Final Fantasy 13 on 360 isn't "anywhere near as impressive as PS3 version"
 

So, I watched the video put out by DF to compare the graphics between the XBOX 360 and the PS3 and maybe I have old eyes but really? I can't see a damn bit of difference between the two. Is there a huge difference here I'm missing? It's freaking me out, because I'd swear this was just two copies of the same video.

Video link:
http://www.eurogamer.net/tv_video.php?playlist_id=50068

Did you watch it in 720p? There's a definite difference. Glad that when I eventually upgrade I'm planning on a PS3 over XBox 360 :)

---------- Post added at 11:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:52 AM ----------

It's particularly noticeable if you pause the video on people.

The PS3 version looks a bit sharper. The major difference is that the PS3 version has uncompressed audio and uncompressed HD video. 360 uses both compressed audio and Bink for compressing video.

Everything else is not that noticeable. Another thing is that the PS3 version runs in 720p and 360 runs in 572p (I think?).

In other news, Final Fantasy 13 isn't anywhere near as impressive as the other mainstream Final Fantasy games.

82 on metacritic? Seriously? On a game that has had years and years of development by what is unarguably one of the most talented and wealthy names in gaming?

Suck a dick for making me wait 3 years for a slightly above average game Square. I'll be passing.

*runs to tv, plays FF7*

if anyone needs me, i'll be in the 90's.

So basically Square sold out to Sony. Its not that FFXIII isn't as impressive on X360 as it is on PS3, its that its not as impressive in 572p as it is in 720p. Thanks SE, but you're full of fail. PS3 owners don't buy games. X360 owners do. Not really clever business on your part.

The title is exaggerating a little.

The game looks great on the 360 and isn't plagued with screen tearing like my friends PS3 version. HAHA!

No, I'll agree that the PS3 version does look better but it doesn't look any better than the video comparison and if you don't notice the difference in that video you aren't going to in game either. The hair is the biggest technical issue for me and honestly and it doesn't bother me at all. Other than that, I'm 8 hours in(just got up for a break) and the game is starting to get good. I was getting worried because the game goes for a long time before you actually start "leveling" Even now I'm still having to do (or skip) tutorials for new stuff I'm unlocking.

Anyways, The PS3 version superior in more ways than the minor graphic upgrade. It has the original language voice option, It also comes on a single disk, compared to 3 on the 360 and it has a key to up your chances of getting into the FF14 beta. The ONLY reason I bought it for the 360 is because the first store I was at was sold out of the PS3 version and instead of going to the next store my cousin that was with me asked me to just get 360 version so he could borrow it.

Screen tearing is FTL. I'd buy the 360 version just to avoid that if what you say is true.

I watched the video and yeah there's a very, very small difference, but I guarantee you won't be able to tell when playing the game. They both look great.

It's an isolated issue. As far as I know, there aren't any/many other accounts of it happening. I'd still get the game on the PS3 unless there's really something tying you to the 360.


Anyways I've wasted the entire day playing the game.

First 10 hours impressions:
- This game is LINEAR AS HELL!
- It practically plays itself for the first 5 hours.
- First 8 hours has WAY too many save points. They just aren't needed when you have a "retry" button.
- Early class leveling is too gated.
- Still don't know if I like the damage multipliers.
- What happened to Mana?

My question is, what happened to the RPG?

I never thought I'd see this happen to FF, but Square has finally sold out to the ADD crowd. No towns, no exploring, freakin retry option(?!?!) equals all kinds of fail. Some of the best parts of the FF series was searching all over the map for special unlocks like new summons and weapon, and even new recruits.

While I liked Mass Effect as a game, there are similar design choices in ME2 as there are in FFXIII that completely neuter them as RPGs, and I fear this is the wave of the furture for my beloved genre.

... you guys aren't giving me hope for when I get around to playing this :(

I gave up on the FF series a long time ago. You guys are just proving me right.

*Goes to play FF on his iphone*

I gave up on FF long long ago... FFVII to be exact.

Now wait a minute, FFX is a great game. You've got some catching up to do Cyn! (I don't believe XI should have received a number, and I haven't gotten around to XII yet.)

sorry.. that came out wrong. That was the best and most fun, after that.... it was bore-fest for me.

If you're wanting it to be like FFX, you're going to hate the game. It's nothing like FFX or earlier games.

No, I was just responding to cyn that there are good FF games after FFVII :) That said, while I don't expect it to be "like" any previous FF games, no towns, no exploring, and retry options are definitely not what I think of when I hear Final Fantasy :(

Seeing as how it would probably need to be on 5 discs if it was 720p, I dont see how SquareEnix sold out. Not to mention they had to cut lots of the game out so that they could make it work on the XBox. This is the first FF on the XBox and they dumbed it way down for that. I see it as SquareEnix selling out to Microsoft.

And as for people not liking the game because it's too linear, they are reviewing the first part of the game. It gets amazing some time into the game (according to many people). And most Final Fantasy's have been extremely linear (save for FFVI). This reminds me a lot of FFIV, extremely character driven and a great story. FFIV was extremely linear too but nobody complained. The battle system itself is worth the price of purchase, not to mention the great story.

---------- Post added at 11:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:52 AM ----------

FFX was the worst in the series in my opinion (well maybe besides II) so this statement is great!

I don't mind linearity in games at all. This is acceptable as long as the story and the character depth make up for it...which I've heard isn't the case. Every FF game is linear if you think about it; some are moreso than others but in the end none of them are Elder Scrolls.

All I want from an RPG is a good combat system, an emotional story and deep, meaningful characters, and THAT is something that's most definitely missing from today's RPGs (and games in general). It's stupid when games like Uncharted 2 and Gears of War 2 have more character depth than Final Fantasy XII.

:( I <3 FFX xD.

I have cried like three times that I can remember in the past decade. 2 of them were from the ending of FFX. I got ATTACHED to those characters and that story man. (Granted I was like...13 at the time, but w.e).

I'm about 20 hours into this game. I think all of the 1st impression reviews are doing the game a disservice by not actually finishing the game before crying about things.

I'll go ahead and write my impressions so far but this is not a final review from me in any way, so it's subject to change.

Combat system for the 1st 8 hours made me want to hit myself in the face with a controller until I passed out.

Seriously every fight is just jamming one button for auto combat at this point. as noted earlier, plays itself.

once all the systems are in play, it can get really hectic and the tide can turn literally in the frame of one nasty attack you weren't ready for.

the new mechanics are "staggering" and "paradigm shift"

staggering is basically the theory that the more you focus fire on a target, the more vulnerable it becomes to your attacks. you start out dealing 100% damage, whack it a few times, you're up to a 103% or something.

now a translation for the old school ff fans.

Commando = Warrior (Str based melee fighter, nothing special by itself until you "stagger" your enemy, then it's whoopass time)

Ravager = Black Mage (offensive magic, lower damage than melee it seems but pushed up the multiplier a lot faster)

Medic = White mage (heal, resurrect, dispel, cleans debuffs)

Synergist = red/white mage buffs (haste, shell, etc..)

Sabotuer = debuffs (deshell, etc)

Sentinel = Knight (counter attack, no offensive moves, can take a beating, provoke)

Think that covers it. Might be forgetting one.

Staggering basically works on a creature by creature basis. Each creature type has it's own threshhold. Say it's threshhold is 130%

you spend a large part of the game duo'ing before you get to the 3 party member system so you'll probably sit there with commando/ravager just pounding at a guy till he's at 130%

some flashy shit happens and all of a sudden he's at 230% basically you're doing double damage while he's sitting there going "ow, my kidneys" and you can ramp it up pretty ridiculously high. I got a boss up to 900%
You have a limited window of time to take advantage of it so if your party is pretty effed up from whatever you're fighting, you might wanna hold off and heal up a bit cuz sometimes they come back from being staggered with a nasty pissed off bowel movement all over your party.

that said, I read 2 or 3 reviews trying to get a general idea of what to expect. Story wise, I was told to expect to feel like the game was dragging on for the 1st 15 hours.

Never really felt like that to me. It felt repetitive at points but that seems par for the course and I actually prefer that to being left there after I beat the game going "well what the FUCK was that part all about?"

That said, while they beat you over the head with some really obvious shit in this game, there ARE a few moments where you're going "what the fuck just happened?"

Not Spoiler: durring a boss which I will not name, some owl flies in to his staff both the bad guy and the owl disappear in a flash of light and, a boss encounter ensues (I'm assuming some sort of magical david motherfucking bowie labyrinth action just happened here, you beat him up, owl then turns in to a fucking space ship, you hop in, hit 88 mph, you fly THROUGH sheilds and THROUGH walls in to some (spoiler) thing and I'm sitting there going...

ok so let me get this straight I just rode in david bowie's ass as a space delorean?

or something like that, I dunno. that's pretty much where I left off.

that said, the fights are challenging later on. You'll go from (literally) 5 second fights at the start of the game to 5 minute fights with some trash, to 13 minute fights with a boss.

How do I know? because this game also grades you after every god damned fight with a 1-5 star rating, which matters why? because it gets converted in to "TP" which is what you use to cast your edolion summons, or libra (handy dandy monster analysis spell of doom) You can stock up to 5 points, summon cost 3, libra cost 1. There are some misc spells you can get that cost TP too but the one I have (quake) sucks my balls, I don't cast it. not when all my other spells are FREE, (yeah no MP in this game, just action ponts)

It's very obvious in the story that everything isn't as it seems, that there will be plot twists, the story is convoluted enough that you wont necessarily guess those twists on your own though. I guess only people capable of licking their own elbows might guess what happens later on in the game. I certainly didn't. I knew SOMETHING was coming, I just didn't really think of THAT particular twist.

Though, the twist (again, only 20 hours in) wasn't like OMGJAWDROPPINGSHITMYSELF amazing but it was interesting enough to keep me playing.

Linear? fuck. yes. While the upside is that I never quite feel lost, they do seem to take advantage of my free time by jamming lots of really fucking difficult encounters in my way sometimes. I can go around them, but me being the guy who likes levels and unlocking abilities and collecting drops, cannot let anything live, death to all! aieee! Yeah, That WAS my perspective until about 15 hours in and I got in to some huge dungeons. At that point I was just like "LET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE, THIS PLACE IS SHITTY, THE MONSTERS ARE SHITTY, THE DROPS ARE SHITTY, THE MUSIC IN THIS ZONE MIGHT BE SHITTY BUT I CANT TELL, OMG THERE IS A WHOLE ZONE WHICH YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO A STUPID WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP RED ALERT SIREN FOR OVER AN HOUR BEFORE MAKING IT TO A BOSS?" yes... in retrospect I should have put on some of my own music and waited for another cutscene before going back to the game sound.

minor nag: options menu doesn't include a way to adjust music/sound/speech volume. I play with subs on but there are a few spots where the voice actors are drowned out by the music or sound effects and I would not have been able to know wtf just got said if not for the subs. So, play with the subs on, you've been warned.

Hidden things? not really, the minimap pretty much spells out every little nook and cranny you can walk in to. You won't really know whats in there till you visually verify it though. It's fairly obvious when it's just a L shaped offshoot from the main passage that you should go look for a chest.

Which I hereby refer to as "Chesticles" because they look like a floating metal testicle of doom.

Now, On to the ps3/xbox differences.

IF YOU HAVE, a 1080 capable TV, and it is 40+ inches. don't be a buffoon and get the xbox version. I'm a total videoweenie and I can tell the difference between a 720 or 1080 picture on my screen, ESPECIALLY with games. Diagonal lines, it's the difference between looking like an 8 bit staircase and the edge of a deady sword.

If you have a smaller tv, 30 or less, knock yourself out, you're not going to cry about it.

That said. PS3 is a clear winner, uncompressed blu-ray video > 5xx blink blibbity blah. Period. As for online video comparisons, the concept is fine, but it doesn't work for me. 1st you need a similar monitor to that of the TV you'll be playing on, and instead of watching a compressed streaming comparison video, i'd rather download a 500mb-1gb clip running in native res showing me the comparison.
The other thing is it's kind of "not same" watching the difference between 720 vertical lines and 5xx vertical lines when my resolution is set to 1200 vertical lines O.o

These people are professionals, they are telling you the xbox 360 version is inferior from a technical FACTUAL standpoint, unlike some goddamned opinionated fanboy circle jerk websites out there.

plus, 1 disc is better than 3. Less wear and tear, higher resell value.

oh and to the dude going off about how ps3 owners dont buy games.

laughable. 360 games are pirated, ps3 games are not.

I know I sound like a goddamned ps3 fanboy right now but I've stated NOTHING of opinion in the difference, simply technical fact.

so basically 360 = 2/3rds the resolution along with compression artifacts.

Oh and the screen tearing thing? I haven't noticed at all. I know some games did that, but that's just because the people who ported it are lazy fuckheads who don't know how to dev properly for the ps3.

Read: Sega's port of bayonetta, half the FPS of the 360 version. = bullshit = boycotted.


Edit: just googled it, apparently it's limited to people trying to play the game in.... standard definition...
/gag
Sorry, call me an elitist asshole, but if you know anything about what you're spending your money on, you're not going to play your HD capable game system on an HD capable TV in standard def because you're too dumb to buy an HDMI cable, or worse yet, bought an HD capable Game system for your standard def TV. Seems to me if you're that careless about your hardware compatibility/synergy, you've got little room to complain about visual artifacts like screen tearing.

side note: I've owned 2 ps3's, sold the 1st one because I didn't own an HD tv, yet, and felt like I was doing myself an injustice. I WAS. I got the ps3 after I bought the TV and was so, so, so much happier with the value of it.


IN ANY CASE, elitist fuckhead attitude that I possess put aside: it's something they can probably patch. I wouldn't worry about it.


anyways back to the game.

The characters? All the girls are hot, all the guys are androgynous metrosexuals, cept Sahz, token black character, typical JRPG fare.

Vanille a freaking 13 year old cocktease. ok well I don't know her actual game age, she just looks like she's 13, has a tattoo on the side of her ass/upper thigh, and makes fun of Sahz for being tired after they camped saying shit like "can't close your eyes with a cute girl like me around huh?"

Fang's voice actor threw me for a loop, she opened her mouth and BAM, got smacked in the face with accent. It grows on you I guess. Just wasn't what I expected.
Other thing is, THEY NEVER really introduced her. Like even with subs on, she was "mysterious woman" for a whole section of the game, then next time "bam" her name is Fang. I was waiting for her to say "Hey, my name is Fang" But that never really happened.

Lightining = Cloud from FFVII with boobs. well, kinda. ex-soldier, emo, bitchy.

Snow = self proclaimed "hero", no really, he said so, like 27 times since I started the game. He's a hero, he told me so. Yeah I want to punch him in the dick and throw him in front of a train, but he also is the subject of much hate from the emo kids in the game, unfairly really, I was just like "goddamnit, I can't hate him because they hate him, and they, of all people, shouldn't hate him"

Sahz, awesome dude, has a baby chocobo living in his hair. Shoots shit, it's everything barrett from ffvii should have been. Token black dude MINUS the "pity da foo" ebonics.

Hope, Emo Kid, I really have nothing to add to that, they never really add any dimension to him other than he's a grief stricken emo kid, who eventually gets over it, but he's probably the least interesting character to me. Cool ravager class animations though.

A lot of the game revolves around "Serah" but she's not playable. She's kind of the catalyst of the opening to the game and the chain of events that brings the cast together.

Anyways, I don't really know what's going on right now because of my owl/delorean encounter. If any of you are at/get to this point, feel free to explain it to me.

What he said.

Being Linear isn't that bad. The game is designed around it. Hidden chests are earned because you know its there, it's just do you want to fight that battle to get it. With the difficulty and length of battles, having a really open world with random battles would be a bad thing. It also relieves some of the concern that your going to miss some huge upgrade that you're not going to be able to go back and get later on.

Almost every battle can be lost in the game. There's a specific enemy in Chapter 9 that if there's 2 of them in the pack, you MUST stagger and kill one before he can cast his big damage spell because if they both use it at close to the same time, you'll be dead. I'm trying to be as vague as possible to avoid spoilers. :) Those aren't the only mobs, or even the first ones you'll run across capable of killing off a team with a medic. You really need to know what enemies you can keep on the battlefield and which enemies need to be dispatched quickly.

Btw shauk, I'm JUST past that part you described. :)

Don't you just love the Rescue sound effect that those cop slime dudes make? I skipped many of those guys too.

---------- Post added at 01:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:06 PM ----------

You're having problems hearing the characters over the music? I'm not playing with subtitles and while I don't know WTF the characters are talking about half the time, It's not a volume issue.. :)

Flanitors, lol.

Yeah at least they die easy.
The patriarch was hard to hear for me in the part where he was explaining spoilerish stuff about humans. A stark contrast to the megatron voice that you get to hear right after that.

Woohoo Chapter 11!

Man, If you want to own the Eidolon fights, turn battle speed on slow. It was amazing how much easier it made them.

God damn, this game PUNISHES ME for wishing for a non-linear experience by saying, "Fine, fuck you, enjoy pulse!" I turn around going "YAAAAAY" and instantly have a giant turtle step on my head for 11hojillion damage.

FML

I just tried to fight something with 1.5mil hp, called a juggernaught. went pretty well till he used this move called "wrecking ball" then he kinda reminded me of a big fat turtle which crushed my head once.

There is a trophy for beating him so I guess I'll have to work on that later when my guys hit puberty. Feel like I've been playing for fawking ever and my highest job is still only lvl 3. >.>

Role level 4 needs TONS of cp. Probably 5x more than it takes to go from level 1-3. I started working on the lvl 4 stuff and the price per upgrade quadrupled and there's nearly double the number of upgrades. I'm sure you've seen it.

yeah it's like 6k per advancement now. :\ I've been farming the hoplites out by the juggernaught for easy CP.

---------- Post added at 07:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:16 AM ----------

revisiting:
today's response? lol@you :)



GFK Chart-Track: UK News: Lucky XIII for Square-Enix

Hardly. You bring up a previous exclusive-content game that is decidedly poorer on X360 as evidence? All the X360 gamers I know are boycotting FFXIII - with those who own both consoles obviously buying it on the PS3. Why would I buy a 572p game when I own a 42" HDTV?

Go look at comparative titles generally, and even exclusive content (apart from the Japanese only content), and you can't deny the facts. Even with piracy, titles on the X360 generally outsell their PS3 counterparts:

Example:
COD MW2: X360: 9.8 Million; PS3: 7.2 Million

If you compare the exclusive titles like Halo & Gears vs MGS and Killzone 2, for example, you see similar trends.

I hate to bring it down to the level of unpublished stats, but my personal game supplier is a purchaser for one of the biggest computer retailers in my country, and he informed me that:
1) Most PS3 clients they have are parents who are Sony-loyal and buy for their kids
2) Most X360 clients are gamers who bought the console for XBL
3) They stock lower numbers of PS3 games (except for exclusive content titles like MGS, Drakes, etc and also for Guitar Hero) because PS3 gamers tend to buy games once the prices have dropped, i.e. the PS3 market has more casual gamers who don't buy games for themselves.

Walk into any second-hand shop in my country (and I noticed recently in Barcelona and Paris), and you find more X360 games, simply because there are more in circulation.

You, sir, are a hardcore gamer, and by own admission an elitist asshole. You are not the norm. You would be surprised 50% of console gamers still play on SD tv's - a lot of these gamers are kids, remember. Whilst daddy may have buckled and splashed to get an electronic nanny, he won't necessarily splash more to get his 12y/o a HDTV.

Anyway, I wasn't concerned with competing. Nintendo wins hands-down. I was just pointing out that there is no real reason not to have produced the game to a similar standard on the X360. Its lazy programming or Sony wanted to keep the "premium" ground with the Final Fantasy franchise, to ensure they do lose FF sales to X360 to avoid the situation of how they lost it with Soul Calibur. The amount of discs is not even a valid excuse. I played PC games needing 6 discs before - no problem.

So I got the game for the 360, and it's beautiful. On an HDTV. I was right. I can't seem a damned bit of difference, at 2 feet or at 8 feet. Graphics elitists can suck my toe. It's just as pretty as GOW2 was at 1080p.

And the comic is funny, but a bit disingenuous.. Previous FF games were like that, in the sense that you could tape down a button and win most battles. In FF7, I actually taped one of the analog sticks down so cloud would run in circles getting into battles, and all my characters had Materia that would force Berserk and kill it. Rinse and repeat.

In FF13, I think you'd really have a hard time with that. If you don't change paradigms often you're either getting wimp-ass dps or going to die from lack of heals. It's the best combat system in any FF game so far, I think. Certainly the most active. I love that beating things quickly is encouraged, too. It makes you mix up strategies (rav/rav/com, rav/rav/rav, sab/rav/som, etc.) depending on mob type, damage type, how easily debuffed they are, whether buffs will help much. I just beat a boss in half the recommended time (still only 5 stars) because of my total rockin' use of paradigms. :)

you can get higher than 5 stars? I just started chapter 3 (no time to play) and as I said before, this game is great.

hah I wish, I just meant that even if you're like 5 minutes faster than the expected time of 10 minutes you still only get 5 stars. But your CP/TP reward is the number of seconds you were under times the points per second, so you still get a hell of a lot more experience than if you 3-starred it.

And Shauk, I re-read your wall of text. My objection is not to technical measurements of comparative quality. But subjective qualifications, like "isn't anywhere near as impressive" (title, subject tof review) I can object to. No matter the supposed technical difference between the two, I still can't see a difference myself during play. If I stared at screenshots long enough I might be able to, but even the CGI renders are moving quickly enough that you'd have to be a pedant to see the difference. We're not talking VHS vs blu-ray here.

@Vaultboy, well you're obviously upset about the 360 version being inferior.
I just don't understand why. FF even hitting the 360 was a mindblowing revelation to begin with when they announced it, since Squeenix has been a Sony exclusive since FFVII. I mean if I were in the xbox camp, I'd just be happy that I could play it, end of story.

@Jinn, I believe the analysis of the 360 version, whilst full of fact, was indeed full of subjective descriptors. in one breath they say it "isn't anywhere near as impressive" and in another they say it's "adequate"

it's a little of both.

there are 2 factors to consider. There are 2 "Modes"
the game engine "interactive" mode
the noninteractive "movie" mode

The thing that gets me is that the game plays at 1080p on my tv, it autosenses the input resolution and adjusts accordingly and tells me up in the corner what resolution it just switched to.

It sits at 1080 the entire time, so what I'm thinking is that....

the interactive mode runs at 720 upscaled to 1080
the movies run at 1080 via the blu-ray capabilities.

I just wonder exactly what scenario the 360 is running. the 5xx running at 720 (which comparatively seems about the same-ish ratio of upscaling) or if it's 5xx at 1080 (which I think would look pretty bad and very noticeable)



Honestly... from the shots I've seen and the videos I've seen, I'd just agree with Jinn on it not really mattering a damned bit to the average person, even the average person with an HD tv. I would say for someone who has both consoles, it's be "more for your money" to get the ps3 version.

From a business standpoint. They had to adapt a new game engine to work on the 360 since the one they used is made for ps3, so they instantly had some "on disc" overhead heading to the DVD's

From a comparative standpoint, picking 3 dvd's to deliver it on was simply meant to be the most cost beneficial point. *shrug*

People can berate square/enix all they want over this, I wouldn't expect them to just cut the 36 gigs of stuff together and toss it on 7 double layer dvd discs when they can cut production costs by over half by dropping the quality by 1/3rd

Boo hoo for 360 owners? I guess if you're LOOKING for something to boo hoo about, but honestly, I've played games that look like legos trying to hump in the desert and enjoyed them.


anyways, yes, it's a lesser version, no, it didn't kill your family pet. Just get one, play it. tell the fanboys on both sides to shut it.

Arguing multiplatform titles is NOT fun, arguing exclusives is. :)

CP(exp) is a constant based on the mob. I farmed for 3 hours today on the same 2 mob types so I'm very certain of that. TP and most likely loot drop chance is based on score/stars. I can't prove the loot thing, but TP from score is confirmed in the game.


I'm really liking the game more and more. Those first 20 hours were rough going but the game actually feel likes a FF game now. That power leveling I did today really took away some of stress that those trash battles were causing. Being able to go through a battle without switching off to med/med/Sent or having to blow a summon just to use it's full party rez. Using a High level saboteur helped with that too. Fog(spell lock out) and Pain(phys dmg lockout) are amazing abilities.

Rumor: Final Fantasy XIII PS3 Has Freezing Issues - final fantasy XIII - Kotaku

Video in the link.

SUCK ON THAT!

/ adds more fuel to the console battle

never happened to me. I've haven't had slow downs really at all and I haven't seen any screen tearing so far so meh.

sounds like an isolated problem to me.

The freezing in that video is a PS3 problem, it happens in other games too.

My 360 has problem loading some cutscenes, coincidentally it's always a flashback scene that causes it.

I've also noticed the FMV video compression has gotten much worse in disk three but for some reason, the hair flickering seems to be better than on disk one.

I'm a few hours from the end of the game, I'll post some final thoughts on it after I've beaten it and gone back for a few more of the side missions.

Spoiler: Fuck you Proudclad 2!

I've got to the free to do whatever you want to part... and I got my ass handed to me. So much so that I went back to start at the beginning to level up better and to wisely use certain items at certain key times. Once you get the paradigm system down, you own the game. I usually just go over an area 3 times to get as much CP as I can possibly get and I'm at Chapter 10 right now with 22000 to spare on everyone with them being level 3.

Although I do question why level 4 is so hard to attain... drove me nuts the first time... that and I got owned by a King Behemoth everytime I tried and no matter what strategy I tried but anyways, enough of my less than par gamering.

I do wish to say that I was addicted to FFX and thought it to be the be all, end all of Final Fantasy. The first 20 hours of the game are pain stakingly long, but once I got beyond that and got into paradigms/leveling/weapon upgrading, I found the game more interesting.

tbh I haven't finished this because I feel like i'm being forced to jump through hoops now that the game is open. having to forcibly level my characters since level 4 is so god damned expensive and I really really dislike the fact that a normal batle will take 5 minutes or more just to get a handful of CP to spend.

I know while some people look at it like "ohhh it's only 6000cp to level to the next dot"

I look at it like "fucking hell, it's 18k to bump my 3 paradigms up one dot each"

6k is NOTHING compared to what you'll be paying in a few levels. :)

I think it a better idea not to level all of the paradigms to their max level, maybe have two that you use and use it well that way throughout the entire game so far I've had plenty to level both of my chosen paradigms up to the next maximum each time it expands. I don't know its been working well for me so far.

So far I've leveled all my characters up to Level 3 with all the ones that are given and from there I chose two of the three to level up making sure that each Character is somewhat useful down the road.

You can easily max out all three of a characters classes up until chapter 11.

After that, I went straight for my role level in my first class by skipping +stats that were off the main path. I did get abilities that were off the main path though. Then I did the same with my second class. Once I had the role level in the 2 classes I just saved the CP until the game started getting hard. All my characters ended up being leveled differently. I went with 2 classes on some and 3 classes on others and both worked pretty well. The most important thing I think is not picking up undesirable stats. Vanille and Hope just don't need +STR and if you're spending 30-60k for a STR bubble that's not on the path to a role level you're gimping yourself more than you would by picking up a 3rd class, imo.

I gave up on Sony, sorry, but I did. They are going to have to start getting more games that I really want to play to get me to even consider coming back.

I bought a new one, the brand-new, shiny one. For the initial extortion price, the blu-ray went out after TWO months. I phoned, thinking it would be under warranty...silly me. They REFUSED to fix it, they wanted me to PAY to fix it. No, no, no. I took it, sold it for a HUGE loss, and left the Sony fold.

I was so upset over their lack of customer care, I took everything I owned which was Sony, my laptop, stereo, DVD player, LCD TV and SOLD them all.

I have an xbox 360, and when it got the RRoD, I found myself upset and thinking all consoles are complete @#$#@%! and I wouldn't buy another. I decided to call to get it fixed, I was on the phone for 30 minutes total and the next day I had a box at my door, postage paid to send it back. While I generally HATE Microsoft as a software company - they did (in my eyes) get the xbox 360 right (aside from the overheating issue), and shockingly their customer care that I received was top notch.

Now, if for some reason, Sony gets over themselves and starts getting more shooters I wanna play and makes nice with the Developers it chased off during it's new "the customers will by dog crap with our logo on it" attitude - I won't be coming back anytime soon.

Both platforms have their pros and cons. I won't try to tell you my "girlfriend" is the prettiest on the planet, I'd expect others would be sane enough not to try to convince us that their "girlfriend" is either.

These are just my experiences and reasons of why I switched.

And that has what to do with Final Fantasy 13?

Seriosly. By the way, the ps3 has way better and way more exclusives than the xbox. Halo and gears of war?? Fucking yawn. If those are the shooters you are talking about then you are insane. Those games are awful.

---------- Post added at 01:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:04 PM ----------

Yes but by not maxing the third one out that leaves extra unused points when you hit the higher levels. I guess I shouldn't be talking since I'm still in chapter 9 I believe haha

Playstation 3s are under warranty for 1 year after purchase. The blu-ray IS under warranty. They ship you a box to send it in and they pay for shipping also.

So essentially you sold all of your Sony products in your house because of a bad phone representative that told you wrong info.

Sony actually has the most reputable customer service out of the 3 console manufacturers, and the lowest fail rate out of all 3 current-gen consoles, AND the shortest repair and return times for warranty claims.

CP earned grows practically exponentially. The CP you earn in an hour now is earned in 30 minutes in the next chapter and 5 minutes in the one after that. I think you're better off spending the points and making the game easier now by giving you more stats and versatility. Unless, of course, you're near the end of the chapter and planning on a crystarium upgrade and still handling everything with ease.

not to mention Killzone, Killzone 2, the upcoming Killzone 3 and MAG are all PS3 exclusive shooters. seriously, do some research before coming across like you can't pull your nose out of halo.

Also Resistance FOM and Resistance 2 were both well received PS3 exclusives.

ah, yeah I missed out on that series.

Resistance was awesome, I didn't know killzone 3 was coming out. Thats exciting.

And Reese, thanks for that info. I didn't know CP goes up that exponentially. I havent played in a few days because I got up to a big boss fight that I couldn't beat after a few tries and I haven't gone back to it to try any different strategies haha.

I basically farmed enemies when I was on the Palamecia and when I was in the Fifth Ark. I had about 80000 going into Chapter 11, which didn't do much good because I could only level up halfway on one class. For some odd reason, I can turn off my brain and farm for hours on end, and thats what I'm sort of doing now. With the L'Cie missions, I just try to fight as many enemies inbetween running around and finding the mark. Plus, I'm a whore for boosting my inventory of items.

p.s. I was addicted to Resistance 2 for so long, it actually started fights between my fiance and I. The only title XBox has that I like is Left for Dead, only because I really suck as shooters and I was somewhat good at that with very little experience in the game.

Gears 1 and Halo 1,2,3 have both won multiple GotY awards, and all have sold in excess of 5 million copies. Then again, those gamers don't know better, do they? :p

Uncharted 2 has won awards this year and has equalled sales of its 360 counterparts, but neither killzone or Resistance has done either sofar.

As for Killzone not living up to the hype, It stands to reason since Killzone 2's lack of co-op campaign was a serious deficiency, and it offered nothing more than COD + a cover&shoot system. It was fun to play, and has beautifully rendered flat planes, but it is no Gears.

I could care less about GotY awards. What's popular isn't always good. Halo has a terrible story line and the gameplay is extremely generic. Just because Xbros love it doesn't mean shit. Halo and CoD MW2 are the reasons why FPS's have been going straight down the tubes.

Well back to the game itself... The more I play it, the less I enjoy it. There is just way, way, way too much fighting between story elements. Seriously walking miles across the world, making my way up to the top of some tower after figuring out some pretty straight forward elevator puzzles, finding the town we'd been looking for since hours and hours ago, battle after grueling 6+ minute battle, fighting those stupid motherfuckers who keep putting up anti physical damage immunity shields or whatever who take like 4-5 staggers to take down and just spam multicast of DD and debuff spells on my party, getting in to that town and finding a stupid busted robot only to have to crawl all over god knows where to find each part and I STILL HAVEN'T BEEN GIVEN A REASON to play this game aside from "omg we're gonna turn in to cie'th"
What
The
FUCK

I am not enjoying this part of the game at all.

I got most of my guys up to lvl 4 on their roles but it's still taking way too long to get through combat.

It doesn't help that the upgrade system in this game is convoluted as shit when it comes to weapons. The special materials you get don't tell you what they will work on upgrading to it's next tier. The base materials you can use to upgrade things feel ineffective and almost just make me want to not upgrade anything, especially when I'm faced with 2 outcomes

1. I find a better weapon, thus meaning I just wasted the crap out of a ton of resources over the last 30+ hours of gameply
2. I find a shit weapon, making me wonder if it would have been equiv or better had I used the materials on it instead.


To anyone who is further than me in this, does there, at any point, come a point where you WANT to find out what happens next? because I'm about ready to send this shit back to gamefly since, as much as I think i'd be "ok" with finding out the next part of the story, I'm really not finding it to be within my patience to fight these long drawn out unrewarding trash fights on the way there. Even the bosses feel unrewarding to me. Killing 2 fal'cie felt more like self defense than dealing out story driven justice. Hell, the 2nd one didn't even TALK or anything, it was just like "sup"

and he was easier to kill than some of the trash before him, like the big blue guardian thing "Tyrant" I skipped after he raped me anally 5 times. Or the pack of 3 vampires who after a certain point would just pretty much synch up and hit me with aeroga which took 70% of my life just from one, so 3 was obviously overkill, and they weren't even in the way or protecting anything, they were just kinda sitting there chilling.


Frustrating, my head wants to asplode.

Well I mean the game did get very sub par reviews compared to the other primary FF games.

Ah, this statement can be applied subjectively to anything, really. Shauk's experience with FFXIII being a case in point. Yet FFXIII still sells.

thank god for gamefly.

Shauk, You make some really valid points. Weapon upgrades are HORRIBLE. The game rewards you for spending XP in bulk but you don't know how much XP is required to reach max level. Some Weapons max out at 26, others max at 61 and some at 100. Accessories are worse, Some max out at level 2 and some at level 21. You just DON'T know.

Did you actually fix the robot? I totally skipped him and went back in chapter 13 because I couldn't find the 5th piece. Turns out it was on a fucking mob that I always skipped...

The game really doesn't get any better or worse than it is during chapter 11, in my opinion. I liked the last 3 chapters more than the rest of the game though.
If I were you, I'd invest the gil you got from the robot into deceptisol and the other buff stuff. Seriously, skip everything possible. If you get caught in a fight you know you can skip just retry immediately and try to run past it again.

You could also cheat a little and use Sazh to spam Blitz with Random: Instant Chain.

(this reply took me over 4 hours to type... it was probably 10x longer until I just said fuck it and deleted everything and added the just use Sazh + blitz exploit...)

Shauk...

You have some really good points, I farmed the shit out of my players and still didn't find it any easier to play. The 3 Vampires, I challenged once and then just skipped by them whenever I could. I'm back in Cocoon right now and so far its been constant battles toward the little yellow arrow on my map. Honestly, I think their thinking is "fuck doing our focus, lets just become Cei'ths." The weapon upgrades are driving me nuts too, and I don't even try to upgrade the accessories as better ones might come along later in the game. Or I'm cheap with my inventory to the point that I'm thinking something unique might be needed to be done with them. I just want to finish this game so I can move onto God of War 3.

What 3 vampires are you guys talking about!? I don't remember 3 vampires... There is 1 group in the building that LOOK like vampires but are actually a much weaker version of the mob and are extremely easy if I remember correctly. I really can't remember fighting multiple vampires, Even after finishing the game I don' t know that I'd want to run across a 3 pack...

they were by the last elevator to the roof of that tower IIRC

---------- Post added at 04:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:50 PM ----------

Watch

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation : Final Fantasy XIII

replace 5 with 35, and you'll have my final review.

I tried to be openminded about this game, I really did. I like the FF franchise, I've played ever since the 1st one on nintendo, the imports, I have the anthology remakes, even the ones on my DS.

then we get to this one and... well... fail.

Reading this thread makes me sad.

The 360 version is just as good. Yes... the hair. WTF ever, it's hair. Also, I don't pause every frame to scrutinize it, and video in motion prevents it from ever being an issue.

I just beat it, and it leaves more to be desired. I'm a little disappointed that the cut scenes such as the one where Hero comes in riding Shiva and owns all was better than the final one... IMO. I don't know if I should be disappointed and just not play it anymore or get all the trophies and get a more "complete" game.

I have the PS3 version and the graphics are absolutely great.


However, at about 15 hours in, I am still frustrated with the lack of freedom. The game keeps growing, which I like, but I have lost enough interest to not make an effort to play it daily.

I can't wait for FF15 to come out in what I would imagine to be another 9 years.

I still haven't touched it since my last post, I really should just send it back to gamefly but I hate feeling like the game defeated me out of my frustration for the constant grind.

This makes me sad. :(

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/images/100506.jpg

Square needs to put something of FF7/FFX quality out again. It's all about the combat system and emotion in the game.