Crow taste surprisingly a lot like gatorade

[Ayen]

So, over the weekend I was abducted by a group of Italian Midgets and taken to a basement in an undisclosed location and forced to play Final Fantasy XIII at gunpoint. Luckily for me it was the PS3 version and not the X360 because even Italian Midgets aren't that cruel.

I don't know if it's the lack of oxygen, or the gun to my head, but... the game isn't as bad as I remember it being.

Maybe it's because I'm older, was in a better mindset to focus and turn into a crystal for eternal life, or maybe it's just because I had the PS3 version and HD, but pretty much everything I remember being terrible was inaccurate.

Snow didn't make me want to rip off my ears and throw them into a garbage disposer, and the voice acting so far is solid, and maybe even an improvement on the last game. Even if the writing isn't the best. But it says a lot about the cast that they're able to overcome the weakness in the writing. Except all the hero lines, those are just cheesy. They don't waste time with the melodramatics, but I thought they balanced it out just fine with some humorous moments, too. Sazh is hilarious, and Snow's back and forth with his buddies at the start were genuinely funny.

The beginning reminds me a lot of FFVII. A lot. Lightning whole backstory right now sounds like they checked off the Cloud checklist as quickly as they could. You're riding on the train, and there's even a metal scorpion running around. Though there's also some specs of IX thrown in there too with all the jumping around between main characters until they unite towards the end of the chapter. Though the city itself with the streets in the sky reminds me more of Zanarkand than anything. If Zanarkand had a green tint and felt like you were in the Matrix.

Battle System keeps the more fast-pace approach that was first established in X-2, but is a bit more faster than what I remember X-2 being. The tutorial seems to be the only time you get a chance to take everything in. After that you're either quick on your feet or you're dead. Potions being able to cure all party members at the same time is a godsend! So, yeah, if you're more into the slower turn-based types the game's not for you. There's more to it than the popular 'press X to win' method of older games, and a lot to remember at the get-go. I still haven't fully mastered Staggering yet, and I'm gonna have to if I want to get anywhere.

I'm only on Chapter 3 right now, so I haven't played enough of the game to have a full concrete opinion on it just yet, but I'll play what I can when I have time. I'm about to try to beat Manasavin Warmech again. Does the Paradigm system become more varied later? Because right now I get the sense I'm going to find it annoying after a while. It's basically just,

Switch!
Switch!
Switch!
Switch!
Switch!
Switch!
Me: HEAL! HEAL! HEAL!
Vanille: I AM HEALING!
Me: HEAL FASTER DAMN YOU! -use potion-
Manasavin Warmech: -kills you before you can use it-
Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Smurfing asshole.
......
......
......
......
-laughs nervously- Why do you guys look so eager for your ATB gauges to fill up?

[Fynn]

You're dead to me :stare:

Seriously though, the paradigms open up way too late and the game wouldn't be half as bad if it didn't just force you to play it the way it wants you to. The rubbish story and terrible characters are just nails to the coffin, really. XIII fails as a game because it refuses to let you do your own thing at all.

[fat_moogle]

FFXIII isn't as bad as a lot of people make it out to be. I'm glad you're enjoying it this time :)

[Ayen]

You're dead to me :stare:

Good. I don't have to listen to you whine about X anymore.

[Fynn]

You're dead to me :stare:

Good. I don't have to listen to you whine about X anymore.

I'm not whining. It's the gospel truth :p

[Ayen]

If it makes you feel any better, Manasavin Warmech (lol that is such a dumn name) hates Snow about as much as you do.

Finally beat that asshole, btw.

[Karifean]

There is variety to be had in the jobs, but the game is easy enough that you can get by doing the same monotonous thing over and over again. So you have to actively seek it out. I'd almost recommend banning Auto-Battle just to encourage playing around with all the options you get more. Makes your battling more effective too and might help you keep your five stars up all the way.

[Ayen]

I just got my ass handed to me by some random enemies after the group separated and it was just Lightning and Hope hanging around. They keep doing a charge attack that sucks away all my HP in one go so it doesn't matter what I do. Every time I get used to a new style they switch it up again to where I'm back to not knowing what I'm doing.

Edit: Forgot to enhance them. Oops.

[Fynn]

It's not that I hate Snow. I just don't like how dumb he is :roll2

Though to be fair, I was giving the game a fair go. By chapter 3, I was still enjoying myself. Good luck with the chapters immediately preceding Gran Pulse, as at that point the game's flaws become increasingly noticeable.

Still, it's great that you can get some enjoyment out of it. It was kinda baffling to me that, as a critic, you simply dismissed the game completely without giving it a fair chance. And the voice acting was never terrible, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's better than XII's :p

[Ayen]

I had bad experiences with the fanbase and I misplaced my anger towards the game itself, that's all.

I don't like summon battles. Anything with a time limit is annoying. Doesn't help that Odin completely kicked my ass before I could muster up any kind of offense. Maybe I should grind more...

[Mr. Carnelian]

I had bad experiences with the fanbase and I misplaced my anger towards the game itself, that's all.

I don't like summon battles. Anything with a time limit is annoying. Doesn't help that Odin completely kicked my ass before I could muster up any kind of offense. Maybe I should grind more...

The Odin summon battle is smurfing tricky. It's probably because it was earlier on and I hadn't got a full grasp on the gameplay, but I found it the second or third hardest battle in the whole game.

God knows, this game has its flaws. But, so does every game. If you're getting some enjoyment out of it, that's the important thing. :)

[Fynn]

Well, I'm sure happy that you guys can enjoy this game. I just personally think XIII's flaws go beyond simple flaws and just go into everything-falls-apart-even-though-the-ideas-were-nice territory, which I just like to point out so that people are aware of this, and by extention Square Enix may somehow also be aware of this so that we get better quality games in the future :monster:

[Ayen]

I had bad experiences with the fanbase and I misplaced my anger towards the game itself, that's all.

I don't like summon battles. Anything with a time limit is annoying. Doesn't help that Odin completely kicked my ass before I could muster up any kind of offense. Maybe I should grind more...

The Odin summon battle is smurfing tricky. It's probably because it was earlier on and I hadn't got a full grasp on the gameplay, but I found it the second or third hardest battle in the whole game.

God knows, this game has its flaws. But, so does every game. If you're getting some enjoyment out of it, that's the important thing. :)

Oh, good, it's not just me, then. I'll probably have to look up a guide or something.

The battle right before the Shiva fight pissed me off. I had no idea I was supposed to lose so I wasted all my potions on that one fight.

So far the first four chapters have felt like one very long tutorial.

[Fynn]

Yeah, it's like that until around chapter ten.

[Formalhaut]

I enjoyed FFXIII. Of the trilogy, I would say it had arguably the better contained story, but probably the worst game-play of the three. The system itself isn't bad at all, and it does allow for tactical consideration.

However, the execution was flawed. By the end game, a party of Lightning, Hope and Fang is essentially mandatory due to them three being the best team in the game. Sazh has below average stats, which cripples him. Snow is your best tank (and is worth swapping for the hardest bosses) but his selection of magic is limited. Vanille is also useful at times where de-buffs rule the strategy, but those type of fights are few and far between and Fang is enough of a saboteur to do the job in most respects.

It is a shame, because everyone can learn every job eventually, and they all vary in what moves they can learn in that pool, but ultimately LHF is the best all-round party. Balance issues is a factor hampering the game play.

The crystarium is flashy and cool-looking, if not exactly providing depth. A system that might have been more useful is if there were choices in the crystarium, where you were forced to select one upgrade over another. FFXIII-2 did this to great effect with the role bonuses, and the crystarium, like the game, is linear.

I also feel as if you should have been given greater access earlier on to different paradigms. While I enjoyed the different viewpoints offered by changing teams, I feel as if it came at the cost of experimentation.

Exploration was another issue. Nautilus is the worst example. Come! Explore a fantastical theme park! Walk around a constrained path with no diversions, mini-games, side-quests or anything! Most of this is down to the cast being fugitives, which is a valid point, but the sheer lack of exploration was grating.

Again, the story is what saved the game. Nautilus's story was actually pretty good thematically: the two of them at the end of the road, enjoying a last moment of respite and calm before the storm which occurs at the end of the chapter. It was hard hitting and impactful. But the game play didn't quite live up to it.

Fortunately, I enjoyed the story enough that I played FFXIII-2 and LR, which were much better games to play.

[Pumpkin]

I like the game. I was actually debating replaying it about 2 days ago but my backlog is too long already

Seriously been debating getting XIII-2 for like 2 years now, and it's super cheap so I just should eventually

[Fynn]

Yeah, i agree that this game could have been salvageable if you had access to the entire crystarium from the beginning, so that you could grind if you wanted, and could customize the characters in any way you see fit, since even the completely unlocked crystaria don't give everyone the same skills, so the characters would have been different enought. That, and there really is no sense of choice whatsoever - it's al; nice and complex looking, but that complexity is only skin-deep because the crystarium itself is actually a line that's just been bent a lot to look nice.

I disagree about the story, however, but I do realize my standards for video game stories are kinda different from what most people expect :roll2 I will say this, though - the lore was interesting. Too bad the execution was so poor.

I am playing FFXIII-2 on and off, actually, and I'm liking it considerably better, though, ironically enough since I'm a MegaTen fan, I'm not wild about the third party member being a monster. I think this might relate to the fact that I just considered their designs just very bland.

[Pumpkin]

It does have it's faults. So does every game :lol:

I think I'm just easy to please when it comes to video games. If you see my video game diary, I like most things that I play. I guess I still easily get enjoyment out of them even with glaring faults

[Ayen]

The exploration may bother me more if I gave a crap about world exploration and side-quests, but I don't. Don't think I ever have, actually. Came to that conclusion last year when I zipped through FFXII just going from one story point to the next. I play for the main quest, so if they want to streamline that, it's no hair off my back.

My only gripes right now is with the camera and an oversaturation of enemies with a Battle System that looks annoying to deal with on its surface. Yesterday while I was playing XIII my brother was also playing a demo of Lightning Returns and we got to talking about the Battle System, and it honestly doesn't sound like they changed much. Only difference he noted was that you could slow things down to get more hits. The rest was more or less the same, and he found it off-putting 'cause it looks irritating, which it is. I switched less gears driving my father's truck. Then you find out you can just change which jobs you want that party member to have in each paradigms, and I'm sitting there like, "Okay, where was this tutorial!?"

Which still doesn't matter because you still need a straight up offense if you want to stagger enemies quickly, and then change to the job that has the healer so you can save on potions. And depending on the type of enemy it still doesn't matter because you switch to the paradigm you need only to have to switch back halfway through because they hit you more than you can hit them.

[Fynn]

Yeah. It's also kind of infuriating that there really is no point in choosing your own attacks as auto-battle really chooses the optimal attacks in a much shorter amount of time than you ever could.

[Karifean]

Yeah. It's also kind of infuriating that there really is no point in choosing your own attacks as auto-battle really chooses the optimal attacks in a much shorter amount of time than you ever could.

No. Just no. This really is blatantly untrue unless you have no idea of the combat system and how it works. Auto-Battle puts priority on completely useless trout and choosing abilities yourself is vital if you want to have any sort of efficiency. I can't count how many times I facepalmed when it decided to go "Ruin - Attack - Attack" on my main physical attacker just because I hadn't yet determined the enemy's physical and magical resistances. Or how many times it switches up elemental spells and strikes because the minimal chain bonus that gives is apparently better than going for the variant that actually deals damage (and also gets casted WAY faster which is something the AIs absolutely NEVER consider). And that's not even going into Synergists and Saboteurs which for the most part have no idea how to prioritize buffs and debuffs properly (worst part is when Synergists only use one buff at a time).

There are legitimate complaints to be had against the FF XIII combat system, no question. I'd even say the very existence of Auto-Battle was a bad choice. But Auto-Battle is not better than choosing abilities yourself. It just isn't.

[Ayen]

Stringing up your own combos to see what works and what doesn't is half the fun, anyway. Soon as I realized I could pick more than one ability per session I was having a lot of fun with it. Auto-Battle really hasn't helped me die less. It's just the lazy man's button.

[Fynn]

Well, the game certainly knew faster than I did which enemy was vulnerable to which element and whether the physical or magical variant would work better, so I stand by my point.

[Mr. Carnelian]

Yesterday while I was playing XIII my brother was also playing a demo of Lightning Returns and we got to talking about the Battle System, and it honestly doesn't sound like they changed much. Only difference he noted was that you could slow things down to get more hits. The rest was more or less the same, and he found it off-putting 'cause it looks irritating, which it is.

Now, this I don't quite get. The Lightning Returns battle system seemed markedly different to the battle system in XIII and XIII-2 to me. Auto-battle is completely gone, only one playable character, three command sets with four commands each - which you assign to each command set - to switch between which have independent ATB gauges, no more class system... How is it the same?

[Fynn]

Yeah, I haven't even played LR yet but I've seen videos and it looks totally different. It's actually the reason I picked up XIII at all in the first place - I wanted to reach that one game that looked the most interesting.

[Ayen]

Yesterday while I was playing XIII my brother was also playing a demo of Lightning Returns and we got to talking about the Battle System, and it honestly doesn't sound like they changed much. Only difference he noted was that you could slow things down to get more hits. The rest was more or less the same, and he found it off-putting 'cause it looks irritating, which it is.

Now, this I don't quite get. The Lightning Returns battle system seemed markedly different to the battle system in XIII and XIII-2 to me. Auto-battle is completely gone, only one playable character, three command sets with four commands each - which you assign to each command set - to switch between which have independent ATB gauges, no more class system... How is it the same?

He probably didn't do a good job of describing it, then. He mentioned the Stagger Gauge, Libra, and Paradigms, and already shared my feelings about constantly switching jobs in one fight. He never played the first one so he has nothing to compare it to. Is the demo that different from the main game?

Edit: Not Libra, but pressing R1 to see the enemy's stats which usually require the use of Libra at least in 1.

[Mr. Carnelian]

He probably didn't do a good job of describing it, then. He mentioned the Stagger Gauge, Libra, and Paradigms, and already shared my feelings about constantly switching jobs in one fight. He never played the first one so he has nothing to compare it to. Is the demo that different from the main game?

Edit: Not Libra, but pressing R1 to see the enemy's stats which usually require the use of Libra at least in 1.

You can still look at enemy's weaknesses and trout with R1. The Stagger Gauge also still exists, but the whole "the faster you stagger someone the quicker they'll recover" thing has been done away with. Paradigms no longer exist: there are no set roles. You customise which actions (e.g. Attack, Mediguard, Fira, etc) each of the command sets (called 'Schemata') she's currently "wearing" have. You pick upgrades for these actions by killing trout, mainly.

[Ayen]

He just happens to mention the only two similarities the two games have, and my mind must have drew in the blanks from there since I never played LR. That's kind of funny, actually.

Well, if he thought the battle system in LR was bad he isn't going to like the rest of the trilogy.

[Saber]

There is this place before you get to pulse that you must stay at for a while. You get credit chips there which can be sold for money. In FFXIII if you spend time leveling up weapons, the game is much easier. When I play FFXIII I manage to stay on that ship for as long as I can. When I got every characters weapon maxed I save some more money and then leave. You can get more money by continuing but for sanity sake you probably want to do a combo of 4 or more ways to get money or you WILL drive yourself insane.

As a comparison between the trilogy Final Fantasy XIII-2 is undoubtedly my favorite. XIII is too liner and takes forever to complete. If you want to level all weapons and accessories you could spend lots and lots of time. In XIII-2 I managed to get every monster, all items, everything 3 times in my life.

As for Lightning Returns the game to me was too puzzling like it needed a walkthrough just to know it all. The best features of the game were only accessible AFTER you beat the game. However it did a beautiful job in story line. Making it so FFXIII was finally given a happy ending.

[CactuarKing]

There is this place before you get to pulse that you must stay at for a while. You get credit chips there which can be sold for money. In FFXIII if you spend time leveling up weapons, the game is much easier. When I play FFXIII I manage to stay on that ship for as long as I can. When I got every characters weapon maxed I save some more money and then leave. You can get more money by continuing but for sanity sake you probably want to do a combo of 4 or more ways to get money or you WILL drive yourself insane.

As a comparison between the trilogy Final Fantasy XIII-2 is undoubtedly my favorite. XIII is too liner and takes forever to complete. If you want to level all weapons and accessories you could spend lots and lots of time. In XIII-2 I managed to get every monster, all items, everything 3 times in my life.

As for Lightning Returns the game to me was too puzzling like it needed a walkthrough just to know it all. The best features of the game were only accessible AFTER you beat the game. However it did a beautiful job in story line. Making it so FFXIII was finally given a happy ending.

I agree wholeheartedly. LR I only completed day 1 (following a guide) and gave up as I was just infuriated by it. I may go back to it, but just cannot bring myself to do it at present.

[Slothy]

it's al; nice and complex looking, but that complexity is only skin-deep because the crystarium itself is actually a line that's just been bent a lot to look nice.

It would have been nice if the faux-complexity ended there but I made it through as much of the game as I did (which was most sadly) using two paradigms and an occasional third the odd time it was absolutely necessary and it was always obvious when I needed to use each. There was literally no actual decision making involved. I was on auto pilot as much as the damn game was. It was a fine recipe for a terrible battle system.

[Shauna]

Push X to win auto-pilot is a staple of modern Final Fantasy games. It would be wrong of it not to be here.

[Fynn]

But it didn't actually start until XIII. In X, you usually had to pick something the enemy was vulnerable against, and it was pretty important to plan what you're doing with gambits in XII, unless you decided to forgo them, but then you had to do everything manually, so it hardly qualifies. Is XIV also like this? Will FFXV be like this? :onoes:

[Shauna]

I successfully played through the entirety of FF7 without doing much more than pressing X in battles. It's not something that just appeared when FFXIII hit the shelves. Basically, I will never understand this complaint.

[Fynn]

Oh yeah, VII was pretty simple with that. But you had to think more about your commands in VIII, at least.

The deal with XIII is that you get no freedom at all. Yeah, you play X to win again, but you don't even get anything like materia in FFVII where you could at least have full control over the strength and weaknesses of your characters. FFXIII is just a straight line in every area of gameplay.

[Shauna]

Eh. I felt like I had more engagement with FFXIII's battles than I ever did in FFVII. Materia hardly matters when all you do is attack - I equipped everyone with all the best stuff and then proceeded to never use it. I found it significantly easier to breeze through FFVII mashing X than FFXIII (I died once during my 100% playthrough of FFVII vs the endless retries of many battles in FFXIII).

[Fynn]

Different strokes for different fokes, I guess :gator:

[Karifean]

The deal with XIII is that you get no freedom at all. Yeah, you play X to win again, but you don't even get anything like materia in FFVII where you could at least have full control over the strength and weaknesses of your characters. FFXIII is just a straight line in every area of gameplay.

And again I say it's only a straight line if you make it a straight line for yourself. You can prioritize and strategize in this game. You don't HAVE to, at least not to a large degree, but it's certainly not like you have no freedom to do so if you want to.

[Fynn]

The point is that you really do have no choice in the big picture, and this is all caused by one thing - the crystarium being locked. Seriously, the fact that I could not grind if I wanted to or that I did not have access to the other roles for other characters from the beginning seriously prevents any freedom. For 95% of the game, you are allowed to play the game only in the very specific way it allows you to, with Sazh being restricted to being a Ravager, Commando, and Synergist, and still only being able to reach like level 2 in each class on that chapter. Oh, you can still grind, but there's still an arbitrary cap for you that really had no point being there aside from preventing people from becoming too strong and exposing the game for the mind-numbingly easy, poorly designed abomination that it is.

[Karifean]

Seriously, the fact that I could not grind if I wanted to or that I did not have access to the other roles for other characters from the beginning seriously prevents any freedom.

Yeah, because that's the only forms in which freedom comes.

Okay, crystarium is locked. Fine. First I just want to mention that you still have a whole array of weapons and accessories to build up, and those do make a tangible difference. Especially building up good accessories from the start makes you quite a bit stronger than you'd be otherwise.

And secondly, even with just the roles you are given, there's a surprising amount of ways you can play. Sazh and Vanille cover all the bases except for Sentinel, giving you plenty of ways to engage enemies. Hell sometimes staggering enemies is a waste of time if you push your damage in other ways.

You don't need to have access to all roles without restriction to be able to strategize and optimize.

[Fynn]

Of course you don't. Which is why I think an alternative to fixing this would be to just have everyone have access to only their starting roles, because gaining access to the other roles at the point of the game that they do really defies all purpose, since if I decided to make Vanille a Commando at that point, she would really suck as one anyway. So either of the two other solutions would be better than what we got.

Oh yeah, I forgot equipment upgrading exists. I never used it and I don't think I died more than once in the game :monster: Oh no, wait, I did use it, once, by the end of the game, when I injected everything I had into Lightning's new weapon and accidentally got an Ultima Weapon. Seriously, the whole thing is super unintuitive and I really don't understand why we couldn't just have either a traditional weapon system where we just found weapons along the way and could buy them, or an upgrade-only system like in FFVIII.

[Karifean]

I know the system could be improved in many ways. But as it stands, it is what it is. And there's still lots of good to be found in it. As is my point this whole time.

I don't see how the weapon system in this game is problematic at all. If anything it's pretty interesting. You find many different weapons with many different unique effects and you can pick and choose which ones you like best and upgrade those. If you don't want to decide it's always a viable alternative to just upgrade accessories instead which are useful in basically any situation and can be swapped between party members at will so there's not much room to screw yourself over. And since gold and materials become more plentiful as you go it's no biggie if you invest a bunch of stuff into one piece of equipment only to abandon it later. The progression is pretty solid, the concept is neat and the execution is up to match.

[Fynn]

I can imagine it's frustrating when you spend time upgrading your weapon, throw out the new ones you find because you've already invested so much time and materials in the last one, but then suddenly, for no forseeable reason, the weapon just stops gaining exp.

Yeah, no, I don't find it enjoyable or well-executed at all, sorry :gator:

[CactuarKing]

... but then suddenly, for no forseeable reason, the weapon just stops gaining exp.

Yeah, no, I don't find it enjoyable or well-executed at all, sorry :gator:


I agree with this point.

I also agree in that I don't like how the Crystarium was locked not allowing you to progress.

[maybee]

You're dead to me :stare:

Good. I don't have to listen to you whine about X anymore.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/stoneroses8818/358-star-trek.jpg

Daammmmmn

[Skyblade]

I can imagine it's frustrating when you spend time upgrading your weapon, throw out the new ones you find because you've already invested so much time and materials in the last one, but then suddenly, for no forseeable reason, the weapon just stops gaining exp.

Yeah, no, I don't find it enjoyable or well-executed at all, sorry :gator:

Not to mention:

The game's rating system (which is stupid in itself) actively PUNISHES you for upgrading weapons.

Which explains why I never upgraded a thing.

[Forsaken Lover]

If we're talking easy FF games, I thought VI was the easiest next to VIII.

Anyway, FFXIII is a...good game? I have a hard time expressing my feelings on it. I have parts of it I really like and parts of it I really hate. It's like, if the gameplay opened up earlier, I'd love it. If I could have a full party + the first half of the game's character development and interactions, that be perfect. But it only gives you your full party when the story falls apart.

I think....between the two of them...XIII is a better game? Maybe? Better story certainly. More consistency and less horrific mood whiplash. Nowhere near as fun as XIII-2, though. It also lacks Caius.
I would rather play XIII-2 is the best I got.

Also Pulse sucks. It is known.

So yeah, my feelings on the game are conflicted.

Which sums up XIII-2, as well. Although in that case, it's mostly my own fault for trying to 100% it. I was a fool! A DAMNED FOOL WITH DREAMS. Why didn't I just play the main story. The game would have been 200% better. Just make it more difficult and it be perfect.

Oh yeah, XIII-2 is an easier game. Paradigms matter much more in XIII while you can brute force almost anything in XIII-2.