XIII: The Flaw thread

[Madame Adequate]

Well, having a map helps, admittedly (the guide was fantastic for this), and online sources can help just as easily, I'm sure. But running around searching for things that activate battles? That's pretty much the definition of RPG.

I guess I've been spoiled by games where running around the same area looking for the needle in the haystack over and over and over again isn't considered good design.

[Loony BoB]

Welcome to the Final Fantasy series?

[Madame Adequate]

I can think of no other example in the entire series where the central sidequest has been a snipe hunt tbf. Yeah looking for some obscure Triple Triad card can be tricky and getting all the Monster Arena unlocks in X can rely on getting lucky in random encounters but they are not in and of themselves exercises in tedium, or at least not until you try to 100% things. Aside from the storyline marks in Taejin's Tower, me and Jess only went after four or five of them, because it was so incredibly smurfing boring tracking the stones down and having to look through them all to find which has changed.

Writing off my criticism because it's supposedly a core element of the series strikes me as missing the point. I'm not arguing that the concept is a bad one, I'm arguing that it was badly implemented.

[Jings]

They quite clearly glow on the map if they are active. You don't have to track them all down. You will have to enter the area that they are located, yes, but then you simply have to bring up your map and see if they are active or not. I got through dozens in a fairly short time.

[Shin Gouken]

They quite clearly glow on the map if they are active. You don't have to track them all down. You will have to enter the area that they are located, yes, but then you simply have to bring up your map and see if they are active or not. I got through dozens in a fairly short time.

Still. The missions should have been side quests to do through out the plot rather than stacking them at the end.

The worst thing about them for me is that they show you where they are on the map. So you see a stone on your map and walk to it. See the mark on the map and walk to it. Fight it. Repeat.

FFXII gave you clues on where to find your mark and how to spawn it. They were included into the main game so you could tackle them during the plot if you wanted. And FFXII had marks that were actually FUN. The Trickster, Deathgaze, Behemoth King, Yiazmat and of course the legend that was Gilgamesh. Also optional battles with other bosses like hell wyrm and all the espers. None of the marks in FFXIII are remotley epic

[Future Esthar]

The weapon upgrading system was the stupidest thing ever to embrace this game.
Why not just grow one´s strenght and magic with the Crystarium.

[Shin Gouken]

The weapon upgrading system was the stupidest thing ever to embrace this game.
Why not just grow one´s strenght and magic with the Crystarium.

I'd like to expand on this also.

The very fact that any material works on any weapon means you simply farm for millions of gil to bulk buy massive quantities of the same components. Which means the hundreds of types of components are just redundent.

Another thing (which will be relevant in the next paragragh) is that you only really want one item to earn Gil (Platinum Ingots) which come from the very same enemy which offers your main source of Crystarium points. This means that there really is no incentive to fight anything except Adamantoises/Adamantortoises. Sure you'll pick a spot to regain TP and perhaps farm for dark matters at some point, but TP farming adds to the tediousness and Long Gui is simply another breed of adamantoise.

The Bazaar in FFXII required different materials for every item you wanted to make, therefore encouraging you to fight (or farm) from loads of enemies from every corner of the game, where FFXIII just lets you get it all from one place.

EDIT: I'd also like to express my dislike of the stats in this game too. Attack and Magic are the only stats you see. We know that speed, defense and magic defense are used, and presumabley accuracey and evasion are in there somewhere. But why are they hidden and why can't we increase them on the crystarium? I like being able to see all my stats, what is the point in hiding them. Bottem line - don't fix it if it aint broken

[Future Esthar]

The map rotation was also bad.
Game over when the leader dies is not bad because it made battles challenging.

[Cloudane]

The weapon upgrading system was the stupidest thing ever to embrace this game.
Why not just grow one´s strenght and magic with the Crystarium.

This is a fair point. Once again it's the game's lack of development - I was constantly expecting the "creature comforts" type stuff to have some other effect like strengthening Eidolons or making Chocobos avoid enemies more easily. So I didn't use them. Only to find that they would've been suitable for a small part of the weapons upgrades.... only!

Because hitting x on hundreds of components individually to see what they're worth in weapon exp is just sooooo much fun. Almost as much fun as buying 99 HEALs in FF1.

[Future Esthar]

Because hitting x on hundreds of components individually to see what they're worth in weapon exp is just sooooo much fun. Almost as much fun as buying 99 HEALs in FF1.

Is that irony?

I think they created this system so the player would be able to make some non linear customization.
Bad implemented though.

[Flying Arrow]

How is it non-linear customization or even an attempt at such? The weapons only upgrade in one possible way, and the components only decide how efficiently the upgrade points get used.

[Future Esthar]

It´s non linear because you can do it many different ways.It´s up to you.
Of course there are some ways better than others.

[Goldenboko]

It's non-linear because you have to find out the weapon subsets that give you Synthesized abilities, and you have to figure out what weapons are perfect or situational for each character, example, Vanille's debuff staff is great for the Death trick, but useless on many enemies that have wide debuff resistances. Or with Lightning, you could go straight to Helter-Sketler because it's clearly a strong weapon, but then you'll miss out on the fact you use her as a Ravanger for such large portions of the game, where the Axis Blade would allow her to constantly attack and stagger the enemies incredibly quickly, along with interrupting their attacks while COM's chain their Attack commands together.

Also, I lul at all the people quoting FFXII now. Square gave FFXIII due negative responses to the pure vast openness of FFXII, oh how the tables have turned.

[Flying Arrow]

Fair enough. I read the post as referring to the individual weapons themselves, which do only improve in one way. My bad. I did get sort of a kick out of weapon upgrading at times, if only to see what kinds of effects I'd earn for the users.

But I agree with FE, then. Poorly implemented.

[Future Esthar]

I think I explained why it applies even with a definite weapon.