Final Fantasy XIII

[Super Buu]

Gran Pulse fixed my difficulty problems. Nice gameplay/story metaphors there too.

[Saz]

Yay, got the game, only about an hour into it so far. Felt instantly engaged with the story from the start, which was a relief because all the clips and trailers I'd seen looked a bit over the top for my taste. I know it's been criticized for being too linear, but I'm actually looking forward to playing a game where I don't have to make loads of decisions, where I can just enjoy the story.

[Kole T. Merr]

Just got to the point where I can choose my team. Not 100% sure of who I want in there, but I do know that I want Lightning. Also, I'm curious as to where I should be with regards to weapon upgrading in mid-chapter 9. I feel like farming at this point isn't really a doable thing, unless people just respawn if I wait long enough. Right now, Lightning has her weapon at around lvl 18, and everyone else is at 5 or 6. I'm keeping hers so high because I'm trying to get it to MAX so I can evolve it. But anyway.

Chapter 9 Spoiler:
[spoiler] Fuck Square Enix and making me think I'd gotten Sazh's eidolon just in time for him to kill himself. I mean, I didn't actually believe he had done it, but it was still really fucking intense. [/spoiler]

[Victoria]

In response to that spoiler:

[spoiler]I cried during that scene, it was really intense, and the story gets so good[/spoiler]

At the end of chapter 11 you'll face a boss that will require you to have your 3 main party members with second level items. The team I always use is lightning, hope and fang

Bladed Lance to Glaive, Blazefire saber to Flameberge, and Hawkeye to Eagletalon

The boss is very hard unless you beat it in a certain amount of time, so prepare yourself for that. I'd suggest level grinding so your main tree's are leveled. There's a good spot to get CP in the next area, when you hop up a series of jumps and face 10 slugs at a dead end, they respawn when you jump down the steps and then back up.

[Kaden]

I've been rocking Lightning, Hope, and Vanille.

I'm almost 100% sure I'll need a Sentinel at some point, though, which makes me sad. If it was even remotely feasible right now, I'd work Lightning up the Sentinel tree.

[Super Buu]

I owned the Chapter 11 boss with basic weapons upgraded to max level. But then I did have pretty high levels by that point, I went back and did quite a few missions. I've been switching teams around constantly since I got the option (there are different setups that work best against different enemies) but I finally found what seems to be my favourite team: Fang, Sazh, Hope. I always start in a buffing paradigm, haste always pays for itself unless it's a very quick fight, and the elemental damage buffs make a huge difference.

[Kaden]

I've been going back and forth between what I want my set-up to be. Fang and Sazh seem like easy choices for Slow and Haste, but I haven't found a party with them that I'm actually happy with yet.

I just got to the grinding point that Victoria mentioned, and it's definitely worth a few runs. Winning the fight gives you a full TP, for starters, and if you get a pre-emptive strike (I'd say about 70% of mine were) one Quake will kill all the slug dudes. 5 seconds for 640 CP? Yes please.

I have Lightning and Vanille using tier-2 weapons now, and Hope's tier-1 is maxed. I just need to save up the gil to buy the catalyst for his Hawkeye. For people looking to upgrade their weapons easily, 36 Vibrant Oozes (2,880 gil) will cap a weapon's XP bonus (x3) then you just save up to dump a bunch of better items on it. I've been using Passive Detectors. There might be something that works better, though. Spending 20,000 gil (not a whole lot, really) Hope's Hawkeye went from lvl 4 to capped in one shot.

[Saz]

Is it just me or is the story ridiculously overcomplicated? I've clocked about 12 hours worth of gameplay and I still don't exactly know what the fuck is going on.

[Kaden]

It's not really that complicated at all.

Just jump into the Datalog and make sure you have the names correct. Turning on cutscene subtitles also helps. It's easy to get l'Cie and fal'Cie and Pulse and all that bullshit mixed up at first.

[Saz]

Yeah I'm definately getting confused over the names of things.

I turned on cutscene subtitles straight after the first cutscene... I was kind of irritated that subtitles on wasn't the default setting, but whatever.

[Victoria]

Yeah I was confused at first too, but then I read everything in the data log and continued to do so and in the end I absolutely loved the story.

[Kaden]

Finally got to the point in the Cie'th stone missions where I probably won't be able to clear any more on this first run-through. Very sad.

Is anyone else trying to get through all the missions? I definitely want to once I've maxed some of my classes.

[Piper Juunanagou]

I thought I read somewhere that they don't have the New Game+ option in FF13?

[Kaden]

Sorry, I meant once I unlock the last tier of the Crystarium.

EDIT: Edited for clarity.

[Juno]

Rented today. Going to play soon.

[Kaden]

If anyone else watched Yahtzee's review of the game, he's absolutely correct about the pacing of the story. It's slow. Really slow. Still very engaging, but you have to be willing to invest quite a bit of time before everything really starts coming together.

[Victoria]

I still loved it, it was just right for me.

and yeah no new game + but you can beat the story and reload with your expanded crystarium and go back to do missions.

[Kaden]

Oh it was definitely enjoyable. I love the story and the way it was presented.

Doesn't change the fact that you need to sink about 12 hours into it before things really make any kind of sense.

[Tyr]

Is there any one at all here with the X-Box version?

[Juno]

I've got the XBOX version.

Just finished Chapter 1, I've met Lightning, Sazh, Snow, Vanille, and Hope. So far, the story's great; it's really engaging. The voice acting's also top notch, especially on Vanille.