FFXIII-2

[Xno Kappa]

FFVIII's battle system was probably the most broken in the whole franchise lol. I loved it.

[Nevex]

FFVII is equally broken IMO.
You can do silly things Final Attack+Phoenix, Counter x16, manipulate Chocobukle's damage so you can hit 7777 HP easily and of course W-item glitch.

That doesn't mean that their brokeness is bad, in fact I find both of them fascinating because of how abusable their respective battle systems are. I kind of miss that in modern games.

[miokomioko]

While I hated FFVIII's system more than anything, it was pretty rewarding to figure out how to exploit old systems with drawing and materia combos... before there were commonly available FAQs.

[Spira]

I agree.
Some of the older battle systems were fun simply because if you were good at it, it became somewhat exploitable.
You do see this to a lesser extent on the PS2 FFs but they were always there.
FFX had stuff like it's overdrive boosting tricks and XII had stuff like reverse and decoy and the amazing nihopaloa+remedy move. XI is a totally different ball game.

Somehow they try to balance out "brokenness" more and more these days but they're still there, just less exploitable I guess. XIIIs would have to be Poison and Gestalt free time

[Gokulo]

More on the pre-order bonus:

Pre-order FFXIII-2 from Lawsons or HMV, and you'll get a download code for a weapon for Serah. The weapon is an angel's bow and arrow that converts the damage it deals to enemies into an HP boost for Serah.

[Crab_Cake]

I'm personally the kind of player who kinda likes to breeze through my games through a little effort on my part. It didn't bother me so much that the Crystarium set an upper limit at various chapters, because with the way CP progression worked you would take ages just to move along anyway.

Agreed. For me I like grinding early on then just breezing through the game so I can take the story all in without interruptions to grind later. Fortunately FF13 has done that already for the most part (as long as you fight every enemy, you don't need to grind till chapter 11).

[Edit] What I mean is that they did have cutscenes every 10-15 minutes of gameplay (also no random encounters is a plus) which also works in regards to making it feel like I'm breezing through the game (regular battles weren't too bad anyway until Chapter 11).

As for difficulty in games and what should developers do? Difficulty settings with trophies as reward (and only trophies) is a good idea (SC2 for example had achievements which were enough to make most people who played play through the game on hard at least [since each mission had a specific achievement that can only be obtained on hard]).

FFVII is equally broken IMO.
You can do silly things Final Attack+Phoenix, Counter x16, manipulate Chocobukle's damage so you can hit 7777 HP easily and of course W-item glitch.

That doesn't mean that their brokeness is bad, in fact I find both of them fascinating because of how abusable their respective battle systems are. I kind of miss that in modern games.

Agreed. Final Fantasy 7's system was simple but yet really fun because of what you can do with it. Counter + Mime + Limit Break spam for example. Materia system is my favorite jobless leveling system actually.

Speaking of that, one thing I would have liked in FF13 is the ability for every character to learn every ability (well maybe with the exception of exclusives like Death). For example after finishing the game, it unlocks not only tier 10 but a tier after that which just features every ability the character was not able to learn before at a huge CP cost (doesn't matter if each skill is 500k CP, I just want to be able to learn it eventually).

Granting all the roles at Chapter 10 is a great start but it would have been nice if all the abilities were present for each characters so you could have Vanille using Blitz with her odd but still awesome weapon (as for animation for Blitz? Well they could be cheap and just make a gust of wind or an explosion that occurs after she attacks.)

[Gokulo]

Noel's pre-order bonus:

HMV and Lawsons buyers get a special weapon for Serah when they pre-order Final Fantasy XIII-2. But Square Enix isn't leaving Noel fans out. Those who buy the game through the Square Enix e-Shop will get a special weapon for the XIII-2 newcomer.

The weapon is named "Calamity Blade." This exclusive Noel weapon is a twin blade that can recharge Noel's ATB gauge quicker than usual.

According to the product listing page at the -Store site, the weapon will show its effect from the start of the game midway through the adventure You're going to have to figure out what this means for yourself (perhaps by the game's midpoint, Noel becomes too powerful for the weapon to be of any use?).

As with the previously announced bonus download content, the e-Shop did not provide an image of the Calamity Blade weapon, but promised a look in a future update.

e-Store buyers will also get a PC wallpaper calendar set.

And bonus items from Soundtrack:

Online retailer Neowing has provided details on a second set of bonus download content for Final Fantasy XIII-2.

The retailers says that the game's theme song single CD will include an item code. The code can be used to download "Gift from the Songstress," a set that includes "Diva Mic" and "Diva Headphone" accessories. The site does not say what effect these will have on your characters when equipped.

The item code will be included with the limited edition of the PS3 theme song, Yakusoku no Basho. This is due for release on November 23. The code can be used with both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.

The Xbox 360 version's theme song, New World, will be included in Charice's Infinity CD, which is due for release on October 5. Square Enix has not mentioned a download code for this.

[Celeste]

I do not like pre-order bonus items with my Final Fantasy XIII-2.

[Nevex]

Neither do I.
I just hope they're eventually going to be available on PS store.

[Celeste]

Neither do I.
I just hope they're eventually going to be available on PS store.

You misunderstand me. I don't want pre-order bonuses in the game. There is no need for them. Yes, cheap ploy to get more people to pre-order, but I still don't like it. Life, what am I gonna do with you?

[Spira]

I concur, but if it does exist, i hope they release it for sale/free for other players to get it. Cos the LE options right now are like one or the other.

[Elrina]

I wouldn't mind pre-order bonuses at all if it was a universal package regardless of which retailer you purchased from.

But even buying the game new, pre-ordering the game, and not being able to get everything that belongs in it because different retailers get different items is frustrating and annoying.

[Tyrath]

I wouldn't mind pre-order bonuses at all if it was a universal package regardless of which retailer you purchased from.

But even buying the game new, pre-ordering the game, and not being able to get everything that belongs in it because different retailers get different items is frustrating and annoying.

This is pretty much my biggest problem with pre-order bonuses. Store exclusive stuff is bullshit.

[miokomioko]

Complete and utter bullshit.

[Hyan]

Do they make contracts with retailers or do the retailers buy certain copies that have some code attached to them?

'Cause LOL at any local store having any pre-order bonuses here if former is the case.

[Kiarax]

Former. EU Amazon will probably have the bonuses over here, so worst case is you can get it from there if you really want whatever the bonus is. I'm not really fussed about getting them so it doesn't bother me, I do agree that store pre-order bonuses like this are generally bullshit though, but they almost always seem to release the content later on down the line as normal DLC too anyway.

[Hyan]

Hm, I don't want to pay VAT so fuck the pre-order bonus then I guess.

[Gokulo]

Excuse for ignorance, but how do you want to not pay VAT?

Also, like Kiarax said, it will be available sooner or later as DLC. The bad part is that it may take ages to come, and might cost a nice buck too.

[Hyan]

Åland is a magical place. No VAT.

[Alkar]

Last time (Dissidia Duodecim) Europe got both preorder costumes by simply purchasing the CE version of the game. Here's hoping the same happens this time.