The Final Fantasy Thread

[Tuffty]

I picked up FF13 again today, I'm at the end(?) of Ch.11 (we're probably at the same spot Tuffty)
But I went back and did some leveling up instead of fighting a certain someone

Yeh I saw you play it! That certain someone would be Barthandelus right? Oerba's a great place to level up. Get a lot of CP for each monster and they drop components really frequently so it's easier to upgrade weapons.

[coachie]

Hehe, yes that's where I am!
I tried that battle back in May when I last played the game, I almost had him but at the end I got too cocky, switched to the wrong paradigm and that was that.
I didn't have the nerve to try again since then
And before I would try again after so many months, I needed to get back into the game mechanics, the levelling up was a nice bonus, hope I'm up to the task now.

[EternalSkies]

I didn't find Raines hard either. I did him first try. Plus I'm overly cautious so if they start firing off a bazillion rockets straight into defense

[Tuffty]

^ Raines hard? I think I beat him on my second try (can't remember what party members I used though)

I didn't find Raines hard either. I did him first try.

Oh whatever!

[coachie]

I DID IT!!! 
I beat that certain someone in one smooth go! Didn't even break a sweat and I was WAY under the time limit and got 5 Stars! I think that was the first boos I got 5 Stars.
WOWSER, the intro movie for Chapter 12, wish the game had a cinema feature like FFX.

[Tuffty]

^ Woo!! Nice one coachie! Try not to mention too much about it as I'm still messing around some in Chapter 11 I headed back into the Twilit cavern and managed to beat that huge mech with like 1 million HP after all! Just get Snow to soak up the damage for a bit, have Hope cast Barfire and get Fang to deprotect/deshell/slow/curse him. Will take him ages to 'steam clean' and get rid of all those debuffs so you can just wail on him, and repeat. I was so pleased I won, UNTIL, I got 0 stars for it. Zero!! Target time was like 3:30 mins and I did it in 4:30. The hell? I wanted whatever loot he was gonna drop, it sounded great! Well, looks like I get to fight him again, or perhaps a stronger version, thanks to that mission stone I was now able to access as he was blocking the way before. Time to head to the tower and kick some metal ass!

Cross-posting:

Nobou Uematsu will always be rightfully regarded for making some of the best tracks for any FF game, but that's not to take away from Masashi Hamauzu's work on FFXIII, a soundtrack which I'm enjoying immensely as I play through the game:

[coachie]

^ I'll do my best not to spoil, no worries.
I'm in Ch.13 now, it's the last I think, at least it feels this way.
Went back to Pulse to do some missions, with my characters all full leveled up to St.4 in their main roles, it's much more easy now than when I first went through there 
But all the walking is so exhausting, I only have 3 Teleporters open and no Chocobo in sight.
I only did four or five missions for now, then I was fed up with all the walking


Edit: I finished the game!!! 

[Tuffty]

^ Congratulations! There can't be that much playtime after Chapter 11 then

[coachie]

^ there is still enough
I have some days off so I played a lot, I have nearly 80hrs playtime now.

[Tuffty]

Oh wow nice! Must be good to have kept you playing all that while! I'm at around 68hrs myself. Will probably invest a fair few more before the end game, and much more on the rest of the missions

[coachie]

At least 10hrs of the 80 were dedicated to level grinding and I fear there's going to be another 10 til I can finally put that game away in peace

I watched some youtube vids and seeing as everyone is doing it, I was wondering, do you guys pick the attack/magic moves manually or do you just hit attack and let the game decide?
In the beginning I tried choosing manually but by the time I was ready, the battle was a.) over or b.) I was dead, so I resolved to letting the game pick the attacks and just hit A
I understand it's more effective to pick everything for yourself esp. if you aim for the 5star rating in battles, but you have to memorize exactly where every spell and move is listed.

[Ayako-Luna]

I'll do it both! Just hitting attack but if I want, choose it manually...

[Tuffty]

Bit of both for me. Auto-battle removes some of the tedium of level grinding which is nice. But when it comes to the bosses, or particularly tougher enemies, I gotta choose my abilities.

[coachie]

I'm playing too much! The battles are chasing me into my dreams at night.
Also I think the impossible has happened, I read some FangXVanille ff's and now I'm developing a crush on Vanille, hell NOOO!

[Tuffty]

Sounds like there's a fair amount of game left when it's over! I think a good portion of my time post-game will be battling and upgrading weapons. I just have to do it. Quick question coachie, does the crystalarium expand again when the story is over?

[coachie]

^ yeah it expands to the end of Level 4, but I don't know if this is really the end of it or if there's Level 5.

Got my ass kicked by that big Cactus, gave up for now, went to another A Mission, got my ass kicked again, though I tried several strategies and I've beaten this creature before!!!
End of story: almost two hours wasted getting my ego stomped on

[Tuffty]

Awesome! I love the sight and sound of dumping loads of CP and getting those stats!

Ugh I know the feeling. Pylraster on Final Fantasy XII. Never could defeat him I wonder how long it will take before I find my equivalent

*EDIT*

Also I think the impossible has happened, I read some FangXVanille ff's and now I'm developing a crush on Vanille, hell NOOO!

Vanille is ok, her character is a bit more complex than the happy go lucky childish girl anime stereotype that many other people label her as. As awkward and out of place the noises she makes are in any given scene, the Englisa VA only did what was asked of her. A friend of mine pointed out that Fang/Vanille is essentially Xena/Gabrielle and now I can't look at either Fang or Vanille without thinking that

[coachie]

Out of frustration I went exploring and discovered the Titan Trials.
Thought they would be really hard since "Titan" to me sounds like its crazy hard, but for now it's really managable, except for one of the Endbosses who wiped my party out in one blow, but I left him out for now.

And I can hereby confirm Lv.4 is the end of the crystarium!!!

Vanille is ok, her character is a bit more complex than the happy go lucky childish girl anime stereotype that many other people label her as. As awkward and out of place the noises she makes are in any given scene, the Englisa VA only did what was asked of her. A friend of mine pointed out that Fang/Vanille is essentially Xena/Gabrielle and now I can't look at either Fang or Vanille without thinking that

Yeah, Vanille is a good likeable character at the end of the game, I didn't mean what I said in a bad way, the same thing happened for me with Selphie. I liked her in the game but after reading some really incredible ff's I really fell in love with her character.
I read that Xena/Gabrielle comparison somewhere, too. It's funny because as a old Xena fan I never thought about it that way.

Edit:
I think the major point that puts me off with Vanille is not her bubbly happy character, but that high pitched voice they gave her in the english version (don't know her japanese voice) they probably aimed to make it sound like the original voice but ugh no.

[winner]

Picked up FF13 again yesterday. I was around 80+ hours in, so probably the same level as you guys.

I only had one mark left in the Titan Trials last time (well, 1 mark and a ??????).
The guy was way too hard for me then. Yes. I'm talking about you! E1's Neochu!
It seemed ok in the beginning. Started with a Libra and a COM/SYN/SAB for the first round. Then bashed it with RAV/COM/RAV. Till its first Screech cleared my party like dust! I tried summoning to skip the Screech, but even with that I could only take it down to ~70% HP before it's kids (pikochus or whatever. raptors...) massacred my team.

Got fed up. Left and leveled-up at the straight path with the Sacrifices. Sold lots of Perfume and got Lightning's final weapon upgrade (FF13 citizens sure like perfume!). Went back to Neochu.

I could survive the first Screech now, without wasting a summon. Even survived the kids. Until a 2nd Screech... and I'm downnnn.
Grinded more. Got Fang's final weapon upgrade. My party had maxed their 2nd role to Lvl5 by now and nearly maxed their 3rd.

Went to settings to set the battle-speed to slow.
Tried again. Survived the 1st Screech. Kids popped up. Summoned when the 2nd Screech came. That got it down to ~20% HP remaining.
Still had 5 kids running around madly. Used Quake. Switched to RAV/COM/MED for a last rush at Neochu with 2 of my members continuously in the red for 4-5 turns, one of them my Leader. But it worked!
Switched straight to MED/COM/MED to take the 5 kids on in snail-speed. saaaafe~

Now I just need to find out what that line of ??????? is. So I can give up fighting it.

I also had a try at one of those big turtles. Got it down, then got it to ~15-20% HP left. Might actually be able to take one of them down with some luck.

[coachie]

^ I feel your pain
The Titan Trials were surprisingly easy, that was until I came upon Neochu.
One hell of a bastard, I only managed to get it down to half the lifebar, then the Pikochus showed up, I couldn't heal fast enough, summoned Bahamut, but he didn't do enough damage, they were still alive when he left, got my health back at least, but it was no use, they killed me in a matter of seconds!
Tonight I'll try the way everyone is suggesting on the internets and even the guide book says this is the fastest way: casting Death with Vanille. Will see how this works.
Maybe I should start leveling up weapons, only did it for experimenting once and then forgot about it, also I should learn more about the usefulness of Nexus Effects that Accessory can have.

Edit: FUCK YEAH! It really worked, makes it almost too easy!