Board 8 > i fal'Cie wut u did thar: Viso Plays Through FFXIII (Spoiler Warning This Time!)

(+) Yeah! (+)

That fal'Cie design was pretty fucking cool. It was like a Zelda boss. Still went down faster than Tifa in a Vlado wet dream though.
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So we finally get to see Vanille and Fang's home and it's kind of a shithole nowadays. Guess they've been gone a long time. Fight fight fight, meet up with Vanille's scrappy robot buddy, and then I FINALLY get the weapon I want to use for Fang. Time for a massive upgrade spree with gets everyone's primary weapon to rank 2 and some are close to being maxed out (god bless the ability to buy Capacitors or whatever they're called from that one store.)

Then we move on to fight the chapter's final boss, and would you look at that? Serah's back. Serah, who is BIZARRELY relevant despite having the bare minimum of screentime. Seriously, I don't get why Swordz and Voltch back her so hard over the actual playable cast. But yeah, Serah's clearly evil here. Her eyes are all shifty, so something's gonna happen. This is actually some creepy shit, having an evil being take on the form of someone Lightning/Snow love.

Also, Lightning is officially "Claire". I prefer that name anyway.
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Jesus CHRIST that boss battle was difficult. It was all status effects and I could barely get a hit in edgewise.
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Currently trying to kill this goddamn Ochu for the Growth Egg.
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FINALLY. That was a huge pain in the ass because the Death spell just WOULDN'T WORK. And the one time it did, the little bastard mini-ochus just wrecked me.
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Now that I've got my growth egg, time to just keep repeating mission 24 over and over again. Booyah Moonblossom Seeds!
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FF13 is nothing like FFX though >_>

For one thing, no character is as actively annoying as Tidus (who is even worse because he's the main goddamn character of FFX).
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Also, apparently I completely missed a chunk of Fang's crystarrium. I had never gotten "Challenge" or "Counter" for her. That explains some things.
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I'm just realizing how shitty Sazh's stats are. Holy shit why?
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Alright, just bought some new toys and fully maxed out my weapons.
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My sweet baby Fang <3
I need to re-play this game.
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OMG, @CrimsonOcean ! Where have you been and why have you abandoned me for so long? ;_;
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Also, I've gotten good at killing Adamanchelids with a 5-star rating, so I've just been running back and forth between a pair of stationary ones to try and grind for Gold Dust. Not that Goldust won't grind enough on his own terms, but you get the idea.
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Well, maxed out my grids and bought a fuckton of Warrior Wristbands/Sorcerer Marks. Let's move on with the story.
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Holy shit, Eden has live-action Mario Kart?! And Barthandelus wants to destroy this place?
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Not gonna lie, that scene makes the level grind totally worth it. The whole party charging into battle on their Eidolons, crashing onto a race track and just wrecking shit. Lightning in cutscenes is SO fucking OP that I wish we got a similar power level in-game.

Continuing the cutscenes, Cid got brought back for like, a minute, just so he could get killed again? I feel like this guy will inevitably come back to life, just like Yosch did.
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Inviso posted...

OMG, @CrimsonOcean ! Where have you been and why have you abandoned me for so long? ;_;

Hey Vis! I mostly kind of just lurk now. I got married and work a lot. I do miss making avatars for you :)
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Reposting in the RIGHT topic this time. There's just something SO satisfying about seeing those 99999 damage scores roll in over and over again.
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The return of Snow's douche crew, plus fine-ass Lebreau. Hooray...
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Oh fuck right off you whiny, blue-haired Tidus wannabe motherfucker. Don't even JOKE about being upset in that whiny, nasally tone. Fuck you. And fuck this earmuff-wearing motherfucker too.
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Alright. Just maxed out Lightning's new sword, which means I should be all set with the weapons until I start picking up the super-upgrade items.

Lightning - Ultima Weapon
Fang - Venus Gospel
Sazh - Canopus AMPs
Vanille - Malboro Wand
Hope - Eagletalon
Snow - Battle Standard
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I restarted this last night because of this topic. The graphics hold up damn well, I was surprised. It really still looks great.

Snow and NORA are still annoying af. Vanille is cooler than I remember, basically telling Hope to grow a pair the whole time and treating him like a baby haha. Lighting is still my sweet baby angle (until Fang shows up that is). Weird hearing Ali Hillis voice Lightning after finally playing Mass Effect for the first time.

And I'll stop hijacking the topic now lol.
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I'm nearing the end of chapter 12, I think. Managed to avoid the adamantoise crashing through the glass floor by killing the fuck out of it. Other than that, mostly just fighting stuff en route to the end of the level.

P.S. Barthandelus is such a lame bad guy. Like, I go back in time and I remember we got Kefka, Sephiroth, Kuja. When did we start going back to Golbez-level generic final bad guys?
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Fuck. I beat Rosch a second time and got 200000 CP from doing so, only to realize I was already around like, 875000 saved up. That's a complete waste of CP, so I guess I'm gonna spend some to level up my secondary grids, then fight him again.
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I'm apparently playing Pokemon now. I just started picking up items called "Seaking' Beard" and I'm fighting "Dagonite" enemies.
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This final area really sucks. It's just a weird, sci-fi void with constantly-changing platforms. That's super fucking lame.
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These floating humanoid things (I'm assuming some kind of fal'Cie), I can't tell if they're trying to help me, or just trying to fuck with me. Either way, this section is taking too goddamn long.
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Okay, this took a long time, and the whole Boss -> THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM -> Boss -> THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM thing is so Final Fantasy. But this ending is getting kinda awesome. Fang getting the crap kicked out of her...boo.
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...

Ragnarok Fang is...kinda hot.
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Seriously, why is Fang NOT the main character? Why is she the LAST party member you get access to? This whole thing is literally her story.
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Dammit FF13. Making me tear up at the ending. ;_;
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Well, that definitely had its flaws (the linearity in certain segments definitely highlights when things get boring), and the overall story was pretty standard Final Fantasy stuff, but the cast more than makes up for it, and the ending gave me all I was hoping for and more. Now the question is, is it worth it to go for FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns?
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Inviso posted...

Seriously, why is Fang NOT the main character? Why is she the LAST party member you get access to? This whole thing is literally her story.

Girl I've been saying this for years!
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Inviso posted...

Well, that definitely had its flaws (the linearity in certain segments definitely highlights when things get boring), and the overall story was pretty standard Final Fantasy stuff, but the cast more than makes up for it, and the ending gave me all I was hoping for and more. Now the question is, is it worth it to go for FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns?

I haven't played Lightning Returns but I played a good amount of FFXIII-2 and unless you super like Sera and are really into having a new character named Noel as the focus... ehhhhh >__>
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I thought XIII-2 had a lot of problems and it's easily my least favorite Final Fantasy, but most people consider it the best game in the trilogy by far so I dunno, might be worth a try.

Lightning Returns plays really differently than the other two but I thought it was great!

Also Lightning is the main character because Lightning is the best
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Cast Ranking:

1. Oerba Dia Vanille (The most important character from start to finish, without any dead periods in the story. On the surface, she's a bubbly girl who's honestly kind of annoying. But then you realize just how much shit she's dealing with, both in terms of guilt and in terms of the knowledge she carries with her regarding her/Fang's past. I just enjoy the fact that subverts the typical bubbly girl stereotype in such a major way.)

2. Sazh Katzroy (Someone in the SMFFFC thread pointed out that Sazh and Hope both kinda peak before chapter 10, and I can agree with that. They probably have the biggest disconnect between the overall plot and their role in it. That being said, Sazh is likable. He's a funny, comic relief character who actually stands out compared to the typically younger Final Fantasy cast. In an otherwise dark and depressing story, you can always count on Sazh to step up and goof off at the right time.)

3. Oerba Yun Fang (Should've been the main character. It's her story goddammit. But yeah, Fang is snarky and bitchy just like Lightning, but Fang just works better for me as a character if only because of the bond she shares with Vanille. She's protective while it takes Lightning a while to grow into that sort of role. Plus she shrugs off a surprising amount of physical abuse, so good on her there.)

4. Hope Estheim (Hope's character development comes entirely through the first 7 chapters, and it's a good story in my opinion. I mean, on paper, Hope is the most tangentially connected character in the plot (Fang/Vanille are the center, they infected Dajh/Serah to bring Sazh/Snow/Lightning into the mix, and Snow connected Hope), and it makes sense that he's the most useless later in the story. Still, creating a kid character who's thrown into the deep end of the pool by being in the wrong place at the wrong time...it works. I can appreciate every decision he makes and how he eventually changes over the course of the plot. He's still kind of annoying, but I can tolerate that in such a well-written character.)

5. Claire "Lightning" Farron (Lightning is a perfectly fine character. She works well as a stoic badass. I think, as I've said, Fang should've been the face of the game while Lightning took on the role of "former soldier who switches sides to do what's right". But yeah, Lightning works well when it comes to keeping everyone in line, and just generally serving to keep the rest of the cast from going crazy and taking themselves too seriously.)

6. Snow Villiers (Snow is kind of annoying. But at the same time, his annoying personality actually works, because he's almost like a parody of the kind of hero he's supposed to be. It's actually kind of amusing to see this guy who's a big shot in his real life suddenly forced to become this true-to-life action hero...only he's nowhere NEAR qualified for it. In a way, Snow works well as the punching bag for a good portion of the cast.)
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Good rankings. I would probably switch 4 and 5, but the rest is the same as mine.

13-2 is ok, never played LR.

You should do the rest of the missions - most are easy, but I can think of at least 2 I struggled with even late game.
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I plan on doing so. I've just spent most of the weekend playing FF13 and doing nothing else, so I'm taking a break for now. Then I plan on powerleveling the rest of my upgraded crystarriums.
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@swordz9 Why do you push Serah so hard in SMFFFC while leaving the playable cast out to dry? Serah's kinda lame. >_>
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Inviso posted...

@swordz9 Why do you push Serah so hard in SMFFFC while leaving the playable cast out to dry? Serah's kinda lame. >_>

Serah can make stats this year. I've also been trying to save the others, but they keep dying. I was Hope's only save the round he went out and Sazh died like 1min before my save came up I think.

Serah is pretty good and the highlight of XIII-2
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