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Final Fantasy XIII |OT|

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painey

Member
I just got to Gran Pulse plains and the frame rate is abysmal.. its not frame rate drops, its a constantly awful frame rate... :(
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
got to chapter 3 and had a couple of battles with the paradigm shifts.. between that, cancels, and early attacks I am actually finally understanding WHY they put in auto-attack. For your typical JRPG player between all of that stuff and items there seems to be already enough to take care of without adding abilities and TP for 3 total characters on top of that. Of course those options are still there if people want (well, for the one character).

The story isn't gripping me so far, but it's servicable. I did like the flashback of
snow and serah at the festival and then on the hover bike.
it added a bit of soul into an otherwise so far pretty mechanical story. but again, it's servicable, just not knocking me off of my feet.

and to answer my own question from earlier in the thread, I picked up the CE Official Guide.. can't compare it to the regular guide but the CE quality is incredibly nice. When they say coffee table book they aren't just using hyperbole. It is extremely nice, oversized and the layout and design of it is through the roof. Would have been nice to grab it for $20, but honestly at $35 I don't feel ripped off in the slightest. Pricey and not for everyone, but still a good value for those who drop the coin. Mine was around 11,000 out of 200K.
 

avatar299

Banned
Firestorm said:
Damn this is long. 4.5 hours and just hit beginning of Chapter 4 I think. Controlling
Sazh and Vanille
. Really makes no sense how
Hope went off with Lightning. "Yeah, I'll ditch the girl I was with this whole time and old cool-headed dude to go off with the one who doesn't give a damn about me."
.
Makes sense to me. He's attracted to her ability to beat the crap out of Snowe.
 
Not too come in here and shit on the game, but I am completely appalled at how much I do not care to play this. Over two generations of consoles this series has become one of my favourites, and now here we are a few days after release and I doubt I could even be bothered asking my friend if I can borrow his copy when he is done with it.
 

FrankT

Member
6 hours in as of last night. Bit slow to this point to say the least. Still incredible looking and I'm digging most of the characters. Story is not too bad so far. The soundtrack however is probably top 5+ plus for me this gen I’d say already.
 

orion434

Member
I had not anticipated playing FFXIII at all... as I've read many negative aspects already said before. So I won't repeat what's been said a million times aleady. I do have a complaint about Auto-battle.

The way the game determines what skills to use with auto-battle is pretty bad. I tried this out with Hope & Lightning in Chapter 5... with a battle with 10 Leeches. I use Auto-battle and it only chooses single-targets for spells... and 1/2 the time non-blitz attacks for Lightning. I have Fira... yet auto-battle will almost never choose this over say Water on a Water-weak enemy... though the creature may not be weak to Fira... it will do the most damage.

Everyone should go into the options and select "Abilities" to battle-default, and use the Libra technique... and view enemies during battle. I love the battle system can't wait to get a little freedom :)
 
I beleive I'm almost done with chapter 3 and I've said it before and I'll say it again. Is this the first Final Fantasy you guys are playing?; it truly feels like so many have been in denial of the quality of characters in other FF games in the past. The way characters act, the mannerisms, the oddness, this is all Final Fantasy just as it was before. Forgot the talk of gameplay for a second, just focusing on the characters. I'm sorry but Vanille is no more annoying then fucking Rikku in X, or Selphie in VIII. Snow talks about being a "hero" alot but so what? These are JRPGs and I'd be hard pressed to pick any that have a perfect cast of characters.
 

thefil

Member
I'm in Chapter 9 now, and just wrapped up this large circular room with a lot of challenging battles. I wish Square had made more of the combat hard early on; the combat system really shines when you have three party members and you have to work to keep up with your opponents.

I really miss the lack of a thief class though.
 

Aretak

Member
slasher_thrasher21 said:
These are JRPGs and I'd be hard pressed to pick any that have a perfect cast of characters.
37q6v.jpg
 

avatar299

Banned
The best thing about the reaction to Vanille and other jrpg cliches is many of the people here bitching were talking up tri-aces resonance of fate like there won't be atleast 3 versions of her in that game.

It feels like every time we have a FF game, there has to be a ton of " man that character is weird" posts and at least 5 " I don't mean to troll because I love FF, but I don't care this time. I've moved on" posts.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
painey said:
I just got to Gran Pulse plains and the frame rate is abysmal.. its not frame rate drops, its a constantly awful frame rate... :(


I'm surprised no review even talked about this, of course I'm sure its only the 360 version?

natilus was really bad too, speically the chocbo scene
So, its all over pulse too? great
 

gkryhewy

Member
I'm really liking this game so far (5 hours in). I like the flexibility of the battle system, I love the graphics, music, and presentation (<3 saturated colors!), and the story is carrying me along.

I *loved* FFX, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.
 
Aretak said:
Even that is pushing it, but I do agree that I highly enjoyed the characters for the most part in that entry.

avatar299 said:
The best thing about the reaction to Vanille and other jrpg cliches is many of the people here bitching were talking up tri-aces resonance of fate like there won't be atleast 3 versions of her in that game.

LOL yeah... almost every JRPG has one.
 

Huggers

Member
Massive RPG noob here (this is the first one I have played since FF X). Can't work out how to change my characters roles from Ravager to medic to commando etc. How do I do this?

edit, is it all done through paradigms?
 

Slacker

Member
The Hug Dog said:
Massive RPG noob here (this is the first one I have played since FF X). Can't work out how to change my characters roles from Ravager to medic to commando etc. How do I do this?

edit, is it all done through paradigms?
Yep go to the paradigms section of the menu to see the preconfigured paradigms and what class is set up in each one. You can set up your own groups there too. You can also see that info when you move your cursor over the paradigm name during battle (read fast though).
 
Chapter four drags on foreverrrrrrrrrrrrr BUT, still enjoying it. The characters are becoming less annoying, even Vanille although her "ughn", "oof" and other monosyllabic grunts make me insane with the frequency of them.

The more I play it, the more I feel like I'm playing as genuine Final Fantasy game. You have the same amount of control over your party. It's just a different type of control.

It's all there, just...different.
 

JudgeN

Member
Vanille is adorable, I just can't bring myself to hate her. So so cute, I might have to join the defense force :lol

Is there moves like limit break/quicken/whatever in this game? Don't think i'm past the first chapter so battle system is really limited right now.
 
Got through a good amount of chapter 4 last night...man is it tough to fight with
Sahz and Vanille
. Also Vanille is starting to get on my nerves a bit. The music and environments have been incredible so far. I'm hoping that I'll be able to do some real battling soon.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
avatar299 said:
It feels like every time we have a FF game, there has to be ... at least 5 " I don't mean to troll because I love FF, but I don't care this time. I've moved on" posts.
what are you talking abo....

Dr Bad Dude PHD said:
Not too come in here and shit on the game, but I am completely appalled at how much I do not care to play this. Over two generations of consoles this series has become one of my favourites, and now here we are a few days after release and I doubt I could even be bothered asking my friend if I can borrow his copy when he is done with it.
ooohhh.... :p

though for the record every official thread for a highly anticipated game has people coming in just to let everyone know how absolutely uninterested they are in picking up the game. Welcome to the internet I guess.
 

Huggers

Member
Slacker said:
Yep go to the paradigms section of the menu to see the preconfigured paradigms and what class is set up in each one. You can set up your own groups there too. You can also see that info when you move your cursor over the paradigm name during battle (read fast though).

Thanks bro
 

Snookie

Member
Well I'm almost through Chapter 3 and I'm really starting to like it. I think the new fight system is pretty cool. At first i wasnt so sure about being able to control 1 character but it makes sense now.

Also I have the guide. It mentions the Omega Weapons but it doesnt quite explain how to get them unless i'm missing something.
 

Sarye

Member
I'm on Chapter 5 and am loving the game. The battle system at this point is awesome! I really had to think about how to beat (Chapter 4 spoilers)
Odin ughh who would have thought to use two medics!?

Quick questions about the battle system.

For the class "Com" you want to equip a weapon with +attack?
and for all the other classes you want to equip a weapon with +magic?

Am I understanding this correctly?

I'm stuck at work now and every passing minute is torture.
 

BluWacky

Member
Scythesurge said:
Got through a good amount of chapter 4 last night...man is it tough to fight with
Sahz and Vanille
.

Have you set up the SAB/RAV paradigm? SAB fulfils a similar role to COM in slowing the decrease of the Stagger gauge. Switch from that to RAV/RAV once Vanille's fired off some debuffs and you make very short work of most enemies.

I'm up to chapter 6 myself now. Still finding things to be a bit on the easy side (not to say I haven't died, but they've been due to stupid mistakes) but I love the battle system to bits. Story's fine too but not much to say so far - I'm a little surprised how over-the-top some peoples' responses are to the characters as none of them have bothered me in the slightest.

Sarye said:
I'm on Chapter 5 and am loving the game. The battle system at this point is awesome! I really had to think about how to beat (Chapter 4 spoilers)
Odin ughh who would have thought to use two medics!?

I used Libra on him twice, it told me that healing charged his Gestalt gauge... Bob's your uncle. Did you use Libra at all?
 

LiK

Member
Jtyettis said:
6 hours in as of last night. Bit slow to this point to say the least. Still incredible looking and I'm digging most of the characters. Story is not too bad so far. The soundtrack however is probably top 5+ plus for me this gen I’d say already.
Oh man, the music gets better and better. This game has some of the best dungeon music. It never gets old or repetitive. Really glad I got the LE OST, gonna be lstening to that alot once I finish the game :D

btw, don't mind the US ver of the theme either
 

thefil

Member
I'm wondering, what does everyone think of jazzy Sahzy? It seems a little awkward that every time Sahz is onscreen the music stops trying to be atmospheric and just goes for smooth rhythm instead... especially in
the Enki boss fight
.
 

luxarific

Nork unification denier
thefil said:
I'm wondering, what does everyone think of jazzy Sahzy? It seems a little awkward that every time Sahz is onscreen the music stops trying to be atmospheric and just goes for smooth rhythm instead... especially in
the Enki boss fight
.


I don't mind his music, as much as I mind his (ab)use as comic relief. Really drags down what is otherwise the best character in the game.
 
I'm about 3 hours into the game, heres my impressions so far:

The battle system is okay, very flashy and there seems to be alot going on, my gripe with it is that since you cant command your party members or give them any instructions other than "go healing mode, now go attack mode" battles tend to be chaotic and out of my control. Not something I want in my jRPG games.

The story's not really grabbing me yet, but that could be due to the horrible characters. I've never seen any game with such an unlikeable cast. I mean theres not a single person I've seen yet that I do not hate. From emo as hell Lightning, or the kid who hates Snow (didn't ever bother to look at his name). Snow might be an interesting character if he didn't have really stupid lines like "heroes don't run from fights". Hopefully it gets a bit better.

The "leveling" system is too streamlined for me atm. It's basically one straight path that your character can go, I vastly prefer FFX's sphere system where I have more of a choice in how my character progresses.

So overall, not too great of a beginning to something especially when its held up to the older Final Fantasys. I will play it some more, and hope it gets better soon.
 

SUPARSTARX

Member
Sarye said:
I'm on Chapter 5 and am loving the game. The battle system at this point is awesome! I really had to think about how to beat (Chapter 4 spoilers)
Odin ughh who would have thought to use two medics!?

Quick questions about the battle system.

For the class "Com" you want to equip a weapon with +attack?
and for all the other classes you want to equip a weapon with +magic?

Am I understanding this correctly?

I'm stuck at work now and every passing minute is torture.
Two medics? o_O

I went Commando/Synergist and had Hope buff Lightning then switched Ravager/Medic and I just stated spamming strikes on him lol
 

Sarye

Member
BluWacky said:
Have you set up the SAB/RAV paradigm? SAB fulfils a similar role to COM in slowing the decrease of the Stagger gauge. Switch from that to RAV/RAV once Vanille's fired off some debuffs and you make very short work of most enemies.

I'm up to chapter 6 myself now. Still finding things to be a bit on the easy side (not to say I haven't died, but they've been due to stupid mistakes) but I love the battle system to bits. Story's fine too but not much to say so far - I'm a little surprised how over-the-top some peoples' responses are to the characters as none of them have bothered me in the slightest.



I used Libra on him twice, it told me that healing charged his Gestalt gauge... Bob's your uncle. Did you use Libra at all?
fair point. i did use libra but at that point of the game, i didn't think to read anything because the tutorial for libra states that the AI will choose the best thing to do. odin was a good lesson for me though.

SUPARSTARX said:
Two medics? o_O

I went Commando/Synergist and had Hope buff Lightning then switched Ravager/Medic and I just stated spamming strikes on him lol

I couldn't heal fast enough with just one so had to sometimes switch to two medics
 

thefil

Member
Cirekiller said:
The story's not really grabbing me yet, but that could be due to the horrible characters. I've never seen any game with such an unlikeable cast. I mean theres not a single person I've seen yet that I do not hate. From emo as hell Lightning, or the kid who hates Snow (didn't ever bother to look at his name). Snow might be an interesting character if he didn't have really stupid lines like "heroes don't run from fights". Hopefully it gets a bit better.

The "leveling" system is too streamlined for me atm. It's basically one straight path that your character can go, I vastly prefer FFX's sphere system where I have more of a choice in how my character progresses..

The story will not pick up for a long time (possibly ever).

As for the levelling system, I also found it hyper restricted at first. I'm about 16 hours in and and it's finally started to "branch out" a bit. It's still no Sphere Grid, but maybe by the time I unlock all the levels it will be comparable.
 
thefil said:
The story will not pick up for a long time (possibly ever).

As for the levelling system, I also found it hyper restricted at first. I'm about 16 hours in and and it's finally started to "branch out" a bit. It's still no Sphere Grid, but maybe by the time I unlock all the levels it will be comparable.
A friend who played and beat the Japanese version said that alot of the best "sphere" (Don't really know a better term atm) levels open up later in the game, this conversation was a while back so I may not remeber correctly, but he told me to basically wait til these better levels comes out before leveling, is this true?
 
can anyone tell me how the achievements/trophies are structured in this game?

for example, i know there's one for collecting all the weapons... so, if you miss some of them can you just go back and get them later..? or do you HAVE to use a damn guide from the very start of the game to make sure you find everything that is required if you want to get 100%?

i would love it if it's possible to platinum this game without having to worry about items that are permanently missable.
 

thefil

Member
Cirekiller said:
A friend who played and beat the Japanese version said that alot of the best "sphere" (Don't really know a better term atm) levels open up later in the game, this conversation was a while back so I may not remeber correctly, but he told me to basically wait til these better levels comes out before leveling, is this true?

I don't really know about that. Most of my job levels are only at about 3 right now, and I don't think I'm particularly near the endgame.
 

MechaX

Member
Cirekiller said:
I've never seen any game with such an unlikeable cast.

Now this is slightly quizzical to me. Keep in mind, I'm not disputing with your opinion in particular nor am I trying to start a serious argument, but a sentiment that has repeated itself a few times in this topic alone. But.. I mean, there have been RPGs with absolutely terrible casts in this generation alone. I understand not liking the FFXIII cast too much, but I just can't see how they are any worse than the likes of the Infinite Undiscovery cast, the Lost Odyssey cast, and EDGE MAVERICK and his friends.

But eh, that's just me. At the very least, the exchanges between Lightning and Snow have been gold to me so far.
 

Zoe

Member
Cirekiller said:
A friend who played and beat the Japanese version said that alot of the best "sphere" (Don't really know a better term atm) levels open up later in the game, this conversation was a while back so I may not remeber correctly, but he told me to basically wait til these better levels comes out before leveling, is this true?

Level as you receive CP, there's no reason to wait.

However, don't waste CP on any non-default roles. Not only does it make it harder for when level 5 opens up, it's also annoying because the party set-up page will automatically make groups where your characters can be placed in level 1 roles.
 

gkryhewy

Member
Zoe said:
Level as you receive CP, there's no reason to wait.

However, don't waste CP on any non-default roles. Not only does it make it harder for when level 5 opens up, it's also annoying because the party set-up page will automatically make groups where your characters can be placed in level 1 roles.

What do you mean by "non-default roles"? Wouldn't I want characters to be advanced in multiple roles so that they still perform competently when I paradigm shift?
 

Sarye

Member
Zoe said:
Level as you receive CP, there's no reason to wait.

However, don't waste CP on any non-default roles. Not only does it make it harder for when level 5 opens up, it's also annoying because the party set-up page will automatically make groups where your characters can be placed in level 1 roles.

Wait, so you shouldn't be balanced with the CP points? I always thought to make it even...
 

Zoe

Member
gkrykewy said:
What do you mean by "non-default roles"? Wouldn't I want characters to be advanced in multiple roles so that they still perform competently when I paradigm shift?

Not really. The abilities they'll be learning will be so low-level and the cost is so high that it's not worth it. It's better to play to their strengths and swap out characters as needed.
 

Lyonaz

Member
Just finished the game. Around 50 hours.

Great game, I actually liked the story and characters. So the ending was satisfying enough.

Chapter 12 was great.
Eden
looks fucking amazing, not to mention the CGI-scene was fuck awesome. In the last chapter the enemies they throw at you are hard and took a bit too long for my taste, but lots of save points so all is good.

Now I can finally go back and do all the Hunting missions and try to platinum this thing, yeah like that's going to happen. :lol

Also my FFXIII Guide Collector's Edition arrived today. So all in all a good day today.:D
 

painey

Member
gkrykewy said:
What do you mean by "non-default roles"? Wouldn't I want characters to be advanced in multiple roles so that they still perform competently when I paradigm shift?

everyone has 3 set roles, near the end you can put points in to ANY role, but the "new" roles need lots and lots of CP for little reward. If you try to turn your Snow into a medic, he will need lots of CP to be a weak medic, and when you add him to your battle party the AI might auto assign him to be a medic, which isnt very useful.
 
painey said:
everyone has 3 set roles, near the end you can put points in to ANY role, but the "new" roles need lots and lots of CP for little reward. If you try to turn your Snow into a medic, he will need lots of CP to be a weak medic, and when you add him to your battle party the AI might auto assign him to be a medic, which isnt very useful.
So I'm in chapter 4, and taking Vanille as an example, I maxed out her lvl 1 ravager. Would it be a mistake to put points into medic for her?
 
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