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[Dedication Through Light]

The only way I see the final dungeon being a pain is if someone actually battled ever encounter. I think that I ran through virtually every non essential match because they just took so long, lol.

 

[Scythesurge]

The only way I see the final dungeon being a pain is if someone actually battled ever encounter. I think that I ran through virtually every non essential match because they just took so long, lol.

Yes, well the problem was that there were some encounters you couldn't really avoid, and those tended to be the worst ones.

 

[flyover]

Although the very short "Bahamut" finale in XII comes close.

Yeah, that was so short, I'm not sure I even counted it as a dungeon. Wasn't it just big room, elevator fight, final boss?

XIII's final dungeon was an annoying pain if you hadn't done some leveling up in the preceding few chapters. If you had, it could be pretty fun and challenging. Plenty of the fights took a while, though.

 

[Cornbread78]

doing those battles in the last level will help make the boss fight at the end easier. I fought everything that ran in my path throughout the game, which helped me level up without haveing to spend a lot of time grinding.


Oh, Dedication, is there anyway to sharpen the resolution on this and repost it?

a normal colored gif of this would be epic....

 

[Dedication Through Light]

doing those battles in the last level will help make the boss fight at the end easier. I fought everything that ran in my path throughout the game, which helped me level up without haveing to spend a lot of time grinding.


Oh, Dedication, is there anyway to sharpen the resolution on this and repost it?

a normal colored gif of this would be epic....

Sure

 

[Cornbread78]

Nice, thank you! That once can be used in many places, especially for those STFU moments, LOL

 

[rush777]

This is what i am using. People are underrating SMII a lot.

Fang - Genji Kaiser Kaiser
Snow - Kaiser Kaiser Kaiser
Sazh Kaiser Kaiser Kaiser

Fang: Taming Pole (stagger lock)
Snow: Midnight Sun (stagger lock)
Sazh: Procyons (stagger maintance II)

since sazh always stagger, it will give me 30% extra stagger time and then I always end it with a highwind from Fang.

Beat the final boss in about 30 seconds...

How long did you have to farm for dark matter to get those kasiers? This has the absolute worst end game farming I've ever seen what the fuck were they thinking.

I need 1 more trap and then a fuckton of dark matter, I've beaten the game and all of the missions I just need to 5 star a couple, but I just don't think I can fight these fucking turtles anymore.

 

[Lain]

I guess I'm in the minority that enjoyed the last dungeon? Some encounters were annoying, but I liked the style and design of the dungeon. It felt like it fulfilled its role as a place where normal people would lose hope.

 

[Narcosis]

I guess I'm in the minority that enjoyed the last dungeon? Some encounters were annoying, but I liked the style and design of the dungeon. It felt like it fulfilled its role as a place where normal people would lose hope.

Lost hope? I thought it looked a bit too clean and technical, too much like Tron and Mirror's Edge had a baby to be gloomy.

 

[GoncaloCCastro]

Every time I see this thread on the first page I get a little bit sad because it reminds me that I lost my 40 Hour save game when my PS3 hard drive got corrupted. I was really liking the game, I had all the characters maxed out at their primary roles (Lvl. 4) and was upgrading my weapons to the max when everything went to the crapper...

 

[Crash Station]

Thought I'd just mention this, the game is showing excellent holds in the UK chart, its still in the top 20 for full price charts and went up 3 places last week. On the all formats chart its still in the top 25.

GO FFXIII !!

Cool. I doubt that's much but it could probably get to 6 mil worldwide if it stays at this pace a little while longer.

 

[Lain]

Lost hope? I thought it looked a bit too clean and technical, too much like Tron and Mirror's Edge had a baby to be gloomy.

I don't believe a place has to be gloomy to make people lose hope.
The simple fact that it kept changing forms without the end ever coming in sight, and being full of powerful groups of enemies seemed discouraging enough to me.

 

[Cels]

How long did you have to farm for dark matter to get those kasiers? This has the absolute worst end game farming I've ever seen what the fuck were they thinking.

I need 1 more trap and then a fuckton of dark matter, I've beaten the game and all of the missions I just need to 5 star a couple, but I just don't think I can fight these fucking turtles anymore.

Farming dark matter off shaolong guis is fine -- they are 1) easy and quick to kill and 2) have a good chance to drop them. I platinumed at 50-55hr so I didn't really spend all too much time farming anyhow...idk how people stand taking 80+ hr to do it, if i had taken that long to farm turtles i probably would have just quit the game and not bothered to get the platinum trophy.

And if you are only going for Treasure Hunter (and not a bajillion kaiser knuckles, that's overkill imo) you will only need a total of FIVE dark matter anyway

Spoiler

(wurtzite bangle, kaiser knuckles, magistral crest, super ribbon, and betelgeuse customs. there is one other item that requires a dark matter to upgrade, imperial armlet, but you get one from playing through the game anyway so there is no need for it)

Every time I see this thread on the first page I get a little bit sad because it reminds me that I lost my 40 Hour save game when my PS3 hard drive got corrupted. I was really liking the game, I had all the characters maxed out at their primary roles (Lvl. 4) and was upgrading my weapons to the max when everything went to the crapper...

If you were going for platinum, you should know that after you beat the game, you get access to the fifth and final role level after the crystarium expands to level 10, so you have even more CP to get! :lol

 

[Cornbread78]

Farming dark matter off shaolong guis is fine -- they are 1) easy and quick to kill and 2) have a good chance to drop them. I platinumed at 50-55hr so I didn't really spend all too much time farming anyhow...idk how people stand taking 80+ hr to do it, if i had taken that long to farm turtles i probably would have just quit the game and not bothered to get the platinum trophy.

And if you are only going for Treasure Hunter (and not a bajillion kaiser knuckles, that's overkill imo) you will only need a total of FIVE dark matter anyway

Spoiler

(wurtzite bangle, kaiser knuckles, magistral crest, super ribbon, and betelgeuse customs. there is one other item that requires a dark matter to upgrade, imperial armlet, but you get one from playing through the game anyway so there is no need for it)

If you were going for platinum, you should know that after you beat the game, you get access to the fifth and final role level after the crystarium expands to level 10, so you have even more CP to get! :lol

So is there another secret way to get traps outside of farming turtles then? The friggen things jsust won't die for me!

 

[Cels]

So is there another secret way to get traps outside of farming turtles then? The friggen things jsust won't die for me!

Only other way is to buy them. At 2M a pop it's really a huge pain though and not worth it IMO. If you can kill Long Gui, they drop Traps at a 5x better rate than adamantoise/tortoise (25% vs 5% with 5* battle rating)

On the other hand, if you are having trouble with adamantoise/adamantortoise you are either underleveled or not using a valid strategy (or both).

There are tons of good strategies out there, but in general, I recommend

Spoiler

first beating the game to unlock crystarium level 10, then finish Cieth Stone 55 to get the growth egg for CPx2. Then the worst part is death spamming turtles, i'm not going to write the entire strategy here, there are plenty good ones online.

The idea is that every turtle killed will net you 80K CP, and you have a chance to get items useful for Treasure Hunter. You could go about getting CP other (faster) ways, but you will have your crystarium maxed out long before you have enough money to complete Treasure Hunter, so why not kill turtles anyway and hope for some Ingots/Traps? Helps if you have catalogs as well.

Anyway, I had to kill 12 or so turtles before I felt sufficiently leveled to kill turtles straight up without Death randomness, and I got lucky with one Trap dropping so I got myself a fully upgraded Kain's Lance.

 

[lorddarkflare]

Yes, well the problem was that there were some encounters you couldn't really avoid, and those tended to be the worst ones.

Not to mention that if you have to avoid content in order to have fun, then there is something wrong.

 

[GoncaloCCastro]

If you were going for platinum, you should know that after you beat the game, you get access to the fifth and final role level after the crystarium expands to level 10, so you have even more CP to get! :lol

Yeah I know, I had a lot of CP already stored for the next few levels, I grind a lot...which makes the replay even harder

 

[Zoso]

Woo got all the achievements. Took me 117 hours :lol I wasn't using any guides so it took me a while to figure everything out.

My opinion hasn't changed though - FFXIII is still a great game. 'Treasure Hunter' type achievements should be banned from RPGs though. What a pain.

 

[Alucrid]

Ugh. I've done all marks (five starred), maxed the crystarium, have three starred final weapons, but I still can't beat Shaolong Guis consistently. I beat the first two I tried but now I take a beating every time from an untimely Bay even when I'm dazing it the entire fight. I haven't tried a Long Gui yet. Anyone have any 'fool proof' methods?

Edit: Fuck this game. I'm farming for Platinum Ingots and it gives me two Trapez in a row.

Woo got all the achievements. Took me 117 hours :lol I wasn't using any guides so it took me a while to figure everything out.

My opinion hasn't changed though - FFXIII is still a great game. 'Treasure Hunter' type achievements should be banned from RPGs though. What a pain.

At least it isn't as bad as Lost Odyssey's 'Treasure Hunter.'

 

[Cels]

Ugh. I've done all marks (five starred), maxed the crystarium, have three starred final weapons, but I still can't beat Shaolong Guis consistently. I beat the first two I tried but now I take a beating every time from an untimely Bay even when I'm dazing it the entire fight. I haven't tried a Long Gui yet. Anyone have any 'fool proof' methods?

Edit: Fuck this game. I'm farming for Platinum Ingots and it gives me two Trapez in a row.

Spoiler

The trick is to beat it quickly, and FULLY debuff the Shaolong Gui and buff yourself before staggering it. You are using Daze which is good -- this allows you that time to buff and heal yourself.

You want to have Deprotect/Deshell/Imperil/Slow on it before you Daze it. When you Daze it you are free to cast/recast: Haste/Protectra/Shellra/Bravera/Faithra/Veil + some elemental imbuement (Enfire or whatever, anything works since he has Imperil). The Protectra/Shellra/Veil is so that you take minimal damage from stomps and spells, and so that you have a low chance of being Dazed. You can equip Moonbow Anklets and Gaian Rings on your characters to further minimize damage/Daze chance. Top off your health, then switch into Tridisaster (Rav x3), stagger him to a near-max %, then switch to Cerberus (Com x3). You can have two Cerberus Paradigms in order to switch between them and get a free full ATB every other turn. You should be doing 200K+ damage with each Ruin/Attack, I see you have completed all the Missions which means you have Genji Glove x3, very helpful!

If he DOES Bay or Ultima or Quake during the stagger, switch into Tortoise (Sen x3) IMMEDIATELY - you will receive the Sentinel bonus if you have switched before the damage is applied. Because you have Protectra/Shellra and the Sentinel bonus, you will not take that much damage. He is also Slowed so he should not be attacking as much. That's pretty much all I have to offer...happy hunting.

 

[Zoso]

At least it isn't as bad as Lost Odyssey's 'Treasure Hunter.'

I never went for that one in Lost Odyssey. What made it worse?



FFXIII wouldn't have been nearly as annoying if more enemies dropped items that were actually worth something. Money was way too scarce.

 

[Shadow780]

I never went for that one in Lost Odyssey. What made it worse?

You have to open every single treasure chests in the game, and there's no way to track what you've missed. That includes missable chests.

 

[Cels]

You have to open every single treasure chests in the game, and there's no way to track what you've missed. That includes missable chests.

That's rough, sounds like you need to reserve a playthrough where you have a checklist of treasure chests and go through the game that way...if I am correct in guessing that there are hundreds of treasure chests, what a pain!

 

[reKon]

40 hours in, been doing missions in CH 11 and I'm strong as shit for the point in the game after the missions + 6600 CP every 2 mins at the NE part of the map.

also, fuck the haters. This game isn't as nearly as bad as some morons here made it out to be be grossly exaggerating every flaw. Though, I think the issue here, is that this game could have had the potential to be so much more with the hardwareof the PS3, but the main focus here obviously was the graphics (cgi too!)/gameplay (story and locales are critical for FF games, damn it SE) .

graphics - if I was a graphics whore, I would be jizzing all over the screen everyday because this game is visually stunning pretty much ALL THE TIME. But, I'm not so even though GoW III, this, and Uncharted 2 look amazing, it doesn't have that awe like effect on me. Still, it's a top 5 visually on consoles (I'm playing the PS3 version btw).

music - I was surprised as hell here. The music is good, but doesn't touch FFX and FFVII. I think the problem here is the music isn't nearly as melodic. It needs more variety in that heavily orchestrated soundtrack. Still, there are some great songs, and other game does music as well as final fantasy 13. The SMG galaxies are close. And no Halo isn't. Neither is Uncharted too, shut up.

gameplay - love the fast paced gameplay. I'm now getting into the equipment and farming aspect and I'm enjoying myself. I actually like to grind in these game.s

story - lacking a lot. There are many things here that make you not care. Also, the world in this game doesn't nearly have as much immersion as FFX's Spira did. SE lost on this one...

spira had a whole deep history that was very easy to understand and there was a huge variety of different cultures, towns, and locales. In addition, they had one sport that unified everyone in a way that we can relate to. In FFXIII you don't really give a shit about anyone as no one is there to focus on except the characters. I actually felt something when tons of people died trying to fight against sin. I haven't cared much about anything FFX.


characters - Lightnings decent, Sazh is the best, Vanille is annoying, Fang is the 2nd best, Hope was annoying and bitchy, but he developed a little at least. Snow has gotten better, over the game, but he's still an idiot.

overall - FFX and FFVII were more fun games to me. It didn't take long to enjoy myself and I was really into the story. In this game, things have just started to get better, but it took way too long and you shouldn't fucking take 20+ hours to do so. I like how they broke down the game into a tutorial, but it was done too slowly.

Redo the entire story, develop the characters and change their personality/voice actors (except fang and sazh), add mini games in Nautilus, add the type of detailed history that FFX had in its world, use more melodic music in between the orchestrated tracks, and add a world map. Then you would have the best FF ever.

still, the battle system is amazing, the characters are less annoying, the music is good, and the visuals never let down. This game is worth the $30 I spent on it. I won't be surprised though if I like Dragon Age better than this (which I took a break from a long time ago).

 

[Cornbread78]

Only other way is to buy them. At 2M a pop it's really a huge pain though and not worth it IMO. If you can kill Long Gui, they drop Traps at a 5x better rate than adamantoise/tortoise (25% vs 5% with 5* battle rating)

On the other hand, if you are having trouble with adamantoise/adamantortoise you are either underleveled or not using a valid strategy (or both).

There are tons of good strategies out there, but in general, I recommend

Spoiler

first beating the game to unlock crystarium level 10, then finish Cieth Stone 55 to get the growth egg for CPx2. Then the worst part is death spamming turtles, i'm not going to write the entire strategy here, there are plenty good ones online.

The idea is that every turtle killed will net you 80K CP, and you have a chance to get items useful for Treasure Hunter. You could go about getting CP other (faster) ways, but you will have your crystarium maxed out long before you have enough money to complete Treasure Hunter, so why not kill turtles anyway and hope for some Ingots/Traps? Helps if you have catalogs as well.

Anyway, I had to kill 12 or so turtles before I felt sufficiently leveled to kill turtles straight up without Death randomness, and I got lucky with one Trap dropping so I got myself a fully upgraded Kain's Lance.

I've finished the game, and almost all the marks, I have at least 1 lvl. 5 role for weach charachter so far. I death spam the crap outta the turtles with a maxed out Marlboro wand, but they just won't drop. The same goes for the #55 mission. The guy just won't die. I have to go back throug the titans tials and fight the same "Nacho" guy again to get a 5 star on him, it seams impossible... So annoying, and I'm not getting any luck with it. Also, where can I fight Long Gui's? Are they free roaming monsters?

 

[neoism]

I never went for that one in Lost Odyssey. What made it worse?



FFXIII wouldn't have been nearly as annoying if more enemies dropped items that were actually worth something. Money was way too scarce.

I loved that. I actually ended up with 7.5 mil at the end, I've heard you only need about 3 mil for everything, but I wanted to keep all the items. Of course it's always awesome having a shit load of money at the end of RPG's.. I had like 20k left in this game:lol :lol

 

[Cels]

I've finished the game, and almost all the marks, I have at least 1 lvl. 5 role for weach charachter so far. I death spam the crap outta the turtles with a maxed out Marlboro wand, but they just won't drop. The same goes for the #55 mission. The guy just won't die. I have to go back throug the titans tials and fight the same "Nacho" guy again to get a 5 star on him, it seams impossible... So annoying, and I'm not getting any luck with it. Also, where can I fight Long Gui's? Are they free roaming monsters?

If you have strength or magic on each character at least 1600 and HP above 16K, you should be able to kill the turtles without Death.

Anyway, to go further into Death spamming, IDK what you are doing, but here are the basic ideas --

Spoiler

I had Vanille/Fang/Hope. Fang because she has the Saboteur role, and at this point no one else has it. Hope to buff for Haste/Faith to increase the amount of Deaths you get in before the turtle stands up, and to maximize Death's effectiveness. Additional active Saboteurs increase your chance of applying debuffs, and also having more debuffs on the turtle increases your chances of applying Death. With both Vanille/Fang as Saboteurs you can have Deshell/Deprotect/Imperil/Slow/Curse/Daze on the turtle. Remember to paradigm shift every other Death for a full ATB.

Nacho guy? What do you mean by that?

As for Long Gui,

Spoiler

they are a blue Adamantoise with triple the HP (16 million!) and immune to death, and appear on the Archlyte Steppe after you complete Cieth Stones 56-62, which is that circle on the Archlyte Steppe. They are also a lot more powerful and having a full crystarium is recommended before tackling them.

 

[Lain]

I've finished the game, and almost all the marks, I have at least 1 lvl. 5 role for weach charachter so far. I death spam the crap outta the turtles with a maxed out Marlboro wand, but they just won't drop. The same goes for the #55 mission. The guy just won't die. I have to go back throug the titans tials and fight the same "Nacho" guy again to get a 5 star on him, it seams impossible... So annoying, and I'm not getting any luck with it. Also, where can I fight Long Gui's? Are they free roaming monsters?

I've been having good results (except for the drops), and my Marlboro Wand hasn't ever been upgraded. Initially I tried to get the turtle down to debuff it and then spam death, but it was more annoying than simply spamming Death from the start, with Hope first buffing the party and then switching to healing. It can take a while to kill the turtle sometimes, but usually it doesn't take too long (although. only the first turtle I killed died on the first cast of Death, it was the mark too, made me believe it would be easier to farm them than it actually is using the death spam tactic).
By "Nacho" guy, do you mean that more powerful Ochu? I did that one with death spam too (with Fang tanking and Hope healing), although during the trial it was easier, since he was alone there.

 

[Alex]

also, fuck the haters. This game isn't as nearly as bad as some morons here made it out to be be grossly exaggerating every flaw.

There's no exaggeration, and I've yet to hear anyone actually find a little flaw, because there's no mechanics present for them to infest. You mash autobattle for combat in the strong majority of the scenarios outside of the last few missions, you hold X for stats in a pure linear "tree", you combine random, no thought junk for weapon upgrades as a vague grind, you walk forward for almost all progression. I mean you can't even lay a FINGER on any sort of interaction until half way through.

That's not a game to me, personally. Not even by the worst JRPG standards. For people who want to quickly digest cutscenes, narrative and flash, they may dig this, but I sure don't. Getting actual content in FFXIII was like squeezing blood from a stone, and by the time there was actually anything meaningful, I had nothing but sour thoughts for any of it.

The game is all polish, though, for an FFXIII-2 if they could bring back the FFX-2 school of design and marry it to some of the production values, it'd be good for everyone.

But it doesn't matter, there's more than a few really good, really mechanics heavy, really interesting JRPGs that fell all around it, so everyone can have what they want. Demons Souls, Nier, Resonance of Fate and Strange Journey made up a chain of very unique, interesting titles that raised my spirits for the genre even as FFXIII crushed them.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

40 hours in, been doing missions in CH 11 and I'm strong as shit for the point in the game after the missions + 6600 CP every 2 mins at the NE part of the map.

also, fuck the haters. This game isn't as nearly as bad as some morons here made it out to be be grossly exaggerating every flaw.

The game was pure awesome. Of all the final fantasies I played it was the only one that I actually felt inclined to beat immediately and to do so as fast as possible cause it was so engrossing (and gorgeous). Only FFX came close to matching the feeling (oh and FF Tactics, but I guess those are really just Final Fantasys in name only)

Minor flaws: Different enemies instead of taking enemies and just throwing fresh coats of paints would have been better than that which theyve done, lol.

 

[Cornbread78]

OK First off:

Damn Kagari....OMFG.... Poor Ultros!

LMFAO



I did actually 5 star Mission 55 and got my Growth Egg last night, I'll chaulk it up to being the luckiest SOB alive! Seriously, the "Red Nacho guy" died on my second cast of death, I was so giddy it died, I almost forgot to cast heal when the little seed things were battering Vanille and I almost died LOL. I then got cocky and said, hell, I have 5 mins left befre I'm going to bed, let me try a turtle now....

What a big mistake that was. 30 mins. later, he finally died during on his 3rd stagger (instant chain stagger actually kicked in a few times) and me death spamming the crap outta him 0 stars= 0 drops... man, this is going to get annoying. After the high of mission 55, I got the ultimate low with a random turtle.....


Oh, btw, I got the 100K+ trophy during 1 of those staggers on the turtle, but I do not have the Genji glove, how did that happen?

 

[spats]

I guess I'm really fucking bad at this game, but most of the bigger boss fights either have me wiping 10+ times or end up taking 30mins even though they're supposed to take 10. I'm like 40 hours into the game and it keeps shoving new combat mechanics at me. The visuals are uneven but in some parts absolutely gorgeous, especially in the character models. Pacing is really jumpy and feels kinda poorly designed, even though they do a nice job of recapping past events at the load screens. The little there is to explore in Gran Pulse isn't doing anything to attract me because I'm having such a hard time enjoying the mechanics, which is a shame because I love grinding and exploring in most jrpg's.

Easily my least-favourite mainline FF game. Sorry for the rant.


I was wondering if there are any good tips to beat

Spoiler

the second form of Barthandelus that you fight in Oerba? The laser face wall things he keeps spawning are tearing me to shreds.

And secondly, is there much game left? I really want to be done with this game soon.

 

[Prime crotch]

best minigame on FFXIII, trying to max the sound pitch of the crystarium without stoping

 

[140.85]

I'm with reKon. A lot of the hyperbole around here regarding XIII bears no resemblance to the actual game.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

I guess I'm really fucking bad at this game, but most of the bigger boss fights either have me wiping 10+ times or end up taking 30mins even though they're supposed to take 10. I'm like 40 hours into the game and it keeps shoving new combat mechanics at me. The visuals are uneven but in some parts absolutely gorgeous, especially in the character models. Pacing is really jumpy and feels kinda poorly designed, even though they do a nice job of recapping past events at the load screens. The little there is to explore in Gran Pulse isn't doing anything to attract me because I'm having such a hard time enjoying the mechanics, which is a shame because I love grinding and exploring in most jrpg's.

Easily my least-favourite mainline FF game. Sorry for the rant.


I was wondering if there are any good tips to beat

Spoiler

the second form of Barthandelus that you fight in Oerba? The laser face wall things he keeps spawning are tearing me to shreds.

And secondly, is there much game left? I really want to be done with this game soon.

The target time for all forms of him for me was always around 8-10 minutes. I guess Ill state and say that the best strategy that I employed from Chapter 10 and onwards was just a "Relentless Assault, Combat Clinic" type thing after casting all the buffs for every boss fight. It always worked liked a charm for me.

Oh yeah and also having the players know the healing techniques that take up TP worked better than actually waiting for them to get around to healing each other occasionally.

 

[FateBreaker]

best minigame on FFXIII, trying to max the sound pitch of the crystarium without stoping

:lol :lol :lol ! I thought I was the only one getting a weird enjoyment out of that.

 

[Cornbread78]

Alright, I could only get through 8 or 9 turtles this weekend. Seriously, this has to be the worst fu(king design ever to make players go through 30 min, boring redundant battles to get drops that don't even appear automatically after a battle. I got 0 friggen traps from the battles and only a couple ingots. WTF! There has to be a better way toget traps, thsi is sooooo stupid.

Also, Mark#51, Do you hve to be completely maxed out in order to 5 star him? I tried a few times and I couldn't get more than three, All my characters are maxed on their primaries and I'm at lvl 1 and 2 for their secondaries..

 

[Dr Frasier Crane]

best minigame on FFXIII, trying to max the sound pitch of the crystarium without stopping

Ha this definitely. Difficulty spikes at junctions but a quick repressing usually works. I actually saved loads of CP for Sazh at the end to do an almost full max out to hear how fat the tone went.

 

[brandonh83]

Mission 64 is such a cheap son of a bitch and this game has the worst sidequesting of all time. I put the game in yesterday to consider getting the rest of the trophies, but I have better things to do with my life. Like bitch about it on GAF, I guess. :lol

But no seriously, I cannot believe how terrible all the post-game stuff is. Tedious, cheap, not any fun, all the above.

 

[badcrumble]

Mission 64 is such a cheap son of a bitch and this game has the worst sidequesting of all time. I put the game in yesterday to consider getting the rest of the trophies, but I have better things to do with my life. Like bitch about it on GAF, I guess. :lol

But no seriously, I cannot believe how terrible all the post-game stuff is. Tedious, cheap, not any fun, all the above.

If any game ever desperately needed an Omega Dungeon type of postgame thing, it was FFXIII.

 

[brandonh83]

It just needed sensible sidequests. Who the fuck wants to fight giant turtles over and over and over again? I mean who thought that would be a good idea? Then again, I guess the staff thought most of the retarded shit in the game was a good idea so no mystery there.

I know FF games have had notoriously engaging sidequests, some of the bigger ones being drawn out and kind of boring, but FFXIII brings a whole new dimension to utterly ridiculous sidequests. I have everyone's roles maxed, everyone has an Ultima Weapon, all missions beat except 64, and yet I still feel like I need to grind or something.

That's not even to mention the dumbest trophy ever created-- obtain every weapon and accessory! I can't even bother with this game anymore. I have a high tolerance for bullshit, especially in RPG's, but this one just blows my mind. A lot of people just can't stand the story, the voice acting, the writing, the linear design, and I'm with them-- but honestly, those things pale in comparison to the absurd shittiness of the post-game material.

 

[badcrumble]

It just needed sensible sidequests. Who the fuck wants to fight giant turtles over and over and over again? I mean who thought that would be a good idea? Then again, I guess the staff thought most of the retarded shit in the game was a good idea so no mystery there.

I know FF games have had notoriously engaging sidequests, some of the bigger ones being drawn out and kind of boring, but FFXIII brings a whole new dimension to utterly ridiculous sidequests. I have everyone's roles maxed, everyone has an Ultima Weapon, all missions beat except 64, and yet I still feel like I need to grind or something.

That's not even to mention the dumbest trophy ever created-- obtain every weapon and accessory! I can't even bother with this game anymore. I have a high tolerance for bullshit, especially in RPG's, but this one just blows my mind. A lot of people just can't stand the story, the voice acting, the writing, the linear design, and I'm with them-- but honestly, those things pale in comparison to the absurd shittiness of the post-game material.

Well, the real problem is that there's an odd sort of break in the general difficulty/power curve which had hitherto been extremely solid. There's a certain subset of battles (Neochu, Vercingetorix, Attacus, the dual Raktavijas, Adamantoise/Adamantortoise, and one or two other Undyings, and maybe Zirnitra too) that are basically a big enough jump in difficulty over everything else, and which also (in many cases) have prizes for you (Growth Egg, Genji Glove, Trapezohedron, and just plain Platinum Ingots) that are pretty much prerequisites for being able to break into this group in the first place. What this results in is generally the cheap and unfun method of death spamming, in order to obtain ultimate weapons and the growth egg. Death spamming and rote, mindless grinding shouldn't feel necessary at any point in the game, really, but it ends up feeling that way in order to beat the toughest enemies. Once you've beaten all of the enemies I named above, Long Gui and Shaolong Gui shouldn't be that much more of a jump, but this one major gap in difficulty/power that I've described is a serious problem with the game.

FFX solved this by having the Omega Dungeon to basically bridge the gap in difficulty/power between the final dungeon/boss and the tougher enemies of the Monster Arena, but FFXIII is missing this.

 

[brandonh83]

Yeah I had to death spam with Vanille to get my Traps. I don't know, I may carry on just because of how much effort I've put into it already. :lol

 

[Diablos]

Regarding FFXIII's linearity, yes, it is linear. I too would have liked to see it as a less linear game.

That said, I wouldn't really call the battles "auto pilot". It's not the most in-depth battle system in the world, but I certainly feel like I had more control in the middle of battle than I did in, say, FFXII. Setting things up in the background/menus is a different story, but when you are actually in battle I felt like I had a satisfying amount of control. I prefer this kind of FF. That doesn't mean it didn't need any tweaking in the background, but generally speaking, this is my brand of FF.

I still really haven't done much with post-game stuff (at all), but then again I normally don't. I've had plenty of time to think back on the game, and it's very true, the game's linearity is unsettling at times. They should have opened up the grid and let you form your own party much earlier. Still, it's not as bad as many make it out to be, and a very enjoyable RPG with a lot of fun battles.

I agree with dramatis - I don't think you will see any other dev team try to emulate this game's design. It's too controversial. Opinions are really divided, even more than they were for FFXII, it seems. They surely have taken note.

 

[zoukka]

I may carry on just because of how much effort I've put into it already. :lol

We need some kind of facilities for trophy/achievement-holics. Jesus.



And I don't know why, but I'm still playing this game :lol Must be the nice battle system, because everything else in this game stinks. My gf forced me to use headphones, because vanille and hope made it sound like some hentai movie. The music is still nice though. I mean there was a harmonica somewhere O_O

The in-game dialogue system is also very nice. Perfect storytelling... shame it isn't in a bigger role in the game.

 

[brandonh83]

We need some kind of facilities for trophy/achievement-holics. Jesus.

It wasn't really for the trophies. It's a new FF game and what I do with new FF games is milk them for all their worth. I'm genuinely disappointed with the sidequests and how ridiculous the trophies are, but the main reason I put so much effort into it was to actually at least beat all the missions.

Spoiler

I am OCD as fuck

 

[Cornbread78]

Regarding FFXIII's linearity, yes, it is linear. I too would have liked to see it as a less linear game.
That said, I wouldn't really call the battles "auto pilot". It's not the most in-depth battle system in the world, but I certainly feel like I had more control in the middle of battle than I did in, say, FFXII. Setting things up in the background/menus is a different story, but when you are actually in battle I felt like I had a satisfying amount of control. I prefer this kind of FF. That doesn't mean it didn't need any tweaking in the background, but generally speaking, this is my brand of FF.
I still really haven't done much with post-game stuff (at all), but then again I normally don't. I've had plenty of time to think back on the game, and it's very true, the game's linearity is unsettling at times. They should have opened up the grid and let you form your own party much earlier. Still, it's not as bad as many make it out to be, and a very enjoyable RPG with a lot of fun battles.
I agree with dramatis - I don't think you will see any other dev team try to emulate this game's design. It's too controversial. Opinions are really divided, even more than they were for FFXII, it seems. They surely have taken note.

Very True, I feel the same way, I can understand why they limited everything, but at least give the player the option...

Seriously, I understand they want to make the post game work, but it's a game SE, make it FUN at the same time, or at least make the player feel like they are accomplishing something. Death-spamming over and over again for 30 mins is just plain a$$inine. I two of the turles I've beat I used "Scouting Party" Paradigm the whole time with
Vanille-SAB
Fang- COM
Hope- MED

and I killed the turtle by emptying their health gage, not by Death, AAARRGGHHHH....around 90 hours now with still 8 marks to get 5 stars on....

 

[state_vector_collapse]

I just can't muster up the enthusiasm to finish this game. Which is a shame as it will be the first FF game I haven't ever completed - and I've played them all.

Worse, I know I'm right at the end of the game, but it has been a chore every time I have switched it on. It looks gorgeous and all, but the gameplay....I don't get the love affair some are having with the battle system at all.

 

[Cornbread78]

I just can't muster up the enthusiasm to finish this game. Which is a shame as it will be the first FF game I haven't ever completed - and I've played them all.

Worse, I know I'm right at the end of the game, but it has been a chore every time I have switched it on. It looks gorgeous and all, but the gameplay....I don't get the love affair some are having with the battle system at all.

It's smooth and easy to manage. One of the only complaints would be in the AI, when your RAV and MED are casting Fire/Thunder or Cure/Esuna when they should be casting Firega/ Thundaga and curasa/Raise

 

[storafötter]

I bought this game some days ago and wanted to give it a go. Despite all the rage ive read about it I thought it must have some qualities. However since playing it for 5 hours I must say it feels very underwhelming and I find some mechanics of the battle system questionable. I will say it has one of the worst beginnings of a Final Fantasy game ive experienced. Sure the linear dungeons are similar to X but the areas/music/story and battle system in that game were much more fun than this.

Not hating the game, but waiting for things to get better. It has some enjoyable aspects.
But the story so far is very bad at making sense and the characters are uninteresting (hope it gets better!). Usually I can accept uninteresting stories, but if the characters are discouraging it is hard to look forward to anything. I admit I have barely scratched the surface and it will probably get better.

I must say how surprised I am at how often you reach save points, and how you can replay right before you die (which isn't bad though).