Final Fantasy XIII

[Tyr]

For you to get engaged with the finer parts of the story you really have to make an effort, well for me atleast.

I suppose that'd be the nice way of saying what most reviews say. I just don't see how they thought it was a good idea when making the game. I really can't see how they thought making the gameplay itself gradually unlock as you progress was a good design idea either. It wasn't like this with the other Final Fantasies.

[Juno]

Really and truly, the only background you absolutely need (at least on disc 1) is given to you in the story. Lightning's explanation about who PSICOM is, and Vanille's bit near the beginning. "Pulse fal'Cie and l'Cie are bad news. Live too close to the fal'Cie? One way ticket to Pulse! That's the Purge in a nutshell."

[Super Buu]

Yeah it's seriously not that complicated. There aren't many characters to keep track of and no 'twists' that aren't blatantly signposted beforehand by a conspicuous void of information about certain things. My major complaint is that a bunch of questions never get answered.

Luckily, for me, the gameplay completely makes up for the plot.

[Juno]

How do you beat the Chapter 5 boss?!

[Kaden]

Start with Libra (obviously) since, I think, that's the one that switches elemental weaknesses.

Other than that, keep yourself buffed with Hope. Having a Paradigm for two medics probably isn't a bad idea, either.

[Super Buu]

I only lately started deviating from regular old Com/Rav/Rav for pure offense, so I thought I'd say that having Tri-Disaster on your paradigm list is really damn useful against single enemies. I'm thinking of trying a pure Com setup now for maximum staggered damage, especially since raising it to 999% is real quick and easy now thanks to Cold Blood, Army of One and the like.

[Kaden]

I tried Com/Com/Com, but was definitely not a fan. It's virtually worthless unless there's only one enemy, since Coms will go out of their way to target different enemies.

I definitely did use Tri-Disaster for a while, though. Only got rid of it when I specced Lightning into Sentinel, since I didn't have one. Having started the post-game, though, I'd probably be fine getting rid of the Delta Attack Paradigm in favor of Tri-Disaster again.

Sadly, as I'm playing now, I don't have access to either Army of One or Cold Blood. I do, however, like Death.

[Juno]

Yeah, that's the one, Kaden.

I finally beat it, mostly using Dualcasting, Slash & Burn, and War & Peace (w/ Hope as the medic).

[Kaden]

I'm pretty sure, when I did it, I used a lot of Com/Syn, Med/Med, and Rav/Rav or Com/Rav. I like being able to flip into multiple Medics to get the healing dealt with as quickly as possible. It usually results in more Shifts, overall, but I think it's worth it most of the time.

EDIT: Anyone taken down the giant cactaur or an Adamantoise yet? I've broken 10k HP with almost all my characters, which I decided would be the benchmark before trying again. Hooray to not being instantly killed with 10,000 god-damned Needles.

[Saz]

Man, that boss at the end of chapter nine was a grind. Using curse when it's on its last legs was fucking gay, wasted 20 minutes with that shit, it was such a relief when I managed to finish him second time around.

I should probably start figuring out who my main 3 characters should be at this point. I'll keep Lightening in, just cuz... well she is pretty versitile to be fair. Fang's pretty powerful right now too. Sazh is the only character with haste, but other than that I don't rate him. I like Hope as a medic, because he also has support magic, but I'm not sure yet. Decisions, decisions.

[Victoria]

I used lightening, hope, and fang. Hope has the highest magic, and makes a great support/healer, and fang has the highest attack and does great damage or can make a suitable tank. Lightning is cool, and is an overall balanced fighter.

By the way, that boss is only a taste of whats to come. I kept all my crystariums leveled to max (not the optional ones, just the main ones) and upgraded weapons. The boss fight in chapter 11 took me an hour until I upgraded my weapons further, then it took 10-15 min. It also casts curse so it's a bit of a pain.

[Juno]

I haven't tried Fang, but right now my plans are (with their main roles bolded):

Lightning (offense), Hope (offense/defense), Vanille (offense/healer)

[Kaden]

I really don't think there are any unplayable combos in the game.

Hope is a badass Ravager, Vanille's an awesome Sab, and being able to go Med/Med/Med should easily take care of not having a Sen to draw fire. It'll be kind of sad until Hope unlocks Haste, but them's the brakes.

EDIT: Another FYI, Vanille never gets Slow. If you were counting on that (like me, who was wrongly informed until I just went and looked it up)... don't.

[Saz]

Haste is pretty awesome. I've traded a big damage dealer (Fang/Snow) for Sazh, solely because of haste. It's just made tricky battles so much easier.

[Saz]

Finally finished the game. Honestly I don't know exactly what happened at the ending, I guess I'm gonna have to look it up online. I found the whole story difficult to follow really.

I feel like I've critisied and generally been quite negative about this game even though I did enjoy large parts of it.