FFXIII

[Ray]

Came in the mail the other day. Loads of fun, and the graphics are amazing. The battles are pretty fast, it's a weird pseudo turn based action dealio. I've played a few hours and there are a bunch of cutscenes so far. Was looking for better rewards for leveling up but whatever, maybe I just haven't gotten there. It seems like there aren't going to be a wide selection of jobs for my characters which I really like in RPGs but again, probably not there yet.

Will update in time.

[Devo]

Thinking about getting this someday. Please do update us on your thoughts!

[Ray]

this is a pretty hard game... i am officially using the s word. i'm stuck on a boss. i'll beat it tomorrow

[Ray]

So I'm 20 hours in. If you want to know what the game has been like for me so far, read this:

http://simonferrari.com/2010/03/31/hill ... tasy-xiii/

It's awesome. I love it. The combat is superb. A paradigm is a battle formation including your party's active members and what their classes are. you can preset paradigms out of battle and switch between them during battle. Did you read that? You can change classes IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE!! No more worrying about developing so-and-so as a mage and then refusing to switch him/her to a specialist when you know you need to. There's no punishment for growing your characters in any direction you want. That isn't to say the game isn't hard. The game is definitely hard. It's a good hard though, not a grinding hard. It's been 20 hours and multiple bosses have gotten me stuck for up to 5-10 attempts. The solution to beat a boss is to discover which paradigms and characters to use and employ your strategery properly. You never lose because you're too low of a level. It's always your fault -- or your brilliance that gets you through a battle.

The link above has come nice visual aids that describe the punishment system and the linearity of the game. It's basically a no-punishment game opposite of something like Demon's Souls (and dead rising, beat that today, will post about it soon). The first 20 hours are linear and then you get some freedom. I'm just now starting my FFXIII career in freedom. We'll see how that goes.

1080p Never meant so much to me. If you look at screenshots of the game online, you'll think "oh yeah, a game with good graphics." When you buy it and take it home and play it on your widescreen or high def monitor, you'll say "Wow. This is a videogame. I don't believe it." There are two kinds of cutscenes; there are game-render cutscenes using actual models from the game, and there are cgi cutscenes. You can't tell the difference until you see a cgi one. Wowwwwwwwwww. I know for a fact when I beat it that I'm gonna go back and rewatch some.

That covers gameplay on micro and macro as well as visuals... What's left? Audio is pretty cool. It's final fantasy music, there's no mistake. Voices are fully acted throughout the game. Never have to read anything, and there haven't really been any NPCs to talk to yet (I think there will be more though).

A++++ Game. I highly recommend to anyone with a ps3 or 360.

[Devo]

Sold, I guess.

[Ray]

Been playing more, it's so fun. Hard too. I used to beat bosses first try in the beginning but not anymore. Every boss battle is so freaking epic that when I finally find how to win and execute, I end up jumping around.

[Monkey]

This is sounding like I might actually like it. Most of the things I hate about RPGs sound like they're not in this game.

Two questions; how's the pacing, and how effeminate is the main character?

[Warp2063]

The main character in FFXIII IS a female... But she seems pretty tough, being ex-military.

[Ray]

There are a bunch of main characters and I actually thought the main main character was a different person until later in the game... despite her placement on the boxart lol. Warp's right, she's badass. She's my favorite in my party.

Warning! There was one boss where I had run through the level and not fought anyone. I had to go back and get stronger to beat that boss which entailed grinding for around 30mins. That's all the grinding I've done, but I can no longer say I haven't done any, I suppose.

The pacing... at the beginning it's pretty fast, but once you get to the 20 hour mark it slows down for a few hours. I just charged through to get to the next plot event instead of sticking around, so I'm back to fast-paced advancement again.

[Monkey]

I don't know why I forgot about the female character. I remember looking at a ton of screenshots when they first came out.I guess I just assume that all JRPGs feature an effeminate boy from a small village.

The more I hear about this, the more I think I actually might like it. I don't think I've enjoyed a traditional JRPG since Golden Sun.

[Ray]

There is a pathetic boy from a large village in this game. I don't like him. You should read reviews from people that don't like it though. I don't want any blame when you get it and think "wtf rayo said it was everything i ever dreamed of and it's not."

[Monkey]

I definitely want to play it for myself before buying it. I generally stay away from RPGs (except action RPGs), but occasionally I'll find one I like. What I've heard of this one intrigues me. I'll try to borrow it from someone.

[Ray]

Beat it. The final chapter was so freaking hard. Even the lowest level encounters ended up as 5-20 minute battles. Usually they are 30 seconds - 5 minutes. I had one character I never used after required but it ended up that I used him and another I rarely used to beat the final boss Tip: when you get to the end, just skip as many battles as you can because they hardly level you up at all to make much of a difference for the final boss.

[Ray]

amazon deal of the day FFXIII for $30

that's $20 off the retail price. if you were on the fence, now's the time. they're going for like $25 used right now.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?i ... 1000208101

[Devo]

Sigh... no free shipping for us canadians.