[Multiplatform] Official Final Fantasy XIII Thread

Really didn't set my expectations high going into this game, just came off of finishing Star Ocean IV International so really even if this game had been bad, it would of felt good. So far I am pleasantly surprised. While it is fairly linear...it works well for what the game is. I also don't find myself being annoyed by any of the characters...regardless of how bad their VA might be.

My only gripe is how good the battle theme is. And by good I mean catchy...I went to bed with it stuck in my head and now I am awake with it 12 hours removed from when I last played.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Encephalon

I guess my one question about this is: Is there a licenese system for weapons and upgrades like in XII? Because that entire license system was a huge turn off for me.

Thankfully they seemed to realize how god awful the license system was and it is nowhere in sight. The leveling system in FFXIII is kind of like a hybrid of the grid system from FFX and the class system from FFV albeit with alot less classes. There is basically a grid for each character (they don't connect with other characters like FFX's), there is also different grids for each class type role (Commando role...ie attacking with weapons and physical attacks...Medic...healer...Sentinel...tank type and so on). Instead of experience points you get CP..which points allow you to move on the Crysterium grid to the next skill. Kind of difficult to explain it without you seeing it yourself. I like it, my only complaint is that it is easy to max it out as you go along and there doesn't seem to be much freedom in terms of going different directions on the grid. Might change later, since my grid is only level 3 out of 10 levels.

The battle system is alot of fun, I like that they designed some of the boss fights so that you actually have to put forth a decent strategy effort to win.

Spoiler:

For the most part, almost everyone will die on Odin the first time you fight him if you don't know what to do. Its fairly early in the game, I love this challenge...however that will diminish should I choose to replay the game again.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Shenlon

I was thinking the exact same thing. Which makes the GT review laughable because they say that they give the most freedom in character development.
It gives you a choice in which class you want to level up first but I withhold my CP until I have 1000-2000 and pretty much level everyone up almost to the max. I'm sure later in the game it will grow in cost but the only reason I level up is because I have the points, not really because I need to. At least not yet.

How far in are you? In Chapter 5, I maxed out my characters and ended up with a surplus of like 5-6k CP...felt this pattern would continue for a while but eventually it starts to open up to the point where unless you grind CP for hous and hours and hours...you won't max anything out.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Didn't get to play much today, still in Chapter 5 also known as

Spoiler:

Lightning and Hopes Excellent Adventure of Bonding

. I maxed out my spheres pretty early in the chapter so when I got to the point of upgrading my sphere in the chapter I was able to max it out again and still have 3k left over. I don't figure this is a bad thing, but considering how OCD I am about things...I wonder if this will make me want to grind on later chapters. I guess that isn't bad, as it is making me take a slow and steady pace with this game. I just passed 15 hours and I am still in Chapter 5. It was pointed out to me, that I should of been done with this at the 10 hour mark. Oh well.

Also I love all the negativity this game gets from the hardcore Final Fantasy games. It's like Final Fantasy should be its own genre...seperate from RPG. Apprently its not a FF game if there are no moogles. Who knew.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Denicalis

You know, I keep hearing this game gets good 15 hours in. But if I'm having trouble stomaching the first 15 hours of gameplay, I really don't care how good the rest of the game is. It's poorly designed.

Poorly designed games should be nothing new to you though, you DID play through Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy VI right?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Shenlon

I just beat it a few minutes ago. I found a lot of thing lacking and many things fun.
I was expecting the ending to redeem any broken parts to the story and to my surprise . . .

Spoiler:

IT FUCKING DIDN'T! I hated the ending with a passion. I thought the true intentions of the villain who kept letting me go over and over again would reveal themselves at the end but instead he screams "SWEET RELEASE!". Fuck you!
I stopped caring all together at that point. Fang's intentions in the end were ignorant and i thought to myself "I wish someone would have sacrificed themselves to at least make a decent ending".
To my surprise, it didn't, I didn't care any about Vanille but I liked fang but I still didn't feel any sadness for her like the game intended. I don't know if it was because the characters didn't feel developed enough, or maybe they were just too typical, but I didn't get attached to any of them. Sahz was the most interesting in my opinion, I liked his quest to save his son but after I have all the characters, he's nothing more but a supporting speaker and after Hope acquires Haste, Sahz is useless in battle which eliminates any more screen time for him.
I really tried to like this game, I thought the ending was going to save everything but it only made things worse. The entire ending stages were the worst and an eyesore.
All the reviewers say that the sweet spot is in 25-30 hours, but I say that that's when the game goes downhill slowly and entirely.

I was such an FF fan too, I'm hating the fact that I hate the story so much.
Also, Crystarium expanded at Final BOSS! GTFO of here!

Ughh. Fuck this name, but I just had to post my thoughts on your rant.

Spoiler:

Is that any more or less satisfying then any other Final Fantasy ending we have had? Aside from the lengthy happily ever after endings we got with VIII and IX...all other endings have pretty much left a bad taste in my mouth. You had VII's boring ass shit that didn't really explain much, X was just made you go HUHHHH? Oh look theres a sequel coming out thats supposed to have the TRUE ending. Lame. XII...I stopped caring about the story 1/4th through so whatever was going on in cutscenes was irrelevent. Point is, Final Fantasy games don't usually have the best ending that ties up all loose ends.

I think they did a good job with character development up until Chapter 10 or so. After that it focuses more on the world of Pulse/Cocoon and their relationship. I mean Hope during chapter 7 was kinda interesting to watch but after that he did nothing of importance. Oh well he cried so he could get his Eidolon. Same with Sahz, after chapter 8 he didn't really get any development and became the unfunny comic relief. It seems like...once they got their Eidolon, their development was done. So I can relate, I enjoyed the first half of the game...even if some parts were a bit slow and I was limited to what I could do. Story wise I liked the interactions between the 3 different groups. Second part, it was nice when I got to Pulse and was able to do what I wanted...but it felt slow and didn't flow with the game.

My thoughts on the ending are...well thats nice. I figured out that Fang or Vanille would sacrifice themself to save everything, didn't think it would be both. I thought it would end up being Vanille...take make up for how she lied to everything throughout the game...plus her whole voiceover throughout the game made me think that too. Still though, I enjoyed it. I thought Cocoon would prosper free of Fal'cie control but they surprised me with what they did. Not the best, but still satisfying.

Oh and the crysterium expands because you can continue your game after you beat it. Mainly for the Titans trial mission marks which are considerably stronger than Orphan or any other boss. Tier 10 Grid has some huge stat boosts. Most of the non story related trophies cannot be obtained outside of the New game +.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Shenlon

Spoiler:

It should have expanded BEFORE that. What's one more level anyway?

I was fresh out of seeing the ending last night, so my feelings were pretty intense about it. Now that I have had a night to process. I kinda still feel the same way. A lot of the villains only had around 4 shots of screen time which made me not care if they died. Especially Cid's random revival and immediate death.
Fangs goal at the end were pretty ignorant, and pretty much all of the final fights defeated the entire purpose of the game. I wasn't the biggest FF7 fan since I had it spoiled and I played it 5 years late but that game at least had some turns in the story. In 13 they let the main characters go so they could defeat orphan, the bosses die, orphan is obviously the real boss and then because he looks evil they kill him anyways.
Lighting says "To make the impossible, possible. That is our focus!" No! It's NOT! It's to kill orphan. See? You're killing orphan. You're completing your focus. They failed in having any real twist in the story.
The story was as linear as the game. I think to wrap it up, I didn't hate the happy ending, I just hate how they delivered it with the final scenes.

damn, I didn't mean to rant again.
The characters are pretty.

Gaming, I've been doing nothing but ranting in these spoilers <_<
It's hard to say if there are sad scenes without spoiling a little bit. I'll say that there are emotional scenes, but nothing worth shedding a tear about.

I felt that way about the ending the first time I saw it, second time I put some thought into it.

Spoiler:

I think Orphan had wanted someone to become Ragnorok, kill him and then Cocoon will cease to function and crash into Pulse. Instead, we kill him and someone still becomes Ragnorok but prevents Cocoon from crashing. So it was same path but altered ending from what Orphan and the other Fal'cie planned.

I do have gripes with how easily everything worked out. Serah and Sazh just de-crystallized like that? It was also convenient that all the feral beasts from Pulse happened to teleport to Eden...making Pulse habitable.

FELIPE NO