The Glade 4.0

Another great use of the sentinel is sentinel + ravager + ravager (Mystic Tower?) or sentinel + ravager + commando.

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My most common use of sent is Med/Med/Sent, only used for quick recoveries. I think my only other build with a sent is Sent/Syn/Com, for buffs at the beginning of a fight.

I did 12 of the first 14 missions, enough to unlock Chocobos. Some of the missions took 2-3 tries, some were one-shots. After I got chocobos, I decided to advance the plot a bit, since I was close to getting Vanille's Eidolon. So I went into the next area and spent an hour to an hour and a half trying to get to that trigger.

I got stuck on some fight with a boxed somethingorother and 2 hoplites. Except the boxed thing summoned 4 more hoplites (7 mobs now) plus the hoplites decided to uberbuff themselves. It took several tries, around 12-15, to finally beat that fight, and it took forever (rav/sen/med until the boxed thing died). Some of the other fights in the area took 3-4 tries as well. Not to mention the Juggernaut, which I gave up on after a few tries. I finally got to Vanille's fight, and it took another 4-5 tries to beat her Eidolon.

I can't help but feel I'm underpowered for the area. I'm probably going to go back to the open area and grind some more CP.

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So you're saying it gets more challenging than the first two hours of the game which involves pressing "A" repeatedly?

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On the other hand, I just pressed X to continue on all those fights. It's entirely dependent on how much exploring/extra fighting you do.

I had all three main classes on Lightning, Hope, and Fang completely filled when I got there, though...

Man why was this game so damn linear before Gran Pulse? That really detracted from the experience for me. So far I am enjoying the missions.

Its nice to see the development too, first time I ran out and charged and a King Behemoth... oops. Now I can drop him +2-3 cronies no problem.

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99% of games on the market are just as linear. Hell, all Final Fantasy games(well, except for 6, which is only linear until the end of the World of Balance, and really, 7 and 12 are pretty non-linear at points before the end as well) are just as linear(with most not getting the side quest deal until late in the game, just like 13). Why does everyone make such a big deal about it for this one?

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Hmm, I haven't even finished filling out anyone's trees. I guess I am behind.

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Linear storylines, yes. None of them are near this bad as far as being kept trapped in tunnel-vision the vast majority of the game. (FFX got close, but still had moments where the illusion of being linear was broken for a bit. And FFX's linearity hurt my opinion of it as a FF game too).

FFXIII there's no break in the tunnel, no exploration whatsoever, no NPC interactions, no towns, no nothing for 10 chapters. Thus why it'll probably be a few more weeks until I get around to getting to where the world opens up.

The last final fantasy I played was VII so I am more accustomed to -> Wander map and level up -> Boss Fight -> Wander map and level up -> Boss Fight -> Sweet got a boat -> Explore map -> Boss Fight -> Hell yeah got an airship -> Explore world do sidequests -> Finish game.

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I read that when asked about the linearity of the game the developer suggested that it was because the l'Cie were fugitives and didn't have the luxury of "taking breaks". I can readily buy that as an aesthetic reason.

For the most part I find that it is just like X but with no option (or much need for that matter) to backtrack. You may be on a fairly hollow tunnel for most of the game but at least the scene varies greatly during the course of the journey.

I also find that this is a largely auto-battle select game at this point for me but the caveat is the Paradigm that I'm auto selecting. I've found that you can really screw yourself over with bad Paradigm choices/set ups.

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"Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes."
- George Soros

I'm finding that a lot of my offense is bound up in Lightning, at 7 hours in (Chapter 4). Specifically, Lightning as Commando.

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Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

I spent some time grinding up CP and filled out 2 of the 3 primary roles for everyone, and I'm close to filling out the 3rd role too. Lightning went from ~2300 health to ~3800 health. It's much easier to do the fights now, though the Juggernaut still beat me down.

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Have you started filling in the other roles yet? I keep meaning to look to see if the CP cost for making Lightning a level 1 Sentinel are in line with her level 1 Commando or if you're looking at 2-8k per advancement.

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I haven't tried to fill out the secondary roles, but from what I've heard, they're hella expensive. Like starting at 10k and going up.

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It costs 1 mil CP to max a non-innate role.

Seriously? They better start awarding CPs in the 100k range pretty soon then. That is utterly insane.

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Pretty much the fastest CP gain you can get is about 6,600 every minute or so. About 2.5 hrs grinding to max a non-innate role.

Honestly, compared to some other games, 7.5 hrs to max your characters levels isn't too bad. Damn walk in the park compared to something like DQ8.

Edit - not to mention there's a 2x exp accessory (of course!).


Then you get to farm upgrade materials. Yay!

Where's the experience accessory?

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Holy shitsnacks!

You get it as a mission reward for completing Mission 55 in Chapter 11.

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Mission 55, yes, but you don't need to do 54 missions before unlocking it. You do need to do missions 1-14 and beat the boss of chapter 11, I believe.

The boss is hard if you plan on doing it early. You have to go into the fight with full buffs and spam death on him and keep your fingers crossed.

Ugh I might have to buy a strategy guide to find all the missions. It does tweak me more than a bit that the world map rotates based on your perspective. The mini-map is fine but the world map should maintain its bearing.

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Saw a blurb on FFXIII Versus that has me excited

http://www.thelostgamer.com/2010/03/17/ ... -airships/

In a response to a question as to how much of the game is complete, Nomura responds “Things are not connected yet, every part is moving along separately. However, we have gotten airships working over the world map.”

Been far too long since a Final Fantasy game has come out that lets you jet around the world in an airship. =)

Kinda funny how I was feeling all buff and powerful coming into chapter 11. Then I tried taking on the Behemoth King and 4 of those dog things out in the field of Gran Pulse. Yeah... I've got some grinding to do.

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The Dude abides.