Raolan wrote:
I guess all of that stuff comes into play after the 20 hour barrier to entry. I guess if the first 20 hours weren't pure crap I would have enjoyed it, but despite forcing myself to sit down and play it, I wasn't even willing to endure that much.
And yes, I like most of the world maps in FF. The first thing I do when I get a boat/airship is go and see what I can find.
And yes, I like most of the world maps in FF. The first thing I do when I get a boat/airship is go and see what I can find.
A. If you're going to be speaking about a world map with an airship, it's incredibly disingenuous to be comparing that to FFXIII before its world-opening mechanic comes into play. Because Gran Pulse is massive, it's varied, and the story only demands you experience one small piece of it.
B. It takes about 20 hours to reach Gran Pulse. That's the mechanics equivalent of time-spent to get an airship. It'll take far longer than that to get your airship in FFX. I can't remember how long it takes in other games. Only FFIV stands out as giving it fairly early, and that's because FFIV is a short game, and it sends you to a new area where you can't even use it pretty much right away afterwards.
C. The Crystarium system has 10 levels, the first 9 of which can be unlocked without beating the game. That final level is essentially the one that gives you access to the sorts of advancements you'll only need for fighting the hardest enemies in the game. Completing Chapter 4 will unlock all the "base" roles for your party (one additional role for 4 of your characters, and around that time is when you'll be getting permanent access to the other two characters. It's around (or probably shortly before - I think it's when Sazh and Vanille are in the Sunleth Waterscape, iirc) this time that you'll stop capping your character's Crystarium without farming.
When you get to Gran Pulse, they unlock all the secondary roles for each characters. You're free to expand into them if you want (I usually pick up one or two key abilities at the start, to give them more functionality in a pinch), but they're expensive point wise. They're realistically meant to make you choose which you want access to, particularity when in combination with advancing the main roles. Because stuff on Gran Pulse can seriously mess you up.