That hasn't happened in a while

[jdotmi]

I beat Final Fantasy XIII last night (read 2am). This is one of the few modern (post-Nintendo) FF games I've done in one continuous playthrough, actually. I sorta did it with VII (stopped playing for a few months, and then picked up my old save game), and I did it with X-2, but the rest took multiple times or I havent finished. FFIX is a bad game with a horrible guide, and I stopped 3/4 of the way through XII to go sidequesting and then never got back into the storyline, but my characters are uber in that one! X I finished a year after I bought it when I restarted the game.

So, in my list of FF rankings (only those I've completed), this falls somewhere between VIII and VII. If y'all care, my order (from favorite to least) is VI, X, X-2, VII, XIII, VIII, IV, and I. The ones I own but haven't completed are II, V, and IX, and of the three II and V are the only ones I like. I got nearly to the end of V, and I think I played about 30 minutes of II, but I was on game overload when I bought it. I got to the second disk of IX and went "screw that" and stopped. The only FF game I've played that was worse than that was XI, and that's an online game. And, yes, I'm counting Mystic Quest in that comparison.

Now I get to go do end-game stuff in XIII. And I might actually try to finish XII just to say that I did. :p

Comments

[mat-t.livejournal.com]

I think we've had this conversation before, but what didn't you like about IX? I remember enjoying it...

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Heh. Where to begin... Strike number one was the utterly moronic guide they put out for it. You know, the one that required you to go online and look things up there using the codes they put in the book to get the actual information? Add to that the fact that VII and VIII had just spent so much time moving the art forward in the series that we suddenly went back to the kid glove look in the game. And the battle/levelling system was clunky with a capital CLUNK.

[aardvarkfloss.livejournal.com]

IX has my favorite character in all of Final Fantasy. Care to venture a guess?

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

If it's one of the main playables I have no clue. Well, okay, other than Vivi, because Vivi is the only thing making me want to finish that game. And I have a big plush Vivi doll, too, so there's that.

give the man a prize

[aardvarkfloss.livejournal.com]

Vivi is the only thing that matters. I have a Vivi doll too. It's not big though. It's a drawer somewhere. my boyfriend at the time gave it to me. You should post a picture of yours.

Re: give the man a prize

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'll have to find it. I think it's in my living room, but last place I saw it it was sitting in a little golden wire sleigh. And it was super cute in it.

[tygerversionx.livejournal.com]

Ooooooh, I am so jealous of you.

How the heck did you deal with whats-his-face at the end of the Palamecia? He cast Doom on me and I had no time.

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

He doesn't Doom right away, so the trick is to do as much damage as you can before before he Dooms you.

So, you need a setup to do buffs and debuffs, a major healing setup, a chain busting setup, and a high damage setup. I always use Evened Odds as my buff/debuff. Med / Sab / Syn (Lightning / Fang / Hope). That way I am constantly curing any damage coming in. For this fight, you will want your healing setup to be Med / Com / Med. You will then want a Rav / Com / Med setup for taking down the side panels. Once they fall, hop back into Evened Odds to debuff the main body. You will want Rav / Com / Rav for dealing with the center piece. Once he's staggered and his chain bonus is high, swap to Com / Com / Rav or Com / Com / Med to beat out as many HP as you can before the stagger ends.

Ideally, Hope has Cura by now. If not you may have to drop into Med / Com / Med for healing. And when you see Thanatos on the screen you will want to do it anyway cuz you'll soon need the healing.

[tygerversionx.livejournal.com]

Still can't get him. Grrrrrrrrrr.

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Well, okay, there's also the later options of going with a deck of Relentless Assault, Diversity, Delta Attack, Solidarity, Protection, and Evened Odds. Using Delta Attack to keep most attackers on Fang while you start to work up the chains. The guide recommends using Medic / Commando / Synergist for initial buffing and then going to town on the boss (use a Librascope at the beginning just to get it over with).

Have you hit the last available Role Level crystals with the party?

[tygerversionx.livejournal.com]

I haven't. I have a couple more things to get enough points for to be hitting the role levels in each thing.

But darn it! I used the strategy guide method and got him down to half health. And I survived his stupid Destrudo like three times due to the Hero's Charge/Solidarity last-second-switch maneuver. But it didn't help me one time and I died bad. After 5 tries just now, I'm done.

This is the sort of boss battle that turns me off games, dammit. And I don't want to be turned off this game.

[aardvarkfloss.livejournal.com]

omg your strategy talk is making me so anxious to play. gragh!

[tygerversionx.livejournal.com]

I swear to god, if I don't get beyond this boss on the airship, and you do, you will have to tell me how you did it.

[aardvarkfloss.livejournal.com]

chuh I'll have to get the game and a ps3 first. I think you'll win before any of that happens. haha

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Get your role level crystals. They are a huge help for this fight. Don't worry, you'll get a huge mess of CP for winning the fight, too.

There are parts of the strat in the guide I don't like. It recommends Bully, but I personally hate that Paradigm. I'd much rather use Evened Odds for debuffing, because then Hope can do some buffing and Light can keep people alive. I tossed a Librascope to start so that I wouldn't waste time "learning" each panels weakness. I don't think I summoned Odin during the battle, but it is definitely a possibility to survive it.

OH. Do you have Agisol and Fortisol available? You should be able to toss those before entering the room for free early buffage (that's actually a trick I use for most boss fights at this point). I don't think Hope has Haste yet, and that really really helps in boss fights.

EDIT TO ADD: I had upgraded Lightning's weapon to Star level and had partially upgraded Hope's and Fang's weapons as well.

[tygerversionx.livejournal.com]

I added Agisol and Fortisol before the start. That allowed me to take out the side panels superfast.

I must admit I thought about trading out Fang for Sahz, so I'd always have haste, but I believe I went into the first battle like that, and eventually I got knocked for not healing well enough. However ... that was also when I was on manual control. I've found Lightning's a much better healer when I go into the boss fight on auto-control. My own decision making for healing targets was too slow, which killed me.

Also ... I must admit that I've only dabbled once in weapon upgrades. I don't understand how to do them or what good it would do me, so I left it alone.

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Upgrades 101:

Use 36 Sturdy Bones to give an item a x3 multiplier. Then use a bunch of something with a high EXP value in a large quantity to insta-upgrade to star level. A basic weapon will take betwen 30k to 80k xp to star level it. It seriously upgrades the stats on the weapons.

Sell any component that says it sells for a premium. You should have a few of those items hanging out by this point.

[tygerversionx.livejournal.com]

I haven't gotten any weapons up to star level, but I got three weapons up to level 7 -10ish now. I have to start getting ready for work, but I sold off a lot of credit chips and now have about 30,000 to buy components.

I did get one of Lightning's accessories to star level.

I will have to see if any of this helps out tonight.

Thank you for 'splainin' to me.