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Is it actually possible to beat Brynhildr? Like is there actually any game after this boss because at the moment I'm suspecting that they put her in as an insurmountable barrier to prevent people from realizing the game isn't finished.
None of the strategies that are online work, at all.
It seems harsh that the only way to win this is to use a spell I haven't got nor can access at this point.
Is it actually possible to beat Brynhildr? Like is there actually any game after this boss because at the moment I'm suspecting that they put her in as an insurmountable barrier to prevent people from realizing the game isn't finished.
None of the strategies that are online work, at all.
It seems harsh that the only way to win this is to use a spell I haven't got nor can access at this point.
Is it actually possible to beat Brynhildr? Like is there actually any game after this boss because at the moment I'm suspecting that they put her in as an insurmountable barrier to prevent people from realizing the game isn't finished.
None of the strategies that are online work, at all.
It seems harsh that the only way to win this is to use a spell I haven't got nor can access at this point.
There's a trick to make that the easiest Eidolon fight in the game.
Its so goddamn satisfying beating the shit out of Adamantoises using only one stagger, especially if you bumped into one when you first arrived in chapter 11 and thought "oh shit" and it stomps one single time and everybody dies.
Edit: Use Gaian Rings (Earth Resist 40%) for Oretoises, all their attacks are Earth based, dont know if Long Gui's are that though.
Wow, that video looks really cool. Makes me wish they'd go back and do another medieval-ish offline FF like 9, I just won't shell out for a monthly fee.
Darlan on
0
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
edited April 2010
Chapter 12 spoilers:
Holy balls, The Proudclad, the second time around, is pretty crazy. I'm at a loss as to how to hurt the stupid thing. It just. Won't. Die.
Ah crap, I think I accidentally disqualified myself from being able to be in the FFXIV beta. I filled out a PC app and then when I got XIII I filled out a PS3 app. Am I boned?
Having wrapped up the game, and having read the negative reviews, I got to thinking about the game's themes (which I liked), its storytelling (which was incomplete, often incoherent, and generally left much to be desired), and its gameplay (which, while very linear, I thought was generally excellent--a truly great battle system).
The struggle of the protagonists to break free of their fate (their Focus) was the major theme, and although the "do we have free will?" concept is probably cliche by this point in video games, I still thought it was entertaining. And then there was the friendship theme, which, while also cliche, was pretty powerful I thought--that the party as a group could accomplish more than the sum of their parts. As a group they were more powerful than as individuals - stick together and the party can do anything. Cliche, I know, but I thought it was well-done, as characters (like Vanille) matured over the storyline. There was also the tried-and-true "maturing over a difficult journey," especially for Vanille, which I thought was wrapped up nicely with her realization that miracles don't just happen--you have to affirmatively act to make them happen.
I also wondered about the interplay between the design and the story: given that achieving free will was the dominant theme of the story, do you think this had any relationship to the very linear design of the gameplay itself? (I know I might be reaching here, but hear me out.) I've heard so many complaints about the linearity of the gameplay, which as a factual matter simply can't be denied. But do you think the developers could have been using this linearity itself to symbolize the tight confines of the party's Focus? After all, for nearly all of the game, the characters believe that they are fated to carry out some unknown mission (possibly destroying the world), and that they are powerless to change their destiny. I think the corridor-focused gameplay does a lot to reinforce this concept, because as a player you are reduced to only one choice--move forward.
And then once chapter 11 hits, the party starts to think they can in fact SAVE the world, and that they can break free of any pre-determination by the Fal'Cie. The game world breaks open then, too (to some extent), with Pulse being a free-roaming area in which the player can finally exercise some choice over how to play the game.
Of course, the game returns to the on-rails approach in chapters 12 and 13. But this might be taken to symbolize/reinforce the party's single-minded goal of killing Bart and saving Cocoon.
But do you think any of this was intentional? If so, I think it was very clever. And if it wasn't...well, I think developers should think harder about things like this in the future, to incorporate gameplay themes into the story. Both aspects should be designed to conform to each other. Maybe the game was designed this way just because it would be too technically difficult/expensive to make a wider game world with more interaction.
The story was convoluted. I kept thinking "there is a good story lurking in here, the game just isn't telling it correctly." I blame bad voice acting (especially Hope), and just an overall failure to tell a compelling backstory. Maybe that backstory didn't exist--maybe Square had just thought of a series of cool scenes and characters, and strung them together without a coherent plot. But I still think those individual moments were occasionally great, and that with a little more storytelling and a broader range of emotions in the character's voices, this could have been a truly great game.
I loved the ending. I know the story didn't fully make sense. I don't know how or why Vanille and Fang had to turn into crystals to save Cocoon. I also don't know how Sera and Dahj got to be in that save field as the rest of the party.
But that Leona Lewis song was a perfect fit. I am dead serious. A touching, excellent ending, given how convoluted the story was to that point.
He did the equivalent of watching the first 5 episodes of Lost than complaining that it doesn't make any sense.
Then you watch the next 4 seasons of Lost and realize that it's shit.
Casually Hardcore on
0
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
edited April 2010
Question about Upgrading weapons:
Just about to start upgrading for the first time, and I have all the crap I've gotten from every enemy in the whole game. Do I sell it and buy the efficient upgrade components? Or just blow it by bouncing between increasing the multiplier and high exp items?
Well, for the first five hours, it's 100% spot on. The only issue is that he reviewed the game after only playing the first five hours.
It's not like Yahtzee really needs to play more than 5 hours of any game to make one of his reviews.
Still, my favorite parts (and coincidentally, what I most agreed with) were the praise of FF6 and the falling out from FF7, then the credits where his avatar violently killed the Vanille avatar.
Well, for the first five hours, it's 100% spot on. The only issue is that he reviewed the game after only playing the first five hours.
It's not like Yahtzee really needs to play more than 5 hours of any game to make one of his reviews.
Still, my favorite parts (and coincidentally, what I most agreed with) were the praise of FF6 and the falling out from FF7, then the credits where his avatar violently killed the Vanille avatar.
I don't agree with him about Sahz. As a black person (mixed), Sahz is probably the first black character I haven't been embarrassed or insulted by in a big-budget game. He is a lot like Barret, but at least he doesn't speak like the Cole Train.
I agree with him otherwise, though. There's no excuse for poor voice acting, bad pacing, and weak localizations in 2010, and the cutscenes ended up being more gaudy than anything. It feels like a game developed by man-children who spend a lot of their time watching anime and The Matrix, and that sucks. (Although, that mechanical boss you were eventually allowed to pilot looked fantastic, I will give them that. It's too bad the experience was somewhat spoiled by punching enemies into the sky.)
Yahtzee says he doesn't really like JRPGs anymore, but I'll bet he would still like Dragon Quest. That series is consistently tasteful, compelling, and worth playing. I wanted to quote your post because I started playing DQ5 recently, and it's better than Final Fantasy 6. It's up there with Chrono Trigger and Mother 3. It's an amazing game, and I hope Enix really pushes 9 here, because it could be a huge game or series if they stopped fumbling around and tried to make it one. Those hand-drawn FMVs are incredible.
I don't think he should have reviewed it if he played only 5 hours. He doesn't have a complete opinion on the matter, it just doesn't make sense.
Is he really that starved for attention?
He's not really starved for attention, man. It's a bad start and most people don't really have 20 hours to dedicate to entertainment before that entertainment becomes entertaining.
Beck on
Lucas's Franklin Badge reflected the lightning back!
I don't think he should have reviewed it if he played only 5 hours. He doesn't have a complete opinion on the matter, it just doesn't make sense.
Is he really that starved for attention?
He's not really starved for attention, man. It's a bad start and most people don't really have 20 hours to dedicate to entertainment before that entertainment becomes entertaining.
Agreed. He's making a point, and he's not wrong. I like the game and everything, but I went in expecting to have to play it for a few days before it got interesting.
He makes a good point about pacing as well.
Five hours into FFVI I can be suplexing a train, and that's if I take my time.
Five hours into FFXIII you're still trying to work out what a L'Cie is, and besides 'follow this path' you didn't have much of a goal.
His attitude is basically mine toward FFXII. I only played 5 hours of that before I decided it wasn't fucking worth it. I can't blame him for not going on if he didn't like it. If the game fails to grip you in FIVE HOURS which is longer than some entire games, then something is horribly wrong.
I liked FFXIII and if he was someone who loved the FF series he may have given it more of a chance and ended up liking it too, but as it stands the game will not suddenly turn JRPG skeptics into JRPG lovers. If anything it'll just give them more fuel to hate, as seen in that review.
The main disagreement I have with him is about Sazh. Apart from having an afro he didn't reinforce any stereotypes at all, at least not that I could see.
The problem with FF13 is that Square basically used the fact that they knew fans of the series were not going to stop playing the game 10 hours in because it was still boring, and they would wait it out and play the whole thing. If I was playing some RPG I was interested in from a new developer and the first 10 hours of FF13 was the first 10 hours of that game, I would have quit playing without question. I stuck with FF13 because I am a huge fan of the series and I felt compelled to for that reason. I still didn't think the story ever got great, but good enough that I wasn't disappointed by the end.
It's just lazy for a big time developer like Square to make a game that goes out of it's way to not grip you for the first 20% of the game. I can't think of a single other main line Final Fantasy game that didn't draw me in pretty much right from the start, and there is no denying this game is flawed in that way.
ffxiii is boring me terribly and i'm into the 20 odd hour mark now
i'm at the stage where the next time i see a bloody cutscene map marker i'm going to turn my character around, die cheaply in an easy fight with some reskinned monster and turn it off for good
His reviews are often negative because the negativity makes them funnier. It's tough to make jokes about how great something is, so even when he likes a game he'll use most of the review to nitpick and make jokes.
But pretty obviously in this case he genuinely dislikes the whole game. Or the first five hours of it, anyway.
If yahtzee's complaint about bad voice acting was about Vanille, I'm glad he didn't actually play through the fucking game he was reviewing and eventually find out there's a goddamn reason her accent slips in and out for the first half of it.
And honestly if people thought this game was so boring all along, I'm going to fucking make a list of the people who say that and then drive to their houses and kill them if they even ONCE bitch about the lack of character development in anything again ever. That's what the first many hours of this game is. If you didn't like it, guess what, you don't like character development, apparently. Or you want it to magically happen without having to watch it, which isn't really good character development.
Seriously. I understood what Fal'Cie, l'Cie, and Cie'th were in less than 45 minutes, but maybe that's because I used the resources the game gave me rather than bitching that it wasn't spoonfed to me.
I've beat the game and Vanille's voice is still terrible. As is her dialogue. As is her entire JRPG archetype.
And character development is not synonymous with A Christmas Carol. You don't not need to go from unlikeable to likeable and in fact, most stories do not take that approach because it is very difficult to pull off without alienating the reader/viewer.
He's mentioned before that no one likes when he actually talks about enjoying things, so he nitpicks the shit out of games even if he likes them. When people clamor for a "fair" review, they're missing the point.
you can't have satisfying characterization when your characters all act like bloody children. vanille is so bad that she actually comes across as mentally disabled, but they're all petty and stupid and show the emotional restraint of four year olds
worse than that is half the time this 'character development' is only there for forced melodrama; things like the snow/hope interaction don't make any real sense. anger like hope's doesn't bide its time, waiting for the right circle with an exclamation in it to pop up; guilt like snow's doesn't rear it's head in one DRAMATIC SCENE WHEN PROMPTED only to vanish back into the void of his self-importance
i'm usually forgiving of japanese roleplayers, the final fantasy series in particular, because the gameplay kind of justifies it and it's usually at the very least funny in a b-movie sort of way. but this game tests my patience to no end with its meaningless, yabbering cutscenes masquerading as weighty drama. and they're just ceaseless
So I'm in chapter eleven and there are two enormous beasties barring the way to the next piece of plot who wreck my party when I try to get past them (the two at the top who are fighting). Is it just a case of grinding until I can kill them, or am I missing something obvious?
And honestly if people thought this game was so boring all along, I'm going to make a list of the people who say that and then drive to their houses and kill them if they even ONCE bitch about the lack of character development in anything again ever. That's what the first many hours of this game is. If you didn't like it, guess what, you don't like character development, apparently. Or you want it to magically happen without having to watch it, which isn't really good character development.
This is silly and massively over-defensive and not what people are saying at all.
While the story is a very polarizing subject for a lot of people, I'd have to agree it takes too much time to get fun. The first two chapters are longer than they need to be.
By the way, Final Fantasy 7 is also guilty of this (you don't get to fiddle around with Materia until you start the 2nd reactor mission).
Nevertheless, I'll say it IS a great game it just takes too much time to get fun.
So I'm in chapter eleven and there are two enormous beasties barring the way to the next piece of plot who wreck my party when I try to get past them (the two at the top who are fighting). Is it just a case of grinding until I can kill them, or am I missing something obvious?
Well you can avoid them actually. OR you can beat them bloodily for good CPs. The game is kind of assuming that you did grind for a bit before, but even without doing any sidequests it's doable. Just focus on the white one first, should go down quickly if you manage to stagger it. Then it's just a behemot to kill and well, your strategy shouldn't be any different than for all the behemots you killed before. COM/RAV/RAV to stagger, buff first if you're a little weak stat-wise, then COM/COM/RAV or COM/RAV/MED if you need some life, repeat. Or COM/SAB/SYN to start debuffing it nicely while buffing yourself, then proceed, etc...
Just go with your Light/Fang/Hope standard party and it should go nicely.
So I'm going to preface this whole thing by saying I'm only about 10 hours into the game so far.
It is boring.
But my main issue right now is that I want to fight with three people in my party again. This switching back and forth crap is getting old quick.
This better pick up pretty quick. I'm battling with like ten other games for attention span now, so square you better start making with the interesting.
The battle system is hecka fun. I think it is a big step forward. I like the paradigms, and the flow so far. The characters are good. I wonder why the characters cannot move without making noises, (breath sounds, I'm out of breath, etc...) but that is minor. Hope is pretty cool, and for a kid in a RPG, so far I don't hate him.
The linear flow is a little boring. Go here, fight monsters, watch cutscene, maybe a boss, rinse repeat.
I'm going to give it about 5-10 more hours, and then see what i think.
Just about to start upgrading for the first time, and I have all the crap I've gotten from every enemy in the whole game. Do I sell it and buy the efficient upgrade components? Or just blow it by bouncing between increasing the multiplier and high exp items?
Basically you want to use low-xp mats to increase the multiplier to 3x. Then use a bunch of high-exp items to actually upgrade it. Keep in mind that each time you use a high-xp item, the mulitiplier goes down, so you had best use like, 10 of them same in one go.
You *should* probably hold up until you can access the R&D shop, which gives the best xp/cost items in the game period. Otherwise you're kinda wasting your gils.
If this is your first playthrough, it's best to start upgrading your starter weapons, which require much less xp, and also need much cheaper transmutation materials. If you don't want to do that , be prepared to farm a lot to get enough money.
Thanks to whomever mentioned genji bracelets dismantled into final upgrade items. I got my second one and dismantled it. Now I have Kain's Lance which will probably be the only T3 weapon I ever see unless I dismantle the next genji I find. Only have 3 (?) missions left now.
Posts
None of the strategies that are online work, at all.
It seems harsh that the only way to win this is to use a spell I haven't got nor can access at this point.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
There's a trick to make that the easiest Eidolon fight in the game.
Edit: Use Gaian Rings (Earth Resist 40%) for Oretoises, all their attacks are Earth based, dont know if Long Gui's are that though.
Why is it oooonnnllliiiiiinnnneeeee
FFBE: 898,311,440
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/dElementalor
The struggle of the protagonists to break free of their fate (their Focus) was the major theme, and although the "do we have free will?" concept is probably cliche by this point in video games, I still thought it was entertaining. And then there was the friendship theme, which, while also cliche, was pretty powerful I thought--that the party as a group could accomplish more than the sum of their parts. As a group they were more powerful than as individuals - stick together and the party can do anything. Cliche, I know, but I thought it was well-done, as characters (like Vanille) matured over the storyline. There was also the tried-and-true "maturing over a difficult journey," especially for Vanille, which I thought was wrapped up nicely with her realization that miracles don't just happen--you have to affirmatively act to make them happen.
I also wondered about the interplay between the design and the story: given that achieving free will was the dominant theme of the story, do you think this had any relationship to the very linear design of the gameplay itself? (I know I might be reaching here, but hear me out.) I've heard so many complaints about the linearity of the gameplay, which as a factual matter simply can't be denied. But do you think the developers could have been using this linearity itself to symbolize the tight confines of the party's Focus? After all, for nearly all of the game, the characters believe that they are fated to carry out some unknown mission (possibly destroying the world), and that they are powerless to change their destiny. I think the corridor-focused gameplay does a lot to reinforce this concept, because as a player you are reduced to only one choice--move forward.
And then once chapter 11 hits, the party starts to think they can in fact SAVE the world, and that they can break free of any pre-determination by the Fal'Cie. The game world breaks open then, too (to some extent), with Pulse being a free-roaming area in which the player can finally exercise some choice over how to play the game.
Of course, the game returns to the on-rails approach in chapters 12 and 13. But this might be taken to symbolize/reinforce the party's single-minded goal of killing Bart and saving Cocoon.
But do you think any of this was intentional? If so, I think it was very clever. And if it wasn't...well, I think developers should think harder about things like this in the future, to incorporate gameplay themes into the story. Both aspects should be designed to conform to each other. Maybe the game was designed this way just because it would be too technically difficult/expensive to make a wider game world with more interaction.
The story was convoluted. I kept thinking "there is a good story lurking in here, the game just isn't telling it correctly." I blame bad voice acting (especially Hope), and just an overall failure to tell a compelling backstory. Maybe that backstory didn't exist--maybe Square had just thought of a series of cool scenes and characters, and strung them together without a coherent plot. But I still think those individual moments were occasionally great, and that with a little more storytelling and a broader range of emotions in the character's voices, this could have been a truly great game.
I loved the ending. I know the story didn't fully make sense. I don't know how or why Vanille and Fang had to turn into crystals to save Cocoon. I also don't know how Sera and Dahj got to be in that save field as the rest of the party.
But that Leona Lewis song was a perfect fit. I am dead serious. A touching, excellent ending, given how convoluted the story was to that point.
Went about how you think it did.
He did the equivalent of watching the first 5 episodes of Lost than complaining that it doesn't make any sense.
Then you watch the next 4 seasons of Lost and realize that it's shit.
Just about to start upgrading for the first time, and I have all the crap I've gotten from every enemy in the whole game. Do I sell it and buy the efficient upgrade components? Or just blow it by bouncing between increasing the multiplier and high exp items?
It's not like Yahtzee really needs to play more than 5 hours of any game to make one of his reviews.
Still, my favorite parts (and coincidentally, what I most agreed with) were the praise of FF6 and the falling out from FF7, then the credits where his avatar violently killed the Vanille avatar.
Is he really that starved for attention?
I don't agree with him about Sahz. As a black person (mixed), Sahz is probably the first black character I haven't been embarrassed or insulted by in a big-budget game. He is a lot like Barret, but at least he doesn't speak like the Cole Train.
I agree with him otherwise, though. There's no excuse for poor voice acting, bad pacing, and weak localizations in 2010, and the cutscenes ended up being more gaudy than anything. It feels like a game developed by man-children who spend a lot of their time watching anime and The Matrix, and that sucks. (Although, that mechanical boss you were eventually allowed to pilot looked fantastic, I will give them that. It's too bad the experience was somewhat spoiled by punching enemies into the sky.)
Yahtzee says he doesn't really like JRPGs anymore, but I'll bet he would still like Dragon Quest. That series is consistently tasteful, compelling, and worth playing. I wanted to quote your post because I started playing DQ5 recently, and it's better than Final Fantasy 6. It's up there with Chrono Trigger and Mother 3. It's an amazing game, and I hope Enix really pushes 9 here, because it could be a huge game or series if they stopped fumbling around and tried to make it one. Those hand-drawn FMVs are incredible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eryIi1WZUkw
So pretty.
He's not really starved for attention, man. It's a bad start and most people don't really have 20 hours to dedicate to entertainment before that entertainment becomes entertaining.
I think that if the first 5 hours of something aren't any good, that's a major black mark against it.
Agreed. He's making a point, and he's not wrong. I like the game and everything, but I went in expecting to have to play it for a few days before it got interesting.
He makes a good point about pacing as well.
Five hours into FFVI I can be suplexing a train, and that's if I take my time.
Five hours into FFXIII you're still trying to work out what a L'Cie is, and besides 'follow this path' you didn't have much of a goal.
I liked FFXIII and if he was someone who loved the FF series he may have given it more of a chance and ended up liking it too, but as it stands the game will not suddenly turn JRPG skeptics into JRPG lovers. If anything it'll just give them more fuel to hate, as seen in that review.
The main disagreement I have with him is about Sazh. Apart from having an afro he didn't reinforce any stereotypes at all, at least not that I could see.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
It's just lazy for a big time developer like Square to make a game that goes out of it's way to not grip you for the first 20% of the game. I can't think of a single other main line Final Fantasy game that didn't draw me in pretty much right from the start, and there is no denying this game is flawed in that way.
i'm at the stage where the next time i see a bloody cutscene map marker i'm going to turn my character around, die cheaply in an easy fight with some reskinned monster and turn it off for good
His reviews are often negative because the negativity makes them funnier. It's tough to make jokes about how great something is, so even when he likes a game he'll use most of the review to nitpick and make jokes.
But pretty obviously in this case he genuinely dislikes the whole game. Or the first five hours of it, anyway.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
And honestly if people thought this game was so boring all along, I'm going to fucking make a list of the people who say that and then drive to their houses and kill them if they even ONCE bitch about the lack of character development in anything again ever. That's what the first many hours of this game is. If you didn't like it, guess what, you don't like character development, apparently. Or you want it to magically happen without having to watch it, which isn't really good character development.
Seriously. I understood what Fal'Cie, l'Cie, and Cie'th were in less than 45 minutes, but maybe that's because I used the resources the game gave me rather than bitching that it wasn't spoonfed to me.
And character development is not synonymous with A Christmas Carol. You don't not need to go from unlikeable to likeable and in fact, most stories do not take that approach because it is very difficult to pull off without alienating the reader/viewer.
He's mentioned before that no one likes when he actually talks about enjoying things, so he nitpicks the shit out of games even if he likes them. When people clamor for a "fair" review, they're missing the point.
worse than that is half the time this 'character development' is only there for forced melodrama; things like the snow/hope interaction don't make any real sense. anger like hope's doesn't bide its time, waiting for the right circle with an exclamation in it to pop up; guilt like snow's doesn't rear it's head in one DRAMATIC SCENE WHEN PROMPTED only to vanish back into the void of his self-importance
i'm usually forgiving of japanese roleplayers, the final fantasy series in particular, because the gameplay kind of justifies it and it's usually at the very least funny in a b-movie sort of way. but this game tests my patience to no end with its meaningless, yabbering cutscenes masquerading as weighty drama. and they're just ceaseless
This is silly and massively over-defensive and not what people are saying at all.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
By the way, Final Fantasy 7 is also guilty of this (you don't get to fiddle around with Materia until you start the 2nd reactor mission).
Nevertheless, I'll say it IS a great game it just takes too much time to get fun.
Um...what? No you're not. This is something pretty clearly explained by the end of chapter 2.
Well you can avoid them actually. OR you can beat them bloodily for good CPs. The game is kind of assuming that you did grind for a bit before, but even without doing any sidequests it's doable. Just focus on the white one first, should go down quickly if you manage to stagger it. Then it's just a behemot to kill and well, your strategy shouldn't be any different than for all the behemots you killed before. COM/RAV/RAV to stagger, buff first if you're a little weak stat-wise, then COM/COM/RAV or COM/RAV/MED if you need some life, repeat. Or COM/SAB/SYN to start debuffing it nicely while buffing yourself, then proceed, etc...
Just go with your Light/Fang/Hope standard party and it should go nicely.
So I'm going to preface this whole thing by saying I'm only about 10 hours into the game so far.
It is boring.
But my main issue right now is that I want to fight with three people in my party again. This switching back and forth crap is getting old quick.
This better pick up pretty quick. I'm battling with like ten other games for attention span now, so square you better start making with the interesting.
The battle system is hecka fun. I think it is a big step forward. I like the paradigms, and the flow so far. The characters are good. I wonder why the characters cannot move without making noises, (breath sounds, I'm out of breath, etc...) but that is minor. Hope is pretty cool, and for a kid in a RPG, so far I don't hate him.
The linear flow is a little boring. Go here, fight monsters, watch cutscene, maybe a boss, rinse repeat.
I'm going to give it about 5-10 more hours, and then see what i think.
Basically you want to use low-xp mats to increase the multiplier to 3x. Then use a bunch of high-exp items to actually upgrade it. Keep in mind that each time you use a high-xp item, the mulitiplier goes down, so you had best use like, 10 of them same in one go.
You *should* probably hold up until you can access the R&D shop, which gives the best xp/cost items in the game period. Otherwise you're kinda wasting your gils.
If this is your first playthrough, it's best to start upgrading your starter weapons, which require much less xp, and also need much cheaper transmutation materials. If you don't want to do that , be prepared to farm a lot to get enough money.