Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

I thought the MGS4 "disc change" was pretty funny. Although if you play MGS: Twin Snakes and not the original MGS it doesn't make sense. The disc swap point was changed, although I can't remember where to.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

If anyone's interested in the weapons upgrades for each character

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48263855@N04/4422702471/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48263855@N04/4423467724/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48263855@N04/4423466578/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48263855@N04/4423466066/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48263855@N04/4423465518/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48263855@N04/4423464950/

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

That quality is terrible on the guide scans. To be honest the easiest way to level weapons for any weapon and anyone is to pump vibrant oozes until it gets the x3 exp multiplier and then pump whatever spoil gives the most exp. The only thing you need to know then is the amount of exp the weapon needs to max level, that way you can pump that many spoils onto it at once while it has the exp mod. Then it's a matter of figuring out what ore allows it to upgrade to the next weapon form.

Just beat the game.

All I have to say is really square? Really?

I'm not done with the game thanks to the most awesome of achievements that it has, but other than that... Meh.

Perhaps the prettiest game I've played this generation even with all the graphical quirks and screw ups on the 360, and yeah it got a lot worse starting with chapter 9, to the point sometimes I would just laugh as the game lagged and had serious lines and zigzags.

I think the worst part is that this story and pretty much these characters had already been done before, not just in a game, but in another final fantasy game. Just wow.

I think it's pretty safe to say this will be my last Final Fantasy game, and perhaps my last RPG for a long time.

I mean they had a really good run though. From 4-9 they were mostly amazing games, but they just rehashed a game I already fucking played, and made it easier.

Also once you get to chapter 11 the game is so broken easy that it's silly. Thank you square for giving me the easiest grind to max level I have ever had. Well actually when the game ended... well spoilers so wont say anything.

Anyway I'm looking forward to the Omega and Ultima weapons/ some extreme bosses in this game, and hope that they don't play out like the last few bosses in this game.

Also at the end of the game I used fang, lightning and hope as commando, ravager, ravager and occasionally to heal I switched to saboteur, medic, medic or synergist, medic, medic. That was the only time I took the time to use buffs or debuffs. Severely unfortunate that synergist and sab were useless starting around chapter 11.

While I will say this game had probably the best AI I've ever seen in an RPG, it was still pathetic, but without it the battle system couldn't have worked. I think the most frustrating part of the game was a boss battle at the end of chapter 11 and it was extreme status effects, and like my characters all had 5k hp, and we were down to like 4-4.5k hp each and I switched to medic to get esuna going to remove poison and all the medic kept doing was curing us when we weren't in danger of dying at all, and all I wanted was esuna. It got to the point that I actually stopped the fight, ran to the save point/shop and bought 30 antidotes and proceeded to just antidote the team myself.

I feel like the way the high level spells were done was a bit pathetic imo. Having the level 3 spell as an AOE instead of really doing anymore damage was just silly. Also the fact that your AI would choose to ever do anything other than cast 4-5 of the same spell at an enemy because that does the most damage, is just beyond logic and I have no idea how they ever programmed that in good conscience.

Ruin is perhaps the most useless thing ever, why that spell was created I do not know, and Ruinga was so fucking useful it was retarded. Oh hello chance to launch and a chance to daze at the same time.

Overall it turns out that the best way to 5 star every fight is Rav,Rav, Com. The only difference in the ranbats is whether you use blitz or attack basically.

Also if you want this game to be a challenge *do not* upgrade your weapons until chapter 11, and don't upgrade them past 1st level cap.

I feel like this was basically the game for people who can't play games for more than 30 minutes at a time or something. I would say without grinding I probably could have finished the game in around 30 hours, as it stands I finished it with no problems at 43:48 on first run. It's terribly fast to grind out levels in this game, fairly easy to acquire maxed out weapons and items, and the game is one big straight line. Nuts to the reviews that said it wasn't as the only part that's not linear is the optional 50 or so missions available starting chapter 11 and on. (There are 64 missions and I believe a total of 14 are mandatory.) This is absolutely the most linear final fantasy I have ever played. Even 10 was better in this aspect.

I think my final words on this are:

It was a good RPG, but a terrible final fantasy. Oh and it was a lot more enjoyable than 10.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

I'm stuck in Chapter 11, and it's really pissing me off because it seems completely impossible for me to win.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Hmm? Stuck on what exactly? A boss?

There are two places I can think you might be having trouble! SPOILERZ ABOUT BOSSES!:

The first place I can think of is in the mine with the juggernaut that is guarding a Treasure orb. Basically the damn thing takes a beatdown and even with tier 8 maxed out it took 3 staggers to kill. The main thing is to have hope in your party and have him cast protect, barfire and shell. This will eliminate a lot of the damage the thing can do with its big fire swing. After that switch to RAV/RAV/RAV and let spells fly to stagger it quickly, then shift to COM/COM/RAV or COM/RAV/RAV to do a lot of damage in the stagger.

The next place I can think you're stuck would be the last boss of the chapter, which is Barthandalus's second fight. Basically he spends the entire round being a huge douche, but the shining light is that he's really easy to stagger. So start the round with a synergist casting buffs (Preferably Hope since he has the good defense buffs), and then switch to rav/rav/rav again to rack up the chain. When bart is stunned I switched to Com/Com/Medic to recover and pound on the damage as much as possible, however Com/Com/RAV was used if I was in good health to continue to crank the chain to do more damage. If it ever looks like you're getting into a really hairy spot (AKA everyone under 700 HP and you aren't in a paradigm with medic), please summon your eidolon because it will heal you and the team, rack up some decent damage, and if you happen to die while you and the eidolon are killing shit together, then the Eidolon will revive you. Also this was the fight I was talking about where I bought Antidotes and used them to get rid of poison because the AI would never cast ESUNA even though my hp was almost full. SHITTY AI!!!

If you're stuck on something else let me know, also there is a lame sidequest at the end of Ch. 11 that I highly suggest you take the time to complete as it nets you about 600k gil. I got stuck on a part of this quest for about 20 minutes.

To be honest chapter 11 is all about farming up the 8th tier of the Crystarium, here is why:

There are 3 really good places to do so on the Archlyte Steppe.

When you first get there, there's a behemoth that drops about 4k CP a fight, it's one of the lesser behemoth's and pretty easy to tackle.

After that there's a place in the Western edge of the map where there are two battles with chicken mages (Rangas and something else) but they're all chicken mages. The first battle is where the chicken mage is standing on a rock and 3 other chicken mages are running around in a circle around this chicken mage. That battle is worth 2700 cp, and the next is on a cliff with 5 rangas. The trick to doing these fights really fast is to get fang, lightning, and snow out and make sure all 3 are commandos and know blitz. A couple of rounds of blitz and the chickens are roasted. In the second fight with the 5 rangas, hold your blitz off until you see them start to cast Aeroga which hurts really badly. Eventually you'll move up on the Crystarium so far this wont be an issue and chickens will die in 10-15 seconds. That battle nets you 3500 cp. You can quickly run back and forth between these two fights and gain about 12400 cp a minute. In an hour and a half I had maxed tier 8.

The last battle is right before the cave. The giant wolf and the king behemoth who are fighting each other. They never notice you and you always preemptive strike the fight. COM/RAV/RAV as you enter the fight and target the behemoth first so he doesn't stand up. Hopefully your COM has launch. Anyway he's at half life, so doesn't take long to kill him. Then just keep on the wolf who is also at half life. this battle nets you 6400 cp and takes about 35 seconds to win. You can reset the battle by running back to the save point and almost to the other behemoth, then turning around and running back to the battle. I racked up a good 600k CP here before progressing the game, and was able to max all 3 innate classes when I opened up tier 9 on the Crystarium.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Oh finally someone posted the scans of the accessories chart and the dismantle charts.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

So, I am a little over three hours into FFXIII and here are my very brief impressions:

- The production values are amazing: graphics, voice acting, menu system, they are all superb.

- I like the reintroduction of the ATB system. I was quite partial to it in FFVII, and seem to equally like it in this game.

- The linearity has not been an issue for me at all. While it would annoy me if it carried on for long stretches of path with nothing to break up the action, this is not how it is handled. Cut scenes and NCP break up the walking bits nicely. It certainly isn't anything like the traditional towns, but I think it is somewhat similar.

- I like how the annoying parts of FF have been simplified in this game. Maybe it is because I have less patience for videogames, or maybe it is because I am no longer in middle school and actually have a life, but I just don't have time to fully master a complicated RPG and feel as though I had a productive day. I like this compromise.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

I finished the game about a week ago or so. I have mixed thoughts on the game as a whole. If I were to rank the core FF games XIII would be right on the line of the games I like and the games I don't really like (say, right before VIII).

I thought the story started out really strong. Not having a clear antagonist and have the cast just stuck in an awful situation was a different direction and a good change of pace. I liked thinking that I wasn't going to be able to tell how things were going to play out. I also like the high moral ambiguity with the main cast; they weren't really "good guys" in the beginning of the game. They were doing whatever they needed to do to accomplish their own personal goals and survive, not save the world.

Unfortunately the whole thing falls apart when the "main villain" is revealed. The reveal is completely wasted since you don't really get to know the character at all. Its just, "Oh, yeah, and this is the big bad guy." The same goes for pretty much any character beyond the main cast. Nobody is developed at all beyond whatever very minor role they play in the story. They have no real character or personality.

I also got really annoyed with the datalog. At first it very handily filled in the information that all the characters would know (what is Cocoon and Pulse, what's a fal'Cie and l'Cie, who are the Guardian Corps, etc.). It brought me into the world without resorting to silly forced exposition. Once the big villain is revealed, however, it starts giving out essential plot info that was not revealed in the cutscenes or game proper. I would be reading the newest datalog entry and I'd come across something and think, "Wait, what? Since when?" At first I thought I had missed something or maybe it was a mistake; they programmed the datalog to be unlocked too early or something. It kept happening and I realized it was just really bad storytelling.

Ultimately I was left dissatisfied with the story.

I did, however, like the battle and Paradigm system. Mostly, anyway. I was annoyed by the "Party leader" thing. Basically, if the Party Leader dies the game is over. This doesn't make sense from a gameplay or story perspective. Any character can be the party leader and eventually you can decide who is the party leader, so there's not some silly "in-game" explanation for it. I can't think of any "real world" reason behind it either. Its just frustrating. I also don't like how the different paradigms/jobs grow differently for the different characters. I felt like the game expected me to be able to use "Haste," but only one character had it despite having two well-developed synergists. It basically prevented me from having exactly the team I wanted until near the end of the game.

Overall, though, I enjoyed playing it. I didn't mind the linearity itself, although I would have liked some "downtime" in between the constant flow of battles. It got especially tiring when there constantly enemies that could a while to wear down and defeat. Near the end I just started avoiding the battles.

Anyway...

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Did everyone wait until Chapter 9 to start upgrading weapons? I'm sort of stuck in Chapter 7 (I think?) with Snow and Hope... thinking I need to upgrade?

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

You could upgrade, but you really don't need to I think. Wait until chapter 11. If you're stuck it's probably a matter of figuring out proper paradigms and when to switch during battle.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

I got to Orphan's Cradle, and opted to go back to Pulse so I can do as much, if not all of the 'hunts.' Currently I'm doing Titan's Challenge, and it's pretty cool.


I wanted to do the hunts before I finish the game in order to have it seem more fluid. I'm 55 hours in and not even half way through the quests. Such a great, huge game.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Well, glad I didn't upgrade any of Sahz's weapons.

Edit: Nevermind, haha.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Moogle, can you tell me about how to do the upgrading part in Chapter 9? I am at the hallway you talked about and have been defeating the soldiers diligently.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Join my party and I'll tell you about it. Don't feel like typing it out again :p

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

I was looking to try find this last night but I couldn't, so I'll try here.

When it comes to accessory's that improve chance of shrouds, items, or rare items dropping - do they just have to be equipped on 1 of the 3 people in the battle, or do they have to be on your party leader to count?