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No, but I will be getting a copy.

Played every single FF# (except XI - didn't have time to go online :( ).

So yeah, I will be getting this!

I think I will be pre-ordering, hoping for a price war here in the UK!

I've played them all since FF6 (3 in the US), apart from 11, MMORPGs = :mad: only one I haven't really like was 8, never bonded with Squall and his gunblade :| also the spell drawing system was pants!

Looking forward to it tho! am a sucker for RPGS, playing through Tales of Vesperia (x360) atm, it's awesome :)

14 hours in; it's fantastic!

Stunning visuals. Great battle system. Fantastic storyline. The 20 hour tutorial is probably a bit excessive, but hey, still loving it! :)

yeah but those tutorials are for new players. ;)

if you've been playing the series, you pretty much know everything that's been going on, just a new way to present itself.

i'm loving every second of it! everything is in nice bitable chunks too - cutscenese aren't too long and battles don't take forever. there's a save point always nearby so you're not feeling so drawn out.

i do miss the whole, once you loose life, you have to refill it using potions and stuff/cure - outside of battle. everytime the battle is over, everything gets replenished.

but i guess they wanted to streamline the whole thing.

regardless, this could have potential to be one of my favorites. :D

haha btw - have you unlocked 'vigilance' yet? i guess i was drawn to MTG so easily - so many similarities, i just got sucked in from the first game i played!

Installing disc 3! :)

lol does that mean you're playing on the Xbox?

PS3 here. Just one disc.


Great game. Just got up to chapter 10. About 30-35 hours in. Could be faster, but heck, I like watching the cutscenes and battling/grinding.

Battles are getting epic! :eek: But so much fun.

So, what do you think? Finished it yet?

Beat it in about 60 hours. On my second playthrough now, Chapter 12 - about 20 hours (skipped the cutscenes this time).

Figured about another 50 hours to do all the hunts and possibly 100%. :D

Despite all the critics reviews (why oh why do they always have to 'compare' it to other games, never on it's own merits?), I loved the game. Possibly top 5 within the FF universe, imo.

Yeah 360 version for me.

I've finished the game now and am working through the somewhat tedious missions, currently on about 55 hours I think. I thought the main game and storyline was fantastic, I was hooked all the way through!

The only issue I'm having is with end-game content and having to do a lot of running to complete missions, however this may be bacuase I'm trying to 5 star them all! :D

Cool!

So that does mean I can go back and do the Missions that were mandatory part of the story? I was planning on going back with a stronger party to 5 star them too.

Yeah, I felt a bit overwhelmed when I hit Chapter 11. But quickly remembered, it's small compared to the maps of 12. hehe

Watched my friend play this... Paradigms just confused me a bit... I'm gonna stick with XII!

I think the game wasn't bad for a game, and it was definitely pretty but it just wasn't Final Fantasy.

I just finished it last night, after a casual 44hrs. Now looking at getting the grind done for 1k gamer score :p

Have to say I have really enjoyed it - I can see what people say about it being linear etc, but tbh, that didn't really bother me. I enjoyed the story, the ambient background music, the graphics and the battle system.

I can't see myself playing it through again like I did with 7, but then I never pld thru 8,9,10 or 12 again once I'd done everything I had wanted....

I wonder if Microsoft made enough money from it to make it worth attempting to get the next FF installments.... :-)

Ugh...

I'm stuck. At the Faultwarrens... beat some of the hunts but others are kicking my butt!

So I figured I'd go level up some more.

Hmm, why not get the Grow Egg and help build up?

So I go and get that hunt. ARGH! It's the same as hunt 46(?) - The Neochu! ugh. He's one of the hardest hunts in the game. So to beat him I need some powerful weapons.

So then, what's the best way? Go fight Adamantoise. 40,000 CP plus he drops items that are crazy expensive plus his rare item is the item you need to max out your weapon.

I can't beat any of them. So now I'm stuck. Can't do one without the other...

Back to grinding out low level enemies for a few thousand at a time.

btw - I'm post story, have all roles/levels available. I'm nearly done with the Sphere Grid/Crystarium. I've done about 2/3 of the hunts. Only thing, I haven't leveled up the weapons or accessories. But that's where I'm stuck at. No way of getting Gil (At least relatively fast). And stuck grinding it out til I get the amount I need.

Any of you guys get these super items?

Kaiser Knuckles (mix with ultimate weapon and have all physical damage nullified to you)
There's one for magic too (forgot what it's called)
Genji Glove - 10,000 damage (needed for trophy/achievement)
Grow Egg - doubles CP

Easy way to get some money is go talk to the little Robot dog in Oerba. It's a little side quest to fix him by finding some batteries, but once you do, he rewarsd you with some items for doing certain things - by the time i'd got to Oerba in the story, i'd already fulfiled them, so post-story you should be fine.

One of the rewards is 3 platinum ingots, which sell for 150k gil each - that should be more than enough to max out your main 3 chars weapons at Tier2.

As for killing adamantoises, theres a flukey trick. If you use Vanille as your main, she needs to have Death and any accessories / weps that help debuffing - then start of the fight, summon her eidolon, this will instantly kill the legs. Then after that keep spamming death - it has a low chance to work, something like 5%, but you should be able to kill them before they stand back up. Requires large amounts of luck though :p

I've only done about 10 hunts so far, so quite a way behind you ;) I did spend ages grinding the monsters that gave you 32k CP near the end of the game, so my chars are quite well maxed out (each character has one maxed role, plus fair way into their secondary).

Yeah I done that little sidequest. I have to go back to him, once I get all weapons/items for that Trophy/Achievement.

I was using that Death technique... However, I guess I wasn't maximizing it - using that skill alone won't work well. I tried to get weapons/accessories to increase the chances - or buffs in general.

Had to use Imperil - well for the Neochu, before "death" finally kicked in - as well as using the two items to increase your status for allies (Shrouds).

I fought Adamantoise a few times. Once I got lucky and killed him within 30 seconds. But another time, it took me 26 minutes. Yikes! Summoning trick does work, but I just never successfully got "death" to work at that stage. But it's still worth doing as you can get a lot of damage done without getting hurt - as he won't attack and just lays there as his legs aren't working. :D I finally beat him, but pissed because the 4x I won, I never got any items dropped, even with the Collectors accessory.

I wound up beating the Hunt that unlocks Gigamesh, too. So now, it's just a matter of time - beating up Adamantoise - to get enough Trapezohedron for the ultimate weapons.

Almost there!

I finished the game recently (my girlfriend also deserves praises for this feat, pretty nice to just throw her the controller when I got lost, as I have no sense of directions).


Am I the only one, feeling that the story was ok, the characters were great (very charismatic) - but the gameplay and game experience itself, was rather lacking?


My thoughts:
- The stories from Final Fantasy VII and IX were *sweet*! Characters were finely tuned, and gameplay was well balanced with riddles.
- Also, Final Fantasy X was a stunning feat. Nice characters, and a fluid gameplay with some nice quests and riddles thrown in.
- Final Fantasy XII had the best combat system - by far!!! But characters were rather weak, and the story... hmmm, I actually don't remember the story that well anymore... must've been boring...

FF XIII had great potential, but in the end, felt way too short (and we did spent an awful lot of time doing most of all the missions).

The weapons and items upgrade path in FF XIII is PLAIN AWFUL! How the heck was one supposed to find out about the multiplier, number of levels for each weapon, etc. - without googling it?

Just some thoughts... :)

Update -

Got the Adamantoise battles down to 1:30. Yes, on average, I will beat them in that time over and over again.

I have about 15 Trapezohedrons now. And more than enough Platnium Ingots.

Hope now has the ability - immune to physical attacks (Tezcatlipoca + 4 Kaiser Knuckles - need Dark Matter to upgrade, which costs 840,000 Gil each!)

Working on getting Fang and Snow to be immune from magical attacks - needed for Mark 62.

I've literally just started farming the adamantoises and can kill them pretty quickly too! What tactic are you using?

I'm using Sazh as my main and using the buff/debuff/stagger/3x commando tactic, kills him super fast :p that said tho sazh and fang both have something like 2400 str!!

I should probably go do some of the hunts, but I cant be arsed at the mo! it's sorta fun, but also boring, grinding gil/cp :)

Early on -

Vanille - with the Belladonna weapon - increased Debuffs. (Saboteur-Ravager)

Fang - strongest strength (Commando, Sentinel)

Hope - Magic all the way - (Synergist, Ravager, Medic)


So I would set up Vanille as the Leader - have her cast Death until it works. While Fang (Sentinel) and Hope Buffs and heals.


Time - 10-20 minutes
-----

After I got powered up,

Same roles, but I would start debuffing in the beginning, while Vanille does Death. Once all characters are powered up (haste, brave, faith, etc), I'd summon Hecaton (Vanille's Edilon). He'd knock out the front two legs and then Vanille would caste Deprotect, Deshield, Imperil.

Once that's done, switched to Rav, Com, Rav (Vanille, Fang, Hope).

Time - 3-6 minutes

--------
Currently,

With Vanille, Fang, and Hope - at max CP levels/Roles (all 6 of them).

I have Vanille with best weapon for Debuffs, Fang the same with best Counters - so they have 6 action slots.

Hope - he's got the Tezcatlipoca + 4 Kaiser Knuckles (18000 HP and immune to physical attacks). While only 5 action slots, the immunity works nice as you don't have to heal him.

So, going into battle I'd have Saboteur and two Synergists.

Once they caste Haste on everyone, immediately summon. Caste Debrave, Deshell and Imperil. Then go to Ravager (Vanille), Comm, Comm (Fang, Hope). Attack, Attack, Attack... doesn't matter if your summon doesn't go to Gestalt mode, just let him leave and keep attacking.

Time - 1:30-140.

-----

Now, while I've been able to immediately beat him in 1:30, I've noticed items dropped becomes very rare. I've gone 10 battles without getting something.

I then switched back to the 3 minute technique and I'll get an item 80-90% of the time. So yeah out of 10 battles, I'll get something 8-9 of those times.

Btw - I do have Collector's accessory and the same one leveled up for rare item drops. So with two of them equipped, I should be getting something frequently.

----

Yeah, grinding is getting a bit drawn out now. So, I'm just doing this until I get a few more Dark Matters to level up Fang - while she does have the Kain's weapon, I want her setup to be immune to magic (she can be immune to physical too) and get Snow immune as well. I'm on Hunt/Mark 62. So, that would help.

Once that's done, I have the Giant Cactaur to deal with and the last few Marks. Get the Gold Watch (increases the time limit) and then go back and redo the ones I didn't get 5 stars on.

At least I still have something to do after grinding haha

Tactic I use is as follows:

Sazh with Hyades Magnums so he has silly STR +++str accessories
Fang with Venus Gospel and silly STR - +++str accessories
Lightning with Ultima Weapon - with growth egg and TP charging stuffs

Start fight - Syn-Sab-Rav - do as many buffs as poss before it gets dangerous then summon Eidolon.

Once Eidolon is up, let him hack away and buff yourself. Once done, switch to any paradigm with Sazh as a commando. Then just keep doing blitz - the trick here is that against large enemies, all his blitz shots hit.

Once eidolon has gone, switch back to Syn-Sab-Rav - Fang will do debuffs and manually get Sazh to do haste/faith/bravery (whichever is outstanding) on other members.

Usually by the time I'm ready to do some dmg, Light has already got him into stagger, so I just swap to Com-Com-Com and let rip, he dies in about two turns after that :p Just blitz blitz blitz, each shot (and he does about 6?) does upwards of 50-75k, plus fang and lightning and nailing him too! He doesn't even get to stand up, so no need to worry about healing!

I should prolly get the upgraded collectors stuffs before I farm too much - prolly missed a couple of Traps already ;)

Unless you really want to upgrade all of the weapons (and get the Trophy/Achievement), there's no real reason to get a lot of Traps.

I've noticed that you loose a lot of the synthesized abilities when fully upgrading the weapon.

For example, Hope's weapon is only at level 2 of 3. If I fully upgrade it (using the Trap), he will lose his immune to physical attacks ability. His ability will be downgraded to wall=5. Which is even a lot less than if you had his weapon at 2 of 3, but with Power Gloves (instead of the Kaiser Knuckles). With the Power Gloves, you'll still have a Wall=10.

The only upside of maxing out the weapon is the big boost in Strength/Magic.


And if you do go for the fully upgraded weapon, I'd get two of those weapons. So you can have one with max stats and have one for good abilities.

It shouldn't cost that much extra - as you need about 3 Ultracompact Reactors (which is 1 Platinum Ingot) to get a weapon to level 2 (and you don't need to worry about getting items to bring up the multiplier rate up to 3x).

----
note - this might not be the case with ALL the weapons. I've only managed to max out 3 weapons. But they all seemed to have that same affect when maxed out. But at the same time, not all weapons will give each character that special bonus ability.

Man, I must've spent at least a few hours just trial and error a lot of weapons/accessories. My playthrough hours are at ~60 for the first one and 84 for my current one. Which, I still have lots of stuff left to do.

It should be interesting to see how the various games interrelated between one another. XIII Versus will only be for the PS3, while both the 360 and PS3 will get XIII, So perhaps the 360 fans who like it may buy the PS3 to play. Either way, it should be great I will also be getting it for PS3.

final fantansy is for queers... just kidding, they are the greatest series of games second only to pokemon... or resident evil, depending on how you want to look at it.

Ugh,

What a joke. Spent all that time getting immune to magic. All for nothing. Fang still dies, Hope died too all because you can't heal them, as they are immune as it's a side effect of that ability.

So, after all that time, I just went back to using the paradigms and strategy I was originally using. Especially since I beat the enemy in Mark 62 before - in another battle, I already knew how to beat it. It was just a lot harder because there are two of them now.

Well at least I have better weapons now. All that's left is 54 - the big Cactaur and 64 - the final battle.

He's got 15+ mil HP! Spent a good hour fighting, and only managed about 5 mil damage. He keeps healing when he's temporarily immune to everything. The more damage he took the stronger his cure spells are.

At least he's no pushover. At least there's more to look forward to as I still have tons to level up/farm/abilities to be gained. I'll need a better strategy for Mark 64. Mostly likely have to face him twice - once to beat him (and get the gold watch) second time to get 5 stars.

So I beat Mark 64 last night and got the Gold Watch! wOOt!

Target time was about 10 minutes. Beat it in 13-14 minutes.

Wasn't too bad of a fight, but took awhile because of a lot of trial and error. Worked him down to 10 mil, then had to change strategy and then again at 6-7 and again at around 2.

The enemy doesn't do all that much - but just gets stronger and stronger the weaker he gets. The more damage you do to him, the more he heals - well it's only 1%, but the more damage you do that 1% keeps getting bigger. By the end he was healing himself for over 100,000 HP and he does it 8x every time he goes into his immune to everything stage.

My only problem now is getting 5 stars for all the marks. And I'm already stuck on one of them. I'm trying the fastest I can, but with a target time of 19 seconds, I've only managed 17 seconds. I took off all the best weapons and accessories and just left the gold watch on. Can really get any weaker as all the Crystarium is filled up. Perhaps a different party may work?

[quote=reeeech]
My only problem now is getting 5 stars for all the marks. And I'm already stuck on one of them. I'm trying the fastest I can, but with a target time of 19 seconds, I've only managed 17 seconds. I took off all the best weapons and accessories and just left the gold watch on. Can really get any weaker as all the Crystarium is filled up. Perhaps a different party may work?[/quote]

hahaha I forgot to use the Fortisol! :P

So, those helped out a lot without changing any strategies or Paradigm setups.

I've just finished everything up to 33. Now the really hard ones are coming up.

Now the damn Long Gui are popping up everywhere! :( (well they do appear after beating Mark 51) They're going to be another big challenge. They immediately caste Ultima. Survivable, but very lethal and you can easily die in one attack (my team has over 20,000 HP each). Immune to Death - so that trick doesn't work. And using a summon and then attack only does so much - with 15+ million HP, it takes awhile! I'll have to level up Fangs weapon, again, for the better Strength attributes and work on getting 999,999 attacks or something!

heh - i've a friend who said the Long Gui was one of the hardest, but most enjoyable fights in the game :) think it took him ~20mins !

Good effort on the marks - i've not pld in a couple of days, but probably put some time in tomorrow :)

Played last night for a little bit - killed some admantoises, then turned it off... really can't find the motivation to play atm :P

Think I may call it a day and go back and finish Tales of Vesperia :p (which is also awesome and you should play that too!).