Will I enjoy FF XIII (difficulty)?

My next planned PS3 purchase (after I finish playing GOW 3) is FF XIII. I've always been a fan of RPGs and have beaten all the DS Dragon Quests, all the Grandias, Rogue Galaxy, a few of the Breath of Fires, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Eternal Sonata, Chrono Cross, etc. Yet somehow, I've always had trouble with the difficulty of the FF series. FF9, I had to beat the lost boss with gameshark codes (for shame). FF 10, same thing. Got about halfway through one of the FF Advance games on GBA. FF 12 I never played.

Will this just be a repeat for me, or is FFXIII actually beatable for a change?

I don't want to put money, time and effort into a game that ends up going nowhere for me...

Well first of all I would strongly recommend getting Dragon Age first because it's a better game overall and you can change the difficulty settings at any time.

I haven't finished FFXIII yet but it's definitely not as hard as the other FFs.

I didn't get that far, so I can say if it gets significantly harder towards the end...but from what I saw and from I heard from people, it's not impossible.

well if you had a lot of trouble with ffx, xiii is much harder. LoG-Sacrament

FFX's final boss is very difficult. Just like FFVII's ultimate weapons and FFVIII's final boss.In FFXIII, you just need to understand what to do.

I've also beaten most of the games that you have mentioned and if you have beaten those then XIII should be no problem for you. Although I have to say that the overall gameplay seems a little more challenging than some of the previous installments of the franchise.

On a side note I just want to say that FF can be really easy. All that you need to do is condition your party and come fully prepared to boss fights.

Final Fantasy IX/X isn't even difficult. In fact, none of the Final Fantasy games are difficult if you level up your characters properly.

Final Fantasy IX/X isn't even difficult. In fact, none of the Final Fantasy games are difficult if you level up your characters properly.

Animatronic64

Leveling-up can be a tedious process, though. Which is why I never finished FFVIII and didn't finish FFX before a long time.

[QUOTE="LoG-Sacrament"]well if you had a lot of trouble with ffx, xiii is much harder. bloodling

FFX's final boss is very difficult. Just like FFVII's ultimate weapons and FFVIII's final boss.In FFXIII, you just need to understand what to do.

[QUOTE="Animatronic64"]

Final Fantasy IX/X isn't even difficult. In fact, none of the Final Fantasy games are difficult if you level up your characters properly.

bloodling

Leveling-up can be a tedious process, though. Which is why I never finished FFVIII and didn't finish FFX before a long time.

Leveling up in FFVIII is almost unnecessary. All you need to do is draw magic and level up your GFs by fighting bosses. And it also helps to get the Lionheart and Zell's final weapon + combat guides.

Animatronic64

Oh yeah, the mosters level up with you. But I was playing without a walkthrough (like I always do) so finding good weapons was difficult for me. I couldn't beat that dragon in Edea's keep.

In FFX you need to gather tons of monsters and slay their bosses, which is pretty difficult without a walkthrough.

FFXIII is hard, but you aren't penalised as much by not reading the walkthrough imo.

I'm six hrs into FF13 and I can tell you that it doesn't seem like it's going to be very hard for me, but if you couldn't beat FFX, I'm not sure what to tell you. You probably will think this is too hard. Second_Rook

Sure, if everyone has double cast flare it's incredibly easy, but it takes a while to get there. Every game is easy with all characters at level 99.

[QUOTE="Animatronic64"]

Leveling up in FFVIII is almost unnecessary. All you need to do is draw magic and level up your GFs by fighting bosses. And it also helps to get the Lionheart and Zell's final weapon + combat guides.

bloodling

Oh yeah, the mosters level up with you. But I was playing without a walkthrough (like I always do) so finding good weapons was difficult for me. I couldn't beat that dragon in Edea's keep.

In FFX you need to gather tons of monsters and slay their bosses, which is pretty difficult without a walkthrough.

FFXIII is hard, but you aren't penalised as much by not reading the walkthrough imo.

[QUOTE="Second_Rook"]I'm six hrs into FF13 and I can tell you that it doesn't seem like it's going to be very hard for me, but if you couldn't beat FFX, I'm not sure what to tell you. You probably will think this is too hard. bloodling

Sure, if everyone has double cast flare it's incredibly easy, but it takes a while to get there. Every game is easy with all characters at level 99.

[QUOTE="bloodling"]

[QUOTE="Second_Rook"]I'm six hrs into FF13 and I can tell you that it doesn't seem like it's going to be very hard for me, but if you couldn't beat FFX, I'm not sure what to tell you. You probably will think this is too hard. Second_Rook

Sure, if everyone has double cast flare it's incredibly easy, but it takes a while to get there. Every game is easy with all characters at level 99.

That's not what I wrote/meant. What I meant to say was that every game can be easy if you grind, or hard if you don't. It's relative. Besides, there just aren't that many things to do in FFX so I don't think I am a poor strategist, I just don't like grinding so I rush through the game. I actually stopped playing exactly for this reason, because it was too hard and I didn't want to grind. I just beat Dragon Age, now that is strategy.

FFXIII is a lot more harder than previous FFs only because if your party leader dies and it's gameover. The battles are a lot more faster. You can't really bypass the difficulty by grinding because theres a cap on the cystarium grid.

[QUOTE="bloodling"]

[QUOTE="LoG-Sacrament"]well if you had a lot of trouble with ffx, xiii is much harder. LoG-Sacrament

FFX's final boss is very difficult. Just like FFVII's ultimate weapons and FFVIII's final boss.In FFXIII, you just need to understand what to do.

Or simply just fill up the sphere grid to a point where you can rape the final boss. Break Damage Limit Lolol. 99999 Damage. 2 hits.

FFXIII, despite reports otherwise, is actually more challenging than VI~XII. The challenge over the other titles is one of the reasons I actually like the title and see it as an improvement in that area.

FFXIII is a lot more harder than previous FFs only because if your party leader dies and it's gameover. The battles are a lot more faster. You can't really bypass the difficulty by grinding because theres a cap on the cystarium grid.

Dahaka-UK

Enemies also do far more damage. Balancing staggering, doing real damage, and healing your party is something you have to be able to balance pretty well if you don't want to get fried.

It is difficult, but not like previously where fights were impossible because you didn't have the right gear, spells and level. It's hard but you can actually do something about it by playing well.

In the later fights, you really need to be on your toes with your Paradigms, as one slip up could cost you the fight. It's not overly hard, you just need to pay close attention.

That's not what I wrote/meant. What I meant to say was that every game can be easy if you grind, or hard if you don't. It's relative. Besides, there just aren't that many things to do in FFX so I don't think I am a poor strategist, I just don't like grinding so I rush through the game. I actually stopped playing exactly for this reason, because it was too hard and I didn't want to grind. I just beat Dragon Age, now that is strategy.

bloodling

[QUOTE="LoG-Sacrament"]well if you had a lot of trouble with ffx, xiii is much harder. bloodling

FFX's final boss is very difficult. Just like FFVII's ultimate weapons and FFVIII's final boss.In FFXIII, you just need to understand what to do.

Final Fantasy XIII is the first Final Fantasy that I've ever gotten to the end credits. FFVII, FVIII, I got half way through, and FFIX and X I got to the last area. I always found out through walkthroughs how much I was missing and because I'm a completionist I stopped playing them. However, to answer your question I found that FFXIII was easier and the battles were more exciting.

[QUOTE="bloodling"]

[QUOTE="LoG-Sacrament"]well if you had a lot of trouble with ffx, xiii is much harder. LoG-Sacrament

FFX's final boss is very difficult. Just like FFVII's ultimate weapons and FFVIII's final boss.In FFXIII, you just need to understand what to do.

It all depends on whether you're grinding out levels at regular intervals or not. I always do, but many people don't.

For example, my girlfriend. She only just beat FFX, but I had to beat Yunalesca and the final version of Seymour for her. Even I had a bit of a tough time with Yunalesca at a relatively low level, and I've been playing RPGs for awhile. Seymour I just opted to grind some levels out for her to get douvlecast+ultima+1mp cost for Yuna and then the whole game was a cakewalk, of course. But some people just want to play the story and none of the extras... and if you play them that way, some of the FFs can be tougher than they're probably meant to be.

I'm not sure about difficulty, but I can say that the game is extremely un-punishing. After ever battle you're health resets to full, and if you die you respawn right before you're last battle, so there's pretty much no element of risk in the game. Add to that the extreme linearity and there's almost no way you can go wrong. The battles can be challenging, but after you get to grips with the battle system (which doesn't take too long) you shouldn't feel out of your depth.

You can't just endlessly grind until you have meteoric statistics and win this way; you can only level up so much until a certain point during the game, after which you can only level up so much until you reach the next point in the game, and so on. This can be frustrating, but it forces you to think and plan during a battle, which is one of the few things SE got right when designing this game (I think).

The game is so easy I actually let my 4yr old daughter play the majority of the game for me. That's the targeted audience who SquareEnix designed this game for anyways. After beating the game I felt robbed of a great FF experience. Worst one I've played.JKnaperek

The game isn't hard, but it isn't fun either. It's probably the worst Final Fantasy to date.slimdave21