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Final Fantasy XIII debuts on Xbox Game Pass tomorrow

Yep the game looks amazing. Im hooked and will have to playthrough the trilogy again.

It doesn't look radically different. It always looked this insanely good. But everything is definitely higher resolution and I'm noticing some more detail in the backgrounds.

Cant wait for Lake Bresha to see the detail on all the ice crystals. The game has a million different impressive environments.

Play the game with good headphones if you have it. One of the best OSTs of all time.
 

Kagey K

Banned
Yep the game looks amazing. Im hooked and will have to playthrough the trilogy again.

It doesn't look radically different. It always looked this insanely good. But everything is definitely higher resolution and I'm noticing some more detail in the backgrounds.

Cant wait for Lake Bresha to see the detail on all the ice crystals. The game has a million different impressive environments.

Play the game with good headphones if you have it. One of the best OSTs of all time.
I'm in the forest with Vanille and Sazh. It definitely looks much cleaner now than my 1st playthrough, and the HDR really help bring out some extra oomph.

Took a pile of screenshots today while playing (something I don't normally do.)
 

AJUMP23

Member
I do not like this game. I thought FF12 was great and this was a major let down. I also did not play FF15.
 

Ryu Kaiba

Member
Some cringe writing and the game is ridiculously linear with most battles being, just mash a to win.
Great art and good music and the battle system is good ..eventually.
 

BootsLoader

Banned
ffxiii-xbox-game-pass-final-fantasy-xiii.jpg




Omg what an addition. I’m sure gamepass owners will play the hell out of it. All 40 million of them (not sure how many there are).
 

TitanNut88

Member
I think FFXIII is the worst FFX*, but it is not a bad game at all. And, when I started replaying the trilogy in the XOX (in which they look AMAZING), I remembered how good FFXIII-2 is. I still need to finish Lightning Returns though. People say the combat system is amazing but I couldn't get hooked to it.
 
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ShirAhava

Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
I haven't played this since it was new I had a pretty high opinion of it at the time
but I would have loved anything after the dumpster fire that was FF12 hope it still holds up
 
Do I just auto battle through this entire game
Yeah, with a few exceptions. You can hit Y to attack before your ATB bar is completely full if you want to finish off an enemy. You can also manually do a few actions here and there.

The bulk of the gameplay is broader strategy management of the paradigms, and items.

To understand the philosophy that led to the creation of this battle system, put it in the context of the rest of the FF series. For FF 1-10, 99% of the time you beat enemies by just hitting X to attack. Occasionally you'll find an enemy obviously weak to fire, and then use your fire spell. Occasionally you'll be low on HP and hit a cure spell. After the battle you'll use an ether to replenish your MP, or a tent. That's the whole game basically, for the whole series, with a few boss exceptions requiring more strategy.

FFXII takes it a step further and literally automates everything through gambits. You don't even have to hit attack anymore, you just automatically attack. If an enemy comes up that's weak to fire, your group automatically knows to do that. It knows to do anything you tell it to, and the game runs on auto-pilot as you designed.

XIII tries to inject a little more action and interactivity into the gambit system from FFXII. What most people don't get is that each paradigm is a pre-built gambit. When you're on commando, you're going to do physical attacks, prioritize anyone in break status, and use blitz or ruin when enemies are in groups. That's your 3 gambits basically that it does on its own. If you want to switch to different gambits, you have to manually switch to the other jobs and they'll have other pre-built in features. If you want to upgrade the efficiency of your gambits (paradigms), then use libra and you'll learn an enemy weakness. Once you know an enemy is weak to fire, it will add that knowledge automatically to upgrade the efficiency of your gambits and use fire on that enemy. The end result is similar to FFXII, but there's more player interaction as you have to constantly toggle between multiple paradigm combinations to keep the correct gambits going.

You're like the commander sitting back and managing the flow of the battle, but not each individual action requires your input. Some people hate it, but I thought it was awesome. Combined with the level cap, it's got some really challenging and fun fights where you have to manage debuffs, buffs, healing, tanking, breaking guard, then damage dealing. Basically everything you'd want in a FF, just faster and streamlined.
 
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fart town usa

Gold Member
Unpopular opinion:

FFXIII is an awesome game with one of the best soundtracks of all time. The OST alone is worth playing the game.

Great character development too, first dozen or so hours I was constantly rolling my eyes but eventually the story turned and the characters really grew and shined through the usual cringe anime archtypes.

Big fan of FFXIII.


 
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DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Do I just auto battle through this entire game
The way you control your party is primarily through switching paradigms. Setting up and using all your paradigms properly is challenging and rewarding IMO.

Your party members’ actions are pretty optimal for any given role. And they get smarter the more you know about the enemy. They probe for elemental weaknesses and figure out what status ailments they are vulnerable to. MED will heal those who need it most. SYN always starts out by casting haste on everyone, etc.
Oh, well that’s actually disappointing to hear. I love grinding until my characters are super powerful 😢 it’s one of my favorite things about FF

…oh well! Onto chapter two!
Haha honestly I’m the type who normally just likes to find the one optimal build and face roll the shit out of everything. The idea of level caps is a big turn off for me. But it really works in FF XIII because there is a lot to learn and master. It rewards you for playing well.

And late game once you remove the final level cap, you can grind to your hearts content and power your characters/weapons up to absurd levels.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
I bought this game on PS3 as my first FF game because the woman on the cover was pretty hot. Played for about 3 or 4 hours but the game just doesn’t ever get going.
 

Kev Kev

Member
man, this camera is god awful.

its seriously bugging the shit out of me and im having a hard time ignore it. like its borderline ruining the game for me. ive tried rotating normally as i move (you know, like every other third person game that seems to have figured out how to make it work just fine), ive tried not touching it at all, ive tried only rotating it when standing still and it just feels like im in a constant fight with it. that and the character has two speeds: slow af, or sprinting. there is no in between and in general the movement in conjunction with the camera just makes the movement in this game feel terrible

the battle is starting to bug me too. it was simple enough at first, and i was easily getting 5 stars each fight. on chapter 3 now and ive got the hang of it, but switching paradigms mid battle is kind of tedious. to make matters worse, the battle doesnt pause when switching paradigms, so while im trying to figure out the next best move, enemies are still tagging me, to the point that i just always make sure i have a medic, but then i cant get the stagger fast enough. so i tried making the battle slower, and that helped, but then the game punishes you and gives you less stars lol, so im constantly worried about my TP being too low. and thats not even beginning to complain about how linear the areas have been... *sigh*

im doing an LTTP in the community threead, so ill finish up mpre thoughts over there but... but my early impressions of this game are starting to dip from "ok im liking this so far" to "oh boy, this thing may be coming in for a crash landing"

im still liking it enough so ill keep going... but yeah, not a great start. which is a shame because i really, really want to like this game. but this camera shit is going to kill it for me. i hope i can get used to it...
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
is the pc gamepass version of xiii... the one with bad compressed cutscenes too ? or like xbox one x ?
 

Kagey K

Banned
man, this camera is god awful.

its seriously bugging the shit out of me and im having a hard time ignore it. like its borderline ruining the game for me. ive tried rotating normally as i move (you know, like every other third person game that seems to have figured out how to make it work just fine), ive tried not touching it at all, ive tried only rotating it when standing still and it just feels like im in a constant fight with it. that and the character has two speeds: slow af, or sprinting. there is no in between and in general the movement in conjunction with the camera just makes the movement in this game feel terrible

the battle is starting to bug me too. it was simple enough at first, and i was easily getting 5 stars each fight. on chapter 3 now and ive got the hang of it, but switching paradigms mid battle is kind of tedious. to make matters worse, the battle doesnt pause when switching paradigms, so while im trying to figure out the next best move, enemies are still tagging me, to the point that i just always make sure i have a medic, but then i cant get the stagger fast enough. so i tried making the battle slower, and that helped, but then the game punishes you and gives you less stars lol, so im constantly worried about my TP being too low. and thats not even beginning to complain about how linear the areas have been... *sigh*

im doing an LTTP in the community threead, so ill finish up mpre thoughts over there but... but my early impressions of this game are starting to dip from "ok im liking this so far" to "oh boy, this thing may be coming in for a crash landing"

im still liking it enough so ill keep going... but yeah, not a great start. which is a shame because i really, really want to like this game. but this camera shit is going to kill it for me. i hope i can get used to it...
The biggest trick is to make sure you keep filling the crystarium (I usually do it before every save point) and set up your own paradigms every time they change the party on you. That way you have them in the order you want and in what roles and you can switch back and forth easily.

Usually I keep slash and burn (rav com) on top and war and peace (com med) in the second slot and then after that it's whatever you want to fill the rest. If you don't get used to it now you might find it more confusing once you get to use teams of 3.

Otherwise it's manage the stagger bar, and try to stagger them as fast as possible while keeping your team alive.
 
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Kev Kev

Member
The biggest trick is to make sure you keep filling the crystarium (I usually do it before every save point) and set up your own paradigms every time they change the party on you. That way you have them in the order you want and in what roles and you can switch back and forth easily.

Usually I keep slash and burn (rav com) on top and war and peace (com med) in the second slot and then after that it's whatever you want to fill the rest. If you don't get used to it now you might find it more confusing once you get to use teams of 3.

Otherwise it's manage the stagger bar, and try to stagger them as fast as possible while keeping your team alive.
ok awesome, thanks for the help. dont mind me btw, i just have to vent like a 15 year old girl some times lol. just started chapter 4 and im really looking forward to playing he rest of it. and yeah i noticed i had like 1200+ CP built up for a couple of my team mates and had a much easier time after leveling everyone up.
 

skit_data

Member
I played this back in the day and my god i could not follow the story at all. Fal’cie this and Mal’cie that and LaCie there. Its way too much corridoor based and the battle system was pretty much automated. This and FF8 are my worst experiences when it comes to FF7.

Edit: And outside of Lightning, the characters were unbearable.
 
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Game gets shit on too much but its not bad, I understand the corridor hate etc but music, graphics and combat were great.

Looks incredible on Series X / One X

I was pretty harsh on it for years, but it's basically the last true new final fantasy we ever got.
 
Sigh. I dropped this game like a hot potato after 12 hours and reaching the so called "it gets better, trust me bro" open area and man, now this thread makes me feel like I should hop on steam and give it another whirl just to double check my feeling towards it.

I recalled hating FF12 upon release, but revisited many many many years upon release and changed my stance on the gameplay mechanics substantially then.

Maybe. Just maybe. I'll try it out again.
 
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Teslerum

Member
The biggest trick is to make sure you keep filling the crystarium (I usually do it before every save point) and set up your own paradigms every time they change the party on you. That way you have them in the order you want and in what roles and you can switch back and forth easily.

Usually I keep slash and burn (rav com) on top and war and peace (com med) in the second slot and then after that it's whatever you want to fill the rest. If you don't get used to it now you might find it more confusing once you get to use teams of 3.

Otherwise it's manage the stagger bar, and try to stagger them as fast as possible while keeping your team alive.
I'm not sure if it is obvious and that's why nobody seems to mention it, but the biggest trick in FF13 combat wise, through the entire game isn't your set-up or paradigm switching.

It's ATB cancelling/manipulation

Master it in conjunction with paradigm switching and you shave of dozens of seconds, if not minutes of your time. On my playthroughs I usually have zero troubles getting full stars on every fight up to chapter 9. (Though I can play the entire game with a constant full stars)
 
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Whitecrow

Banned
XIII drags a loooot more than XV.

Both stories suck in their own way, but at leat in XV you are free to roam, do side quests, or main quests, and you are not always forced to keep battling and running on endless corridors.

XIII has a lot to blame for it's overly designed gigantic levels, while XV have a bigger sensation of having an adventure on a beliavale world.

Cast and narrative sucks on both too. So it's really hard to say which is worse. But personally I enjoyed XV far more than XIII.
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
XIII drags a loooot more than XV.

Both stores suck in their own way, but at leat in XV you are free to roam, do side quests, or main quests, and you are not always forced to keep battling and running on endless corridors.

XIII has a lot to blame for it's overly designed gigantic levels, while XV have a bigger sensation of having an adventure on a beliavale world.

Cast and narrative sucks on both too. SU it's really hard to say which is worse. But personally I enjoyed XV far more than XIII.

XV has its advantages like more freedom, more side questing (with some actually being good). But XIII is more polished, has tigher controls, better battle system and is more balanced overall. Even the story beats are better in XIII. FFXV is one of the most janky games I have played in recent times, and I think the combat is absolutely dreadful.

In the grand scheme of things though, both games are kind of shit.
 

Kev Kev

Member
after some of you have played XIII now, do you feel your order of favorite FF games is the same or different?

for me its still 6, 9, 7, 12, 8, 7R, 10, 15 and 13

still havent beat 1-5, but i plan to if the pixel remasters come to console. ill probably never play 11 or 14
 

Rykan

Member
It saddens me to see so many people hating on the game. It's clearly a game with a lot of flaws and it's not hard to point these out, but it's unfair to say that the game has no merit at all.
The graphics are gorgeous both technically and artistically, the music is fantastic and the combat system is really good when the game finally lets you loose to have fun with it, which admittedly, takes way too long.

I think it's way better than XV, which doesn't get anything right.
 

Myths

Member
It’s the imagery about this game thet I actually always thought was cool younger. In practice, it’s underwhelming as far as character and story.

It’s one of those projects better left as vaporware or a trailer.
 
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