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[Brandon F]

WTF no XMB title card?? Purchase regret already.

 

[Perfect Blue]

So I thought this game was to feature full on realtime combat and controls?

The players clearly move in realtime in the battle space, but I have no movement control over them?

I don't see how this is far from the old system.... Standing there watching my atb bar recharge while I stand perfectly still is not my idea of thrilling, especially after coming from heavy hitters like mass effect 2 and god of war collection.

Am I missing something here? I thought this was supposed to play more like an action game. I'm falling asleep here, so far (very early)

And yet, FFXIII's combat is still deeper than God of War.

 

[Crash Station]

Spoiler

Look at all the people

in chapter 8. Almost feels like a different game. Just saw the

Spoiler

Parade

which was really friggin awesome. I'd like to

Spoiler

go to an amusement park with a show like that.

So I thought this game was to feature full on realtime combat and controls?

The players clearly move in realtime in the battle space, but I have no movement control over them?

I don't see how this is far from the old system.... Standing there watching my atb bar recharge while I stand perfectly still is not my idea of thrilling, especially after coming from heavy hitters like mass effect 2 and god of war collection.

Am I missing something here? I thought this was supposed to play more like an action game. I'm falling asleep here, so far (very early)

Wait until you get paradigms. If you still don't like it then and the lack of free movement is really bothering you, there's no reason you should keep playing unless you like the story.

 

[JWong]

And yet, FFXIII's combat is still deeper than God of War.

Wow, sounds like you played God of War 3 already.

 

[Rpgmonkey]

So I thought this game was to feature full on realtime combat and controls?

The players clearly move in realtime in the battle space, but I have no movement control over them?

I don't see how this is far from the old system.... Standing there watching my atb bar recharge while I stand perfectly still is not my idea of thrilling, especially after coming from heavy hitters like mass effect 2 and god of war collection.

Am I missing something here? I thought this was supposed to play more like an action game. I'm falling asleep here, so far (very early)

It's basically the ATB we always knew, but redesigned to allow a lot more to go on at once.

And like the ATB system pretty much always is, it picks up later on.

 

[Scythesurge]

12 hours in so far and this game is incredible. The battle system is just amazing once you get the hang of when to switch jobs. Probably the best battle system in a Final Fantasy game since X-2.

Paradigms are like dresspheres on crack.

 

[Perfect Blue]

Wow, sounds like you played God of War 3 already.

No, but you mentioned the God of War collection so it was a reference to that. Oh, forget it.

Game is awesome, back on topic!

 

[dreamer3kx]

Having a ton of fun with Lightning/Hope combo.

 

[Slackbladder]

God making money is slow. 14 hours in and I've got less than 4,000 gil and with Phoenix Down's at 1,000 each getting ko'd is not an option. I usually just hit re-try until I get it right.

 

[LiK]

God making money is slow. 14 hours in and I've got less than 4,000 gil and with Phoenix Down's at 1,000 each getting ko'd is not an option. I usually just hit re-try until I get it right.

yep, money isn't a big deal in this game, imo. i haven't had to buy anything other than one accessory so far.

 

[Classic_Gs]

Paradigms are like dresspheres on crack.

I agree, that is a good way to describe it

 

[Dark Octave]

Due to the solid lack of complaints about it, it does seem that including a meaningless mashing of X does make people feel like they're in control, even if there's less granular control here than in XII. People didn't stop complaining about XII playing itself. Hardly anyone is complaining of that here. I can only think of one time where you might need to time your press of X, otherwise it may as well be automated, and at times I wished it was. Square simply realised that letting players mash X was the answer to all the complaining.

:lol So true. Just like they praised Assassin's Creed for letting the player 'control the character' during cut scenes. You still had to sit and wait for thw scene to run it's course. OCD, man. Twitch generation.

 

[Ryn]

Sir you are awesome.

I'm not a sir but you're welcome anyways

 

[Hootie]

Can anyone spoil this game for me? Like tell me what happens at the end and tell me about any other megatons that occur.

 

[Alex]

I actually kind of like the story and really like some of the characters. The datalog and flesh out has the world design in a really nice place. Havent really been into any of that in a JRPG since like... Suikoden II? Sadly, if it were Suikoden you could just let Vanille get killed in a war.

 

[Crash Station]

CHOCOBOS! I don't care if the new theme has lyrics. I love this place.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Chapter 10 boss strat??

Spoiler

ugh bahamut, he has some very vicious attacks. He pretty much destroys me in 2 turns. any easier way?

 

[B.K.]

Does the plot ever go anywhere? I'm in Chapter 6 and NOTHING has happened since the party became L'Cies. This is the most boring Final Fantasy story I've ever seen so far.

 

[DualShadow]

Can anyone spoil this game for me? Like tell me what happens at the end and tell me about any other megatons that occur.

If anybody does this please please please use PM

 

[diddlyD]

i'm about 10 hours in now, and have combat down pretty much, but i still don't get why the stagger bar recedes at different speeds when you're trying to get it up to stagger the enemy. sometimes it recedes so fast i can't get an attack off before it resets, other times it recedes slowly giving plenty of time to save it from resetting. can anyone clarify this for me?

 

[Kagari]

Chapter 10 boss strat??

Spoiler

ugh bahamut, he has some very vicious attacks. He pretty much destroys me in 2 turns. any easier way?

Jam and defend.

 

[DualShadow]

Does the plot ever go anywhere? I'm in Chapter 6 and NOTHING has happened since the party became

Spoiler

L'Cies.

This is the most boring Final Fantasy story I've ever seen so far.

use fucking spoiler tags wtf

 

[RPGCrazied]

commando slows it down

 

[RPGCrazied]

Jam and defend.

so sab/sab/sent?

 

[Kagari]

Does the plot ever go anywhere? I'm in Chapter 6 and NOTHING has happened since the party became L'Cies. This is the most boring Final Fantasy story I've ever seen so far.

The story isn't anything special.

 

[Hootie]

If anybody does this please please please use PM

Or they can just use spoiler tags.

 

[Kagari]

so sab/sab/sent?

Have Lightning heal.

 

[Green Mamba]

i'm about 10 hours in now, and have combat down pretty much, but i still don't get why the stagger bar recedes at different speeds when you're trying to get it up to stagger the enemy. sometimes it recedes so fast i can't get an attack off before it resets, other times it recedes slowly giving plenty of time to save it from resetting. can anyone clarify this for me?

Ravager attacks cause it to recede faster.
Commando attacks cause it to recede slower (though they don't build up the meter nearly as fast).

Basically Ravagers give it big boosts, while the Commandos ensure it stays high enough to be of use.

 

[Clocian-IGN]

got damn, just got to pulse and need help on NORMAL monsters. Alright so I'm trying to fight some behemoths right after getting

Spoiler

hopes aeon

. Am I suppose to be able to kill these right now or am I just really pitiful in pumping up my characters lol? I've snuck up on one and used an aeon to try to kill him while staggered, but only took off half his health :lol.

 

[jonnybryce]

Does the plot ever go anywhere? I'm in Chapter 6 and NOTHING has happened since the party became L'Cies. This is the most boring Final Fantasy story I've ever seen so far.

I thought I was ok with this but I'm not.

It was stunning and new at first, but the shiny factor has worn off and I'm seeing it for what it is, a pretty boring, confusing, and simple jrpg with a cool battle system. This story is horrible, and on top of that its so slowly paced. I'm literally only playing for battles.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to sell this to Gamestop while they still have that 50%+ deal going. For a JRPG, the combination of slow plus this horrible story and annoying characters defeats the purpose. Like a scary movie that isn't scary or a horrible comedy...its not worth the time or money, imo.

Hopefully SE can develop this tech demo into a full game next time. Just how I feel.

 

[I'm an expert]

i'm about 10 hours in now, and have combat down pretty much, but i still don't get why the stagger bar recedes at different speeds when you're trying to get it up to stagger the enemy. sometimes it recedes so fast i can't get an attack off before it resets, other times it recedes slowly giving plenty of time to save it from resetting. can anyone clarify this for me?

One of the attacker's ability directly affects this. Sorry I'm blanking on names and details, but go through your crystarium and read the abilities. You'll see one is like 'chain starter' or something. Basically you should always have an attacker hit a mob first, then switch to say blasterx3..otherwise the break bar will recede too fast. If you're in the middle of trying to break and it starts to recede, switch an attacker in quick, hit the mob once, and go back.

 

[DualShadow]

Or they can just use spoiler tags.

Some people don't bother using them and I'm sure lots of people don't want the chance of getting the story or game play ruined :|

 

[Kagari]

I thought I was ok with this but I'm not.

It was stunning and new at first, but the shiny factor has worn off and I'm seeing it for what it is, a pretty boring, confusing, and simple jrpg with a cool battle system. This story is horrible, and on top of that its so slowly paced. I'm literally only playing for battles.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to sell this to Gamestop while they still have that 50%+ deal going. For a JRPG, the combination of slow plus this horrible story and annoying characters defeats the purpose. Like a scary movie that isn't scary or a horrible comedy...its not worth the time or money, imo.

Hopefully SE can develop this tech demo into a full game next time. Just how I feel.

Yes. That's exactly how I felt... I think I started realizing that around chapter 10.

 

[ronito]

So can someone post the different roles (like Commando, Ravager) and stuff and what you should use them for. Some are obvious, like Sentinel and the duffer/debuffer, but some I'd like clarification on. Dumb request. I know.

 

[Dead]

So can someone post the different roles (like Commando, Ravager) and stuff and what you should use them for. Some are obvious, like Sentinel and the duffer/debuffer, but some I'd like clarification on. Dumb request. I know.

Commando - Initiate and uphold stagger chain - Physical attacks
Ravager - Increase Stagger by large amounts - Magic attacks
Medic - Healer
Synergist - Buffing up your own team
Saboteur - Debuffing enemy
Sentinel - Tank, HP Sponge, Defender, take enemy priority off of weaker characters

 

[Dega]

Yes. That's exactly how I felt... I think I started realizing that around chapter 10.

Ha, that's about when I started too. Parts of chapter 11 and most of 12 and 13 were pretty boring to me. It's still an okay game though. Currently doing the side quest just for the hell of it.

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

You do have rudimentary, indirect control. Depending on your class characters walk in different ways, when they're not charging up an action. This is one of the ways that mashing X can get in the way, but it's hardly that important outside a few fights. Switching from melee to defender at the right time can have your defender well away from your casters, completely at your direction.

The characters don't all play the same in combat though. Vanille and Fang are both Jammers but from most of the game they have completely different debuffs. Same for Hope and Sahz. Even though they start to come together in the final 2 chapters even in the final battle

Spoiler

Fang still didn't have Poison

for me. There was enough differentiation for me to have hard choices over who to bring to any battle. Attackers all play the same, but some will have much better stats than others. I think the Crystarium does a pretty good job as a level cap and a character differentiator, for pretty much the entire game.

Arbitrary lead character death though, that does suck very hard.

You're totally right about the character movement as I remember Hope slowly etching away from a chapter 8 boss that I was finding annoying. However my issue always was that he didn't do it quick enough (In the said battle I simply assumed one of the characters was hit out of the way of the other before you corrected me). I just feel that direct control over the characters would greatly alleviate one of my greatest frustrations in the system (Not that I think the system will ever be amazing, but that doesn't mean it can't be enjoyable). A character slowly moving in a certain direction dependant on their class just isn't useful when you're constantly changing classed, especially when the position you want them in is dependant on stats which class doesn't have to high a baring on.

Okay that was a mighty long paragraph, but to address you second point; the difference is dependant on the order in which they learn skills, they still all end up learning the same skills. This is a huge issue for me, I'd much rather each character establish their own unique class (ala FFIX) than learn the means in a different order to the same end. To be honest I really think the design of the game would of heavily benefited with each character having their own unique skill-set and working out how different characters abilities worked with anothers. Instead we're simply changing which person plays the role of the commando and which plays the role of the revenger whenever we're given a new team.

I'm sorry for going off on one, I just really like how the game focuses on each party member and their development; in fact I'm pretty much blown away by the character interactions between each band member. It's such a massive step in the right direction or storytelling in Japanese games (even though the elimination of towns and npcs makes it an isolated experience) I really wasn't expecting to see it. But at the same time I feel the fucking awful combat and character development tarnishes an experience that would of been greatly improved if they got it right.

Also the character/artistic design in general is atrocious. How the fuck did they ever think Snow's ultimate half-tuck was a good idea.

On an even further side note they should of given the player access to every kind of weapon at the start so they could choose what weapon they wanted to upgrade before chapter 11 (I'm on chapter 9!)

 

[kagete]

I wonder how many patents Apple can sue Cocoon over for their savepoint UI

 

[7Th]

Can anyone spoil this game for me? Like tell me what happens at the end and tell me about any other megatons that occur.

I'm just going to say one thing:

Spoiler

the logo is the ending, literally.

I actually kind of like the story and really like some of the characters. The datalog and flesh out has the world design in a really nice place. Havent really been into any of that in a JRPG since like... Suikoden II? Sadly, if it were Suikoden you could just let Vanille get killed in a war.

What chapter are you in?

 

[I'm an expert]

I'm just going to say one thing:

Spoiler

the logo is the ending, literally.

I actually loved how that worked. Was a great way to wrap things up.

 

[Styles]

Ahahaha.

Spoiler

So the 'hero' finally shuts himself up at the start of Chapter 10 after finding out about his 'babies' focus.

 

[ElFly]

FF13 has an annoying tendency to limit your party to two characters. it makes a lot of battles pretty hard, cause you have to go from healer/damager to damager/comboer constantly.

After a few chapters, it finally let me use a three character party again, and I just fucked up a boss with a ton of HP in no time. I am going to guess that I am just about to witness a lot of HP inflation in the enemies.


It's kind of weird how, outside of the linearity, I have the same complaints about FF13 than I have about Dragon Quest VII.

 

[soujiro_seta]

question: can i go back and do all the "missions"? right now i plan on skipping them, because my characters are weak lol is it also a good idea to grind where these missions are?

 

[lorddarkflare]

question: can i go back and do all the "missions"? right now i plan on skipping them, because my characters are weak lol is it also a good idea to grind where these missions are?

Yes.

 

[BertramCooper]

Okay, the combat just keeps getting more and more awesome. My only significant complaint is that I hate how it punishes you for switching paradigms too often. I try my best to get 5 stars on each battle, but if I've forced to switch paradigms more than once, it seems to always take away one or two stars. Experimenting with the paradigms is really interesting and fun, and the game seems to punish you for that.

Also, I just got access to the weapon upgrade system and can't make heads or tails of it. The other tutorials were very comprehensive, but this one was fucking useless.

 

[soujiro_seta]

Yes.

yes as in, i can go back and do the missions? or it's a place to grind then do the missions?

 

[Jeels]

Trekking through

Spoiler

chapter 6

, holy moly is this place absolutely beautiful, probably the best forest in any RPG period, and loving the music (oh god I can't believe I like it I feel emasculated)

 

[Styles]

Okay, the combat just keeps getting more and more awesome. My only significant complaint is that I hate how it punishes you for switching paradigms too often. I try my best to get 5 stars on each battle, but if I've forced to switch paradigms more than once, it seems to always take away one or two stars. Experimenting with the paradigms is really interesting and fun, and the game seems to punish you for that.

Also, I just got access to the weapon upgrade system and can't make heads or tails of it. The other tutorials were very comprehensive, but this one was fucking useless.

Really? I switched almost 10 times in fights that are under 1 minute and I still get 5 stars. :lol

 

[Alex]

What chapter are you in?

7, at the moment I'm not interested in discussing the story though, I'm more into the world design and interaction than the actual forward moving narrative. It's still nothing amazing, but paired with the nice world design and lore it's surprisingly decent. An element usually saved for Matsuno, Kato and odd Dragon Quest titles.

 

[Dega]

question: can i go back and do all the "missions"? right now i plan on skipping them, because my characters are weak lol is it also a good idea to grind where these missions are?

Yes, you can come back in chapter 13.

I wrote this earlier too.

Well I guess I will give a few tips for chapter 11. (Pardon me if this has all been posted already)


-

The behemoth king and white tiger that are fighting each other near the save point and passage to the caves (the place you have to go in order to continue the story) You can't miss them. You will always surprise them no matter what and if you are strong enough you can kill them within 20 seconds for 6600CP. Walk back a little pass the save point and they should respawn. I used Lightning, Fang, and Hope (Com/Com/Rav) to kill them quickly. Hope would stagger the King Behemoth and lightning would launch him and kill him. Fang would keep the stagger bar on the white tiger up so that when light kills the king they both focus on the tiger.

If they are too strong you may want to grind on the behemoth just before them for awhile. Remember to surprise him too, it's fairly easy to surprise him if you just wait on the ridge next to him. He will turn around and you just have to jump down and stay directly behind him.


-Mission 24:

I never did it but supposedly if you keep accepting mission 24 the boss will spawn nearby and shouldn't take too long to kill if you are strong enough. He gives about 6000cp and an item you can sell for 6k

-Adamantoise, you may have noticed the big guys walking around. Adamantoise are the ones with tusk and chains around their legs. They have about 5 Million HP but can be taken care of easily if you want to take them on.

You will need Vanille's Death ability and her summon. You could also upgrade belladonna to Malboro which supposedly helps with this.

Make Vanille the leader and attack an Adamantoise (The one with tusk and chains). When the battle starts quickly summon Vanille's Eidolon. The Adamantoise will fall to his knees and do nothing which at this point you can spam death on him in the hopes that it kills him quickly. It usually doesn't work for me until the Eidolon has left and my team has staggered him. He stays on the ground for a good amount of time but once he gets up you might want to just retry if death didn't work.

If you kill him though you will either get an item called Platinum Ingnot which can sell for 150,000 or a Trapezohedron which is the component needed to level your weapon to it's final form.

-If you farm Adamantoise you can get a lot of money from selling those Platinum Ingnot's and just buy vibrant oozes and perfect conductors (think they are 1600). Use 36 vibrant ooze's on any item to get to x3 exp bonus and than just use the perfect conductors to level up your item. Edit: You can also do mission 7 and get the R&D store available so that you can buy the Ultra-Compact Reactor which gives more exp than the perfect conductors. (Thanks Castor Krieg)


I think that's all for now. I'll post more if I remember something else!

I don't think I spoiled anything but please let me know if I did. I don't want to ruin anything for you guys.