FFXIII-2: Post Release Discussion

[Alkar]

Were you watching the slots or just pushing the buttons? I did manual for ~120 rolls, got nothing but the occasional Moogle or Choco lineup and said "Screw this". I was pushing buttons randomly. That said, I didn't have beginners luck nor did I check with the slots status lady because I wasn't using a guide and didn't know about beginners luck or what her sayings indicated.

You can't really watch the slots, it's completely random.
Beginner's luck and a FFXIII save file will increase your chances as well as checking the lady. I wasn't having much luck without Beginner's luck so give that a try, it really helped.

[Raldo]

I'll take that as a "No, I was not closely watching the slots."

The giant black thing is prrrrrrretty easy to spot while the wheels are spinning, so it's easy to stop the first couple of reels with that on it. I'm willing to accept that the end result is fudged to prevent you from winning easily and often, but the slots are not "completely random" (unless the end result being fudged is what you meant by completely random).

Not that it matters one way or the other. Did I mention I hate slots? I hate slots.

[Ratatapa]

Dlc is up 4.99 for sazh 281 mb

[Burningthought]

Dlc is up 4.99 for sazh 281 mb

What he said, i'll probably buy it here soon.

[Spira]

Infusions make a world of difference for your monsters, tho the ones you want to level should already have most of what u'd need on it.
Sentinels are the easiest to customize because all SEN abilities are infusable, but what u'll generally want to get is mediguard. The rest are passives, like fringeward and enhanced guard/ward.

I ended up infusing most of my monsters with similar things. Hp+ for example was a common addition for almost all my monsters, including chichu. And where possible I'd throw in resist physical/magic for them.
I seldom use cloudburst but for that one I added nukes for the rest of the elements to the mix and magic+ as well.

Granted none of this is really necessary, it's like building your dream team.. Helps you do what you already can better.

[Alkar]

I'll take that as a "No, I was not closely watching the slots."

The giant black thing is prrrrrrretty easy to spot while the wheels are spinning, so it's easy to stop the first couple of reels with that on it. I'm willing to accept that the end result is fudged to prevent you from winning easily and often, but the slots are not "completely random" (unless the end result being fudged is what you meant by completely random).

Not that it matters one way or the other. Did I mention I hate slots? I hate slots.

The game picks the result as you start spinning. This is very easy to notice. Sometimes the slots even light up (blue for Moogle, yellow for Chocobo, etc.) and no matter what you press that's pretty much the result. There's really no way to stop the slots as you suggest because it's entirely luck based.

[Raldo]

The end result may be determined when the wheel starts spinning, but it was definitely stopping where I expected most of the time when I pressed the button. I never won when that happened, though. I can only assume that means if it's determined that you're going to lose, it gives you some small semblance of control by stopping the first two reels where you click and making sure you fail on the 3rd reel.

So... fake control, I guess. You can indeed stop the first two slots where you want like I said, but you're probably right and it doesn't change the end result.

[niwaar]

Dlc is up 4.99 for sazh 281 mb

So tell us what it exactly is... cause two card games is kind of... eh

[Ratatapa]

Kinda You learn how Sazh get there and then you play 2 cards them to get 'medal's i played the poker like 4 games and got 3 medal already

Then i had to go watch hockey but atm nothing impressive

[Burningthought]

Okay bought it, dled and installed. Gonna play it for the next hour or two and i'll let you guys know indepth how good or bad it is.

[Cichy]

I just beat it.
Imo this should've been in the original release so we could utilize Sazh in our party. There is no fighting in the DLC, just one sidequest + card games. If you dont like texas holdem you wont like it.
Meh, is all I can say about it.

[Burningthought]

I just beat it.
Imo this should've been in the original release so we could utilize Sazh in our party. There is no fighting in the DLC, just one sidequest + card games. If you dont like texas holdem you wont like it.
Meh, is all I can say about it.

Poker game is hard as fuck. It's nothing like Poker night at the inventory lol. I've lost like 2k coins dicking around.

[Xanthe]

Chronobind is pretty fun, and easy if you like math. I cleaned up on a 1000 coin match and I am up to 14 medals now. I think I'll try a 10,000 coin game tomorrow.

[Ansems]

I'm not going to buy it just yet but I love me some Poker. *pokerface*

[Tyrath]

Think I'm gonna skip this one. Not up to paying 5 bucks for minigames and a Ravager that I don't really need.

[miokomioko]

I fucking hate poker.

I fucking love Chronobind. No idea why either. On my first try, I just kept at it and eventually ended up winning the match and making about a 3,500 coin profit and 17 medals. It was worth my $5 just for Chronobind for some reason. I really want this card game to be unlocked in the main game for making coin profits. It's about 9 billion times funner than Chocobo races.

Any word on that Chocolina quest thing? I see no chicks anywhere.

Also, the slot machine still completely sucks balls.

[Burningthought]

I fucking hate poker.

I fucking love Chronobind. No idea why either. On my first try, I just kept at it and eventually ended up winning the match and making about a 3,500 coin profit and 17 medals. It was worth my $5 just for Chronobind for some reason. I really want this card game to be unlocked in the main game for making coin profits. It's about 9 billion times funner than Chocobo races.

Any word on that Chocolina quest thing? I see no chicks anywhere.

Also, the slot machine still completely sucks balls.

This chronobind is fucking amazing. It's a little bit intimidating at first, but you'll figure it out after you play a few rounds.

[Raldo]

Ok, bought it and beat it. Here's all I have to say on it.

I started it up and went to the poker table. Went in the table with 1,000 coins, and left an hour later once I cleaned all the players out (Bonus +2,000 additional coins on top of my 3,000 winnings--4,000 if you count what I entered the table with). When I exited it spammed me with notifications that I got a ton of those things you're supposed to get... crap I already forgot what they're called. Anyway, I finished and had 16 of 'em.

Moved on to the Chronobind table. Entered with 1,000 coins and played for 30 minutes or so, then all of a sudden it said that a player at the table had busted and dumped a shitload of coins on me (2,000ish on top of my winnings again). More notification spam of getting awards or whatever, than I had 28 of the things (total). Talked to the casino guy, he didn't say anything in particular.

Exited the gambling room and found chocolina where the oracle + Mog usually hang out. Did the chocolina quests for... 6? more of those stupid medals, then talked to the casino head guy. He said I was done, ending CS, blah blah now you have Sazh.

tl;dr... started with ~13,000 coins, ended with ~22,000 coins and 34 medals. I don't know what the bare minimum is to complete the DLC because I beat the ever-loving shit out of it before checking for completion. I'd only say it's worth it if you like some backstory on Sazh, and don't mind playing some games to get it. Personally, I love Sazh, so it was a no-brainer purchase for me. I did enjoy playing through it, but that's probably in part because I beat it with relative ease.

Important note: The new card games STILL do not show up in the old Serendipity zone. You'll need to go back to the Sazh DLC gate to play the new card games any more.

[miokomioko]

Yeah, I just got my Sazh crystal. That was pretty short lived, but at least the coins you win in Chronobind & Serendipity Poker carry over to Noel and Serah. Yay for that at least!

Now I'm just waiting on an outfit for Serah that makes her look a bit more like a badass and less of a whore.

[niwaar]

I bought it and beat it ...

Poker is just plain stupid. The player "AI" is just inane and its obviously "rigged" as Sazh warns you off completely if your hole cards are crap and dont have a chance at winning. Even with a pocket pair of aces he would try and say the hand is crap and you would eventually lose if you played. Going all in with a pair of Aces when he says the cards hate him preflop is just plain stupid.

Moved to Chronobind, the game isn't that bad when you get the hang of it, I just wish it would have been a little more interesting. In the short of it, it took me 3 "complete" matches until I had the 30 medals I needed to complete the objective.

The Chocolina quest befuddled me beause I ran around the entire zone that was open to me and found zero Choco chicks for her.

The DLC is interesting but the fact that the games are not available for the main storyline is a huge downside. That being said, because you use the same coins as your main characters (ie dude gives you 10k coins to start, but I started off with 18k because I still had 8k coins left after platinumming) you may be able to get the "winnings" trophy much easier with the dlc than relying on luck for slots or boring as hell choco racing. Clearing a table of Chronobind earns you 4k+ and takes roughly 10-15 minutes depending on how lucky you get.

A quick note on Chronobind and medal earnings. You earn 1 for every game you win where you played an Ace. You do not need to use it as your winning move. So use them whenever you can. Second, it is much more productive to Single Bind numerous games in a row than it is to win big. You seem to earn a medal for each game in a winning streak.

Also, the slot machine still completely sucks balls.

Why you playing them? The DLC specifically says that they do not count for collecting medals and they sucked completely already.

Lastly to note, Sazh is a Synergist. ie, if you do not want to hear about 3 minutes of dialogue that explain his story, then save your 5$. There is no achievement/trophy in this dlc which is really inexcusable for a 5$ DLC with an actual objective to complete. Yes it was easy, but I have seen lesser tasks given achievements in games. Least they coulda done was throw us a bone.