Hey inefficient, I'd be interested in more combat impressions and overall funness. I tried the demo but never completed it. It felt repetitive and boring since the good guys could essentially bulldoze all the enemies (which were also rather dumb). And we were fighting corridor after the same corridor, and the next corridor.
If there're interesting mini-games, exploration, cool monsters, weapons, job classes, etc., that caught your eyes, do please call it out. At this moment, I think I prefer PacMan to FF XIII.
I'm only 10 hours in so I don't know every thing yet. But this is what I know.
The demo is the very first level of the game. But for demo purposes they gave the player a lot more skills and abilities than you normally have at that point in the game, which is why it probably felt unbalanced.
And there were several key things the demo didn't have, like the Optima system. Optima assigns each character a role out of 6 possible. So if you have 3 party members, you can assign them roles like Attacker, Defender, Healer. And you can set up different templates and switch them on the fly. From what I have seen so far, most of the "Strategy"in this game's combat parts comes down to switching Optima templates during combat. You do this real time in the game it doesn't pause for you.
So say you are going into a boss fight, your default optima might be something aggressive like Attacker, Attacker, Blaster. But when you start taking damage you might want to go to something like Attack, Defender, Healer. Characters seem to slowly unlock more roles as you level up in the "Crystarium" system. The roles are Attacker (maximum physical damage), Defender (absorbs hits), Blaster (Ranged attacks), Healer, Enhancer (Casts buffs on your party), Jammer (Casts negative buffs on monsters).
There is no Character levels in the game per se. (Although monsters do have levels ratings). There is this Crystarium system which is really just a very simple system where the player acquires skills and abilities and improves their character overall, like getting more HP for example. One of my minor complaints so far is that this system is too simple. And doesn't lend itself toward replay or building specialized characters. I don't feel like I am customizing my own character, really just following a pre determined progression scheme.
Also you can't pick your party members. At least not at the point in the game I am still at, I don't know if this opens up later. Not being able to pick your party further enforces that feeling that you are playing this exactly like how the developers have planned it.
There is one thing that I do think is still very RPG like, and that is the weapons and accessory system. All the weapons and accessories you get start at level 1. It doesn't matter if it is your default starting weapon, or if it sometime you pick up later. It will always start at level 1. And at some point like 6 hours into the game they give you the ability to level up your equipment. This costs resources that you pick up off of monsters or in treasure boxes etc. So you do have to make some hard decisions about where you going to spend those.
Also cash so far is very very rare in this game! I have seen hardly any of it laying around. It's not like you kill a slug and it drops Gil. It's a very rare slight indeed. But there is a store system where you can buy all kinds of the usual stuff like weapons and potions etc. Usually you have to sell loot to get Gil. Also you seem to unlock more stores as you go along. Athough they are all accessed from the same terminal. Not sure how many stores in total there will be.
Anyway, from what I have played so far the combat is very fast paced. And even though a lot of the combat is automated it doesn't feel passive. Just because every thing moves so fast it feels frantic. It's almost more like an action game than any other JRPG I have played.
Especially with the Summons system it strays pretty much into action game territory. You call a summon and it will fight like a party member along side you for a while. Or you can go into this "Driving mode" where you can ride on your summon like a vehicle and attack monsters on the field.
BTW, there is no mana or MP in this game. To call a Summon or use any other special ability you have to fill a special gauge filled called the TP gauge (Tactical Points). You gain tactical points by getting a good rating on your combat skirmishes. Every time you come out of combat the game rates you out of 5 stars to tell you how well you did. 5 stars will net you a nice chunk toward your TP guage. Doing poorly or playing too defensively and getting a slow time gets you fewer TP points or possibly none at all.
I think people who like really hardcore RPGs might not like this game as much due to the somewhat limited room for player creativity in the character development process. But on the other hand, it has amazing and beautiful graphics, lots of very well developed characters, and has a more action oriented combat system that caters well toward the type of gamer who usually thinks JRPGs are boring.
For me, it is the graphics that keeps me sucked into playing this hour after hour. I'm just constantly being blown away. Each level is more amazing than the last. Also I really like the Lightning character. I want to see where they are going with her.
wat?
