cheema201
03-13-2010, 07:24 PM
I have recently finished Final Fantasy 13 (after a 4 day bender). Completed about 30 of the 64 optional "missions/hunts/marks". Including a few of the later and tougher battles.
The actual story took me about 45 hours to finish. Which to me felt a little short. It seems to be running smoothly and come to an abrupt end, and it left me sitting there going, come on SE, why would u have the credits mid way through a game. But i was wrong, the credits did mean the end. However you have the option of saving your game after defeating the final boss and you get an extended "Crystarium" to develop your characters further, which was good I thought.
The final boss of the game is by no means an easy battle. It definately takes some strategy to knock him down. Also towards the end of the fight he has the ability to KO a player with one move. Making it a game of chance if you do not have a sentinal/defender provoking when the move is used. Even though this fight was more difficult than most FF final bosses, there are still some exploits which make it easier to take down his 6 million hp. The fact that he is not immune to all status ailments makes the fight a little one sided. If you would like a challenge then it may be a good idea not to use your sabatour/jammer.
The battle system is remarkable. It is very addictive and never gets old.. The only problem i found with it was the limited control that you have over the players besides your leader in battle... I mean sure you can change up their class at will, but the aim of many battles is to finish them quickly to achieve your 5 star rating, well 5 stars doesn't matter all that much, as it only has real bearing on ur TP, however when you get to the missions i am sure that you would like to have a clean sweep of 5 stars. The limited control you have of ur other 2 characters is sometimes painful when you are trying to achieve this... For instance, if you have a paradigm set up with a synergist/enhancer to start your battle so that they will put you in haste and other things, if you would like the battle to go fast you would like to have bravery or faith or one of the en-element put on your party before protect, as hopefully you win with the battle through power and not have much need for the time wasted in these protective moves. If you could open the menu and throw the moves in order of what you would like your synergist to cast before specific battles, then it would make a whole lot more sense. Furthermore it may have been a good idea to be able to take control of your ai characters momentarily to perform the moves you wish. If, for instance, you could hold R2 or L2 (for playstation obviously) to take control of one of your other characters as leader in battle (like in seiken densetsu 3 AKA Secret of Mana 2) then it would eliminate the need for having your ai make those strategic decisions. It would also open up the possibility of summoning a different summon when you see fit, instead of being stuck with the leaders summon half way through a battle when you would have liked to use another from ur party.
All in all the game has its good points, such as the battle system, and is definately worth playing through. However I dont think it will go down as a great Final Fantasy. Due to a couple of things:
1. The music does not compare with some of the early games (Uematsu you will be missed)
2. The game is mostly centred around the battle system, with the only sidequest being, fighting some more monsters. Not much room for going and talking to NPC's to see wat they have to say, or re visit some of the regions u earlier passed through. Plus the absence of an airship is quite annoying. It is the first FF for a long time that hasn't had one.
However with all that said. I did very much enjoy the game, and even though it could have been better. I can still see myself playing it religiously for a while longer, since the battle system is so addictive.
If i were to score the game i would definately give it 9/10.
The actual story took me about 45 hours to finish. Which to me felt a little short. It seems to be running smoothly and come to an abrupt end, and it left me sitting there going, come on SE, why would u have the credits mid way through a game. But i was wrong, the credits did mean the end. However you have the option of saving your game after defeating the final boss and you get an extended "Crystarium" to develop your characters further, which was good I thought.
The final boss of the game is by no means an easy battle. It definately takes some strategy to knock him down. Also towards the end of the fight he has the ability to KO a player with one move. Making it a game of chance if you do not have a sentinal/defender provoking when the move is used. Even though this fight was more difficult than most FF final bosses, there are still some exploits which make it easier to take down his 6 million hp. The fact that he is not immune to all status ailments makes the fight a little one sided. If you would like a challenge then it may be a good idea not to use your sabatour/jammer.
The battle system is remarkable. It is very addictive and never gets old.. The only problem i found with it was the limited control that you have over the players besides your leader in battle... I mean sure you can change up their class at will, but the aim of many battles is to finish them quickly to achieve your 5 star rating, well 5 stars doesn't matter all that much, as it only has real bearing on ur TP, however when you get to the missions i am sure that you would like to have a clean sweep of 5 stars. The limited control you have of ur other 2 characters is sometimes painful when you are trying to achieve this... For instance, if you have a paradigm set up with a synergist/enhancer to start your battle so that they will put you in haste and other things, if you would like the battle to go fast you would like to have bravery or faith or one of the en-element put on your party before protect, as hopefully you win with the battle through power and not have much need for the time wasted in these protective moves. If you could open the menu and throw the moves in order of what you would like your synergist to cast before specific battles, then it would make a whole lot more sense. Furthermore it may have been a good idea to be able to take control of your ai characters momentarily to perform the moves you wish. If, for instance, you could hold R2 or L2 (for playstation obviously) to take control of one of your other characters as leader in battle (like in seiken densetsu 3 AKA Secret of Mana 2) then it would eliminate the need for having your ai make those strategic decisions. It would also open up the possibility of summoning a different summon when you see fit, instead of being stuck with the leaders summon half way through a battle when you would have liked to use another from ur party.
All in all the game has its good points, such as the battle system, and is definately worth playing through. However I dont think it will go down as a great Final Fantasy. Due to a couple of things:
1. The music does not compare with some of the early games (Uematsu you will be missed)
2. The game is mostly centred around the battle system, with the only sidequest being, fighting some more monsters. Not much room for going and talking to NPC's to see wat they have to say, or re visit some of the regions u earlier passed through. Plus the absence of an airship is quite annoying. It is the first FF for a long time that hasn't had one.
However with all that said. I did very much enjoy the game, and even though it could have been better. I can still see myself playing it religiously for a while longer, since the battle system is so addictive.
If i were to score the game i would definately give it 9/10.