Thaius said:
FFXIII on the other hand, has charecters who keep shouting things I don't understand as if I should know what they are talking about by now. Like the game started up at the halfway point and I missed all the build up. Like Snows wife's dilemma for instance. The game has us save her even though we have no clue who she is or why we should care. The game then turns her to crystal and expects us to feel sad. Why? Your supposed to build the character up first before you kill them off. I wasn't sad during that scene, more confused. Who is this lady? Why is she turning to crystal? If a whatever-they-are-called fulfills its focus the turn into crystal! Lightning yells as it is happening. Thats not good storytelling ARRGGG!!!!
I'm hate to disagree with you, but looking back on the game, I think this is why its one of the best FF stories since the SNES days (I haven't played earlier then VII). Instead of playing someone who essentially has no backstory and no memory so the whole world gets explained to you, you instead play 6 people who enter each others lives and as the characters find out about each other, you find out about the characters. Using your example, you're supposed to feel confused because at this time of the game, you're playing as Sazh. You're a guy who was on the train and when he saw someone trying to stop it, you decide to help because its better then letting the train continue and you stick with Lightning because she obviously has military training. When Sarah gets turned to crystal, Sazh is confused about the emotion because he doesn't know who either of these women are and because he's confused, you're confused. You as the player doesn't particularly care because Sazh only cares in as much as "Wow, turned to crystal. You poor sod" Also, if I remember correctly, the only time the game has flashbacks is at points where it would be one character telling another what happened. Again, this is much better storytelling then just "Here's some backstory"
Also, why do these threads always make me want to play the game again? I've played it through to cmopletion (story, not 100%) twice since it came out and now want to play it again because I liked the story so much.