Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

[Splintered]

I had a sword that extends buff times.

Apparently curse works really well on

Spoiler

Caius

but I have never used curse in the history of ever. I'm hoping to get to the point where I can perfect guard his moves so I don't need a heavily defensive schemata (since perfect guard negates all damage)... but I'm not very good at this game yet. ha.

I'm going to try and fight him a few more times on the ark, but I have a feeling that it's going to be much easier now that I have his sword. I have yet to work with Artemis Arrows or Jump because I usually use my Heavy Guard characters as my physical damagers because... well I'm essentially wasting a slot.

I love the guardian corps outfit so much that I always use it, even when I know I should switch it out. I just build it as my debuffer speed character. But because of that I'm not really experimenting on other outfits until now. Right now my normal schmatas are guardian corp, quiet guardian (+10 physical resistance, +80 strength, heavy guard lvl 2), and I forgot what my mage one is called- its based of the thief gear and gives you 250+ magic with firespark. I switch with paladin whenever I need to.

Apparently all her "masculine" clothes are based off of Setzer, but you can definitely tell the thief-ish gear is locke's. Mostly because when you switch to it she will say things like "I'm not a thief" and "what's your greatest treasure?" It makes me smile with all these throw backs :')

 

[Arianna]

*sigh* Am I the only one who is finding this game to be a mega cluster&*%@!?

Seeing some of the responses here, I'm going to guess 'no.' What's stumping me is the time limits, my biggest issue. My perfectionist nerves are becoming shot trying to do things - even according to the guide.

Now look, I'll admit that I am not the best of gamers. Perhaps I'm a bad gamer. I play only a few games. I play them a good amount. This does not make me versed in "games" though, and I know this.

Via YouTube and such I can see the cutscenes I am missing. When the Ultimanias come out, I can learn (hopefully) what I wish to learn. Actually playing the game seems like it's more of a hassel for me; there's enough in my life that already drives me nuts, I don't need it to compound that.

Just curious if anyone else feels this way?

 

[Lex]

I just use chronostasis constantly. That's partly why I'm on day 7 and have relatively little left to do aside from grinding.

 

[Claymore]

It use to bother me, but it's really easy to work around. Just Chronostasis absolutely everything.

Having played the game a heck of a lot more, it has definitely become less of an issue, especially by just spamming Chronostasis, however, that doesn't detract from the fact that it still remains an issue. Ultimately, it's just a feature that I hate in any game because it hampers enjoyment and restricts a sense of growth, completion, exploration, and an appreciation of the game world.

The implementation - though I still detest it - within say, Dead Rising I can understand. But for me, it just skewers what I personally need and expect from an RPG.

On another note. Yes. Boss 3-3 kicked my ass ... repeatedly. I think I took him on way too early. Need to go somewhere else, lol.

 

[Fangu]

The boss fights in this game are insane. I thought it was a fluke when I fought

Spoiler

Snow

on day 6 because apparently his difficulty sky rockets at that time, but no.

Well THAT explains a few things Is that what the + next to [in spoiler] name means? Cus I fought them BEFORE going to the Wildlands - no wonder I had such a tough time with that fight. I didn't even get a new weapon for it (but at least I got an EP slot.)

And then I went to the Wildlands and almost had my ass handed to me by a

Spoiler

Reaver

. So that felt encouraging But maybe you're not supposed to take them yet.

I still don't believe I'm gonna make it though. I'm on day 8 or something already and I'm only about halfway on the 3rd main quest.

Apparently curse works really well on

Spoiler

Caius

but I have never used curse in the history of ever.

That makes sense, as [thing in spoiler] was all about being interrupted on the right times in the previous game.

I just use chronostasis constantly. That's partly why I'm on day 7 and have relatively little left to do aside from grinding.

I completely forgot about Chronostasis after getting it, which means I was just about to enter the Luxerion final fight when I was teleported back to the Ark. *facepalm* I still haven't used it. Imma spam it now.

 

[Alex Strife]

It's fun but... it's stressful.

I'm only on day 2 but struggling to do everything I want to do. I'm too far behind it all but... Aghh, it's stressful.

 

[Strangelove]

Yeah, "+" and in the case of Yusnaan "++" mean that boss has powered up, except in the Dead Dunes where they get a whole name change instead.

I lived on Chronostasis the first time around. Except on the first mission where I didn't use it and thus failed the first mission.

 

[Alex Strife]

This game is HARD!!

I'm having my ass handed out to me. I may play it on easy first, seeing how there's no difference between standard and easy modes.

 

[Strangelove]

The makers recommended playing it on easy first anyway Then if you decide to go onto normal for another game, you have all your stats/GP/most equipment, can upgrade equipment and certain accessories (I forgot which type, but when you collect the same one it upgrades it automatically, which happens twice; the other accessory type is replaced with gil and stuff). You also level stats up less from quests, but you get double gil iirc.

 

[AvecAloes]

Yeah, I'm definitely thinking that maybe I should have started on "easy" mode, but oh well It's been challenging. I have only been able to sit down and play a few times, but I'm planning on diving back in this afternoon. I have my doubts as to whether I'll be able to successfully finish this playthrough, though

 

[Jason Tandro]

So I got the game when it came out and beasted through it during my vacation.

It may very well be my favorite game in the entire trilogy and I LOVED LOVED LOVED XIII-2. I called XIII-2 the game that repented for the sins of (frankly) the mediocre XIII. But Lightning Returns is the game that makes the entire series a bonafide masterpiece and frankly, kinda makes me want to go back and replay the first game. And if this game has the power to make me want to slog through a 20 hour pretty line fest again, it's doing something great.

Edit: To AvecAloes: I started a game on Normal, got my ass kicked around Day 9 and so started a new game+ on Easy Mode. Was not a fan of the penalty for escaping and the non-health regeneration. Either have a limit on recovery items or no regenerating health, not both.

I'm about to do a Podcast about the entire series to give my full take on the trilogy as a whole, but for now, in celebration of my victory over this phenomenal game, I present you with this medley of all three game soundtracks which I put together last night. Keep in mind, there are more than 240 tracks between the three to select from, so I had to choose songs that I felt best represented the trilogy as a whole and also their respective games (this was tricky with Lightning Returns as the last game pretty much uses half of the tracks from the previous two games).

Here's the medley

 

[Lex]

^Right now I honestly feel the same way about the game as you, but I haven't completed it yet. It'll take me at least a few more (real life) days to do it, since real life is getting in the way even though I planned so carefully for it not to ;-;

How long is this medley? I'm listening to it now.

EDIT: Nevermind, I downloaded it, that'll give me the track info

 

[Jason Tandro]

^Right now I honestly feel the same way about the game as you, but I haven't completed it yet. It'll take me at least a few more (real life) days to do it, since real life is getting in the way even though I planned so carefully for it not to ;-;

How long is this medley? I'm listening to it now.

EDIT: Nevermind, I downloaded it, that'll give me the track info

Thanks for the listen Lex! It's a behemoth of two hours, but mind you I had three games to cover and if I'd included every track I wanted to, It'd be like six hours.

Not for a one-sitting listen unless you are super dedicated, lol.

And dude, the game gets cooler and cooler the more you play it, especially with the side quests you can discover and unlock. And the finale... amazing, with a pretty decent twist ending in the Epilogue which is kind of subtle too.

 

[Lex]

Someone please tell me why I can put a frying pan on lightning's ass XD

 

[Arianna]

If you fail and go back to the first day, does everything reset?

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Someone please tell me why I can put a frying pan on lightning's ass XD

'Cause regular paddles just don't get her there.

 

[Strangelove]

i was looking through a guidebook's suggested order for main quests and it put 3-3 last and i thought of this thread

(i didn't do 3-3 last but i was on easy and it was still tough)

 

[Selphie Tilmitt]

Why are we still awake

If you don't get to the final day on time you get NG+ where your stats/equipment/etc carry over but main story quests, etc are all reset. Anything you already got a reward from the first time you won't get the exact same reward from again, you'll get something but it will be smaller stat boosts than before, etc.

 

[Splintered]

The dead dunes ruins will be the death of me.

I'm really enjoying this game. Only two days left and I got almost all of the sidequests done, and pretty much explored everything I need to. I failed one or two quests just because I ignored them until too late but honestly, even with me getting constantly lost I had a good amount of time to do everything.

As criticism though, you can tell they only had a year to do things because I feel like there should have been more*. The Dead Dunes are a good example, I don't mind the Dead Dunes feeling like a barren wasteland, it's suppose to. But for the ruins I wish it were just more than one note. I've explored the shit out of that place, and it's huge but it's also all the same (and it's a frigging maze so if you aren't constantly grinding for chronostasis, you are getting stressed). Maybe make that area smaller, and then have one or two other ruins that look a little different.

The other issue I noticed is the bestiary, there's not enough diversity. I drove three or four enemies to extinction and it feels pretty obvious when they are gone simply because there's not enough enemies. That said all the monsters are actually clever, with each one being well thought out with the player needing to figure out how to poke at their weaknesses, but I wish there was just more.

That said, I drove the Reavers (the behemoth looking things) to extinction. The sword it drops is awesome, with the normal one just being a little worse than Caius's sword, and the bright pink extinction sword being even better.

 

[AvecAloes]

I had no idea you could actually drive monsters into extinction. That's pretty cool.

 

[Arianna]

Any help with the Chocobo Eater, normal mode? He killed me when I attempted to save the white chocobo.

 

[Fangu]

Any help with the Chocobo Eater, normal mode? He killed me when I attempted to save the white chocobo.

Spoiler

I think Heavy Guard was nice to have, I made a point of blocking him as much as possible - but then again I had training from the Snow fight I don't think I did anything in particular, just stacked up on Hi-Potions and wacked him with Thunder and Sparkstrike (he's weak to Lightning).

 

[Splintered]

Any help with the Chocobo Eater, normal mode? He killed me when I attempted to save the white chocobo.

I hate the "eater" groups (chocobo eaters, earth eaters), I *still* have a problem with them.

I don't really remember too much about the first fight but if it's like the other eaters:

are you checkings its weakness is the libra menu? You need to stagger it as fast as you can using its elemental weakness. After that it can be duffed, so apply those (in my case I use deprotect and deshell- although debrave and defaith might help). Keep a good eye on those debuffs and buffs he has, when they slip off apply them again UNLESS he has veil on- which makes it near impossible to apply them until it falls off (I think veil is the square looking one).

Then stagger and kill. I am almost positive that he is weaker to physical attacks than magical attacks, so if you the abilities to build three schematas like this, do it. Use overclock liberally, maybe time it before he gets in his angry mode.

If you are finding it hard to withstand some of his super attacks, build one of your roles into a physical resistant role- probably your debuffer. Give it your best damage preventing accessory. There's a 75% physical damage accessory but it comes at a huge cost of damage potential, so besides debuffing and block, it should only be used for staggering. Give it your best block, preferably heavy guard. I use Paladin or Quiet Guardian for it. Whenever he uses his big move (I think it's chomp?), you need to switch to that schemata. He telegraphs his move so after awhile you should be able to pick up on when he's about to use it.

In a perfect world you would just perfect guard it, but if you're like me you probably don't have the timing down for it. Still, with a heavy guard and a guild physical resistance set up it's survivable.

If you want, you can try finding a shop that sells a potion that gives you an elemental quality to your weapon along with healing, and you can use that as it will help with staggering. I believe the Wildlands sell all the en-[elemental] potions.

If it's still to hard, do more side missions to buff yourself. You just might not be ready.

Honestly though, a lot of people were kind of blindsided by the difficulty it looks like. It's the first time I've seen a review that states specifically that if you aren't comfortable with the fighting system, you should go easy because this game can get hard. Sadly you can't switch mid game.

EDIT

Spoiler

I think Heavy Guard was nice to have, I made a point of blocking him as much as possible - but then again I had training from the Snow fight I don't think I did anything in particular, just stacked up on Hi-Potions and wacked him with Thunder and Sparkstrike (he's weak to Lightning).

Haha, that's how learned how to use heavy guard, or just guarding in general too. Seriously, that fight was like trial by fire.

Have you mastered the battle system yet? TOO BAD!

 

[Lex]

A big fuck off hot pink version of them appears when you defeat a certain number (which is different for every enemy). When you beat that they completely stop appearing (and they drop a good weapon or accessory or something else cool).

That said I still need to drive the Niblets and the Skeletons to extinction for quests. I'm on day 8 not I think, I should get a move on. I've done every other quest though (aside from Aeronite, I'm terrified of Aeronite).

 

[Jason Tandro]

I had no idea you could actually drive monsters into extinction. That's pretty cool.

Oh yeah. In fact

Spoiler

there is a quest in the dead dunes where the giver wants you to exterminate all enemies that you possibly can in the game. This quest is pretty time consuming but there is a secret dungeon you can unlock called the Ultimate Lair where you can fight almost every Last One in the game and thus get credit for it.