[armyofbear136]

I agree with Nestorm, you really need to give it a chance. I'm just over 8 hours in and I'm still thoroughly enjoying the game. The combat system does kinda get to be button mashy between paradigms, but you it does take some focus and effort to get a 5 star rating EVERY time. Maybe it takes a perfectionist's attitude. I don't hear alot of people talking about the redesign as a good thing, and I have to say I'm glad SE is trying to revolutionize turn based combat. Just look at what's going on with FF14! They've taken things in a new direction and it's becoming the most unique MMO experience yet. If anyone played FF12 they can certainly feel the influence from FF11 all over the place, and I can only imagine the same is going to happen between FF13 and FF14. We already know they're on the same engine which means the environments will be similarly engaging, but that's not what I'm trying to point out. Combat in 14 is going to reflect the fast paced action which is in FF13 and that's the refreshing taste turn-based combat has needed. Sure, turn based combat was fun for 10 FF games... but is it the future for Final Fantasy? Doubt it.

[Attikus]

I've been giving it more time and I got further along, still finding this game very easy and dull though. The storyline has been cheesy at best so far and very childish. "Mom's are tough!"



I guess the younger kids are what they need to cater to now adays, I'll have to accept that.

[Val]

Moms are tough? is that where you are up to? I'll give you that the game is very linear but the battle system doesn't make the game easy. at the very very start it does... but then when you get up to the odin fight.. If all you do is mash X then you will die... you will die every time...

Quote

I really felt a connection with the characters in 7,8,9, and even 10. But 12 (1)and now 13 just seem to be all about looks and less about a deep and unique story. (2) They have gotten wayy too futuristic with the series for my liking and I'd love if they could fix that with their next title. (3)I could care less about flashing graphics, I just want a deep story line without linear maps and linear gameplay. (4)I loved how there used to be times when you would need to grind exp to level up in the old games and now you can get through the entire game without grinding much at all as long as you fight the mobs along the paths. (5) I guess they have to cater to the new generation though which seems to like things a lot easier and not put effort into games. The days of EQ and old-school FF's are dead...

1- Yes the characters do look great... maybe too great... flawless even... but this about them not having deep and unique stories.. I'm sorry but that is bull... play longer than 20 minutes and youll see this... Im about 20 hours in (in the place with the ffvii chocobo theme song!) and each character has a very interesting interwinding story that are all starting to join and form a really grand story.. I mean.. this story is by far better than the story of ffvii... if you had more fun playing that, great~ but irrelevent, the story of FFXIII is grander and the characters are more deep and unique. two of ffviis characters werent even in the ending..


2- It is quite futuristic in caccon... everyone has their tastes. I feel it fits with the story they are trying to tell though... FF games should priorities story over gameplay though imo. they cant have every game set in the same time period.. that would get dull... they are trying new things.. perhaps ffxv will return to its roots?

3- Its the PS3, they wouldn't dare make an ugly game with this generation >_> Good graphics doesn't equal bad story though... As I said, play more and though you may not like the battle system (which I don't too much xD)but when the story starts to open.. it really is entralling... All the characters really are amazing and the twists.. I'm still shocked about Vanille! About the linear thing.. sadly I doubt that will happen soon.. (lets hope for FFV:XIII!!) they proved with 12 that when the game is so open they couldn't make a decent story with interesting characters...

4- Im sorry if Im totally out of line but I was under the impression you were 4 hours into it...? how can you make that statement? are you even up to the part when you can start getting CP yet? you have to level each role individually and you need a balance of all roles to survive in some of the battles... This game really isn't as easy and you believe it to be and the battle system does get challenging when you have to manage the paradigm roles and keep constant watch of your health and the enemies stagger bar. and you can still grind in this game... Ive just had to to get passed a really annoying boss with lots of guns and rockets... first time I went against him, I was killed instantly.. =[

5- when you play the game, you can say what you want... till then your views on ffxiii will remain invalid.. =[





Now I'm really not trying to start anything and sorry if I offend. You haven't said anything bad or been rude to me in anyway, but please understand.. I'm simply saying you haven't played the game enough... what you have played is just the opening so ofcourse it is easy... FF7,8,9, and 10 were the same (in 10 im sure it was impossible to die >_>) the battle system starts off really basic but becomes probably one of the most complex and engaging battle systems Ive ever played in an ff game, (ive played 3,4,7,7-cc,7-doc,8,9,10,10-2,12) and there are several difficulty spikes.. there are even monsters in areas that are way too strong when you first come to them.. I myself don't really enjoy the battle system... I prefer the battle system of FFX - because it was easier... The story is great when you take in everything... so much, ive come to realise, is forshadowed at the start.. Im really enjoying it and I love how everyone has a decent place in the story.. non could be written out or it would be a completely diff story.. I'm loving Hope's story the most... his v/a is great and the emotion throughout has been gripping for me.

the story may be great and the characters very well done... but its so tedious running along one straight path after another xD give the game a decent chance please =] as Kurisu said, if not for the system.. for the story!

[armyofbear136]

Val, on Mar 14, 2010 - 7:00 PM, said:

but then when you get up to the odin fight.. If all you do is mash X then you will die... you will die every time...

I couldn't agree more, the odin fight took sooooooo many tries. And ever since the odin fight I feel everything has gotten substantially harder. Everything takes alot of cooperation and managing the paradigms. I think a whole thread should be dedicated to paradigms and character configuration... that is if people are willing to discuss strategy and gameplay which might be considered spoilers and not quiiiite appropriate for this thread.

[Eorzea]

Feel free to start additional threads should you wish to discuss strategies, plot, etc.

You can always use SPOILER tags as well when needed.

[Attikus]

Val, on Mar 14, 2010 - 7:00 PM, said:

Moms are tough? is that where you are up to? I'll give you that the game is very linear but the battle system doesn't make the game easy. at the very very start it does... but then when you get up to the odin fight.. If all you do is mash X then you will die... you will die every time...





1- Yes the characters do look great... maybe too great... flawless even... but this about them not having deep and unique stories.. I'm sorry but that is bull... play longer than 20 minutes and youll see this... Im about 20 hours in (in the place with the ffvii chocobo theme song!) and each character has a very interesting interwinding story that are all starting to join and form a really grand story.. I mean.. this story is by far better than the story of ffvii... if you had more fun playing that, great~ but irrelevent, the story of FFXIII is grander and the characters are more deep and unique. two of ffviis characters werent even in the ending..


2- It is quite futuristic in caccon... everyone has their tastes. I feel it fits with the story they are trying to tell though... FF games should priorities story over gameplay though imo. they cant have every game set in the same time period.. that would get dull... they are trying new things.. perhaps ffxv will return to its roots?

3- Its the PS3, they wouldn't dare make an ugly game with this generation >_> Good graphics doesn't equal bad story though... As I said, play more and though you may not like the battle system (which I don't too much xD)but when the story starts to open.. it really is entralling... All the characters really are amazing and the twists.. I'm still shocked about Vanille! About the linear thing.. sadly I doubt that will happen soon.. (lets hope for FFV:XIII!!) they proved with 12 that when the game is so open they couldn't make a decent story with interesting characters...

4- Im sorry if Im totally out of line but I was under the impression you were 4 hours into it...? how can you make that statement? are you even up to the part when you can start getting CP yet? you have to level each role individually and you need a balance of all roles to survive in some of the battles... This game really isn't as easy and you believe it to be and the battle system does get challenging when you have to manage the paradigm roles and keep constant watch of your health and the enemies stagger bar. and you can still grind in this game... Ive just had to to get passed a really annoying boss with lots of guns and rockets... first time I went against him, I was killed instantly.. =[

5- when you play the game, you can say what you want... till then your views on ffxiii will remain invalid.. =[





Now I'm really not trying to start anything and sorry if I offend. You haven't said anything bad or been rude to me in anyway, but please understand.. I'm simply saying you haven't played the game enough... what you have played is just the opening so ofcourse it is easy... FF7,8,9, and 10 were the same (in 10 im sure it was impossible to die >_>) the battle system starts off really basic but becomes probably one of the most complex and engaging battle systems Ive ever played in an ff game, (ive played 3,4,7,7-cc,7-doc,8,9,10,10-2,12) and there are several difficulty spikes.. there are even monsters in areas that are way too strong when you first come to them.. I myself don't really enjoy the battle system... I prefer the battle system of FFX - because it was easier... The story is great when you take in everything... so much, ive come to realise, is forshadowed at the start.. Im really enjoying it and I love how everyone has a decent place in the story.. non could be written out or it would be a completely diff story.. I'm loving Hope's story the most... his v/a is great and the emotion throughout has been gripping for me.

the story may be great and the characters very well done... but its so tedious running along one straight path after another xD give the game a decent chance please =] as Kurisu said, if not for the system.. for the story!

I'm about 12 hours in now and the battle system has opened up more, although still not exactly difficult as long as you concentrate and use items.

I still feel the storyline is a bit cheesy with the one liners that the characters tend to use a lot, that never used to happen as much in the old Final Fantasy's. The story is alright, my opinion so far is it is deeper than I thought and makes more sense after reading countless datalogs at the start, I still prefer the story of 8,7, and 10 a bit more to this point by far... I'll see in another 20 or so hours though.

There is something about the 7 and 8 stories that just seems irreplacable to me.. can't put my finger on it and this game has no replaced it just yet although maybe it will in the last 20-30 hours left.

[Nestorm]

Attikus, on Mar 16, 2010 - 6:21 AM, said:

There is something about the 7 and 8 stories that just seems irreplacable to me.. can't put my finger on it and this game has no replaced it just yet although maybe it will in the last 20-30 hours left.

yeah well i have to agree on some things with you, the story is kinda cheesy at some points.. for example everytime snow starts talking about being the hero, im not sure if im liking him much lol BUT yeah... the story is amazing overall, wait till ur around the 25 hrs of playtime, at that point u could have a hard time at some of the battles...

Spoiler

specially when u face like 9 of those little blood sucking creatures!! They are the esiest mobs around there but when ur facing 9 of them they give you hell
Some tips for that fight: Use sentinel, Healer and Comando to spam blitz with that Sword that recharges ur ATB everytime u hit an enemy, it recovers lot faster when ur hitting a lot of mobs with AOE!

About Odin fight, yeah it was kinda tough, so far the toughest one was Bahamut tho

Spoiler

If you use Libra 3 times you can unlock all teh conditions that charge Bahamuts Gestalt mode, those are lots of chaining, debuffing Bahamut i think and protecting from attacks. (not sure about em rly) Well i ended up dying like 6 or 7 times until i decided to try SEN, RAV, RAV combo. It worked up rly good

[Quinn]

I've just got FFXIII...hurray for me being so slow...and i've just been reading people previous posts on here and now I wish I didn't...I didn't look at the spoilers but i'm wishing people had of used spoiler tags.

nnooooooooooooo this is no good just no good at all I tell you...i've just read the words Odin, Bahamut tough..died...so long and now I don't think i'm ever going to advance in this game..i get stressed out by games really bad and never play them again when i get stuck

[Apricoth]

I have been enjoying FFXIII immensely. I am 24+ hours into it now, trying to claw my way out of Chapter 10. I got dominated several times over by the boss of that chapter - I had to actually seek help to conquer that particular one. I am not as strategy oriented as some folks are but I have gotten through most of the game without assistance. This one I couldn't get past. haha I would get sooo close but my main would be targeted, ended dying by the can of whoop-arse.

Hint

Spoiler

Try not to use your summons if you are not prepared for the onslaught you will receive afterwards. You will see what I mean when you get to that point. The issue has to do with the boss focusing on a defender and if that defender has no way of regaining agro after the summons is done, you are done for unless the boss gets lucky, misses a few hits or doesn't hit you in full of what he's worth. This is what I discovered on my own and it was frustrating.. No matter how you time it. Someone had said to use the summons at a certain point but specifiies using Snows. I didn't go that route.

[Arcadio]

Finally I got my PS3 and FFXIII ... :DDD

ust wanted to share my happiness ^^

[Apricoth]

Arcadio, on Apr 5, 2010 - 9:02 AM, said:

Finally I got my PS3 and FFXIII ... :DDD

ust wanted to share my happiness ^^

Yay - congrats! Enjoy. =)

[Attikus]

Val, on Mar 14, 2010 - 7:00 PM, said:

Moms are tough? is that where you are up to? I'll give you that the game is very linear but the battle system doesn't make the game easy. at the very very start it does... but then when you get up to the odin fight.. If all you do is mash X then you will die... you will die every time...





1- Yes the characters do look great... maybe too great... flawless even... but this about them not having deep and unique stories.. I'm sorry but that is bull... play longer than 20 minutes and youll see this... Im about 20 hours in (in the place with the ffvii chocobo theme song!) and each character has a very interesting interwinding story that are all starting to join and form a really grand story.. I mean.. this story is by far better than the story of ffvii... if you had more fun playing that, great~ but irrelevent, the story of FFXIII is grander and the characters are more deep and unique. two of ffviis characters werent even in the ending..


2- It is quite futuristic in caccon... everyone has their tastes. I feel it fits with the story they are trying to tell though... FF games should priorities story over gameplay though imo. they cant have every game set in the same time period.. that would get dull... they are trying new things.. perhaps ffxv will return to its roots?

3- Its the PS3, they wouldn't dare make an ugly game with this generation >_> Good graphics doesn't equal bad story though... As I said, play more and though you may not like the battle system (which I don't too much xD)but when the story starts to open.. it really is entralling... All the characters really are amazing and the twists.. I'm still shocked about Vanille! About the linear thing.. sadly I doubt that will happen soon.. (lets hope for FFV:XIII!!) they proved with 12 that when the game is so open they couldn't make a decent story with interesting characters...

4- Im sorry if Im totally out of line but I was under the impression you were 4 hours into it...? how can you make that statement? are you even up to the part when you can start getting CP yet? you have to level each role individually and you need a balance of all roles to survive in some of the battles... This game really isn't as easy and you believe it to be and the battle system does get challenging when you have to manage the paradigm roles and keep constant watch of your health and the enemies stagger bar. and you can still grind in this game... Ive just had to to get passed a really annoying boss with lots of guns and rockets... first time I went against him, I was killed instantly.. =[

5- when you play the game, you can say what you want... till then your views on ffxiii will remain invalid.. =[





Now I'm really not trying to start anything and sorry if I offend. You haven't said anything bad or been rude to me in anyway, but please understand.. I'm simply saying you haven't played the game enough... what you have played is just the opening so ofcourse it is easy... FF7,8,9, and 10 were the same (in 10 im sure it was impossible to die >_>) the battle system starts off really basic but becomes probably one of the most complex and engaging battle systems Ive ever played in an ff game, (ive played 3,4,7,7-cc,7-doc,8,9,10,10-2,12) and there are several difficulty spikes.. there are even monsters in areas that are way too strong when you first come to them.. I myself don't really enjoy the battle system... I prefer the battle system of FFX - because it was easier... The story is great when you take in everything... so much, ive come to realise, is forshadowed at the start.. Im really enjoying it and I love how everyone has a decent place in the story.. non could be written out or it would be a completely diff story.. I'm loving Hope's story the most... his v/a is great and the emotion throughout has been gripping for me.

the story may be great and the characters very well done... but its so tedious running along one straight path after another xD give the game a decent chance please =] as Kurisu said, if not for the system.. for the story!

Ok I am now in Chapter 13, going to beat the game very soon.

The game is extremely linear and the only boss I had to fight more than 2 times to beat was the one at the end of Chapter 11... the rest of the game was extremely easy and I have done up to Mark Mission 40.

1. The story is most definitely not grander than past FF's and its actually very easy to understand it just takes time for it to be explained to the player. It doesn't really all fall into place until Chapter 10, but once it does the story is far from intricate and is very cut and dry. The characters are OKAY, they are cheesy at times and I think the fact its all voice acting now instead of text makes it that much cheesier of a story. The story at times made me feel like it was meant for 15 year olds, FF7 had a much more mature story to it. On a side note, because characters die and are not in the ending does not make a character irrelevant by any stretch of the imagination.

2. This game was without a doubt very futuristic and space like. I personally am not a fan of such an appeal. I actually loved chapter 10 because of how unfuturistic it was...

3. Yes the graphics are undoubtly going to be good because its PS3, these graphics are very good, I'm just not a fan of the futuristic space appeal they applied. All the FF's before 10 were pretty open and those had great storylines, 13 is WAY too linear and that does not make its story any better at all. It is so linear its predictable, walk a bit, fight mobs, cutscene, walk a bit, fight mobs, cutscene, boss, new chapter... etc.


4. The game has been extremely easy with the exception of the boss at the end of Ch.11 which took me all of 3 attempts to realize what I was doing wrong. All it takes is a little extra grinding in Ch.10 and you can put yourself wayyyy ahead of the difficulty curve from then on out. I've been skipping mobs from ch.11 to ch.13 just to get to bosses quicker and play out the story. The battle system is alright, I do not like only controlling one character and not being able to move the main character ur controlling around to get out of AOE affects. But overall this game is not hard at all if you take battles slow, it gets a little more challenging if you go for 5 stars but as long as your ahead of the difficulty curve from an hour or 2 of grinding you will blow through fights with 5 stars like its nothing.

5. I've now played the game and will prolly have it beaten by tom night or wed night.

The story has been average so far. It seems a lot more toned down than past stories and a lot more basic once everything opens up after chapter 9 its really not hard or complex at all.

I have noticed that the voice acting over text boxes has definitely made the story less appealing for me because the cheesy lines the characters use. I believe text is much better than voice because it is easier to fit more in texts. With voice acting the characters come off as soo cheesy and dramatic at times that it just feels corny and annoying. Maybe thats because I'm old though and prefer the bleeped out cursing of Barret and the drawn out text chats that came with all the FF's before this one.

If I wanted a movie I'd rent one, this feels more like a movie to me with the walk, fight, cutscene, walk, fight cutscene, boss, cutscene, walk, cutscene sequences.

[Momotaru]

Snow is such a jerk off. How did they think they could make one of their main characters such a laughable stereotype, and get away with it? Rides in on a motorcycle made out of two female gods with that damn smirk on his face, runs directly at armed military squads and punches them, and winks at all the chicks when all is said and done.. It's ridiculous. I don't hate him, it's just that much harder to take the game seriously..

I'm getting tired of Nomura.


Hah, it's not bad, it's tolerable, but I'm losing interest in this style of infallible characters.


There is a part of me that has come to like the ridiculousness of it all... it just doesn't seem appropriate for a project with such a high caliber and budget.

[Apricoth]

Well FFXIII is meant to be more like a JRPG and not the westernized FFs that we are use to. Our function in FFXIII is to perpetuate the characters through fights and as a reward, enjoy more of the story line. It is meant to be felt like a movie where you are participating in movie-like event(s). To me if feels like I am reading a story with a bonus to be able to be involved here and there. I love reading - books that really catch my attention I always have a longing for to dive in there and look around, even for just a little bit. FFXIII is just like that. At least in my opinion it is.

The linearity can drive you crazy in the beginning. I cannot play the game non-stop as I have a child, a husband and work full time. So luckily breaks happen because they are required. I am looking forward to getting out of Chapter 10 though. haha

The game is easy if you know what strategies to use right off the bat. I am not a strategy oriented person so when it comes to a few boss fights I die a few times before I figure out what I need to do. It's not by all means a no-brainer game - not in the least. Nor is it absolutely hard that you cannot stand the sight of yourself in the mirror.

[Attikus]

I have to say I liked this guys review of the game a lot.. I agreed with many points except for the fact that I began disliking the series more after 9 and 10 then after 6.


Warning: Not safe for work language used in the following video.

http://www.escapistm...al-Fantasy-XIII