Final Fantasy XIII

[frogbeastegg]

:summons discussion ... has to sit through a 40 second cutscene: Go!

Several here are already playing. I'll be starting my copy this weekend too, once I've tied up the last bits and bobs in Toy Soldiers. I went with the PS3 version.

Despite playing quite a few entries in this series, this is the first time I've had the chance to play an original 'next gen' FF at release. I didn't have a PS1 so couldn't play FFVII at release (I played the PC port), and didn't get a PS2 until some time after FFX came out. FFX-2 and FFXII are the only home console entries I've been able to pick up near release, and they're refinements of existing tech rather than the first big splashdown.

I hear the game takes 20 hours to really get going. Before that it's a lot more limiting, a lot easier, and features hours of tutorials.

[Secura]

Several here are already playing. I'll be starting my copy this weekend too, once I've tied up the last bits and bobs in Toy Soldiers. I went with the PS3 version.

I heard the PS3 version is only one disc compared to the 360's three? I hate disc-swapping.

I hear the game takes 20 hours to really get going. Before that it's a lot more limiting, a lot easier, and features hours of tutorials.

I have heard the exact same, although Beskie assures me that it's very story-driven through these early stages, getting to know the characters and such, so as long as you concentrate on the story aspects and ignore the rest early on, you'll be fine.

Besides, those twenty hours shouldn't be a problem if you are able to power through them, right? Get the 'rubbish' out of the way, get to the meatier part? :3

[frogbeastegg]

I heard the PS3 version is only one disc compared to the 360's three? I hate disc-swapping.

3 discs. Because the game is so linear you only need to swap each one once; you can't go back to older areas. I don't mind this much, I've played many games which need multiple discs shuffling around constantly.

My decision was made on the fact that the 360 version is something of a sloppy port. In some areas it does fractionally better, in others it's equal, and in some it's a lot worse. Visual quality is particularly reduced. CGI cutscenes have been sloppily reduced in file size and have become blurry with much fine detail lost. On the PS3 you can see detail like the weave of fabric, on the 360 it's a featureless mass. In-game visuals are also affected but if I'm honest I can't see much of a difference on the comparison pics unless I try. Squeenix could have produced a far better port if they'd tried harder - it's the same old garbage that they used to pull on the European versions of their older games. "It's not our main market so we don't care much, just do cheap and dirty and the masses will still lap it up!"

There's a detailed comparison on Eurogamer for anyone who's interested.

[Kekvit Irae]

So far, my thoughts on the game:

No exp = no fun.
Vanille is HOT. And she's 19, so there's no guilt involved.
If it wasn't for 4chan, I couldn't tell if Lightning was a boy or a girl. Squenix has a habit of confusing us.
Control only the party leader? If he/she goes down (despite everyone else still alive), the game's over?
Vanille is HOT.
I want my own baby chocobo!
Sazh is Lightning's /b/lackup.
Did I mention Vanille is HOT?
An hour into the game and I'm still not having fun.

In summary, this game so far blows. Not as badly as FFVIII, thankfully, but it's pretty close. But at least it's not an MMORPG like FFXIV.

EDIT:
If you want a real RPG with a plot that isn't confusing, characters that we give a crap about, and actual RPG elements, play Persona 4 and avoid this game like the plague. Squenix really jumped the shark with this one.

And one loltastic moment: I got a code with the game that I can use for a chance to get into the beta of FFXIV. Abandon all hope ye who enter.

[frogbeastegg]

Around 3 1/3 to 4 hours in. My thoughts, presented in the style of Mordan from Mass Effect 2.

Pretty. Visually stimulating. Hard to tell where CGI ends and game engine starts.

Music, indifferent. Surprised. Usually series has outstanding music. Too much of the drum and electric guitar stuff. No fantasy or magic in it, just modern blah. Much like setting. Nice bit of violin in the battle theme.

No victory fanfare? Unforgivable. Battle results screen should also be faster. Hammer X does not speed it up.

Audio mix levels, bad. Music drowns out voices. Much too loud. No volume control at all. Terrible. Had to turn TV down and enable subtitles. No subtitles for comments made while travelling. Consequentially miss quite a few lines.

Vanilla annoying. Squeaky voice, stupid dialogue, daft weapon. Drop her in an active volcano? Good plan, must try.

Hope. Has none. Boring. Swap for mother instead. Tough mums are good. Less moping and whining.

Lightning tolerable. Punching Snow is good. Don't like Snow. Idiot with bad hat. Lightning does not talk much: bonus.

Sazh. Eddie Murphy. Not an Eddie fan. Too much loud and shouty in bid to be what humans term 'wacky'.

Speculation: chocobo chick has more charisma than entire party? Evidence so far suggests true. Cute, perky, doesn't waste time with bad dialogue. Good. Must find way to make it the hero.

At least no androgynous characters in game. Everyone clearly boy or girl. Also no tiny children or animal-people. Relieved. Still have trauma from Star Ocean.

World map camera too close. Hard to see where going. Not good at going around corners. Manual control too twitchy, needs lowered sensitivity. No option. Hohum.

Why so hard to get to the map? Why not assign it to select? Why no way to instantly exit a menu? Mashing circle wastes time.

First 2 hours, boring. Very. Nearly fell asleep, found self describing game in Mordan style fragments instead. Nothing to do but run down corridors and hit X sometimes. Not as many cutscenes as expected.

Battles are fast. No loading or intro. Nice. Paradigm shift introduced at 2 hours 20 minutes, at last something to do other than autobattle. False hope, barely used it so far. Expected prognosis: battles will improve when abilities are unlocked and enemies stop being pushovers. Linked fear: difficulty will not increase. Reports say it does so cautiously hopeful.

Doom when controlled idiot dies? Puzzling. Why can't other idiots revive dead idiot? Or let dead idiot auto-revive after battle. Clumsy attempt to add stress. No choice of party leader? Also problematic. Low hit point feeble characters die sooner.

Stop shuffling party members arbitrarily! Changes many times in an area. Feels like meddling.

Save points everywhere. Pleasant surprise. No more hour long dungeon between points. Enemies visible on map, no random encounters, ability to avoid fights altogether is desired. Also good. Reportedly game auto-saves before each battle. Death means losing nothing. Good and bad. No frustration, no tension.

No gil after battle? Not sure about this. Good that I don't have more money than I can spend. Must see how this pans out across game before rendering judgement. Loot is boring. After battle and treasure chests, all junk. Customisation of weapons had better make these items exciting. Loot is important. Bad loot, why explore or battle?

No need to grind, pleasing. No chance to grind if wanting to, problematic. Restricted character growth per area, good and bad. Lack of customisation and freedom more restrictive than anticipated. Like being in a straightjacket.

Don't understand quest, don't care about it.

Evil AIs? Need hacking ability, should spread virus to disable all at once. Hitting with sword ineffective and crude.

Crystal level up system, rehash of sphere grid and licence grid. Not enthused with either of those, not enthused with new version either.

Not wandering lost in maze dungeon, theoretically good. Pleasant. Knowing where to go all the time, mostly good. Knowing where treasure is, also theoretically good. Somehow not enjoying it. Is like trip down water slide with enemy battles.

1 piece of equipment? Stingy. Very hard to customise anyone.

Need to read in-game encyclopaedia to understand what anyone's saying. Not great. Needs better exposition in dialogue.

Nice to have plot summary to remind you where you are up to when loading game.

Observation: amphibian tradition to buy Piggyback guide for all Final Fantasy games. Been so since FFVIII. Not for game help. Companion peace. Nice artwork, lots of bonus material. Pleasant reading. Useful lists. Enhanced experience of play. Fun to read about many secrets and tricks. FFXIII guide boring. Few secrets. No tricks. No best way to powerhouse. Walkthrough seems to struggle – what can it say? No off the track things to point out. Even plot summary section feels like it is shuffling feet; many pictures, few words. Not read yet of course. Also lacking character profiles like they do not know how to describe these people.

Summary: beginning awful! Wonder what Squeenix was thinking if goal was not to put players off. Game showing minor signs of improvement. Must keep going. Worst should be over. Not sure if 20 hours of this before freedom can be survived. Did want brainless pretty game to take mind of stress. Did not want this brainless.

Query: why does Mordan style suit game so well? Theorised that do not care enough to use more words. Want to get points made with minimum effort. Plus find it funny.

[Kekvit Irae]

Query: why does Mordan style suit game so well? Theorised that do not care enough to use more words. Want to get points made with minimum effort. Plus find it funny.

I was thinking about Mordan halfway down the postas well!

EDIT: Also, one more thought... every single main protagonist in the FF series seems to share the same Meg Ryan hair style. FFXIII is no exception.

[Beskar]

No exp = no fun.

There is EXP.... or are those CP points pretty imaginary?

If it wasn't for 4chan, I couldn't tell if Lightning was a boy or a girl. Squenix has a habit of confusing us.

If the pink long hair and size C+ breasts and baring femine legs wasn't enough of a hint. If you said Hope as it is a femine male character or even Fang, who is a masculine female, at least I would understand where you came from (even though it is obvious which sex they are).

In summary, this game so far blows. Not as badly as FFVIII, thankfully, but it's pretty close. But at least it's not an MMORPG like FFXIV.

FF8 was pretty good.

If you want a real RPG with a plot that isn't confusing,

The plot is unclear for reasons, but it isn't confusing.

Why so hard to get to the map? Why not assign it to select? Why no way to instantly exit a menu? Mashing circle wastes time.

On Xbox, you just press "X" and the map goes full instantly. 'back' for the mini-map.

No choice of party leader?

Comes later. The beginning bit is going through the whole entire story, getting you to experience all the different characters, etc. Paradigm shift needs to be used frequently for bosses. If you don't, you simply die, or take forever in killing them. Oh, the game doesn't tell you this, but something I noticed, you need one commando for Chain-bonus, and then ravanger to increase it. If you have no commando, it just drops almost instantly after every hit, something the game enver said when I was going ravanger+ravenger against patchwerk soldiers... damn, they took a while to kill like that.

No gil after battle? Not sure about this. Good that I don't have more money than I can spend. Must see how this pans out across game before rendering judgement. Loot is boring. After battle and treasure chests, all junk. Customisation of weapons had better make these items exciting. Loot is important. Bad loot, why explore or battle?

You sell a vast majority of it for your money. Soldiers also drop credit chips and incentive chips, which are worth 500 2,500 a pop. Customisation isn't anything exciting other than working out which items give you the easiest/cheaping leveling ratio. So if you are expecting anything more than then that, you will be disappointed.

1 piece of equipment? Stingy. Very hard to customise anyone.

Expands later with a lot of different options. Being honest, I am just using Gold Bangle + Warrior/Shaman's Mark on everyone. Majority of the items are too fancy for their own good other than giving me cash.

[Kekvit Irae]

FF8 was pretty good.

No, it isn't.

[frogbeastegg]

On Xbox, you just press "X" and the map goes full instantly. 'back' for the mini-map.

Hmm. I pressed every button on the controller; all I've found is a button which makes the mini map disappear. Maybe the function was disabled at the time? I was in the very first gameplay area when I tried. FFXIII does love to make you do things at its pace. Have to try again ...

Comes later. The beginning bit is going through the whole entire story, getting you to experience all the different characters, etc.

I was expecting to be able to choose at that magical 20 hour 'here comes freedom' mark so many people talk about. I have to complete the entire story first? :weeps:

You sell a vast majority of it for your money. Soldiers also drop credit chips and incentive chips, which are worth 500 2,500 a pop. Customisation isn't anything exciting other than working out which items give you the easiest/cheaping leveling ratio. So if you are expecting anything more than then that, you will be disappointed.

Kind of disappointing I guess. Most RPGs have you awash with cash for the entire game, and it's nice to see the odd one which makes you think about what you buy. Some of the other FF games have had decent weapon customisation systems and I was wishing for a more advanced version of that.

Expands later with a lot of different options.

Good to hear. Right now the lack of control, options and meaningful results gained from battle/exploration is killing me.

FFVIII

Ah, the most divisive of the entire series! It's a love it or hate it game. I both love and hate it. Never once completed it; I always lose interest when I get the Ragnorak and level my team up to 99 with uber stat boosts. I've started the game and reached that point ... oh, three times now? Maybe four. Once on the PC, the others on my PS2. Hour for hour it's my most played FF game. Hate the draw and junction system, find the battles strangely addictive. Loathe half of the cast (Selphie! Irvine! Rhinoa!) and find the entire plot insane in a bad way - yet somehow I love watching it all play out each time. I adore the music and soak up the cheesy atmosphere, play triple triad, and take Zell to talk to his hotdog girl every time.

Actually, it would be four or five times. First time I played the game I levelled up as normal and ended up with weak characters because of the way the system works. I abandoned the playthrough in frustration, stumbled on a guide to the ultimate way to level, and have played that way ever since. It’s more fun – there’s more limits on the battles and that adds some challenge in a less artificial way than pumping the enemies stats. I always get Diablos and the card ability ASAP and then card everything in every battle so I don’t level up until I have the GFs with the stat growth boosting abilities. I guess this is why I lose interest each time: I no longer need to restrict myself in battle and have uber characters.

While it wasn't the first FF that I played FFVIII is the one which set in my mind what the series means to me. One part wow-pretty with excellent music, one part insanity of various good and bad sorts, one part exploration of a massive world and sinking tens upon tens of hours into it, and one part addiction to a battle and levelling system which isn't that special.

I noticed that FFVIII is now up for download on the European PSN. I'm trying not to buy it; my PS1 version's CDs don't work so well. Hope they put IX up, never played past the start of disc 2 of that one. I had to buy second hand copies of all 3 PS1 games and the discs are in poor condition. IX had so many disc read errors and lock ups I could not continue. I loved what I played though, possibly best out of the series.