Since we've kinda spread this out over a few threads that aren't even about this game, I thought I'd start a thread for it.

I'm very love/hate on the battle system at the moment. It works okay most of the time, but I've also been pointlessly one shotted on a couple occasions. Not like there's a big penalty for dying, (you get the option to Retry at the Game Over screen, and selecting it sets you back to before the fight started so you can change your stuff or go grind if needs be) but it is annoying.

I got to use my first Eidolon just before I stopped tonight. Interesting way to go about it, I must say. You summon it into battle where it replaces the rest of your party (excluding the summoner) and begins fighting on it's own. It's life bar steadily decreases, and also drops when it takes damage. When it runs out the summon leaves and the party returns. As you and it build chain combos against enemies the Gestalt bar underneath the summoner's life bar increases. When your summon's life bar is nearly gone, press square and you'll enter Gestalt mode in which your respective summon becomes a mount for the summoner. It gets to perform a certain number of actions based on how full the Gestalt bar was when you activated it. I had several options to choose from, each of which cost a certain number of points to use. Example, I nearly filled the bar before activation and it gave me 17 points. Each of the actions I could perform cost between 1 and 4 points to use, except the last one on the list which simply consumes all remaining points, and is the most like a classic summon. Currently unknown as to whether or not the points used effect the damage done.

I've looked around and it seems like much of the game is designed to be played only after you've beaten the main storyline. I'm unsure as to how I feel about this. On the one hand, I love running around and doing side missions and getting a bit of an edge for coming fights during the game. But on the other, I do have a bad habit of doing that during the endgame which can make me lose touch a bit with the story, and this will fix that.
Oh, well. I'll decide when it's said and done.

An important thing to note about this game: it is not an RPG in the sense of Fallout or Dragon Age. You do not make your characters. You do not decide what he/she does. You have very, very little control over what happens to characters beyond combat and equipment. The game is about story above all else. Its effectivley a tube. A very slick, fantastic tude of lube.

Initial thoughts (i.e., very begginning of the game) about characters:
Lightning: I am teh serious, an has teh sword.
Hope: I AM EMO.
Vanilla: I AM A BRITISH (?) VALLEYGIRL AND I KNOW IT.
Sahz: Token black dude and comic relief....
Snow: I AM NARUTO. BELIEVE IT!

Thoughts on characters as of this post:
Lightning: I am teh serious, gots teh sword, and family issues and a stick up my ass too.
Hope: I AM EMO. And somewhat justifiably so.
Vanilla: I am a British (?) valleygirl who can THROW FIREBALLS, and EVERYONE knows it.
Sahz: Probably my favorite character. He's got far more depth than the others, and he challenges the motivations and morality of the others, especially Lightning. He's far from what I expected, and thats a very good thing.
Snow: I AM ROMEO. BELIEVE IT!

I'm liking combat so far. It has its kinks, and a few of the initial aspects that I was iffy on, like only controlling one character, I'm now very much happy about.

Good game overall so far.

I just had to +1 that.

On a side note, your attempt to murder me by making me laugh really, really hard while eating a taco has failed. It was close though.

Awesome, guys. I'm glad you're both enjoying it, and I'm glad that it sounds like everything is fantastic. Little late to this party, but I'll probably be picking this up soon. Even more excited, now that I hear everything is flowing well, and that it all works together nicely.


I'm also glad to hear that Sazh becomes more than a generic comedy-relief. He's been my favorite character since concept arts, and it's great to hear that he's a fully fleshed out character, instead of a half-assed attempt to lighten things up.

+1 the OP.

Thanks for trying to keep things tidy Monkey.

THanks for the feedback Omega. I like how you're updating your views on the characters.

Sazh is my favourite character too. Definatly has more going on than initally concieved in the opening scenes.

Still dunno how to say his name though.

I watched a scene a bit ago in which one character was talking to another. Everything this character said would have been exactly the right thing to say in about any other circumstance, but what they obliviously said only compounded an existing problem they knew nothing about. (That's a little confusing, but I'm trying to dodge spoilers. If you're in to Chapter 7, then you'll know what I mean.)
And after every line my jaw dropped a little more. They were taking the story back in a direction that seemed to have nearly been averted with just a few wrong words that but for one important factor would have been the right things to say. This is one of the few real surprises the story has given me. I mean, I knew something involving these two would happen over that factor eventually, but it was looking pretty dark when I stopped.
Thing is, I didn't even know I cared this much about it. The new 'Story First' policy is working for me.

So far there's only one real complaint that I can place on this game and that's the level design. Oh, they all look gorgeous, of course, but that's not the problem. There just doesn't seem to be a lot of thought in any of them. As I said to a friend on Facebook, it looks like the work of an uninspired DM. I mean, even I've come up with some better layouts in some of the games I've run.
And a distinct absence of puzzles has me annoyed too. The levels very much fit Omega's 'tube' description.

Question for anyone who is more observant than me during battle: The Aero spell. Sometimes it looks like it's not hitting, that it is instead unable to find the right arc to attack some enemies and ends up just circling them. It may be that it is hitting and that's just it's visual effect, but I have yet to be able to watch closely enough to find out if it did damage before it started circling. Picking my next actions/paradigm keeps stealing all my attention. Anyone else noticed this?

lol watch this
https://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=7BluDcAA4U0&feature=player_embedded#at=48

The aero spell is like mechanically like fire, blizzard, and lightning do; they do damage with a guaranteed hit, with the only differences being animation and damage type.

Does anyone else see heavy DnD similarities with this game?

That's what I was thinking, but I wasn't sure. I've had problems with that type of thing before on another game.

What kind of similarities? Other than my 'uninspired DM' comment, not really. What are you seeing?

Just got this game in the mail yesterday and fired her up today.
This game is really fun, and easy to understand right away, feels very similar to FF7.
I cant wait to get elements, so far I only had time to make it to the end of Hanging Edge, will progress more tomorrow and post more reviews. Watch this space!
This game is win so far.

P.S. I think its pronounced "Sa-ch" Me thinks.

They say it a few times eventually. It's closer to "Sazz". I prefer "Saaz" though, myself.
Also, I think Vanille and Fang's accent is pseudo-Austrailian.

Fang is definately more aussie. Vanilla is different.

Oh, and I hate the protoflorian. Beat him awhile ago, but he's still an ass.

Which one was that again?

What a difference a party makes. Just a bit ago I attempted to defeat a boss with a party whose main tactic was to damage quickly, then heal while casting some buffs. I fought him for about ten minutes before he killed me. I next came back with a loadout called Super Soldier (Not MW2, so don't hate ) with one commando and two Synergists buffing everyone, Relentless Assault, and another with two Medics. This combination of Paradigms held out for nearly half an hour with the bugger keeping himself at half health while simultaneously casting four buffs on himself, several debuffs on the party, and following it up with an attack that damages everyone heavily while also dispelling all your buffs, then throwing in a 4,000+ Cure. Apparently after so long the game decided that I wasn't going to make any more progress and the jerk cast Doom on me.
I was...agitated.
I then came back in with two of the same people, but having traded one for a Sentinel.
I staggered and dropped him in five minutes.
The moral? Change your party up often and try new combos.

Truer words can not be said about the boss fights. Seriously, figuring out how to beat those buggers are the games puzzles.

One problem I have with this game is the equipment system; upgrading items is an awesome idea, but not knowing what to put your resources into sucks, especially when you have to decide whether or not to put experience into a weapon you've been upgrading, one thats weaker that you just got, or scrap another item for resources.

So I found this to help remedy this problem.

Source: http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps3/file/928790/58751

Good job Omega!

Monkey- Good tips!!!!!!!!

Well, I've made it to the planet Australia.
How do I know it's Australia? Because everything here can and will kill me. And since there aren't any good ones up yet I'm seriously having to consider going to get a guide for this.
My current trouble spot is a group of enemies. Three are small robot things, while the fourth is a big robot thing. As one would expect, the big one is slower, but higher defense and more HP (97,000). Here's the kicker: It can not only call in reinforcements of the little ones, but can instantly instill all of them with five separate buffs with one action. Shell, Protect, Bravery, Faith, and Vigilance on up to six guys who are already a tough fight. Even my summons can't kill this stuff. Including the one that does lightning damage, their weakness. I can't ambush it or shroud around it. I could shroud sneak attack, but I only have so many.
It hurts the brain, it does.
What's bugging me is that this is where I have to be, when I have to be here. I've done all (as in both) available sidequests before now (again, both only available on reaching this place), as well as fight around a little bit. I know I'm not under leveled or anything. This should not be this hard. Erg!


...
....
Okay. I'm better now.
*shakes magic 8 ball*
"All signs point to you having to do all the grinding you haven't had to do until now."

That was oddly specific.

Sounds like FF really has your nutz in a vice grip atm.

Nah. As annoying as that was, I am passed it now. I did have to use a fort shroud though. And Shiva. Turns out the big one had a second weakness to ice. And since Shiva gives you two attackers and a really good healer, making it's Gestalt gauge rise quickly, I was able to take it down just fast enough leaving only it's flunkies (who can all do their own multibuffs too, thank you very much). Had to use the Dispelga technique and burn more points.
Every fight is a *fight* nowadays. But if you don't fight them all, then you won't be prepared for the next ones. Oh, and AP costs are up to about 6,000 per node, getting around 1,500 per fight, sometimes more. I'm not at the highest visible level yet (with more waiting to be unlocked), but the highest costing node I can see is 42,000 CP.

Oh, and a little advice for anyone who gets to chapter 11's opening cinimatics; try really, really hard not to wet yourself. You will not expect what's coming. It's a...big...surprise. (Not an innuendo, Spongey. )

You had me at big suprise, Monkey.

Anyone seen anything on the below?

Quote :

Web Novelization

The official Japanese website revealed a web novelization titled Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero: Promise. It contains a series of short stories written by Jun Eishima, leading up to the events depicted in the actual game. The first story is called "Encounter", and it focuses on how Serah Farron became the first Gran Pulse l'Cie in Cocoon for a long time. The second story is called "Friends", and it focuses on Hope Estheim's life with his family and friends before his mother's death. The third story, "Family", focuses on Sazh Katzroy and his son, Dajh, detailing how Sazh came to own the Chocobo chick and how Dajh fell into the clutches of Sanctum. There are additional chapters focusing on Fang and Vanille, released in the form of a published Light Novel.

I recall seeing that elsewhere and I think it was online (perhaps even the same place you did). Other than that I've not seen anything.

And now I won't be able to touch this game for another couple of months. Try not to spoil stuff guys.

Shame. No hassle omega we won't we'll just do the whole "do you remember when...?" "yeah and then...!" "Yeah but when..." "Oh yeah that was way cooler like when..." and look over at you over our shoulders.