Final Fantasy XIII Ditches Leveling Up for "Crystalium"

[kahlzun]

My guess is that "OPTIMA CHANGE!" is french for "DIGIVOLVE TO!"

I would gladly play a Final Fantasy/Digimon crossover.

I also loved the Sphere grid, as it was also the first time that a character limits could be put WELL BEYOND anything I'd ever seen before. Nothing quite like watching the frail and timid summoner smack a beast in the head for 20k damage.

I have a save game where Yuna and Lulu's melee attacks do 99999 damage apiece.

How is that even possible? did you like replace every sphere with Strength Sphere's?

 

[Zhalath]

That sounds so great. I love any way I can customize my party members, so that when I get shafted with people I don't like statwise or abilitywise(Edgar, Cyan, I'm looking at you), I at least have some modification.

Also, grinding sucks. Admit it people. Grinding sucks.

 

[rees263]

Wakka accurate

Ha ah hah ha hah ha! Oh, you were serious. Wakka missed about 95% of the time, which is why I never used him.

You must be confusing Wakka with someone else. With only his base stats he will have near 100% accuracy for the first half of the game, he naturally becomes one of the strongest characters and has arguably the best overdrive: he is one of the contenders for best playable character.

 

[Fbuh]

Wakka accurate

Ha ah hah ha hah ha! Oh, you were serious. Wakka missed about 95% of the time, which is why I never used him.

You must be confusing Wakka with someone else. With only his base stats he will have near 100% accuracy for the first half of the game, he naturally becomes one of the strongest characters and has arguably the best overdrive: he is one of the contenders for best playable character.

okay, this is the second time somebody has said that I am wrong about Wakka. Maybe I just got a glitched game or something, but I never used him because he very rarely hit anything. Whenever he did hit something, it did about half the damage of the rest of my party (when you first get him, just so that nobody can argue that it was becasue I never used him). As a playable character, I didn't like him, and this doesn't have to become a flame war about how wrong I am about possibly one of the worst Final Fantasy characters ever.

 

[SomeUnregPunk]

SNIPED OUT fanthing rant

they won't care. whether it be a dozen, a hundred or a thousand Americans/Europeans, that won't buy this game...they still make money off the millions of Asians that buy this game. If you want to to see significant change in the game design of FF, you will need to influence Asian markets somehow.

Good luck.

 

[John Funk]

My guess is that "OPTIMA CHANGE!" is french for "DIGIVOLVE TO!"

I would gladly play a Final Fantasy/Digimon crossover.

I also loved the Sphere grid, as it was also the first time that a character limits could be put WELL BEYOND anything I'd ever seen before. Nothing quite like watching the frail and timid summoner smack a beast in the head for 20k damage.

I have a save game where Yuna and Lulu's melee attacks do 99999 damage apiece.

Their MELEE attacks? No offense intended, but that sounds a wee bit fishy to me...

Which reminds me, I never spent money in that game... contrary to 12, where I never had enough

I liked both the licensing and Sphere Grid systems: hopefully this is a delightful combination of both.

Yep, their melee attacks. Yuna had the entire sphere grid colored in. It was a result of abusing the Master Tonberry fight with a weapon with 3x Overdrive, 3x Sphere Points, and Overdrive -> Sphere Points.

Sorry, but being the Square(as well as multiple other companies) fanboy that I am, I have to correct your statement. It's AP (Ability Points), not Sphere Points. As for me, I could only be bothered to max out their Magic damage. Either way, this new system definitely sounds decent. I can't wait to see it.

Dude it's been like six years. AP, Sphere Points, same thing

 

[Doctor_Insano]

a new way of levelling up sounds interesting: but remember it's based on "skill trees" and from what ive seen, these don't really offer as much versatility as we would like

 

[John Funk]

Oh for god sake.

The following is coming from a Final Fantasy fanboy:

For god sake Square stop killing my favourite game series. I am sick fed up of this piece of crap. I don't care how crappy the game is as long as it has random battles and a proper leveling system with exp points. This is why I still play FFVIII. It was the last FF that, to me, checked all the boxes.

This game has been teetering on the edge of being bought or not due to an xbox version which I told everyone on my friends list that if I caught them playing it on the 360 I would delete them and block them. Now I find out that they have brought a "revised" version of FFX leveling which was rubbish. I couldn't tell where about they were level wise because there was no numbers with the holy word "lvl" infront of them. This means:

[HEADING=2]I am now no longer buying FFXIII[/HEADING]

Good bye Square. Comeback when you remember what made the Final Fantasy games good.

There is a world outside your door. Go outside.

QFF

 

[Magnatek]

My guess is that "OPTIMA CHANGE!" is french for "DIGIVOLVE TO!"

I would gladly play a Final Fantasy/Digimon crossover.

I also loved the Sphere grid, as it was also the first time that a character limits could be put WELL BEYOND anything I'd ever seen before. Nothing quite like watching the frail and timid summoner smack a beast in the head for 20k damage.

I have a save game where Yuna and Lulu's melee attacks do 99999 damage apiece.

Their MELEE attacks? No offense intended, but that sounds a wee bit fishy to me...

Which reminds me, I never spent money in that game... contrary to 12, where I never had enough

I liked both the licensing and Sphere Grid systems: hopefully this is a delightful combination of both.

Yep, their melee attacks. Yuna had the entire sphere grid colored in. It was a result of abusing the Master Tonberry fight with a weapon with 3x Overdrive, 3x Sphere Points, and Overdrive -> Sphere Points.

Sorry, but being the Square(as well as multiple other companies) fanboy that I am, I have to correct your statement. It's AP (Ability Points), not Sphere Points. As for me, I could only be bothered to max out their Magic damage. Either way, this new system definitely sounds decent. I can't wait to see it.

Dude it's been like six years. AP, Sphere Points, same thing

I know. It just felt somewhat good to feel "actively nostalgic" about a Final Fantasy game again. It's been about two years since I've done so, and the last time was about the License Board, and that attempt failed. This one did too, but that's beside the point.

I may only be 18, good sir, but the feelings of nostalgia grip even the youngest of gaming generations.

 

[Andronicus]

Mega Snip

To quote a wise man:
"Fans are clingy, complaining dipshits who will never, ever be grateful for any concession you make. The moment you shut out their shrill, tremulous voices, the happier you'll be for it."

I loved the Sphere Grid (meaning the complex one, where you could actually choose where to go, rather than the rubbish simple one), so it'll be fantastic to see it make a return. Of course, Square does try to make each system unique in its own way, and I doubt this will be an exception, so I'm curious as to what will be different in Final Fantasy XIII. I'm hoping less damned locks, for one...

 

[JenXXXJen]

Oh for god sake.

The following is coming from a Final Fantasy fanboy:

For god sake Square stop killing my favourite game series. I am sick fed up of this piece of crap. I don't care how crappy the game is as long as it has random battles and a proper leveling system with exp points. This is why I still play FFVIII. It was the last FF that, to me, checked all the boxes.

This game has been teetering on the edge of being bought or not due to an xbox version which I told everyone on my friends list that if I caught them playing it on the 360 I would delete them and block them. Now I find out that they have brought a "revised" version of FFX leveling which was rubbish. I couldn't tell where about they were level wise because there was no numbers with the holy word "lvl" infront of them. This means:

[HEADING=2]I am now no longer buying FFXIII[/HEADING]

Good bye Square. Comeback when you remember what made the Final Fantasy games good.

Good for you? Honestly, some people are way too far up their own asses.

I'm pretty certain you're a troll anyway, since you don't seem to know much about previous FF's for a fanboy. Come one, everyone knows leveling in VIII was useless, and that IX was the traditional one.

 

[Mstrswrd]

...It's abbreviated as CP? That's a horrible abbreviation.

If you don't know what CP is, I'll give you a clue. It's Child Pornography. Wait, that's not a clue, that's what it is.

Like I said, it's a horrible abbreviation. Lets all call it by it's full name, 'kay? Crystal Points.

 

[GestaltEsper]

Oh for god sake.

The following is coming from a Final Fantasy fanboy:

For god sake Square stop killing my favourite game series. I am sick fed up of this piece of crap. I don't care how crappy the game is as long as it has random battles and a proper leveling system with exp points. This is why I still play FFVIII. It was the last FF that, to me, checked all the boxes.

This game has been teetering on the edge of being bought or not due to an xbox version which I told everyone on my friends list that if I caught them playing it on the 360 I would delete them and block them. Now I find out that they have brought a "revised" version of FFX leveling which was rubbish. I couldn't tell where about they were level wise because there was no numbers with the holy word "lvl" infront of them. This means:

[HEADING=2]I am now no longer buying FFXIII[/HEADING]

Good bye Square. Comeback when you remember what made the Final Fantasy games good.

Might I recommend Dragon Quest? That seems more up your alley.

 

[RandV80]

Wakka accurate

Ha ah hah ha hah ha! Oh, you were serious. Wakka missed about 95% of the time, which is why I never used him.

You must be confusing Wakka with someone else. With only his base stats he will have near 100% accuracy for the first half of the game, he naturally becomes one of the strongest characters and has arguably the best overdrive: he is one of the contenders for best playable character.

okay, this is the second time somebody has said that I am wrong about Wakka. Maybe I just got a glitched game or something, but I never used him because he very rarely hit anything. Whenever he did hit something, it did about half the damage of the rest of my party (when you first get him, just so that nobody can argue that it was becasue I never used him). As a playable character, I didn't like him, and this doesn't have to become a flame war about how wrong I am about possibly one of the worst Final Fantasy characters ever.

I'm not sure why there's any confusion here. Tidus was accurate on the small & fast land critters. Wakka was accurate against the flying monsters. The battle system was set up so that each character had a specific monster they were good against, and you routinely swap them in and out depending on what you're fighting. Tidus->small & fast Wakka->flying Rikku->Machines Auron/Blue guy->Armored Lulu->Flans & blobs Yuna->everything but limited. I'm curious as to how you handled all the flying enemies throughout the game if you didn't use Wakka at all.

Really the only useless guys was... Kidimaru? The blue cat guy, can't really remember his name. Good at the beginning because he was strong and had pierce, but Auron replaces him in that area eventually. But what really screws him up is his section of the sphere grid was by far the smallest and ends like a 1/4 of the way into the game, at which point you have to switch him to the start of another characters grid so he goes from being a tank to a good at nothing hybrid really quickly. Personally, not playing it extensively but enough to beat the really hard hidden dungeon, I ended up with Tidus (sphere grid finishes right next to Auron's where you can get huge strength boosts), Rikku (quickest + instant death weapon + double effect Al-bhed potions), and Auron/Yuna as my heavy hitters party.

As for FFXIII and the topic at hand it really shouldn't be a surprise, Square always introduces some fancy new leveling/skills system for each new FF game. The only preference I have are that the characters retain some sense of individuality in battle. In FFVIII, FFXII, and to a lesser extent FFVII, strategically the characters were pretty similar and interchangeable. FFXII being the worst in that you could make the veteran knight Basch into a staff wielding wimpy mage and the Bunny Eared archer/mage into a heavy hitting two-hander wielding tank.

 

[LittleMikey]

What is it with Japanese games awarding CP?

 

[Wakefield]

I consider Final Fantasy X's sphere grid the pinnacle of level up thing-a-giggers.

It allowed me to turn an utterly useless character (Rikku) into a more powerful black mage then Lulu.

I win

Really the only useless guys was... Kidimaru? The blue cat guy, can't really remember his name. Good at the beginning because he was strong and had pierce, but Auron replaces him in that area eventually. But what really screws him up is his section of the sphere grid was by far the smallest and ends like a 1/4 of the way into the game, at which point you have to switch him to the start of another characters grid so he goes from being a tank to a good at nothing hybrid really quickly.

Not if you move him over to Wakka's sphere grid right away. Then he becomes just as powerful as Auron and Wakka therefor giving you more power on your team.

 

[JeanLuc761]

I have a save game where Yuna and Lulu's melee attacks do 99999 damage apiece.

Sweet Christ, how many hours did you log on that one? :|

 

[DoW Lowen]

I never remember leveling up being broken, why try to replace a formula that has worked for well over 15 years?

One word... Grind.

 

[300lb. Samoan]

I'm not sure which is funnier here: how much the Crystalium reminds me of Flobotinum, or the fact that the game rewards you with CP (beware the party van!)