FF XIII...

[Punkrocker]

Don't waste your money. Gameplay sucks, very disappointed. I've not played any of the other FF series, so I have no clue if the previous ones were better or not. The combat system is extremely boring. You set up your moves in a queue then spam press the A button during combat. That's it. The only choices you have to make are when to use a potion to heal. Movement in combat is pretty much nonexistent. When you attack, your character automatically moves and attacks the target you specified. It's mindless from a tactical standpoint and seems aimed primarily at grade school kids.

[Repeek]

How far in are you?

Shit gets intense once your group gets put back together...

gameplay is pretty retardedly easy at first but gets very very tactical about 12+ hours in

[Punkrocker]

I'm all of about 20 minutes in, so maybe I haven't given it a chance. I've recently finished Assassin's Creed II and while the missions became repetitive the combat was more along the lines of what I was expecting this game to be. It may be that the comparison isn't really fair, but I got disgusted pretty quickly and stopped playing it yesterday afternoon in the middle of the 2nd section (where you're the dude leading the people out of danger).

[Repeek]

I'm all of about 20 minutes in, so maybe I haven't given it a chance. I've recently finished Assassin's Creed II and while the missions became repetitive the combat was more along the lines of what I was expecting this game to be. It may be that the comparison isn't really fair, but I got disgusted pretty quickly and stopped playing it yesterday afternoon in the middle of the 2nd section (where you're the dude leading the people out of danger).

Ya, the game gets pretty ridiculous if you stick with it.

As much as I hate to compare it to WoW; its alot like the leveling process. The first ~8-10 hours is a giant linear tutorial. Around chapter 11 the game really opens up and like all FF's, once you beat the "last boss" you're still no where near being done.

You're rewarded if you stick with it (and the graphics are ridiculous). Then again GoW3 is on Tuesday so my attention may wander :awesome_for_real:

[Jubs]

I love this game, I am now on hour 50 (taking my time doing all the missions while slowly progressing) and it is very intense, having the group all back together and being able to fight with a full party (3) is so much nicer. I think @ about 8-12 hours in you are back to full strength, its a bit further than that before you have all of your Eidolons (sp?). I too am looking forward to GoW3.

[Draugr]

It's a good game, it gets a bad rap imo.

Probably my favorite FF since the PS1 ones.

I could've done without the 40 hour tutorial though :)

[Makagish]

Whatever. Man up and get your new Pokemon game, son!

[fyritke]

Are roles as clearly divided as previous games? i.e. the white mage, the AGI melee, the arms warr, black mage, etc? Or can you do more of a multi-classing deal?

Either way, has anyone mostly played a healing class? I fucking love playing the healing class in FF games and am hoping it is still as enjoyable. :X

[Repeek]

Are roles as clearly divided as previous games? i.e. the white mage, the AGI melee, the arms warr, black mage, etc? Or can you do more of a multi-classing deal?

Either way, has anyone mostly played a healing class? I fucking love playing the healing class in FF games and am hoping it is still as enjoyable. :X

You end up with 6 total characters to choose from. The can be specialized into 6 different trees.

Commando - Brute Force Physical
Ravager - Ranged Damage
Sentinel - Tank
Synergist - Party Buffer (gives haste, stat increases, etc)
Saboteur - Debuffer (casts slow, dispels on enemies)
Medic - Healer

Each character can eventually become any of these roles (endgame is basically everyone maxed out with everything). You switch group compositions based on current needs for a fight (they call them Paradigms).

So if you're taking mad damage or there is a big attack coming you switch to the "Combat Clinic" role (Sentinel and 2 Medics) to top the party off quickly, then switch into a more damage dealing paradigm (Commando, Ravager, Ravager) once everyone is safe.

It's very intuitive and very tactical.

[Jubs]

You end up with 6 total characters to choose from. The can be specialized into 6 different trees.

Commando - Brute Force Physical
Ravager - Ranged Damage
Sentinel - Tank
Synergist - Party Buffer (gives haste, stat increases, etc)
Saboteur - Debuffer (casts slow, dispels on enemies)
Medic - Healer

Each character can eventually become any of these roles (endgame is basically everyone maxed out with everything). You switch group compositions based on current needs for a fight (they call them Paradigms).

So if you're taking mad damage or there is a big attack coming you switch to the "Combat Clinic" role (Sentinel and 2 Medics) to top the party off quickly, then switch into a more damage dealing paradigm (Commando, Ravager, Ravager) once everyone is safe.

It's very intuitive and very tactical.

To clarify further, each character gets a "special" move in one or 2 of the trees. It is pretty clear I'd say about 10-15 hours into the game what path you will take as far as the characters are concerned. For example can swap lightning between a Ravager or Commando pretty easy by swapping gear. I leveled up 2 swords, 1 for magic and 1 for strength. Also her accessories can swap around. Same can go for Snow, he is a great tank, but also can do well as a commando.

I think this is the best FF since maybe 7, I wasn't a huge fan of 8.

On a side note anyone planning on playing 14 online for PC?

[Punkrocker]

From the standpoint of someone who is brand new to the FF series, the first couple of hours were extremely disappointing as far as the combat was concerned. Once the paradigms and character development opened up it's a very different feel.

Call me the anti-Howitzer... I tend to be overly critical of a game at first without really giving it a chance. I'm about four hours in now and it's growing on me. I really like the character development, but my beef with it is that it seems a bit too easy to build crystal points. My experience may be skewed since I figured out how to spawn a few packs over and over and had the first level of skills maxed out on all characters fairly quickly. ;)

[Repeek]

don't worry, you'll need about 1.5 million cp to max out one of the six trees for each toon.

[fyritke]

O snap the story is good? :D

Or did you mean technical character development?

[Draugr]

From the standpoint of someone who is brand new to the FF series, the first couple of hours were extremely disappointing as far as the combat was concerned. Once the paradigms and character development opened up it's a very different feel.

Call me the anti-Howitzer... I tend to be overly critical of a game at first without really giving it a chance. I'm about four hours in now and it's growing on me. I really like the character development, but my beef with it is that it seems a bit too easy to build crystal points. My experience may be skewed since I figured out how to spawn a few packs over and over and had the first level of skills maxed out on all characters fairly quickly. ;)

It is a very odd game.

There is almost no other game I can think of (outside of MMOs =P), where the game hasn't even really started yet until you're ~30 hours in.

Before then it's still good and at parts enjoyable, but once you get to Gran Pulse, the entire game is just much better. Much more difficult, tons of stuff to do, etc.

Don't write it off completely (unless you have glaring issues with the combat system) until you get near that point.

The story is decent, the characters grow on you after a while.

Vanille's voice is far too annoying

Snow is like Keanu Reeves in Point Break

Hope is too emo

But Sazh is one of my favorite characters in an FF game, and even Vanille grew on me after a bit.

[Punkrocker]

Sazh > all.

I find the Vanille/Sazh combo incredibly boring for some reason. I'm much more interested in playing the Lightning/Hope combo.

The combat is a bit odd, and, like I said above, boring for the most part. I just hit disc 2 (xbox 360) and I might be about 10-12 hours in, so I'll keep plugging away and hope it gets more interesting.

[Vykromond]

10 hours in, working through the forest with lightning and hope, i fucking hate nearly all of the characters and the combat is horrible, yet i'm going to keep playing since people say it eventually gets good... send help

[Solanis]

If you don't like the combat at that point you're probably not going to unfortunately. I find it a lot more interesting when you're playing as Sazh and Vanille as Lightning is OP as fuck early on so it makes things a lot less strategic when you can just mash attack and win.

[Vykromond]

It's getting a little better. I did like the end boss of the Gapra Whitewood. Still, it's total madness that this game is shitty for longer than the entire length of many games. Also why did they bother with a minimap since the whole thing is a giant tube

[Solanis]

It's getting a little better. I did like the end boss of the Gapra Whitewood. Still, it's total madness that this game is shitty for longer than the entire length of many games. Also why did they bother with a minimap since the whole thing is a giant tube

It doesn't happen until Disc 3, but it does eventually open up into a wide expanse before returning to tubes.

[Punkrocker]

Disc 3 and the "quest" chains feel way too much like the horde side of the Ony quest. Run here, do this, run WAY OVER THERE, do this, etc. Combat still isn't great in my book (60+ hours in) but I've come this far and I just can't quit.

[fyritke]

Legend of Zelda 'fetch me a thing' quests or specifically the 'wander around in this deserted area for a long time and hope you find the guy you need and then do this time-consuming dungeon a few times' bit of the Ony quest? :P

[Punkrocker]

Legend of Zelda 'fetch me a thing' quests or specifically the 'wander around in this deserted area for a long time and hope you find the guy you need and then do this time-consuming dungeon a few times' bit of the Ony quest? :P

Yes.

[fyritke]

derp derp :X Do they still have you hunting down obscure ultimate weapons? Anyone, anyone?

[Repeek]

Ultimate Weapons are made through the upgrade process now.

They're expensive as fuck...you either need a rare ass drop or 2,000,000 Gil to unlock the 3rd tier

[Draugr]

once you can farm Long Gui the trapezohedrons come easy.

it's the money to afford the components to upgrade them through all the levels that's a pita to get.

[Urzos]

Whatever. Man up and get your new Pokemon game, son!

Yes.

[Vykromond]

i am now 35ish hours in and it is just not a very good game (that said, someone could do... something with this combat system, it has potential in spades I think)

tim rogers's 18k word review of this is pretty amazing

[Punkrocker]

i am now 35ish hours in and it is just not a very good game (that said, someone could do... something with this combat system, it has potential in spades I think)

tim rogers's 18k word review of this is pretty amazing

My beef with this game from the start was the combat system. I find myself half watching TV while spamming one button and just glancing at the health bars every now and then. Boss fights are the only exception, and a few of them depend on luck with character positioning to make them doable.

As an example, the harder fights where the mob has a frontal AE, if you get all three characters stacked up on the "tank", you can get hosed pretty quickly. Unless I somehow missed it in my 50+ hours of play, there is absolutely no way to move your character around in combat, you are at the mercy of the program as to whether it decides to stand your characters off to the side or right on top of each other. That, to me, is probably the most frustrating part of the combat engine.

"The battles will sometimes envelop you in sometimes ten entire minutes of grueling uphill climbing, forcing you to know that you’re doing something wrong. You pray for a zero-star ranking, for there to be some obvious “right way” to do this. Then the game gives you a five-star ranking, and your heart sinks: oh god, you are doing it the right way." - This is so dead on I had to quote it.

[Vykromond]

the only way to "reposition" as far as i could tell is that ruin causes commandos to inch slightly backward, and nonstop attacking causes commandoes to stay up front. so if you punt your tank in and out of commando, s/he will stay up front (sentinels naturally inch backwards as well so you can't just move up front and stay in sentinel)

it's pretty dumb

[Solanis]

the only way to "reposition" as far as i could tell is that ruin causes commandos to inch slightly backward, and nonstop attacking causes commandoes to stay up front. so if you punt your tank in and out of commando, s/he will stay up front (sentinels naturally inch backwards as well so you can't just move up front and stay in sentinel)

it's pretty dumb

I found there were very few fights where I actually used a sentinel. Ochu and Neochu were about the only ones I can think of

[Vykromond]

I've used sentinel a lot a lot of the time, might be because I'm bad/never upgraded my items at all though.

[Solanis]

I've used sentinel a lot a lot of the time, might be because I'm bad/never upgraded my items at all though.

Yeah I never did either until endgame. I would tailor my paradigms for boss fights or unusually difficult fights, but here is my standard handle anything

Lightning/Vanille/Hope

1) COM/RAV/SYN
2) COM/RAV/RAV
3) COM/MED/RAV
4) RAV/MED/RAV
5) RAV/RAV/RAV
6) COM/MED/MED

Basically I'd start out in 1 wait until haste is cast on everyone then switch to 2 then if I needed healing to to 3 or 4 depending on how quick I'm trying to raise the chain gauge. If I don't need healing and want to raise chain gauge quick go to 5 and 6 is my emergency what the fuck just hit me spot.