Alright, Gamercide is back up and running, so we need more gaming threads. I'll start with this one and go through the old thread and re-post all of the tips.

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1. Word to the commoners who just bought FFXIII, the game will open up tremendously at Chapter 11, which is roughly 24ish hours into the game. If you can survive the linearity of the game for that long, I assure you things will pick up.

2. Fight EVERYTHING you can. You are going to need the CP (Crystarium Points) for later on in the game. Some moments can be extremely challenging for under-leveled characters. (ahem chapter 11)

3. Contains spoilers on Chapter 7 - Credit to Spawn

In Chapter Seven, in the city of Palumpolom, at one point you reach Hope's house. Shortly after, the military attacks, and you're engaged into some battles within the house. The house is basically shaped like a loop, and inside are two enemy groups, two item chests, a Save Point, and an Activation Point.

The enemy groups both regularly drop Incentive Chips, a component item that has a selling value of 2,500 gil (I got the drop roughly 3 out of 5 battles). Kill the enemies, run the loop, and the enemies will respawn as soon as you break line-of-sight with their spawn point. Kill them again, bag Incentive Chips, and repeat. The scene doesn't end until you use the Activation Point, so as long as you just don't click "Okay" there, you can farm it until you're tired of it.

You can use the shops at the Save Point and sell the Incentive Chips for a buttload of cred (not metric buttload, because this is America), and turn that money around to buy components to upgrade your weapons and accessories to max level. I only spent a half-hour farming, and I had enough money to upgrade all of my battle party's accessories to Star Level, as well as gaining some good levels on my weapons. I'm sure someone out there has patience enough to farm out the loop until their entire inventory is starred-out, so have fun.

4. Concerning upgrades of accessories and weapons, if using the strategy above, then it should be no problem. Make sure to buy large amounts of hides and/or fangs first (80 gil each, if using lowest material), upgrade in bulks of 10, then when you get a 3 times multiplier, use high costing materials to get the full effect of leveling up your items faster. (Lenora's Garage sells the high costing materials).

Concerning Eidolins and stuff, Towncryer seems to have pretty good strategies against them, and every time I've used it, I've beaten said Eidolin with ease. Hope he'll post them in this thread.

Otherwise, have fun!

I need to get this game eventually. I have to at least finish Final Fantasy 12, Blue Dragon, and Lost Odyssey first though lol. Also, I like that there's a city called "Palumpolom" in the game, referencing the twin mages Palom and Porom from Final Fantasy 4.

I'll post as I go. I'm on mid 12 level grinding currently...A huge Boss awaits just around the corner and has over a mill hit points and is pretty powerful...Make sure you use Hope and and make double sure he has the ability to use Haste.

Thanks TC, do you have any tips for Vanille's Eidolin? Having a hard time with it, D :

Thanks TC, do you have any tips for Vanille's Eidolin? Having a hard time with it, D :

Yeah, You have to throw all kinds of debuffs on him then Rav/Sentinel...If you are still having trouble you need to level grind. If I remember correctly this is just outside the underground part...I really made use of the enemies here and level grinded for a while. The bouncing bombs drop Bomb Shells a lot and they are great for upgrades. Anyway heal and protect your party, attack when you can with Rav. The bummer here is If you haven't leveled Fang to use Rav yet then it takes longer.

He yields to those who weaken their enemies, heal their party and chain bonuses.

Yeah, I've noticed that Saboteur fills up the Gestalt Meter a lot, but then I had trouble with getting my health back up and retaining it to do any more damage. So, back to level grinding then! That cave is really good for grinding though.

Man. I keep hearing all this great stuff about later in the game, and I wanna get to it, but everytime I put in the game, I just can't bring myself to play it. I duunno why.

Man. I keep hearing all this great stuff about later in the game, and I wanna get to it, but everytime I put in the game, I just can't bring myself to play it. I duunno why.

JUST DO IT! That's what I did with Dragon Age and I absolutely love it, and I'm going back for a second playthrough. Force yerself, brah.

Dang , I need to finish Dragon Age too. Maybe I could play through that, and then I might be more interested in FF.

I kind of had a block with XIII myself. I had to force myself through Chapters 5 and 6, but I did it in half-hour bursts. Once you get the ball rolling though, that game gets so good. I've read and heard a lot of hate towards the game, but I really appreciate the direction they took with it. Thanks for the Vanille Eidolon tip guys, I had actually just arrived at that part when I saw this.

A small side note, Dragon Age was so awesome that I couldn't bring myself to play anything else until I finished it. I'm trying to push through all of my games though, so that I can run through the 40 or so arcade games that I haven't finished lol. Anywho, just play the game in small bursts Bacon, sooner or later you'll break through those chapters and really start to enjoy it. The chapter with Sazh and Vanille in Nautilus was awesome, if not reminiscent of my trip to Disneyworld a while back.

I kind of had a block with XIII myself. I had to force myself through Chapters 5 and 6, but I did it in half-hour bursts. Once you get the ball rolling though, that game gets so good. I've read and heard a lot of hate towards the game, but I really appreciate the direction they took with it. Thanks for the Vanille Eidolon tip guys, I had actually just arrived at that part when I saw this.

A small side note, Dragon Age was so awesome that I couldn't bring myself to play anything else until I finished it. I'm trying to push through all of my games though, so that I can run through the 40 or so arcade games that I haven't finished lol. Anywho, just play the game in small bursts Bacon, sooner or later you'll break through those chapters and really start to enjoy it. The chapter with Sazh and Vanille in Nautilus was awesome, if not reminiscent of my trip to Disneyworld a while back.

I LOVED that chapter. Ending was so cool.

Yahtzee has reviewed Final Fantasy XIII: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1569-Final-Fantasy-XIII

That was quite the humorous review, and while my opinion of the game differs from his, I can agree that he has some valid points as to what he didn't like about it.

I love Yahtzee. That was killer. lol

I know, his reviews never cease to entertain me. For a moment I almost thought of putting a Zero Punctuation thread in Gen. Discussion, so that we could post up his more recent reviews, or post older ones for others who might have missed them, so that they have a chance to see them. I feel it would be a bit much, but it's an idea for anyone who really likes his reviews.

I didn't even mind when he ripped on my beloved Borderlands. It was just too funny to get mad at.

I want to try this game! I tend to lean more toward Mass Effect and Dragon Age types and have never been into JRPG's in the past for some reason but this one has peaked my interest if I can get myself off of Just Cause 2 and Battlefield 2 lol.

It's a great game, especially for someone starting out in the JRPG department.If you do get into FF XIII, then two other games to check out are Tales of Vesperia and Lost Odyssey, although they both play and look different than FF XIII, they are both awesome RPGs as well. There's more than that, like Eternal Sonata and Star Ocean, but some people would dispute how good those are. I personally have enjoyed almost every JRPG out on the 360, except for Enchanted Arms and Last Remnant.

Anywho, FF XIII has received a lot of hate for not being a "traditional" Final Fantasy, even though people failed to realized that every game is different. Those people are just mad that FF VII wasn't remade or something, so they want to hate anything that doesn't involve Cloud or Sephiroth. If you've got any RPG questions, FF or otherwise, I can definitely help you out.

It's a great game, especially for someone starting out in the JRPG department.If you do get into FF XIII, then two other games to check out are Tales of Vesperia and Lost Odyssey, although they both play and look different than FF XIII, they are both awesome RPGs as well. There's more than that, like Eternal Sonata and Star Ocean, but some people would dispute how good those are. I personally have enjoyed almost every JRPG out on the 360, except for Enchanted Arms and Last Remnant.

Anywho, FF XIII has received a lot of hate for not being a "traditional" Final Fantasy, even though people failed to realized that every game is different. Those people are just mad that FF VII wasn't remade or something, so they want to hate anything that doesn't involve Cloud or Sephiroth. If you've got any RPG questions, FF or otherwise, I can definitely help you out.

How does Resonance of Fate compare to this? If I pick one up it would be between that or Final Fantasy. Both look quite interesting.

I have Resonance of Fate as well, and it's pretty **** awesome. I haven't played too far into it due to FF XIII monopolizing my time, but it's got an awesome battle system. The cast is awesome too. Nolan North (Nathan Drake from Uncharted) and Lloyd Irving (Robin from Teen Titans) are in it, and they do a pretty good job. I'd say get FF XIII first and maybe Resonance later, particularly because the battle system is deep, but the game is hard. In the beginning of Resonance, even the low level enemies can kill you if you don't know how to approach the battle.

Final Fantasy XIII is a great game. Some people don't like the fact that it's linear (aka not open world like oblivion) for the first 10-11 chapters, but I didn't mind much, as it really fleshed out the story for me. Some places will feel like they drag on, but ultimately it's a solid entry in the franchise, and not an embarrassment (looking at you RE 5).

I have Resonance of Fate as well, and it's pretty **** awesome. I haven't played too far into it due to FF XIII monopolizing my time, but it's got an awesome battle system. The cast is awesome too. Nolan North (Nathan Drake from Uncharted) and Lloyd Irving (Robin from Teen Titans) are in it, and they do a pretty good job. I'd say get FF XIII first and maybe Resonance later, particularly because the battle system is deep, but the game is hard. In the beginning of Resonance, even the low level enemies can kill you if you don't know how to approach the battle.

Final Fantasy XIII is a great game. Some people don't like the fact that it's linear (aka not open world like oblivion) for the first 10-11 chapters, but I didn't mind much, as it really fleshed out the story for me. Some places will feel like they drag on, but ultimately it's a solid entry in the franchise, and not an embarrassment (looking at you RE 5).

Cool thanks for the advice! I will look into getting Final Fantasy I think. The deep battle system from Resonance sounds really cool though!

Well, if you are still on the fence about buying it, my suggestion would be to either rent it, borrow it from a friend for a bit, or watch some gameplay videos on www.gametrailers.com You should be able to judge for yourself whether it's worth getting or not from the gameplay. Like I said, I enjoy it a lot, but not everyone does, so try to be as informed about the game as you can before making the jump. If you do go through with buying it, then enjoy it and leave any questions you have in this topic and I'm sure one of us can help you through the game.

I agree that Borrowing/Renting is always the best way to go if your not sure about getting the game.

I'm on chapter 4 right now. The combination of me playing MW2 with friends, and wanting to play Perfect Dark makes it really hard to trudge through the linearity. The whole not being able to control more than one character, and the fact that my party is always splitting up is annoying too.

The worst part is that I absolutely hate all but four characters, and the only one I actually like is the Chocobo Chick.

Thanks guys. This post has made me wanna trudge through the boring stuff, to get to the better part. I'm on ch. 4 right now, at the part where you can start upgrading. I'm addicted to upgrading!! That ability has made me say screw the cheevo for every acc and weapon. I sell what doesn't yeild good components when dismantling, and dismantle what gives good stuff. How does that cheevo work anyways? Do you actually have to fight in each item, or just equip it and remove it?

Would it be best to hold onto all components until level 7, when I can do the spoiler thing? Or just start upgrading as soon as I can? I'm always afraid I am going to screw something up when upgrading. Like what if I use a component I shouldn't have. I also worry about weapons. Like new weapons you pick up, they are ridiculously low, I wanna just sell them for the gil to buy more components, but maybe that weapon ends up better in the end. Hell I don't know lol.

I actually got to ch 4 the first time, and I had sold all of the components along the way. I had a fit about that lol. I restarted the game from the beginning, to have all the components!! Now I am finally back to ch 4 again. But I made multiple saves when I started upgrading, incase I screwed something up.

I've actually upgraded only 2 items throughout the entire game. I upgraded the Gladius for Lightning, and the Belladonna wand for Vanille. I'm closing in on the end of chapter 11 right now. The only thing I would suggest as far as upgrading Rose, is to keep any components that may not seem to have a high value. Hides and fangs can give you an experience boost if you use them in batches of 10. You can easily use like 20 of each and get a x3 multiplier. That way, an item that would normally give 2000 exp will give 6000 exp.

I've gotten through the game just fine since I've only been maxing out the Crystarium, but you can't go wrong by experimenting with the upgrades either. RPGs are all about exploring everything the game has to offer, so don't be hesitant to experiment, but definitely keep multiple saves, in case you want to change something you did before. Chapters 4 and 5 are pretty slow, but 6 and on is where the game picks up steam. Let me know if you have any trouble, I have the limited edition strategy guide with me (which I've only looked at twice lol) so I can walk you through any parts you may get stuck at.

3. Contains spoilers on Chapter 7 - Credit to Spawn

In Chapter Seven, in the city of Palumpolom, at one point you reach Hope's house. Shortly after, the military attacks, and you're engaged into some battles within the house. The house is basically shaped like a loop, and inside are two enemy groups, two item chests, a Save Point, and an Activation Point.

The enemy groups both regularly drop Incentive Chips, a component item that has a selling value of 2,500 gil (I got the drop roughly 3 out of 5 battles). Kill the enemies, run the loop, and the enemies will respawn as soon as you break line-of-sight with their spawn point. Kill them again, bag Incentive Chips, and repeat. The scene doesn't end until you use the Activation Point, so as long as you just don't click "Okay" there, you can farm it until you're tired of it.

You can use the shops at the Save Point and sell the Incentive Chips for a buttload of cred (not metric buttload, because this is America), and turn that money around to buy components to upgrade your weapons and accessories to max level. I only spent a half-hour farming, and I had enough money to upgrade all of my battle party's accessories to Star Level, as well as gaining some good levels on my weapons. I'm sure someone out there has patience enough to farm out the loop until their entire inventory is starred-out, so have fun.

Spoiler in Chapter 9-

Actually I found another spot that you can farm the chips too a little later on. Chapter 9- The Palamecia (Crew Corridors). Its the part where you have just made your way into the ship thingy. And you get a cutsceen with Vanille and Sazh, showing what happened with them, when they got captured. When it starts back up, the area you are in is full of the soldiers that drop the chips. The drop rate seems a little better here, than in ch. 7 to me. To get the first group to respawn just go straight ahead and zone outside and kill the group there and come back in, and they are back. Everything will keep respawning really quickly when you go around the corner to the next area. Just go all the way up, and then make your way back down.