It's better, but I still don't know if I'm interested in investing sixty bones in it.  I lost interest without the larger context of the game to keep me playing, but that's going to be an issue with a demo of any game like this.

I found it really nice and comprehensive of what the game will entail ... I just hope the haters are finaly satisfied and things get back to normal :D

@Zenaxzd said:

@DocHaus said:

This reminded me that I need to finish that used copy of FF13 I picked up a little while ago. But I have to ask, what was the character desginer smoking when it was decided that this game needed a half-naked human, half-chocobo saleswoman? Because it creeped me the fuck out when I bought something from her.

That's not even the creepy part, this lady time travels and can magically appear in whatever room you're in. AND NOBODY SEEMS TO KNOW WHY.

this sounds so hot

@Aetheldod:

I'm a hater and I wasn't satisfied. When will I be satisfied?!?!?!?!?

I liked it. Pretty much more of the same, with extra bells and whistles on top. Chocolina was kinda jarring.

Also, show me the credit, kupo.

I've been avoiding this demo because I'm afraid if I play it, I won't actually be able to force myself to buy it when it's actually released.

I've played an hour of the demo now and it seems to be just more of FFXIII. I'm okay with that.

Still don't know what to think of the chocobo girl shop keeper, she's super weird.

@PatPandaHat: If it starts at the Atlus stuff it's 2 or 3 hours in. I watched a live stream of the Japanese game to that point. That's assuming it starts where I think it does, my download is taking forever.

Played the 360 version up to the Atlas boss fight.

First thing you notice is frame rate, it's pretty low, especially in that beginning cutscene.

Fighting system makes no sense, i fudged my way through and figured some of it out but there's no real explanation why you would use a skill (spell? it's hard to tell) or just attack, no obvious damage values or spell stats are given, maybe that's hidden somewhere.

Finding items in the world is lame, like an idea from a ps1 game, floating things you need to zap then pick up and it's the same sci fi ball looking chest every time.

I hate the Paradigm Shift, if i take a big hit i need to heal which means switching and hoping the ai decides to heal me before i get hit again, so i can go into another mode which is more defensive so i take less damage but i can't attack, which means i'm achieving nothing so i go back to attack and get hit again so i need to heal, so i try using an item which means i'm not attacking in the mean time, then use a potion which is nowhere near as good as healing, which means i have to switch again.... ugh.

The environments arn't very well designed in the demo, barren areas populated by aimlessly wandering people talking nonsense and the worst part is there's frame rate trouble even here, i have no idea how basic geometry in a small area can cause performance issues but it makes you want to escape the town area and find more fps. I'm not sure how important the town concept is to Final Fantasy but i don't want to have to return to that area, would be depressing if true, exploring involves traveling around copy paste corridors, there's a path leading to a dead end which is literally a box with nothing inside, haven't seen level design like that in years.

If there is a secret to defeating bosses i'd like to know what it is, failed that Atlas boss fight multiple times now after doing seemingly no damage.

Music and voice acting is good, i don't know who the lady on the radio is but she's very annoying talking complete jibberish.

I have many complaints, but i find myself thinking about the characters in the demo and want to like it so i can see their story, but i have a half finished save on Resonance of Fate which is a much better game.

Why do I feel like the only one who liked Hope?

@Turambar said:

You can put sunglasses on a flan. I mean fuck, sunglasses on a fucking flan,.

You just made this a day one purchase for me.

I really enjoyed the demo and the unbiased discussion in this thread is refreshing.

@Zenaxzd said:

@DocHaus said:

This reminded me that I need to finish that used copy of FF13 I picked up a little while ago. But I have to ask, what was the character desginer smoking when it was decided that this game needed a half-naked human, half-chocobo saleswoman? Because it creeped me the fuck out when I bought something from her.

That's not even the creepy part, this lady time travels and can magically appear in whatever room you're in. AND NOBODY SEEMS TO KNOW WHY.

it's not even the half naked ness or the time travelling part, it's the fact that she has the most perky voice I've ever heard in a video game.

I'm fighting a giant lady tone down the perkiness will you D:

@Anupsis: Cause you are one of 5 people who do? Seriously, though, I think the problem that everyone has with Hope is that he whines all the time until he eventually mans the hell up. When that time eventually comes, he has already lost any chance of someone liking him.

I think my only complaint about 13-2 from the demo (which really is aimed toward the game as a whole) is the idea of having a monster as your third party. From the demo, the monster raising or whatever you want to call it seems functional and okay and they work just fine in combat. I would really just rather have another full fledged character who participates in the story and brings something to the table other than only showing up in combat.

Other than Hope. If I have to choose between a voiceless monster and Hope's whining, I choose the monster.

Fighting system makes no sense, i fudged my way through and figured some of it out but there's no real explanation why you would use a skill (spell? it's hard to tell) or just attack, no obvious damage values or spell stats are given, maybe that's hidden somewhere.

I hate the Paradigm Shift, if i take a big hit i need to heal which means switching and hoping the ai decides to heal me before i get hit again, so i can go into another mode which is more defensive so i take less damage but i can't attack, which means i'm achieving nothing so i go back to attack and get hit again so i need to heal, so i try using an item which means i'm not attacking in the mean time, then use a potion which is nowhere near as good as healing, which means i have to switch again.... ugh.

Oh so it's like Resonance of Fate?
Use SMG's to cause scratch damage which is removed with pistols?
 
Only magic also does damage... but not as much as physical?
You don't need to answer, i do plan on playing the demo again, might even play 13 first if something clicks.
 
PS, don't "posts like these" me :)

@Vashyron said:

@Anupsis: Cause you are one of 5 people who do? Seriously, though, I think the problem that everyone has with Hope is that he whines all the time until he eventually mans the hell up. When that time eventually comes, he has already lost any chance of someone liking him.

I think my only complaint about 13-2 from the demo (which really is aimed toward the game as a whole) is the idea of having a monster as your third party. From the demo, the monster raising or whatever you want to call it seems functional and okay and they work just fine in combat. I would really just rather have another full fledged character who participates in the story and brings something to the table other than only showing up in combat.

Other than Hope. If I have to choose between a voiceless monster and Hope's whining, I choose the monster.

Snow is completely re done and apparently much less of an annoying dudebro this time around. He actually looks kick ass in XIII-2. Let's just hope is personality is too

@cikame: Oh is that what that red on your health means? Scratch damage? If so that's awesome because the combat system was excellent in Resonance of Fate.

@cikame said:

Oh so it's like Resonance of Fate? Use SMG's to cause scratch damage which is removed with pistols? Only magic also does damage... but not as much as physical? You don't need to answer, i do plan on playing the demo again, might even play 13 first if something clicks. PS, don't "posts like these" me :)

...It does resemble RoF, when you put it that way. I never noticed that. You have the right idea, but it's not really magical vs. physical so much as it's ravager vs. commando. Commando also uses magic and ravager does have physical attacks, it's just that commando always do much more damage with each individual attack. Ravagers are just meant to drive up the stagger meter.

On the topic of battles, the battle ranking mechanic confused me. I found myself finishing fight 40 seconds to a minute below the target time but still only managing a 3/5. And do we know what the purpose of the "total points in recent battles" statistic is for?

Cool, i'll try that tomorrow.
The demo does have fairly decent tutorials but doesn't go too deep straight away requiring you dive into the Datalog.
If it explains staggering then i missed it.
 
Since my last post i've been listening to the track Colliding Worlds constantly, i want the game to be as awesome as that track is.

@xyzygy said:

@Vashyron said:

@Anupsis: Cause you are one of 5 people who do? Seriously, though, I think the problem that everyone has with Hope is that he whines all the time until he eventually mans the hell up. When that time eventually comes, he has already lost any chance of someone liking him.

I think my only complaint about 13-2 from the demo (which really is aimed toward the game as a whole) is the idea of having a monster as your third party. From the demo, the monster raising or whatever you want to call it seems functional and okay and they work just fine in combat. I would really just rather have another full fledged character who participates in the story and brings something to the table other than only showing up in combat.

Other than Hope. If I have to choose between a voiceless monster and Hope's whining, I choose the monster.

Snow is completely re done and apparently much less of an annoying dudebro this time around. He actually looks kick ass in XIII-2. Let's just hope is personality is too

Except that from what I've heard, he is only a guest character, you can't control him, and he only shows up in a small part of the game.

@Anupsis: Cause you are one of 5 people who do? Seriously, though, I think the problem that everyone has with Hope is that he whines all the time until he eventually mans the hell up. When that time eventually comes, he has already lost any chance of someone liking him.

Other than Hope. If I have to choose between a voiceless monster and Hope's whining, I choose the monster.

@Catolf said:

@Vashyron said:

@Anupsis: Cause you are one of 5 people who do? Seriously, though, I think the problem that everyone has with Hope is that he whines all the time until he eventually mans the hell up. When that time eventually comes, he has already lost any chance of someone liking him.

Other than Hope. If I have to choose between a voiceless monster and Hope's whining, I choose the monster.

I liked hope, and he had a reason for his whining, and as a friend pointed out to me, he's the only character that actually grows with 13's story. He had a reason for whining, i doubt you'd all man up quick if you saw your mom die right before your eyes, then cast out of your only home and wanted.. oh and your more than likely going to die after you do your 'focus'. but shit.. hey kid MAN UP... geeze.

Yeah, you are probably right about everything you just said. I think it more has to do with his voice when he is whining that bugs people the most. I know it bugs me.

@Vashyron said:

@Catolf said:

@Vashyron said:

@Anupsis: Cause you are one of 5 people who do? Seriously, though, I think the problem that everyone has with Hope is that he whines all the time until he eventually mans the hell up. When that time eventually comes, he has already lost any chance of someone liking him.

Other than Hope. If I have to choose between a voiceless monster and Hope's whining, I choose the monster.

I liked hope, and he had a reason for his whining, and as a friend pointed out to me, he's the only character that actually grows with 13's story. He had a reason for whining, i doubt you'd all man up quick if you saw your mom die right before your eyes, then cast out of your only home and wanted.. oh and your more than likely going to die after you do your 'focus'. but shit.. hey kid MAN UP... geeze.

Yeah, you are probably right about everything you just said. I think it more has to do with his voice when he is whining that bugs people the most. I know it bugs me.

voice acting.. i don't mind people growing within a game, but at least become that person instead of acting like it.I was not convinced and it annoyed me. Doesn't seem that square has really worked out how English voice acting works.

Finished the demo. liked it. surprisingly, as i did not like ff13 (mostly due to that damn 8 hours of dragging my ass from point a to b, finished it though.). Also i think the battle mechanics have changed or maybe i just realized how to use it properly but it seems less "press auto button" and more "know what you're doing before you change paradigms and hit auto battle".

The monster collection and upgrading is an interesting idea. already had cait sith consume some other Pokemon to get more powers. However i wonder, is there a weapon upgrade system? i didn't really like it in ff13, but this may be due to the first few hours of linear play, but yeah.

good demo. QTE system is okay. weird but okay

 "press auto button" and more "know what you're doing before you change paradigms and hit auto battle".

i liked it, got me in the mood to go and finish the end game content on XIII, but seeing RoF mentioned made me want to go back to that instead, didnt get too far on it, i didnt really manage to get my head around the combat system in it, i got to chapter 3 but when i died it seemed like such a hard swing that i assumed i was doing something wrong, i dunno, can anyone shed some light on things?

@StingerMK2 said:

i liked it, got me in the mood to go and finish the end game content on XIII, but seeing RoF mentioned made me want to go back to that instead, didnt get too far on it, i didnt really manage to get my head around the combat system in it, i got to chapter 3 but when i died it seemed like such a hard swing that i assumed i was doing something wrong, i dunno, can anyone shed some light on things?

I havn't played it but its known to be a hard game

@StingerMK2 said:

i liked it, got me in the mood to go and finish the end game content on XIII, but seeing RoF mentioned made me want to go back to that instead, didnt get too far on it, i didnt really manage to get my head around the combat system in it, i got to chapter 3 but when i died it seemed like such a hard swing that i assumed i was doing something wrong, i dunno, can anyone shed some light on things?

it's fantastic, make sure to go through all the tutorial stuff, perhaps again if you still feel like it's too hard

i liked it, got me in the mood to go and finish the end game content on XIII, but seeing RoF mentioned made me want to go back to that instead, didnt get too far on it, i didnt really manage to get my head around the combat system in it, i got to chapter 3 but when i died it seemed like such a hard swing that i assumed i was doing something wrong, i dunno, can anyone shed some light on things?

Seeing this thread reminded me of this demo's existence and I decided to check it out. I wound up hating XIII for the straight tunnel design so there is already marked improvement exploration wise. Amazing what a couple splitting passageways every now and then can do for your game. The monster party thing looks awesome. If the story isn't as stupid as XIII this might be the first Final Fantasy I'll say I liked after playing it in years. I've got a lot of disposable income lately so I think I'm gonna grab this day one.

@harinosho said:

 "press auto button" and more "know what you're doing before you change paradigms and hit auto battle".

Well there is your problem, never hit auto battle. Ever. I will seriously repeat this until the end of the time/people stop doing it. The auto battle AI is fucking terrible.

I am a pretty big Final Fantasy fan, but I did not enjoy FF13. I took a look at the demo and (of course) its basically more FF13... I'm not buying it.

I'm not sure if what I would like better... maybe something like FF6 (What I would call Classic Final Fantasy) or FF12.

The puzzle inside the anomoly was neat and I'm curious if it's optional or not since it seemed you could just go and fight Atlus without doing it if you so wanted. Sure, if you wanted your ass kicked.

I thought the battles dragged on

So after playing both the 360 and PS3 demos I'm glad at least that the two pretty much look identical and perform about the same (i.e. both had slowdowns in the same areas) except for perhaps better cinematic quality on the PS3 (due to greater disc space). It looks like Square Enix actually put some effort into the 360 version this time and has made it up to par with the PS3 version. I'm also glad that Square Enix decided to actually give us a demo that showcases all the changes and improvements they've made to the gameplay, instead of what could have been just the first half hour of the game (in which case, it would end up being as deceiving as the all the ads are for the game.) I guess I have to give them props for releasing an "honest" demo at least. In any case, I'm definitely excited about Jan 31st!

@Zenaxzd: I absolutely hated the AI for synergists. It wasn't that they used the wrong spells, as any buff is nice, it's that they use cast one at a time. When they can cast 2-3 with one bar! Yeah, Haste is pretty sweet, but Haste, Bravery, and Enfire is even better!

Though I will say that the saboteur AI for Snow and Sahz is pretty good. When all possible statuses have been inflicted, they won't do the one spell at a time thing. Instead they will spam the fuck out of daze, which is really nice because, if you time it right, that means 4-6 attacks at double damage. Vital for early turtle farming.

@Zenaxzd: I absolutely hated the AI for synergists. It wasn't that they used the wrong spells, as any buff is nice, it's that they use cast one at a time. When they can cast 2-3 with one bar! Yeah, Haste is pretty sweet, but Haste, Bravery, and Enfire is even better!

Though I will say that the saboteur AI for Snow and Sahz is pretty good. When all possible statuses have been inflicted, they won't do the one spell at a time thing. Instead they will spam the fuck out of daze, which is really nice because, if you time it right, that means 4-6 attacks at double damage. Vital for early turtle farming.

@Zenaxzd said:

It's true. I actually played a lot of my PS3 copy of 13 today (I still want to platinum it)

Don't. I did, and god damn. God damn. I'm in the process of writing a blog post about that. Also, Cactuar aren't worth it for CP farming. If you're not farming turtles then you should be farming the behemoth/megi battle for CP. It's a 30 second battle for about 12000 CP with the growth egg. With some practice you can get it down to 10 seconds. As for turtles, don't use summons or death if you plan on farming them. Neither are efficient enough. If you're low level, that is to say only primary roles and at least a little bit of synergist for Fang maxed (level 2 is enough) then you start by buffing yourself with haste/protectra, and then switch to tridisaster and stagger a leg. At some point you'll want to switch to com/med/med and Highwind the leg. When you do that depends on Fang's strength stat. If it's around 2700-3000, do it immediately. If it's lower than 2500, drive up the stagger bar a little and let it drain. You want to kill a leg in one highwind. Rinse and repeat for the other leg. When it drops, buff yourself with Bravera and the others with Faithra while the other two debuff him. Stagger, and kill. Having someone spam daze when he's staggered makes your life much, much easier.

I have killed so many turtles, I could do it in my sleep at this point.

Should I play XIII first before I should play this?!

@Zenaxzd said:

It's true. I actually played a lot of my PS3 copy of 13 today (I still want to platinum it)

Don't. I did, and god damn. God damn.

Should I play XIII first before I should play this?!

A friend and I spent 4 hours on one play through just testing things out and figuring out the monster system completely. Can't wait to jump in this game and get my pokemon on.

Seems to completely fix the problems I had with 13 (though I still played through and enjoyed it).

Are the people who liked the demo ok with the writing and how the story was delivered? I admit that I didn't make it through the whole demo but this was due to just the irritating nature of the characters. And that fucking Kupo was just always there always making sure to get in in what seemed like every shot of every scene. I just couldn't handle it. So, are the people who like the demo ok with the characters and writing?

@JasonR86 said:

Are the people who liked the demo ok with the writing and how the story was delivered? I admit that I didn't make it through the whole demo but this was due to just the irritating nature of the characters. And that fucking Kupo was just always there always making sure to get in in what seemed like every shot of every scene. I just couldn't handle it. So, are the people who like the demo ok with the characters and writing?

Years of playing JRPGs (and videogames in general) have caused me to develop a very thick skin to all of that. I don't think the writing or storytelling is any good but I don't have much difficulty in tolerating it.

@Juno500 said:

@JasonR86 said:

Are the people who liked the demo ok with the writing and how the story was delivered? I admit that I didn't make it through the whole demo but this was due to just the irritating nature of the characters. And that fucking Kupo was just always there always making sure to get in in what seemed like every shot of every scene. I just couldn't handle it. So, are the people who like the demo ok with the characters and writing?

Years of playing JRPGs (and videogames in general) have caused me to develop a very thick skin to all of that. I don't think the writing or storytelling is any good but I don't have much difficulty in tolerating it.

I guess my tolerance is next to naught for all that.

Well, it also helps that I really don't care about stories in video games. I mostly ignore them, and a game having a bad story does very little to affect my opinion of the game overall.

I've not tried the demo yet since I've not finished FF13. I stopped because I got to a place where I have to grind to defeat a boss. That seams to be when I stop playing JRPG's these days. As soon as just going through the world isn't enough to level and I have to start running around the same area for hours to grind for a fight I just can't. I used to be able to grind gor hours and hours, but with games liked ME and DA making away with grinding I feel that JRPG's need to do that too. I still can do it sometimes if it's a game I really feel like I must know the story goes like Persona or lately Shadow Heart games, but the I didn't much care for the way leveling worked in FF13.

I guess it's too early to tell from a demo if it is grindy, but is the leveling system the same or is it changed? Also do I still have to run back and forth as much to make enemies respawn? I almost wish it had random encounters even though people hate that sysstem, at least then you can run around on spot instead of doing a mile long run for 3 fights then run back for them to respawn.

Considering I didn't really like 13, I was surprised that I liked the demo for 13-2. The dialogue seems kind of stupid (especially the Lightning + black hair guy bits) but otherwise it was fun.

Looking forward to this.

Wow, I typed a crapload, pressed "post reply" and had the system erase everything and tell me "body. This field is required." I'm not gonna retype everything but I'll say that I enjoyed XIII and XIII2 doesn't seem to have broken anything that I liked. I thought that only two real members in your sucked and would be a game over, man for it but it's not that limiting mechanically, but it will suck to me if I can't make my combat party be exclusively characters that I like... unless you get to fight the Ninja blade arm dude from Pulse and he can be a monster you use or you can grab something stupid huge like an Adamantoise.