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Thoughts?

As soon as I get home I'm buying it. It's looks stellar, so I hope I won't be disappointed.

I thought about getting it, but I think I'm gonna hold off for God of War III.

Bought it last night, first Chapter was good so far. The only thing I have a complaint about which isnt a big deal to me is it doesnt explain alot of the background story for the events your thrown into. However there is a "datalog" in the game which updates with information that is important you may want to know so if you read that you will have no problem understanding whats going on. I'll post more after I play some more today.

PS I like the combat system so far. Real time combat but you only control the leader of the group from the looks of it so far.

PSS Even better POTIONS NOW WORK ON YOUR WHOLE PARTY INSTEAD OF ONE PERSON!!!!! OMFG

Registering the game for the PS3 gives you a code to apply for the PS3 Beta of FFXIV. I wet myself.

Love the game tbh.

Up to chapter 6 atm.

Mid way through chapter 3, still loving it, hope the story picks up a little though, its good but not grabbing me the way 10 did. (12 was lame to me btw)

I'm on chapter 4, atm. I think the BIGGEST thing I've noticed in this game is the animation and their expressions/body language. Like, in the past, your characters would just stand there as you read a chat bubble, with the only variation being that they might use their "pissed animation" (think Barrett in FF7) if they're mad. That was mainly a technology issue, yeah. This is a case where graphics enhance the story. Of course, they take this opportunity and also use it to show off half women party members (hai2u jailbait Vanille). My thoughts on the character's so far:

Lightning: My favorite. She's tough but I kind of have a feeling there's gonna be some story moment where she either breaks down or reveals a vulnerable/crybaby side. I think she's shown bits of it so far.

Sahz: Found him annoying at first but have grown to like him. Love the Chocobo chick that lives in his affro. Wonder if he will be apart of any "ultimate abilities" later in the game or if it will mature (DON'T RUIN IT! THIS IS JUST SPECULATION). The weapons I have for him right now are yellow...I'm not using any components to upgrade them and I already sold his old weapon.

Snow: Tough hombre but, as the other characters say multiple times, "he's all talk". He comes across as kind of delusional and doesn't stop to think. Not that I think he should abandon his goals, but instead be like "why don't I stop for one minute and think how best to achieve my goals instead of running in blind".

Hope: The "aww, he's so cute!" character. He's a wimp though, but for understandable reasons. At first I thought he might be attracted to Vanille, but he's only 12. I think its more of a "you're familiar, so I'll go to you if I'm scared" relationship.

Vanille: Her personality is either refreshing or annoying. In the instruction booklet, it mentions something about her having a dark past. It seems like whatever happened has made her act the way she does. She is always trying to make people happy. Part of it is because I think, yeah, it makes her feel good, but she also appears (yes, you can actually SEE the emotions in the characters now with the level of graphics) to get uncomfortable when she sees others upset or afraid or sad. When she sees other people like that, she tries to stamp it out immediately. Thought at first she might like Hope but I think its just her trying to do whatever to cheer him up.

Chapter 1-5 was boring as hell. The cut scenes are all stupid, girly crap. Sarah looks like a 13 year old, Snow looks like he's 4 feet taller than her. Sahz is useless. Hope is almost useless. Lightning and Vanille are amazing. Vanille is the most annoying character I've ever seen though. And why do we have to see her nipples? I don't get it.

I'm on chapter 6 right now, and it's finally picking up. The story is getting a bit more fleshed out. Lots of the characters' reasons for whatever is going on are coming out. It's not just "hey this is happening. walk here." Well, it's almost not.

Learning the combat mechanics was confusing as well. And gestalt mode is kind of dumb. Though, now that I have a feel for what everything does, I really enjoy the combat. I'm really bummed about how linear it's been so far. I want to get to that giant open world that FF is known for. Granted, I haven't read anything about what's coming up, but I really hope it's not always just following the yellow arrow.

I am disappointed so far. And I had really low expectations, since they've been pretty average games for a while now. I was hoping this one would turn it around, though I figured it'd be the same.

Oh, and stupid bulbasaur.

Stop looking, Mickie! Jeese!



It seems like this Final Fantasy is less about the individual abilities you use and more about organizing paradigms. And the AI is SOMEWHAT intelligent. Like if you libra a mob twice you know everything about it so if you have ravagers they will use the correct spell that they are weak against. Medics can be kind of dumb in that they will always top off you and not themselves (like if they're still in the green range but you have like max health - 1, they will heal you). I don't like using sentinels for that long. The vendetta ability (basically you hit a guy back after you're done using it) is kind of stupid. Like if you fill your ATB with a chain of vendettas, your character won't counterattack until he uses ALL of them. the provoke and steelguard/etc is awesome though. Like there is this one part where you have to fight velocicycles (flying motorcycles lol) and you won't survive its gatling gun (unless your medic just happens to be chain healing you). But with a sentinel you can just have the sentinel provoke him and use steelguard when they unleash it.


I have started to figure out the paradigms more and what combos work. I do wish that, similar to paradigms, you could set up attack chains (not having to punch them in each time, but have like "favorite chains")

But yeah, I am wondering if there's going to be an exploring part of the game. The instruction booklet says we get to ride chocobos and that some areas of the game can only be accessed by them. I'm thinking maybe the first half of this game is just "follow the road and grab treasure orbs", then after that there's side quests.

I do kind of like the whole crystarium thing. Basically, it limits how powerful your characters can be at a given point in the game, so you can't just grind exp and blow everything up.

I enjoy the crystarium system also. What I noticed about it and like about it, is even if you have say a Commando, and train them up in the ravager / medic crystariums. All the stat crystariums aren't limited to the class selected.

Snow for me has over 4k hp lol

Upgrade the weapons and armor is pretty nifty too, Weapons is pretty straight forward, adds str / mag. Armor is even more fun to work with.

Say you got the copper bangle, which adds 50hp or something, as you upgrade it the hp on it goes up.

Kinda how Snow has so much hp for me, 2 Silver Bangles at lvl 6 I think, that's an extra 350hp for those.

Each or combined? I upgraded a tungsten bangle to level 2 and it only went from +150 health to +158. So I was like...uhhh...no thanks. I'm always worried I'm going to waste mats. Like I was thinking of upgrading those +20 strength and magic bands but now I have access to +50 versions of them. I got Fang recently and I don't want to upgrade her weapon anymore (I got it to level 2 and I only got +3 strength) till I get a new one.

Oh, and do you know exactly how that Treasure Hunter achievement works (assuming you have it on the X-Box360)? It says I need to have "held every weapon and accessory". I'm wondering if that means I have to have it in my inventory or equip it at some point. I think it means "you saw it in your inventory at some point".

Oh, and want to buy more incentive chips! <_>

From 360achievements.org:


I'm really starting to enjoy it. The story is really getting interesting. Fang is a really good addition to the group. Sentinel is sexy. The combat is really fun. Switching paradigms is really cool. I love staggering something, then swapping to rav/rav/rav or com/rav/rav and just destroying it. Much more fun than the early "keep pressying A" (or X on ps3). Still pretty linear though :\ No chocobo riding here yet, though!

That was each and a typo, 250 each, and it was titanium at that. Another good note is I think the upgrades scale with the items also, So like the silver bangle gets ~8 hp per upgrade, the copper one iirc gets less. therefore load up on the Urshite Bangles and max those babies out!!

As for Paradigms, I have the 4 I like to cycle with, least up to where I am now since I get to use 3 party members again lol

But for like chp 3-6 I used:

Commando / Ravager (Maintaining Break bars)
Commando / Medic (Or Sent / Medic depending)
Ravager / Ravager (To boost the Break % after staggered)
Commando / Synergist (Swapped for Sentiel / Synergist if possible) to get buffs going on the party.

Will prolly run the same 4 with just add a ravager to everyone of them. Boom boom goes the dynomite!!!

And for the record: Stagger + Launch = hax

The boss at the end of chapter 9 was a 8!+c#. At first I didn't know there were other targets you could hit (even after I did I had to upgrade some accessories). But he had SO much health. It was a real challenge.

I'm finding that I can't have all the paradigm combos I want. (Its a pain to set them back up each time you change the party as well <_>). Like I'll be in the middle of a fight and be like "I want that paradigm" but I don't have it...because I don't have room for more!

There is one thing I'm confused about: Some ravagers, other than spells, have like elemental strikes (sparkstrike, frostspike?). Is the damage for those based on strength or magic or both?

Edit: Dancing-voodoo bird mobs are dumb