Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

[Firewind]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

I have got to say though that this game forces you to farm in the most assbackwards method. Since the game is so linear that it's literally Point A to Point B with no backtracking, you have to find a save point near lucrative enemies and fight them, save, then quit and reload your file. It's so stupid.... I've been spamming this 1 fight for about 15 minutes now because I'm getting a whopping 156 CP out for a 20 second fight. That's damn fast CP at my level.

The game is pretty much like FFVI and FFX where it's linear for the first part of the game but opens up later so you can do sidequests and farm them. There are plenty of monster hunting side quests you can do and it's also much, much easier to backtrack later on.

Really the only weapons you need to upgrade are Lightning and Sazh's starting weapons (and maybe Snow's if you really want to) at the start. You don't really need to worry about upgrading stuff until later anyway when you go to fight some of the elite marks.

Really? Are you being dense on purpose?

What is so hard about understanding the following instructions? :

1) Switch to the Ravager Class to keep the Gestalt Gauge constantly ticking up when the boss is in defense mode

2) Switch to the Sentinel Class when it's on the offensive while spamming defend to fill up the Gestalt Gauge

3) Provoke will not do anything to the gauge because the boss is immune to provoke

[Mezlo]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

So I played some last night, about 45 mins or so. Awesome game so far, awesome graphics...

Question. Do you not get the different paradigms (sp?) from the start? At first you only have one style but as you get further in the game you get the different ones? It seems during battle so far, all I've been doing is the autobattle, which lets you double attack, and then when hp gets low i toss a potion. I've tried hitting the button to try and switch paradigms and nothing happens.

[Malacite]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

Rented it, enjoying so far (I'm on chapter 5 now)


I have got to say though that this game forces you to farm in the most assbackwards method. Since the game is so linear that it's literally Point A to Point B with no backtracking, you have to find a save point near lucrative enemies and fight them, save, then quit and reload your file. It's so stupid.... I've been spamming this 1 fight for about 15 minutes now because I'm getting a whopping 156 CP out for a 20 second fight. That's damn fast CP at my level.

[Pwnagraphic]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

Maybe he just understands it better than you?

[DakAttack]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

Really? Are you being dense on purpose?

[Kailea]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

its not hard to read, I figured it out my first time fighting it....granted I almost ran out of time, because it did take me a moment to figure out what I was doing ;p


Hint 1: Yields to those who amass chain bonuses.
(use ravenger class to rack up that chain bar)

Hint 2: Yields to those who defend against and endure attacks.
(use Sentinel to defend yourself)

Hint 3: Cannot be provoked.
(since you only have two moves under sentinel class provoke and that other one, then you only have one move to use)

and switching between the two is nothing really, its takes just a sec to do and your right back in the fight.

[DakAttack]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

Dak are we playing the same game here? Switching to Commando and beating the snot out of the Eidolons still builds thier gestalt gauge so you have something to build it with when they go into tanking mode. With Shiva you beat on Nyx when she's in sentinel mode then switch to the Sentinel class and spam the hell out of your tank skills. Rinse and repeat.

If Class changing mid-fight is so difficult for you to grasp then you're going to love trying to beat Odin since it's impossible to fill his gauge via healing Hope alone



Actually the hints are worded very clearly. You get libra early on, cast it twice and you will know exactly how to beat the Eidolon. Chaining the Eidolon is just a way to keep it's gestalt gaugerising since you are on a very tight time limit for all of the Eidolon fights.

The first thing you see about the defensive role is wrong, because sitting in the role itself does absolutely nothing. Similarly, the second hint is wrong because soaking up damage doesn't fill the meter, either. The first hint doesn't even mesh with the previous two, and the third doesn't even attempt to masquerade as useful.

The hints

At the start of a battle against an Eidolon, a time limit is imposed on you via
a Doom counter. As you demonstrate your power to the Eidolon, its gestalt gauge
will slowly fill. Attack the Eidolon until this gauge is full, and then press
Square to claim victory.

Attacks are not the only way to charge the gauge. Using the Libra technique may
provide you with hints as to which additional abilities can be used. Defensive
roles are effective against the Shiva sisters.

Hint 1: Yields to those who amass chain bonuses.
Hint 2: Yields to those who defend against and endure attacks.
Hint 3: Cannot be provoked.

Following these hints will run the Doom counter down and net you a nice
game over. Moving from role to role depending on how the Eidolon is
acting nets you massive points on the meter. So much so that you can be
done with only one-third of the Doom counter having passed. The hints
don't say anything about role transition, it tells you what to do
within the roles when those actions either don't contribute or are
worth pitiful amounts.

[Pwnagraphic]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

This games awesome!
Dragon Age AI was HORRIBLE. I can rant all day about that AI garbage.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

The party member AI is much smarter though. Healers know when to heal, tanks know how to hold hate and AI characters actually use potions and phoenix downs. Compared to something like Dragon Age the party member AI for FFXIII looks like Stephen Hawking stood next to a drooling puppy. Sure DA's gambit system thing looks impressive but it's utterly useless when party members don't even know how to use thier abilities.

Feel the need to point this out, but the Gambit System in FFXII is only as smart as the person that programmed it, which would be the player.

Can't speak for DA, but I'm imagining something more akin to KOTOR, which isn't exactly a gambit system. The AI system there would probably have more in common with the partner AI in Baulder's Gate or even Kingdom Hearts.

[Feba]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

Compared to something like Dragon Age the party member AI for FFXIII looks like Stephen Hawking stood next to a drooling puppy.

Drooling puppy would be much more effective in an RPG. They'll never kill the dog.

[Kailea]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

So it sounds like you're pretty far into it Kai. Have you upgraded any weapons yet? How is the skill chart unfolding for you? Any tough fights, or is it true, you pretty much mow down too weak mobs until you come across a boss?

I have a few weapons and armor at lv4 and some at lv3, and Firewind pretty much sums it up from there, although, its battle system is no like FFXII, its something new, and honestly I don't like it, nor did I like XII's

the two battle systems have some things in common, but XIII has a lot of differences as well.

[Firewind]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

To anyone who hasn't yet played the game. To sum it up it feels like FFX-3. The chaarcter development system basically FFV's job system with sphere grids used to develop each class. The game also has a Dresssphere esque system of changing party setups mid fight called paradigms. It basically lets you save a number of preset class setups to change to on the fly. So you can say go Fighter, Paladin, White mage for one preset and say Black Mage, Black mage, Black Mage for another preset which makes the battles very interesting.

Weapon upgrading is dissapointing but otherwise fine. You basically just use junk parts from mobs to add XP to a weapon to level it up. Because of how the class change system depends on you having high attack and magic attack and the fact that you never find any good weapons until endgame you mostly just find yourself upgrading Lightning, Snow and Sazh's weapons and ignoring the rest because those three are the only characters you will ever control directly for the important parts of the game.

Battle system is pretty much the same as FFXII's really except because Squeenix caved to all of the FFXII-hates pissing and moaning about no battle screens you now get to use FFXII's battle system on a battle screen and guess what? It feels no fucking different than what it is in FFXII. The party member AI is much smarter though. Healers know when to heal, tanks know how to hold hate and AI characters actually use potions and phoenix downs. Compared to something like Dragon Age the party member AI for FFXIII looks like Stephen Hawking stood next to a drooling puppy. Sure DA's gambit system thing looks impressive but it's utterly useless when party members don't even know how to use thier abilities.

There's a nice choice of classes too. Each character starts out with a couple but everyone eventually gets access to them all. They are pretty much identical to traditional Final Fantasy classes so ignore the fanboy bitching about the names on places like gamefaqs and just remember the following:

Commando = Fighter
Ravager = Black Mage
Medic = White Mage
Sentinel = Knight
Sabateur = Warlock (The WoW kind because the FF series doesn't really have a comparable class to it)
Synergist = Bard

Eidolon when you summon them are great. If you have played any Persona games the Eidolons pretty much act like that. You summon them, they fight alongside you with thier own abilities. They also have a gestalt mode where they turn into a mount and the summoning character rides them. It's basically like Astral Flow or Grand Summoning since it unlocks the Eidolon's most powerful attacks and geenrally makes you look awesome while doing it.

[Mezlo]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

So it sounds like you're pretty far into it Kai. Have you upgraded any weapons yet? How is the skill chart unfolding for you? Any tough fights, or is it true, you pretty much mow down too weak mobs until you come across a boss?

[Kailea]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

gdi I can't wait to get home to play... And what sucks?!?! I have to play ffxi in my static for 3 hours before I get to pop ffxiii in... God news is, is that we are on the last fight of ASA. The bad news, we have extra peeps coming along so I'm going to have to collect the hexes a 2nd time...

no you wont, if you are just helping someone do it (aka if you finished already) you don't have to have any hexes, you will get the lowest number of hexes that have been collected by the other people in your PT.



anyway back to FFXIII, yeah changing roles in mid fight is easy as hell, my last boss I fought, had me changing from a Ravenger/medic (two people in party) to Commando/medic. It took a while to beat the boss, but I did it, finishing it off with Odin.

[Mezlo]

Re: Have you got FFXIII yet? Whatcha think?

gdi I can't wait to get home to play... And what sucks?!?! I have to play ffxi in my static for 3 hours before I get to pop ffxiii in... God news is, is that we are on the last fight of ASA. The bad news, we have extra peeps coming along so I'm going to have to collect the hexes a 2nd time...