Let's talk about the FFXIII demo - http://www.mmcafe.com/ Forums


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Maou
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"Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Fri 17 Apr 14:32post reply

Time's a-wastin'! A shame you have to buy Advent Children to actually give it a spin, but we never let Musashiden get in the way of playing FFVIII (then again, Musashiden was halfway decent in its own right). I just need to make a friend buy a PS3, I suppose. But for now, my impressions: FFXIII is very...neon-green. Hum.





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Zepy
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"Re(1):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Fri 17 Apr 20:43post reply

FFXIII demo is 5.09gb and less than an hour long! How are they ever going to get the game on the 360!





Gojira
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"Re(2):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Fri 17 Apr 21:47post reply

quote:
FFXIII demo is 5.09gb and less than an hour long! How are they ever going to get the game on the 360!



Lots and lots of discs. The LE package will probably include a posh spindle to hold them all.





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Maou
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"Re(3):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Fri 17 Apr 22:57post reply

quote:
Lots and lots of discs. The LE package will probably include a posh spindle to hold them all.
But will it hold all of Lightning's pre-manufactured sass? I hope she pays Ashe some royalties for the constant 黙っていろ's, too.





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Mokona
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"Re(1):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Sat 18 Apr 00:01post reply

What frightens me a bit is the color palette.
I hope the environment don't end up looking like Zion in Matrix the whole game through, that would be depressing.
Also, if the game is on rail tracks like that the whole time, I'll be disappointed. There needs to be some large-scale environments.

The game looks pimp, though, I can't wait to play it.

I'll refrain from commenting too much on the battle system since I haven't played it yet. Let's just say I'm in favor of turn-based rather than action RPGs, FFXII worked well IMO, and this looks like it will too.





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Ishmael
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"Re(2):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Sun 19 Apr 04:50post reply

quote:
What frightens me a bit is the color palette.
I hope the environment don't end up looking like Zion in Matrix the whole game through, that would be depressing.
Also, if the game is on rail tracks like that the whole time, I'll be disappointed. There needs to be some large-scale environments.


When people talk about the look of latter day FF games they are usually referring to the strange way the characters dress themselves. But what catches my eye is the odd, antiseptic universe that they inhabit. It's a world where cities that stretch on forever look like they were built in a day and everything, including living beings, has built in track lighting. What most struck me about the demo videos was how the all the action felt as if it was taking place in a hermetically sealed enviornment that was free from any outside, natural influences. It was as if the characters were running around in a window display at a shopping mall or the underground chunks of I-93 in Boston. It's no wonder that the FF characters always have a flawless, flowing look to them; it's merely a reflection of the world around them.





Maou
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"Re(3):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Sun 19 Apr 08:34post reply

quote:
When people talk about the look of latter day FF games they are usually referring to the strange way the characters dress themselves. But what catches my eye is the odd, antiseptic universe that they inhabit. It's a world where cities that stretch on forever look like they were built in a day and everything, including living beings, has built in track lighting. What most struck me about the demo videos was how the all the action felt as if it was taking place in a hermetically sealed enviornment that was free from any outside, natural influences. It was as if the characters were running around in a window display at a shopping mall or the underground chunks of I-93 in Boston. It's no wonder that the FF characters always have a flawless, flowing look to them; it's merely a reflection of the world around them.

Hmm, so the characters are organic outgrowths of their environment...not a bad take! Still, this is the first time the oddly antiseptic (perfect assessment) world strikes me so...X had some odd designs, but the world was so thoroughly tropical/Okinawan in vibe; VIII had more staid designs, but there were some flashy vibes from the assorted Gardens, but never this glossy.





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nobinobita
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"Re(4):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Sun 19 Apr 11:16post reply

quote:
Hmm, so the characters are organic outgrowths of their environment...not a bad take! Still, this is the first time the oddly antiseptic (perfect assessment) world strikes me so...X had some odd designs, but the world was so thoroughly tropical/Okinawan in vibe; VIII had more staid designs, but there were some flashy vibes from the assorted Gardens, but never this glossy.



What's intersting to me is that though the vibe of FFXIII is flashy and shiny, the actual execution is not. This game has more of a matte look to it, which I wish more games would employ. If you compare the graphics in FFXIII to GTA, Gears of War, Bioshock, Drakes Fortune or any other number of Next Gen games you'll see that they're much flashier and glossier, as if everything is wet.

Most games these days tend to ramp up the specularity so that everything has a sharp highlight. Also, alot of games tend to turn up the color saturation and overuse light bloom effects.

The overall tone of this new Final Fantasy isn't exactly subdued, but the execution is full of subtlety when compared to most of the other AAA titles out there.

The game's looking quite impressive so far. The monsters look really cool. I'm not too excited about the main characters though.





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"Re(5):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Sun 19 Apr 13:40post reply

quote:

Most games these days tend to ramp up the specularity so that everything has a sharp highlight. Also, alot of games tend to turn up the color saturation and overuse light bloom effects.



I'm starting to see more of the matte look in other places, actually. Take a look at Torostation, where the cats are rendered with a matte shaded surface, but are highlighted with the now ever-popular rimlighting effect. To top it off, Kuro is one of the lightest black black-colored characters I've seen in awhile.

Considering that a lot of rendered surfaces in games wind up looking plastic-y anyway, I think it's good that more thought is being put into taking that plastic-ness in different directions.





KTallguy
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"Re(6):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Tue 21 Apr 22:34post reply

The battle system is really fun. Basically they've completely reinvented everything.

There's no MP. Magic can be used without using up any kind of in game currency. For example, Cure spells are automatically used by party members when your health dips into below half (Yellow HP), and they seem to use it more aggressively when it dips into 1/4 (Red HP). You can also manually cure, but the demo is a bit too easy to necessitate that except on the last boss of the demo. The way healing is in the demo, it's very difficult to die, but the focus appears to be doing well in battle, rather than living or dying.

Currently you only control one character at a time, because the game is extremely fast. I bet that in the full game you control one character at a time but use the LR buttons to give the other characters preset commands. Because there is a flag next to the controlled character's name you can assume that switching is possible.

The AP bar is broken into three sections, and a standard action takes only one of those sections. You can choose to do a single action, two in a row, or three in a row. This means that you can choose to only wait for one section of the AP bar to fill up if you want to quickly attack or use a magic spell, or wait for the entire thing to fill up if you want to do longer strings of attacks.

The animations and timing of the attacks differ depending on how you put them together. For example, if I use "fight" x3, Lightning will do two sword slices and then flip backwards and shoot with her gun. However, large enemy attacks can interrupt you, so it may be advantageous to do fight X2, because when Lightning finishes an attack she automatically does a flip backwards. On the first boss, for example, there is a broad slashing attack that he only does in a short range in front of him. If I do "Fight" X3, he will hit me in the middle of the action, and I'll lose all of the AP that I used to initiate the command. However if I do "fight" X2, chances are that she'll finish the attack before his attack can connect, and she'll quickly flip out of the way and back to her starting position, effectively dodging the attack. When you mix magic and attacks, it all comes out relatively naturally.

Certain actions take more AP. For example, Firaga takes 3 AP, using the entire bar at once. Firaga also is an area of effect spell and launches everyone into the air, stunning them for a bit.

Your entire AP bar fills very quickly, so you are constantly entering commands, and you will have to think quickly. I imagine that there will be some kind of mode where you slow down time, because the pace seems too fast for your average FF player.

The battle concept revolves around "Breaking enemies". Breaking an enemy requires the following:

1. First, use a single magic attack on an enemy to fill their "combo meter" (for lack of a better term) on the top right corner. The bar will slowly deplete over time.

2. Then, attack as normal. I prefer to do 1 "Fight" or 2 "Fights", as 3 in a row seems slow. Your buddies will attack with you.

3. While that bar is depleting, any attacks that hit will add to the "Chain Attack" number. However if the "combo meter" fully depletes, you'll be back at zero chain. "Fight" only slightly increase the combo meter, so if the bar is depleting you'll need to throw in a magic attack to refill it.

4. When the "Chain Attack" number is nearing the enemy's limit, they will start to glow a bit yellow. When the "Chain Attack" has reached the enemy's limit, there will be a small explosion effect and the enemy will be "broken" and glowing red. Depending on the enemy, the necessary "Chain Attack" number will be lower (zako) or higher (boss). The "Combo Meter" will change to the "Break Meter", it will completely fill, and start steadily counting down over time.

5. A broken enemy has different properties from a non broken enemy:

- Takes more damage according to the multiplier on the top right (up to 300%!)

- Has a much longer hit reaction animation (non-broken enemies barely react when you hit them)

- Smaller enemies can be launched with 打ち上げ (Launch), and then any subsequent air juggle attacks will do big damage. The enemy is helpless until they hit the ground and do their loooong get up animation. Also you are safe because you are up in the air, far away from other enemies.

The game rates you after battle on a 1-5 star scale, and also tracks how quickly you won, as well as the highest chain. Once you get good at chaining you can have 60+ hit chains on bosses, and quickly kill them with 300% damage bonuses and what have you.

So yes, this battle system is a complete overhaul and I really really like it. I think that there's awesome potential for difficult bosses that require both timing and strategy. Although "Breaking" works how I described it above in the demo that's out, I imagine that different enemies will need to be broken in different ways, and figuring out that strategy will be the key to defeating bosses/tough enemies. It's a very gutsy move to change up the entire system so much, but I am very happy with it and I can't wait to see what it's like in the full game.

Also battle transitions are not at random, they happen when you touch an enemy, and they take less than 3 seconds before you're in battle entering commands.

Sorry for the length ^^





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Ishmael
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"Re(7):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Wed 22 Apr 04:53post reply

Thanks for the breakdown of the battle system. When I first watched the demo videos I felt a bit of disconnect when it came to the gameplay since I didn't fully understand what I was looking at. Your description is the most helpful I've come across in explaining what was going on. Although I don't know if that radically different style of playing is going to work for the entire length of the game I'm now interested enough in the game to wonder about questions like that.





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"Re(7):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Wed 22 Apr 13:20post reply

quote:
The battle system is really fun. Basically they've completely reinvented everything.



It sounds a lot like Valkyrie Profile 2.





Maou
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"Re(8):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Wed 22 Apr 13:41post reply

quote:
The battle system is really fun. Basically they've completely reinvented everything.


It sounds a lot like Valkyrie Profile 2.

And more than a bit like Grandia...maybe Square didn't feel bad about borrowing from arguably the best RPG fighting engine (to hell with you, Tales) now that it's been absorbed by Enix along with Grandia creators Game Arts.





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KTallguy
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"Re(9):Let's talk about the FFXIII demo" , posted Wed 22 Apr 15:08post reply

Considering that the battle system is apparently only 30% complete, I'm sure we'll find plenty of new things in the full game. We don't even know how summons work (someone speculated that you could summon Shiva in the form of a motorcycle and then pop a wheelie on a bosses' head, but I digress).

But I think there's a ton of potential in this system. If the object is to figure out how to break an enemy, there could be many ways to achieve that: Weak to X element, Weak to being attacked by two characters at once, weak to physical attacks, weakened once their buddies die, etc etc. I'm really excited about how it'll turn out.





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