FFXIII part 2: Damn this Chocobo Theme kicks ass.
Played for ten hours yesterday and my eyes started to hurt. So instead of playing more I watched someone play a live stream and chatted with some other fans.
I also ran into the most awesome Chocobo theme I've ever heard.
I know, right?
Anyway, 14 hours into the game and I'm still impressed. The world the staff has created is suitably epic, and the music keeps me on my toes. I finally ran into the more organic Behemoth (as opposed to the cocoon variation), and damn was he vicious. In fact, as I was running around trying to get to my next ridiculous boss fight (More on that in a second), I saw a behemoth fighting off some wolves who wanted to pick a fight with the big guy. He ended up taking them all down. Pretty awesome to watch.
So that boss fight eh? It was against this massive plant thing, kinda like the cage monster from IX actually (One of the airships in the game is named the Lindblum. XD),except significantly more challenging.
One of the key elements of XIII's battle system is breaking your enemy using its weakness, and then using that 300-400% damage boost to deal as much damage as possible before he recovers. Unfortunately, sometimes breaking is easier said than done, especially when you only have two out of three characters available. I would have Hope set to use his magic attacks, and have me on the assault optima, only to find that I simply could not hit him long enough or consistently enough to allow the break meter to build. In the end, by the time I even got half way through the meter, I noticed his health was down by a quarter and I decided to just hammer through. Took about ten minutes, and he had me near death about five times. In this game if your main character dies, it's game over. However there isn't really a gameover sequence because if you die you can choose to restart near the monster. In other words, you don't lose any playtime to a terrible loss. And you will lose: a lot.
The optima system is essentially a modified dress sphere system from Final Fantasy X-2. You can change the roles that your characters play at any time through a battle, and you don't sacrifice a turn when you do so which is a blessing. The roles you have, while not named traditionally after the job names, still function the same. You have the attacker, who uses physical attacks and a few spells. The Blaster who functions as the black mage, the enhancer who casts buffs and status boosting/destroying magic, the healer who of course is the white mage, and a few others I haven't found yet. You can make any combination of these via the status menu, and apply them to your shoulder buttons for quick access mid-battle. This is important because you only directly control the main character.
Despite the AI being in charge of those two other characters, switching Optimums is very much so like controlling them since switching a character to healing duty will have them healing you and themselves whenever necessary. You never stay on one optimum for too long either. In one given battle I find myself switching no less than six times, sometimes within seconds of one another.
This makes for an extremely challenging, tactical and fun system that's even enjoyable to watch. I've had parents walk into the room and sit down to watch just because it's so exhilarating.
I'll have more ATB discussion coming soon, but for now, I'm definitely thinking this is the most enjoyable combat in a JRPG that I've come across since The World Ends With You, and that's saying a lot.
-Ryo
I also ran into the most awesome Chocobo theme I've ever heard.
Click to viewI know, right?
Anyway, 14 hours into the game and I'm still impressed. The world the staff has created is suitably epic, and the music keeps me on my toes. I finally ran into the more organic Behemoth (as opposed to the cocoon variation), and damn was he vicious. In fact, as I was running around trying to get to my next ridiculous boss fight (More on that in a second), I saw a behemoth fighting off some wolves who wanted to pick a fight with the big guy. He ended up taking them all down. Pretty awesome to watch.
So that boss fight eh? It was against this massive plant thing, kinda like the cage monster from IX actually (One of the airships in the game is named the Lindblum. XD),except significantly more challenging.
One of the key elements of XIII's battle system is breaking your enemy using its weakness, and then using that 300-400% damage boost to deal as much damage as possible before he recovers. Unfortunately, sometimes breaking is easier said than done, especially when you only have two out of three characters available. I would have Hope set to use his magic attacks, and have me on the assault optima, only to find that I simply could not hit him long enough or consistently enough to allow the break meter to build. In the end, by the time I even got half way through the meter, I noticed his health was down by a quarter and I decided to just hammer through. Took about ten minutes, and he had me near death about five times. In this game if your main character dies, it's game over. However there isn't really a gameover sequence because if you die you can choose to restart near the monster. In other words, you don't lose any playtime to a terrible loss. And you will lose: a lot.
The optima system is essentially a modified dress sphere system from Final Fantasy X-2. You can change the roles that your characters play at any time through a battle, and you don't sacrifice a turn when you do so which is a blessing. The roles you have, while not named traditionally after the job names, still function the same. You have the attacker, who uses physical attacks and a few spells. The Blaster who functions as the black mage, the enhancer who casts buffs and status boosting/destroying magic, the healer who of course is the white mage, and a few others I haven't found yet. You can make any combination of these via the status menu, and apply them to your shoulder buttons for quick access mid-battle. This is important because you only directly control the main character.
Despite the AI being in charge of those two other characters, switching Optimums is very much so like controlling them since switching a character to healing duty will have them healing you and themselves whenever necessary. You never stay on one optimum for too long either. In one given battle I find myself switching no less than six times, sometimes within seconds of one another.
This makes for an extremely challenging, tactical and fun system that's even enjoyable to watch. I've had parents walk into the room and sit down to watch just because it's so exhilarating.
I'll have more ATB discussion coming soon, but for now, I'm definitely thinking this is the most enjoyable combat in a JRPG that I've come across since The World Ends With You, and that's saying a lot.
-Ryo