In that case you are no where near unlocking your full party yet :S... got a long long while to go before you can even change your party members... i think it was about 23hours in.

DM: That says a lot about a game.


IT'S SOOO PRETTY!!!!!


...

the game itself is fantastic, but I can't get over how good the graphics are. Good graphics don't make a game sure, i'll be the first to admit that but the game is damn good even without the awesome eye candy.

Isn't ffxiv (the mmo) using the same engine.. i believe based on seeing the massive open area's in the game later on.. downside the grass had the same texture pattern over and over (which is pretty typical for final fantasy) but the massive beasts roaming the land and all the rising and lowering landscape made it pretty.. needed more bushes and shrubs though.. and maybe a tree.. or building of some kind...

Also with out spoiling it i can finally see how versus is set in the same universe...

Well actually from this site that i've found
http://www.lensoftruth.com/?p=18555
The framerate is pretty much identical, so my guess the ps3 version is a better option, since there are a few shadows missing on the xbox360 version, u actually noticce it abit on this site, and also the 360 version is 3 disks long, so imagining settling down on ur coach and enjoying an intense moment of ff13 then BOOM, next disk please...

The only thing the 360 does better is having a filter distance, so in my opinion its not pretty much identical at all. Im not a ps3 fanboy or nothing, its just this game was developed first for the ps3 so it only comes natural for the 360 to get a port version which isnt as good, there is heaps of games where the 360 version is far superior then the ps3 version to, due to it being ported over to the ps3.

So if ur looking to get the 360 version or ps3, its prob best to go for the ps3

The framerate is pretty much identical

I have noticed a few times (we are talking single didget numbers in over 12 hours of gameplay) where the FPS has dropped a tiny bit. Not a ton but enough to be slightly choppy. These moments only last like 5 seconds at max so that is no issue.

I've not seen a 360 version of the game playing so I can't comment on anything in that version by first hand observations but that site's pictures on the cinematics was pretty shocking. Snow's picture in particular, it makes him look like his face is made of plastic as the bad compression doesn't seem like it picks up the smaller, more intricate bumps and stuff on his face.

Well, I've been away for work, only just got home today and picked up FF13 this afternoon, and I ended up going for the PS3 version. Haven't tried it yet, but I figured since at least half the game is watching the cinematics, its probably worth having the version with the better cinematics. I really wanted to make it a 360 purchase, I just think there would have been something rather momentous about sitting down to enjoy the latest Final Fantasy epic on a non-Sony console, but at the end of the day, I just wasn't willing to sacrifice that bit of extra quality for the sake of my principles :P

But from what people who are playing it have said in this thread, looks like I made the right choice.

just got the shiva twins

this game is just gettin better and better. been playing for a while now and have a lvl 25 sword on lightnight and some other cool s***. very entertaining so far, even just watching the cgi inbetween playing is awesome. I hope there is a cinema option unlocked at the end so u can watch all the cgi's again.

If anyone wants to sell their 360 version when they are done or to get the ps3 version, gimmie a PM I might be interested in buying a 2nd hand copy.

I'm only about 3 hours in so far, but I dunno, its kind of bland so far. I mean it IS a final fantasy game so 3 hours in is still at the "you haven't really finished the intro yet" stage, but its yet to really impress me. Also, some of the dialogue is terrible, and the emotion is so forced, I don't really feel for any of the characters at all that I'm obviously meant to be feeling for.

im really digging the battle system. its like a cross between ffxii and x-2 plus the new atb gauge.

I'm only about 3 hours in so far, but I dunno, its kind of bland so far. I mean it IS a final fantasy game so 3 hours in is still at the "you haven't really finished the intro yet" stage, but its yet to really impress me. Also, some of the dialogue is terrible, and the emotion is so forced, I don't really feel for any of the characters at all that I'm obviously meant to be feeling for.

Agree! There feels like a lot of awkward pauses in all the dialogue between characters. Like one guy will yell YES I AM AN HERO and then it'll cut to another guy waits for ages who then yells YEH!!!!!!!!! I'm finding most of the characters pretty annoying actually. Except for black guy with chocobo in his hair, he's alright.

what you have described is pretty much every dubbed anime (i know this is a game) every sold outside of japan.

Yeah, it reminds me a lot of a dubbed anime. Is there a technical reason for it? Like is what they're saying longer in japanese than in English, so when they try to fit English words into the cutscenes it ends up with awkward gaps and pauses? Or is that just how japanese people think english is spoken?

pretty sure they redid all the cutscenes for english. thats why all the lips are in sync when they speak.

also just got odin. was kind of a tough battle since he owns you at the start, so you need to start the battle with lightning as the medic to withstand the onslaught.

last edited by ravn0s at 22:54:47 11/Mar/10

also just got odin. was kind of a tough battle since he owns you at the start, so you need to start the battle with lightning as the medic to withstand the onslaught.

Odin was a god damn monster of a fight. He destroyed me at least 4 times before I managed to kill him. Same goes for later on when you fight sahz's.

EDIT - So I just finished my play time for the night and am about 24 - 25 hours in I think. I unlocked party selection and access to all class trees but here comes a bit of a problem that i've eventually gotta come to deal with. Who to pick.

Right now my Lightning is set for mostly raw damage as a commando. This means she does kinda crappy (300 - 400 element damage). I can't really sub her out because she really has become my main. I can't figure out which other 2 I should bring with me. Fang/Vanille combo works wonders for raw damage (had an 11k stagger hit with this) but you can't rely on the debuffing power of them during every fight due to immunities. Hope/Sahz seems to work awesome too due to the insane amount of buffs between them (elemental weapons, protect, shell, haste, veil and a few other buffs) but hope can't heal like vanille can. Snow doesn't seem to be getting any action at all despite his insane amount of HP which is currently over 2.1k without any accessories when the rest of my party has only 1.2 - 1.4 at most.

Trying to decide wether I should drop Lightning as the main and instead use Fang or Snow because I like the idea of a defence capable character in the group. Wondering how the combo of Snow/Sahz/Vanille will do. Having 900 odd HP over all the other characters so far seems pretty tempting but perhaps I should just stick with fang and get her some maxed out levels Gold Bracelets since they would give around +400 hp each.

Arg so much strategy opens up the second you can pick your party members.

last edited by DM at 03:12:32 12/Mar/10

The best balanced party consists of lighting, fang, hope. (lightning as leader)

Between them they have the 3 best roles you have already invested in, there primary roles are the best for balance aswell. Delta attack com, sent and rav will be one of the most used roles later on and it works best with this three... you can then also use relentless assault, mystic tower, solidarity.. again most used para's.

Which imo sucks cause id rather be playing with snow, sazh and vanille. (which is also a good team, but a little bit weak when push comes to shove.

After getting my ass brutualy raped for over an hour straight, I've given in and admitted defeat for now to the boss in The Fifth Ark. He is just so god damn hard with his AoE blast which does like 900 damage AND remove all your buffs. I'll try again later with that group you got there grog. I thought having sahz and vanille for their super buffs/debuffs/small AoE heal would be good but without a sentinal to guide his attacks when he is in offence mode it's just too god damn hard to withstand his onslaught.

I'll give it a few hours and try again. For now, time to beat up some people in Yakuza 3

EDIT - Also I was looking through the Extras menu and it seems there are themes for the PS3 you can unlock by doing something with your characters. IDK what I did but I unlocked the Sahz theme. Also looking through the trophies and noticed I had the silver "Limit Break - Do 100,000 damage in a single attack" one which I thought was pretty awesome.

So far my single biggest hit I remember was 11k. 1 of those iron robot things, while it was in charge mode with imperil, deprotect and deshell on it, and I had bravery and enfire on.

last edited by DM at 13:26:21 12/Mar/10

Try it with lightning/hope/fang, switch between delta attack, mystic tower, soliditary.

yeah you get themes for different trophies you unlock, i think there is 8 in total.

wheres the extras menu? the only trophies ive got are the lame ones for completing parts of the story :/

also i think the fastest time you can win a battle is 3 seconds. battle report shows 2 seconds but then it ticks over to 3 :/

Extras menu appears when you unlock 1 of the themes. I have NO clue how you do it but I have 1 theme ready to go.

Also I did the fight with lighting/hope/fang and surpsing how well I did. Did it first shot too. Seeing him flail away on fang while she had her medistance thingy up was funny as she was just evading everything and taking no damage most of the time. I like her as sentinel. GOOD TIMES!

I've gotten trophies for scanning enemies over 1000 times (i think, that or killing over 1000 scanned enemies), doing over 100,000 damage in 1 turn, and 1 or 2 others I can't remember. says i'm 23% done with total collection rate and I have like 10 of them for the story alone.

last edited by DM at 16:26:18 12/Mar/10

The extras menu appears after you unlock you first extra on the main menu... all it is is themes... infact some of them you could download from psn a few months ago.

also
The cinematic at the start of chapter 12 is by far some of the best cgi action i have ever seen....

EPIC.

Created a separate save so i can watch it again and again and again.

just finished the story. ending was pretty epic however the last few bosses were super easy. guess its onto post game hunts and s*** now.

im about 10 hours in... is it all about fighting? ie because there is really 0 exploring, u have a thin map you just follow... does it get better?

when you get to gran pulse (around 20-25 hrs in), you can do as much exploring as you want. however because monsters are so powerful on pulse its best to leave the exploring until after the end of the game.

I play this on the PS3, my flatmate plays it on his xbox 360, the framerate on the 360 is crap. just watching him play and run around in gran pulse, it looks fairly choppy in comparison with the PS3 i'd have to say.

Weird thing about this game, im 60 hours in and loving it, but it feels like its been far too short.

I think thats due to the linearity of the game. Im running around Gran Pulse now doing all the missions & developing my char's, I can kill one of those giant creatures that stomp around without the horns, but the ones with the horns are too hard, 8k hit.

I found if you summon Vanille's eidolon it knocks out his legs but I still cant get enough dmg to get anywhere NEAR taking him out, 7 million HP or something.

Behemoth kings were a prick too, but i've mastered them now.

wheres the extras menu? the only trophies ive got are the lame ones for completing parts of the story :/

Pretty sure it's the "Loremaster" achievement.

EDIT: after looking at it, it looks like you get them from other trophies. I highlighted the theme I have and it says unlocked from getting the loremaster trophy.

last edited by Panda at 21:17:18 03/Apr/10