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Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII DEMO - OUT NOW* -

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
What is moving Lighting supposed to do in battles? I just swapped outfits and smashed attack after "Deprotect" and got pretty decent damage doing that with the charge attack on the Dragoon outfit into launching them and then the triangle/Y attack to Stagger them.
 
That's because usually in jRPGs they prefer to start the game with a climax – to make the player interested – and then go back to explain what actually happened. They did the same with so many titles in the series that I can't see why you're surprised. I usually prefer this sort of storytelling than the boring wRPG storytelling with the little farmer becoming an hero after 50hrs of fetching shits.
I'm pretty sure later in the full game you'll know everything abour her awake, her meeting with the God and so on.

Well, I wasn't really surprised since FF tends to do this, but it seems a bit more jarring in this case. I prefer JRPG storytelling as well, but a lot of my favorite JRPGs have slower starts that amp up quickly after getting you used to the world and characters (Xeno-series, FFIX, etc). The whole in media res didn't really work out that well for FFXIII, so I'm not sure why they really did it again, lol. I think the biggest thing is I just don't like the direction they took the story after XIII-2 - it's not what I was expecting after beating that game. Oh well. And about the whole "becoming a hero after 50hrs of fetching shits"... isn't that what a large chunk of this game will be like? I've heard the sidequests (while not required, are very recommended since it's how you level up in the game - might as well be required) are the same boring WRPG/MMO type quests which is unfortunate.

Ehm wait... you mean with that option on I'll have random NPCs infesting every single area and dungeon in the game? Ewwww... someone please confirm this to me <.<

I don't know about every area - they just appeared in the first room of the dungeon/beta for me. So maybe they are relegated to the beginning areas?
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
I don't know about every area - they just appeared in the first room of the dungeon/beta for me. So maybe they are relegated to the beginning areas?

No they can be found in other areas as well. The area where you beat the boss of the demo is one. I think where Lightning has to climb ladders is another.
 
Some questions:

So in what way does the color of the stagger wave correspond to how close you are to staggering an enemy? I assume blue means you're just starting, yellow is mid way, and of course red is staggered. But sometimes I saw a blue wave when the wave was going crazy. What color means what?

What are the two bars between the health and atb bars in the savior schema in battle?

Why are some moves in a schema config yellow with a star? Are they just moves with stat bonuses?
 
No they can be found in other areas as well. The area where you beat the boss of the demo is one. I think where Lightning has to climb ladders is another.

Oh, well that's kind of dumb. It's an interesting idea, but I don't think I'll be using it. All the NPCs with player names feel really out of place and takes me out of the game.
 

Minions

Member
Well the battle system is pretty interesting.... but the short demo/lack of battles does not really give me an overall perspective on it. I feel like haste is going to have a large factor here (if it raises the gauge faster). I threw dragoon in there and it seemed like I never had any attacks... (I guess the jump one takes like 1/2 the bar)
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Oh, well that's kind of dumb. It's an interesting idea, but I don't think I'll be using it. All the NPCs with player names feel really out of place and takes me out of the game.

It's not that bad. If you're abusing healing items and find plenty of Otherworld NPC's you can basically have the "store"s move with you instead of those in-game NPC's going around everywhere. Provided the NPC's are providing healing items for sale.

Well the battle system is pretty interesting.... but the short demo/lack of battles does not really give me an overall perspective on it. I feel like haste is going to have a large factor here (if it raises the gauge faster). I threw dragoon in there and it seemed like I never had any attacks... (I guess the jump one takes like 1/2 the bar)

You don't want to be using the Jump/charge->hold attack on Dragoon. Use X/A and then Triangle/Y for beast mode Staggering, it seems. Because X/A will launch and provide you time to Triangle/Y into that Stagger.

But you want the Dress that gives Deprotect and Mediguard as well.
 

Celegus

Member
Perhaps I'm just remembering wrong, but are the visuals a pretty big downgrade from XIII-2 and even XIII? The textures are very chunky and even the text is fuzzy. The customization stuff looks interesting and the music is incredible, so I'm sure I'll still like it, but I wasn't expecting it to look quite so rough. And the battle UI is absurdly large, takes up almost half the screen!
 
So does the game actually say you unlocked the Siegfried outfit? I posted the battle score something to twitter, but nothing said I unlocked it.
 

Goldenhen

Member
So does the game actually say you unlocked the Siegfried outfit? I posted the battle score something to twitter, but nothing said I unlocked it.

Keep your demo save data just in case.

Any spoilers in the demo or is it safe to play and is it on the EU psn yet?

I haven't download the demo yet but I'm pretty sure it's the beginning of the game so go play it. I believe it's on EU PSN right now or if not then wait few hours.
 

Labadal

Member
Had some time to finally try the demo. The battle system is interesting but that's about the only thing I thought was decent in the demo. I'll skip the game but at least I gave it a try.
 

SykoTech

Member
Breezed through the demo in a flash. Even got 5 stars on the boss even though it felt like I wasn't doing that good.

Not really a fan of the "hold button to attack" combat. The OP's "DMC of RPGs" claim made me think that it would involve actual button presses and combos. Guess not.

And the new Stagger system sucks. They should have just left it as it was.

It wasn't bad, but I can't say I'm in a hurry to play it.
 

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
Breezed through the demo in a flash. Even got 5 stars on the boss even though it felt like I wasn't doing that good.

Not really a fan of the "hold button to attack" combat. The OP's "DMC of RPGs" claim made me think that it would involve actual button presses and combos. Guess not.

And the new Stagger system sucks. They should have just left it as it was.

It wasn't bad, but I can't say I'm in a hurry to play it.
I didn't like the idea of holding the button either, but you can still tap it if you wish. I guess you could say there are combos since you often have to switch Schemas anyhow.
 

creid

Member
Not really a fan of the "hold button to attack" combat. The OP's "DMC of RPGs" claim made me think that it would involve actual button presses and combos. Guess not.
Holding the button is just an option, and I'm not sure it's faster than pushing the button repeatedly.
 
Holding the button is just an option, and I'm not sure it's faster than pushing the button repeatedly.

Some of the abilities said "Holding the button will increase the damage the more you hold it" or something like that. So... it mean, you *should* hold it for some things maybe, but I'd rather just press it.
 

Mik317

Member
I actually enjoyed this demo a lot.

Combat was pretty fun and the story seem to be right up my alley of stupid bullshit.

ok Square.
 

creid

Member
Some of the abilities said "Holding the button will increase the damage the more you hold it" or something like that. So... it mean, you *should* hold it for some things maybe, but I'd rather just press it.
I think he's referring to the early tutorial that tells you that holding the attack button will cause you to continuously attack until your bar is empty. You can do it that way, but it's probably not the best way to play.
 
What is moving Lighting supposed to do in battles? I just swapped outfits and smashed attack after "Deprotect" and got pretty decent damage doing that with the charge attack on the Dragoon outfit into launching them and then the triangle/Y attack to Stagger them.

Yeah. i'm wondering too, the demo wasn't really indicative of any strategic use.
It was mostly spamming a few attack without using the analog sticks at all.
 

Gaz_RB

Member
Alright time to begin my play through of the FF13 games.

With Bravely Default, FFX HD, and the 3 FF13 games... I'm gonna be all JRPGed out! Kinda want to play a Tales game as well.
 
Alright time to begin my play through of the FF13 games.

With Bravely Default, FFX HD, and the 3 FF13 games... I'm gonna be all JRPGed out! Kinda want to play a Tales game as well.

I'm in the same boat. Played Ni No Kuni, Xenoblade, Tales of Graces, Atelier Ayesha, and Dream Team last year. And just this first half of the year will be Default and Lightning Returns. And I'm currently 10 hours into Xillia. I hope I don't burn myself out, but I guess that's a testament to the variety of battle systems and story that JRPGs bring, unlike other genres like FPSs.
 

Hexa

Member
As someone who hasn't played through any of the XIIIs, I had no idea WTF was going on story wise for any of the demo. Time to go play the first two it seems.

Game play wise it seemed fun though. Could have a lot of depth. If I'm understanding it correctly, the item limits, timer, XP only through quests, etc. make it impossible to grind so it'll be entirely skill based. Battle system seemed fun too and could have a lot of depth. For the demo I just randomly switched around without any solid strategy and it worked out fine though. xD

I thought everyone else was fine, but Lightning's voice is so bad. :(
 

ban25

Member
As someone who hasn't played through any of the XIIIs, I had no idea WTF was going on story wise for any of the demo. Time to go play the first two it seems.

The stories in these games have very little in common beyond the characters, and even they are quite different. I wouldn't bother to play the previous entries, barring FFXIII-2, which is actually a very good game.
 
I like how he game keeps track of what works and what doesn't with the r2 button. With that being said staggers are usually counters. Like for Anubis u have to attack while he's getting ready to and the black balls (whatever their names are) u must strike when they enable the glutton.

I've gotten into the flow of combat switching here and there. I like it. Might be the first final fantasy I play since 13, I liked 13s combat but the fal'cie shit combined with Hope and Vanille annoying the fuck out of me made me quit. Idk if I wanna pre-order or wait...

Oh and SE r still the gods of CGI. Damn it looks soooo good
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Seeing so many positive impressions here and the title mentioned so many times in the february buying list thread makes me so happy. Response is warmer than what I expected. I loved the DEMO and I'm glad I'm not the only one.

As someone who hasn't played through any of the XIIIs, I had no idea WTF was going on story wise for any of the demo. Time to go play the first two it seems.

The story is tied to the previous two episodes for the most, but still presented in a way in which you can enjoy them as stand-alone titles with a prologue and an ending for each of those. If you like LR: FFXIII go playing this first, it'll not hurt then going back to XIII and playing XIII-2 next if you liked it. Games play also very differently from each other so it'll not feel like going back to more archaic mechanics or what.
 

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
Played the demo about four times now. I knew I'd like the game but this sealed the deal. I still have to get used to the combat.

Oh and least when it comes to the demo, the graphics are fine. In fact, they're downright beautiful. Can't wait to have the U.S. version in my hands.
 

chrono01

Member
I already have this pre-ordered, but I guess I'll download the demo anyway for the DLC costumes.

Free stuff is always great!
 

semiconscious

Gold Member
Had some time to finally try the demo. The battle system is interesting but that's about the only thing I thought was decent in the demo. I'll skip the game but at least I gave it a try.

same. probably doesn't help that my wife's playing ffix right now, but everything but the battle system felt just mind-bogglingly vapid/soulless to me (especially the protagonist herself). sooo friggin' melodramatic & overwrought. smh...

will wait for type-0/ffxv...
 

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
same. probably doesn't help that my wife's playing ffix right now, but everything but the battle system felt just mind-bogglingly vapid/soulless to me (especially the protagonist herself). sooo friggin' melodramatic & overwrought. smh...

will wait for type-0/ffxv...
Type-0? Unless I missed something, doubt we'll ever see a NA release of that.
 

Jinfash

needs 2 extra inches
I've only played the demo for a few minutes, so I haven't finished it. But so far I'm pleasantly surprised by the framerate. It also doesn't look as fugly as XIII-2 was.

Can anyone who played the full JP game confirm if this is the case for the rest of the game? That may take my stance from "Never" to "Maybe, someday."
 

SykoTech

Member
I didn't like the idea of holding the button either, but you can still tap it if you wish. I guess you could say there are combos since you often have to switch Schemas anyhow.

Holding the button is just an option, and I'm not sure it's faster than pushing the button repeatedly.

Ah okay, thanks. If tapping works just as well as holding, then I guess I'll try that from now on. The latter wasn't much fun.
 
if you guys buy this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804162867/?tag=neogaf0e-20

you get this
lightning_returns_final_fantasy_13_art_of_war_1.jpg
 
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