Final Fantasy general

They were obviously a relic of the FFVI style of party.

Indeed. FFVI has more party members than most of the other games barring a few exceptions. Crunch could also have something to do with it....

"Analay, an original fan character from a 2006 non canon comic. Do not steal!"

I doubt it was crunch. They went to such great lengths to make them optional and can basically be grabbed at any time.

It would have been easier to make them not optional.

Edited by Memers on Sep 22nd 2019 at 8:52:35 AM

I know that digging on FFXIII is pretty par for the course but I never did reflect on how stupid the Battle Speed mechanic was. You can set it to Slow...but that just means you'll never get a good ranking. The target time is the same while all actions take longer. Who the hell designed that? Did Jim (Jin?) put it in there and nobody realized that it just doesn't work with how the gameplay is designed?

Sorry, XIII-2 is dangerous because it makes me want to replay XIII. There is no bad numbered FF game but XIII has so many problems that I'm just not feeling right now because XIII-2 has me feeling so good. But that's mainly because XIII-2 is the best. It makes me feel more charitable and nostalgic.

But godam is there so much to do in this game. It's daunting.

The target time did literally nothing outside of 5 staring the final boss for the achievement. The timer not changing was basically an Easy Mode Penality

They got a bit better on difficulty as the trilogy went on but they never managed to make any of the games difficult and fun as XIII sadly. But FF players just want piss easy games /shrug.

I don't think crunch had much to do with yuffie and Vincent being optional. Keep in mind that secret or optional party members were a thing back then. Not so much anymore.

I suspect optional party members are less common these days due to the existence of FMVs, which can't be altered for the presence or absence of certain characters.

De Romanīs, lingua Latina gloriosa non fuī.

Anyway this song rules and builds up "the thing" happening really well. Just a real great sense of forboding, isolation, and history.

I LOVE that track.

Also weird how that one "Reunion" track go so underused in game. Anyone heard it?

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know

The Advent Children version of For The Reunion is cool.

Life is more fun with infinite MP.

This was the track I was talking about, its the one that plays when Rufus and the other Shinra goons are at North Cave near where the Weapons are sealed, just before Cloud fucks up. Oh and a certain passage in the very final dungeon.

Edited by MightyKombat on Sep 23rd 2019 at 4:33:31 PM

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know

"The target time did literally nothing outside of 5 staring the final boss for the achievement. The timer not changing was basically an Easy Mode Penality"

In XIII-2 5 stars increased drop rates for items so maybe it did the same for XIII, I can 't remember. I do remember in XIII it was how you recovered Technique Points.

"They got a bit better on difficulty as the trilogy went on but they never managed to make any of the games difficult and fun as XIII sadly. But FF players just want piss easy games /shrug."

XIII-2PC's sole saving grace is that it has a difficulty mod.

I'd say the only reason XIII could get away with being as hard as it was is because it was super linear. XIII-2 and LR are almost open world games in their own way, it's harder to maintain balance when you can go anywhere and do anything.

Edited by Nikkolas on Sep 23rd 2019 at 11:22:11 AM

XIII wasn't hard so much as alot of Fake/Enforced Difficulty 'which is pretty apparate when several boss fights have DO IT THIS WAY or GET A DOOM COUNTER'

XIII is not hard 'especially when it completely devolves down to dominate options cause the battle system isn't as dynamic as it thinks it is.

XIII is not SMT where you have options but the game compensates by kicking your teeth in. XIII keeps you on a leash and then yanks it the moment you so much as start trying to think outside the box.

LR's is a case where you can get through the game mostly through brute force but the last boss will murder you since he requires a good understanding of the whole battle system.

I'm A Pervert not an Asshole!

Orphan is the only boss in the entire series - and SMT - I could never beat legit. I had to cheese it with Poison.

There is indeed only one way to efficiently win XIII but that's the rules the game made and that's the point of the ranking system. You either play by the rules of the game, which indeed makes it extremely hard since it promotes reckless aggression instead of caution and therefore increased odds of dying pretty drastically, or you just do your own thing, ignore how the battle system is all about speed and make it easier while getting bat scores.

It's not even remotely the same thing as any SMT game. They're absolutely not comparable battle systems. You can have preferences, I certainly do as well, but the difficulty of XIII is how it's designed and I don't begrudge it for that. More games need to have stat caps based on plot progression. Chrono Cross did it better though.

Edited by Nikkolas on Sep 23rd 2019 at 11:44:34 AM

SMT honestly isnt hard as long as you know what element the boss coming up uses. 99% of the 'difficulty' of SMT games is finding a boss then dying and then grinding and fusing the mons needed to fight it, that it.

XIII did not allow you to get overpowered, in any way, till post game. They gave you some grinding wiggle room to complete your grid but not much, you actually had to get good and use the job system.

Yes but 0 stars gives you a x8 shroud drop rate, the Ethersol shroud gives you full TP.

And unlike XIII-2 your power level actually can make 5 staring a fight impossible without a shroud due to the way the formula works, sadly. In XIII-2 every fight is predetermined for its battle rank, which was a major improvement over XIII.

Edited by Memers on Sep 23rd 2019 at 11:51:40 AM

XIII also gave you virtually no options. Six classes and around a dozen abilities per class, max, many of which are just elemental snowclones of the same attack.

It's so incredibly restricted in everything it does up until its big field of angry monsters that the difficulty was easy to balance.

Memers, who is harder, Bart 1 or Bart 2 and did you have wildly different perspectives on this across playthroughs?

I've played XIII twice and I remember Bart 1 being one of the hardest fights my first time through while I don't remember a thing about Bart 2. But then in my second run I obliterated Bart 1 and was stuck on Bart 2 for HOURS. I ended up having to teach Snow and maybe somebody else a new Role with all the CP I had grinded. All this in spite of the fact I was much better(relatively speaking) at the battle system than in my first run.

I'm told this is not unusual. New players struggle more with Bart 1 while on other playthroughs Bart 2 is the nightmare. I dunno why.

Edited by Nikkolas on Sep 23rd 2019 at 12:07:54 PM

Honestly Bart 1 was the first real boss you fight with a full team, your team makeup and paradigms determines the difficulty of the fight. They took their hands off and let the player do everything... and most people are idiots so it doesn't turn out well.

Bart 2's difficulty really is determined by the amount of stuff you did on Pulse, if you rushed and didn't do any side stuff he is going to be the hardest thing ever.

Why can't we get a combination of XII's strategy and XIII's speed and flashiness?

Life is more fun with infinite MP.

XII was anything but fast tbh, you had to go through so many menus to switch up your gambits and SOOO many conditionals.

XIII actually used the same gambit system as XII but all the actual gambits and conditionals were set with the paradigm you had set at any given time. XIII-2 gave you more control over that but still.

It's not the same though because with Gambits you can actually tell your party what to do right down to the most minute detail. In FFXIII you just have to hope the AI is going to do the thing you want it to do. I hate relying on AI SAB's or SYN's.

People whine constantly about Persona 3 FES' AI party members but nobody says anything about FFXIII.

Edited by Nikkolas on Sep 23rd 2019 at 3:07:22 AM

The AI in XIII is just a very basic trial and error algorithm.

Life is more fun with infinite MP.

When you have 5 options it's kind of hard to fuck them up.

Not really, no.

The AI has their own hidden gambits on what they do and with what enemies are in range. For Syn and Sab they prioritize a specific buff/debuff order depending on the Paradigm combo, want them to prioritize defensive buffs? use SYN and SEN. prioritize offensive use Syn with CO Ms.

Want Sazh to use En-whatever use Libra.

Each and every combo of paradigms has their own set gambits and targeting preferences. Most of the time the name and the scrolling tool tip above tells you what they will do.

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FFXIII's AI is MUCH MUCH smarter than P3's AI. Mostly cause there is no skill bloat what so ever, each and every skill does what it needs to.

P3's AI options were also really wacky with some skills, You use 'Knock Down' AI option with Mitsuru and an enemy on the field that is immune to ice and she will prioritize using confuse instead of just attacking and praying for a crit as confuse normally has a higher chance to hit than a normal attack crit but a normal attack does damage....

Also P3's AI has workable quirks, use Enemy Scan on a boss and YOU still wont see the enemy's weaknesses or strength but the party member sees it just fine and will act accordingly.

Edited by Memers on Sep 23rd 2019 at 4:27:22 AM

Who starts a fight with SEN?

This is what I'm saying, FFXIII is unique in that it is the only RPG I've ever played that relies on speed. Normally in a boss fight you start off by buffing, placing your Protect and Shell and whatever. In XIII-2 if I start with any buffs it's Bravery and Faith because I want to win as fast as possible. The game conditions you to not waste a millisecond of time and putting Protect and Shell or wasting a Paradigm slot on fucking Sentinel is a huge waste of time unless you are immediately dying.

So that's nice to know that you can use the AI in that way but you just won't e v er think of that because FFXIII does not lend itself to thinking of defense and caution.

Edited by Nikkolas on Sep 23rd 2019 at 4:51:08 AM