FF XIII

[Soupytwist]

Anyone else 'playing' this?

I'm about 15 hours in and i'm about to give up. All the game seems to be is combat and cutscenes, even the story isn't anything special.
Anyone got any further, is there anymore to the game, does it open up at all are there any towns, sub quests, mini games or any thing to explore of the main quest route?

 

[Dekkard]

Im in same boat, apparently it does open up at chapter 10 or 11 dont remember which, trying to stick with it till then.

 

[Gottaa]

It's got pretty wide spanning reviews, some in love, some in hate. Think I'll wait till it's bargain basement before I try it as I've only just started playing Modern Warfare 2 and forza 3

 

[Zeus]

mm. i'm liking it, though i do understand why people wouldnt.
i was expecting the big 'story only, no freedom' bit at the start - thats been in all the final fantasys as far as i'm aware - but it has lasted a bit longer than expected
the storyline gets better and better as you find out whats going on - and 25 hours in, i still dont really know (and thats the point, btw - your characters dont know whats going on either, or who their real enemies are, or their purpose is.)

i'm liking the combat system, mostly. i think the way they've done preemptive attacks is silly - they often make the difference between me losing a fight heavily, or winning it in 20 seconds. i worry that when (in a few chapters time, i'm just at the start of chapter 10 now) i'm grinding for levels/gil/weaponupgrades, the fights will get very tedious because of the whole 'need to break an enemy before you can hurt them properly' thing, but we'll see.
i do wish that autobattle was better at picking spells to use... my aquastrike and thunderstrike do like 1.5x as much damage as my spells (as i have more str than magic) but it still insists on using spells half the time, rather than purely using aqua and thunderstrike unless the enemy has resists. but thats a minor gripe, and generally with 4atb bars i have time to select abilties properly rather than just spamming x

 

[Zeus]

oh, my other gripe, is the lack of explanation of mechanics. i dont mean the obvious ones (that still have tutorials even though they're obvious), but things like weapon upgrades, and what impact STR has on different skills, and what should be the difference between commando and ravager (as the explanation in the manual is that commando is physical and ravager is spell, iirc. but thats just plain wrong ), that sort of thing. and obviously there arnt any decent guides up for it yet...

 

[Minagi]

I completed the story last night, wow it sure gets tough at the very end.
I thought I was more than prepared but I ended up using a lot of my reserve CP just to get through it (I was saving up to max my main jobs after getting the last Crystarium upgrade).

You guys probably all know this already but chapter 11 is where the game just blows wide open. You get access to a new MASSIVE open world full of monsters, some of which you won't realistically be able to take on until after you've finished the story and maxed out some of your jobs. I recommend taking some time here to work on some missions, max out your jobs as much as you can and build up a big CP buffer before continuing with the story.

From chapter 11 onward I found the game feeling a lot more like an MMO, complete with xp grinding and (later on) farming huge mobs for incredibly rare drops to sell or upgrade weapons.

Speaking of which, I shall be mainly killing large tortoises for the forseeable future...

 

[Zeus]

Playing an ff game after the story's over just seems wrong..

 

[Fletcher03]

any mini-games?

 

[Minagi]

Yes, I believe there is a mini game of some sort somewhere... not come across it yet but I noticed it's mentioned briefly in the guide.

Zeus, I'd normally agree with you about continuing to play after the story is finished, I never could be bothered to beat all the weapons in FFVII.
However, the side missions in FFXIII are a big part of the game and completing them all will require a party that's a LOT tougher then needed to beat the story. It does give a good sense of purpose to the end game, I'm still thoroughly enjoying it anyway.

I was dead lucky this morning when I got two Trapezohedron drops one after another, now I just need to decide which Omega weapons to go for.

 

[Zeus]

ok, so i'm down in gran pulse, doing missions. i've seen a pulse falcie, that apparently used to circle around oerba. should i follow it, or will that progress the storyline when i should still be doing missions? and also, how do i get myself a chocobo? (assuming that i need one for the yellow circles on the ground

 

[Minagi]

Chocobos you get to ride after completing the missions up to 14 if I remember correctly.
You should be capable of doing that now, I completed up to 20-something on my first visit.

There's no chocobo raising unfortunately, the chocobos just hang around certain areas in Arche Steppe (the huge open area), just run up to them to mount them and ride around.
You do get to dig for treasure though, there's some pretty nice loot littered around too.

Don't worry too much about getting locked into continuing the story, I'm pretty sure you've got to go a LONG way forward in chapter 11 before you can't go back.
You'll know you're on your way when you find yourself in a series of brown tunnels full of mechanical monsters and white angular bomb-style mobs, it's off the northern end of Arche Steppe, past a Bemehoth King and another big funny named mob fighting each other. Unfortunately I don't remember the name right now.

I'd thoroughly recommend visiting this area though, it's an amazing area to level up, a little tough at first (the bomb types like to self destruct) but once you can clear the whole first area without problems you'll start raking in tonnes of CP.
In fact, I still go back there now, 3 jobs maxed on each character so far!

 

[Zeus]

ok, i went along there last night in fact - avoided the behemoth king fighting outside could kill the bombs and mechanicals really easily tbh, and yeah - good CP for them. couldnt kill either the big dreadnaught walker thingy or something near the save ponit that i cant remember though, so headed back out. guess i'll go back there after 'ive done a bunch more missions around the steppe

do you ever get to buy the shrouds? or are you always on a limited supply of them?

 

[Minagi]

To be honest I haven't used a single shroud yet, I know they can be useful but I've never really found the need. I know a lot of shops open up later on so I wouldn't be surprised if one does sell them.

That mob near the save point, Boxed Phalanx I think? That's as far as I go on my CP farming run then I turn back and do the bomb run again. Once you can beat that one quickly you'll be set for farming there.
Oh yeah and ignore the juggernaut at the other end, you won't be able to beat that for a while yet.

 

[Minagi]

Just a quick message to anyone who likes Final Fantasy games but isn't sure about getting FFXIII... You HAVE to get this game!!!

I'm close to maxing out all my characters now, with fully upgraded ultimate weapons on my main three, the sense of power is absolutely immense.
I can honestly say I'm having more fun now farming and building up for the harder missions than throughout the whole story section.

 

[Corwin]

one of this missions gives you an item which makes shrouds drop off mobs commonly, you can also disenchant items to give you shrouds.

 

[Minagi]

Aye, Scavenger Catalog.
Also, I checked earlier, you can indeed buy shrouds from the shops.

 

[Aciiid]

Well I've splashed out on this now too, ASDA 32 pounds...

I just passed through the forest section, really amazing graphics. Although it's pretty linear at the start as long as you know it's going to get better I'm not that bothered by it. I just wished they'd cast a normal person (Australian accent doesn't help) for the ginger haired girl and maybe not made her soooo happy (I think she's a plant myself to spy on them).

I'm enjoying it so far, although lightning's focus battle was really tough (got to be quick on the healing paradigm).

 

[Soupytwist]

Although it's pretty linear at the start as long as you know it's going to get better I'm not that bothered by it.

I got 30+ hours into it and it was still just as linear then gave up, traded it for God of War 3. Nice battle system and it looked pretty, shame about everything else.

 

[Gottaa]

FF games are at there best on portable systems, they get too large, too drawn out on the big consoles, at least for my tastes

 

[Minagi]

I guess if you're just interested in running through the story then it is all very linear.

Personally I thought the game came into it's own at Chapter 11 when you are given the freedom to do the monster hunting missions. In fact, come to think about it, it does become very much like Moster Hunter.

90 hours in now and I finally finished all the missions last night. All characters maxed out jobs and weapons but still working on upgrading accessories (got 5 dark matters drop this morning before work!) then I'll be going back to 5 star all the missions.

It's going to be so annoying when there's nothing left to do because I'm still really enjoying it.