I've delved into the first few hours of this game, completing one of the "main" quests in the process, and I have to say I'm really enjoying it so far. The clock mechanic seemed to be bothersome at first but I quickly figured out how to game it a little to where it only becomes A minor hindrance. The combat is pretty rad too, with the different combos of weapons, garb and shields, It makes for a pretty fun custom class system.

Has anyone else touched this? Maybe gone to all the areas in the game yet? (I haven't)

TELL ME YOUR SECRETS.

The X-2 Yuna costume plays the X-2 victory fanfare

So it's GOTY.

@donchipotle: I wonder if that also means that the classic victory fanfare will only play while wearing the Cloud outfit. I was hoping it was some sort of toggle. Ah well.

Anyway, I'd love to post my first impressions, but my copy didn't arrive yesterday. D:< (Will hopefully get it today)

I've played up to the first Ark visit and love it so far. I'm just very indecisive about how to set up my schemata since I have a lot of preorder/demo clear/save upload/paid DLC garb to choose from and not many abilities to share among them yet.

This game is fuh-king weird.

I hate the way dialogue is presented. You're on a timer so it seems unwise to stand around and listen to Hope chat in your ear, but I always miss the second half of his sentences when accidentally engaging in combat or moving to a new area. It doesn't help that the scrolling subtitles is shared between hope and every passer-by on the street. I think a simple visual-novel style "hit this button to scroll back through the dialogue" would have fixed that, because I'm the kind of person who likes to read every piece of dialogue presented. Maybe that's in there and I've just missed it.

But for the most part, this game is right up my ally. I love the setting & story. Then again, I've always been a sucker for those pseudo-religious themes. Bayonetta & Darksiders are two of my favorite games and this seems to be right up there in the setting department. I'm only on the second night though, so I've got a long way to go. I like the combat, but I can't say I don't miss the combat system from the first two games, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I also keep accidentally hitting the switch enemy button instead of the switch stance button, but that's not the games fault. Haven't come close to dying yet.

I also can't get it out of my head that Lightning- her tone, her attitude, everything about the way she delivers her lines, is exactly like a female Solid Snake. That's not a bad thing, I'm actually into it.

I think spending the eight bucks on the DLC costumes may have been a bad call, either that or the game really wants you to just tear through enemies fucking quickly. I'm using the...purple magic boosting schemata that you buy in the first city and the X-2 schemata. The purple magic boosting one have me with 800 in magic while X-2 has me pushing 900 in strength. Shit dies quickly. And this is without accessories or synthesis or forging

@donchipotle: What skills are you equipping to your schemata? That's the one thing I'm puzzling over.

Yeah the FF7 Fanfare plays when you win as Cloud. Only when you end the battle in his Schemata though.

At the moment I've got L'ange Noir with some synth boosted Blizzard, Thunder, and Aero with Light Guard. I've got Sphere Hunter with a simple attack (synth boosted) and Sparkstrike with Guard and it's locked ability Crashing Waves. And I've got Nocturne which I use for defense, it's got guard and Light Slash.

@kishinfoulux: That's a shame. I just think the classic fanfare is sooooooooo much better than the stuff that's been in the XIII series. Curious as to why they changed it. I thought it was a permanent change, but XIV has it, soo...?

Anyway, enough about that. :P Thanks for the answer dude!

@donchipotle: Ah; cool. There's so much customization potential that it can be overwhelming.

I dunno. There's a bit of forced chaos because of the timer and due of that, you never feel like you're in control of your journey. That is, until you're steered headlong into questing.

1/5 into the game summation: I guess.

edit: I've seen the ending thanks to Japanese Youtube. Its insanity is worth the slog.

Well after playing it for about an hour, I can happily say that I enjoy the game quite a bit. The only things that I'm not digging so far is the weird way you gain stats, the frame rate at times, and Hope's constant nagging. Other that those complains, it's pretty fun. I can't wait to actually get to the Wildlands and other open areas.

Also, WOW,that Cloud schema is ridiculously powerful. I just dealt 12,000 damage to an unstaggered enemy with it's triangle attack. Kinda tempted to go and try out the first boss again with this.

Haven't played yet, need to vent, didn't know there was a Schemata for playing the demo, DLing the demo now o_O, FUCK

@starvinggamer:

@starvinggamer: Don't forget to upload your scores of the last enemy, Zaltys I believe, for another costume!

OT: I'm enjoying it so far, but damn is it hard. when I first fought the Shadow Hunter I almost beat him but got killed in the end, came back the next day and finished him off though, currently in the Temple in the Wildlands and I was almost 1 shot by this boss.

It seems very powerful in the beginning but looking at streams. (Cant play it yet since in Europe) this one is soo outdated. And man some of these "bosses" seem very difficult. A challenging FF game is really nice to see XD

I am using Cloud's outfit and one of the other unlocks and destroying earlier enemies, even that supposedly 3-star quest monster that pops up in Luxerion. Am I part of the problem?

Also, could have done without Hope acting as Mission Control every five seconds. This is starting to become a bad trend in AAA games, the voice in your ear.

@dochaus: Hope is just Ellen Page in disguise.

Not really a spoiler since he was in a bunch of promo videos, but I got to the Caius boss. This whole trilogy..............should have been about Caius and Yuel's journey, since it is about 100x more interesting then any character arc in this game world. Also, the revelations about Yuel had me really disturbed and made me go "aww" at the same time.

The dialogue are still bad but boy some of the side quest are really genuinely very touching and made me feel like I actually saved a soul. My favorite side story so far, the chick who thought chocobo could speak and the avid reader. I do not know what the reviews are talking about but the side stories are really pretty good so far. The actual missions are a bit bland tho. This from a man who hated XIII and thought XIII-2 was ok. So far, this is the best of the three. I will be damn, if I ended up liking this more than Bravely Default but it looks likely if the side missions keep up this writing.

Read this, said FUCK, played demo again o_O

I'll play the actual game tomorrow, but the combat system seems super interesting so far.

OH MAH GAWD. TEH OUTFITS YOU GUYS. THE OUTFITS.

I really like the schemata and combat mechanics, but the timer is killing me. I like to explore every nook and cranny and even though I just rolled into day 2 I feel really behind, like every second not spent on a quest is a waste.

Gaaaaah. Between Lightning Returns and Bravely Default and being an adult with responsibilities there is not enough time in the day for all of this! O_O Tonight was a Bravely Default night. need to make time for Lightning Returns tomorrow. Or perhaps the three-day weekend.

@toowalrus: yeah! Solid snake but a lady pretty hot.

So first play session complete. I'm....left satisfied but confused? Like, I don't know that I have a real grasp on a good flow for progression yet. I don't know that I necessarily feel rushed or anything and I don't really hate the time mechanic I'm just still coming to grips with everything so far. I also found that pretty decently hard monster from a 3 star side quest and wiped the floor with him. So combat wise I think I've mostly got a handle on this game I think I just need to figure out how I'm going to spend my time.

From what I have played I really like the battle system we will see on the rest lol.

I KNOW RIGHT?

Yeah, I seem to be getting a decent to hard challenge from most of the harder/boss enemies. It's really nice to see, considering the cakewalk that was FFXIII

I'm about 7 hours in, and so far it's a bit of a confusing mess for me.

And I don't mean the story, even though it just kinda drops you in a part, that seems more like the middle than the begging really, but the fantastic decision to make the first main quest in a game, that is on a constant time limit, a quest where you need to find four hidden numbers in a rather big, confusing and time gated city.

Sense of orientation is a huge problem for me in real life, and in just about any game, and by now if spent the first in-game day and most of the second, and still somehow haven't found all four numbers. And since there are gates, that are only open at certain times, it's virtually impossible for me to know, if that damn missing number is somewhere in there, or if I just stumbled by it without seeing it dozens of times. To say I'm annoyed would but it mildly.

But, oh well, Chronostatis ability breaks the time mechanic anyway.

What I've seen of the side quests, seems to be okay so far, but some things could certainly be better. Why are there NPCs running around with ??? above there heads, who you just can't talk to (no prompt shows up). Why are quest NPCs the same color on the map than everyone else? (Wouldn't be a problem without the time constraints.) Why are they running in circles, into walls or in front of the camera during cutscenes? Just what is even going on?

The battle system is pretty cool, but I'm also hesitant about what garb's to actually use, just because there are too many options because of DLC/pre order. But that's gonna get better, with more abilities to use, I think.

Anyways, the story seems competent enough so far, except maybe for the inclusion of Hope as such a major character once again (I just hate that dude), and the weird decision to let god take away most of Lightning's feelings, considering how stoic and awkward she was even before that.

So, yeah, a bit on edge so far, but I do enjoy the game.

I accidentally started up the third main mission.

When Lightning says to 'get out of the city' I guess she didn't mean 'go to the Wildlands'.

@donchipotle: I accidentally started the second main quest last night while I was waiting for the Warrens to open up. At least it gave me something to do? I'm guessing completing both of these main quests opens up the Wildlands and Dunes respectively

@smokeyd123: XIII is the hardest game in the main series; it's not extremely hard but there are some really significant challenges; particularly if you don't over-level. The second Barthandelus fight at low levels is harder than Zeromus on speed 9, making him the hardest story boss in the series other than Velius.

@fredchuckdave: As long as I had a synergist and medic on deck most of the bosses weren't that bad. I think I remember being pretty over-leveled, so, maybe that skews my outlook.

I feel like, if you want to get the "best" outcome, you're supposed to start those main quests and complete them parallel to each other.

LIKE TOTALLY RIIIIGHT I MEAN OMIGAWD!

Seriously though, this has nothing on the customization in Resonance of Fate. The difference being that most of the costume options there are purely cosmetic, but there's so much more variety while you go around shooting things!

So I'm not entirely sure I understand how any of the time stuff works. The " talk to Aremiah " quest isn't triggering for me at any time of day at all, and then there's times where quests don't mention anything about time of day, but when I go to talk to a person involved with the quest, they won't talk to me unless it's a certain undisclosed time???? Why?? They're standing right there. :|

I'm loving the actual content, but as I feared, the time stuff is already getting slightly annoying.

Fuck I just unlocked all mah shits from DLC etc and now I'm just staring at the screen dumbfounded. I am literally frozen by options in a system I don't fully understand yet. Also I am a pretty pretty princess.

@starvinggamer: I feel your pain. Also, your fabulousness!

Guys, guys, guys, the Purple Lightning outfit is a fucking GODSEND. I don't mean the fact that it comes with a locked Firaga and Blizzaga physical based ability pool, I mean that with it on YOU CAN SPRINT FOR FUCKING DAYS.

I'm trying to get into the game but it's just not clicking for me. I don't know if I'm just tired of playing in the FF13 universe or if the game is just not my type. I'm going to keep at it though and hope it gets better. I'm on the second day so not very far into it yet.

Even as someone that liked XIII and XIII-2 I'll say that this game is really damn weird.

The combat is hard to get to grips with but there seems to be a good amount of depth there. I scored 1 point on the first real boss battle the game pushes you towards but I still felt accomplished after beating it. Levelling by completing quests is odd, but it removes the problem of being overlevelled and stomping everything like in XIII-2.

The story is weird, and I've never been particuarly invested in the XIII lore but I think the immortal humans are a cool concept, especially seeing how it has affected past party members.

Cutomisation options are insane and overbearing but awesome.

Do they actually explain why past party members are still around?

I should cave in and buy it, I would love it. For some reason I am waiting for FF13-2 GOTY version with all the DLC packed in..... sigh, Gilgamesh, sigh.

@MikeFerrari7: Yeah, within like the first hour.

@donchipotle: Oh wow, I never even noticed your ATB meter was also your sprint bar! Cool.

@MikeFerrari7: Yes, the events at the ending of XIII-2 explain why the party members are still around.

For all the shit people give Hideo Kojima about his codec conversations, at least you have the option of skipping them and then not listening to the Mission Control person repeat them in your ear until you wanted to punch him in the throat.

"Hey Lightning...find the last number or another girl will die!"

"Hey Lightning...find the last number or another girl will die!"

"Hey Lightning...find the last number or another girl will die!"

"Hey Lightning...find the last number or another girl will die!"

"Hey Lightning...I did mention you need to find the last number, right?"

YES, I FUCKING HEARD YOU, but it's locked behind a fucking impassible gate that the local God-fearing authorities don't feel like opening to The Savior of Humanity As We Know It. If only the Godship One had some sort of fucking teleporter that could bring me to the location in an instant, because it's not like it's shown to have one of those earlier in the game.

My theory is that Hope just sets one of those drinking bird toys next to a button that repeats his last message and then watches his anime backlog until 6 AM rolls around.

So here's a small problem I have with the game: Why is the actual in game timer in military time, but then some quest details are in standard? That kinda confused me at first. I eventually stopped being an idiot and realized this, but still. Pretty dumb and needless.

@dochaus: A "Turn off Hope" option should have been in every FFXIII game.

After a more in depth play session today I'm pretty excited about this game. 2 days down. 1 Main mission beaten.