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[Lumpy Onion]

I have one tip for you guys. Read the datalog! Otherwise you will be lost. :lol

And always try to read it whenever it updates (usually after a cutscene). Nothing worse than catching up on chapters worth of datalog entries for stuff done hours ago.

 

[artsi]

I finally got the crystarium, next trying to unlock the damn thing to level 10.

 

[Grief.exe]

Snow is irritating.

Also, why does he have a different jacket in battles, but not in the overworld.

 

[Shiavona]

l'Cie are the chosen ones or 'representatives' of the 'gods' refered to as fal'Cie in this game.
There are l'Cie of Cocoon and l'Cie of Pulse. Cocoon and Pulse are the known regions in the setting of FF13.

I'll add a couple that help people get the references.

Sanctum - The government of Cocoon
Guardian Corps - The army of Cocoon (Lightning was a member prior to the start of the game)
PSICOM - CIA/NSA of Cocoon, and not exactly ethical

 

[Tizoc]

Snow is irritating.

He's the dudebro who believes his own hype. Can't fault him for TRYING to do something at least.

 

[Corran Horn]

Played for like 5 hours yesterday. Besides the corny resistance stuff it's been good. Playing it on stock settings seems fine for me but my monitor isn't even 1080p. Never got around to beating it on ps3 even though I put over 20hrs into it, should be able to now.

 

[Tizoc]

Regarding the weapons
Some weapons offer passives that can slightly help in battles but their stats tend to be less than those that don't offer any passives.
This is a list of the recommended weapons for each character along with what passives some of them offer, note that you don't have to focus on these but I've found them to be quite useful in my playthroughs.

Lightning
Axis Blade- Passive is ATB Charge where every action increases her ATB charge, but it has the lowest STR and MAG stats.
Blazefire Saber- Best STR and MAG stats, no passive.
Lionheart- Passive is Quick Stagger which instantly staggers if Stagger gauge is 95%ish full, higher stats than Axis Blade, but less than Blazefire

Sazh
Sazh has various good weapons that you can equip him with
Vega 42s- Best STR and MAG stats
Spica Defenders- Passive is Aug. Maintenance making Buffs last longer on your team, good stats too
Denab Duellers- High MAG stats, good if you like using him as a RAV
Antares Deluxes- Passive is Chain bonus boost, wherein the Stagger gauge fills up faster, decent stats
Procyons- Passive is Stagger maintenance where the Stagger gauge reduces slower when full, good STR stat, but low MAG stat so its good if you use him as a COM

Snow
Wild Bear- Best overall stats
Paladin- Being the best SEN in the game, upgrade this weapon if you prefer him in that role as its passive greatly helps him as a SEN

Hope
I don't see much benefit in having him as a SEN or COM, so here are some of his best weapons that focus on MAG stats
Hawkeye- Best MAG stat
Otshirvani- Passive is Siphon Boost, this is connected to the passives for the RAV role that increase your ATB recharge as an enemy is staggered, etc. Offers good MAG stats too
Vidofnir- Def. maintenance: Buffs last longer on your team, good MAG stats

Vanille
Pearlwing Staff- Offers the best MAG stat
Belladonna Wand- Passive makes debuffs last longer on enemies, also offers good MAG stats

Fang
Pandoran Spear- Passive makes debuffs last longer on enemies, also offers decent STR stats
B. Lance- Best STR stats without a passive

Note that the stagger lock weapons offer high STR and MAG stats, but tend to be better suited against enemies whose Stagger gauge can reach really high values before entering into STAGGER status.

 

[Thorgal]

Snow is irritating.

Also, why does he have a different jacket in battles, but not in the overworld.

If you mean the logo on the back of his jacket , it is actually his weapon .

 

[Skilletor]

I got to the last chapter in the ps3 version of FF13 without ever upgrading my weapon because I never understood how it worked, lol.

 

[Bittercup]

Snow is irritating.

Also, why does he have a different jacket in battles, but not in the overworld.

The symbol on his jacket depends on the weapon he has equipped. Outside of battles he has the jacket without a weapon. Strange design, but since he only attacks with his fists I guess they wanted to have at least some kind of visual difference.

 

[Grief.exe]

FFXIII shots

If you mean the logo on the back of his jacket , it is actually his weapon .

The symbol on his jacket depends on the weapon he has equipped. Outside of battles he has the jacket without a weapon. Strange design, but since he only attacks with his fists I guess they wanted to have at least some kind of visual difference.

Makes sense from a gameplay perspective.

 

[Shiavona]

The symbol on his jacket depends on the weapon he has equipped. Outside of battles he has the jacket without a weapon. Strange design, but since he only attacks with his fists I guess they wanted to have at least some kind of visual difference.

I like it better than the usual monk weapon they go with, the big bulky fist weapons.

 

[BadWolf]

I got to the last chapter in the ps3 version of FF13 without ever upgrading my weapon because I never understood how it worked, lol.

Ditto hehe, remember upgrading them somewhere towards the end.

 

[devious.one]

Anyone know how disable the music in the game? There's some spotify playlists I'd rather listen to.

My heart hurts...

 

[.:Wesker:.]

Any progress on upgrading the music and pre-rendered cutscenes?

 

[Parsnip]

Any progress on upgrading the music and pre-rendered cutscenes?

Does the music need upgrading? I'm out of the loop.

 

[GhostTrick]

Anyone found a way to stop the 30FPS to 60FPS thing ?

 

[Raitningz]

Snow is irritating.

Also, why does he have a different jacket in battles, but not in the overworld.

His coat is modified with AMP.

The coat's modifications appear when they are activated in combat.

 

[Dr Dogg]

It's been a while since I've been in the starting area (well 4 and a half years to be fair) but I forgot how easy the regular enemies are.

 

[.:Wesker:.]

Does the music need upgrading? I'm out of the loop.

It was mentioned that the game uses 128kb music a while back in the thread, and since the OST is available in 320kb, I figured something might be possible there.

 

[cafemomo]

Anyone know how disable the music in the game? There's some spotify playlists I'd rather listen to.

wtf

 

[Grief.exe]

Does the music need upgrading? I'm out of the loop.

Someone said earlier they were likely low bit rate MP3s.

 

[Parsnip]

Someone said earlier they were likely low bit rate MP3s.

That seems crazy. Specifically the mp3 part actually, because of licensing. There's a reason why most devs use oggs.

I'm still 30 minutes away from actually finishing the download, moo.

 

[Skyzard]

It was mentioned that the game uses 128kb music a while back in the thread, and since the OST is available in 320kb, I figured something might be possible there.

60GB and they use 128K music -_-

 

[theofficefan99]

Because up to that point in the game, they don't explain shit. In that way this second play through is slightly more enjoyable just because I actually know what the god damn terms are. Seriously, FFXIII commits so many writing sins it's unbelievable. Even most anime have the decency to have a character that doesn't know what things are so that they have an in-game reason to explain them directly...

Instead FFXIII basically tells you to read their in-game glossary of terms, or be lost for 3-5 hours while you puzzle it together.

Sorry, but this is completely false. The game explains what l'Cie and fal'Cie are in cutscenes within the first two chapters. I never understood this complaint.

 

[Rats Off To Ya]

Regarding the weapons
Some weapons offer passives that can slightly help in battles but their stats tend to be less than those that don't offer any passives.
This is a list of the recommended weapons for each character along with what passives some of them offer, note that you don't have to focus on these but I've found them to be quite useful in my playthroughs.

Lightning
Axis Blade- Passive is ATB Charge where every action increases her ATB charge, but it has the lowest STR and MAG stats.
Blazefire Saber- Best STR and MAG stats, no passive.
Lionheart- Passive is Quick Stagger which instantly staggers if Stagger gauge is 95%ish full, higher stats than Axis Blade, but less than Blazefire

Fang
Pandoran Spear- Passive makes debuffs last longer on enemies, also offers decent STR stats
B. Lance- Best STR stats without a passive

Note that the stagger lock weapons offer high STR and MAG stats, but tend to be better suited against enemies whose Stagger gauge can reach really high values before entering into STAGGER status.

People have done some pretty serious theorycrafting on Lightning's weapons and figured out the Edged Carbine is actually the best, particularly if she's not the party leader. She has the fastest casting speed in the game, and the extra magic far outweighs the benefits of Lionheart or Axis Blade. Axis Blade is actually a pretty lame endgame weapon if you're switching paradigms a lot, but it's good before you start upgrading weapons, since the stat disparities are fairly insignificant at the base level.

As for Fang, IMO there's no reason to use anything but the Taming Pole. The stats are insane and Fang is rarely in a position to be staggering enemies. I always use Vanille, as well, so Fang is never my main debuffer and thus the Pandoran Spear isn't terribly exciting.

 

[cafemomo]

damn someone already beat the game.

I guess they skipped all the cutscenese + easy mode


speaking of modes, I'm disappointed that they didn't include a hard mode. Or at least make it available after you beat the game like LR

 

[Raitningz]

People have done some pretty serious theorycrafting on Lightning's weapons and figured out the Edged Carbine is actually the best, particularly if she's not the party leader. She has the fastest casting speed in the game, and the extra magic far outweighs the benefits of Lionheart or Axis Blade. Axis Blade is actually a pretty lame endgame weapon if you're switching paradigms a lot, but it's good before you start upgrading weapons, since the stat disparities are fairly insignificant at the base level.

As for Fang, IMO there's no reason to use anything but the Taming Pole. The stats are insane and Fang is rarely in a position to be staggering enemies. I always use Vanille, as well, so Fang is never my main debuffer and thus the Pandoran Spear isn't terribly exciting.

Heard of that. All this information is interesting but useless to me b/c Lightning has never not been my leader, and to this day after multiple playthroughs I have no idea what Alexander, Brynhildr and Bahamut do...

It's best to not put Lightning in the leader slot were you looking for an optimized gameplay party, though

damn someone already beat the game.

I guess they skipped all the cutscenese + easy mode


speaking of modes, I'm disappointed that they didn't include a hard mode. Or at least make it available after you beat the game like LR

They used cheats, some people got that right when the game released.

 

[diaspora]

wtf

That doesn't answer my question.

 

[Levyne]

Yeah, I'm sure some people just SAM every achievement for every game they grab.

Though I COULD see myself going for them all legitimately >_>

Even though I've already done it on ps3

why, me, why

 

[Grief.exe]

damn someone already beat the game.

I guess they skipped all the cutscenese + easy mode


speaking of modes, I'm disappointed that they didn't include a hard mode. Or at least make it available after you beat the game like LR

They used cheats, some people got that right when the game released.

The developers who have been playing the game prior to launch will also have those achievements. Games rarely launch with all achievements at 0% on Steam.

 

[cafemomo]

That doesn't answer my question.

hamauzu's music is great mang. to each own though


If you do hate it, just mute it and listen to spotify on your phone

 

[Tizoc]

Thanks for the info regarding the weapons, will utilize them in my upcoming playthrough.
Man can't wait to get my new HDD tomorrow and getting FF13 installed on it to save space on my lappy.

 

[Rats Off To Ya]

Lightning has never not been my leader, and to this day after multiple playthroughs I have no idea what Alexander, Brynhildr and Bahamut do...

Ya don't say, hahaha.

Hopefully they don't fuck up FFXIII-2 and LR in the same way they fucked up with this game. Then I'll buy both.

They will.

 

[UnrealEck]

Hopefully they don't fuck up FFXIII-2 and LR in the same way they fucked up with this game. Then I'll buy both.

 

[Tizoc]

Hopefully they don't fuck up FFXIII-2 and LR in the same way they fucked up with this game. Then I'll buy both.

Unless they pull a Bamco, it'll be like FF13

 

[Miguel81]

60GB and they use 128K music -_-

Just dumb decisions left and right. Shows how much they care about their work that they release it like this instead of giving us the definitive version that it could have been.

 

[fluffydelusions]

Is there a best role(s) for certain characters I should be going for?

 

[Grief.exe]

Just dumb decisions left and right. Shows how much they care about their work that they release it like this instead of giving us the definitive version that it could have been.

The good news is, many of these issues seem like they can be fixed on our end.

The only thing that Square needs to fix is the random stutter/framerate drop, unless we find the cause of the issue.

Is there a best role(s) for certain characters I should be going for?

Here's what I wrote Yoshi, what do you think?

One thing to keep in mind in FF13 is that battles only award you items and CP (equivalent of Experience points in the game). You do not get any money (Gil) from battles.

Even before you start getting CP from battles, the early battles could end without getting a single item drop from an enemy. It is for this reason you should avoid any battles unless the enemies are protecting an item box (which you will see a lot of in this game, they appear as floating spheres), in the first prologue.

Dat Toriyama munay
So how do you get Gil in this game? Simply put, you either get them from item boxes, or by selling your inventory items. However, don’t go selling your weapons or armor willy-nilly, as there is an Achievement/Trophy that requires you to have all equipment in the game! In a way that’s not too hard to achieve but can be time consuming.

What you should primarily sell, however, are any items whose description reads ‘sold at a premium’, as these are items that generally give you the most Gil. You can also sell synth/upgrade items as well (read further down about these), which give a decent amount of Gil, though you shouldn’t do that so early in the game. You really won’t be spending much Gil unless you need potions, etc. but as you get accustomed to the combat system and battles, you will prob. Never spend any Gil at all until very much later.

The first (and shortest) of the 2 prologues
Now, if you skip cutscenes and avoid most battles, you can finish the first prologue within 30ish minutes unless you keep dieing to the first boss a lot.
After defeating the first boss you’ll start accumulating CP from battles to learn abilities and strengthen your characters.
Now the game breaks out stuff to you slowly, and of those things are Upgrading/Strengthing weapons and armor.

Weapons and tips on upgrading them
Notice how some enemies drop various odd named items like ‘Sturdy Bone’, ‘Monstrous Fang’, etc.
These items are used to upgrade your weapons and armor, but here’s the thing: You don’t really have to do any upgrading until much later in the game. Note that each item offers a set amount of ‘EXP’ to the weapon or equipment you’re upgrading and each item has level cap. To exceed this level cap, you will need to use a Catalyst item. These are gotten from enemies, treasure chests and can be bought from the specific shop, however some cost a fuckton of Gil.

Granted upgrading weapons, at least, early on will give you an advantage but I personally never had issues with the weapons and equipment I had on my characters when against bosses or enemy encounters.

At any rate, the best time to bother with upgrading weapons (upgrading armor is a waste IMO since in the endgame I would use specific equipment that weren’t defensive in nature) is once you are able to purchase Superconductor & Ultracompact Reactor items from the specific shop.

Each character has 10 weapons, but I’ve found that focusing on one weapon to upgrade is cost efficient. I sadly can’t remember exactly which weapons were the ideal ones for each character atm, BUT all weapons have 3 ‘forms’- Their initial form which is when you get that weapon, and 2 more that are achieved by upgrading them using items & catalysts.

Note that each form maxes out at a set level when upgrading it, so you’ll obv. need a catalyst to further upgrade it.

I’ve used Drogan13’s guide on GameFAQs for upgrading weapons and here’s how you can upgrade each weapon to its max level along with what catalyst and items you would need to do so:

To max out initial form, you should use the following items in the following order
36 x Sturdy Bone
50 x Superconductor

Then you use 1 Scarletite to upgrade to the 2nd form. Afterwards you can use the following items in this order-
36 x Sturdy Bone
2 x Ultracompact Reactor
15 x Sturdy Bone
27 x Superconductor
…to max out the 2nd form.

Try to at least transform your weapons to their 2nd form once you have access to buying the 2 items I mentioned before (Superconductor & Ultrcompact Reactor), as then they’d give you good enough stats to do greater damage to enemies.

I should point out that you may not have enough Gil to upgrade ALL your 6 characters' main weapon. As such focus on upgrading it for at least the 3 characters you are comfortable with using in battles. In my case it was Light+Fang+Vanille. Read further on on why I prefer these, as I personally recommend utilizing those 3 from the mid game onwards

Now to reach a weapon’s final and 3rd form (note that the name of each character’s weapon’s 3rd form is the SAME, but their passive bonuses are different depending on the weapon), you will need 1 Trapezohedron as the catalyst…which FYI is a super rare and expensive item, but don’t worry about grinding for it just yet, as there’s a quick-ish-er way to get more of this item.

To max out the 3rd form, the following items are recommended
36 x Sturdy Bone
26 x Ultracompact Reactor
36 x Sturdy Bone
2 x Particle Accelerator
12 x Superconductor

I should point out that SOME weapons might require some more exp or items to be maxed out, in this case, just use up any spare upgrade items you’ve collected along the way.

You know how everyone says the game opens up by Chapter 10/11? Well that would be the ideal time to start spending Gil to upgrade your weapons, so long as the items I mentioned are available for purchase.

CP and leveling up
Now let’s back up and talk about the leveling up system. The game uses a similar concept to Final Fantasy X’s Sphere Grid system.

Basically you spend the CP you earn from battles to strengthen your character and learn abilities. Sounds simple enough, but to save yourself some time, just upgrade once you have accumulated like 1000/2000/3000/etc. amount of CP then spend them all on whatever abilities and stats are available to earn.

The game has 6 Roles, which you can read more about in the game’s OT here-
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=904919

Let me tell your right away that Sab and Syn are the BEST roles in the game, so if a character has that role among their main 3, get all stats and abilities for that role first, then focus on the latter.

One thing some players have complained, if not noted/had no problems with, is that the game in reality, encourages being aggressive.

By the mid to late game, I was rocking Light, Fang and Vanille especially against Hunts and bosses (at least if the boss is vulnerable to Negative status effects). Fang and Vanille are the only members who have the Sab role as part of their main 3 roles.

Utilizing these 3 character’s offensive roles can lead to defeating bosses and strong enemies real quickly.

Another do-able strategy is to utilize your 2 Synergists, Sazh and Hope, and I will confess that I used their Syn roles during specific chapters and against bosses who were immune to negative status effects, along with certain enemy groups.

Now that I think about it, utilizing Light+Fang+Vanille team was more the result of me figuring out how to use these 3’s roles offensively/effectively to finish most battles, so first timers might have difficulty getting accustomed to them.
None the less, it’s worth investing in if you could put the time into it.

Grinding/Farming for CP
Far as CP grinding is concerned, I found myself grinding for CP only on 2 occasions, aside from an endgame area:
1- Hope’s house. There will 3 groups of soldiers in his house which respawn after a few seconds. Only grind here if you want to get a final set of stats and abilities for your roles before progressing in the game.

2- The Behemoth in front of the cave entrance in Gran Pulse. This Behemoth enemy will be fighting another big monster, and will ALWAYS be a pre-emptive strike, meaning you go first and will have the monster’s Stagger gauge at 98/99%. This battle yields 6,600 CP, and will respawn if you leave it for a few seconds then come back to where you fought it.

There are different strategies on how to finish off this battle, but the general idea is to focus on the behemoth enemy first, preferably using Sab abilities on it. After it dies, focus on the other giant enemy.

Chances are you will die a few times before being able to win the fight, but with practice you will utilize a proper strategy and win the fight, after subsequent battles, you’ll be finishing these 2 monsters much faster.

Spend a few hours here to max out your stats and abilities, and then feel free to proceed with completing the Hunts/Marks and/or progressing through the game.

Note that CP maxes out at 999,999 CP. If you ever reached 900,000 CP during the late game while your main roles stats and abilities have all been learned, just dump them into your secondary roles. Only reason they cost 10 times more CP than your main roles is cuz the developers wanted to pad the game longer.

I’d say that’s about it for now. Keep these pointers in mind and you should have a less tedious time with the battles.

Also note, that early on in the game, you should fight every enemy group that you see, but if you’re in a dungeon and the enemies seem too annoying for you to fight, feel free to ignore them but if a boss starts giving you trouble, just go back and grind for a bit. I should note that you don’t really HAVE to grind for CP to beat bosses. I did a playthrough where I didn’t grind for CP and managed just fine albeit with one or two retries.

 

[cafemomo]

Is there a best role(s) for certain characters I should be going for?

Usually when the game opens up I roll with light/snow/fang
so COM/SAB/COM or MED/SAB/COM

 

[dhlt25]

looks like the shitty port hurt them. FFXIII drop off like a rock from the sale chart. It just launch and i can't even find it on the list.

 

[Raitningz]

Is there a best role(s) for certain characters I should be going for?

For the main story, I guess it doesn't really matter, just do what you like.

However, each character has their ultimate abilities in certain roles.

Lightning-> RAV
Snow-> COM
Fang-> COM
Vanille-> SAB
Hope-> RAV
Sazh-> RAV

If you're looking for something optimal, I hear Fang is the best leader. And Snow is the best ravager.

If I were you, I'd also make sure my team has a 3 ravager setup.

 

[TheTux]

Realistically speaking, do you guys think they're hearing us and working on a patch?

We cried asking for japanese language and they did it even though they announced that the would have english audio only.

I have a nice framerate but very frequently it drops to 15fps without a reason, doesn't matter if I render at 480p/540p/720p/1080p.

 

[ShinobiFist]

Realistically speaking, do you guys think they're hearing us and working on a patch?

We cried asking for japanese language and they did it even though they announced that the would have english audio only.

I have a nice framerate but very frequently it drops to 15fps without a reason, doesn't matter if I render at 480p/540p/720p/1080p.

Lets see, but I feel you. But on the res drops. It doesn't matter if I kept it at 720p. Still get drops here and there. So I'm playing in 4K with 30 locked. But the DOF being all fucked up is also killing it for me as well.

 

[Grief.exe]

Realistically speaking, do you guys think they're hearing us and working on a patch?

We cried asking for japanese language and they did it even though they announced that the would have english audio only.

I have a nice framerate but very frequently it drops to 15fps without a reason, doesn't matter if I render at 480p/540p/720p/1080p.

They added a test update beta branch to the Registry App yesterday around release. I'll keep my eye on it and see if they do any updates.

At the same time they also deleted the previously existing, Steam VR beta branch.

 

[Rats Off To Ya]

Is there a best role(s) for certain characters I should be going for?

Honestly, you don't even need to think about that until the second half of the game. You will be provided with just enough CP to max out the available Crystarium before every boss. By the time Chapter 11 rolls around and you're actually given some significant agency in your progression, you should have a good enough feel for the game to decide for yourself.

 

[TheTux]

They added a test update beta branch to the Registry App yesterday around release. I'll keep my eye on it and see if they do any updates.

At the same time they also deleted the previously existing, Steam VR beta branch.

I noticed that too on SteamDB, wasn't sure if it meant something so I didn't post about it.

I am really hoping/expecting a patch.

 

[kick51]

They added a test update beta branch to the Registry App yesterday around release. I'll keep my eye on it and see if they do any updates.

At the same time they also deleted the previously existing, Steam VR beta branch.

Sweet. I hope there's a patch that irons out the performance issues.

adding in regular ass PC game options would be a plus.

they can't just poop out the trilogy like this without expecting a backlash.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

still haven't finished downlaoding the game, ridiculous. i'm supposed to have 100 down/20 up yet I'm only getting 300-500K speeds. you suck time warner.

 

[Inuhanyou]

My set up was always Light, Fang, Hope

Ravager, Commando, Medic

Commando Commando, Ravager

Ravager, Commando Ravager

Commando Saboteur, Ravager

Medic, Commando, Medic

Medic,Sentinel, Medic


Those are the last paradigm roles i can remember using, worked like a charm for almost the entire game after i could pick my characters.