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Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII |OT| Toriyama's Bizarre Adventure

Shahed

Member
Anyone from Amazon UK get codes for the Samurai garbs without buying the game? I had it pre-ordered but then cancelled it later on. I got 3 codes a little while ago, and after checking my Amazon account to make sure, I never bought the game
 

Gaz_RB

Member
My first day just ended.. I am oddly sucking at these battles. I've died 3 times already, wasting 3 "hours"
Game is hard as hell at first. Focus on learning to guard and focus on weaknesses. It's more dependent on skill and preparation than past FFs that were more focused on grinding.

It's really rewarding when you finally figure it out. I also suggest saving the game before hard battles, and then reloading until you get it. Saves time.
 

MilkBeard

Member
Holy shit, just beat
Grendel
with a whopping 19 HP left...all cures and EP used up. I really didn't think I was going to get out of that alive. Phew. That was intense.
 

Shinta

Banned
Oooof..like many said,I am trying my best to like this game but what a god awful mess it is sometimes...I will not go into the whole time thing,it's been mentionned to death but the vagueness of it all is just too much for me I think...like for example,what's with the auto ability thing,I press the R2 that say auto switch or something but it always says no auto...also why do some of my attacks/magic etc,etc suddenly have a little lock icon besides them...I wanted to switch the auto slash from my Red Mage and put Aero there instead but I can't...?

Some of the more powerful garbs and gear have auto-abilities. When you get some, they will show up when you press R2. Some of DLC gear has really interesting ones.

Abilities with a lock are linked to that outfit and cannot be moved. This helps make some of the garbs more unique, and more like individual classes.

Also why when I go to the Ark that it says Day 3,4days left...? isn't it 13 days..? shouldnt it say 10 days left...so I am trying to do the first main quest in Luxerion,that got interrupted because I ran out of time,but I have to go there at a certain time because the gate is locked otherwise...fine,I will to Yussan and start something there while I wait...but the main mission there gets way too hard at a certain points,with the few things I have...

It's 7 days initially. Each of the 5 main quests extends it 1 day when finished. There are ways to increase it even further for endgame content.

Does this mean that I need to finish Lux first before going to Yussan...Wildalnds would be even harder as well,even though I can go there if I want...? there is no way of knowing where you need to go,or do or whatever...the maps and marking are awful,the schemata stuff is confusing as hell...bah,maybe I should start over now that I know a little more but still confused lol...

No. You can start the main quest lines in multiple areas. If you can juggle them around a little bit, you can hit all the shops early and farm more varied abilities from monsters.

There really is no direction, and that's by far the hardest thing. People complained about it being linear, and it seems they definitely got their wish in LR. It's wide open and up to the player to succeed or fail. I think failing on the 1st run is not going to be that rare. Having a guide or minimal walkthrough advice definitely does help a lot. Sometimes NPC dialogue that seems meaningless is hinting at a time frame for certain quests, but it never gets very specific.
 

Gaz_RB

Member
Oooof..like many said,I am trying my best to like this game but what a god awful mess it is sometimes...I will not go into the whole time thing,it's been mentionned to death but the vagueness of it all is just too much for me I think...like for example,what's with the auto ability thing,I press the R2 that say auto switch or something but it always says no auto...also why do some of my attacks/magic etc,etc suddenly have a little lock icon besides them...I wanted to switch the auto slash from my Red Mage and put Aero there instead but I can't...?

Also why when I go to the Ark that it says Day 3,4days left...? isn't it 13 days..? shouldnt it say 10 days left...so I am trying to do the first main quest in Luxerion,that got interrupted because I ran out of time,but I have to go there at a certain time because the gate is locked otherwise...fine,I will to Yussan and start something there while I wait...but the main mission there gets way too hard at a certain points,with the few things I have...

Does this mean that I need to finish Lux first before going to Yussan...Wildalnds would be even harder as well,even though I can go there if I want...? there is no way of knowing where you need to go,or do or whatever...the maps and marking are awful,the schemata stuff is confusing as hell...bah,maybe I should start over now that I know a little more but still confused lol...


No time,plus there is no way to know where to go to do this...you just stumble on it by chance...but you have to hurry up before you get zipped up to the Ark...lol
Alright so for pressing R2 to view the auto ability, you have to be highlighting the piece of equipment that has it. You cannot change an item's autoability. As for the little lock next to the ability....certain garbs have certain abilities that are locked to the garb. You can only assign abilities to the free slots that are left, and you cannot remove the locked ones.

As for the Ark, Hope mentions it but the idea is that you start with 5 or 6 days left or whatever, and when you do sidequests you get this energy stuff that you can contribute to the tree to extend the life of the world. You can extend it up to a max of 13 days. If you don't do sidequests, you don't extend the life of the world and the days will continue to count down. You contribute this energy when you are sucked up to the Ark at 6.

As for your last thing, you can seriously go anywhere, and at first I would suggest visiting and exploring all four locations before tackling a main quest (which can get difficult). Do not stay in one area at a time. You should be moving from area to area depending on what you're doing and any skill walls you've hit.

You just need to slow down and try to wrap your head around the mechanics. Pay attention to the tutorials and take the time to understand how the Schemata and combat system works.

Hope that helps.
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
My Lightning couldn't even make it through SOLDIER second class :(

PrL560k.jpg
 

Zafir

Member
Anyone from Amazon UK get codes for the Samurai garbs without buying the game? I had it pre-ordered but then cancelled it later on. I got 3 codes a little while ago, and after checking my Amazon account to make sure, I never bought the game
I didn't even realise they were offering a pre-order DLC. However, that always happens. I had a pre-order for FFXIV 2.0 which I then cancelled to order through flubit, still got the early access code from Amazon.

Wish they'd just give all the pre-order DLC to everyone who buys regardless of retailer. I went with GAME since they had a steelbook, but then you miss out on the other DLC.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Amazon screwed up and gave me Samurai Set clothes even tho I didn't buy it from them.

First 5 to quote get one. Europe only. PS3
 
Game is hard as hell at first. Focus on learning to guard and focus on weaknesses. It's more dependent on skill and preparation than past FFs that were more focused on grinding.

It's really rewarding when you finally figure it out. I also suggest saving the game before hard battles, and then reloading until you get it. Saves time.

I'm getting the hang of it now, I'm very limited atm with the abilities I have. Currently searching for the 4 codes. It's a struggle, since I don't like hide and seek type of 'puzzles.' Wish I could open up some sort of map
 

Giolon

Member
I'm getting the hang of it now, I'm very limited atm with the abilities I have. Currently searching for the 4 codes. It's a struggle, since I don't like hide and seek type of 'puzzles.' Wish I could open up some sort of map

Re-posting my tips from a couple pages back:

Giolon said:
  • Some enemies are clearly designed to be avoided for a while. Once I stopped trying to fight those, and getting obliterated, I felt less stressed.
  • EP refills at the beginning of each day (at least to 5 points, I don't know if it fills higher as the limit increases), so spend all of it before 6AM
  • Abuse the hell out of Chronostasis. Some areas are so dense with enemies that you can beat relatively easily, that you can run Chronostasis constantly w/o any net EP loss.
  • Unless you REALLY must beat a fight, sometimes it's often more valuable to take the 1 hour loss for Escaping vs using 2 EP to cast Curaga in the fight. Why? b/c by escaping, you get your items back, you health is reset, and you lose 1 hour BUT you can cast Chronostasis to essentially get that time "back". Doing this too often is obviously bad, but it means you don't necessarily need to reset if you died in combat just b/c of the time loss.
  • Blocking is the #1 most important thing in combat. Prioritize it over all else. If it means you miss out on attack windows, so be it.
  • Staggering is the #2 most important thing in combat. Once you're sure you can block all the requisite enemy attacks, figuring out their stagger conditions and getting them there is crucial.
  • Press Square for a shortcut to the map. Why did they change this from the Select button?
 

Nohar

Member
So... I just fought a Sahagin inside a chaos zone on Xbox 360... The framerate dropped like crazy. It was barely playable, just... infernal. Once it was outside of the sand, it was slightly better, but when it was inside and doing its Charge attack... Good lord...

This is unacceptable.

Edit: Oh God. This is downright ridiculous. The framerate slows down like crazy against a Sahagin even outside of the chaos zone. What. The. Hell!

(And, yes, before someone call me out on this, I did get the game after saying that I cancelled my pre-order - which I did by the way. Changed my mind after calming down).
 
I am not having fun at all. This game has to be the most frustrating shit I've played in years. I feel underpowered, the missions suck balls, the time limit is just pressure given when I'm already confused enough, and I never know where to go or what to do. Yay.
 

MCD

Junior Member
OK. This fireworks business is bullshit. I ran out of time before even trying. FUCK.

Any kind soul can list the places and time where I can find the fireworks guys? This is frustrating.

EDIT: I stopped time and thankfully I managed to score 7 fireworks by doing that sidequest near the station.
 
That one chaos side mission in Luxeriam, the one by the Arcade is insane! I probably can't do it again but why is it so early in the game when it's so insanely difficult? One guard and a quarter of my hp is gone!

I'm guessing a new game +?
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Haven't felt very motivated to return to this, which usually doesn't happen. Difficulty is wildly uneven, some enemies just destroy me yet spawn along other enemies that are a cakewalk.

For staggering, is it similar to the other games? I understand the red lines meaning the stagger is near, but is it draining in the background like before where I need to mix in physical and magic attacks? I can't tell, but it doesn't seem the same.
 

Shinta

Banned
That one chaos side mission in Luxeriam, the one by the Arcade is insane! I probably can't do it again but why is it so early in the game when it's so insanely difficult? One guard and a quarter of my hp is gone!

I'm guessing a new game +?

I had some of the DLC outfits, but Cloud with Sparkstrike totally crushes it. The green dragon in the chaos infusion? Yeah, he is tough.

Aerith's shield is also super strong. Guard 200, and it heals you all the time. I didn't even have to use a potion and I was on normal, near the beginning of the first day :/
 

Shinta

Banned
Haven't felt very motivated to return to this, which usually doesn't happen. Difficulty is wildly uneven, some enemies just destroy me yet spawn along other enemies that are a cakewalk.

For staggering, is it similar to the other games? I understand the red lines meaning the stagger is near, but is it draining in the background like before where I need to mix in physical and magic attacks? I can't tell, but it doesn't seem the same.

It does drain like the other games. But now it's not based solely on magic as far as I know.

It's based on exploiting the enemy's weakness. And in addition, there's a new stat now for abilities that measures stagger continuation and one for stagger strength, rated with letter grades (A, B, C, D, E, etc.). So, you can have one job with heavy stagger damage, and then once you break it, you can switch to one with heavy stagger continuation to prolong it as much as you can.

New things in this game, there are sometimes 2 tiers of stagger now. In addition, you can get instant staggers now by counterattacking after a block on some enemies, by getting a perfect block, or even by just doing a physical attack at the precise time before an enemy strikes. It lists special stagger conditions in the libra menu for monsters once you get one (R2 during battle, or bestiary in the menu). You can fill up a monster's libra info by purchasing monster notes at shops also. It gets a checkmark by the name when it's full.
 
So how are the Lara Croft and FF X-2 Yuna costumes? Any victory fanfares, or is Cloud's the only one?

And that hunting for the four numbers quest is pissing me off. Spent most of a day and got 3 of them, but the fourth is in the northern slum area of Luxerion so I need to wait till tomorrow while it's open.
 

Caayn

Member
Got my copy today. Played it for around 5 hours, and although I liked the combat in the demo I don't really like it in the full game. Staggering seems completely random. But I'll get over the combat part.

I liked FXIII-2, I could leisurely stroll around and solve everything at my own pace. Never did I felt rushed while I understood the rush needed(story wise) to fix the timeline. No time limit was needed. Now with the time limit in LR I'm rushing everything and I still barely make it. Even with spamming the Chronostasis. I'm not enjoying the game at all. I want to stroll around at my own slow pace while completing every side-quest, sadly SE made this practically impossible.

SE I'll pay good money to get rid of the time limit in this game.
 

Shinta

Banned
So how are the Lara Croft and FF X-2 Yuna costumes? Any victory fanfares, or is Cloud's the only one?

And that hunting for the four numbers quest is pissing me off. Spent most of a day and got 3 of them, but the fourth is in the northern slum area of Luxerion so I need to wait till tomorrow while it's open.

Lara is actually pretty cool. She gets heavy bonuses when under 50% HP, and again at under 15% HP, playing up the "sole survivor" part of the games. She has a skill fixed to the garb called Fatal Sweep that can attack in a dash in any direction you hit the left stick to, so it can be used as a fast dodge even if you want.

Yuna X-2 has very powerful sword and shield. Shield casts brave and faith on you if you guard for a long period of time (holding it for almost your whole ATB bar). You also get +200 STR from one of them. She has a fixed skill called Crashing Waves that has attack modifier x2.00. Normal attack is x0.5 I think. It also can be used to launch enemies in the air and attack them in the air I guess. Not sure about the victory pose, but I'm sure you get one.

Here's some info on them.
 
I had some of the DLC outfits, but Cloud with Sparkstrike totally crushes it. The green dragon in the chaos infusion? Yeah, he is tough.

Aerith's shield is also super strong. Guard 200, and it heals you all the time. I didn't even have to use a potion and I was on normal, near the beginning of the first day :/
The Aerith shield is CE exclusive right? Don't have that. I do have Cloud though. Maybe I'll give it one more go although I may have to use a previous save.

NVM: looks like the Aerith dlc is even more rare! Hate it when companies pull this crap!
 
It took me around five tries to beat
Noel
but then the round when I won, I won by... quite a bit. Makes me think I don't fully understand the combat and such. I'm also horrible at blocking. It makes me want to play this like I would a Platinum game, but I don't think it's as responsive or fine-tuned so I suppose I need to learn it the way this game wants me to learn it.
 

Shinta

Banned
The Aerith shield is CE exclusive right? Don't have that. I do have Cloud though. Maybe I'll give it one more go although I may have to use a previous save.

Yeah, for now I think it is. Hopefully they're all available later. I still don't have the original Yuna one. And they're putting out those weird ones later, like the moogle suit.
 
Lara is actually pretty cool. She gets heavy bonuses when under 50% HP, and again at under 15% HP, playing up the "sole survivor" part of the games. She has a skill fixed to the garb called Fatal Sweep that can attack in a dash in any direction you hit the left stick to, so it can be used as a fast dodge even if you want.

Yuna X-2 has very powerful sword and shield. Shield casts brave and faith on you if you guard for a long period of time (holding it for almost your whole ATB bar). You also get +200 STR from one of them. She has a fixed skill called Crashing Waves that has attack modifier x2.00. Normal attack is x0.5 I think. It also can be used to launch enemies in the air and attack them in the air I guess. Not sure about the victory pose, but I'm sure you get one.

Here's some info on them.
Thanks for the info. I dunno, I'm usually all over dlc like this but the game is practically drowning in outfits already.
 

Shinta

Banned
Thanks for the info. I dunno, I'm usually all over dlc like this but the game is practically drowning in outfits already.

It's overpriced, and not necessary. But I went for it this time. I'm part of the problem :/ I make exceptions for my favorite series I guess.
 
Yeah, for now I think it is. Hopefully they're all available later. I still don't have the original Yuna one. And they're putting out those weird ones later, like the moogle suit.
Looks like the Aerith dlc is even more rarer! Hope it's dlc later.

Hate it when publishers do this
crap
!
 
It took me around five tries to beat
Noel
but then the round when I won, I won by... quite a bit. Makes me think I don't fully understand the combat and such. I'm also horrible at blocking. It makes me want to play this like I would a Platinum game, but I don't think it's as responsive or fine-tuned so I suppose I need to learn it the way this game wants me to learn it.

Practice Practice Practice Practice

Not only does blocking save precious life, but on a sizable number of enemies, Just Guard (blocking at the point of impact) will cause numerous beneficial changes in state (like instant stagger, stuns, etc), and in some fights is a near requirement.
 

Shinta

Banned
It took me around five tries to beat
Noel
but then the round when I won, I won by... quite a bit. Makes me think I don't fully understand the combat and such. I'm also horrible at blocking. It makes me want to play this like I would a Platinum game, but I don't think it's as responsive or fine-tuned so I suppose I need to learn it the way this game wants me to learn it.

If you need any inspiration, there's always this video again. I think it really is just practice.

If you don't want any spoilers at all, don't watch this 2nd one. But he also has another video up on his channel against the toughest boss in the game, and he doesn't get hit a single time.
He has a move that drains your entire ATB bar when you block it. And he perfectly juggles between only two schemas the whole time to save the third for blocking. It's crazy.
 

Zafir

Member
Got my copy today. Played it for around 5 hours, and although I liked the combat in the demo I don't really like it in the full game. Staggering seems completely random. But I'll get over the combat part.

I liked FXIII-2, I could leisurely stroll around and solve everything at my own pace. Never did I felt rushed while I understood the rush needed(story wise) to fix the timeline. No time limit was needed. Now with the time limit in LR I'm rushing everything and I still barely make it. Even with spamming the Chronostasis. I'm not enjoying the game at all. I want to stroll around at my own slow pace while completing every side-quest, sadly SE made this practically impossible.

SE I'll pay good money to get rid of the time limit in this game.
Yup.

They've finally done a real open world, and yet you can't even explore it because of the shitty time limit. I was LITERALLY an inch away from a treasure orb, and 6AM struck and I got teleported away. :|
 

Nohar

Member
So, which DLC and bonus outfits seem OK to use at the beginning on Normal Mode (but which aren't overpowered)? Currently I'm using the Etro Knight garb, which is very nice (too bad the shield isn't that great defensively, I prefer to use something else), and the Sanctum Blade is pretty neat too.

Aside from that, I'm currently avoiding Sahagins like plague... *sigh* And I think I won't stay in the desert for too long: this place has some tough enemies, and the skeletons in the ruins are very tough, even with
Fang helping me to take them out (she is insanely useful)
.

... Also, yeah, good catch SoraanTribal :p
 
Got my copy today. Played it for around 5 hours, and although I liked the combat in the demo I don't really like it in the full game. Staggering seems completely random. But I'll get over the combat part.

I liked FXIII-2, I could leisurely stroll around and solve everything at my own pace. Never did I felt rushed while I understood the rush needed(story wise) to fix the timeline. No time limit was needed. Now with the time limit in LR I'm rushing everything and I still barely make it. Even with spamming the Chronostasis. I'm not enjoying the game at all. I want to stroll around at my own slow pace while completing every side-quest, sadly SE made this practically impossible.

SE I'll pay good money to get rid of the time limit in this game.

Even though it might sound stupid, I'd probably pay for "remove time limit" DLC as well. :p They can keep the days/time changing, but just don't let there be any risk of ever running out of time to save the world. I'd love that.

... Also, yeah, good catch SoraanTribal :p

Mrgrgr...
 

Shinta

Banned
So, which DLC and bonus outfits seem OK to use at the beginning on Normal Mode (but which aren't overpowered)?
I think they're all fine to use honestly, because most of them won't even be useful on the first day because you won't have any abilities to fill them out.
 
Started catching up with all the main areas now. Dug deeply into the Wildlands area then got caught up with Yusnaan, currently saved right at the point where Lightning is to
show up with the dress for the stage director
.

Love the battle system with all the considerations of schemata development and seeing these all work out in-game. So far, the differing ATB costs seem well-balanced. Such as choosing the light guard for low cost, maybe use weak mediguard to balance out minor damage against healing, or take a stronger guard with heavier drain on the gauge. Working in perfect guards, the right elemental attacks, and keeping track of varied enemies on screen all leads to an entertaining flow in battle. I also like how challenging some enemies can be especially in the Chaos. Such as a Reaver. Normal version, big whoop. But then I took an hour hit after having to escape my first Chaos Reaver...

And I like the time constraints, penalties, and sometimes botched side quests. I'm playing along with the time pressure and taking losses as they happen.
 
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