Oh, but I agree. The game got much better once you actually got to do some roaming, and it had beautiful design and visuals. In the first bits I'd be fine with even just the illusion of some freedom, it was just so discouraging to look at only that looooooooooooooooooooooong corridor on the minimap for hours and hours onwards.
As for the gameplay, it was a bit dreary with the autocommand thing in place, but it worked. Could have done with a bit more customization.
edited 6th Jan '11 8:01:31 AM by l3wt
When in deadly danger, When beset by doubt, Run in little circles, Wave your arms and shout.If I'd wanted more customization, I would've played Final Fantasy XII again. Personally, while I liked XII's ability to give your characters any skillset, I found XIII's Paradigm system to be more interesting and more functional; it's not just about what abilities your characters have at their disposal, it's how they fit together as a team.
Plus, once you've gotten the hang of the battle system, even the more difficult fights went by relatively quickly; even with the autocommand in place, I always felt involved in the flow of battle.
The Danse Macabre CodexYes, the game was a greatly enjoyable one, but there were some decisions made that upset a lot of people, like the developers didn't quite agree on what direction they wanted for the game.
edited 6th Jan '11 8:23:08 AM by l3wt
When in deadly danger, When beset by doubt, Run in little circles, Wave your arms and shout.If you want lots of well-handled Character Development, yes. If you want an epic plot...perhaps you should look elsewhere.
The Danse Macabre CodexNo, the plot is epic, but not as epic as some other plots in the series. Plus, if you don't take a peak at the datalog every once in a while, you may or may not get confused.
That reminds me, that's one thing from FFXII that I missed in XIII. The bestiary is so bare-bones in this game. Sure, it tells you how much health an enemy has, what its weaknesses are, what tactics it might employ and how best to deal with it, but you can just look at that yourself in the middle of a fight by pressing one of the bumpers. Where's the fluff on the monsters?
The Danse Macabre CodexAh, there you are! Sound off every once in a while, will ye? I was wondering if you'd gone and gotten yourself eaten or something. I find the best way to create personalities for your characters is simply to begin playing, get a feel for their method of thinking and such. So at your own pace; introduce Reiko and Mary. Have them interact with someone, hell maybe even just each other.
edited 6th Jan '11 12:06:17 PM by l3wt
When in deadly danger, When beset by doubt, Run in little circles, Wave your arms and shout.In that case, I'll post their Physical descriptions for Tuj.
- Name: Reiko Hakurei
- Age: between 16-19
- Species: Human
- Ability: Able to fly.
- Physical description: Rigorous training has lead to her developing a more athletic physique. Flat-chested. * Other than that, she resembles an average girl in her late teens.
- Hair: Black with purple highlights, worn in a low braided ponytail with an enormous red ribbon at the base. Wears bangs similar to Reimu.
- Eye color: green
- Outfit: an outfit resembling a blend between Current Reimu and PC-98 Reimu with elements of western clothing.
- A forest green vest on top of a haori * with the sleeves of the haori connected by two buttoned straps of fabric on each arm. (the straps connect to the sleeve, rest on the shoulder, and connect to the jacket.)
- Beneath the haori is either a small white bra or a long strip of fabric wrapped around her chest.
- She wears a red Skirt over black short shorts over white panties/bloomers. The back and fronts of the skirt extend to her knees, while the sides stay at roughly 3/4 s of the way down her thighs. On the front of the skirt is a Yin-Yang symbol.
- Wears a small pendant of an Imperial Two-headed eagle holding a yin-yang orb. Most likely a recent family heirloom.
- Equipment/weapons:
- A Katana-shaped chainsword holstered at her left side.
- A Gohei
- A pack of spellcards held on her right side.
- Black shoes with a gold buckle worn over white kneesocks.
- Often wears black fingerless gloves or bandages around her fists.
- Bio: To be determined.
- Name: Mary Kirisame-Margatroid
- Age: Unknown, less than 150, Physically early to mid twenties.
- Ability: Able to control elemental-magic dolls.
- Physical Description: Average girl, save for one certain area.
- Hair: Long blonde pigtails like this
◊, with red highlights.
- Eye color: silver
- Outfit: Something of a blend between Marisa and Alice’s various garments.
- A white button up shirt worn underneath a blue underbust corset. *
- A black skirt that stops right above her knees.
- A black bra & panties/ a white bra & Bloomers.
- Black belt with yellowish buckle with an attached axe holster and spellcard holder.
- wears a dark blue version of that cape-ish thing Story of An Eastern Wonderland’s version of Marisa *
- Black knee-length zipper boots. worn over grey stockings.
- Often seen wearing white Mario-esque gloves.
- Carries a Poweraxe * at her side case of melee combat held at her right side.
- Her spellcard pack is held on her left side.
- Carries around a book labled “The magical lores of the eight winds” with this symbol
◊ on the front cover.
- May or may not carry a duplicate of Marisa’s Mini-Hakkero.
- Bio: To be determined.
I'll put up Benjamin and Lukas' descriptions later.
Anyways, how'd I do?
edited 6th Jan '11 12:42:19 PM by takashi.0
That one symbol you linked to at the end? Think about that one for a moment. It's kind of like tatooing your face with a swastika, then taking a vacation in Israel, and act all surprised when random strangers get pissed at you.
Some of the fashion choices here also strike me as odd, but hey, I'm not the judge here. Otherwise I can't find any major errors to point out.
edited 6th Jan '11 12:31:13 PM by l3wt
When in deadly danger, When beset by doubt, Run in little circles, Wave your arms and shout.
If you do go through with that, expect Darius to start killing people the moment he sees it.
Uhm, a Sarashi is always one very long strip of cloth. I also can't help but wonder if the heavy melee weapons wouldn't make them very unbalanced (especially for Mary, who hasn't got the handwave-power of the Ability to Fly). Besides that...sounds good.
edited 6th Jan '11 12:34:10 PM by Lemurian
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!^ That's better, at least there isn't a frigging sign of Chaos Undivided on it
The heavy melee weapons also strike me as odd, particularly if none of the characters have Super-Strength or something.
When in deadly danger, When beset by doubt, Run in little circles, Wave your arms and shout.

Personally I didn't mind Vanille. FFXIII was an okay game, but the linearity of the first ten chapters or so was a little off-putting; this is the only Final Fantasy game I have not played since completing the main plot.
Still, it had some damn beautiful music and environments.
The Danse Macabre Codex