I was thinking about this earlier.The forced grinding, and lack of things to do while grinding was annoying.I fealt that the lack of real way of getting more xp.I wish you could get the double xp item earlier, it would break the monotony.There are enemies who give a lot of xp, but they are impossible till much later, like the flowering cactuar.The lack of variety of items, and gil being ridiculously hard to get, is also a bad thing.All these things do, is turn this game into a boring grindfest.Grinding shouldn't be the constant, so it becomes less monotonous.

Uh, which game are you referring to by the way? FFXIII or XIII-2? If it's the former, well, for a start, there is no exp in FFXIII - only CP (Crystogen Points) expendable in the Crystarium. So the only grinding you can do is grinding for CP (it's why for the first part of the game your characters remain static as far as abilities go - because the Crystarium isn't even unlocked until the party become I'cie).

And even then, the game basically holds the Crystarium on a choke chain - only allowing you to progress in it up to a certain level - which only levels up further as you complete each chapter (the final level of the Crystarium isn't even available until you've actually completed the game once), thus preventing your main criticism from even happening to an extent. Sure you can grind, but only up til what the Crystarium allows you. It really is such a limited system, but I guess that's symbolic of a game that basically is on rails anyway.

Gil I admit is indeed quite hard to come by however, but that's what you have the online stores for at each save point - you're meant to sell all that junk that your inventory soon gets filled up with (crap like circuit boards and broken horns), which should get you a fair amount of gil.

As for FFXIII-2 however, EXP and levels returned, however, because most of the game (some bosses excepted) is so easy (especially on easy mode), exp will flow so fast you'll level up pretty quickly and gain new abilities etc on the Crystarium in all your roles without even trying. Only monsters tend to lag behind because they only level according to how many stat items you chuck at them.

Gil is also much easier to gain as like exp, monsters also drop gil after battle (how much you win is determined by your battle results, and, to an extent, whether you're playing in Easy or Normal difficulty - Normal difficulty supposedly nets you better items and gil spoils, but I haven't verified that myself). Anyway, hopefully this hasn't been too harsh sounding, as I just wanted to clarify a few points. :)

EDIT: I was wrong about EXP not being in FFXIII - stupid me forgot that EXP does in fact appear in FFXIII, in a sense, but not in the usual way. EXP is not used for character development, but actually used for upgrading and leveling up weapons. But then, I never really bothered with weapon upgrading in the game so hence why it slipped my mind. :p

FFXIII in my opinion, is the worse rpg of all time, and the biggest betrayal to final fantasy fans.It took everything that made final fantasy great, and replaced it with a linear world, and terrible melodrama.I may hate ff7 because of what it created, but at least it had a world to explore, and a bunch of sidequests, and that came in 1997.

FF8, FF9 and FF tactics had open worlds as well.Heck, by disk 2 in FF8, you get a boat to explore with.
Also:You mention limitation on how strong you could get.By chapter 12 it would take forever to max out.It forces you to stop and grind by the beginning of chapter 13.Its really annoying how there isn't much to do except grind.Heck FFX is far less annoying, because there is so much to do.I have all celestial weapons, except tiduses weapon.It was annoying, but im combining farming items to make ribbons.

FFXIII gil takes to long you admit, and trash items are for money.I had killed so many adamantoise, that i had enough of those catalist items.Also:Why do they drop more often than platinum ingots? I thought they were supposed to be rarer that platinum ingots.Most people i've seen complain about the gameplay, and its worthy of the complaints.

I hated this game from the moment that I bought it on release. I played for a while and then wrote a very negative review article on it. I didn't play it again until a couple of weeks ago but now I am just enjoying it for what it is. Something I can play a little bit and watch like a movie at the same time. With how little free time I have now it's enjoyable to that point as long as I don't think of it as a Final Fantasy game.

I still wouldn't replay it ever, and some people make up excuses for Square enix.I bought it because i wanted to like FFXIII, and had hopes that this one might be the one to get me back into th ff series, but it made me further lose hope.

To me Final Fantasy: XIII is just a Final Fantasy: VI wannabe.
Problem fangirls(boys)?
Problem Square Enix?

ff6 wannabe? ff7 is the most popular.

Anaways:More info on why you dislike or like FFXIII please.

Ok! I'll do my best (english is not my first language). I know, it looks like there is much to read but once you start you'll do not even notice it.

There's going to be things I dislike and some spoilers from Final Fantasy: VI or proofs just to justify the wannabe thing I wrote before:

1.- Look closely to Goddess from the Warring Triad... Orphan 01 (the giant knife) looks like her golden ornament.
2.- Lightning says things like Terra before an important moment in the plot: A reason to be alive.
3.- Character design sucks, except for Lightning from Final Fantasy: XIII-2, she looks beautiful in that armor.
4.- Thanks to the long cutscenes, a lot of people thinks that RPGs suck.
5.- Nobuo Uematsu chose titles in latin language for wonderful musical pieces (not sure how many there are but the one that I remember is Aria Di Mezzo Carattere), after he left, not so good songs like Born Anew, Invisible Depths and Somnus were created.
6.- Silly things like crystal stasis, what's next, frozen paraphilia?
7.- A lot of boring stuff to understand the plot. I like long stories but that one is just weak, by the way, I'm not lazy, in fact, I remember a lot of things about Kingdom Hearts (7 games till now just for one story, another sucky series... at least to me).
8.- Fangirls(boys): "Final Fantasy is perfect but you are too stupid to understand it. You're writing bad things about these series, you must be a Call of Duty fanboy even if don't like it neither. You write a lot about a video game you don't like, that's weird, well, I'm going to write a lot about the garbage I like and then I'm going to use the worst words to describe you. I'm right because a lot of people like me support me and we're smarter, you're wrong because you're not like us. Noctis from Final Fantasy: Versus XIII is handsome but I don't have a boyfriend (I don't need one, I swear it, I swear it!) but you are still a loser because you are not obsessed with yaoi like me".
9.- The emotion is over. I think that Hironobu Sakaguchi is great (I don't know what word to use), I'd really like to write what I think but it would be fantastic to meet him and tell him directly... Ha ha ha! Maybe that will never happen, but is not good to lose hope (Final Fantasy: VI).

The things I like: High budget = Nice graphics, beautiful voices for the characters and great merchadinse: Bundles, pre order bonus, perfumes, drinks, soundtracks, figures and many more.

If I did something wrong (or wrote a forbidden word) tell me, please, this is my first account in a forum. :P

Escrib� en en ingl�s para que m�s personas entendieran el mensaje, aunque no estoy seguro de que alguien m�s vaya a leer lo que publiqu�.

Lightning was supposed to be a female cloud.
Vanille is quite similar to selphie

The characters are on the run in ff6 and XIII, but the characters were more likeable in ff6.

I really hope you didn't just call me stupid, cause that isn't very nice.I do understand the story, but don't like most new final fantasies.There are going to be similarities between characters, because square enix goes for japanese anime archtype, with mild variation to keep it original.

No one was calling you stupid Nostalgia so settle down.

But Josesito does raise some valid points (and I agree that Lightning's 'Etro's Champion' armour in XIII-2 is indeed hot ;)). Sadly the series has become a victim of it's own success - where once upon a time game companies (and this isn't limited to just Square Enix by the way) were willing to be more 'daring' when it came to game development, pushing the boundaries and finding enjoyable new ways of doing 'the same old thing', now, because the game industry has become so profitable (I've read the game industry as a whole now turns over more profits than Hollywood movie studios), publishers and developers are now more interested in keeping their investors happy and as such are less inclined to take risks on games.

Hence, the last few FF titles have been lackluster (FFXIII and XIV) - (the later has a sequel which includes everything that fans felt was left out of the original, and XIV... well.. that was such a disaster SE has had to rebuild the game completely from the ground up.) it was far easier and cheaper to churn out a flashy title with lots of cutscenes and snazzy graphics, but with a cast of cardboard cutout characters and gameplay that is on rails.

But I'm on my soapbox again. :3

The most important thing to me is to make you know this: You are not stupid, because you didn't attack me (you are a mature person), fangirls(boys) would treated me like garbage... Obviously I would have written awesome stuff that the could never deny... I'm a white tiger baby! ;)

Returning to Final Fantasy... I read carefully your comment and here are my thoughts, don't read the true-based jokes if want to get to the point:

1.- "Lightning was supposed to be a female Cloud": That means that there's no originality, here's an example (true+funny), I don't want you to think that I'm an emo or a boring guy:

Square Enix: "Let's change the gender from the characters from the past games that everyone liked and then write a "new" story using elements from past plots as well, after all, we are the owners of Final Fantasy and our sheeps are more intersted in our studio than that boring Mistwater thing... Problem Hironobu? (Trollface).

Sakaguchi: FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU-.

About keeping it original, I got confused: If it's about being loyal to the original formula then -Try Again- Rubrik's Cube (Square Enix), if it's about being different, well, it's different because it lacks of all the great stuff (I'm tired of writing "stuff").

* I don't like these new stories neither... Lightning Returns? Oh God! I'll wait till someone uploads the opening, the main villain and the final boss+ending... I wonder if the game will have a different gameplay... Hope they don't steal Hironobu's ideas.

2.- It's normal that Selphie-Vanille thing you wrote, both characters were designed by Tetsuya Nomura.

3.- I agree with you... The sucky anime stuff: Final Fantasy was about human behaviour (love, sadness, courage and other things or even more, I only know that it used to be different and maybe artistic or philosophical) and not about woman-wannabe guys touching each other's hands and that boring soundtracks by Masashi Hamauzu and Yoko Shimomura (she got luck)...

*Don't have anything against homosexuals but I think this is funny and is what I think: Alright Tetsuya! Now get out of the closet, we always knew your obvious, dirty, little secret... Oh, and learn how to make good games because transforming Cloud into a drag queen (Miss Cloud) won't make you the master mind behind Final Fantasy: VII and having Mickey in your works won't make you better.

Ok, It took a lot of time but I wanted to be very explicit (ignoring the jokes).

The characters have been afeminate, but it doesn't mean the people involved are gay.It has something to do with the japanese culture.
I hear that sakaguchi was better at designing places.I liked the characters from ff6 design, and i liked ff4 as well.Kain is easily one of the coolest ff characters.What i'm not sure about, is who did the characters, but my guess is tetsuya nomura.

Now for enkidohs coments:

I heard a little about the FFXIV disaster.I heard FFXI had problems too.The whole having to build up the game from bottom to top, is a bad sign indeed.I heard that FFXI at least was liked a little.

I haven't seen lightning's etro's champion armour yet.

As for comercial successes that went a little downhill:Suikoden series comes to mind, but especially suikoden 4.Suikoden 5 was pretty good.

Nostalgia, if you've played FFXIII-2 then you would have seen Lightning's armour anyway (it's the armour she's wearing in the playable prologue at the start of the game), but if not, this is what we're referring to (it's called 'Etro's Champion' armour because Lightning was given it by the goddess Etro herself in order to become Etro's protector):



Apparently Lightning will be wearing this armour also by default in FFXIII-3 (or whatever it's going to be called - Lightning Returns ~ FFXIII I think it is).

I also only mentioned FFXIV because that was another example of a recent FF title not meeting expectations upon release, showing that there has been a significant shift in quality of the series recently, but because this is the FFXIII section, I won't really go into any more detail about it, as that's for another thread. ;)

I only played the FFXIII-2 demo, and it starts with sherah, and noah i think?

Yoshitka Amano: Every game before FFVII.
Tetsuya Nomura: Final Fantasy: VII, VIII, X, X-2, XI, XIII, XIII-2, Versus XIII, Type-0, Lightning Returns, Crisis Core,Advent Children (a movie), Dirge of Cerberus (a shooter game), Dissidia, Dissidia 012... I'm not sure about Before Crisis: Final fantasy VII (a game for mobile phones in Japan, and maybe 3DS worldwide), On the Way to a Smile: Episode Denzel (OVA from the novels) and Last Order: Final Fantasy VII (another OVA).

*It's not about the look, it's about the behaviour of the characters.

I owe you (and maybe to Enki too) an explanation about Nomura's homosexuality reflected in his games so I'll try to be quick... Ready or not here are the spoilers in chronological order or if don't want to read all this awesome paragraphs at least read the one entitled Pairings, watch some videos and you'll find what I mean:

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: After seeing those boys touching each other (maybe playing) in the Olympus Colliseum, Aqua said to herself that she was jealous of the relationships between guys (a man-wannabe or maybe she'd like to receive the same kind of attention as guys do) but she rejected having a date with the Zack (a guy)? Probably she's a lesbian, after all, her best friends are Ventus (a boy) and Terra (a man). Lea and Isa, two guys hanging out all the time = A funny gay guy and his boring boyfriend (read KHII to make this point even stronger).

Kingdom Hearts: Sora thinks he fell in love Kairi but he pays a lot more attention to Riku! The girl is kidnapped so two boys and zero girls are left. Riku is not interested in Sora anymore (thanks to the Keyblade) so the clown-shoed guy cries because his boyfriend doesn't want to see him never again. But there's a happy ending: no more girls and Riku gives Sora another chance.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories: Sora tries to find Kairi, but when Riku Replica appears he suffers the most because he doesn't know that is a bootleg: "My boyfriend doesn't remember me!" Ending: Riku will do anything to make sure that his boyfriend can wake up... and care about Kairi in antoher game.

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days: Roxas enters the Organization XIII, all the ugly guys and the only girl died in CoM! Roxas accepts to be Axel's boyfriend (Lea), then Xion appears to destroy the romance betwen those spiky lovers, she wants Roxas only for her (my english is failing, I know). Xigbar sees Xion as Ventus, Roxas and some members as a girl, and the rest as a puppet! But the truth was revealed in an epic way: "Roxas, who do you see? If you see a boy's face it means that I'm almost ready (to kill you)... This is him, Roxas... it's Sora" Wow! Look at her! She transformed into a "him"... Xion is a transgender! So that means that Roxas is a Tranny Chaser. Xion dies, Roxas forgets the "girl" he "loved" and he marries Axel.

Kingdom Hearts: II: Roxas feels confused (a homosexual that wants to follow the social rules) so he accepted the help from Organization XIII. 358/2 Days events happen. Sa�x (Isa) became cruel and boring because Axel found someone else, remember that he used to be happy in BbS. Sora and Riku fight the final boss and finally get married.

Kingdom Hearts: Coded: Recess! Let's take a brake, nothing LGBT happens in this game.

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance: Ah! Don't you feel better? Let's continue: Yen Sid (an old man) changed Sora's outfit without letting him know. Rikumeo travels through Soraliet's dreams and heart to save him and he reaches his goal... End. What will KHIII will be about? Who cares? Ha ha ha!

Final Fantasy: Versus: XIII: Noctis Lucis Caelum, a guy that likes the expensive life, he tries to act cool (a homosexual man trying to hide a secret). His friends can see that he's hiding somehting from the society (his friends already know that he is gay). Prompto, the "party girl" who fell in love with the shy Noctis, but the guy of his dreams hasn't noticed it yet, this is what breaks Prompto's heart. Stella Nox Fleuret, she's beautiful, cold and smart and she knows it (ve careful with this kind of people), this girl will troll Noctis because of his sexuality and low chances in love, after all, a lot of guys would fight for her love while the only person that would fight for Prince Noctis' love is Prompto. The last line was very cute... I should write some Fan Fictions...

Pairings: Sora and Riku (Who is Kairi?), Roxas and Axel (Xion, the tranny died and Sa�x failed since the very beggining), Noctis and Prompto (Just Nomura knows).

I hope anyone who reads this don't get offended (I'm a bit tired, that's why my english sucked).

What about ff9?

Kuja has a strange physique, and cloud gets gabgbanged in ff7 by a bunch of mustached men.

Sorry, I forgot that Yoshitaka Amano was one of the character designers in Final Fantasy: IX. Kuja was supossed to look like a woman: He introduces poetic elegance to the antagonist's role and his speech patterns are metaphorical and somewhat jovial.

About Cloud being gangbanged by men...
Nomura: Nom, nom... Mmm... I still think he's rather tasty♪ (I hate that movie but that line is perfect for that untalelnted homo).
He really likes men! I bet he watches RuPaul's Drag Race and he loves Madonna, Lady Gaga and Cher and one of his favorites songs must be "It's Raning Men".

Actually, FFIX's character designs were not by Yoshitaka Amano contrary to popular belief. The game credits actually list Shukou Murase, Toshiyuki Itahana and Kazuyuki Ikumori as character designers - Amano is simply listed as 'image illustrator', a role he was also credited as in FFVII and VIII. And FFXI's character designs were by Akihiko Yoshida (Nomura had no connection to FFXI's design and development at all), who also was the character designer for FFXII and XIV.

Everyone knows that Tetsuya Nomura is a closet leather fetishist though. ;)

I hope we don't get into trouble for being this off topic, anyways:

I prefer amano's art, and i kinda liked the ff tactics psx artwork.I don't know who did it, but i liked ramzas drawing.

Everyone knows that Tetsuya Nomura is a closet leather fetishist though. ;)

I got a chuckle from reading that; it's so true, since he practically chokes his characters in belts!

Hey Corey! Long time no see! Welcome back! :D

Yep, Nomura really does have a disturbing obsession with leather wear which seems to get worse with every passing FF title he designs for. At least FFVII didn't have too much of a bondage look, but by FFXIII... he's virtually become a card-carrying rave/goth club member it's that bad. :p

And you're fine Nostalgia - it's still kinda of in topic in regards to FFXIII (in a round about way) - but if it goes off topic too far I can just simply move it to General FF I guess.

And FFT's character designer was Akihiko Yoshida again (I just confirmed that by reading the credits in the manual of my old PSX copy of the game).

I started FFXIII the day it came out. I stopped for a while, couldn't remember why. Then I picked up where I left off just a few days ago. Now I remember why I quit. I hate to be that guy, but in this case, I mostly stopped playing because I'm stuck at a boss in Chapter 9, and every strategy I try fails. The game doesn't want me to take a safe and slow route either, because if I take longer than 15 minutes, the boss slaps doom on Lightning. I've even tried "winning strategies" I've found online, but it's no use. I've never been this stuck before. And, if I have, it's because I rushed through the game. But, in this case, I've fought every monster I could fight. Leveled up the crystalariums (or whatever) the best I could. It's just the game doesn't give me the space I like to have in a Final Fantasy, where if I wanted, I could mass level and explore, and get ahead of the game.

The game has major problems, and i feel the series keeps going further downhill.This new thing of dlc problems, like the so called infamous having to download the ending to play the ending of FFXIII-2 if it is true, makes it the worse idea.

The chapter 9 boss is pretty brutal. It's a huge difficulty spike. I had to restart my file twice to get to a place where I could best him. Still took me a while, but not so long that I got slapped with Doom. Totally blanking on whether or not any of my characters had the Haste spell yet.

I gotta admit I played 13 just because it was an FF game. It had nothing to resonate with me and seemed to be tailored just to cater to the widest crowd (and what's popular today). But I got through it anyways. FF13-2 kinda made me glad I did because it felt much better in all aspects.
Some people say 13 is their favorite. Can't see anything weird with that. Either the game fits you or not and nothing anyone else says would change that. It's always up to the game and your chemistry.