I've now played and completed every single-player Final Fantasy game in the main series between IV and XII, but I've never managed to get very far in XIII. I played it for a couple of hours once with Kuroto and got so fed up that I had to switch it off. Now I'm going to try again. Since these "first time playing" threads have proved popular in the past, and a few people expressed interest, I thought I'd make one of my own to document my progress. Fair warning: I have no idea how long it will take me to finish the game and I might take some extremely long breaks.
I'm playing the PC version, since I got a key with Square Enix's 2015 "Holiday Surprise" package. I installed it last night and I'm already wondering if that was a mistake - it's 60 GB, by far the biggest game in my library (the two parts of Metal Gear Solid V are a combined 30 GB, by comparison). I also have the game on the PS3, but I don't really use my PS3 any more, and I've read the PC version has a higher frame rate.
Okay, I will tell you a few things without spoiling too much which you may already know or have been told, but just from my personal experience:
1) Yes, obviously, the game is linear as all hell. I've been told by fans of the game to think of it in a more eastern games philosophy way, but to me it seems a weak justification.
2) As you probably know there is an open world, you just have to go through 20 hours of linearity to get to it (it's Chapter 11, the longest and most rewarding part of the game). I was skeptical about the open world, brushing it off initially as a "glorified calm lands" but there actually is a lot of depth and imagination to it, though it is hindered by some very odd design choices (the total absences of proper towns being the biggest issue here).
3) Final Fantasy XIII's strongest point is by far its story. Once you get into the middle chapters- particularly chapters 7 and 8 you really get to see the characters break their mold and tell a really engaging story that I actually believe is the redeeming quality of that game (that and it's amazing music, the art direction is pretty and all, but again it's hard to appreciate its beauty when it's mostly linear corridors, and to my recollection XIII-2 was a much prettier game.)
:
1) GUIDE DANG IT. Get a walkthrough for customizations. Seriously if you don't plot out the path you want to take early on you can shoot yourself in the foot later on the weapons customizations. You are given a chance to redeem yourself in Chapters 11 and 13 when you can, with enough grinding, find pretty much anything you'll need, but Chapters 4 through 10 are long and full of terrors.
2) If you don't master the Paradigm System quickly, be prepared to die. A lot. The rule of XIII battles are based around reacting to situations and being almost unfairly quick on your feet (again XIII-2 handled it much better in numerous ways). Some tips on this front:
a. There are three paradigms that you want to have always ready for every fight - a Healing Paradigm, a Stagger Paradigm and an Attack Paradigm. Depending upon the enemies you will want to also have a good Defensive Paradigm and maybe a buff or debuff. The good thing about the system is you can really get creative with how you set it up. The bad thing is you have no clue going into any given fight what you'll need. Again, I recommend a guide.
b. On this front, here's some Paradigms that have served me well:
STAGGER PARADIGMS
Ravager - Ravager- Commando: This is the standard Stagger paradigm. The Commando prevents the stagger meter from falling too fast while the Ravagers plow on the offense.
Ravager X3: This is a bit more advanced and should only be used in battles where you can move quickly. Without the commando the Stagger meter will decrease quickly, but each hit resets it. So with proper timing this can be a devastating combo and a great way to rack up stagger quickly.
Ravager, Saboteur, Commando: This is another useful one for conservative fights. The Saboteur's attacks deal less damage than the Ravager, but can get your Stagger meter up just as high, and the Commando makes up for it on the damage side while keeping your Stagger meter slow.
HEALING PARADIGMS:
Medic x3: That's self explanatory and all, but actually not the optimal set up usually.
Medic, Medic, Sentinel: I recommend this one because you get the Defense buff from the Sentinel. I also recommend making the Sentinel the party leader since he's the one that has to stay alive (Snow works best here).
ATTACK PARADIGM:
Commando X3 : 90% of this time this is your go-to attack paradigm. Once the enemy is staggered a trio of commandos can usually finish most normal enemies off and even some bosses.
Commando, Commando, Ravager: This is good for bosses who have multiple Stagger levels. You can deal massive damage while continuing to hold onto that Stagger chain.
Commando, Commando, Sentinel: If you are facing a tough cookie of a boss, use this in your attack phase (and be ready to switch to your healing paradigm if needed).
c. Paradigm shifts are meant to happen lightning fast (no pun intended). Be prepared to switch to a healing paradigm for literally about 20 seconds before immediately resuming offense.
3) The level system in this game is horrible. Absolutely horrible. You are capped for one thing up until a certain point in the game and until you get to Chapter 10, only certain characters can perform certain roles. When you gain this freedom your initial desire will be to start expanding their horizons but don't. The level requirements on their non-native jobs are insanely high. I recommend finishing their innate jobs FIRST then moving onto other jobs, or at least getting most of the way there.
Phew, okay I hope I didn't scare you away and I promise the later two games are much better.
1) Yes, obviously, the game is linear as all hell. I've been told by fans of the game to think of it in a more eastern games philosophy way, but to me it seems a weak justification.
People actually say that? What a load of crap, it's not like the majority of 'eastern' games are that linear, or even most RPG's. I dunno a linear RPG seems like a total contradiction to me.
How about doing a stream or something Flint, I'd be quite insterested* in your commentary.
Jason: that's a lot more info than I was hoping for or expecting, so I'm not going to read it all just yet. I don't intend to use a guide, despite your recommendation to do so. I feel playing without one is a fairer way of evaluating the game.
Octo: I always feel a bit on-edge when I stream something because I feel like I'm being judged. I'm just going to play it in my own time and make notes, which I'll post here.
The pre-title video shows a really diverse and interesting-looking world, which is completely at odds with my brief previous experience of the game, so maybe I was too quick to judge.
My "Xbox 360 controller" (actually a PS3 controller) was detected automatically, which is already a big improvement on some other PC ports of Final Fantasy games (e.g. VII). Unfortunately, button prompts weren't showing up in tutorials - there's a space where there should be an A, B, X or Y - until I turned the graphic settings down.
The settings menu includes a list of open source licenses, which my inner geek finds pretty cool.
I'm not sure how I was supposed to feel about the opening FMV; it was visually impressive but totally chaotic.
The frame rate is jumping around quite a bit between 30 and 60, which is annoying. Steam's FPS counter shows 60 during cut-scenes but they seem to have been rendered at 30; they're not as smooth as the rest of the game. These problems happen even when I turn the graphics down, and I know my PC should be more than powerful enough to play the game, so I guess it's just a poorly-optimised port.
I'm not a fan of how many damage numbers appear on the screen at one time. Instead of an attack doing 4-5-5-4-5-4 damage, for example, why not just show 27?
I'm also not a fan of my battle performance being rated. What do the points even mean? Can I exchange them for anything? Can I try a battle again if I don't get five stars? It seems not.
"I was a soldier". I had already gotten a Final Fantasy VII vibe from the setting, the train, and the Red XIII-type animals in the intro video, but this is the icing on the cake. I wonder if it's a coincidence that both Barret and Sazh are black?
Shopping at save points. How dull.
One thing Final Fantasy XII could have done with more of was interaction between the characters, so it's nice to hear Sazh talking to Lightning as they run through the corridor.
Why is it game over if Lightning is knocked out? Is she immune to Phoenix Down?
By the time I got control of Snow for the first time, I was already feeling a bit overwhelmed by the datalog. This game clearly hasn't heard of the "show, don't tell" principle.
It took about three lines of dialogue for me to decide I don't like Snow. Whoops. Then again, it only took one line of dialogue from Vanille.
Inter-dimensional pockets!
You know what's really smart? Running into the middle of a gunfight - when your own allies are shooting from behind you - to punch things. Good thinking, Snow. Good thinking, game designers. Although, having said that, it seems like Snow can deal more damage with his fists Gadot and Lebreau do with their guns, so perhaps they're the idiots.
Hope's mother seems kinda irresponsible, don't you think?
Six save points and probably 20 battles into the game, Myrmidon was the first enemy that made me do anything except select auto battle. I used a potion. This game really isn't making me think much so far. I know it's early days but most other Final Fantasy games have a litle more variety in the early game than this.
Too much electric guitar in the soundtrack for my liking. The song that plays during the Snow/Gadot/Hope/Vanille cut-scenes before the latter two fly off is really grating.
In summary: not one of the better Final Fantasy openings. Not in the same universe as the best ones, like IX.
I'm also not a fan of my battle performance being rated. What do the points even mean? Can I exchange them for anything? Can I try a battle again if I don't get five stars? It seems not.
iirc, battle ratings depend on how advanced your weapons are and how fast you kill em, and they only effect drop rates. There's a trophy/achievement later on if you 5 star all the hunts in the game.
. Get a walkthrough for customizations. Seriously if you don't plot out the path you want to take early on you can shoot yourself in the foot later on the weapons customizations.
I feel like you can go the entire main story without actually customizing anything, as long as you can handle the paragim system well enough. I did that my second playthrough. It's a little harder but it's workable. But if you're going to do the sidequests more than halfway through the game you'll need to level up at least the accessories.
This is a huge part of why I found Hope to be SO annoying. Constantly complaining that Snow killed his mother when A) he didn't, and B) she was hugely irresponsible. Stay with your kid, lady.
This is a huge part of why I found Hope to be SO annoying. Constantly complaining that Snow killed his mother when A) he didn't, and B) she was hugely irresponsible. Stay with your kid, lady.
While Hope's mother may not be 'the best mother ever', I actually don't think what she did was too unreasonable. I mean they were all sentenced to die anyway; she figures if she can fight for her life and her son's life, she should. If there's a chance to save him, she'll take it. And it worked, in a roundabout way. So I don't think she was irresponsible. You can argue she should've stayed with Hope and let others do the fighting, but I say that she did a pretty sensible thing in such a situation. Leave Hope in a remotely safe spot and try and protect him physically, by fighting back the soldiers trying to kill them all.
There was only one gun left when Mama Hope put herself forward, but there were plenty of people left who hadn't yet volunteered. I can't imagine they all had ten-year-olds to look after. (I don't actually know how old Hope is; that's just a guess.)
These early chapters are pretty short, aren't they? I didn't think I'd have another one finished so soon.
Chapter two
Finally, a non-linear area! Though the way Vanille runs around it is bordering on obnoxious.
I think there's too much switching of characters/parties at the beginning of this chapter.
I'm also getting tired of hearing just the first 20 seconds of Blinded by Light. As I've said before, it's a great piece of music that probably shouldn't have been the main battle theme of this game.
In the scene after I typed the previous note, the battle music was replaced by what I'm guessing is Snow's Theme - the electric guitar track I said was grating earlier. This is not an improvement!
The camera in this game is really quite bad. XII's was a lot better.
Apparently there's supposed to be some descriptive text on the enemy info screen but it doesn't show up at 1920x1080 resolution or higher. Great.
I'm finding it difficult to keep track of all the new terminology, and as a result, follow the story. I think some terms could be better differentiated, not least l'Cie and fal'Cie, but the blame is mostly on the writers for thrusting so many concepts at the player in such a short space of time. Or maybe I'm just slow.
Anima: finally a fight with a bit more strategy to it, even if it was still very easy.
The FMV that played afterwards was impressive - the whole game looks very good, in fact, especially considering its age - but again, I didn't really know what was happening. Hopefully it will become clearer.
It won't. Not on a first playthrough anyway. The game really does throw far too much terminology at you on a first run, you're just going to have to use as much flintbrain as possible to try and absorb it then things will hopefully start to make sense later.
Like, it can make sense on a first run but you have to be paying rapt attention and learn very quickly what all the terms mean. This would be a good place to post questions if you're unclear on story developments.
Also I don't want to demoralise you but there's no actual non-linear area until chapter 11. Soz
Well, I have one question at least: If Serah became a crystal, does that mean she already completed her Focus? And wasn't her Focus to protect Cocoon? Was it really enough that Lightning and Snow promised to protect it for her? (Answer without spoilers if possible, please!)
Non-linear by this game's standards, in the sense that the area was more than just a straight line. I was referring to the Sacrarium in the Pulse Vestige.
Ah yes, the arms that lead nowhere. I'm sure that challenged your brain
Also I know you said never mind but I literally have to answer the questions anyway:
Well, I have one question at least: If Serah became a crystal, does that mean she already completed her Focus? And wasn't her Focus to protect Cocoon? Was it really enough that Lightning and Snow promised to protect it for her? (Answer without spoilers if possible, please!)
If an enemy is added to my datalog because I killed it rather than cast Libra, is that enough for auto-battle and my other party members to target its weaknesses if I encounter it again?
Depends how you killed it. Without Libra you'll find weaknesses if you use that element on it. If you did, than your party will do so. But if you only used, say, fire and it's neither resistant nor weak to it, your party will still attack blindly until weaknesses are uncovered.
Only if your characters used the appropriate attacks in said battle. I.e. if its weak to fire and your character used fire, auto-battle will prioritise fire. This happens during battle too, so if you cast ice and it absorbs ice, auto-battle will stop using ice. It's always better to use manual commands though, but there's really no need other than speed (your efforts will be focussed on building and shifting paradigms when that becomes a thing).
I like the way treasure chests - er, orbs - bounce up and down. It makes them easier to spot.
Damn, Lightning has an anger management problem. Even though I have mostly agreed with her over Snow, there's no need to punch the guy multiple times and hold a blade to his throat when he clearly means well.
What exactly does Snow hope to achieve by hacking away at the crystal surrounding Serah? Even if he frees her, she'll still be made of crystal herself.
I didn't really get the Shiva battle. Apparently I just had to use Sentinel? Weird.
This probably goes without saying, but Vanille is extremely irritating. I hope there's some sort of back-story explanation for why she acts half her age.
That'll be it for today and maybe for the weekend. Despite all my criticism, I am enjoying the game. It's always fun to play a new Final Fantasy.
I like the way treasure chests - er, orbs - bounce up and down. It makes them easier to spot.
Damn, Lightning has an anger management problem. Even though I have mostly agreed with her over Snow, there's no need to punch the guy multiple times and hold a blade to his throat when he clearly means well.
What exactly does Snow hope to achieve by hacking away at the crystal surrounding Serah? Even if he frees her, she'll still be made of crystal herself.
I didn't really get the Shiva battle. Apparently I just had to use Sentinel? Weird.
This probably goes without saying, but Vanille is extremely irritating. I hope there's some sort of back-story explanation for why she acts half her age.
That'll be it for today and maybe for the weekend. Despite all my criticism, I am enjoying the game. It's always fun to play a new Final Fantasy.
I was referring to the Sacrarium in the Pulse Vestige.
