Difference in tastes, then. I have extremely low tolerance for angst and Japanese-style philosophical monologues. Terrible one liners and moronic spy plots just breeze on by; it just never seemed to be taking itself as seriously. Nina still looked terrible in every scene, though.
As for the gameplay, I quickly found moves that were reasonably not terrible to do in Death By Degrees and stuck with those. I played through Dirge on hardest and found it to be simple and boring to play, which is always a buzzkill for me.
Buy off topic, sure.
When I get my 360 back I'm going to see if I can't find a cheep-ish copy of XIII and go through that. I really don't care about story or linearity in my jrpgs, and I've suffered through enough terrible and bland overworld maps that I will never miss them. As long as it doesn't come to a sudden, grinding halt like XII did then I'm sure I'll get through just fine.
Difference in tastes, then. I have extremely low tolerance for angst and Japanese-style philosophical monologues. Terrible one liners and moronic spy plots just breeze on by; it just never seemed to be taking itself as seriously. Nina still looked terrible in every scene, though.
That's the problem--Nina was taking herself about as seriously as a fighter pilot breaking Mach 2. Her unchanging expression made that abundantly clear.
Her, and every single other person in that game, more or less. I can take angst and "Japanese-style" stuff--otherwise, I wouldn't play any Final Fantasy game. The fact that there hasn't been a long line of games that stick Tekken characters into bullet-proof bikinis and forces them to save the world and flash their crotches with the worst controls imaginable, and accompanying spinoffs, I think confirms my suspicions. But again, different tastes. The camera was phenomenally bad, nothing in DoC's mechanics were close to that bad. It was in the style of older RE games, but worse, and they used Nina's jiggling to try and distract you from that fact. It didn't work, the only way to cover up a camera that bad is to not have the character move period.
Back on topic, does anyone know where you can find a guide as to what weapons are worth upgrading, and what to upgrade them with in XIII? I convinced myself I would go through all of XIII without a guide--"blind", so to speak, but the fact that I've only upgraded two weapons is increasingly dooming me.
Difference in tastes, then. I have extremely low tolerance for angst and Japanese-style philosophical monologues. Terrible one liners and moronic spy plots just breeze on by; it just never seemed to be taking itself as seriously. Nina still looked terrible in every scene, though.
That's the problem--Nina was taking herself about as seriously as a fighter pilot breaking Mach 2. Her unchanging expression made that abundantly clear.
Her, and every single other person in that game, more or less. I can take angst and "Japanese-style" stuff--otherwise, I wouldn't play any Final Fantasy game. The fact that there hasn't been a long line of games that stick Tekken characters into bullet-proof bikinis and forces them to save the world and flash their crotches with the worst controls imaginable, and accompanying spinoffs, I think confirms my suspicions. But again, different tastes. The camera was phenomenally bad, nothing in DoC's mechanics were close to that bad. It was in the style of older RE games, but worse, and they used Nina's jiggling to try and distract you from that fact. It didn't work, the only way to cover up a camera that bad is to not have the character move period.
Back on topic, does anyone know where you can find a guide as to what weapons are worth upgrading, and what to upgrade them with in XIII? I convinced myself I would go through all of XIII without a guide--"blind", so to speak, but the fact that I've only upgraded two weapons is increasingly dooming me.
From what I gather most characters starting weapons are the best option for uniform growth, the exceptions are Vanille and
Fang
if that's even a spoiler really who's first weapon is skewed toward magic/strength. Pretty much just upgrade what ever weapons have even stat growth.
I am in chapter 7 of my first xiii play and am really loving the game so far. I am also the type of rpg gamer that can completely ignore story for good combat and so far xiii delivers, but then imo X-2 is EASILY the best ps2 era FF game.
Difference in tastes, then. I have extremely low tolerance for angst and Japanese-style philosophical monologues. Terrible one liners and moronic spy plots just breeze on by; it just never seemed to be taking itself as seriously. Nina still looked terrible in every scene, though.
That's the problem--Nina was taking herself about as seriously as a fighter pilot breaking Mach 2. Her unchanging expression made that abundantly clear.
Her, and every single other person in that game, more or less. I can take angst and "Japanese-style" stuff--otherwise, I wouldn't play any Final Fantasy game. The fact that there hasn't been a long line of games that stick Tekken characters into bullet-proof bikinis and forces them to save the world and flash their crotches with the worst controls imaginable, and accompanying spinoffs, I think confirms my suspicions. But again, different tastes. The camera was phenomenally bad, nothing in DoC's mechanics were close to that bad. It was in the style of older RE games, but worse, and they used Nina's jiggling to try and distract you from that fact. It didn't work, the only way to cover up a camera that bad is to not have the character move period.
Back on topic, does anyone know where you can find a guide as to what weapons are worth upgrading, and what to upgrade them with in XIII? I convinced myself I would go through all of XIII without a guide--"blind", so to speak, but the fact that I've only upgraded two weapons is increasingly dooming me.
From what I gather most characters starting weapons are the best option for uniform growth, the exceptions are Vanille and
Fang
if that's even a spoiler really who's first weapon is skewed toward magic/strength. Pretty much just upgrade what ever weapons have even stat growth.
I've done that for Lightning and Sazh, but no one else. I'm going to have to check to see which the default weapons are.
And then find the shit you should use to upgrade them.
It's not bad, minus the one glove (unless there's context for that, but probably not). They said he would wear different outfits, so the one in the trailer is probably his final "endgame" one.
Initial comments: Development is advancing smoothly though a lot of technical issues prevented it from showing at E3 this year. Those screenshots were prepared with this exact timing in mind, since now because production is picking up steam.
Q: Is this a real-time screenshot we’re looking? The image quality is very good.
A:Yes it’s an image in real-time using the real hardware.We aim to improve the quality you’re seeing now even further. As of now we can’t share more details in full scale right now, so we removed the menus and subscreens where it shows Noctis expression (image projected on the subscreen).
Q: Were the party members also there originally?
A: Yes, we removed because we haven’t formally announced their weapons and clothes yet.
Q: The exquisiteness and shades are like a photograph taken from real life.
A: Indeed, we’re using physical calculations to determine the movement of the clouds. By this time it allow us to filter sunlight and others on Versus XIII.
Q:Is the cliff to the wilderness & the Gas Station set in the same location?
A: Yes in the back of the Store is the cliff to the extended wilderness. You can walk all the way, to everything you see but the mountains.
Q:What’s this giant Enemy on the other screen?
A: It’s a Military Behemoth and he actually bears a huge sword in his back. As for this pictures, the battle screen were on the screen but we omitted it.
Q: The street of Shinjuku is real.
A:Yes, it’s our model for this, even the bicycle lanes and crosswalks are decipted. But the sense of distance has been changed a bit since the last time. Right out of the city you encounter the wilderness with electric wires every as it’s this kind of territory for this country.
Q: This region, It is only the Prologue, the early stages, nature is so even there.
A: Movement around this area is easy because you can use a car. Getting on and off the car can be done anytime, but only not possible to go all the way through it because it leads to a region underwater that has been shown on promotional trailers before.
Q: Monsters appear on the field?
A: (Laughter)…Yes, there are monsters that appear on the field; Some staff were doing the tests and were surprised by how good looking some are in the evening sun.
Q: Are the battles seamless, what about the world?
A: It’s basically seamless and we aim to make it even more seamless, but there are loadings between big areas.
Q:Information disclosure, is very restrict as of now.
A: Development is very advanced along and according to expectations we’re taking steady steps; wait at ease please, information on Versus XIII will come. Moreover, we’re making preparations for a Big announcement.
Q: You can actually see a signboard and things written inside in the screenshot?
A:The signboard is still temporary even though the inside of the Gas Station is modeled after the Stations in the US in detail. It’s possible to go up there using the stairs.
Q: Do you play in this perspective the whole game?
A: Yes. The camera basically sits in this position. We decided to priority to the character’s presence and the world; that said we decided to scrap the over the shoulder perspective of the world.
Man, party members are done but were omitted from screenshots.
Let's wait until we get all the FFXIII games (weren't there suppsoed to be 6?) and then we can decide which is the best one and call that one the real FFXIII.
And I think he'd looked better with pants but that's cool.
They just eat that shit up. Apparently, it's also the style to not make any noise during concerts in Japan. People hand-dance or something. No applause, no cheering. Freaky stuff.
At least, that's what my Japan-obsessed co-worker said about it. She's been like ten times, speaks the language fluently, and follows around small-time j-rock bands when they tour--I take her word for it.
Also, if vs XIII really plays like KH, I'll bite.
Xenogear_0001 on
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
BeezelThere was no agreement little morsel..Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
I referred to "HA HA HA HA" for the scene itself, not the overall quality of the voice acting. Which I will agree is pretty bad. "Pretty solid" was in reference to the game overall.
But c'mon, admit it, you have to love racist Hawaiian Bender.
I referred to "HA HA HA HA" for the scene itself, not the overall quality of the voice acting. Which I will agree is pretty bad. "Pretty solid" was in reference to the game overall.
But c'mon, admit it, you have to love racist Hawaiian Bender.
no i don't!
and you can't make me
i remember hearing he was actually supposed to sound polynesian, though
it's amazing how poorly those roles turned out, given that tidus's VA is ratchet from ratchet & clank (from the second game onward) and wakka's is, well, bender
but i guess that's just a knock on SE's script and voice direction
like how troy baker, who knocked yuri lowell from tales of vesperia and kanji from persona 4 out of the fucking park, was reduced to blandness incarnate as snow
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
The voice acting in FFX was as good as it could be, considering it's a Final Fantasy game and the writing isn't going to be too compelling to begin with.
Henroid on
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited June 2010
I have high hopes for Versus XIII, but then, I was also optimistic for XIII. That went away real fast.
The voice acting in FFX was as good as it could be, considering it's a Final Fantasy game and the writing isn't going to be too compelling to begin with.
no, the voice acting in FFX was shit because square hadn't quite keyed in on the idea of lip-synching, so half the characters sounded like malfunctioning animatronics
and then someone had the brilliant idea of giving the two main characters the worst voice direction
seriously, tidus and yuna are the worst-voiced people in the game by a decent margin, why is this
The voice acting in FFX was as good as it could be, considering it's a Final Fantasy game and the writing isn't going to be too compelling to begin with.
Actually Yuna was pretty bad. To her credit she gets better in X-2.
The voice acting in FFX was as good as it could be, considering it's a Final Fantasy game and the writing isn't going to be too compelling to begin with.
no, the voice acting in FFX was shit because square hadn't quite keyed in on the idea of lip-synching, so half the characters sounded like malfunctioning animatronics
and then someone had the brilliant idea of giving the two main characters the worst voice direction
seriously, tidus and yuna are the worst-voiced people in the game by a decent margin, why is this
Racist Polyensian Bender is not particularly enjoyable. And the rather poor lip-syncing was jarring at time, though I would overlook that if it wasn't for the considerable unintended awkwardness between Yuna and Tidus. There's writing in awkwardness between characters for the story, which is fine, and then there's writing that makes you wonder if they're actually talking to one another, or just maybe to other people who are relaying the conversation.
Also, on the subject of Luke Skywalker--I remember that, when he becomes a Jedi, he always has some sort of weird asymmetry. The glove on one hand, or unbuttoning a corner on the panel of his jumpsuit but not the other. Asymmetry. But I'm not a hardcore SW person.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
Lip syncing at the time wasn't a focus when it came to games that needed translation. And at the time, mouth-movement in video games wasn't top notch to begin with.
That's graphics animation more than actual voice work.
Why? What a waste of time. When grinding's actually necessary you'll be getting thousands from every fight. And if you're going for all the trophies/achievements, you'll get every skill and stat upgrade long before you manage to get every weapon/item upgraded.
Yea my main point in grinding there is to get some gil to buy accesories and to fill out all of my grids for now and get a bit of a cushion for when they open up a bit more which I am assuming is pretty soon.
The voice acting in FFX was as good as it could be, considering it's a Final Fantasy game and the writing isn't going to be too compelling to begin with.
no, the voice acting in FFX was shit because square hadn't quite keyed in on the idea of lip-synching, so half the characters sounded like malfunctioning animatronics
and then someone had the brilliant idea of giving the two main characters the worst voice direction
seriously, tidus and yuna are the worst-voiced people in the game by a decent margin, why is this
Actually, I went to E3 in 2005 (I think it was the 2005 one) and went to the More Friends concert courtesy of Square Enix and my publisher (eToychest) who passed the invite along to me.
The English voice actor for Tidus emceed the event. And he talked about how he was directed. He was told to start off sounding ignorant and kiddish for lines in the beginning of the game and then gradually evolve into a more sullen, downtrodden, "I now understand the way the world works" kind of voice.
Which he did. If you compare the intro (which is a scene from much later into the game) to
I agree on Yuna, though. She sounded flat, almost dead inside, in the English voice acting. She was much more lively in the Japanese voice acting. But even there - the whole point of FFX is... (real spoilers)
One of the reasons I love FFX is the way Tidus and Yuna meet up. Neither the audience nor Tidus realize it at the time, but Yuna is entering her Summonership knowing full well she will die at the end of it. When he finally finds this out, it upsets him greatly. But then he finds out that it's really all a sham. Not only that, but he can end it...to his own death.
Frankly, I think Tidus is one of the strongest "heroes" in the entire franchise. Once he speaks to the Aeons, he knows what his fate will be. He convinces Yuna to reject the ass-backward teachings of Yu Yevon and to fight against him and all the biases on the planet to his own doom. He willingly shoulders her burden.
Now, he becomes the one with the secret. He has assumed the role she began the game with.
And it's why I can stomach even her voice-acting. She becomes gradually happier and more lively from the beginning to the end (extending into FFX-2, in fact), while Tidus goes from innocent and happy gradually to a much more knowledgable and, because of the knowledge, sullen hero. They basically evolve in opposite directions over the course of the game, and I think the American voice acting reflects this. Yes, even with Yuna.
So I didn't really have a problem with his voice acting. I think both the American voice acting director and the actors knew what they were doing. Maybe the execution could have used some polish, but I'll just chalk that up to taste.
I mean a lot of people are pretty petty about it. They point to the laughter scene as a primary example. You know what? The laughter in that scene is nearly as awkward in the Japanese version. And personally I've been in 30+ plays and I found laughing believably (read: non awkwardly) on cue to be one of the most difficult things to do. I still have nightmares about when I did Pygmalion. Anyway, the point is, I can forgive a 100-hour game for one awkward scene.
Hell, there are hundreds of worse examples in gaming. Take Ys: Ark of Napishtim for the PS2, for instance. The best decision they made for the PSP port was removing those goddamned voices.
It may have been in the last FF thread, but I remember the infamous laughter scene got brought up.
I think a lot of people dislike it for the same reason I do--not because "we don't get it", we get it just fine. But Square-Enix writing in an incredibly awkward scene, and than voice-actors providing incredibly awkward and even irritating audio for us to listen to is plenty bad on its own. Just because a scene is supposed to be awkward doesn't automatically make it good. You can still do it poorly.
But, after all, it is just one scene. It certainly doesn't break the game on its own (and it is by no means alone). My personal complaints about FFX go way beyond that.
Posts
As for the gameplay, I quickly found moves that were reasonably not terrible to do in Death By Degrees and stuck with those. I played through Dirge on hardest and found it to be simple and boring to play, which is always a buzzkill for me.
Buy off topic, sure.
When I get my 360 back I'm going to see if I can't find a cheep-ish copy of XIII and go through that. I really don't care about story or linearity in my jrpgs, and I've suffered through enough terrible and bland overworld maps that I will never miss them. As long as it doesn't come to a sudden, grinding halt like XII did then I'm sure I'll get through just fine.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
Just wish there weren't so many fucking cut scenes.
That's the problem--Nina was taking herself about as seriously as a fighter pilot breaking Mach 2. Her unchanging expression made that abundantly clear.
Her, and every single other person in that game, more or less. I can take angst and "Japanese-style" stuff--otherwise, I wouldn't play any Final Fantasy game. The fact that there hasn't been a long line of games that stick Tekken characters into bullet-proof bikinis and forces them to save the world and flash their crotches with the worst controls imaginable, and accompanying spinoffs, I think confirms my suspicions. But again, different tastes. The camera was phenomenally bad, nothing in DoC's mechanics were close to that bad. It was in the style of older RE games, but worse, and they used Nina's jiggling to try and distract you from that fact. It didn't work, the only way to cover up a camera that bad is to not have the character move period.
Back on topic, does anyone know where you can find a guide as to what weapons are worth upgrading, and what to upgrade them with in XIII? I convinced myself I would go through all of XIII without a guide--"blind", so to speak, but the fact that I've only upgraded two weapons is increasingly dooming me.
I am in chapter 7 of my first xiii play and am really loving the game so far. I am also the type of rpg gamer that can completely ignore story for good combat and so far xiii delivers, but then imo X-2 is EASILY the best ps2 era FF game.
I've done that for Lightning and Sazh, but no one else. I'm going to have to check to see which the default weapons are.
And then find the shit you should use to upgrade them.
weapon list
http://www.bukisa.com/articles/261359_final-fantasy-xiii-weapon-and-accessory-upgrade-guide
basics of upgrades
as long as you stay on the first post of the ps forum one it should be spoiler free i didn't read past the op.
Apparently this is his (new?) default.
It's not bad, minus the one glove (unless there's context for that, but probably not). They said he would wear different outfits, so the one in the trailer is probably his final "endgame" one.
Man, party members are done but were omitted from screenshots.
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And I think he'd looked better with pants but that's cool.
Not just Japan. Remember Luke Skywalker. Or Two-Face?
"...only mights and maybes."
that doesn't really count
i dunno about luke, but two-face's asymmetry was his entire character
there's never an explanation for why every other JRPG character looks like they hastily cobbled together two halves of two different outfits
Because people are stupid and have nothing better to do than argue about stupid shit.
Because they really, really want it to be.
EDIT: Damn, beaten.
"...only mights and maybes."
At this rate I'll gun for Agito.
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
They just eat that shit up. Apparently, it's also the style to not make any noise during concerts in Japan. People hand-dance or something. No applause, no cheering. Freaky stuff.
At least, that's what my Japan-obsessed co-worker said about it. She's been like ten times, speaks the language fluently, and follows around small-time j-rock bands when they tour--I take her word for it.
Also, if vs XIII really plays like KH, I'll bite.
"...only mights and maybes."
anyone who calls X's voice acting "pretty solid" is either crazy or deaf
the laughing scene is just the tip of the iceberg
But c'mon, admit it, you have to love racist Hawaiian Bender.
"...only mights and maybes."
no i don't!
and you can't make me
i remember hearing he was actually supposed to sound polynesian, though
it's amazing how poorly those roles turned out, given that tidus's VA is ratchet from ratchet & clank (from the second game onward) and wakka's is, well, bender
but i guess that's just a knock on SE's script and voice direction
like how troy baker, who knocked yuri lowell from tales of vesperia and kanji from persona 4 out of the fucking park, was reduced to blandness incarnate as snow
no, the voice acting in FFX was shit because square hadn't quite keyed in on the idea of lip-synching, so half the characters sounded like malfunctioning animatronics
and then someone had the brilliant idea of giving the two main characters the worst voice direction
seriously, tidus and yuna are the worst-voiced people in the game by a decent margin, why is this
Actually Yuna was pretty bad. To her credit she gets better in X-2.
Racist Polyensian Bender is not particularly enjoyable. And the rather poor lip-syncing was jarring at time, though I would overlook that if it wasn't for the considerable unintended awkwardness between Yuna and Tidus. There's writing in awkwardness between characters for the story, which is fine, and then there's writing that makes you wonder if they're actually talking to one another, or just maybe to other people who are relaying the conversation.
Also, on the subject of Luke Skywalker--I remember that, when he becomes a Jedi, he always has some sort of weird asymmetry. The glove on one hand, or unbuttoning a corner on the panel of his jumpsuit but not the other. Asymmetry. But I'm not a hardcore SW person.
That's graphics animation more than actual voice work.
What the shit.
I wish I would have stayed there longer.
Probably not. I may not even be remembering it right.
Actually, I went to E3 in 2005 (I think it was the 2005 one) and went to the More Friends concert courtesy of Square Enix and my publisher (eToychest) who passed the invite along to me.
The English voice actor for Tidus emceed the event. And he talked about how he was directed. He was told to start off sounding ignorant and kiddish for lines in the beginning of the game and then gradually evolve into a more sullen, downtrodden, "I now understand the way the world works" kind of voice.
Which he did. If you compare the intro (which is a scene from much later into the game) to
I agree on Yuna, though. She sounded flat, almost dead inside, in the English voice acting. She was much more lively in the Japanese voice acting. But even there - the whole point of FFX is... (real spoilers)
Frankly, I think Tidus is one of the strongest "heroes" in the entire franchise. Once he speaks to the Aeons, he knows what his fate will be. He convinces Yuna to reject the ass-backward teachings of Yu Yevon and to fight against him and all the biases on the planet to his own doom. He willingly shoulders her burden.
Now, he becomes the one with the secret. He has assumed the role she began the game with.
And it's why I can stomach even her voice-acting. She becomes gradually happier and more lively from the beginning to the end (extending into FFX-2, in fact), while Tidus goes from innocent and happy gradually to a much more knowledgable and, because of the knowledge, sullen hero. They basically evolve in opposite directions over the course of the game, and I think the American voice acting reflects this. Yes, even with Yuna.
So I didn't really have a problem with his voice acting. I think both the American voice acting director and the actors knew what they were doing. Maybe the execution could have used some polish, but I'll just chalk that up to taste.
I mean a lot of people are pretty petty about it. They point to the laughter scene as a primary example. You know what? The laughter in that scene is nearly as awkward in the Japanese version. And personally I've been in 30+ plays and I found laughing believably (read: non awkwardly) on cue to be one of the most difficult things to do. I still have nightmares about when I did Pygmalion. Anyway, the point is, I can forgive a 100-hour game for one awkward scene.
Hell, there are hundreds of worse examples in gaming. Take Ys: Ark of Napishtim for the PS2, for instance. The best decision they made for the PSP port was removing those goddamned voices.
I think a lot of people dislike it for the same reason I do--not because "we don't get it", we get it just fine. But Square-Enix writing in an incredibly awkward scene, and than voice-actors providing incredibly awkward and even irritating audio for us to listen to is plenty bad on its own. Just because a scene is supposed to be awkward doesn't automatically make it good. You can still do it poorly.
But, after all, it is just one scene. It certainly doesn't break the game on its own (and it is by no means alone). My personal complaints about FFX go way beyond that.