Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Saga

[KHCast]

Wait what happened to that 13 psp game that was supposed to tie in with the lightning saga?

[Komodin]

Wait what happened to that 13 psp game that was supposed to tie in with the lightning saga?

Unless I'm mistaken, it (Final Fantasy Type-0) is currently stuck in Development Limbo with Versus XIII.

[Dobkeratops]

Unless I'm mistaken, it (Final Fantasy Type-0) is currently stuck in Development Limbo with Versus XIII.

Came out in Japan wayyy ago and it's really good.

What's stuck in limbo is the western release. They have the game all localized and shit but the PSP is dead so people are hoping for a quick Vita port to get their fix.

[KHCast]

Unless I'm mistaken, it (Final Fantasy Type-0) is currently stuck in Development Limbo with Versus XIII.

If that's the case, I'm laughing at how the 13 Crystal series thing, a huge project attempting to tell different stories in a similar universe, ended up just becoming the lightning saga.

Edit: Oh okay Dob. Still funny.

Edited September 3, 2012 by Hedgehogs Boost

[Conando]

Wait what happened to that 13 psp game that was supposed to tie in with the lightning saga?

Type-0? That was finished but, was never released in the West. It has nothing to do with the "Lightning Saga", though.

[KHCast]

Type-0? That was finished but, was never released in the West. It has nothing to do with the "Lightning Saga", though.

I thought originally it was planned to be tied in with the first 13 game.

[Conando]

It just uses some similar elements, like l'cie. Which are elite troops for the major cities, powered by crystals or some shit.

[\Lennox]

It just uses some similar elements, like l'cie. Which are elite troops for the major cities, powered by crystals or some shit.

[Autosaver]

I thought originally it was planned to be tied in with the first 13 game.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Why FF13-2 is shit Part 3.

You know... I almost... almost actually decided to start this with 'I'm now enjoying this game' because for a period of 10 min I was genually enjoying the game... and then the game became bullshit again. I will point out this moment... for now, the story so far.

So last night after defeating Giaus and going to some points in time (I still don't really know why I'm doing this).

======

You know whats exciting? Breaking into a corporations Headquarters! Fighting security! Fighting their monsterous experiments! Going on a quest to find the great Sephiroth! What else? Oh I know! Going on a quest which means your doom! With a giant monster stalking you destroying towns and villages with no way to stop it unless you die! Wandering the land hoping not to come lost in the deadly mist whilst some guy is planning to destroy all of the world! AND.... Some parts of FF8 were also exciting too! FF12 was... .. ... Oh sky pirates!

You know what isn't exciting.

Game: We need wool! We need wool! We need wool to make clothes! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GO FIND THE SHEEP!

Me:isn't this a side quest?"

Game: NO THIS IS PART OF THE MAIN STORYLINE! WE NEED WOOL!

Me: Can't I just go fight the boss?

Game: YES! AFTER YOU GO GET THOSE SHEEP!

Why am I doing this? Why do I have to go and chase (because they won't stay in one place) sheep, just so I can go fight a boss? To gain the hunters trust? Heres an idea. Why not do this.

Game: Can you kill that creature, it's causing a storm which is making it harder for us to hunt.

*1 boss fight later*

Game: Wow thanks, other hunters might have some jobs for you, why not ask them.

That is how you do this kind of side quest stuff! Not include it in the main part of your game... oh and once again TUTORIAL! Really!? Theres a fucking tutorial for everything in this game! Every new area, every NPC with a quest you get told what to do, then up pops either a tutorial or a menu which explains what to do... this is despite you being able to then talk to the NPC again to find out what you have to do!

And heres another piece of garbage design that I touched upon last night... Defeated a really hard dragon boss... what was my reward? Nothing. Following this, you then go to another area and fight another enemy which isn't that hard... your reward? Tons of gil, and tons of XP... Or as I thought 'why wasn't this my reward for the earlier boss?'

Now for the FF13 defence brigade, you don't think thats crap game design? Alright how about this.

You enter a futuristic city and have to fight your way through to a boss. It's quite a challenging fight, not overtly hard but a challenge. Your reward for beating it... Nothing.

Heres where the shit game design comes in.

After this victory you are forced into a cut scene and forced to go in one direction. After the cut scene you are rewarded with around 6500XP! Then after this cut scene, right in front of you is a treasure chest/orb thing... which contains several thousand bits of gil!

Why was this not given when you defeat the boss!? To give the player a feeling that you'd acomplished something instead of it being a 'oh well done, you walked down this path, here is 6500XP and some money... .. .. well goodbye..."

Completely pointless, giving XP for watching cut scenes as apposed to defeating enemies. What on earth is the point then in the results screen if you're not going to give the battle rewards until long after the fight is over?

==========

The 10 min of goodness.

So like I said... for about 10 min I was really enjoying the game... I entered this futuristic city which actually met with expectations of the game based on the intro showing the futuristic city and even FF13 itself being set in a futuristic utopia, erm anyway... then suddenly theres this awesome cut scene, people turn into monsters and I'm throw into battle and have to run for my life! ALRIGHT THIS IS AWESOME! I'm killing monsters like no tomorrow, running through the streets... more monsters! Running! More monsters! Running... more monsters.... more... more... more... monsters... Wait... how much XP am I getting? It must be a lot right?

Battle result = 0 Gil, 3XP (1Xp per monster).

1XP per monster... 1XP? Are you fucking kidding me!? OkAY! So the enemies are not that hard, but considering when you enter a battle and finish it thats about 40-60 seconds I'm taken out of the game and my reward is 1XP per enemy!? The battle only had 4 enemies in at the most!? And some only had 2! No Gil was awarded and the only items you get are monster enhancements which I'm still struggling to figure out what you do!

Then the biggest bullshit of this stage. You find an NPC who says 'we need maps!' this imediately follows a cut scene in which your characters say they need to figure out whats going on and stop it. The implication here from the NPC and the main cut scene is that the two are linked when they're not! The game effectively tells you to explore the entire area in order to beat this portion of the story. All the time you are constantly entering random battles which give you no reward! So you can imagine my frustration when you then enter a region which has Giaus in it and your new objective is to follow him... As you follow him there is still no sense that you shouldn't be trying to shut down the security bots which have "gone mad" or stop exploring.... yet as you'll find out later on, you can't possibly complete the exploring quest... meaning everything you just did was absolutely pointless! Meaning your progress on this side quest was pointless, and the XP you gained from the monsters is so low it has absolutely no beneit to you in the future boss fight which is in this stage.

=====

Why does this game want me to care about characters I know nothing about. Every now and again theres this random girl who I assume is some kind of mystic "I can see the future" kind of character? Thats lovely... only so far game you have said that they all look the same and every time I meet one it's a different one... So how on earth can you expect me or anyone to care when she dies by being stupid and theres no way to tell which version of her it is (if you play the game you'll understand this). Not to mention we have ALREADY SEEN HER DIE AT THE START OF THE GAME!

How do you expect me to care? Oh thats right... you play the sad music... that means I must be said right...

....

Dear Sqaure Enix... do you remember this character?

You know why her death was so shocking and had such an impact on those playing? Because we invested time in that character, we bought her weapons, gave her armor, gave her magic and levelled her up. We got to know her through the story for a long period of time. We cared about her BEFORE SHE DIED! So when she dies in the game, it's shocking because we care about that character, when her theme kicks in and her materia drops into the water is the moment we realise 'OH GOD THIS IS FOR REAL!' Thats why it had such an impact, we had spent hours with that character in both the gameplay and cut scenes. Her death had a huge impact because we cared about her... .. .. well not me I named her AerisBitch because I liked Tifa more.

But still, someone has died in FF13-2. Really!? Well... thats terrible! I'm so sad the mysterious stranger who I've spoken to for less than 20 seconds has gone!

Maybe it would have had more impact if imediately after this you don't force the player to walk past several injured and dying NPC's who you oddly feel more empathy more since their injuries come from you entering this world as apposed to this other characters own bloody fault. Unless of course the thinking "Why yes I will walk upto and try to touch this monster" is suddenly a good idea?

=========

For a while now... I've been playing this game and feeling depressed and drained of all joy and life... and I couldn't put my finger on why... then after one of the boss fights which give you no reward I figured out what it was.

The music.

The fights in this game, most have this battle theme.

Now listen to the first oh say 8-10 seconds of music... then stop. Go on, stop at around 8-10 seconds.

Pretty cool isn't it. The scream like noise, the guitars... YEAH! This has pumped me up! Why only 8-10 seconds? Because this is the time from when you initiate the battle to having any control over your character.

Now listen for 10-30 seconds... Yeah guitars... same guitar sequence... same.... same... same... this is dragging on a little... This is the sequence you'll actually fight in. It is a boring piece of music which is repetative yet it's the start of the fight when you have control over your character, you want to be pumped up and ready to take down some monsters right? So why this repetative uninspired piece of music?

Ok now start is up again from 30-60. What happens... the violins kick in and... suddenly the music becomes sad in nature... it's a really sad piece especially at around 45 seconds when it really changes tone, why is this music so sad? I'm supposed to be fighting monsters aren't I?

What I've found... is that I'm beating these fights at around the 1min to 1:20 mark, usually this depends on the numbers of enemies there. So by the time I've nearly beaten the fight, I've listened to quite a sad piece of music. This over time really gets you down. Yeah I get it, theres supposed to be a sense of doom and tragedy surrounding Noels story... but my god... every damn battle... you get to that point in the music and it's so depressing, especially when you reach future city and end up in a fight almost every 20 seconds... good god this is depressing...

Now compare that 1min/1:20 to any FF game from 7-10.

FF7, it's constantly jumping, a lively piece of music which makes you feel like you're fighting for your life. This is the same music which plays when you fight the Flan outside of Midgar! "OMG I'M LEVEL 99 BUT THIS MUSIC MAKES ME FEEL LIKE THESE LEVEL 1 FLANS COULD MURDER ME! SUMMON KOTR!"

FF8 Like with FF7, it's constantly jumping, only this time it gradually grows, in fact by the time the initial loading screen to the fight ends theres this grand explosion of music! You feel "HOLY SHIT! GRAB THE GUNBLADE! PRESS R1! PRESS R1! As the music goes on, it feels like an alarm is going off before again slowly building up and up and UP!

FF9. It starts with... HOLY SHIT A GENIE!? It sounds like you've been transported from the game to another world with that magic sound. Then you get the initial pump up beats and then it kicks in and the pace quickens! Theres a constant rising and falling of the beat! And just when you think it's going to repeat itself suddenly it changes again yet somehow fits with the openning and OH GOD! Just play this at my wedding! In fact, just read this entire paragraph with this music playing, and watch as you suddenly start to speed up your reading because it has that effect on you... much like it's effecting the speed I type right now too. In fact this theme is so awesome, you feel like you could knock out Omega weapon a chocobos private parts!

FFX: Very different to the other themes, but still it's cracking, theres a constant jump, then it goes quiet before building up again, then it gets kinda boring, but still theres nothing sad about the music, it's still uplifting, but then at around 44 seconds the music changes again and you're back feeling a sense of urgency. What I love about this theme is that if you're still in the fight at 1:34... Oh... wow... please... play that when I enter a room!

In fact, FF11, a game that I've not played... it's battle theme just blows apart FF13 and F13-2's

In fact, just compare how you feel when listening to FF13-2's battle theme... to this.

This is music made for systems which pre-date the PSOne and it blows away the battle theme for FF13-2.

Well anyway, right now the AI of this tower just said that my characters will be exterminated... then didn't actually do anything to stop me... well that was absolutely pointless... maybe when I go back to the future there might be something interesting there?

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I actually like The Last Hunter's theme....

[Wraith]

dear god, The Last Hunters is such and annoying song. Especially when you compare it to 13's excellent battle theme. It pales in comparison.

[Chooch]

I actually like Final Fantasy XIII-2's battle theme a lot. XIII-2 still has some good tunes just not anywhere near as many as the first Final Fantasy XIII.

Those are the only two things I like about either game tho'. The actual games themselves I can do without. Just give me Masashi Hamauzu's music.

Edited September 3, 2012 by Chooch

[redhellc]

I think when it talking about music I have to say that I actually enjoy more the music from xiii-2 than from xiii.

I do have some problems with it, like "limit break"(I just don't like it...) and it was really strange the first time I was in Oerba the theme of the music doesn't have anything to do with the music from xiii, it just gives you a complete different feeling. But there are some that I really like, for example the "Run".

Edited September 4, 2012 by redhellc

[Random Rhyme]

I just ask that they take those annoying puzzles out of the series.

They are the main reason why I havent beat FFXIII-2.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I like most of the music from XIII-2. I actually bought the soundtrack. Love New Bodhum and Groovy Chocobo. =D

[pppp]

Why FF13-2 is shit Part 3.

You know... I almost... almost actually decided to start this with 'I'm now enjoying this game' because for a period of 10 min I was genually enjoying the game... and then the game became bullshit again. I will point out this moment... for now, the story so far.

So last night after defeating Giaus and going to some points in time (I still don't really know why I'm doing this).

======

You know whats exciting? Breaking into a corporations Headquarters! Fighting security! Fighting their monsterous experiments! Going on a quest to find the great Sephiroth! What else? Oh I know! Going on a quest which means your doom! With a giant monster stalking you destroying towns and villages with no way to stop it unless you die! Wandering the land hoping not to come lost in the deadly mist whilst some guy is planning to destroy all of the world! AND.... Some parts of FF8 were also exciting too! FF12 was... .. ... Oh sky pirates!

You know what isn't exciting.

Game: We need wool! We need wool! We need wool to make clothes! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GO FIND THE SHEEP!

Me:isn't this a side quest?"

Game: NO THIS IS PART OF THE MAIN STORYLINE! WE NEED WOOL!

Me: Can't I just go fight the boss?

Game: YES! AFTER YOU GO GET THOSE SHEEP!

Why am I doing this? Why do I have to go and chase (because they won't stay in one place) sheep, just so I can go fight a boss? To gain the hunters trust? Heres an idea. Why not do this.

Game: Can you kill that creature, it's causing a storm which is making it harder for us to hunt.

*1 boss fight later*

Game: Wow thanks, other hunters might have some jobs for you, why not ask them.

That is how you do this kind of side quest stuff! Not include it in the main part of your game... oh and once again TUTORIAL! Really!? Theres a fucking tutorial for everything in this game! Every new area, every NPC with a quest you get told what to do, then up pops either a tutorial or a menu which explains what to do... this is despite you being able to then talk to the NPC again to find out what you have to do!

And heres another piece of garbage design that I touched upon last night... Defeated a really hard dragon boss... what was my reward? Nothing. Following this, you then go to another area and fight another enemy which isn't that hard... your reward? Tons of gil, and tons of XP... Or as I thought 'why wasn't this my reward for the earlier boss?'

Now for the FF13 defence brigade, you don't think thats crap game design? Alright how about this.

You enter a futuristic city and have to fight your way through to a boss. It's quite a challenging fight, not overtly hard but a challenge. Your reward for beating it... Nothing.

Heres where the shit game design comes in.

After this victory you are forced into a cut scene and forced to go in one direction. After the cut scene you are rewarded with around 6500XP! Then after this cut scene, right in front of you is a treasure chest/orb thing... which contains several thousand bits of gil!

Why was this not given when you defeat the boss!? To give the player a feeling that you'd acomplished something instead of it being a 'oh well done, you walked down this path, here is 6500XP and some money... .. .. well goodbye..."

Completely pointless, giving XP for watching cut scenes as apposed to defeating enemies. What on earth is the point then in the results screen if you're not going to give the battle rewards until long after the fight is over?

==========

The 10 min of goodness.

So like I said... for about 10 min I was really enjoying the game... I entered this futuristic city which actually met with expectations of the game based on the intro showing the futuristic city and even FF13 itself being set in a futuristic utopia, erm anyway... then suddenly theres this awesome cut scene, people turn into monsters and I'm throw into battle and have to run for my life! ALRIGHT THIS IS AWESOME! I'm killing monsters like no tomorrow, running through the streets... more monsters! Running! More monsters! Running... more monsters.... more... more... more... monsters... Wait... how much XP am I getting? It must be a lot right?

Battle result = 0 Gil, 3XP (1Xp per monster).

1XP per monster... 1XP? Are you fucking kidding me!? OkAY! So the enemies are not that hard, but considering when you enter a battle and finish it thats about 40-60 seconds I'm taken out of the game and my reward is 1XP per enemy!? The battle only had 4 enemies in at the most!? And some only had 2! No Gil was awarded and the only items you get are monster enhancements which I'm still struggling to figure out what you do!

Then the biggest bullshit of this stage. You find an NPC who says 'we need maps!' this imediately follows a cut scene in which your characters say they need to figure out whats going on and stop it. The implication here from the NPC and the main cut scene is that the two are linked when they're not! The game effectively tells you to explore the entire area in order to beat this portion of the story. All the time you are constantly entering random battles which give you no reward! So you can imagine my frustration when you then enter a region which has Giaus in it and your new objective is to follow him... As you follow him there is still no sense that you shouldn't be trying to shut down the security bots which have "gone mad" or stop exploring.... yet as you'll find out later on, you can't possibly complete the exploring quest... meaning everything you just did was absolutely pointless! Meaning your progress on this side quest was pointless, and the XP you gained from the monsters is so low it has absolutely no beneit to you in the future boss fight which is in this stage.

=====

Why does this game want me to care about characters I know nothing about. Every now and again theres this random girl who I assume is some kind of mystic "I can see the future" kind of character? Thats lovely... only so far game you have said that they all look the same and every time I meet one it's a different one... So how on earth can you expect me or anyone to care when she dies by being stupid and theres no way to tell which version of her it is (if you play the game you'll understand this). Not to mention we have ALREADY SEEN HER DIE AT THE START OF THE GAME!

How do you expect me to care? Oh thats right... you play the sad music... that means I must be said right...

....

Dear Sqaure Enix... do you remember this character?

You know why her death was so shocking and had such an impact on those playing? Because we invested time in that character, we bought her weapons, gave her armor, gave her magic and levelled her up. We got to know her through the story for a long period of time. We cared about her BEFORE SHE DIED! So when she dies in the game, it's shocking because we care about that character, when her theme kicks in and her materia drops into the water is the moment we realise 'OH GOD THIS IS FOR REAL!' Thats why it had such an impact, we had spent hours with that character in both the gameplay and cut scenes. Her death had a huge impact because we cared about her... .. .. well not me I named her AerisBitch because I liked Tifa more.

But still, someone has died in FF13-2. Really!? Well... thats terrible! I'm so sad the mysterious stranger who I've spoken to for less than 20 seconds has gone!

Maybe it would have had more impact if imediately after this you don't force the player to walk past several injured and dying NPC's who you oddly feel more empathy more since their injuries come from you entering this world as apposed to this other characters own bloody fault. Unless of course the thinking "Why yes I will walk upto and try to touch this monster" is suddenly a good idea?

=========

For a while now... I've been playing this game and feeling depressed and drained of all joy and life... and I couldn't put my finger on why... then after one of the boss fights which give you no reward I figured out what it was.

The music.

The fights in this game, most have this battle theme.

Now listen to the first oh say 8-10 seconds of music... then stop. Go on, stop at around 8-10 seconds.

Pretty cool isn't it. The scream like noise, the guitars... YEAH! This has pumped me up! Why only 8-10 seconds? Because this is the time from when you initiate the battle to having any control over your character.

Now listen for 10-30 seconds... Yeah guitars... same guitar sequence... same.... same... same... this is dragging on a little... This is the sequence you'll actually fight in. It is a boring piece of music which is repetative yet it's the start of the fight when you have control over your character, you want to be pumped up and ready to take down some monsters right? So why this repetative uninspired piece of music?

Ok now start is up again from 30-60. What happens... the violins kick in and... suddenly the music becomes sad in nature... it's a really sad piece especially at around 45 seconds when it really changes tone, why is this music so sad? I'm supposed to be fighting monsters aren't I?

What I've found... is that I'm beating these fights at around the 1min to 1:20 mark, usually this depends on the numbers of enemies there. So by the time I've nearly beaten the fight, I've listened to quite a sad piece of music. This over time really gets you down. Yeah I get it, theres supposed to be a sense of doom and tragedy surrounding Noels story... but my god... every damn battle... you get to that point in the music and it's so depressing, especially when you reach future city and end up in a fight almost every 20 seconds... good god this is depressing...

Now compare that 1min/1:20 to any FF game from 7-10.

FF7, it's constantly jumping, a lively piece of music which makes you feel like you're fighting for your life. This is the same music which plays when you fight the Flan outside of Midgar! "OMG I'M LEVEL 99 BUT THIS MUSIC MAKES ME FEEL LIKE THESE LEVEL 1 FLANS COULD MURDER ME! SUMMON KOTR!"

FF8 Like with FF7, it's constantly jumping, only this time it gradually grows, in fact by the time the initial loading screen to the fight ends theres this grand explosion of music! You feel "HOLY SHIT! GRAB THE GUNBLADE! PRESS R1! PRESS R1! As the music goes on, it feels like an alarm is going off before again slowly building up and up and UP!

FF9. It starts with... HOLY SHIT A GENIE!?It sounds like you've been transported from the game to another world with that magic sound. Then you get the initial pump up beats and then it kicks in and the pace quickens! Theres a constant rising and falling of the beat! And just when you think it's going to repeat itself suddenly it changes again yet somehow fits with the openning and OH GOD! Just play this at my wedding! In fact, just read this entire paragraph with this music playing, and watch as you suddenly start to speed up your reading because it has that effect on you... much like it's effecting the speed I type right now too. In fact this theme is so awesome, you feel like you could knock out Omega weapon a chocobos private parts!

FFX: Very different to the other themes, but still it's cracking, theres a constant jump, then it goes quiet before building up again, then it gets kinda boring, but still theres nothing sad about the music, it's still uplifting, but then at around 44 seconds the music changes again and you're back feeling a sense of urgency. What I love about this theme is that if you're still in the fight at 1:34... Oh... wow... please... play that when I enter a room!

In fact, FF11, a game that I've not played... it's battle theme just blows apart FF13 and F13-2's

In fact, just compare how you feel when listening to FF13-2's battle theme... to this.

This is music made for systems which pre-date the PSOne and it blows away the battle theme for FF13-2.

Well anyway, right now the AI of this tower just said that my characters will be exterminated... then didn't actually do anything to stop me... well that was absolutely pointless... maybe when I go back to the future there might be something interesting there?

I can't wait to read your thoughts on the ending.

Your thoughts are hilarious in hindsight.

[Balding Spider]

I can't wait to read your thoughts on the ending.

Your thoughts are hilarious in hindsight.

Okay the ending I know about. Good grief, so bad.

[KHCast]

Um.....That battle theme in no way sounds sad and depressing. I don't hear it. It sounds like a battle theme that sounds like your ready to kick butt.

[Autosaver]

I really didn't like FFVI's battle theme compared to the newer ones (FFVII, FFX, FFXIII) but Deceive Battle still kicks ass. I think my main problem is that the "good" part doesn't start until 30+ seconds into the song. If you beat enemies quickly, it just becomes tiring. Oh, the song also loops pretty fast.

BTW, Versus XIII info.

Here’s another quick Final Fantasy Versus XIII non-update.

Speaking at today’s Final Fantasy 25th anniversary celebration opening ceremony in Shibuya, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada said: “When it reaches the level where it gives you that nostalgic, “this is Final Fantasy!” feeling, I want to show it to everyone.”

This morning, we saw a new sketch of the game’s main character Noctis from director Tetsuya Nomura, asking that fans “please wait for his turn.”

Thanks, Famitsu.

Can't wait! They really should just rename the game FFXV or "FF XIII: The Good Version"

Edited September 4, 2012 by Autosaver

[Conando]

FF VI's normal battle theme itself isn't the best of that generation's battle themes but, Decisive Battle is an amazing boss theme.

My favorite battle theme of the SNES generation is FF V's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8jL8PdobDA

[Autosaver]

Yup, the V battle theme blows VI away. I even liked IV.

XIII is pretty amazing too.

[Conando]

Blinded By Light was one of the things I actually liked about FF XIII. I was pretty damn disappointed when it was barely used in XIII-2.

[Carbo]

So many fucking excuses just to not show it.

I'd like to wonder exactly what standards set "nostalgic Final Fantasy feeling". Because it's certainly not what the trailer we saw years ago was.

[Solkia]

Haha, this thread was quite the read through.

Should I try to find a cheap copy of XIII-2 just to see how bad it is? I could use a good laugh.