FF XIII

[Ddrak]

So you share my opinion that Hope's not really worth the effort? Strat guide keeps suggesting Light/Fang/Hope as the party but I've been much happier with (Light or Fang)/Sazh/Vanille.

Dd

[xilly]

So you share my opinion that Hope's not really worth the effort? Strat guide keeps suggesting Light/Fang/Hope as the party but I've been much happier with (Light or Fang)/Sazh/Vanille.

Dd

Hope has the best magic, and he's the best medic.. but his AI is fucking retarded. Vanille doesn't heal for as much, but IMO with the Physician's Staff (atm), she seems to be FAR better healer than Hope is. It's probably because she uses Curaja any time your whole party takes a hit as opposed to spamming cure like Hope does on each character. It's like he's not programmed to group heal worth a piss.

Plus Vanille can take a hit about 3 times better than Hope can, and with his terrible HP, that's always a welcome bonus.

I always control Fang, and up until I started farming turtles, I used Fang/Light/Sazh, but Sazh isn't a good enough Medic to keep up with the turtle stomp. Light might be, but I dunno that I wanna make her focus on healing since her melee output is so good.

[xilly]

Ok, so I killed a Long Gui and finally beat Mission 64. Now all I'm left with is trying to 5 star Mission 64 and get the rest of the accessories. Too bad there's no faster way to farm gil other than reloading on the edenhall turtle.

[xilly]

Platinum trophy achieved.

[Ddrak]

Platinum trophy achieved.

Nice work.

[Jarochai Alabaster]

So I tried to play this, but my copy must be busticated. Mine isn't a game, it's a movie that periodically allows you to press A to win. Where's the fucking game?

[Ddrak]

It really opens up at Ch11, and like most FF games, the real challenge isn't finishing the plot line but in finishing all the side quests and trophies.

Dd

[xilly]

So I tried to play this, but my copy must be busticated. Mine isn't a game, it's a movie that periodically allows you to press A to win. Where's the fucking game?

It takes 20 hours or so to get to chapter 11.. but the experience is much more enjoyable once you get there.

[Xican]

So I tried to play this, but my copy must be busticated. Mine isn't a game, it's a movie that periodically allows you to press A to win. Where's the fucking game?

Speaking purely as someone who hasn't played the game I know this will be of little value, but I've always found Final Fantasy to be like that. All of them are very story-driven and rarely ever am I impressed by the gameplay itself.

[Jarochai Alabaster]

FF IV - IX had pretty decent gameplay elements. I agree they're primarily story-driven (V being a notable exception) over gameplay, but they were still all solid on gameplay at least. Sorry, but "the game gets good after 20 hours or so" isn't a selling point.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Its more like 30 hours.

[Bahd Zoolander]

Its more like 30 hours.

You need to press A faster.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

But if I miss something I may miss out on an achievement (and thus miss out on getting them all)...

[Ddrak]

FF IV - IX had pretty decent gameplay elements. I agree they're primarily story-driven (V being a notable exception) over gameplay, but they were still all solid on gameplay at least. Sorry, but "the game gets good after 20 hours or so" isn't a selling point.

I actually liked the fact the auto-attack was quite intelligent which resulted in a "Press A to win" syndrome. If it wasn't, killing some of the later bosses would have been an exercise in frustration. The real challenge is mastering the paradigm shifts, not micromanaging the exact attack you're performing.

If you want to have the real-time combat sequence over the PSX era hard turn-based mechanics then streamlining the attack mechanics is the only course of action to make the game playable. I can't possibly imagine trying to kill Vercingetorix (mark 64) with manual attack selection. However, if you don't like auto-attack then no one is forcing you to use it - just select attacks manually FF4-9 style and run with it!

Dd

[Jarochai Alabaster]

real-time combat sequence over the PSX era hard turn-based mechanics

Point of clarification: The only PSX era FF game that featured true turn-based mechanics (Excluding those ports included in the Origins/Anthologies/Chronicles packages) is Tactics. In fact, if I recall them correctly, the only FF games that are actually turn-based are I, II, III, X and X-2. IV pretends to be, but that's just the result of the turn gauge being hidden.

Back on topic, I'll be honest and say I didn't get far enough in XIII to even know what the hell a paradigm shift is. It seriously took me all of 15 minutes to realize I was going to hate this game.

[Ddrak]

Point of clarification: The only PSX era FF game that featured true turn-based mechanics (Excluding those ports included in the Origins/Anthologies/Chronicles packages) is Tactics. In fact, if I recall them correctly, the only FF games that are actually turn-based are I, II, III, X and X-2. IV pretends to be, but that's just the result of the turn gauge being hidden.

I guess if you define a "turn-based" game as "we move" followed by "they move" rather than turns going all over based on speed and reaction. I was defining it as a game where the action stopped and actually waited for your input rather than continuing whether you did something or not.

FF XIII would never have worked without some sort of automation unless they dropped the real-time battle gauge.

I'll be honest and say I didn't get far enough in XIII to even know what the hell a paradigm shift is. It seriously took me all of 15 minutes to realize I was going to hate this game.

!!

If you never actually got past Anima then you're really not seeing much of the game at all. The characters don't get any significant powers until then.

Dd

[xilly]

I kinda drudged through the first 8 or so chapters as a "meh" kind of attitude about it.. but after that I really started enjoying it and having fun with it. By the time I got to chapter 11, I was loving it. The only thing that sucked was farming Traps at the end, but I just made myself enjoy finding faster ways to beat the turtles without using summons.

The ending is pretty cool too. You really should drop the whining about it and just slosh through. I promise it gets much better, and was well worth the purchase price.