They should make the game more interactive, not less! I like how Tales of Abyss does it. There's not much grinding and a boss fight appears often. Crisis Core is a pretty good example too but they made it too easy but I think they did that on purpose because it's hard to play rpgs while on a portable while traveling.
More interactive to do what? Repeat the exact same actions over and over for 30-60 minutes? No thanks. Perhaps it is the programmer in me, but I have issues with manually performing the same simple, tedious task over and over. Would rather automate it and put my attention elsewhere. That said, I'd also be all for opening up the action in RPGs too. Make it like Demon's Souls or like WRPGs. But if they're going to have you select options via a menu ("traditional" console RPG I guess?), then they should let you "program" your battle tactics IMO. Of course, it would all be optional, and you certainly wouldn't want to use it for boss fights (well...assuming the fights are challenging and require strategy).
FFXI felt more of a grind to me than most jrpg games. Probably because I'm not inputting anything and using just basically the D-pad to move around. What I need is more boss battles so that the input commands are not repetitive.
err Meant FF12. Anyways I think there's a lot of inputting repetitive commands in a lot of games besides just rpgs. A lot of them are repetitive but it's fun to do them for awhile in order to get to fight the bigger bosses later.
The only FF game ive ever played was FF7, but the graphics and gameplay on this one looks pretty amazing. But there's a Final Fantasy 13 and a Final Fantasy 13 Versus? Is there any relation between the 2 games?
From what I understand, the ocales may be similar, but story and gameplay aren't. On that note, does anyone know when that one is due out?
Sure, that would always be great. I don't agree that there is a lot of repetitive commands in other games. Certainly not on the level of RPGs. You could get further in an RPG by taping down one-two buttons on a turbo controller and leaving the game run overnight. Can't really think of many (or any) other genres where simple actions like that would really work (usually because timing matters, unlike most RPGs). To be fair though, that's becoming less and less true, but either because of AI control or more "action" with the battle systems. I don't really see why the option is bad. It can't replace the current scheme (have to use that for boss fights or whatever). So if you want to manually input those commands, you could. But I'd like the ability to "multi-task" when it comes to these repetitive situations. IIRC, they are in the same "universe"...which doesn't really mean much at all I suppose. Other than that, they sound pretty different. But we haven't really seen much of anything from Versus 13. Probably lucky if it hits Japan before the end of the year and here in the next year. Actually, we're probably lucky if we get anything new about it this year period.
I meant repetitive gameplay is pretty much the same as repetitive commands. Both makes you do things that you don't really want to do but you have to in order to advance the story or get stronger. If they make it so you could just have the A.I do most of the work for you, then it just feels like you're not really involve. I don't think you can tape down a button since you have to cure your characters somehow and xp goes bad after a couple of hours (I never tried it on any game except ff12 though!). Now if you have a gambit system you can do that and I did after seeing a gamefaqs guide on how to gain fast levels or something like that. I don't really like to input repetitive commands for too long that's why I think rpgs should be more about strategy/tactics/fun fights and less grinding. My prob with FF12 is that I could basically just walk through the entire game and most bosses by just going near them and letting the gambit do all the work (from what I recall but I could be wrong). I know I could just do it manually but why if the game is meant to be played with Gambits you know what I mean? It's like giving myself a handicap.
I got you beat by a mile. I don't know what the hell I'm doing wrong, but I'm calling it a night. I figure its just me being tired. Annoying anyway though. I will go ahead and say that see now how the combat can be annoying. Its so quick paced in tough matches, there were times I thought I pushed X all four times only to find that I had not selected the enemy. Again maybe its fatigue, but this was reallt irking me.
Odin was fairly rough. Killed me quickly a few times before I started making any progress at all. What I did: Spoiler I ended up switching between rav/rav when I had enough health and mostly rav/med
Got to chapter 12 now. From chapter 11 onwards, sentinel is going to be used very often in boss fights. They have damage reduction for themselves and provices some damage reduction for teammates. Using Lightning/Fang/Hope. One interesting combination for lightning is the Axis Blade. It looks like it sucks since stats are incredibly low. I add in Whistlewind scarf, aurora scarf, and nimbletoe shoes and it gives +20% atb back per attack. Using the skill Army of One on staggered bosses, I can build the chain boosts up to 999% fairly quickly. Once there, Fang and Hope dish out insane damage.
I still think there is a difference in RPGs and other genres. Have any specific examples? Other games may have repetitive gameplay (i.e., shoot enemies over and over), but those actions are normally quite a bit more complex than pushing up on the analog stick and holding down X for 30 minutes. Nope, I've actually used turbo controllers for a couple of FF games IIRC (and maybe some others). Last one was FFX I think. Not hard to do once you get some skills that give you auto-regen for free. I can grab some links to GameFAQs if you'd like. Agree. If RPGs went more into this direction, then I'd be happy. Don't really see it as a handicap. Was more like an option IMO. If you wanted to go without them, you should have. IIRC, I didn't really rely on them much for boss fights (especially since you didn't get good gambits until late(r) in the game). I might have put on some basic ones (cure if <30%, antidote if poison, etc.), but I made sure I was making the "tough" decisions. Basically, I'd let the gambits do the work for the "easy" enemies (which would only require me to tap "X" over and over if I wasn't using gambits), and for harder fights, I'd take over (same with or without gambits). Worked fine for me.
Well it's more complex but not by much. An example would be Gears of War. "More Locust!" /repeat or Starcraft. You do a tad more complex actions but it's still grind. I don't mind it to a certain extent. Now if you gave me say a Korean MMO, I'll cry about inputting repetitive commands forever to gain a level. For me it's fun to input spells like fire, ice, water, thunder, etc and test out new weapons/armors/summons I have for awhile against monsters. Then after I level for awhile I'll have other spells like firaga, wateraga, thundaga, etc to mess around with on new mobs. Sounds like in certain situations when you get the right armor/weapon/mobs, you can exploit the system. I guess what you're saying is that you want the A.Is to do the basic work for you while I'm saying that they should just lessen the amount of it.
Don't really agree, except for the MMOs of course. But I'll let it go. I agree. I love that stuff too. Tends to make up only about 20% of non-boss battles for me though (total guess there since it differs from game to game, but you get the idea). Right. Of course, in the cases of the turbo controller, I like to think of it as a primitive form of gambits, which is all I wanted in the first place. Could actually do it to some degree without some of that stuff, but the "AI" would just be too limited. Think I still did it in 5 minute intervals or so. Yes. Either would work for me. Of course, I think the latter is considerably more difficult to do, and thus, less realistic. So I tend to lean towards the other option as a "back-up."
How I beat Odin (spoilering in case folks want to formulate their own strategy): Spoiler Start the fight with synergist/medic so you live while Hope casts Protect/Shell on both of you. You need both. The rest of the fight, you'll be switching from 3 paradigms: Commando/Ravager (to keep his chain bonus bar from dropping too fast), Ravager/Ravager (to push his chain higher faster), and Medic/Ravager (obvious reasons). You push Odin into gestalt by boosting the chain bonus. If you just wail on him with Commando/Medic, you'll never get there in time.
Wow, you've had a lot of time to play. I only just got Fang/Snow back, but in that chapter I did have to use Provoke/Steelguard a few times. My guess is that my eventual party will probably be Lightning/Snow/Vanille, but not having a Synergist may hurt. Lightning/Fang/Vanille may work better. Then again, maybe more jobs will open up for everyone? I was curious about how much the Axis Blade charges the ATB guage.
Lightning/Snow/vanillile works fine. I just love fang simply because of her insane str growth. She currently has around 2000atk power right now. Snow has a better hp so he makes for better sentinel. Primary reason I did Light/Fang/Hope is because it has all 6 paradigms covered. As for Axis blade, it actually charges 10% per hit. I'm guessing it will do 20% for the upgraded version, but i'm not sure. The synthesist group its in actually increases atb regen rate. With 3 other accessories its at 20%. Thing about army of one is that it has many many hits. By the time it finishes, it's already charged atb by 2.5bars. You stack haste with it and it's barely even a second in which you can cast army of one again (takes 5 bars).
Just rented it and started playing. I must say I am more impressed with the visuals on this as a game than I was with Avatar as a movie. If that makes any sense
