Debuffs, Buffs and Heals.
I think I powered through the later part of the game with Lightening/Vanille/Hope. Group haste is secret OP.
I think I powered through the later part of the game with Lightening/Vanille/Hope. Group haste is secret OP.
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I, a Souls veteran, just rage quit FF13. This game is brutally hard.
- Thread starter SmittyWerbenManJensen
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Hey, I'm actually re-playing FFXIII on my laptop (finally bought hardware that allows me to play this properly).
I'm enjoying it much more than I did the first time. The combat system is good.
I also remember Barthandelus being a challenge, but I didn't reach that point yet.
Anyway, I do agree, you should stop playing games that you do not enjoy. There is no purpose in gaming just for gaming sake. There are better things to do.
I'm enjoying it much more than I did the first time. The combat system is good.
I also remember Barthandelus being a challenge, but I didn't reach that point yet.
Anyway, I do agree, you should stop playing games that you do not enjoy. There is no purpose in gaming just for gaming sake. There are better things to do.
Sounds familiar! I too gave up on a boss fight as the difficulty was just too much and I wasn't enjoying the story or characters, despite the trailers making it look like an incredibly emotional journey.
Worst FF game.
Worst FF game.
He was the moment I realized how much the status effect spells actually matter in FFXIII. Just a total epiphany that gave me 1000% more respect for the combat system.
Ff13 is anything but hard
I had no issues with eidolon fights either
Tho it has been some years since i last played it
Bahamut is less about skill and more about finding the best way to build up stagger, as iirc the eidolon gauge builds up like it
Fyi
Sab class can build up stagger on enemies so a combo of say com+ 2 sab can work against a single enemy for example.
100% this.
The eidolon fights aren't about damage, but exploiting the unique gimmick for that fight.
The Eidolon fights are all puzzles and casting Libra on any of them basically tells you exactly what to do to move the fight along. Using Libra on any enemy will make the auto battle option pick attacks and debuffs that affect the enemy in front of you. Learn to use all of your tools. Don't force your strategies on the game because it doesn't care. The game has near instant retries on fights to let you swap roles as you need to best fit the fight.
Probably one of the best battle systems I've used honestly. Just great fun for both 13 and 13-2.
"Needing buffs/debuffs" does not mean the game is hard. The game just expects you to use them because it gives them to you openly. Why wouldn't you use them.
Probably one of the best battle systems I've used honestly. Just great fun for both 13 and 13-2.
"Needing buffs/debuffs" does not mean the game is hard. The game just expects you to use them because it gives them to you openly. Why wouldn't you use them.
Your example is a bit strange but the point is actually true. Or at least it would be if there was any real consequence to dying. Especially on Pulse where it's very easy to end up in fights you have no business being in.
Well, I don't know about brutally hard, but definitely the hardest mainline FF outside of various versions of IV. It was a real shame that XIII-2 improved the combat but provided less than zero resistance (at least without the DLC).
Well, I don't know about brutally hard, but definitely the hardest mainline FF outside of various versions of IV. It was a real shame that XIII-2 improved the combat but provided less than zero resistance (at least without the DLC).
Probably the most pain in the butt fight. He's a little on the RNG side but with the correct set-up you should beat him.
FF13 is a long grind to good combat moments once it opens up and grind towards. Overall the game isn't great, but it aged okay for what it was.
But in the end the world and is story sounded better on paper then what was executed. And the same can be said for it's sequels.
FF13-2 is worth playing for gameplay alone if you want to play a better FF13 with a monster collecting element.
FF13 is a long grind to good combat moments once it opens up and grind towards. Overall the game isn't great, but it aged okay for what it was.
But in the end the world and is story sounded better on paper then what was executed. And the same can be said for it's sequels.
FF13-2 is worth playing for gameplay alone if you want to play a better FF13 with a monster collecting element.
its weird man
I don't remember having any issues when i was younger playing this game. I go back and now all of a sudden i get smoked at the huge difficulty spike until I got myself some good CP leveling spot.
I swear, im starting to think i just grinded my ass a lot in RPGs back in the day and powered through.......which is probably why i enjoy it so much lol
Just give me a normal leveling up system like FFIV where you learn different spells and abilities based on the character. Is it this hard?
Cecil is a paladin, so he becomes stronger, added defense, and he learns some white magic here and there.
Rosa, a white mage, strictly learns white magic and gains new spells based on her level. The higher her level the more powerful she becomes as a healer.
Rydia, a dark mage and summoner. Learns more powerful spells as she levels up.
I can go on. What is wrong with this system? NOTHING. It's great. Why they have to completely reinvent the wheel with each game is beyond me. Take a page or chapter from the Dragon Quest playbook. Ugh, this series sometimes. It's like I want to love it but they do everything in their power to make me hate it.
Cecil is a paladin, so he becomes stronger, added defense, and he learns some white magic here and there.
Rosa, a white mage, strictly learns white magic and gains new spells based on her level. The higher her level the more powerful she becomes as a healer.
Rydia, a dark mage and summoner. Learns more powerful spells as she levels up.
I can go on. What is wrong with this system? NOTHING. It's great. Why they have to completely reinvent the wheel with each game is beyond me. Take a page or chapter from the Dragon Quest playbook. Ugh, this series sometimes. It's like I want to love it but they do everything in their power to make me hate it.
Ff13 does invovle grinding for cp since it unlocks the actual abilities you need to survive
The only time u can go thru without grinding is if u chose the right class to focus on first
Eg: sab for fang and vainlle
I platinumed 13-2 its a game where they took whats not so good in 13and simply made it better. Lightning Returns on the other side...... don´t liked it at all.
OP
OP
I agree with you. I don't mind change, but FF13's leveling system is way too tedious. I mean, why are there so many incremental upgrades to health and magic, etc.? +10 hp, +10 hp again, + 4 strength, + 5 strength. Repeat, ad nauseum. Not fun at all.
Take a page from the series that still can't break out in the West? Nah, Final Fantasy is fine. XIII has a ton of problems but the battle system wasn't it. If you like boring straightforward characters, you've still got the boring series that never changes.
I like FFIV well enough but maybe the fact that you literally have zero choices in how to build your characters? It's a little too simplistic for my tastes.
This is also exacerbated by never being able to choose which characters are in your party.
But I always thought the game plays itself?
Jokes aside Bahamut is a difficulty spike. I do remember Manipulator (is that the english name as well? I dont know the english name for most of these I think) helps a ton in this fight to push him.
Jokes aside Bahamut is a difficulty spike. I do remember Manipulator (is that the english name as well? I dont know the english name for most of these I think) helps a ton in this fight to push him.
Completely valid criticism. It's a matter of preference, I like the simplicity; I like how they tied the characters and their attributes to their battle style and their "job" for lack of a better word.
But, like you alluded, it's a matter of preference. I do think the Final Fantasy series could benefit tremendously if they went back to turn-based battles and if they simplified their systems a touch. Sometimes their ambitions lead to some pretty neat systems (the Sphere Grid is pretty neat, the gambit system is very cool), and sometimes it leads to utter madness (FFVIII's draw system).
Yeah, I experienced this with Exodus in XII too - big difficulty spikes seem to just be a thing in FF games post FFX.
Having recently played throuh FF13, 13-2 and now standing in front of the final boss of Lighting Returns, FF13 is anything but hard.
Not only is it the easiest of the trilogy, but the eidolon fights in particular are very easy since you dont even have to defeat them, just fill their bar by doing the thing your character excells at.
Fang needs to guard and sabotage for hers, hope to heal and boost chain gauge his and so forth.
Its not even as if there is a lot of leveling involved, since your crystarium is limited to certain tiers for most of the game.
A real challenge imo is the battle system in Lighting returns, since you dont heal up between fights, and you cant farm levels since stat boni are limited to completing quests.
Not only is it the easiest of the trilogy, but the eidolon fights in particular are very easy since you dont even have to defeat them, just fill their bar by doing the thing your character excells at.
Fang needs to guard and sabotage for hers, hope to heal and boost chain gauge his and so forth.
Its not even as if there is a lot of leveling involved, since your crystarium is limited to certain tiers for most of the game.
A real challenge imo is the battle system in Lighting returns, since you dont heal up between fights, and you cant farm levels since stat boni are limited to completing quests.
13's leveling up system is just a more dumbed down version of 10's leveling up system.
I'm not really sure if I'm misunderstanding you, but aren't most level-up systems in games incremental upgrades to various stats? Like, aren't you incrementally upgrading stats when you level up dark souls as well? Granted, there's a lot more flexibility in DS, but that doesn't change the fact that the upgrades are incremental at the time.
I thought XIII was quite terrible, but I didn't have much trouble with it. Is this fight before or after you hit Gran Pulse?
OP
OP
Yes. Souls games do involve leveling up, but each level gained is the result of increasing a single stat by one point. Here, in FF13, there's like 50x as many stat increases for just one job for just one character. It's a lot less intuitive and much more tedious (and don't even get me started on weapon and accessory upgrades in FF13).
Yep, the second time you fought him in that town was pure hell. I had to grind for hours to beat him.
Was breezing through the game until his fight, then was like "oh? this game got some real shit in it"
I hate posts like this. It was hard for the OP and clearly for others.. so what does this add? Ugh.
Anyway, I loved FF13 and FF13-2.. I think they're unfairly maligned. I don't remember this fight since it's been so long, but I know there were some really difficult fights along the way. I think you made the right decision though -- life is way too short and you probably have a massive backlog like most of us. The Ori games have driven me into a rage before.. the recent one made my blood pressure soar to a point where I actually felt chest pain, lol. I got past that part but I have not played it since that day but I haven't uninstalled it yet.
Part of what makes FFXIII so awesome is that the difficulty is tight. A common complaint is that you can't grind and overlevel in FFXIII, but that also means that the difficulty is spot-on throughout pretty much the entire game. I love it.
@SmittyWerbenManJensen Do you know about ATB Refresh? Basically, if you swap Paradigms, your entire party will instantly get a full ATB bar. However, this effect has a 12 second cooldown. That basically means you can do:
1. Do your actions.
2. (as your characters are firing off their final attack animations) Paradigm Shift, triggering ATB Refresh.
3. Immediately act again with your full ATB bar.
4. Once this bar is drained, wait for it to recharge naturally, then queue up another set of actions.
5. As your characters are finishing their animations from this set of actions, go to step 2 and repeat.
In other words, every other ATB bar can be filled instantly with ATB Refresh. The game doesn't tell you about it, unfortunately, but it makes the combat so much more rhythmic and engaging.
Beyond that, there are a lot of mechanics in the game you can learn from experience. For instance, one trick is that SAB/RAV/RAV is the fastest and safest way to build the Stagger gauge (just make sure that you're controlling the SAB so that you can continue to spam spells even after the debuff is applied). Slow and Haste are incredibly strong and should be going at pretty much all times for any hard encounter.
You can even ATB Refresh between COM/RAV/RAV and SAB/RAV/RAV to build Stagger even faster! Or two copies of SAV/RAV/RAV even (though that takes two Paradigm slots, and those are rather precious).
This ancient GameFAQs guide has boatloads of raw information. If you're the type who likes reading about game systems, you might enjoy it! And it could reveal some mechanics you may not be aware of that you can then turn into strategies.
On another note, it's actually very possible to do a no leveling run ("NCU" or "No Crystarium Usage") run of FFXIII. Despite being a JRPG, there's actually a lot of room for skill and creativity in the game. People pull off some crazy stuff.
@SmittyWerbenManJensen Do you know about ATB Refresh? Basically, if you swap Paradigms, your entire party will instantly get a full ATB bar. However, this effect has a 12 second cooldown. That basically means you can do:
1. Do your actions.
2. (as your characters are firing off their final attack animations) Paradigm Shift, triggering ATB Refresh.
3. Immediately act again with your full ATB bar.
4. Once this bar is drained, wait for it to recharge naturally, then queue up another set of actions.
5. As your characters are finishing their animations from this set of actions, go to step 2 and repeat.
In other words, every other ATB bar can be filled instantly with ATB Refresh. The game doesn't tell you about it, unfortunately, but it makes the combat so much more rhythmic and engaging.
Beyond that, there are a lot of mechanics in the game you can learn from experience. For instance, one trick is that SAB/RAV/RAV is the fastest and safest way to build the Stagger gauge (just make sure that you're controlling the SAB so that you can continue to spam spells even after the debuff is applied). Slow and Haste are incredibly strong and should be going at pretty much all times for any hard encounter.
You can even ATB Refresh between COM/RAV/RAV and SAB/RAV/RAV to build Stagger even faster! Or two copies of SAV/RAV/RAV even (though that takes two Paradigm slots, and those are rather precious).
This ancient GameFAQs guide has boatloads of raw information. If you're the type who likes reading about game systems, you might enjoy it! And it could reveal some mechanics you may not be aware of that you can then turn into strategies.
On another note, it's actually very possible to do a no leveling run ("NCU" or "No Crystarium Usage") run of FFXIII. Despite being a JRPG, there's actually a lot of room for skill and creativity in the game. People pull off some crazy stuff.
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Honestly while I think it's an overall better game, I didn't like how buffs and debuffs weren't as important as in XIII. They gutted one of the better aspects of the combat.
Having to keep your buffs and debuffs up all the time and rapidly switching paradigms was super intense in the latter half of XIII and XIII-2 never becomes so fast paced.
Funnily enough I never had a problem with the infamous chapter 10 bosses. A lot (maybe all?) of FF13 bosses were puzzles to me so once I figured it out it was all about waiting it out. The only two bosses I had an issue with in the trilogy were the final bosses of xiii and xiii-2 because of how long the fights were because of multiple phases -.-
I need to see no level up fights for the A rank hunts. Some bird thing was taking off 3k damage per hit so I stopped and opted to just beat the game since it was easier.
The second Bart fight is at a level where the game assumes you didn't just go straight to it and did some hunts before it...like a lot of hunts. I did like 25 and rolled right through him to be honest. Also leveling up weapons helps a lot.
I really enjoyed this game, and I like the battle system. It's been years since I played it, but I don't recall having any trouble with bosses, except the one I think where Snow joins an Eidolon battle on a bike? It's the first time where you really need to come to grips with the battle system, I feel like. But once I familiarized myself with it, it was just loads of fun. I might try to go back and play through it and XIII-2 again, if I ever get through my backlog.
That's Final Fantasy IV. OP should play a hard JRPG like Shin Megami Tensei IV or one of the Devil Surivor games.