Are the Final Fantasy XIII games actually any good?

[klaynexas3]

Seeing as it's been a few years since the release of these games(maybe only a year for the second, I haven't kept track though), I feel now is the best time to ask people that actually appreciate JRPGs whether or not the Final Fantasy XIII games were worth anything. I myself played about 5 hours of the first game, and while I loved the look of it, that was all I felt like I was getting. However, I am older now and can somewhat appreciate the(while somewhat aging) battle system often used in Square games. I know they are long games, and so it makes me wonder if the first 5 hours of it are like the first 5 levels in Phantasy Star Online, grueling and tormenting. I thought the story was interesting and I actually did want to see what was happening, but I just couldn't get myself to play enough at the time and slowly let others' opinions dominate my thoughts on the game and caused me to sell it. I am, however, in a JRPG hungry mood at the moment, and am just wondering if this was actually some gem I simply passed up because a few vocal others disliked it, or if I should stick with the decision I made and find a better JRPG to play.

 

[go-10]

for XIII the first 5 hours repeat for the next 15 when the game finally opens up in Jurassic Park from there on out its actually fun... unfortunately that fun only last an extra 5 hours as the game ends unless you want to go after all the side quest, which I suggest you do as they are somewhat challenging. The story is good but buried in the menus and walls of text

XIII-2 is fun but the story takes forever to make sense, and the ending sucks since you need to buy the DLC to get it

I'd recommend both games if and ONLY if, you like Lightning and the way the world looks, cause most people that dislike one or the other can't stand the game

 

[Epona]

Final Fantasy XIII is a good game but if the first 5 hours didn't pull you in, the rest won't either. I would barely call it an JRPG and even SE said it wasn't a JRPG, if memory serves. People say XIII gets better later in the game when it opens up, I disagree, I think that is when the grindfest begins and backtracking to do quests isn't fun. IMO, Final Fantasy XIII is a good game with a fast paced battle system. It lacks towns, new equipment (it has a crappy upgrade system), NPC's and a decent leveling system. The level system is similar to Final Fantasy X's sphere grid but more limiting. The story is fine but SE didn't tell it well.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 was even worse. The company that brought us Chrono Trigger managed to screw up time travel in this game. The story is told even worse in this game than it was in the original and the whole game is set up like a wannabe WRPG with boring sidequests taking up most of the gameplay.

I finished XIII 3 times and never finished XIII-2.

 

[Bleidd Whitefalcon]

I personally enjoyed both XIII and XIII-2. Part of it was probably because they were actually my first FF games. HOWEVER, I do know that it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Final Fantasy XIII is a good game but if the first 5 hours didn't pull you in, the rest won't either. I would barely call it an JRPG and even SE said it wasn't a JRPG, if memory serves. People say XIII gets better later in the game when it opens up, I disagree, I think that is when the grindfest begins and backtracking to do quests isn't fun. IMO, Final Fantasy XIII is a good game with a fast paced battle system. It lacks towns, new equipment (it has a crappy upgrade system), NPC's and a decent leveling system. The level system is similar to Final Fantasy X's sphere grid but more limiting. The story is fine but SE didn't tell it well.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 was even worse. The company that brought us Chrono Trigger managed to screw up time travel in this game. The story is told even worse in this game than it was in the original and the whole game is set up like a wannabe WRPG with boring sidequests taking up most of the gameplay.

I finished XIII 3 times and never finished XIII-2.

This is right - if the first few hours didn't get you, I'd probably recommend playing something else. Tales of Vesperia, maybe?

 

[krazykidd]

In my honest opinion , FFXIII is decent at worst , and FFXIII-2 is terrible at best .

FFXIII being linear made sense given the story . The environments are beautiful , the gameplay is fast paced and fun , the story is cool , Hope sucks , music is alright , Vanilles voice actor should be fired , and the ending was good .

FFXIII-2. Tried to copy Chrono trigger , story makes absolutely no sense , confuses itself with pokemon and/or SMT , Spat all over the ending of the first game , combat is fun , leveling system is stupid , character models look silly , has a halarious jump animation for Serah . And is boring to death . Oh and you have to buy the ending .

In conclusion , if you like jrpgs buy FFXIII , if you hate jrpgs avoid both , if you like Square-enic buy both . If you are looking for a fun , easy, nonsensical game to turn off your brain and smash your head with a hammer , buy FFXIII-2 .

I personally couldn't finish XIII-2 but i managed to finish X-2 , which was slightly less terrible.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII, but I certainly won't be replaying it constantly like I did with VII, VIII, X, and X-2. Those opening hours, before you crew gets together and you actually have full control over everything, were a chore to get through. Throw in the fact that most of the fights are doable on standard leveling--just fighting the enemies in your way, not going to look for trouble--until a certain boss who will mop the floor with you unless you've leveled up a lot, and the game is one of the weaker in the series. If you did enjoy the story, as you say you did, then I do suggest picking it back up and going on. It just takes a while for the story to start to shine, and it's because the story keeps jumping from Lightening and Hope, to Snow, to Snow and Fang, to Sazh and Vanille. It gets confusing, but once they all finally join up together it gets better.

I personally think Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the better game, though I am apparently in the minority. I found the story much easier to follow, the characters were more likeable, and the game had a more "Final Fantasy" feel to it. The best thing I can come up with is, "Did you like X-2?" Many people hated X-2, and XIII-2 feels a lot like that. I also liked this game because it was nice to know that not everyone DIED at the end of XIII. There were some serious problems for the people at the end of that game, but XIII-2 resolves them. Of course, it ends on a true cliffhanger, and if you play it, you may as well accept the fact that you will be playing Lightning Returns.

 

[shrekfan246]

Eh.

If you have no exposure to the other Final Fantasy games, then yeah, sure.

But they're not good Final Fantasy games, and it's actually pretty interesting why that's so, considering XIII is basically an amalgam of VII-X.

I'd go into it, but it's 2:30 in the morning, I've made so many posts on the subject already in the past, I could probably just point to the "Best of" compilation I made last time.

There are better JRPGs you could play instead. Especially if you have a Playstation 2, or a Playstation Vita which recently got Persona 4 Golden, a re-release of one of the most awesome JRPGs ever.

 

[CT862]

I can't honestly say FFXIII is a 'good' game: its overly linear, the story takes a long time to get going and loses its way towards the end and the battle system is rather clunky. However, I still really enjoyed it. This was mostly because, despite the gameplay and plot issues, I found the world Square Enix created for the game to be fantastically deep and complex. They still made mistakes in delivering this (there are endless walls of text to get through to fully appreciate the world and lore, so you might as well just trawl through the Final Fantasy wikia) but it doesn't stop FFXIII being one of my favourite FFs (after IX, X and VII), solely on the merits of its setting.

FFXIII-2 has better gameplay but again, I can't call it a 'good' game. The battle system is well refined and the game is far less linear, but the story is pretty terrible and the main characters' motivations are all over the place. They start off not knowing anything about time travel, but suddenly start making ridiculous conclusions out of no where and running off across the timeline on what is barely even a hunch. There is also far too little Lightning in the game (the opening cinematic is by far the most you see of her) which is a shame as she has become one of my favourite all time FF characters. Needless to say, I'm optimistic about Lightning Returns FFXIII.

If you're a reasonably hardcore FF fan, give these games a chance as you might find something you like about them. If you're simply looking for a good JRPG, these games aren't worth your money - get hold of a copy of Persona 4, Chrono Trigger or an older FF game (IX and X are my favs).

 

[mohit9206]

how come if the final fantasy 13 games are not awesome but are just decent they got such awesome reviews .
i see a lot of 100/100, 9.5/10 etc scores on metacritic by well known and popular review sites ?
theres only one negative review by destructoid for 13 but for 13-2 pretty much every site givee it amazing scores ? whats the deal with that ?

 

[BrotherRool]

To me FFXIII can be enjoyable if you're willing to want to love it. But there are a lot of other games and JRPGs out there which you can love without making a concerted effort to do so, so I don't know if I'd ever actually recommend the game to someone else.

There are lots of individual good sparks. Apart from the insta-death, I have good memories of the last boss fight, that was when the combat system really came together for me. And a lot of the storylines are really good, and even the worst of them have interesting ideas behind it. And the lore and setting had potential too.

It's just all the little details conspiring against it. The stories are fractured and don't feel connected by the gameplay the way they did in say 10. Nothing in the game or story actually really focuses on the setting. Vanille, Hope and Snow's voice acting isn't bad as such but it can make the characters sound a lot blander than they really are. The combat takes forever before they give you enough people and enough control to really make substantial input in battles...etc

It's not a good game, but it is possible to enjoy it

 

[Sacman]

No, not in any respect, for a second of gameplay, or story, or cutscene... other than the pretty graphics and Sazh, there isn;t a second of either of these games that's enjoyable... linear to the point of oppression, filled with a nonsensical, and seemingly, purposefully confusing plot, full of plot convenience and holes, in a world that makes little to know sense, with gameplay that's like flying a kite, that is to say you have the least amount of control possible, as to how the tide of battle pulls out, the only times it doesn;t feel like you're just doing what the computer overlord hasn;t chosen for you, is when you feel like you're breaking the game... not to mention the characters, my god... it's filled with smug assholes, giggling mental patients that are connected to reality the same way the 80's were connected to culture... and fucking hope... the single most unlikable thing to ever exist in any medium, and the worst part is that he's the one we're meant to sympathize with... and that's not even getting into the details...<.<

 

[blizzaradragon]

I think it really comes down to what types of games you normally play and what you normally look for in a game. While this may be a bit of a generalization, if you are more like a typical Japanese gamer you'll enjoy XIII while if you are more like a typical American gamer you won't. After all, XIII has become THE most popular Final Fantasy game in Japan while essentially being the opposite in America and to a lesser extent Europe. And I can see why too: the game has many tropes and traits that many Western gamers aren't too fond of but is very popular in the East.

Honestly, I say give it a try if you're a fan of Final Fantasy or just JRPGs in general. The first 5 hours are the most boring and hardest to get through, but slow starts are essentially a staple of the Final Fantasy series.

 

[JudgeGame]

They have really nice graphics and decent art direction. The battle system is like an audio-visual blowjob for people with ADD. There is little else to note about them. If you like really pretty things, you like numbers going up and changing colour and you have a lot of time to waste then yeah play it.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

I've played pretty much every "main" Final Fantasy in the series and up until this day, FF XIII is the only where I haven't finished the final dungeon. It also took me 3 years to actually get there, because I couldn't stand playing the game more than 2 hours a week.

Because I just stopped caring.

The Good:

- It has good graphics, a bit too random with the colors and the shininess, but at least it's not an Unreal game 90% of the games look the same.

- Just like every FF game, it has the balls to try something new, even if it is a fail.

The Bad:

- The characters, remember those likable, deep, but also funny characters like Vivi Ornitier, Barret Wallace, Kain Highwind or Celes Chere? Yeah, none of that. Instead we have a guy constantly moping about his girlfriend, Hope and Vanille taking on the monicker of two of the worst child characters in any game ever and little Chocobo bird being the most enjoyable character of all.

- The story, or better yet, the setup of the story. Too much bullshit terms and not enough time taken to let the player take in the bizarre world. You get terms like Cieth, l'Cie and Fal Cie thrown at you from the start, there's some bullshit politics going on and I don't see how anyone could care less. Compare this to the way FF IX's setting was expanded, it's unbelievable that both games were made by the same company. I guess the idea of being chosen, marked and then resented by all others could've been an interesting element to discuss discrimination - but it doesn't go anywhere. It's really just the laziest form of: "Hey, we need these six characters to go on a quest together somehow. Oh, I know, let's just let some bullshit demi-god entity mark 'em all! Genius!"

- The flow, a recurring critique is that the game is too linear. This is a flawed critique, many FF titles have been lineair and did just fine. The problem with FF XIII is that it offers no variation. There are no mini-games, there are no lively cities or villages, you can't go slumming from shop to shop, there is only the dungeon and the cutscene.

- The combat, while beautiful and fluent, is pretty damn hollow. You can only control one character, you cannot program the behavior of other characters and you cannot switch in battle. In other words, everything FF XII did right, FF XIII did wrong. They do have this cute reverse-Chrono Cross concept where you can already use certain moves based on how much your ATB-meter is filled up. However, in the end, you'll just end up smashing the auto-attack button, the real trick is to set up the right paradigms before battle and press the R1 button on the right time. And it's so easy to fuck up in battle because the balance has gone to shit, that you literally get spawned right before said battle if you die.

- The upgrades, the crystarium system is a dumbed down version of the sphere grid or license board. With "dumbed down", I mean there is no freedom whatsoever. There wouldn't have been any difference if they had just opted for an old school class system in which a profession just learns new abilities as you use the profession in battle. Think FF IV, V or VI (without the added depth of Espers). Furthermore, it is possible to upgrade your weapons, but doing that is tedious as all hell and pretty much has you grinding for certain items the way FF VIII had you grinding for Magic.

---

So, yeah, I don't know if the FF XIII games are any good, because I only played the first one and it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I stopped buying them. The story, setting and characters are a mess, the combat is flawed and there's never really any change of pace. It's beautiful, sure, but even then, I doubt the environments will have big enough an impact that they'll stick with you. Same for the music! Damn, talk about forgettable, the music is also something that is just "there". I mean, sure, you can hear the money, you know it's music with a budget - but they don't linger. FF music is supposed to get stuck in your head.

 

[dimensional]

I thought XIII was ok I enjoyed it enough to platinum it anyway. Trouble is the entire damn game is a tutorial it opens up a bit after about the 20 hours mark (In a great looking field) but it never truly opens up properly until post game where after X and XII (which was awful until endgame stuff) its the best FF game made but is it worth getting to that part well if you hate it then probably not.

Combat is painfully dull for a long time consisting of just pressing auto battle or attack or fight as its called in the other FF games but once you start chaining together your own commands to keep enemies juggled or dodge attacks and destroy groups as the enemies move about it gets interesting. To defeat everyone especially with a 5 star rating you will have to have the correct paradigms set and know where they are instantly as you will be doing a lot of swapping its a great blend of startegy and dexterity IMO eventually, its just a shame that this is not needed throughout most of the game.

XIII-2 I have got but havent played yet (lack of time) so dont know about that one.

Really there are better JRPGS to play than XIII to be fair just sticking to this gen there is Lost Odyssey on 360 which is good and The Last Story and Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii which are fantastic especially Xenoblade Chronicles which is one of the finest games of all time imo.

People like to sing the praises of Persona 4 on these forums I have noticed and while I agree as it is awesome its definitely not for everyone its also crushingly linear (more so than XIII) the graphics arent great even for a PS2 game and the combat is ok but hardly inspired stuff. Story and Character wise however it is fantastic if you imagine a visual novel crossed with some gameplay elements you wont go far wrong just be prepared to read a lot and do nothing else for long stretches except maybe walk a bit and start up the next conversation.

FF game wise I would play VII,VI,IV and X they are the best imo but VIII and IX were ok V, XIII is passable I,III and XII are not very good and II should be avoided at all costs unless you like broken grindtastic games that offer very little in anyway.

 

[AgentLampshade]

I didn't hate it. That's probably the best I could say about XIII. It was boring, sure and the majority of the characters were unlikeable, but it wasn't without it's awesome moments. The entire scene at the beginning of Chapter 12[footnote]Oh yeah, it's done in chapters now.[/footnote], the conflict with Rosche was pretty cool and the music was sublime.

XIII-2 by comparison, is far better. Characterisation is much better, and easier to follow thanks to having only two main characters, one of whom were really enjoyable[footnote]Noel. He is my favourite character in the whole XIII trilogy so far.[/footnote] The story is less linear too, with all that time travelling shit. I wasn't a fan of that though as it felt less like a world to inhabit as it did small zones. I understand why they did it that way though, it was an experiment, but I hope not to see any more games structured like that. Caius was a good villain even if he was a borderline paedophile[footnote]Seriously, why did they have to make Yeul so young? At least they could've shown an older Yeul in a flashback or something, right? STOP PUTTING KIDS IN THESE GAMES, and as a love interest? What!?[/footnote]. The music, as always, was near perfect. The J-Pop tracks may annoy some, but the likes of Heart of Chaos and Noel's Theme is enough to make me forget them.

Lightning Returns[footnote]Crappy title, would have preferred something Latin.[/footnote] seems interesting, and I'll probably buy it, just to have some closure. I absolutely hate Lightning's new outfit though, it looks like they're combining her first outfit and her second. They...don't mix well, and get rid of the stupid sunglasses. As far as gameplay is concerned, I get the feeling it's going to be a dumbed down version of Versus XIII[footnote]Hahaha, remember that's a thing that people were looking forward to about 8 years ago.[/footnote]. The biggest saving grace for this game is that Noel is coming back, and looks to be in conflict with Lightning. [footnote]I just wanted to make another footnote here just because.[/footnote]