Game: Final Fantasy XIII

[Archangel]

Story

The plot focuses on the fal'Cie (pronounced /ˈfæl si:/), beings created from the crystals residing inside them. The people marked by the fal'Cie for a greater purpose are named the l'Cie. But being a l'Cie has a price; for should they die before fulfilling their Focus, they will turn into monsters called "Cie Corpses". Some thirteen centuries ago, a fal'Cie constructed a paradise for humanity: The shell-like city of Cocoon floating high above the surface of the world now known as Pulse, both maintained by their own fal'Cie. Cocoon's fal'Cie created life forms and machines for its inhabitants to use, and humanity flourished. Over time, the people of Cocoon began to fear for the safety of their world, and were worried that it would be cast down from the sky into the hell that they see Pulse to be.

In present day, the wilderness of Pulse has strange effects on people, and the theocratic Cocoon Sanctum quarantines and exiles anyone who has been influenced by Pulse from the city with the help of its mighty army, PSICOM. However, as Snow leads Team Nora in a vain attempt to stop the purging, the mysterious Lightning fights her way past PSICOM soldiers to find Pulse's fal'Cie with the aid of Sazh. But by a chain of events, these three along with two of the Purgees, Vanille and Hope, are chosen by the fal'Cie of Pulse against their will to become l'Cie among others, and with that become enemies of humanity that would bring about the downfall of Cocoon.

E3 09: Final Fantasy XIII Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naUSBEVRLng)

That video gave me one hell of a woody

It looks like they're going for more real and less fantasy, and i can't say i don't like where this seems to be heading

[Ryllharu]

So I watched the official English dub of the trailer here (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/02/final-fantasy-xiii-tgs-trailer-this-time-dubbed-in-english/) [joystiq].


Now I must rant.

Good lord, this franchise is cheesier than ever. I've noticed a trend among JRPGs looking back to become more melodramatic each generation. This one takes the cake. What happened to all the heroes in JRPGs games? It's just been groups of characters getting progressively exaggerated.

I loved JRPGs of the SNES and PlayStation era. While there was a decent amount of melodrama, it wasn't the primary focus and it wasn't overwhelming. The main characters still acted like heroes. Square-Enix has definitely become the worst of the lot. Their casts have become almost primarily pacifists and complainers. They never seem to want to own up to the task given to them. Somewhere along the line, they seem to just up and forget that they were complaining and just finish things for the sake of ending the story...

...which usually has the same generic overall premise lately too.

"We may not like what we're doing, but we have to do it for the sake of saving Spira/Spira(again)/Dalmasca/Cocoon"

Ugh. I'm just tired of the same generic premise. I get it, they're reluctant heroes. Why don't they step up like the old FF protagonists used to do? The only role playing I get out of the games anymore is pondering why I should care about saving the world if the characters aren't even that into it.

Hardcore fans of JRPGs like to bash recent Western RPGs for trying too hard to be "edgy." While that is occasionally the case, at least the heroes still act like heroes, even if some of them are the occasional anti-hero (or the player can make them into one if they so choose).


So, after lusting after this game seeing the initial trailers, and listening to Maaya Sakamoto play the lead in the Japanese dub, my interest is beginning to cool. I don't have a problem with the dub, Squeenix typically does a much better job on their trademark franchise than the crap they role out for their other series. All in all the English dub is fine.

But the story is really turning me away from this.

[masamuneehs]

i thought the preview trailer made one thing clear to me: i do NOT like the voice acting in most JRPG video games. in fact, i don't think i can remember a recent RPG with voice acting that I really did like.

the characters are pigeon-holed by the writers, but back in the old days, you could imagine to yourself how they might deliver the lines. there's something about the pathetic, angst-soaked words and the 'woe-is-me' voices that combines to be simply almost unbearable for me.

i might not get this game for a considerable while (i don't have a PS3, and this sure isn't going to be the reason i finally spring for one). the action looks cool, but the story and characters just don't raise my interest. in fact, they make me wary of the whole thing. i dunno. just seems wrong that the characters and story are what turn me off from a freaking RPG... I used to gruelingly play through samey-as-fuck RPGs for precisely those two elements...

[darkshadow]

Eternal sonata jVA's were good, Lost Odyssey eVA cast is great and star ocean 4 has some great eVA's as well.

[animus]

Except Lymle XD

[Dark Dragon]

I too am sick of this cyberpunk style fantasy setting. I think the depressing moping main chars come naturally with the setting.

It would be lovely to see a traditional fantasy setting with all of the new gameplay mechanic.

Stuff like Lost Odyssey was ok but it was a little bit too "old school" to be completely entertaining.

[Ryllharu]

star ocean 4 has some great eVA's as well.
A little bit offtopic, but who in that game even remotely resembled "great?"

I hated every single one of the SO4 english VAs. Before I gave up on the game completely out of grindy boredom, I turned the sound off just to get through some of it. They were all either nearly emotionless, painfully obnoxious, or completely forgettable.

[animus]

A little bit offtopic, but who in that game even remotely resembled "great?"

I hated every single one of the SO4 english VAs. Before I gave up on the game completely out of grindy boredom, I turned the sound off just to get through some of it. They were all either nearly emotionless, painfully obnoxious, or completely forgettable.

And the guy that does Edge's voice is in practically every single recent Japanese RPG I can think of.

[darkshadow]

A little bit offtopic, but who in that game even remotely resembled "great?"

I hated every single one of the SO4 english VAs. Before I gave up on the game completely out of grindy boredom, I turned the sound off just to get through some of it. They were all either nearly emotionless, painfully obnoxious, or completely forgettable.

Since you already hate them with a passion, its rather pointless to debate this with you. To each his own.

[RyougaZell]

Im buying Star Ocean 4 International and Final Fantasy XIII regardless of whatever others think anyway :p

[Ryllharu]

Since you already hate them with a passion, its rather pointless to debate this with you. To each his own.
I'd still appreciate an answer.

Lymle was obviously worse than the others, and Welsh was one you'd either appreciate or outright hate depending on the person. Faize was okay (emotionless is a phone-it-in skill), Edge just sounded way older than he looked (despite actually being 20), Reimi was fairly forgettable most of the time, etc.

FFXIII just looks like a similar situation, but largely more acceptable voice work. The cliche story is what will make me pass on it. If all the reviews are phenomenal, then maybe I'll pick it up for cheap later on. But given that it is a FF title, I suspect most of the reviews will be glowing regardless.

Eternal Sonata has been the only JRPG this generation that I really enjoyed overall. The story had some low points due to linearity, and the dual audio was a nice touch since both tracks (barring one character in English) were great, but overall it was a much more enjoyable title.

Disclaimer: I have never gotten into the Tales series, so I can't judge that game

[Idealistic]

Heh, I thought I was the only one. I wonder when they are going to go back to the medieval-like setting. All this futuristic, yet not so futuristic stuff is cool and all, but I'm also getting tired of it.

I MIGHT pick this up. It does look pretty cool, but I'm not as hype about it as everyone else is as there are so many other games out there I'm more excited about. Plus, I'm not a big fan of the characters. If I do pick it up, it's just to add to my PS3 RPG collection.

Will have to see how XIII Versus is.

[animus]

The only real problems I have with XIII is the seemingly bland characters (exceptions with the black dudes whose afro nests a baby chocobo), and their lame names.

[Archangel]

The only real problems I have with XIII is the seemingly bland characters (exceptions with the black dudes whose afro nests a baby chocobo), and their lame names.

Wasn't that the exact same problem XII had? Personally i loved it as a game, but as an rpg the story and characters were nothing special, and for a Final Fantasy that's just sad

[animus]

XII had much more wrong with it, mostly in the story or the lack of it.

[Marik]

Final Fantasy XIII Announcement Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLez-BdnEPg)

Coming to North America and Europe on March 9, 2010.

[animus]

Looks like I need to pick up 2 games in the month of March, this and GoW3.

[Ryllharu]

Dear Sony and Square-Enix,

Please bring the limited edition FFXIII PS3 bundle (http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/24/250gb-ps3-final-fantasy-xiii-bundle-announced/) to the United States. If you do, I will buy it, rather than the Xbox 360 version of FFXIII I was considering. Hope to hear from you before March.

Thanks,

Ryll

[animus]

I'm getting the PS3 version since I don't feel like disc-swapping =/. And that it's banned =(.

Not to mention the PS3 Blu-Ray boxes look pretty sweet.

[Marik]

A free Xbox LIVE Avatar item for Final Fantasy XIII has been unlocked! Claim yours..

United States (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/splash/f/finalfantasyXIII)

Canada (http://www.xbox.com/en-CA/games/splash/f/finalfantasyXIII)

[darkshadow]

That's so gay, why can't europeans have a free chocobo ;[

[TheBladeChild]

"My Hands" -Leona Lewis

Apparently the FF13 theme song for the North American/European release.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUy04FWIMkE

[FireEmblem]

I guess I'm the only one that actually liked the characters in FF12. Nobody was truly emo nor angsty. I would say that Ashe was the only angsty one, though I'd call it rage more than anything. The characters were great all around besides that. Even if Penelo was useless as far as the story went, her character/personality were actually pretty decent. Vaan was the lovable idiot pretty much.

I'm sure most people already know where the problems in 12's storyline stem from though. The fact is that Basch (awesome) was the main character originally, but Square-Enix (gay) didn't think he was pretty enough to sell. True story, and it is just one of the many that caused 12 to not fulfill its potential.

I still loved it more than any other #FF besides FF4, mainly due to the fact that Basch and Balthier were fucking badass and that the gameplay (battles, world, controls) was leaps better than the FF garbage they had been putting out, and the music brought me back to when I first played Vagrant Story.

[Archangel]

FINAL FANTASY XIII Final Trailer [1080p] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEgefkB1VC4&fmt=37)

Graphically, i think it even surpasses Spirits Within

Not sure about the main character being a girl though, nn FFVI i found that the male characters kind of stole Terra's thunder at parts. Hopefully they know better this time

And it may be a bit chauvinistic but i hope they keep romance to an absolute minimum.Strong women should always stand on top, but i hate weak male leads so it would suit my ignorant tastes if she just flied solo for this one.

[darkshadow]

Graphically, i think it even surpasses Spirits Within



That's prolly the funniest post you've ever made. Though if you were serious, you must have shit for eyes or something.

[Ryllharu]

And it may be a bit chauvinistic but i hope they keep romance to an absolute minimum.Strong women should always stand on top, but i hate weak male leads so it would suit my ignorant tastes if she just flied solo for this one.
Guessing from the previews, it will be quite the opposite. Since the first Japanese previews they've been showing all kinds of stuff about Snow and Lightning and her sister, you just never knew what the relationships were until recently. Whatever it is that went on between those three, it seems pretty central to the plot.

[animus]

So I'm thinking. In the trailer Snow calls Lightning Nee-san. So she is in fact older than him, or is it just because he dated her younger sister and just called her that?

[Psyke]

It seems that he's calling her "elder sister" based on seniority, in terms of the fact that he's marrying her younger sister. It's pretty normal in asian cultures, I guess.

[Stitch]

Is there any doubt that this game is being made for chicks? I mean, come on. And Versus XIII will probably be so metrosexual it'll be borderline homo.

[Marik]

<3 it.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Esupergotenks/ffxiiiconsole.jpg

[Ryllharu]

<3 it.

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/5027/ffxiiiconsoleo.jpg
I said it before and I'll say it again.

Please bring this to N.A. Sony and Squeenix. I will buy one.

[RyougaZell]

Why not import?

At this point, and thanks to Microsoft, I doubt there's an american release of that bundle. At least this specific white pink one.

[Ryllharu]

PS3s aren't really region free. The games are, but the consoles are sort of pseudo-region free. Some things work and some things don't.

[Marik]

30 sec TV CM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwJiaNlJ-YE&fmt=22)

[Ryllharu]

After watching some gameplay videos, I think I'm just going to pass on this completely.

JRPGs haven't fundamentally changed in years. The graphics look amazing, and I'm sure the story is pretty good.

But the gameplay doesn't look fun. That's the deal breaker here.

[Archangel]

Apparently you're not alone on that

Sunkaku Complex (http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/12/20/why-final-fantasy-xiii-is-a-bad-game/)

[Psyke]

Apparently you're not alone on that

Sunkaku Complex (http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/12/20/why-final-fantasy-xiii-is-a-bad-game/)

I was reading it halfway but got distracted by the soap land banners on the left :o

I still have high hopes for this game, and is trying to stay away from spoilers, though I couldn't help but read some spoiler free reviews. Anyway it got 39 from Famitsu, which is already damn good.

[Archangel]

I was reading it halfway but got distracted by the soap land banners on the left :o

I still have high hopes for this game, and is trying to stay away from spoilers, though I couldn't help but read some spoiler free reviews. Anyway it got 39 from Famitsu, which is already damn good.

You must train harder to resist such temptations young grasshopper

Famitsu is that magazine that's given like 5 perfect scores and each result comes from 4 different reviewers right?

[Psyke]

So far, Famitsu has given 13 perfect scores. You can check out the entire list here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famitsu), along with those with 39 points.

[Ryllharu]

There has of course been controversy over it though, since over half the perfect scores have been since 2008.

6 since 1986, and 7 in the past two years. It just seems like they are falling into line with the North American magazines, where a 6/10 really means a 1/10.

[animus]

I'm a bit skeptical about it too.

I feel they strayed away too much from big RPG elements to mainstream the game. I'm ok, with no levelling system but by the sound of it, there's gonna be a huge lackluster item/equipment system as well. Not to mention it sounds like it has too many movies making it less interactive and more like you're watching something. That was a problem with the first Xenosaga game.

I'm not sure how much I can trust Famitsu's 39/40 though. The one point deduction was just for a linear story. Most of the games they gave perfect scores from Final Fantasy XII on don't deserve perfect scores, ie Final Fantasy XII, Metal Gear Solid 4, Nintendogs, Smash Brothers Brawl, Dragon Quest IX, and from what I hear so far Bayonetta (which is fun, but has quite a good number of flaws). Don't know about New Super Mario Bros, Monster Hunter Tri, and 428: Fūsa Sareta Shibuya de since I've never played them. But the only one of those three that might deserve a perfect score would be New Super Mario Bros and 428: Fusa Sareta Shibuya de I guess.

[The Heretic Azazel]

I'm a bit skeptical about it too.

I feel they strayed away too much from big RPG elements to mainstream the game. I'm ok, with no levelling system but by the sound of it, there's gonna be a huge lackluster item/equipment system as well. Not to mention it sounds like it has too many movies making it less interactive and more like you're watching something. That was a problem with the first Xenosaga game.

I'm not sure how much I can trust Famitsu's 39/40 though. The one point deduction was just for a linear story. Most of the games they gave perfect scores from Final Fantasy XII on don't deserve perfect scores, ie Final Fantasy XII, Metal Gear Solid 4, Nintendogs, Smash Brothers Brawl, Dragon Quest IX, and from what I hear so far Bayonetta (which is fun, but has quite a good number of flaws). Don't know about New Super Mario Bros, Monster Hunter Tri, and 428: Fūsa Sareta Shibuya de since I've never played them. But the only one of those three that might deserve a perfect score would be New Super Mario Bros and 428: Fusa Sareta Shibuya de I guess.

If the first half of the game is as linear as people are saying, that's awful too. That's a big reason for why I'm reluctant to play FFX again. There was so much dialog in that game it was ridiculous.

[Archangel]

Seeing as i play most rpgs for their story and not the actual gameplay there has yet to come a final fantasy game i haven't enjoyed, with the possible exception of tactics ( because of the difficulty )

[RyougaZell]

Not Final Fantasy XIII related, but definitely related to Final Fantasy.
Don't how how real this is, but its just awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d81qFaoe010&feature=player_embedded

[Archangel]

I think i had already posted this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCLIg6WT7zM) one on the funny videos thread

[KrayZ33]

it's weird that I watches both vids a few days ago.
I mean... it's not something you are looking for when browsing youtube.. and now I'm seeing the same videos here on Gotwoot
I like the Kill-Bill bird more though

btw is it true that only male Cockatiel sing?

[Sapphire]

Nearly all of my friends are holed up in their rooms for the break playing this, and they're all saying the same thing: that it's visually fantastic.

It's also apparently 30% movie, which I don't mind, because I think really long movies are awesome.

So I'm going to be buying this and playing it ASAP

[Animeniax]

Nearly all of my friends are holed up in their rooms for the break playing this, and they're all saying the same thing: that it's visually fantastic.

It's also apparently 30% movie, which I don't mind, because I think really long movies are awesome.

So I'm going to be buying this and playing it ASAP
Play FFXIII or go to Japan. They chose... poorly.

[Sapphire]

One's also considerably cheaper, fortunately.

[animus]

I don't feel like playing the game any more. Been on Chapter 12 for about 2 days, and couldn't care less. I'll finish it eventually, but I don't plan on maxing out my Crystarium or getting the Platinum Trophy at all. It's doubtful I'll even do the lame optional content either.

[Animeniax]

One's also considerably cheaper, fortunately.
Will you be singing this same tune when your fiance buys you a $100 engagement ring from Wal-mart?

[UChessmaster]

Will you be singing this same tune when your fiance buys you a $100 engagement ring from Wal-mart?

Animeniax, because saving money by not taking a luxury trip and buying a 100$ engagement ring from wal-mart is totally the same thing.[/sarcasm]

[darkshadow]

Nearly all of my friends are holed up in their rooms for the break playing this, and they're all saying the same thing: that it's visually fantastic.

It's also apparently 30% movie, which I don't mind, because I think really long movies are awesome.

So I'm going to be buying this and playing it ASAP

Lol 30% movie is nothing compared to mgs4's 75% movie :P.

[Animeniax]

Animeniax, because saving money by not taking a luxury trip and buying a 100$ engagement ring from wal-mart is totally the same thing.[/sarcasm]
It's not a luxury trip for these weaboos, it's a trip to the holy land.

And spending $2-3k for a possibly life-altering trip to Japan seems a lot more worthwhile experience than spending a few thousand on a bauble that you don't wear more than a few times a year. If it's about love and not jewelry, then the $100 ring should be all she needs.

I plan to get FFXIII but reviews seem mixed. People love the graphics but the gameplay doesn't seem to live up to the best FF games.

[FireEmblem]

If you approach the game with an open mind then it will be good.

Just because it's not the "same ole" doesn't mean it's not good. There are some things that could be changed, but that is the case with most games, especially FF games, so it's nothing that should deter people from at least trying the game. It is truly a next gen FF experience. If you've got surround sound then turn that thing on too.

Oh and the gameplay is in fact extremely good and the game is actually challenging. The battle system is very ingenious.

[animus]

Ingenious is not the word and neither is challenging.

[RyougaZell]

The game is fun... currently in chapter 4... but as I keep playing more and more... the less it feels like a Final Fantasy. Even FF12 and FF8, who seem to be the most hated FF's, feel more FF that FFXIII.

Im liking it so far but personally I liked White Knight Chronicles more.

[Psyke]

I'm on chapter 8 and the plot is growing on me, and so is the combat system. I do wish I could spend lesser time reading the datalog after every cut scene though. I really hope the plot doesn't let up since that's the most important factor to me.

[RyougaZell]

Ah yes... the Datalog. I like the part about keeping info on the enemies, but I dread reading what I just saw, with a few new words and more of Hope being emo.

[FireEmblem]

Ingenious is not the word and neither is challenging.

To each his own.:rolleyes:

[Shadow Skill]

Just beat FFXIII. I am very disappointed in the game.

Graphics, not that great, not even after 4 years in developement.

At the end you get 7 pics for 50 hours of... not doing much, other than running from end to end of map many times repeatedly to gather enough CP to gain a skill. Crystal system is ok, but the cost is ridiculous.

4 years for a 50 hour game and you get zero in return for it.

The voice overs were actually good this time around.

Probably FFXIII's most defining feature is the voice actresses/Actors.

Other than that, not worth replaying or bothering with. I wish I didnt spend the $60 for this game.

I just hope the next FF game is actually a Role Playing game.

I posted FFXIII is a 3 out of 10 in another topic, when I first started the game. Now that I have finishe the game, I give FFXIII a 2 out of 10.

Craptacular and Shitastic game.

[UChessmaster]

Graphics, not that great, not even after 4 years in developement.

R.I.P your credibility

[Archangel]

R.I.P your credibility
I loled :P

Anyway he might mean the 360 version, some of the comparison shots i saw were certainly afar from the console's true potential

[UChessmaster]

I loled :P

Anyway he might mean the 360 version, some of the comparison shots i saw were certainly afar from the console's true potential

I looked for comparison shots too and couldn`t find anything importantelly diferent, can you show me the ones you find?

[Shadow Skill]

I have both versions. Games are similar, graphically.

Just on Disc 2 and 3, the game seems to be a lil pixelated during the game, not the FMV/CGI/ Movie parts. Just the actual game, the background. Could be cause I'm on a 52 Inch HDTV 120hertz refresh and what not. (Technically 60 hertz, game seems to only go that far.)

Other than that, 360 version and PS3 version are the same.

[Archangel]

I looked for comparison shots too and couldn`t find anything importantelly diferent, can you show me the ones you find?
Here (http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/03/06/final-fantasy-xiii-ps3-vs-xbox-360-definitive-comparison/)

Looks pretty definite

[UChessmaster]

Looks pretty definite

I feel dumb for not noticing anything "definite"

[Archangel]

You maintain your claim even after seeing stuff like this (http://img3.sankakustatic.com/wp-content/gallery/safe-misc-iv/ff13-cg-comparison-002.jpg)? :confused:

[RyougaZell]

They probably are playing on SD monitors, that is why they don't see the difference between 576p and 1080p (on cutscenes) / 576p and 720p (on gameplay)

[Shadow Skill]

I refer you to my previous post. 52 Inch HDTV 120 hertz refresh played on 1920x1080 on PS3. (Which is really 60 hertz cause the game is not made for 120 refresh rate.)

The 360 version is on 1080P. I can tell you, both are exactly the same graphically. The size of my TV might make a difference.

I left it at Chapter 2 on my PS3 since I was on Chapter 5 on 360. I don't see the point in finishing the PS3 version since both are the same. Controller wise, the 360 is better suited than the Dualshock 3 controller. My own personal opinion there.

I finished it on 360 only cause I wanted the gamer points. PS3 offers nothing.

[UChessmaster]

You maintain your claim even after seeing stuff like this (http://img3.sankakustatic.com/wp-content/gallery/safe-misc-iv/ff13-cg-comparison-002.jpg)? :confused:

Oh i don`t claim they`re equal, just that i don`t personally see a gamebreaking difference.

[Archangel]

Oh i don`t claim they`re equal, just that i don`t personally see a gamebreaking difference.
Oh come on the left pic looks like a damn youtube video >_>

Sure in the long run it's a drop in the pond but it's still pretty annoying to catch glimpses of stuff like that after you just dropped 60$ for the damn thing

[animus]

I enjoyed FFXIII but didn't love it, but I don't see how any moron who hates it and gives it a 2/10 buys 2 copies, meaning $120. Or he bought the PS3 version and played the pirated 360 version, shrug.

Besides Shadow Skill lost all credibility even earlier when he said The Last Remnant had better graphics.

[RyougaZell]

I refer you to my previous post. 52 Inch HDTV 120 hertz refresh played on 1920x1080 on PS3. (Which is really 60 hertz cause the game is not made for 120 refresh rate.)

The 360 version is on 1080P. I can tell you, both are exactly the same graphically. The size of my TV might make a difference.

I left it at Chapter 2 on my PS3 since I was on Chapter 5 on 360. I don't see the point in finishing the PS3 version since both are the same. Controller wise, the 360 is better suited than the Dualshock 3 controller. My own personal opinion there.

I finished it on 360 only cause I wanted the gamer points. PS3 offers nothing.

Xbox360 forcefully upscales to 1080p. Its real resolution is 576p. Just like PS3 doesn't run the gameplay on 1080p but on 720p. The only thing 1080p on PS3 is the videos. Or why do you think the PS3 version if over 40GB while the Xbox360 version is just about 25GB?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=19857881&postcount=12055

There where also reports of several textures or shadows missing on the Xbox360 version.

And to end it... here's a comparision video on this page.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-final-fantasy-xiii-face-off

How blind one must be to say they look the same (and yet whenever any games looks better on the 360 they claim it to the skies)

http://images.eurogamer.net/assets/articles//a/9/9/4/0/4/1/badcg2.jpg.jpg

[darkshadow]

Irrelevance, Square enix just didn't care and put some idiot intern team on handling the encoding of the FMV's.
They are encoded at a CBR in Bink....incredible fail. It's not the 360's vault for looking worse this time.

[darkshadow]

I normally don't respond to reps, but seriously?
"here comes darkshadow spitting shit again". Uhh how about engaging in a intelligent convo instead? Or is gotwoot no longer capable of this?


..The tragedy here is that the CG is a core part of the presentation in FFXIII and it seems to be the case that the company has paid little attention to the poor quality of the final assets on the Xbox 360 version. The Microsoft XDK ships with a VC1 decoder, giving it the ability to playback video files encoded using technology supported by Blu-ray discs and players. Indeed, movie pirates out there get excellent quality VC1 encodes of Blu-ray movies that manage to fit onto a dual-layer DVD and run from the Xbox 360 dashboard.

Decent encoding takes time and effort, but the results can look good - even on challenging material. Combine this with the fact that the game doesn't need the 1080p-sized video the PS3 version boasts, and we have the ways and means with which to attack the compression issue from two different angles.

Square-Enix has bought in the Bink compression system for FFXIII on 360 and its failure in high-motion, colourful scenes does suggest a constant bitrate is being used as opposed to variable bandwidth that allocates more data to maintaining image quality on more complex scenes.

This failure is compounded by the fact that Square-Enix hasn't even made full use of all the disk space it has available. Around 1GB of storage is left empty on discs one and two of FFXIII, and you have to wonder why all that empty space couldn't have been repurposed for higher bandwidth encoding. Perhaps it's because of the background loading taking place while the cut-scenes play out, but regardless, the hit to quality using Bink is often unacceptably bad.
....

The results in Final Fantasy XIII aren't up to snuff - frankly, the encoding looks amateurish.



So please enlighten me how I was spitting shit?

[Dark Dragon]

I bought both the 360 and the PS3 version for comparison sake.

In game, the PS3 looks SLIGHTLY better and the 360 only really has lower res texture here and there. It's there if you look for it, but honestly most people wouldn't really notice the difference.

This is definitely one of the better looking games on the PS3, and to compare it to last remnant which was full of problems like texture pop-in just makes it seem you have no fucking idea what you're talking about. I have only played the PC version of Last Remnant which was suppose to be much better looking than the console version and even it doesn't look as good as FFXIII.

I think the battle system is a hit or miss. I enjoy it because it definitely speed up the gameplay, but i can see why someone might not. Overall this is a solid game and is definitely one of the better JRPG in recent times.

Edit: You know, i was hoping for some intelligent response but i suppose that was too much for ask for. I guess neg repping is about the only thing you can do when you realize that you're full of shit.

[animus]

I got 2 neg reps for my post, shrug.

[RyougaZell]

So yesterday I was on a local Mall. There's a store called Gameplanet there. They never have RPG's there unless its called Final Fantasy. And boy... they had lots of crap posted around about the game.

They where even giving away magazines with their own 'review' of the game.

I didn't bother reading it after I saw the screenshots. They were promoting Final Fantasy XIII using screenshots from Resonance of Fate.

I LOL'ed.

[Archangel]

So yesterday I was on a local Mall. There's a store called Gameplanet there. They never have RPG's there unless its called Final Fantasy. And boy... they had lots of crap posted around about the game.

They where even giving away magazines with their own 'review' of the game.

I didn't bother reading it after I saw the screenshots. They were promoting Final Fantasy XIII using screenshots from Resonance of Fate.

I LOL'ed.

xD Dude, get us some scans of it :D

[RyougaZell]

xD Dude, get us some scans of it :D

Hmmm... you'll have to wait until I return to the Mall on the weekend then. I never bother to take those magazines home.

There were only 4 screenshots on all the article... and 2 belonged to Resonance of Fate

[Shadow Skill]

Not sure who people are refering to for neg repping. I have done none of that.

I purchased both copies to own both copies. I compared both versions and yes, I can safely say, there is no difference in quality between either version. I will say this, on the PS3 the game seems to lag occasionally. 360, I don't have that issue. Might have to do with the fact all 3 discs are installed on the 250GB HDD.

All I can say is, Square really needs to fix their developement teams. FFXII was terrible. Now FFXIII is suffering from the same fate.

I have my collection of FF Games. JUst cause I am calling it the worst game ever, does not mean I will not give my support to square. I hope with my financial support, square can afford to hire a real developement team.

Yes, TLR graphics are actually better. I and many others agree.

There was basically 0 CG/FMV in FFXIII. The fact that it boasts 40GB of data without any substance, only strengthen that fact that TLR has a better story, more fleshed out characters and better graphics on a supposedly inferior system. What makes it even more great is that TLR is like 10GB in size total? 1/4 the size of FFXIII. You get twice the playtime and replay value from TLR.

I am posting my views on square and it's epic failure FFXIII. If most of you want to take that to heart and think of it as a personal verbal ownage attack on yourself, then by all means. Nobody is forcing you to read what I post.

[darkshadow]

Actually, I'm pretty sure all of the cinematics in the game were FMV's, even the non cg ones.

[animus]

Wow, I can accept people's opinions and they're entitled to them, but this is probably the first time I've ever went "Wow, this person's opinion is really stupid."

I'm no XIII fanboy and have ragged on the game quite often but honestly, TLR does not technically and graphically outperform XIII. Did you even play the travesty that was the 360 version before the new Xbox Live Experience even came out? The game ran like shit and it didn't look that great to begin with. Not to mention the in-game models (which are different than the in-game cutscene models) looked shoddy and all they did during dialogue text was wave their arms in a loop like crazy, odd mouth movement and had unmoving eyes.

And I simply do not agree with the more fleshed out characters statement. Did you even play The Last Remnant? Rush is your typical anime shounen main character with as much personality as Cloud. Not to mention David, Toppo, and all the other generals didn't have much if at all backstory besides maybe Emma.

And I've never had a single hiccup on my PS3 which is weird considering there's no install, or even an install option. Maybe your PS3 has problems? Launch PS3 mayhaps?

[KrayZ33]

All I can say is, Square really needs to fix their developement teams. FFXII was terrible. Now FFXIII is suffering from the same fate.

most people I've talked to liked the new combat and paradigma-shift system. (well actually everyone said that but I haven't asked all of my friends yet)
not to mention that they actually prefer seeing enemies rather than running into random encounters (which are so annoying that even the producers realised it and added G.Fs. with a "no-encounter" bonus)

not to mention that every single one of them likes the story very much and said its probably one of the best in FF-History.
most of them say FF7 is better though..

u see, opinions are different
I don't agree with "TLR looks better" though
because you can cleary see it does not.
TLR had lots of texture-failures btw.

[Psyke]

I'm still playing but it doesn't seem like the plot will overtake FFX as the best story in a FF game, at least in my book. Still, I'm liking the story. Way better than XII.

[Paulyboy]

On chapter 9 and im cp farming and getting alot of spoils! FFXIII is still bad ass, the plot isn't that bad so far and the Eidolons.... the name they used on FFIX, are really cool looking summons but I wish they would bring back Ifrit, you only see him in the parade!!! Lol my sisters were watching me play, they were making fun of Vanille because she would always sound like shes having sex.

[darkshadow]

I'm only on chapter 2 so far, but it's quite annoying how I go through every battle 5 starred by just pressing x the whole battle.

I know the battle system will get better later on, but so far I really feel that FF12 did it better with that you transitioned in and out of battle seamlessly and that you could move around yourself.

But yeah I'm enjoying it so far, good gfx, nice voiceacting (although vanille seems to switch between 2 accents) and fast combat.

Though I hope later on it strays a bit from the "walk to the end of the corridor and kill everything" progression that has been going on so far.

[Psyke]

Final Fantasy XIII. It is serious business.

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/884/nhu.jpg

[UChessmaster]

no tri disaster?

[Psyke]

I was coming up with new combinations, and also figuring out which roles to level up for which characters first. :)

[UChessmaster]

I was coming up with new combinations, and also figuring out which roles to level up for which characters first. :)

I say start with relentless assault by default leveling wise.

[Shadow Skill]

Just saw an episode of "Reviews on the run". They called FFXIII the worst FF Game in history, or ever.

They said there is talk of a FF7 remake now or sequel. Not sure if can put much faith in that. Sales might be less than expected. If there is such talk of a remake.

I havent seen any other article stating a remake. I heard it on Reviews on the run. Not sure if their sources are trusting or if they're just saying that.

I'm interested in how well FFXIII sold though.

So far, all I've read was 1 million in Europe or something. If that's all for Europe... that's pretty bad. North America, I'd say closer to 2 Million, maybe less. Just a guess.

http://www.totalvideogames.com/Final-Fantasy-XIII/review-15045.html

[UChessmaster]

Just saw an episode of "Reviews on the run". They called FFXIII the worst FF Game in history, or ever.

They said there is talk of a FF7 remake now or sequel. Not sure if can put much faith in that. Sales might be less than expected. If there is such talk of a remake.

I havent seen any other article stating a remake. I heard it on Reviews on the run. Not sure if their sources are trusting or if they're just saying that.

I'm interested in how well FFXIII sold though.

So far, all I've read was 1 million in Europe or something. If that's all for Europe... that's pretty bad. North America, I'd say closer to 2 Million, maybe less. Just a guess.

http://www.totalvideogames.com/Final-Fantasy-XIII/review-15045.html

lol what? (http://www.qj.net/qjnet/news/final-fantasy-xiii-the-fastest-selling-ff-ever.html)

[RyougaZell]

Just beat FFXIII. I am very disappointed in the game.

Graphics, not that great, not even after 4 years in developement.

At the end you get 7 pics for 50 hours of... not doing much, other than running from end to end of map many times repeatedly to gather enough CP to gain a skill. Crystal system is ok, but the cost is ridiculous.



After finishing the game today I can safely question this statement. 7 pics for finishing the game? WTF? Utter nonsense. I seriously doubt you finished the game. Unless the Xbox version didn't had an ending.

I clocked 65 hours until the ending. I spent about 30 hours on the last 3 chapters since I kept doing sidequests. And I had fun.

The start was quite annoying with no freedom on who to use... but when I finally got my freedom I did quite enjoy the ride.

Currently im farming Adamtoises for CP, Gil and Items. The fucker has over 5 million HP and hits for 7000 for each stomp. Vanille does wonders on this fight. She can kill it in 2 minutes maximum... if not... she's dead. LOL.

I got 49% of trophies as well.

[Psyke]

I just finished the game as well, but I'm heading back to Gran Pulse for them Marks. What did you mean by 7 pictures?

[RyougaZell]

I just finished the game as well, but I'm heading back to Gran Pulse for them Marks. What did you mean by 7 pictures?

That is what I want to know. Shadow Skill ranted he played over 50 hours for only 7 pics. So my guess is either he is lying or the xbox version doesn't have an ending.


About the Marks. I've defeated 76% of them... but those that remain obliterated me. Thus Im farming CP with the Adamtoises. Vanille destroys them :D

[animus]

He said he finished the 360 version so i have no idea. But when you complete certain trophies you get themes for the PS3 version at least, which is basically just a giant picture in the background the same XMB as the other FFXIII theme icons.

I still haven't finished FFXIII, benched at Chapter 12. Still playing RoF and loving it.

[RyougaZell]

He said he finished the 360 version so i have no idea. But when you complete certain trophies you get themes for the PS3 version at least, which is basically just a giant picture in the background the same XMB as the other FFXIII theme icons.

I still haven't finished FFXIII, benched at Chapter 12. Still playing RoF and loving it.

Well, if he meant the Themes... I still question his reasoning. No other game I've seen gives you themes for unlocking a trophy / achievement. Any other game, including the one he praises, Last Renmant, only would have shown you an ending and wouldn't have unlocked themes or whatever.

And I completely question his statement of getting the seven then. Serah's can only be unlocked through the Platinum Trophy / whatever its called on the Xbox.

I'll try to get the Platinum Trophy before beginning Resonance of Fate. I have great hopes for that one... but I want to get Platinum here first... and on Heavy Rain as well. Im currently at 53% trophies with 84% if the marks.

[darkshadow]

x360 doesn't have platinum trophies, and there are a number of games out there that unlock gamerpics/themes coupled by certain achievements.

[RyougaZell]

x360 doesn't have platinum trophies, and there are a number of games out there that unlock gamerpics/themes coupled by certain achievements.

I didn't say only FFXIII does this. I said other game I've seen

Besides. I checked the list of achievements for Xbox. You can't get all the themes if you don't get all achievements. You can't get them in 50 hours, so I still stand on my position.

Ah whatever.

[darkshadow]

Huh? When did I mention ff13?
I just said that there are a number of games that unlock gamerpics/themes tied to achievements.
As in response to your: "No other game I've seen gives you themes for unlocking a trophy / achievement."

[Stitch]

I want to play this game now but I'm a cheap ass and as a gamer on a budget, at $60 I feel like it's overpriced for a multiplatform game. I will wait for the greatest hits price drop or I will buy it used at GameStop at a reasonable price because Blu-Ray discs don't scratch anyway

[Paulyboy]

OMFG! finished from chapter 9-11 (work stops me from playing video games), unlocked more crystarium and it cost too much, it went from 2000 cp to 7000, and from there 25 to like 30 thousand cp. And so many possibilities, the guide helps but jeeze and I only unlocked the sazh theme, I also got bahamut and alexander. I just wish they added towns or something....

[RyougaZell]

Im at 95% of Marks currently.

Managed to kill a Adamtortoise in just 6 seconds. Vanille's Death Ability is cheap sometimes. But its the fastest way to get CP (80,000 per battle) and Gil (Platinum Ingot sells for 150,000). Though I still haven't got a single Thrapezhadron (or whatever you spell it). The damn thing has a 1% drop rate... and you need 6... bleh. Or 1 and several million gil to multiply it via upgrade/dismatle.

I hate Gigantuar btw.

[Psyke]

I got a Trapezohedron on my third Adamantoise. Lucky me :p

[RyougaZell]

I got a Trapezohedron on my third Adamantoise. Lucky me :p

Damn... you really are lucky. I've killed about 30 of those and still not Trap.

You can triplicate your original Trap by creating Vanille's Nirvana weapon (it would cost you 1.5million gil) and then dismanteling it. By dismanteling Nirvana you get 3 Traps.

[animus]

I hear you get 3 traps for every Tier 3 weapon you dismantle, so I guess it wouldn't matter which person's weapon you got up there just to dismantle.

[RyougaZell]

True enough. But it seems Nirvana is the cheapest to create... and that still is at least 1 and a half million gil.

[Psyke]

Damn... you really are lucky. I've killed about 30 of those and still not Trap.

Yup, must be right. I just got another one. :D

Edit: Make that 2. :p

[The Heretic Azazel]

Oh snap I wouldn't take that shit from Psyke.

Haven't played XIII yet but spent enough time on XII praying on rare drops to make the Tournesol.. your showboating is not appreciated!!

[Psyke]

Nah it's just my lucky day thats all. Though I did beat an Adamantortise in 14 seconds. :p

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8178/pv3u.jpg

[Dark Dragon]

Oh snap I wouldn't take that shit from Psyke.

Haven't played XIII yet but spent enough time on XII praying on rare drops to make the Tournesol.. your showboating is not appreciated!!

Man, fuck that sword. I remember spending hours killing wolves for one of the items that is require to make a PART of that sword.

[RyougaZell]

Nah it's just my lucky day thats all. Though I did beat an Adamantortise in 14 seconds. :p



Isn't Vanille great for those buggers? I don't have a screen to prove it, but I did kill the Adamtortoise from the Mark in 6 seconds.


And Im back to Adamtoise farming after being obliterated by the last 3 marks I haven't defeated. Only the last Ceith from the Titan circle, the Ceith that appears after killing the other Undying plus the Gigacactuar.

[RyougaZell]

I really hate you right now Psyke... I've already completed the Crystarium and I still haven't got a single Trap...

Im missing Two Trophies for the Platinum. The 'All weapons and Accesory' one and the 'Heavyweight' one.

*sigh*

[complich8]

I switched to sazh summon+chain+blitz for my toise farming. 100% kill rate in a solid 2 minutes. Vanille's summon+death was getting me about a 65% kill rate, and the successes were averaging close to 2 minutes while it took about 2:20-2:30 to determine that a run had failed, dragging the average cycle with her out to about 9 minutes. Sazh+summon gets an average cycle in the 5ish minute rate, and is a little more engaging.

But yeah, the grinding gets dull pretty damned fast. I think I can cycle through maybe 6-8 toises in the sanctum area before I literally start falling asleep from boredom. The fact that they're basically the only way to get decent returns on gil drives me seriously nuts.

[Psyke]

I use Vanille's bella wand for improved debuffing, along with Fang and Hope for Sab + Sab + Syn. I summon, immediately cancel it, and then get the buffs and debuffs in while casting Death. I'm surprised by the good rate I get, 3/4 times I'll succeed. I tried Vanille's ultimate weapon but I didn't even connect with death once.

I'm only level 5 in around 4 roles, a lot more to go for max levelling. All in all I got 3 traps from the adamantoises, and I dismantled one to triple it. Still need one more, but I'm low on gil (ingots ain't enough) and hence levelling weapons take a lot of time.

[RyougaZell]

I used Vanille's Belladonna Wand as well. My party was Vanille + Fang + Sahz. Started with Sab + Sab + Syn until Sahz gave Haste to all the party and then switched to Sab + Sab + Sab.

Fang and Sahz also have the Random Instant Stagger (or whatever its called). In 4 out of 5 battles I manage to stagger the Adamtoise before it stands up (after the summon). One thing I noticed is that if the Stagger is 999.99 the Death is 100% effective.

In all... I think only 1 out of 10 Adamtoises survived me with this setup... and the battles didn't go over 1 minute 3 out of 5 times. The most time I spent was 2 minutes and in those cases I died.

Since I got Zero traps Im going to buy one and then dismantle to get 3. Since I only have 3 million gil I won't be able to repeat this for the rest so I'll try to get Traps from the Long Gui's... I just need to create several ultimate weapons to try a strategy I found on youtube. They have 5% drop rate of Traps which can be amplified to over 25% with the Collectors Catalog + 5 stars (damn it... Collectors doesn't stack and I had 3...) whereas the drop rate on Adamtoises doesn't raise over 5%.

Though when I return to get more Platinum Ingots I'll try and switch to Sahz's strategy just for the heck of it. That strategy was what got me a 5 star on the Gigantuar anyway. The green fucker gave me 4 trophies in 2 battles -> All B level Cieth, All Cieth, Gigantuar Himself and 5 Star on all Cieth. Yep... he was the last one I defeated.

[Psyke]

I was just playing a few rounds when I failed to kill an adamantoise in 4 rounds. Was about to give up on my fifth when I did in in 1 minute, and whaddya know, I got my last trap :)

Maybe equipping all those catalogues really help.

[RyougaZell]

The catalog ups the % of drop about 1.1% according to a guide I read. And it says that equipping more than 1 won't stack it. A little late to find this since I had 3 equipped -___-

How are you on the Trophy hunt Psyke?

[Psyke]

I only have one of each catalogue equipped.

I'm not really hunting the trophies, still trying to clear all the missions first. How do you tell if you've ever received all items?

[RyougaZell]

All weapons and accesories?
You need to go to Vanille's robot at Oerba. It will give you the trophy when you have them all.

I finished the missions between Saturday and Sunday.

[KrayZ33]

do you guys use the Paradigm shift to refill ur ATB-Bar
and do u know if its a bug or actually intended that u can refill them instantly every second round by using a Shift?

[RyougaZell]

do you guys use the Paradigm shift to refill ur ATB-Bar
and do u know if its a bug or actually intended that u can refill them instantly every second round by using a Shift?

The trick exists since the Japanese version... and unlike other things (like being able to Preempt Occhu's) it wasn't removed. So maybe it was intended.

I rarely use that move. But I think I need to start using it since I plan to take on Shao Long Gui's.

[Psyke]

All weapons and accesories?
You need to go to Vanille's robot at Oerba. It will give you the trophy when you have them all.

I finished the missions between Saturday and Sunday.

As in, can I check what items I'm missing? I lost track of the stuff I've sold.

[RyougaZell]

As in, can I check what items I'm missing? I lost track of the stuff I've sold.

Ah no... I don't think you can check that.

Im using this web to mark what I have and what I don't.
http://ff-13.info/accessory/

I haven't sold a single item so I don't have that problem.

EDIT at 11:30PM:
Got my first trap 2 minutes ago. Im not willing to part with 2million gil, specially since I need the gil to buy the damn accelerators to upgrade to max level the weapons of three characters to beat the Long Gui (need about 5 million gil for this alone...).

Since I no longer need CP Im fighting an Adamtoise and if it doesn't drop anything I reload. Tedious? Indeed. But I can't afford battles without Platinum Ingots or Traps at this point.

[RyougaZell]

I managed to score two more Traps yesterday. And I have about 4 million gil.

According to my estimates... if I continue farming the 3 traps I will need about 11 million gil to upgrade all, including 3 weapons to the maximum in order to fight the Shao Long Gui.

Of course...about 4 and haf million could be saved if I could get my hands on 5 Dark Matter... but they are dropped by Shao Long Gui. Bleh.

This is one annoying trophy =P

Anyone beat a Shao Long Gui here so far? I entered battle with one without knowing anything about them and loled so hard when its first attack was Ultima. It erased me. 50,000 damage each.

[Zati]

Sen/Sen/Sen (Tortoise) right before you start the battle. I did Syn/Syn/Syn (Rapid Growth) right after to haste everyone. Tortoise again when you see him about to stomp.

Sab/Sab/Sab (Infiltration) try to get Deprotect, Deshell, Imperil, and Slow on him first, then go for Daze last. You'll then have plenty of time to buff up, so go Syn/Syn/Syn (Rapid Growth), make sure you get the Enfire on everyone. Enfire will own it. If you've low hp, go Med/Med/Med (Salvation) to heal up, or just skip it if you don't need to.

Rav/Rav/Rav (Tri-disaster) to stagger it, and get it to 999%. Com/Com/Com (Cerberus) for the kill. When it has half hp or less left, it might use Bay or Ultima, so be prepared to Tortoise, and go back to Cerberus right after to finish him off.

That's the method I used, which I got from some guides/walkthroughs. I killed them with relative ease, and my ultimate weapons weren't maxed.

Got my platinum trophy in late March at around 77 hrs.

[RyougaZell]

Sen/Sen/Sen (Tortoise) right before you start the battle. I did Syn/Syn/Syn (Rapid Growth) right after to haste every one. Tortoise again when you see him about to stomp.

Sab/Sab/Sab (Infiltration) try to get Deprotect, Deshell, Imperil, and Slow on him first, then go for Daze last. You'll then have plenty of time to buff up, so go Syn/Syn/Syn (Rapid Growth), make sure you get the Enfire on every one. Enfire will own it. If you've low hp, go Med/Med/Med (Salvation) to heal up, or just skip it if you don't need to.

Rav/Rav/Rav (Tri-disaster) to stagger it, and get it to 999%. Com/Com/Com (Cerberus) for the kill. When it has half hp or less left, it might use Bay or Ultima, so be prepared to Tortoise, and go back to Cerberus right after to finish him off.

That's the method I used, which I got from some guides/walkthroughs. I killed them with relative ease, and my ultimate weapons weren't maxed.

Got my platinum trophy in late March at around 77 hrs.

Well, I just killed the Long Gui some minutes ago :D
I used a variation of your guide.

I used Fang with Max Level Kain Lance, Vanille with Nirvana and Hope with Nue.

Fang had Genji Glove + 1 Imperial Guard + 2 Royal Armlet for 43% resistance to physic
Vanille and Hope had 3 Royal Armlet + Moonbow Ankelt for 39% resistance to physic + 60% to Daze (it said this guy can put you to sleep)

I did start with SEN/SEN/SEN. After Ultima I switched to MED/MED/MED to heal and then changed to SAB/SAB/SYN so I could debuff the legs while Hope buffed the party.

I switched for RAV/RAV/RAV to stagger each leg and then killed it with COM/COM/COM. I speed up things with Fang's Highwind when the stagger was going to end.

Repeated for the other leg and then switched again to SAB/SAB/SYN to debuff the Shao Long. RAV/RAV/RAV again until COM/COM/COM entered the fray.

I cheaped it and summoned Bahamut to drop him down as soon as it stood up again, so I didn't allow it to use more than 2 Ultima.

I have a free Paradigm slot so maybe I should pull a SAB/SAB/SAB to debuff faster when I get all the Buffs on me.

In all its mostly the same strategy you used, but I buffed and debuffed with the same team.

8 minutes was what the battle lasted. It wasn't that hard when you know what to do.

The most troublesome thing was switching to SEN/SEN/SEN in a second to escape Ultima, Roar and Quake. The stomps barely made 5k damage to me with the items I had equipped.

Now I need to return to the gold hunting... upgrading the items for this battle left me with only 600k gold of the 4million I had. And with those Dark Matter involved I need about 8 million... guess I'll try and see if I can farm the Shao Long Gui's...

1 more trophy! :D

[Zati]

The Shao Long Gui's are actually a million times easier. You use the same exact strategy, and you should be able to kill it very fast with just one stagger. I think it only took me 1 min or so. You should've no problem getting the Dark Matters, they've a pretty good drop rate. It didn't take me long at all to get them. (5 or 6?)

Get all the Dark Matters first and then do the last one. I highly recommend saving the game before you do the last trophy.

For the last trophy, if you're short on traps, you can upgrade and then dismantle a Genji Glove for one trap each.

If you're also short on money to upgrade everything, just sell all the weapons and accessories that you've already done upgrading, and sell the ones that you just finished along the way. Like, sell the Kain's Lance and whatever that you're already done with, because you won't need them anymore. Even if you want to continue playing the game afterwards, you can always just load the save before you sold everything, 'cause you already got the trophy.

Good luck on the last one! :)

[RyougaZell]

Actually... I had more trouble with the Shao Long Gui than with the Long Gui. Specially since I didn't had the 'rest' time when it falls to the floor. But I did kill 2 of them with the same strategy.

Im not a fan of selling things in any RPG. When a game like this practically forces you to sell things I just sell the 'junk' (FFXII was also full of this). I prefer to not sell accessories or weapons (unless its FFX where you get a weapon for killing the lowest of enemies).

Besides... if I dismantled my Max Level Kain's Lance I could get 3 Traps. But nah... I want to farm them. I need the gil anyway.

Im missing 3 traps and the 5 Dark Matters. I hope to get the platinum trophy this weeked. Im farming that cliff with the 2 Long Gui and the 3 Shao Long Gui.

I just need 5 Dark Matters because somehow I have an Imperial Guard (Royal Armlet + Dark Matter) that I do not know where I got.

[RyougaZell]

Well I finally managed it. I got tired of farming Platinum Ingots so I decided to sell it all as Zati suggested.

Platinum Trophy is mine... and its time to forget about Final Fantasy XIII until Versus XIII or Agito XIII get released.

[KrayZ33]

what weapons did u use (or upgrade first) for Fang and Lighting btw?

Taming Pole (or Dragon Spear) for Fang?

and Lighting?

Axis or Lionheart or Blazefire?

I prefer weapon with high stats over atb+ or quick stagging :/

[RyougaZell]

Dragoon Lance for Fang since I didn't care for magic with her. And for Light I used the Lionheart, though only for the trophy. My main farming party pre-Long Gui were Vanille, Sazh and Fang... and from the Long Gui and Shao Long Gui onward it was Fang, Vanille and Hope.

Now that I think about it... I rarely used Snow through all the game. I only had him on against the Neochu and Attacus.

[rockmanj]

I know I am super late, but I really enjoy this game. I have to say that I particularly enjoy Sazh's characterization. The VA did a great job in having him talk like an actual black person (it is hard to explain, but there are small things that point it out, that and he is a black person). I'm currently at the part where I can go to Orphan's cradle, but I am doing missions now.

[Dark Dragon]

I just got done with the game. Took many tries for me to get interested enough to finish the game.

I didn't really enjoy this game as much as i did the older FF games. The linearity didn't bother me since i found it to be less tedious, but i do have to admit i miss having towns and doing some exploration. Half the fun of playing an RPG is exploring the world that the creator crafted for you and maybe see some interesting dialog from NPC. I feel like the main problem is that for most of the game you are essentially alone. It feel like the game lacks character that makes it stand out.

The 6 main characters are likable enough, but i feel like the villains were really lacking. I suppose the idea is to have the main characters be outcast and have the players feel like they are fighting "the world". That however just makes me less interested in the story as the game progresses, because it feels like a lot of aimless wandering. Ironic considering that for most of the game, you are set on one path.

My main complaint is how damn grindy this game is. It just feel like the creators decided to throw in gran pulse half way through the game as a big "grind here" sign. It became incredibly tedious to beat even the regular enemies after that point even if you didn't skip any battles. I was annoyed with this in FF12 too but that game was more MMO style so it's a bit expected.

On the other hand, i really like the fast pace battle system that makes you think on your feet. It's responsible for some really intense situations and i would like to see it come back in future games.

[rockmanj]

Has anyone had trouble with Attacus? I had Snow as a SEN and got him to like a third of his health, then he goes an decides to cast doom on my leader (Vanille) then exclusively attacks her, even though he is still supposedly focused on Snow. My chars are kind of low level (around 11000 HP), but that seems ridiculous!

[RyougaZell]

I poisoned Attacus. I had Snow as leader, as a Sentinel, with Vanille and Hope casting poison and all status effects. He kept cleaning them off and I kept placing them on. Snow was just a Sentinel. I even managed to kill it under 4 minutes like this, earning the 5 star rank.

If you attack Attacus it will Doom you. The only way to stop him from Doom-ing you is the status effect + poison way.

[rockmanj]

N/M I just beat him...I didn't do any of that. Just kept Snow as my SEN, put Sazh in the party, and attack spammed him.

[RyougaZell]

Final Fantasy XIII-2 announced for PS3 and Xbox360

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/01/18/square_enix_press_conf_media/

Final Fantasy Type-0 (Formerly Agito XIII) will have 2 UMD

Final Fantasy Versus XIII remains PS3 exclusive
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/01/18/ff_versus_xiii_trailer/

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/01/18/square_enix_premier_live_blog/

Final Fantasy Duodecium for PSP features new characters:
> Kain - FFIV
> Tifa - FFVII
> Laguna - FFVIII
> Yuna - FFX
> Prishe - FFXI
> Vaan - FFXII
> Lighting - FFXIII

[Archangel]

I thought the first XIII kinda bombed, or was that XIV?

[RyougaZell]

I thought the first XIII kinda bombed, or was that XIV?

XIV

unless you mean the xbugs359.99 version of XIII

[Ryllharu]

I didn't have any interest in a game that you mostly watch (already played Xenosaga) or watch play itself, but damn, that armor Lightning has on is hot. Consider my interest mildly piqued.

I greatly look forward to the return of the Dressphere system. :p

(I'm serious. The plot of X-2 was beyond silly, but having job classes again was fun.)

[UChessmaster]

XIV

unless you mean the xbugs359.99 version of XIII

The 360 version wasn`t all that different from the PS3 unless you niptick all over the graphics. Regardless, neither version bombed, so no, he can`t mean the 360 version.

Anyway, i hated FFXIII so this new version got me as excited as... well, not excited at all.

[animus]

I wouldn't be surprised if XIII-2 turned out to be a better game than XIII which would be quite ironic considering X-2 paled in comparison to X.

I'll prob get the game if only to lose what little remaining faith I have in Square Enix. I do hope XIII-2 at least has a better story than XIII. God that plot was bad.

[Shadow Skill]

The news story I read on XIII-2 was that the creator didnt feel satisfied with how XIII ended and wanted to bring closure to the events that happened.

Agreed, a skimpy Lightning is worth looking in to, but... XIII was a complete failure as a RPG.

Depending how well XIII-2 sells in Japan, I might check it out when it comes to North America.

Really wish they'd do the smart thing and do a proper remakes of FFVI-FFIX, instead of paying idiots to release garbage.

[darkshadow]

The 360 version wasn`t all that different from the PS3 unless you niptick all over the graphics. Regardless, neither version bombed, so no, he can`t mean the 360 version.

Anyway, i hated FFXIII so this new version got me as excited as... well, not excited at all.

Actually it was, the FMV's were so terribly encoded that some parts would appear so pixelated that it made my eyes bleed. This was just unacceptable for such a big title, heck it's unacceptable for any title. And the 360 version lacked the DTS audio track.
The actual ingame graphics didn't differ all that much at all between the 2 versions

[UChessmaster]

Right, i barely noticed any difference, to be fair though, graphics are the least important things for me when i`m playing a game, and i already addressed the graphics part...

[Archangel]

Just started it, the game itself is easy but how do i stop myself from punching the TV every time Vanille opens her mouth? >_>

[RyougaZell]

Just started it, the game itself is easy but how do i stop myself from punching the TV every time Vanille opens her mouth? >_>

Kill yourself

[rockmanj]

Just wait till you hear her orgasming in battle once you reach a certain point. It will drive you mad.

[darkshadow]

Mad with DESIRE






>_>

[KrayZ33]

Just started it, the game itself is easy but how do i stop myself from punching the TV every time Vanille opens her mouth? >_>

"but she's so kawaii ~uguuu~ >_<"

[Zati]

Yep, it took me a while to get use to it, but eventually it became bearable.

She proved to be extremely useful for me near the end, so that made up for it, I guess.

[rockmanj]

Yep, it took me a while to get use to it, but eventually it became bearable.

She proved to be extremely useful for me near the end, so that made up for it, I guess.

Her summon noises are still very grating.

[RyougaZell]

Her summon noises are still very grating.

Skip button is your friend. Remember?

My best team, to defeat the Adamntoises and Purple Adamtoises (forgot its name... Lao something) was Fang, Vanille and Hope.

[Archangel]

THAT
FUCKING
ENDING

All of my rage, that was the worst Deux Ex Machina piece of shit ending i've ever seen.

[RyougaZell]

THAT
FUCKING
ENDING

All of my rage, that was the worst Deux Ex Machina piece of shit ending i've ever seen.

Final Fantasy X-2 anyone?

[Archangel]

Trailer tiem


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtJ51Rc0rCQ&feature=player_embedded

[KrayZ33]

oh god, so its X X X X X X X X X X X X all the time again?
come on.

[RyougaZell]

Serah playable? Sold.

[Archangel]

Serah playable? Sold.
Implying there will be any fucking difference between playing her and the vanilla voice cancer

[darkshadow]

Implying there will be any fucking difference between playing her and the vanilla voice LOVE

*fixed*.

[animus]

I was expecting a different battle system, or at least heavily tweaked. This still looks basically like XIII. X-2's system was quite a bits different from X.

[RyougaZell]

Implying there will be any fucking difference between playing her and the vanilla voice cancer

Unlike you... I like Vanille.

And Laura Bailey (Rise - P4, Catherine - Catherine, Reimi - Star Ocean 4, Platina - BlazBlue, Female Protagonist - P3P) can never be voice cancer.

[RyougaZell]

Extended FFXIII-2 E3 Trailer (http://e3.gamespot.com/video/6316724/)

[darkshadow]

Serah's outfit is such fetish fuel