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FINAL FANTASY XIII | The Official Import Thread
- Thread starter Kagari
- Start date
rykomatsu
Member
Zefah said:
I think I'm on the last boss
Dicely(?) after the owl dives into that pool looking thing and he reappears with an angelic figure type thing that's rubbing his "ear"?
I keep getting 2 shotted even with Defender/Healer/Healer...the healer AI keeps healing themselves and I can't regen enough with a potion...but at the same time I don't want to use Fullcare either and waste TP...I gave up after 5 attempts with similar results regardless of Optima...
I'm around 6000hp for all 3 chars atm (Fang/Lightning/Vanilla)...am I underlevelled?
Okay this is getting stupid. Need some help
on Galenth fal'Cie. I go into the party with attack, magic and haste up. The weird face things on the side of him are easy to beat and then I can get the main part down to 1/4 life before he one shots me. Any suggestions? Using Lightning as Blaster, Fang as Attacker, Hope as Healer for most of the battle.
Kagari said:
Don't know why you're having so much trouble but....
When he starts charging up his super attack, which is really obvious, you should heal up to max HP for the party, and then CONTINUE attacking so your party doesn't stick in one location (AOE attack). It shouldn't be possible to get one-shotted, unless your Lightning has like shit HP or something. In which case you need to do something about that. It's basically an AOE rapid fire attack, so if your characters are constantly moving especially Lightning as Attacker, then they will take much less damage (make sure you keep healer active just before he lets off the attack, since you want to heal up right after that and their ATB bars will be full and doing nothing if the party's HP is max at that point. If that's the case they'll start healing the MOMENT the attack starts).
It's really not that hard of a fight. If you're having problems with this, you're going to be so fucked on the next boss. :lol
rykomatsu
Member
Kagari said:
I don't know who Galenth is (bad with names)...I'm assuming it's Dicely based on your description
Use accessories that increase your HP. Also distribute your CP into HP increasing slots as well.
Optimas to use (Fang/Lightning/Vanilla was my party):
Attacker/Blaster/Healer (Optima to break)
Attacker/Attacker/Healer (Optima during break)
Defender/Healer/Healer (Optima immediately before and after massive AOE)
It also helps if you set leader to someone with high HP to load the dice in your favor.
Use accessories that increase your HP. Also distribute your CP into HP increasing slots as well.
Optimas to use (Fang/Lightning/Vanilla was my party):
Attacker/Blaster/Healer (Optima to break)
Attacker/Attacker/Healer (Optima during break)
Defender/Healer/Healer (Optima immediately before and after massive AOE)
It also helps if you set leader to someone with high HP to load the dice in your favor.
If you're underpowered, you might encounter the death timer...it was the first battle I've encountered it (only one of 2 bosses that I've hit with it, fortunately)
Fimbulvetr
Member
Cedille said:
She means
the old guy dressed like the pope, his name is Galenth.
As for Kagari's question:
Maybe you can make Fang your party leader and have her use defender when the boss is charging?
Kagari said:
keep attacking when he does the long charging AoE move, the more you attack, the less damage the AoE does. just make sure you cap your hp before he releases it (takes a long time).
he AoE everything so defender won't help much, if all your characters can heal it'll make things faster.
So most of you importers have finished this or are close to finishing it , so is it a fair game to place a general consensus on here now ? The below is what I've gathered from reading many of the comments on this forum and around the internets. I HAVE NOT PLAYED IT MYSELF BUT I INTEND TO ATLEAST GIVE IT A CHANCE IN MARCH
Story
Seems this is the biggest part of this game. Playing it in japanese is going to be incredibly pointless unless unless you can understand a good chunk of the dialog. The quality of said story also seems to be dependent on both your level of japanese knowledge as well as your tolerance level for shounen anime BS. FFXIII does a good job of using these genre conventions as well as typical FF storyline twists and turns but should you be sick of that sort of thing this will not change your mind.
Bullet points
+world is well realized and has interesting backstory
+The story is entertaining enough to follow
-some of the characters get grating, mileage will of course vary
General Gameplay
or lack thereof amirite folks? Gameplay consists about 90% of fighting stuff which isn't too much more then any FF game. Gone are towns, filler NPC characters , normal shops , sidequests , nonlinear dungeons. The pace of the game is set up more like that of an action game, you play through a stage filled with enemies and fight a boss at its conclusion. The reward you obtain is a CG cutscene. The same thing could be said for any post snes final fantasy game but this one does away with EVERYTHING that is unessential to combat or story progression. The game does have an area similar to the calm lands from FFX but all you can do is mob hunts that can pretty much be summed up as endgame grinding. It's been said as well that a large portion of this open ended area is built out of previously played through sections making it's impact as the payoff for 25 hours of cutscenes less substantial.
Bullet points
+streamlined setup allows for easy entry
-linearity cuts out the exploration element that used to be a good chunk of what the series was
Battle System
It's been detailed to hell and back but this is apparently the meat of the game. As is usual for a Final Fantasy title, you need to play for a good 10 hours or so before the full meat of the system is unlocked. It's a mixture of many things but can probably best be summed up with Crysis core with 2 NPC party members with some of FFX-2's dress spheres ideas tossed in. It's designed to be simple and fun and highly cinematic at the same time as being fast paced. This is also the game breaker it seems, if you love the combat system ALL of the games other shortcomings are ignorable but should you not care for it , it'll only compound on those shortcomings and perhaps turn FFXIII into an unplayable mess.
Bullet points
+the fasted paced most cinematic battle system in series history
-but it comes at the cost of a fully controllable party and might be too flashy
Presentation
The final point here, also the one this game perhaps excels most at but the least important aspect of a game. Square have thrown out some of the best visuals of this generation here but at the same time there are other games that look as good or even better then this does. Still beauty doesn't hurt anything and despite the linear path the whole thing treads you still have different things to look at as you march down the road to the stage boss. The music must not be that great because I see very few comments that even bring it up , this compared to earlier final fantasy games where the average fan will talk at length about the moving score through their experience. Not to say it's bad, from what I've heard of it , the soundtrack sounds pretty good but having not played the game and experienced it that way I've got nothing to relate it to mentally. Essentially The presentation is good enough in all areas , even amazing in some areas.
Bullet points
+Looks amazing
~soundtrack may not be up the the usual standard
Overall
Your enjoyment factor depends on how much you can tolerate the story and how much you like the battle system. Past games that can determine your level of enjoyment seem to include - FFX, FF7crisis core, FFX-2 and the movie FF7 Advent children. If you enjoyed all of those things you'll probably love this game to no end. But if you hated crisis core's battle system, hated the linearity of FFX and thought the fighting scenes in advent children looked stupid then you'll probably be better off skipping the latest entry in the Final Fantasy series.
---------------------------
This is merely a summary , again, of what I've read and watched. My personal take on this is I still want to try the game out. Perhaps it'll be like MGS4 was for me, the amount of cutscenes and lack of gameplay compelled me to polish the game off purely to see the storyline through to the end.
Story
Seems this is the biggest part of this game. Playing it in japanese is going to be incredibly pointless unless unless you can understand a good chunk of the dialog. The quality of said story also seems to be dependent on both your level of japanese knowledge as well as your tolerance level for shounen anime BS. FFXIII does a good job of using these genre conventions as well as typical FF storyline twists and turns but should you be sick of that sort of thing this will not change your mind.
Bullet points
+world is well realized and has interesting backstory
+The story is entertaining enough to follow
-some of the characters get grating, mileage will of course vary
General Gameplay
or lack thereof amirite folks? Gameplay consists about 90% of fighting stuff which isn't too much more then any FF game. Gone are towns, filler NPC characters , normal shops , sidequests , nonlinear dungeons. The pace of the game is set up more like that of an action game, you play through a stage filled with enemies and fight a boss at its conclusion. The reward you obtain is a CG cutscene. The same thing could be said for any post snes final fantasy game but this one does away with EVERYTHING that is unessential to combat or story progression. The game does have an area similar to the calm lands from FFX but all you can do is mob hunts that can pretty much be summed up as endgame grinding. It's been said as well that a large portion of this open ended area is built out of previously played through sections making it's impact as the payoff for 25 hours of cutscenes less substantial.
Bullet points
+streamlined setup allows for easy entry
-linearity cuts out the exploration element that used to be a good chunk of what the series was
Battle System
It's been detailed to hell and back but this is apparently the meat of the game. As is usual for a Final Fantasy title, you need to play for a good 10 hours or so before the full meat of the system is unlocked. It's a mixture of many things but can probably best be summed up with Crysis core with 2 NPC party members with some of FFX-2's dress spheres ideas tossed in. It's designed to be simple and fun and highly cinematic at the same time as being fast paced. This is also the game breaker it seems, if you love the combat system ALL of the games other shortcomings are ignorable but should you not care for it , it'll only compound on those shortcomings and perhaps turn FFXIII into an unplayable mess.
Bullet points
+the fasted paced most cinematic battle system in series history
-but it comes at the cost of a fully controllable party and might be too flashy
Presentation
The final point here, also the one this game perhaps excels most at but the least important aspect of a game. Square have thrown out some of the best visuals of this generation here but at the same time there are other games that look as good or even better then this does. Still beauty doesn't hurt anything and despite the linear path the whole thing treads you still have different things to look at as you march down the road to the stage boss. The music must not be that great because I see very few comments that even bring it up , this compared to earlier final fantasy games where the average fan will talk at length about the moving score through their experience. Not to say it's bad, from what I've heard of it , the soundtrack sounds pretty good but having not played the game and experienced it that way I've got nothing to relate it to mentally. Essentially The presentation is good enough in all areas , even amazing in some areas.
Bullet points
+Looks amazing
~soundtrack may not be up the the usual standard
Overall
Your enjoyment factor depends on how much you can tolerate the story and how much you like the battle system. Past games that can determine your level of enjoyment seem to include - FFX, FF7crisis core, FFX-2 and the movie FF7 Advent children. If you enjoyed all of those things you'll probably love this game to no end. But if you hated crisis core's battle system, hated the linearity of FFX and thought the fighting scenes in advent children looked stupid then you'll probably be better off skipping the latest entry in the Final Fantasy series.
---------------------------
This is merely a summary , again, of what I've read and watched. My personal take on this is I still want to try the game out. Perhaps it'll be like MGS4 was for me, the amount of cutscenes and lack of gameplay compelled me to polish the game off purely to see the storyline through to the end.
rykomatsu
Member
FFXIII finish
Last boss
Ending
Overall not a bad game, not superb either...great battle system (albeit lack of detailed control), visually extremely nice, story/overall field design was pretty lackluster. The way in which the story timeline was presented was enjoyable, however. I'd give it maybe an 80~85/100? Nowhere near the 39/40 that famitsu gave it. I can understand why people called it quits in 5~10hrs though.
Last boss
Found out that I didn't have Cureda (or w/e the higher party heal was) for Vanilla and swapped out Lightning for Hope which solved the 2 shotting problem I was having.
2nd form was pretty easy
3rd form was a fucking joke
The behemoths and tusked ginormous mobs were far more challenging than the last battle...really quite a disappointment to be honest. I mean shit...1min20sec final boss battle? Was expecting something a bit better than that.
2nd form was pretty easy
3rd form was a fucking joke
The behemoths and tusked ginormous mobs were far more challenging than the last battle...really quite a disappointment to be honest. I mean shit...1min20sec final boss battle? Was expecting something a bit better than that.
Ending
Was a bit too happy-go-lucky. While I know it doesn't fit the theme of rising up against fate, I think I would have liked the irony of the characters being crystalized for eternity.
Overall not a bad game, not superb either...great battle system (albeit lack of detailed control), visually extremely nice, story/overall field design was pretty lackluster. The way in which the story timeline was presented was enjoyable, however. I'd give it maybe an 80~85/100? Nowhere near the 39/40 that famitsu gave it. I can understand why people called it quits in 5~10hrs though.
Pachinko said:
Yeah sounds about right with what I've played so far. I don't understand a lick of Japanese, but I am still enjoying the cutscenes, even the dialog, just because of the animations and interaction in between the characters. Conversations seem to feel very reel. The only really annoying character is Hope, since he just feels like an anime stereotype, right down to his annoying as hell gasps at every moment.
Combat is great...dare I say the best FF has had to date? It's certainly the game's strongest point, which is refreshing coming from a series with pretty boring combat (apart from FF X-2 and FFXII which were pretty fun). This is a refinement from those 2 previous attempts, and a damned good one. My only gripe is the optima change animation...the first time you use it in each battle it changes camera angles and shows you each character changing. Annoying, and unnecessary, since you change so damned often in battle.
I'd say the game's biggest downfall so far is the pacing. I don't mind the fact that some filler is gone, but what were left with is just an unrelenting assault of battles and cutscenes. I can only really play the game for 2 hours or so at a time because it's just exhausting.
L0st Id3ntity
Member
Just wanted to thank everybody who posted their impressions.
I'm kinda bummed for the absence of "ZOMG!!1!" in any post though :lol, it seems people are either liking the game quite enough or are simply disappointed with it.
I'm kinda bummed for the absence of "ZOMG!!1!" in any post though :lol, it seems people are either liking the game quite enough or are simply disappointed with it.
BlazingDarkness
Member
The sunset in Bodam was stunning
Just wish i could wonder around there more!
Just wish i could wonder around there more!
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
rykomatsu said:
Sorry I didn't answer in time, but it looks like you figured out a strategy easily enough. My final party was Fang / Hope / Lightning as well. Haste and the various other buffs and debuffs seemed to really make a difference on the final battles.
Well I'm able to play FFXIII again, I went out and bought the Asian FFXIII and a new 120GB US Slim today, bless Chinese malls on Christmas day.
As for my JP FFXIII in my old 60GB JP Fat, apparently Sony will take it back to fix which is amazing (I have to pay them obviously), I just have to wait for that box now.
But yay, I can play FFXIII again, I was only 15 hours in, so it's not that big of a deal and this long weekend makes this easier.
As for my JP FFXIII in my old 60GB JP Fat, apparently Sony will take it back to fix which is amazing (I have to pay them obviously), I just have to wait for that box now.
But yay, I can play FFXIII again, I was only 15 hours in, so it's not that big of a deal and this long weekend makes this easier.
I've been stuck for over an hour on what I think might be the last C-rank mission left. It's at the
There are 10 enemies and about half of them have ridiculously high HPs. When all 10 attack at once they destroy my party even with defender. The only way I can survive a decent amount of time is defender + 2 healers but then I'm not attacking I'm just defending.
I probably should just move on with the story and come back to this later as an hour+ is a waste of a lot of time. But I really want to beat it. It just seems I dunno...impossible. My HPs are around 3000 and my attacks are Snow 600atk, Hope/Vanille ~500magic.
chocobo area with the white fish who summon the purple fish along with the mission fish
There are 10 enemies and about half of them have ridiculously high HPs. When all 10 attack at once they destroy my party even with defender. The only way I can survive a decent amount of time is defender + 2 healers but then I'm not attacking I'm just defending.
I probably should just move on with the story and come back to this later as an hour+ is a waste of a lot of time. But I really want to beat it. It just seems I dunno...impossible. My HPs are around 3000 and my attacks are Snow 600atk, Hope/Vanille ~500magic.
PuppetMaster
Member
I just got a total party wipeout by a
His intro was so awesome and hilarious too.
Tonberry!
His intro was so awesome and hilarious too.
PuppetMaster
Member
Bebpo said:
You have to complete mission 14.
Fimbulvetr
Member
PuppetMaster said:
I didn't think he'd be in this, sweet. Is the design different than normal?
BudokaiMR2
Member
thetrin said:
If you can't see the fundamental difference between the two games then you need to step back for a second.
Persona you are quite obviously the main character. I mean you name him for fucks sake. You don't play the other characters. That's just how it works.
The same type of system really doesn't fit in a FF game where you are supposed to play all the characters and can easily swap them out in the menu later in the game. It just doesn't make sense. Maybe in the first 20-25 hours where you can't pick your leader anyway, but would it really have been a big leap to allow in battle switching of the leader, especially when one dies?
It also ties into another annoying aspect. I hate how you can only summon your leader's eidolon. I don't actually like playing as Fang but I really like her summon. It sucks that mid battle I can't switch to use her just to summon. But yeah, small nit picks.
Pretty sure I am going to finish the game today. Doing some last stuff in Gran Pulse(going to try and get an Omega Weapon for Lightning as I figured out an easy way to take down the big tusked guys) and then go destroy the last boss.
indigo-cyclops
Member
SO I've been making some great progress the past few days. Really really happy with the game, and I've heard some good things about the ending and beyond. Since getting 漢字そのまま楽引辞典 (Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten) for DS I've been able to really get a better handle on the story. What a great piece of software that is. No doubt will I be playing through again just so I get the first 7 chapters that I missed. In the end, I think XIII will be a success for people that open their minds to something new!
PuppetMaster
Member
Cedille said:
This story is much richer and better developed than VII to me. I would be happy to see a spin off movie of this game.
BudokaiMR2
Member
0405 said:
There is a secret that I found on one of the japanese wikis that makes it easy, although not fool proof. Doesn't really matter since the game doesn't punish for dieing anyway.
If you summon Vanille's eidolon then it trips the big ones up for some reason. Then you basically just cast death over and over until it works. They will eventually stand back up so it is best to put Fang in as a Jammer also as her spells might increase the chance death will work.
BudokaiMR2
Member
PuppetMaster said:
This just doesn't make sense to me at all. I think there are a lot of good ideas in the world of XIII but it doesn't really flesh them out at all. I don't see how people are claiming it is a 'fully realized world'
The other games had a cohesive world that helped to develop characters. Especially VII. You learn about Barrett's back-story through the scenes at Corel(his hometown) and through the prison scenes under Gold Saucer. Details like that are missing from XIII because of the lack of a cohesive world IMO. And every character in the VII has stuff like that. I mean Cid's backstory is more interesting and more fleshed out than all of the XIII characters put together IMO.
Honestly, unless something changes in the last chapter of XIII I would say this has the worst character development of any FF game. Honestly what do we know about ANY of the characters history or how they lived their lives before thrust into the events of the game? Can probably be summed up in less than a paragraph for every character...
BudokaiMR2 said:
You see, that is the problem with the game... and probably the reason Shouta was comparing its faults to FFXII's faults. The world and characters are very well-realized, they just don't show it in the game explicitly and kinda expect you to read the in-game encyclopedia and the free web-novel to get most of it.
It kinda helps, IMO. The web-novel isn't literary at all, but even Hope becomes moderately sympathetic after you've read it.
PuppetMaster said:
Prequel, please.
BudokaiMR2
Member
7Th said:You see, that is the problem with the game... and probably the reason Shouta was comparing its faults to FFXII's faults. The world and characters are very well-realized, they just don't show it in the game explicitly and kinda expect you to read the in-game encyclopedia and the free web-novel to get most of it.
It kinda helps, IMO. The web-novel isn't literary at all, but even Hope becomes moderately sympathetic after you've read it.
Prequel, please.
And this is a good thing? I didn't pay the goddamn ridiculous S-E tax for a fucking encyclopedia
I paid for a good RPG.
BudokaiMR2 said:And this is a good thing? I didn't pay the goddamn ridiculous S-E tax for a fucking encyclopedia
I paid for a good RPG.
I never said it was a good thing, I just said that they obviously put plenty of thought behind the world and characters... they just couldn't figure how to get the get the exposition into the actual game while keeping the fast cinematic pacing they were going for.
You know what else the game reminds me of? Xam'd. Except I like the characters in FFXIII better.
BudokaiMR2
Member
7Th said:
Yeah sorry, wasn't directed at you. I just assume that is what the people are using for basis of their 'fully realized world' claims.
Host Samurai
Member
I am currently in Tokyo on vacation and VERY tempted to pick this game up even though I cant read a word of Japanese but just want to buy it to have it as a souvenir. I went to Akihabara and saw this all over the place but picked up a bunch of cheap random Japanese PS2 games. I am thinking about going back to pick this up along with 3D Dot Heroes. I just have a 2 simple questions.
1) Is this import friendly? (Probably not is my guess)
2) If you were in Tokyo right now would you pick it up just to have?
1) Is this import friendly? (Probably not is my guess)
2) If you were in Tokyo right now would you pick it up just to have?
BudokaiMR2 said:
Like I said, the world itself is well-thought out and they gave plenty of hints of it in the game itself... they just couldn't figure out how to make those hints more than just hints. Shouta is spot-on with his comparisons to FFXII: both games have an extremely rich lore and setting that isn't fully explored in the game itself.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Host Samurai said:
Short answer: No. That sounds like a waste of $60 - $80 just to have the game. You won't be able to enjoy it at all if you can't read any Japanese. March really isn't that far away for the English version.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Well I'm done. I went on some monster hunts today, did a bit of grinding and got some of my characters over 10k HP. After a few hours I just realized I wasn't all that interested in it and got up and sold the game while I could still get 6,000 Yen for it. It was a fun experience, but I have absolutely no desire to ever play through the game again. The story and characters were simply not interesting and were just plain bad in my opinion.
BudokaiMR2 said:
I never said it was a good or bad thing in scope of the game's story itself. I was answering RPGmonkey's question about how well developed the worldview is. I think he and I share many similar tastes in terms of appreciating the worldview of RPGs, both in what is presented in the story, as well as what is in the background. The world in FFXIII -is- very well realized, and it is not JUST in autoclip. There are definitely a lot of very nice touches in the backgrounds and the general area design, mostly due to the really strong art direction.
My basis for saying the world is very well realized is that there is a very clear purpose in the detailed designs of each area, each enemy and how they they fit into the purpose and function of the world in general. Surely you're not going to say that it's not obvious how much attention to detail they put in making Cocoon and Pulse feel completely distinct, as well as how they approached the design of the enemies in the game, be it the soldiers or the monsters and how they're used on Cocoon, etc.
That's one of the reason I'm really enjoying FFXIII, aside from the battle system. The entire game is just fun and appealing to play for me, and I really enjoy each new area, and discovering new enemies and so on. The autoclip basically just fleshes out what is already there, and puts the visual detail into actual words and descriptions. If it didn't exist, while I would definitely be more confused about how certain things in the world work (and yes, this is a flaw because they could definitely have made many things clearer in the actual story), I would still find that the world and design is very well realized and detailed.
While I kinda understand the complaints about the story, I think most of them are kinda unjustified. I think the idea
of the fal'Cie as manufactured gods that, not unlike humans, want to to know what their purpose in this world is is rather neat. That's how I interpret their desire to meet whatever True God lies beyond Ragnarok and the destruction of Cocoon, at least.
BudokaiMR2
Member
Honestly, I will agree that I think the enemy design is nice. You are not going to see me complaining about the art direction or presentation in this game. I was talking specifically about how fully realized the world is. And yes, enemy design and general art design of the areas is a very big part of that. It's that in most RPGs(especially FF games) there are other details and touches that add to the world. It has never been limited to just the art design, which is how I feel this game is trying to approach it.
I will agree that the areas are aesthetically really nice, and yes a lot of the environments are interesting especially in how they differ between Cocoon and Pulse. However it is all background detail. It's purely aesthetic, with no way to interact or explore most of the time. That is what I feel is missing and why the world doesn't feel cohesive to me.
But yeah, I am going to finally sit down and grind for my Omega Weapon items.
Also, even though I understand what you mean about how the monsters are used on cocoon etc. it also just means more palette swaps. I know it is normal in RPGs but to me it detracts from the cohesiveness of the world when I fight the same midget birds in the forests of Cocoon and on the plains of Pulse. How exactly does fighting the same types of enemies on two different worlds add to their respective atmospheres?
I will agree that the areas are aesthetically really nice, and yes a lot of the environments are interesting especially in how they differ between Cocoon and Pulse. However it is all background detail. It's purely aesthetic, with no way to interact or explore most of the time. That is what I feel is missing and why the world doesn't feel cohesive to me.
But yeah, I am going to finally sit down and grind for my Omega Weapon items.
Also, even though I understand what you mean about how the monsters are used on cocoon etc. it also just means more palette swaps. I know it is normal in RPGs but to me it detracts from the cohesiveness of the world when I fight the same midget birds in the forests of Cocoon and on the plains of Pulse. How exactly does fighting the same types of enemies on two different worlds add to their respective atmospheres?
Blast Processing
Member
Pachinko said:
Where's that Seinfeld gif when you need it? FFX is my personal low point for the series, and Advent Children was dreck. CC: FF7 was merely ok in retrospect, and I never touched X-2.
It occurred to me that this gen's FF titles may take a similar arc to last gen's: you already have the linear, Nomura-fied entry first, and the MMO second; now we just need FF15 to be a badly flawed stroke of genius, and the circle will be complete.