Hope you like it enough to give other FFs and jrpgs in general a try. I think XIII's a pretty fantastic game and good entry level game ,but its no where near a good view of the entire genre as a whole.Its actually got a lot of what I like about jrpgs and FF in it. I'm not sure whats not FF about XIII. Its linear? Every FF is liner? It doesn't have a lot of meaningless extra stuff? Thank god.
No its an almost successful attempt to get rid of the tedium found in other jrpgs. Its no abomination.

Oh no. Now you hate me.

It exclusively focuses on cutscenes and battles, which are the most tedious parts of a jrpg.

 

[Darthdevidem01]

Made it to Gran Pulse. Wow, it's way bigger than I expected. I did a few missions and got killed by a Behemoth. I really like this place

It really is amazing/

Astonishing!

 

[Cornbread78]

Made it to Gran Pulse. Wow, it's way bigger than I expected. I did a few missions and got killed by a Behemoth. I really like this place

The environment is amazing, there is a lot going on and the interactions are great. So much for being linear now, LOL.


Protip: only try the Behemoth Kings in you get a preemptive strike until you are really leveled up as you found out, LOL. Oh and donlt try those huge turtles yet either.

 

[Darthdevidem01]

The environment is amazing, there is a lot going on and the interactions are great. So much for being linear now, LOL.


Protip: only try the Behemoth Kings in you get a preemptive strike until you are really leveled up as you found out, LOL. Oh and donlt try those huge turtles yet either.

I agree with what you said LOL.

 

[Cornbread78]

Here's my understanding of what happens:

Spoiler

Barthandelus' whole deal has been to cause so much rage and despair in one of the PCs that they can't help but become Ragnarok. Because several hundred years ago it was Fang that succumbed, he concentrates on that target again, showing an illusion of the rest of the party turning into Cieth. She does indeed give in, but then the rest of the party breaks the illusion.

At this point, they decide to kill Orphan anyhow. Yes, this is exactly what Barthandelus has been trying to get them to do. But if you've been listening closely the past couple chapters, they've been talking about breaking the cycle. If they don't kill Orphan, the fal'Cie will simply find someone more willing (or breakable). So they're going to choose what they think is right, then hope to avoid the claimed consequences. (Like much of the game's structure, this is borrowed pretty wholesale from FF X.)

And in the end, they succeed. They rid Cocoon of fal'Cie control, and Fang and Vanille both sacrifice themselves to become a twin Ragnarok capable of stopping its utter destruction.

Pretty close, but with that being said,

Spoiler

why didn't Square-Enix change the Gran Pulse Environment to match the game ending? Seriosly, they could have made the crystal connection between Gran Pulse and Cacoon a whole new level and a whole new experience? I mean, they added that gigantic monster in the background that I'm sure will have to fight as one of the Mark missions later, but again, this skipped a great opportunity for an even greater post game experience, IMO....

 

[John Harker]

btw, why did we never find out what happened to the people of Pulse?

Spoiler

They are all cieth? Wouldn't all those deaths be enough to bring back Orphan - presumably, Pulse had a much larger population than Cocoon, considering Cocoon was just a sample of the planet....

not a major spoiler really. just... silly

edit:

I'll buy Liabe Brave's synopsis. Works for me, thanks for sharing.

Disappointing overall, honestly. I beat FF12 late and bumped the thread and made multiple huge posts analyzing the story of the game. I really can't (maybe not motivated to?) after completing FF13. I'll give the game props for it's really well designed combat system, amazing graphics, and initially-interesting characters. The rest... bummer.

 

[sotodefonk]

Whats the best weapon for vanille? healing staff? Im looking to upgrade the best weapon for everyone, so far I have only upgraded one light weapon and 1 fang weapon, I think they where lionheart and taming pole.

 

[CruxisMana]

btw, why did we never find out what happened to the people of Pulse?

Spoiler

They are all cieth? Wouldn't all those deaths be enough to bring back Orphan - presumably, Pulse had a much larger population than Cocoon, considering Cocoon was just a sample of the planet....

not a major spoiler really. just... silly

Spoiler

The game vaguely states through the mission descriptions that the Pulse fal'Cie began to task their citizens with frequent, often unachieveable tasks such as killing enormous Pulsian creatures. But that's as far as it goes in explaining why the entire population was wiped out.

The Analects say that Cocoon was created as a paradise in order to lure humans for the sole intention of sacrifice, so I dunno - maybe it's just easier to sacrifice a tonne of people if they're all in the same, destructable place?

 

[Cornbread78]

Spoiler

The game vaguely states through the mission descriptions that the Pulse fal'Cie began to task their citizens with frequent, often unachieveable tasks such as killing enormous Pulsian creatures. But that's as far as it goes in explaining why the entire population was wiped out.

The Analects say that Cocoon was created as a paradise in order to lure humans for the sole intention of sacrifice, so I dunno - maybe it's just easier to sacrifice a tonne of people if they're all in the same, destructable place?

I was thinking the same thing, does the datalog say anything about this?

 

[Green Mamba]

Whats the best weapon for vanille? healing staff? Im looking to upgrade the best weapon for everyone, so far I have only upgraded one light weapon and 1 fang weapon, I think they where lionheart and taming pole.

The Belladonna/Malboro Wand is usually considered the best.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Made it to Gran Pulse. Wow, it's way bigger than I expected. I did a few missions and got killed by a Behemoth. I really like this place

Yeah, it is really big. The first time I managed to kill a Behemoth King was amazing, and it was even more amazing when I finally managed to kill one without using a summon.

 

[methodman]

So i'm on chapter 8 or 9, first playthrough:

Spoiler

Sazh & Vanille were caught by dude's on a ship, now i'm going around on the ship killing stupid little crawling ooze guys. playing as two characters, when i was just playing as lightning, hope and fang, really sucks ass. is this close to the end of two character chapters?

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

So i'm on chapter 8 or 9, first playthrough:

Spoiler

Sazh & Vanille were caught by dude's on a ship, now i'm going around on the ship killing stupid little crawling ooze guys. playing as two characters, when i was just playing as lightning, hope and fang, really sucks ass. is this close to the end of two character chapters?

Spoiler

This is the very last time you have to do that.

 

[Chris R]

So i'm on chapter 8 or 9, first playthrough:

Spoiler

Sazh & Vanille were caught by dude's on a ship, now i'm going around on the ship killing stupid little crawling ooze guys. playing as two characters, when i was just playing as lightning, hope and fang, really sucks ass. is this close to the end of two character chapters?

Yes. Like half an hour at the most.

Are FFFXIII Versus/Agito set in the same exact world? I read a little plot summary and it sounds like they could take place before the creation of

Spoiler

Cocoon

.

 

[Zoe]

Are FFFXIII Versus/Agito set in the same exact world?

No. They only share the same mythology.

 

[Husker86]

Pretty close, but with that being said,

Spoiler

why didn't Square-Enix change the Gran Pulse Environment to match the game ending? Seriosly, they could have made the crystal connection between Gran Pulse and Cacoon a whole new level and a whole new experience? I mean, they added that gigantic monster in the background that I'm sure will have to fight as one of the Mark missions later, but again, this skipped a great opportunity for an even greater post game experience, IMO....

Spoiler

But then you wouldn't have Fang or Vanille to play with because they are the crystal...right?

 

[CryingWolf]

Someday, Final Fantasy will be a cutscene-heavy squad-based 3rd-person shooter with full online co-op, and a generation of gamers are going to say, "Wow, I never thought I liked JRPGs, but I guess I do after all!"

 

[CruxisMana]

Someday, Final Fantasy will be a cutscene-heavy squad-based 3rd-person shooter with full online co-op, and a generation of gamers are going to say, "Wow, I never thought I liked JRPGs, but I guess I do after all!"

FFXV. Believe.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Someday, Final Fantasy will be a cutscene-heavy squad-based 3rd-person shooter with full online co-op, and a generation of gamers are going to say, "Wow, I never thought I liked JRPGs, but I guess I do after all!"

The Mass Effect 2 thread is over that way.

 

[Rahxephon91]

It exclusively focuses on cutscenes and battles, which are the most tedious parts of a jrpg.

So story and gameplay and not fetch quests, npc hunts, and minigames aren't tideous. I'm not sure I can agree with that.

 

[CryingWolf]

So story and gameplay and not fetch quests, npc hunts, and minigames aren't tideous. I'm not sure I can agree with that.

What about exploration? Is that tedious? Apparently it must be, to many people.

 

[Rahxephon91]

What about exploration? Is that tedious? Apparently it must be, to many people.

No it's not when it's actually done well. FFXIII fails in that aspect, but what FF has excelled in exploration? VI?

I can't think of any good jrpg past the ps1 gen that had great exploration that isn't called Dragon Quest.

 

[H_Prestige]

So story and gameplay and not fetch quests, npc hunts, and minigames aren't tideous. I'm not sure I can agree with that.

I don't know about you, but when I played previous FF games, the gameplay experience consisted of more than just the parts where I furiously mash attack and hit cure. Those games would get boring fast if I were just running forward through a tunnel fighting one mini-boss/boss after another, with only movies to break the pace.

A good, classy story with interesting characters who speak like adults and not babies is not tedious. But that isn't what FFXIII is. So the cutscenes are really annoying, especially since they're fully voiced. At least with FFVIII, I don't have to hear the whiny anime crap.