Final Fantasy

I have to comment on this game. Im a huge fan of final fantasy, all the games are awesome but what im finding is that the games are getting worse everytime. Dont get me wrong, the graphics are amazing and although the storyline isn't what i'd hoped for, its still good enough for me to follow. what is bothering me is each time a new final fantasy game comes out, there is less for me to do.
I feel like im reading a book apart from every now and again constantly tapping A when a battle starts. I seem to run a bit, watch a video a bit and then fight a bit and am beginning to find myself getting bored at the repetetive nature of the game. Not to mention the scenery hasn't changed for 8 hrs. And yes I am 8 hrs in to the game and havn't found one exciting city/town/village with its own set of shops etc. There is no gameplay at all. What happened to all the little mini-games, all the exploring world maps and having to have a walkthrough because u didnt know what to do next, the finding random characters that eventually join your team. I even liked the fact you could name your own characters.

I am a huge fan of 7, 8 and 9 but i feel that since the platform changed to ps2, they have spent more time on the graphics and programming side of the game and therefore the storylines, gameplay and characters have all suffered. I think the game is good but its not a true final fantasy game.

Essay over!

I've got to say that the only reason im slagging it off so much is that I've recently played Fable 2, Lost Oddesy and Infinite Undiscovery and i think they are all better and Final Fantasy should always be the best RPG around because it always was before.

I recently played Infinite Undiscovery and Lost Odyssey and while it may not be better than Lost Odyssey (probably my favourite game of this generation) I think that XIII was amazing, I finished it yesterday and I doubt I would of put 46+ hours into a game if I didn't think it was absolutely brilliant, especially in this generation of games, this will go in my top 5 FF's easily.

Jimbo, not sure where abouts in the game you are but after 8 hours I'm assuming you're somewhere in Chapter 6, 7 maybe 8 if you're lucky?

The only way I can describe what you're coming up on is awesome, the game stops being so linear and all the mini missions (Chocobos, hunts etc) start once you reach chapter 10 and 11, also you need to ensure you've levelled up correctly, not sold everything you've earnt etc, because the weapons upgrade system kicks in, as does the expansion of the crystarium.

Yes I'm sorry I'm a total ff13 geek, i even took last week off work, the whole week to sit in my midlands based living room and spaz out on this little beauty, and agree with previous....VIII is the best, but this one appeals to a whole new market, those who haven't previously playyed an ff game can enjoy it as much as the hardened ff fans, by the way...in Japan they've just released Lightning the Perfume, reckon any of the babes will try it?

Well I have actually got to hang my head in shame and say how wrong I was. I was growing increasingly frustrated at a lack of development in my game and felt like I was watching a film with the occasional' A' bashing anytime a fight started but...last night I got to palumpolum and the game started to open up a bit. I like snow and missed his character while he wasn't around but thankfully he is back. The fights are a little more difficult now so I'm actually using different paradigms and also I now have the eidelons. What worried me was that I didn't have any money and didn't know what to do to get any. I didn't want to use the items that upgrade weapons to get cash and there were no jobs. I saw a different side of the game last night and I'm really getting into it now, I'm not sure what chapter I'm on but fang is currently my leader. The fact I'm enjoying it now and people are telling me it just gets more awesome by the chapter means I'm desperate to leave work and have a play!!

Also, I wanted to ask u all a quick queston...are u guys fighting everything that is in sight or have u got a strategy because I'm kickin everythings arse and am wondering if that is maybe why I was gettin bored. Trouble is I've never been the best strategist when it comes to ff fights so I have to fight quite a bit. Please excuse any grammar mistakes, I'm using my blackberry at work to participate.

My choice for best ff is controversial, I must be the only person in the world who loves ix lol.

You're not the only person, I love 9 too!

I finished this last night and was impressed after all the rather negative reviews.

I thought the game was rather dumbed down though, there were no epic battles with panicked healing and desperate summons. I think my longest fight lasted around 13 minutes and that was down to bad weapons and paradigms so I was a little disappointed with that

Although I'll go back now and work my way through the cie'th (?) stone missions and try to max out my achievements

Jimbo, i think everyone kicks ass up until about Chapter 10/11 whenever you get to the "Base Camp" and Hope goes missing, no real spoiler there, you find him in about 30 seconds, he fell over...dumb ass! Anyway after that you go through the the Architytle Steppe or some other name where there are hunts, missions, chocobo games etc, a bit like X, after that you have Titan Missions and basically there is a whole seperate game you can comeplete between chapter 11 and 12 if you want to, the fights also get considerably harder unless you've leveled up wisely, the crystarium expands, you can start finding the real money objects etc like gold dust and so on and there are fights you just can't win regardless of how hard you try!

Best advice, grind as much as possible whilst working your way to the missions and chocobo then you can grind throughout chapter 11 for as long as you like, but once you get to level 4 on the crystarium (Level 4 not stage 4) it starts costing upwards of 20000 cp points for one upgrade.

Big tip for those playing, if you are looking for Trapezohedron, find one by beating the Adamanoise or whatever it's called whilst having the Hermes Sandals * and Collectors Catalog * equipped on your leader, (You need HP +10,000 mind,) it should drop one once every 5 goes, after that upgrade Fangs' weapon until you get it to * break it with the catalyst material, upgrade it again with the Trapezohedron you got so it turns into Nirvana, then...and this sounds a little crazy....dismantle it, you get 3 x Trapezohedron loads of moon things and some other stuff, but make sure you save before you spend and upgrade just incase it all goes tits up you can retry! haha

At 2,000,000 a time it's a great little tip for getting loads of Trapezohedron! I upgraded 3 of Fangs weapons and now have Ultimate weapons for all characters!

Thanx dude, that's helped me a lot. I'm glad you started talking about weapons because I had a look online the other day to find some of the better weapon locations and there was nothing, is there any particular reason for this and can anybody help me with any locations, or should I just go with the flow and they will eventually present themselves?

It's all about getting the colloectors catalog, 8ing it and then breaking it into the connesouirs catalog, then weapons and accesories get dropped much more easily.