FInal Fantasy XIII release Date Set

[Flight]

Wrong forum, but what the heck.

9 March 2010 in the US and Europe

Destructoid - Final Fantasy XIII release date set (Update)

[Zeus]

oh, thats real? game updated my preorder this evening, but i assumed it was just them arsing around, as they have a habit of doing - didnt realise it was a real release date cool

[Vigilia]

Yeah PS3 came up with the new trailer/promo vid when Scud turned it on yesterday and release date at the end of it.

And apparently Leona Lewis sings the theme song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q0_mNC5FQ8

Plus there's rumors going around that XIII will come with a campaign code to get to XIV Beta, at least in Japan, but that's just rumors last I heard. Will know soon anyway, XIII's out in Japan on Dec 17th.

[Fletcher03]

so 9th of march 2010 two days after my birthday, anyone know if they have brought back random battles as ffXII was a flop in my opinion one of the major floors being the the battle encounters

[Soupytwist]

These games have been on a downwards spiral since 7. I'd love this new one to be a return to form, but the trailer looks boring.

[Vigilia]

Originally Posted by Soupytwist

These games have been on a downwards spiral since 7. I'd love this new one to be a return to form, but the trailer looks boring.

I'm not overly excited about XIII either since it looks very futuristic/guntoting but I beg to differ. VII wasn't that amazing unless you were a fanboy that had the hots for Aeris in which case you developed an emotional attachment to the game, wept when she died and gained an instant get out of jail free card for any argument about the greatness of Final Fantasy franchise games.

[Zeus]

7 was a bit of an oddity really - it (and 8) are quite different to the rest of the FF games, but they're the first 2 that most people played, so they're what people expect the rest to be like. 9 was quite good (though i'd have prefered it with realistic scaled characters, like in 8 and 10, that doesnt really have much impact), and 10 was good - and X-2 is... well, i didnt like it much, as it didnt really do X justice as a sequel - X didnt need a sequel, it was all nicely wrapped up. it especially didnt need a sequel with dancing

also, i didnt much like 12. i think it was the fact a lot of it was just about a war between 2 countries, with no real threat to the world - which until then, has been what FF has been about.

[Soupytwist]

Originally Posted by Vigilia

I'm not overly excited about XIII either since it looks very futuristic/guntoting but I beg to differ. VII wasn't that amazing unless you were a fanboy that had the hots for Aeris in which case you developed an emotional attachment to the game, wept when she died and gained an instant get out of jail free card for any argument about the greatness of Final Fantasy franchise games.

Haha, Yeah I can see that! Although the reasons for my perference for 7 over the others that came after are different :

1. Much less linear. Complete 7 doing just the basic plot and you'll see maybe 60% of the game, any FF that came after you'd probably see 80%. There is simply much more to explore and find.

2. The magic system. While the linking materia isn't that special, the key thing is you have to find the materia - which again means exploring is worthwhile, finding a hidden materia in some off path area is great reward for exploring - also there are far more chests hidden in the world than any FF that came after.

3. The last FF to include Hidden characters, who both add several hours/dialog and content (including a whole continent) to the game.

4. Subjective I know but the best epic storyline, and the best villain.

5. This is more against 10 and 12 - loads of gameplay then you are rewarded with a great cutscene (like escaping the shinra building). In 10 and 12 it's sit though minutes of tedious cutscenes (with cringe inducing voice acting) then you get rewarded with a tiny bit of gameplay then it's another long cutscene. Also 10 and 12 started taking themselves way to serious.

6. The last FF where you can rename all the characters, small thing but makes the game more personal.

7. The graphics still hold up. I like FF6 more than FF9 onwards but it's hard to play thesedays with those graphics.

[Minagi]

I was lucky enough to get hold of XIII a few weeks early and I just started playing it last night, I have to say I'm really enjoying it!

I'm on chapter 4 at the moment and I'd say it's definitely more like X than any of the others, although thankfully there's no sign of any silly volleyball-style games yet.

So far progress is very linear but the quality of the FMV is simply amazing to watch and the balance between gameplay and movies feels about right, I'm really hoping it opens up more at some point though.

First impression though... AWESOME!

[Fletcher03]

where, when, and how?!!!!! share lol!!!

[Minagi]

Nothing shady, I work for one of the console manufacturers.
Unfortunately it's just a loan so I'll still be buying it on the 9th, it's incredibly unlikely I'll have time to finish it completely by then.

Up to chapter 7 now, apparently the game opens up massively after chapter 10. Don't worry too much about the chapter numbers, even though there are 13 chapters, chapters 11-13 are supposed to consist of more than half of the game!

Still loving it, story looks like it's about to get VERY interesting!

[Corwin]

Mine has now been dispatched

[Legs]

so is this like the old FF where its an off line story or like that last one which was online?

[Fletcher03]

im going to get mine monday night or first thing tuesday cant wait! whoop whoop!

[Vigilia]

Originally Posted by Legs

so is this like the old FF where its an off line story or like that last one which was online?

"Last one" was XII and that was offline on PS2. XI is the mmorpg one and that was uhm... eight years ago now.

[Fletcher03]

managed to get hold of mine monday starting to enjoy it now im gettin used to the new battle system and leveling up, not too sure about story line just yet though so far got to go kill some enemy and save someone in crystal lol

[Corwin]

a bit further than fletch, started last night, not too sure of it yet

The combat is a strange hybrid of ATB and real time, not sure if i like the lack of control over party members.

The loot is a bit wierd, i've got xp on my weapons but no idea how to gain it yet :p

EDIT

BUT, the storyline is amazing, and i can't understand how they've got the graphics so good on this one and got it so wrong on last remnant

[Aciiid]

aparently you can level up when you access the save point somewhere in the menu.

I've not got this yet but think i will, it's getting steady 8/10 from a couple of sites and i've not played a FF game for ages.

Game takes off (becomes less linear) when you get to the other world.

[Crow]

Managed to get an hour of play in last night before 10p took over the TV to watch Caprica.
I don't mind the combat system so far, the story has nice emotional involvement alreadyand it looks truly gorgeous. Not come across how to level up yet, so waiting on that to appear at some stage. Only negative point so far is Vanille's voice, it's like sugar coated candyfloss and makes my teeth ache.

[Zeus]

vanille is... yeah. well. i'm guessing she's something 'different'. i'm about 4 hrs in i think (just did the shiva capture. that should be informative to people that have played it, and not spoil anything for those who havnt )
so far the most annoying char is the whiney emo kid, but at least they havnt done what previous FFs have done, and made the whiney emo kid the main character
i'm not finding snow as annoying as i'd expected (i'd imagined him as being like Barrett)

the storyline is still quite vague/confusing at the moment - but then, its meant to be, so thats ok.
you cant get experience and level up until you leave the first city.

[Fletcher03]

yeah the red head kid is annnoying and speaks with a strange american/johnathan ross twang lol! graphics great and looking forward to night off tomorrow!

[Zeus]

a few questions to those that are further in the game than me...

ok... so, upgrading weapons/equipment.
should i do it?
if i upgrade this gladius, am i just wasting mats that i'll want later on?
does it matter which items i use to upgrade items, except for the weird thing (that i wish you could see in advance ) that some items increase/decrease the exp the weapon gains from future items?

is there any harm in spread my points all over the crystallarium thingy rather than saving them up till new areas open up the one i'm spending all my time in?

also, wtf is vanille's deal? goddamn jailbait!
and i think lightning giving a 14 yr old a knife like that is sending all sorts of wrong messages to kids

[Crow]

As I only reached that bit last night, I just randomly dumped points into the crystal thing, didn't help that half the time it didn't want go the direction I intended so I ended up with 'ah well points in it now'.

[Zeus]

is there a way to use techniques that dont belong to the current party leader? i'd love to use 'quake' that Hope has, but if i go into techniques with lightning as leader, i can only use her techniques.

[Crow]

I think the techniques are job specific? So if Lightning learns Hope's job she should be able to learn quake (if I understand it correctly).