[Momotaru]

Oh, Quinn, but don't you want the special FFXIV in-game item??

You need to register a first run copy of FFXIII to get it! It could be something extremely important.. like a chocobo-afro hat!


I'm amazed that for a game that seems aimed at the masses more than it's predecessors, the first two hours are literally battle after battler after battle after battle... through a corridor like environment, and the battles are sickeningly easy. Did we really need this many battles, or this many easy battles? Couldn't they have bumped the difficulty an hour in?

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the point where the game grows some balls and can challenge me in the least... and I'm NOT looking forward to the out of place Leona Lewis song.



Also, Q, you would get BORED, not board.. Although the two words have some comparability. Were you to play FFXIII and be bored for the 20 hours it takes to get anywhere, you might start resembling a board, physically and behaviorally.

I'm astounded by your games-completed resume.. I almost feel like crying for you, and yet I'm impressed you could sit through any of those

[Momotaru]

Am maybe 6 hours into FFXIII.

So far, Sahz and Hope are my favorites, Vanille isn't quite as annoying, and Lightning is about the same in my eyes... Snow remains the most ridiculous character of the bunch. He's a super stereotype, some breed of Barbie's Ken mixed with generic anime hero, surfer dude, and apparently he must be Seifer's older brother.

I'm wondering if I should save CP until the next level of a class appears instead of investing into all of the available ones.. I'm probably wasting points by making any one character proficient at 3 different things, right?


There's not much action around here. My guess is everyone is playing XIII.

[Val]

Im about 25 hours in.. not played any in a few days, and I have not heard leona lewis' song once! so dont worry about that Momo xD

you have Snow worked out pretty well!


I just spent all the CP on everything and had them all at max before being able to do them up furtre (which typically happens afterboss battles).. Its a little embarresing but it actually took me a while to realise that the stat ups all add up to a total.. I thought that it was just for when you were in that class you were set as xD (example; when I get HP+10 in commando, I thought the +10 only applied to commando xD) ~~ I figured it out just after odin xD

[Kurisu]

I've clocked up just over 49 hours so far o.O I'm getting close to the end of Chapter 11 now. Yesterday I was grinding, and racked up 400,000 CP, which I used to max out all my characters 3 mai roles n ar I've been playing again tonight, and now all my characters have 300,000+ CP to spend, but my Crystarium hasn't expanded again yet, but I'm sure it will do soon as it's been a while. Momo, if I were you, try and put as much CP in to the characters 3 main roles, as you need the strength, magic, health, abilities etc.

This post has been edited by Kurisu: Mar 20, 2010 - 2:14 PM

[Ch1efer]

I'm way behind, I haven't played in over a week. Sad, I know.

You know Val, I'm pretty sure it tells you that the stats carry over and add together. But I think it was easy to miss, specially if your a slow reader, I'm not saying your slow or anything... just... it's easy to miss... maybe...

[Kurisu]

Yea, I think it does tell you about the stats during one of the tutorials. It also tells you in the booklet! At least...I think it does.
Anyway, I'm off to play more FFXIII. I can't get enough of this game. Enjoying it much more than both X and XII, the latter of which I didn't like at all! (well, I did for a bit, but it soon became bland).

[Nestorm]

Yeah Momo try to level up all the jobs, at least the main 3 because diversity is the key in FFxIII. Also dont save CP for when the crystalium expands because when it does the next levels youre gonna need a lot more CP to get any skill/atribute up.

[Momotaru]

Okay, thanks for the advice guys, I'll keep that in mind!

[armyofbear136]

My only complaints is the music. For a 60+ hour EPIC, I should have enjoyed the music longer than 10 hours and started playing some Shpongle with the game sound off. I actually feel like Shpongle created more atmosphere than the game had to begin with. I enjoyed the game more with Shpongle on my side. If it at all sounds like I'm advocating Shpongle... I totally am, lol, Shpongle is great and everyone should listen. Dorset Perception is my favorite track, followed by Nothing is Something Worth Doing

Most of this post is in the "Spoiler" section(s), which only refers to Party-setup post mid-point which includes:
Characters, Items (& locations), Abilities, 'Leveling', and the best way to set up paradigms.
There's nothing about the story, so if you don't mind a little extra info I highly suggest giving it a read.

Monday: 3/22/2010

After 43 hours I'm finally stepping into Chapter 12 with my main characters maxed (for their 3 specialized jobs). Alot of people seem to have though Chapter 11 was god awful, but if you're kinda smart about it it can be hardly a challenge.
|| More below ||

Spoiler

For the first time ever I got the sense the game didn't want us to kill every mob for all the quest running around. So I skipped a few and whipped through the tower real quick. I felt like the fights I was getting in were taking too long without ever really feeling challenged as it was normally the same mob or two over and over. I figured the Marked enemies were plenty well enough and as it turns out it really was fine! I got to the boss Barthandelus and he was still relatively easy (although long -- DONT FORGET YOUR AEROSOL).

If you haven't already wasted your time leveling your weapons which you probably don't know enough about (I didn't and forced myself to reload), I'd highly suggest reading a guide online or PMing me about how to level your weapons properly. I crossed some information and just after the end of Ch. 11 (or before Barthandelus if you leave enough left for Lightning's best weapon, Lionheart, which is in the starting area of Ch. 12, should you really start to dig into your high exp items (Ultracompact Reactor, Particle Accellerator, ect...) Sorry if that was a little confusing.

Wednesday Morning: 3/24/2010

I've now clocked over 56 hours of gameplay and am in the last legs of chapter 13. I am mopping the floor with mobs. I've developed my characters almost fully (for where I am) and weapons as far as I can without spending any gil on mechanical parts. There's not alot I can say without spoiling anything, so similar with the rest of this post I won't mention story or anything but mobs and abilities will be discussed.

Spoiler

I've not had trouble with the Sacrifices in Ch. 13. These baddies, like the vamps are slow and stupid but have a one hit KO move which hasn't actually activated in my experiences. They use it ALOT, and I imagine if your characters are a little undernourished they will get stomped.

As I mentioned above, I've been pummeling all the mobs here. I don't think it's by a mere coincidence, in fact I know that grinding in the 'Siren Park' area of Eden in Ch. 12 will put you at great advantage at relatively low effort. The mobs respawn quick and most of the time its a 3 way battle which means you're free to pwn. Siren Park is the circular style set of roads and flora which ends with a Bulbasaur type creature battling a Tyrant.

It's 5:50 AM here and I can't push myself to write another thing.

Wednesday Afternoon: 3/24/2010

Finally beat the game, and I must say I feel really emotional towards the characters and I'm extremely glad I played long enough to finish. The story, however long and full of unnecessary details, really sucks you into your characters and I can certainly tell I care about them. I won't ruin anything, and I won't include spoilers. This was really an epic journey worth making, thank you SE for another incredible experience. Game timer says 57:12:07, but no matter how long the journey through the tireless struggles took, it is an experience I will never forget.

Other Deets:

You guys all seem to have the right idea about end game strats, upgrading costs disgusting amounts of CP and it's important to keep your classes balanced. Once I hit the plains, I became addicted and does it feel like, to any of you, that SE stuck XIV on the end of XIII? I think it's awefully similar and the lease I can say is if XIV IS similar I'll be pleased. I also agree that the game is honestly nothing more than a line from A to B with some baddies puked up in between. Normally I'd find myself bashing my face into the wall but the combat system has managed to save my experience. I can actually sit through fifty billion fights and not lose interest, although the game has a tendency to put me to sleep as I lay on my bed (thank God for pause) where I'll promptly nap for an hour after grinding out 6 hours of story. All in all XIII is not a bad game, having played a dumpster full of non-interesting linear games, FFXIII actually makes me want to play it instead of just drudging level after level till I beat the game just to say I did it. If you sit down and enjoy the story in the game at least 10% more than the average gamer you'll be able to survive and really start to know your characters which I feel all builds up to the end game and keeps you satisfied.

Another thing XIII did right is the paradigm system and it did actually build quite a bit of complexity, but I feel I have mastered it to a degree and here is what I've found:

Spoiler

First off Snow, Vanille, and Sazh are all garbage. Get them out of your party now. They offer little in comparison to Lightning, Fang, and Hope and I'll tell you why.

Lightning
She has a higher balance (like most main characters in FF) of Strength, Magic, and Toughness(HP) and also gets Raise quite early which makes her a critical element in your party. Having Commando, Ravager, and Medic and the highest ATB (for a while, before the rest of the characters catch up) elects her for the Party Leader. 90% of the time you'll find Lightning as a Ravager because building skill-chain is very important and I'll go over how this works with the paradigms that I'll setup shortly. Overall Lightning is the most balanced character and can really save any situation (I've been down to critical health on with Lightning as the only one left alive and have restored the whole party to full hp and WON) <--- incredible moment

Fang
She's got the most strength (maybe not when you get her but her str gets higher than any other character) which makes her the best possible character for a Commando class (which can sometimes be extremely important expecially when you max the skill chain bar). But, alas, you won't find Fang acting as a commando as often as Sentinel, which would make you think hmmmmmmm wouldn't Snow be better because he has more HP? The answer is no and this is why. Fang, when acting as a sentinel, won't take enough damage to kill her 90% of the time and the fact that she has a little less health actually helps out when trying to restore full party HP. If it takes 3 cures longer to heal Snow, that could mean the boss your fighting has THAT much longer to kill you. Fang also has saboteur which can help out later on with Pain and Fog and keeping you from losing the Skill Chain bar when buffing/debuffing. Overall Fang is around to hog damage and keep the skill chain bar from dying (which is 90% of the combat later on) with the occasional debuff.

Hope
I used to hate Hope early in the story because of his abscense of testicles but later on he gets incredibly strong and has enough HP to withstand most big attacks. What really sets hope apart is his Magic, he gets really strong (like Fang and her massive Strength) and lays down some heavy attacks. I found that leveling Hope's Medic ability before even touching his other Tier 8 circles really helps when he gains Raise. (You'll see why when we setup the paradigms). Hope also has Synergist which completes the party in order to have every job possible. There's not really alot to Hope, he spams magic and heals and on big fights has incredible buffs to prevent all sorts of damage and imbue weapons with higher damage (elemental and later on Bravery).

Paradigms
The one thing you want to focus on with Paradigms over ANYTHING else is maintaining skill chains. Sometimes putting skill chains before healing can be fortuitous, but that element is left up to your judgement in combat.

Paradigms: (Lightning | Fang | Hope)
Relentless Assault: Ravager + Commando + Ravager
Delta Attack: Commando + Sentinel + Ravager
Combat Clinic: Medic + Sentinel + Medic
Solidarity: Commando + Sentinel + Medic
Mystic Tower: Ravager + Sentinel + Ravager
Evened Odds: Medic + Saboteur + Synergist

By starting with Delta Attack you get the most systematically effective attack. Delta Attack is the foothold for the start of pretty much any battle (or enemies that you haven't started building the skill chain on). Fang will start soaking up the damage while Light and Hope start building the skill chain bar.

Following Delta Attack, Solidarity is the best viable option when Fang (or other members) lose health. It keep the skill chain bar from dropping while continuing to inflict damage and restore health. I've found leaving Solidarity up until everyone has full health or very near full health is the most effective.

After solidarity, Mystic Tower is the best option 99% of the time and you will probably want to switch between solidarity and mystic tower until the enemy is staggered or close to that.

Once staggered, Fang has the ability to launch most enemies and Relentless Assault will ensure maximum damage potential. (If unable to launch, Mystic Tower can sometimes be a better resource.

In most fights, as you may have noticed, you will want to keep Fang as a Sentinel until it's clearly safe to drop into Relentless Assault. Otherwise you will find yourself getting mercilessly slain when trying to regain hate (as all hate drops when a Sentinel changes roles). Also as another note, I didn't talk much about Combat Clinic as it's not a main part of combat and should never be left up for longer than two full ATB charges unless A) Hope is dead (where you should raise him immediately if Lightning is anywhere above critical instead of using auto heal) or The enemy hits you so hard you can't recover HP fast enough to keep the skill chain going before another big hit.

This post has been edited by armyofbear136: Mar 24, 2010 - 1:07 PM

[Bewoulf]

I have to gripe about FFXIII. I've actually left FFXIII alone recently because of school and trying to get through some other games first. Well, an engineer at my work was talking about how amazing FFXIII is once you get to pulse. He even went so far to say that he thinks the game should've costed him more money. It really got me wanting to get to Pulse.

But why does it take you to get through 85% of the story for the game to get good? Just looking at gameplay on Pulse, and maps of areas on pulse... this was how FFXII was through the ENTIRE GAME! I haven't been disappointed by a Final Fantasy since FFV... or maybe FFX, but only because it's like FFXIII: You get lead around by a leash to the end of the game.

One of the FFXIII devs responded to some less than stellar reviews by western reviewers. He said that they approached the game as a western game, one with more exploration. He said it's difficult to tell a compelling story when the world is more open. I COMPLETELY disagree. I'm all for a little linearity. Sometimes the Morrowind style RPG is boring. But really? A straight line is your entire map for 11 chapters? I really want to write a letter to this dev and just mention that a vastly superior game, a Japanese one, told a compelling story but also had an amazing amount of freedom and exploration. That game is Final Fantasy XII.

I love nearly everything else about the game. The growth system for your characters are awesome. I even love how you can increase the power of your weapons. But again, for 11 chapters of the game you hardly get a proper chance to play with this system. You don't make any gil until you get to pulse! Paradigm shift is one of the sweeter aspects of the battle system. It's like the job system on acid! I love it. But this game falls just below the most amazing game this gen because for 11 chapters, you walk a straight line.

This post has been edited by Bewoulf: Jun 1, 2010 - 6:05 AM