Gran Turismo 5 Review

PSN ID: Venom_46 (Feel free to add me)

Gran Turismo 5 launched in November 2010 for Playstation 3 – nearly four years after the launch of the PS3 system. It was delayed over and over and over for what seemed like years. I remember having a pre-order at GameStop for over a year before finally canceling it after the last delay. I ended up buying it from Amazon on launch day anyway. When it finally launched, there was mass hysteria and expectations were through the roof.

I had purchased my PS3 in 2008 exclusively for Gran Turismo 5 which was when it was originally going to release. I had owned GT1 and 2 on the original Playstation and GT 3 and 4 on PS2. Anyway, I’m writing this review over a year and a half later because I think I finally have a definite handle on what this game is all about and can give a legitimate review. I don’t care what people personally think about the game or what the other fanboys think of Forza in comparison – this is solely on GT5 and what was expected and my impressions of the finished (and evolving) product. As a disclaimer, I’m a Level 38 A-Spec and Level 40 B-Spec. I own 904 cars (855 unique), have won 565 races, and driven over 45,000 miles. I also currently have 35 Gold trophies (and counting) in license testing. I’m a fairly good driver, so this review isn’t from someone who played it once and threw a tantrum because the game was too hard.

Cars

Before I get to gameplay, I’ll start with the selling point: the cars. At launch, this was a comprehensive list of almost every car you could ever want. I won’t name them all, but there were over 1,000 and you’d be hard pressed to be disappointed even if your favorite car was missing. For example, there isn’t a 2003-2004 Cobra, but the 2000 Cobra R is there. As you know, GT5 has what they call Premium models and Standard models. Premium models are a work of art. They look as realistic as a video game can possibly get, they’re more customizable, and they have full and accurate interior views. They just look phenomenal. Unfortunately, a smaller percentage of cars fall into this category. For the most part, the majority of the cars are Standard. By Standard, I mean copied and pasted from GT4. By no means do I exaggerate. The cars retain their polygonal form from the PS2 game. They all have generic interior views, can’t be zoomed in on in photography mode, and are much less customizable cosmetically. This will be a re-occurring theme in this review, but I find this extraordinarily lazy.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Collector’s Edition

It’s been a long time since I updated this blog. The last time was when Final Fantasy XIII-2 was actually announced! That being said, since I’m a loser fanboy, I purchased the Collector’s Edition. It came with what’s in the above photo. A fancy case, 4-CD soundtrack, and special artwork book. I also picked up the nice hardcover strategy guide to match my Final Fantasy XIII one. What are we up to now? $125 or so? That’ll be important later.  On to the game!

One of Final Fantasy XIII’s biggest complaints was about the linear story line and ‘corridor’ levels. Fair enough, I agree. Those same critics showered Final Fantasy XIII-2 with praise because it wasn’t as bad. I agree with that as well. Sure, it’s cheating a little when it’s the same map in different time periods. I actually thought Academia was annoying as shit because I’d always get lost. The battle system was fine. I honestly didn’t care much for monster taming, though. I’d have preferred to just have more party members rather than this just so I had more options for Paradigms. Was it supposed to make the game harder? More on that in a minute.

I played the game on Normal setting and I died one time. It was the very last battle and I got hit with a Tetraflare and had no idea it was going to completely wipe me out. Next try and I won. This game was so absurdly easy, it bordered on insulting. I’m one of those people that doesn’t like it to be impossibly hard (Think Gran Turismo license testing), but not too easy either. I like a moderate challenge and enjoyable playthrough. Even the side missions where you’re killing the big optional bosses were a joke. Remember Vercingetorix from Final Fantasy XIII? That absurdly difficult Mark Mission? He’s back in FFXIII-2, just under a new name. I entered that battle expecting to get massacred. To my surprise, I easily defeated it using auto-battle. Long Gui? Easily defeated. Even Raspatil! It took longer, but I beat it with practically full health at the end. Those were harder than any of the story line bosses. I got a Platinum Trophy like 20 days after I got the game. Now, let me really get into what pisses me off.

We’ll ignore the shit ending for a few minutes. First, the entire story starts off with nonsense. The whole first game spent the entire time telling about Fal’cie and where they come from, what they want, etc. For it’s faults, FF13 had a good story and it developed the characters fairly well. Piss and moan that it isn’t FF7, 8, 9, 10 – fine. It did a good job. During the entire course of FF13-2, did you really give a shit what happened to Noel and Serah? The Fal’cie have been thwarted and the game starts off with everyone randomly disappearing and Lightning ending up in Valhalla. What is Valhalla, you ask? Good fucking question! There’s a goddess there, apparently not a Fal’cie. Who knows? Anyway, off goes this absurd story. Turns out Serah, who was just frozen in crystal for what should have been eternity, is all of the sudden a farseer who can see the future, except not really. She’s basically a noob for the whole game. So, off we go time hopping and screwing up future worlds. In the end, it turns out that nothing mattered. Caius only needed someone to stab him through the heart (Etro’s) so that she would finally be totally dead and I guess he can swallow the world with Valhalla and stop the Yeul death cycle.

This is so absolutely fucking stupid. Caius and Noel were the last two people alive in the world in 700AF. When Noel dies, it’ll just be ol’ Caius and Yeul. Sounds like the prophecy is fucking over to me! Furthermore, Caius’s plan to end one person’s early death cycle is to KILL EVERYONE. What sense does that make? Anyone? Furthermore, why the elaborate set-up to get Noel to kill him? I mean Jesus, the amount of time-hopping – for what? Just find someone to stand there while you force them to stab you! They try to explain that he needs a worthy opponent to kill him. Oh, really? Why? You’ll put off helping Yeul not die over and over for 7 centuries because you need a worthy guy to kill you? That blows up his whole theory and logic. He’s just evil, you say? We’ll never know!

Then we get to the end. I’ve heard real fanboys defend this game as ‘The bad guy finally wins’ or that no one is really dead and some complex babble. Bullshit. The way the game ended doesn’t matter because there was no ending. It’s the way the story was told and concluded that was absolute garbage. Don’t try to be smart and find some hidden meaning because it isn’t there. This game ended with no clear ending on purpose. I spent $125 on launch day and I got an incomplete game as far as I’m concerned. This game should have had a real definite ending. Closure for all characters. Instead, TO BE CONTINUED. Are you kidding me? This game had ZERO closure. ZERO. Where’s Hope? Dead? Noel? Snow? Sazh? What happened when Valhalla did its thing? Caius? Dead or alive? Might be alive? Why is Lightning a crystal? NO ANSWERS. A $60 game had NO ANSWERS. Tell me how that’s excusable. You can’t.

To add insult to injury, it is revealed that more story will be explained via DLC! WHAT!? I paid all this money for an incomplete game and you want to charge me more to see what happened? So it began. I bought the Sazh add-on. Fucking pointless. I got to play a card game and some other game to find out he was just in limbo. NO RESOLUTION when it came to his fate at the end of the game. There goes $5. Then the Snow DLC. I buy it and I can’t even come close to beating him in the Coliseum. This is the game that was so easy, and now with a fully loaded party, I can’t even touch the guy! Apparently, I’m supposed to spend months crossing monster traits to get these super characters. Anyway, I can’t see the Snow story because I can’t fucking beat him. Finally, the Lightning DLC. Will this finally conclude the game? NO. It only shows what happened to make her turn into crystal. And that made no sense either! You want costumes- $3 each! This entire story and execution of DLC is so wrong that I may never buy a FF game again.

I’ve spent probably over $150 total and I still have an incomplete game. It’s absolutely insane. At least Final Fantasy 13 ended with closure. If there had been no sequel, it at least ended with resolution. This has nothing. They probably won’t even make an XIII-3, either. They’re just that fucking stupid. They’re probably pretty pleased with themselves over at Square.

How long has Final Fantasy XIII Versus been in development? 6 years now? Not that it matters because the story will probably make no sense and have zero clarity. If you’re reading this and you’re thinking, “Oh, he just didn’t get it,” go to hell. There is nothing to get. There is no hidden message no matter how hard you try to see one. There’s my review of Final Fantasy XIII-2 – absolute shit.

Final Fantasy XIII Mission 62: Raktavija (Indomitable Will)

If you’re going in order, this is probably the toughest fight you’ll have been in so far. These two guys have the potential to really ruin you fast. You might have already faced a single one in Titan’s Trials, but dealing with two is far more difficult – especially for a weaker party. I find it more fun to play these things before you have ultimate weapons and maxed abilities. Otherwise, it’s too easy. I don’t remember what my actual statistics were for this fight, but I think my characters were pretty close to level 5 on their 3 main concentrations and level 1 or so on the others. I had upgraded weapons, but no ultimate weapons. I definitely had Lightning’s Ultima Weapon (not mastered) and Vanille’s Malboro Wand. When you’re equipping accessories, choose everything with magic defense since that’s all these guys use. I used Fang, Lightning and Vanille for this fight as well.

I don’t remember all my paradigms, but I do know I used Tri-Disaster (RAV/RAV/RAV), Relentless Assault (COM/RAV/RAV), Perseverance (SAB/MED/MED) and Exploitation (COM/SAB/SAB).

This fight isn’t going to last long and I don’t think they can remove your status enhancements, so you don’t really need to worry too much about rebuffing yourself. Don’t bother with a Sentinel if you’re going for 5-stars, either. Use the fortisol and aegisol shrouds prior to beginning and enter the fight. The first thing you should do is start debuffing them while Lightning attacks. Her attacks are irrelevant since their shields are up, but if you’re using a quick-stagger weapon, there is always that small chance that she’ll stagger them instantly. Anyway, slow is definitely important so that they aren’t blitzing you constantly. Once they’re debuffed with slow and at least imperil, heal real quick if you need to and switch to Tri-Disaster and go after one of them. Time your attacks well so that the stagger bar doesn’t fall down and reset. Without a COM, it doesn’t stay charged for long. You want to take one of these things out as fast as possible. Once again, if you’re going for 5-stars, no healing until one of them is dead.

Once staggered, stay in Tri-Disaster for a few rounds to punch the stagger to over 600% or so and then switch to Relentless Assault and attack. If you were a low level party like I was, you will find that the Raktavija will have about 15-20% of its HP left as the stagger is about to run out. At this point, use Fang’s Highwind attack (equipped with a Genji Glove, of course) and she will finish it off. If you’re higher level, you won’t need that last knockout blow. Repeat that technique with the last one. To get 5-stars, you might need some luck via an instant stagger from Lightning. It’s a hell of a lot more difficult than I just made it seem if you aren’t strong enough or lacking the proper accessories. Of course, there is a little luck involved and some risks if you’re going for 5-stars.

I also like the title for this fight: Indomitable Will. I believe it was taken from a Ghandi quote, “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” I personally guarantee that if you go into this fight like you would any other fight, you will get the shit kicked out of you and fully believe that it’s not possible to win. I say that because that’s what I thought the first 15 or 20 times I tried it. I beat Mission 64 on my third try for a 5-star rating. This one took me over 20 tries to beat and even longer to 5-star.

By the way, feel free to friend me on Playstation Network; I’m Venom_46

Want to 5-Star Mission 64 (Vercingetorix) in Final Fantasy XIII without Ultimate Weapons?

Feel free to friend me on Playstation Network as well. Just include a brief message that you saw my blog. My PSN ID is Venom_46

Acquiring ultimate weapons is an extremely time-consuming process that requires a lot of luck. In fact, I would venture to say that the Treasure Hunter trophy is the most difficult to obtain simply because I don’t care to spend months killing Adamantoise over and over again praying for a Platinum Ingot or Trap. If you want to obtain the l’Cie Paragon trophy (or just personal pride), you’ll need to 5-star the 64 Mark Missions. I’m going to focus on Mission 64, which is the final fight with Vercingetorix. I may do an entry for Mission 62, which is the two Raktavija. That battle is more about luck for a low-level party, though.

First thing is first. I used Fang, Vanille and Lightning as my party. I had Lightning as my playable character/party leader. By this point, my characters were completely maxed out in their Crystarium. That means Level-5 everything.

Here are my character statistics and weapon/accessory set-ups for each character:

Lightning

• HP: 20,000 / Strength: 1913 / Magic 1913
• Weapon: Ultima Weapon (*)
• Accessories (4)
  • Imperial Armlet (*)
  • Gale Ring (*)
  • General’s Belt (*)
  • Witch’s Bracelet (*)
• Passive Abilities
  • Quick Stagger
  • Resist Damage (20%)
  • Resist Wind (35%)
  • Resist Physical (25%)
  • Resist Magic (25%)
• Resistances
  • Physical (40%)
  • Magic (40%)
  • Wind (35%)

Fang

• HP: 24,000 / Strength: 2395 / Magic: 1690
• Weapon: Venus Gospel (*)
• Accessories (4)
  • Black Belt (*)
  • Gale Ring (*)
  • General’s Belt (*)
  • Witch’s Bracelet (*)
• Passive Abilities
  • Stagger Lock
  • Resist Physical (20%)
  • Resist Physical (25%)
  • Resist Wind (35%)
  • Resist Magic (25%)
  • Physical Wall: 5
• Resistances
  • Physical (40%)
  • Magic (25%)
  • Wind (35%)

Vanille

• HP: 21,050 / Strength: 1567 / Magic: 2035
• Weapon: Malboro Wand (*)
• Accessories (4)
  • Witch’s Bracelet (*)
  • Gale Ring (*)
  • General’s Belt (*)
  • Royal Armlet (*)
• Passive Abilities
  • Improved Debuffing II
  • Resist Damage (15%)
  • Resist Wind (35%)
  • Resist Physical (25%)
  • Resist Magic (25%)
• Resistances
  • Physical (37%)
  • Magic (37%)
  • Wind (35%)

Most importantly, here are the paradigms I used (In the order of Lighting / Fang / Vanille). I’ll explain why I used these as I go – and yes, I used them all:

• SAB / SAB / SAB Infiltration
• RAV / COM / RAV Relentless Assault
• SEN / SEN /SEN Tortoise
• SYN / SYN / SYN Rapid Growth
• RAV / RAV / RAV Tri-Disaster
• MED / MED / MED Salvation

The first thing you have to know is that if you want 5-stars, you’re going to have to take chances and not just sit back and do this the easy way. Before you start the fight, you should also know that the creature often makes itself invincible. When it does the Impenetrable Aura (known as ‘Aura’ from now on), don’t bother attacking it or trying to debuff. While it’s in the Aura, it will heal itself 8 times with a percentage of the damage you’ve dealt it. This means that the closer it is to death, the greater the HP it’s going to add as it heals – and it has over 15 million HP.  Oh, and it will totally get rid of your debuffs as well as add buffs to itself.  In addition, it is very important to keep your buffs up as much as you can. Remember, I said you need to take risks, which might mean letting some of them lapse.  Finally, poison. You must, must, must hit this thing with poison before you bother with anything else. It does massive damage in addition to what you’re going to be doing attacking. First thing is first, set your starting paradigm to Infiltration and hit yourself with the aegisol and fortisol shrouds and start the fight.

The reason you start out with Infiltration is because you need to debuff the creature fast. I like infiltration because it gets it done fast (if your party is maxed out on all the levels). You’re going to want to hit him with Deshell, Deprotect, Imperil and Poison at minimum. If you hit him with Slow, good, but I honestly barely noticed him slowed down, but he attacks so fast and rapidly, I may not have been paying attention. This should happen fast, within 2 rounds. Immediately switch to Tri-Disaster and go crazy. Here’s where it gets frustrating. You’re going to want to use Tri-Disaster to stagger him. One of three things can happen now.

First, you get lucky and stagger him (or a quick stagger via Lightning’s passive ability with Ultima Weapon). At this point, switch to Relentless Assault and attack until you either have to heal or he goes into the Aura. Don’t stay in Tri-Disaster to drive the chain gauge higher because 9 times out of 10, you just don’t have time. Let Fang do max damage (99,999 since you’ll note I did not equip a Genji Glove in favor of defensive accessories) while Lightning and Vanille drive the gauge up. This is ONLY if you succeed in staggering the creature. Most times, he enters the Aura or you have to heal before this happens. The second thing that can happen while in Tri-Disaster is that, as I just mentioned,  you’ll need to heal. If so, switch to Salvation and heal in 1-2 turns. Don’t bother trying to top it off, you don’t have time. The third thing that can happen, obviously, is that he enters the Aura. Either way, the end result is always the same. You must be efficient with your strategy here more than anywhere. As soon as he starts to go into the Aura, immediately switch to Salvation and heal 1-2 rounds to get your HP >75-80%. Now quickly switch to Rapid Growth and try to rebuff yourself. You don’t have much time, maybe 2-3 rounds maximum if you still have haste. Immediately switch back to Infiltration as he is exiting the Aura. With 3 saboteurs, you will find that you will very quickly debuff him (very, very important as he casts positive status effects on himself while in the aura – the greater he’s damaged, the more buffs he applies).

Anyway, with 3 of you, you will quickly debuff him before he can attack you. Another 1-2 rounds should at minimum hit him with poison and deshell. Immediately get to Tri-Disaster and start over. Sometimes, you’ll hit him once and he’ll go right back into the Aura. It’s unpredictable and can be frustrating. Just keep repeating the heal / rebuff / debuff / ravage strategy for the short term. You’ll soon find that his attacks will remove your status enhancements, which makes remaining buffed even more difficult. Also, the more you damage him, the more damage he will do with his attacks. I think there are 3 levels (90%, 60%, 30%). When he gets to 30%, it becomes more about survival rather than offense at that point, but we’ll get to that.  Many times during the fight (out of nowhere), he will attack with his main damage-dealer called Wicked Whirl. This is the reason everyone has a Gale Ring to help with wind damage. When you see the name come across the screen, you have about 1-2 seconds before it starts. Immediately switch to Tortoise to try to weather the storm. If you do, you should come away with about 40-50% of your HP left if you were at full health. Otherwise, look to be around 20-30%. Immediately switch to Salvation and heal up some and continue attacking with Tri-Disaster as you try to stagger. Remember through all of this – always keep poison on him.  Do not bother trying to rebuff if he’s not in the Aura. Only heal when you drop to about 30% HP or even less. It’s risky, but I survived the Wicked Whirl multiple times at less than 50% HP. You can’t waste time healing to be safe. You’re going to find it to be harder and harder to stay healed and buffed at the same time. It’ll get to the point where you just need to keep haste on yourself and keep him debuffed and hit with poison.  He’ll attack faster and faster and just when you think it’s hopeless, the poison wipes him out for good. Seriously. You’ll check his stats and see 1.5 million or so HP left and think there’s no way, but just stay alive, keep poison on him and try to attack when you can.

In the battle that I got 5 stars on, I only managed to stagger him once. I had no Genji Gloves and no ultimate weapons. I had no gold watch (the prize for beating him), either. My target time was 17:49 and I won in 11:24.

Final Fantasy XIII Review.

I recently finished the storyline portion of Final Fantasy XIII (I’m still working on the trophies) and I must say that I really enjoyed it. It was a bit linear, as some have complained, and the world didn’t really open up until Chapter 11 and then more after you defeat the final boss. I actually thought the game felt short until I thought back to the beginning. By the end of the game, the character development isn’t all that noticeable until you think back to Chapter 1 and realize, “Wow, that seems like a really long time ago at this point.” I’ll go through the pros and cons briefly.

Pros:

1. It’s easily the most graphically amazing game I’ve ever played. I played this on PS3 as well (The only way it should be played). It really does blow me away. The environments were just so detailed and amazing and made to look so vast. It’s just beautiful. The cut-scenes were just incredible as well.

2. The battle system. Everything about the battle system is great. This is coming from someone who considers Final Fantasy VII and VIII as two of my favorite games ever. Sure, you only control your party leader, but the battles move so fast and it’s not exactly turn-based like it used to be. You can attack an enemy as it’s attacking a member of your party. You can issue multiple commands to be unleashed at once, which I love. It just helps the battles move so much faster and makes them more intense (and more difficult). I also love the paradigms.  There are also a few things to be improved on this system that I’ll address in the Cons. I love the stagger bar as well. It adds a new element to the fight. For instance, if you properly debuff an enemy and then stagger it and raise the chain gauge up to 999.9%, you’ll find yourself hitting for 100,000+ damage easily with each strike (given you’ve equipped certain accessories) as opposed to maybe 8,000 or so per strike normally. You can see how strategy allows you to take down the 4+ million HP enemies with ease.

3. No more random battles! It used to drive me crazy when you wanted to run around and you’d get caught in random battles. Now, you actually see the enemy and you can (most times) avoid them.

4. I liked the story. Like all Final Fantasy games, it takes a twist and gets incredibly complicated at the end, but the ending left me mostly satisfied. What happened to the other Sanctum Fal’cie or Fal’cie in general? How will the population do on Gran Pulse? I guess all the games do that to an extent and leave the future wide open. The theme was also good, even a little Matrix-like. The Fal’cie much like the machines (although not created by humans) with a single purpose with no morals or will. Then you had the humans, who seemingly had no choice being branded as L’cie, but in the end, it was their ability to use free will that saved the world. It dealt with the dilemma of their own people casting them out as the enemy even though they wanted to save them. Guilt, vengeance, forgiveness, humanity – it’s all there within the internal struggles of the main characters.

5. The boss fights. They were epic as usual and I’d almost always get destroyed the first few times around. They were actually fun in that each one was a new challenge. In this game, it’s not so much about party strength and abilities, it’s about strategies. You will die and die and die again. The Eidolon fights can be incredibly frustrating as well. They’re unique in that the goal isn’t that you beat them (you can’t), but you have to impress them enough within a time limit and then you earn the ability to summon them. The post-game mark missions are easily the most challenging, though. They may not be challenging to defeat, but if you want a 5-star rating (to get all the trophies), you must be good. There are a few in particular (#51, 62 and 64) that are absolutely insane. I’m presently on #64. I have 5-stars in the first 63 and my party isn’t even half developed or using any ultimate weapons.

6. The music. It is epic as usual. Just absolutely amazing, really. I also don’t mind the Leona Lewis ‘My Hands’ song as the theme. I have no idea why so many people hate it, but it fits in really well with the game’s ending.

Cons:

1. While I absolutely love the paradigms, there area  few ways to improve it. One, I wish I could set more than 6. Two, I wish you could save them as presets for certain battle teams. As it is now, if you swap out a party member, you have to redo all your paradigms every time. That gets kind of annoying. Lastly, why is the first paradigm shift in battle delayed? It takes 3-4 seconds to shift that first time, but it’s instant from then on.

2. Gil. I don’t mind the weapons upgrading, but it is really difficult to acquire enough gil to purchase the catalysts needed for ultimate weapons. Some are dropped from battles, yes, but the ones for ultimate weapons are nearly impossible to get. You don’t get gil after battles, either. you either have to find items via chocobo or enemy drops and then sell them.

3. It had to end? Like all FF games I play, I just never want them to end. You get so wrapped up in the characters and story that it’s just sad when it’s over.

So what is my final rating for this game? Is it better than Final Fantasy VII? I can’t really answer that. I will say that I absolutely loved it and am still loving it. I would give it a 95/100 easily. So the ‘true RPG fans’ hated it – so what? It was incredibly fun and that’s what really matters in my opinion.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete Blu-Ray Review.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children has been reworked for its transition to high definition in more ways than the usual movie.  I say that because it actually had an additional 26 minutes added to the movie as well as some scene reworking (Hint: The final Cloud/Sephiroth battle is one).  The new scenes look absolutely amazing in 1080p; it’s probably the best I’ve seen yet out of all my Blu Ray movies.  The original scenes look gorgeous as well, but if you have a good eye, you can tell the slight visual difference between the old scenes and when it cuts to a new added scene.  The new scenes add a lot to the movie and fill in a few of the storyline gaps.  Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that it gives more back story on some of the characters.  It makes the movie seem more, well, complete.

Also, in the Japanese version, the ending theme is replaced by a new track with vocals by My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way (Click here to watch the music video for Safe And Sound!).  Unfortunately (in a small sense, as the music for this movie is all brilliant), the North American version retains the Calling song.

Also included is a pretty in-depth preview of Final Fantasy XIII, which looks unbelievable and it claims to be releasing on the XBox 360 as well.  Is this the first time a major Final Fantasy release hasn’t been Sony exclusive?  I’m not playing the movie in a PS3, but I’m pretty sure there is no playable demo like the Japanese version also has.

There aren’t really any other bonus features worth mentioning, but it really doesn’t matter.  This update to the original movie gets everything right and I highly recommend it. Want to download it? You know the Usenet has it, but I would recommend buying it through Amazon – and remember – it’s Blu Ray only!