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[Leonidas]

Pretty awesome that they increased the quality of the pre-rendered cutscenes. Is this the first time this has happened?

EDIT: download links below

Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

 

[Xenon]

Isn't this one pretty much considered the worst in the series?

Looks nice though. I wish the would do XII. I always wanted to try that one.

 

[mcz117chief]

Holy shit! Even XIII-2? Literally my favourite RPG of all times. This might actually make me buy the Xbox One X if I get to play XIII-2 with better res and framerate (heard the PC port is trash so I never bothered).

edit: The twitter also says "You can now experience the full fidelity and epic story of Lightning and her comrades on Xbox One, Xbox One S and Xbox One X." My dad has the Xbox One S so that means it works on that too? AWESOME!

 

[shark sandwich]

So they got the PS3 versions of the cutscenes? IIRC they were 1080p on PS3 and a very compressed 720p on 360

 

[splattered]

Holy shit! Even XIII-2? Literally my favourite RPG of all times. This might actually make me buy the Xbox One X if I get to play XIII-2 with better res and framerate (heard the PC port is trash so I never bothered).

edit: The twitter also says "You can now experience the full fidelity and epic story of Lightning and her comrades on Xbox One, Xbox One S and Xbox One X." My dad has the Xbox One S so that means it works on that too? AWESOME!

It would work on the X1S but you wouldn't get the 4K enhanced visual upgrade

 

[stranno]

So they got the PS3 versions of the cutscenes? IIRC they were 1080p on PS3 and a very compressed 720p on 360

They were BINK Video 1, 1024x576, 30 frames per second on 360.

Not the greatest quality but not bad either.

Lightning Returns uses BINK Video 2 instead. 1280x736 (black border on the bottom), 30 frames per second, with half the bitrate.

Looks good to me.

And, finally (pun intended), Final Fantasy XIII-2. There's no single CG cinematic (everything is real-time) aside an ultra-low-quality video showing random Malboro battle???? (i havent played the game). Given the crazy rate i think its just a padding file.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Final Fantasy XIII was fucking good. The battle system was super fun and it had one of the best soundtracks in the franchise too, played it almost constantly when I explored the world in Final Fantasy XV. I also have a soft spot for Lightning.

 

[Solo Act]

People knocked the linearity of XIII, but I didn't mind it at all. Sometimes I prefer a game with a great combat system, fun story, and no chance at missing anything.

Being able to play it again with these newly updated graphics sounds fun to me.

 

[Chessr]

XIII is one of the better FF games

 

[TLZ]

They were BINK Video 1, 1024x576, 30 frames per second on 360.

Not the greatest quality but not bad either.

Lightning Returns use BINK Video 2 instead. 1280x736 (black border on the bottom), 30 frames per second, with half the bitrate.

Looks good to me.

And, finally (pun intended), Final Fantasy XIII-2. There's no single CG cinematic (everything is real-time) aside an ultra-low-quality video showing random Malboro battle???? (i havent played the game). Given the crazy rate i think its just a padding file.

What was it on PS3? Because it looked so good when I played it there back then.

Edit: it's 720p.

 

[STI]

maybe I have to pick up an Xbox One X this holiday

 

[xion4360]

And, finally (pun intended), Final Fantasy XIII-2. There's no single CG cinematic (everything is real-time) aside an ultra-low-quality video showing random Malboro battle???? (i havent played the game). Given the crazy rate i think its just a padding file.

ummm...there are several CG cutscenes in the game.. 2 within the first hour, and the ending...probably another in there somewhere I forgot about.

Lightning returns BC has some of the low quality video in there but so far from what ive seen its just the flashbacks that are fuzzy looking naturally anyway so its ok. XIII has a lot of pre-rendered stuff so im hoping its all replaced and I wont run into any garbage looking cutcenes in there.

 

[stranno]

ummm...there are several CG cutscenes in the game.. 2 within the first hour, and the ending...probably another in there somewhere I forgot about.

I havent played the game but i have seen one of those "movies" on Youtube with all cinematics and everything i saw looks in-game. If there are videos they must be hidded somewhere else. Weird since Lightning Returns has the same file structure as Final Fantasy XIII and it came after XIII-2.

I will check other file headers to see if they are movies.

 

[xion4360]

I havent played the game but i have seen one of those "movies" on Youtube with all cinematics and everything i saw looks in-game. If there are videos they must be hidded somewhere else. Weird since Lightning Returns has the same file structure as Final Fantasy XIII and it came after XIII-2.

If you just watch the opening hour of XIII-2 you'll see 2 seperate CG cutscenes. They look great on one X not as sharp as the ones in XIII but still good.

Theres the whole lengthy battle with lightning and caius, and then the scene were light gives noel the moogle and then he jumps into the portal.

 

[stranno]

What was it on PS3? Because it looked so good when I played it there back then.

Edit: it's 720p.

Yes, 1280x720, MPEG4 AVC (h264), 30 frames per second. Top-notch quality indeed, much better than 360, even when 360 videos are fine.

 

[Boss Mog]

Pretty awesome that they increased the quality of the pre-rendered cutscenes. Is this the first time this has happened?

They didn't increase anything, they just used the PS3 videos which were higher quality due to Blu-Ray's increased storage capacity.

 

[Boss Mog]

I still don't understand why SE didn't release the XIII trilogy on current gen after they went through the trouble of making PC ports. XIII on PC is really nice in 4K at 60fps.

Although maybe it's for the best, as the ports might've been disappointing like XII's PS4 port which only runs at 30fps.

 

[JimboJones]

That's actually pretty cool. Won't get me to ever play it again but yeah cool that they went the extra mile for those that do like it.

 

[Danjin44]

People knocked the linearity of XIII, but I didn't mind it at all. Sometimes I prefer a game with a great combat system, fun story, and no chance at missing anything.

Being able to play it again with these newly updated graphics sounds fun to me.

There nothing bad about JRPG being linear, the problem was in my opinion FFXIII was badly design "linear" JRPG. The game had great combat but the first 20+ hours the combat is very limiting and basic and not much to explore. Both Xenoblade Chronicles and Dragon Quest XI also linear games but they give you big area for you explore while still have linear story progression.

 

[Freedom Gate Co.]

Isn't this one pretty much considered the worst in the series?

Looks nice though. I wish the would do XII. I always wanted to try that one.

No that's Lightning returns. The last 3 hours of the game is so dumb you may be tempted to throw your TV out the window.

 

[JimboJones]

There nothing bad about JRPG being linear, the problem was in my opinion FXXIII was badly design "linear" JRPG. The game had great combat but the first 20+ hours the combat is very limiting and basic and not much to explore. Both Xenoblade Chronicles and Dragon Quest XI also linear games but they give you big area for you explore while still have linear story progression.

Yeah FFXIII took a particularly boring approach, would have been ok for the first 4 hours or something but it just went on and on.

 

[Jigsaah]

FFXIII was the first time I started to temper my expectations for a Final Fantasy game. I'm wondering if I made a mistake not really giving it a pass when it came to XIII-2 and subsequent titles. Sucks I bought it for PS3 though...so I would have to rebuy on Xbox One X.

Here's a question: Is XIII-2 more open world than the linear garbage of XIII? I know it's kinda offtopic because we're discussing XIII right now...but I thought they were gonna bring a bunch of the games to Xbox now, I think X, XII and XIII

 

[TLZ]

FFXIII was the first time I started to temper my expectations for a Final Fantasy game. I'm wondering if I made a mistake not really giving it a pass when it came to XIII-2 and subsequent titles. Sucks I bought it for PS3 though...so I would have to rebuy on Xbox One X.

Here's a question: Is XIII-2 more open world than the linear garbage of XIII? I know it's kinda offtopic because we're discussing XIII right now...but I thought they were gonna bring a bunch of the games to Xbox now, I think X, XII and XIII

You can probably find them pretty cheap.

 

[Danjin44]

Yeah FFXIII took a particularly boring approach, would have been ok for the first 4 hours or something but it just went on and on.

I know its weird to say this but I think they trying to make the game more "cinematic" and that was horrible choice.

 

[Clear]

XIII's real problem is its pacing, the first half plays out a lot more slowly than it should. Replaying it from around the midway point I thought it was actually pretty good.

 

[Jigsaah]

You can probably find them pretty cheap.

Are they Backwards Compatible right now?

 

[RPS37]

The download is only 8 dollars.....

 

[xion4360]

The download is only 8 dollars.....

sweet jesus If I only waited 1 day. Wish they advertised it would be going cheap. thats shady business to announce it would be releasing on this day but then have it on sale the very next.

 

[jshackles]

sweet jesus If I only waited 1 day. Wish they advertised it would be going cheap. thats shady business to announce it would be releasing on this day but then have it on sale the very next.

Same here, just paid $16 last night and haven't even had a chance to download it yet. Grr.

 

[TLZ]

Are they Backwards Compatible right now?

Yea I'm talking about the FF XIII games and you rebuying them.

 

[Leonidas]

Just checked Xbox Marketplace and all 3 games are on sale(the latter two requiring Gold for the discount). Kind of tempted to get them all, only $28 for all 3.

Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

 

[Petrae]

Bought all three complete for $12 total from that place everyone hates.

 

[kunonabi]

There nothing bad about JRPG being linear, the problem was in my opinion FFXIII was badly design "linear" JRPG. The game had great combat but the first 20+ hours the combat is very limiting and basic and not much to explore. Both Xenoblade Chronicles and Dragon Quest XI also linear games but they give you big area for you explore while still have linear story progression.

Problem is even once the combat "opens up" it's still just a simple flow chart that you can use for pretty much every fight.

 

[ExpandKong]

It’s really cool that they put in that extra bit of effort for y’all but I will go on record to state that I deadass cannot comprehend what kind of life a person has to lead to arrive at a place where FFXIII or any of its spawn is their favorite game in the series.

 

[mcz117chief]

It would work on the X1S but you wouldn't get the 4K enhanced visual upgrade

Are there any enhancements for the One S regarding gameplay? Better framerate or resolution?

 

[Andyliini]

I have all three on disc. I have finished both XIII and XIII-2, but never got very far in LR. Maybe now I might try it again.

 

[maxwell247]

Are there any enhancements for the One S regarding gameplay? Better framerate or resolution?

Only steadier framerate, v-sync and 16x anisatropic filtering then.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

I know its weird to say this but I think they trying to make the game more "cinematic" and that was horrible choice.

Yeah. It seemed like the game too 2 steps back after FFXII. I know there are people who weren't fans of FFXII but no one argue can that it was the step in the right direction, especially if you consider which RPGs started to become more popular during when FFXIII came out.

FFXIII for me was basically FFX but while FFX is still a great game (even after replaying it in the PS3 remaster) it did have some flaws. FFXIII, to me, felt like they made a game out of every single negative aspect of FFX and doubled down on it.

 

[mcz117chief]

Yeah. It seemed like the game too 2 steps back after FFXII. I know there are people who weren't fans of FFXII but no one argue can that it was the step in the right direction, especially if you consider which RPGs started to become more popular during when FFXIII came out.

FFXIII for me was basically FFX but while FFX is still a great game (even after replaying it in the PS3 remaster) it did have some flaws. FFXIII, to me, felt like they made a game out of every single negative aspect of FFX and doubled down on it.

I played XIII first then X and I definitely enjoyed both for different reasons but overall I enjoyed XIII more.

 

[evanft]

Same here, just paid $16 last night and haven't even had a chance to download it yet. Grr.

I mean GS has physical copies for $5 each, and even eBay has them for similar prices.

 

[Thiagosc777]

FFXIII looks so good. It held up really well.

 

[Ptownrich]

I still don't understand why SE didn't release the XIII trilogy on current gen after they went through the trouble of making PC ports. XIII on PC is really nice in 4K at 60fps.

Although maybe it's for the best, as the ports might've been disappointing like XII's PS4 port which only runs at 30fps.

They kind of have just released it on current gen. Just Xbox exclusive.

I can play the whole trilogy at 4K with a stable framerate right now on my Xbox X. For free if you already owned them. Or all 3 digital versions together for about £21 in the current sale.

I don't get when people clamor to pay money for a current gen re-release of a game they own when a back compatibility service done right does it for free. Now with the added bonus of free graphic enhancements.

 

[Boss Mog]

They kind of have just released it on current gen. Just Xbox exclusive.

I can play the whole trilogy at 4K with a stable framerate right now on my Xbox X. For free if you already owned them. Or all 3 digital versions together for about £21 in the current sale.

I don't get when people clamor to pay money for a current gen re-release of a game they own when a back compatibility service done right does it for free. Now with the added bonus of free graphic enhancements.

Perhaps it's because some people don't have an XB1X. Believe it or not, there's actually a lot of people who game on PS4 this gen and they don't have the backward compatibility option. Plus a proper remaster will always be better than an emulated version, even with upgrades. In remasters the text and UI is usually completely redone in 4K. Plus there can be things like enhanced soundtracks like in FFXII. I'm not saying I'd pay 50 bucks for a remaster but I got the FFXII remaster for $10 and I'll gladly pay that much for it.

 

[Mochilador]

That's amazing!!

 

[DonF]

LOL I recently played the ps4 version of REmake, and fucking hell, the pre rendered cutscenes on that game are like 240p. Square does what capcom'nt

 

[Ptownrich]

Perhaps it's because some people don't have an XB1X. Believe it or not, there's actually a lot of people who game on PS4 this gen and they don't have the backward compatibility option. Plus a proper remaster will always be better than an emulated version, even with upgrades. In remasters the text and UI is usually completely redone in 4K. Plus there can be things like enhanced soundtracks like in FFXII. I'm not saying I'd pay 50 bucks for a remaster but I got the FFXII remaster for $10 and I'll gladly pay that much for it.

Like I said, consider it an Xbox exclusive if you want to play the 13 trilogy this gen at 4K with other enhancements. There's plenty of games on Playstation that Xbox owners can't play. It's a drawback of single format gaming unfortunately. Look at the comparison screen shots, this would be constitute a £30 remaster if it came to PS4.

 

[shark sandwich]

Problem is even once the combat "opens up" it's still just a simple flow chart that you can use for pretty much every fight.

It was challenging, required you to really think about how you balanced your party, every ability (including buffs/debuffs) was useful, and it rewarded you for playing well.

That’s more than you can say for like 95% of turn based JRPGs out there.

I also liked how you were constantly on the edge of chaos. So many times you’d be close to death and you’d have to decide whether to revert your party to defend/healing, or to stick it out and hope you can break your opponent in time and combo the shit out of them.

1000x better than shit like Final Fantasy X where it’s “pick attack from a menu until everything dies” with the occasional “swap in the character who can hurt this enemy”.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

The visual quality improvement does have me interested but I already know I'll regret if I put the hours in.

 

[xion4360]

.

 

[dark10x]

And, finally (pun intended), Final Fantasy XIII-2. There's no single CG cinematic (everything is real-time) aside an ultra-low-quality video showing random Malboro battle???? (i havent played the game). Given the crazy rate i think its just a padding file.

This isn't actually the case. There are some pre-rendered scenes including two lengthy ones right at the start of the game using higher quality visuals (pre-rendered quality - not in-game models).