Final Fantasy XIII

[kite114]

Can anyone clear up exactly where in FF2 Bahamut would appear or is mentioned? The only "FF2" Bahamut is in, and outwardly takes the role of "God of the summons/Eidolons/Espers" is in FF4 (2 in the US on the SNES). Bahamut had no part in the plot of FF2 (the most any sort of magic mattered was with Ultima, and the closest thing to a summon was Leviathan as a sea-creature/dungeon), so unless he was mentioned in something minuscule like a document found on a bookshelf in FF2's Mysidia(not FF4's, same town name but no direct connection I'm aware of) or something, Bahamut did not exist in FF2 and neither did any of the other summon spirits for that matter (Save technically Leviathan and Mateus... maybe others as regular monsters or NPCs, need to check). Now I could be wrong but upon playing through FF2 recently I've found nothing to support this, if possible state where he's mentioned or a general idea if possible.

So i was right. **** YEAH

[Gemcrim]

They're not supposed to be in the same world or anything, it's just a weird connection. Like how in our world Odin isn't a giant buff guy...

I know, just first misunderstood the mention of Mateus then went on about the rest, they're all just alluded to in some way as we're aware of.

[zerokoolpsx]

I know it's been over 4 months, but just want to post Final Fantasy XIII is being released for North America and Europe March 9, 2010! It's a lot sooner than I had expected. GoW3 and GT5 also comes out in the same month. The Lightning PS3 looks hot!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377406

[Kuukai]

Still can't wait for this. Not sure if anyone's interested, but the first edition of the Japanese version comes with a code for a unique item in FFIX. I'll probably just offload mine on ebay or something...

[haseoxth]

Still can't wait for this. Not sure if anyone's interested, but the first edition of the Japanese version comes with a code for a unique item in FFIX. I'll probably just offload mine on ebay or something...

I think Kuukai means FFXIV as FFIX is about ten years old and I don't think it has DLC support.

But finally, after four years, we are finally going to have this game. Now all that is left is for an actual trailer to Versus XIII. Oh, and I bet thats going to release sometime in 2020.

[Kuukai]

Oops, epic Roman numeral fail. May have been related to the crazy person on the wiki who thought Kite's new weapon was a naginata and justified it by claiming it looked like Zidane's weapon, which was somehow also a naginata... So IX was on my mind.... If XIII did come with a code for IX that unlocked a secret hidden naginata for Zidane, though, I would stand corrected.

[|<!73]

Has anyone gotten a chance to play? It was released today.

[Kuukai]

Play Asia is run by turtle-slugs, mine hasn't even shipped yet... ;_;

[zerokoolpsx]

The price for that game is ridiculous now. It's 100 bucks on ebay and playasia. Amazon has it for 7979 yen. I rather wait for the U.S. release.

[Kuukai]

The price for that game is ridiculous now. It's 100 bucks on ebay and playasia. Amazon has it for 7979 yen. I rather wait for the U.S. release.

Amazon's price is a markdown from the MSRP of 9,240 yen (over 100 dollars currently), and they're currently sold out until the 22nd. It's just an expensive game, Play Asia's price inc. shipping was actually slightly cheaper than most brick-and-mortar stores in Japan iirc (at least for pre-order). Usually PS3 games are around 8,000 yen, but there's definitely a sense of "you pay more to get more" in Japan. In America, Japanese prices don't fly to begin with (videos and music are like 3 times as much there, video games are actually the closest thing in price) so they'll probably sell it for the standard $60, even if it somehow was worth every extra yen in content...

[zerokoolpsx]

The price for that game is ridiculous now. It's 100 bucks on ebay and playasia. Amazon has it for 7979 yen. I rather wait for the U.S. release.

Amazon's price is a markdown from the MSRP of 9,240 yen (over 100 dollars currently), and they're currently sold out until the 22nd. It's just an expensive game, Play Asia's price inc. shipping was actually slightly cheaper than most brick-and-mortar stores in Japan iirc (at least for pre-order). Usually PS3 games are around 8,000 yen, but there's definitely a sense of "you pay more to get more" in Japan. In America, Japanese prices don't fly to begin with (videos and music are like 3 times as much there, video games are actually the closest thing in price) so they'll probably sell it for the standard $60, even if it somehow was worth every extra yen in content...

Damn, those prices are kinda high. Are development costs higher over there? Cost of living is lower, so they charge more? If you try to sell a PS3 game for 80 or 90 bucks, GL. It's staying on the shelf.

[Mistral's_Man]

Three more months and I get to own this. Gives me time to pick up a PS3 so I can buy both.

I'm just stoked for Siren coming back!(And various over-used reasons, such as "It's Final Fantasy!")

Oh, and new magic that they're integrating..."Ruin?" Sounds pretty bomb. Ruinaga? Even better.

Edit : The battle system is supposed to somewhat resemble Chrono Cross.
(You probably all knew that though.)

[Kuukai]

Cost of development is the same, usually, I mean half of the games we get over here are made in Japan. Cost of living is higher. People just spend more on stuff. And like I said it's a special case, and implied within the higher price is that there's more than the usual amount of game in there... We have almost the opposite sometimes, where Wii games and portable games and even .hack//G.U. are priced at lower than the standard price....

[zerokoolpsx]

Oh, I get it.

[Kuukai]

Anyway, I got it now, and I'm pretty satisfied. So far it's one of the few RPG I've played where battles don't involve ridiculous powers in the battle system that never seem to be canon when you get to the cutscenes. Well, they're still ridiculous, but now they're part of the plot. So hooray! It's a nice throwback to encounter-based battle RPGs (where you can ambush enemie parties), and the combat system is pretty cool. Well, I'm not too far in, but that's my opinion so far...

[Ranylyn]

I'm waiting for the North American release and I could wait another 5 years, even.

I'm dead serious. While it IS true that Final Fantasy is a fun series, it's been going downhill for ages. I want for it to have an addition so epic that it pulls it from the brink of hopelessness and renews my faith in the series but I'm not holding my breath.

Don't get me wrong. I WANT to eat my words on this. I WANT it to be amazing in every last way, but ultimately, this is Final Fantasy, the series that has literally zero character devellopment (Compare to titles like Namco's "Tales of _______" series where every character has a rich backstory and they actually form bonds rather than FF style's "oh hay dood we best friends now wuts ur naem?") which decimates the story, and did I mention how the series has been going downhill?

Ultimately, if FFXIII can overcome these weaknesses of the series, I will gladly dance naked in front of the world's entire population:

1) Again, character devellopment. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Final Fantasy 4, and Rydia is one of my favorite characters. But it bugs me to no end that it's all "Aah you killed my mother I hate you oh hay you protected me okay I'll be the mage in your party" I mean, they could have added a mini dungeon before Kaipo where Cecil solos as he carries her to safety and she's semi conscious, and sees all the things he does to redeem himself, but nope, it's just one squad of guards. Oh, and let's not forget Kain talking about killing her right in front of her.

Compare to say... Tales of the Abyss. Anise Tatlin starts the game seeming to be nothing more than a childish gold digger. She is in fact one of the deepest characters of the game, alongside Jade, once you learn more about her past and why she does the things she does. In a Final Fantasy game she would have stayed the gold digging chick forever with little to know backstory.

Even if the characters are two dimensional, at the very least make them earn each other's trust rather than "hay, what's your name, awesome, we trust each other with our lives as we head into battle, bwahahaha!"


2) The Plot. FF games seem to have the WORST stories and story telling of any RPG. The story is far more important than little insignificant things like graphics, which Squeenix doesn't seem to understand. Don't get me wrong, though: Dissidia had a crap story and was fun as hell. The reason is that the story basically just prepares you for the Duel Colliseum and Vs Modes. The series in General is one player and thus should have far more sustenance to the story.

If you need examples on crappy story, look at ANY Final Fantasy game. I'll use 8 as an example because if I bash VII here no one will read the rest of my post (and if you know this to be true about yourself, I'm sorry to say, shame on you.) So you play as Squall, the main character, who was RAISED as a mercenary (who the **** gives youths, especially teenagers with their raging hormones, a gunblade?) So it turns out you were having your dreams manipulated by your half-sister to save your father (lolwut, you were raised in an orphanage, and not to mention holy **** time travel paradox) who was a soldier turned journalist who still carried unlimited clips of machine gun ammo everywhere he went and... well basically the woman you loved got a sorceress's powers and a psycho **** from the future wanted to possess her, so you let her compress every era into one time frame just to kill her. Did I mention paradoxes yet? And this is one of the better FF stories.

Now, I lost the net for a long time and have not cared to catch up on FFXIII since my return, but when I left, a lot of things bothered me. The Pulse and the Coccoon, or whatever they were called, is such an overdone cliche (Off the top of my head I can think of multiple references to similar isolated existences in fiction, some of which ancient and some post apocalyptic.) and from what I understand the crystals basically power the Star Trek Replicators? Don't get me started on how Shiva is supposed to be a motorcycle, which is stupid.

3) The Characters. I really SHOULDN'T need to elaborate, but I will because I know people will disagree with me. Starting with VII (the worst of them all) and onward, FF characters have absolutely zero originality, and they copy their own characters from game to game. If I can find the 8000x6000 pixel chart showing every recycled character and the palette swaps involved, I'll show you.

And yes, I did say VII was the worst. It had potential, the way it started and everything, and quite frankly SHOULD have been epic, but it failed so miserably due to reasons 1, 2, and 3. Cloud is the worst character ever created (even worse than Enoby, lol "worst fanfic ever", Google it, option one) there is infinitely close to zero devellopment, and the whole game boils down to the rivalry of the two guys with the two big swords. That's not to say there are no lines that aren't deep (Cloud's line about the train tracks and life in the slums comes to mind) but since the game had slums and poverty and the works they could have at least made an effort to have a bit more philosophy involved or something.


I want XIII to be epic, I really do, but I lost faith in FF long ago and I fear XII will be little more than "fun battle system." I hope I get to eat my words but my hope is infinitely close to zero.

[Kuukai]

I don't see how Cocoon and Pulse are "overdone." I can think of some examples where they're "done," but it's used far less than FFXII's backdrop. And I love the theme that they consider the planet they all came from to be an "underworld" of sorts. So far I think the game has pretty good character development, assisted by the fact the everything is voiced, even talking to NPCs, and all active party members are present on the map and meaningfully converse as they move. As opposed to FFXII, where arguably imho the main character was no one, here the main character is everyone. From the way the cutscenes are directed, you could make a case for each character being the main one at certain points. Everyone gets a serious share of the spotlight. In a good way, though, not a bad one, it's an ensemble cast.

Anyway, I can't promise you you'll like it, you seem to have different tastes, but those are my thoughts if they help you decide on whether or not to get it... (it's coming out in a few months, not five years)

[Ranylyn]

I don't see how Cocoon and Pulse are "overdone." I can think of some examples where they're "done," but it's used far less than FFXII's backdrop. And I love the theme that they consider the planet they all came from to be an "underworld" of sorts. So far I think the game has pretty good character development, assisted by the fact the everything is voiced, even talking to NPCs, and all active party members are present on the map and meaningfully converse as they move. As opposed to FFXII, where arguably imho the main character was no one, here the main character is everyone. From the way the cutscenes are directed, you could make a case for each character being the main one at certain points. Everyone gets a serious share of the spotlight. In a good way, though, not a bad one, it's an ensemble cast.

Anyway, I can't promise you you'll like it, you seem to have different tastes, but those are my thoughts if they help you decide on whether or not to get it... (it's coming out in a few months, not five years)

Well, I could list a crapload of differing games using a similar concept, such as the Table Top Necromunda's (Based in thr Warhammer 40k Universe on the world of Necromunda. Gang war game.) Spire and Underhive, but I suppose it's not as overdone as sone concepts, true. I'll drop that point for now. I just need to see how it works out, since it tends to kind of be... well, a subpar story.

But it's at least nice to know your views on it, it makes me hope. I only hope this glint of hope isn't crushed again. I want to eat my words on this, I really do.

[Mistral's_Man]

I think Final Fantasy's doing a fine job. All of the storyline's have been rather good to me.
I exclude Final Fantasy XII in this. However, I still loved that game, it was very political. But as Kuukai stated, (and I should have quoted) there was no main character. (Unless you meant the main character was a nobody.) Either way that statement works.
I think...However, XIII's gonna put the lost respect some people have for the title back.

I'm practically the only Ohioan, besides my mother, who wants to buy it haha.
All of my friends lost hope during XII because they didn't like the battle system...Pathetic kids...

[Kuukai]

I meant the former, but I agree with the latter too. Personally, I thought the battle system (along with the music) was one of FFXII's only redeeming features...

Edit: Let it be known that that I'm the first person on the internet to use the phrase "L'cie in the Sky with Diamonds." I won't be the last. That is all.