Hoping to get this for my birthday on friday

Meh, fuck my reservation. I'll wait a few months until this gets cheaper and probably get it then. I'm just not that excited about it.

The battle system is even more simplified from 12. It feels like it was designed for a 3 year old.

12 is awesome... took away the monotony of mindlessing hitting attack in every fight and let you control the way you wanted to. The battle system in 13 is cool but it's back to slightly turn based and hitting attack a bunch, and you only control the party leader, and you get game over if that person dies. Feels like Chrono Trigger sorta.

Anyone encounter the Flandragora yet? So awesome

assman, since you are usually an expert of final fantasy games and we usually share opinions about which ones are good and which ones are not, what is your overall take on htis game so far based on music, storyline and the battles

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10240371-1.html

Fuck Square. I still haven't forgiven them for this.

Well I hated 10 but this one looks a lot like it, except every level looks amazing. They started the game right by starting it in the middle of things, and they take a long time to explain everything. The music is good too, especially the battle music and I like the "main theme" that they have a bunch of different variations of. Also the battle system is crazy, it's like really fast paced Chrono Trigger and you have to complete them as fast as you can by using "paradigm shifts" to get items to upgrade your stuff with. They sorta brought back the sphere grid thing which I didn't like, and I still don't understand that completely. But this game is good. Worthy of the hype I guess.

Thanks for your take

I like it better than 12 and 10 thus far.

The Sphere Grid is probably the one of the best features in the Final Fantasy series.

Nah it is stupid. It halts you when you get too far. Regular leveling up is way better.

A bit disappointed that the Crystarium system isn't like the Sphere Grid in the sense that all the characters share one board or grid

I must disagree. I find the fact that you have freedom to decide how every character develop is way better than just plain leveling up.

The Grid was one of the reasons I wasn't that into FFX. I actually liked the game, but hated the water grid thingy.

The Sphere grid was ahead of its time

If you want a good way to decide how each character develops then play Final Fantasy 5 (or Tactics) because the job system is the ultimate way to do that. The Sphere Grid or "crystarium" is filled with a bunch of strength, magic, and HP nodes and you are pretty much forced to complete it a certain way.

I'm not too familiar with those titles, but correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think you can switch in between jobs during battle (again not sure) but even if you could that it still wouldn't matter because the grid does away with that concept. Each job probably has a limited set of abilities and tech. and there must be others you can't learn because that certain job won't allow it. that is simply not the case with the grid. (hope that made sense)

Nah because you assign your character a job and he learns the abilities for it, then when they master it they get to keep the secondary ability that comes with it while they learn another job. So you can have a samurai casting black magic or some archer using geomancy or anything. Way more customizable.

Ah i see. But its still kind of the same don't you think? How did you get the jobs btw?

If I may interject, and I have not played the game, I have read many accounts of how this game was deliberately linear and streamlined. A more focused and to-the-point ability system may be there intention. From what I know it seems FF13 has a straightened way to the top of a certain 'class', but multiple ways to get there - while other games have many classes but one way to maximize them.

I have found FFX's system elegant, but I loved FF8's Junction system much better (call me a stat nazi).

The crystarium system is pretty linear... kind of a bummer for me

Going by looks, I like the Crystarium system better than the Sphere grid. Not gonna be able to rent it till next weekend, stupid car needing gas.

EDIT: Agree'd

love this game.

They put lyrics to the chocobo song

After having watched a friend play this for a while, I can safely say my interest in the game is nill.

Seems hugely overrated and very linear.

Linear isn't a problem at all for a story driven game like this, in fact all the other non-linear parts of old FF's were just smoke and mirrors.

However; a shocking story and battle system do totally ruin the game.

I had no idea people had such issue with linearity. It's one of those 'damned if you do...' cases, I guess.

Idk. I was never a fan of how in old FF games, you just had to run around killing things for hours to level up. I liked FF12's battle system though, and places generally seemed 'open' and able to be explored.

This game though, there doesn't seem to be anything to explore. Just places to -go-. Point A to Point B. Same with the character advancement. You have 'classes' which aren't really classes, with really only one way to advance them.. they just get 'better'.. they don't really behave differently.

Seems like they made the combat the way they did just so players would feel like they have some input over what they're doing.. If all your characters do is get better, and you only go from Point A to Point B over and over again... are you really even experiencing a game, or are you just watching a series of cut-scenes as you walk through maps that look pretty?

Also, the ming-numbingly slow story got old after watching two dozen cutscenes and still having no idea what was going on.

Whatever. I'm not the one playing it, and I've certainly got no urge to play it after seeing all that it has to offer.

Square-Enix commented on how town exploration slowed the game down, and it was a point of reference for many 'critics' when they talked about 'pace' in JRPGs (many of which I've read through personally through the years). So I was very interested in the reaction to this FF's development style. I mean, I never heard people say how much they loved talking to NPC's and exploring world maps in FF before - although these were traditional mechanics, they were never hailed as popular 'mainstays'. Everything I remember attributed to FF most is exactly what Square-Enix focused on, and stubbornly so. Story, CGI cutscenes, streamlined battles (with less number crunching), and straight forward level up system. Now these are points of issue for people.

Personally, in terms of how JRPGs work, FF13 is kinda wild - and closer to an action adventure game of sorts. I suppose we can call it moderate. In this way I can see why people reacted this way. Moderate ideas don't polarize people as much, they are safe ideas. This is why traditional JRPGs have love it or hate it reactions. Even in threads here, people seem to get (and love it) or don't (and hate it) - very little in between. SquEnix taking the safe route came at a smart time, with the game being available for another console. People won't hate it, but will people love it? And it puts anybody in either camp in vicarious positions... I'd say it's harder to explain loving a game like this, with it being un-JRPG. But it would also be harder to explain hating it, with the old JRPG complaints are nearly gone.

tl;dr: Gamers are a finicky bunch, who never know what they want.

i like it, i mean yes its linear, but by no means is that bad. And its not even the story or exploration that i have a problem with, its the lack of strategy in the development of the character. In older FFs, you had to decide WHEN and HOW to develop...do you save up XP for that powerful spell? Or split it up for some bits and pieces of strength and magic.

Taking those things away and streamlining a game too much makes the world feel less like a world, and simply like a series of levels, IMO.

Tough no less a game. IMO.

Huh?

Exploring the towns were the best. If it doesn't have that, then no-go for me.

Agreed. I liked exploring more than following the story. If I wanted to kill a few hours, I'd have fun by leveling up and exploring, finding cool stuff... The world map with the airship was always my most anticipated part of any FF game.

The reason I put 120+ hours into Fallout 3 is...(and it was one of the only very few games that I started over and wasn't bored) EXPLORATION and variety!

i stopped reading at "stereotypical black guy playing final fantasy"

Well I'm only at Chapter 10. I will say that I do like the game as a whole so far but criticisms include: Complete forward progress, no back tracking, no Limits, only 4 Eidolons, complexity of the Crystarium, inability to control or switch characters in battle.

Everything else is fine for me.