I can only aspire to Kurotsuchi levels of douchiness.
 

Complaint retracted, though you really shouldn't hold me to Kurotsuchi quotes.

Can we agree that the summons turned out more Awesome than expected?

For example... i present Gundam Alexander

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmsXCdzM7vU

Summon sequence was boring.
 

He's far too small and that summon sequence better be skippable.

Attack animations for summons are too long in Gestalt Mode.

Oh c'mon now. As far as i can recall that's one of the fastest Summon transition in all FF and the Gestalt attacks aren't slower than common magic except for the Finisher.

I didn't notice it as much in FFXII cuz I almost never used summons.
 

Let me tell you something Bells. I was playing Persona PSP, a port of the first Persona game from the PSX. I love the Persona games, and I really enjoyed this one, but that doesn't change the fact that half the time I was going "Holeeee shiiiiit I am glad they don't pull this bullshit anymore." Just because the summons sequences are longer in old games, does not change the fact that doing something like that, especially if we do it on a regular basis, is going to be a pain in the bitch to sit through, and is something that should be fazed out as the franchise progresses.

Honestly, I'm just glad they kept everything to shorter than in was in FF12. I mean, granted, it lacks the ZOMG WORLD BUSTING appearance of 12's sequences, but that was a bit over the top in the first place. These (the same user has videos for Odin, Shiva, and Byrnhildr) seem to be much more local, which makes sense in the context of the game. Although they lack variation. All of them minus Alexander end up with a spinning attack, which isn't quite as bad with Odin, since it's Lightning doing the spinning, and in the air, but Shiva and Byrnhildr are basically the same, replace one element with another. That's mildly disappointing.

Well, there is only so much you can do with a Motorcycle and a Car, so i guess they drove themselves to a designer corner with that one...

I also got the feeling that they pushed this to a more streamlined concept by actually "removing" summons. Because they don't play out as summons anymore. They are just Limit breakers. Each character has only one and it's always the same...

And checking out the Damage output those things give it also feels like Summons are ment to be Life savers instead of a common attack like they have been on previous FF's after a certain point. You can't just summon it like a ordinary attack any time you want.

Sure, it does drag on some old concepts, but FF13 is actually trying to take these concepts and give it a freash spin... if it works or not it's another story.

Oh, no, you're totally right. On pretty much all counts. I was just kind of excited at first when Byrnhildr accelerated because I thought it was going to be an Ifrit-style charge/flash heat attack, and needless to say I was disappointed when she started spinning. Also that Sazh got ejected during it, taking away pretty much every possibility of him being a serious character. That alone is disappointing, because his individual position is quite serious, what with the quest for his son, and he's shown a good amount of wisdom, too.

But yeah, the big guys are on record saying that they didn't include Limit Breaks because of the Eidolons. Those were some damn big numbers popping up, and the way you have to earn summoning points from winning battles cements it pretty strongly as a last resort.




Edit: Oh, hey, the user just added Bahumut. No spinning! XD

I kid, but Mega Flare is kinda special in its own way. Usually, it's a beam or giant blast. This one is a megaton bomb that just so happens to be the size of a softball.

The damage-to-impressiveness ratio of these attacks is a bit off-kilter, methinks, but I'll wait for the game to really judge. XD

Fuuuck I want this game really bad. I don't think I've been excited for an FF game ever. Only a few months to go at least. Of course I won't be avoiding spoilers in the meantime because I am the sort that gives no shit about spoilers.

There are a few videos on Youtube explaining the battle system. It's actually deeper in strategy than i would've thought at first