So...I have officially taken MED off my paradigm list...healing with Potions (and the accessory that ups the potion power) served me well through the last 1/4 of the main game...let's see how long it lasts into post-game.
edit: and count me in with the people that really enjoyed this game's story. It even made me retroactively like FFXIII more, too.
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
You know at first I thought Noel was going to annoy me, but he's a pretty cool dude.
I really think they should have re-did the first hour or so of voice acting after the team had worked together for a few days/weeks/however long it took. The quality of the VA and script takes a exponential swing upward after the first 2 hours or so. They even stop making the "It's X." "... You mean it's X?!" crap they do earlier on.
I am fairly certain I just unlocked the second to last time period, namely due to it's position in the grid and the fact that, well.
I still haven't beat Omega. I need to work on that next I guess, I'm high enough up there I should be able to crush him like a grape. I need a better healer. Stupid Green Chocobo is too damned rare.
So I'm fighting what I think is the last boss (except there's one more map, so... postgame? Maybe?)
I'm doing ok, except... welp, it turns out Flanitor with his 700 HP isn't cutting it. So I say fuckit, go hunting for a Green Chocobo while leveling him up a bit. I level him ONE TIME and he hits 4 star, and I have a ton of those drops from the last dungeon...
He's now got almost 4000 HP. All that in like 10 4 star levels, each level was giving him like 200-300 HP a tick, as well as a fuckton of Magic.
I already detailed most of the negatives with my last post, so now it's time to touch on the positives (and a few more negatives):
There are some inspired dialog bits, like the information and subsequent build-up that Serah is a teacher. Her relationship with the Nora folks also give them a bit of development as well. If the game focused more on this kind of stuff instead of going on and on about paradoxes and the weird shit Lightning keeps saying between chapters, it would have been better received.
I also enjoyed that intro sequence, mainly because it allowed me to experience some form of Advent Children's climactic confrontation in game form.
I still really, really wish this was the focus of the game, and the framerate issues are pretty off-putting, but it was still some neat stuff, and had some inoffensive QTEs too (I liked being able to choose what kind of attack I was going to use).
Being able to save anywhere, anytime. They should make a law that makes this a requirement in every game. Forever.
I also like the "previously on FFXIII-2" that starts every time you reload a save. Caught me off guard the first time, and I also believe this should be a requirement in every RPG. Especially as I tend to go months before getting back into one.
The flashback sequences are also well done, adding a bit of importance to the artefacts Serah collects. They also serve as good refreshers for FFXIII's story.
Offering different rewards for Live Trigger choices is also a neat way to encourage replays, though I wonder if you can initiate the different choices in one playthrough, or have to replay the whole game to see them all?
Likewise, does the game keep track of which choices you made previously?
I'm also wondering if it keeps track of your current quests? I can't seem to find that anywhere.
And how many battle tracks are there? I've heard two different random encounter songs so far, which has me hopeful that there are more beyond the one used in the demo area (which I'm currently playing through).
Lastly, a couple more negatives, just to show I'm not getting soft.
-I really hate the shadowing effect on the four corners of the screen. I didn't like it with Mass Effect, I don't like it here.
-I also hate that I can't name my monsters whatever I want. You people should have told me this earlier.
-The camera is far and away better than the original, but it still hitches up quite a bit in tight corridors (interior rooms, basically).
...If its any consolidation I've actually been enjoying the game so far myself.
And honestly, I would say my only hangups with the game's story so far aren't really the story...its the dialogue. A lot of repeated and corny lines. But its a jRPG so I've come to expect those.
Yeah, this is my experience with the game so far as well; I really enjoy the battle system (as I did in XIII), love the re-introduction of towns and side-quests, but the dialogue is full-on JRPG shit. That said, when compared to the dialogue in FFXIII ("Hope, you need hope, Hope don't lose hopeHopehopeHOPEHOPEHOPE"), it's still a substantive improvement.
Also, thank God they ditched that weapon upgrading system.
You'll be able to rewind time later on which allows you to redo an entire storyline again to make different Live Trigger choices or do other things like fight Atlas when you weren't supposed to be able to before.
There's three battle tracks I know of: Paradigm Shift, Last Hunters, and Knight of the Goddess. Last Hunters is the one that gets the most extensive play in the game, which is great because it's probably the best battle theme in the series.
Finished the game, with a huge asterisk going somewhere about... here*, but It's not time to talk about the ending and postgame yet. (I will leave with a breathless "holy shit" here about it, however.)
It's been a while since a Final Fantasy game has given me goosebumps. I honestly got goosebumps at the start, middle, and when the last fight actually began (the 8 or 9 boss fights in a row were just a warmup), and I realized just what was going on. The last fight... dear god, one of the more epic fights in FF history. Took me about 4 tries and I'm fairly certain I was quite overleveled.
This game is a masterpiece, a return to form, and a handwrapped and lovingly crafted apology for Final Fantasy 13 and 14. It belongs in every single JRPG fan's library and single-handedly renews my hope for Final Fantasy 15.
All is forgiven Square Enix, welcome back. We missed you.
I cannot wait until some of you get to the ending so I can discuss it.
Now, onto the postgame. There's a giant robot about due for an ass whoopin'. Two of them, come to think of it -- Omega and Atlas.
Finished the game, with a huge asterisk going somewhere about... here*, but It's not time to talk about the ending and postgame yet. (I will leave with a breathless "holy shit" here about it, however.)
It's been a while since a Final Fantasy game has given me goosebumps. I honestly got goosebumps at the start, middle, and when the last fight actually began (the 8 or 9 boss fights in a row were just a warmup), and I realized just what was going on. The last fight... dear god, one of the more epic fights in FF history. Took me about 4 tries and I'm fairly certain I was quite overleveled.
This game is a masterpiece, a return to form, and a handwrapped and lovingly crafted apology for Final Fantasy 13 and 14. It belongs in every single JRPG fan's library and single-handedly renews my hope for Final Fantasy 15.
All is forgiven Square Enix, welcome back. We missed you.
I cannot wait until some of you get to the ending so I can discuss it.
Now, onto the postgame. There's a giant robot about due for an ass whoopin'. Two of them, come to think of it -- Omega and Atlas.
I hope you know that no one died in the ending, time just stopped. Chaos doesn't kill. People got really mad thinking that, though.
I hope you know that no one died in the ending, time just stopped. Chaos doesn't kill. People got really mad thinking that, though.
I can't see how you could get that from the ending, but... Yaaaah.
I'm not sure if there's Japanese DLC out already that extends it, or if there's another way of approaching the ending sequence to unlock a new ending, but the default ending? Bleak as FUCK.
Also -- if there is DLC that extends the game, they need to get that shit out NOW.
They have huge episodes planned around Lightning, Snow, Sazh, and Chocolina. HOWEVER, some of this content may be side-novels, because those are shit-hot in Japan.
They have huge episodes planned around Lightning, Snow, Sazh, and Chocolina. HOWEVER, some of this content may be side-novels, because those are shit-hot in Japan.
Yeah, Light Novels are the thing nowadays. And apparently the DLC isn't meant to extend the ending (which they consider complete and totally spelled out... huh?), and there's also apparently a Secret ending that's quite the mind screw if you unlock it.
Although apparently Square-Enix has already started making noises about Final Fantasy XIII-3, so we might not be done here after all. Welp.
I haven't heard anything aside from the domain they claimed in August, which was probably to keep someone else from making it be a porn site or something. I still doubt the possibility of XIII-3 thanks to the lukewarm sales in Japan.
I haven't heard anything aside from the domain they claimed in August, which was probably to keep someone else from making it be a porn site or something. I still doubt the possibility of XIII-3 thanks to the lukewarm sales in Japan.
Where did you get that bit about Chaos not killing people, btw? I thought Lightning said he was entropy, and caused lifelessness (i.e., death).
Edit: Spoiler heavy interview with the producer about the ending. FFXIII-3 unlikely, DLC expansion pack instead.
I haven't heard anything aside from the domain they claimed in August, which was probably to keep someone else from making it be a porn site or something. I still doubt the possibility of XIII-3 thanks to the lukewarm sales in Japan.
Where did you get that bit about Chaos not killing people, btw? I thought Lightning said he was entropy, and caused lifelessness (i.e., death).
I should have worded that better... Serah does die, yes. She sees a future that shouldn't happen, a paradox, and it kills her. Chaos creates a timeless world -- he spreads the curse of Valhalla across timelines. It's not death when time stops, it's just a cessation of movement, of any forward momentum. Everything remains 'alive' but in complete stasis. Since time is stopped, Yeul no longer has to die.
As for Caius, unless Etro is dead, he'll never die. Hope, Mog, and Noel are all alright, just frozen in time. Think of it like the Dead Sea in Chrono Cross. The things that live there are not 'dead', they are caught in a time that is unable to move forward.
Wow, I haven't checked up on this thread in forever it seems like. 46 pages unread...
Anyway, I'm super excited to be going to Distant Worlds in St. Louis in March. I hadn't decided if I wanted to go, since it's an 8 hour drive (the closest it's ever been to me, barring one time it was in Dallas (6.5 hours) when I had other commitments) and tickets aren't cheap, but I mentioned to my wife and she goes "ohmygodohmygod BUY TICKETS NOW!". So I did. We couldn't decide which night to go to, so we did both and we're making a whole big spring break weekend out of it.
A general rule of thumb (though it's not always the case) is if there is a Wild Gate somewhere, you will probably find a Wild Artefact there, too. There are ten of them, total.
No one asks for a Western-drawn Zelda game....well, no one sane anyway.
Worked for MetroidDarksiders.
So, tell me, is being able to miss the one big lunge attack that's pretty much vital to the game until you're arse-deap into a dungeon the "Western" part of the design?
So am I going to get another chance to unlock the extra job roles? I leveled up the Crystarium early on but chose to pick the ATB slot reward for both characters, as I felt that was more useful at the time.
Also, this game has some of the strangest hand gestures I've seen in a while. I know that's kind of par for the course with FF games, but it's especially noticeable here.
Aside from the fact that everyone seems to greet people by sticking their fist in the air instead of shaking hands, there's a part during Alyssa's introduction where Noel does a military salute, followed by a brofist pound on his chest.
So am I going to get another chance to unlock the extra job roles? I leveled up the Crystarium early on but chose to pick the ATB slot reward for both characters, as I felt that was more useful at the time.
Yes, you can unlock every thing it presents to you, eventually. Pick what you want as you go along but don't sweat the choices because they never get locked off.
EDIT: Personally, the Inventory increases are the least valuable of the lot since honestly you don't get anything really that worthwhile to want to equip till toward the end of the game and post game where you'll probably have most everything else unlocked anyway (unless you just plow through to the last area, don't do any side stuff, but even then enemies in the final area will probably thoroughly destroy you)
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
Oh my goodness...one of the monsters I collected has a move called "Hundred Fists" and it actually does the Fist of the North Star yell while its punching.
holy crap, man screw the achievement/fragment via slots; I've let the game run (resetting occasionally) since last night trying to get those with zero luck. i always wait till its on fire/sunny day and unless there's something else you get post game or something to improve slot chances, this one is shite.
EDIT: I'm just trying to get the fragment at this point. I'll get the 10k tokens via chocobo racing.
There's a fragment for winning 777 during an overdrive, or triple overdrive; think its the latter. It's the 5th Fragment for Serendpity. 3 bought via chips, one found on a bench and one won via slots.
There's an achievement for winning(earning) 10k chips
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edit: and count me in with the people that really enjoyed this game's story. It even made me retroactively like FFXIII more, too.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
I am fairly certain I just unlocked the second to last time period, namely due to it's position in the grid and the fact that, well.
I still haven't beat Omega. I need to work on that next I guess, I'm high enough up there I should be able to crush him like a grape. I need a better healer. Stupid Green Chocobo is too damned rare.
Personally I prefer monster Syns over Meds.
Easily the first main character I've liked since Zidane/Vivi in IX. He's pretty cool man.
I'm doing ok, except... welp, it turns out Flanitor with his 700 HP isn't cutting it. So I say fuckit, go hunting for a Green Chocobo while leveling him up a bit. I level him ONE TIME and he hits 4 star, and I have a ton of those drops from the last dungeon...
He's now got almost 4000 HP. All that in like 10 4 star levels, each level was giving him like 200-300 HP a tick, as well as a fuckton of Magic.
I'm still merging him into the bird though. :P
There are some inspired dialog bits, like the information and subsequent build-up that Serah is a teacher. Her relationship with the Nora folks also give them a bit of development as well. If the game focused more on this kind of stuff instead of going on and on about paradoxes and the weird shit Lightning keeps saying between chapters, it would have been better received.
I also enjoyed that intro sequence, mainly because it allowed me to experience some form of Advent Children's climactic confrontation in game form.
I still really, really wish this was the focus of the game, and the framerate issues are pretty off-putting, but it was still some neat stuff, and had some inoffensive QTEs too (I liked being able to choose what kind of attack I was going to use).
Being able to save anywhere, anytime. They should make a law that makes this a requirement in every game. Forever.
I also like the "previously on FFXIII-2" that starts every time you reload a save. Caught me off guard the first time, and I also believe this should be a requirement in every RPG. Especially as I tend to go months before getting back into one.
The flashback sequences are also well done, adding a bit of importance to the artefacts Serah collects. They also serve as good refreshers for FFXIII's story.
Offering different rewards for Live Trigger choices is also a neat way to encourage replays, though I wonder if you can initiate the different choices in one playthrough, or have to replay the whole game to see them all?
Likewise, does the game keep track of which choices you made previously?
I'm also wondering if it keeps track of your current quests? I can't seem to find that anywhere.
And how many battle tracks are there? I've heard two different random encounter songs so far, which has me hopeful that there are more beyond the one used in the demo area (which I'm currently playing through).
Lastly, a couple more negatives, just to show I'm not getting soft.
-I really hate the shadowing effect on the four corners of the screen. I didn't like it with Mass Effect, I don't like it here.
-I also hate that I can't name my monsters whatever I want. You people should have told me this earlier.
-The camera is far and away better than the original, but it still hitches up quite a bit in tight corridors (interior rooms, basically).
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
Also...
Madness. Sheer Madness.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
Yeah, this is my experience with the game so far as well; I really enjoy the battle system (as I did in XIII), love the re-introduction of towns and side-quests, but the dialogue is full-on JRPG shit. That said, when compared to the dialogue in FFXIII ("Hope, you need hope, Hope don't lose hopeHopehopeHOPEHOPEHOPE"), it's still a substantive improvement.
Also, thank God they ditched that weapon upgrading system.
There's three battle tracks I know of: Paradigm Shift, Last Hunters, and Knight of the Goddess. Last Hunters is the one that gets the most extensive play in the game, which is great because it's probably the best battle theme in the series.
It's been a while since a Final Fantasy game has given me goosebumps. I honestly got goosebumps at the start, middle, and when the last fight actually began (the 8 or 9 boss fights in a row were just a warmup), and I realized just what was going on. The last fight... dear god, one of the more epic fights in FF history. Took me about 4 tries and I'm fairly certain I was quite overleveled.
This game is a masterpiece, a return to form, and a handwrapped and lovingly crafted apology for Final Fantasy 13 and 14. It belongs in every single JRPG fan's library and single-handedly renews my hope for Final Fantasy 15.
All is forgiven Square Enix, welcome back. We missed you.
Now, onto the postgame. There's a giant robot about due for an ass whoopin'. Two of them, come to think of it -- Omega and Atlas.
Steam: adamjnet
I can't see how you could get that from the ending, but... Yaaaah.
I'm not sure if there's Japanese DLC out already that extends it, or if there's another way of approaching the ending sequence to unlock a new ending, but the default ending? Bleak as FUCK.
Also -- if there is DLC that extends the game, they need to get that shit out NOW.
Yeah, Light Novels are the thing nowadays. And apparently the DLC isn't meant to extend the ending (which they consider complete and totally spelled out... huh?), and there's also apparently a Secret ending that's quite the mind screw if you unlock it.
Although apparently Square-Enix has already started making noises about Final Fantasy XIII-3, so we might not be done here after all. Welp.
Edit: Spoiler heavy interview with the producer about the ending. FFXIII-3 unlikely, DLC expansion pack instead.
http://andriasang.com/comzvb/ffxiii2_tbc/
As for Caius, unless Etro is dead, he'll never die. Hope, Mog, and Noel are all alright, just frozen in time. Think of it like the Dead Sea in Chrono Cross. The things that live there are not 'dead', they are caught in a time that is unable to move forward.
Anyway, I'm super excited to be going to Distant Worlds in St. Louis in March. I hadn't decided if I wanted to go, since it's an 8 hour drive (the closest it's ever been to me, barring one time it was in Dallas (6.5 hours) when I had other commitments) and tickets aren't cheap, but I mentioned to my wife and she goes "ohmygodohmygod BUY TICKETS NOW!". So I did. We couldn't decide which night to go to, so we did both and we're making a whole big spring break weekend out of it.
Anybody else here going?
I wouldn't use any if I were you until you're done with the story needing you to use them.
Speaking of that place:
Twitter
This is pretty good advice.
Yeah, I didn't do this, and had to spend 4 hours yesterday running around looking in corners for wild artefacts.
I found one.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Also, this game has some of the strangest hand gestures I've seen in a while. I know that's kind of par for the course with FF games, but it's especially noticeable here.
Aside from the fact that everyone seems to greet people by sticking their fist in the air instead of shaking hands, there's a part during Alyssa's introduction where Noel does a military salute, followed by a brofist pound on his chest.
It was....pretty weird.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
Yes.
EDIT: Personally, the Inventory increases are the least valuable of the lot since honestly you don't get anything really that worthwhile to want to equip till toward the end of the game and post game where you'll probably have most everything else unlocked anyway (unless you just plow through to the last area, don't do any side stuff, but even then enemies in the final area will probably thoroughly destroy you)
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
That's so awesome.
EDIT: I'm just trying to get the fragment at this point. I'll get the 10k tokens via chocobo racing.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
I believe there's one for sale in the shop for 10k coins.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
There's an achievement for winning(earning) 10k chips
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
ENDING SPOILERS:
Still trying to figure this out I think... so does Yeul start dying because of Etro's intervention in XIII, or was she always dying like that?
And Lightning turned crystal? What's that about?