I didn't stop at gran pulse because it's an open environment, but because gran pulse sucks (regardless of openess). Maybe sucks is a strong word (i'm disillusioned), but it does not make up for the lack of sidequests or exploration of the rest of the game. Honestly, I just became bored (first for an ff in my life).
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Final Fantasy XIII
- Thread starter Xaqwais
- Start date
FF13 is also plagued, absolutely plagued by a long section of the game where you only play with two characters at a time. This makes Behemoths damn near impossible to launch, and makes fights in general a slog. By the time you get three characters, which works alot better, the game just feels a little dull. I hope to play it some more in a few days though.
It's been almost a week since I last posted here. So far I have been putting about 23 hours into this game, and it supposed to have roughly 50 hours of gameplay, right?
Anyways, I am currently in chapter 10.
Anyways, I am currently in chapter 10.
Finally all of the six l'Cie got to meet one another, which mean I can now make customization of my own battle team. My current team since the chapter 10 has been consisting of Lightning, Hope, and Sazh. Their roles are something like Relentless (COM/RAV/RAV), Hero's Charge (COM/MED/SYN), and--something--(MED/SYN/SYN). I have also upgraded Lightning's weapons and gears to the point where she's gotten roughly 400 Strength/220 Magic. Frankly, I'm still letting Lightning using her old but pumped-up Gladius that's sitting at level 12. She's also equipped with two Brawler's Bracelets, which gives 78/50 (one of them is level 5). Both Hope and Sazh also got two brand new Shaman's bracelets which help to boost their magic by 100 points (two were equipped on both).
P.S. At one point Lightning was almost doing 10k damage with Sazh's boosts. I think it could have gotten much higher if I had gotten Vanille to lower the opponent's physical defense. I'm hoping to start grinding in Gran Pulse for more CP and items for the weapon and accessory upgrade.
P.S. At one point Lightning was almost doing 10k damage with Sazh's boosts. I think it could have gotten much higher if I had gotten Vanille to lower the opponent's physical defense. I'm hoping to start grinding in Gran Pulse for more CP and items for the weapon and accessory upgrade.
I've just been using Lightning/Hope/Fang. I just get battles done quicker with Fang and Hope ravaging the shit out of someone. Lightning compliments Hope's stellar medic skills with her own solid healing. Not only that but Fang is a great commando alongside Lightning. Honestly I think Lightning, Fang, and Hope is the most effective team. Don't get me wrong, Sazh's boost are pretty, but the Defensive buffs from Hope help you more in boss battles. Oh, I mean as far as the main story goes by the way, xD. The post-game takes different combinations.
aamto
on whom the three Fates smile
Fang/anyone/anyone works cause she's so busted broken. she is easily the best commando in the game; to anyone that uses Lightning primarily as a com, stop doing that. Lightning is far, far, far better as a ravager (in fact, she's arguably the best ravager in the game next to Hope), since she can't possibly compete with Fang in damage output. she should be spending most of her time as that, switching to com when you really need to blitz the stagger gauge. As far as other characters are concerned, i find they all have uses (i regret not using Snow or Vanille more cause they are both awesome)...except Sazh. other than his awesome gun-fu, he's really quite useless imo. Hope learns the same offensive buffs he does, and has much higher mag to be an effective ravager and is the best medic in the game. the only difference is that Sazh has a weapon that boosts duration of buffs...but Sazh's stats are so weak that you're better off going for the most powerful gun if you want him to contribute more than just buffs.
it's been a week since i beat this game and i think it's fair enough to judge it now. overall, i found the experience very...unsatisfying. the game was not that great; unlike other jrpgs, this game makes it no secret that you're going to be following one path the whole time. even the so called "open-field" of ch11 is just a really wide corridor. only in a game like this can that be called "freedom." the only sidequest in the game, missions, are a complete rip from mark-hunting in ffxii and are basically what you'd expect in a game like this: go to point a, kill monster b, find point c for new mission. it gets boring.
as for the gameplay, i am still unsure where i stand on it. on the one hand, combat is hella fun and this game is actually genuinely difficult (the ch11 boss, for example, actually required that i change my party and use proper tactics. although later in the game, the difficulty comes moreso from monsters having millions of HP and taking forever to kill rather than me being killed), as apposed to virtually every other modern ff. on the other, i feel like its trying too hard to be an action game; hp refilling after battles, no running, lead character dying, etc. it just doesn't feel like a proper rpg. definitely worth the time, considering i spent more time playing this game than sleeping in the week that i beat it...but now i feel unsatisfied. when it was announced in november for release, i was expecting something...so much more. instead, i got a cut down, pseudo-action game that handles the player's intelligence with kids gloves. no choices to make, no towns to explore, no objectives to be found. ultimately disappointing.
the game gets a 5 or a 6 out of 10 from me.
it's been a week since i beat this game and i think it's fair enough to judge it now. overall, i found the experience very...unsatisfying. the game was not that great; unlike other jrpgs, this game makes it no secret that you're going to be following one path the whole time. even the so called "open-field" of ch11 is just a really wide corridor. only in a game like this can that be called "freedom." the only sidequest in the game, missions, are a complete rip from mark-hunting in ffxii and are basically what you'd expect in a game like this: go to point a, kill monster b, find point c for new mission. it gets boring.
as for the gameplay, i am still unsure where i stand on it. on the one hand, combat is hella fun and this game is actually genuinely difficult (the ch11 boss, for example, actually required that i change my party and use proper tactics. although later in the game, the difficulty comes moreso from monsters having millions of HP and taking forever to kill rather than me being killed), as apposed to virtually every other modern ff. on the other, i feel like its trying too hard to be an action game; hp refilling after battles, no running, lead character dying, etc. it just doesn't feel like a proper rpg. definitely worth the time, considering i spent more time playing this game than sleeping in the week that i beat it...but now i feel unsatisfied. when it was announced in november for release, i was expecting something...so much more. instead, i got a cut down, pseudo-action game that handles the player's intelligence with kids gloves. no choices to make, no towns to explore, no objectives to be found. ultimately disappointing.
the game gets a 5 or a 6 out of 10 from me.
I thought it was a great mix of RPG/Adventure, that's what they were going for. I admit, this RPG takes more effort than click and attack to win the game, but that's the exact reason I like it. I mean, boss battles are so much fun. Switch into a Paradigm to prepare, Switch Paradigm for attack, attack, attack, Switch paradigm to heal, You can customize the roles in paradigms. It's just really fun. I didn't feel satisfyied the first time through, as I expected a chill, RPG expereince. I played through it the second time with a more open mind, and I can say it's deserving of a high score. I much liked the adventure twist to it, and honestly I would like to see more games like it.
Well, I beat chapter 11, and here are my thoughts on it:
That first boss at the Apex of the tower was a bitch (or maybe I was just out of practice; I don't play too much FF13 daily), and Barthandelus was even more of a bitch. Initially, I thought it was cheap, but then it's difficulty like that that makes you truly appreciate the beauty of the game. Oh, and yay for Vanille's robot buddy.
almost done with game so i can get my minireview up too, but sazh definantly has some uses though. first off early haste is really really useful. with procyns he's got some good stagger power plus an always random chance to have instant stagger is nice,
also blitz becomes broken during the later parts of stagger getting in many hits per blitz makes it the only alternative to even attempting adamantoise without having to use vanille's death move.
plus even with hope, I've found double stacking buffs goes that much faster which is really nice in these high paced battles.
almost done with the last chapter, just upgrading some weapons before I continue ONWARDS
aamto
on whom the three Fates smile
the adamantortoise (and even the stronger adamantoise) can easily be beaten before you are strong enough to do it on your own without Death (although it closely follows the same principle). summoning will instantly knock out the legs, then with proper equipment, entering with the Fortisol, and controlling Fang while debuffing, you should be able to kill the things before they get back up. i was easily able to beat the 3.7mil HP version using for Fang/Lightning/Hope with Taming Pole/Lionheart/Otshirvani, all easy to level to tier 2 with the ch11 "sidequest", for reference. and i could kill the 5.8mil beast reliably, too (though that took some luck and a good Highwind at the end).
Of course, these guys become a joke when you get Genji Glove and can use Highwind, but before that, summoning + strong equips is a better (and more reliable) alternative to Death spamming. Neochu, on the other hand...
Lionheart is overrated... I much prefer the stagger lock weapons with much higher base power. As long as I have the other characters who can actually stagger them, it's not been a problem. Still farming for Traps to upgrade is pretty frustrating. On one hand, their common drop is a Platinum Ingot worth 150k, so a few of those and you can buy it.. but their rare drop is the only 1%, so you can be farming for hours without any joy.. so I decided to just make a save, battle 4-5 times and if they didn't drop then I'd reload, since this saves TP. Attaching the Conn. Cat does improve the odds, but only if you get a 5 star score which is pretty hard your first time on Pulse. My best technique for quick kills is:
Summon to disable legs
SAB/SAB/SAB - cast buffs/debuff with the AI and use Death, this increases the chances of it actually working
SEN/SEN/SEN - if it's still not working and the thing stands up
back to SAB/SAB/SAB and continue spamming Death.
24 seconds is my record :P
Oh and pro tip - the collectors cat/conn. cat do no stack, so only equip one on your character. And if it's not the main one holding it, you must make sure they survive the fight for it to work.
aamto
on whom the three Fates smile
why would you put a Stagger Lock weapon on Lightning, a character who (should) spend most of her time as a Ravager? It makes sense for Fang or even Snow cause they'll almost never switch from Com (or Sen/Com) for any meaningful time, but any other character? Limiting yourself to potentially only one character in your group who can Stagger is a pretty big handicap.
also 5-staring the beasts is not a problem if you use summoning -- either way, someone is going to be dead by the time the creature stands up again and that is WELL below the 5-star time!
I got this game on the 17th thinking that i was going to spend the next 80 hours locked in my room like ive done with most other games in the series, and me being someone that has played ff7-12 religiously, this one was a major letdown, they went so wrong with this game, from the the way the first 20 hours do not let you pick your own team, switch from character to character and story to story, no exploration, not being able to control your other characters in battle, and the healing after every battle, restarting a battle right at the beginning if you die, it just doesnt feel like a final fantasy to me, Im only at the bahamut fight on chapter 10, but its been almost a week since ive played this game, and i dont have the draw to really finish it, where i have multiple saves on 9, 10, and 12 that have like 70 hours each and still not 100% finished, i really think i will play through this game once and trade it in. It is a huge letdown for me, ive followed this game since ive heard about it on 07' and I cant see how they went so wrong with this game, the only saving grace is the combat, which lets be honest is almost horrible UNTIL 20 hours in on the third disk, when you have control over your party and it gets some final fantasy element back to it.
Healing at the end of every battle is GREAT. Honestly I'm shit tired of having to always worry about "UH OEZ WHEN NEXT BATTLE STARTS I HAS TO WASTE MAH MP AND HEAL, SHIT DO I HAV ENOUGH PHEONIX DOWNS!!!??!!??!?!?!?" No, I'd much prefer you heal after every battle, it makes the game more fun. The combat is excellent, it's fun, it's more fun than most every Final Fantasy game. I'm glad I actually have some interaction in the game besides click to win. Though I will admit, the story isn't as memorable as past FF's, I like the gameplay better than most of them.
I beat the game a week ago. Working on getting my Platinum Trophy now. I have all but one class/job/whatever maxed out for everyone now and all but 5 missions completed. Been farming Adamantoise for the gil and CP. I had over 4 mil, but upgraded weapons, and am down to 1.5 mil =(.
Overall, I enjoyed this game a lot. I never was able to get through 12 (I only really got about 10 hours in) so it was nice to be back to the franchise. Certainly not the best FF, but easily a good game. Not to mention the battle system is awesome.
Overall, I enjoyed this game a lot. I never was able to get through 12 (I only really got about 10 hours in) so it was nice to be back to the franchise. Certainly not the best FF, but easily a good game. Not to mention the battle system is awesome.
I just got to the 3rd Barthandelus fight, so I'm gonna be going for the plat as well. What's the point of riding on Chocobos in Gran Pulse, and are there any variations in missions aside from "go to point A, kill monster B, repeat"?
I know where you're coming from, everyone was telling me the game gets better at the 11th chapter after 25 hours (how many games can get away with telling you to play through rubbish for 25 hours before getting to the "good part"?) once you get to Gran pulse and while it was nice to look at there wasn't much to do and after walking through it to advance the storyline the game was right back to the same game I was playing 20 mns earlier, I don't see how that was supposed to save the game.
That said the linearity didn't even bother me that much because I actually liked FFX despite it having similar linearity, the problems I have with this game are - Cold and empty world, boring unlikable characters (for me), plain story and forgettable music.
I did try my best to like this game and stuck with it a lot longer than I would have any other game I disliked this much but I just couldn't get into it and that's a shame, hopefully versus will be better. I know a lot of people loved this game and thought the characters and story were one of the best in an FF ever so I'm just going to say that this and XII just weren't for me.
Hey everyone,
So I'm about halfway into chapter 12 at the moment. I'm going to post here for everyone's opinion on what weapons they assigned their characters with, and what are some of the best weapons for each of them. Below is what weapons I consider are some of the best for them.
Fang - Taming Pole (best balance of str. & mag., and com. class normally doesn’t stagger anyway)
Hope - Hawkeye (highest mag.) or Vidohunir (increase buff durations, like protect & shell)
Lightning - Axis Blade (really fast, as in enemies may not have the chance to touch u) or Lionheart (quicker stagger)
Sazh - Procyons (improve stagger by 30%) or Spica (improve buff duration by 80%)
Snow - Power Circle (offensive) or Paladin (defensive, improved guard)
Vanille - Belladonna Wand (improve debuffing & success of Death spell)
And I have a question. After I defeat the last boss, will I be able to fight it again? I mean, after the post-game?
So I'm about halfway into chapter 12 at the moment. I'm going to post here for everyone's opinion on what weapons they assigned their characters with, and what are some of the best weapons for each of them. Below is what weapons I consider are some of the best for them.
Fang - Taming Pole (best balance of str. & mag., and com. class normally doesn’t stagger anyway)
Hope - Hawkeye (highest mag.) or Vidohunir (increase buff durations, like protect & shell)
Lightning - Axis Blade (really fast, as in enemies may not have the chance to touch u) or Lionheart (quicker stagger)
Sazh - Procyons (improve stagger by 30%) or Spica (improve buff duration by 80%)
Snow - Power Circle (offensive) or Paladin (defensive, improved guard)
Vanille - Belladonna Wand (improve debuffing & success of Death spell)
And I have a question. After I defeat the last boss, will I be able to fight it again? I mean, after the post-game?
I forget what the names are, but I aim for status effects and stagger.
Fang and Vanille are both on Saboteur weapons.
Sazh runs with Staggers.
Hope has buffing power.
Lightning goes with Axis.
I lead Sazh and Lightning, so they don't use anything like duration items, and the AI is competent to use Hope and Fang at an acceptable level.
I find status effects and buffs great in this game, since you don't have to deal with MP or anything like that. Just start off buffing/debuffing everyone, then proceed to rampage. If the fight lasts somewhat long, then these weapons will make it easier to not have to switch back. It's like the Suicide lead team of FFXIII that you don't want to bring back out.
Honestly, I don't even deal with Snow, so I forget what he uses.
Yeah, you can go beat him again. All it does is that it will save your post game file to right outside the final boss but still give you the benefits of if you beat him.
Fang and Vanille are both on Saboteur weapons.
Sazh runs with Staggers.
Hope has buffing power.
Lightning goes with Axis.
I lead Sazh and Lightning, so they don't use anything like duration items, and the AI is competent to use Hope and Fang at an acceptable level.
I find status effects and buffs great in this game, since you don't have to deal with MP or anything like that. Just start off buffing/debuffing everyone, then proceed to rampage. If the fight lasts somewhat long, then these weapons will make it easier to not have to switch back. It's like the Suicide lead team of FFXIII that you don't want to bring back out.
Honestly, I don't even deal with Snow, so I forget what he uses.
Yeah, you can go beat him again. All it does is that it will save your post game file to right outside the final boss but still give you the benefits of if you beat him.
And my cousin has shipped himself off to Lebanon for a month so now I can play as much as I want. ^__^
Got the game yesterday, and am now a bit after Odin. The games really fun, but the battles are getting kinda tedious. Probably cause I'm still in the "beginning" parts of the game perhaps?
Oh and bump. ^___^
They are kinda tedious because you only have two characters and that's not gonna change for a long time yet. By the time I had three characters, I just didn't give a fuck anymore.
13 was a bust for me (thank god I rented it). It basically took 12's concept, removed the ability to move feely, and tacked on a combo gauge. The skill system was pretty meh and weapon upgrade system wasn't so great as well. However, unlike 12 the game did create some memorable characters as well as establish a decent plot.
Final Rating:
***/5
+'s:
In-Depth Character Development
Battle System; good...
-'s
Vocab was difficult to pick-up even with guide (Pulse, Fal'cie, L'cie)
Battle System; but not great...
Final Rating:
***/5
+'s:
In-Depth Character Development
Battle System; good...
-'s
Vocab was difficult to pick-up even with guide (Pulse, Fal'cie, L'cie)
Battle System; but not great...