What RPG are you playing right now?

[Gamerforlife]

My only real complaint with FF13 so far is the very unforgiving time requirements for the battle rank system. I haven't gotten that far into the game, but I feel like I am being rushed in every battle. I'm essentially punished for actually taking time to think at all.

However, this is a common complaint for me. I'm sort of tired of so many developers basing ranking systems completely around speed. It the same thing that annoyed me about Valkyria Chronicles ranking system as well.

Very cool battle system though, and I am still enjoying the story. And did I mention how gorgeous this game is? Coming from someone who is in no way, shape or form a graphics whore.

[BoringSupreez]

I have started playing Chrono Cross. So far it's good, but I hope the story picks up soon. Also, this isn't the game itself's fault, but I hate waiting for battles to load, even short loads.

[MrPopo]

My only real complaint with FF13 so far is the very unforgiving time requirements for the battle rank system. I haven't gotten that far into the game, but I feel like I am being rushed in every battle. I'm essentially punished for actually taking time to think at all.

However, this is a common complaint for me. I'm sort of tired of so many developers basing ranking systems completely around speed. It the same thing that annoyed me about Valkyria Chronicles ranking system as well.

Very cool battle system though, and I am still enjoying the story. And did I mention how gorgeous this game is? Coming from someone who is in no way, shape or form a graphics whore.

I took a look at the GameFAQs mechanics guide now that I beat the game. Turns out getting 4 and 5 stars causes you to get more of the rare drop, and getting 3 stars is a requirement to have the possibility of the rare drop. The range of points for 3 stars is 9k-11k. And aside from item drop rates the only thing rating matters for is getting 5 stars on every Cie'th stone mission (fortunately they're repeatable) to get a trophy.

You have to admit, though, that a rating for speed makes more sense in a game like this than it does in VC. Here, at least, you'll likely be going for killing the enemy as fast as possible. And the devs were nice enough to make all the boss drops guarenteed or you get to fight it as a normal mob later.

[Flak Beard]

MrPopo, how have been handling your weapon upgrades?

Supposedly a lot of people wait until the final chapters to start upgrading, because more ideal starting weapons are available then that yield better results in their final form.

I feel silly already sinking a ton of EXP into Lightning's Gladius, because the Blazefire Saber may have been a better choice (unless of course I always use Lightning as a Commando). I wonder if I can dismantle the LVL5 Gladius and get a ton of components back?

I also realized that stats almost completely reset after using a catalyst. It opens up a higher potential max stat, but you start much lower than what your weapon was before the catalyst.

Doing a little research, I found weapons take 1,500,000 EXP to reach LVL100. Needless to say, I'll only be doing this for my three favorite characters I want to use for all the post-game marks. My other characters will probably just get max level first-tier weapons or no upgrades at all. I've already heard people easily beat the main game with LVL 1 weapons.

[MrPopo]

I feel silly already sinking a ton of EXP into Lightning's Gladius, because the Blazefire Saber may have been a better choice (unless of course I always use Lightning as a Commando). I wonder if I can dismantle the LVL5 Gladius and get a ton of components back?

I've sunk a fair amount into the Gladius, but I've spent more on Fang's starting weapon (it's at level 60 right now of the second form). As I understand it from a dismantling perspective there is no difference between a level 1 and a level 50 version of the same item. There might be a difference between level 50 and level star.

I also realized that stats almost completely reset after using a catalyst. It opens up a higher potential max stat, but you start much lower than what your weapon was before the catalyst.

Between the first and second tier there isn't that big of a difference between the level star tier 1 and the level X tier 2 (it starts at a higher level, 10 in my case). When you go from tier 2 to tier 3 it might be more pronounced.

Doing a little research, I found weapons take 1,500,000 EXP to reach LVL100. Needless to say, I'll only be doing this for my three favorite characters I want to use for all the post-game marks. My other characters will probably just get max level first-tier weapons or no upgrades at all. I've already heard people easily beat the main game with LVL 1 weapons.

I can't remember if the number you quoted is going from the start of tier 3 to the end, or from a tier 1 weapon to the end. In either case, the majority of your experience is spent on leveling the third tier. You can honestly spend all the resources you attain early in the game to give yourself some nice stat boosts that are a help during the game without impacting your ability to get the nice weapons at the end. You'll be farming Adamantoises no matter what you do, so at that point whether or not you saved the components through the game might make the difference of one adamantoise drop.

[Flak Beard]

You'll be farming Adamantoises no matter what you do, so at that point whether or not you saved the components through the game might make the difference of one adamantoise drop.

Wow. Well in that case, it looks like I won't hold back on leveling weapons then. Thanks for the tip!

[MrPopo]

You'll be farming Adamantoises no matter what you do, so at that point whether or not you saved the components through the game might make the difference of one adamantoise drop.

Wow. Well in that case, it looks like I won't hold back on leveling weapons then. Thanks for the tip!

The one thing you might consider holding on to is the Ultracompact Reactor, which provides the best ratio of exp to cost. You'll receive a few when you proceed through the game. When you're going to do your end-game upgrading the most efficient way is to use the small amount of organic compounds (about 5k gil worth that can be easily farmed if you're a miser) to get to a 3x EXP, then use as many Ultracompacts as you need to get to max level. It seems the way the system works is that organics increase the exp bonus while mechanicals decrease the bonus. However, if you do a batch of, say, 50 Reactors it first calculates 50 * base * 3 and adds that exp to your item, then does 50 * reactorBonusPenalty and computes the new exp rate.

[Gamerforlife]

My only real complaint with FF13 so far is the very unforgiving time requirements for the battle rank system. I haven't gotten that far into the game, but I feel like I am being rushed in every battle. I'm essentially punished for actually taking time to think at all.

However, this is a common complaint for me. I'm sort of tired of so many developers basing ranking systems completely around speed. It the same thing that annoyed me about Valkyria Chronicles ranking system as well.

Very cool battle system though, and I am still enjoying the story. And did I mention how gorgeous this game is? Coming from someone who is in no way, shape or form a graphics whore.

I took a look at the GameFAQs mechanics guide now that I beat the game. Turns out getting 4 and 5 stars causes you to get more of the rare drop, and getting 3 stars is a requirement to have the possibility of the rare drop. The range of points for 3 stars is 9k-11k. And aside from item drop rates the only thing rating matters for is getting 5 stars on every Cie'th stone mission (fortunately they're repeatable) to get a trophy.

You have to admit, though, that a rating for speed makes more sense in a game like this than it does in VC. Here, at least, you'll likely be going for killing the enemy as fast as possible. And the devs were nice enough to make all the boss drops guarenteed or you get to fight it as a normal mob later.

Thanks for the info, it's always after the game is over we get the info we want lol. I guess I'll stop obsessing over ranking so much. I'm just a natural perfectionist with anything I play. Kind of a flaw really, but I'll quite stressing over ranking.

Yeah, speed does make more sense here. I'm starting to get a better grasp on chaining and it seems I have been a bit lax on levelling. You know you get spoiled by rpgs that TELL you when it's time to level lol.

You know this game reminds me a lot of FFX in its structure so far. Combat feels a LOT like FFX 2, which was one of the few things I enjoyed about FF X 2. I'm glad I went out and purchased this

[MrPopo]

You know this game reminds me a lot of FFX in its structure so far. Combat feels a LOT like FFX 2, which was one of the few things I enjoyed about FF X 2. I'm glad I went out and purchased this

My feelings is they took elements from X, X-2, and XII and refined them. From X they got the seamless and more linear world but then they managed to structure the storyline in such a way that you don't mind it nearly as much. They also crafted a better sphere grid. With X-2 they got the in-battle class changing, the restricted class abilities and the chaining, but here it all flows well. With XII they got chapter 11 (though it was just as good in XII) and they utilized the class system to allow for allies to be automated without just having the three super chars you could pull off with the License Board + Gambits in XII.

[Shikalin]

I finished Lunar: Silver Star Harmony the other day. I found it to be much easier than the other versions of the game. Perhaps even a little too easy. There really is almost no grinding involved and almost all of the battles are a breeze. Other than that I really enjoyed it and it has some great visuals and music to backup the gameplay.