OMG...i think im on the FF XIII-2 hype train ^^
good to see a maybe-good FF to invest some time in it while waiting for the masterpiece Versus XIII!

Says the person with FFXIII "hate reviews" in his signature.

Lying won't make the game worse my friend.

I have played Demon Soul's and I found FFXIII harder, I would easily go as far as saying it's the hardest game I have played this gen.

Getting more exited for this every time I hear more info, can't wait for the release of this awesome game in December^_^

@Radha

My thoughts on the game were about the same as yours. Unfortunately I have a tendency to actually grind. When I say grind what I am talking about is camping a area, and killing the enemy over and over again. For dozens of hours. The fact that there were achievements to be had by doing this didn't help either. Call it a legacy of playing massive titles online. I have real stamina. By the time I fought that third battle I had over thirty hours of grinding under my belt. This on top of the fact that I didn't skirt enemies. The only place I didn't actually clean out in the game was open field on pulse.

I have to explain something to you about these bosses leveling. They level exactly like the players do. It isn't just a question of them adding health, or having attacks that do some more damage. No if that were the case I wouldn't be so upset. They unlock new moves, but a lot of new moves. They unlock new features. Their gauges also shoot through the roof. Look there probably isn't any way your going to understand how insane my later boss battles were once I had maxed my party out.

You know your probably not going to believe me unless you do it yourself. I would spend hours on some of these guys, and no I am not a unskilled player. Go ahead try to just relentless assault your way through some of these guys. When they pop off Devastator attacks, configuration change to clear status bars, and stagger meters. I must not forget my favorite death attacks, Yeah those are pretty sweet especially when that is their first attack, and you haven't laid a hand on them yet.

Anyway I have two theories. That was how combat was supposed to be in the game before the play testers began to lose their minds. Maybe it was their idea of a Jack in the Box. Maybe they thought if the player is this high they want an insane challenge. Well yeah it was ridiculously challenging. I had to come up with some strange concepts to overcome some of these guys. Ever use the paradigms Tortoise, Rapid Growth, or Infiltration. How often did you use your Eidolon to clear a death status ailment.

Anyway if you want a real challenge. Just do what I did. I guarantee you will find something shocking.

Damn it, Noel looks like a typical metrosexual, whiny JRPG character. Snow was a bit annoying with his hero speeches but at least the man was....a man! I mean did you see his HD whiskers?!

Sounds like Kitase took the criticisms personally and is doing his best to fix what the mess XIII was. I like the recruitable monster aspect to be honest but this has me asking, what has happened to Summoning?

That's really strange, it took me a long time to beat the final bosses when my characters weren't max Crystarium level... even some of the fights with random monsters took a long time. Probably because I didn't really grind anything and just fought whatever enemies I ran into during the game.

However, the more I "leveled up" (unlocked stuff in the crystarium) the easier the game became... almost all of those long fights only took me seconds to complete after I had unlocked everything in the crystarium with all my characters. The game becomes easier and easier the more you level up.

I played most of the fights selecting a paradigm with 2 Synergists and 1 Saboteur at the beginning of the battle to buff my charactes while debuffing the enemies (slow, deprotect, etc).

After being buffed with all statuses and debuffing the enemies with every status that can be inflicted to them, I switched to something with 2 ravagers and 1 commando or 3 ravagers to stagger the enemy real fast.

After the enemy is staggered, I switched to 3 commandos or 2 commandos and 1 ravager to inflict some real damage on the enemy.

When the stagger bar is about to drain, I used Fang's highwind for one last hit that inflicts lots of damage (almost always 999.999)

If I started losing buffs and the enemy losing debuffs, I started the process again.

I switched to paradigms with medics or sentinels when necessary.

That was pretty much the winning formula for me. Shaolong Guis take me less than a minute to beat and Long Guis less than 2 minutes. Everything's extremelly easy like that, and even easier if you're max level.

It was a pretty easy game for me.

Did you even finish the game? 

OT:  Wow! That's sick. Multiple endings, Towns, Dialogues on NPC, Monsters become your allies, Lots' of minigames, the story is darke and mysterious, branching paths LOL!! and Cool looking guy. FF XIII-2 is shaping up to be a real FF than the original. I am hoping for a worldwide release this year. I don't want to wait for months!!!

@jdevil3

Now you got me scratching my head. If it isn't the level of the characters specifically. Then maybe it was all of the stat stacking I was employing. Perhaps the game was just reading the stats of the characters. Curious to know what equipment you used, and the level they were.

By the way I preferred to use these paradigms in hard battles.

Rapid Growth
Infiltration
Salvation
Relentless Assault
Aggression
Tri Disaster

Used a better mixed bag for non boss battles.

Some info on Neol from Gaminformers mag preview...unfortunately the gameinformer mag has been leaked so late that we know most of the info it was going to reveal:

- Switching paradigms automatically switches monsters. The Warhorn (a behemoth-like creature) appears under a commando paradigm. Flanbanero, an orange flan that’s fond of water spells, is a ravager.

- There will be around 200 ally monsters in the game.

- The team designed battles for players to use feral link, a monster special attack, often. A synchronization gauge lets you know when the attack is ready and it fills fast.


- Final Fantasy XIII-2 has secret enemies. For example cactuar is hidden in a specific room of the demo, but there is only a small chance you’ll run into it.

- Noel is from Pulse and has always lived there as a Hunter

- The game will begin with you playing as Lightning

I like the idea of each monster having its own special ability..if a given monster is a ravager it can only use spells of one element instead of all elements....it will make you decide which monster to use to defeat an enemy otherwise a monster would've been like any old party member.

Noel being from pulse suggests that some civilization may still be present on Pulse.

As story spoilers are starting to come out now I think my media blackout will begin now...feel free to post any more info if you guys find it in here.