Support NeoGAF

[Adaren]

What this confirms: 1) Lightning has no no-shield setup. 2) The way Lightning is posed indicates that all weapon/shield combinations will likely use the same animations. There might be variation on animation speed I guess.

Otherwise, there's nothing interesting to discuss. We already know regardless of what kind of weapon she equips, her offense-type stats (just these 2: Power (whatever they call physical strength), Magic) will change. The shield governs HP, ATB recovery, and possibly buffs/debuffs.

What you can consider the most interesting aspect is that you can attach buffs to the abilities, so when you use an ability the passive buff might activate.

Lightning actually has a shield in that picture (blue thing). The evidence for no shield is 1. The cloud costume and 2. gauntlets as an item, which share a slot with the shield.

We've seen her spell cast animations with the staff, and they do use a different animation than her sword spell casts.

Since she does have a shield in that picture, I'm guessing that's just her "neutral" stance. I don't think it's out of the question for all of her weapons to have different attack animations, at least. A spear surfaced in one of the videos posted today (I had a link several pages back; I'll go find it when I have time) and I can't imagine Lightning swinging it around like she does with a sword.

These all lead me to believe her weapons will certainly have different attack animations.

My hope is that the different animations will lead to different gameplay styles. That is, spear animations have a longer reach but less horizontal area, for example. I'm skeptical that this will happen since the game is first and foremost appealing to the RPG crowd, but hopefully more is shown soon.

Where did you hear about the buffs activating on passive abilities? Sounds like a good way to consolidate support spells and attack spells. Perhaps related to the spell combo system?

 

[VertPin]

Not really, he played a large part but wasn't the chief creative lead.

Didn't he direct it?

 

[MagiusNecros]

Didn't he direct it?

Joint project of 3 directors.

 

[plutoknight]

GAh, guys, I don't know how I feel about this game anymore. There are times where I'm all "YEAH THIS GAME LOOKS GREAT!!" and times, like now, where I'm all, "wtf......"

This..is actually no different than FFXIII before it's release. "Yeah! Looks great" then Kitase or Toriyama would make a comment like, "Oh, it's like Call of Duty, this game!" and then I roll my eyes and wonder wtf Square is up to.

Lightning is the female Gilgamesh. In FFXV we're gonna have a Lightning/Gilgamesh duo fight. Calling it now.

And that's why it was hard to play through Dissidia 012.
.

I'll be honest, I skipped every cutscene in Dissidia 012. I didn't care about the story until I hit the free-roam scenario. That was all the fan service I needed, that scenario. XD

 

[PshycoNinja]

She is pretty much the leader in Dissidia, and that includes all main final fantasy characters. People tend to forget that. That is Square pretty much confirming she is the main of the main characters. And the strongest. And the prettier. And the best.

And that's why it was hard to play through Dissidia 012.

Please dont even joke like this.

I have nightmares in which Lightning is the goddess in FFXV after Toriyama kidnapped Nomura and pretended to be him.

I fear about this too.

Well Lightning has more cleavage now, so it is understandable some things fall through the cracks.

Lol. Wow.

 

[Wazzy]

How so? I've seen people on here who hate FFXIII hate X even more. It happens. Different strokes for different blokes.

X is one of the most popular Final Fantasy's and Yuna is up there with Cloud in character popularity. Every Final Fantasy has it's share of haters but X isn't on the level of XIII, XIII-2 and LR.

Of course people can like or dislike what they want but X shouldn't be grouped in with Toriyama's worst just because he had a huge role in the making of X. If you dislike it, hate it for it's flaws and not just because you hear Toriyama's name attached.

 

[Dark Schala]

Since she does have a shield in that picture, I'm guessing that's just her "neutral" stance. I don't think it's out of the question for all of her weapons to have different attack animations, at least. A spear surfaced in one of the videos posted today (I had a link several pages back; I'll go find it when I have time) and I can't imagine Lightning swinging it around like she does with a sword.

These all lead me to believe her weapons will certainly have different attack animations.

My hope is that the different animations will lead to different gameplay styles. That is, spear animations have a longer reach but less horizontal area, for example. I'm skeptical that this will happen since the game is first and foremost appealing to the RPG crowd, but hopefully more is shown soon.

RPG players--like myself--tend to care a lot about that sort of thing, though, because if you're trying to speedrun a boss, or are trying to take a boss down fast enough (especially in the first FFXIII game since scores were managed by time taken to fight an enemy), reach and length of animation are dramatically important in terms of efficiency. That's why the extra pose taken while switching Optima in FF13 was a bit of a detriment and it was better when it was taken out.

These weapons will probably have different weights as is the case of other RPGs with a more active system that pay mind to these sort of thing (ex: Nier - 2H weapons take a longer swing, spears are faster and have a wider reach, etc). The spear animation might probably have a wider radius, actually, especially in her Blitz attacks if she is able to use that with a spear. It just depends on how she uses it, because the possibility of AoE swing attacks seems high to me. At least I like that sort of flexibility when it comes to actiony attacks.

With that said, I'm still unsure. I really need to hear impressions firsthand to see how this is going to go.

You know, considering you're on a time limit, it would be nice if the animations were faster so that attacks would be easily connected and chained for better damage output.

 

[LuuKyK]

Gilgameh is indeed lame. GILGAMESH could kick that poser's ass sideways.

Spoiler

You know I like him and you (sort of)

Please dont even joke like this.

I have nightmares in which Lightning is the goddess in FFXV after Toriyama kidnapped Nomura and pretended to be him.

:lol

You know she will be there.

And that's why it was hard to play through Dissidia 012.

I see no problems in playing the portable game of the gen. The fact that Light is in it makes it more PGOTGer than ever.

RPG players--like myself--tend to care a lot about that sort of thing, though, because if you're trying to speedrun a boss, or are trying to take a boss down fast enough (especially in the first FFXIII game since scores were managed by time taken to fight an enemy), reach and length of animation are dramatically important in terms of efficiency. That's why the extra pose taken while switching Optima in FF13 was a bit of a detriment and it was better when it was taken out.

These weapons will probably have different weights as is the case of other RPGs with a more active system that pay mind to these sort of thing (ex: Nier - 2H weapons take a longer swing, spears are faster and have a wider reach, etc). The spear animation might probably have a wider radius, actually, especially in her Blitz attacks if she is able to use that with a spear. It just depends on how she uses it, because the possibility of AoE swing attacks seems high to me. At least I like that sort of flexibility when it comes to actiony attacks.

With that said, I'm still unsure. I really need to hear impressions firsthand to see how this is going to go.

You know, considering you're on a time limit, it would be nice if the animations were faster so that attacks would be easily connected and chained for better damage output.

I remember you measuring the time the attack animations for Serah and Noel took in the XIII-2 OT. Even I didnt have such dedication. In the end these sort of things didnt really matter in XIII-2 though considering its lowered difficulty. >_>

 

[MagiusNecros]

Lightning is the female Gilgamesh. In FFXV we're gonna have a Lightning/Gilgamesh duo fight. Calling it now.

FF XIII-4 EPIC of GILGAMESH: Lightning cheats on Toriyama: The Game

XD

 

[rataven]

-A super-cute decoration that puts Mog from Final Fantasy XIII-2 on her head.

This is amazing.

But, didn't Mog

Spoiler

die at the end of XIII-2?

 

[Esura]

X is one of the most popular Final Fantasy's and Yuna is up there with Cloud in character popularity. Every Final Fantasy has it's share of haters but X isn't on the level of XIII, XIII-2 and LR.

Of course people can like or dislike what they want but X shouldn't be grouped in with Toriyama's worst just because he had a huge role in the making of X. If you dislike it, hate it for it's flaws and not just because you hear Toriyama's name attached.

True. Hate the game not the man behind the game.

 

[LuuKyK]

This is amazing.

But, didn't Mog

Spoiler

die at the end of XIII-2?

There are multiple mogs. That was just a special mog created by Lightning to protect Serah by turning into a bow-sword (best weapon ever).

 

[MagiusNecros]

This is amazing.

But, didn't Mog

Spoiler

die at the end of XIII-2?

Offscreen footage shows Mog being mutilated to pieces by rampaging Cieth.

And then some Necromancer dude made Moogle Stew and it was yum yum delish dish.

Spoiler

I dunno it fades to black. I want him dead but others will cling to Hope and say he passed out

 

[plutoknight]

I remember you measuring the time the attack animations for Serah and Noel took in the XIII-2 OT. Even I didnt have such dedication. In the end these sort of things didnt really matter in XIII-2 though considering its lowered difficulty. >_>

One of my favorite things in FFXIII was the fact that I -had- to use Thunder because, dammit, Fire and Blizzard were too slow! Deliberate or not, that kind of oddity/intricacy was pretty cool.

(...should I have said "Lightning"' instead of Thunder? I suppose that's some sort of inside Toriyama joke, Thunder being the best spell.)

 

[MechaX]

She is pretty much the leader in Dissidia, and that includes all main final fantasy characters. People tend to forget that. That is Square pretty much confirming she is the main of the main characters. And the strongest. And the prettier. And the best.

Despite how her crew in Dissidia 012 was clearly far from leadership material besides herself (Laguna, Vaan, Yuna), and despite how her team was pretty much B Team in the grand scheme of things, she still did really well for herself despite all of that.

Strongest... yeah, no FF character has had the luck to become demi-gods by two separate deities yet. Prettiest? Nah, beaten by Terra by a galactic mile. Best? If we're counting FFT, Ramza takes this. Lightning in early to mid XIII was alright though.

 

[Esura]

There are multiple mogs. That was just a special mog created by Lightning to protect Serah by turning into a bow-sword (best weapon ever).

I want a Chocobo that turns into two long yellow-colored nodachis with a serrated edge with "Chocoblades" on the side.

 

[RedAssedApe]

-It is true the Ligtning's Bust size increased from C cup to D cup in LR. Its done by Toriyama.
-There will be costumes that makes your bust size bigger or smaller.

-_-

 

[SoraanTribal]

I don't think Mog (XIII-2 end spoilers)

Spoiler

is really dead. Just like I don't think Serah is gone for good. They'll be back in some form.

 

[Esura]

I don't think Mog (XIII-2 end spoilers)

Spoiler

is really dead. Just like I don't think Serah is gone for good. They'll be back in some form.

I think Serah is

Spoiler

Lumina

.

Or her reincarnation that got possessed by Chaos.

 

[MagiusNecros]

Obviously Lightning sacrifices herself to revive Serah

Spoiler

and uses Lumina's body as the host body as the container for Serah's soul

. Probably goes back to the end of XIII and everyone is alive and well except for yours truly.

Or all 3 games took place in a Oracle drive.

 

[Adaren]

RPG players--like myself--tend to care a lot about that sort of thing, though, because if you're trying to speedrun a boss, or are trying to take a boss down fast enough (especially in the first FFXIII game since scores were managed by time taken to fight an enemy), reach and length of animation are dramatically important in terms of efficiency. That's why the extra pose taken while switching Optima in FF13 was a bit of a detriment and it was better when it was taken out.

Sorry, I guess I should have said turn-based/strategy RPG crowd. I'd be thrilled if they do have different animation speeds, though.

I recall the animations in XIII being generally unbalanced. A lot of Vanille's usefulness as a RAV/SAB was limited by her slow casting animation, and Snow ended up being the best at most of the "casting" roles thanks to his insanely fast animation. Lightning's ranged attack animation was also hilariously broken, though there's only one fight you could use it on in XIII.

Lightning's year-long heal also lead to more than a few deaths during my NCU run...

XIII-2 animations were much more balanced, and Serah's all-around quicker animation speed was balanced out by Noel's higher stat average. I guess looking at the XIII -> XIII-2 progression suggests that they are putting more care into things like animation speeds, so hopefully these different weapons will be more than just different stat boosters!

If they accomplish what Dark Souls does, where each weapons makes you feel like you're playing a different character, I'd be thrilled.

 

[Femmeworth]

Didn't he direct it?

X had three directors credited. I assume they all reported to Kitase, who was only credited as a producer.

 

[rataven]

There are multiple mogs. That was just a special mog created by Lightning to protect Serah by turning into a bow-sword (best weapon ever).

They referred to him by name though, rather than saying 'a mog sits on her head'. Just seems to imply it's the same Mog from XIII-2.

Offscreen footage shows Mog being mutilated to pieces by rampaging Cieth.

And then some Necromancer dude made Moogle Stew and it was yum yum delish dish.

Spoiler

I dunno it fades to black. I want him dead but others will cling to Hope and say he passed out

Noel would totally be the one to throw him to the rampaging Cieth.

 

[HORRORSHØW]

Dios mio, my beloved Final Fantasy has devolved into Barbie dress up.

 

[Dark Schala]

One of my favorite things in FFXIII was the fact that I -had- to use Thunder because, dammit, Fire and Blizzard were too slow! Deliberate or not, that kind of oddity/intricacy was pretty cool.

Yep, the time it took for Fire / Blizzard / Water to animate and be "thrown" towards the target was too long. Also bear in mind that every character has a different animation time for initial cast and subsequent cast (and not to mention that they have different speeds between offensive and defensive skills), so the best initial Thunder caster ended up being Hope, but the best subsequent Thunder caster ended up being Snow (whose ending animation into filling up ATB again ended up being the fastest as well). That's partially why Snow ended up being rather underrated in the original game.

Now I really enjoyed Noel's melee/phys animations because they were unique (ie: three blitzes in a row were not the same), but his cast speeds were pretty slow. Shame. But as stated, the animation speeds and skill distribution (despite being rather gimped in this game but it was necessary to not break the game) complemented each other in a nicer way.

I remember you measuring the time the attack animations for Serah and Noel took in the XIII-2 OT. Even I didnt have such dedication. In the end these sort of things didnt really matter in XIII-2 though considering its lowered difficulty. >_>

It may not have been that important in game proper, but it was certainly important in things like the Gilgamesh DLC.

To this day, Gilgamesh is still my favourite FF13-2 boss.

Sorry, I guess I should have said turn-based/strategy RPG crowd. I'd be thrilled if they do have different animation speeds, though.

I recall the animations in XIII being generally unbalanced. A lot of Vanille's usefulness as a RAV/SAB was limited by her slow casting animation, and Snow ended up being the best at most of the "casting" roles thanks to his insanely fast animation. Lightning's ranged attack animation was also hilariously broken, though there's only one fight you could use it on in XIII.

Lightning's year-long heal also lead to more than a few deaths during my NCU run...

XIII-2 animations were much more balanced, and Serah's all-around quicker animation speed was balanced out by Noel's higher stat average. I guess looking at the XIII -> XIII-2 progression suggests that they are putting more care into things like animation speeds, so hopefully these different weapons will be more than just different stat boosters!

If they accomplish what Dark Souls does, where each weapons makes you feel like you're playing a different character, I'd be thrilled.

Ugh, Lightning's heals were the worst. Caaaaan't deal with that. I usually like my games fast. And you're right. Even though the better mages in the game had the better skills and spell distribution, they were so slow, and their turnaround time was something you had to just end up dealing with.

I think each job might have a different animation speed. If they have different cast speeds per costume or per job or something, then that might be nice in terms of depth (ie: mages have faster cast animations than Lightning in her warrior costume or something). On the reverse, mage-like jobs wouldn't be as efficient at holding various weapons and animating them fast enough, so it's probably best to switch costumes when it comes to melee.

 

[Teknoman]

I seriously hope XV turns out great after how cool XIV seems to be turning out. Also that XVI = Agni's philosophy world.

 

[MagiusNecros]

It may not have been that important in game proper, but it was certainly important in things like the Gilgamesh DLC.

To this day, Gilgamesh is still my favourite FF13-2 boss.

It disappointed me that the actual game did not house the challenge that the DLC had offered in regards to the battle system.

 

[Emitan]

Dark Schala is doing her best to make me replay XIII again

 

[Liha]

That sounds cool

 

[Adaren]

One of my favorite things in FFXIII was the fact that I -had- to use Thunder because, dammit, Fire and Blizzard were too slow! Deliberate or not, that kind of oddity/intricacy was pretty cool.

But make sure to alternate abilities to get that extra chain bonus!

 

[Emitan]

But make sure to alternate abilities to get that extra chain bonus!

Did the game ever explain this because I never knew this until a friend who is a XIII speedrunner told me.

 

[Dark Schala]

But make sure to alternate abilities to get that extra chain bonus!

Yep. Just don't alternate to physical strikes if the animation speeds / your distance are detrimental to the chain.

This is why I found auto-battle too slow and inefficient. I just didn't like the attacks it chose at all.

 

[Femmeworth]

The auto command's choices were dubious, but manual input was too much of a nuisance. If I were to speedrun a game, it would definitely not be XIII.

 

[Dark Schala]

Did the game ever explain this because I never knew this until a friend who is a XIII speedrunner told me.

It was in an ability summary? I think? I can't remember. I haven't played FF13 in a while. Ravagers add more chain% when they alternate spells, and when you have more enhancements on your party and more negative status on the enemy, the chain bonus is increased.

There are a lot other hidden factors involved in the chain bonus as well, but the game to analyze that is really FF13-2.

 

[LuuKyK]

One of my favorite things in FFXIII was the fact that I -had- to use Thunder because, dammit, Fire and Blizzard were too slow! Deliberate or not, that kind of oddity/intricacy was pretty cool.

(...should I have said "Lightning"' instead of Thunder? I suppose that's some sort of inside Toriyama joke, Thunder being the best spell.)

That was pretty cool indeed. I used thunder all the time too. It looked cool and was waaaay faster than the others. That little jump the characters did to cast fire and blizzard annoyed the hell out of me. Also I hated when I planned to finish a fight with a big spell like Aeroga and then the monster died just before the fucking spell hit because the stupid cast made it go all the way up into the sky before hitting the floor. lmao Annoying. >_> And yeah I think there is some kind of relation between the best magic being thunder and the main character being Lightning too. Always thought about it this way.

Despite how her crew in Dissidia 012 was clearly far from leadership material besides herself (Laguna, Vaan, Yuna), and despite how her team was pretty much B Team in the grand scheme of things, she still did really well for herself despite all of that.

Strongest... yeah, no FF character has had the luck to become demi-gods by two separate deities yet. Prettiest? Nah, beaten by Terra by a galactic mile. Best? If we're counting FFT, Ramza takes this. Lightning in early to mid XIII was alright though.

Of course you are considering my huge bias towards Lightning right? And even if these are subjective choices, there is no way in hell Terra looks better than Lightning. Heeeeell no.

I think Serah is

Spoiler

Lumina

.

Or her reincarnation that got possessed by Chaos.

Its pretty clear to me that they are related, dont know to which point though.

Spoiler

I mean is it a reincarnation of her, or is it actually her disguised as Lumina doing a fake voice and such? Who knows... Maybe its all a plot to betray Lightning!! :lol

Dark Schala is doing her best to make me replay XIII again

Do it! I keep replaying it and XIII-2 whenever I can, just cause~

Did the game ever explain this because I never knew this until a friend who is a XIII speedrunner told me.

Yeah, its weird but thats why the auto battle hardly ever (unless your datalog already had a weak spot for the enemy you were fighting registered) chose only thunder (or any other spell sequentially) when you played as ravager (unless, again, of course you only had that spell unlocked), instead it always included all the spells you had.

 

[plutoknight]

The auto command's choices were dubious, but manual input was too much of a nuisance. If I were to speedrun a game, it would definitely not be XIII.

Manual input a set of commands, and then there's a quick button sequence to repeat!

AND YES SOMEONE ELSE LOVES THE GILGAMESH DLC. I wish I still had my XIII-2 file, and, actually, I'm kind of considering replaying the game to 100% again, just so I can fight Gilgamesh. Those DLC battles were, on the whole, amazing. The FFXIII battle system really shines in fights like that, it's a shame they are few and far between.

Still too much effort. The repeat command should have been tied to a dedicated button. The triggers didn't even do anything!

This logic, it is sound.

 

[Emitan]

Do it! I keep replaying it and XIII-2 whenever I can, just cause~

I don't like XIII-2 >_>

Right now I'm doing a no upgrades/equipment challenge. Everyone has to use their default weapons and cant equip accessories. It's not really that different but it's fun.

 

[Femmeworth]

Manual input a set of commands, and then there's a quick button sequence to repeat!

Still too much effort. The repeat command should have been tied to a dedicated button. The triggers didn't even do anything! Also pausing combat while you set up a queue would have been nice.

Some of the design choices for XIII boggle my mind.

 

[Adaren]

Right now I'm doing a no upgrades/equipment challenge. Everyone has to use their default weapons and cant equip accessories. It's not really that different but it's fun.

I'm planning to do a No Monster run of XIII-2 sometime before LR to refresh myself on the story. Hopefully that should hit the difficulty sweetspot.

Also, if you ever have some free time, skim through this guide to FFXIII Battle Mechanics. It's excellent. I had a lukewarm response to XIII the first time I played through, but upon reading this guide it's become one of my favorite gameplay systems ever.

 

[Caerith]

FFXIV has it, maybe a little too much of it even.

The boob jiggle in FFXIV is awful. It's like whoever animated it has never seen boobs or heard of physics.

They've gone so far that they're breaking her established characterization.

This. Toriyama is a terrible writer (and established creep), and the increased bust size + jiggle + interview telling you the best ways to see that jiggle is just... ineffable, but breaking characterization is really what kills it.

I was pretty interested in this game, but I think I'll just wait for it to be in a bargain bin for $15, if I get it at all.

Still too much effort. The repeat command should have been tied to a dedicated button. The triggers didn't even do anything! Also pausing combat while you set up a queue would have been nice.

Some of the design choices for XIII boggle my mind.

I wish XIII let you build gambits into paradigms.

 

[LuuKyK]

Some of the design choices for XIII boggle my mind.

The weapon/accessory upgrade system... It pains me only to remember it. Fuck off with that system. I am glad they got rid of it on XIII-2. But then they added the pokémons. ;-; As much as I love these games I really hate the fact that these exist.

 

[Dark Schala]

I'm planning to do a No Monster run of XIII-2 sometime before LR to refresh myself on the story. Hopefully that should hit the difficulty sweetspot.

I actually did that on my playthrough/plat run and it didn't really seem that different from the regular difficulty. And I wasn't grinding at all (actually, when I compared my progress to others, I was underlevelled most of the time). :/

With respect to the DLC bosses, though, I liked that they pushed the player to make certain monster builds for every boss. Your standard skills wouldn't work on a DLC boss and you had to sometimes start from scratch for some monsters to work faster.

Some of the design choices for XIII boggle my mind.

That's what I said coming out of the game when I played the Japanese version... and then again when I finished my plat run.

I think it's funny, now looking back on it, that I think it's the better game out of the two.

 

[Femmeworth]

I wish XIII let you build gambits into paradigms.

They didn't need to go that far, but changing the priority of buffs sure would have been nice.

The weapon/accessory upgrade system... It pains me only to remember it. Fuck off with that system. I am glad they got rid of it on XIII-2. But then they added the pokémons. ;-; As much as I love these games I really hate the fact that these exist.

Both of those were so half-baked, the monster system a bit less so.

 

[Caerith]

They didn't need to go that far, but changing the priority of buffs sure would have been nice.

Maybe not a full gambit system, sure, but little things like prioritizing Esuna over Cure or telling Lightning not to melee the Adamantoise legs when she's in RAV mode and has perfectly viable ranged attacks.

 

[dramatis]

Lightning actually has a shield in that picture (blue thing). The evidence for no shield is 1. The cloud costume and 2. gauntlets as an item, which share a slot with the shield.

We've seen her spell cast animations with the staff, and they do use a different animation than her sword spell casts.

Since she does have a shield in that picture, I'm guessing that's just her "neutral" stance. I don't think it's out of the question for all of her weapons to have different attack animations, at least. A spear surfaced in one of the videos posted today (I had a link several pages back; I'll go find it when I have time) and I can't imagine Lightning swinging it around like she does with a sword.

These all lead me to believe her weapons will certainly have different attack animations.

My hope is that the different animations will lead to different gameplay styles. That is, spear animations have a longer reach but less horizontal area, for example. I'm skeptical that this will happen since the game is first and foremost appealing to the RPG crowd, but hopefully more is shown soon.

Where did you hear about the buffs activating on passive abilities? Sounds like a good way to consolidate support spells and attack spells. Perhaps related to the spell combo system?

She does have a 'shield' on the Cloud costume, it's evident in her animations that she's moving like she has something on her left arm. The substitute visible physical item is a gauntlet, which means that gauntlets are pretty much "shields" in animations.

I have never seen footage of Lightning using a staff or a spear in battle. Go ahead and link it so I can see if the animations are different or not.

I know different animations can lead to different gameplay styles. Dynasty Warriors is almost built around this. However, I think it's a matter of execution when it comes to determining if the system is good or not, and right now it can go either way.

As for passive abilities, it's visible on the customization screen for styles. If you look on the right side when a player is in a style to edit it, there's a list labeled "Passive _____" (forgot what it said) with some icons for buffs (I forgot what those were) that come from equipment, and then on the same list there's the face buttons on the controller. There are some cases where square has "HP+150" on it, so my guess is that firing off the ability on square nets the player some heal and whatnot.

 

[SOLDIER]

Imagine if FFVII was being made today and there were interviews going on about Tifa's chest and how it jiggled during FMV scenes.

Come to think of it, I bet the FMV jiggle was also Toriyama's idea as well.

Ruining good characters since 1997.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

The auto command's choices were dubious, but manual input was too much of a nuisance. If I were to speedrun a game, it would definitely not be XIII.

The problem is that manual input wasn't the best way to play a game with a fast paced combat that required to act and react fast to changes in the combat.

Auto combat choices worked well most of the time so using them alongside some manual choices were the best way.

 

[Dark Schala]

They can "work", but they wouldn't get you the fastest possible time. Everyone's playstyle is different, though, so if auto-battle worked for you, that's great. But I just don't like the command at all in general. I've written a lengthy post in the past about it, but the gist of it is that I don't like that it doesn't prioritize certain attacks over the other, or if it doesn't find a winning option, it has a tendency to alternate when the faster option would be to repeat a certain attack in a string.

Also, I've been told I have a tendency to select commands really fast in games, lol, so manually picking a queue at the beginning of a round and then executing the attack when it's best to synergize the attack with other party members/try to cancel an enemy attack wasn't that much of an issue. It's probably that platformer background of mine that's coming to the forefront there, though.

 

[Emitan]

Also, I've been told I have a tendency to select commands really fast in games, lol, so manually picking a queue at the beginning of a round and then executing the attack when it's best to synergize the attack with other party members/try to cancel an enemy attack wasn't that much of an issue. It's probably that platformer background of mine that's coming to the forefront there, though.

You should see me play Fire Emblem 7 if you want to see fast command input. I've memorized how long to hold up or down on the d-pad to get to a certain command. And the amazing part is that the game's menu changes depending on what actions a character can perform so to do the same command twice might need different lengths of time.

For some reason in the XIII games I have issues remembering where the spell I need is in the list so I'm very slow at doing inputs.

 

[Caerith]

Imagine if FFVII was being made today and there were interviews going on about Tifa's chest and how it jiggled during FMV scenes.

Come to think of it, I bet the FMV jiggle was also Toriyama's idea as well.

Ruining good characters since 1997.

If FFVII was being made today and Toriyama was in charge, you'd be collecting, leveling, and equipping panties to your weapons and armor instead of materia. The whole second half of the game would revolve around retrieving Aeris' white panties from Sephiroth to save the world.