Is the guidebook right?

[Alpha]

I'm working my way through XIII, and I have just reached Gran Pulse (so, like, no story spoilers would be choice), but I have one question.

I borrowed my friend's strategy guide (Piggyback) because I was stuck on

Spoiler: Barthandelus

but I've read a little more of the book. It makes a strong case for only using three characters (Lightning, Hope, Fang) for the remainder of the story, and specialising the other three characters in their best roles (Vanille - Medic/Saboteur; Sazh - Synergist; Snow - Sentinel).

The logic is sound. With Light/Hope/Fang, you have access to all six roles. You can focus equipment upgrades instead of having to spread them. You can keep a stable paradigm deck. With Vanille/Sazh/Snow, you can reach the upper heights of their final Role Levels, where (apparently) the stat boosts become really large. This, we are told, is useful for later Mark missions.

My question is whether or not this is a good decision. Have you tried it? What are the benefits/drawbacks? What conclusions have you come to regrading its suitability as a long-term (post-game) strategy? What about the short-term (pre-post-game) strategy?

[Andromeda]

I tended to go with Lightning, Sazh and Fang because Sazh gets Haste before Hope does. I was doing Lightning Hope and Fang before then, but with Haste things become a lot easier. Having Hope around is good because like Vanille he is the only other character with Medic access to the higher level healing spells. But for most of the game you won't need them. Also you get exp for everyone so in the end you'll never be underlevel if you feel that you made a mistake using one character over another.

And equipment upgrades are pretty much unnecessary in the long run for completing the game. Doing the post-game work certainly, but you can beat the game without being too worried about how well your equipment is leveled up. In the end you'll need to level it all up if you're going for the trophies.

What they is certainly good advice to have access to all of the roles in your party, but work with what suits your play style. Because you can beat the game with any of the characters people have done it. It is the nice thing about the game, there is no really wrong answer for your party. Only what does and doesn't work out for you.

[Alpha]

But what about specialism? Light/Hope/Fang (or whoever one choose to use as 'mains') will require flexibility -- but what of the other three? Should they be focussed toward a single role, or also made flexible?

And is using all six characters relatively evenly (or just when the situation requires) an effective strategy, or is it enough just to adjust within-mains tactics (paradigm decks and equipment, but not party members)?

[DragonHeart]

I'd say whichever you feel works for you. I made it through the game just fine by specializing everyone according to their default roles. My main party through most of the game was Fang, Vanille/Lightning and Hope. The only real requirement is to have some form of healing present but since everyone can learn at least some basic healing spells, you could probably even go without a main healer if you really wanted to.

Equipment helps make battles a bit easier but it's by no means essential. I tended to stick with the absolute basics, +HP +STR and +MAG, depending on who I was equipping. If an enemy or boss had an annoying status attack I'd try to get an accessory that reduced or blocked the effects.

As long as you like the characters you're using and you have a decent Paradigm deck, you should be good for most of the game. I can only think of maybe one or two battles where you might find yourself switching out party members, but those exceptions are few and far between.

~DragonHeart~

[Rocky]

Personally, I wouldn't "specialize" into a specific role for any of the characters like the guide says to do so. By the end of the game, I had 3-4 roles mastered (up to stage 9) for each character. Like Andro, my main team was Lightning, Fang and Sazh.

The beauty of this game is that regardless of who you have in the party, it really doesn't matter gravely on whether you can beat the game or not. You can beat it with any group of characters you wish, it just takes a different approach with each team. For example, one of my team's biggest weaknesses would be the healing factor. I really didn't have to stop and heal for the most part but when I did, it was a challenge because Lightning had Cure, Cura, and that was it. I compensated for this however, because I realized that using a summon is pretty much a megalixer for the entire party plus it clears all the negative status effects. This helped me out a lot in the Berthandalus fight.

In essence, don't feel like you have to play the game according to the cookie-cutter strategy presented by the guide. IMO, I'm not a big fan of Hope anyways because of his low HP total and his ravager skills are comparable to pretty much everyone else that mains RAV, so that's why I took the initiative to switch him out for Danny Glover.

[Merlin]

I stuck with Lightning, Fang, and Hope but not because the book said so. Stats really had little to do with my decision --- I simply couldn't stand Vanille or Sazh's voice-overs. Vanille's was the worst. The way the voice actor enunciated certain phrases was off, like someone trying to do an accent and letting her true voice (or another accent) slip through. It just bugged the shit out of me. That, and whenever she fought in battle it sounded like she was having multiple orgasms... I'm sorry but listening to what appears to be a little girl getting off is quite disturbing.

As for Sazh, I wasn't fond of his voice acting either. It wasn't nearly as bad as hers but it was still annoying. His pre-end game stats didn't help much either. Now post-game he was a pimp.

Don't get me wrong, I found Hope to be a whiny bitch, but he didn't do it in battle. Yeah, my choices were a bit vain. So sue me.

edit: The whole concept of customizing people for certain roles really didn't affect me much post-game. I capped everyone before the final fight, then just evenly distributed any future points as I farmed for money. By the time I finished that they were all capped. Then I went off to slay the beasties.

[Xithor]

I too went with Lightning, Fang, and Hope but not because the guide book said so but I liked how they worked together as a team. Lightning bc she is an all around force when it comes to her capabilities, she's just as good a commando as she is a skilled ravager and her Army of One always comes in handy when I want to keep driving up that Stagger gauge. Fang is my brute force party member, mostly use her in two roles and those are commando and sentinel, but I throw in the occasional saboteur, especially when I'm taking down the Adamantortoise. Hope is my third party member just because I like his character as a healer over Vanille, he has more magic points and is the most capable healer that I have. He also contributes very well as both a ravager and a synergist.

Also for me by the end of the game I wasn't really trying to specialize anyone in a certain role I was just advancing them in all their roles but I'd start with one per reserve character and max it out. For Snow it was a Sentinel first then the others, Vanille as a Medic, and Sazh as a Synergiest. They just never really made it into my party one way or the other though.

[randy666]

personally i did specialise the characters in there specific roles, since evryone leveled up at the same pace my party was usually lightning, vanille, fang simply because vanille is a good healer and can rip people withravanger attacks....
i also changed into light, vanille, sask if i wanted a balanced strategy or triple ravangers, fang works great as a sentiel which is very important if you are running through the game trying to save a bit of time by avoiding unnecessary battles