@Yousef- i actually loved XV (after an initial period of say wtf more times than I’ve ever said it before), it was my first FF though so I was coming at it with a different perspective to most. I’ve honestly really liked everyone I’ve played… including XIII so far.
I'm surprised to find you think it's quite a chill experience given the urgency of the plot that you're terrorists/fugitives on the run and branded to turn into mindless zombies or crystal @colonelkilgore but as long as you're enjoying it!
Good to hear the combat has clicked for you. Quite a few of the previous games have variations on ATB system so you might be in luck?
How are the characters fairing for you? That's usually one of the other main critiques people have against the game... I don't even really remember XIII's Cid to be perfectly honest.
My favourite Cid is XII's
Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"
@HallowMoonshadow now that you mention it, it is actually kinda shocking how chill the game feels given its setting. Well, maybe me and colonel are pretty… relaxed?
Discord: yousef. (All lowercase with fullstop at the end)
Or message me in Xbox chat.
You can contact me just to say hi. <3
@HallowMoonshadow@Yousef- now that I think of it, the actual plot/narrative never really has any impact on whether I feel chilled/uptight etc. it’s always as a result of the gameplay loop. If I can make my way through a game at my own pace I feel very relaxed. So FFXIII is like a Sunday morning to me. It’s games where i need to work to time-limits or enemies rush at you and spawn limitlessly that things change.
One of the game series I feel most relaxed in is Dark Souls, which I think comes down to the enemies being gone once you killed them (until you rest at a bonfire of course) so I can just have a saunter about for loot and secrets.
Anyway, back to FFXIII, I just beat Enki and Enlil and have made it through to Chapter 7. Really surprised by how much I’m enjoying the combat. The thing that stands out is the real-time element, which keeps things poppin’. I’ve also loved how certain moments just take me back to other FF games that I’ve played. There’s a beach scene that feels remarkably similar to FFXV and the music that was just playing during Chapter 6 reminded me of the music in FFXVI when you approach… hmm can’t remember the name of the town now but it brought the memory to the forefront for sure. While I’m still somewhat of a noob, I now feel that the series as a whole is for me. If I can enjoy XIII I can enjoy them all right? 😉
I’ve been playing Crisis Core’s remake and while the voice acting changes aren’t exactly consistent, there’s so many QOL upgrades and the graphics really are quite an impressive leap. Enjoying my time even if the DualSense has decided to f**k itself with truly terrible drift the last few days.
@nessisonett That will probs will be my next JRPG i'l play, so glad that the changes they've made get the thumbs up!
That sucks about your controller. I'm waiting for the rumoured next version to get a new one. Luckily the ones I have don't have anything wrong with them.... yet.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@JohnnyShoulder This is my second controller dying of stick drift so it’s on a par with the Switch. The difference is that it’s much easier to open up the controllers and change the sticks on the Switch than the PS5!
Just beat Barthandelus at the end of Chapter 9… definitely a pronounced difficulty spike but the best battle of the game for sure. Just really enjoying this game to be fair and I’m now pretty much sold on playing FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns over the next couple of years. I had a strange feeling that I might like this and really glad I gave it a go.
So finally made it to Gran Pulse this morning and have been quite excited about this area given the general consensus online, that this is where the game actually gets good (it’s already good). Gotta be honest… it’s a little bit confusing. From the reading I’ve done, I should stick around here doing side missions (Cie’th missions) and level up a fair bit in preparation for the final few chapters but well… it’s bloody easy to get lost.
The only marker on the map is for the next main mission, which I’m actively attempting to avoid. Can’t see any indication of where to go to start my next Cie’th mission… and the worst thing… the map rotates depending on what direction your character is facing when you hit the map button. Now that last bit wouldn’t be so bad if there was an indication as to which direction North is… but there isn’t any 😵💫.
@xeofate yeah I think the fact that I knew the game was pretty linear for the most part going in did help with my expectations. Great game though… and turns out I’ve been after something like this for a while without even knowing it. I really enjoyed Tales of Arise a few years back and have been fancying something like that for a while… and while the combat in that was more action and FFXIII’s is more turn-based… it’s scratching that same itch.
@colonelkilgore wow I don’t think I actually replied to this so here goes.
Can’t help but relate. I have a fairly similar relationships with game plots, where it’s really the gameplay feedback loop I’m more concerned about. This even extends to the point where I really dislike gameplay opening levels where cameras shift a lot to show a plot relevant thing rather than just have it in a cutscene.
What makes a feedback loop a big goal for me is that it not only basically means I can finish some games a lot faster and more effortlessly, but it’s obviously just relaxing in general like you said.
As a general note, I’m someone who can’t divide their attention, but likes to fixate on something and be put in like a trance state. Bonus points if the game is a reasonable length or at least the feedback loop itself takes a while (hence why long games with short or basic gameplay don’t do it for it me. If a game is long, the gameplay loop needs to accommodate that. I actually have a vivid memory of feeling like my time was being completely wasted in one game I played because 30-ish hours of it were gameplay, but the last 3-hour stretch was uninterrupted cutscenes and I hated that. Yes I counted).
As a general note, I’m someone who can’t divide their attention, but likes to fixate on something and be put in like a trance state.
Exactly this… gameplay that can put me in a meditative-state (like when you see navy-seals disassembling and reassembling their assault rifles blindfolded) is mana from heaven to me.
I used to start up a Kingdom Hearts game every Christmas as it was fitting for the period but last year I finished my last KH game, Melody of Memory, so I didn't have any more KH games to play this year. So I decided to go for the second most fitting thing, which is Final Fantasy. The last game I played of the older titles was FF7 a couple of years ago, which I loved. Since then, I've been waiting for the right time to start up FF8 as I've heard a lot about its junction system and I wanted to be ready mentally for it.
I've played Final Fantasy 8 (remastered) for about two hours now and I'm absolutely in love with its mechanics. The concept of absorbing enemies' powers in order to fuel your magic abilities is so awesome. It can get tedious having to farm for them, which is why I'm playing the remastered version where you can speed up the game. The remastered version also offers the function of turning off random encounters (which can get really annoying for these older titles) as well as the function of restoring health instantly. The latter I'm not going to use as it feels like cheating, however the choice is welcoming as I've had a bad experience with some older FF games in terms of difficulty spikes towards the end of the game. So if push comes to shove, it's nice to know that I can just force myself to the end as it sucks to play a game for 40 hours and not reach the ending.
So to get back to the mechanics, I find the junction system to be very engrossing. Not only is absorbing powers the way you increase your uses of spells, but it also boost your stats when attaching certain spells to certain stats. In order to be able to do this, you need to use summons and level them up to unlock the ability to equip a spell to a certain stat. The amount of uses for a spell also affects the boost to that stat. So the more uses you have, the higher the boost, which incentivises you to keep drawing more magic and not wasting spells. You can even attach spells to add elemental effects to your attack or defence and even the effect is affected by how many uses of the spell you have in stock.
It's probably hard to follow by reading about it. It's easier to understand when you actually play the game. It's just such an addicting system and it's made much more enjoyable thanks to the remastered version's added features. I seriously can't wait to play more of this game now.
10 hours into FF8 now and I'm still loving the junction system. I've now created three versions and what's nice is that you can just transfer them to other characters if certain ones aren't available, which is really cool. I've read online that levels basically don't matter in this game, what matters is the junction systems you have. It's a very refreshing take on the FF formula, I haven't been this engrossed with a gameplay system in an FF game since FF5 with its in-depth job system. It's also really fun to explore new environments, find new enemies, discover which spells they have, absorb them, and finding out if a spell boosts one of your stats more than the other one that you previously had. For example, I just discovered that the Zombie spell gives you a massive boost in HP, which I had no idea that it would. The pacing of the story is also great so far, I haven't felt like I've been stuck in a place for too long.
One thing about FF8 that's annoying me is just how often you switch characters. I'm not even kidding, towards the end of disc 1, I was switching between three groups of characters with only a few minutes of playtime with each group. It's also annoying because I have to constantly switch junctions and this wouldn't be a problem if the character's HP adjusted accordingly but it doesn't. So each time I switch junction, I need to also heal that character to full health. So if I do this and then switch back to the previous group after just a few minutes, then I just wasted healing. Sometimes you don't even fight any enemies with the new group. If the character just got full health automatically, then it would make switching junctions so much more seamless.
I think I could eventually avoid switching junctions when I've acquired enough summons for my party members that I don't need to switch all the time. But that's under the circumstance that I've unlocked all abilities of each summon. Otherwise I would miss out on precious ability points by not having them equipped all the time.
I’m making my way through Crisis Core - Reunion and happy to report that I’m still enjoying it. I’ve been taking my time with it and so far am trying to be as complete as possible and hitting all the side missions. I’m not sure how long I’ll continue to do that, because the little optional side missions, although very brief (usually just taking 5 minutes or less each), do get a bit repetitive. The rewards for completing are variable too. Some of the missions have very important or useful items like materia, summons, and nice equipment, but many of them have superfluous stuff. Some also have nice little vignettes about supplemental characters too, so it’s hard to know which ones to skip.
Combat is pretty fun, although a little imbalanced. I’ve been able to easily beat and clear most stages and enemies and yet there’s a couple that I am struggling with. Last night I ran up against a mini-boss in a mission that I kept dying to over and over (gratefully the game allows you to reload after death, back immediately before the fight, even giving you the option to switch out your equipment and materia before you jump back in), and I couldn’t even get close to winning this battle. I was about to abandon it and come back later but then I tried the tactic of just spamming Fira from a distance and I was able to kill the boss quickly without taking any damage. 🤷🏻♂️ Some of this random imbalance is due to a specific element of RNG to the battles - the Digital Mind Wave (DMW) mechanic which is basically a slot machine running in the background during battle that will randomly create power-ups during battle. The DMW is also how you get summons. I don’t know if I am a fan of the system because sometimes your Ifrit pops up to use when you’re fighting a simple common enemy and yet doesn’t show up when you really need him during a boss battle, for example. Still, if you run around the battlefield long enough usually you’ll get a good power-up or summon eventually.
Zack is starting to grow on me. Initially I found him a tad annoying, but I’m gradually acclimating to the slushy 2007 storytelling. I feel like I understand the world and factions in FF7 a lot better now. I think when I played the OG FF7 (and even Remake), I just wasn’t really paying attention to the diverse groups of baddies.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution That's good to hear! I've been contemplating on when I should start up Crisis Core as I have finished the original FF7 but I've only gotten through the first dozen hours of Remake so I think I want to finish it first before starting up CC. I've also watched Advent Children, which fleshes out the characters a bit more, so I've definitely been interested in learning more about Zack. I think playing CC might help prepare you for Rebirth or rather make you appreciate it even more.
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