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fleppie

Replaying Dead Space, the game still looks amazing! Visceral really was ahead of its time. Two more achievements to go!

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FF XIII

By fleppie 6 Comments

Front cover of Final Fantasy XIII (EU) for Xbox 360
Front cover of Final Fantasy XIII (EU) for Xbox 360
So I am now 10 hours into FFXIII and i don't really get what the hubub was all about. Sure it's very linear, but to me the Final Fantasies have always been linear in one way or another. This time you really get nowhere else to go then forward, but back in the day if you would venture off of the road you were supposed to be on the higher level monsters would punish you severely by 1-shotting you. But then again I am a very positive person looking for the best things in everything including videogames.  
 
I like the battle-system in FFXIII. To me the grinding has been replaced with handling the battles strategically. The better you perform in a battle, the bigger your rewards, the faster you can level up your weapons and through Crystarium points. Fair and interesting trade-off if you ask me. The paradigm shifts are essential and Odin brought me down several times before I realized that i was losing because I didn't have one specific paradigm in my list. Which is the equivalent of not being able to defeat a boss in earlier Final Fantasies because your level wasn't high enough. The cool thing about this Final Fantasy is that it's all about strategy instead of outlevelling/outgearing the boss.  
 
I also really like the stagger mechanic, it just emphasizes something I would already do in older Final Fantasies, namely Libra the enemy to find out it's weakness and exploit that. Now you HAVE to do that for certain enemies if you want to defeat them. There is a big difference in how the battles play out and their length depending on whether or not you stagger the enemy.  
 
And the one thing I really like about the game is the way the story plays out. Maybe it isn't the most epic story (yet, i am 10 hours in) but I like the way they handle it's presentation.  
 
In short, I am enjoying this game! And to add another bonus, I picked this game up new for 15 euros. That's a steal! 
 
Maybe that's why I enjoy this game so much? Maybe I would've joined the pitchfork mob if I had paid 60 euros for the game.
6 Comments

6 Comments

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fleppie

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Edited By fleppie
Front cover of Final Fantasy XIII (EU) for Xbox 360
Front cover of Final Fantasy XIII (EU) for Xbox 360
So I am now 10 hours into FFXIII and i don't really get what the hubub was all about. Sure it's very linear, but to me the Final Fantasies have always been linear in one way or another. This time you really get nowhere else to go then forward, but back in the day if you would venture off of the road you were supposed to be on the higher level monsters would punish you severely by 1-shotting you. But then again I am a very positive person looking for the best things in everything including videogames.  
 
I like the battle-system in FFXIII. To me the grinding has been replaced with handling the battles strategically. The better you perform in a battle, the bigger your rewards, the faster you can level up your weapons and through Crystarium points. Fair and interesting trade-off if you ask me. The paradigm shifts are essential and Odin brought me down several times before I realized that i was losing because I didn't have one specific paradigm in my list. Which is the equivalent of not being able to defeat a boss in earlier Final Fantasies because your level wasn't high enough. The cool thing about this Final Fantasy is that it's all about strategy instead of outlevelling/outgearing the boss.  
 
I also really like the stagger mechanic, it just emphasizes something I would already do in older Final Fantasies, namely Libra the enemy to find out it's weakness and exploit that. Now you HAVE to do that for certain enemies if you want to defeat them. There is a big difference in how the battles play out and their length depending on whether or not you stagger the enemy.  
 
And the one thing I really like about the game is the way the story plays out. Maybe it isn't the most epic story (yet, i am 10 hours in) but I like the way they handle it's presentation.  
 
In short, I am enjoying this game! And to add another bonus, I picked this game up new for 15 euros. That's a steal! 
 
Maybe that's why I enjoy this game so much? Maybe I would've joined the pitchfork mob if I had paid 60 euros for the game.
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BrickRoad

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Edited By BrickRoad

I'm pretty sure FFXIII came out in the UK the same week as Yakuza 3. I opted for that instead, and I didn't regret it. However as the price drops for 13, I might pick it up. I am a fan of the series...though bizarrely the even numbered games, namely 4, 6 and 8 are my favourites.

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Soap

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Edited By Soap
@BrickRoad said:
" I'm pretty sure FFXIII came out in the UK the same week as Yakuza 3. I opted for that instead, and I didn't regret it. However as the price drops for 13, I might pick it up. I am a fan of the series...though bizarrely the even numbered games, namely 4, 6 and 8 are my favourites. "
The price for XIII is pretty good now, I've seen it in Blockbuster game for like, £12? It's also in there 2 for £20 on used games as well, (at least at my local one)
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Belmont_Shadow

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Edited By Belmont_Shadow

Yes they've been linear but they had good pacing with a balance of gameplay and traditional story sequences. 13 for the first 15 hours is incredibly linear but also poorly paced. The first 10 chapters revolves around running in a straight line and fighting enemies, there is no break to visit towns, there is no area where you attempt mini games or go alternate paths. After chapter 11 the game opens up and is infinitely better or it. You can be positive all you want but that doesn't change the fact that there was some serious design problems with this game and even the major development teams admitted the structure wasn't coherant because of direction changes throughout development. XIII while still solid feels like an unrealised project which needed a consistent design philosophy and direction.

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02sfraser

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Edited By 02sfraser

I really like it as well and when you hit around 20 hours I think it is, you get a big world to go explore as you see fit. The battle system is really good, lot better than XII and the levelling system is like the sphere grid from X which I loved.

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Make_Me_Mad

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Edited By Make_Me_Mad

I maintain that the biggest problem with Final Fantasy XIII was that they made a big, interesting world in Cocoon, and then blocked off any kind of exploration or interaction with it entirely, but still let you read about it if you really wanted.  The only world they let you explore is one that's already been wiped clean, and the only thing to do there is fight more overpowered monsters to get the obscene amount of points you need to make any of the new classes unlocked in chapter 10 useful.
I also have to say I wasn't a fan of the combat system.  The amount of times that the party AI screwed me in the Barthandelus boss fight by deciding to cast buffs in a seemingly arbitrary order pretty much left me doing everything myself anyways, so they may as well have let me have control over the party so I could have wasted less time.