Final Fantasy 13 Dated

[TheSlyMoogle]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

I've never played - nor conciously know of - an RPG where you regenerate health after every encounter.

This is almost as bad of an idea as Tactics A2's MP starting at 0 each battle.

Final Fantasy Tactics. Save for 3 battles where you went from 1 fight to the next in succession but the first battle was always simple.

Pretty much every strategy RPG had heals after every battle. For the most part it's never about the heal management. Pretty much every RPG gives you enough healing stuff to cope with the loss of HP. Whether you're sucking down potions or tanking on the giant mana pool of your white mage, whose sole purpose is to heal you and deal like 25 damage to the critters, up until he/she finally learns some disable spells and then by that time you've probably got some broken equips, skills, or spells that make healing mostly useless.

I can't think of any RPG where healing has been a big deal to me except inside a battle, and most of the time I'm thinking "Hmm... Do I have enough HP to tank another hit and end the battle or should I heal now?" That's it because I never have to heal except at the end of the battle or during boss battles. I find it to be a fine concept, as long as they compensate in other ways. Need of mana to deal damage to the enemies or something like that. Who knows.

I'm still excited for this game, and it's about time a final fantasy game made me want to play it.

*shakes head at 10 and 12*; *Sideways glance at 9 for being pretty terrible too*

[DarkMaster]

Originally Posted by BreakABone

Here's a look at the battle system, and it just doesn't seem that compelling all on its own, but could just be me.

That demo is of a much earlier version of the battle system which the developers have said numerous times is not fully reflective of the actual game, so much so that if there were to be a demo for North America they wouldn't be able to release that same demo. Plus the entire purpose of releasing that demo a year before the game's release was to asses fan feedback.

But anyways, has anyone actual looked at the screens posted? http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=5921

Game looks beautiful. The first actual, fully realized RPG of the HD era, it's very exciting.

[Szymon]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

It's like talking to a wall with another wall for a brain.

My point is that with enough phoenix downs and potions and white magic available, there never should have been a point where you were traveling through the game with unconscious or dead team members. Comparing to a hockey game is apples and oranges.

[Szymon]

Originally Posted by TheSlyMoogle

Final Fantasy Tactics. Save for 3 battles where you went from 1 fight to the next in succession but the first battle was always simple.

Pretty much every strategy RPG had heals after every battle. For the most part it's never about the heal management. Pretty much every RPG gives you enough healing stuff to cope with the loss of HP. Whether you're sucking down potions or tanking on the giant mana pool of your white mage, whose sole purpose is to heal you and deal like 25 damage to the critters, up until he/she finally learns some disable spells and then by that time you've probably got some broken equips, skills, or spells that make healing mostly useless.

I can't think of any RPG where healing has been a big deal to me except inside a battle, and most of the time I'm thinking "Hmm... Do I have enough HP to tank another hit and end the battle or should I heal now?" That's it because I never have to heal except at the end of the battle or during boss battles. I find it to be a fine concept, as long as they compensate in other ways. Need of mana to deal damage to the enemies or something like that. Who knows.

I'm still excited for this game, and it's about time a final fantasy game made me want to play it.

*shakes head at 10 and 12*; *Sideways glance at 9 for being pretty terrible too*

I was on the bus this morning thinking about FF tactics and was going to make a post about it but you beat me to the punch. Sure, counting your potions and making sure to properly ration them is something we're all used to, but is it really the best part of the game? No. Does it really affect the story? No.

What it does affect, is your play style and your attitude towards rationing items. Have you ever finished a Final Fantasy game with barely any items left? If you're a rationing king and pack rat like me, the answer is "AW HELL NO, I SAVED EVERY ETHER, ELIXIR AND POTION I COLLECTED!" So what value do these items have, if they're never used?

I'd like to see a Final Fantasy where these items are rare and not as necessary as they used to be. Going through the game relying on potions and white magic to heal yourself is a burden, albeit one that a lot of you guys seem to cherish. Have you ever been really excited about healing up after random encounters? Have you ever opened your menu and looked at your characters health and thought "Oh yaaa! It's time to use some potions, baby. I'm literally giddy with excitement about this, and I wish I could see more of this in future games!" Probably not. More likely, you're thinking to yourself "Oh okay, yea I guess it's time to heal." Then you press a few buttons, and go through the boring task of shuffling through your inventory, finding your potions and applying them to your characters to get them as full as possible without wasting any potions. This sort of boring yet necessary task is better off automated, in my opinion.

On the other hand, it could be that I power through this game and finish it without feeling any sort of challenge at all, which would be a bummer. Only time will tell.

[Szymon]

Time, and professional reviews from respectable websites.

[BreakABone]

Ask Me Anything

[TheSlyMoogle]

Oh Square I thought we learned are lesson from the Sphere grid of yesterday?

Leveling system looks like shit, ability usage system looks and sounds like shit, battle system looks Mediocre, random battles look like they will take entirely too long to be enjoyable, I heard from my Japanese speaking and reading friends the story is ass.

Basically it's pretty.

I'm still going to play it, but not sure if I'll enjoy or not after watching that and talking to some people.

The Paradigm system looks kinda fun, and so that could be ok.

[DarkMaster]

Learned their lesson with the sphere grid? What lesson would that be, exactly? That it was fuckin awesome? I am blown away that they have created an evolution of the sphere grid system, I thought it was one of the best changes they ever made with the series when FFX came out. Leveling up is standard now, it's boring, every game has leveling up, it's become completely redundant. Thank god an RPG is trying to do something more with the concept.

You're awfully quick to judge a 40 hour game from a 5 minute video of a demo given to the press.

[TheGame]

Originally Posted by DarkMaster

Learned their lesson with the sphere grid? What lesson would that be, exactly? That it was fuckin awesome? I am blown away that they have created an evolution of the sphere grid system, I thought it was one of the best changes they ever made with the series when FFX came out. Leveling up is standard now, it's boring, every game has leveling up, it's become completely redundant. Thank god an RPG is trying to do something more with the concept.

You're awfully quick to judge a 40 hour game from a 5 minute video of a demo given to the press.

Agreed.

I loved the sphere grid, though I wish they'd make another FF with FF7's ability system. I just like having a lot of freedom in how I develop my characters. I had Yuna learn a bunch of black mage abilities and she made Lulu seem useless. It was fun!

[BreakABone]

There's really no way this won't come off the wrong way to some, but eh.

I was just curious for the few multi-console owners here, which console are you picking up FF 13 for?

I mean if I do decide to get think will get the PS3 version simply because its only one disc compared to the 3 on the Xbox.

The second part is pretty negligible as well, but here are some comparison shots.

[Jonbo298]

The part that bugs me, is that it seems that Square forgot to use AA on the 360...

[Thespis721]

::cracks knuckles:: Okay. My friends who love Square games told me how much they are excited about this game coming out, but honestly, I have no excitement. I don't think Final Fantasy has been good in a LONG time. It's old hat and Square has beaten the franchise into the ground with their spin-offs. Not to mention I can't BEAT the games because I lose interest.

Here's my problem, and I realize this has to do with my completionist nature:

I start playing some of these RPGs, FF being notorious for it, and they toss in a whole bunch of extra stuff. Like hunts. And I want do all these hunts because I want to get my maximum experience in the content but then after a while I sit there and thing, "What the frak was I doing? What's going on in this story? Who's doing who in the what now?" And I lose interest in the story, thus losing interest in my driving force to play RPGs, because, like BaB said, it's not a skill oriented experience, ESPECIALLY jRPGs. And then I start thinking, "Well, why the heck, when the world or universe is on the line, am I frakkin' around doing errands for some old hag in a marketplace? I need to save the world!"

Thus, many RPGs, especially jRPGs, ESPECIALLY FF, don't inspire me anymore.

That, and all the characters look like fairies, the storylines are pretty identical, the bad guys are the same, and nothing will compare to FFXI and FFXII.

You've jumped the shark, Square. Make a new property and stick with it.

[DarkMaster]

So, you don't think "Final Fantasy has been good in a LONG time", and yet, "nothing will compare to FFXI and FFXII"?

[TheGame]

Maybe he's referring to ffvi and ffvii... otherwise that makes no sense.

[Thespis721]

Yeah, sorry. I'm at work so I multitask sometimes. Like TheGame said, I meant VI and VII.

I wasn't a big fan of XI or XII. though XII was pretty for a PS2 game...