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[brandonh83]

Hm, having trouble deciding a third scheme. I have a Vigilance with an attack power of 1700+, Witching Hour for my magic focus with a magic stat of 1400+, and with the third one I just keep trying different things out but I'm not really sure the best way to go. I thought about doing one that sort of falls between those two, but I keep ending up with a scheme that doesn't really excel at anything.

I can only speak for myself, but I don't like games no matter what. I'm really enjoying this game so far, and for a lot of different reasons than I enjoyed the first 2. I think it does a lot of extremely interesting things, and I can get very specific about what I think it does well.

I recognize the game's flaws but honestly for me so far they're mostly on the technical side of things. I think the art saves it, but it is a pretty average looking game especially compared to the last two.

 

[Gaz_RB]

Dammmn, the Wildlands Temple boss (

Spoiler

Caius

) is so effin' hard, especially if you already used up your Recovery Items on the way :/ Argh, I might skip 3h so I can at least go to the Arc and refresh my EP.
Anyone here beat him? Is he harder because I'm on Day 8?

I'd wait until you take out the rest of the main story before taking him on. He's hard as hell.

 

[Yasumi]

Dammmn, the Wildlands Temple boss (

Spoiler

Caius

) is so effin' hard, especially if you already used up your Recovery Items on the way :/ Argh, I might skip 3h so I can at least go to the Arc and refresh my EP.
Anyone here beat him? Is he harder because I'm on Day 8?

He's definitely hard. I left him as the last main quest, and just barely beat him with no items left, used up all of my EP, and had around 300 HP left. Having a hard time with the

Spoiler

Chaos Chocobo Eater

now. Man, it regens fast and hits like a train.

 

[Fehyd]

So, technical and story aspects aside, I'm really enjoying the game, much more than I thought I would. I'm loving the open-world design style they went for, and now that I have an almost infinite flow of EP the clock isn't really an issue.

 

[brandonh83]

Really wish they would put all the garb DLC on the store. I want the Aeris one pretty badly but not $40 on ebay bad.

 

[Jolkien]

Had a hard time against

Spoiler

Caius, second attempt the first time he switcher to Ravager,

I emptied my ATB on spells, overclocked 4 time and killed him before he did anything else.

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

Really wish they would put all the garb DLC on the store. I want the Aeris one pretty badly but not $40 on ebay bad.

What?! $40 for a costume dlc code?

Please tell me no one will (or did) buy this?!

 

[AuthenticM]

I thought we could import save data from previous games ? I'm sure I've heard this before on Gaf.

And how could we obtain the Aerith DLC ? It's not on the store. :/

 

[HeelPower]

Because most people in here saying that were going to like it no matter what. Stepping back and looking at the game's flaws as well as its positives... yes, it's definitely an 'average' experience.

I didn't like the game so much at first but it grew on me and I love it now.

The reverse happened in Dragon's Dogma which started out good and ended up shit.

I don't see how this game is any worse than DD for example.

DD has an awful story , boring filler quests but offers great customization in battle mechanics and it has a metacritic of 78.

I'd say the opposite is true.Many , many people were going to dislike LR no matter what and are just confirming their biases as they play the game.

 

[Jolkien]

I thought we could import save data from previous games ? I'm sure I've heard this before on Gaf.

And how could we obtain the Aerith DLC ? It's not on the store. :/

When you reach the Ark you will have some reward for having a cleared save file of FFXIII and XIII-2

 

[brandonh83]

What?! $40 for a costume dlc code?

Please tell me no one will (or did) buy this?!

On ebay, anything goes down.

 

[Tathanen]

Just beat

Spoiler

Snow

. Before that I had done a lot of Wildlands stuff, healed up the Chocobo and all that, and went to try and do that temple. It was a... bad idea. I could barely fight anything in it, and when I got to the end and tried to fight

Spoiler

Caius

it was a fuckin joke. Had to throw away an hour of playing and go back to Yusnaan, was glad that I had kept my save from the previous play session. I hadn't realized that I chapter-skiped, Yusnaan was 2 in the quest log, with Wildlands as 3. Hopefully I'll have better luck goin back there now that 2 is properly polished off. I've got a fair amount of the stuff for chapter 5 done already, though, which was a perk of having done a bunch of Wildlands stuff early.

I sure wish side quests gave you more of a stat boost. I've mused many times about the idea of a game where all your stat gains were tied to tangible quests and whatnot, and there was no grinding even possible, and here we have it, which only really dawned on me after a while. But the sticking point is that the vast majority of quests give you such miniscule gains that you never really feel any sense of progression or getting stronger. A lot of your strength is just tied to the abilities you find and equip. I'm feeling really vulnerable now though, I think I need to invest some more money in better shields or something. It's certainly not your typical RPG where you can really just "level up" your defense, since you have to actually be sure to block attacks in order for defense to even exist.

 

[rataven]

I thought we could import save data from previous games ? I'm sure I've heard this before on Gaf.

And how could we obtain the Aerith DLC ? It's not on the store. :/

It came with the Collector's Edition in NA. I'd be willing to bet it'll end up as purchasable DLC at some point though.

And if it's any consolation, unlike Cloud's costume, Aerith's isn't particularly great at anything, although the shield is decent and mediguard is good early on. The BEST part about wearing the garb is running around with the guard stick drawn and watching the citizens of Nova Chrysalia run away in terror at a flower girl.

 

[Shinta]

It came with the Collector's Edition in NA. I'd be willing to bet it'll end up as purchasable DLC at some point though.

And if it's any consolation, unlike Cloud's costume, Aerith's isn't particularly great at anything, although the shield is decent and mediguard is good early on. The BEST part about wearing the garb is running around with the guard stick drawn and watching the citizens of Nova Chrysalia run away in terror at a flower girl.

The shield is the best part. Guard Defense +200, with Mediguard, and Great Gospel (heals +350 if you guard for a long time).

 

[HawthorneKitty]

Yeah, I haven't changed from Savior/Aerith/Cloud garb since I started the game...

 

[luxarific]

Every time a team member joins your party, I remember how much I miss having multiple characters in combat. The schema are a nice idea for a solo character, but they don't even come close to the game play we got in FXIII and FXIII-2.

Also, it would have been really nice if they'd have let us save schemas that use some of the same elements. Disallowing an active schema and and a storage schema from having the same spells/attacks or using the same accessories basically makes storing schema pointless. I don't expect to be able to use the same element on two active schemas, but why disallow saving a schema that shares some, but not all of its elements with an active schema. It makes swapping out schemas for different enemies a pain in the ass.

Having a hard time with the

Spoiler

Chaos Chocobo Eater

now. Man, it regens fast and hits like a train.

I gave up on this boss for now - I'm just too underpowered, even after finishing all main quests except the last.

 

[brandonh83]

Spoiler

BIGGS AND WEDGE HOLY FUCK HELLO YOU BEAUTIFUL BASTARDS

 

[stargateheaven]

is there a rough guide on where i should be?
i havent met snow yet on day 5.. i feel i might be going too slow?

 

[Wilsongt]

I went to Yusnaan earlier. I thought it was a nice touch having the little trumpeter play FF theme. Also, I heard the actual series victory fanfare when I completed a quest. It was neat.

Other than that... Finally beat the boss of Chapter 1 on Day 4... Son of a bitch. I managed to gain an extra day, though, so that's something...

 

[Shinta]

Holy fuck, I don't know what you guys are talking about with the writing and story. I just beat

Spoiler

Noel finally, and damnnnnnnnnn, that was some of my favorite dialogue in the trilogy. Lightning was actually intimidating. Who is even saying she hasn't changed or has no personality? She was totally crushing Noel verbally before the fight even started.

I was kind of blown away by that whole thing. Man, if all the main quests are this good, then wow. I'm loving it.

And Lumina was great too. Really cool cutscenes all around, and I loveddddddddddd Death Game playing the whole time. I liked it in the OST, but it was way better in game. It was just fun as hell to

Spoiler

mow down the Etro's fanatic guards to this song, and jump through the back alleyways of the warren.

 

[K.Sabot]

One thing I dislike (and its my fault for being like this, but the game doesn't help) is how hard it is to get back into playing it once I put it down.

I feel like "I want to play this, but I have to be 100% focused while playing and that's not what I want to do right now" which is an issue of me being on a time constraint both in the game and real life.

^^

Spoiler

Noel was amazing in this, very well performed by his english VO

 

[Shinta]

One thing I dislike (and its my fault for being like this, but the game doesn't help) is how hard it is to get back into playing it once.

I feel like "I want to play this, but I have to be 100% focused while playing and that's not what I want to do right now" which is an issue of me being on a time constraint both in the game and real life.

I totally feel the same way. I wouldn't want to turn this off in the middle of a day at all. But sometimes they can take several hours.

 

[MCD]

In terms of story/cutscenes, nothing beats Yusnann so far.

Crazy Hope and his plans.

It reminds me of the craziness of entering/stealthing into Midgar. Good times.

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

The first boss, I got my butt handed to me the first time! Than I decided to guard and be patient! Barely won at the end.

Played on normal.

This game is kind of tough. If that's just the first boss than I'm intimidated to whats to come!

 

[akaoni]

The game reminds me of what little I played of Yakuza 4.

I've been meaning to go back to that one just recently by chance.

 

[state_vector_collapse]

I've tried playing this some more, but I'm really not enjoying it at all. I decided to do a side quest for a guy in town who wants me to investigate

Spoiler

those red floating "chests".

I go off and find them, but then I can't find him again to report back. The description for the quest tells me where he is waiting. But I have no idea if that means he is there for when I collect the quest, or when I return to him? Either way he is no longer there, and unlike FF13 there is no marker on the map to help you out at all.

So I'm running around like a headless chicken (because I can't continue with the main quest until midnight) and its something like 4pm :/ I must be doing something wrong because I can't honestly be expected to wait 8 game hours before I can carry on?

 

[Shinta]

I go off and find them, but then I can't find him again to report back. The description for the quest tells me where he is waiting. But I have no idea if that means he is there for when I collect the quest, or when I return to him? Either way he is no longer there, and unlike FF13 there is no marker on the map to help you out at all.

If you tell me the name of the quest, I can look it up for you. And sometimes they do have you wait. You're supposed to go do other things and come back later.

Also, something I do when I accept a quest from someone or get some advice about something happening at a specific time, is open the map and make a marker for it on the map and type in a note for it. It helps a lot.

 

[Adaren]

Holy fuck, I don't know what you guys are talking about with the writing and story. I just beat

Spoiler

Noel finally, and damnnnnnnnnn, that was some of my favorite dialogue in the trilogy. Lightning was actually intimidating. Who is even saying she hasn't changed or has no personality? She was totally crushing Noel verbally before the fight even started.

I was kind of blown away by that whole thing. Man, if all the main quests are this good, then wow. I'm loving it.

Cutscenes like that one get me more pumped than anything else from the first two games. So many "Did he/she really just say that!?" moments, and the choreography oozes style. It's a little cheesy, but that doesn't prevent it from being completely awesome.

Because most people in here saying that were going to like it no matter what. Stepping back and looking at the game's flaws as well as its positives... yes, it's definitely an 'average' experience.

This certainly happens on both sides of the eternal argument over this trilogy. I won't deny that I was expecting to enjoy this game, but it's also true that I'm having a wonderful time with it. I can't remember the last time I had a game that I was so excited to play in any free moments of my day. You can think what you want of the game, but I'm the one who determines what I think of it while playing, and me and many others find it completely amazing.

 

[stargateheaven]

If you tell me the name of the quest, I can look it up for you. And sometimes they do have you wait. You're supposed to go do other things and come back later.

Also, something I do when I accept a quest from someone or get some advice about something happening at a specific time, is open the map and make a marker for it on the map and type in a note for it. It helps a lot.

he's talking about "suspicious spheres" or whatever its called.
that guy only appears at certain times.8AM to 5PM. do other stuff.

we need an ultimate guide for this game..
like, start to finish but doing every side quest in some kind of order thats perfect and doesnt waste any time.

 

[bluecapsule]

I've tried playing this some more, but I'm really not enjoying it at all. I decided to do a side quest for a guy in town who wants me to investigate

Spoiler

those red floating "chests".

I go off and find them, but then I can't find him again to report back. The description for the quest tells me where he is waiting. But I have no idea if that means he is there for when I collect the quest, or when I return to him? Either way he is no longer there, and unlike FF13 there is no marker on the map to help you out at all.

So I'm running around like a headless chicken (because I can't continue with the main quest until midnight) and its something like 4pm :/ I must be doing something wrong because I can't honestly be expected to wait 8 game hours before I can carry on?

NPCs appear and disappear throughout the day. If you're out of stuff to do in Luxerion, go explore a different area.

 

[Reveirg]

This certainly happens on both sides of the eternal argument over this trilogy. I won't deny that I was expecting to enjoy this game, but it's also true that I'm having a wonderful time with it. I can't remember the last time I had a game that I was so excited to play in any free moments of my day. You can think what you want of the game, but I'm the one who determines what I think of it while playing, and me and many others find it completely amazing.

+1

I find myself wishing the game was actually longer. That rarely happens to me anymore for 20+ hour games.

 

[Shinta]

he's talking about "suspicious spheres" or whatever its called.
that guy only appears at certain times.8AM to 5PM. do other stuff.

we need an ultimate guide for this game..
like, start to finish but doing every side quest in some kind of order thats perfect and doesnt waste any time.

That's basically what the official guide is. I've been answering questions but I can't type out the whole thing. Probably the only guide this gen besides Soul Calibur V that I'm really glad I got.

 

[Yoshichan]

Need to sleep, fuuuck

Day 10

 

[XJF]

ARRRGH! Finding this damn rare merchant is going to kill me. I'd rather hunt the stupid Santa Merchant in the Star Ocean franchise. At least he only had like 1 spawn point per floor.

I'm on day 9 of first playthrough. Opened all highways. Dont ALL available quests. Got just shy of 40 hours in the game. Waiting to unlock the final dungeon to tear it up. This Platinum is going to be so glorious!

 

[brandonh83]

Need to sleep, fuuuck

Day 10

Need to sleep, or want to sleep? Man up, son.

 

[rataven]

That's basically what the official guide is. I've been answering questions but I can't type out the whole thing. Probably the only guide this gen besides Soul Calibur V that I'm really glad I got.

Yeah, the timeline strategy the guide provides is doing a lot to relieve the stress for me -- I'm really only using it for that, but it's enough to take the edge off. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend a purchase to anyone who's enjoying the game but doesn't feel like they're getting everything out of it.

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

Isn't fetch quests like the cardinal sin of RPGs? This game should be called:

Lightning's Fetch Quests: FFXIII!

In other words, these side quests are getting tiresome. I'm still playing but it's really boring.

 

[Shinta]

Isn't fetch quests like the cardinal sin of RPGs? This game should be called:

Lightning's Fetch Quests: FFXIII!

In other words, these side quests are getting tiresome. I'm still playing but it's really boring.

Kind of. Everyone claims they hate it, yet it's a core part of NieR, Xenoblade, Skyrim, FFXIV, and on, and on (all of which have a lot of fans).

I'm finding that some of them have enough story to keep it interesting. Some are just kind of filler. Pretty much par for the course. Bravely Default's demo was literally all fetch quests and everyone loved it. If I'm enjoying the game, I take anything that makes the game longer. If I'm not enjoying the game, I don't enjoy the side quests. That's how I look at it. They don't really make or break a game for me.

 

[Solbringer]

Kind of. Everyone claims they hate it, yet it's a core part of NieR, Xenoblade, Skyrim, FFXIV, and on, and on (all of which have a lot of fans).

Not to derail the OT or anything but I wouldn't call fetch quests a "core" part of those games mainly because they are all optional and serve to do a little world-building and give some EXP, while in LR they are your sole method of gaining EXP. In NieR, as boring as some of them are, you learn more about the main cast from the remarks they make from you taking the quests. I'll give you Xenoblade and FFXIV though.

Oh and yes we complained about the fetch quests in those games too. It's just that everything else was sublime, in case you were trying to imply that a lot of people are hypocrites for liking those games, when in reality we never really liked fetch quests there either.

 

[HawthorneKitty]

Yeah, I actually welcome the quests since they net me stats and adornments anyways. The game really ushers you to try and dabble and do everything in the game.

 

[PshycoNinja]

This certainly happens on both sides of the eternal argument over this trilogy. I won't deny that I was expecting to enjoy this game, but it's also true that I'm having a wonderful time with it. I can't remember the last time I had a game that I was so excited to play in any free moments of my day. You can think what you want of the game, but I'm the one who determines what I think of it while playing, and me and some others find it completely amazing.

Fixed that for you.

 

[Ganon Dragmire]

My journey at the City of Revelry

Yo Magius I'm sure you know what this guy is playing.

I missed the chance

Spoiler

to get to the supply lines

, so I decided to go back to Luxerion and finish some quests

Anyone that remembers the ending to XIII-2 should find this familiar:

Lumina plz

The boss was easy. (for some reason)

A plan is forming

Fabulous

Forever the crowd favorite

I think Toriyama loves

Spoiler

to put main FF characters in embarrassing situations (which I love)

Nothing will top

Spoiler

what he did to Cloud though.

 

[Adaren]

Isn't fetch quests like the cardinal sin of RPGs? This game should be called:

Lightning's Fetch Quests: FFXIII!

In other words, these side quests are getting tiresome. I'm still playing but it's really boring.

I think of fetch quests as going to somewhere/someone, collecting an item, and then heading back to the original quest giver with no notable events in between. I've encountered very few of those in Lightning Returns, and the ones I have found usually get completed while working on other things. If you're talking about the Canvas of Prayers quests, then I tend to think of those as a bonus for killing a lot of monsters, or sometimes a single very tough monster.

You could totally redo almost all of the Canvas of Prayers quests as "Defeat X monsters of type Y", but then there wouldn't be a good way to retroactively give you credit (ie. if you defeated enough monsters for the quest before getting the quest).

 

[adamsapple]

The last boss is such a cheap bitch.

Multiple continuous stages, without a change to recover the EP meter or health in-between -_-

 

[MilkBeard]

+1

I find myself wishing the game was actually longer. That rarely happens to me anymore for 20+ hour games.

Yup, same for me. I've still got a ways to go until I beat it, but I'm already wishing it was longer, ha ha.

And for me personally, I was on the fence. There were some good previews, and yet the early reviews were trashing the game, which made me almost not pick it up. I decided to get it after playing the demo, and I'm so glad that I did.

 

[Carbonox]

Beat the Yusnaan main quest last night. Hot diggity damn that was good.

Now to do the Dead Dunes, the only area I've yet to fully explore (I've briefly touched upon it but that's it).

Day 6 babeh here I come.

Also, is there a better schemata than Passion Rouge (dat Lvl2 DeProtect/Shell)/Electronica (dem Magic boosts)/Velvet Bouncer (TANKTANK)? I've been using this pretty much exclusively and have absolutely destroyed everything so far (Luxerion and Yusnaan bosses, pls, less than a minute they took). I'm always starting off with DeProtect/DeShell and then just wailing on enemies with the -ga spells. The only issue I have is that the costumes suck and lack that awesome/badass feel. Then again I don't have many garbs anyway so that's more my fault for not checking out what else there is.

 

[Giolon]

My opinion of the game has come around 180 degrees since I first got it. It suffers really badly from its "sink or swim" attitude after the prologue. There's no easing you in to anything. Combat is extremely punishing if you can't read enemy attacks (which you can't when you have no experience with them or the game yet). Time management is extremely difficult when you have no idea where you're supposed to go. The game gives bad advice ("OMG never use Chronostasis unless you absolutely have to!"). And it really doesn't help a newbie to have Hope screaming "WHY AREN'T YOU DONE YET? YOU'RE GOING TO FAIL!" repeatedly in your ear during the one of the first quests that requires you to cross the 6AM "deadline").

Once you get your bearings, understand how combat works, and get a feel for time management, everything just clicks together and the game becomes a lot of fun.

I guess Square Enix became gun-shy about tutorialized gameplay after all the blowback they got over XIII prime, but holy crap there has to be a middle ground between 25 hours of tutorial and 10 minutes of tutorial followed by a swift kick in the pants out the door.

I have to commend Square Enix for tweaking an already great battle system again to keep it fresh and fun, and make it even more dynamic and interactive by emphasizing timing. I do miss being able to queue up a sequence of actions though.

 

[HeelPower]

Hamauzu deserves some awards for his work on this series.I assume this is Hamauzu because of its unmistakable violin.

 

[Ganon Dragmire]

Hamauzu deserves some awards for his work on this series.I assume this is Hamauzu because of its unmistakable violin.

Yes it is. it is getting to a point that they can no longer do the concerts traditionally.They would pick one or two from an entire album of a game. Either make the show longer or make a concert for each game (doubt that would happen). You can make an entire concert with just XIII series music and it still might not be enough.

 

[ambientmystic]

Hamauzu deserves some awards for his work on this series.I assume this is Hamauzu because of its unmistakable violin.

I'm not getting this game anytime soon but I bought that OST the day it came out, right alongside the XIII and XIII-2 soundtrack even before their respective English localizations were done. He basically made the XIII series a heck of a lot more palatable than it should be. It's an absolutely sublime OST, even without the context of the scenes in which they're occuring.