Game Progress (No Spoilers)

[Che]

Started this last night (March 10th). Wanted to start it on launch day but had a birthday to attend, and then I've been sick, and then visited by my gf who doesn't wanna watch me play.

But I just got to Chapter 8, about 14 hours in.

So far I'm very addicted. The battle system is amazing, some of the boss fights are a real challenge. The story is ridiculously good, and I'm attached to every single one of the characters.

The linear thing got to me for a bit, but I'm over it. I kind of miss that open world feeling, and the option to run around town. But I never did anyway, I would always leave and continue the story.

This game has a great mix of story/battle throughout, I can't really say I've been bored of one part. As soon as it feels like I've almost been doing something for too long, they switch it up.

Anyway, I'm gonna continue playing, I just paused for a bit to get some food.

[Andromeda]

Well I'm at the end of Chapter 11, but I got screwed over by the boss who has 3 million HP and I'm doing stupid peanuts damage to it. I'm going to have sort out my paradigms if I plan to when. To make matters worse after a while the boss casts doom on the main character. So the battle has a time limit. Even more annoying. ><

Anyway, I'm on Stage 8 of the Crystarium and have Commando completed up to that point for Lightning and working on Ravager, while Fang has Sentinel completed and Commando almost, Hope has Ravager completed and working on Synergist. It is so expensive to do the optional roles that I haven't even touched them yet.

33:45 hours and 106,735 gil so far. I have not spent a drop either. Gil is super rare. >< Unusual.

[Unknown Entity]

33:45 hours and 106,735 gil so far. I have not spent a drop either. Gil is super rare. >< Unusual.

I guess they've picked up that in previous games, you could easily get rich and have nothing to spend Gil on. So they've made it scarce in this game so that you only really have enough for what you need.

I'm now in Chapter Five, at almost twelve hours in. There's probably a bit of idle time - I was reading up a few things in the Datalog. >>;

I have 6,650Gil. Would have been 7,650Gil, but I stocked up on twenty Potions (I find them easier to use when I'm halfway through staggering an enemy, instead of switching Paradigms for a Medic, because they don't effect the time bar. Makes for quick and easy healing when in a tough spot).

In the Crystarium... Both Lightening and Hope have completed everything so far. Lightening: Commando Lv.2; Ravager Lv.2; Medic Lv.1. Hope: Ravager Lv.2; Synergist Lv.2; Medic Lv.2. I'm just collecting CP now for when more attributes become available.

I'm really enjoying the Crystarium - Lightening's is so pretty. 8D

Also, I've upgraded my Gladius to Lv.5 and the Airwing to Lv.4.

[Ralz]

In Chapter 5 now, finally seeing some Hope action.

Beat Odin, the asshat... >_> (And I just can't get on Snow's Crystarium! )

[Padraic]

I just got to know why Lightning was on the purge. Don't remember the name of the place, and can't go check cuz I'm supposed to be doing homework. But when I went to go get my copy of XIII the guy at the cash offered me to buy the strategy guide, I was extremely offended . Also they had more XIII guides than XIII games...

[DragonHeart]

I beat Odin on the first try. I guess some people do not have the strategy guide?

I don't use the strategy guide on my first run, except maybe for things like equipment. Sometimes. A lot of the fun is figuring things out for myself, particularly when I blunder into areas I really shouldn't be in haha.

Anyways, Gran Pulse is huuuuuuuuuge. =O And all of a sudden everything is kicking my ass lol. I did a couple of the hunts already, pretty easy so far. I don't even want to know what the stronger monsters will be like. Right now I'm just kind of roaming around killing stuff and looking for treasure spheres. Little break, as it were.

~DragonHeart~

[Ernest]

so far the game has met every expectation of mine and more, in my opinion the game is flawless.

That's a poor opinion. I'd hate to say it, but if you think this game is without flaw, then you're not much of a Final Fantasy fan. It's Metacritic (based on 44 reviews) is 8.2 for a reason you know? It's nothing like the games we grew up on.

In spite of that, I am enjoying it. It was starting to get really really flat and dry, but the introduction of Fang has really brought it to life, together with my finally comprehending the equipment system and the battle system peaking.

It has it's share of problems which I'll write in my full length review later, but it has some nice mechanics. There's a lot of stuff they could use for future games, but a large amount of things (like map linearity) need to be left out.

[Che]

But when I went to go get my copy of XIII the guy at the cash offered me to buy the strategy guide, I was extremely offended

Me too! I kinda looked at him like..."what?"

I would just like to point out that strategy guides are for the weak.

[Ernest]

Me too! I kinda looked at him like..."what?"

I would just like to point out that strategy guides are for the weak.

I don't think people like us buy them because they need them. They just buy them for the novelty, and for finding hidden content. There's heaps of great stuff to read. I'm glad I got mine. It's extended the play time of the game so far.

[Che]

I don't think people like us buy them because they need them. They just buy them for the novelty, and for finding hidden content. There's heaps of great stuff to read. I'm glad I got mine. It's extended the play time of the game so far.

Yeah, but previously in the thread someone admitted to using the strategy guide for it's intended purpose.

[Rydia Lover]

Yeah, but previously in the thread someone admitted to using the strategy guide for it's intended purpose.

i bought it because it was free and it was the limited edition, and i usually buy strategy guides for the games i own anyway, even if i may not use them much. like the other guy said, "for the novelty." plus it has an abridged recap of the story incase anything becomes too comfusing for me, or if i miss something.

often i like to buy special addition game guides because they often come with a section of artwork, like when i got the special guide for prince of persia which came a print.

BTW i just got into gran pulse, and that skyscraper monster scared the **** out of me, i hopei dont have to fight it.

[Andromeda]

And I'm stuck on the final boss of the game. >< In a game where if the main character dies it is game over. It is pretty cheap to give the final boss a frequently used death ability that can end an otherwise smooth going game. So frustrating and I have to go to sleep because I've been fighting the guy for the better part of two hours endlessly reseting. Makes Seymour on Mt. Gagazet look simple in comparison. ><

I moved in Vanille for my party healer and made her the leader. So I'm spamming in Curaja keeping the party alive while Sazh and Fang deal out the damage. Got Medic, Synergist and Commando for the starts so Sazh goes all haste on everyone. Oh and guess what the boss also plays the Ultimecia card and can do moves that drop your HP to almost nothing and yet for some reason now it is suddenly killing me. Which I'm still having trouble fathoming since I didn't have issues before. And I had that boss too a couple of times if it wasn't for the cheap instant death abilities on the main character.

I've got a save back in Gran Pulse that I'm considering going around and grinding for some CP. Though in all honesty apart of the other three roles I don't have a lot room left. Which is really bugging me. ><

Oh and do you remember that original promotional render of Lightning sitting in chair holding her gunblade? Well I found the place in game that happened. Yeah, it really exists.

[Yang's bald head]

Andromeda you usualy have a good opinion on things so how would you compare this FF to the others in regards to enjoyabilty? Also how many hours did it take you to get to the final boss?

Hoping to get this tomorrow.

[DragonHeart]

I just reached a village in Gran Pulse after an area and a boss that was irritating. I've had to step my Paradigm game up lately, I've noticed if you're not super aggressive with the switching in battles now you will get your face eaten. Kind of annoying, sometimes I just want to sit back a bit and let them fight.

~DragonHeart~

[Djinn]

I just reached a village in Gran Pulse after an area and a boss that was irritating. I've had to step my Paradigm game up lately, I've noticed if you're not super aggressive with the switching in battles now you will get your face eaten. Kind of annoying, sometimes I just want to sit back a bit and let them fight.

~DragonHeart~

I switch paradigms so much, i love that system more than any other battle system in FF. Nothing beats Revenging massive attacks seconds before they happen

Still in the extremely linear part of the game, where parties seem to be completely random and unchangeable (my only annoyance with the game). Currently with Lightning and Fang owning stuff up as 2x Commando's, which is fun. Think my CP level thing is 5, not entirely sure with that one as i'm at home and my ps3 is on base XD

[Tiffany]

I am at the same spot where Dodie is.

I still dislike Hope, think he's a whiney little biatch... although at least he's starting to toughen up a bit.

Lightning and Hope are on their Stage 4 for everything in the Crystarlium, Vanille and Sazh are *almost* there, just need a few a few more CP for the Role Level.

[Andromeda]

Yeah Dragonheart you'll have to get used to switching up the Paradigms on a dime if you want to come out ahead in battles. I try to switch Paradigms in the middle of attack animations since it removes the long display of everyone changing and just does it.

It took me about 35 hours to get to the final boss, but I skipped a lot of the things that you could do on Gran Pulse. As for comparing it against other FF games. It is certainly the hardest FF game that I've ever played. And there hasn't been this much pre-planning, tactics and strategy involved since maybe FFT. ^^; The game is also probably the most forgiving and unforgiving. Because the main character dies its game over, its pretty rough, but death is only a reset back to the start the battle if you wish. So you are only out the time, which doesn't exist in any other FF game.

There are tons of FF reference in it. You have to fight the Proudclod at one point in the game and there's the Lindblum. It feels just as much like a FF though as times a playful nod to past games as well. If you look you'll find all sorts of references in the game. It definitely has one of the best story and characters of any FF game.

You don't have a lot of options for your path, but if you remember FFX you did not get to pick your path until getting the airship at the very end of the game. And people never complained about its linearity and if you look at moment RPGs. They all have only one path and it is pretty linear with some forks to deadends that provide treasures. So I think people are making a big deal over nothing, FFXIII maps just happen to have less shoulder room when running down than most RPG maps. So if anyone wants to complain about linearity tell them to go replay FFX and re-evaluate their decision, because its not unique in the FF series or RPGs in general. FFXIII just doesn't try to hide it from you. In the context of the story though it all makes sense. Pretty much everything that exists in the game makes sense in the context of the world.

The funny thing is that if you read the background text provided in the datalog you understand everything even better. Everything that makes a FF game fun is there even if it is not easily recognized. Towns exists, but they generally are safe for you. Talking NPC exists, but you don't have to press a button to talk they just start speak in your proximity. Shops are all together, Chocobos come in two varieties and there are plenty of challenges in the game. It is well worth the price of admission.

[Che]

Yeah Dragonheart you'll have to get used to switching up the Paradigms on a dime if you want to come out ahead in battles. I try to switch Paradigms in the middle of attack animations since it removes the long display of everyone changing and just does it.

It took me about 35 hours to get to the final boss, but I skipped a lot of the things that you could do on Gran Pulse. As for comparing it against other FF games. It is certainly the hardest FF game that I've ever played. And there hasn't been this much pre-planning, tactics and strategy involved since maybe FFT. ^^; The game is also probably the most forgiving and unforgiving. Because the main character dies its game over, its pretty rough, but death is only a reset back to the start the battle if you wish. So you are only out the time, which doesn't exist in any other FF game.

There are tons of FF reference in it. You have to fight the Proudclod at one point in the game and there's the Lindblum. It feels just as much like a FF though as times a playful nod to past games as well. If you look you'll find all sorts of references in the game. It definitely has one of the best story and characters of any FF game.

You don't have a lot of options for your path, but if you remember FFX you did not get to pick your path until getting the airship at the very end of the game. And people never complained about its linearity and if you look at moment RPGs. They all have only one path and it is pretty linear with some forks to deadends that provide treasures. So I think people are making a big deal over nothing, FFXIII maps just happen to have less shoulder room when running down than most RPG maps. So if anyone wants to complain about linearity tell them to go replay FFX and re-evaluate their decision, because its not unique in the FF series or RPGs in general. FFXIII just doesn't try to hide it from you. In the context of the story though it all makes sense. Pretty much everything that exists in the game makes sense in the context of the world.

The funny thing is that if you read the background text provided in the datalog you understand everything even better. Everything that makes a FF game fun is there even if it is not easily recognized. Towns exists, but they generally are safe for you. Talking NPC exists, but you don't have to press a button to talk they just start speak in your proximity. Shops are all together, Chocobos come in two varieties and there are plenty of challenges in the game. It is well worth the price of admission.

In some parts, I was wondering why they made me walk. I mean, it's literally a straight line for some of the early zones. In FFX, you could explore the boundaries and it didn't feel quite as straight forward as some of FFXIII does. However, almost all of the places you explored in FFX were pointless, so I'm kinda glad FFXIII cut out that part. Even though I would consider myself an explorer when I play RPGs.

[Ralz]

In Chapter 7, now.

And oh my god, I actually got Snow back in my party. o_O He comes with a stacked 15000 CP... >_>

[Andromeda]

I beat the game finally, I ended up spending a lot of time just playing around in Gran Pulse because I didn't feel like going back to the final boss. But I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and what was the cause of all of my frustration last night. If I had realized it sooner I probably would have won last night. Stupid poison was the enemy and because of all of the special effects on screen I wasn't able to put that together until just recently when I was able to everyone die at once. Which was when it finally clicked for me. After that the boss was surprisingly easy to deal with it.

So I have the final section of the Crystarium unlocked and I have chocobo riding access. I also unlocked the cactaurs. Yeah, I know that sounds strange that you have to unlock a monster to fight, but you have to get the chocobo first and then find a specific spot and you find a cactaur. A cutscene later cactaur will be all over Gran Pulse.

The logo art finally makes sense now as well. But I'm going to go off and do some more missions. I completed about 30 so far. I'm able to deal with a small Adamantoise now, though I still got a ways until I can deal with a big Adamantoise. >< I don't think size difference is there, but they only are different by the gear on the tougher one. They do 9000 damage AoE with just walking. >.> Yeah, pretty rough times.

Oh and I have 800,000 gil. I managed to get my hands on some good items finally.

[Sean]

My progress in one sitting...


9 hours in, I keep waiting for it to stop dragging and start getting good.

The storytelling is boring the piss out of me, I just passed the silly flashback after the Lindblum scene, and now I'm stopping after my next save point. I've only upgraded Lightning's weapon, and I'm not doing too great on the Crystal boards because I don't want to dump a lot of points into a role I'm never going to use on that character (like medic on lightning... the only time I used it was when I kept dying on Odin so I needed her to throw out heals while emokiddy threw up protects)

If the game doesn't stop with the stupid 2 person parties and lame-ass storytelling with overly emo characters soon, I'm not planning on finishing it. X and XII were disappointments and I'm starting to feel this was a waste of $75 (after shipping/tax)

Someone please tell me it gets better.


Edit: Andro the hell are you doing to make money? And, for that matter, is there something to do early in the game? The only gil I have is the few thousand or so I've found in random "chests" throughout the game.

[Andromeda]

Sean you'll want to put stuff into the other roles even if you don't plan on using them, though to be honest. I used medic for Lightning a few times. The reason you'll want to put CP into them is to get the benefit of the stat bumps. The abilities may only be available during the time in battle that the role comes up, but the stats are permanent and universal regardless of role that is being used.

As for the money problem. Yeah, I didn't realize until a while into the game that the only way to make money is to sell the items that are specifically meant to be sold. You'll probably find in your inventory an item called incentive credit and something else credit, one goes for 500 gil and the other 2500 gil and I believe both are dropped from PSICOM soldiers. That is how you make money early on. Later into the game there are Gold Dust, Gold Nuggest, Moggle Puppet and a few other items that go for big money and are intended only for selling. Their upgrade exp points are 1. So there is really no other reason for them but to sell them.

[Musashiden]

Currently on Gran Pulse doing Ci'eth Marks for a while. I'm kinda lost, though. I've gotten so used to the linearity that the wide open areas are giving me long stretches of WTF. Also, is it just me, or was the Fifth Ark the height of lazy level design? Seriously. I took every door with mild trepidation because of hardcore déjâ vu.

[DragonHeart]

Yeah, I've been a lot faster with the switching lol. The game doesn't really let you be lazy at all. XD Now I just need to make someone in my usual battle party a Synergist so I can buff up as it seems pretty much required, in boss fights at least. I probably should make everyone a little more well-rounded on the roles as well, if only for the extra stat bonuses.

~DragonHeart~

[Sean]

Sean you'll want to put stuff into the other roles even if you don't plan on using them, though to be honest. I used medic for Lightning a few times. The reason you'll want to put CP into them is to get the benefit of the stat bumps. The abilities may only be available during the time in battle that the role comes up, but the stats are permanent and universal regardless of role that is being used.

Aha! Thanks! I didn't think the stat benefits were universal across every role, I thought they were only available when the character was in that specific role. Which I guess makes no sense, because I kept asking myself "Why the hell is there +str crystals in the caster trees?"

Awesome. I guess the game forces you to be a bit more proactive in how you strategize, and I'm starting to appreciate that a lot more. In XII I could just use the same team throughout the game, a tank, a dmg dealer, and a healer, now I kinda need to stop and think of the snyergy between each combination of 2 roles since it's only two man teams and some of the fights get rather tough. Also finally learning the up side to throwing Lightning in a caster role since some mobs just take no damage from her Commando abilities, and it's a lot harder to stagger some mobs without some physical hits to keep their combo meter from falling back to 100%.

This is a REALLY in depth combat system, the more I've played with it the more I'm liking it, but it's getting to a point where I might have to tune down the speed just to keep up, I can't think that fast. =\


Didn't mean to derail the thread into a general 13 dicussion, but I don't really see one anywhere. <.<;

[Andromeda]

Yeah, I'm thinking we might want to just start up a battle thread to discuss the combat. Since it is pretty deep and flexible. But yeah it is important to get Ravanger in there. The commando keeps the stagger meter from running out too fast and Ravanger quickly builds up the stagger meter. The two work together as your main force in any fight. A Commando won't be able to get the stagger full on its own, at least in a reasonable amount of time. So you'll have to plan out with your paradigm the setups you want and when to switch during combat.

I'm glad you're enjoying the combat. It is definitely one of the highlights of the game.

I ended last night with more explore of Gran Pulse. I found the trials, which are a staple of FF at this point. It is sort of like the optional dungeon. Though with Gran Pulse in general have such a wide range of monsters and strength to fight, it is easy to stay on the same place slowing moving up the ladder from one type of monster to the next.

I have about 35-40 missions done at this point. I'm still looking for a couple that I missed. I still have a lot of work to do on the upgrading of equipment and Crystarium. The Crystarium is going to take a while to complete since it probably need about 7 to 8 million CP to complete everything I think.

[Rocky]

I beat it too yay!!!

The Crystarium is going to take a while to complete since it probably need about 7 to 8 million CP to complete everything I think.

And holy hell is it expensive to upgrade stuff on the Crystarium for Stage 10! 60k CP for a lame HP upgrade? Goodnight.

I wanna do some marks but I don't feel confident enough with my characters and their equipment quite yet, so I'm working on that in the gran pulse as well. I've gotta spend some time grinding off of the Behemoth Kings and the Megistotherians :3

[Padraic]

And holy hell is it expensive to upgrade stuff on the Crystarium for Stage 10! 60k CP for a lame HP upgrade? Goodnight.

It goes all the way up to stage ten? O.o I thought it would stop at five...

Anyway, I'm at Hope's house, got a game over and it sent me far back so I put it down for a while...

[Fate]

Chapter nine, currently, at the boss at the end of the very long and repetitive ship. Had trouble killing him, though, so I'm trying to upgrade some more weapons and items and learn a few more abilities. And thank you God i can now decide who goes in my party. =3

Hope, Fang, Lightning, <3

[DragonHeart]

Well, I didn't make much progress yesterday. I left the village, ran into a boss and got stuck. Or more precisely, I didn't feel like endlessly refighting him until I figured the strategy out. So I spent some time wandering back through Gran Pulse, activating C'ieth waystones and doing all the lower level hunts I can find. If nothing else, it's nice to wander around and see how amazing everything is, no matter what Lightning says about my sense of direction. >_>

~DragonHeart~