FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

[Mezlo]

I didn't see a thread yet so here it is.

I played FFXIII-2 last night and I have some initial thoughts. First off, my wife made me wait for her so she could watch because she remember how epic the graphics / movie / storyline was in FFXIII, so she didn't want to miss it. The opening scene will not let you down. I'm watching it on my 1080p 52" tv in the bedroom with Bose surround sound, and the movies gave us goose bumps multiple times. As far as tghe gameplay goes... Now, I haven't played it that long, maybe an hour of gmae play, but it seems alot more automated than FFXIII. Anyone else run across that? I remember in the first game you could sleect how you wanted to attack, what attack to string along to use with the ATB meter. In this one, i couldnt figure out how to individually select the attacks, I only could do autoattack, which would automatically select the best combo of attack options. I'm hoping I'm wrong. Since there is an "auto attack" option, I'd assume they must have the converse, which would be the manual attack option, but I couldn't figure it out.

Also, I hope this changes as well, but the Crystarium is all blanked out, and you can't see what abilities / bonuses you're getting until you select that particular node. Now, this sounds bad but it's even worse, as of now, and I'm to level 10 on the crystarium, you don't get options like in FFXIII, to level a jobs crystarium, it's linear, you just pick the next node. This bummed me out and I hope it changes as we progress. Again, I havent played long yet, but a linear Crystarium defeats the purpose, imo, of having the damn thing. I really enjoyed planning the characters development with choosing which paths in the Crystrium I wanted to take, if it's linear, they might as well just fill it out for you and tell you what you get...

[Icemage]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

Don't have the game yet (my copy should arrive tomorrow from Amazon), but from my experiences in the demo, which I played through twice:

Re: Auto-Attack
You can manually pick abilities. Instead of auto-chain/auto-attack/whatever, go one option down to Abilities, and you can select your own options. Personally, this seems like a waste of time, as it takes too long to select the things you need, and the auto-pick always chooses the best element attacks to use. The only time this might be useful is if you want to prioritize area attacks instead of single targets, or if you're taking control of a Sentinel.

Re: Crystarium
You have to be a bit more careful this time around than FFXIII. Because there's a linear path through every Crystarium role path, with no choice on the order that nodes are activated, that part is made simpler. However, no matter which Role you level up, the cost to level up next time will always tend to increase.

For instance, if it costs you 80CP for your next level of Synergist to go from Synergist 1 to Synergist 2, and your next level up costs 100CP for Synergist 3 afterwards, it does not matter which role you chose. You could have taken your Commando 10 and pushed it to Commando 11 for the same 80CP, and Commando 12 would cost 100 CP.

In other words, it costs the same amount of CP to get these role levels, despite there being wildly different setups, and your next level in any role would cost the same CP no matter which setup or role you chose to level next:

Commando 21 (+20 levels)
Ravager 1 (+0 levels)
Medic 1 (+0 levels)
Sentinel 1 (+0 levels)

Commando 6 (+5 levels)
Ravager 6 (+5 levels)
Medic 6 (+5 levels)
Sentinel 6 (+5 levels)

Commando 1 (+0 levels)
Ravager 11 (+10 levels)
Medic 11 (+10 levels)
Sentinel 1 (+0 levels)

These are just examples - I don't know offhand how many roles are opened right at the start, these are just guesses on my part, but you get the idea.

You also get a choice of bonuses every time you get to the next "tier" of the Crystarium, be it more equipment capacity, more ATB segments, or a boost to a specific role bonus. I don't know if there's any way to re-spec those bonuses, but that's definitely something you should watch out for.


Icemage

[Mezlo]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

Commando 21 (+20 levels)
Ravager 1 (+0 levels)
Medic 1 (+0 levels)
Sentinel 1 (+0 levels)

Commando 6 (+5 levels)
Ravager 6 (+5 levels)
Medic 6 (+5 levels)
Sentinel 6 (+5 levels)

Commando 1 (+0 levels)
Ravager 11 (+10 levels)
Medic 11 (+10 levels)
Sentinel 1 (+0 levels)

I'm not liking the way that is setup. I would think that any job no matter what level the other jobs you have, as you go from rank 1-2 the CP should be the same. You start out with com, rav, and sent, no medic. I've increased to 10 com already. Now you're saying that if i want to increase to 2 rav, it would cost the same amount of CP as if I wanted to goto 11 com? That's whack.

[Icemage]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

I'm not liking the way that is setup. I would think that any job no matter what level the other jobs you have, as you go from rank 1-2 the CP should be the same. You start out with com, rav, and sent, no medic. I've increased to 10 com already. Now you're saying that if i want to increase to 2 rav, it would cost the same amount of CP as if I wanted to goto 11 com? That's whack.

Yep. What that means is that you can't go back and just quickly "fill in" a role that you've neglected, so you'll either have to grind a LOT or be a lot more careful how you plan out your job roles, which is something you never had to do in FFXIII.

---

EDIT: Another tip occurs to me.

When levelling up monsters via the Crystarium, until/unless you can buy stat-specific upgrade items (Mana Drop for instance, which increases magical attributes for creatures), you should save those, especially in the early game. One of the ways to get stronger creatures is to boost their levels and get them to their various passive abilities, which you can then use Infuse with to transfer the powers of a levelled-up creature onto another creature, IF that creature can learn those powers. What you DON'T transfer, however, are the raw stats that were gained from your level-up items.

The solution to this, therefore, is to only level up your early game creatures with "generic" items that you can buy from the shop, and save the stat-specific stuff for when you know exactly what team(s) you'll end up using. That can lead to much stronger creatures by the time you get to late-game, as your heavy hitting Commando-type creatures can get a bunch of Strength boosts instead of just generic all-around boosts, and your magic-using Ravager/Medic/Saboteur type monsters can benefit from highly boosted Magic stats (which you can then magnify even further by Infusing traits from other monsters like Magic +16% or whatever).


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

Thought I covered all this both in the podcast and in another thread?

tl;dr - Serah has awesome tits (and Noel's surprisingly likeable.)

[Gobo]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

Ravager for Serah for Ultima Arrow and Commando for Noel for Meteor Javelin, if you want those.

[Malacite]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

OK so, thus far I only have one major gripe that is making me seethe with rage, and that is the random encounters.


Seriously, what the fuck SE - it was fine in the demo but as you get further into the main game you begin to notice a couple of glaring flaws. The first being that in some areas the game has a horrendous tendency to spawn enemies RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU so forget even trying to a pre-emptive; either that or they spawn already active for some fucking reason and hit you before you can draw your weapon which brings me right into my second point...

WHY SO SLOW SE?! Honestly, I'm getting fed up very quickly of seeing monsters spawn, and then getting attacked before I can even swing at them. I've had it happen when Noel's damn weapons are both out and I'm mashing the button while charging the enemy but still he doesn't swing. Some of the enemies are real buggers to hit too. Would a normal encounter system have been too much? I like the whole popping in out of nowhere aspect as it fits the whole paradox theme, but they could have been more forgiving (fucking 100 pre-emtpives in a row trophy can bite my ass...)

So that needs to get patched ASAP, along with seemingly retarded AI. Now I've only had this happen vs bombs, but even after scanning them and determining their weakness, Sarah continues to periodically cast Thunder despite the fact it heals them. This NEVER happened in 13, why the crap is it happening in 13-2?

otherwise I'm loving the game (bad music aside) as I normally despise time travel, except that they're dealing with the very subject of time travel that makes me hate it - paradoxes. It's like Chrono Trigger on crack. They're not even trying to avoid the subject like most time travel stories do (hi2u WotG, at least partially) and just running wild with it.

[Mezlo]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

I'm loving the game (bad music aside)

I'm loving the music! To me it's typical anime style music but with more of a club beat to it. Now again, I'm only like 4 playing hours into it, and the music hasn't changed too much, I've only traveled in time once, but I'm loving the graphics and the music. That being said, if the music doesn't change I could see getting tired of it.

As far as leveling the crystarium, if you think back to ffxiii, you had 2 main characters that kept their job 95% of the time, and 5% of the time you would change them to medic or sentinal for WTF things that happen from time to time. So I don't see why you dont just stay the main course with their main jobs, and then take sentinal to 10 or medic to 10 whenever the job becomes available. And with the addition of the monsters you can bring into your party, they can suffice for the medic, sabaotour, and synergist which can allow you to focus on just levleing your main. That's my take anyway.

When it comes to leveling up your mobs, it seems like you'd want to level the ones you're going to be using the most as fast as you can, because the stronger your party, the faster you can beat your opponents, and the faster you win the battles, the more stars you get and the greater percentage of item and rare item drops. Currently I only have Serah (rav) and Noel (com) and I have a list of 10 mobs currently to pick from. I have one thats a robot (com) i forget his name, but I maxed his level out at 20, and he have 3 times the HP of both my guys and hit harder than both. When would you start wanting to meld the monsters? Do you want to get them to amx through the crystarium and then meld them to one of the monster that are "late bloomers" meaning the monsters that can go up to level 70+ ? Or would it be better to meld prior to investing material in them to level them? I guess I just don't understand the affects and the dynamics of melding monsters.

And Mal, Chocolita has better tits.

[Malacite]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

Hmm, possibly, but the camera sure does focus on Serah's chest an awful lot... it's kinda creepy actually.

Makes me wonder if SE's just waiting for an excuse to put out an M+ rated FF lol? Like, OK, she's really cute, I get it, stop trying to make me a pervert already.



Also I really dislike how badly they've nerfed Synergist, dear lord wtf. Don't even bother unlocking it for Serah, that was a mistake I'm regretting (god damn the auto-save) as she utterly fails at it compared to Noel. She's oddly bad as a medic too. Weirder still is Noel gets the unique ravager skill and Sarah gets the unique commando skill, but they're each better at the other role - good job on that one SE.


Seriously though, I'm honestly pissed the F off that they removed Haste, Faith & Brave (along with some of the other nice buffs like en and bar spells) from Synergist. I remember reading they were going to nerf SYN & SAB for 13-2 but they went too far. Even monsters can't ever learn haste.

And of course, fucking LONG GUI ARE BACK! Thanks SE, you nerf the hell out of SYN but kept the mother fucking turtles I hate with the passion of 1000 suns.

There are no words...

[Mezlo]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

Like, OK, she's really cute, I get it, stop pointing out how big of a pervert I am already.

FTFY

[Cheezeman3000]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

Also I really dislike how badly they've nerfed Synergist, dear lord wtf. Don't even bother unlocking it for Serah, that was a mistake I'm regretting (god damn the auto-save) as she utterly fails at it compared to Noel. She's oddly bad as a medic too. Weirder still is Noel gets the unique ravager skill and Sarah gets the unique commando skill, but they're each better at the other role - good job on that one SE.

Seriously though, I'm honestly pissed the F off that they removed Haste, Faith & Brave (along with some of the other nice buffs like en and bar spells) from Synergist. I remember reading they were going to nerf SYN & SAB for 13-2 but they went too far. Even monsters can't ever learn haste.

And of course, fucking LONG GUI ARE BACK! Thanks SE, you nerf the hell out of SYN but kept the mother fucking turtles I hate with the passion of 1000 suns.

There are no words...

You've got to be shitting me. Please tell me Haste is at least available in one of the roles. Any of them.

[Firewind]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

I thought you said you weren't buying the game in the other thread Mal.

[Malacite]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

I never said I wasn't buying it (and I still haven't bought it actually) just I wasn't going to get it off Amazon.

Funny thing, there's these little places where you can pay them a little bit of money, and they let you take games home with you for a short time! Such a novel concept!


... anyhoo, Serendipity is pissing me off with the slot machines, and I'm infinitely pissed at myself now because I failed to notice a square chest as I exited New Bodum: Year Unknown in chapter 5. I didn't see it until it was shown in the freaking background during the CS when I opted to go through the distortion. Thanks SE, that better not have been something vital to any trophies as I can't seem to go back there even through time reversal.

[Mezlo]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

OK guys, question... I've leveled RAV for Serah and Com for Noel to where there is no upcoming ability to learn, around level 65-70. Should i keep leveling it, or is it stupid since there's nothing else to learn, and i should concentrate now on other jobs that have upcoming abilities to learn?

[Malacite]

Re: FFXIII-2 gameplay, strategies, comments, etc...

You'll want to take them to 99 at some point anyway because you get more effective at those roles with every level.


Just got the lucky coin fragment, still hating the casino overall though. Damn the card tables being DLC.


I have to say, I am foaming at the mouth with rage over the monster system, and I'll be making a note of it in tomorrow's podcast. As such I'm going to leave it at this - Fuck SE and their stupid nonsensical bullshit. Ridiculous leveling system (rare items instead of EXP) and locking monsters to using abilities from a single role (while only allowing 3 monsters in your pack) = fucking retarded. And No, SE, having multiple "decks" is not a good solution to this. Fuck you, I want to at least be able to have 2 roles per monster because I really could use a half-decent SEN or SYN monster in my pack but that would royally fuck up my usual battle strategy.


Don't ever do something janky like this again. Or better yet, go back to pre-defined roles for FFXV PLEASE! Just once, can we have a game where it actually matters what characters you use in the party instead of only having aesthetic differences?!