Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Wanted to separate our actual impressions of the game from the previous thread. Possible spoilers may follow.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

I picked this game up today and I'm only about an hour in - and I love it so far.
One of the best looking games I've played, and the storyline actually doesn't seem too bad.
The transition from battle to 'world mode' is flawless. I like how you enter an oldschool FF-style battle in this one.


This game also has it's own Zell, Tidus, Cloud and Rikku.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

What do you mean by "enter an oldschool FF-syle battle?"

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

A separate screen for battles. They don't just take place on the world map.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Totally decided not to get this right now, as too many of my electronic systems r failing right now.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Bad choice.:mad:

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Meh need to fix my computer first.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Since I'm the only one who's actually played this so far, I'll share what I think so far.



So far, I like the storyline. You get thrown straight into it, so the whole thing feels much bigger than just you. The gameplay is fun. All enemies are on the world map, but when you get into a battle, it's in a seperate 'world map', like most other FF games, but immediate after the battle - and after you get graded on speed, and get your spoils, you're immediately back at the world map. No load times. It's very fluid. The battle system itself is pretty cool. I thought I would hate the fact you get healed after every battle, but the reason it's good is because that means battles can be more intense. The paradigm shift - the best way I can compare it - would be to the class system in FFX-2. You can change at any time (You have to have the paradigm created before you enter the battle), and in fact most battles need you to shift paradigms for success. There are roles your characters play in battle. I'm still early on, so they all haven't been revealed, nor unlocked for each character - but the ones you start with are Commando - typical attacking, Ravager - attacking with a bonus to chains (Chains help you stun enemies if you get the chain bar high enough, which then lets you cause a lot more damage to an enemy) Medic - self explanitory and Sentinel - purely defensive. You only control 1 character - your leader - for each battle, but the CPU's know what they're doing. They do exactly what their role is, and they don't do it stupidly. The leveling up system in it is best described as the Sphere Grid from FFX, but 3d.

Don't read this if you want the game to be a surprise. Major beginning spoilers:
The thing I like is that none of your characters - except for 2 - actually know eachother. This massive shitstorm just happens, and you guys get lumped together from time to time. It's a common goal, to a degree. A common goal with moral issues behind it. The basic premise that I've got so far is that it's basically a genocide taking place. Without getting too far into it - because it would be confusing as hell without playing the game, you all get targeted as what the genocide is...well, targeting.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Quoted from my friend Ryan Bill on the leveling system:

Meh it's not really like the sphere grid:

Grids don't overlap
As you defeat bosses you either improve your paradigms or unlock other branches
Your skills are capped and locked to each paradigm
Different characters have different paradigms unlocked, along with varied times for when they get certain skills or stat boosts
No branch jumping to other characters paradigms, at least not yet.

So that makes me semi ok with the paradigm system.

Luckily, he's going to send me his copy of the game when he's finished. Hooray.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

I'm about 3 or so hours in. I do love it so far, to play an actual RPG again is a great feeling. The game is insanely beautiful, and the combat very impressive thus far. Can't wait to have a final fantasy weekend this weekend.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Good to hear you are enjoying the game so far, Typhoid. I can't wait to start playing in about two weeks.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Don't know if you guys have Costco anywhere near, but FFXIII is only 49 dollars there.

I picked up a copy. Impressions to follow soon.

Also the costco I went to only had 360 games no PS3. SORRY!

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Put about 10 hours into it day one, absolutely love it. Unfortunately, I haven't had any time to go back to it since then. It's killing me.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

This game has: amazing music, amazing graphics, and the best jRPG battle system I have ever played.

That said, the story is garbage.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

I'm going to disagree about the battle system. At what I first thought was depth has turned into "mash a until hp is low, shift to healer paradigm, let heals happen, mash a again"

This probably slightly changes later, as I'm open to more abilities, but I'm a little over 5 hours into the game and it has yet to change.

The game is beautiful. BTW all those screenshots from the 360 version, I don't see any of that blurry lines bullshit. The only problem is, when the game does the soft load stuff like when you're running and stuff through the areas, it will sometimes give a little jump similar to when you lag online for a split second, but not as bad even. I wouldn't call it a problem, and not sure if it happens on PS3 or not. I did however catch a glimpse of the loading times on PS3... Jeezus christ.

Baby Chocobo is super kawaii uguu! (That means super cute in Japanese!)

I've got this strange feeling I aint seein any moogles in this game.

Uhm I find I'm not entirely hating the Crystal grid. Even though everyone has a ravager class right now, each of them learn different spells and abilities which is pretty cool.

The other thing that bothers me is Preemptive strikes in this game. It would have been nice if it just said "Preemptive strike" instead of you actually going around with your leader and attacking each enemy. I got into a battle with 10 enemies earlier and managed to preemptive strike them, and found myself wishing I hadn't. Took like 2 minutes for lightning to go around and whack them all with her sword.

Surprised to say the voice acting is actually pretty good. Snow and Sazh have great voice actors, and lightning isn't so bad.

Absolutely hate Leona Lewis and the fact that her song is in this game makes me feel a little nausea when I hear it. Also when I see the commercial.

For the most part find myself hating all the characters in this game so far except Sazh.

Vanille's Voice actor is fucking terrible, but I enjoy her character so far.

Snow isn't so bad I guess.

Mostly just Lightning and Hope really bug me.

Also lightning's hair just looks stupid.

Oh and I agree with the story being garbage.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Nobody likes Australians, eh?
Just me?

I don't think the voice actor for Vanille is bad at all. In fact, I quite like the voice acting for her. She's just sounds like a peppy Australian who lived half her live there, and the other half in the UK.

I'm about 13 hours in, and I like the game a lot.

I also haven't noticed any framerate issues, load issues, graphic issues or anything. Maybe I'm just not looking for things to dislike.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Yeah, I don't mind Vanille at all. I can see why some would find her annoying, but I think her voice is perfect for the character. Overall, I think all the voices are pretty good, which I wasn't expecting. Snow's great, of course, since Troy Baker is a voice acting God.

I've not noticed any graphical issues either, it's been running smooth as butter the whole time for me.

Also, I think this is probably my favorite iteration of the ATB system. Once it opens up it feels really fluid and dynamic.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Yeah but I'm playing the 360 version, which was supposed to have some problems.

You kids and your PS3.

None of the little 360 quirks make it unplayable though. It's noticeable, just not that big of a deal.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

How many discs is the game on for 360?

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3.

One of the reasons would lean towards PS3 version.

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Yeah, I grabbed it for the PS3.

Like it so far. The story isn't bad. I find the story and backstory to be very interesting (especially when I'm baked), but it's the dialogue that's not that great.

A lot of the characters lack subtext in the things they say. Everything seems too on the nose. Also hearing Snow say the word "hero" thirty times is kind of grating.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

What chapter are you on, though?

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In the first few hours, I had no idea where I was (pulse or cocoon) or what was going on, why these characters were in that same place at the same time, was very confused. But a lot is being revealed now, especially the past events, and so the story is actually becoming interesting instead of bizarre.

I was watching my roommate play, he's very near the end of the game, and the battle system becomes batshit insane. looking forward to that.

thus far I have no problems with most of the characters, the exception being Vanille who is a ridiculous anime stereotype. People are dying and shit's going down, and she's just giggly and bubbly, I want Lightning or someone else to punch her in the face. Her "in the future narrative voice" sounds a lot more humble and mature, so maybe she changes a bit. Really hope so.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

So just started chapter 9 and here's what I have to say:

The AI is fucking dumb when it comes to spellcaster classes. Just fucking dumb.

And at the same time it's dumb to make your party leader one of the main spellcasters because of their low hp values, but at the same time you can't stop them from doing dumb shit like casting thunder on monsters when they're weak to fire, or like the ra spells do slightly more chain gauge add on, but instead they'll cast 3 fires instead of a fira and a fire for like 2 more percentage points on the stagger meter. Fucking shitty AI ravagers.

Also synergist pisses me off in the same sense. For example Hope:

He had shell and protect. Well eventually he moved up and got barfire and barfrost(fire and ice resist of a pretty small percent), well I ran into a soldier who had a pretty crappy fire attack that did like 50 damage, well after being barfired it did 49 damage and Hope wouldn't do the one thing I needed him to which was cast protect because the soldiers rarely do the fire thing. But the entire battle he just stood there and cast barfire over and over. This has happened several times since and it almost makes the synergist useless if the enemy has an elemental attack. Seriously.

I mean it's not like the game is that hard anyway, but it would be nice if there had been an option for me push a button and make my AI cast a spell or something. Or that you could control the way they generally flowed (Like setting them to do the most damaging option.)

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Dude, use Libra.
If you libra an enemy once, every other time you fight that enemy they'll cast on it's weaknesses.
Reading the manual is for winners.


All this thread tells me is that you like to find things to complain about.
I've had no problems with the battle system, nor with the way people cast things.
I find synergists highly useful, as well as Sabateurs.
As long as you have your enemies intel, they won't cast random shit on it, or you.


If I was Earl, this game would be my Nintendo.


Also:

Dear the end of Chapter 9: What the fuck?

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

There's your problem. Play longer than 5 hours. The battle system is just unparalleled.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Welcome to the forums, ZephyrFate!

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Actually whether you libra or whether you defeat an enemy 1 time will gather you the enemy intel. ;) Which is a nice way to save your tp for bosses. Also pretty much every enemy has a hidden libra point which only shows up after you defeat it. In effect making Libra basically useless.

Also ravager just is something I would rather control, but not have to worry about the fact that the death hammer is going to drop every 5 seconds.

And Zephyr, I'm now 20 hours into the game, in chapter 10, and the battle system still lacks anything complex or interesting. Mash attacks until stagger, heal hps when low, repeat. The only difference is now I start battles with a synergist in my starting paradigm. Although will say game got a hell of a lot better once you weren't stuck in 2 person parties with the game telling you who the party leader was.

Also Sazh is da man. As well as snow. Oh and Fang is badass too. Oh hey, what do you know, that's my final party. FUCKING YEAR!

Also Shiva is a total whore in this game, and I enjoy how when you summon shiva, snow pops up between the 2 like a pimp and he's all "Sup"

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Every game has you mash x... i don't see how that's a complaint. EVERY FINAL FANTASY GAME HAS DONE THIS. If you're not using Saboteur with your Synergist, or changing up Paradigms, then you're willfully ignoring most of the strategy of the game.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Lol you have to change paradigms to heal. Also didn't complain about mashing x, complained about mashing attacks. I'm just finding this game takes less thought than previous FF installments.

It would be slightly different if the game didn't reward you for doing things as fast as possible for better drops.

The fastest way to do things is to start the battle casting haste and then Relentless Assault paradigm to build a fast attack chain. You're also rewarded with that thanks to launch which takes 1 enemy out of the battle, thus reducing the damage dealt to you.

I did start the battle with synergist, saboteur and commando for a while, but found there were too many enemies who either negated status effects, or midway through battle would change and negate status effects plus get a buff.

The only time I switch to saboteur now is for dispel, or for the few enemies that seriously need to be poisoned or slowed in order to get 5 stars.

Other than that subbing out other classes just takes away from the precious time you have to get 5 stars, which is about the only thing that makes battles in this game challenging. I mean you could slowly beat the game very easily with 2 medics and a commando. You would never die, but you also would never 5 star a battle.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

If you stick to the given path and just follow that - then yes, you can just mash away most of the time given you level up accordingly to your mash-tactics.

However once you (This part doesnt need to be read to get what I'm saying)get to Pulse and feel like battling tough enemies - then good luck just mashing attacks. It takes actual strategy and timing, as well as a lot of shit inside your pants.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Also I meant to address this ages ago, but forgot...

Why?

What does it matter if the game is 3 discs or 1 disc?

I'm confused? I mean other than for sheer laziness...

I guess you could lose a disc? However don't know why that would matter, because if you lost 1 disc in FFXIII 360 version, or you lost the 1 disc in the PS3 version, it still makes it unplayable lol.

Confused.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Am I the only one who actually enjoyed changing discs during the FF Playstation days? It gave me a physical sense of accomplishment.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

well then you'll love ME2

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

I switch between Relentless Assault, Combat Medic, and Bully. Synergist-Saboteur-Commando is a damn good combo. But there are others. You don't have to restrict yourself and many of the combos out there can still net you five stars. Plus, even with five stars you can still get terrible drops, or none at all.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

yeah but you really don't get drops with below 3 stars, and 5 stars usually nets a rare drop for me.

Also I finally upgraded my weapons during chapter 11, and figured out the most cost effective way to do so thus far in the game with the spoils available to me. So I max upgraded my best weapons, and lol did the game get hella easy. Upgrading essentially doubled my damage output (In the case of Snow it almost tripled it.)

Also, Exp multipliers for weapons and accessories don't go over x3 btw.

I spent about 2 and a half hours messing around with different stuff, taking notes and reloading the game. So if anyone wants to know anything, I guess ask, and I'll tell you if I know.

No I totally enjoy it. In fact I haven't had to do it since skies of arcadia on the gamecube, so when I did it with FF13 I was pretty pumped. Brings back old memories *tear*

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The last RPG that's been released recently that I've had to do disc swapping for was Lost Odyssey and that was a pretty nice feeling. I have FF8 from the PSN, so I have the discs there but there's no physical switching. Still feels like a milestone though.

I really want to play this, but something about it makes me feel like I'm just not gonna like it. I don't know if I'm gonna like, rent it or something to try it out like I did with Demon's Souls (which despite it's difficulty is pretty awesome). I've heard more good than bad, but there's something about it that I just don't feel right about and I can't put my finger on it.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

I've never liked disc switching, really. I mean it's sort of nostalgic, sure. But despite how obvious the storyline of (fictional game) may be, if you switch a disc in a 2 disc game, you know you're at least half way through. I prefer not knowing.

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That's not always the case necessarily. The older FF games had most of the content on the first few discs and the last one was all end-game stuff. So there's really nothing else to do besides finish the game on the last disc. I think Xenogears was one of those games that had an assload of content on it from either disc.

Re: Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
 

Sheer and utter laziness honestly.
If I'm playing a game, I hate having to switch discs, and nothing ever does it seamlessly.

Don't remind me, and for the life of me, I still can't figure out what the hell they did with the discs, you needed it for the beginning, and then could use the second disc for most of the middle, but then needed the first for like the end. :lol: