[Pic0o]

greets from the office. To end our day of new car and tax person visits yesterday, I came back home and grabbed FFXIII on the way. I got about 2 hours of play in before succumbing to the gods.

First off, the cutscenes look amazing. Full of crazy adventure and colors, blasting my grill in HD. Next off is the actual interface and gameplay. After a battle and jumping in the menu, I was instantly seeing how this game uses some of the menu systems found in Star Ocean TLH. Battle is a breeze and does not start off all daunting and raw. Another welcome addition to the menu, is Objectives. No more needing to read a FAQ to figure out where you left off, there is a nice quest log, so you can take a quick look @ what you were up to, and what you have done.

Also, Cutscenes are skippable. Very handy for replaying a fight you may have lost, or like I did, replaying a new game, as you spent the first 20 minutes logged in on Kat's PSN. I then started a game on my login, skipped mad cutscenes and was back up to par in about 5 minutes.

So far, very good for me. I'm digging the ability for this game to borrow functionality from other good games. I hope to keep the as I work through this game.

FYI - You should have a registration code included with the PS3 game that you can register on the Square Enix site. This code will give you a chance to be in the PS3 FFXIII Beta.

This post has been edited by Pic0o: 10 March 2010 - 11:59 AM
Reason for edit:: Beta for FFXIV

[Pea]

So far so good then? Good deal! Most of my other friends seem to like it as well. But one of them did complain about the easy fights. Hopefully they get more challenging as you progress.

And great news on the quest log, ha ha. I can go a long time between picking back up the same game and it's really difficult to remember that stuff when there's not an easy way to just look back real quick.

[JeT]

Won't be getting this-- been reading a bunch of reviews and gameplay videos-- and initially I really wanted it, but not after all the stuff I've read. I hate where FF games have gone with their real-time new combat BS, when I really want to go back to a classic turn-style combat.

And it seems the word of the day for this game is: Linear. Be it combat, character development, or the open world in which you traverse.

Meehhhhh. I got that already from playing FF on PSP. lol.



Maybe I'll get it used a year down the road when I'm not paying $60 for a bunch of MEH.

[Xerxes]

What turned me off were the reviews that said it took 15-20 hours of gameplay to get to the good stuff....UGH

[Pic0o]

The combat is certainly easier, as the other few hours I put in last night were:
run along a simple map, fight some doods, then fight a big dood. This of course met with some cutscenes in between.

I'm still glad to have picked it up. At least in this initial easy running, the story keeps going. Everyone I was playing recently met up, so I'm getting a better party dynamic of the fighting, and the different combat methods.

Real-time combat seems misleading, as you still have the timer bar like FFVII that has to charge your attack up. The big difference in this game, is how you can queue and pick the order your battle actions execute. Playing with these based on the foe does matter and lead to a quicker win, versus just attack mashing.

The stances are pretty handy too, as you can go all blitz, then change to support roles to keep your HP in line. One of the more odd changes however, is the absence of MP. You still have TP for doing party abilities and attacks, but base attacks are dictated by time bar, not MP cost. This proves handy for grinding, yet another different feel in this game, as I only noticed item drops, not XP.

I am unsure if the battle rating you get per fight is related to some level up / weapon skill system. I'll give my manual some more checking once I wake up more.

One thing that is kinda silly, is if Lightning dies, your other party members cannot res her, as her getting KO'ed counts as a party death. Really the only glaring wtf I have seen so far.

This post has been edited by Pic0o: 11 March 2010 - 10:59 AM

[Pic0o]

I'm right around 4 hours in, as I only played a little bit before paying homage to last night. Chilling in Chapter 3 and gunning to tear shit up this weekend.

Sat Mornin Edit:
I'm in Chapter 5 and and have ~8 save hrs in. I see the CP (fight acquired) are used for the Crystarium to get Abilities and buffs. TP is used, so far to use group abilities and

Spoiler

Summons. With sick ass group attack.

Fights are picking up in pace, as the value of some type aggro mobs and picking the right faction to slay first. I also upgraded some weapons and equip. Wanna see Black Belt lvl 3

This post has been edited by Pic0o: 13 March 2010 - 12:05 PM

[Pic0o]

I think ~19 hours on my save, as I am on Chapter 9. I'm likely to rock some more out after I finish up around the pad.

I'm @ the end of Chapter 9 and the Boss Fight is a bitch. I came pretty close to kicking it's ass last night, but lost the battle, so I watched Lost and called it a night.

Spoiler

Barthandelus is the Boss. His Destructo attack is the big bitch. I'll rock my potion belt and set my dual healers to get ready when he preps that attack.

I'm still working on this Boss fight now.

Spoiler

I found the nasty Destructo spell can be prevented if you keep persistent damage going. It's pretty much a promise your PT will wipe if he casts that shit

If you can do enough damage when he starts Destructo, it will halve the damage from the attack, keeping you alive. I had him down to the last quarter of health and he got a full attack off.

Gonna grind a little more so I can level up my DRG attack, as Fang does mad damage to him without his extra heads.

Info @ Gfaqs

My current almost successful strat:

Spoiler

So far, my best working strat is using 2 Paradigms:
Timeless Charge (Com, Com, Medic)
Aggression (Com, Com, Rav)

I am using Light, Fang and Hope in my party. Of note, equipping the Doctor's note to double potion potency is helpful too. I had dood down to ~15% but he got his full Destructo off.

I am also using Fortisol and Aegisol to have buffs @ Fight Start.

Yes, once you kill the 4 heads, he will frequently try to charge this attack up. To moot Destructo, you want to switch to Aggression ASAP when you see him starting that attack. If you get him to grunt, you have mitigated half of the damage and should survive the attack.

This technique worked for me. 18 minute kill with 2 stars. I needed to get 3 attack sequences in to prevent shitty AoE from going off.

Feel free to use your Summon to drop about 20k off the mob. Also, when you fear he might get Destructo off, Summon your Avatar, then go into 'O' mode. This will prevent the Destructo damage from hitting. Likely, you will only be able to use this 1, maybe 2 times in the fight.

This post has been edited by Pic0o: 17 March 2010 - 07:20 PM
Reason for edit:: Woo, Finally killed asshole

[Pic0o]

Currently I have about 28 hours on my save game (minus 3 for afk and stuff) and I hit Chapter 11 last night. I had next to no problem with Chapter 10, it was just pretty long. I embraced the comfortableness of my bed last night, so I'm likely to play some more games tonight.

[Pic0o]

I hit the underground portion of Chapter 11 and found some of the enemies needed me to mass farm some CP for my Crystalarium. Happily, there are some single-type mobs that are awesome for this, and weapon upgrade drops.

Spoiler

Once you enter the underground cave, only worry about fighting the solo robots. They are super easy dead with lighting attacks and/or enthunder, and give like 3k depending on the amount you kill. There are 2 save points when you enter the cave, just run back and forth grinding like a champ. The General Mobs are the ones that were kicking my ass, but with a few more weapon levels and such, I will be able to take them down before they boost and spawn the shit outta the XP mobs. I get about 10,000 CP per run between save points.

When you get north, you'll see the general right before the 2nd save point. You could pass him and save, but it's far easier to backtrack and hit the 1st Save Point. I am going to use this method to get my main trees to Level 4 and maxed out.

Chapter 11 has tons of exploring and backtracking via quest fun. Pretty solid chapter, but if the whole game was this immense, I'd have been burnt out. That being said, chapter 11 lends itself to be awesome potential for FFXIV. Run that type of play in a party, and we're talking pretty sick.

This post has been edited by Pic0o: 29 March 2010 - 01:03 PM
Reason for edit:: Grinding

[Pic0o]

I'm not sure if it's due to the 3.21 PS3 patch or what, but when playing Final XIII today, my cutscenes had no voices, but all other audio. I reloaded a save game, exited and reloaded the game from PS3 menu to no avail. Will test again tonight, as I'm scratching my head on this one. Next Day - Tested on Kat's console and voices are fine. ~49 hours on my save game.

Almost done with Chapter 11. I'm enjoying some jams from my buddies band and I'm likely to get some play in tonight.

Spoiler

Damn Boss from Chapter 9 makes a return in 11. Easier fight this time, until his Doom cast on your party leader, when he has about 1.5 Million HP of his 3.6 or so Million HP.

Foul Liquid x20 is helpful for this fight, along with some resist Daze, as it sticking will gimp your chances to combo. This worked well and I managed to avoid Doom until his last 80,000 HP or so. Timer barely started before he died.

Once I got the mob into a Skillchain Critical, I went into Com/Sab/Com and spammed some 5 digit hits. Light, Vanille, and Fang were my PT. I got the SC started with 2-3 Com/Rav/Sen attacks, then when into a Rav/Rav/Sen to hit 200%.

This post has been edited by Pic0o: 04 April 2010 - 12:44 PM
Reason for edit:: Woo, Chapter 12 time

[Pic0o]

Update to mention I am still on the end of Chapter 11. I was getting a little burnt on the repetition and knowing I'd be doing a repeat of a prior battle, so I took a break.

Demon's Souls came in and swept me out of the FF repeater cycle. I will likely come back to this after rocking some other backlog items.

On a scale to purchase, It's flag this one out @ of 5 Cookies. Decent, but if you have a better RPG to fill the gap, go with that. Star Ocean: TLH > Final Fantasy XIII.

Edit:
By time I got to the end of Chap 11, I'd have to lower my score to 1/5 . No desire to complete it, turned into a trade in today. I am certainly going to be wary before grabbing the next SP Final release. This game looked amazing, but played like bleh. Boss recycling, especially a really shitty one, put a toe tag on this piece.

This post has been edited by Pic0o: 11 August 2010 - 09:31 PM