[hypersquirrel]

Originally Posted by Memnoch

Contrast this to Skyrim where I logged in almost 200 hours of gameplay on the ps3 and to me that says it all. And once upon a time I used to decry 'western,' RPGs. What a shame that FF has come to this.

Funnily enough as a big Elder Scrolls fan I would have described Skyrim in almost the exact same manner. Bored within 15 hours of the dull landscape and massively reduced lore.

I'm finding 13-2 to be quite good. The battle system is highly enjoyable albeit a bit too easy, however I don't think I have ever been truly challenged by a FF unless fighting super bosses. I'm still dubious about having monsters fighting for you though. I think Caius is one of the most interesting villains I've seen in a final fantasy for a long time. He actually seems somewhat relatable as opposed to the "I'm going to destroy the world simply because I'm not a very nice guy" that tend to make the usual FF antagonist.

I can't say that Serah and Noel are the most interesting of characters but then again looking back on it if Squall was any more brooding he'd have been easily mistaken for a character bron of Stephanie Meyer. Cloud was utterly void of all personality and the less said about Vaan or Tidus the better.

I'm not a fan of time travel plots because you can never make it make complete sense and this certainly doesn't manage it but I am enjoying the progresion, love seeing how your affections take effect in the alternate realities and I'm very intrigued with Caius' motivations.

It's not a perfect game by a long shot but it's highly enjoyabel and a very clear attempt to fix what the fans complained about in 13.

[ancapailldorcha]

I don't get why people keep saying it's too easy. I've gotten Game Over a few times now and I'm stuck on Caius in Oerba at the moment. Really starting to enjoy it though.

[hypersquirrel]

Caius killed me the first time I fought him but a quick touch up of my paradigms sorted him out. I'd recommend having Med/Syn/Sen to give you a quick boost if he starts hitting hard.

[megaten]

Yeah your first fight with him is the first one you really have to think about how you've set up your paradigms.

[Memnoch]

The first time I had to look at my paradigms was when I took on the behemoth at night in the place with all the lamps. But that was because I had levelled Noel as a commando and ignored his sentinal tree.

[elekid]

Originally Posted by hypersquirrel

I'm still dubious about having monsters fighting for you though.

I was too, until I started experimenting with Infusion to transfer skills which gets very addictive once you figure it out. Also, the Pokémon fan in me wants to "catch 'em all". I also spent over an hour this evening playing Chocobo racing and learning how to make my Chocobo faster. I'm really enjoying this game

[Lantus]

Originally Posted by Mario007

Actually most reviewers agree that Serah and Noel (especially Noel) are very good characters.

Edge gave FFX a 6, a game which is considered by the fanbase at large the second best FF game created so I wouldn't take Edge's word for anything. They also forced themselves to give Infamous 2 a low score as they 'predicted' the game was going to be bad and when it launched and amazed everyone Edge still went on to give it a six.

Also lots of games get great reviews with bad stories, even RPGs (for example Skyrim) so singling out FFXIII-2 story to be bad and then docking marks just for this game is a bit silly.

Ultimately the reviewers seem to be very concerned with pleasing the fanbase, when the fanbase is iffy about the game the review will be saying the game is so-so no matter how good the game is. If the fanbase is hyped for the game the review will say that the game excels at everything.

totally agree about reviews and the forces that push and pull them in different directions. That was my point (I'm not saying that Edge was entirley right in this one case!) Just that they did produce a review that deviated from the norm.

X was a cracking game and the story was immense. I played the entire thing again last year and it was just as good (if not better) than the first time I played it.

[Mario007]

Originally Posted by Lantus

totally agree about reviews and the forces that push and pull them in different directions. That was my point (I'm not saying that Edge was entirley right in this one case!) Just that they did produce a review that deviated from the norm.

X was a cracking game and the story was immense. I played the entire thing again last year and it was just as good (if not better) than the first time I played it.

In this case, though, I would say that Edge did go with the whole 'no one asked for this, it's SE and FF that we all love to hate nowadays so let's give it a bad score'. To be honest the most honest review I've found on the game is at RPGSite (both the import and the localised version reviews actually tell you everything about the game, about every aspect of it as I know the person who did the import review actually 100% the game before she wrote the review).

I completely agree on X, it's my favourite in the series and I am so happy that we're getting a HD remaster for it soon. To me, X is the perfect Final Fantasy as it has an epic and yet simple story, a protagonist who actually develops during the game, a very nice love story (which I actually consider to be a staple of FF and am disappointed that XII and XIII, to an extent, didn't include one), a great world with brilliant mythology and likeable characters all around. Also the fact that it has a nice tie to VII is a nice Easter egg.
This is partly why I am excited for Versus as that has Nojima also as the writer.

[Retr0gamer]

I really enjoyed FFX but looking at Spoonys review I can see that the story in retrospect is a bit crap and nonsensical in places. However he is a bit too harsh and it's great in some and I really like how it didn't wuss out at the end.

[padr81]

This is a good game. Stories a bit lacking but the characters imho are the best since 10. Both are interesting. Lots of nice little bits here and their and theres 1 point that made me happy only for it to be taken away.

[chopperbyrne]

Does it use the same battle system as XIII?

[ancapailldorcha]

Originally Posted by chopperbyrne

Does it use the same battle system as XIII?

Largely. You just have 2 characters now; Noel & Serah. The third member is a monster which can be obtained from winning battles.
The mechanics have been tweaked a bit so that staggering is a bit less important. I felt that in XIII, too much emphasis was placed on staggering an opponent before attacking.

[elekid]

For anyone concerned about the difficulty, there are some really tough enemies and boss battles towards the end of the game. I'm currently stuck on Spoiler: Proto-Behemoth in Academia 500AF and although my party is level 99 in 5/6 of the Crystarium roles and level 50 in the final one, I'm still being destroyed. Some of the random battles in that area can be tough going as well.

[padr81]

Originally Posted by elekid

For anyone concerned about the difficulty, there are some really tough enemies and boss battles towards the end of the game. I'm currently stuck on Spoiler: Proto-Behemoth in Academia 500AF and although my party is level 99 in 5/6 of the Crystarium roles and level 50 in the final one, I'm still being destroyed. Some of the random battles in that area can be tough going as well.

Complete crystarium here, 3 top monsters as support and its 50/50 whether I win or lose. Bascially if I get on top of him early I'll win, If he gets health down on one party member early and I have to switch to defensive paradigms I'll inevitably fail.

[elekid]

A good Sentinel and Synergist did it for me in the end. I'm finished the game now with all the fragments, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.