David Hingtgen

The point of Light's special move is not to do direct damage, but to increase everyone else's damage. And once the stagger bar is up really high, then switch to commando. It's WELL worth it on any enemy with high HP. 999% stagger damage for the entire party is way better than 300+% you would normally achieve. It's worth sacrificing a round or two of Light as commando to get that--especially if you're hasted and you can do like 5 more full rounds of commando afterwards. Even better, do a summon at the end to take advantage of the pre-staggered pre-999% damage situation, and go straight to the summon's final attack.

I plan to beat the game with all weapons "original version, but lvl *". Weapons quickly become fairly pointless at the end--you are NOT going to be able to max out an ultimate weapon or anything, so don't even bother trying. Wait for post-game monster-hunting for all that. Also, Lightning becomes more and more rav-centric as the game goes on. Do not focus on pure STR for her, it's a waste, and Fang will just blow by her for raw power anyways. Light's super-duper rav special ability is amazing against a staggered enemy. (that's the trick with it---just do "normal" stuff when building the stagger bar as her special will be fairly pointless then---but once they're staggered, be sure to have Light be a ravager for at least 1 or 2 rounds using her uber-special--THEN switch Light to a commando--but I've often kept Light as a rav using her special until I hit 999.99%)

Summoning tip: If you're fighting an enemy with a zillion HP, and it's kinda close to being dead, but the stagger isn't going to last long enough for you to kill it, and you know it'll take another 5 mins of hard fighting to stagger it again---summon with like 5 secs of stagger left. Take advantage of the animations-start hammering square so it goes to gestalt mode the moment it arrives, then start hammering triangle as it transforms. Any summon's "final attack" on a staggered enemy will probably do far more damage than you could have in those last few secs. (plus, a summon's final attack always gives a big boost to the stagger bar right before it hits---sometimes even boosting it to 999.99% damage if it was already being assaulted by the party)

It might be quicker to just go here: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Dream_Z...Dream_Zanarkand

PS---VF-19's with shoulder-mounted boosters look stupid. Always thought so.

24-hr lock until the politics go away.

You don't get like a 50% "boost" in size from being 5% closer to the camera.

I think that animation is just really off. The VF-17 is smaller than the -19.

First Gundam? Probably 1/144 Sandrock.

Meh. Getting that to 45,000ft, is kind of like when they dropped the shuttle Enterprise off of a 747 and glid down to a landing. It's a LONG way from an "actual test spaceflight".

3D sucks. Even if they were equal price at the theater, I'd pick the 2D version of the movie. Hmmn, crisp, bright, colorful image----or a blurry, dark, washed-out image that seems to be kinda "floating".

MP Grimlock is Toys R Us exclusive.

The big group of "frozen in time, neither dead nor living" Fayth who were eternally summoning/dreaming that you discover outside of Zanarkand (technically on Mt Gagazet). They are effectively summoning their entire nation from memory, from the past, to make it happen. It's a fairly major revelation/plot point. Technically, Tidus and Jecht's Zanarkand never existed at all, nor did they.

X and XIII are basically polar opposites to XII. People tend to either like X/XIII and dislike XII, or the opposite. Why Tidus exists in the real world? Because he's being dreamed into existence, more or less. When the dream ends, so does he. XIII sidequests---pretty standard fare. Ultimate weapons and monster hunts, many of which are so "extreme" they'll take 50 hours beyond the point where you could win the game. That's about it though.

Much better. I see what you mean about the "pink in shadow" vs red----but shouldn't at least part of the "hair" be lighter? Or is all of it in permanent shadow somehow?

All shopping is like in Mass Effect 2. You go up to the glowing thing, hit X, and select what you want from the list. Then it instantly appears in your inventory. Only, everywhere carries everything. Kind of like O'aka in FFX. If you really look there are a few physical shops in the game--but you can't go in them and actually buy stuff. (they probably wouldn't sell to you anyways, for plot reasons)

Those decals/makers are out of production and very hard to find any nowadays, as demand hasn't gone down. Sorry. Frankly---if you want a 1/60 VF-1 with all the details, buy the new version, they have all their markings factory-printed and are inherently a much better toy.

Heck, I'm surprised you're allowed to buy things after the first couple chapters! Kinda expected "all e-kiosks shut down to known fugitives" or something. And really, there shouldn't be any deliveries of new items at all in ch 11, it really doesn't make sense there...

It DOES come with the crown though, which is the only thing that matters or that most people will even recognize/want.

US MP Grimlock looks surprisingly nice IMHO. Very G1-toy-esque. Mainly---they didn't totally screw it up like MP SS, but instead went very toy-based like MP SW. http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers...ng-takaras.html

Ah, how topical Penny Arcade often is: http://penny-arcade.smugmug.com/photos/816...XH-1024x768.jpg http://penny-arcade.smugmug.com/photos/816...H-1920x1200.jpg (same pic, different sizes, looks much better if it actually fits on your screen)

I'm sure penty of people will have played through it all the day it comes out, so I'll see what they have to say before deciding.

All the ultimate weapons and big dungeons only occur at the end, just like FF XIII. Can't backtrack easily in FF X until you get the airship at the end.

FF X was about 100% linear. You start in Besaid, and head north until Zanarkand. Then the game's over. There's a few short side-tracks, like Lake Macalania and the Al-Bhed desert, but that's about it. You'd never leave the "main road heading north" except for 30 sec excursions to find a treasure chest in the weeds. Yet I didn't see nearly as many complaints as I do about the exactly-the-same-process in FF XIII. Not replayable? There's never been a FF game that wasn't highly replayable IMHO. And if you want "monster-hunting-quests"---FF XIII blows away all the previous ones AFAIK. XIII is just like X, but with an even faster battle system. It's the same team, same ideas/design---very obviously so. (in fact, in a few sections it almost seems like a rip-off of X). So--did you like FF X?

I've got conflicting info on if it's identical or just similar. As for Axis Blade---it seems that it's not that good early on, but for post-game, the attack rate can double or nearly triple with the right accessories, making for insane stagger-bar-charging, and just damage in general. (that late in the game, a couple hundred STR isn't going to be that much of a difference)