Can Final Fantasy 13 be easier?

[DAPLR]

I played FF13 after buying it for 30 bucks 3 times over a period of 10 hours. I didn't mind the odd way they revealed the story, since that is the nature of such a beast, so to speak.
But I'm an easy going gamer that always likes to play on easy on games the first time round to get a grip on the story and gameplay mechanics.
However, FF13 is pretty hard. I've never played this type of game before, but nearly every fight without surprising the enemy is slow, and boring, and can easily kill me.
Most hard games I have are like Godhand, Demon's Souls and Monster Hunter Unite, so it may be out of my element a little, but still.

But for an hour, I was genuinely having lots of fun. With me kicking ass, beating down enemies like an Irish farmers wife, and aweing at the marvelous spectacle. Then I fought a chameleon boss thing that took me 12 cum-gargling minutes to beat, since all I had was Hope healing me and Lightning's piss weak element attacks.

Basically, how do I make this game easier?

 

[DAPLR]

Know that I even bought a walkthrough to help me get through it, but it only described the enemy and stuff, and didn't help on the difficulty

 

[Collins254]

really your finding that hard? get a dipping pelican thing to hit that A button for you saving you the effort of auto attack and you pretty much have it sussed. I stopped playing FF13 because it was too linear and easy for me and didnt feel like a challenge to me.

If you can play MH:Unite which actually takes skill especially at G rank level gameplay i cant see what your problem is with FF13, my girlfriend finished FF13 and the only other games she plays are Civilisation and guitar hero, and she had never played a FF game before.

Like i said i didnt play much more than 5 hours of the game as it felt poor to me, im glad your enjoying it but i cant say i thought it a hard game and neither did any of the 4 people i know who completed it all in less than 3 days and the other 20odd of my mates who bought it got about as far as me before trading it in for a better game.

Howerever welcome to JRPG's if you find the time, try one of the older FF games, preferably for the PS1 or Nintendo consoles(which all had remakes for the PS1 anyway).

 

[Rawne1980]

You need to keep up constant attacks and build up combo's.

Healing is a last resort i'm afraid and should only be done if it's really needed.

Some boss fights you will have no chance at all if you can't keep up the combo's and have to keep switching formations.

There isn't really a way to make it "easier" the mechanics are different than all other FF games. The only way is to keep going at it. The combat mechanics do look overly complicated for a while and it really is a pain in the arse to have to keep switching formations around.

There are certain areas you can "grind" mats for upgrading your weapons which helps. Not fun but the more you focus on the weapons the more damage they do the shorter the fights are.

I know one boss about half way through had me going at it for nearly 30 minutes.

And the same thing that made this game "different" than all the other FF games also made it one of the worse.

I really did enjoy how the combat mechanics work but some of the fights just drag on and it gets a bit tedious.

So yeah, just keep working at the formations and see which ones work best. It's not really fantastic advice but if you can find what works you can shorten the fights which is always a bonus.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Know that I even bought a walkthrough to help me get through it, but it only described the enemy and stuff, and didn't help on the difficulty

With thousands of walkthroughs on youtube you go and buy them?

From what I played the auto-attack button won every fight, most time alot better then I could do myself.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Really? FFXIII hard? Are you just not getting how combat works by building up combos with ravagers and sustaining it with Commando? You do need to give us more information than you found this one boss a little hard. Also how often do you switch paradigms and do you have the most variety of them that you can have?

 

[Aleate]

You need to switch it up. If I remember right the boss for the Lightning/Hope part of the game is pretty hard at the level you fight him at. Inspect him. Find his weak points. Its not what it looks like. This goes for a lot of things later on in the game, so you might want to get it down. Also, try and break them as fast as you can. This means having both Hope and Lightning go Rav and build up the bar, then switch it so that you have Com, then hit him and heal up, switch back, repeat.

If you stay with one attack set, you won't get anywhere in that game. But once you figure out the little tricks, the game is actually pretty easy.

 

[00slash00]

I played FF13 after buying it for 30 bucks 3 times over a period of 10 hours. I didn't mind the odd way they revealed the story, since that is the nature of such a beast, so to speak.
But I'm an easy going gamer that always likes to play on easy on games the first time round to get a grip on the story and gameplay mechanics.
However, FF13 is pretty hard. I've never played this type of game before, but nearly every fight without surprising the enemy is slow, and boring, and can easily kill me.
Most hard games I have are like Godhand, Demon's Souls and Monster Hunter Unite, so it may be out of my element a little, but still.

But for an hour, I was genuinely having lots of fun. With me kicking ass, beating down enemies like an Irish farmers wife, and aweing at the marvelous spectacle. Then I fought a chameleon boss thing that took me 12 cum-gargling minutes to beat, since all I had was Hope healing me and Lightning's piss weak element attacks.

Basically, how do I make this game easier?

you focus more on filling up the stagger meter and less on what does the most damage. really though, its different from other final fantasy games in that you probably wont fight a lot of battles where you wipe out the enemies in one or two hits. especially toward the end of the game, you should expect to dedicate several minutes to each battle

 

[DAPLR]

I suppose I should clarify that I did infact BEAT that boss, but that it took so long was the annoying part. After 30 seconds, I used my robot horse and cocked it all up. So I had to grind him to death -_-

WHatever, I can't really say more than I used the attack button mostly, with some elementals when I'm feeling fancy, about my attack strategy. Lightning's Odin guy took me quite a few tries as well, but whatever, right?

 

[Davih]

Its pretty simple.
For chapters 1-10 I just used Diversity/Relentless assault Paradigms. The only bit i found annoying here was when its just Sazh/Vanille early on in the game because I didn't understand the paradigms then.
About halfway through chapter 10, because I skipped what I could, I struggled so switched to Delta Attack/Entourage and then about half way through chapter 11, after some training I used Decimation/Hero's Charge/Diversity/Relentless assault

Spoiler

and that has got me up to Orphan. I haven't beaten Orphan yet, I'm a bit of a loss what to do on the second fight.

Also I wouldn't say the summons are worth the technical points. I seems to pull the same amount of damage with Fang than with Odin.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I suppose I should clarify that I did infact BEAT that boss, but that it took so long was the annoying part. After 30 seconds, I used my robot horse and cocked it all up. So I had to grind him to death -_-

WHatever, I can't really say more than I used the attack button mostly, with some elementals when I'm feeling fancy, about my attack strategy. Lightning's Odin guy took me quite a few tries as well, but whatever, right?

You need to have 1 Commando and 2 Ravager(Relentless Assault) at the start of a fight where possible to build up combos. After the initial assault when you achieve it change to 3x Ravager(Tri-disaster) to boost gauge and sporadically change to something like 2x Ravager, Medic(Thaumaturgy) or Commando, Ravager and Medic(Diversity). Then when you are getting close enough to staggering change to the first paradigm and slow the gauge's drop down. This should also be done periodically while building.

After this just mash away with either Relentless Assault and Diversity when needed. Then depending on the fight and what you need to do like if you need boosts add in Synergists, Saboteurs and Sentinels as needed but these are not really main classes as they don't get battles done quickly and should be used sparingly unless you have a certain strategy.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Paradigm shift. A LOT! If you keep shifting constantly, then every other shift you will immediately have all your bars refilled. Have at least 6 formations ready to call up at any time. On bigger enemies get sabetuers and synergists in and keep making sure you have as many buffs and debuffs going. For attacking, use commandos to stop the stagger gauge from draining so quickly, then go all out ravager, then once staggered switch back to COM/RAV/RAV, or if you have it, COM/COM/RAV. Once the enemy is staggered, stagger YOUR attack as well once you have launch. It is possible to launch enemies into the air, wait for them to begin to fall, then hit them with more ravager/commando attacks, then by the point they're finished, your first commando will be ready to attack again, launching the enemy back into the sky, meaning you can effectively juggle the enemy and prevent them from doing anything for extended periods whilst doing massive damage.

On groups take out the weakest enemies first to make it easier. Only heal when someone hits yellow. Having a 2 or 3 healer formation should allow everyone to fully heal within seconds of switching, after which switch again. Basically you just need to switch fast and know the best way to use each class and formation.

Commandos do damage and stops the stagger gauge from draining. They do more damage to staggered enemies. Use launch and delayed attacks to keep enemies juggled and out of the fight.

Ravagers are for chain building. Either use 3 at once to rapidly build the stagger bar, or combine with a commando to prevent the gauge from draining. Once staggered use to juggle or switch out.

Medics. Use for rapid healing only when needed. Switch out immediately unless still in deperate need of health.

Synergist. Use at the start of big fights. Combine with medics and sabatuers whilst buffs are applied, then switch out. Only switch back in when buffs run out.

Sabateur. Same as above.

Sentinel. Useful occasionally on big enemies. Combine with medics and either a syn or sab, to allow you to heal back up without danger, or whilst reaplliing buffs or debuffs. Switch back out immediately after you're done.

Oh and upgrade equipment. Use organic components to build up to a x3 bonus, then throw as many high exp items on the weapon/armour at once as you can. It will all get multiplied, though after one use the multiplier drops.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Its pretty simple.
For chapters 1-10 I just used Diversity/Relentless assault Paradigms. The only bit i found annoying here was when its just Sazh/Vanille early on in the game because I didn't understand the paradigms then.

Spoiler

About halfway through chapter 10, because I skipped what I could, I struggled so switched to Delta Attack/Entourage and then about half way through chapter 11, after some training I used Decimation/Hero's Charge/Diversity/Relentless assault and that has got me up to Orphan. I haven't beaten Orphan yet, I'm a bit of a loss what to do on the second fight.

Spoiler the bit about the final boss it is a bit of cock slap to people who haven't finished tthe game.

Spoiler

When Orphan is the wheel?

 

[Bat Vader]

I hated the combat in Final Fantasy XIII. I hated how linear it was as well. I have heard it is less linear later on but after a day of playing it I got sick of it. I don't know why but for some reason I thought the combat system was going to be like the combat system in Kingdom Hearts 2. If it was like KH2 I would have most likely played it longer and maybe beaten it. I didn't find the combat to be difficult just very boring and tedious.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Know that I even bought a walkthrough to help me get through it, but it only described the enemy and stuff, and didn't help on the difficulty

With thousands of walkthroughs on youtube you go and buy them?

From what I played the auto-attack button won every fight, most time alot better then I could do myself.

I have the collectors edition guide for it. And I have the FF10 and 10 - 2 ones, and gta sand andreas, and a few others to boot

Why do I buy them, cos they are shiny. I buy them cos they are nice to look at.

You forgot they are dirt cheap now.

 

[Davih]

Its pretty simple.
For chapters 1-10 I just used Diversity/Relentless assault Paradigms. The only bit i found annoying here was when its just Sazh/Vanille early on in the game because I didn't understand the paradigms then.

Spoiler

About halfway through chapter 10, because I skipped what I could, I struggled so switched to Delta Attack/Entourage and then about half way through chapter 11, after some training I used Decimation/Hero's Charge/Diversity/Relentless assault and that has got me up to Orphan. I haven't beaten Orphan yet, I'm a bit of a loss what to do on the second fight.

Spoiler the bit about the final boss it is a bit of cock slap to people who haven't finished tthe game.

Spoiler

When Orphan is the wheel?

My bad, didn't even think. Edited it.

Spoiler

Isn't the wheel the third fight? I keep getting the the one straight after barthandalus where he has the 2 things you cant attack helping him. the one without Doom would be a better way to put it.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Its pretty simple.
For chapters 1-10 I just used Diversity/Relentless assault Paradigms. The only bit i found annoying here was when its just Sazh/Vanille early on in the game because I didn't understand the paradigms then.

Spoiler

About halfway through chapter 10, because I skipped what I could, I struggled so switched to Delta Attack/Entourage and then about half way through chapter 11, after some training I used Decimation/Hero's Charge/Diversity/Relentless assault and that has got me up to Orphan. I haven't beaten Orphan yet, I'm a bit of a loss what to do on the second fight.

Spoiler the bit about the final boss it is a bit of cock slap to people who haven't finished tthe game.

Spoiler

When Orphan is the wheel?

My bad, didn't even think. Edited it.

Spoiler

Isn't the wheel the third fight? I keep getting the the one straight after barthandalus where he has the 2 things you cant attack helping him. the one without Doom would be a better way to put it.

Ok well what you need to do is inflict poison and try keep your health as high as possible as he once his health gets below half he uses his special attack without any warning. Have items to keep conditions off your party and a good starting paradigm would be something like even odds. Just keep yourself buffed and him debuffed with stuff like poison and try keep your health high with stuff like Diversity. After that don't be afraid to go an offensive run but make sure you keep your health high.

Another important thing is to give the party leader a Seraph crown to help prevent insta-death. There are more in depth strategies on the wiki if you want to look for one there.

 

[Arina Love]

yeh i thought bosses and some encounters were hard. i hope in XIII-2 they implement easy mode i'm not looking for a challenge just fun and story. Hard bosses even turned off my friend from buying it he ended up watching me play for story and stuff.

 

[Raddra]

Set a buff / debuff combo at the start of the battle. Then set a healer + commando + ravager. Lastly set one with 2-3 healers (or lol can't kill me mode). Once buffed + debuffed switch.

Or you could ignore the buffs+debuffs and just stay with the healer-commando-ravager.

The healer will keep you topped up and the ravager + commando will whittle the enemies down and break them soon enough while your HP stays full.

If you start getting beat down too fast while buff / debuffing or attacking switch to the 2-3 healers synergy(or whatever you call it.)

The game WILL penalize you with less stars for setting the nearby unbeatable healer + commando + ravager and never switching from it since it can solo 90% of the game, but I couldn't care less.