So Has Anyone Started Playing Yet?

[DMKA]

Lets talk about our progress and such.

I still have to wait until I get home in a couple hours to play. >:/

[Vyk]

I had to work and then take a nap. But I'll probably pop it in here shortly. Though I'm surprised there weren't any midnight release threads or anything. It could be most people are being respectful of the European audience and not making threads that could be considered rubbing it in the faces of people who still have to wait a few days to get their hands on it

[Leigh]

It could be most people are being respectful of the European audience and not making threads that could be considered rubbing it in the faces of people who still have to wait a few days to get their hands on it

That just goes to show you how nice this community is! :) The Internet normally being sociopathic by default.

[Colonel Angus]

It probably has a lot more w/ nobody owning the current generation of systems to play this on.

[Vyk]

I just played it, but I will be considerate :P All I can say is I liked what I played of it so far. But I won't rub anything in

[DMKA]

I've been playing for about an hour and a half now. I'm liking the gameplay, but the story...well umm...yeah.

If you thought the story in the XIII games was a clustersmurf, hoo boy...I feel like I've walked in an hour late on a foreign language film with no subtitles.

[Vyk]

It actually reminds me of things like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem (Awakening [the only one I've played]) Where they just throw a lot of political information at you without a lot of context. Kind of need a wiki in order to keep all the names and places in order. But after that its not so bad

[noxious.sunshine]

I'm liking it... The story is a bit confusing, but the gameplay is pretty unique for FF.

There's a certain something that I absolutely HATE the design of though.

And the opening song is nice. I'd forgotten all about who sang it, but I used to have one of their cds back in the day.. XD

[Aulayna]

Sadly, thanks to Twitter and Twitch chat, quite a lot of Type-0 HD and the Duscae demo have been spoiled for me. My hype level has been crushed. :(

Still, it will be here on Friday, maybe the flame can be rekindled.

[JKTrix]

If anyone knows/can figure out what the different symbols mean on the Ability screens, that would be great.
63634
Figured out that the one at the top by 'Quick Reflexes' is for passive skills that you don't have to equip. They're often linked to additional Square-combo moves you can do, as well. Haven't figured out any consistencies between the other arrow symbols just yet, after about 5 hours.

One thing I did learn is what the abbreviations next to the Spell names are, like the BOM after Blizzard.
BOM = Bomb
RF = Rifle
SHG = Shotgun.

It's shorthand for how the magic is 'launched' from you. Each individual spell will say how the magic bullet behaves, but if you can't see that description the shorthand helps.

[Pheesh]

The gameplay seems alright, it does throw you in the deep end with the abilities and stuff though. The graphics are pretty bad, I get that this is a port from a much older gen, but it is still jarring to see graphics like that when you fire up your PS4. The story is total codswallop though, I understand the bare bones of what is going on, but the way it is presented to you is just atrocious. Especially....the 5 minutes....of this guy....dying....and saying....Machina....Ace....No....don't want to die....Chichiri........wait....not dead yet....



.....now I'm dead

[Loony BoB]

The gameplay seems alright, it does throw you in the deep end with the abilities and stuff though. The graphics are pretty bad, I get that this is a port from a much older gen, but it is still jarring to see graphics like that when you fire up your PS4. The story is total codswallop though, I understand the bare bones of what is going on, but the way it is presented to you is just atrocious. Especially....the 5 minutes....of this guy....dying....and saying....Machina....Ace....No....don't want to die....Chichiri........wait....not dead yet....



.....now I'm dead
Dude that was the best part of the game so far. :( Well, I say best, I mean... it was the part that left the biggest impact on me. Everything else so far has been okay at best, but that opening scene, bloody (so bloody) hell.

[Pheesh]

I liked the gritty aspect of the battle and remarked to Night Fury that it was very pleasantly unexpected from a FF game, but half the stuff that one kid was saying as he died made no sense, and equally ridiculous was that they left him there to suffer and Ace only "said goodbye" after he was actually dead. Silly writing imo.

[Loony BoB]

I think that part makes a little more sense when you get more of an understanding that they don't look at death the same way we do. Hard to say so early in the game, but that's the impression I got from a discussion early in chapter two.

[Aulayna]

The story really does have XIII-syndrome.

So much of it is fleshed out in the journal thing in the Crystarium in Akademeia and through the little green ! events you can do around Akademeia before a Mission Day starts. Also, annoyingly, different characters may have different events available - though usually these will show up as ? for other characters and give you a hint which character you need to go with. It's just a pain the rear that the only way to switch your active character is to trek all the way back to a Save relic...

But yeah I'd recommend taking the time to do the ! events etc, the story that gets given to you after you finish missions is very... disjointed

[Leigh]

Anybody decide to take the machistic approach and launch into Agito difficulty right off the bat, with the arrogance that you might be able to handle it, only to die 100 times in 30 minutes? Prompting a complete game restart amidst tears and deliberate self harm?

[Loony BoB]

Nope, haven't gone that distance yet. Just went in under the normal difficulty (the middle one that was selected by default).

[Leigh]

Especially....the 5 minutes....of this guy....dying....and saying....Machina....Ace....No....don't want to die....Chichiri........wait....not dead yet....

.....now I'm dead

Suggestion. Avoid watching any anime in the future to avoid another flare up of this symptom. ;)