Square-Enix Final Fantasy XIII-2?

You forget about the inclusion of the circular object. I highly doubt it's for show and it'll have a purpose.

 

For all we know, that's the new Stagger meter. It could also be fluff. Honestly, the Paradigm system is beyond repair if they don't slow it down and give you full control, which, based on the "auto-battle" option, they have not.

 

lol, if the battles were too fast for you you could have always changed the battle speed. xDD

You don't have to use the auto-battle option. I only found myself using it in the first game when I was rushing through battles. No wonder you found it boring. And I highly doubt they'd add it in as 'fluff'. If it's on the screen it'll have a role.

Plus, the Paradigm system adds variety to battles. It's better than simply flicking through a long list of commands. Add a few extra roles, perhaps allow the player to switch players and it'll be great.

 

I don't know why people hate the battle system so much. Because you don't get full control? I was never in a situation were I needed to have full control, because the game was relatively easy. The AI did it's job fairly well.

This battle system was built to be faster, not like FFXII, where you had more control, but it was slower.

 

No, speed is not the problem. The problem is that you don't have any real control.

There's no real difference between micro-managing and using auto battle. The only difference between them being that you hit X three extra times.

Like I said, for all we know its the new Stagger meter.

No, it really doesn't add variety. You're going to use three, at most, during any given battle. You're then going to rotate through those three in the order you need them. Effectively, you're spending the whole battle doing this: Libra, X, X, X, X, L1, X, X, X, X, X, L1, X, X, X, X, X with no real thought process as Libra makes the AI automatically use abilities that are strong against the target with the only strategy involving switching between an attack Paradigm, a balanced Paradigm and a defensive Paradigm.

Of course, this isn't taking into consideration the pointlessness of the faux open ended Crystarium.

Honestly, I was willing to give Square the benefit of the doubt since I like FFXIII's narrative, but seeing as they insist on using a horribly designed system like the Paradigm system, most of my hope for FFXIII-2 is gone.

 

Yup.

Precisely. I bought the game to play it, not to watch a game playing itself. Would you enjoy playing Gran Turismo on constant auto-pilot, only being allowed to switch between gears ? And nope, the AI was far from perfect, especially when it came to resurrecting people.
Trying to mix real-time and turn-based is as pointless as designing a chess game where both players play at the same time without ever being allowed to pause and think. The game keeps telling the player "Stop pushing buttons dammit !!! You don' t have time for that ****, just choose between attack, buff and heal and I' ll be fine without your meddling".
I don' t want FF games to be dynamic, if I wanted to play a real-time RPG I' d play a Tales Of, Star Ocean or KH, they' re way funnier than FFXIII.

My favorite FF are those that let me combine the jobs to create my own mix (FF5, FF7, FFTactics).
FFX-2 already allowed players to change jobs on the fly and it was much funnier than FFXIII.
Plus it had a decent list of jobs, not six basic jobs.

 

This, 1000 times..... even if the combat was the only thing FFX-2 had going for it.

 

You have control over what Paradigms you use and what abilities/items to use. That's all the control you need in a battle. Anything else would slow the battle down and be too similar to previous games. Like Chev said, FFXII had more control, but the battles were slow and boring. There was too much control.

lol, you have a wide variety of attacks available to each paradigm. The auto-attack is great for building up a stagger if you're lazy, but later in the game when the enemies become tougher you need to plan your attacks if you're playing syn/sab/medic and even sen since the auto attack often chooses the wrong or slowest option. It's more than simply hitting X if you think about it.

Yeah...that's wrong. I've played battles where you have to use most of the available Paradigm slots to stand a chance. Seriously, did you not complete the missions? Cause if you use auto-attack you're gonna die very, very quickly. SE did make the mistake that it took a while for the battle system to really open up, but once it did it's a lot more fun.

You've awready doomed the game so no FFXIII-2 for you. Though having an incredibly low expectation is probably a good thing. At least if you ever do decide to force yourself to bare it you won't be disappointed.

 

That' s the kind of comment I never read before FFXIII was released.
If it was that boring why the hell did people play them in the first place ?
How come the constant FF remakes are selling like crazy if they' re so "slow and boring" ?
Slow wasn' t a problem before, hell it still isn' t. I' d have control over speed any day in a turn-based RPG, no problem there whatsoever.
Moreover, the FFXIII fights are probably the longest in the series "thanks" to the stagger meter, and there' s nothing else to do in the game but fight. Snore.

Huh ? Play with Fang (highest HP), add Lightning and Hope/Vanille, switch between com/rav/rav, com/syn/sab and def/med/med or com/med/med. Spam auto-attack pushing triangle here and there when needed. No enemy in the game will resist you. I killed the "ultimate" boss in the game that way and I ended up with five stars on my first try (after dying once or twice to figure out its attack pattern).
It was by far the easiest "ultimate" enemy I' ve ever seen in a FF game.

 

Now XIII-2 is confirmed to 8e at E3, over other fan-favourites.

Either XIII-2 is going to actually 8e good, or the rage from the fandom will cry out and deafen the western world. Kinda like the triffids, 8ut with hearing, instead of sight.

 

You need to read more FF forums since many agree that FFXII was boring. Not just the story, but the gameplay itself. It's the only FF game I've never completed. Couldn't force myself past 10 hours. The actual fighting was a nuisance, felt more like a chore than fun. I never said all previous FF games were slow and boring. They only got tedious because of the random battles when you were trying to get somewhere. Other than that the battles worked - they suited the game's setting/style. A turn-based style wouldn't have suited FFXIII and it's characters. At least that's what I think.

That wasn't your first try though. xD And the battle is hardly easy (Unless your characters are well equipped). The fight will take at least 7 minutes with a well developed party and it's very easy to screw it up even if you use the poison trick.

Any ultimate boss is easy to defeat if you know how to defeat it. Even the infamous Emerald and Ruby weapons. You said so yourself, the battles were the longest in the series. That's a good thing in my books. I don't want to play a game where I can win very quickly and easily.

FFXIII was far from perfect, like you said other than the missions and item hunting there was nothing left to do. That is something I expect SE to fix as well as the linearity. I know others had issues with the battle system, but most folk enjoyed it and SE will go with whatever the majority of their fans want.

 

So the opposite extreme of high speed, but no real control isn't a problem? I'm sorry, but I'd prefer not to basically watch a game play itself, which is what FFXIII did. Also, newsflash, FFXIII DID use a form of turn-based system. It used the EXACT SAME ATB system used by almost every main series game since FFIV. FFIV-IX used it, FFXII used it, Chrono Trigger used and Bahamut Lagoon used it, all in varying forms. The ATB system has always been a system designed to keep battles moving and give the illusion of real-time combat. FFXIII was just as real time as FFXII. The difference is that FFXIII more or less played itself.

 

I will buy this game before I get a PS3 to show my devotion to FF games

 

If you want to take it to that extreme, then FFXII did play itself. You micro-managed outside of battles, and watched things unfold, choose a target, spam powerful Mist and done. That is, if you want to take it so literal.

But there's always space for improvement, and the battle system was at least satisfactory. I would wager people would complain if the battle system was turn-based too, so it's impossible to please everyone.

 

The difference being you could effectively micro-manage and you had to program the AI yourself. FFXIII's AI isn't programmable. At all. Like I said earlier, every battle is Libra, X, X, X, X, X, L1, X, X, X.

No, it was not satisfactory. It PLAYED ITSELF.

 

And what button do you do in other FF games? I'm sure X is used to confirm the selected attack. So, by your logic all FF battles are X, X, X, X. Which is true to a degree. The reason SE included team AI is so you wouldn't have to worry about it and to keep the battle fast going.

Obviously it satisfied enough fans for them to make a sequel. xD Can't please everyone.

 

I' m sure you meant it earned enough money to justify a hasty cow milking sequel.
FFVII sold 9,7 million copies making it the top-seller FF, FFXIII sold 4,6 millions making it the lowest-seller FF since FFVII (FFXII sold 5,7 millions BTW ^^).
Source : gamrReview.
If FFXIII-2 sells as well as FFXIII I guess I' ll just have to shut up. I doubt it but, ah, well, we' ll see ... ^^

 

Really? Cause last I read it had sold over 6 million copies.

http://www.ffotaku.com/final-fantasy-xiii-2/

There's not official report of that, but last year SE had reported they had 5.5 million copies sold. Then they brought out a 'budget' version, so a 6 million+ figure doesn't sound wrong.

No, you're right. Sequels of this type rarely sell as well, but folk will buy it out of curiosity. It'll still sell fairly well.

 

[video=youtube;MA-ipesCzZY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA-ipesCzZY&feature=player_embedded[/video]

 

Oh-hohohoho. So much happens so quickly! Seriously, a Pulseworker in your team? o_O And there's a moogle! =D Nice to see more Nora but where the heck is Snow?

And during the battles there is occasionally 'Success!'. I'm hoping it'll be an input sequence similar to FFX overdrive system.

Here are some pics of the trailer. I've put them in a spoiler tag since I've included a few possible theories. They're just my thoughts though on the pictures.

Spoiler

Cocoon in the distance.

Moogle following you like a puppy. It better know how to fight!

Serah has a sword!...she must have more muscle than she appears. It also looks like the enemies left appear at the bottom of the screen.

Where the heck is this place?

Serah really needs to stop wandering into creepy places. The 'invisible world' perhaps?

Looks like the flan is attacking.

Our hero? Noel.

Connection between the two worlds?

Cinematic Action - now this sounds interesting. Perhaps an input sequence?

Success!

MASTER HAND!

<3

Forgot to add this. I'm fairly confident it's a female. Possibly team member? lol at the Moggle's head. XD