Final Fantasy XIII

**Beskar** · 03-17-2010, 08:32

Lightning needs more love. Everyone seems to prefer Vanille or even Serah.

Am I the only person who likes Lightning?

**CrossLOPER** · 03-17-2010, 15:29

Originally Posted by Beskar

Lightning needs more love. Everyone seems to prefer Vanille or even Serah.

Am I the only person who likes Lightning?

She reminds me too much of Squall, though she's clearly the better of the two.

**frogbeastegg** · 03-17-2010, 19:13

Originally Posted by Beskar

Lightning needs more love. Everyone seems to prefer Vanille or even Serah.

Am I the only person who likes Lightning?

I like her ... relatively speaking. I don't care a jot for any of the cast so far. Lightning is one of the better ones. She punches Snow, who annoys me. Her angst is nice and quiet, and isn't full of sentences that drift off into nothing and/or feature lots of reapating the same ... the same words just ... just like this, like Hope(less). She isn't an idiot, and doesn't make cheap p0rn movie sound effects like Vanille.

I'm coming to the conclusion that FFXIII is another po-faced entry in a series which used to be great at whimsy. FFX-2 had whimsy - too much of it, perhaps, but that made it jolly good fun if a little eyepopping. FFX and what I've seen of FFXII were whimsy-free. Where's the chance to take part in an opera? And mess up your lines? Or compete in a bunch of weird sub-games in order to assemble a cross-dressing outfit? Or to burst in on your boss and demand he put aside saving the world to play triple triad? Or to face evil jesters with catchy theme music? I miss that stuff.

**Kekvit Irae** · 03-17-2010, 19:32

Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

Where's the chance to take part in an opera? And mess up your lines? Or compete in a bunch of weird sub-games in order to assemble a cross-dressing outfit? Or to burst in on your boss and demand he put aside saving the world to play triple triad? Or to face evil jesters with catchy theme music? I miss that stuff.

Those are all gone, replaced with big cutscenes (every single game), big explosions (same), big boobs (Lulu, Fran, and more recently Colonel Nabaat), and Meg Ryan hair (every single protagonist). It's like a bad Hollywood summer blockbuster.

**Madoushi** · 03-17-2010, 21:34

I haven't played an FF since X, and it looks like I'm probably not missing much.

I liked VIII, for what it's worth. The only real downside to me was the Draw system, which is what prevents me from replaying it. Draw-grinding is the worst grinding.

I wish PSN would carry Star Ocean 2 and Suikoden 2. I'd snap those up right quick. Oh well. There's always Suikoden 1...

**frogbeastegg** · 03-17-2010, 22:38

Originally Posted by Madoushi

I wish PSN would carry Star Ocean 2 and Suikoden 2. I'd snap those up right quick. Oh well. There's always Suikoden 1...

If you have a PSP there are remakes of Star Ocean 1 and 2 available.

I too wish that PSN would get Suikoden II ... and that they'd bring Suikoden I to the European store, along with Wild ARMS and other games which you have and we don't, and then follow that up by bringing us all of the other classics which they never bothered to release in Europe in the first place.

PSN classics. Otherwise known as the goldmine Sony Europe can't be bothered to tap.

**Xiahou** · 03-17-2010, 22:38

Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

FFX-2 had whimsy - too much of it, perhaps, but that made it jolly good fun if a little eyepopping. FFX and what I've seen of FFXII were whimsy-free. Where's the chance to take part in an opera? And mess up your lines? Or compete in a bunch of weird sub-games in order to assemble a cross-dressing outfit? Or to burst in on your boss and demand he put aside saving the world to play triple triad? Or to face evil jesters with catchy theme music? I miss that stuff.

You may want to check out Crystal Bearers. It has whimsy. I thought it was flawed in many ways, but from the sounds of it, it may have been better than XIII....

**frogbeastegg** · 03-17-2010, 22:52

Originally Posted by Xiahou

You may want to check out Crystal Bearers. It has whimsy. I thought it was flawed in many ways, but from the sounds of it, it may have been better than XIII....

Everything I've heard about that offshoot of the series says that if you play it in singleplayer mode you will hurl your console out of the nearest window in short order, thanks to the ascine AI. Your party members are totally incapable of the very simplest things. They will suicide repeatedly on the same obstacle, they'll get in your way, they'll get stuck or lost when pathfinding, they're useless in combat - total liability. No thanks.

Whatever else can be said, the party AI in FFXIII is good. It's always managed to pick the options I myself would have chosen under the circumstances. It's good enough that I leave the only character I could control to the AI via the auto battle command. The game does have a fair bit going for it ... it's just unfortunate that the things it does not get right overshadow the rest. The slow beginning, the limitations, the painstaking rate at which they unlock features, the seriously serious characters and bland plot. I've played for around 8 hours now yet when someone at work asked me if the battle system is good I had to answer that I don't know because most of it is still locked off.

**Kekvit Irae** · 03-17-2010, 23:24

Through the majority of the game, you will have an extremely hard time trying to raise money. Thankfully, whatever you need to buy in shops can be found out in the field. Until I needed to upgrade my weapons, I never once bought something in a shop. Still, if you're hard up for gil, you can get 522,500 gil from a very easy side quest involving fixing Vanille's little robot in chapter 11 once you reach the village. If you've taken 10,000 steps once arriving on Gran Pulse (easy if you've done a few l'Cie stone quests and some grinding), you will get the rank of Pulsian Pioneer along with the trophy/achievement once you fix Bhakti. With the rank comes ten Deceptisol, two Ultracompact Reactors, a Gold Nugget, five Perfume, and three Platinum ignots. The latter three are worth crap exp when upgrading weapons, but together they net you 552,500 gil if you sell them. Even then you will be hard pressed for gil, considering fully upgrading ONE weapon costs more than you can fanthom.

If you already have a Trapezohedron, there's a trick to getting more without paying 2 million gil. Simply upgrade a spear (Fang) to Kain's Lance or a staff (Vanille) to Nirvana, both of them to max level. This will cost roughly 1.5m gil. Now dismantle it. You will receive THREE Trapezohedrons and 36 Moonblossom Seeds (216,000g sell price). Pretty nice, considering the Trapezohedrons will cost you 2m if you buy them in the shops.

EDIT: I also didn't realize how complicated upgrading was until I needed to make my own XML spreadsheet with formulas just so I don't waste gil.

**Xiahou** · 03-18-2010, 00:58

Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

Everything I've heard about that offshoot of the series says that if you play it in singleplayer mode you will hurl your console out of the nearest window in short order, thanks to the ascine AI. Your party members are totally incapable of the very simplest things. They will suicide repeatedly on the same obstacle, they'll get in your way, they'll get stuck or lost when pathfinding, they're useless in combat - total liability. No thanks.

There is no multiplayer in Crystal Bearers- it sounds like you're thinking FFCC: Ring of Fates. There's many entries in the FFCC series- covering a wide variety of gameplay.

trailer

It's a fairly short game, with many flaws- but it was different enough to be interesting. I'd recommend renting, not buying.

**frogbeastegg** · 03-18-2010, 18:07

Originally Posted by Xiahou

There is no multiplayer in Crystal Bearers- it sounds like you're thinking FFCC: Ring of Fates. There's many entries in the FFCC series- covering a wide variety of gameplay.

trailer

It's a fairly short game, with many flaws- but it was different enough to be interesting. I'd recommend renting, not buying.

I was thinking of the two DS games and that one wii title which is such a basic port of the DS game it covers most of the screen in black and displays the game in two small boxes which mimic the dual DS screens, complete with DS level graphics. I wasn't aware that there was a second, not so dire wii game. So many poor games and a multiplayer focus means I stopped taking any notice.

I'll bear the recommendation in mind should I find myself stuck for an RPG. Considering the number I have to play or want to replay that's not likely to happen for some years!

**Kekvit Irae** · 03-19-2010, 02:10

Finally won the game. The final boss's first form is a freakin' marathon battle. 6 million hitpoints is a testament to to patience. Thankfully, the second, and final, form is not as bad, but you're under a Doom timer, and he cant be damaged unless he's staggered. This is where Lightning, Hope, and Sazh really shine. Hope and Sazh for double buffing, and Lightning for the Army of One ability (Ravager). Army of One unleashes a string of attacks that not only increase the chain level quite a bit, but it also bypasses the boss's immunity. Once it's staggered, switch to Tri-disaster or Relentless Assault to finish it off.

The ending is surprisingly heartwarming and satisfying, a rarity in Final Fantasy games. But who cares about the ending when I've now got freeroam unlocked?