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[The Praiseworthy]

I can't do it... I promise to Platinum Final Fantasy Versus XIII though.

Then you are not a true hero

well I've made a promise to myself to Platinum every FF... can't wait for FFXIII-2, hope it doesn't have boring trophies..... oh who I'm kidding!!! SURE IT WILL!!!!


edit: oh new page!!! let me Quote my post because I'm so happy and proud of myself and I want EVERYONE to notice that I got the platinum in FFXIII

My past self.... I'VE DONE IT!! I HAVE BECOME THE ULTIMATE HERO!!!!!!!!

OMG.... OMG OMG OMG, this was the most painful trophy I've ever worked so hard for, and I've got Demon's Souls Platinum.

I can't believe it... I was sooooo giving up on this platinum, but nothing is impossible for me... heroes never lose!!!!

Grinding for hours and hours and long hours.... and farming for hours and hours and long hours.... and I feel EXTREMELY BORING and SLEEPY and HUNGRY and ANGRY.... but I pushed myself... and oh boy did I push myself so hard!!!!

I'm just so happy and I have no idea what I'm typing because it's almost 9 am in the morning and I've been playing non stop since yesterday.... wow I'm so drunk from playing this game!!!! dear god!!!!

anyway.... my sweet new Number 18th Platinum and my static when I got it ( see the time I made it ever more special ) :

He he he he.... please no one hate me I'm just really happy ;_;

 

[Shadow780]

I promise to Platinum Final Fantasy Versus XIII though.

I doubt it, especially if there's a difficulty mode trophy.

 

[laika09]

YOU SCARED ME SO MUCH!!!

it wasn't even 25% of the time..... this post made me think of it the whole time I was farming and it made me really depressed :|

You mean mean poster :-(

Sorry I assumed it'd be helpful to share my experience. It, of course, depends on how efficient you were in level grinding and a host of other factors. The most depressing part was having 3x more trapezohedrons than I would ever need by the time I finally got enough gil to max everything. I'm glad it went well for you.

 

[Dark Schala]

My past self.... I'VE DONE IT!! I HAVE BECOME THE ULTIMATE HERO!!!!!!!!

OMG.... OMG OMG OMG, this was the most painful trophy I've ever worked so hard for, and I've got Demon's Souls Platinum.

I can't believe it... I was sooooo giving up on this platinum, but nothing is impossible for me... heroes never lose!!!!

Grinding for hours and hours and long hours.... and farming for hours and hours and long hours.... and I feel EXTREMELY BORING and SLEEPY and HUNGRY and ANGRY.... but I pushed myself... and oh boy did I push myself so hard!!!!

I'm just so happy and I have no idea what I'm typing because it's almost 9 am in the morning and I've been playing non stop since yesterday.... wow I'm so drunk from playing this game!!!! dear god!!!!

anyway.... my sweet new Number 18th Platinum

Congratulations!

I hope FFXIII-2's trophies aren't as taxing on the mind. :lol

 

[The Praiseworthy]

Sorry I assumed it'd be helpful to share my experience. It, of course, depends on how efficient you were in level grinding and a host of other factors. The most depressing part was having 3x more trapezohedrons than I would ever need by the time I finally got enough gil to max everything. I'm glad it went well for you.

It's ok.... at less I was so scared that I pushed myself so hard in farming

so... you pushed me to become hero like Snow

oh wow.... I've messed myself!!! i was so sleep and tired that I can't sleep now :\

Congratulations!

I hope FFXIII-2's trophies aren't as taxing on the mind. :lol

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU..... I'm veeeeeery grateful for you, you gave me hope when I've lost it.... kind when I needed it... dreams when I wanted it.... THANK YOU

 

[Auto_aim1]

I can't do it... I promise to Platinum Final Fantasy Versus XIII though.

Umm... it's not that hard, and I believe you have the easy mode version as well?

 

[StoppedInTracks]

FFXIII Platinum took me 120 hours.

That's nothing next to Wizardry's Platinum which requires 200 hours.

 

[Kagari]

Umm... it's not that hard, and I believe you have the easy mode version as well?

Just so much time spent grinding... I'd rather be playing other games instead.

 

[Dark Schala]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU..... I'm veeeeeery grateful for you, you gave me hope when I've lost it.... kind when I needed it... dreams when I wanted it.... THANK YOU

Aw, you're welcome. Now you can finally put this game to rest. I felt so relieved when I got my plat.

Umm... it's not that hard, and I believe you have the easy mode version as well?

Easy mode should definitely make getting drops a whole lot easier.

The plat isn't really difficult (though 5-starring the missions might be difficult for some; Shaolong Guis and Long Guis are difficult if you didn't develop a good strategy), but it's just the tedium of fighting the same things repeatedly and patience for chance-based drops that gets some people.

I'm sure people don't really want to take the time to grind for drops and would rather be playing other games instead, though. Edit: beaten.

 

[DR2K]

Going through FFXIII again, not as bad as I remember it, having a lot of fun actually and the plot is a little more coherent a second time around. Still hate the shit out of Snow, the less of him in XIII-2 the better.

 

[cosmicblizzard]

Actually only took me 80 hours to plat, but this was on a 2nd playthrough where I skipped many cutscenes and knew exactly what to do (and to not stupidly sell important stuff like I did on the 1st playthrough).

 

[The Praiseworthy]

Aw, you're welcome. Now you can finally put this game to rest. I felt so relieved when I got my plat.

It feels so weird!! because in the last month I've played nothing but this game.... it will feel even weirder when I wake up and I don't have to play it!!!

Just so much time spent grinding... I'd rather be playing other games instead.

Oh... wait!!

I've spend more than 60 hours grinding and farming..........

OMG..... how did I do THAT?

I imagine myself waking up and this is being just a dream and I have to do it all over again, lol.... I will go crazy for real

 

[Cels]

My friend watched me get the platinum in 55 hr (20hr of postgame boredom zzz)...surprisingly he wasn't bored by the nonstop turtle farming. But then he tried to get the plat himself but it took him 45 hr, lol

 

[ULTROS!]

Congrats on your platinum, The Praiseworthy! Now you can join among our ranks.

Just so much time spent grinding... I'd rather be playing other games instead.

Psh. Not a true Final Fantasy fan.

 

[Conflict NZ]

So I've gotten to a point in this game where I feel like I'm just doing it wrong. Up to chapter 7ish I was breezing through battles, taking out bosses pretty quickly without dying. Then over the course of chapters 8-10 battles started to get extremely long, even against fodder enemies that took very little damage. When I got to chapter 11 and into the open area I got demolished. Easy enemies take ages to defeat, any enemy that looks slightly tough will kill me in one hit. I'm starting to think there is some part of the levelling system I've missed, like spending AP in Enchanted Arms. I level up through the crystarium and level up weapons when I have enough gear, I always equip the best loot I can. So GAF am I pulling a Dean Takahashi and missing a crucial part of the levelling system or is it supposed to be like this?

 

[StoppedInTracks]

So I've gotten to a point in this game where I feel like I'm just doing it wrong. Up to chapter 7ish I was breezing through battles, taking out bosses pretty quickly without dying. Then over the course of chapters 8-10 battles started to get extremely long, even against fodder enemies that took very little damage. When I got to chapter 11 and into the open area I got demolished. Easy enemies take ages to defeat, any enemy that looks slightly tough will kill me in one hit. I'm starting to think there is some part of the levelling system I've missed, like spending AP in Enchanted Arms. I level up through the crystarium and level up weapons when I have enough gear, I always equip the best loot I can. So GAF am I pulling a Dean Takahashi and missing a crucial part of the levelling system or is it supposed to be like this?

Hmm you don't need to level a single weapon to beat the game excluding some highest level Marks.

Are you sure you used all the HP/ Strength/Defense nodes in Crystarium? Do you have a MED/SEN/MED paradigm? Get HP+ accessories if you can. Start every fight (even the lame ones) with SYN/SYN/SAB, as soon as Haste/ Protect connects switch to COM/RAV/RAV for staggering then COM/COM/COM once staggered. Everytime you feel like dying HEAL with MED/SEN/MED.

What else? Use Lighting, Fang, Hope/ Vanille.

I dunno man the Pulse monsters aren't that hard excluding roaming Behemots and Tortoises. Man up and deal with them.

 

[Conflict NZ]

Hmm you don't need to level a single weapon to beat the game excluding some highest level Marks.

Are you sure you used all the HP/ Strength/Defense nodes in Crystarium? Do you have a MED/SEN/MED paradigm? Get HP+ accessories if you can. Start every fight (even the lame ones) with SYN/SYN/SAB, as soon as Haste/ Protect connects switch to COM/RAV/RAV for staggering then COM/COM/COM once staggered. Everytime you feel like dying HEAL with MED/SEN/MED.

What else? Use Lighting, Fang, Hope/ Vanille.

I dunno man the Pulse monsters aren't that hard excluding roaming Behemots and Tortoises. Man up and deal with them.

This has been my exact tactic, but I tend to die before I get more than a couple of casts and have a chance to swap paradigms. Also whenever I beat an enemy the xp reward is so little its not worth grinding. Have I hit some weird difficulty bug?

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Did you maybe "speed run" thru some of the pre-11 chapters running from encounters and only fighting bosses? Seems like you are maybe underlevelled, no? Get a truck of patience and grind little by little until you cannot expand your Crystarium anymore. Late HP nodes give as much as 250-500 HP per node which makes a differce.

You can also try and move on with the storyline - you will have another chance to have fun in the Pulse Plains later on.

 

[Dark Schala]

This has been my exact tactic, but I tend to die before I get more than a couple of casts and have a chance to swap paradigms. Also whenever I beat an enemy the xp reward is so little its not worth grinding. Have I hit some weird difficulty bug?

You have not. The enemies in Chapter 11 are generally harder than what you've encountered before. But you should not be having trouble with fodder like the monsters in the southwestern side of Pulse (the little creatures dancing around in the circle towards a few cliffs; they aren't difficult at all and they summon monsters for more CP). You can also try fighting against Flans or monsters in Vallis Media to get used to it.

Lightning/Fang/Hope is the way to go. I generally used Hope as my party leader so I could manually handle the buffs and healing, though. If I were you, I wouldn't try my hand too much at the single Behemoths roaming the land until you hit the level cap for that area. As a rule of thumb, do not start pouring CP into your secondary roles until postgame or unless you are doing higher level mark hunts.

The general Optimas I would use with a Hope/Fang/Light party in Chapter 11 are:
Hope/Fang/Light:
Rav/Com/Rav
Rav/Sen/Rav
Rav/Sen/Com *this should be your default paradigm, imo
Med/Sen/Com
Med/Sen/Med
Syn/Sab/Med

Extras:
Rav/Com/Com (when you finally get used to fighting enemies)
Rav/Com/Rav (when you get used to fighting enemies and have beefed up a little)
Rav/Sab/Com
Rav/Sab/Rav

Hope or Vanille/Fang/Light is one of the more versatile parties before endgame, so take advantage of their skills.

If you are having trouble with Hope's overall HP, you can either give him a few HP increasing bangles, or you can swap him out for Vanille, who becomes extremely useful due to her Saboteur techniques and her Belladonna Wand/Malboro Wand. Use her Saboteur techniques to debuff and gain an advantage in battle.

Also, take note of monsters' elemental weaknesses. Use a Librascope or a weapon/accessory that gets enemies' info after you defeat them in order to see what they're weak against. This will help you out a LOT.

If you are having trouble with taking damage during battle, do not hesitate to include a Sentinel in your party. Sentinels generally Provoke enemies into attacking them (though you must be careful that a healer or something isn't standing close to them so they don't get hit with sweeping attacks or AoE attacks, but there is nothing you can do about this if they are standing close to them, which really sucks). Having a Sentinel in your party also reduces the overall damage that your party takes somewhat. So you can always go Rav/Sen/Com with a Hope/Fang/Light party.

The best place to level up on the Steppe is towards Mah'habara, where the Behemoth is fighting with another enemy. You will always get a preemptive strike. But I would not recommend doing this until you get used to fighting on the Steppe first. If you choose to do this, take the Behemoth out first because once it gets down to 1/2 its HP, it will stand up and try to recover all of its HP, rendering your PE Strike useless. This is why I say to level up before taking these two on.

I hope that helps.

 

[Zafir]

Well, half of the mobs in the steppes you aren't meant to be able to kill till later. I'd recommend either going to the Yaschas Massif(You get to it from where the ship landed) or just continuing on with the story and going to mah'haraba(Think thats the name, I forget). Both those areas have easier enemies.

 

[Toth]

This has been my exact tactic, but I tend to die before I get more than a couple of casts and have a chance to swap paradigms. Also whenever I beat an enemy the xp reward is so little its not worth grinding. Have I hit some weird difficulty bug?

Try grinding on the imps in the lower section of the map (there about six of them ina group). Excellent CP/time ratio.

Also, as mentioned above, learn to love SYN and SABs. They truly make a ton of difference in the game as the difficulty increases.

Finally, try to mix and match accessories and your weapons for special synthesized abilities. Damage reduction belts are very useful as well.

edit: In each of my three playthroughs, I did not proceed into the mines until I cleared the first 14 missions. Getting to each one and defeating them always trains me enough to face the challenges to come. Plus you open up quite a few teleport stones.

 

[Thoraxes]

For me, I felt that when I hit there I had to change up how I approached the strategy in my battles.

No more just pressing X and paradigm switching at a really obvious time. Go more all out, or try some different paradigms. I think I started using tri-Rav once I got there because I found that I could stagger quickly if I played my cards right.

I would start out tri-RAV, burst it up, switch COM/RAV/RAV to maintain stagger, if I needed healing I would then switch it to MED/COM/MED or MED/RAV/MED for fast heals, and then back to building more stagger.

I think my team was Vanille, Light, Sazh, but i'd have to go check my saves to be sure.

I stopped using Sentinel after hitting 11, because I really wanted the burst.

 

[Dark Schala]

My party was... er, Hope/Vanille/Fang in Chapter 11, lol. So I decided to take the hard route by having one melee fighter in my party and two magic users. This is why I generally place a lot of importance on Defender, Jammer and Enhancer plus innate accessory attributes. I did not start upgrading my weapons in either the Japanese or English version until I hit postgame.

I don't really like to beast my way through games because I like to play with ability sets, look at animation speeds, try out different weapons to check out their attributes, combine accessories to see what skills they yield, see who does things faster or hits harder, etc. I know a lot of people think the opposite of me, though! My friends generally say I play games in a boring manner. :lol

Hope/Vanille/Fang:
Rav/Sab/Sen
Rav/Rav/Sen
Syn/Rav/Com
Rav/Sab/Com
Syn/Med/Sab
Med/Med/Sen

Extra for fodder: Rav/Rav/Com (I replaced Syn/Med/Sab with this Optimum when Pulse turned into my playground rather than battleground).

I, uh, can't remember what accessories I had equipped at all (though I remember my weapons because they are always consistent; Lightning: Lionheart, Sazh: Antares Deluxes, Hope: Vidofnir, Vanille: Belladonna Wand, Fang: Pandoran Spear, and HERO SANJOU: Paladin). It's been more than a year since I've played through that part. I do have a Chapter 12 save for the JP version so I can check, though. But I'm lazy...

Edit: Not so lazy.
Fang: Pandoran Spear, Brawler's Wristband, Warrior's Wristband, Collector's Catalogue
Hope: Vidofnir, Shield Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark, Diamond Bangle
Vanille: Belladonna Wand, Soulfont Talisman (that's what it's called in English, right?), Blessed Talisman, Shaman's Mark

But this is after Chapter 11 (at the very beginning of Chapter 12) when I had done a ton of missions (which generally assist in advancing your Crystarium progress a lot). I generally tried to do all I could do before advancing the plot. But everyone does things differently; a few of my friends blasted their way through Chapter 11 and didn't bother with the side missions or hitting the level cap at all.

 

[Averon]

Just want to say that I'm hitting myself for not playing this game sooner. Just reached chapter 11, and I know I will spend a looong time grinding on Pulse and doing mission. The story is 'meh' at best, but the battle system makes up for it.

 

[Conflict NZ]

Thanks for the advice, gave it a try but still have the same problem. I set up the paradigms exactly as you said, beefed up Hope with some HP accessories getting him up to ~2000hp. Upgraded the main parties weapons and set off. First enemy I ran into were those small wolf things, they killed hope before I had a chance to cast any buffs, the rest of the party went down shortly after. Was I supposed to do a tonne of grinding before I came to pulse? I think I'm done with this game, any game this frustrating can't be worth finishing.

 

[Dark Schala]

Thanks for the advice, gave it a try but still have the same problem. I set up the paradigms exactly as you said, beefed up Hope with some HP accessories getting him up to ~2000hp. Upgraded the main parties weapons and set off. First enemy I ran into were those small wolf things, they killed hope before I had a chance to cast any buffs, the rest of the party went down shortly after. Was I supposed to do a tonne of grinding before I came to pulse? I think I'm done with this game, any game this frustrating can't be worth finishing.

What are your equipped accessories, out of curiosity? Use Belts (Black Belts, General Belts) to increase defense on your weakest member (ie: Hope). HP+ accessories and Belts will be okay until you beef him up a bit so he can take on a Magic+ accessory. Give Fang Atk+ accessories.

The wolf things are weak vs Blizzard. Take advantage of that and take them down one at a time at this point by using Rav/Sen/Rav with Light/Fang/Hope, then Com/Sen/Rav when you Stagger them. Be sure to include a medic in your party (in the form of Hope), and don't be afraid to switch to Med/Med/Sen when Hope is low on HP/if he goes down. When you're in trouble, do not hesitate to use Potions. If you are having issues with Hope, use Vanille instead. She has higher HP (and could use the HP+ accessories too).

If you are still having issues, you may try a Light/Fang/Sazh or Snow party. It also gets the job done, but Lightning will have to serve as your Medic. Sazh has an advantage here because he can cast Haste, which is a skill Hope does not have yet. Haste, you will come to realize, will be one of the most essential skills you can ever have in Final Fantasy XIII).
Light/Fang/Sazh:
Com/Sen/Rav *default
Med/Sen/Syn *alternate default for buffing; make Sazh cast haste on the leader or healer at the very least; but Sazh can cast offensive buffs. Hope can cast defensive buffs at this point, but he does learn offensive buffs throughout Chapter 11, with the exception of Haste.
Rav/Com/Rav
Rav/Sen/Rav
Med/Sen/Rav or Med/Sen/Com (in case you need an emergency heal)
Med/Com/Rav

Extra:
Rav/Com/Rav (when you get used to fighting here)
Rav/Sab/Rav (debuff)
Rav/Sab/Syn (debuff, buff, and helps increase stagger meter)
Rav/Com/Syn (buff while trying to stagger)
Med/Com/Rav (healing)
Med/Sab/Rav (debuff, heal, and stagger)
Med/Com/Com (when taking enemies out after stagger, but you need to heal)

If you choose Snow (and this time, you can use Fang to melee), Light will have to be the medic again.
Light/Fang/Snow
Rav/Com/Sen
Rav/Sab/Sen
Com/Sab/Sen
Med/Sab/Sen
Med/Com/Sen
Med/Com/Rav

Extra:
Rav/Com/Rav
Med/Sab/Rav
Com/Sab/Rav
Rav/Sab/Rav
Med/Com/Com

I'm sure you've already realized that Lightning's Medic skills aren't as good as Vanille's or Hope's, so I never found these parties to be completely ideal. But if you're having issues with staying alive in Pulse, I would highly recommend these parties. Note that you may finish battles more slowly. Both Sazh and Snow have slower animation speeds. Fang's casting animation speed (at least the initial one) is quite slow as well. Hope is the best caster because his first cast is pretty quick, and he's powerful. The unfortunate thing is that Hope's (and Vanille's) standing up animation (from getting hit and thrown on the ground) is much slower than everyone else's so you will have to deal with that when you put either member in your party (and putting a caster will become essential during late game and post game).

Another alternative (which I do not enjoy as much since Fang is the hardest hitter and I dislike having her out of the party):
Light/Vanille/Snow
Com/Rav/Sen
Rav/Rav/Sen
Rav/Sab/Sen
Com/Sab/Sen
Com/Med/Sen
Med/Med/Sen

Extra:
Com/Rav/Com
Com/Rav/Rav
Rav/Med/Com
Com/Med/Rav
Com/Sab/Rav
Com/Sab/Com
Rav/Sab/Rav
Med/Sab/Rav
Med/Sab/Com

As you can see, this alternative above is not one I prefer due to the fact that is not as flexible. You're assigning the same Optima/jobs to different people. The Optima set I describe below is even more flexible.

Light/Vanille/Fang
Com/Rav/Sen
Rav/Rav/Sen
Rav/Med/Sen (if you are using -strike attacks, since they don't seem to be as bad at depleting the Stagger gauge as just striking enemies with spells)
Com/Med/Sen
Med/Med/Sen
Rav/Sab/Sen

Extra:
Com/Rav/Com
Rav/Rav/Com
Rav/Sab/Com
Com/Sab/Sab
Com/Rav/Sab
Rav/Rav/Sab
Rav/Med/Com
Rav/Med/Sab
Med/Med/Com

^This Optima set is pretty close to the Light/Fang/Hope Optima set, but the only thing here is that you do not get buffs. Careful with this one if you're facing strong enemies.

Make sure to start off training in Vallis Media (the area you come out from when you first venture out on Gran Pulse; the path that you move down to find Hope when the chapter opens). It is where your ship landed. Just turn around and go right back in. The monsters here are easier. Here's a video of the area. If you do not feel prepared for the Steppe, the monsters in Vallis Media are perfect, and they can be taken down quite quickly. You can also go right through Vallis Media to Yaschas Massif and the enemies there aren't awful either. They are easier to get PE strikes on as well. Fight the Flans and leafy enemies by using fire on them. Yaschas Massif is a good battleground. Just avoid the enemies you don't want to fight. The Rafflesia and Flans should be easy enough (they are weak to fire).

Another group of enemies that I found easier are these enemies on the far southwest side of Pulse. They dance in a little circle (they're called Adroa (never use magic on these; swordplay + debuffing is your friend here) or Rangdas (wk vs water and ice)? I dunno, Palette Swaps). The only thing is that they summon other creatures, but you can usually take them out before they do that.

Try using Fang or Light as your party leader if you are uncomfortable with how low Hope's HP is. I generally like using Hope as a party leader because I like having control over buffs, but a lot of people don't seem to like doing that at all. Fang or Light are your best bets here. Light moreso if you plan to include a Sentinel in your party. She's faster than the others regardless. I'm not used to making strategies that include Lightning, however, as I barely used her when I was given freedom. But if you want an easier time, include her.

I hope that helps. The important thing is to try your hand at the enemies in Vallis Media (and maybe Yaschas Massif) first and boost your Crystarium. Just enter/exit the area, or run through the area repeatedly. Monotonous? Yes. Will it get you prepared for what is to come? Absolutely. Part of the challenge of Gran Pulse's difficulty spike is finding out which party consistently works for you.

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

Sorry if this has been answered but which set of missions is it that changes the Adamantoise to Long Gui's? Is it the Titan Trials in the Faultwarrens or the circle of trials in the Archelyte Steppe?

 

[xion4360]

Sorry if this has been answered but which set of missions is it that changes the Adamantoise to Long Gui's? Is it the Titan Trials in the Faultwarrens or the circle of trials in the Archelyte Steppe?

That

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

I may just avoid both anyway. Still need too much money to finish up all the upgrading.

 

[Gvaz]

This game is infinitely better if you get inf gil and inf items and such cheats. Mash x for 50 hours go!

 

[Himself]

I'm playing through for the first time. I just finished chapter 7 and I'm at about 16 hours. Does anything interesting ever happen? I like the lore, the music, the battle system, even the characters don't bother me. The whole set up is interesting enough, but I just feel like nothing interesting is happening to the characters other than extremely predictable arcs.

So at what chapter or approximately how many hours till the game "opens up" or "gets better" like I heard people talking about?

 

[cosmicblizzard]

I'm playing through for the first time. I just finished chapter 7 and I'm at about 16 hours. Does anything interesting ever happen? I like the lore, the music, the battle system, even the characters don't bother me. The whole set up is interesting enough, but I just feel like nothing interesting is happening to the characters other than extremely predictable arcs.

So at what chapter or approximately how many hours till the game "opens up" or "gets better" like I heard people talking about?

There's a major "shit hits the fan" moment in chapter 8. The game "opens up" in the non-linear sense at chapter 11.

 

[Himself]

There's a major "shit hits the fan" moment in chapter 8. The game "opens up" in the non-linear sense at chapter 11.

Cool. It's a shame it's taking so damn long to get to these moments. That's probably the game's biggest flaws so far in my eyes. Guess I'll keep at it.

 

[Gvaz]

There's a major "shit hits the fan" moment in chapter 8. The game "opens up" in the non-linear sense at chapter 11.

I just started chapter 12 and it the only opening up is giving you a large zone with a bunch of sequential killquests and a poor waypoint implementation (why do only SOME of these things have a teleport ability?? All of them should.)

 

[Gvaz]

Sorry for the double post but I finished the game and wanted to express what I thought of the game.

Things I liked (lets get this out of the way):
+ Graphics. 1080p @ 30fps (with rarely dips below) with these graphics on the PS3? Wait, that thing wasn't a render just now? What the fuck is this magic
+ Sound/music. Everything really fits the zone without getting too repetitive
+ dying to a boss allows you to redo the boss
+ art design (the game had great art, character visual design, etc). Squeenix went all out to an absurd amount. There really isn't an equal graphics wise on any of the consoles compared to this, at least on the PS3.
+ Voice Acting. For the most part, they hit this out of the park. Some are a little dodgy but it makes up for it
+ Sahz. He was the most realistic of the characters, the most human. Hope on the other hand acts like a petulant child most of the time.

Things I disliked (ohboyherewego):
- railroaded as hell, the whole way with a minor break in chapter 11. This doesn't make up for the rest of the game. You could take out player control and make it literally on rails and nothing whatsoever would change. You gain nothing in this game by controlling the player. you could automate the travel to cutscenes with a quick simon says/qte minigame you can do if you want to skip mobs and it would be more fun than what we got.
- story. (it wasn't convoluted, it was just rather trite, predictable and not very emotional as they were going for. Maybe it's a japanese thing? *shrug*)
- script (there were times where the script could have been talking about the players and square enix itself, which I found amusing. The rest of the time it was telling me shit I could figure out for myself or had, or it was repeating the same trite lines....with minor impact more on this)
- characters (everyone is flat and one dimensional with little growth or development. Antagonists or side characters have zero development and do nothing to stimulate the development of the main characters. Okay this guy dies....I'm supposed to feel for this character? I saw him like three times in cutscenes for 5 minutes out of 40+ hours, what's my MO? Why am I supposed to care about this guy?)
- combat mechanics (the combat mechanics was just too simple. Press L1 to change paradigms, which is just ai and ability lists. Press X to confirm. Press Triangle to stop the gauge early and force it to do whatever's in the list now. There was no real depth to it, once you had the right paradigms equipped. Sure for some things you needed better abilities, of course. But the mechanics never change at all. Sure you get gestalts (never used them except once or twice when you're forced, never needed them) and TP abilities (never used or needed them, also librascope) and *sols for those hard fights, but by the time you're able to buy them, you can cast all those things yourself in a reasonable amount of time with the right paradigms so they effectively become useless and a money sink that isn't even necessary. Fighting mobs wasn't hard really if you knew when to switch or how the paradigms worked, it was just really boring. I would much rather have this replaced with something like Tales of Vesperia combat, because it's much more interactive and therefore interesting.)
- quest(s) (there was only one quest chain, and it's all just killquests. There's no depth to it at all, nothing substantial gained from it other than some non-important side story info that can be mostly ignored. A few quests are charming like with the Cactuar, but not enough for you do want to do all of them (most of which you can only do if you bite the bullet and grind each and every CP you can get your hands on))
- customization (only weapon/accessory combos and nothing shows up in cutscenes. I realize by forcing default weapons to display it standardizes them (because of the render cutscenes) so you don't have this big difference between the two, but it's shit. I want to equip gear, I want it to show up on my character. I want to see my character doing things while showing his/her progression through his equipment. Furthermore, weapon customization was an interesting idea but implemented poorly. It takes an absurd amount of time/resources to level your weapon up to max and you're always going to be limited in one way or another. It's bad enough if you don't meet the star requirement you're less likely to get those rare items that all of them need in droves for EXP.)
- lack of choices or the illusion thereof. (like I just mean at least choices like equipment, or which path to take even if it ends up in the same place, or something that makes you feel like you're accomplishing something. I never got that in this game ever. In this linear hall why are you showing me enemies that I can't avoid? What's the point of this? If you're not going to give me a choice to avoid the mob, just make the encounters random and you effectively get the same thing.)
- the l'cie markers are sequentially available (forcing you to track them down, and complete them in order but the game doesn't actually TELL you where to find the next one)
- the l'cie markers should all be waypoints to each other, not individually. You see this most in the plains because there's all these markers but only 2-3 waypoints in that big zone? Lol no, make all of them waypoints. I noticed I could pick up a quest later in the game, but I had to go all the way back to guar plains or something to do it, to which I said "FUCK NO" cause fuck If I'm going to be arsed to backtrack all that way. Teleport me there and back, or I'm not bothering.
- lack of actual minigames (though given FF's minigame track record, this should be a plus)
- everything "cool" that happens in the game is automated for you or is in a cutscene


Here's what I expect out of an rpg:

- Illusion of choice.
- character progression, evolution, and customization
- a decent story that evolves realistically within the setting with character development
- quests, minigames, unnecessary things that don't feel like a chore but always have a good incentive behind them
- some sort of display through the story of my achievements (either by npc recognition or showing armor/weapons in cutscenes)

Incidentally, all my positive points were not things that are required for a good game, but supplement one. It doesn't do anything right in the rpg or game field, it's not a game, it's a god damn interactive movie with irrelevant mechanics.

To be fair, I can see this being the culmination of everything FF has done to date (haven't touched ff8 or ff11 or ffx-2) so FF13 being like this is logical. However, these are not good design choices, none of this. Is there some nugget of enjoyment in here? Sure, though for me it was initial curiosity then wanting to complete what I invested in rather than what should have been an investment in the characters and the progression I did in the game.

I will say that this is the first FF I've actually completed (I've played almost all of them, just never beat any of them) and to be honest it's kind of killed any interest I've had in the series because of it. Might beat ff12 and ff7 simply to see them completed, but no....

Anyways I think this is appropriate given all that:

1.5/5

 

[SonicX_Zero]

Sorry to bump this thread but is there a special condition with regards to the treasure hunter trophy like maxing out the weapons or accessory levels? The trophy just won't trigger.

 

[froliq]

Sorry to bump this thread but is there a special condition with regards to the treasure hunter trophy like maxing out the weapons or accessory levels? The trophy just won't trigger.

I believe you have to max a weapon from every character. When they are maxed, they change names and become a different item basically.

 

[SonicX_Zero]

You mean I have to max out the levels of each T3 weapons I have for each character?

 

[Zafir]

No, just getting each character a T3 weapon should be enough.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoFKqgMVQUrzdEdrMHQ5SUdoSThHZTNNV2h2VHhaT3c#gid=0

You need to have one of everything which doesn't have the same name as you already own. As in, you only need to take one weapon to T3, that's enough for each character. You need to get all of their t1 weapons and upgrade them to t2 though.

 

[distantmantra]

Seriously pissed off at this game. I'm at the first form of the final boss, and it keeps pulling that Progenitorial Wraith spell on me, killing the party leader immediately. I switch to having a Sentinel whenever it happens, and it still kills me. Any suggestions that don't involve grinding for hours to get specific accessories or items?

 

[Seanspeed]

I'm finally giving this game a fighting chance(only played it about 30 minutes before quitting first time out) and I have to say........I'm starting to enjoy it a bit. I'm about 7 hours in and the combat and paradigm system is starting to be pretty decent. Hopefully it keeps it up.

 

[jorgeton]

Seriously pissed off at this game. I'm at the first form of the final boss, and it keeps pulling that Progenitorial Wraith spell on me, killing the party leader immediately. I switch to having a Sentinel whenever it happens, and it still kills me. Any suggestions that don't involve grinding for hours to get specific accessories or items?

There's an accessory you can buy from one of the online shops that protects you from death (cherub's crown), upgrade that a bit and it should protect you from the boss' one-hitter.

 

[Dark Schala]

Seriously pissed off at this game. I'm at the first form of the final boss, and it keeps pulling that Progenitorial Wraith spell on me, killing the party leader immediately. I switch to having a Sentinel whenever it happens, and it still kills me. Any suggestions that don't involve grinding for hours to get specific accessories or items?

Have three Cherub's Crowns on your party leader. It'll save them from instadeath.

I've noticed that people generally like to use Light/Hope/Fang for some reason, so I'll give a strategy for that team (for reference, my party was Hope/Vanille/Fang).

Are you in the battle? Good, now hit pause and select Retry. It'll bring the menu up. Go into the Paradigms/Optima section and rearrange your Optima to this:

Light/Hope/Fang
COM/RAV/COM <--used when stagger gauge is at 999%
RAV/RAV/COM <--used to stagger, and also for Lightning's Army of One
MED/MED/SEN <---Paradigm you should start with. Set it to default.
COM/RAV/SEN <--In case you think he's hitting too hard but you need to stagger anyway
RAV/RAV/SEN <--fast stagger but remember COMs reduce depletion of the break Gauge
MED/SYN/SAB <--buff/debuff

Notes:
-Whenever you see the words "Merciless Judgement" appear on the screen, switch to MED/MED/SEN (Combat Clinic) immediately. This is because you will not be able to do anything when the boss carries out the attack

1) open with MED/MED/SEN. Wait until it uses Merciless Judgement.

2) switch to MED/SYN/SAB. Let Hope give all 6 buffs to everyone and for Fang to hit it with slow

3) switch to RAV/RAV/COM when the enemy is debuffed with Slow at least. I can't remember if it's weak against Imperil, but that's a good debuff too.

4) remember to switch to med/med/syn whenever it uses Merciless Judgement. When the first stagger gauge depletes (ie: after you've staggered it--remember to use Lightning's Army of One to drive the break gauge to 999% before switching to Com/Rav/Com to hit it hard), switch to med/med/sen to wait for Merciless Judgement

5) Ignore when it hits you with status effects in its Consummate Darkness mode. It doesn't matter in the long run and they expire on their own. If you think you need to heal from that, use Renew. Don't bother switching into Med/Med/Sen just to heal status ailments and stay with Rav/Rav/Com until you stagger it. don't attack it when it's staggered just yet. Switch back to Med/Syn/Sab and replenish buffs you need. Then switch to Com/Rav/Com

6) switch to Med/Med/Sen when it uses Merciless Judgement. Then go back to Rav/Rav/Com and switch to Med/Med/Sen when you see Merciless Judgement on the screen.

7) you should be safe from Progenitorial Wrath since you have Cherub's Crowns on your leader. Use Phoenix Downs if people die. Don't waste time and switch to Med/Med/Sen if you don't need it just to revive someone. It's inefficient.

8) To take it down, switch to Rav/Rav/Com, stagger, and then use Lightning's Army of One attack just to drive the gauge up to 999%, then switch to Com/Rav/Com. If he doesn't go down yet, repeat the process until he does.

Hope that helps.

 

[distantmantra]

Have three Cherub's Crowns on your party leader. It'll save them from instadeath.

I've noticed that people generally like to use Light/Hope/Fang for some reason, so I'll give a strategy for that team (for reference, my party was Hope/Vanille/Fang).

Are you in the battle? Good, now hit pause and select Retry. It'll bring the menu up. Go into the Paradigms/Optima section and rearrange your Optima to this:

Light/Hope/Fang
COM/RAV/COM <--used when stagger gauge is at 999%
RAV/RAV/COM <--used to stagger, and also for Lightning's Army of One
MED/MED/SEN <---Paradigm you should start with. Set it to default.
COM/RAV/SEN <--In case you think he's hitting too hard but you need to stagger anyway
RAV/RAV/SEN <--fast stagger but remember COMs reduce depletion of the break Gauge
MED/SYN/SAB <--buff/debuff

Notes:
-Whenever you see the words "Merciless Judgement" appear on the screen, switch to MED/MED/SEN (Combat Clinic) immediately. This is because you will not be able to do anything when the boss carries out the attack

1) open with MED/MED/SEN. Wait until it uses Merciless Judgement.

2) switch to MED/SYN/SAB. Let Hope give all 6 buffs to everyone and for Fang to hit it with slow

3) switch to RAV/RAV/COM when the enemy is debuffed with Slow at least. I can't remember if it's weak against Imperil, but that's a good debuff too.

4) remember to switch to med/med/syn whenever it uses Merciless Judgement. When the first stagger gauge depletes (ie: after you've staggered it--remember to use Lightning's Army of One to drive the break gauge to 999% before switching to Com/Rav/Com to hit it hard), switch to med/med/sen to wait for Merciless Judgement

5) Ignore when it hits you with status effects in its Consummate Darkness mode. It doesn't matter in the long run and they expire on their own. If you think you need to heal from that, use Renew. Don't bother switching into Med/Med/Sen just to heal status ailments and stay with Rav/Rav/Com until you stagger it. don't attack it when it's staggered just yet. Switch back to Med/Syn/Sab and replenish buffs you need. Then switch to Com/Rav/Com

6) switch to Med/Med/Sen when it uses Merciless Judgement. Then go back to Rav/Rav/Com and switch to Med/Med/Sen when you see Merciless Judgement on the screen.

7) you should be safe from Progenitorial Wrath since you have Cherub's Crowns on your leader. Use Phoenix Downs if people die. Don't waste time and switch to Med/Med/Sen if you don't need it just to revive someone. It's inefficient.

8) To take it down, switch to Rav/Rav/Com, stagger, and then use Lightning's Army of One attack just to drive the gauge up to 999%, then switch to Com/Rav/Com. If he doesn't go down yet, repeat the process until he does.

Hope that helps.

That's the strategy I've been using minus the Cherub's Crown, I just keep getting hit with the instant death spell. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Sometimes it's near the beginning of the fight, sometimes near the end. I almost had him dead and then he cast it. WTF. Need to buy some anti-death accessories.

 

[RedSwirl]

Okay so I just got back on this game and just got to Pulse, and am at kind of a loss as to what I'm supposed to do. Do they WANT you to grind and do the side quests? Because half the enemies in the first area can almost insta-kill my party, including Behemoth Kings.

I tried going past the first big area, but then ran into an enemy in the tunnel beyond that I just couldn't beat. It was the one that kept spawning all the robots, so I just backtracked to the beginning again.

 

[Zoe]

Okay so I just got back on this game and just got to Pulse, and am at kind of a loss as to what I'm supposed to do. Do they WANT you to grind and do the side quests? Because half the enemies in the first area can almost insta-kill my party, including Behemoth Kings.

I tried going past the first big area, but then ran into an enemy in the tunnel beyond that I just couldn't beat. It was the one that kept spawning all the robots, so I just backtracked to the beginning again.

You're supposed to do the missions in order. They'll lead you to your destination.

 

[farnham]

finally beat the game after 2 years (played it until chapter 12 two years ago and left it until now)..... did the adamantoise instakill with death and farmed a lot of cp to upgrade my characters so that the boss fights were a breeze... still took me a 10 additional hours though..

 

[farnham]

Okay so I just got back on this game and just got to Pulse, and am at kind of a loss as to what I'm supposed to do. Do they WANT you to grind and do the side quests? Because half the enemies in the first area can almost insta-kill my party, including Behemoth Kings.

I tried going past the first big area, but then ran into an enemy in the tunnel beyond that I just couldn't beat. It was the one that kept spawning all the robots, so I just backtracked to the beginning again.

i advanced to coccon immediately without bothering to fight the enemies on gran pulse.

there is a warp gate to gran pulse at the final dungeon if you want to grind a bit.

I believe you will be much better equipped at that time rather then the moment were you enter gran pulse anyways...

 

[Roubjon]

Here I was thinking I was going to 100% this game, but after just looking at this single page that isn't going to happen. I'll just plow through to the end of the game.

 

[Celcius]

Years ago when I first played through FFXIII, I never could get the Adamant Will trophy. Tonight on a random whim I decided to go for it again. I found out that I could break down two fully upgraded doctor's codes to gain 2 more elixirs, then during the fight I found out that he could be poisoned (poison is the single-most effective weapon in the game IMO). After all these years, I finally beat him