Final Fantasy XIII Ditches Leveling Up for "Crystalium"

[FROGGEman2]

Don't worry, in the English version it's "Paradigm Shift".

Hope that helps.

Also, I love this idea. It mixes in-game shopping with me foolishly choosing to be a rouge.

Also, FF's economy is so damn easy, maybe they'll screw up with this too. I'd like that.

 

[hypothetical fact]

Killing enemies to get generic points which you can use to get more powers. This is truly a revolution! *cough*fable*cough*

 

[Eric the Orange]

Why does this remind me of Fable?

Plus, it's a redundant and stupid change. I loved the system they had.

I think Lisence points, were the last straw for me.

"The System they had"?

Every FF has a different system, dude.

This is a good point to make against people who say, "Final Fantasy has gone on to long all the games are the same.". In fact I'd say as far as game franchises go FF dose more to change and innovate between games than any other I can think of. This may lead to some hit and miss things (I'm not to fond of the magic draw/junction system in 8), but at least they're trying. I think that to a certain type of person, a series has been around to long if it's older than the PlayStation (read:youngins), no matter what is done to keep it fresh.

 

[LeonLethality]

you say they have never broken the level up mold but they did in there second game final fantasy 2 had no level up system

Killing enemies to get generic points which you can use to get more powers. This is truly a revolution! *cough*fable*cough*

*cough*plenty of games before fable*cough* phew wow big cough there

 

[Valiance]

Not a bad concept in theory, but how many times around the crystal grid will we have?

If it's not capped, that could get ridiculous...xD

 

[Vlane]

The Sphere Grid was awesome and I hope they make it even better.

 

[John Funk]

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? :|

Many, many hours.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Bring forth the torches and pitchforks! Square needs to have Final Fantasy taken away from their moneymilker-infested hands!

 

[Proteus214]

I guess that is a step in a positive direction. I really liked the Sphere Grid system from FFX more so than the leveling system in FFXII.

 

[-Seraph-]

Hmm, me likes. I've always been fond of skill tree's in order to shape and manipulate your characters growth. If they do it right, it may not lead to many peoples concerns of every character being the same at end game. There could be universal skills which any character can learn, and then character specific skills as well. Perhaps even skills that can only be unlocked by possession a specific combination of skills. In any case, I like the unconventional system and the doing away of level grinding. I don't mind grinding, but level's these days seem largely irrelevant. Leave it to square to constantly reinvent their games.

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

You're complaining about a game not having random battles and fixed levels....you sir are an idiot. If there is one thing I hate withing the Final Fantasy fandom, it's the fucking purists who don't want to accept change for the BETTER. Hell complaining about there not being levels and then stating that horrible abomination that is FF8 was a bad bad move.

As for your last line, I laugh at it seeing as it was never the gameplay or leveling system that made FF good, but the stories. So go ahead and not buy it, stay stuck in your purist mindset while you miss out on a potentially great game.

 

[GloatingSwine]

There is a world outside your door. Go outside.

QFF

What is this "world outside" nonsense? Everyone knows that there is only a howling void out there, with the only warmth being the scant shelter of a few game stores?

Seriously though folks, the pursuit of dings is an inherent part of the attraction of RPGs, and I've not really felt that Square's efforts to remove them have been effective. The Sphere Grid was slow and because the individual bonuses were small felt unrewarding to progress in, and the less said about FF2's horribly broken advance via masochism, dual weild shields nonsense the better.

So I'm wary of this already.

 

[GestaltEsper]

Why does this remind me of Fable?

Plus, it's a redundant and stupid change. I loved the system they had.

I think Lisence points, were the last straw for me.

"The System they had"?

Every FF has a different system, dude.

This is a good point to make against people who say, "Final Fantasy has gone on to long all the games are the same.". In fact I'd say as far as game franchises go FF dose more to change and innovate between games than any other I can think of. This may lead to some hit and miss things (I'm not to fond of the magic draw/junction system in 8), but at least they're trying. I think that to a certain type of person, a series has been around to long if it's older than the PlayStation (read:youngins), no matter what is done to keep it fresh.

That's actually what I like about the franchise. Since each one plays differently one rarely makes the other become obsolete like other franchises. I've never seen anyone go back to play the old Madden or NBA games. Whereas I could go back to any of the older FF games and get the same enjoyment I do from the newer releases.
Also you have to admit the junction system does have a lot of potential, they just went a little overboard in VIII(why would I junction magic to items?). If there was a system where say, junctioning magic to different weapon/armor types had different effects, say junctioning Blizzard to a Fire Sword would probably be less helpful then junctioning it to a Water Sword or junctioning Holy to Soul Eater vs Holy to Mythgraven Blade, then it might balance out better and require more strategy. Who knows? I may just be rambling.

 

[Shadow495501]

...Oh bother. Why change what was never broken to begin with? I'm beginning to lose faith in my Final Fantasy series. I never really cared about gameplay in the FF series anyway. All I want is an awesome story, and awesome cinematic. All of which stopped at the final boss of FF 9. GO BACK TO YOUR DAMN ROOTS!

 

[GestaltEsper]

It's comments like this that makes reading all those "Every FF/JRPG is the same" spiels all the more amusing.

 

[traceur_]

And no, I still don't know what "OPTIMA CHANGE!" means.

Optima Change, called Paradigm Shift in the western version, is like a job changing thing.

There are different paradigms for different styles of play, and from what I've read it's either a) consisting of different roles within the paradigm (with your whole party changing to this paradigm), shifting to Attacker will have your whole party switch to this paradigm and only attack with melee and magic all the time, or b) one paradigm = one role, like being able to vary the paradigms in the party i.e. Snow on Attacker, Fang on Healer, etc.

They're fairly strict according to what I've read, someone on Healer cannot attack at all, someone on Attacker will only attack with melee and magic and not use items or heal, etc.

Oh and yeh, the Crystalium sounds cool.

 

[Syntax Error]

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.

Even abusing that trick, you'd still be farming a whole damn lot so that you have 99 spheres for that 99 sphere levels you just earned. Me? I never mustered enough patience.

 

[GestaltEsper]

All this talk about sphere grids has reminded me that I still haven't played X.

 

[Flamezdudes]

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.

Wait. What? I HATED FF12.

 

[Carnagath]

or CP - and these CP can be exchanged for new skills or abilities

Ha! Darach! CP for this trainer at once!