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Post by Nalacakes on Jan 6, 2010 16:34:12 GMT -5
Yeah, basically. I've never used levelling up as a way to get past a boss, it's usually more of a case of taking its patterns back to the drawing board and using roles better. It's absolutely not 'trying to be hard for the sake of it', it's dealing wonderfully with the old FF criticism that 'you can get through battles just using Attack'. Nope, sorry buddy, not anymore you can't. Combat's now one of my favourite parts of the game, which I can't say for a single other FF game I've ever played. Couple that with the story, interesting world, and surprisingly likeable characters and I really, really like the game, despite going in with no real expectations at all. Agreed on all counts. I'm not the biggest fan of Square-Enix or Final Fantasy these days, but you've got to give them credit where credit's due. I only bought the game because I wanted something new and flashy to play over Christmas, and would've been happy with nothing but an average RPG wrapped in typically SquEnix shine. But the game as a whole has really impressed me. The battle system stands for me alongside Grandia's as one of the very finest examples of turn-based combat ever, and while I initially disliked the characters every bit as much as I thought I would, I've been really shocked at how quickly they've grown on me. It's definitely not for everyone, and it shakes up so much about the series that I'm sure it'll have a completely polarising effect on the fanbase, just as Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter did. But it's certainly won me over. ^_^ I'm nearing the end of Chapter 11, though, and the random monsters have gone from being hard if you don't fight sensibly to hard even when you do. I've ambushed groups of seven or eight relatively weak monsters and still got my butt kicked. D: It's a credit to the game that it's never become frustrating and that I've still never had to do any levelling, but it still feels a little unusual encountering this level of difficulty in a Final Fantasy game. ^_^ Oh well. At least I'm done with those evil summon battles now. I hope. D:
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Post by Varion on Jan 6, 2010 17:02:32 GMT -5
I only bought the game because I wanted something new and flashy to play over Christmas, and would've been happy with nothing but an average RPG wrapped in typically SquEnix shine. That sounds EXACTLY like me, lol. Also, chapter 12 is even crazier. I've had to Sneak Smoke past a few battles now cus they're kicking my ass so hard ;_; Starting to wonder if I should look at distributing accessories better, or something. I suppose it's a testament to the battle system that instead of assuming you're underlevelled, or blaming the game, my first thought is usually 'what am I doing wrong here?' I'd probably consider using a defender more if I had one (main party since being allowed to choose has been Lightning, Vanilla, Sazh), so usually the best I can go for defensive is have Vanilla as a healer. Or, for bosses, Sazh as an Enchanter at the start to get things set up. (PS Make sure to do the subquest in Chapter 11. The rewards are awesome.)
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Post by Nalacakes on Jan 8, 2010 6:34:06 GMT -5
That sounds EXACTLY like me, lol. I should buy more games I'm not even remotely hyped about. It clearly works out well. Also, chapter 12 is even crazier. I've had to Sneak Smoke past a few battles now cus they're kicking my ass so hard ;_; Starting to wonder if I should look at distributing accessories better, or something. I suppose it's a testament to the battle system that instead of assuming you're underlevelled, or blaming the game, my first thought is usually 'what am I doing wrong here?' I'd probably consider using a defender more if I had one (main party since being allowed to choose has been Lightning, Vanilla, Sazh), so usually the best I can go for defensive is have Vanilla as a healer. Or, for bosses, Sazh as an Enchanter at the start to get things set up. (PS Make sure to do the subquest in Chapter 11. The rewards are awesome.) Just reached Chapter 12 now, and I'm feeling pretty much the same way. D: With the last few chapters there's been something of a learning curve, though. I'll die an astounding amount of times and conclude that the game's probably too hard for me to ever finish, but then suddenly some plan will dawn on me that allows me to waltz through most encounters. Kinda hoping it'll happen again. I've managed to get this far without grinding, so I'd like to make it to the end. And the game's proven to me time and time again that it rewards quick fingers and careful planning ahead of beefed up stats. ^_^ And I've found that every battle I use Defender in is a cinch, albeit a tad on the slow side, so it could be worth a shot. I use Lightning, Vanilla and Hope, though. I had Fang serving as a Defender for a bit inbetween bouts of attacking, but found that I leaned on her way too much, and ended up getting terrible ratings for every battle. Trading her out for a character as fragile as Vanilla might not have been such a good idea when I already use Hope, though. It gives me some real firepower, but means that my party is essentially made of glass. D: I usually get good ratings when I win a battle, but things can go pear shaped very quickly. <_< Also, the boss at the end of Chapter 11 was such a colossal pain. He had an absolutely staggering amount of HP, and I managed to die on the very point of victory twice, meaning that I probably spent about an hour on the battle in total. My hands were trembling by the end of it simply because I did not want to have to play it all again. <_< Is 13 a full chapter, by the way? Or just the final boss? It seems like I'm nearing the end of the game, especially if 12 is anywhere near as long as 11 was. But I'm hoping I still have a little more.
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Post by Varion on Jan 8, 2010 12:29:56 GMT -5
...Really? I didn't have any problem with the chapter 11 boss, same as usual and just took a little while. He didn't have any real damaging attacks, so I just had Lightning (ATK), Sazh (BLA) and Vanilla (HLR) do their thing, switching Sazh to an Enchanter occasionally for haste etc. I never had to grind either, though I did end up with everyone's primary roles maxed for the final boss because I'd spend ages doing most of the missions I could down on pulse.
Chapter 13 is pretty much just the final dungeon, full of REALLY annoying enemies (instant death, status effect spam and level design that makes it borderline impossible to use Sneak Smoke even if you wanted to, arr - thankfully instant death never worked on Lightning on my experience) and then the last boss, yeah. Oh, and you might want some Bio protection for the final boss. Just a tip, there.
Anyway, done now. Overall impressions remain very positive, SE really took me by surprise with this one. I'd almost given up hope on liking another FF game.
The Good: - Combat system is awesome. - Difficulty is close to perfect - rewards you for playing well, punishes you for not, but is very rarely ever cheap. - Characters are some of the most likeable in a FF game... ever? - Setting, world mythology and stuff were really interesting. - Story was generally very good, though it did weaken a little at the end for me. - Visuals are gorgeous. Obviously. - Pulse deserves special mention - wandering around the vast open plains with pteradactyl-like enemies flying overhead, wolves running around in massive packs past you and gigantic Adamantoise looming overhead is just awesome. It's like prehistoric earth, or something. - Trophies actually do something nice this time - they give you custom PS3 themes! First game I've ever played where they do anything special outside your trophy list. More devs should do this.
The Bad: - The conclusion left a decent bit unanswered. Hoping for another direct sequel again, FF10 team? - Linearity while not bad in itself does kind of limit you from exploring the world too much, which is a shame. - Some aspects of the options could do with a bit of tweaking - 6 Optimas at any one time is too few, and every time I switched my party it reset them all and I had to add my usuals again :l - Crystarium felt quite limited and like a watered down version of the Sphere Grid. There was usually so little freedom to decide your own path in it filling it in bit by bit could get a little tedious. And I wanted to punch something every time I was about 50CP off a new ability and had to go *back* into the menu after the next battle to get it. - Postgame content is basically confined to postgame missions, there isn't a huge amount of extra non-essential content in the game.
All I can think of for now. Basically, the game is centred around cinematic storytelling and the battle system. Neither excessively dominates the other. If you're fine with that, then you'll be in for a really excellent game. If you have to have lots of exploring, though, you'll most likely be somewhat disappointed. I don't doubt the game will divide the usual fanbase, and this already seems to be where the dividing line has been drawn.
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Post by Nalacakes on Jan 8, 2010 21:46:24 GMT -5
Oh don't get me wrong, the boss himself wasn't especially difficult. He couldn't one shot any of my characters, even with his biggest attack, and it was really only a matter of time. He was just frustrating because I got careless toward the end of the battle twice, and his huge HP total made retries rather costly. It was my own fault both times, but that didn't make it any less annoying. Thanks for the heads up on the Bio protection. ^_^ I've just finished Chapter 12, and would more or less agree with your impressions of the game as a whole. About the only things I'd really fault would be the Crystarium (though I'm actually quite fond of the level cap that it enforces) and the limited amount of Optimas available at one time. I guess I'd add the lack of an ability to toggle on and off specific skills for your AI allies too. It was a small fault for me with AI allies that were generally very useful, and all too often I'd find my Enhancer reeling off strings of spells I didn't really need rather than fast-tracking to the ones I wanted. Oh, and as great as the battle system is, I felt it took a bit too long to really get up and running. I know it'd be a lot to take on board if you were stuck with everything from the off, and that allowing you to have access to magic before a certain point wouldn't make sense story-wise. But it was essentially crippled for the first section of the game, and you don't do very much besides select attack and watch the fireworks. I was so caught up in the world and the pretty visuals the first time around that I didn't really mind, but I get the impression it'd be a bit of a pain if I were to replay it. The few complaints I can level at it are basically nitpicking, though, and on the whole it's been a lot of fun. ^_^ After Yasumi Matsuno left, I'd almost given up hope of liking another Square-Enix game, nevermind another Final Fantasy one. But if this is the direction they're going in then you can colour me interested again.
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Post by ShinGundam on Jan 12, 2010 23:10:14 GMT -5
That definitely won’t happen . The next FF totally different from FF13
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Post by HJ on Jan 13, 2010 8:27:33 GMT -5
That definitely won’t happen . The next FF totally different from FF13 FFXIV has been announced as an MMORPG for a while now, so I figure she meant FFXV.
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Post by ShinGundam on Jan 13, 2010 9:39:00 GMT -5
That definitely won’t happen . The next FF totally different from FF13 FFXIV has been announced as an MMORPG for a while now, so I figure she meant FFXV. How about FF versus 13
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Post by Nalacakes on Jan 13, 2010 12:43:58 GMT -5
*nods* I meant FFXV, as I think of Versus XIII as more of a spinoff, and the online ones never really come into my mind when I'm thinking of main series entries (though they should, I suppose~!). That being said, you make a fair point. Even FFXV will probably be totally different, if the recent trend in main series entries is anything to go by. Regardless of the actual quality of the individual installments, pretty much every numbered Final Fantasy in recent memory has been content to go and do its own thing rather than build on what went before. Heck even X-2 was pretty unique when compared to what had gone before, and that was supposed to be a direct sequel. ^_^ Still, I can't help but hope that they do learn from what they tried in XIII. I think there's a lot worth considering in future installments, both in terms of slight missteps they could learn from and things that are so good that they deserve to be carried into another game.
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Post by HJ on Jan 13, 2010 12:52:10 GMT -5
I consider Versus more of a spinoff as well, since it still carries the name "XIII".
I was pretty content with the way X was, but I'm looking forward to trying this as well. It'll be the first FF I play since X-2, which left me bitter and disappointed.
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Post by ausdoerrt on Jan 14, 2010 1:04:20 GMT -5
Look at what they did with the poor Chocobo. ;_; Oh My God, I'll never get over this. xD While you're not getting over that one, have some of the second half of THIS. Dis is Blashfemy!!! Whoever wrote this should be murdered in the most brutal way possible. Something like THIS: I hope not all music in FFXIII is that crappy.
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Post by ausdoerrt on Jan 14, 2010 1:45:42 GMT -5
Not really, that rendition is annoying and poorly written from any possible point of organized analysis. Not that the original was a masterpiece, but at least it was catchy.
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Post by ausdoerrt on Jan 14, 2010 2:21:27 GMT -5
Except that it's a crappy type of music >___<
Vocaloid vocals aren't really that great, they're barely passable in general. Also, while I appreciate techno, you can't just randomly put a techno beat on anything and call it a song. Plus, it dumbs down the original tune to one basic chord thus making it extremely repetitive and boring. Also, not quite what I call "good use of atonality". A good use is something like this: , i.e. a conscious use that retains harmonic properties of some sort, even if not what we think of as "traditional harmony".
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Post by ausdoerrt on Jan 14, 2010 7:44:51 GMT -5
The art and all sorts of related things can be fun. The program is innovative. The product thus far is inferior and doesn't really make for good music.
Feel free to keep liking the chocobo massacre song tho... I just think it's a pretty pukey collection of sounds.
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Post by Incog Neato on Jan 14, 2010 8:13:50 GMT -5
The art and all sorts of related things can be fun. The program is innovative. The product thus far is inferior and doesn't really make for good music. Feel free to keep liking the chocobo massacre song tho... I just think it's a pretty pukey collection of sounds. You are my new best friend! :D I'm so happy to find someone else that doesn't like Project Diva and thinks Vocaloid tunes are stinky! (I do not like their voices. I think their Nendoroid figures are cute though!) Oh, and hate on Chocobo FFXIII BGM too. :DDDDD
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Post by ausdoerrt on Jan 14, 2010 8:15:51 GMT -5
Well, I'm basically putting Vocaloids on the back shelf until they can actually compare to live singing. Thus far it's just a flash gimmick.
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Post by schlagwerk on Jan 14, 2010 13:51:10 GMT -5
You are my new best friend! :D I'm so happy to find someone else that doesn't like Project Diva and thinks Vocaloid tunes are stinky! (I do not like their voices. I think their Nendoroid figures are cute though!) Good music can actually be made with Vocaloid, BUT (und thees eez a big but!) a almost everything made from it is crap and the whole music world would be better if it never existed. Also, somethingsomethingsillyJapaneseandtheirloveformoecharacterswithnoactualpersonalitysomethingsomething. ....I'm also bitter that I was stuck with Miku's Twin Leek weapon in PSP2 for so long because there was no better Twin Saber in the game for a long while
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Post by Red Hairdo on Jan 14, 2010 20:56:51 GMT -5
I thought the Chocobo song was good. Nothing too good, but still good.
I tried listening to some other FFXIII tunes, though, and I thought they were pretty "meh". Not that I expected more, though.
Each one to one's own opinion.
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Post by Disgaeamad on Jan 15, 2010 17:54:07 GMT -5
It's far better than the original song After looping the original for countless hours during all nighters back in 2006 (me and a friend had contests on who could keep leekspin.com looping longest), I have to kindly disagree with you.
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Post by ausdoerrt on Jan 15, 2010 23:34:32 GMT -5
8-bit music is fine, partly because a lot of that music is pretty well written. Also, it has a certain nostalgic charm for those who had an NES. I usually shun most 8-bit "remakes" though, I prefer original music. YMCK is pretty good, for example. Still, 8-bit isn't exactly the same thing as a random silly techo-something remix with no sense or taste.
Also offtopic, the best Moonlight Densetsu cover is this:
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