FFXIII-2

[Kaisha]

Why does everyone's hair look super low-res? lol Did it look like this in 13? I can't remember. I can't stop looking at how bad it looks. Anyway, demo was fun overall.

It's the method the devs used to do the alpha masking for the hair. It was bad in XIII also, but it wasn't as glaring since a lot of the cutscenes were pre-rendered using ingame assets.

Pic ganked from DigitalFoundry demonstrating the hair from XIII on both platforms. Decent alpha masks are costly for a GPU, and since hairs are typically layered a lot, further compounds the problem. There's a reason the majority of characters this gen are bald space marines, or short black haired where you can cheat the detail of the alpha mask.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ES/a2c2jpg.jpg

[Hyan]

Demo was awesome as expected, it's a bit too addictive to level up though. I fear that'll make the game easy. The monster system is welcome, Noel and Serah are both alright. This is exactly the kind of game I like to 100%. Liked the length of the demo too. I really were able to familiarize myself with the systems in place.

[Zanz L. Barre The 3rd]

Solid demo, I got chills at the end of the it when "you know who" appears.

[Appie]

Still exploring some of the stuff in the demo. The mog thing to me felt more like they were trying to get this game to appeal to a wider audience, but it's backfiring for me because I can't stand 'Moogle sounds' being voiced, and the character just feels completely out of place with what XIII laid out.

Noel doesn't like Moogle either and will verbally rape the moogle when given the chance =)

Not sure if it's me also, but the game appears to look visually worse than XIII was. That or the demo environment is really basic and bland compared to the rest of the title. Battle mode visuals look about the same.

I think it might just be the demo, besides some minor issues (and Caius jaggies in his hair, think the 360 picture up here from DigitalFoundry for XIII) the game is pretty equal to XIII for me. Didn't download the demo to test that theory though, couldn't be arsed when I already played the level on the disc XD

Also don't know how I feel about platforming in an RPG now that you mentioned that, especially since they did nothing to address the minor input latency from XIII.

Didn't notice any jumping issues and the last chapter is loaded with jumping. Did however notice a sort of "cooldown" (like 1 second) before I could actually whack shit when the moogle clock appeared in the game. Think that is about as close as I got to something like input lag (playing on a plasma, so I already got low input lag).

[Elcura]

It's the method the devs used to do the alpha masking for the hair. It was bad in XIII also, but it wasn't as glaring since a lot of the cutscenes were pre-rendered using ingame assets.

Pic ganked from DigitalFoundry demonstrating the hair from XIII on both platforms. Decent alpha masks are costly for a GPU, and since hairs are typically layered a lot, further compounds the problem. There's a reason the majority of characters this gen are bald space marines, or short black haired where you can cheat the detail of the alpha mask.

Man, if people only knew how much effort it takes to get hair to look even 1/4 as good as XIII's lol. It's tough on resources, and indeed the reason for many bald space marines, but mostly it's just hard to get it looking good.

Personally I love the hair in XIII (and Uncharted), but it's always one of the hardest things to deal with. Also would love to know how the hell they did Sazh's afro, that shit is amazing.

[Nevex]

So I just finished the demo and the game is A LOT harder than FFXIII. Whoever said that this game is easy is either misinformed or trolling.
And graphics aren't worse either, if anything they've been improved. Just look at the paradigm shift animation change to get an idea.

[Hyan]

It should get easier if you do even some of the optional stuff and thus level faster, because the game doesn't seem to really limit your progress or how you clear the game.

Hard to imagine the game being harder when it's set up like that.

[Appie]

So I just finished the demo and the game is A LOT harder than FFXIII. Whoever said that this game is easy is either misinformed or trolling.

What was hard about the demo then? I seriously didn't get into trouble until the final chapter of the game. The Atlas demo level is pretty much at the start of the game.

[Ardrial]

What was hard about the demo then? I seriously didn't get into trouble until the final chapter of the game. The Atlas demo level is pretty much at the start of the game.

Not guy you quoted but I thought I'd weigh in. The only difficulty I had was getting 5 stars (even with a pre-emptive strike) on trash. The cieth was a bit difficult but i only had to switch paradigms like once maybe in that fight.

[Ratatapa]

I found 2 quest but no idea where was the mobs or the capsule lol

[Hatedregret]

I was not a fan of XIII, though I cleared it and all the hunts, but this one seems to have made a lot of progress. Still on the bench, but happy with what I saw. Tons more to do, "less" linear from what I played. Towns, racing, games, can go back to clear/explore old areas.

[vadre]

I enjoyed the demo, it's immediately apparent that you have more ways to customise from the get go which is nice. I didn't find it tough as someone above implied other than missing out on 5-stars a lot of the time, not sure if the requirements have been upped or I'm just rusty from not playing for a long time. I enjoyed the monster addition thing, and I'd say the monster sync or whatever it's called is a pretty decent addition considering they all do different things. I just hope there's one to replace army of one as ultra-awesome method of charging the stagger gauge.

Edit: Also, I remember there being a lot of moaning about that battle theme for Atlas and the stupid wrapping, I'm not sure if it's been made quieter or I just didn't pay much attention what with all the face-smashing I was doing, but it didn't seem prominent despite making me cringe back when I first heard it.

[Appie]

Ah yes, 5 starring your battles. Yea didn't have that much either in the beginning of the game, usually 3, sometimes 4, picked about halfway into the game though to 5 starring most stuff. I didn't grind until like the last chapter, so it wasn't because of that.

[Tyrath]

I found 2 quest but no idea where was the mobs or the capsule lol

The mob for the quest was to the far west of where the Atlas Control device is on the map. As for the capsules, your Moogle will get excited when it finds hidden stuff, I only found one of them though. It was on the left from the branch right after you got that quest.

[Jaxzer]

Only thing I liked about the demo was the lack of the extended paradigm shift during battle. That always bugged in XIII where the first one always took the most time.....and enemies could still attack during them.

The Moogle pisses me the fuck off though and feels out of place. I also don't get why they added a dedicated jump button also when it could have just been automated. Mixed thoughts overall, will be waiting on a price drop since I still need to finish off XIII.

Have fun with the plat, I gave up on it.

[Jaxzer]

This is the same demo that they showed off at E3, so its possible that its a less polished build than the final version.

This. You'll probably have an install in the retail version to fix that.

[Alkar]

This is not the E3 demo btw, it's the TGS demo or even a newer build. The E3 demo had totally different enemies/monsters to use.

[Ratatapa]

3 weeks wait now ...

[niwaar]

The mog thing to me felt more like they were trying to get this game to appeal to a wider audience, but it's backfiring for me because I can't stand 'Moogle sounds' being voiced, and the character just feels completely out of place with what XIII laid out. I'm also hoping the QTE are kept to a minimum in the full game as that was unasked for.

I was taken aback by the actual voice of the moogle as well. Although it wasn't bad, it just was pretty unnecessary. Yet, thinking it completely through, they probably had to voice it just for narration/explanation purposes for tutorials and such. Although I honestly would have loved to have seen the Moogle on screen making Moogle sounds with subtitles instead.

The QTE are my only real issue with the demo. I know they have been a staple for limit break usage in past games, but honestly I was never a fan of them then. I have no real issue with them during boss encounters, but when you have to do them perfectly in order to get extra rewards, I can see myself saving before battles, just in case I accidentally screw up the QTE. That's not exactly the style of gameplay I am looking for. That being said, the demo has made me want to go back and play XIII in anticipation.

[The Stig]

Just so I can set aside time from it, how long does demo last assuming casual play and trying to look up Serah's skirt.