Crystarium Satisifcation

I am in the post game right now leveling up my character's Crystarium. While I am making steady progress of doing this, I am finding the leveling up process to be less enjoyable than other games. Don't get me wrong, I like leveling up and am enjoying it but just not as much as in other games. I thought about it for a bit and I came up with some reasons why:

1. There doesn't seem to be a lot of advancement. You only gain access to the 10th level and you cannot go further in your role. For example, I usually run with Lightning as a Commando. It would be cool to have additional levels. This way, it would be possible to make some really strong and specific characters.

2. There is a distinct lack of nodes that give interesting affects. Sure, +500 HP is awesome, but seeing it 10 times isn't TOO exciting afterawhile. It would be of been cool to give more ATBs/ACC/ETC slots but at CRAZY CP costs (250,000 - 500,000). I mean, we are post game, so it doesn't matter how powerful we get...so why not let us become completely uber IF we put in the work.

3. There really isn't any branching and it is merely a linear path to the end. At least on some prior levels, you had some outer spheres you can select from.


Hmm, while I was writing this post, I came up with this thought: it looks as if this Crystarium was created late in the development cycle and they cobbled something together. It may make sense considering they changed the combat system.

Well, I know my ideas to make it better is a moot point (game is already done, etc), but fun to think about nonetheless.

Anyways...what is everyone's thoughts?

DISCLAIMER: This post is not proofread...it is easier to simply hit Submit New Thread :D

I think your right about some things but wrong on others. The progress isn't satisfying and it makes very little different rather or not you get +5 strength when you've got 2000 strength already. To me its either you can beat the monsters or not and thats the factor of the game. Leveling up without levels??? in a final fantasy??? X

Anyways I disagree with you about the ATB. We get enough to fill up the screen from left to right. No need in using 100 abilities at a time when you can easily beat things in a 5-10 spells/attacks, except those giant monsters in grand pulse and missions. Still with those monsters you only need enough to cast death mainly.

If you are having problems leveling up get the growth egg from Neochu.

I went and got the growth egg before the terrasects because a run there yeilds 250k CP and then doing missions I actually completed the crystalarium without dedicated effort. Mainly due to adamantortoises I think.

I like the attack animations characters have and it seems high paced, so I thought having more ATB bars would add another layer of detail/flavor.

I haven't done too much post-game stuff yet, but it is kinda a bummer (based on what ya said) that the use of the death spell is so vital? I did use the spell on Neochu, but that is the only hard monster I've fought.

I'm on chapter 8 right now so I haven't seen a lot of what you are discussing, but so far it feels like a simplified Sphere Grid. That there is little branching in each role doesn't bother me as much as there is no choice given over which roles each character has. I always like to activate every available node as soon as soon as I can, so I usually spend an hour or so every chapter just building up CP. This game tends to be unforgiving for underleveled characters.

With the C'ieth missions you either have to grind that Crystarium like crazy or spam Death (a few are immune!). I've got just a few left. I don't get how you can feasibly beat some of them without putting in as much time for grinding as you did playing the storyline. I guess those missions are there for the people who like to max out every possible statistic they can and then suddenly find themselves with nothing else to do with the game.

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Originally Posted by BG-57

I'm on chapter 8 right now so I haven't seen a lot of what you are discussing, but so far it feels like a simplified Sphere Grid. That there is little branching in each role doesn't bother me as much as there is no choice given over which roles each character has. I always like to activate every available node as soon as soon as I can, so I usually spend an hour or so every chapter just building up CP. This game tends to be unforgiving for underleveled characters.

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I found it to be tricky even when I was capped at whatever the current limit was! That said I just went zoom zoom and I only ever took time to grind once, at Taijin's Tower (before the final boss anyway). There's a very sudden spike in difficulty a little before then, and it's around that time that you'll see the transition from Strength +3 nodes to Strength + 20. You'll also open up more roles for your characters, but it's not very practical to advance them until you've maxed the first three. I was exciting when I finally maxed out everyone's default roles and went on to determine who'd be best at what. Lightning is a surprisingly good Sentinel for one who doesn't learn defensive abilities.

I know what you mean. Perfect example is where (SPOILER)Hope and Lightning are surrounded by soldiers, and Snow rides to the rescue on his Shivabike and takes the enemies on single handed. He manages to wipe out the soldiers but the Orion is still standing and deals damage faster than he can heal. Snow dies, I hit the retry option and it takes me to to the main menu! Now I'm able to max out his Crystarium development, equip and Doc's Code accessory and I win handily. Why wasn't this an option the first time?

Having just completely maxed out all my characters, I can tell you there are some very challenging bosses out there, which is kinda the point imo, like Penance and the Dark Aeons of FFX it would be completely pointless if you could go crazy and break the max damage.

With regards to Using the Death spell on everything, I often find there are much better ways of defeating the said enemy using a specific statagy, so no, I almost never rely on the Death spell, in fact I can beat the adamantoise in 1min 2 secs WITHOUT the death spell... but yes, I did use a summon to get this time.

There are plenty of ways for those who seek challenging bosses, I haven't even fought Vercingetorix, though he is the only mark I have yet to challenge, which I am about to go do now, also yes, I have beaten Long Gui (without taking a single hit).

Just maxed my Crystarium. Other than maxing out the range of abilities as well as baseline stats, my biggest satisfaction is having all six roles at the same level, so I can finally combine paradigms in any way with any three characters without penalty. Only took 95% of game time to get to this. :p

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I think your right about some things but wrong on others. The progress isn't satisfying and it makes very little different rather or not you get +5 strength when you've got 2000 strength already. To me its either you can beat the monsters or not and thats the factor of the game. Leveling up without levels??? in a final fantasy??? X

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II technically did it first.

Crystarium felt way too linear for me. At least it looked pretty.

Are you talking about just the Crystarium or the whole game? :D

I could definitely seeing it being shoehorned in last-minute as dayrinni said, because it's such an obvious, uninspired take from the Sphere Grid. I thought it was really watered down because there aren't "Locks" and "Keys" to collect like that game had, where you had to make serious decisions with limited resources. Your hardest choice on the Cyrstarium is whether to go for side nodes now or later, and there's really no point in choosing the latter. Another thing I liked about the Sphere Grid is how the characters really have their own unique path, but when you do brush up on another characters', you still have to choose when to cross over.

I felt like the Crystarium should have been automatic. There was very little effort required to advance in the Crystarium aside from holding a button down, and, as others have mentioned, there is little incentive to ignore the abilities that divert from the main path. Maybe it should have just appeared automatically at the end of battle as a small thumbnail for all active characters and advance automatically.

I have played through this game twice now, once on the PS3 and the other time on the 360... my second time I skipped a lot of the branching paths until later on, and it helps to do that since their cost:effect ratio is higher than the main path.

The only problem I had with the crystarium is that its needlessly unintuitive. It could've been so much easier to navigate through but it was made all 3D and shiny for the sake of "looking pretty"

I have beaten vercingatorix twice, once without and then with the gold watch to get 5 stars. It was an insanely difficult fight and feels more like luck and using poison to bring down the absolutely colossal hp. He moves so fast you cannot even tell what you are doing half the time.

The crystarium was pants. I agree it was too linear, and there should be more scope in the endgame to progress. It sort of just stops. you start with hardly any hp, and then just rapidly gain it until the game decides to make you stop around 20,000? And there are nowhere near enough strength/magic upgrading opportunities.....
:cactuar: :cactuar: :cactuar:

I don't know why every game needs to have some gimmicky level up system now. It's one thing if it's something fun that really changes things up, like allowing customization, but I can't recall the last FF I'd say fit that bill. These systems just tend to lead to lots of homogenization, where you make everyone good at everything. The crystarium in particular was so linear that you may as well have just had automatic stat/ability/trait progression and normal level gain, like in FF4. As for the Death spell, you never need it, and doesn't make anything easier.