Final Fantasy XIII

[Priran]

Battles ostensibly play themselves for you, mostly because Square Enix's new Paradigm System is so contrived and complicated that the player would be confused if he had to control it himself. Instead of manually inputting commands for all your characters, everybody -- including the player's character -- can automatically fight of their own free will.

However, the new system also relies too heavily on trial-and-error, and players can expect to die a few times before nailing how certain enemies work. This is especially true of the Eidolon battles, that rank easily among some of the worst RPG boss fights in history. Players have a time limit in which to learn and then perform the various actions each Eidolon wants you to do. The first time you fight each Eidolon, you'll essentially be going through a practice run as you learn how to fight it before dying an irritating death. Square Enix even knows that its battle system is trial and error, since it gives you the option to retry fights at any point during combat, or after death.

The only truly interactive and intriguing part of the battle is Eidolon summoning, but wouldn't you know, they're all pretty much useless. Despite being able to perform a variety of visually stunning attacks, Eidolons do barely any damage to the enemy, and the Stagger meter empties as soon as they disappear, meaning they can come and go without contributing anything to the battle.

There are no distractions from the main quest (and boy were distractions needed) until thirty hours into the game, and by that point it's a case of too little, too late... Even the famous Chocobo theme, brief though its appearance is, has been ruined with some ill-advised and embarrassing vocals.

oh my god what rofl

at least yahtzee and adam sessler admit they barely play the JRPGs they're forced to review

[warc]

Mah'habara Mines

Spoiler: show

What the fuck is up with the 1xBoxed Phalanx, 2xHoplite-pack right past the Juggernaut-path. I've died more on those than any of the bosses combined, after Hoplites buff themselves they just focus someone down with all three hitting for 600 every 4 seconds. You can't even kill the Hoplites, because then the Phalanx calls 3 more. Do I suck or do I need to grind more?
I can kill everything else in there with ease, it's just this one fight.

I used Fang's SAB daze thing on the hoplites, they just sit there a snooze the whole fight leaving you free to take on the boxed phalanx. Once you stagger it, it'll be over quickly.

[Kiarax]

Just got stage 9 of crystarium. Do party members use their specials when you're not controlling them? Half tempted not to swap out Sazh for Hope because his special is so fucking awesome, but I don't wanna play as him over Light or Fang.

[Tobi]

I haven't seen my Light do Army of One yet as long as I been controlling Fang so far.

[Priran]

the AI doesn't use the specials afaik

[Kiarax]

That kinda sucks. I guess the constant slowdowns whilst they do them would get annoying though. Are Snow and Fang's worthwhile if you build up a ton of stagger? They seemed extremely underwhelming when I tried em.

[Tobi]

I believe Fang's is Highwind I think? If so it can easily do up to 999,999 dmg.

[Kiarax]

Good to know. Her and Snow's both use up the chain gauge so I figure they'd get strong as hell at high %s. Just wanted to test em out quickly after I unlocked em before I shut the game off, so didn't have time to find an enemy that I could build stagger on.

[Tobi]

With Genji Glove on Fang, you'll pretty much be able to one shot Adamantoise after breaking the legs.

Edit: Just use it at the end of the stagger bar and you're golden.

[Yabby]

I just got my grow egg!

[Akiyama]

I'm in Ch. 12 atm, and the adamantoise (even though they're the weakest ones) still give me issues, rofl. I beat em, but I still suck against them. Damn ground pound. :/

[Tobi]

Can just enfeeb them and they're super easy, lol. Or if you're still having problems, you can keep a SEN out full time to reduce the stomp damage.

[Akiyama]

Yeah, I use Lightning/Fang/Sazh, and go in with Rav/Sab/Syn to get buffed (Lightning has Auto-Haste and Sazh has Auto-Faith), and then I switch to start working on breaking him. I guess smaller ones like them don't have legs to go after to stop them from stomping, eh? I only have around 4500 HP on Light/Fang, and like 5k on Sazh, but he does like 1k+ on stomps at times. Shitsux.

[Tobi]

Since my Fang and Light are usually attacking the head, stomp doesn't affect them :D Poor Hope still gets damaged though, but I just ATB cancel to MED when low on HP.

[Kwijiboe]

Destructoid gave it a 4/10

Review: http://www.destructoid.com/review-fi...i-167136.phtml

Prime example of why I hardly ever read reviews anymore

I actually really agree with that review. This game is not good. I am very disappointed in it.

[Chun Liroy]

So you are posting in a FFXIII thread because...? Don't see me posting in Advanced, WoW and Aion anymore now do ya?

[Kyo]

So you are posting in a FFXIII thread because...? Don't see me posting in Advanced, WoW and Aion anymore now do ya?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, just because he didn't like it doesn't mean he cant post about it. You were quite vocal about not liking certain games in their respective threads and trying to be a douchenozzle to someone because they didnt like the game is retarded. Thats what these threads are for, sharing information, opinions, and discussing the game. At least he didnt atempt to shit up the thread like Darus and Hitsowhateverhisnameis.

[Kyo]

Inb4 crewing and white knighting.

Kwijiboe has been posting in this section since its creation and has always been a good source of info and overall a good poster. Wether I agree with him or not, Ive always respected his opinion.

[Chun Liroy]

I suppose. I thought he expressed his dismay about the game earlier in the thread and thus it wouldn't make sense to come back to post about it again.

Kwijiboe has been posting in this section since its creation and has always been a good source of info and overall a good poster. Wether I agree with him or not, Ive always respected his opinion.

Oh me too, pretty sure we played MW2 a few times. I see no crewing.

[Kwijiboe]

Thanks--

Sorry for voicing my disappointment.. I'm still trucking through, though.