A "noob" to Final Fantasy.

[Dubstep Sonny]

I apologise if this is the 500th thread about Final Fantasy XIII, and if it isn't, well, lucky me.

I just recently pre-ordered Final Fantasy XIII, without any prior knowledge to the Final Fantasy franchise. I mean, I watched Advent Children, and I ogle at Vincent Valentine's awesomeness, but that's about it. I haven't played any Final Fantasy game, I never got the chance to play Dirge Of Cerberus, and here I am, about to receive FFXIII.

As a FPS kind of gamer, I'm not accustom to RPGs. Especially one as massive as Final Fantasy. Could anyone give me some tips on how to get started, when I do get my copy, from their knowledge on previous FF games? Is it just one massive grind? I'm a sucker for stunning visuals, and this game definitely looks visually stunning, but is the story just as good?

But yeah, any help would be -greatly- appreciated.

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

As an FPS gamer, you're going to notice something you're not used to. That is that the characters and story have depth and immersion.

Final Fantasy is famous for evoking emotion in people. Gameplay-wise, a Final Fantasy usually boils down to battles and the occasional puzzle. Battling looks like it is well-done in XIII, so I have high-hopes.

It will be a new experience for you if you've never played a FF game before. They're not for everyone, and tend to have groups of people at both extremes on the like/hate scale. I mean EXTREME extremes.

 

[rockingnic]

Pick up FF10 if you can, it's easy to pick up the mechanics there. If you don't have a PS2 or an older version of a PS3, pick up a good JRPG, not WRPG because the mechanics are vastly different. Prepare for some grinding but it probably won't be alot or too much. For the most part you just have to know the types of abilities, what they do and what they're good/bad against. FF tends to recycle the abilities and enemies so it shouldn't be too hard to keep up, other than that just remember it's a JRPG, not a FPS.

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

Well if you usually play FPS, this is a completely different beast.
Story usually takes a front run but if you aren't a fan of anime or big story games ala Metal Gear I'd be careful.
Alot of people will say it is huge grind but that's only if you wanna be godly, without grinding and a bit of skill you'll do fine.

Aside from that XIII is looking to be different from tradition. The battles look fast and frantic but also very thought based.
I guess not even FF vets know what to expect of it really and opinion is very mixed.
If anyone's actually imported a copy they'd be good to ask otherwise take a look at some spoiler free battles and see what you think.
I also found out IGN has done a nice video feature on the basics in battles that you might wanna check out.

 

[Sonofadiddly]

This is a little off topic, but I should warn you that no matter how much awesomeness Vincent has, Dirge of Cerberus is terrible. But if you really like to ogle Vincent, it's quite an ogle-fest.

Hard to say if the story will be good. The FF games are pretty hit-and-miss. And no one can agree on which ones have the good stories. Also, the grinding was significantly reduced in FFXII, and I expect that trend will continue.

 

[Lim3]

Games these days usually have a lot of ingame tutorials so dont worry about it

 

[ultrachicken]

Admittedly I don't know much about FFXIII, but the only thing I can say is bring a healer.