FF XIII dissapointment

[TheFrostE]

has any one else here that purchased it been completely turned off by the terrible voice acting / dialogue and the lack of a robust interactive battle system? im into chapt.5 and am still not into the story nearly as much as the old ones :/ . the story is great but the characters that the story is based around make it not too enjoyable or captivating. At this point, for me, this game has been a dissapointment and really only has beautiful graphics going for it.

on the other hand i still have White Knight Chronicles to play AND this little gem by sega coming out next week, my GF is buying for me since i gave her my FF13. check out Resonance Of Fate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWFveOsa0J4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od1oRl4yqz4

[SenGoku81]

I was put off it when I heard the music on the advert, it was that Leona Lewis bird of American X-idol or whatever that was being used to advertise the game.

I nearly bloody retched I did!

Personally, the last game from the FF series I enjoyed was X it's been sad wacthing something you love get slowly twisted, distorted and buggered to a mere shadow of its former self.

FF; R.I.P.
:(

[wich]

Yeah, the more I hear of it, the more I'm like, I'll get it from the bargain bin in a year or so... I enjoyed earlier FFs, I started playing 12, but honestly it didn't do it for me, there's hardly a story to speak of just a random collection of quests really. And now with 13, they at least have got a story, but dumbed down the game soo much it's not even funny anymore. And why on earth is the Japanese dub not on the international release with subtitles... it's an effing blu-ray disc, how much space do you need... Ah well, I'll wait a few weeks to see what my friends think about it who have bought it.

And yes, End of Eternity, (Oh, excuse me, Resonance of Fate. I just can't seem to grasp the international title... why did it need to change anyway, copyright issues with the Asimov book...?,) looks really good. I'm not sure yet I'll like it but I think it's definately worth the gamble. I played the battle system demo available from the Japanese PSN store and that was pretty interesting, though a little monotonous, I'm interested to see how the full game turns out.

[mic-dk]

Nooooo! I just ordered it, so don't tell me it's no good... :|

Ah well, I don't have any emotional attachment to the FF series, so at least I won't be plagued by "number xyz was way better" thoughts :D

[SaturnReturn]

I liked VII. I loved VIII. Barely even played IX as it didn't grab me at all. Liked X, barely played XII. I wasn't expecting to like XIII because the reviews didn't seem too positive, but so far I'm enjoying it.

I think the battle system currently seems limited, but I am still close to the beginning and I do like the speed of battles. So far I haven't felt like I have to go through an annoying series of battles to get where I need to be, which was always how I felt after a while with the previous games.

I think the story is pretty good. I like the way the game is relatively simple at the start and lets me get my head around the story early on. Although, perhaps it is a little too simple. There's not much mystery about it, and I don't feel particularly connected to any one of the characters either, yet.

I don't like the camera at all. When it moves the background seems to blur too much and my eyes can't seem to focus. It's a very odd feeling.

All in all I think it's at least good so far, and will see what the future holds. Supposedly it takes a long time to really open up.

[Ace3cube]

lol true about camera. It's awfull... I don't like musics too lol :x

[blackwiggle]

I haven't got this FF yet,but I will still be getting it despite some of the negative reviews.
It seems that the vast majority of the reviews have been from people that have only played the game for under 30 hours, and it seems to only be a competition between reviewers and gaming sites who could put a review out first,the reviews are all very cookie cutter ones that all say it's linear,which is only confirming to you how little of the game they have actually played.
It's coming to light from people that have put the hours in that the game really comes alive at around 35-40 hours in,the previous 35 hours of the more linear play that everybody is harping on about are basically for 2 reasons.
One so you obviously level up and learn the different control options of your characters and tactics to beat foes while doing so
And the second,which I have only seen reported once,but I'm getting reports from friends that have been playing it basically none stop for 3 days that confirm this ,is that the AI for battles is a learning type,it has been learning the tactics you have been using during the previous 35 hours to adjusts itself so that future battles are not the same,you will have to adjust your tactics,both as a whole and on a individual character level the deeper you get into the game.

I can't speak for the voice acting as I have yet to hear it,if it's anything like the last few I imagine it will be dire,I prefer the PS1 FF's prior to voice overs where you just read the script

[Chill]

Yeah, that's how it kinda was with FF X for me... Didn't like it 'til I got use to it's style... still haven't beaten it though LOL... I think I'm on the last sphere puzzle.. you know the tetris type one? And trying to beat some eaon on that one... :/ About damn time this game get's over already!!

Yeah I already got XIII headed my way for when I get back home... can't wait!! :P

[Harvai]

I've only played 13 for a few hours, but I don't see where all this hate is coming from. The voice acting I find is far from terrible. I could deal without Hope, though. Why does every JRPG have to have a young, angsty character?

Love the battle system. Can't remember the last time I actively enjoyed random encounters, so the fact that I can sneak around and avoid combat if I feel like it is great. Do you get fewer character switches later on? That's my only real gripe so far. I seem to have a few fights, watch a cutscene and find myself in somebody else's shoes.

[SaturnReturn]

Same here, I do think there are a few too many character switches as well, especially when battles really seem to revolve a around the paradigm system. It requires constantly accessing the menu to change things at the moment.

Along similar lines is the Crystarium. Based on the tutorial, I thought it was supposed to automatically use CP along a certain route until it reached a branch. But I think this is only automatic in the sense that I can hold X while in the Crystarium and it will upgrade to the next crystal, rather than automatically using my CP points as I complete battles. Does anyone know if it's possibly to do the latter, e.g. to set Vanille up to use CP points for Medic until it reaches a branch, at which point I would go into the menu and choose what to do from there? I'm guessing not as a quick Google search didn't mention it.

[Cyberio]

Apart from his quality (i like it for now), did you see that intro with that WipEout-styled city? I loved it. So futuristic, with ships flying around.

[mic-dk]

The game arrived at my door yesterday and I had a few hours with it. In short, I like it. The whole Crystarium thing confuses me a bit though. I find it hard to see the consequences of a choosing a given path, and I can't yet quite tell the difference between crystal already "bought"/chosen and those I haven't got yet. I'll get used to it. I hope :)

Saturn; as far as I can tell it's manual upgrade all the way, which indeed at the moment is fight, fight, 5 minutes in menu, fight, fight, 5 minutes in menu.

[OBH]

Heard it was rubbish. Also has the worst reviews since ffx2.

Good job i decided to avoid xiii and instead treat myself to ff8 for the psp :)

[SaturnReturn]

@mic-dk - I tend to agree about the Crystarium. I was thinking that using CP points on all the available roles early on would improve my stats but perhaps be a bad thing, because I might want to focus later on other roles not available yet, at which point I may rue the decision to use the CP so early. But it doesn't seem like that will really happen. The points available early in the game are quite low as unlocking new crystals doesn't require many points. Presumably, later on when more roles become available, the points I have will also be higher, so I can speed through the lower levels of those roles quickly. Indeed, this seems to be happening already for me. Given all the party switching, it seems necessary to have the versatility in the roles almost from the beginning.

So at the very least, it seems to me that we may as well unlock as many of the crystals as possible, until later in the game when we will probably want to focus more on just a few roles per character.

Also, it seems you're right about auto-advancing. It does just mean you can hold X down in the menu and speed through as many crystals as you have points for. There's no automatic level up feature.

Despite a few negative aspects though, the more I play the game, the more I like it. Getting the hang of the sentinel role was weird at first, but using it with good timing to block otherwise fatal single attacks is very satisfying. ^_^

[MrSmadSmartAlex]

Heard it was rubbish. Also has the worst reviews since ffx2.

Good job i decided to avoid xiii and instead treat myself to ff8 for the psp :)I haven't played XIII, but there's no way it can be as good as the masterpiece, VIII! :D
So much to explore and do, great story, great battle system, and the FMVs look incredible, even today. You won't regret buying it. ;)

[OBH]

i know i wont, not the first time ive played it ;) Irvine is one of my favourite ff characters ever.

[SenGoku81]

I've always enjoyed games from the FF series. As I've mentioned before, ten is the game that has seen the most replay out of the series for me. I enjoyed the monster arena and the challenge of Penance so much; it was always fun to try and play the game another way.
Has anyone else tried to complete the story without using the sphere grid? That's always a hoot.
But why oh why did Square feel the need to crimp the dire, faecal mess that was X-2 into our collective mouths is anyones guess.

Dress spheres, just say no.

I do agree with the status quo that 12 lacked a lot, did not feel like a Final Fantasy or play too much like one for the matter, and was almost impossible to find your way around save for having bought the guide two weeks later.
Apart from Balthier and Basch I found most of the characters irksome enough not to care about their oh-so-typical oppressed backgrounds and standard FF fare androgynous appearance.
I never enjoyed the game; it didn't even grow on me with the advent of time and was promptly traded back at a moments notice. I was disappointed then, and saddened that the final outing on the PS2, for me at least, was such a let down.

I think I too will wait until the hype has died down a little and the dust of criticism has settled before I invest in a copy of FFXIII, sadly though I can not approach the game with such an open mind and unbiased opinion so it will have to pull out all the stops to salvage the series standing with me.
I hope it can.

[mic-dk]

So... has anyone reached Chapter 11 yet? And if yes, are you still disappointed?

As far as I can read (Damn this severe lack of free time!) Chapter 11 is a very large free roam, free party select hike trough Pulse. The planet - not the FX league :)

There should be ample opportunity there to max out your characters. Can't wait... :D

[wich]

You can't max out your characetrs, there are level caps so that the bosses remain challenging.

[mic-dk]

When you reach the level cap your character is at current maximum, yes?

:D

It was primarily referring to the earlier thoughts on when and what to upgrade in the Crystarium.

[As Heaven Is Wide]

Currently on chapter 11 myself at the moment and my thoughts are generally posititve about this game and have been throughout.

Yes it's mostly linear (similar to X really) and even now in chapter 11 im still fenced in a bit by some huge enemies :eek But more options are becoming available, there are marks to hunt like in XII and more freedom about were to go, with a few side areas to explore.

On the subject of the crystarium, early on it's best to try to fill out all of the three major roles for each character but as costs for upgrades increase it seems best to specialise in one role. Certain things are worth going out of your way to get though (ATB segments and accessory slots in particular).

The only thing I really dont like are the noises Vanille constantly makes :redface: I'm glad I use headphones.

[SaturnReturn]

Indeed, those noises are a bit much.

I'm at Chapter 11. I didn't bother levelling up much at first on Pulse, but then I tried to go ahead with the story and it was a real pain, so I went backwards to fight some big beasties. It still seemed linear to me, but on going backwards I took a 'wrong' turn and realised it was a bit more open. Not sure just how open it is at present. Will see once I explore a bit more.

I am actually disappointed with a few things:

Eidolons are pointless. What do they do? They look flashy in battles, that's it. In past games they were usually linked somehow to the characters' power. They relied on their summons, GFs, Aeons etc, and often there was a price to pay for the power they were granted. The player would also often rely on them to win battles so you really got that feeling of dependency from both story and gameplay. In this, you just don't. They just turn up at some point and look kind of cool, up until the point they suddenly become Transformers. After that point they really make no sense. Maybe there's more to the story and I'll eat my words, but so far I can win virtually every battle without them and the technique points seem far better used on other things. Oh, and only the party leader can use their Eidolon...again, makes no sense.

Graphics just aren't all that good. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but apart from the 1080p video, the graphics don't look that great. A lot of the detail on the backgrounds and characters seems really low resolution. Sometimes the camera will focus on a door opening with enemies coming through, and it looks all blocky and pixelated. Same thing when you look at shading on some of the characters. For the first big plot twist and corresponding first major (IMO) boss battle, all I could think about was how crap the battle arena floor looked. It really ruins the feeling of being immersed in a fantasy world when it looks all oooh and aaah at first (mainly the colourful bits) and then suddenly a part of it is eurgh!:blarg

Auto-chain leaves me feeling a bit disconnected too. There's really no reason to select spells or attacks etc yourself. You really just have to choose the right paradigm and keep hitting X. Only being able to control one character is also a bit crap. The fact that game over comes when that one character dies means you can really just choose the character with the highest HP and set them to sentinel and win anything. As your highest HP character is Snow at the start, and he also happens to be your first Sentinel character, once you get free choice for your battle party, this tactic seems to make things a bit too easy. You won't necessarily get too many technical points, but good paradigm switching should fix that easily. So it's really all about paradigms and not much else.

Paradigms have no memory. So if I change party members I have to set up my paradigms again. The game should remember what I had those three members set to previously and give me that. I can see this might not be ideal either in certain cases, but an option would be nice. Generally I think the same party of three will use mostly the same paradigms.

Weapons don't give me much joy either. You don't seem to even need to upgrade in the first part of the game. I know I didn't, and even now I've still only upgraded one, which used half my materials. I read a bit about weapons and how the upgrades work and there doesn't seem to be much depth to it. Accessories don't seem to be much use either in terms of the bonuses they give.

Non-playable characters don't really do anything. For most of the game so far there aren't any anyway. Then you spend a bit of time in a place where there are some and nothing happens when you talk to any of them. In other FF games you get decent bonuses if you take the time to explore and talk to everyone.

Maybe for some of these things I've only scratched the surface. Overall I don't mind the initial linearity and I do really like the story and am enjoying the game, but I do feel too much of the game is allowed to go by without much of anything actually mattering other than choosing paradigms and hitting X.

[TheFrostE]

well resonance of fate has come out...for all of you dissapointed in your FF experience...PICK THIS UP . This rpg trumps FF in all aspects. Tri-Ace and sega have another amazing RPG yet again. so if your into the post-apocalyptic steampunk ,guns blazing type tactical rpg, RoF WILL not dissapoint. i havent been able to put it down :D

[SaturnReturn]

It still seemed linear to me, but on going backwards I took a 'wrong' turn and realised it was a bit more open. Not sure just how open it is at present. Will see once I explore a bit more.

OK, so having explored a bit more, it's pretty freakin' open, and massive, or so it seems. The story path immediately presented seems now to only be the obvious way for the doofuses like me who fail at exploring.:D EDIT: I take that last bit back, it only looks that way, but actually the game just seems to notice that you're exploring and leads you on a wild goose chase back to where you started in the first place, just in case you'd forgotten about following the story. But if you ignore the story, then it is still relatively open.

Now that I actually stop to think about this for a moment, the initial linearity seems to fit perfectly with the story. I wrote this in white in case of spoilers, so highlight to read....
It's about the differences between the two worlds - about choice between being safely wrapped up in a world where everything you need is provided but with little freedom, no free will and just following the word of the sanctum (like a pet living at the hand of, and obeying its masters, as the game mentions) vs. a big world teaming with life where you can explore and go where you like but have to be tough to survive amongst the dangers of the wild without Fal'cie protection (although that falls a bit flat considering they're l'Cie with powers from the Fal'Cie, but I'll ignore that, as humans still live on Pulse with those powers). This seems pretty obvious to me now, what with the names of Cocoon and Pulse I think the early linearity is actually intentional to emphasise this and all the other things mentioned about Fal'cie and humans' reliance on them etc. The linearity also emphasises the lack of choice the characters have at the beginning. They think they're doomed to have to achieve their Focus. They're thrust upon this path and pretty much only have one direction, just like the player does with the linearity. Then they develop and learn and realise they can make choices for themselves, while simultaneously the player has choices about where they can go.
So yeah, although a little dull for some, it seems fully intentional and does kind of work well if people are committed enough to get this far in the game. But still seems a bit much if it turns a lot of people off, which it most definitely has

Also, add to my list of disappointments:

Character animations seem to suddenly become jerky and robotic during cut scenes which use the game's graphics engine at some stage. I'm not sure when it happened, but I'm half expecting the characters' faces to melt off and show some weird metallic skeleton underneath.

Enemies are basically all variations on very few models. The number of base models is small, and variations amount to little more than higher stats. FF games always had variants, but I do feel like I've been battling the same beasts over and over again for a while now.

[mic-dk]

I was beginning to suspect what you state in your theory in white, but haven't quite followed it through. Your argument makes perfect sense - 10 FigureItOut points for you Sat :)

I'm still in Chapter 5 somewhere and has only just gotten to upgrading weapons. I bumped a few up one level, but weren't impressed with the stat gain. Rather expensive... The Crystarium also still confuses me and I find it hard to keep the big perspective in the upgrading process.

I haven't really paid enough attention to the graphics quality, but I will keep an eye on it. Or may be not. Ignorance is bliss sometimes ;)

[SaturnReturn]

Indeed, do yourself a favour mic and don't sit too close to the TV.;)

Later on I think weapons upgrades might be worth it. I upgraded one of Lightning's weapons and she does far more damage with physical attacks now than with magic, even when the enemy has a weakness for a particular elemental type. I think it's best to upgrade the weapon that best augments the choices made in the crystarium. They are expensive though, too expensive. You have to really trade in those incentive chips and the like to get the gil, as the game gives you almost nothing. Then you can buy some decent high items for EXP. But still, upgrading then uses so many of those items. I can't see how I can upgrade more than the one weapon to a decent level at the moment, and even then I don't have the right transformation crystal for the characters I use most - not sure where I get them from either. I mostly want to see what Snow's trenchcoat looks like when I upgrade.

[wich]

well resonance of fate has come out...for all of you dissapointed in your FF experience...PICK THIS UP . This rpg trumps FF in all aspects. Tri-Ace and sega have another amazing RPG yet again. so if your into the post-apocalyptic steampunk ,guns blazing type tactical rpg, RoF WILL not dissapoint. i havent been able to put it down :D

Gah... will have to wait one more week... why on earth does it release 10 days later in the EU... Stupidity. Staggered releases suck!

[blackwiggle]

Well I got given FFXIII by my sister as an early birthday present and I've been putting in some serious hours playing it over the last 6 days.
I've got to the end of chapter 11 without a single upgrade or Gil spent on anything , but I can't beat Barthandelus to take me to chapter 12 atm , so I guess now is the time.
I've been putting off upgrading for a few reasons.
A] I haven't really needed to.
B] It seems a bit complicated to do properly, so I need to bone up on what I should do.
C] I don't want to use an item to upgrade something, only to find out later I should of kept it because it was needed to get some otherwise unobtainable weapon/assessory etc.[especially since getting one of the trophies requires you to have owned every item/weapon etc in the game at one time ] .
After reading some threads about this on different forums ,it seems the hardest trophy to achieve ,mainly due to the total amount of confusion surrounding the exact conditions that need to be met to get the trophy.

It is very linear so far , no quests , searches for anything, surprises.
A bit of a slog actually , especially getting the CP needed to muscle up.

So yeah, I am a bit disappointed so far now I've got to actually play it.
Hopefully the future quests for the Marks will make things more interesting.

Any Tips guys?
Anybody got 100% yet?

[IH8YOU]

Use it - then just head on up to Bone Village and dig around - you can get more.

I got 2 more ribbons that way.

Oh wait.... That was in 7. :p

[blackwiggle]

There were no ribbons to be got at Bone Village in FF7 :p
I got them from somewhere, but I know it wasn't there.

And FFXII never had the Ribbon where it was supposed to be [on Cerobi Steppe ] which is a PITA, as I wanted it to beat the Final Mark Yiazmat ,which has 50 million HP and probably take a day to beat.:eek

[IH8YOU]

You get the first ribbon from Aeris or the battle area (somewhere around there) but I got others at Bone Village. Seriously.

Then again, it was (gasp) 13 or so years ago... Maybe my memory is a bit fuzzy.

However, I STILL REMEMBER how to breed a golden Chocobo. :beer

[As Heaven Is Wide]

Nearly got plat on this, the equipment trophy is the only one I've got left and it is the biggest pain by far.

When it comes to upgrading it is generally best to leave it until post game so you can fight the adamantoises for platinum ingots (the most valuable component to sell). If you tried to fight one on gran pulse it might seem impossible but once you beat the game they can be beaten in a couple of minutes with the right strategy.

During the main game I would recommend upgrading accessories more than weapons as they take less to do with good quick results .With weapons it is best to focus on whichever one you consider best for the characters you use most, which you probably wont know until post game.

Strength boosting and damage resist accessories are probably the best to start with. If you beat mark 7 already (if not, going back and doing some marks might be a good idea anyway) you'll have access to the R & D depot shop and can buy particle accellerators, a good upgrade component.

Dont worry about upgrading anything as you wont miss out on the trophy that way, you only need to have owned all things at some point not all at once. The only way you can mess it up is if you sell or dismantle certain equipment (elemental stuff mostly).

As for Barthandelus if its the doom move that is catching you out he only seems to do it after a certain amount of time, so trying to beat him quickly can be a better option. If he does get you with it go all out on the offensive and use the renew thechnique to heal when needed.

And for the record I remember getting ribbons by morphing tonberries in ff7 ;)

[blackwiggle]

I can't believe my bad luck.
I ended up beating Barthandelus by changing my paradigms but without upgrading anything , I'd already spent a few hours at a particualy lucrative spot amassing CP in the previous chapter and had already maxed out 3 characters in 3 disciplines each.
I had got a fair way into chapter 12 as well with the same 3 having got all the new spells in all 3 disciplines and still had 250k CP each left, ready for the next level .... then total disaster.:frown:

I paused the game while I went to the toilet , when I came back there was no picture on the projector WTF???

My original FAT PS3 had suddenly died on me , flashing red light .:turd:-:-
NOooooo!!!!
At least I managed to get the game disc out , but that's it folks, no gaming for me till it gets fixed.
I've never changed the HD from the original 60g stock one , so I'm not going to get a request to change it before I send it in for repairs , so maybe I might be able to access the saved game data when it comes back as none of the FFXIII stuff had been saved/backed-up elsewhere.
Wishful thinking I know.
At least I still have 17 months left on the 4 year warranty.
I bet Sony try to palm me off with a reconditioned unit.
That isn't going to happen , they can fix the MY ONE , I've read enough horror stories about people who have gotten these ones at the official PS forums.

The worse thing about this is that it means I'm going to have to fire up that noisy dust box [ Xbox 360 ]
I'm pretty sure I haven't had it on in at least 6 months.:redface:

[mic-dk]

That sucks, BW!

I have a 40Gb fat coming up on its 2 year birthday, so I'll be running home and taking that backup. I'm not doing the first 10 chapters again...

[Mr Phlanj]

(i know it isnt about 12 but i didnt want to start a new thread just to say this)

I was looking on the internet and its quite common for peoples most hated FF to be #8!!

I loved 8 i thought it was awesome

[O_BR]

I'm in the process of upgrading the weapons. Lotsa gil needed which takes the most time in the game if you want to upgrade the stuff.

The most annoying thing about the paradigm system is that you can't assign the roles yourself in the paradigm deck. Even when you know a certain paradigm is possible with the current characters, you can't use it because it assigns the roles wrong! Stupid automatic generating system. And it only gets worse when the characters learn into the other than their initial roles.

Being able to control only one character (and getting a game over if s/he dies) annoys me a lot as well. The AI characters just make stupid things sometimes. Synergist buffing the characters in the wrong order for example.

It's not the game of the year, that's for sure, but I've been entertained by it. Anyone else got that WipEout feeling on chapter 12 opening video? :D

[mic-dk]

Eeh, you can manually select each role in the paradigm screen. Select 'Customize', select a slot and arrow right to each character and select their role. I can't believe you hadn't figured that out yet :lol

A buff priority list could indeed be nice though. Start with haste on your self, man!

[O_BR]

:redface:
I thought 'Customize' is only for arranging the decks! This helps a lot mic. :lol

Just yesterday I had a fight against a Zirnistra with a paradigm with Fang and Lightning as Medics and Vanille as Sentinel. Nah-uh, it didn't work. :D

[blackwiggle]

Long way to beat Zimitra
Use Premeditation paradigim Sab+Sen+Syn to buff your characters up first and cast status ailments against Zimitra.
Have your Sentinel wear a assessory against Deprotect + other status ailments/boost defenses.
Then switch between using Delta attack /Combat clinic to attack/heal.
Rebuff with Premeditation when needed.

OR
Short way to beat Zimitra [works with lots of other marks as well ;)]
If you have Vanille learn the Death spell and equip her with Belladona wand , you can use that and it will kill the mark straight away.
You need a Sentinal + Medic to back Vanille up and do this successfully.
You might have to have several attempts at that for it to work.
That's the beauty of pressing the start button so you can select Retry if it doesn't work the first time.