wow 35 hours in? TS & I just got the game today.

on a side note, the FF14 website update some of the job-related stuff. abilities, spells, and an interesting "in action" section

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

i bought it today, will play tomorrow.

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lovin' it

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http://www.youtube.com/ArmLengthInterviews
My attempt at making funny gaming related videos.

Just got the to boss on Chapter 9 and he's a freakin dickwad. I keep getting him to about 25% and then he one shots Lightning with his Destructo move or whatever it's called. so gay. how did you guys survive that part? Should I just load her up on HP+ rings or what?

Also what party setup are you guys using? Right now I'm sticking with Light/Fang/Vanille only because I have their weapons upgraded.

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I can't remember my exact pt for that boss fight, think it was Fang/Hope/Light. Whatever the auto party was. I had at least one HP ring on Lightning. It really pays to have Hope in your party for that fight, nobody else has protect/shell, you need that to survive destrudo. When it starts charging destrudo fill your HP and rush him (Com/Rav/Rav), if you get chain to around 180 it stalls him a little, you have a chance of staggering him before he finishes charging but I never did it, always got to around 240 before he went off. If you think you're fucked, summon Odin for the save before destrudo goes off.

If you take too long in that fight he will doom you, just like eidolons. You have to play it safe but courageous. Great music in that fight.

Currently my party is Sazh/Snow/Vanille. I like having Hope (see above) but I'm trying to mix up my parties. I have lightning with a pretty cool speed setup, every attack grants her some charge on her atb and she starts every battle with a full bar, pretty cool. I start each fight with Saz synergist, Vanille saboteur, and snow sentinel. Buff and debuff while snow guards, once everything's set I unleash. Most fights are a lot easier with good prep. Haste followed by the double hit of Faith/brave/enspell from Sazh and Deshell/deprotect/imperil from Vanille is pretty brutal. Some fights are just retarded though, I just took a day away from the game because I was trying to get through this damn tunnel and kept dying to regular mobs.

I'm in the middle of the last Eidolon fight now, I always have trouble with these.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

I guess the "broken wide open" part of the game is this area I'm at. It's the first nature-y type area. The main zone is really, really impressive. I've never seen so far in a videogame. There are things way off in the distance that actually exist. You can travel to them. Gigantic adamantoises can be seen lumbering in the distance, they're probably as big as the yiazmat dragon in ff12 except you get to see them from far away and in an open area. It's hard to explain why this place is impressive, but you'll know when you get there.

It doesn't seem like there's a whole shitload to do except these notorious monster hunt quests, but just travelling the zone is a pleasure in itself. There is also a series of tunnels along with some cliffs that are connected to this zone via loading screens.

I'm about 6 hours in and I only have a couple complaints:
1. Paradigm is a good mechanism, but I find it annoying to have to switch to a defensive one to have my caster cast 1 cure, then switch to an offensive just a moment later. Maybe the newer crystowhatevers will allow a more active healer?
2. Camera angles get kind of annoying as you walk around the limited halls.

Looking forward to more play time this week.

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I just finished the Chapter 9 boss. I didn't know you can knock him out of his Destructo move if you damage him while he's charging it. After I figured it out the fight wasn't too hard.

I haven't had much time to play but hopefully I'm not too far off from the open area that you're at DL. I want to farm up some money for the Omega weapons before I get to the final boss.

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You get to the open part, then the game closes up again, then when you think you've gone past the point of no return some portals appear that can take you back out into the world so don't sweat it too much.

I'm on the last boss, it's hard and really friggin cool. I don't have any ultimate stuff. The idea of ultimate weapons had slipped my mind entirely until I spoke to this little wall-e ripoff robot who mentions something along those lines. eh. I have a save file from before I went past the (real) point of no return.

At the open part you'll be able to do FF12 style hunts across a world worth of zones. You'll also have freedom to level up and farm. I figure that's where any and all sidequest lines appear. I've done 25ish of the fights, there are at least 62.

Judging by memory and the datalog you have one more medium-length dungeon and a few big fights before you're free to explore.

Right now I have Fang hitting stuff for five-digit damage regularly, she's a monster. Sazh's usefulness has about run out, which sucks because he's my favorite character. Hope has all the same Synergy abilities but also has the strongest magic stat in the game for Ravager and can play medic, meaning he can replace Sazh and Vanille for a brutal two commando Snow/Fang/Hope setup...which I haven't tried yet. Hope's eidolon is also the strongest of the bunch. Lots of fun party combinations I want to play. In the end everyone has acess to every job, but even the beginner nodes on non-natural jobs are expensive and each character has their own natural gifts to keep in mind, which is probably the main reason I continue leading party with Sazh: great HP.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

One of the best strings of final boss fights ever. Great music, cutscenes, and challenge on all of them. Solid, satisfying ending.

Awesome game.

For the first time I can recall in a Final Fantasy, there's a postgame save so you can continue your game after the boss with an expanded crystarium. As far as I can tell there's no new game+.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

I'm not too happy with the game honestly...

The characters annoy me.

Sazh looks like he's running from the cops when he runs.

Hope is a faggot lol.

Vanille sounds like she's having some sort of orgasim half the time.

Snow is annoying..

ugh..

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Job 10: 20
The mikey's have a plan. Djay isn't all powerful.

Hope gets better.

Vanille is the usual steretypical loli cunt who has an orgasm every time she casts a spell (wait til you hear the sound she makes at the end of her eidolon's final attack...)

Snow is a big pedo. He's the worst piece of japanoshit in the game, constantly pumping his fist for no fucking reason and speaking in retarded slogans.

Sazh has a stupid running animation, this is a small complaint.

Lightning and Fang are fine.

Basically everyone is good by the end. Sazh is one of the best characters in the series.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

DL, any advise on optimizing my Sazh/Vanille experience in chapters 7-9? I find myself having a hard time beating the tougher monsters with just their magic abilities... Fang and Lightning on the other hand have no problems

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Start the fights with Sazh on Commando and Vanille on Ravager. Sazh is weak but starting the chain gauge with commando makes it drain slower, so if you start with some commando strikes then switch to ravager/ravager you'll be able to stagger enemies and end fights faster. Just make sure it doesn't drain out while you're switching paradigms.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

Also, its not a bad idea to take your time and max out your crystarium grids at this time because the boss at the end of chapter nine is a bastard.

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http://www.youtube.com/ArmLengthInterviews
My attempt at making funny gaming related videos.

ya, just beat him. He wasn't too difficult, just had to be ready for his next attack cycle. Since there are no random battles, I re-zoned a couple times to get some extra fights. Now I'm at the start of chapter 10 I believe and am trying to find a weapon upgrade guide.

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http://www.ff-13.info/category/weapons/

It's decent. Basically every weapon upgrades twice. Tier1 and 2 have a unique name, tier is always the same name. Despite the fact that the ultimate (t3) weapon always has the same name, the stats and specials are still determined by the base weapon used. The key ingredient for jumping from t2 to t3 is only obtainable by fighting the harder adamantoise mobs (the ones with tusks) or spending 2m at one of the shops.

There are certain cheap items you can buy from the creature comforts shop (sturdy bone, vibrant ooze, and something like chipped fang) that all cost just 80 gil apiece. These, when used in any combination of 36, will offer a 3x exp boost to whatever item you apply them to. Certain items (like particle accelerators) will degrade the exp bonus you've acquired, so when leveling a weapon up it's best to just go ahead and use all the exp items at once. Using them one at a time will cut your bonus, and while spending them all at once will also cut your bonus you'll get the full effect on all those you use in that one shot. Know what I mean?

The adamantoise mobs with tusks probably can't be beaten until after you beat the game...they're retardo. I have my main party maxed out on 3 jobs and I haven't killed any of those yet, eh. Then again my party has Hope and Vanille, so we're low on HP to begin with.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

I thought I was the only one who noticed that.

Anyone here play the import? I was disappointed when I got the NA version there was so many changes. Sazh still runs funny in JP haha.



Actually you're able to farm them at the end of chapter 11. I'm still on gran pulse and have two final weapons, LV MAX

End of chapter 11 unlocks LV9 Crystarium, opening up Death for Vanille. Now after defeating the boss, it doesn't automatically lock you in a CS where the chapter ends. Providing that you've done at least 1 Cie'th mission to unlock teleports between them return to the black Cie'th stone (mission 28 ) to port back to previous areas.

If you have not done them, you can try walking back. I really don't know if you can get back though, I think the cave on the way there is a 1 way exit with atomos bringing you back to a hidden area upon return.

Point being, do the Cie'th stone missions! At least mission 4 lol.

Items needed: At the bare minimum, Belladonna Wand for Vanille, If not at least an upgraded Bella into T2 which is Marlboro wand (this is for enhanced debuffing, increases the proc rate of death.)

Collectors' Catalog, Maxed (Increases item droprates)
Connoisseurs' Catalog, Maxed (Increases RARE item droprates)

Connoisseurs Catalog is obtained by maxing out a collectors, and applying Mnar Stone.

Please don't do like me on my first playthrough and buy the catalogs, gil is PRECIOUS AS FUCK in this game haha. You will get at least 3-4 Collector Catalogs by the time you hit mission 30.

Strategy: Simple!

Vanille/Fang/Hope(or Sazh) as SAB/SAB/SYN

Don't bother using any reserve smokes, or whatever it's called in the NA version.

Open the fight with Vanille summoning Hecatoncheir, this will cause the adamantoise's legs to crack, it will fall down. Go through immediatly to gestalt mode and end the summon.

From there all you have to do with Vanille is spam death and hope for a proc rate on it. In both JP/NA versions I have the upgraded marlboro wand which helps, however some people report Bella's works just fine too.

Fang will debuff the mob, your synergist will buff you and the turtle dies. BAM. Having the catalogs equipped as accesory are a must, the droprate on trapezohedron is low.

However you'll mainly be going after the platinum ingots (sells for 150k) since you need about 1.4m gil to max out a weapon, providing you farmed that trapezohedron lol. Personally I find thte 50k gil Fusion reactors(forget the real name) bought from R&D depot shop (unlocked after Cie'th stone mission 7) wield the best exp. I may be wrong though. Jp site calculated them at 1.02g/XP point.

Oh yeah, after 8-9 death casts, the adamantoise will get back up and proceed to stomp your face but since the game is really dumbed down and game over only means restarting right where you died with no penalty, this is fine!

Happy hunting, enjoy the game!

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That's what I meant to say.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

i think the game is quite terrible lol

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Job 10: 20
The mikey's have a plan. Djay isn't all powerful.

Borrowed the first disc from a friend. I am happy that I did not pay for this game. This might be the worst of all the modern FF games, and that is really saying something. It is dumbed down, linear, and easy as hell.

I want to punch Snow every time he talks, and same goes for Hope. Sazh is retarded too, but so far is the only character that is at least tolerable.

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Eternus Ifrit Server Atariii LS member
75 BRD with a bunch of subjobs

Gotta say the "Retry" thing really killed any and all semblance of challenge. Some fights are hard but there are no consequences, which takes all the tension out of big fights. I saved my game less in this FF than probably any RPG I've ever played. Only saved before turning the system off. Compare this to the madness of some FF12 dungeons. How about the Pharos at Ridorana with the Hashmal boss fight. That was one of the most exciting boss fights I've ever had, straight out of FF11. No save points nearby, preceded by a huge, HUGE, tough dungeon. Hash uses moves that decrease your max hp to 1, kicks your ass, and there's no easy way to get back to him if you lose. That fight would have been shit with retry.

Snow is among the worst characters ever created. Everyone else ends up at least half-decent before the end, I stand by Sazh being one of the solid series characters despite a retarded design and Hope was really surprising. However after the huge, interesting, well-conceived cast and world of FF12 this falls horribly short. Everyone in FF12 was interesting besides Vaan and Penelo, and they were just tacked on late in the design process for faggot appeal...thanks Japan. Could have had Basch as the first manly hero ever in FF instead we get a shirtless shota with a squeaky voice and his halfway-incestuous girlfriend/sister thing. FF12 playable cast should have been Basch, Ashe, Fran, Balth, and Larsa.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

this game is really disappointing to me so far

really good graphics and that's about it. just running in a straight line, mashing A through battles, and watching cutscenes. no towns or anything to break the game up. at this point i'm just finishing it because i already dropped 60 bucks on it..

really lame

I'm about 5 hours in. so far it's enjoyable, but a step down from ff12 in terms of open-endedness and the battle system..

That is exactly how I feel. This kind of Final Fantasy is even making me miss the FFVIII Draw system.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh