The Very Big Final Fantasy XIII Thread

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Smarty McBarrelpants

All I have to say is if you have to wait 15 hours for a game to be good, that game is shit.

It's more a "your mileage may vary" thing. In all honesty, it only takes about an hour to open up the major additions to combat, and two hours or so until your ability to summon.

If you can forgive the party, the beginning isn't totally terrible. Many people just can't forgive the party. I'll admit I'm willing to tolerate a worse party than most, but that's paradoxically from my cynicism concerning the quality of characters these days. As long as they don't have screechy voices and outright terrible lines, I'll probably just deal.

[Kim]

I'd say it took about five hours for the combat to get good, because I really didn't like playing as Sazh and Vanille at first because two ravagers against shit made some fights take forever and then I got pissed off at the game for giving me zero stars like a whore.

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by NonCon

I'd say it took about five hours for the combat to get good, because I really didn't like playing as Sazh and Vanille at first because two ravagers against shit made some fights take forever and then I got pissed off at the game for giving me zero stars like a whore.

I know this is too late to matter NOW, but Saboteurs slow down the stagger gauge's (or wtfever it's called) depletion just like commando. Also, you only really have to hit an enemy with saboteur/commando attacks once and then you can switch to full ravager to stagger the most quickly.

Still slower than a commando/ravager group, 'cause it's harder to control where the debuffs go, but not that bad.

[Kim]

Yeah, I think I actually noticed that later on in the game, I was just pissed at the time because I had no idea about that, and was just running dual ravagers most of the time, with Sazh occasionally buffing.

[bluestarultor]

Yeah, there's a lot of stuff people don't realize until they're told. Here's a short list:

- As mentioned, Saboteur spells stop the Chain gauge from falling like Commando attacks. I believe at least some of them also raise the bar as high as Ravager spells, but I may be mistaken.
- Many people believe Eidolons have a low damage output, but this isn't true if you use them right. The more Gestalt you have left, the more damage the finisher does based on the "level" the remaining points show. The finishers can do tens of thousands of damage if you play them right. Most people just spam the attacks and end up with a really low level for piss-poor damage.
- There's a trick where if you switch between similar paradigms (like the difference of one role) with a small bit of charge in the ATB bar, you will get a free full bar. Many people think it's random or is supposed to happen all the time.
- I don't know how many people fall prey to this, but with Medics, Saboteurs, and Synergists, if all buffs/debuffs/heals are full, they're effectively paralyzed, because the AI is left without any way to provide additional benefit. This frustrated Phantom before I told him what was going on, because he thought it was just useless AI.

[MFD]

... Sazh and Vanille I usually used Slash and Burn (COM/RAV). Dualcast (Rav2) only came in useful for Brynhildr.

Although I have been neglecting the Saboteur class for awhile. I might try a Rav2/SAB paradigm at some point.

I'm currently in Chapter 11 and taking some time to earn stuff to sell for monies for upgrades by doing the missions.

[krogothwolf]

Originally Posted by bluestarultor

- There's a trick where if you switch between similar paradigms (like the difference of one role) with a small bit of charge in the ATB bar, you will get a free full bar. Many people think it's random or is supposed to happen all the time.

How this works is, you charge up an full ATB and then after the attack switch and you get a free ATB. So every second ATB you get 2.

So you have

Relentless Assault
Diversity
Relentless Assault

You start the battle as Relentless Assault, the gauge charges and you attack, then you switch to second Relentless Assault and smash him right away with another round. Charge up the gauge one more time and attack. Then switch to Diversity(cause you got smacked) and get a free attack/heal.

Rinse and Repeat. Makes things insanely easy.

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by krogothwolf

How this works is, you charge up an full ATB and then after the attack switch and you get a free ATB. So every second ATB you get 2.

So you have

Relentless Assault
Diversity
Relentless Assault

You start the battle as Relentless Assault, the gauge charges and you attack, then you switch to second Relentless Assault and smash him right away with another round. Charge up the gauge one more time and attack. Then switch to Diversity(cause you got smacked) and get a free attack/heal.

Rinse and Repeat. Makes things insanely easy.

Actually, no. The way it works is that if you have any charge in the bar, you get a free full bar after you change. So you start in Diversity, let a bit charge into it, switch to Relentless Assault, take the free full bar, let a bit charge into it, switch back, take the free full bar, and so on and so forth.

[krogothwolf]

Originally Posted by bluestarultor

Actually, no. The way it works is that if you have any charge in the bar, you get a free full bar after you change. So you start in Diversity, let a bit charge into it, switch to Relentless Assault, take the free full bar, let a bit charge into it, switch back, take the free full bar, and so on and so forth.

Nope, doesn't work that way actually. I've experimented a lot with it. you need to charge it up once before you can swap, a half charge will seem like it fills up based on the time it takes to do the shift, so it really doesn't automatically charge up. But if you swap right after attacking with a full charged ATB, switch and you get a Free ATB, let it charge again, attack with ATB, switch and get free ATB.

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by krogothwolf

Nope, doesn't work that way actually. I've experimented a lot with it. you need to charge it up once before you can swap, a half charge will seem like it fills up based on the time it takes to do the shift, so it really doesn't automatically charge up. But if you swap right after attacking with a full charged ATB, switch and you get a Free ATB, let it charge again, attack with ATB, switch and get free ATB.

I see. I do know that if you shift to a totally different paradigm, though, that the ATB bar starts over after you finish, so you can see where I'm coming from.

Good to know, though.