Final Fantasy XIII ALMOST HERE!!!... also $10 credit with preorder

[sparia1]

Man after 2+ years Final Fantasy XIII is almost here... just under 2 months to go....

Also a heads up, since NO ONE checks the deals forum i'm posting here so more can benefit.

amazon is running a promo on FFXIII on Xbox and PS3 for $10 credit with a pre-order, pretty much comes out to $47 versus $60+ after tax at best buy etc... also if you have the free prime membership you can get release day shipping for free (don't even have to go to the store to get it on day 1), note credit goes to SD

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EYUSJ4?ie=UTF8&tag=slickdealssd-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001EYUSJ4

scroll down to Special Offers and Product Promotions
for details and terms

 

[gamerk316]

Could care less; after toying with the Japan version, the first 20 or so hours are basically a stright line. I'll stick with better RPG series (Dragon Quest 9 is keeping me up these days), that you.

 

[sparia1]

Could care less; after toying with the Japan version, the first 20 or so hours are basically a stright line. I'll stick with better RPG series (Dragon Quest 9 is keeping me up these days), that you.

i disagree about you sentiment on straight lines....
games are interactive but they are telling you a story... just like a book or movie, and no one complains that those are linear.

given that you play it once (50-60 hour game) everything is new...maybe a second playthrough isn't as interesting since there's no change/choice, but that's fine with me

 

[gamerk316]

RPG's, JRPG's in particular are not supposed to be linear. Thats why I never liked FF as a series. Nevermind that the individual plots haven't been understandable since FF5...[If I hear one more person claim that you were chasing Septhiroth in FF7, I'm going to scream!]. The combat system is overly basic, Magic in general [Cure/Life aside] is useless beyond the first few hours, and lets face it, with an endless supply of Ethers/Phoenix Downs, the games are simply easy.

I'll take non-linearity any day. Hence why I prefer Dragon Quest (especially the old school ones); once you get you're ship, you're free to do things in any order. And its not always clear what to do [which americans complain is to hard...]. And with few [if any] MP restoration items, and standard enemies quite capable of actually killing the party [something I've NEVER seen in a FF game...], DQ is a far tougher and enjoyable series.

 

[avenger386]

RPG's, JRPG's in particular are not supposed to be linear. Thats why I never liked FF as a series. Nevermind that the individual plots haven't been understandable since FF5...[If I hear one more person claim that you were chasing Septhiroth in FF7, I'm going to scream!]. The combat system is overly basic, Magic in general [Cure/Life aside] is useless beyond the first few hours, and lets face it, with an endless supply of Ethers/Phoenix Downs, the games are simply easy.

I'll take non-linearity any day. Hence why I prefer Dragon Quest (especially the old school ones); once you get you're ship, you're free to do things in any order. And its not always clear what to do [which americans complain is to hard...]. And with few [if any] MP restoration items, and standard enemies quite capable of actually killing the party [something I've NEVER seen in a FF game...], DQ is a far tougher and enjoyable series.

i also don't get your argument against linearity, it's like doing something the way the author/director/musician originally envision... like the way the story was meant to be told... but i guess we can agree to disagree

but you do bring up good points about difficulty... Can you tell at least if the storyline is good? Cause I might be able to suffer through 2nd rate game play for a good story, but not for a bad one.

Also thanks for the heads up about Dragon Quest, I've never played anything in that series, but it sounds good. Any particular one you favor?

Thanks!

 

[gamerk316]

The best Dragon Quests were 3-6. Problem is, 3-4 were NES games, and 5-6 were never released in the US. Thankfully, 4 was re-released on the NDS, and 5 recently got an official release as well (6 is forthcomming).

DQ games tend to be grouped in threes: DQ 1-3 are a trilogy (3 comes first, followed by one and two), where you have a lot of freedom very early on. DQ 4-6 are another trilogy (6 comes first), and are much more structured, but both reach a point where you have near total freedom.

The biggest difference I've seen is difficulty: In FF, with all the potions, Phoenix Downs, and Ethers, its near impossible to die outside of Omega level fights. Nevermind that normal enemies are week until the very end of the game, and theres usally a save/healing right before major bosses. In DQ, because none of these exist, and because healers are so week defensivly, management over your HP/MP is essental. You need to choose between using MP to take out a group of enemies, or risk losing a ton of HP and having to heal. Oh, and status aliments are the eqivalent of death; Sleep is a joke in FF, but the kiss of death in DQ.

If I had to chose a DQ for you to try out, 3 and 5 would be my recommendations. 3 may be really old (I wish they would re-release), but it hit the right balance between party management and exploration. 5 is much more structured, but more in line with modern DQ games without sacrificing the difficulty aspect. 4 is also worth a try; the chapter system they used actually works well to introduce you to each character, while aquainting you with the rest of the world...

As for FFXIII (They REALLY used Roman Numerals for 13? Are they insane?), its basically your standard resistence movement story they've recycled since FF6 so far (10 hours in; god I LOVE region free games on the PS3 ). Plot makes sense so far too, which is an unexpected development...

 

[avenger386]

If I had to chose a DQ for you to try out, 3 and 5 would be my recommendations. 3 may be really old (I wish they would re-release), but it hit the right balance between party management and exploration. 5 is much more structured, but more in line with modern DQ games without sacrificing the difficulty aspect. 4 is also worth a try; the chapter system they used actually works well to introduce you to each character, while aquainting you with the rest of the world...

As for FFXIII (They REALLY used Roman Numerals for 13? Are they insane?), its basically your standard resistence movement story they've recycled since FF6 so far (10 hours in; god I LOVE region free games on the PS3 ). Plot makes sense so far too, which is an unexpected development...

haha.... at least 14 and 15 use 1 and 2 less characters right (XIV, XV)
thanks alot for the insight... doesn't look like i'll be able to get ahold of DQ3, but definitely gonna give DQ5 a go!

 

[gamerk316]

FYI, DQ6 will be a must buy when it comes out for the DS later this year though...Its long overdue it got an english release. Just wished they didn't use the DQ7 engine for the DS remakes (seriously, DQ looked better using sprites then the pseudo-3d effect that they used in DQ7's engine...)