Final Fantasy XIII

[NayusDante]

I'm never using the summons. Is anyone else?

Not often. Maybe for boss fights, but they don't seem to be as powerful as they could be. If anything, they're a shield to hide behind when enemies use powerful attacks. The only effective combat use seems to be keeping them out to fight as long as possible, since gestalt mode rarely does as much damage.

[badinsults]

I'm in chapter 11 now. I think that I've died more times in this game than any other final fantasy to date.

I'm still enjoying the game, but some of the battles are a little frustrating.

I'm never using the summons. Is anyone else?


I hear you on that, I'm getting my ass kicked. I'm glad they made it so that after you die you restart just before the battle happens, because there is a lot of dying if you aren't paying attention. I almost wish the battles were a bit slower!

[chriso_10]

There is a slow option in the menu which makes the ATB guage take longer to fill. Personally I think it's too slow and am fine with the normal speed, but it's been useful for some bosses that I need time to think on.

[c0ldb33r]

I beat the game tonight. It took me about 50 hours. I barely did any of the side quests or missions. I may try some of the missions later. I really just wantto whomp one of those giant turtles.

By the way I didn't really get the ending. I found the last bit pretty confusing.

[portnoyd]

On Chapter 4. I've actually started to like the game, even if the characters are pretty unlikeable.

[Tempest]

On Chapter 4. I've actually started to like the game, even if the characters are pretty unlikeable.
Yeah that's when I started to like it a little more (I'm at the end of 5 right now). Still, it's a pretty unlikeable game so far. All the characters are either whiny (Hope), cold pricks (Lightning), or annoying retards (Vanille). Shaz is the only character I like so far.

Tempest

[portnoyd]

All the characters are either whiny (Hope), cold pricks (Lightning), or annoying retards (Vanille). Shaz is the only character I like so far.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[c0ldb33r]

You'll never really warm up to the characters. At least I didn't. Even Shaz gets a little tiresome.

I've unlocked 3 ps3 themes so far. I'm using the Vanille one cause I'm 90% sure it shows panties.

Does the 360 version unlock anything?

[grolt]

You'll never really warm up to the characters. At least I didn't. Even Shaz gets a little tiresome.

I've unlocked 3 ps3 themes so far. I'm using the Vanille one cause I'm 90% sure it shows panties.

Does the 360 version unlock anything?

I am not sure about themes, but the 360 version unlocks gamer pictures after certain achievements. One for each of the seven main characters. I got Sazh's achievement after having Libra'd 100 enemies. It would be cool to win full out themes, though.

Lightning does play that cliche cold prick role for the first half, but I find her story develops a bit for the better when she's paired with Hope later on. The story is a mess, always twisting and having to explain the twist in the moment because it doesn't do the proper time setting it up (Square and foreshadowing don't seem to mix).

I like all the characters pretty fine, even Hope I don't mind so much now, but the game has done little to motivate me to use Snow. He seems pretty cool, and at the start they certainly set him up to be the hero along with Lightning, but for the 30 hours I've been playing, he's basically been on the bench unless he's been forced into the party, and even then it's done less than the other characters. I've found Fang has filled his role much better. Anyone else finding Snow to be disappointing dead weight?

[portnoyd]

On Chapter 6 and I'm really liking the combat system. It's Earl Z. Moad, but hey, it's enjoyable. The story has gone nowhere save for character development for obnoxious characters. Whatever.

[c0ldb33r]

I loaded my final fantasy X save file yesterday to try out the combat in that game. I've got to say, I found having to select actions for each character to be a big pain in the ass.

I prefer FF 12's system over FF 13, but either way, I don't want to go back to the old days.

[portnoyd]

I prefer FF 12's system over FF 13, but either way, I don't want to go back to the old days.

I'm with you on that (really loved 12's system) but I think we're in the minority.

[jdc]

Haven't bought 13 yet due to all of the negativity. I don't need to pay full price for something that is lacking according to many FF fans. But chalk me up as a fan of 12's battle system as well. I'm just cleaning up my notorious monster hunts, which was the best part of the game IMO. Does 13 have them?

[NayusDante]

I'm with you on that (really loved 12's system) but I think we're in the minority.

I thought it was the other way around. I hated XII's battle system, since it felt like a nerfed version of XI's battle system. I haven't finished FFXII yet because I'm at a point where I need to grind, but grinding is so depressingly mundane once you program the characters that I can't summon the enthusiasm to do it.

I'm getting tired of XIII's battle system. The game tells a story, and the gameplay is just a means to an end. Once you get into the big hoards of enemies, it gets tiresome. I'm still going to finish it, but the story really died down after chapter 7. Some big events are there, but the momentum is gone.

[Lord_Magus]

FF13 is, without a doubt, one of the biggest disappointments I've ever experienced as a gamer.

I'm almost 20 hours in and I've been struggling to find a single redeeming quality for the game. It's like they took everything that usually makes a (Final Fantasy) game great and squashed it into a paper-thin, streamlined joke.

Seriously, everything feels so intentionally linear and dumbed down, Squenix could have easily passed this as a satire of modern gaming conventions if they, you know, hadn't tried to make it into a proper game instead.

I'll continue playing for a while longer with the vague hope that it'll get better, but I'm not expecting much. Hell, even by some miracle it does turn out great, there isn't a single thing in the world that would convince me to replay the first painful 20 hours of it again.

[badinsults]

I'm deep into Chapter 10, which is probably the worst chapter so far, as it seems like an intentional exercise in grinding. This is where it gets really annoying that if your battle leader dies, it is game over. The enemies there will often coordinate attacks on a single character, so even if your lead character is in relatively good shape, they can bust out an 800+ HP assault and kill you. Why couldn't they make it so that the lead character shifts if they die?

[Tempest]

I think one thing FF XIII is missing is humor and 'light moments'. So far everything has been so serious and depressing (unless you count the baby Chocobo and there aren't nearly enough of those scenes) it's not making for an enjoyable game.

Another thing that's been bothering me is that constant persecution and 'on the run' feel of the game. In other FF games you'd come to a new town and you could explore for awhile, talk to people, plan your next course of action, and eventually move on. In FF XIII it's run to the next area and quickly try and get some items before they find you and everyone runs away. Having the main characters be constant pariahs isn't any fun.

Tempest

[NayusDante]

I think one thing FF XIII is missing is humor and 'light moments'.

I'm on Chapter 11 now, and I kinda see what you mean. It seems like they replaced every comic relief opportunity with the hopeful, teary-eyed looks at the road ahead. That hasn't been enjoyable to watch since chapter 6 or so.

And damnit... it's friggin 3AM. I started playing at about 9, thinking I'd just finish chapter 9. Since I didn't feel tired, and the pace actually picked up for the first time in several chapters, I just kept playing. Thanks FFXIII. Whatever, good night...

[portnoyd]

Ok, what's the deal with the black guy's son? He looks like a cabbage patch doll. Seriously creepy design.

[Tempest]

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks he looks creepy. I think it's just a bad character model.

Tempest

[badinsults]

Ok, what's the deal with the black guy's son? He looks like a cabbage patch doll. Seriously creepy design.

I don't think they have ever seen any black children in Japan.

[NayusDante]

It's not that the model is bad, it's the animation. When the kid smiles, it looks particularly unnatural. That, and he's the only child in this world. Of course he's going to look out of place when everyone else is either 15, 19, 28, or 72.

[Richter Belmount]

On Chapter 4. I've actually started to like the game, even if the characters are pretty unlikeable.

like a bad song that becomes catchy

[portnoyd]

So... I'm at 38 hours in.

The game is total dogshit.

Where to begin? Last I posted, I said the characters were unlikeable. Well, they still are but now, I can't even suffer through the cutscenes anymore because the dialogue is so bad. The best I can equate it to is a Dragon Ball cartoon. Very hokey, very trite. Snow pretty much says the same thing every time he opens his mouth. Hope's dialogue is the worst by far - do I need you to spell out every detail in length every cutscene and then cry about it? God no.

I'll give the plot a pass just because most FF plots boil down to being incredibly inane at the very end as the writers more or less give up the ghost. However, the amount of times Sanctum, Pulse, Fal'Cie, L'Cie and Focus are tossed around adds to the muddying of the plot.

Although the visuals are still stunning, the music is a joke. Whose idea was this? It sounds like awful J-POP beat the shit out of the FF music series guy in a back alley or something. Only the boss fight music is salvageable.

On the other side of the coin, is the combat system. At first, it was good, if not cheesy easy. Now, it's shortcomings have come back to haunt it. It leaves too much up to chance and to shoddy AI so too much luck comes into play.

The biggest offender has been the inability to position your characters. Specifically, that it's arbitrary where they end up after the first round. Battles become unnecessarily difficult because all three characters clump together and eat AOEs. Even the enemy AI has the sense to spread out. You are almost forced to always have a Commando in your party as they make the only effort to get away from their partners.

The AI for the other two characters and the decision making process for the Auto-battle/cast function does not work well. It seems like it only went half the distance. A character will only get one Cure when they can use two. Only half the time will a Libra'd enemy get full ATB bars worth of spells it's weak to. Also, it's choices between AOE spells and single target spells is questionable.

The whole "main character dies, game over" thing was something I could look aside but after enough times dying because that character takes more than their max HP, I couldn't anymore.

Which brings me to 11-2. Seriously. What the fuck. It's bad enough the Crystalnarium now needs 4x-6x more XP to level one part, now most fights anally rape you from the get-go. Those sadist Japanese developers need to have their head examined. Even starting with Evened Odds to buff/debuff has been fruitless.

The last fight I did before I gave up for the night was a really big wolf versus a Behemoth King. I managed to kill the wolf and had Curse on the Behemoth and he wouldn't even attack. I get him down to 50k, Curse is still on and he double-swings with Sunder, wiping my party. There is no counter to that, you just die. This is just a field encounter. Did they really eschew all scaling by progression and just tossed difficult mobs everywhere or what?

With so much time invested already, I'm pot committed to seeing this through. Amazingly, I have yet to die on a boss. Unlike 12, I will never touch this game again.

[NayusDante]

Portnoyd, I'm at the exact same spot. I thought that maybe I could use the white wolf thing to hurt the Behemoth King, but nope. The Behemoth King is so damn strong that it'll never die unless you're insanely stronger than it, and the white wolf thing just has really good defense. If you made all three characters medics, I guarantee that it would take hours before one killed the other, and then you'd have the Behemoth King not even at his transformation yet.

I would replay XIII if it has New Game+. The story is at least interesting, even if the story telling isn't up to par. The last five cutscenes all equated to "Hey guys, I know the road ahead is tough, but we're going to keep going!" And every single time, they act like the subject of "let's keep going" is completely fresh and original. Still, it's at least understandable, unlike XII where it's just trying to be fantasy Star Wars with too much talk of battles and factions between the dogfight cutscenes.

I'll admit I didn't buy XIII for its gameplay, but I must admit that it's not the most enjoyable game. Makes a nice anime, but that's not what a game should be.

If this is where JRPGs are going, stop the train and purge me now.

[kupomogli]

Capcom needs to release Breath of Fire 6 with how bad the RPG market is now. BoF is an amazing series and releasing a good game in a market that is really in need of a good RPG would give the game a larger fanbase.

[c0ldb33r]

The first time you encounter behemoth kings, in that large free roaming area, they are too tough to beat and should be avoided. Post dame, they are easily dealt with.

[portnoyd]

Portnoyd, I'm at the exact same spot. I thought that maybe I could use the white wolf thing to hurt the Behemoth King, but nope. The Behemoth King is so damn strong that it'll never die unless you're insanely stronger than it, and the white wolf thing just has really good defense. If you made all three characters medics, I guarantee that it would take hours before one killed the other, and then you'd have the Behemoth King not even at his transformation yet.

The transformation is really what just makes it overpowered. I have killed one of these before without a preemptive because he kept sundering Lightning while Sazh and Vanille were very far away. Sazh would deal damage and Vanille, in a brief moment of genius on the combat AI's part, spam raise (yay for no MP in this game?). Took a while but he eventually went down. Had he come over by the other two, it would have been over, quickly.


The first time you encounter behemoth kings, in that large free roaming area, they are too tough to beat and should be avoided. Post dame, they are easily dealt with.

Well, I agree that this should be a given but this isn't a game like WoW where the world is diverse and broken up into areas with different level requirements. The game has essentially been a rail RPG and now it's open and it's not. Consistency would be nice.


I would replay XIII if it has New Game+. The story is at least interesting, even if the story telling isn't up to par. The last five cutscenes all equated to "Hey guys, I know the road ahead is tough, but we're going to keep going!" And every single time, they act like the subject of "let's keep going" is completely fresh and original.

There is so much THIS in this quote that I wish this is what I typed for my last post. Seriously couldn't have said it better myself.

[badinsults]

The game really climaxes at around the end of chapter 9. I'm in Chapter 13 right now, and it just keeps going and going. Let me finish the goddamn game instead of throwing out a bunch more pointless fight! Hell, even the chapter on going to Pulse seems pointless, as they don't explain what happened to the planet. I'm hoping that after the game is over that there is more explanation, but I doubt it.

[c0ldb33r]

I'm interested to hear what you guys think about the final boss.

[brykasch]

You mean besides the fact that Orphan is a complete joke of a final boss?

Really the game breaks down to how your allocating your crystarium, and your paradigms, and when to switch paradigms.

Tips-

Get accessory, atb charge, and role level in that order. Then work on HP/Str for Fang, HP/Magic for Hope, HP/Magic/Str for lightning.

Lightning, Fang, and Hope are your best group makeup.

Get lightnings fast stagger weapon, use tri-disaster and armor of one ability to get a quick stagger, then turn to the 2 commando one ravager paradigm once staggered to tear a new one.

You can easily max out your crystarium rings without much farming. I didnt because I wanted to finish, but be careful in the last room, I zigged where I shoulda zagged and missed a ton of treasure spheres and couldnt go back to get them.

[portnoyd]

Thanks for telling me who the last boss is.

[badinsults]

I finally passed the game, after 56 hours. A solid 15 hours was spent doing side quests on Pulse, and it still disappoints me how little is explained about what happened there. Time to achievement farm now, I guess. Some people were complaining about how confusing the ending was, but really, I thought it was almost too predictable what would happen. You know, I do recommend this game, but it certainly isn't for people who just want to quickly get to the end. This game is very long, and I probably spent more time on this game than most others.

[portnoyd]

Behold! More complaining from Port!


Portnoyd, I'm at the exact same spot. I thought that maybe I could use the white wolf thing to hurt the Behemoth King, but nope. The Behemoth King is so damn strong that it'll never die unless you're insanely stronger than it, and the white wolf thing just has really good defense. If you made all three characters medics, I guarantee that it would take hours before one killed the other, and then you'd have the Behemoth King not even at his transformation yet.

So I tried these fuckers again. Since they are very easy to preemptive strike, it's actually doable... if Lightning wouldn't attack the fucking wolf. So the wolf dies and the king focuses on you and you die instantly.

And that's yet another beef I have with this game. Snow, Fang and Lightning all refuse to attack the same target. What the hell? Ever heard of focus fire? I died several times on 4 flans because not having focus fire let them merge too easily. And I love how they'll change targets if you switch to theirs. Give me a fucking break!


Lightning, Fang, and Hope are your best group makeup.

As it turns out, I set my team to this prior to making my first bitch post. The only problem is the whole Lightning won't attack the same target thing. Otherwise, they would slaughter everything in sight.

In my progress news, I moved onto the next area and realized that it is probably the best grinding area so far. The Hoplites are jokes and the bombs can be controlled with spam blitz/ruinga. I've gotten so many upgrade components that are amazing (Bomb Cores and Solenoids) that I could probably take a new weapon for all 3 of my active party members from level 1 to level 10.

So here's a question. They opened up all roles for every character. Is there a point in leveling any of them? I don't want to spend tons of XP on a role that is very gimped because it has 1-2 abilities and I'm getting by just fine with the 3 leveled roles each toon already has.

[Eternal Tune]

Behold! More complaining from Port!
And that's yet another beef I have with this game. Snow, Fang and Lightning all refuse to attack the same target.

It's because commandos do whatever the fuck they want and hate another commando in the party.

Example:

If you are playing Lightning and she is a commando and everyone else is anything BESIDES another commando, they will attack the same enemy you are.

If you are playing as Lightning as a commando and you have either or both of the other two as commandos...they do what the fuck they want. More then likely not what you want them to do, unless an enemy is staggering.

Now if you have Lightning as a RAV and just one of the other two buttheads as a commando, everyone will follow your lead.

It comes down to the game only wants one person as a commando in your party. AND the only reason to EVER have more then one commando is because an enemy is staggering and you want to keep juggling them in the air and keep them there.

If there is only one enemy it isn't a problem. Multiples are. Later in the game it's best to have someone always draw attention as a sentinel. (either Fang or Snow since they have really high HP) At least for the start of battle.

Also, you are doing it wrong Port. NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER remove Hope from your party. He's the best damned mage in that game.

[NayusDante]

So I'm at the tower now, just a few minutes shy of 30 hours.

I've put up with the silly map layouts and lack of coherency in the game flow, but this is a blatant time sink. What does this tower have to do with the story? Why didn't Vanille just lasso one of those big bird-dragon things flying around outside (like she did on the airship) and use THAT instead of climbing a tower that's obviously home to a big scary Pulse fal'Cie? Now I have to do missions for big statues.

The linearity worked at the beginning, but now it's just stupid. These areas don't add anything to the story, and it feels artificially inflated. It doesn't help that the level of JRPG absurdity is through the roof. Every cutscene is less interesting than the last, and it's getting tiresome.

I'll still finish the game, but it's become a chore at this point. I haven't really enjoyed it since about chapter 6. It's nice to look at, but I'm not finding any substance underneath. Hey, it's just like Avatar...



And you know what? I'm almost all the way through the game and I STILL have no idea what direction is north. I have no idea how big Cocoon is, or what areas are in what position relative to each other. That's beyond JRPG absurdity, it's utter nonsense.

[badinsults]

Actually, the best strategy to kill behemoths if you are at fairly low strength is to go into the fight normally, ravage the shit out of them to build the chain gauge, but don't allow it to stagger the enemy. When the behemoth transforms, it regains all its health, but the chain gauge stays the same. The chain gauge rises very slowly after it transforms, so if you stagger it and don't kill it outright before it transforms, you are in for a long battle.

[portnoyd]

52 hours and I'm done. I dodged so many damn enemies getting to the end. Couldn't take it anymore. The last boss was an intended joke, the one before was a minor joke and the real last boss imo. Even then, he was easy as long as you realize the Merciless Judgment isn't a percentage based attack like Weak is in other games.

The ending made sense, I guess. And I love how they open up the rest of the Crystalnarium after you beat the game. Yeah, 30k hops to master each class? LOLOLOL, fuck you Squareenix.

[c0ldb33r]

What's funny is that the guide says that in order to beat some of the extra missions, your characters should have mastered all the roles.

Screw that, it would take FOREVER!

[badinsults]

I played around for about 6 hours after beating the game (enough to get the achievements for mastering each class), but after playing some of the later cie'th stone missions, I doubt it is possible to beat them without maxing your character out. Seriously, in the Titan missions, there is this plant creature that will regularly hit you with every status ailment, then kill you off with this attack that takes off at least 9000 HP. Many of the other enemies do similar things. Also, there is an achievement for holding every single accessory and weapon, but I don't want to know how much grinding you would have to do to get enough components to level everything up to do that. Considering how unnecessary leveling up your equipment is to beat the game, I think that it is insanity.

[kupomogli]

This game is $30 at Kmart right now.

[eskobar]

This game is $30 at Kmart right now.

damn it :grrr: i went to McAllen the last week and paid 60 + tx for it :(

same price on gamestop and target

:cheers:

[c0ldb33r]

30 bucks? that's pretty good. If it takes you 60 hours to beat it that's only 50 cents per hour.

Not bad value :D

[kupomogli]

damn it :grrr: i went to McAllen the last week and paid 60 + tx for it :(

same price on gamestop and target

:cheers:

If it's still sealed bring it back with receipt to get your $60 back. Or you could always go to Kmart, purchase it and then bring the sealed copy back if you still have your receipt. If you're like me though, you probably won't be able to find your receipt or already have thrown it in the trash.

[DONNIemo]

I'm having a hell of a time with Vanelle's Gestalt monster, as its right after a cut scene, it only lets me use Vanelle and Fang, and they are not my best fighters and i keep dieing! its been 2 weeks now and i still cant do it, does anyone have any tips for me? like what classes to have them as??

Any help would be great thank you. (its chapter 9 i beleave)

[NayusDante]

OOOOOH! So THAT'S why Cocoon didn't make any sense! You finally see in the end cutscene for Chapter 11 that there's an ocean on the surface, with continents, so it's a regular planet, not just the hollow piece of weirdness that I originally thought it was. Now I have to figure out which areas were inside and which were on the surface...

...but now Cocoon is a thousand times bigger than what I thought it was. IT STILL DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!

[badinsults]

I'm having a hell of a time with Vanelle's Gestalt monster, as its right after a cut scene, it only lets me use Vanelle and Fang, and they are not my best fighters and i keep dieing! its been 2 weeks now and i still cant do it, does anyone have any tips for me? like what classes to have them as??

Any help would be great thank you. (its chapter 9 i beleave)

Really, I ended up going back and doing a bunch of cie'th stone missions before I was strong enough to beat that fight. If you have less than 3000 HP, it is unlikely you will survive a directed assault by the monster. I guess the thing I did was to start off with a Saboteur/Commando (or sentinel) paradigm and make sure that the monster has deshell and imperil before switching off to do Ravanger/Comando (and healing when needed).

[portnoyd]

I'm having a hell of a time with Vanelle's Gestalt monster, as its right after a cut scene, it only lets me use Vanelle and Fang, and they are not my best fighters and i keep dieing! its been 2 weeks now and i still cant do it, does anyone have any tips for me? like what classes to have them as??

Any help would be great thank you. (its chapter 9 i beleave)

Saboteur/Sentinel, spam debuffs as any action of the main 3 roles of the character who spawned the Eidolon will build Gestalt. Damage is ok, healing builds awful meter but debuffs are quick 1bar casts. Fwiw, I think I had less than 100 on my Doom count.


OOOOOH! So THAT'S why Cocoon didn't make any sense! You finally see in the end cutscene for Chapter 11 that there's an ocean on the surface, with continents, so it's a regular planet, not just the hollow piece of weirdness that I originally thought it was. Now I have to figure out which areas were inside and which were on the surface...

...but now Cocoon is a thousand times bigger than what I thought it was. IT STILL DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!

Wait, Cocoon is a planet? I thought it was hollow too... and I beat the game. God, fuck you Squeenix yet again.

[DONNIemo]

Really, I ended up going back and doing a bunch of cie'th stone missions before I was strong enough to beat that fight. If you have less than 3000 HP, it is unlikely you will survive a directed assault by the monster. I guess the thing I did was to start off with a Saboteur/Commando (or sentinel) paradigm and make sure that the monster has deshell and imperil before switching off to do Ravanger/Comando (and healing when needed).

Cool Ill give it a try this weekend, i think they are about 2000 HP from memory, i just dont like using Vanelle and Fang, but you dont get a choice.

ALSO its chapter 11 Grand Pulse sorry not 9.

[NayusDante]

I'm at the final boss fight of Chapter 12 (Proudclad again), and a few of my characters have JUST passed 3000 hp. Then again, my timer is still at 33 hours or so.

[eskobar]

If it's still sealed bring it back with receipt to get your $60 back. Or you could always go to Kmart, purchase it and then bring the sealed copy back if you still have your receipt. If you're like me though, you probably won't be able to find your receipt or already have thrown it in the trash.

the game is still sealed .... but i think that mi next visit to the US will be in 2 months :oops:

[NayusDante]

So I'm at the end of Chapter 12 and the Proudclad 2 is whooping my ass. Monsters here give LESS CP than the ones I was facing a few hours ago. Is the game laughing at me? What's a decent way to grind around here?

[SPAZ-12]

I haven't touched this game (and couldn't if I wanted to, not having any next gen. systemes), I've just been reading this thread because I've found the bashing of this game entertaining (I don't like JRPGs, or RPGs in general). I just have a quick question:

So I'm at the tower now, just a few minutes shy of 30 hours.

Is there a gameplay timer built into this game, or do you guys actually time yourselves? I tend to estimate the time I've invested in a game, but it seems most people in this thread know their time to within an hour.

That is all.

[NayusDante]

There's a timer on the menu screen, like most RPGs. I'm about 37 in now.

[portnoyd]

So I'm at the end of Chapter 12 and the Proudclad 2 is whooping my ass. Monsters here give LESS CP than the ones I was facing a few hours ago. Is the game laughing at me? What's a decent way to grind around here?

Proudclad 2 sucked, considering how easy Proudclad 1 was.

The best place to grind is the area right after the open plains on Pulse, i.e. back in Chapter 11. :P

[NayusDante]

But I can't get back there right now, can I? Everything here is absolutely insane except for the Cieth...

[portnoyd]

Yeah, which sucks. The game really isn't ever not linear until the very end which is just stupid.

[NayusDante]

And now I'm fighting the Wladisaos or whatever it is. I ran away from most of the stuff in this dungeon, and that was AFTER spending about an hour or to back on Pulse. FF used to be at least somewhat balanced...

[NayusDante]

And now I'm farming it. Commando-Medic-Sentinel for ten minutes (or was it more?) and it's dead. Horribly depressing way to grind, but it works. I need a break... >_<

[badinsults]

And now I'm farming it. Commando-Medic-Sentinel for ten minutes (or was it more?) and it's dead. Horribly depressing way to grind, but it works. I need a break... >_<


That strategy works, but to speed it up, add a paradigm with a ravager instead of commando so that you can build up the chain gauge, and switch back to the one with commando occasionally to keep the chain gauge from depleting. I think with the second Proudclad, I switched between Commando-Sentinel-Ravager to Medic-Commando-Medic to kill the foe. Casting haste on everyone is always a good start of the battle strategy for any battle that cannot be won in one or two rounds (meaning you have to switch Lightning with Sahz if you are using Vanille as your main healer/ravager instead of Hope).

[NayusDante]

For some reason, Sazh's stats are much lower than everyone else's in my game. For that reason, I haven't used him since early on. Fang is crazy powerful, while Hope and Vanille are uber-mages. Lightning is kinda in-between, and Snow isn't good for much other than Sentinel. It would be nice if Vanille learns Haste, but I've mostly gotten by without it.

I'm probably going to grind tomorrow with Fang, Vanille, and Snow as Com-Med-Sen. I can't switch out of that for more than one round before I need a medic, to get an idea of how underpowered I am.

[portnoyd]

Wow, you are indeed underpowered. The only time I needed to use Sentinel was on the bullshit hoverbikes with the Gatling Gun that you needed to steelguard or Snow died.

After I grinded on Pulse, I'd say about 60-70% of the battles I could power through with Com-Rav-Rav or Com-Com-Rav, keeping in mind that one character may be very low on HP or down at the end.

[NayusDante]

SWEET JESUS, IT'S OVER!

What the hell did I just play through?



Before I go into post-analysis of the story and all of that, I only had to grind that thing with a pseudo-German name for about an hour and a half before I could just fight everything on the road ahead and get through the boss battles. I just kept the same patter of attacking with a dedicated medic and sentinel, and nothing took more than a few minutes. I died once on the final form of Orphan, but after that I made sure to debuff and it was a 2-minute fight. I think I'm done with this game, not really interested in grinding the missions or filling the crystarium.


As for the story, there are SOOOOO many issues that it's not even funny. I've got a little transcript of the 2nd half of the game (Chapter 8-13; spoilers ahead)...


Hope: "We need to save the planet"
Snow: "SERAH!"
Lightning: "No, that's what THEY want us to do! We need to destroy the planet!"
Snow: "SERAH!!!1111"
Hope: "I know it's hard guys, but we need to keep going and fulfill our destiny."
Snow: "SERAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
Sazh: "Oh snap, they're EMO GODS, and they wanted us to kill them all along!"
Hope: "I know it's hard guys, but we need to keep going and fulfill our destiny. Also, I have not said this before."
Orphan: "Two chapters ago, I was described as a battery! Now I am a sword, and I want you to kill me! SALVATION! PAIN! SALVATION!"
*Cocoon melts and reforms*
Leona Lewis: "My hands! Your hands! My hands! Your hands!"
Snow: "SERAH?"
Serah: "...and there were a bunch of chocobos there!"
Dodge: "Neat!"
-SQUARE ENIX-

Seriously, that's all I got from the second half of the game. And they want to make a direct sequel?

[badinsults]

Yeah, like I said before, the story kind of dies out around the end of Chapter 9. I can't see them making any kind of good story to follow this up, unless they are making a prequel to make sense of the confusing War of Transgression. It is a good thing I found the battle system to be interesting enough to keep at the game.

[kupomogli]

I was going to avoid this game, but since it was 29.99 at Kmart I ended up picking it up early since it will probably be about a year or so before it's 19.99 or less.

Of course I'll be playing Red Dead Redemption as soon as it comes out in the next couple weeks, so this game won't be touched for awhile. Still need to finish the Ballad of Gay Tony as well.

[BHvrd]

Just picked this up recently myself as money was tight and other games came first, but I gotta say i'm enjoying the fuck out of it!

Quite possibly my favorite Final Fantasy game ever..... well, maybe doesn't beat Final Fantasy Tactics. Given i've never been a HUGE Final Fantasy fan as exploration is not my cup of tea, but i've always liked the combat and this one has alot. :D

I think the game is quite beautiful so far, I myself like the characters alot and think the story and the universe are quite believable and very artistic. So far seems like it has been underrated imho. I like it... alot.

[kupomogli]

I actually also started. About two hours in. Attacks seem a little bit limited right now being that I can either use an area attack or just regularly attack.

I thought I'd hate the lack of exploration but it's not bad. Characters seem likeable so far as well.

[kupomogli]

Final Fantasy 13 sucks ass. The limited exploration doesn't bother me or atleast it's yet to bother me. The storyline isn't bad and the music isn't bad except for the crappy battle theme. Now I'm only about five hours into the game but the battle system is so shitty I can't put anymore time into it. This is easily one of the worst RPGs I've ever played.

After becoming a L'cie you're still extremely limited in your actions. The speed of the ATB is so quick that it really forces you to repeatedly put your character into auto battle which in turn the game picks the best course of action. What's worse is that the game recommends for you to choose auto battle. You can change the ATB speed to slow, but then it's 10 times slower and you have every action input and then waiting quite awhile before the action bar is full. Battles last about 30 seconds(so the battle theme barely even starts) but it doesn't matter anyways since they're boring as shit. About two hours into the game you're able to change your characters actions, etc, but it did nothing to help you feel like you were given any sort of control over your characters.

Is it also possible that Square Enix have made a shittier more graphically enhanced version of FF10s sphere grid? Instead of moving over and placing your next skill, you have to hold the X button and press the direction you want to go and wait for the bar to fill up. Can it not just be as simple as moving to the next skill and hitting X?

I'll still try to put more time into it and eventually finish it so to get it out of my backlog but it'll probably never happen.

I should have wiped my ass with that 30 dollars. It would have been a much better use of the money.