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Not to sound like typical wapanese, but I'm pretty hyped for Final Fantasy XIII. It's being released in a week, and I'm just bummed there is no midnight release near where I live.
What do you guys think about it? Hyped? Jaded? Anyone else gonna get it at release?
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My friend's relatives bought it for him in Japan and showed it to me. It looked pretty awesome, although he was the only one who understood how to play it as I cannot understand Japanese...
Anyway yeah. Graphics are phenomenal, gameplay looks excellent and leagues better than the horrid system FFXII tried to implement, and I've only heard good reviews about it. It's probably a buy for me, maybe a rental. Besides, I've played one too many WRPGs lately, t'would be nice to play a good ol' Square Enix game.
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I said everything I had to say on it already. (http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=4956.msg245024#msg245024)
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As a staff member at the one of the largest Final Fantasy websites on the internet, it's kind of hard not to feel jaded with the fanboys and fangirls freaking out about it.
Overall, I plan on getting it eventually, but it's mostly for the pretty visuals, lens flares, etc.
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from what I've heard, it's pretty crap
extremely linear, SMT like control, AI and stuff, if your char dies, game over, but you can restart the battle
apparently it's harder and hardcore instead of casual and stuff because you have level caps, but it's a freaking RPG for god's sake, they are NEVER hard. Especially these made by Squaresoft.
yeah I'm pretty disappointed in the pixelfag nextgen
I don't see a single game I'd like to get for any of the nextgen for consoles except for the Cave shmups...and these are arcade ports to begin with.
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apparently it's harder and hardcore instead of casual and stuff because you have level caps, but it's a freaking RPG for god's sake, they are NEVER hard. Especially these made by Squaresoft.
I dunno, I find Etrian Odyssey and SMT games to be pretty rough. Then again, that's also because I don't like grinding either :P
yeah I'm pretty disappointed in the pixelfag nextgen
I don't see a single game I'd like to get for any of the nextgen for consoles except for the Cave shmups...and these are arcade ports to begin with.
Totally worth it, though.
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I never went too far on my research on the game. Mostly just went by the reviews from my friend and this one japanese rating magazine which gave it a really high score only lacking one point behind Bayonetta. I heard about it being linear, but I heard it was only the first part. Entire game is linear?
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I think the next gen is definitely turning more linear. I played Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 in the same day, and my GOD Mass Effect 2 is so much more fucking linear than the first. Honestly there are five weapons and armor pieces in the entire game, and theres no more planet surface exploration. Landing on a planet means everything is spoon fed to you. But the experience is worth it, imo, if they can deliver. I would never dream of trading Mass Effect 2's combat system for more open-ended ness.
I'm hoping it will be the same for FFXIII. I heard lots of complaints about dungeon linearity, but I think it will be overshadowed by its nice presentation.
Also, I didn't read the X-2 topic I wasn't trying to start anything redundant my bad. :V
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I never went too far on my research on the game. Mostly just went by the reviews from my friend and this one japanese rating magazine which gave it a really high score only lacking one point behind Bayonetta. I heard about it being linear, but I heard it was only the first part. Entire game is linear?
No, only about the first twenty hours. But when I say linear, I mean literally straight lines.
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Hmm... would explain the first part of the game which... pretty much was a straight line.
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I dunno, but I never said to myself "wow this game is ugly"
I couldn't care less about the graphics or story. It only seems that everything goes in the graphics and the gameplay gets worse. I played Modern Warfare 2 on my friend's laptop and all I can say is...wow, this is easy.
Magical turbo regen which puts Wolverine to shame, checkpoints after every enemy soldier and HOLY CRAP MANLY TEARS AWESOME GRAPHICS THIS IS LIKE REAL WAR
seriously, if I want to cry manly tears, I'd watch Saving Private Ryan.
If I want to play a game, I want gameplay.
/offtopic
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I do at times wish games would lower the graphics to shorten loading screens or long installs in the PS3's case...
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I think game companies are working out this whole cinematic presentation buzz with next-gen hardware.
I agree with Bananamatic, except with a different game, MGS4. My god that game is twenty minutes of sneaking, thirty minutes of cutscenes and a twenty minute bossfight with a twenty minute gimmick level with a final hour or so of cutscenes. PER ACT. It's an amazing experience, but I would recommend it as a ten hour movie, not a videogame.
But there's the opposite of that, with games like Dragon Quest VIII. The gameplay is amazing, pure JRPG greatness but the story and presentations were lacking.
I think the whole presentation vs. gameplay problem will work itself out when a Microsoft/THQ/Valve/EA gaming megaconglomerate gives every single project enough money and time to make satisfying games, presentation and gameplay wise :V
Just kidding it will have to be resolved by gamers who will create the markets for super-presentation heavy games and gameplay-heavy games. So until then, I suppose we'll have to make do with the beautiful yet hollow games we're given.
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Yeah, I'm watching a playthrough of MGS4 this dude is uploading - and the epic battle between
Rex and Ray
ended up with an AI loop where the boss was basically locked down for a minute by the gatling gun.
Seriously, from next gen, I'd expect something better than these silly AI mistakes.
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Yeah... Bioshock 2 was, to me at least, considerably shorter than the first as well. Probably because of the ocean parts and the lack of ability to visit old areas.
Coming to think of it, Bioshock 2 is a load more linear than the first one as well... the areas are just straight forward pretty much.
Where's the gaming industry going!?
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Bioshock is a series that's mainly gameplay, but yeah Bioshock 2 felt a little lacking in terms of open-endedness. Being a Big Daddy doesn't really help, all that moaning and groaning :V
But I'm not too worried about videogaming, I think the problems will resolve themselves with enough gamer input and contribution.
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Linearity is not a downside. If open-endedness is restricted, the game designers can really focus on the presentation of their railroad, and this is a perfectly legitimate design decision. I personally want my JRPGs to be linear gameplay things with a battle every once in a while, as long as they're well-written and well-presented.
That said, I have a personal dislike of open-endedness anyway. All it usually means is that the game is padded by superficial content which could have been easily cut with no detriment to the rest of the gameplay or the storyline.
Also, I seem to be one of the few people who likes MGS4's pacing.
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Heh. I know someone whose convinced that the video gaming series are slowly deteriorating over time. He thinks because gaming companies are trying to appeal to the masses, it's causing all of the games to become less creative and simply focused more upon what sells. Rather than the large variety of creative types of games in the SNES days, he thinks it's all going to FPSes, sports games, and sandboxes. I think it's just the transition of how games go, and how marketing works. What sells best goes. Eventually new ideas will come and gaming will go beyond today's ideas once it stops selling.
Then there are others I know who think DLC is causing developers to be lazy where they don't release the entire game but merely sell off the rest of the parts in the DLC. To me it just seems like mini expansion packs being released and it also allows developers to add in content that would originally remain permanently cut.
Really, gaming is just going on it's odd business path. I just fear that games may be getting shorter and shorter for the same price... hopefully that trend stops, which I'm sure it will.
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I just fear that games may be getting shorter and shorter for the same price.
I personally think that is patently untrue. There are short games and there are long games, just as there have always been. There will be significant variation in game length by genre, of course, but again, it's always been like that.
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I can't get excited for Final Fantasy XIII simply because the series has been letting me down more and more after Final Fantasy Tactics, which was just great. I couldn't even bring myself to finish X and XII.
Is there a chance that Final Fantasy XIII will receive an English language Asia region release for the 360? That's probably the only way I'll ever get a chance to play it one day.
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Final Fantasy XIII? From what I've heard, it doesn't sound that great x:
As for other things the topic has drifted to... I haven't been getting, or playing, as many games recently as I used to, so I can't comment on how things are ending up. However, as for open-endedness as opposed to linearity, I do agree that open-ended games do seem a bit... I dunno, like just having a ton of minor sidequests, and nothing else. It just seems like tons of stuff is there, but it doesn't have enough depth or a sense of... Reward maybe?
I personally think that it would be amazing if there could be an "open-ended" game that feels... Well, not shallow. It would feel like you could do things, and rather than just be going through another meaningless sidequest, actually feel like you've done something besides another task that you don't care about.
Meh... I'm not that good with words to begin with, and I'm sorta tired right now <_<; Whatever...
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I've given up on the franchise. Its gotten progressively worse with each game.
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XII wasn't bad, but I hated the time it took to get new equipment, which was the most important thing in the game.
Even buying new weapons for everyone took over an hour of grinding.
Less loading, more action...but low gil unless you decided to chain which isn't gonna happen on random dungeon runthroughs.
I was doing a 2 character half license board challenge, got to the end and got stuck on [spoilers]The Undying[/spoilers], so I farmed stuff for Tournesol but didn't have enough gil to buy it but I couldn't beat Zeromus to get the best gil farming spot...then my disk broke.
I liked the fact that it didn't rely on any stupid love crap like in VIII or in X and there was no over the top stuff like in X where everyone can magically grind a rope with THEIR FEET or VII which is full of silly aerial combat and shooting down planes with a handgun. Normal people, no fangirl crap, just gameplay and a decent story. The gil farming killed it though.
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What are you talking about FFX is awesome (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX0mBrTk64g)
XII ... Eh ... The Gambit system is too much for me, the area design makes me cry (Nam-Yensa/Ogir-Yensa's copy-pasta towers, symmetric dungeons etc.), grinding is more Teddious than P3 and P4 combined, and boss fights are ridiculous. Not to mention my game wouldn't load anything past Ozmone Plains.
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and boss fights are ridiculous
What kind of ridiculous :V
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I personally think that is patently untrue. There are short games and there are long games, just as there have always been. There will be significant variation in game length by genre, of course, but again, it's always been like that.
Hopefully this stays true. Lately I've seen a rise in the amount of short games compared to the long. Maybe it's just the amount of FPSes in the market.
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Despite being a fan of FF, I'm waiting until it's not $60 cause I'm sure it won't be worth that.
Not sure how much I'll wait.
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Preordered, taking time off work to play it 'cause that's how I roll. I didn't check into midnight releases in my area, but I'll live with Amazon sending it to my mailbox on release day.
Here are my thoughts on what I know of the game:
--Linear games don't bother me. JRPGs are linear by nature, and I've played a lot of JRPGs. Anyone remember the first 8-10 hours of FFVII? You spent the whole time running around Midgar, and it was all super-omega-linear. What's the big deal?
--$60 for a ~50-to-100-hour RPG, especially a highly cinematic and vast RPG, seems like a great deal to me compared to games that have 5-hour singleplayer campaigns and expect to subsist mostly on multiplayer aspects.
--I have yet to play a Final Fantasy game I haven't enjoyed. Sure, the enjoyment scales up and down and occasionally it took a replay or two to appreciate what the game was trying to accomplish (sup FFVIII), but I've never come close to considering one mediocre, much less bad.
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...no over the top stuff like in X where everyone can magically grind a rope with THEIR FEET or VII which is full of silly aerial combat and shooting down planes with a handgun. Normal people, no fangirl crap, just gameplay and a decent story.
...We're still talking about Final Fantasy, right? The series which epitomises over-the-top everything - relationships, action, drama, characters. As far as I'm concerned, that's the point of Final Fantasy. It just wouldn't be the same without 10-minute summoning cutscenes and fighting giant monsters in space.
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I've got real mixed feelings. I'm a hopeless FF addict who despised FF12 but still managed to play it from start to finish and complete the vast majority of the sidequests twice. Still, I've managed to dodge almost all of the hype leading up to this release since I really haven't cared for the direction Square Enix has gone since the merger (where's my Vagrant Story sequel, dammit!) and the disappointment of 12. I did hear that Famitsu gave both 12 and 13 similar scores which is not a positive indication to me any more. I've deliberately avoided info on 13 like the plague so when I do play it I can go in with as little bias as possible. Probably because I know there will almost certainly be no repeat of the Gilgamesh battle in 12.
Also, this is the first FF release I'm going to miss because I lack a PS3. Dammit, I get a job and the first thing I do when I hear the news is think of buying a new PC since I haven't played anything made for the PC since Half-Life 2. That, and I get a 'Windows virtual memory too low' message when I open Firefox.
The series which epitomises over-the-top everything - relationships, action, drama, characters. As far as I'm concerned, that's the point of Final Fantasy.
I'm surprised it took until the 4th iteration for the MC to be a descendant of moon people. You actually got to go to the moon on a space whale. While on the moon, you beat up the king of dragons and found out that the most evil entity in the universe is your brother who is being manipulated by the most evil entity in the universe. And this was FF back in the early '90's.
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Have a 360? It's on there too. <_<
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--Linear games don't bother me. JRPGs are linear by nature, and I've played a lot of JRPGs. Anyone remember the first 8-10 hours of FFVII? You spent the whole time running around Midgar, and it was all super-omega-linear. What's the big deal?
There's a difference between "go to this dungeon, then go to the next, then the next" and "walk in a straight line for 20 hours".
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topic on gamefaqs
250 km. All in a straight line.
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There's a difference between "go to this dungeon, then go to the next, then the next" and "walk in a straight line for 20 hours".
Yeah, the difference is "don't waste hours wandering around a poorly-designed dungeon with pointless branches and dead-ends." FFX was absolutely linear, for example, which allowed for wonderful artistic design and focus.
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FFX didn't have a level cap and it had this revolutionary RPG feature called TOWNS.
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Yeah, the difference is "don't waste hours wandering around a poorly-designed dungeon with pointless branches and dead-ends."
Because all dungeons that are not straight lines are poorly-designed with pointless branches and dead-ends.
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Because all dungeons that are not straight lines are poorly-designed with pointless branches and dead-ends.
In Final Fantasy? Well...tendencies point to yes. That said:
level cap
This I genuinely don't know about. What the flip?
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In Final Fantasy? Well...tendencies point to yes. That said:
This I genuinely don't know about. What the flip?
according to what I've found
it's like sphere grid, but more stuff unlocks only after you clear parts of the game
it has 10 unlockable parts or something
sounds crap
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... Sounds like the leveling system of Chrono Cross. Can't be a good sign.
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In Final Fantasy? Well...tendencies point to yes.
Then maybe we should JUST BE PLAYING A DIFFERENT SERIES if this one has to switch to straight lines in order to not suck even worse.
On level caps: Yeah, you unlock the ability to level up to the next tier at certain points through the game. A couple of them quite late. And the final one is post-game only.
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Then maybe we should JUST BE PLAYING A DIFFERENT SERIES if this one has to switch to straight lines in order to not suck even worse.
THIS TOPIC IS NOW ABOUT STAR OCEAN 3
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THIS TOPIC IS NOW ABOUT STAR OCEAN 3
Done, I'll start it tonight.
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So...why does Star Ocean 3 not have multiplayer while the Tales series has included it since Destiny? Is there anything that prevents it from having multiplayer? I mean, there was a battle arena and that seemed to work fine. :S
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according to what I've found
it's like sphere grid, but more stuff unlocks only after you clear parts of the game
it has 10 unlockable parts or something
sounds crap
I'd wager that this never actually becomes an issue, unless the player is a compulsive grinder. Though yeah, I don't see why they'd put in such a restriction.
[edit] A post-game one? Again, I'd bet that it's only the kind of stuff that you usually get post-game anyway.
[edit some more stop posting replies you guys :V] Never played Star Ocean. So there.
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Maybe we should wait until Final Fantasy Versus 13? >_>
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[edit some more stop posting replies you guys :V] Never played Star Ocean. So there.
At the very least go play Second Story.
CRAWD WILL TEACH YOU WHAT GAMING IS ABOUT
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Have a 360? It's on there too. <_<
I am but a poor Playstation fanboy. If I do manage to save up for a 'new' console, it'll most likely be a PS3.
... Sounds like the leveling system of Chrono Cross. Can't be a good sign.
Call me crazy, but I didn't mind CC's leveling system. I always knew that I couldn't level up any more before the next boss, so there was never a need to grind. My level was as high as it was going to get before fighting Miguel, so I had to change tactics as best as I could instead of fighting more baddies.
You are now remembering your experience fighting Miguel. You are also remembering the seven hour long cutscene you had to wait through each time you tried to beat him, too.
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... Unpleasant memories... SURFACING!
I also just remembered how different the ability system was, where unlike most RPGs you couldn't just spam the same special move again and again without limit.
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At the very least go play Second Story.
CRAWD WILL TEACH YOU WHAT GAMING IS ABOUT
Don't play the PSP version (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitlemlheqr7b3csw?from=Main.SoOkayItsAverage)*, it's been improved from the original trasnlation. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitlethsq3mffp09i?from=Main.SoBadItsGood)*
*Warning: Links lead to TV Tropes, Poster is not responsible for time lost.
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My mother and I were terribly disappointed by FFXIII.
However, we signed up for FFXIV, beta. Note most people are saying all of Final Fantasy's efforts are going here rather than in FFXIII.
We are also probably going to buy FFXIII Versus when it comes out. However, don't forget Versus XIII is being made by the Kingdom Hearts crew, which is why Kingdom Hearts III is being majorly delayed. Versus XIII will probably be closer to Kingdom Hearts II in playstyle.
http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/
The beta sign up is on the front page for the American server. You might have to google it for the other servers. There's also quite a bit of information up now.
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Ah yes, my friend told me about FFXIV. Now he's really divided up between Star Trek Online and Final Fantasy XIV. Other friends are the same except with The Old Republic instead. Honestly, I hope it at least jumps right in there as WoW's competitor, or some MMO does eventually. Too many games have followed WoW's basic format, which I've lost interest in.
I'm looking into FFXIV. FFXI after all was pretty big before WoW came in and took away most of the players.
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However, don't forget Versus XIII is being made by the Kingdom Hearts crew, which is why Kingdom Hearts III is being majorly delayed. Versus XIII will probably be closer to Kingdom Hearts II in playstyle.
Versus XIII gameplay:
1) mash X
2) reflect
3)????
4) PROFIT!
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Versus XIII gameplay:
1) mash X
2) press / when it appears
3) make up the plot as you go
4) PROFIT!
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Versus XIII will probably be closer to Kingdom Hearts II in playstyle.
I was almost looking forward to playing this.
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I was almost looking forward to playing this.
It's just a speculation. There's no information on the gameplay at all yet.
I believe so because there has to be a reason why Square Enix is making another Final Fantasy XIII game with the Kingdom Hearts crew. Hopefully they will have the gameplay improved in the direction we want it.
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Two more days until its release. Better reserve it while you still can.
I'm gonna wait until it's available for rent before I try it. It looks like fun, but while the battle system looks nice I'm afraid it's gonna wind up like all of Square's other FF entries. A grindfest with obscure methods of obtaining the best weapons/summons/whatever and bosses that turn out to be ten times stronger than the final boss, which makes you wonder why they aren't the final boss in the first place. =/
Not that I'm against FF, I'd just like to see some change for once.
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A grindfest with obscure methods of obtaining the best weapons/summons/whatever and bosses that turn out to be ten times stronger than the final boss, which makes you wonder why they aren't the final boss in the first place. =/
You can beat the main last boss with the magic death lol. Lol indeed. I dunno about the extra last boss because I got bored of the game before I got that far.
Summons are gotten through the story. You can't miss them.
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Ohoho, I've gotten an early shipment copy, and, well, as I predicted, the "linearity" is overblown. It's no more linear than Final Fantasy X. I was also shocked that no single character annoyed me, even that Vanille girl, whom I expected to hate.
Loving the combat so far - when a major boss fight lasts no longer than two minutes, and typical encounters never go above fifteen seconds, usually sitting somewhere at ten, with no cheese whatsoever, something has gone right.
The narrative is also solid, and the non-linearity is well-executed.
Honestly, the only real gripe I have is the non-responsive camera. This is a good direction for Final Fantasy to take.
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Ohoho, I've gotten an early shipment copy, and, well, as I predicted, the "linearity" is overblown. It's no more linear than Final Fantasy X.
Color me not surprised at all.
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reminds me of rogue galaxy and the 5 second battles
tbh XII was the best one and nothing will change that
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I never did beat Rogue Galaxy, come to think of it. Got to the end, got distracted by something else, stopped. Great game though.
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I found it pretty dull.
Infinite item spamming combined with extreme enemy damage, combat was basically button mashing with some modifications through skills(but it was still button mashing) and battle skills were basically overpowered cinematics.
Every single random fight was down after a single Desert Wind and Illusion Sword ripped through any boss possibly in seconds.
also long and dull dungeons etc.
finished it once, soloed it with Jaster and never touching it again.
cool OST though
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Also, one of the worst, if not the worst, final boss fights ever. And I'm including entirety of it, not just that final one.
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Also, one of the worst, if not the worst, final boss fights ever. And I'm including entirety of it, not just that final one.
Yeah, it was way too easy and way too long.
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I got 1 shotted the first 2 times I tried it.
But yeah, it's easy if you don't get screwed by bad luck.
Oh, and the ending sucked, and the postgame stuff wasn't worth it.
Did you ever do Ghost Ship and Ghost Ship Extreme? I wish I didn't. On the subject of GSE, has anyone ever gotten a 100 floor dungeon right?
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Ghost ship and then I got bored.
It's near impossible to game over with such an item spam enabled...only time I game overed were the earlier bosses and the tower boss which caught everyone in that tornado attack...some attacks do damage like every half second.
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Did you ever do Ghost Ship and Ghost Ship Extreme? I wish I didn't. On the subject of GSE, has anyone ever gotten a 100 floor dungeon right?
Persona 3? <_<
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Persona 3? <_<
yeah but that was maingame and the bosses kept you entertained
what he means are these randomly generated postgame dungeons with 100+ floors like sphere 211 or Ghost Ship Extreme
boring, long, random, lazy programmers
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Sphere 211 was the same every time.
Of course, it's still boring and long, and I never memorized it.
Also, from the same group that made Rogue Galaxy was Dark Cloud's Demon Shaft. That was boring too. Thankfully no limited floors, but that boss was a joke as well.
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The 100 floor dungeon is the great equalizer of any RPG.
I've played about 4 or 5 rpgs with one.
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After 5 runs, I have Sphere 211 memorized quite well...still, they could cut down the floors to atleast 50 instead of 110 or something.
Oh and Via Infinito. Takes ages and encounter none isn't allowed to piss you off further. Fun? No.
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I never played that one.
Is it random like most or the same like Sphere?
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Bigger floors, random encounters. Much slower.
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I think Paper Mario TTYD had one... and Super Paper Mario had two.
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Well, I've played FFXIII up to the point where it becomes much less linear, and all there is to do is prepare for the final (two) chapters. I've seen gameplay to the end, so I guess I can give a valid opinion.
Oh yeah, SPOILERRIFIC! warning.
"LOL NO TOWNZ?"
Actually, there are towns in the game, but not in the traditional RPG sense. They are, geographically, towns, but you can't buy items or take on quests. Why? Because your party members are wanted fugitives, there's no time for sidequests.
"This game is way too linear"
It is true that the game is heavily story driven with little else to do in terms of sidequests, but that doesn't really take away from the game. The main storyline itself is 60 hours long on a first playthrough, and I'm pretty sure that it was Square Enix's most prioritized aspect of the game. And besides, you unlock 64 mark hunts after you beat the game. They're like FFXII's mark hunts.
And now for the main part of this quick review.
Story: 19/20
It's a Final Fantasy game, what did you expect? The writing is amazing. However, some characters lack in development. While Hope's character development is extremely strong along with Fang and Vanille, other characters like Snow and Lightning have an acceptable amount of character development, but it sometimes feels like they could have done more.
The story takes place on a moon called Cocoon, floating above the ground world called Pulse. There are these beings called Fal'cie, who are basically low level gods who oversee the people. Cocoon's government thinks the Pulse Fal'cie are evil, and they deport any who come in contact with them to the lower world. The people are scared of Pulse, thinking it is a cursed wasteland. But later in the story, when the main characters themselves travel to Pulse, they find out that it is a land full of nature and life. The Fal'cie have the power to turn regular humans into L'cie, a group of humans who can use magic. These humans are given a mission by the Fal'cie, if they succeed they will be immortalized in crystal, if they fail they will turn into Cie'th monsters. The story starts when Lightning and the rest of the party try to destroy Fal'cie Anima in hopes of freeing people from the Fal'cie, but they themselves are turned into L'cie and have to fulfill their mission. There is no true "villain" in the story, the fight is against destiny itself. Submit to the will of the Fal'cie, or defy to save the world yet risk death yourself.
Graphics: 10/10
And I'm playing this on a 480i SDTV, it's going to be truly fantastic once I get an HDTV. The screenshots speak for themselves. There'll be some times where you're just going to sit there staring at the scenery.
Music: 19/20
Although lacking the traditional "Final Fantasy" feel, the music is still good. It's done by the same composer who composed for Final Fantasy X, Masashi Hamauzu.
Gameplay: 30/30
A perfect score in an RPG? Nonsense! Well, maybe. I personally have no complaints with this game. Now for a breakdown.
Sub-Category I, Battle System: 20/20
FFXIII's battle system is a hybrid between turn based and real time. Many previous FF games used the ATB (Active Time Battle) system, this game uses yet another variant of ATB. One of the things you'll notice first is the lack of an MP gauge. In order to focus more on strategy, Square Enix removed MP. Why? Well, in an interview, one of the directors said that players wouldn't want to use the best spell in a situation to conserve MP. Without MP limits, players will now have to think and use whatever is appropriate for the situation. Instead of MP, all actions take up ATB "units." Attacking takes one, same with basic spells. Tier 2 spells take up 3, and Tier 3 spells take up 5. A character's "limit break" attack will take up all the units. You start the game with two and eventually get up to 6.
Chaining attacks on enemies will fill up the Break Gauge. While magic attacks raise the gauge the most, it will drain quickly. Physical attacks won't raise the gauge by much, but it will go down very slowly. The best approach is to use physical and magic attacks in about a 1:2 ratio for best results. Once you fill up the gauge, the enemy is put into Break Status, which enables air combos. Combos done in Break Mode will do much more damage (and they look cool too). Square Enix seemed to have built the battle system around this concept, as enemies have loads of HP and will take forever to defeat without the Break mechanic.
Before a battle, you can assign various paradigms to your characters. These paradigms, such as Attacker, Blaster, and Healer, can be changed at any time in battle. For example, if I had two attackers and one blaster, but my party was damaged, I could switch to an attacker, a defender, and a healer until my HP was up to normal and then switch back. This kind of system makes players always on their toes, ready for any situation. Each paradigm also has bonuses, for example just having a defender in your party reduces all damage taken by 10%.
Sub Category II - Character Development and Customization: 10/10
As mentioned earlier, you can assign Paradigms to each character. Outside of battle, you can access the Crystarium to upgrade your characters' paradigms by using Crystal Points (think experience) earned in battle. The Crystarium looks and acts like the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X and the License Grid from Final Fantasy XII. But in this game, every Paradigm has its own "Sphere Grid." You can allocate points into each one of the paradigms for different effects. For example, adding more CP into the Defender paradigm will give a lot of HP. And adding CP into the Healer paradigm will give a lot of Magic. One problem in Final Fantasy XII was that you could give each character the same licenses and they'd essentially be copies of each other. In Final Fantasy XIII, each character has different Crystarium bonuses. For example, Vanille's main paradigms are Healer, Blaster, and Jammer. She will gain more boosts at a lower cost. If I tried to raise her Attacker paradigm, she would gain a very low amount of stats at a very high cost.
Weapons are also customizable, but more in the style of traditional FF leveling. By adding components to a weapon, it will gain EXP and level up. It can then be upgraded into a new weapon with extra enhancements.
Content: 9/10
While being 60 hours long, after beating the game, you're left with little to do besides the 64 mark hunts. But the game will still keep you entertained for a long time.
Quality (voice acting, bugs, etc): 5/6
From what I've seen in the English trailers, the translations are near-perfect. There are no noticeable bugs in the game, and the voice acting is very good in both versions.
Final Score: 92/96 (see what I did there) -> 95.8% (10/10 barely.)
It's definitely worth a play. It might not have the longevity of other Final Fantasy games, but it'll amaze you for the first playthrough.
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I'm still around chapter 5 or so, but I do like that there's no obvious villain, just this nebulous feeling of doom that is very personal. Makes the story very character-driven, and gives me reason to care about these five misfits beyond "chosen ones to defeat ancient evil #5".
Actually, that's a bit of a fib. The vision that the characters receive does hint at a final big bad, but it's really unclear, and has been sitting on the backburner for the rest of the time. Which is nice, it lets the audience figure things out along with the characters.
The Stagger system is excellent. Somewhat like Persona 3 and 4's All-Out Attack - it gives the player an objective for a fight, and rewards the player for completing it allowing the player to finish the fight quickly.
Vanille is weirding me out. This is probably intentional, and is a good thing.
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the battles look like a confusing clusterfuck
also XII is the best etc.
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I saw someone streaming FFXIII recently, and even though I was confused as to what was going on I'll consider that a point for the game's story, because it's never fun if you know everything (Especially when you're up against a wall of cliche that is anything decent Square ever produces). Besides, I Probably missed the point where they explained what a "Focus" was, and why you needed to do it even though you turned into a crystal.
I will admit, I'd be tempted to buy it if I had the console and money for it.
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Besides, I Probably missed the point where they explained what a "Focus" was, and why you needed to do it even though you turned into a crystal.
Yeah, it's right there as part of the exposition, very early on. You complete your Focus, you turn into a crystal; you don't, you turn into a zombie goast.
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I don't care what anyone says anymore, this game is awesome.
Avatar related 8)
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A funny looking black guy with an afro is enough to save a crappy game :V
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Sazh is the true main character of FFXIII. :P
Anyway, I'm really enjoying this game now that I kind of know what I'm doing! But is it just me, or is gil really hard to come by in this game?
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A funny looking black guy with an afro is enough to save a crappy game :V
He's not a funny looking black guy with an afro. He's a funny looking black guy with an afro and a mockingly cute mascot character following him everywhere.
is it just me, or is gil really hard to come by in this game?
from what I've seen, Gil only comes in chests, and I'm guessing vendor trash (I have no evidence of the latter, though).
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Anyway, I'm really enjoying this game now that I kind of know what I'm doing! But is it just me, or is gil really hard to come by in this game?
Really hard. The only way to get it in any kind of meaningful manner is to sell Credit Chips and Incentive Chips you get from enemies. That said, there are areas where it's possible to grind these, if you really want.
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LOL yeah I learned about the dearth of gil the hard way after I spent all my money on components -0-
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I have seen FF13 first hand, my brother has it, and it is good. "Extremely Linear," the biggest compliant, is only semi-accurate. The dungeons do seem simple, but they are wide enough on the path and have enough little side-bits that you don't really notice how linear it is.
On topic of 100+ floor dungeons, Shining Tears had a 60 floor dungeon that was hard as a freaking Diamond at points, optional in it's entirty, is actually kinda fun except for a few points, and is the only way your going to beat the Final Dungeon without going insane/leveling elsewhere.
I'm not sure on floor count, but Shining Force Neo has a roughly 100+ floor dungeon that seems pretty good, absolutly murder at a few points, but still fine. I have yet to beat it.
Disgaea 1, 2 and 3 all have 100 floor dungeons... within your items and equips! You items have a rarity, and are either a normal item, Rare, or even Legendary. Normal items only have 30 floors, 60 floors in Rare and 100 in Legendary. 100 floors can take anywhere from about 30 minutes(I can clear 80 floors in about 25 minutes) if you strong enough, or up to 8 hours if you want to clear it in one go and are not prepared enough. Still done pretty good in my opinion.
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Friends and I are currently arguing over it. The linearity won't be the deciding factor of buying it, to me it seems like they're simply just cutting off the needless twists and turns of paths and bringing it directly to me. After all everything but sandbox games are pretty much go from Point A to Point B...
I've seen the gameplay, looks well polished and easily understandable. Only thing that will probably be the convincing point is the skill system and how it limits you to the story. I'm going to have to take a farther look into it because I've heard about three different ideas on how it's supposed to work.
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Only thing that will probably be the convincing point is the skill system and how it limits you to the story. I'm going to have to take a farther look into it because I've heard about three different ideas on how it's supposed to work.
Well, here's another idea for you, just to confuse matters. It is essentially a Sphere Grid, but clearer and more user-friendly. Each character has (so far) up to three "classes" that they can level up in. When you spend points, you choose which class you're gonna be spending points in (points that you get through winning battles), and you move through nodes in a linear fashion. These nodes are things like +X health, or +X to strength or magic, or an ability or a spell. Moving between these nodes is what costs points.
It is entirely up to you whether you keep progressing through a particular class' nodes - you can stop, go to another class, and start spending points there instead. It is thus mostly up to the player how a character develops - either you specialise them in one class, or you spread the points around multiple classes. An observation to make here is that a character has a better propensity for one class than another, and this is just a matter of observation on what abilities are on the grid - for example, Lightning can be a Medic as well as a Commando, but the spell selection in her Medic grid is very limited, meaning she can not really be a dedicated healer.
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I beat everything in the first Disgaea in the PSP port but never did beat the second game cause I got bored. And I don't have a PS3 to get Disgaea 3.
Item World was annoying if you wanted to perfect items. Having to go through all 100 floors of a rank 40 item and defeat the Item God 2 without exiting once for the Hyperdrive was a pain in the ass. It was annoying even if you just wanted a decent item.
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Item World was annoying if you wanted to perfect items. Having to go through all 100 floors of a rank 40 item and defeat the Item God 2 without exiting once for the Hyperdrive was a pain in the ass. It was annoying even if you just wanted a decent item.
A properly leveled character could go down 80 floors within about 30 minutes, so that isn't to much of a problem later on, if your powerful enough. I did that with my Divine Majin who had a Yoshitsuna and 3 Super Robo Suits, all matching Rarity cept for 1 of the Suits. I also never cared about "Perfect Items," I go into an item either to get it's Specialists or to level it up to make it better, but I don't aim for "Perfect" stats.
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Praise Final Fantasy for anything BUT story.
It makes no sense, it never will. None of the games. Also character design is just throw stereotype add half twist by endgame so it's all different.
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Praise Final Fantasy for anything BUT story.
It makes no sense, it never will. None of the games. Also character design is just throw stereotype add half twist by endgame so it's all different.
That seems ... completely unreasonable. Sure, some of the narrative choices in the earlier games are a bit outlandish, bordering on the goddamn weird with the likes of IV, but everything makes sense within its own context.
...Except VIII. That game never explained anything.
Regardless, so far XIII's narrative is solid and compelling - I don't see what the problem is.
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The Narrative is all a matter of perspective. If you try to hate the game, it's easy to just say "This doesn't make sense, so it sucks" Even when if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Sometimes you can go through, think it's just a jumbled mess, and then suddenly you fit the pieces together (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FridgeBrilliance) to get the whole picture. Even VIII's story can be wonderfully refreshing provided you interpret what happens in your own way.
My Personal excuse actually has quite a bit of evidence attached to it. During the attack on Balamb Garden by Galbadia Garden, Rinoa has shown plenty of interest in Squall. She even requested a copy made of Squall's right, and even in the midst of battles, asks for it's name (Which you promptly do on the naming screen). Squall, up to this point has shown no interest in women in general, let alone Rinoa herself (I mean, heck, he practically pushed Quistis off of himself right after the SeeD Ball). Up until the fight against Edea, he's never given a second thought about anything but his mission, and his partners incompetence. Que Disk Change, and the first thing we see is him losing his shit all over Rinoa's coma.
There was a significant change here. This change however is something we don't learn until just before the end of disk three - that Rinoa became a Sorceress.
Sorceresses in this game have demonstrated a unique talent for manipulating the minds of ordinary people. This is the main reason why they are feared. This also is why Ulty manages to Convince Seifer to join her and become loyal to her, despite loyalty being one of the many concepts Seifer never grasps. This is the only explanation for the scene in Deling where Rinoa seems possessed and follows Edea onto the balcony. Not to mention how everyone cheers for her speech even though it is mostly comprised of threats to murder everyone (accompanied by an actual murder, no less.)
Squall's falling for Rinoa, and indeed this whole love plot in FFVIII is nothing more than Rinoa on some subconscious level forcing Squall to have feelings for her that he under normal circumstances will never have for anyone.
Remember the Ball Scene? The one where she playfully and innocently cast a spell on Squall to make him fall in love with her? Yeah. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SoYeah)
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FFVIII is one of those games that only makes sense on a second replay. I enjoyed the game much more after I went through it once.
Back on topic - I'm in Chapter 11 grinding my eyes out.
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ff8 only makes sense if you play it from the viewpoint that squall dies at the end of disc 1 and the rest of the game is the last gasps of his failing brain as he's falling off a parade float with an icicle stuck through his chest
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I'm also in Chapter 11, doing a few missions before moving on. I tried a B rank mission for fun and got destroyed though. It makes me wonder what A rank missions look like...
Also, who are you guys using in your parties? I've been using Lightning, Hope, and Fang. Snow doesn't look very useful and Sazh seems to only be good for Haste. I'm not sure about Vanille yet. :S
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Got it earlier. Haven't played much.
BTW, does anyone know what the 5 star time on the Chapter 2 boss Anima
is?
Not sure if I should reset to try to get it.
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Is it just me or are the character names retarded
also if I had the game, I'd use Sazh just because of his coolness.
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Well, I'm still at the point where you're forced to use certain characters.
Not sure what to say about the game right now though. Needs more time.
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Never mind. 5 starred the boss with a time of under 3 minutes. Not sure what the cutoff is.
Edit: Crap, didn't notice I double posted.
Edit: First game over. I wasn't ready for that first(assuming there's more than 1) boss of chapter 3 at all.
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Is it just me or are the character names retarded
and that's before you find out the Lightning's name is friggin' Eclair
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and that's before you find out the Lightning's name is friggin' Eclair
okay that's either a stupid coincidence or a really bad joke
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Don't see the problems with character names. They're simple and easy to remember, and they're no worse than any other given Final Fantasy name.
Or what, you take objection for people being called after inanimate objects or metaphysical concepts? I refer you to Peter which literally means rock. Faith is a real-world name.
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Don't see the problems with character names. They're simple and easy to remember, and they're no worse than any other given Final Fantasy name.
Or what, you take objection for people being called after inanimate objects or metaphysical concepts? I refer you to Peter which literally means rock. Faith is a real-world name.
There's something pretty ridiculous about a character who insists on being called by a 'cool-sounding' nickname she made up herself. And then insists that everyone just call her Light as soon as she meets them.
Of course, Lightning is intensely socially awkward, moreso even than Cloud or Squall, so I don't really consider this bad writing. It establishes the character in the limited time constraints that games allow.
Eclair is Lightning in French. It's a bad joke. They change it to Claire in the English version.
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And then insists that everyone just call her Light as soon as she meets them.
True, that bit's pretty weird. It's like she can't really take her own nickname seriously, which is fine with me, it makes sense from a human-being point of view.
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True, that bit's pretty weird. It's like she can't really take her own nickname seriously, which is fine with me, it makes sense from a human-being point of view.
It also makes sense from her own explanation to Hope partway through the game.
Anyway, I'm still rockin' Chapter 11, grinding the crap out of everything. Must... complete sidequests...
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Anyway, I'm still rockin' Chapter 11, grinding the crap out of everything. Must... complete sidequests...
Seriously. It's like the game suddenly goes into Arcade Mode, with its 5-minute missions, and it's always "just one more mark".
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Why the hell would you name a character "Snow" or "Vanille"...might as well as name Sazh "Chocolate" :V
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Why the hell would you name a character "Snow" or "Vanille"...might as well as name Sazh "Chocolate" :V
As I mentioned earlier, same reason why you'd name a character Sora, Peter or Faith.
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As I mentioned earlier, same reason why you'd name a character Sora, Peter or Faith.
Different languages. 90% of the people just think it's some kawaii nippon name.(I didn't know about Peter tbh) Naming a character "Rock" would be just as awkward.
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Different languages. 90% of the people just think it's some kawaii nippon name.(I didn't know about Peter tbh) Naming a character "Rock" would be just as awkward.
(http://i39.tinypic.com/4qso6h.gif)
Every culture is full of names like this, tbh. It's just English-language culture has a whole lot of Biblical names too.
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Darn it, Edible beat me to it. I was just playing Garou the other day too. :S