[Game Complete] Pushing It to the Thirteenth Hour: My Step by Step Impressions of Final Fantasy XIII.

[ForceStealer]

I kinda liked Snow's design, though I don't quite like his character as much. And I know we've discussed before that Lightning's legs are still too thin, but I still really like her design and her outfit.

And...I'm sorry I just don't think Sazh looks that goofy. So he has an afro, okay, fine. I thought the subtle graying of it is a great touch though. And, yes, a chocobo lives in it, but you know they really don't make a big deal of that or try to extract laughs from the idea. But his clothes are just about as normal as anyone else's. It's not like he's got Cid's half-popped collar. To be honest...I actually kinda like Sazh's old-school military-style coat.

 

[Max Payne]

And...I'm sorry I just don't think Sazh looks that goofy. So he has an afro, okay, fine.

Yeah, sure ok there chief. A black guy with a massive fro with a chicken living in it, with a big nose and generally rounded facial features and an oddly colored ensemble of clothes doesn't look goofy. DERP D-DERP DERP DERP. Everyone else being dressed weird doesn't change that he looks goofy too.

I'm not even getting into the stupid japanese vs english bullshit.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I guess Sazh doesn't look that goofy...

If you happen to be caught in a time warp of the 1970's

 

[Zee]

>oddly colored ensemble of clothes
>green and brown

His character design reminds me of Spike from Cowboy Bebop, anyway. His theme music just reinforces this.

 

[Max Payne]

His character design reminds me of Spike from Cowboy Bebop, anyway. His theme music just reinforces this.

ahahhaah what are you fucking BLIND?

Btw gais APPLES REMIND ME OF ORANGES.

Sorry I think snot green and tan are an odd combination of colors too darlin.

 

[Zee]

Didn't say he was directly inspired by Spike, just that he reminded me of him, there's a difference~

Sorry I think snot green and tan are an odd combination of colors too darlin.

In what world do green and tan not go together?

 

[Max Payne]

They are radically different visually, that's a pretty big stretch.

Also,sorry if I come off as a dick, it's just cause I'm venting.

 

[Zee]

It's less with just the character design and more with the overall feel of the character. They both have poofy hair, are badass with guns, and Sazh's music reminds me of the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack.

It's cool, man.

 

[Max Payne]

It's less with just the character design and more with the overall feel of the character. They both have poofy hair, are badass with guns, and Sazh's music reminds me of the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack.

The only similarities I can see in the designs is they both have big hair. I can agree on similarities in music however.

Otherwise like I said, they're radically different not only in design. Sahz is a cool warm hearted guy, Spike is basically a lazy douche who doesn't give a shit about anything but Julia(still love him tho).

 

[Zee]

If I was going to compare Sazh to a character in CB in terms of personality, I suppose Jet would be closer.

 

[Max Payne]

Eh, I think Jet is a pretty cool guy, robotic arms and doesn't afraid of anything

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Geesh, maybe I should update soon with all of this going on in the topic, huh?

 

[Max Payne]

Maybe you should.

 

[ForceStealer]

Also,sorry if I come off as a dick, it's just cause I'm venting.

I didn't really notice a difference, honestly.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Goddamn, man, are you gonna update or what? Get to it!

 

[Lord Noctis]

Goddamn, man, are you gonna update or what? Get to it!

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Update #12: 31 Hours, 50 Minutes

Vanille sounds like she's battling a bout of constipation in her battle cries.

"OH YEAH"

"EEEENNNNNNGGGGGGGG"

"UNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH"

Actual, for real update coming soon.

 

[Winter]

She sounds like she's having an orgasm with every battle noise she makes.

It makes me embarrassed to play the game around normal human beings, it sounds like I'm watching porn.

 

[ForceStealer]

I HATE Vanille's battle sounds, everyone can start to get a little grating (I'm looking at you, Snow), but hers are just dreadful. Its a major motivation for me to keep her off my team, which is unfortunate as she's a damn good mage.

 

[Max Payne]

SEE I KNEW I WASN'T THE ONLY ONE THAT THOUGHT SHE SOUNDED WEIRD

VALIDATION....MMM GOOD!

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Update #13: 32 Hours, 33 Minutes

GRIND PARTY AND EVERYONE'S INVITED

So I made it into Gran Pulse. Actually, I've been in Gran Pulse since the last few updates, but I didn't post about it because until now, I didn't really get to explore it. This place is rough. Pretty much every encounter has the capability to mop the floor with you, and those giant elephant things are completely impossible to beat at this point of time since they do 6000+ damage to everyone in the process of walking towards you. So yeah, grind time. I never minded grinding in games, and I like it when games, RPG or otherwise, has a sudden leap of difficulty in a new area because it keeps you on your toes.

As far as the 'open ended' of it goes, well...I'm not impressed. Don't get me wrong, there's no more 'straight line' shit going on anymore, I can wander around at my leisure (nothing to really find except more fights, though) and take on 'Missions', which are like Marks, but come on. In the context of the game itself it's a breath of fresh air, but overall, this is not something that anyone should be 'excited' about. "Yay, Chapter 10 out of 13 finally gives me a tad bit of freedom!"

In fucking 2010 and on its thirteenth installment, Final Fantasy should not have the standard of exploration be generally what it was in it's FFII days as a "Hey, at least it's not linear anymore" consolation prize in the last fucking stretch of the game, especially when games such as Star Ocean 2 and Saga Frontier gives you a shitton, I mean, seriously, a literal shitton of stuff to do (SO2) and freedom (SF), respectively.

Other than that, I'm still enjoying the game for what it is, but it could have been so much more. What the fuck happened?

 

[ForceStealer]

This is the first RPG in some time that I haven't minded grinding in because I find the battle system really fun.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Don't get me started on the battle system. It too isn't bad, but it could have been much more.

1. The team based concept of a Paradigm System is pretty cool, but it DOESN'T have to override individuality and controlling your team. Like I said, it really takes away the one on one aspect of controlling every member of your team because they do everything on their own, except for your main character, and even THEN your main character is on autopilot because Auto Battle is MUCH more tactically sound and faster than doing it manually, like one would suggest. The game pretty much hogties you into picking Auto Battle and hoping for the best every battle.

Sure, there's a lot of strategy and tension in picking the best Paradigm for each situation and assigning roles to who, but that shouldn't be mutually exclusive with player input and involvement on a more personal and individual level in battle as well.

2. The concept of your team leader dying=game over is really dumb, especially when the game forces Hope or Vanille as your team leader and the entire success of the battle is dependent on whether or not either one of those creampuffs isn't randomly targeted twice. That shit doesn't keep me on my toes. It just makes me fucking paranoid and I pick Snow to be the team leader constantly.

3. I think the whole concept of Eidolons transforming into vehicles, especially with no universe explanation is kinda dumb. A minor point, but still. It's like, at least try to be subtle with the "HEY LOOK HOW COOL THIS IS GUYS" thing?

4. Eidolons are actually useful in this game. Much more useful than Espers in FFXII, by several orders of magnitude.

5. The concept of having just weapons and accessories is also dumb. Extra dumb points for having that ON TOP OF an Upgrade system. Imagine a proper upgrade system with a whole range of equipment to augment and experiment with. Noooo...

 

[ForceStealer]

I do like that grinding isn't the ONLY solution to a tough boss fight, which is the case in a lot of Final Fantasies, at least.
The whole switch to this focus on "higher-level" strategery was a good one, imo. It's a total change from the normal way to approach an FF battle. If they truly got nothing else right, this is pretty cool.

I was never going to like only controlling one character, didn't in 12. Granted there is A LOT going on in these battles, so it might be pretty tough.
Also, I wish you could at least disable an ability so a party member wouldn't use it if you didn't want them to (like if you didn't want your synergist to waste time with Shell for a particular battle or something).
The party leader dying = game over sucked a whole lot in Persona, its still a little annoying here, but is kinda made up for with the retry feature. You could say just scrap the retry feature AND the party leader dying-game over thing, but whatever. Hasn't resulted in too many cheap losses for me like it did in Persona.

VII didn't really have much in the way of equipment either, and if they were going to add more, they'd have to make upgrading much cheaper. And Lightning has a pretty badass weapon in my game due to upgrading

 

[Cat Rage Room]

VII didn't really have much in the way of equipment either,

Materia. Granted, not the perfect system and not the perfect substitute, but whoop, there it is.

and if they were going to add more, they'd have to make upgrading much cheaper.

They should have made upgrading cheaper and more intuitive period. You're pretty much fucking clueless without either luck, a guide, or a lot of patience.