FF13

[Azure79]

No thread for this game yet?

 

Despite my waning interest for JRPGs, somehow the announcement of a new FF always seems to get me interested. Damn nostalgia.

 

I was looking at the gameplay videos from the demo and it looks pretty but otherwise I wasn't too impressed.

 

I think I finally figured out why I can't take JRPGs seriously anymore. The story seems to be beleaguered Rebels vs. Evil Empire, but all the rebels look like they've just come out of a fashion boutique, complete with perfect hair and makeup. I guess a lot of gamers like the art style, but it just seems silly. Plus is the male lead wearing black lingerie under his shirt?

 

No random battles but they still insist on doing that blur-out blur-in transition to a battle screen? Why would they keep that annoyance?

 

The music was pretty catchy though.

[Meshugger]

Well, in my humble opinion, FFXIII seems to be doing ok-ish.

 

After the incredible known as "FFXII", where Director Matsuno went with the "supah-serious" tone, which subsequently collided with a mythos consisting of chocobos, moogles, cactuars, spunky clothes and gravity-defying hair. The strengths of jRPGs, and the FF-series in particular, rely on grand fantasy tales with characters that aren't exactly deep, but entertaining nonetheless and fit the fantasy-fable that they are trying to convey.

 

The gameplay looks a bit boring, but Last Remnant proved that while it can look boring for the observer, it can be incredible fun for the player.

 

What FFXIII lacks is 'Le Grande' Uematsu though

Edited April 19, 2009 by Meshugger

[Mamoulian War]

I think I finally figured out why I can't take JRPGs seriously anymore. The story seems to be beleaguered Rebels vs. Evil Empire,

 

 

You must realy hate Star Wars aswell

[Calax]

I'm kinda looking foreward to this but I want a different battle system than in 12.

[LostStraw]

I thought FF12 had the best battle system of the entire series. It cut down on a lot of the tedium of battle after battle entering in the exact same combinations ad nausium. I only had to set the gambits up and tweak them from time to time. It was also nice not having to wait for the battle screen to load up because all the battles happened in the world space. Too bad FF13 is going back to the silly battle transisitions.

 

I also thought the characters were well done FF12 -- unlike the ones introduced in 9, 10, and 10-2 ( I never got into 7 or 8 ). I liked the more serious tone as well. From what I've seen in the videos the FF13 characters look rather boring.

 

Seemingly right now the only thing that can save FF13 for me is if it has a great job system because everything else about it looks rather drab.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

This one's battle system looks like turn-based with some actual action.

 

Since the gameplay is all in japanese, I don't know how they play it and if it even works well though.

[Mamoulian War]

Battle system is mix of FFX-2 and classical FF ATB...

 

Lot of action involved in it, because the more you chain the bigger damage you do, and all actions require time (no mana in there for example)... so if you are good you can make nice combos and actions...

[Tigranes]

I thought FF12 had the best battle system of the entire series. It cut down on a lot of the tedium of battle after battle entering in the exact same combinations ad nausium. I only had to set the gambits up and tweak them from time to time. It was also nice not having to wait for the battle screen to load up because all the battles happened in the world space. Too bad FF13 is going back to the silly battle transisitions.

 

At the same time FF12 necessitated a HUGE amount of grinding (I ran past all those pesky monsters and was hugely disadvantaged near the end).

 

12's story had potential but for how seriously it took itself there wasn't enough substance to it.

[Calax]

I thought FF12 had the best battle system of the entire series. It cut down on a lot of the tedium of battle after battle entering in the exact same combinations ad nausium. I only had to set the gambits up and tweak them from time to time. It was also nice not having to wait for the battle screen to load up because all the battles happened in the world space. Too bad FF13 is going back to the silly battle transisitions.

 

I also thought the characters were well done FF12 -- unlike the ones introduced in 9, 10, and 10-2 ( I never got into 7 or 8 ). I liked the more serious tone as well. From what I've seen in the videos the FF13 characters look rather boring.

 

Seemingly right now the only thing that can save FF13 for me is if it has a great job system because everything else about it looks rather drab.

The biggest problem I had with FF12's battle system is the simple fact that you either had to grind yourself retarded, and once you had done that you sat there doing NOTHING as your characters did everything via AI.

[Azure79]

I think I finally figured out why I can't take JRPGs seriously anymore. The story seems to be beleaguered Rebels vs. Evil Empire,

 

 

You must realy hate Star Wars aswell

 

Oh, l love me some Star Wars. I have no problem with tried and true themes in a story. I was just stating my opinion that its hard to take a group of rebels seriously when they're all wearing designer clothes and don't' have a speck of dust on them despite the collapsing city around them.

 

Just an immersion breaker for me I guess.

 

The battle system does look ok, but I can see myself getting annoyed very fast with the transition to battle mode screen that is currently is place. Then again no mana and no leveling could mean that there is a cool tech/skill system in place that will make the combat more interesting and less tedious.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Oh, and the game looks gorgeous.

[Azure79]

Oh, and the game looks gorgeous.

 

Oh definitely. It looks amazing.

[Llyranor]

Don't really care about the story. Looking forward to the battle system.

 

And yeah, from the looks of it, it'll be ATB + X-2 (though I never played X-2 to compare).

 

Each character has a charge bar (in the demo, you only control one char, and the rest is done via AI - but you'll have full party control in the full game), which has different level. In the demo, the charge bar goes all the way up to 'lvl 3' (so, 3 charges). When it charges up to a specific 'level', you can either stock up and wait, or unleash commands immediately.

 

Eg. as soon as it charges up to lvl 1, you can unleash a normal attack or low magic spell. Or you can wait until lvl 2 or 3 and link up various moves (3 actions; a mixture of attacks/juggling/magic). Some actions (like the area effect spell in the demo) will require '3' full charges, eg one big spell will use up the whole lvl 3 charge bar. Juggling is only made available when an enemy has been weakened enough, and attacking an enemy being launched does extra damage.

 

You can also interrupt enemy moves (and vice-versa), depending on when you strike them. Thus, sometimes, it's best to use your characters even though their charge bar is still low, in order to interrupt an opponent, rather than wait for the max charge.

 

I'm fine with the battle transition screen, since it seems to load very fast. It *can* get really annoying in some games when it takes ages to load a battle.

[Maria Caliban]

The main character is female. That's nice.

 

It's not coming out on PC. That's sad.

 

You know, someday I might buy a playstation 2; I've never played a Final Fantasy game.

[Mamoulian War]

The main character is female. That's nice.

 

It's not coming out on PC. That's sad.

 

You know, someday I might buy a playstation 2; I've never played a Final Fantasy game.

 

That was the best thing i ever done!!!

 

Yes some FF games are grindfests, but only if you want to finnish every sngle sidequests and find every hidden item, but yes, last FF i played was FF8 in 2000, then last time i just said to myself, be damned my console hate and i purchased Wii and PS2 and every single FF game which was released for PS1 and PS2...

 

But heed my warning Final Fantasy games are love or hate, you either love them or you hate them... there is nothing in between...

 

Best stories are FFVI, FFVII and FFX so i would recommend you starting with these...

 

If you prefer playing females then there is clearly FFVI (but it's game from 1994) or FFX-2, but the X-2 is the most controversial game from the series, i am one of the few people who are actualy liking the game

[Meshugger]

I thought FF12 had the best battle system of the entire series. It cut down on a lot of the tedium of battle after battle entering in the exact same combinations ad nausium. I only had to set the gambits up and tweak them from time to time. It was also nice not having to wait for the battle screen to load up because all the battles happened in the world space. Too bad FF13 is going back to the silly battle transisitions.

 

I also thought the characters were well done FF12 -- unlike the ones introduced in 9, 10, and 10-2 ( I never got into 7 or 8 ). I liked the more serious tone as well. From what I've seen in the videos the FF13 characters look rather boring.

 

Seemingly right now the only thing that can save FF13 for me is if it has a great job system because everything else about it looks rather drab.

 

I have the guilty pleasure of liking FFVI, FVII, FFIX and FX (FVIII was pretty meh and FFX-2 as well). For me, FFXII was an abomination, since it was everything what the previous ones were not: Boring and sometimes pretentious characters, uninspiring soundtrack, and the whole story being full of itself.

 

The combat was a great improvement over the previous installments, but it was not enough to save an already bad game.

 

This really shows how much of a Love/Hate-disparancy FFXII can create

[Calax]

The main character is female. That's nice.

 

It's not coming out on PC. That's sad.

 

You know, someday I might buy a playstation 2; I've never played a Final Fantasy game.

 

That was the best thing i ever done!!!

 

Yes some FF games are grindfests, but only if you want to finnish every sngle sidequests and find every hidden item, but yes, last FF i played was FF8 in 2000, then last time i just said to myself, be damned my console hate and i purchased Wii and PS2 and every single FF game which was released for PS1 and PS2...

 

But heed my warning Final Fantasy games are love or hate, you either love them or you hate them... there is nothing in between...

 

Best stories are FFVI, FFVII and FFX so i would recommend you starting with these...

 

If you prefer playing females then there is clearly FFVI (but it's game from 1994) or FFX-2, but the X-2 is the most controversial game from the series, i am one of the few people who are actualy liking the game

VII is generally considered one of the best. VI is either on par or a tiny tiny bit worse than VII.

 

X-2 gets flack mainly because it turned sweet innocent young Yuna into a party-girl who showed a HEAP of flesh. The gameplay is fun but basically they could have thrown a new title and changed the characters and it would have been better received.

 

VIII is hit or miss. The main character is so oblivious and emo that he doesn't notice a girl practically humping is leg.

[Mamoulian War]

Yeah i was little bit meh when playing VIII aswell... it was the FF game which i liked less... but i think the best problem of VIII was it came out after the awesomness which was VII and i finnished VII just few days before i started to play VIII...

 

I purchased it for PS1 and will be doing one more playthrough in few weeks so i might see it in different view...

 

according to Japanese playere FFX was voted best game ever...

 

http://games.kikizo.com/news/200603/020.asp

 

and yes, imo FFXII is the second most controversial game of the series after FFX-2... i did not liked it during my first playthrough a lot, but atm I am at my second walkthrough trying to get all the sidequests and I am pretty much enjoying it... realy do not know why that sudden change of my heart

 

EDIT: I am realy interested how they will implement character advancement in FFXIII, because that was not demo...

Edited April 20, 2009 by Mamoulian War

[Wooly]

FFX and FF6 are great! FF7 is okay, but obscenely overrated. And FFX-2... does not exist. If it hypothetically did, it would be a hideous abomination beyond all imagining.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Don't really care about the story. Looking forward to the battle system.

 

And yeah, from the looks of it, it'll be ATB + X-2 (though I never played X-2 to compare).

 

Each character has a charge bar (in the demo, you only control one char, and the rest is done via AI - but you'll have full party control in the full game), which has different level. In the demo, the charge bar goes all the way up to 'lvl 3' (so, 3 charges). When it charges up to a specific 'level', you can either stock up and wait, or unleash commands immediately.

 

Eg. as soon as it charges up to lvl 1, you can unleash a normal attack or low magic spell. Or you can wait until lvl 2 or 3 and link up various moves (3 actions; a mixture of attacks/juggling/magic). Some actions (like the area effect spell in the demo) will require '3' full charges, eg one big spell will use up the whole lvl 3 charge bar. Juggling is only made available when an enemy has been weakened enough, and attacking an enemy being launched does extra damage.

 

You can also interrupt enemy moves (and vice-versa), depending on when you strike them. Thus, sometimes, it's best to use your characters even though their charge bar is still low, in order to interrupt an opponent, rather than wait for the max charge.

 

I'm fine with the battle transition screen, since it seems to load very fast. It *can* get really annoying in some games when it takes ages to load a battle.

 

That looks fun, but really fast-paced for some reason.

 

This is on my buy list for sure.

[Vilhelm]

I'm intimidated by "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children w/ FFXIII demo" posters whenever I go a train station and it's driving me nuts. I've seen gameplay videos and screenshots on the net and in magazines and FF13 certainly turns me on. I had sworn not to buy it or play it but in the end I decided to have Amazon remind me when it becomes available for pre-order on Japanese Amazon.

 

Instead, I have opted to play Final Fantasy VII, the first time I do so in Japanese, and wow, the game is completely different. The characters change radically between language versions, and the storyline gets a cheesier overtone.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Vilhelm

[mrmud]

After watching 10 minutes of the video from the japanese demo I once again realized that this game really isnt going to be for me.

[Mamoulian War]

I'm intimidated by "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children w/ FFXIII demo" posters whenever I go a train station and it's driving me nuts. I've seen gameplay videos and screenshots on the net and in magazines and FF13 certainly turns me on. I had sworn not to buy it or play it but in the end I decided to have Amazon remind me when it becomes available for pre-order on Japanese Amazon.

 

Instead, I have opted to play Final Fantasy VII, the first time I do so in Japanese, and wow, the game is completely different. The characters change radically between language versions, and the storyline gets a cheesier overtone.

 

Yeah i heard because of US audience all FF games were realy bigtime censored for US and EU release

[Vilhelm]

Yeah i heard because of US audience all FF games were realy bigtime censored for US and EU release

 

I can't speak about all the Final Fantasy games, but Final Fantasy VII doesn't seem to be censored for US/EU release. Barrett doesn't swear nearly as much as he does in the English language version. Cloud is also a huge sissy in the Japanese version, and it pisses me off now and then. Aeris is what people would generally call a "**** tease," at least for the Midgar part of the game.

 

I'm only at Junon right now, things might change. But, as I said, no apparent game breaking censoring so far.

[Calax]

Yeah i heard because of US audience all FF games were realy bigtime censored for US and EU release

 

I can't speak about all the Final Fantasy games, but Final Fantasy VII doesn't seem to be censored for US/EU release. Barrett doesn't swear nearly as much as he does in the English language version. Cloud is also a huge sissy in the Japanese version, and it pisses me off now and then. Aeris is what people would generally call a "**** tease," at least for the Midgar part of the game.

 

I'm only at Junon right now, things might change. But, as I said, no apparent game breaking censoring so far.

Aeris in the American version was a love interest sure but the teasing (sexually) was left out for the most part IIRC.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Calax