Final Fantasy XIII

[Venardhi]

So the X-Play review says there isn't a penalty for dying you just restart back before the battle started, is that right? And that you're automatically healed at the end of every battle? I like the sound of this stuff. I'm not in it for the challenge but the experience.

I like the 'autoload' feature, but I think it is more interesting to have to at least go back to the last save point. I also like not being automatically healed though(It would have been nice in 12 though, rather than running around in circles between battles) because then you can have these epic marathon sections of the game that make you feel like you accomplished something by getting to the next save point. It will be a while before I get to play XIII, but I imagine I'll be doing a lot of 'oh, so THAT is how you beat him, instead of wasting a phoenix down and some ethers getting back to fighting shape, I'll just die and start the fight over'

 

[Angel4576]

On the 360 version you go right back to before the battle, unless you log out. When you load it up again you start at the last save point.

Bulbasaur is still killing me. Just can't find a way around him.

 

[TheBrew]

So the X-Play review says there isn't a penalty for dying you just restart back before the battle started, is that right? And that you're automatically healed at the end of every battle? I like the sound of this stuff. I'm not in it for the challenge but the experience.

That's good. I don't mind challenging fights, but I've always hated that at least mana never regens in FF games.

BTW, got a PS3, so PS3 version it is!

 

[Sephiroth]

is there ANY non-linear part to this game?

 

[firehawk12]

When you get to chapter 11 and get the "missions".

As for the new system - I like it. You don't really need to worry about potions or mana and if you screw up and enter a battle you shouldn't have, you don't have to worry about losing all your progress because you haven't saved in a while.

That said, the cutscenes are way too much... It's almost worse than Metal Gear Solid 4.

 

[clint g]

We'll I've just got around to the game, but even now I can tell I'm going to enjoy it more than that POS FFXII

 

[Mr Light]

Does that mean the cut scenes are really long?

 

[Skywalker]

Man, I hope you're exaggerating. I swear there was one part of MGS4 where the cutscenes lasted for at least 45 minutes.

 

[clint g]

Well, after spending a few hours on the game the one thing that I can confidently say is that it has some of the most beautiful music I've heard in a game. The OST gets two thumbs up from me

 

[Kibbin]

Yeah we know that, it's final Fantasy, the music will be amazing, the graphics will be gorgeous, what about the game!? What about the Game!?

 

[BigFoot]

^ Well I'm about 8 hours in and I'm really enjoying it so far.

 

[Skywalker]

The combat does look pretty entertaining. I'm in the middle of Heavy Rain right now (surprisingly good), but I think I might pick up FFXIII next.

Whoa! That'd make two PS3 games in a row!

 

[BigFoot]

^ And when you're done with FFXIII you can get God of War 3.

 

[clint g]

Yeah we know that, it's final Fantasy, the music will be amazing, the graphics will be gorgeous, what about the game!? What about the Game!?

Wait, there's a game on this disc?

 

[Skywalker]

^ And when you're done with FFXIII you can get God of War 3.

I still need to play through the first two.

 

[The Borg Queen]

FF13 combines the worst parts of FF4, FF10 and FF12 with the good parts of FF10 and FF12.

Later in the game, normal battles are far too long, for too little reward, and just turn battling from being fun into a chore. Why should it take 5 minutes just to kill a standard monster that isn't even a Boss battle? I'd prefer frequent battles that were nice and fast instead of few battles with take for fucking ever to slog through for next to no reward.

Annoyingly restrictive linearity. I know other Final Fantasy games were linear, but at least you could progress through them at your own speed, with long narrow paths with set monster encounters it feels like you're being led down them and thus being taken at the speed the game wants you to move at, instead of how you want to play.

No money from battles. The only way to get extra money in this game is by crossing your fingers and hoping that last 5-minute long battle you fought against that giant (yet non-Boss) monster with give you something you can sell for maybe 150 Gil. You want to save up to buy materials to upgrade your weapon power? Well you'd better hope that the battles you fight actually drop anything at all afterwards, or you've just wasted another five minutes for fuck all.

But it does have a few good points.

Ability progression piece-by-piece, and no fucking shitty random stat increases at level up where the whims of the Dice Gods can fuck you over by rolling low on vital attributes.

Being able to pre-set battle tactics so you can try out different combinations for the most effective approach. Would be more fun if the battles were actually enjoyable by mid-to-late game, but the principle is there.

But the worst thing about this game?

Instant Game Over if the character you're controlling dies. What, both your teammates can cast Raise? So? Too fucking bad. All the enemies decide to attack you at the same time and remove your HP faster than the Medic can restore it? Tough shit, it's Game Over, even if both the other people are still at full HP.

Which idiot decided that was a good idea for the battle mechanics?

 

[firehawk12]

Man, I hope you're exaggerating. I swear there was one part of MGS4 where the cutscenes lasted for at least 45 minutes.

Well, there's nothing as obscene as the ending of MGS4, but you'll have constant cool down times around 5 to 10 minutes. And it's all exposition unfortunately, so when major crap happens, you have no idea why you should care.

Some of the action scenes do look nice though. Blu-Ray technology FTW.

Instant Game Over if the character you're controlling dies. What, both your teammates can cast Raise? So? Too fucking bad. All the enemies decide to attack you at the same time and remove your HP faster than the Medic can restore it? Tough shit, it's Game Over, even if both the other people are still at full HP.

Which idiot decided that was a good idea for the battle mechanics?

I imagine that's to make up for the fact that you can quit out and retry any battle without penalty.

It's funny because it feels a lot like a SMT: Persona game - from waiting for enemies to turn around to get "first strike" to party AI that acts on its own to instant death if your leader dies. If they just set this in a highschool, I'd be so happy.

 

[clint g]

The controlling one character/main character dies its game over thing is what I hate most about the game. Its almost as if they didnt pat attention to the errors of Persona 3, which were corrected in Persona 4

 

[firehawk12]

Well, you have the equivalent of the "easy mode" in P4 with the unlimited retry option.

It's really only a problem at one point in the game when you don't have a medic - the only time where I was forced to use a summon. Other times it got annoying, but not too much.

 

[clint g]

It's definitely not too bad, but I really really like being able to control my characters