[benzy]

Now that all the DLC is out, which pieces are worth picking up? I just bought the game yesterday so I was wondering.

Serah costume Style and Steel, because it's free.

[StunandStab]

Anybody want to trade a coliseum battle code for Serah beachwear costume?

[Jomjom]

I'll take it.

Sorry for the late response, but you have a PM!

[Popcicle]

We're definitely doing something for GAF users in terms of giveaway this week, but yeah today was DLC giveaway through the official channels--stay tuned!

[Aru]

I guess I'll wait to get all the fragments in the main game and if the price of the DLC hasn't got down by then, I'll watch the cutscenes on Youtube.

[Mario007]

I guess I'll wait to get all the fragments in the main game and if the price of the DLC hasn't got down by then, I'll watch the cutscenes on Youtube.

Not to sound like defending the game too much, but is 3 euro for fight+some story cutscenes too much?

[hamchan]

Not to sound like defending the game too much, but is 3 euro for fight+some story cutscenes too much?

Yes.

[Perfo]

I thought the prices of the DLCs to be pretty fair, except for the outfits of course. I mean, the other day I bought "From Ashes" – barely 20 minutes of shooting gameplay – for 10 euros. And it was rumored to be part of the main game too.

It's okay, Perfo.

Lol.

[Mario007]

Nope. Each title takes the same "ideas" and does their own thing with them.

Damn, I really thought they were gonna build on each other. Having each game as a clean slate to start over doesn't excite me as much. Hype for Versus and Type-0 was dampened big time by this.

[Mario007]

Yes.

Really? Knowing the recent DLC trends I expect SE to charge at least 6 euro for this, so I was pleasantly surprised (also very surprised that they scaled and converted the price between regions accordingly, i.e. dollar doesn't equal euro anymore)

I thought the prices of the DLCs to pretty fair, except for the outfits of course. I mean, the other day I bought "From Ashes" – barely 20 minutes of shooting gameplay – for 10 euros. And it was rumored to be part of the main game too.

pretty much this. The recent trend of pay 10 euro for almost an hour of gameplay makes this a very reasonable DLC pricing.

[Aru]

Yes.

No. The costumes are overpriced but the story DLC are well priced.
But I'm still not sure if I should buy them. I want to support the game, but I wanted better DLCs. I bought the OST at full price and the game at almost full price so I have already supported the game enough IMO.

[Perfo]

Btw, just returning from Mass Effect 3 I notice how bad are the characters' models in XIII-2. They really seem closer to PS2-era than current-generation. Light's armor is especially BAD. I expect more from a "mothership" (:D) Final Fantasy next time...

[Mario007]

Btw, just returning from Mass Effect 3 I notice how bad are the characters' models in XIII-2. They really seem closer to PS2-era than current-generation. Light's armor is especially BAD. I expect more from a "mothership" (:D) Final Fantasy next time...

It's the two or even one and half year dev time that did that. Also Crystal Tools just isn't a great engine unless you work really hard with it.

Having said that I absolute do not see ME3 as a graphical powerhouse. That game, and all the ME series, just feels so plasticy to me, the lightning many times is questionable and the facial expressions are just awful.

[Perfo]

Having said that I absolute do not see ME3 as a graphical powerhouse. That game, and all the ME series, just feels so plasticy to me, the lightning many times is questionable and the facial expressions are just awful.

What I've seen with ME3 is a (big) technical improvement on every level compared to ME2. What I've seen with XIII-2 is just a downgrade. And the dev.time is similar, so it's not an excuse. If Square Enix wants to follow the Bioware (/western) model and release a new entry every two years, at least should try to make the sequels more appealing.

[Mario007]

What I've seen with ME3 is a (big) technical improvement on every level compared to ME2. What I've seen with XIII-2 is just a downgrade. And the dev.time is similar, so it's not an excuse. If Square Enix wants to follow the Bioware (/western) model and release a new entry every two years, at least should try to make the sequels more appealing.

I'm not disagreeing with you one the last sentence but you have to put all this into context. When ME2 was finished, the whole team pretty much started production on ME3 straight away. The whole team was there to improve the game and had pretty much two years to do so.

On the other hand when FFXIII was finished Kitase adn Toriyama went around the world looking for feedback, then sat down and worked out the idea for FFXIII-2. That limits the development time to around 1.5 years (even less maybe, considering they could only start soliciting the popular opinion after the game was released worldwide). The team that started working on FFXIII-2 was smaller as evidenced by Tri-Ace involvement and it was the first time they were doing simultaneous development for PS3 and Xbox 360. The last point is extremely important as you can see from the comparisons that 360 version kinda stays the same between the original and sequel, but it is the ps3 version that suffered.

So while I agree that a speedy development should not mean not as polished games, it's very ahrd to compare FF and ME. Also I still maintain that the facial expression and lightning are just pure weird in ME games. Lastly X-2 was also a downgrade from X graphically, though not really through the detail on the models of characters but rather taking more shortcuts like having cutscenes not enhanced in engine (which is incidental what XIII-2 did as well)

[Perfo]

Also I still maintain that the facial expression and lightning are just pure weird in ME games.

I'm not fond of XIII-2's lighting too sincerely. Everything looks so dead to me, too dark and all. I miss PS2 old-days when lighting was made through texturing. Compare Final Fantasy XII with XIII and you'll understand what I mean. That's not a problem exclusive to XIII-2 of course, most games nowdays are like that. Unreal Engine has the same problems within it, but I'm ok with Mass Effect because being most of the times in dark settings I don't notice it much.

Regarding our main topic, maybe it's just me but I'm used after 25 yrs of gaming to see sequels improving every aspects, so it was just unfortunate with XIII-2 that I didn't notice any of them. I'm not interested in why they didn't succeed in doing so, but next time (being it Versus or XIII-3), I'd like to see some improvements over XIII.

[Mario007]

I'm not fond of XIII-2's lighting too sincerely. Everything looks so dead to me, too dark and all. I miss PS2 old-days when lighting was made through texturing. Compare Final Fantasy XII with XIII and you'll understand what I mean. That's not a problem exclusive to XIII-2 of course, most games nowdays are like that. Unreal Engine has the same problems within it, but I'm ok with Mass Effect because being most of the times in dark settings I don't notice it much. Regarding our main topic, maybe it's just me but I'm used after 25 yrs of gaming to see sequels improving every aspects, so it was just unfortunate with XIII-2 that I didn't notice any of them. I'm not interested in why they didn't succeed in doing so, but next time (being it Versus or XIII-3), I'd like to see some improvements over XIII.

I get what you mean. But you gotta take into account that XIII-2 is more of spin-off in this regard rather than a planned sequel. Now XIII-3, there you could argue that it's planned and should look better. Having said that this is also a west vs the east thing. Square used to make a new engine for every new FF entry they made, and thus sequels obviously looked much better. Even Versus, though it started off with Crystal tools, is now being developed with a different engine and thus looks better. We'll have to wait and see about XIII-3 (if it does happen).

[genjiZERO]

I have this version and the dlc ... On the Hk store, you have both dlcs ... The 20224/20223 version ( english text + japanese ) i took the dlc for my disc and it worked ... the other dlc is the normal ( japanese text version ) Don't mess up your version number and you'll be fine ..i downloaded it yesterday and i was fine.. i bought a Hk store card ( i recommand you doing this )

Thanks a lot! Where did you get HK cards? Amazon?

[R_thanatos]

Thanks a lot! Where did you get HK cards? Amazon?

i personaly got mine from Play-asia but that's not the best place ..you might find better deals elsewhere.

Anyway..

I finally finish this dlc last night ..It was ok .. There is a need for FF13-3 .. Since it's confirmed that caius just flat out won and did whatever he wanted ...

[bubnbob]

The Snow DLC and the Lightning DLC paint Yeul in a pretty nasty light, maybe she's not so innocent after all?

[Kagari]

Btw, just returning from Mass Effect 3 I notice how bad are the characters' models in XIII-2. They really seem closer to PS2-era than current-generation. Light's armor is especially BAD. I expect more from a "mothership" (:D) Final Fantasy next time...

The models in FFXIII-2 are definitely poor in a lot of ways. Lightning's is especially bad, as you said... they didn't even update her head model from XIII either :/ Textures and poly count seem to be starved this time.

[Seda]

We're definitely doing something for GAF users in terms of giveaway this week, but yeah today was DLC giveaway through the official channels--stay tuned!

yay

[Perfo]

The models in FFXIII-2 are definitely poor in a lot of ways. Lightning's is especially bad, as you said... they didn't even update her head model from XIII either :/ Textures and poly count seem to be starved this time.

And they should also stop spamming dithering everywhere... in Final Fantasy XIII was bearable because most of the cutscenes were pre-rendered, so it was almost unnoticeable, but here it looks really ugly having most of the cutscenes running in real-time. Especially in faces' close-up. Ugh. And let's not even talk about the lighting, something's definitely off compared to XIII. Archylite Steppe is dead, so the "sunny" (nah rly!) New Bodhum. What happened?

[Meccanical]

And they should also stop spamming dithering everywhere... in Final Fantasy XIII was bearable because most of the cutscenes were pre-rendered, so it was almost unnoticeable, but here it looks really ugly having most of the cutscenes running in real-time. Especially in faces' close-up. Ugh. And let's not even talk about the lighting, something's definitely off compared to XIII. Archylite Steppe is dead, so the "sunny" (nah rly!) New Bodhum. What happened?

They shat out a sequel of low quality to capitalize on the success of the first and it worked.

[Mario007]

They shat out a sequel of low quality to capitalize on the success of the first and it worked.

Let's say low graphical quality here...and let's not pretend this is the first time SE has done this (once again, I'd like to point you to X-2)

[R_thanatos]

The Snow DLC and the Lightning DLC paint Yeul in a pretty nasty light, maybe she's not so innocent after all?

witch Yeul are you talking about ?

-The normal yeul that dies #1 ?
-The normal yeul that dies #2 ?
-The normal yeul that dies #3 ?
-The normal yeul that dies #4 ?
-The normal yeul that dies #5 ?
-The Stack of dead Yeul consciousness that don't give a sh*t if another soul join the party ?


Overall this situation remind me of Rika in Higurashi where a simple girl can go insane or change ways when faced to a destiny you can't escape from only to finally Exist in a much higher( and cold form ) toward even normal things .

Now if in FF13-3 we see that Caius actions are all part of Yeul plans then i'll laugh a lot but i haven't seen Yeul in any other position than in her role of seeress that can't do anything but watch and is telling the very cold hard truth "It's YOUR FAULT"

[Jomjom]

Square Enix Members twitter told me that they are giving away DLC on GAF today. Anyone know if it'll be in this thread or some new one?

[Kagari]

Square Enix Members twitter told me that they are giving away DLC on GAF today. Anyone know if it'll be in this thread or some new one?

New thread. Stay tuned.

[Seda]

Square Enix Members twitter told me that they are giving away DLC on GAF today. Anyone know if it'll be in this thread or some new one?

Popsicle already posted in here so probably this one.
Also, I don't think Popsicle can make threads.

And nevermind!

[Kagari]

Yep. Should go up soon. I'm on my way home now.

[Jomjom]

New thread. Stay tuned.

Woohoo!

[bubnbob]

witch Yeul are you talking about ? -The normal yeul that dies #1 ? -The normal yeul that dies #2 ? -The normal yeul that dies #3 ? -The normal yeul that dies #4 ? -The normal yeul that dies #5 ? -The Stack of dead Yeul consciousness that don't give a sh*t if another soul join the party ? Overall this situation remind me of Rika in Higurashi where a simple girl can go insane or change ways when faced to a destiny you can't escape from only to finally Exist in a much higher( and cold form ) toward even normal things . Now if in FF13-3 we see that Caius actions are all part of Yeul plans then i'll laugh a lot but i haven't seen Yeul in any other position than in her role of seeress that can't do anything but watch and is telling the very cold hard truth "It's YOUR FAULT"

I dunno, whichever one that is. Instead of sniffing flowers, She's making Serah cry black tears, keeping Snow away, and telling Lightning "TOUGH SHIT YOU SCREWED UP"

[R_thanatos]

I dunno, whichever one that is. Instead of sniffing flowers, She's making Serah cry black tears, keeping Snow away, and telling Lightning "TOUGH SHIT YOU SCREWED UP"

Serah black tears are probably because of Chaos ( conveninent isn't it ? ) , for snow i'm still a fan of NTR , so snow must be away as much as possible .. as for YOU'VE SCREWED UP , that's her that doesn't give a shit , since evenif someone change historia , she will die , and if nobody does a thing , she dies ...she is like " who cares !!" .It's lightning that sent noel to serah , so she is responsable for current events