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Final Fantasy XIII PC |OT| Lightning must not be forgotten

brau

Member
Pics of today.

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brau

Member
Lol.. i just keep hogging the thread to post the screens i like the most of the latest play time.

Gotta say that the combat is pretty satisfying in the game. Its fun. The story not so much... its kinda just there. Hope... i don't think i like the guy.

Fang is awesome. Just got to that dream city or whatever its called.

I'll keep playing.

 

brau

Member
That downgrade thread does have me curious, did people really look into all the game files?

I'll have to take a look at that thread. but so far my exp with this game is positive. It looks really really nice.

EDIT: found it. i do see a big difference from what they had in terms of polys. The characters have lots of low res angles. Also.. there is that ugly shader on the characters that make some angles have funny shadows on them.
 

brau

Member
Pics of today.


So maybe this is a dumb question. but will this game open up? so far there is no real sense of exploration. I guess now i understand why people complain about the corridor design of the game.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Pics of today.



So maybe this is a dumb question. but will this game open up? so far there is no real sense of exploration. I guess now i understand why people complain about the corridor design of the game.

Late in the game there is a fairly large
but unimpressive
area you can explore, and there are some sidequest sort of things to do there. And from that point on you can go back and forth between different areas, but not to any previous ones.
 

brau

Member
Late in the game there is a fairly large
but unimpressive
area you can explore, and there are some sidequest sort of things to do there. And from that point on you can go back and forth between different areas, but not to any previous ones.

How extensive are the areas? i get a sense that it will just be for grinding purposes.

Also.. I've been upgrading some weapons, but the resources are kind of limited. Any good tips for which weapons to upgrade, and how to go about it?

I have not purchased anything with my money, and i still have very little of it. Is this the case for most people?

i was just talking to a buddy and i said this about the game.

As much as i am enjoying the combat its starting to wear out. Everything is so linear that there is really no sense of exploration or reward.

The locations vary in quality, and there are some that look amazing, and some that are just plain awful. The writing on the characters is bad and the story... i yet have to see any. Characters are pretty 'meh' for the most part.

Lightning has bitchy face issues.
Vanille is weird. Like an anime archetype.
Sazh.... i dunn think anyone can relate to this character.
Snow, he is alright. Tho that music that plays whenever you use him gets old.
Hope. Lets not go there.
Fang, is cute.
Serah.... amm... she is crystal and doesn't get much screen time.

From what i've seen the second and lightning returns are more open and non linear games. I hope that is the case haha. I'll keep playing this and see if i can unlock the story.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
How extensive are the areas? i get a sense that it will just be for grinding purposes.

Grinding and post-game.

It's basically just one big field with some paths that splinter off of it, one of which is the one to continue the story. The areas that follow are just as linear as everything else before it. The only difference is that you're able to go back and forth (eventually, IIRC you have to get to a certain point before you can go back).
 

Adaren

Member
Also.. I've been upgrading some weapons, but the resources are kind of limited. Any good tips for which weapons to upgrade, and how to go about it?

Use organic components to get the multiplier to 3x, then drop as many synthetic on it as you can in one go.

Here's a handy calculator for it.

As for which ones are good to upgrade, it depends on what you want your party to do. Each level 1 weapon is just a scaled down version of what it will eventually be.

So if you want Lightning to have strong MAG, you should upgrade her strongest MAG weapon. If you want her to be balanced, you should upgrade a weapon that starts with pretty good STR and MAG (Blazfire Saber iirc). If you really like Axis Blade's effect, you should upgrade that to get a stronger version (though the stats will stay proportionally low compared to other weapons like Blazefire Saber). If you are okay with Stagger Lock, just upgrade her Stagger Lock weapon.

Pretty much, the upgrade system doesn't have any surprises, but it also doesn't have any right answers. Upgrade the weapons you want to upgrade.

The locations vary in quality, and there are some that look amazing, and some that are just plain awful. The writing on the characters is bad and the story... i yet have to see any. Characters are pretty 'meh' for the most part.

I'm curious: which areas do you think look awful? Not all of them were constantly jaw-dropping, but I can't recall a single area that I thought was awful.
 

brau

Member
I'm curious: which areas do you think look awful? Not all of them were constantly jaw-dropping, but I can't recall a single area that I thought was awful.

The first area is pretty ugly. After the train crash.

The junk yard mountain looking place. Looks pretty bland and barren.

There was also one in the mountains, where you change the weather to rain and sunny that was pretty barren as well.

The main thing is that its not very consistent. Some envs are pretty amazing. Some are not.

I need help. I started playing this game today and wanted to use sweetfx. I installed it but when I try to launch the game from steam it doesnt launch. It only launches from the .exe but in window mode and I cannot play it in fullscreen. What, am I do it wrong?

Some screenshots I took.
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/108566

Are you using GeDoSaTo? Thats the easiest way i have found to run sweetFX with this game.
 
Finally getting near the end of the game, still enjoy it despite some awful design choices. Probably the worst is giving certain bosses the ability to cast Death, so it hits your main character it's automatically game over.
 
The first area is pretty ugly. After the train crash.

The junk yard mountain looking place. Looks pretty bland and barren.

There was also one in the mountains, where you change the weather to rain and sunny that was pretty barren as well.

The main thing is that its not very consistent. Some envs are pretty amazing. Some are not.



Are you using GeDoSaTo? Thats the easiest way i have found to run sweetFX with this game.

No, I'm not. I'm using the sweetFX configurator.
 

Adaren

Member
Finally getting near the end of the game, still enjoy it despite some awful design choices. Probably the worst is giving certain bosses the ability to cast Death, so it hits your main character it's automatically game over.

Death always hits your leader, actually. It acts as a hard timer for how long the fight should take. Most bosses in the mid-late game will cast Death after 20 minutes.
 

AsianOni

Member
Death always hits your leader, actually. It acts as a hard timer for how long the fight should take. Most bosses in the mid-late game will cast Death after 20 minutes.

I think he was referring to the spell that Vanille can cast too, the one that has a certain percentage to one-shot.
 
Death always hits your leader, actually. It acts as a hard timer for how long the fight should take. Most bosses in the mid-late game will cast Death after 20 minutes.

I'm talking about the fight with the second last boss in the story, seems to cast it on you pretty early and randomly not called Death but can't remember the name the game uses for that spell, same effect anyway
 

Adaren

Member
Turns out that last boss does have an insta-death attack: Progenitorial Wrath.

I guess I've just gotten lucky and not had it target my leader/inflict Death in the past, so I never really noticed! That is pretty dumb, though.
 

Unai

Member
Turns out that last boss does have an insta-death attack: Progenitorial Wrath.

I guess I've just gotten lucky and not had it target my leader/inflict Death in the past, so I never really noticed! That is pretty dumb, though.

Yeah, insta-death attacks are ok if it's not game over when it hits your MC, otherwise I don't get why they even put it there.
 

Khal_B

Member
Just hit Gran Pulse, but I'm a bit confused. Do I beat the main story then go back to Gran Pulse to do all the side stuff? Or do I start doing missions and leveling up from now?

I'm not accustomed to all of this freedom dammit!
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Just hit Gran Pulse, but I'm a bit confused. Do I beat the main story then go back to Gran Pulse to do all the side stuff? Or do I start doing missions and leveling up from now?

I'm not accustomed to all of this freedom dammit!

You can do some now, but others are intended to be more like post-game challenges.
 

grimmiq

Member
Played through this when it was released and only got a few hours into XIII-2..finally getting around to playing through again.

You know, if you killed off Vanille in the train crash and passed her plot significance off onto Fang, replaced her spot in the party with Lebreau..Removed the 2 younger members of NORA and toned down Snow's "Hero" attitude a little...The first 2 hours of this game would be a perfect start to what could have been a great Final Fantasy game.
 

brau

Member
You came from junior to full member just by posting these screenshots. Amazing :p

Good shots too.

holy cow... i didn't even realize that. How does that even work?
Maybe it was because i painted tons of santa hats for people over the month of Dec? i doubt its because i am just posting FFXIII imgs.

Anyways... more imgs... finally some good ones.


and just because i dislike him. Two Hope imgs.
 
holy cow... i didn't even realize that. How does that even work?
Maybe it was because i painted tons of santa hats for people over the month of Dec? i doubt its because i am just posting FFXIII imgs.

Anyways... more imgs... finally some good ones.



and just because i dislike him. Two Hope imgs.

Well I think it is determined by your post count. My joke just meant you post a lot of these screenshots. (Not by any mean a complain).

Keep' em coming.
 
I havent played a FF game since FFX on the PS2. I was a big fan of the games from FF7, FF8, i disliked FF9, liked FF10, but after that i just sorta lost interest. I guess i jsut got more into online shooters at the time and never gave JRPGs a second thought. The lukewarm reception to XIII didnt help.
But, i got this for 6 euro before christmas, fully expecting to hate it and give up on it after an hour or two (and i almsot did in that endless fucking scrap yard chapter), but im happy to say, this is actually a fucking good game and im enjoying it quite a bit.
The paradigm system is great, makes for really enjoyable battles. The graphics are just, wow. I cant believe this is an old game looking at it now. Running it at a 4K downsample and getting 60fps, its a beautiful, beautiful game. I think i kinda love Lightning and her bitchface <3 The story is nonsensical but im enjoying it all the same as im not taking it too seriously. Overall this has actually rekindled my interest in JRPGs and im considering buying XII-2 and Lightning Returns now. Its not a perfect game, the corridor design sucks an ass, the writing is cheesier than a brie factory, Vanille comes across as being functionally retarded fap bait, but overall, yeah, im having fun.
Just got to giant airship boss after meeting Hopes dad, it wiped me out :/
 

Koozek

Member
I havent played a FF game since FFX on the PS2. I was a big fan of the games from FF7, FF8, i disliked FF9, liked FF10, but after that i just sorta lost interest. I guess i jsut got more into online shooters at the time and never gave JRPGs a second thought. The lukewarm reception to XIII didnt help.
But, i got this for 6 euro before christmas, fully expecting to hate it and give up on it after an hour or two (and i almsot did in that endless fucking scrap yard chapter), but im happy to say, this is actually a fucking good game and im enjoying it quite a bit.
The paradigm system is great, makes for really enjoyable battles. The graphics are just, wow. I cant believe this is an old game looking at it now. Running it at a 4K downsample and getting 60fps, its a beautiful, beautiful game. I think i kinda love Lightning and her bitchface <3 The story is nonsensical but im enjoying it all the same as im not taking it too seriously. Overall this has actually rekindled my interest in JRPGs and im considering buying XII-2 and Lightning Returns now. Its not a perfect game, the corridor design sucks an ass, the writing is cheesier than a brie factory, Vanille comes across as being functionally retarded fap bait, but overall, yeah, im having fun.
Just got to giant airship boss after meeting Hopes dad, it wiped me out :/

Nice! If you lower your expectations and don't take the stories/plots/characters serious you can really enjoy these games. Lightning Returns was the most fun I had last year, even though it's obviously not as polished as the other titles. Great battle system and music.
For FFXIII-2 I'd recommend avoiding as many normal battle encounters as possible to artificially raise the difficulty level. Boss battles are way more exciting and thrilling that way.
 

brau

Member
Nice! If you lower your expectations and don't take the stories/plots/characters serious you can really enjoy these games. Lightning Returns was the most fun I had last year, even though it's obviously not as polished as the other titles. Great battle system and music.
For FFXIII-2 I'd recommend avoiding as many normal battle encounters as possible to artificially raise the difficulty level. Boss battles are way more exciting and thrilling that way.

oooh.. i'll have trouble with that. I like to go fight anything that is on screen. :(

Hence me getting killed a lot now that i am in that open plain world that has all kinds of tough looking monsters. Had not died, but a few times, but now i have died a lot haha
 

Koozek

Member
oooh.. i'll have trouble with that. I like to go fight anything that is on screen. :(

Hence me getting killed a lot now that i am in that open plain world that has all kinds of tough looking monsters. Had not died, but a few times, but now i have died a lot haha

FFXIII-2 is WAY too easy if you do every battle. You're constantly OP and don't have any challenge. The way I played it most boss battles were a bit harder than FFXIII's normal difficulty. The Blood Damage was a great improvement to the battle system and made many fights really exciting, ending with only a small bit of my HP left.
 

brau

Member
FFXIII-2 is WAY too easy if you do every battle. You're constantly OP and don't have any challenge. The way I played it most boss battles were a bit harder than FFXIII's normal difficulty. The Blood Damage was a great improvement to the battle system and made many fights really exciting, ending with only a small bit of my HP left.

Hmm.. i'll have to keep that in mind.

Some screens of today. This game just doesn't get any prettier where i am at. Only 2 screens i liked. :(

 
So I've beat around 10 bosses around Grand Pulse. Time to move on?

My wife was watching me play it the other day and burst out laughing when she saw Vanilles running animation. She was like "she runs like the girl in Taken!!" lol

Also cheers for the tip :D

Personally I think she has quite a depth, but yeah her outside look might have been a bit too much over the side and completely distracts everyone.
 

MattyG

Banned
This is probably gonna sound like a dumb question, but is the PC version the best version? I heard it's a bad port, but I didn't know if it had had its issues fixed yet. It's $15 on Newegg bundled with XIII-2, and I was trying to decide between this or the PS3 versions.
 

brau

Member
This is probably gonna sound like a dumb question, but is the PC version the best version? I heard it's a bad port, but I didn't know if it had had its issues fixed yet. It's $15 on Newegg bundled with XIII-2, and I was trying to decide between this or the PS3 versions.

Couldn't think why it would be bad, when you get better performance, look and stuff from the game.

At least imo. You don't need a crazy good computer either. Specs are pretty reserved.

I have not encountered any issues with the games so far.
 

MattyG

Banned
Couldn't think why it would be bad, when you get better performance, look and stuff from the game.

At least imo. You don't need a crazy good computer either. Specs are pretty reserved.

I have not encountered any issues with the games so far.
Awesome, looks like I'm gonna be getting them then!

Now to just wait a couple days for them to download...
 

brau

Member
Awesome, looks like I'm gonna be getting them then!

Now to just wait a couple days for them to download...

have fun. and make sure you use GeDoSaTo, and tweak the sweetFX in it as well. Also. share some screens and your XP. :)

PM me if you need help, or post here for people to read.
 
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