Im enjoying it so far. Yes there is a lot of time spent as a pair at the start but in a way it introduces the characters and stuff and then builds up the story. Full 3 man parties come in properly in chapter 8/9. Im on chapter 11 right now (24 hours to get there) and its just kind of opened part of the world up for me. I dont want to say much more but seriously, its a 60-70+ hour game and people are complaining after just 8 hours... At the end of the day you're playing through the story... so what if they are in pairs? Its just something different and its only going to get better like i said above
The battle mechanics turn into "Let's babysit Hope" when you get stuck in 2 player mode. They are absolutely terrible. I don't give a shit about a story if the game play blows ass. I can read a book for story and not suffer through his incessant crying about everything under the sun and terrible mechanics. He was one shot by the last 2 bosses randomly. Hope is seriously the only character I have had to use phoenix downs on and I have one left.
What paradigms are you using and how far along the crystarium are you? I presume you are in the Gapra Whitewood atm or are you in Lake Bresha? (Let me know where you are if im wrong as i can probably point you in a good direction It helps to get pre-emp strikes of course and rapidly switching paradigms helps... Hope is best set up with full HP gear and mainly used as a medic or a ravager in combo with a commando. If you havent already try to unlock the accessory crystals so you can equip 2 accessories on the characters. I also upgraded both Hope's and Light's weapons to level 4/5 which helped quite a lot.
Spoiler Oh and speaking of terrible story. The game starts out with them discovering that the military EXTERMINATES ENTIRE TOWNS FOR BEING IN THE SAME TOWN AS THEM so these dumb fuckers go visit one of the guys dads and TIE HIM UP SO HE WONT BE KILLED?! They dont honestly believe this shit do they? Or does the fact that the military seems to magically always be one step ahead of them not compute? I have Hope's weapons at rank 9 right now, lights are at 12. He is rank 2 in pretty much everything and I primary keep him in ravager or more realistically medic because everything hits him down to 30% hp or less in one hit pretty much. If one hit doesn't do it they focus him so I usually end up spending most fights with him as medic since the mobs do nothing but pound on hope until they die. I let him babysit his own shitty self and do stuff with light. However mobs still find ways to kill him in one hit from time to time which I haven't seen against anything else. On the other two char matchups I can happily change paradigms back and forth and the mobs seem less concerned about beating the everloving shit out of one person consistently so the need for a healer isnt absolutely constant. At the very absolute least these 8 chapters are going to ensure I never play through this again. The plot holes are massive. Few more complaints I can't control the retarded AI characters directly, only give htem a role and hope they do what i want. I sat through a fight 3 times because the boss would AoE vanille and Sazh, causing most of the damage to Sazh and a minor amount to Vanille but instead of casting her AoE heal she would cast her single heal on herself repeatedly and nothing on Sazh. Even when he was at 20% hp and she was at 80%. Since I can't control who is in my party or who is in lead I have to rely on the AI to do proper healing a good portion of the time thus far. Even after Libra the AI was nuking a boss with the one element he absorbed constantly, healing him over and over. Oh and I am at the end of chapter 8 and still fucking stuck with 2 people. This isn't Final Fantasy anymore. I can't control party composition, I can't control what the other people in my party do, I am reliant on the kindness of levels to give me items since I can't afford more than a very small handful BECAUSE NO FIGHTS GIVE GIL. Spoiler Oh and some black guy just put a gun to his own head and pulled the trigger I shouldn't have to wait 9+ hours of gameplay for the game to turn into it's normal mechanics. Fuck you Square Enix im taking this bullshit back.
Finished finally better then 12 not close to being the best one though I would rate it way above 12 and under 9. I hated 12 and was fairly indifferent to 9. But so far the second best jrpg this generation not really saying much though best jrpg so far this gen was Tales of Vesperia.
Spoiler The purge isn't about killing entire towns for being in the same town as them. It stems from a combo of misinformation and fear of the Pulse L'cie who they think are "tainted" l'cie. In fact, the military does have Cocoon L'cie that serve in exterminating pulse l'cie. The general belief is that if you are even close to a pulse l'cie you can turn into one, hence them purging the potential threat from below. Granted, since the father was obviously in close proximity to them in order to house them and be tied up, their logic didn't work out well for that... but then again I think someone makes a comment to that effect as they leave him. As for the AI, yeah they do exhibit dumb robot syndrome a lot. I've had a few times when a boss got in a lucky killshot on my party leader because my healer was insisting on using AoE heals instead of healing the only one taking damage. Combat Clinic was the only real solution for me in those situations.
The strongest castor in the game is hope.....sadly because I cannot stand his attitude lol. Heres my setup.....by far kicks anything you will get because it is the most versatile and strongest of 3 combo. Fang, Lightning and Hope......this is the best party through out the entire game lol.....sadly. Also does anyone even use Eidolons because they are so weak and pathetic.
I liked fang(with medic up to esuna after you get to gran pulse.),lighting and shaz. eidolons are if nothing else a full heal and some decent damage with it.
I refuse to use Hope. I really don't care how strong he is, I will play at a disadvantage to be rid of him.
ITT: People QQ because they are bad at the game. Hope, Fang and Light are the best end game characters. Why are people complaining so much about eidolons? You do know if you bring one out it will ressurect your entire party at full health after it is dismissed right? Paradigm shifts fully recharge your ATB for all characters and they can instant cast during the shift for easy heals. Then you switch back to com/rav. Sentinels aren't just there for no reason. They reduce party damage by 24% and take most of the damage so your healers don't get one hit. Once you get to chapter 11 the world opens up, alot. You get 3 party members at the end of chapter 9. You don't need that much gil if you spend it properly. You get over 500k in chap 11. I had like 200k before that. Human enemies do give you items you sell for gil. That is their only purpose. If they did drop gil I bet you'd be complaining about that instead. WTF WHAT KIND OF ENEMY DROPS GIL WHEN THEY DIE THATS STUPID!!!!
Counterpoint: You are dumb. In more than 3 words however, I shouldn't have to go 5-8+ hours into a game to get more than a duo game or for it to "open up" beyond a straight fucking line. And in a world where you are killing primarily soldiers it's very feasible for them to have some sort of cash on them as they go down. That makes perfect sense.
to be fair, they do drop credit and incentive chips which sell for 500 and 2500 gil respectively. also, on the flip side... a company doesn't have to cater to your every whim when they want to do something different. While I do agree that it is a bit too linear for their goal (stated as being a linear game to focus more on the story), something about the way you state it comes off wrong. Now, I would like to enter into evidence the first 3 chapters: http://www.notcliche.com/lbw/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/500x_straightmap.jpg as you can see, the map curves!
I am by far not online in my criticisms. MMO's have ruined people, they forget how single player games progress and build up but in general shouldn't take more than a few normal days of play for an average gamer to get to a point where the game is more than the same chore a thousand times over. As for Sentinel's, I am completely aware of them, however when you are constantly stuck with 2 people and one is NOT a sentinel their abilities dont do much for you eh?
Can i point out.... How long did it take until you could get control of the airship in FFX... Answer: A lot longer than FF XIII. That was a awesome game yet no-one complained about that being linear... Its part of the game/story.. deal with it...
This final fantasy isn't any more or less linear then any other FF they just don't hide it that well in this one. And the story is very slow to take off which is sometimes a hazard of jrpgs.
Counterpoint: U MAD You don't need a sentinel in the parts where you don't have one. You always have at least a medic. Nothing will one hit you until late game. If you lost a battle it's your own fault for not paying attention. They made this one so that it is OK TO DIE. Did you not notice the retry button that places you right before that battle and gives you a chance to either go back and farm(since everything respawns) or change your equipment? I guess you might have been too busy nerd raging to notice.
I have only ever felt the need for a sentinel while doing the missions but I grind a lot too I was usually maxed out before I got to the final bosses in the chapters.