Final Fantasy XIII Xbox 360 bundle discounted to $249.99 at Amazon

@einhanderkiller

They are still there. I think those are new retail boxes that came damaged in shipment or somebody smacked them with the forklift. You might get lucky and get one that has no damage other than the original packaging. Sweat Warehouse Deals.....

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi

Yeah, no one could possibly be buying additional (multiplayer) games too, or have friends with multiplayer games, or any number of reasons why it's not a bad idea to put two in there.

You know what DOESN'T make sense? Not including modern hookups. No HDMI cable, no component, etc...

@Mrguy you know that guy

*?*

@Mrguy you know that guy

It's different.

Visually, it's stunning. The story definitely wasn't up to par with other Final Fantasy games -- however, the interaction between the different characters is what kept me playing.

The game starts out with a huge bang, lots of excitement but quickly becomes linear and about half way through, seems like a chore. Later the game opens up into a big world, but only for a short while.

Combat is streamlined and consists of button mashing ('press A') for the first few hours of the game. However, when the game adds 'paradigms' to the mix, it becomes a lot more fun.

Overall, it's fun. I wouldn't recommend buying it for $45-$60 new, but for $250 WITH an Xbox 360 AND an extra controller, I would go for it. Just don't expect it to be like any other Final Fantasy game.

@Mrguy you know that guy

I personally love FFXIII, I went into it believing the hate and left very satisfied.

@inspiredEpic

So it's basically no FF6 or FF7, correct?

By the way, is there any grinding involved?

@Mrguy you know that guy

I liked it. It's not my favorite FF (I loved 10), but it has a good story and characters, and the gameplay is fast-paced and fun. Well, fun as long as you don't use auto-battle all the time, which you shouldn't because you can pick more optimized commands most of the time, although it can be a good shortcut if you know what it'll choose. The paradigms are fun too.

It's not extremely challenging, especially because it introduces the battle system in pieces, so it can feel like a tutorial for a long time. Also, if you lose a battle, you don't lose progress, which is nice but easier. On the other hand, it caps your level for most of the game so that the individual battles are challenging.

So no real grinding because you'll hit the max if you just fight everything along the way. The exception is the open world chapter where you can grind and do missions for awhile if you want. I think there's a lot of farming for the platinum though, which I doubt I'll get.

Most of it is linear, which I didn't mind because I was interested in the story. In most FF's you can go pick up some weapons or something that'll let you breeze through the story, but I don't think you can do so for this one. OK, I'm starting to ramble, so I'll stop.

@LockeDaemonfire
It doesn't take TOO much grinding/farming for the Platinum trophy, had about 80 hours by the time I got it, maxing the Crystarium is very easy with the Growth Egg (Mission 55).
The majority of the time spent at the endgame will be Platinum Ingot farming, to buy materials for weapon/accessory leveling, and at this point they should be easy to get.. with the right strategy.

@LockeDaemonfire

While there's no traditional "grinding" going through the game from ch.9 onwards FEELS like a grind, and honestly more of one than I've ever seen out of a FF game.

The story is poo but better than 12 was....I guess....But that's like saying Dragon Quest 2 had a better story than Dragon Quest 1....

The battle system is terrible and I did a whole write up on the issues with it. Here's the rundown on my gripes: 1. You only control one member (leader) and if the leader dies you lose. 2. The AI controlled characteres (the other two) make horrible decisions ie, they are programmed to heal the character with the least HP which is DUMB in a game where if your leader dies you lose, but it's indiscriminate if all your characters are in a danger zone, unless your main char has the LEAST HP then it gets no attention. 3. Support spells from the AI are also stupid, they don't go to your leader first. 4. The life spell is also useless as it doesn't work on your leader, and the one casting it can't use it on himself (obviously). 5. Even if you know the weakness of an enemy you are still forced to cast Libra (identifying the monster) on it to ensure the AI casts the appropriate spells.

I have a lot more issues with the battle system, but that's what stuck out to me. Also, it's just not fun at all considering you're substituting your own strategic ideas to the CPU for 2/3's of every battle. To like the battle system you have to believe that you will make dumber choices than the AI, and frankly I don't, so I hate that I'm forced to live with their stupid programed choices.

I hated this game. FF10 was really the last great FF in my book.

@Helghast102

True, farming not grinding. I picked up the growth egg before I finished 11, so wouldn't be worried about getting to max crystarium. I farmed for a pure bladestone in Demon's Souls, so I guess I wouldn't be surprised if I went back to get the plat in FF13 eventually. Just so much else to play at the moment...

@acefondu

The only problems I have EVER had with the AI were when battling Adamantoises, im trying to stagger the leg but the other 2 are attacking the head... very annoying, but they sort their shit out, all in all I think the AI is pretty damn good

@acefondu

I agree with every single thing you said there. +1

@Helghast102

Is it better than if you could control them yourself? No, of course not. So I can't imagine why I should like it.

Another thing that's terrible is the game doesn't even let you set up your own strategy. For instance, I liked the idea that a sabatour would keep up a stagger meter. I TRIED to use that to my advantage during periods where I was low on health so I'd switch lightning and Hope to healer while having Fang casting sabatour so I didn't lose my stagger meter. HOWEVER, the AI is so dumb that it will STOP casting anything as a sabatour if the enemy succumb to the status ailments of the sab spells.

I grant you my issues with the battle system aren't game breaking, and it's still easy as pie regardless. But it's very frustrating that I can't play the game how I want to play it all because of the way the AI goes about doing things.

@acefondu

Fair complaints, I have heard them a lot, and I respect them. This is just how I felt:

I didn't mind controlling only one character. On normal battle speed, I was already swamped by selecting my own actions and paradigm shifting to think that I could control the others too. I did feel like I had control over they're actions though because of the paradigm shifting, but more like as a leader giving general commands as opposed to micromanaging. You're right that the AI doesn't always do things right, especially later in the game, so if they added a gambit system on top for the other characters, it would have been useful.

Leader loss can be annoying at times, but I think it adds a bit of tension because it would be nearly impossible to lose if you all had to be knocked out. It's necessary for balance, I think, and it's not as much of a problem because losing just takes you back to the beginning of the battle.

I almost never casted libra, which I suppose I should have done more, but it fills in the elemental information as you attack so it's not so bad. It also saves all the monster info so you don't have to memorize it. I haven't done a second playthough where I already know all the weaknesses though, so I could see that that could be frustrating then.

Anyway, I think it depends a lot on how you perceive some of it as you play. It was really polarizing, and it's unfortunate that even a rental won't tell you if you'll enjoy the game or not because of its length.

@acefondu

Gah, it takes me too long to type...

Haha, that sabateur thing was annoying! I did the same thing. It seriously just waits around... and it's not like it's conserving mp or anything because, ya know, there is no mp. I ended up usually controlling Fang as the sab so I hadn't thought about it for awhile.

@LockeDaemonfire

Losing and starting over at the battle you lost, I swear was programmed that way only because the developers knew the AI sucked so hard they didn't want you to feel like you lost a great deal of time because when you lost it usually wasn't your fault.

The libra thing, you don't need second play-throughs to understand what is weak to what. I go in and see a plant monster, I cast Fire...except that I'm lightning so Hope will cast....*roll the dice* thunder....good job Hope...good job....moron

And I don't mind at all that you only control your leader, but it IS a problem when the AI doesn't support it properly. FF12 as much as I hated it, you still had way more control over the other two members allowing them to heal/cast support spells at pretty specific times and at certain %'s of health. It was far more intuitive than what FF13 gave us, and that's about the only compliment I'll give that game, lol.

Outside of the battle system I really wish the story would have been better too. ((((No spoilers just generalizations))) They never went into any detail about Lightning, Snow is in love....great we never find out how or why they liked each other so I don't care. Fang comes too late to care about and her background is just a touch more than Lightning's non existent one. Hope...yeaaaah....Vanille annoyed me, but her and Sahz were really the only characters the writers seemed to care about and both were interesting thankfully. But it's pretty sad when two of the more meaningless characters get more love from the plot than any of the main ones.

I did enjoy some of the overall plot though, I liked the idea the characters were kind of slowly dying through the whole game. Hearing them say L'cee constantly though really got on my nerves, and the whole segregation aspect was WAY overplayed. But then the overall ideas got ignored and at the end they ran out of any meaningful dialogue yet STILL had cut-scenes constantly that were basically just "Let's press on guys! YAY!" for the last 8-10 hours....ugh!