Final Fantasy

[Kaney]

My team is Lightning, Hope and Vanille. Sazh used to have far and away the best magic stats, but he's just dropped to shit lately while holy fuck Hope is sky high. Fang is only slightly above Lightning in strength and has a better unique move but Lightning is one trapezohedron away from her Omega Weapon so yay. I'm up to chapter 13:

Orphans Cradle, which I assume is right before the final boss. There are portals to go back to Gran Pulse, so I have done, try to do a few more missions, grind a bit more because some of the fights on Eden were tough. Fighting the baby adamantoise in the city was quite possibly the single longest I've ever spent in combat. What a bitch. I hope to be able to take them down a bit easier on Gran Pulse eventually, if not going straight for the adults.

To anyone that's learned it, is Vanille's Death spell actually of any use? I tried about twenty times against a Juggernaut but it just damaged it rather than outright killing it. By that point I actually managed to take the thing down myself with regular attacks which I'd never managed before, but still. If Death was even slightly reliable it'd be useful against the adamantoises.

[Ruki]

Also...I think I'm close to getting my chocobo

[King Ellis]

I got a copy of FFVII from Game many moons ago, the discs are scratched to hell though and the cover has a bunch of sticker scum on it. I hate sticker scum.

It's a Platinum copy too, I dunno if that makes a difference over there as it does here. I see people advertising and requesting regular copies. I don't know if that's because there's an actual difference or if people just want the regular artwork without a bunch of other crap on there.

[probablyoliver]

Some major spoilers for end of chapter 11 to early chapter 13 coming up.

Barthandelus is a badass. A serious, serious badass. Maybe not my favourite villain ever, but still a badass nonetheless. The bit on the rusted bridge at the end of chapter 11 when he comes in as Serah, reveals Lightning's name and then turns the fucking heat up was awesome. I mean, yeah, he's no different from any of the FF supervillains in his convoluted end-of-the-world plot, but god damn he's a badass. I'm looking forward to the inevitable third round with him, I look forward to destroying him. However, as far as badasses go, there's literally nobody more awesome than Rosch. Seriously, his last moments are just glorious. Especially the bit with the two behemoths and the grenade. Glorious end to a glorious supporting 'villain'. ALSO PROUD CLOD. Sort of. But not really. But still. PROUD FUCKING CLOD. Honest to God, as much as the last few FF's have been somewhat similar, the third act is always great fun when everything just kicks up a notch and starts becoming ridiculously awesome. However, as far as last dungeons go, Orphan's Cradle is fairly balls. I get what they were trying to do, but they went too far, and it's a bit too 'out-there'. I mean, you could say the same for the likes of Memoria, the Great Crystal or Sin (seriously, that was essentially a whale with a city inside. It was like fucking Pinocchio!), but at least they were all either coherent or subtle enough to be good. This is like something from Tron.

But anyway, this game is wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

[Kaney]

I disagree.

There is literally no point fighting Barthandelus. None at all. Okay, first time you meet him, you dole out a righteous ass-kicking. He appears as a human again immediately after the fight, and carries on talking. Okay, maybe you're supposed to think he's not much of a bitch, he won't be beaten that easily, fair enough. Second time you meet him, he mocks you and tells you his plan. You dole out a righteous ass-kicking, and after the fight he appears as human again immediately, and carries on talking about his plan.

Theres not even a hint of "ow, I got pwned" or "you might win this battle, but the war isn't over" type stuff before he wanders off. He appears, tells you the first part of his plan, you fight him and beat him, then he tells you the second part of his plan. Thats what it's like. Okay, I will be happy when I finally kill him once and for all, but it seemed like a complete waste of time, and if I hadn't beaten it first time, if I had struggled for ages on it, I would be so pissed by the complete lack of resulting aftermath. It feels like they went "oh shit, this cutscene is getting a big long, quick, toss in a boss fight". I just find it silly to have a big boss fight that literally doesn't even affect the conversation you were having previous, let alone any significant events.

It's a small thing, but I just found it hard to like him. Oh also, I have a Vanille theme! Go me.

[probablyoliver]

I like it for the exact same reason you dislike it. I mean, the guy is quite literally a deity. He's the fucking almighty, and him fighting you seems nothing more than him passing the time. I mean, the whole 'prophecy' story that's attached with everything he's saying coming true is the bit I really love. He knows he won't kill you, he's just making you stronger, and everyone eats it up because they're dullards, or something. I'd put him in the same league as either Vayne or Kuja, he's just an absolute wanker. You know it, the characters know it, he knows it, and I like it. A lot.

[Kaney]

Holy shit. I advise everyone to do the Pulsian Pioneer trophy as soon as possible.

In Oerba, there is a toy robot thing in one of the houses. You get a sidequest to fix it, by collecting some stuff from around the village. It's easy as hell. Once you have them, fix the robot, and you get a pile of goodies and the trophy/achievement. There is a bit of uncertainty given the description of the trophy, some sites say you need to have taken 10k steps on Gran Pulse, others say it's just fixing the robot, but I got the trophy and holy shit. I made like 500k gil from the spoils.

[Ruki]

Holy shit. I advise everyone to do the Pulsian Pioneer trophy as soon as possible.

In Oerba, there is a toy robot thing in one of the houses. You get a sidequest to fix it, by collecting some stuff from around the village. It's easy as hell. Once you have them, fix the robot, and you get a pile of goodies and the trophy/achievement. There is a bit of uncertainty given the description of the trophy, some sites say you need to have taken 10k steps on Gran Pulse, others say it's just fixing the robot, but I got the trophy and holy shit. I made like 500k gil from the spoils.

What items do you get? Should they be sold and not used to boost weapons/accessories?

[Kaney]

Gold nuggets, platinum ingots, other things to sell mostly.

[Ruki]

This will make leveling weapons much easier

Edit: Chocobo!!!

Edit 2:

Cactuar!!! Kinda hard to beat....but 5000!

Edit 3:

Fuck mission #16

Edit 4:

I liek items that make weapons go from level 19 to level 30

[probablyoliver]

Have we got any stats on that big motherfucker wandering around? The one made of mountain and lava who's bigger than the entire screen? Is he our superboss? If so I can't decide whether that's hilariously awesome or just fucking retarded.

[tenaciousg]

Have we got any stats on that big motherfucker wandering around? The one made of mountain and lava who's bigger than the entire screen? Is he our superboss? If so I can't decide whether that's hilariously awesome or just fucking retarded.

Actually, the game's superbosses are an Adamantoise named Long Gui (that has 16.2 million HP, with forelegs that have a million-plus HP themselves) and a flying thing called Vercingetorix, which has less HP than Gui, but is far more dangerous.

[probablyoliver]

So I don't get to fight that thing? Awh shucks, that's kinda faggy.

So if I don't get to fight him, what on earth is he (pardon the pun. >_>)?

[Kaney]

He gives more missions that gets you a trophy.

[ZJ Penn]

Pretty underwhelmed by Gran Pulse so far actually, it just reminds me of FFXII. The cut scene with lava man was cool though.

[Ruki]

So yeah, last night I was forced to change my team for the first time in forever.

Mission 16

Fuck all those little fish bastards that summon more fish bastards! I tried like 3 times with Lightning/Sazh/Vanille, but it just wouldn't work. So I changed to Sazh/Snow/Vanille....I spammed the shit out of the highest Aero spell I could use, had Snow always guarding, and Vanille always healing. It took me ten minutes, got me 0 stars, but fuck...I BEAT IT. But I need to do more treasure hunting...I need more money so I can buy great items that boost weapons....I like Vanille's level 30 Malboro staff, great for status effects.

[TKz]

Fuck the Ambelling Bellows inside Taejins Tower. Took me like 6 tries to kill the motherfucker. And fuck this guide I have, it's so useless half the time. It never suggests to grind, but then it'll come to a certain point and be like 'IF YOU HAVEN'T BEEN DOING EXTRA LEVELLING...'

...Well, no, I haven't, because when I was reading my fucking guide, it didn't so much as suggest 'Hm, might be an idea to do some grinding in this area'.

[ZJ Penn]

That place on Gran Pulse with all the little Rangda things, someone already mentioned it, is a great placed to grind. You get 11 minutes to beat them, but you shouldn't need more than one. And you can get up to 3700CP for it per fight. Plus there's a Behemoth to beat nearby for 4000CP.

[Herr Matzat]

Is there a point of no return on grand pulls? I want to finish all the missions but i had to go towards the tower because there were still a lot of Cristals locked... right now i finished the first 26.

[Kaney]

No. You can keep doing missions after the game.

Mini spoiler about mission 34:

You have to kill a dangerous cieth with big fucking tentacles for arms and so on, and it appear out of the ground but before you can fight it...Tonberry appears! Kills it with it's chef knife and now I have to fight him instead

It's little things like Tonberrys, Cactaurs etc that make this so awesome.