FF XIII

[Ddrak]

Finally finished the main storyline (about 60hrs, so I'm a little slow I guess). I liked it. Reminded me most of FF10 of any of the ones I've played to date (1, 7, 8, 10, 10-2, 12).

Combat

Separate to main exploration (like all but 12). Combat is turn-based as usual. You do walk around the enemies in 3d and it does make a little bit of difference to the AEs which makes it a little annoying that you can't tell your tank to get the hell away from the dps group, but overall it works well. You can only have 3 in your party, but the "paradigm shift" mechanic which alters your team's jobs on the fly mitigates this well and actually puts a good amount of strategy into what would otherwise be a "press X to win" game.

You only control the main character directly with the others acting on their own accord with surprisingly good AI. Main character dies and it's game over. You also have an "auto-battle" button for your turn which does work very well for almost all situations but you need to drop to manual control if you want some special things to go off (Lightning's "Army of One" for example).

The "special" attacks (Eidolons) are quite weak compared to the normal FF fare. I'm pretty sure in the time of doing a special attack I could actually do more through regular means. The main benefit here is that your party gets healed/rezzed to full after the attack finishes so they're a great rescue!


Story/Characters

It's a JRPG, so the story is linear. You're a hero (or group of heroes) with a destiny that you're playing through. If you want a western RPG, go play Oblivion or Mass Effect. The story and characters also start very cliche, but ends up mixing it up enough to make me want to finish the game to see how it all turns out. The actual plot was pretty decent, though it did get a little confused for me during the final battle (or maybe it was the fact it was 2:30am and I'm up at 7am every day these days).

I do approve of the Aussie accents of Fang and Vanille, or at least Vanille when she's not in "high pitched squeaky" mode. Thank god Hope got the angsty bullshit out of his emo system about half way through, or I would have reached into my TV and killed the kid.

Levelling is fairly simplistic but you do in in a number of different jobs per character, with the ability for every character to have every job eventually if you play long enough after the finish. You essentially just put XP against a relatively linear sequence of abilities/stats and just have to choose which jobs to boost in preference to others. Mostly you end up with each character's 3 primary jobs close to max by the end so it doesn't make too much difference.

The fact you can continue on from when you finish to complete the side quests, which in typical FF style progress to complete insanity in difficulty, is a good thing. You even get a convenient portal from your final save position to jump back to where the marks are. To actually get the platinum trophy would take, uh, lots of work...

Game World

Very linear until Chapter 11, but insanely beautiful. The game was meant to be played at 1080p and doing anything else would be a disservice. The amount of work constructing every minute detail the levels is seriously breathtaking at times, but that's why people play FF isn't it?


Other

Itemization is pretty simplistic. Having to guess at the upgrade system with trial-and-error was a little annoying but you do figure it out fast enough. Having to guess at where the max-xp for the weapons (so you didn't waste components) was also annoying rather than fun.

Final battle boss in his first form could death touch, which made the fight annoying because the roulette of your main character insta-dying (and resultant game-over) was just frustrating rather than fun.

Game was worth it, imo.

[xilly]

It's more like FFX-2 than X, imho. The paradigm system is basically a combination of the spheregrid (by advancement) and the dresspheres (the job swapping during combat).

[Taxious]

I only played this for a couple hours at a friends house but it seemed pretty fun. I'm considering picking it up for my 360 next time I'm in the game store.

[Ddrak]

It's more like FFX-2 than X, imho. The paradigm system is basically a combination of the spheregrid (by advancement) and the dresspheres (the job swapping during combat).

Didn't play enough FFX-2 to make the comparison, but from the little bit I've seen, yes.

Dd

[xilly]

I just finished the main story of FFXIII yesterday and my game time was around 60 hours as well, but I left my console on at various times, and I did quite a bit of grinding in certain spots for more CP.

Working on the Cie'th Stone missions now. It's pretty fun, just hate how the targets are sometimes in different zones than the stone itself. I wish they had given the ability to accept missions from the interface once you've visited the stone.. would save a ton of time if you don't 5 star it on the first try.

[Jarochai Alabaster]

Wow, these are the best things I've heard of the game to date. Honestly I have no interest whatsoever given I haven't enjoyed a FF since IX (Hated FFX, refused to touch X-2 on principle, and XII was downright boring) but the roomie said he might pick it up when he can find it used for $20 so I may give it a go then. Then again, something about transformers for summons (Or so I've heard) just demolishes my ability to take it seriously as a fantasy story.

And DD, I cannot reccoment FFs VI and IX highly enough. IX gets convoluted at times with its story, but that game is magnificent for its examination of what life and death mean through Vivi's story (VII also examined the "life and death" themes, but IX does it much better imo). VI is hands-down my favorite RPG. It's the only FF with no "true" main character (The game has the largest cast of any FF at 14 PCs, and no consistently forced lead party member), however the majority of the plot centers around a young woman.

VI and IX are also most likely the bloodiest (Figuratively speaking, as there's no visible in-game blood) of the series. By the end of VI, the world has been ripped to shreds (Literally) and rebuilt. By the end of IX, I think there's a total of two towns in the world that haven't been leveled, and another planet was entirely destroyed.

Oh yeah. Sorry for the moderate derail. Just couldn't let a FF topic go without mention of the two best in the series.

[Ddrak]

To be fair, most of the criticisms I've heard are completely accurate. Zero Punctuation's review is 100% true if you take it from the perspective of someone who likes action games (for example). The thing is, if you like the JRPG genre then you're playing for different reasons.

Yes, the first 10 chapters are basically running up a corridor fighting the mobs/bosses/etc. in the way.
Yes, the characters are completely cliché for the first 20 hours of the game (they change though).
Yes, you can basically "Press X to win" for a lot of the easier early fights if you set up the right group but you can do a lot better if you use the paradigm shifts properly.
Yes, the summons are giant robot things but they're the traditional FF giant "things" (Shiva, Bahamut, etc.). They suit the world's fairly high technology level.

Is it fun though? I think so. I tend not to spend 70+ hours on stuff that isn't fun and I'm not being paid for.

Dd

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Damn Jero, you have me feeling like I really missed out on IX and should pop it in my PS2.

[xilly]

That's a matter of opinion, Jaro.

I didn't really care for IX at all, because I thought Zidane was obnoxious. My favorites in the series are VIII, X, X-2, VI (FF3 on SNES), and then VII followed closely by II. There's only two that I have no opinion on, and that's V because I haven't played it, and XII because I just couldn't get into it and I wasn't a fan of the License grid thing.

FFXIII is extremely linear until Chapter 11. It picks your party and everything, to the point to where it gets frustrating because there are boss battles (Barthandulus the first time is a great example) which would have been much easier had I had the full party and been able to choose anyone I wanted. The ending was awesome, and the scene at the beginning of chapter 12 is one of the coolest scenes I've seen in a game in quite some time. It ranks right up there with the Kronos fight scenes from God of War III.

[Jarochai Alabaster]

That's a matter of opinion, Jaro.

Yes. Yes it is. Was anyone trying to imply otherwise?

[Ddrak]

Barthandulus the first time is a great example

I thought it opened up right before that fight? Pretty sure I did it with Light/Sazh/Van and my wife used Light/Fang/Hope.

The ending was awesome, and the scene at the beginning of chapter 12 is one of the coolest scenes I've seen in a game in quite some time. It ranks right up there with the Kronos fight scenes from God of War III.

Spoilers:

Hidden Information!

So did you get the feeling the Fal'Cie were like robots that had gone mad? I figured they just decided that the world was too broken and had to do anything they could to get The Maker back, including sacrificing the entire human population if needs be (after all, the Maker will make some more once he returned).

What was your opinion of the bit right at the end where most of the party turned Cie'th but then turned back? Fal'Cie illusion or real?

[xilly]

Barthandulus the first time is a great example

I thought it opened up right before that fight? Pretty sure I did it with Light/Sazh/Van and my wife used Light/Fang/Hope.

Ah, yes. You are right.. I originally tried to use Snow though, because at the time I didn't have Fang developed enough as a Sentinel to survive the attack. I forgot that I spent time grinding CP around that area until they all had enough HP to survive his onslaught. I generally use Fang/Light/Sazh or Vanille. I rarely ever use Hope, and haven't used Snow at all since the game stopped making me use him.

Hidden Information!

So did you get the feeling the Fal'Cie were like robots that had gone mad? I figured they just decided that the world was too broken and had to do anything they could to get The Maker back, including sacrificing the entire human population if needs be (after all, the Maker will make some more once he returned).

What was your opinion of the bit right at the end where most of the party turned Cie'th but then turned back? Fal'Cie illusion or real?

Hidden Information!

I didn't really ever compare them to robots, just as entities who inhabited machinery. Similarly to the way the Transformers inhabit vehicles. I basically considered them as being forced into those beings because their maker trapped them there as a form of eternal oppression. The Maker just seemed like a parent type that could never be pleased.

As for the Fal'Cie tricks.. I'm still kind of undecided on that. Perhaps maybe Fang's anger did make her become Ragnarok, but Vanille's gentleness was able to reverse the process. A yin to her yang. It would fit the ending. But, I assume that it was mind tricks. The Fal'Cie showed Fang becoming Ragnarok to the rest of the party, in an attempt to make one of them unwillingly become Ragnarok, and when that didn't work, he tried focusing on Fang by making her believe the rest of the party had become Cie'th. When neither worked, the tricks stopped and the fight began.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Who the heck is Fang? lol

[Ddrak]

Who the heck is Fang? lol

Crazy Aussie:

fang[1].png

@Xilly

Hidden Information!

I didn't really ever compare them to robots, just as entities who inhabited machinery. Similarly to the way the Transformers inhabit vehicles. I basically considered them as being forced into those beings because their maker trapped them there as a form of eternal oppression. The Maker just seemed like a parent type that could never be pleased.

Hidden Information!

Well, I didn't mean actual mechanical robots (obviously Bart could recreate himself at will) but more like a preprogrammed personality and role - more a complete lack of free will. I got the impression that they were left by The Maker to care for humans, but when they saw humans warring they completely went off the rails (or at least the Cocoon Fal'Cie did) and decided their only recourse was to get the maker back because their programming really wasn't sufficient to cover that eventuality.

So, Bart creates Cocoon and sets it up as a nice little incubator for enough humans to sacrifice all at once, blowing open the gates of heaven so The Maker can look out at see that his Fal'Cie need him back. Completely insane, but with a weird sort of insane logic. The problem then is he can't destroy Cocoon himself but has to essentially torture Anima (the Pulse Fal'Cie in the vestige) to the point where Anima creates the l'Cie with the focus of "destroy Cocoon". I don't *think* Anima was an active contributor to the while plan. Bart and the other Cocoon Fal'Cie then goes out of their way to ensure those l'Cie succeed.

Dd

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Is that the chick that "took" Snow?

[xilly]

Is that the chick that "took" Snow?

Yeah, her and Cid Raines and their gang.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Gotcha. Only up to like Chapter 7.

[xilly]

Hidden Information!

Well, I didn't mean actual mechanical robots (obviously Bart could recreate himself at will) but more like a preprogrammed personality and role - more a complete lack of free will. I got the impression that they were left by The Maker to care for humans, but when they saw humans warring they completely went off the rails (or at least the Cocoon Fal'Cie did) and decided their only recourse was to get the maker back because their programming really wasn't sufficient to cover that eventuality.

So, Bart creates Cocoon and sets it up as a nice little incubator for enough humans to sacrifice all at once, blowing open the gates of heaven so The Maker can look out at see that his Fal'Cie need him back. Completely insane, but with a weird sort of insane logic. The problem then is he can't destroy Cocoon himself but has to essentially torture Anima (the Pulse Fal'Cie in the vestige) to the point where Anima creates the l'Cie with the focus of "destroy Cocoon". I don't *think* Anima was an active contributor to the while plan. Bart and the other Cocoon Fal'Cie then goes out of their way to ensure those l'Cie succeed.

Hidden Information!

No, Anima wasn't in on it. The whole thing was spawned by Bart, possibly as a he lost his mind kind of a thing, but more than likely he was just evil the whole time anyway.

[Ddrak]

Hidden Information!

No, Anima wasn't in on it. The whole thing was spawned by Bart, possibly as a he lost his mind kind of a thing, but more than likely he was just evil the whole time anyway.

Hidden Information!

I'm getting that more and more as I uncover the Analects from doing the marks - they tell a completely different story

Dd

[xilly]

Agreed. And uh..

Hidden Information!

WTF is up with the weird flirty/love story between Vanille and Hope? Creeeeeepyyyyyyy...