Wolf Kanno
03-17-2011, 01:53 AM
I doubt this thread will have a long life considering the real game comes out next week but for those who dove in and picked this up yesterday, what are your thoughts so far. I've been too busy to play story mode but I've taken a few rounds in normal (5 battle) arcade mode so I could check out Kain and Lightning and see how much Kefka got modified.
Lightning is pretty interesting, I wish medic was more practical (and really, Shantatto needs it more than Lightning does) and I was surprised that Lightning isn't as bouncy as I thought she would be. I figured she would have a really over the top move set like Tidus but she's pretty straight forward. Like Cecil, her paradigm roles could be stand alone fighting styles but she can switch them with a hit of the L and R buttons. I screwed up with her Ex-Burst so I didn't get to see the whole thing. :(
Kain, is an overpowered asshole. I blew through arcade mode with him. He's very combo friendly (I so wish Cecil's moves flowed together as well as Kain's do) and yeah, he's a dominating force in the air but he's surprising just as good on the ground. Jump is an awesome HP attack and I love the fact I can charge it for delay. I don't care for his EX-Mode, I was never fond of the idea of Kain becoming a Holy Dragoon in FFIV:TAY and I honestly feel the outfit is ugly. His EX-Burst is more funny than epic imo. Overall, I have a pretty good feeling Kain is going to be added to my list of mains.
Kefka, he seems a bit faster, which is good cause he needs it. His Firaga Fireball skill is a bit bigger and more noticeable but its hard to tell if it has been nerfed or not. Ultima and the shotgun Blizzaga spells have much faster start-up times but it looks like their damage might have been toned down. His long range Thundaga spell works has a much greater range and it looks like you get some additional lightning bolts for tapping the O button. His EX-Mode is about the same though I did kind of feel like he got slower but then again I only was able to enter it once. I'll have to check to see if he had more changes later.
WoL got a new HP attack that gives him some mid-range ground love. He's retained all his branching attacks and I feel he's become a lot faster since the original. The animation for his EX-Burst seems a bit different as well. Alo, he's awesome in his new Fighter alt. :D
Garland, Flare is nasty and finally gives him some close range aerial HP game. Overall, he doesn't feel very different beyond his new move and his faster Flame and Tornado attacks. His Amano Chaos Alt, is pretty nice as well.
I haven't played Sephiroth or Jecht yet, and I've heard Cloud is unlockable. I'll get to them later. XIII's stage is HUGE probably the size of the Rift/Lunar Subterrain at least. I haven't seen the others yet but I'll probably see them in story mode or arcade hard mode.
Changes:
EX Cores give much less points for your EX gauge. Really, you have to actively prolong some of the fights just to reach it cause I swear it only gives as much as half as much as it used to.
EX Revenge, taking a cue from other fighting games, you can sacrifice your EX gauge to activate this. It slows down time and the background goes black and white. Let's you basically score a few good hits in and break an enemies attack. This might be the answer we need to counter Cloud and Jecht. It is also possible to knock opponents out of EX-Mode though I have yet to figure out how to do this but it looks like it has to do with the Assist attacks.
Assist Attacks, are pretty fun, sadly Prologus doesn't let you control who your partner is or what moves they will use. Mateus and Lightning have been especially cool Assist characters. Charging them is easy and you will certainly be using them a lot. I kind of wish I had access to Squall or Cecil cause I feel these two would benefit the most from this system. It's activated by the L button and the O for Brave Assist and square for HP assist. Combo attacks with the Assist is fun and easier than I thought it would be.
The game also gives access to some of the new music. I'm not really impressed since Dissidia 1 had most of my fave battle themes from the series already and even then I don't care for some of the remixes but I'm bias. Chaos Temple from FFI and Esper Battle from FFXII are pretty awesome as well as the tracks from XIII. J-E-N-O-V-A is a sad remix and is four for four of bad remixes of good music from FFVII imo. :(
My only beef so far has been the fact that now that the L button is being used for Assist moves, it feels like the targeting system is really unresponsive. Trying to switch between a target and the EX Core is more pain than it should be and it really hates responding to having the target removed from your opponent and then your opponent walks off screen. I took a few cheap shots off screen cause I couldn't get targeting back onto him. I can only hope this is something exclusive to Prologus and the real game will fix it.
Lightning is pretty interesting, I wish medic was more practical (and really, Shantatto needs it more than Lightning does) and I was surprised that Lightning isn't as bouncy as I thought she would be. I figured she would have a really over the top move set like Tidus but she's pretty straight forward. Like Cecil, her paradigm roles could be stand alone fighting styles but she can switch them with a hit of the L and R buttons. I screwed up with her Ex-Burst so I didn't get to see the whole thing. :(
Kain, is an overpowered asshole. I blew through arcade mode with him. He's very combo friendly (I so wish Cecil's moves flowed together as well as Kain's do) and yeah, he's a dominating force in the air but he's surprising just as good on the ground. Jump is an awesome HP attack and I love the fact I can charge it for delay. I don't care for his EX-Mode, I was never fond of the idea of Kain becoming a Holy Dragoon in FFIV:TAY and I honestly feel the outfit is ugly. His EX-Burst is more funny than epic imo. Overall, I have a pretty good feeling Kain is going to be added to my list of mains.
Kefka, he seems a bit faster, which is good cause he needs it. His Firaga Fireball skill is a bit bigger and more noticeable but its hard to tell if it has been nerfed or not. Ultima and the shotgun Blizzaga spells have much faster start-up times but it looks like their damage might have been toned down. His long range Thundaga spell works has a much greater range and it looks like you get some additional lightning bolts for tapping the O button. His EX-Mode is about the same though I did kind of feel like he got slower but then again I only was able to enter it once. I'll have to check to see if he had more changes later.
WoL got a new HP attack that gives him some mid-range ground love. He's retained all his branching attacks and I feel he's become a lot faster since the original. The animation for his EX-Burst seems a bit different as well. Alo, he's awesome in his new Fighter alt. :D
Garland, Flare is nasty and finally gives him some close range aerial HP game. Overall, he doesn't feel very different beyond his new move and his faster Flame and Tornado attacks. His Amano Chaos Alt, is pretty nice as well.
I haven't played Sephiroth or Jecht yet, and I've heard Cloud is unlockable. I'll get to them later. XIII's stage is HUGE probably the size of the Rift/Lunar Subterrain at least. I haven't seen the others yet but I'll probably see them in story mode or arcade hard mode.
Changes:
EX Cores give much less points for your EX gauge. Really, you have to actively prolong some of the fights just to reach it cause I swear it only gives as much as half as much as it used to.
EX Revenge, taking a cue from other fighting games, you can sacrifice your EX gauge to activate this. It slows down time and the background goes black and white. Let's you basically score a few good hits in and break an enemies attack. This might be the answer we need to counter Cloud and Jecht. It is also possible to knock opponents out of EX-Mode though I have yet to figure out how to do this but it looks like it has to do with the Assist attacks.
Assist Attacks, are pretty fun, sadly Prologus doesn't let you control who your partner is or what moves they will use. Mateus and Lightning have been especially cool Assist characters. Charging them is easy and you will certainly be using them a lot. I kind of wish I had access to Squall or Cecil cause I feel these two would benefit the most from this system. It's activated by the L button and the O for Brave Assist and square for HP assist. Combo attacks with the Assist is fun and easier than I thought it would be.
The game also gives access to some of the new music. I'm not really impressed since Dissidia 1 had most of my fave battle themes from the series already and even then I don't care for some of the remixes but I'm bias. Chaos Temple from FFI and Esper Battle from FFXII are pretty awesome as well as the tracks from XIII. J-E-N-O-V-A is a sad remix and is four for four of bad remixes of good music from FFVII imo. :(
My only beef so far has been the fact that now that the L button is being used for Assist moves, it feels like the targeting system is really unresponsive. Trying to switch between a target and the EX Core is more pain than it should be and it really hates responding to having the target removed from your opponent and then your opponent walks off screen. I took a few cheap shots off screen cause I couldn't get targeting back onto him. I can only hope this is something exclusive to Prologus and the real game will fix it.