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Final Fantasy XIII-2

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  • Registered Users Posts: 342 ✭✭panevthe3rd


    Just saw this game on thehut.com for 25. I already paid my 45 but i think it was worth it anyway


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    Just bought the aforementioned Sazh DLC. I bought it for 2 reasons: Sazh and poker. It fails tremendously on both counts. The "story" consists of
    Sazh flying his ship before being mysteriously getting sent to Serendipity where he must win coins to see his son again.
    That's all I've played so far.
    As far as the poker goes, it's Texas Hold 'Em and the rules are quite well explained. Square thought it would be helpful if Sazh gave audio cues to help new players decide what to do. I consider myself to be a decent card player and the cues would have you throw out good hands and ruin your chances.
    In short, please don't buy this.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,066 ✭✭✭elekid


    Are there any battles or new areas to explore in it? It definitely doesn't seem worth it if there's not.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    None so far but I haven't played a lot of it. I do know that Sazh joins the party as a Synergist if you finish it though.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    Just finished it, you don't even need to leave the one room it starts in There are no battles and no exploration. You get fortune tokens or something from winning games and getting enough of those nets you a cutscene and you get Sazh as an addition to your party.
    That's it. The whole thing.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



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  • Registered Users Posts: 227 ✭✭hypersquirrel


    I dunno about it being all bad. I nealry died laughing when I was able to infuse my purple chocobo with Sazh.

    Unfortunately that was the only enjoyable part of the experience. Chronobind is dreadful and the AI on the poker was just plain bad. Possibly worth 200 points but definitely not 400.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    It's the audio cues on the poker that really got me. Throwing out top hands while keeping crap ones? I hit a straight and Sazh started moaning about the cards and how folding was the only way to go.
    Basically, get good hole cards and go all in. The AI seems to always want to go all in for some reason.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Registered Users Posts: 997 ✭✭✭tread_softly


    Just finished the game there, onto gathering the remaining fragments etc.

    One thing I'm still stumped on though, maybe I'm just really thick, but could someone explain it to me.
    Hope and the Academy created the fal'cie Adam in order to re levitate Cocoon, but obviously that didn't work out.
    We know the crystal pillar is eventually going to crumble and Hope wants to save Fang and Vanille and the people living on Pulse.

    When Cocoon falls, it's going to destroy Pulse, as we see from Noel's world in the future. So Hope decides that instead of trying to support the old Cocoon, creating this new Bhunivelze is a great idea even though it will take 100 years and Cocoon might fall in the meantime.

    Noel and Sarah then get the Graviton cores that will levitate Bhunivelze. But why bother with the new planet at all!? Why couldn't they put the Graviton cores into Cocoon? This would take the weight off the pillar, saving Fang and Vanille and there would be no danger of it crashing into Pulse at all.

    Why the need for the new planet?

    From playing the game, everyone seems happy to be living on Pulse. Fair enough, there is some danger from monsters, but looking at places like Academia, Pulse has become their new home and there isn't much talk of wanting to live on Cocoon again. So it's not like you could say Hope wanted the new planet to give the humans somewhere to live because they hated life on Pulse.

    Can someone explain it to me?!

    Oh and thanks for the cop out ending SE, money hungry for more DLC!?


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    Right, my thoughts on this:

    It's well established in the FFXIII universe that Pulse is crawling with monsters. Cocoon was a technologically developed safe haven while Pulse is a primitive and dangerous land. Noel states that, Fang & Vanille's pillar eventually becomes unable to support Cocoon and it falls, wiping out all life on Pulse. Living on Pulse is therefore, not a long term option. I'm guessing that Hope was afraid that testing the Graviton cores on Cocoon might break the pillar, killing Fang & Vanille. Creating a new Cocoon gives him the opportunity to perfect his model as well as meaning he would not need to rely on any fal'cie. Also, it doesn't state how his invention would work or what it's form would be, only that it would be powered by the cores. So, if he gets it wrong, Cocoon would fall and everyone on it would perish.

    Hope this helped. The writing in this game was truly horrific. I like thinking about things like this but it's way too subtle.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Registered Users Posts: 997 ✭✭✭tread_softly


    Hmmmm, it does seem like the only explanation, albeit a tenuous one.

    That's one of the things I disliked about FFXIII, that half the story was told through the datalogs; I hate that getting to grips with the stories in these games involves research!!

    Poor Pulse, it really does get a bad rap. I loved that they explored more about it's people and past in this game, I was left wanting to learn so much more about it after XIII. But now it seems that all the humans on it want to feck off back to an alternative Cocoon again!
    I was confused about something else as well, we were told that if Cocoon were to fall, it would destroy life on Pulse, another reason why I wondered why Hope wasn't trying to re levitate it again.

    It was only until I replayed Academia 4XX to get the paradox ending that I chose another option in the live trigger with Hope. I asked what would happen if Cocoon were to fall. He said that they are going to be able to control the fall, so that it doesn't fall as fast. Therefore, there will be less damage from it falling.

    I thought this was pretty integral to know, it means that Pulse isn't going to turn out like Noel's future. But the only way you'd find this out, is by choosing that particular option in the live trigger. It's ****!!!


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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    Spot on. The storytelling is some of the worst, if not the worst in the series. It's a shame because I really enjoyed the world the gave us with FFXIII. There was just no way to find out about it except for the datalog. Now they removed the linearity they also lost the momentum of the story. There are some brilliant moments (mostly featuring Caius) but it's essentially MGS2 all over again.
    And this nonsense with the DLC has got to stop. I caved and watched all the paradox endings on youtube and it turns out collecting all those fragments is a complete waste of time.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    Anyone get Jihl Nabaat? She's tough so be warned.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 28 bleeding_souls


    how long is the story roughly, i heard it was pretty short


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    I'd say about 20 hours. It's not long. That's if you completely ignore the sidequests mind.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Registered Users Posts: 876 ✭✭✭Aurongroove


    the following contains nothing close to any spoilers.

    I'm currently playing through it. It's full of it's not bad 'but'.

    so, The **** Bits, (roughly in degreeof severity)

    I find the Moggle hardly sufferable. The traditional FF mog endearment "kupo kupo" was charming when it was written down and not whiinneed at you pokemon-stylee ever second of ever minute of gameplay, AND interrupting all the ****ing dialogue. I spent 5 minutes in Academia throwing him into oblivion with a semblance of satisfaction that the little **** was gone for a few seconds. I hope he, Chocolina and the staff in Serendipity all die infected, radioactive deaths.

    So far I dont like how Snow has been portrayed and I;m keeping a close ****ing eye on some of the other FFXIII roster, for me it's a cardinal sin to misrepresent a character in a Sequel like this but I will hold my breath. It's also so far not as awful as some of the alien abductions and replacements committed against some of the FFX-2 roster.

    It's a little too easy to become over powered. FFXIII capped the players strength because the time sensitive battle system dosn't really work if you can just bulldoze a group of baddies off the face of the planet in 4 seconds. FF's ugly habit of letting you become too strong to need to think has reared it's ugly head again.

    A lot of the plot devices and game system devices whiffs of "cheap excuses" such as mog being all of the sub system for preemptive strikes, every weapon Serah has, all of the interesting-things-to-do-while exploring such as treasure chests i.e. the bomb/long-reach/ocarina/radar". Everyone including children suddenly discover they can learn magic. They go to even less trouble then Radiant Historia did in masking the "go to another time line and get/do this for me" format of every single side quest. And last but not least basically everything unusual and all the things to do in the game so far are neatly wrapped up star trek style as being "something something paradox"


    GOOD bits:

    the presentation is breathtaking. there were some places I arrived too and I just wanted to literally explore for the sake of looking around. I wish they' let me go to a decent first person, I've sometimes got to grab that stupid **** if I want to have a right look up and down.

    the music is actually great, I laughed at the heavy metal when you're fighting the giant flan, it was awesome. and inclusion of brave new genres besides the music picks up where the (in places brilliant) FFXIII sound track left off.

    I love the little montage when you load your game, I think it's a lovely touch!

    They do fix a few things in the fighting system.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    I liked the game but it had some serious problems. The story only really worked for me when it involved Noel's background and/or Caius. Those elements were the only reason I cared about the story at all. FFXIII might have been chokingly linear, but at least there was a packed, tight, well paced narrative. Without that, everything just falls apart.
    I don't get Chocolina at all. People wanted merchants but why go so far as to create such an annoying character. O'aka in FFX is a good example. Likeable but brief exchanges. Apparantly, she's
    Sazh's chick who was turned into a merchant by Etro
    .
    The thing was too easy and the sidequests were just generic kills or scavenger hunts. They just felt tacked on. Exploring the areas was fun but the maps just felt completely recycled. Too many battles can by won by just using relentless assault, especially if you get a preemptive strike which is also quite easy (hint: Just press X).
    Snow & Lightning are getting DLC packages in May for anyone who cares. The game just feels half finished and I'm never buying a enw SE game again unless it's under £15. The colosseum is a nice touch but the enemies cost an average of about £3 to unlock.
    On the upside, Noel and Caius are great characters. Serah isn't too bad herself. Noel's theme playing constantly in A Dying World nearly had be in tears. Unlocking Odin was nice, even if he is completely useless. The soundtrack is amazing (except the Jpop of course). The final battle is one of the best I've seen in a long time in FF. They enabled you to change party leader anytime in battle which is something FFXIII should have had.
    A decent game all round but I'm starting to loathe this new "high-fares and extras" model companies are beginning to adopt.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Registered Users Posts: 876 ✭✭✭Aurongroove


    SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!
    genuinely don't read unless you've finished playing the game.
    I've just finished and got what i assume is the bad ending... WHAT A ****ING ENDING!!!!

    It's all going lovely, Sazh is there 'Nice catch', Hope's launching the new Cocoon, Fang & Vanille are resqued then,
    music stops, Sarah dies, Mog dies, (lol, every cloud...) the Hope starts whinging just like old times, and then the whole ****ing world ends!!! YES!!! then you catch a glimpse of a crystalized Lightening, ****! the whole thing was a giant punch in the tits and the game just went about 8% higher out of 100 because of that


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    That's the game's ending I'm afraid. There's a clip you can view if you get all the fragments but it's just a monologue by Caius.
    I really liked Caius, he basically
    wins at the end. Reminds me of Kefka
    a bit. SE have registered FFXIII-3 as a trademark but say there won't be a sequel, just a new game's worth of DLC for this one.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Registered Users Posts: 876 ✭✭✭Aurongroove


    are you SURE that's the ending? surely it isin't I just got the paradox scope thing and I'm looking to "challenge history"

    Sarah hasn't even properly got to Valhalla.

    I was going on the theory that
    If Noel becomes Yeul's new gardian properly then he will inherit the Chaos heart (thus the chaos heart won't have been destroyed thus Etro won't have been destroyed) and that there is a way to save lightning from losing the eternal battle with Caius, by travelling back in time


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    Those are merely "What if?" endings. It means that Noel & Serah didn't solve the paradoxes or something. Take the
    Caius battle in Oerba for example. The first time you beat him once. The Paradox Scope means his Heart of Chaos brings him back and he is tougher. So, if you beat him then, he's dead and the game ends if you know what I mean. Noel wasn't meant to beat Caius in A Dying World. He gets tired fighting a superior opponent and Caius laments that he's not able to kill him. With the scope active, Noel kills Caius and the game ends, giving you what would happen but not the game's true ending.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



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  • Registered Users Posts: 876 ✭✭✭Aurongroove


    shocking.

    It really looked like
    it was shaping up to be a "now go get the good ending" sort of affair.
    it dosn't for example make sense that they've failed to save the new cocoon and prevent the world from becoming Valhalla.
    If Serah died and the world was saved then that would be fine, but why does she say "thank you" after having a vision and then die and then the world ends?
    what was her vision? she saw the world ending and she said thanks? dosn't make sense.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    I read somewhere, maybe the FF wiki that the Snow and Lightning DLCs in May are going to be it for the DLC.
    I'm assuming that she saw the world becoming
    Valhalla and she died because the timeline had changed so drastically
    . She probably thanked Noel for protecting and being with her throughout the game.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Registered Users Posts: 876 ✭✭✭Aurongroove


    well that makes sence.
    the game as is desperately sets up the need for a sequel or even just extra chapters of DLC.

    the amount of 'Lightning' time in the game was a joke and they've really only covered Serah, Neol, Caius, Yeul, Hope and through DLC Sazh (Vanille and Fang are of course not up to anything)

    There has to be DLC which continues the story becasue for one, the Coliseum isin't used in the game, Snows adventures and L'Cie status are only mentioned and read in the fragment datalog with the gravitation cores. Lightning's chapter is nothing more then a fleeting one off battle with no alternative outcomes (shocked the paradox scope dosn't change something after the big schpeel Caius' give if you enter Valhalla through the crux with the scope switched on.

    I'm holding out until this story is finished. FFXIII was a wonderful speed-based battle system with a story which did nothing once the intro had passed until after the last boss. I loved the ending in XIII, the sense of breaking out of one's doomed divine edict by the belief in one's humanity and causing a sort of miracle by human invention (that the girls used Ragnarok to save cocoon). I though the idea that "it was all Etro, she did all the funny things, was a painful cop-out unless of course they mean in a meta-contextual sense, like Etro is a force discovering her self though reality actualizing(i.e. that is wasn't just a "magic god fixing everything")


    In my eyes, the elements of the story which need continuing are:

    Large elements:
    Lightning v Caius in Valhalla: why does she need Sarah in Valhalla?

    Lightning: what is her relationship with Etro, and why is she being evasive when answering wither or not she can coem hoem with Serah("one thing at a time") e.g. is she becoming Etro, or is she becoming a permanent right-hand-angel/knight of Etro's will?

    Serah: why do she have a gift similar to Yeul's? is Etro or lightning grooming her for a role (i.e. a divine role, or a role similar to Yeul or lightning etc or Etro's herself)

    Etro: is she un-revivable

    Neol: is he going to inherent the heart of Chaos and is he going to be Yuel's new guardian, or is is going to become a guardian for Serah in some other divine role?

    Snow: why is he L'Cie again, and what Fal'Cie did he interact with/make a deal with, and what was the focus given.

    smaller elements:
    Why did Mog die when the goddess died. What happens to a person who becomes Cie'th or Crystallized L'Cie with regards Valhalla. i.e. if Valhalla is where you go when you die, then WTF?

    right now I'm running around tying up loose ends and looking for the platinum so I can post it to Funky Penguin and let him chew on it to 'support his life'. (in joke)


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    You're right, a lot of stuff does need to be clarified.

    It's stated at the start that Lightning had a dream involving Noel, possibly travelling with Serah or just being sent back through time.
    I don't think Lightning is allowed to leave Valhalla. Serah and Noel met her at the Void Beyond which seems to have different rules to normal reality. Just a guess. She chose to become Etro's guardian to protect the timeline. Some detail on their relationship would have been nice, IMO.
    The Noel/Serah relationship is quite similar to that of Caius/Yeul. I don't think there was any info at all on why Serah started seeing visions of the future.

    Etro's dead. I really can't imagine how they would go about reviving her since time was destroyed.
    There's nothing mentioned at the end on the status of the Heart of Chaos. I think Yeul's previous guardians must have been mortal if Caius was the first wielder of it. It's not stated that Noel inherited it but it is in one of the paradox endings which is just confusing.

    I'm assuming Snow sought out a Pulse fal'cie to grant him the power of a l'Cie so he'd be strong enough to go and find Lightning. It's stated that they kept to themselves after FFXIII's ending but he's getting a DLC so that's at least one thing that ought to be sorted.

    I'm really annoyed at how heavily Lightning featured in the game's promotion and barely at all in the actual game. I hope SE tries to wrap it all up as I quite like these 2 games and leaving it in this mess would be a bit of a disaster.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Registered Users Posts: 876 ✭✭✭Aurongroove


    yeah if SE are going to make a habit out of making "sequil sequils" they need to be careful not to **** all over the original game in making their add ons.


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