Final Fantasy XIII

I am thinking about another one to make sure I put it higher than VI or XII, or else to put it below. Plus I kinda feel like it now. Once I am done something else I am in the middle of.

Of course, there are some parts I am iffy about... One or two boss battles in particular...

Also I can't remember how I beat Odin and Hecatoncheir so easily but I remember hearing they are notoriously difficult and people being surprised I beat them so easily.

And, of course some trick to powering up weapons mixing them with organic stuff and mechanical stuff, and one of them increases the ratio for how the other one does or something.

Of course I remember the Crystarium, battle style, and Paradigms (once defeating Anima and becoming l'Cie), maybe not the controls for the Paradigm Shifts but I'm sure it'll tell me again.

It might be a few days or a week or so, but I might dig out my Xbox 360 again.

Just finished the game, I won't spoil. It is actually not that bad. Pretty good actually. I guess some people may not be a fan of the combat, but I think it is fun asl, especially when you do a Paradigm Shift to Commando while you are doing a Full ATB Skill.

Lightning is a strawberry-flavored queen, Fang my 13-in one shampoo-using GOAT, Sazh? GOAT! Vanille? GOAT. Hope? Meh, found him slightly whiny (although it can be somewhat justified considering he literally had a normal life, is 14, and lost his own mom. (I can still take him in a fight lmao [unless Lighting steps in])

(Might try getting the postgame stuff later)

Now, onwards to XIII-2 for me!

I'll do this separate from my other post as it'll likely be lost by now and this will be the last I play through for the first time. (I had planned on V but it's not being released anytime soon, and no particular interest in any of the others except maybe IX or whichever has Zidane)

Last night, after 80 hours of gameplay, lots of level grinding, and a few unfair battles, I beat FFXIII. Dysley/Barthandelus and Orphan both got struck by Lightning last night. So here's my review.

It's definitely different from the first seven games. It's full 3D with voices, and instead of random battles, enemies appear outside of battle mode like in Xenoblade Chronicles, Paper Mario, etc. The battle system is somewhere between Xenoblade Chronicles and Final Fantasy VII. Original to this is the Paradigm Shift, where you switch your characters' roles between Commando, Ravager, Medic, Sentinel, Synergist, or Saboteur for physical attacks, magic attacks, healing, drawing enemy attacks and guarding against them, granting buffs to the party, and afflicting debuffs to enemies, respectively.

What makes it fun for me:

Not having to heal between battles, due to automatically recovering after each battle, like on Xenoblade Chronicles. On that note, never running out of magic in the game, your use of magic is as unlimited as your physical attacks.

A lot of the visuals of some of the levels (such as Lake Bresha, Sunleth Waterscape, Gapra Whitewood, Archlyte Steppe, and Orphan's Cradle), and a lot of the soundtracks (such as the battle theme, Gapra Whitewood, Sunleth Waterscape, Will to Fight, the Chocobo park, and the Barthandelus battle theme).

The fighting can be fun in its own way if you have some good strategies and the fights aren't too unfair.

Any CP you get, all party members get the same amount, even if they're not in your party at the time.

Lightning. Just... Lightning. She's probably my favorite FF character. Maybe even more than Edgar.

The main villain being defeated at the end, of course. Lightning and her party escape the two l'Cie fates and turn human again, except Vanille and Fang, who turn crystal but are dreaming in crystal sleep rather than being awake or eternally unconscious and are confident they will reawaken.

Going through Archlyte Steppe's open world, which resembles Gaur Plain from Xenoblade Chronicles. The missions aren't too difficult or hard to find, doing one mission after another is pretty fun and there's the Chocobos of course. That Behemoth King and the other enemy (forget the name) fighting leading to an easy Behemoth King kill is pretty good too.

And while many complained about this, the linear path of every other level besides Archlyte Steppe made it more fun for me. There's something about going forward through a path or tunnel, and also not having to focus too much on sidequests or wondering where to go.

What I disliked:

Not getting gil from every battle like in other games. It can be very hard to get in the first few chapters. Eventually in Chapter 7 you start getting Credit Chips and Incentive Chips you can sell for more gil, which is vital in buying components to upgrade your weapons, and restocking on Phoenix Downs if you're getting low. EVENTUALLY you can find a few Gold Nuggets at Archlyte Steppe after being able to ride Chocobos, and after beating Dahaka, do a mission repeatedly for an item that sells for 6,000 gil. But before that...

A few of the battles could be unfair. The three that stood out to me the most are the second Proudclad fight (his HP takes forever to reduce to zero and he heals for all his HP if he charges fully), the fight with Wladislaus and a Templar (I needed an Aegisol to beat them), and a fight with three Dagonites and three Sacrifices as they're an unbeatable combination (Dagonites attack too fast, and Sacrifices inflict Pain and Fog to block attack and magic, respectively). But at least that last fight is skippable by going the other way and sneaking past two equally unbeatable Velocycles.

(As for those listed under That One Boss (which I added Proudclad to), some could be challenging but I beat most of them in one try and they're not too hard to get past, even if you don't on your first try. I technically beat Proudclad in one try too but I needed Odin for that)

Not being able to revisit previous areas before Pulse, in case you missed some chests. One of which is at Sunleth Waterscape being guarded by a Scalebeast that is difficult (but not impossible) to defeat at your current level with two characters.

Not sure whether to add Crystarium having a maximum each chapter to this list. It does at least let you know you don't need to become any stronger, but it also means you can't be overleveled like in other games or Xenoblade Chronicles where even Lorithia can be made easier.

It was a little hard to figure out what was going on at first, until I found out about the Datalog. (They even mention this in the In A Nutshell parody) But it was easier to understand the story as the game progressed.

The story, while all right, could get grimdark at times. I know a lot of other Final Fantasy games like II, VI, and VII could get pretty dark too but at least they had the heroes fighting a battle they knew they had a chance of winning. Defeat the Emperor and end his tyranny. Defeat Gestahl's empire, and later defeat Kefka. Defeat Sephiroth and stop Meteor.

Here, there's sort of a sense of hopelessness - Lightning and her party, being turned into l'Cie, are cursed to turn to crystal if they complete their Focus - which is to destroy Cocoon - or turn to mindless beasts called Cie'th (similar to Xenoblade's Telethia) if they do not, and there's no clear way out of this. (Sazh almost even commits suicide due to this) Not to mention being feared and despised by the general public due to Dysley's manipulations.Though they do decide to fight to save Cocoon, and Lightning, Snow, Sazh, and Fang are spontaneously restored to human form and free of the curse, and Serah and Dajh released as well (maybe by Vanille and Fang somehow? Or, someone said divine intervention)

And lastly, party leader dying means game over even if your other two are still alive. Which makes playing as Hope annoying since his HP is the lowest. On that note, Lightning's HP being so low despite her being both the main character and one of the most physically powerful characters. (I equipped her with a Platinum Bangle as soon as possible)

***

Despite its flaws I found it fun and I'm glad you talked me out of returning it at the last second. (I was literally about to make the return trip when I read your comment on how to defeat the boss I couldn't get past)

I think my previous post of my progress of Final Fantasy XIII has been forgotten now. So I'll make a new one, or at least one to address an important question I have regarding the point I'm at now.

For those who haven't been keeping up with my previous post, I have gotten to (possibly the end of?) Chapter 10. After defeating Barthandelus the first time I got new roles for my characters, but they cost an obscene amount of CP. As was suggested to me I upgraded just enough to unlock Commando and Sentinel for Vanille, Ravager for Fang, and Commando for Hope.

Well, after defeating the Chapter 10 boss and sixth TOB (spoiler alert: It's Cid Raines), my Crystarium expanded, but to further upgrade my Level 3 roles requires even more CP than new roles for them.

I did a ridiculous amount of level grinding in Chapter 9 and entered Chapter 10 with about 110,000 CP, and got back to a similar amount after defeating Raines. And even so, I can't even fully upgrade ONE role. I'd either have to upgrade one partway, or upgrade the others bit by bit.

So my question is, which roles should I focus on for each character? I want to say Commando for everyone except Vanille and Hope, and Medic for those two, but is there any roles more worth upgrading for any of them?

In particular, are there any stats I should focus on the most (I'm guessing more HP for Lightning will always be good), or any unlockable abilities there that later parts of the game and the remaining five TOB's (That One Boss) would be a lot more difficult without?

I've googled this a bit, so far the only questions and answers have been whether to upgrade the old ones or the new ones first, and the answer is always upgrade the old ones (aside from sometimes recommending going far enough to unlock Ruin for Hope, etc.), since they give better increases in HP, strength, and magic. So that much is obvious. I saw one thing saying to increase Lightning's Ravager first, but nothing for Snow, Sazh, or Vanille, only Hope and Fang.

Otherwise, it basically says max out the main three roles first then worry about the rest. But I don't have near enough CP to max out one role, so which should take priority for each character?

Also, in Chapter 11, do enemies start giving a proportionate amount of CP to be able to level easier? (Like, above 500, maybe even over a thousand? So that it won't take quite so long to fully level up my characters again?)

And one last question, will there be any enemies past this point that drop Incentive Chips? I spent quite a bit of gil for components to upgrade Lightning's Gladius after I transformed it, and other characters' weapons by a bit.

So, it will likely be months (if ever) before I can play Final Fantasy V.

But, every time I hear the name Final Fantasy XIII, I keep thinking of Lightning. Why does she interest me more than Zidane?

I never really researched it, but I looked it up and one of the consoles it's on is the Xbox 360, which I have (haven't played a lot of games for it though, just the Tomb Raider Legend Trilogy and Sonic Generations), but it's still somewhere I can easily dig it out, and with a remote, as long as it doesn't get a Yellow Light of Death or something.

So, I know this game, unlike V, is going to be drastically different from the six FF games I've already played, including VII.

I can't remember exactly what I saw when I peeked at a few videos but would I find its style to be fun and are there any parts I would find annoyingly difficult, either to figure out or to do in itself?

(If the fighting is anything like Xenoblade Chronicles, I found that to be fun, as long as, of course, there's enough room to level grind to become really powerful. Or is the battle system still similar to VII?)

Edit: I hear it was criticized for being "linear", but if I understand that word right, that might actually make it more enjoyable for me.

So I have been on a quest to play all the FF main series games as well as the sequel games such as (x-2, xiii-2, etc). So far I have played I, IV, VII, and I am in the process of finishing V and XIII. Is there any game you all recommend me to play? (main series, and do not recommend me VII-R I've played it lol) and has anyone here played xii? I genuinely want to play this game but is it worth buying the ps4 remaster? And lastly, if anyone has any jpgs to recommend please feel free to do so.