FFXIII: Lightning Returns

Kefka best villain in FF history

"I just found out I'm mortal and I'm such a narcissist that I want EVERYTHING TO DIE IF I'M NOT ALIVE!!!!" You think that's credible?

I was actually really fond of Vayne Solidor in FFXII until they went over the usual Final Fantasy deep end with the Occuria. A power-hungry aristocrat-turned-despot seeking to increase his holdings is totally reasonable. Maybe that's why they had to turn it into "Mankind must no longer be the playthings of the 'gods'", especially given how much flak FFXII has taken by having a realistic but pedestrian plot about the fate of a single kingdom instead of the usual "everyone will die if the heroes don't do the thing" plot.

Just curious for those who have played, is it easy to screw up the time limit? Flashbacks of the moon crashing into the world when I had to hang up clothes as a kid come to mind when I see there is a time limit.

Right, but the reaction that makes sense to "***, I'm inferior to my younger brother" is "I'm going to kill my younger brother," not, "I'm going to kill two entire planets."

There's a clip from Drawn Together I should try to find that mirrors that point.

He's mortal though and if he can't live, why should 'inferior' beings be allowed to?

Also

An edit that might explain it for you

Ehhhhh... I guess I can buy the perpetual child psychopath explanation. It still strikes me as weak. Kuja wanting to be a despot as was presaged by him playing Grand Vizier (the vizier is always scheming for the throne, after all) to Queen Brahne would make more sense. Genocidal lunatics exist in the real world and are quite, quite dangerous in spite of really existing. Pretending Hitler wanted to eradicate all life everywhere just feels like a lazy attempt to raise the stakes. Like I said, Vayne Solidor was great with his motivation until someone on the story team got bored with believability.

All this debate pales in comparison to the machinations of the Fal'Cie, though. On the other hand...
Doesn't excuse the player party going along with the whole song-and-dance, though. That is another major flaw of Final Fantasy storytelling, though: the heroes are often aware of what a villain wants (e.g., Seymour in FFX) and still blithely do it. It is actually a plot point in several of the games that the heroes do exactly what the villain wants in hopes that they'll be able to stop it at the last second somehow.

Y'know, it's no wonder I spend most of my time when playing JRPGs going around doing sidequests or grinding job levels or whatever instead of giving two craps about the plot. Come to think of it, ditto for a lot of CRPGs. Stop trying to make categorically evil and consequently boring archvillains, RPG developers! The only thing worse is making a vaguely interesting villain as in FFIV and then revealing that he isn't the real villain. Gag me.

I posted some videos from Extra Credits that talk about this in Random Thoughts

Just a bit of warning, when you get to the Wildlands you will encounter Dryads, they are an enemy who summons more of themselves in battle, can heal one another, and are weak to Fire while absorbing Wind.

Be very careful with these enemies, focus on a single target and kill them quickly, 1 can summon 2 more, then those 2 are capable of summoning another 2, and so on, they only summon at low HP but if you aren't fast about it they can easily overwhelm you.

Thanks for the tip! Just got there, finished the Luxerion Main Quest.

Also, got my Siegfried Garb. I had to turn on Outerworld Services (again) THEN set the Link to Facebook setting to ON. Got it instantly after that.

Really enjoying the game so far. The battle system is fantastic. I love figuring out what staggers each enemy :P

Overall I'd say the XIII trilogy wasn't bad, it just isn't everyone's cup of tea. FF fans scream for something different after each game, then when they get it they scream for old school again.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Personally I've enjoyed each installment thoroughly. But sadly you can't please everyone.

*ring ring* Hey Light...

HEY LISTEN! HEY! LISTEN!

They seem to be most common around Jagd Woods, though I did see a few in The Grasslands, for a more specific location on where to expect them.

I would also say after Luxerion you may want to do the quests in Yusnaan. I personally did Yusnaan before going to the Wildlands myself and I am having a fairly difficult time with some enemies, but it may just be me.

Its worst after 5AM lol


Really I just went there to unlock Teleport. The day ended just after I got there xD

I have no idea why in a span of a single hour he calls you 3 times to tell you it's almost time, I mean, thats a bit excessive Hope... -_-;

I didn't see a problem with the Occuria in XII, they had their way of ruling (by decree) and Venat/Cid upset that in a Promethean way simply because they shared an ideal about free will. The Occuria attempt to use Ashe and it fails leaving humanity to fend for themselves.

Mortals get free will and will eventually muck it up just like the Occuria predicted and that's XII in a nutshell. Ashe gets her kingdom back, some type of peace occurs between the three kingdoms and the corrupt leader is put down. We also get some bedtime lessons about peace, revenge, WMDs and dealing with grief.

The problem with XII was execution of the plot. We see very little of Vayne which makes it difficult for a player to relate emotions towards the antagonist when he's offscreen scheming instead of doing something. Cid steals the show in every scene he shows up in and once he's done, Vayne comes across as a loose end to be tied up rather than part of the plot. I really don't need Kefka-style 'I'm evil, crazy or both!' every minute to relate to the villain but there is a point where the audience isn't connected to the primary antagonist.

Lots of wasted characters, dropped subplots and a rushed ending snared XII but overall it was a step in the right direction away from the angst and shoehorned love stories. Ivalice has lots of potential and in clear SE fashion that means drop it for HD releases.

I think I am going to *** this whole thing up, I like sidequesting waaaaaaaay too much. World is doomed.

After my first playthrough, I would have agreed with you. Having played it a couple more times, though, I don't. We actually see quite a lot of Vayne. The problem is that if you're a power-gamer or just an MMO player (i.e., virtually everyone on this forum), you spend upwards of 100 hours on sidequests and other stuff. For me, at least, it might be 10 hours or more in between actually advancing the plot, so it can be easy to miss the many cutscenes detailing what Vayne is doing and how it affects his father, his brother, Ashe, and the nations of the world.

What we see very little of is the meddling of the Occuria. We're just told that they give power to certain individuals who are easily manipulated and... what, exactly? Occuria or no, Ashe was going to progress towards a confrontation with Vayne and we know that neither Vayne nor Cid were being manipulated by the council of Occuria, so the whole nonsense with nethecite and manipulation and such really feels like a tacked-on attempt to raise the stakes up to the usual, boring Final Fantasy level of "everyone's gonna die."

Ironically, as much as I detest romance subplots (looking at you FFVIII, you were even worse than FFX on that count), I would have actually liked to have seen Ashe have some kind of romance with Balthier or Basch, especially given she's a young widow and still grieving her husband. The three characters are adults and it would be unlikely to devolve into the mush and angst of teenage romance subplots.

The world is already doomed. You're just pissing God off :D

Anyone find a way to get Haste yet? :x

Buy Phoenix Wings or Hero Potions from the Ark EP Shop, 2 EP per. Has to be Day 11 or later to buy them though.

Wing:
Revives from KO, recovers all HP, buffs: Haste
Hero:
HP rec., buffs: Bravery, Faith, Vigilance, Haste

There's also an accessory called Thorn of Speed in the Temple Ruins.

So there's no way to actually learn the spell? D:

Not that I've found yet. :/

Hey everyone um... here's a code for the Art of War outfit for the x-box that i don't need YGDCC-MFDT2-MGGF4-TPQY9-YY22Z enjoy and btw wth with your codes being so damn long?

So i accidently slashed a guard and got him pissed in luxerion. then he has the ! over his head so i did it again and it starts a battle! and if u stagger them they spam cure on you, quite handy if u need the HP. I dont know yet if it has any consequences though lol

The last 1 Reaver in wildlands drops a sword w/ 900 atk and mag @@ also auto regens for the first 15s of fight, cleared Lux/Yus/Caius story. Anyone know where best shields/weaps are yet? JP friend theres a 4000 str sword in there o.o

No, they're not curing you, Jacaut. The two flans are curing the guard.


On top of those things already mentioned, there's also an item which grants Haste, but it costs you 5% of your HP at the start of every battle.

No problem in Easy Mode, otherwise...


Grumpy Cat, you cannot win the game without doing the six main quests 0-5. Each you gives you a day.


Fira helps A LOT. Also, in lower modes, it's a great way to abuse Chronostasis. (That is, until you see the hot pink one I saw last night.)

Story went completely off the freaking rails the moment Serah died, wiping out all of your work in the first two games.

They can cure you. When you stagger them, they use a move called Delirious something, which is a big cure bomb.