Final Fantasy

[Benji]

FFXIII/XIII-2 spoiler about Chocobo Chick...

... Chocobo Chick is Chocolina?! What the fuck? How did I miss that in my play through of XIII-2?! That is hilarious >_>

[TKz]

When the reviews said that FFXIII opens up around the 40 hour mark, they forgot to mention you'd need to pretty much max out your crystarium as soon as you get to Archetype Steppe to do it! I'm going to compare my stats on my old save to my current one (where I'm just before where I was) and see how much a difference those two days odd grinding did. I'm breezing through the game now, compared to the hell I was enduring being way too low a level my first time around.

[Benji]

One thing that I forgot in this playthrough, TK, that will MASSIVELY help you - do not enter the final battle until you are maxed out in main roles in the crystarium AND the secondary roles of each character. The trick is that there's two battles literally in the area preceeding the final corridor, one against two of the forest dog-like creatures, and one against Wsladius, both of which can net you around 32,000 CP for one or two minute battles with the right tactics (you can run over to a save point to respawn them), and you CAN'T return there once you enter the final battle corridor, even if you complete the game and go to a post-game save. It is the best CP farming area in the game, so if you can do the death trick on Neochu in mark mission 55 and obtain the growth egg before facing those enemies, you can net around 64,000CP per battle and save some up to level post-game.

Beat Adamantortoise the other day, but haven't retried Gigantuar or even started on the final mark yet. Need to do some grinding and finish up everyone's levelling before even thinking about that final mark, apparently.

[TKz]

What're you doing for leveling your weapons, Benji? I've done up to Level 25 of the first iteration, using Edged Carbine, Hawkeye and Bael Lance or whatever it is for Fang.

[Benji]

I left them all until the post-game, they don't make enough of a difference until you get decent items to level them up. I'm trying to get money by fighting Sacrifices in Eden, don't drop nearly enough good money stuff for me to get the ultimate weapons fast enough for my liking though.

[TKz]

So last time I played FFXIII, the first time, I got as far as Taejins Towers before getting frustrated and realizing that I was horribly underleveled. I had about 600-700 stats for my characters, I was still level 3 on most of their Crystariums, I hadn't done any of the C'ieth Missions... and my time, having reached the boss at the top of the tower that I couldn't beat, was 42 hours.

This time around, My stats are about 1000-1200 each, I spent at least 7-8 hours grinding CP in the Archetype Steppe, I've done something like 20 missions, I've completed my parties crystariums and still have excess CP (200,000ish I think) for when the next tier is unlocked... and I've just now reached the tower, that I think will probably only take about an hour or two to get through. My time? 41 hours.

What the fuck was I doing last time?

[TKz]

Also

Awesome.

[Benji]

So last time I played FFXIII, the first time, I got as far as Taejins Towers before getting frustrated and realizing that I was horribly underleveled. I had about 600-700 stats for my characters, I was still level 3 on most of their Crystariums, I hadn't done any of the C'ieth Missions... and my time, having reached the boss at the top of the tower that I couldn't beat, was 42 hours.

This time around, My stats are about 1000-1200 each, I spent at least 7-8 hours grinding CP in the Archetype Steppe, I've done something like 20 missions, I've completed my parties crystariums and still have excess CP (200,000ish I think) for when the next tier is unlocked... and I've just now reached the tower, that I think will probably only take about an hour or two to get through. My time? 41 hours.

What the fuck was I doing last time?

Struggling for 4-5 minutes in regular battles that should take less than a minute if you're well levelled. I was the same.

Grinding out money in this game is awful. I spent four hours grinding perfumes from Sacrifices last night, and still only managed to get enough to get half the money I needed for one of the ultimate weapons. Fucking ridiculous.

[TKz]

You checked this to see if there's any better ways of doing it, Benji? http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/928790-final-fantasy-xiii/faqs/59442

[Benji]

Where I am is the best farming place

I think that is my biggest gripe with the game, is the grinding. It doesn't seem like you even can if you play through it first time, but you can, and it makes the game much more fun when you move away from grinding and back to the story, but grinding, particularly in the end game, is a massively time consuming process, with very little genuine reward. I mean, I'm literally just running one corridor where you get the best gil in the game, and I'm still nowhere near what I need for all the ultimate weapons to get the item trophy, and all I have left to do besides that is basically two marks. There's no sense of pace to the damned game.

[TKz]

Oh shit, you're going for that trophy? Man, I was reading about that the other day and was just like NOPE. Fuck that. I'd rather get as much as I can with this game then move onto FFXIII-2, which is a ton more fun. (though I've enjoyed FFXIII a lot more this time around. It's a much better game when you know what you're in for.)

Can you do New Game Plus on FFXIII-2? I can't recall. I want to say you can but I might be thinking of something else. If so, that'd be pretty sweet. I'd probably consider getting some of the Arena DLC too.

[Benji]

That's why I'm thinking of moving on to XIII-2, and maybe just leaving the grinding for periods where I want to watch TV but still be productive on my games.

XIII-2 is only possible to complete with New Game+, because a lot of the gates don't open until post-game, so yes, there's a New Game+. I'm torn on the DLC. I want to play it, but I don't want to pay more for a game that essentially wasn't finished in the first place, because it sets a precedent that I'm okay with shit like that, and might encourage them to do it in future games.

[TKz]

Eh. I'm not so bothered about the XIII-2 DLC. Honestly, the DLC they did for that game was pretty sweet and the sort of thing I like games to do. All the arena stuff is the sort of thing that DLC SHOULD be used for. Unlike for example, Mass Effect 3, where they pretty clearly cut out an entire character and part of the story.

[Benji]

Something must have been going on within Squenix for them to be so quiet for so long, because suddenly - even more news (kind of)...

Nomura: The situation on Final Fantasy Versus XIII within the company is delicate, date for next reveal set

You’ll have to wait a little bit longer for information on Final Fantasy Versus XIII, according to Tetsuya Nomura. Joining in on the inaugural episode of Square Enix Merchandise Radio, the game director and character designer was on-hand as a special guest. Naturally, the other staff present couldn’t help but ask about when the next details will be revealed for his elusive project. “It’s a delicate situation within the company,” explains Nomura. “The date for our next reveal is set and we are working toward preparing information for that. Perhaps the details as to why information couldn’t be released might be touched upon with the next information announcement.” While Nomura apologizes for the delay, he would like fans to wait just a little while longer.

After the Roen website leak, there is a lot of speculation that the title has been renamed to Final Fantasy XV and furthermore, moved to Sony’s next generation platform. With E3 less than 2 months away and rumors abound, we can only begin to guess what will be on display – Stay tuned.

- Source

[TKz]

The final dungeon of FFXIII is the worst fucking dungeon I've ever had to fight through. The whole thing is complete bullshit, it's literally filled to the brim with the most annoying enemies possible. And not in the fun, challenging way. In the oh god, I just want to finish the fucking game, why have you littered the final areas with enemies that're no threat but take about 5 minutes each to kill. Every time I start to come around to this game slightly, it pulls some bullshit like this. I hope whoever the director behind this game was is never given control of a Final Fantasy again. Jesus.

[TKz]

Aaaaaaand beat. It's actually funny how much easier and more enjoyable the bosses were in the final dungeon than any of the random encounters. But fucking hell, for a game where a majority of the fun is in the post-game content, they did a really good job of killing my interest in ever picking the game up again after the final dungeon.

[Benji]

... you forgot or ignored my tip >_>

[TKz]

About maxing out roles? I've had them maxed for a while. I considered grinding the CP, but honestly it was getting harder and harder to go back to loading the game up and I was starting to worry if I didn't beat it now, I wouldn't beat it at all. And between being determined to beat every single player Final Fantasy and how much I don't want to play this game over again, I ended up just getting it done with.

[Benji]

Ah, fair play, I thought you were going to try doing some of the post-game stuff.

[Benji]