Final Fantasy 13 - Impressions

[Pink_Pirate]

I love this Final Fantasy the combat system the best one yet, your complaining about it being repetitive well ofcourse its going to be repetitive if you just keep using Commando, Ravager and Medic, mix it up a little! if you keep just relying on those 3 your going to get butt raped on almost every fight in a few chapters. The boss iv just not long done (Barthandelus in Chapter 9) had pretty decent music and it was a pretty fun fight also but some of the music is annoying like the bit in the forrest with Vanille and Sazh...that god awful song playing through the whole area.

It's true the CP system does throw points at you but it may seem like alot at the stage your at but the Crystanium eventually develops so far that it costs 10k CP just to move from one ability to the next.

I have never had a problem with not being able to hear the characters over the music and i don't find the story confusing, i love the story in Final Fantasy XIII i think its very powerful it draws you in and you dont want to stop playing because you want to know what happens next

I think its a great title and a must have for any Final Fantasy fan

Heh, well I primarily use those roles due to:
A: Lack of options
B: Time wasted on Saboteur and the other one...purple, I forgot the name right this second tend to make me 2 star fights if I use them
C: Its the most effective method available.

Every fight is about staggering your opponent quickly, then blasting them to all hell once you have done so. Yeah, buffing and debuffing can help and is required in some instances, but doing it wastes time, and if you wanna refill your TP you gotta be FAST FAST FAST!!

Thats true enough, but for the later fights you will have to use saboteurs and synergists to help buff and/or debuff, or a sentinel to tank though enemies. Later on being able to quickly change paradigms and utilise all the roles effectively is paramount to survival. Late game enemies will easily have 500k hp, and loads of buffs, and do loads of damage, and there's 7 of them... so being able to minimise damage and create openingings or weaknesses to exploit becomes pretty important, especially if your going for the 5 star ratings.

 

[gibboss28]

Gotta say i'm enjoying it and I'm up to chapter 11 if i remember rightly (I think so anyway, just got to a , that said however:

I think the combat AI of your team mates needs a slight tweak, as in if your choosing what abilities to cast and you pick AOE attacks, your AI team mates should generally do the same.

Theres also the fact that in combat your team leader (the character you have control over) gets K.O'd and the others are still standing its a game over bugs me.

The music I can happily listen to with no hard feelings though it is quite crappy music.
The bosses are actually quite hard, which is good but it can also be frustrating (I cannot count the amount of retries I had on getting Vanilles Eidelon)

The upgrading system for weapons i'm...well confused on. I guess i'll read up about it properly in a week or so when theres a FAQ up at Gamefaqs about it.

The crystarium system is pretty darn interesting though, granted that after the first couple of expansions I've realized its a good idea to farm CP, so I've got over 100,000 waiting for the next expansion of it.

The characters are an interesting bunch, so far my thoughts have changed on all of them minus one (I just want hope to shut his mouth, permanently)

Overall not bad, though I don't think i'm really going to play it through again, I find the linearity of it compared to the other final fantasys quite horrible, anyone agree with me or am i on my lonesome on that one?

*edit* just thought of something else about the game I'd like to put as a question. Its a spoiler though, so if you haven't got to Gran Pulse don't read it

Spoiler

Why did I have to kill Cid? Surely thats just wrong!

 

[gibboss28]

Theres also the fact that if your main character dies and the others are still standing its a game over bugs me.

Spoilers dude! /flee

I worded that wrong, but its not a spoiler, I meant if your team leader gets K.O'd.

Gotta agree about Gran Pulse...its nice but still as you said to little too late.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

The upgrading system for weapons i'm...well confused on. I guess i'll read up about it properly in a week or so when theres a FAQ up at Gamefaqs about it.

Overall not bad, though I don't think i'm really going to play it through again, I find the linearity of it compared to the other final fantasys quite horrible, anyone agree with me or am i on my lonesome on that one?

for upgrading weapons just buy like 40 Wicked Fangs from Creature comforts and a bunch of Polymer Emulsion from Lenora's Garage, pile all 40 Wicked Fangs into the weapon and it will give you a 200% exp bonus on the next stuff you put in the weapon, then shove all your Polymer Emulsion or whatever you have into the weapon and it will have a huge exp increase from the 200% bonus exp from the wicked fangs thats what i do anyway and it works well.

As for the Linearity of the game, im going to say what i said in the topic "is Linearity in games a bad thing" last night. I personally think that a linear path to take in some games is the best choice and i think it was the right choice to make for Final Fantasy XIII and pretty much all Final Fantasys they all have a pretty powerful story to them (apart from the abomination that is X-2) and giving to much freedom can easily sway you from the great story, Linearity is a story telling move in games and with a with a game like Final Fantasy i think its definatly the right choice

 

[gibboss28]

The upgrading system for weapons i'm...well confused on. I guess i'll read up about it properly in a week or so when theres a FAQ up at Gamefaqs about it.

Overall not bad, though I don't think i'm really going to play it through again, I find the linearity of it compared to the other final fantasys quite horrible, anyone agree with me or am i on my lonesome on that one?

As for the Linearity of the game, im going to say what i said in the topic "is Linearity in games a bad thing" last night. I personally think that a linear path to take in some games is the best choice and i think it was the right choice to make for Final Fantasy XIII and pretty much all Final Fantasys they all have a pretty powerful story to them (apart from the abomination that is X-2) and giving to much freedom can easily sway you from the great story, Linearity is a story telling move in games and with a with a game like Final Fantasy i think its definatly the right choice

Yeah, you're right... I just miss the world map system really, it gave a feeling of being non linear while being completely linear all at the same time. I also want an airship again that...ya know...you can FUCKING FLY. /rage

 

[Wolfram23]

Fine, I'll just have to murder my wallet some more now. That is when I manage to save enough to buy it. I'm thinking about buying this instead of Demon's Souls...

Whoa, whoa whoa...Stop right there.

Final Fantasy 13 may be amazing but if you're thinking of either getting this or Demon's Souls, get Demon's Souls.

Do it! Do it now!!

...
Dammit...
OK please answer this question if you will:would I have made more progress from the start of the game in Demons' Souls or FFXIII in, say, 15 hours of gameplay?

Okay, I see what you're doing.

To answer your question, Demon's Souls.

Demon's Souls took me about...29 hours to beat on my first playthrough, but you're not gonna just want to play once. You can go back through with all the same stats you ended with on the first game, but its about 5 times harder.

I'd say get Demon's Souls because its rather hard to find (at least it was for me) and you can get FF13 anywhere.

Get Demon's Souls, then FF13.

They're both great games.

Well you can't really compare Demon's Souls and FFXII. They're both completely and utterly different. However, of the two, Demon's Souls is the most unique and it's significantly harder. Also, not much of a story although very atmospheric and ultimately you can piece together little stories in each area but they're not just given to you. FFXIII is great if you're into FF games, amazing graphics, story, battles... it's got all the classic elements.

I'd recommend Demon's Souls first. Truely is a must play. FFXII, I'd say don't pass up but I'm sure you've played games just like it before so... yea.

Also about playtime, I think I finished my first run on Demon's in about 30/35 hrs but my main char alone is already at 130hrs and maybe halfway through 3rd playthrough. There's lots to do, lots of gear to upgrade and find and each level has pure white and pure black unlockable areas/NPCs which is a complex system takes a while to figure out but basically killing bosses = towards white, dying in body = towards black. Since there's only so many bosses, it's easy to mess up. I had to do most of it on 2nd play as first time was just getting used to the game and figuring out all the areas.

 

[lupercal27]

FF13 - Impressions. Hmm.

I'm impressed. At first i experienced culture shock. I've been playing Mass Effect 2 for a while now, finished my 2nd playthough. I loved it, one of my top 10 vid games of all time. Going from American RPG elements to a Japanese RPG was a big change, bigger than I realized.

1st impressions
I wanted to strangle Vanille the second I heard her talk and controlled her. (which is extreamely early on). The music was different, didn't feel "Final Fantasy" like. Camera x-axis movement is too fast. Combat system was awkard. I LOVED the visuals (not the style, just the quality). The hair and clothing were too out there (again, compared to last game i played).

lasting impressions
Now that i'm a few (read 20) hours into the game, my perspective has changed. I routinely stop at vantage points just to look around at the sheer beauty that is the design and quality. The characters have grown on me, even Vanille (she stopped her whines it seems). The Crystogen system makes sense. it is like a simpler version of the sphere grid of FFX. just in 3D. Very linear though so simple. Music is very upbeat, which matches the combat system. I'm loving the combat system! It took a few chapters to unlock the cool stuff but so far it's great (go to settings to control the speed. Fast is best once you know what you're doing). The game really wants you to paradigm swap often as it rewqards you with a full ATB most times. Exploit! The cutscenes are nice, the CG cutscenes are epic. EPIC!

I started the game with feelings of clture shock and resentment due to changes, but after some time, I love the game they put together. While I'm a huge fan of Nobuo-san, this game's music DOES have good quality music. a few places had music i didn't agree with but not distracting from the overall experience.

Only thing I don't like still; linearity. 20 hours into an 'RPG' I should have opportunity for side quests and side story expansion.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

*sigh* I don't think I'll ever understand the baseless hatred of FFXII...

explain to me vaan's relevance to the story and then i might consider giving FFXII another chance... but for now im content to hate on it because it has a shitty story, boring combat, and horribly music direction... aka all thing that make a final fantasy a final fantasy. With a series where each sequel has nothing to do with each other the thing that ties them together is common game design philosophies and just overall atmosphere... FFXII missed that completely...

While Vaan was pointless, Ashe, Balthier, Basche and Fraan were all bloody fantastic. Ashe especially, I loved her desperate desire to free her nation as well as her darker side, the one willing to do anything necessary, even selling her soul to the morally ambiguous gods.

Shitty story? A complex political drama based around events in a well defined ancient mythology with a history that seeps from the damn architecture all over the world, framed by Final Fantasy's most realistic and well motivated villain ever... how is that shitty? Unconventional yes, but shitty? I don't see it. It also has some of the best writing Final Fantasy has ever seen, and if 13 is any indication ever will see.

Terrible Music Direction? Seriously? It's the only Final Fantasy since 6 which has a consistent musical tone throughout the entire story, no random shifts between Orchestra and Techno ala Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX and X. It's all big, Star Wars style orchestration, the final boss battle "The Battle For Freedom" changes from a dark, deadly battle to a heroic overture once you knock Vayne down to half HP and the shift is stunningly dramatic.

Boring battles I'll give you though, no question, FFXII has a substandard battle system.

 

[lupercal27]

*sigh* I don't think I'll ever understand the baseless hatred of FFXII...

explain to me vaan's relevance to the story and then i might consider giving FFXII another chance... but for now im content to hate on it because it has a shitty story, boring combat, and horribly music direction... aka all thing that make a final fantasy a final fantasy. With a series where each sequel has nothing to do with each other the thing that ties them together is common game design philosophies and just overall atmosphere... FFXII missed that completely...

While Vaan was pointless, Ashe, Balthier, Basche and Fraan were all bloody fantastic. Ashe especially, I loved her desperate desire to free her nation as well as her darker side, the one willing to do anything necessary, even selling her soul to the morally ambiguous gods.

Shitty story? A complex political drama based around events in a well defined ancient mythology with a history that seeps from the damn architecture all over the world, framed by Final Fantasy's most realistic and well motivated villain ever... how is that shitty? Unconventional yes, but shitty? I don't see it. It also has some of the best writing Final Fantasy has ever seen, and if 13 is any indication ever will see.

Terrible Music Direction? Seriously? It's the only Final Fantasy since 6 which has a consistent musical tone throughout the entire story, no random shifts between Orchestra and Techno ala Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX and X. It's all big, Star Wars style orchestration, the final boss battle "The Battle For Freedom" changes from a dark, deadly battle to a heroic overture once you knock Vayne down to half HP and the shift is stunningly dramatic.

Boring battles I'll give you though, no question, FFXII has a substandard battle system.

FFXII was actually pretty good. I didn't care for the battle system, and yes, Vaan was kinda ghey and generic. But the story was well done. I believe what ended up watering the game down for me was the sheer vastness of the side quests and side stuff one could do. tens of hours worth of extra bosses, hunts, quests, items, etc to get. Being a completist this drives me mad, usually in a good way. I got so caught up in doing the side quests that it actually subtracted from the story line of the game. Go take down the last boss? No, let me finish fishing for this rare item (yes, literally fishing for hours).

Side note: worst boss music from Nobuo was Blue Dragon's techno garbage one. Eternity or something it was called.

 

[Julianking93]

Fine, I'll just have to murder my wallet some more now. That is when I manage to save enough to buy it. I'm thinking about buying this instead of Demon's Souls...

Whoa, whoa whoa...Stop right there.

Final Fantasy 13 may be amazing but if you're thinking of either getting this or Demon's Souls, get Demon's Souls.

Do it! Do it now!!

...
Dammit...
OK please answer this question if you will:would I have made more progress from the start of the game in Demons' Souls or FFXIII in, say, 15 hours of gameplay?

Okay, I see what you're doing.

To answer your question, Demon's Souls.

Demon's Souls took me about...29 hours to beat on my first playthrough, but you're not gonna just want to play once. You can go back through with all the same stats you ended with on the first game, but its about 5 times harder.

I'd say get Demon's Souls because its rather hard to find (at least it was for me) and you can get FF13 anywhere.

Get Demon's Souls, then FF13.

They're both great games.

Well you can't really compare Demon's Souls and FFXII. They're both completely and utterly different. However, of the two, Demon's Souls is the most unique and it's significantly harder. Also, not much of a story although very atmospheric and ultimately you can piece together little stories in each area but they're not just given to you. FFXIII is great if you're into FF games, amazing graphics, story, battles... it's got all the classic elements.

I'd recommend Demon's Souls first. Truely is a must play. FFXII, I'd say don't pass up but I'm sure you've played games just like it before so... yea.

Also about playtime, I think I finished my first run on Demon's in about 30/35 hrs but my main char alone is already at 130hrs and maybe halfway through 3rd playthrough. There's lots to do, lots of gear to upgrade and find and each level has pure white and pure black unlockable areas/NPCs which is a complex system takes a while to figure out but basically killing bosses = towards white, dying in body = towards black. Since there's only so many bosses, it's easy to mess up. I had to do most of it on 2nd play as first time was just getting used to the game and figuring out all the areas.

That's pretty much what I said without all the detail.

Get Demon's Souls first since there's really no game like it.

 

[Pink_Pirate]

*sigh* I don't think I'll ever understand the baseless hatred of FFXII...

explain to me vaan's relevance to the story and then i might consider giving FFXII another chance... but for now im content to hate on it because it has a shitty story, boring combat, and horribly music direction... aka all thing that make a final fantasy a final fantasy. With a series where each sequel has nothing to do with each other the thing that ties them together is common game design philosophies and just overall atmosphere... FFXII missed that completely...

While Vaan was pointless, Ashe, Balthier, Basche and Fraan were all bloody fantastic. Ashe especially, I loved her desperate desire to free her nation as well as her darker side, the one willing to do anything necessary, even selling her soul to the morally ambiguous gods.

Shitty story? A complex political drama based around events in a well defined ancient mythology with a history that seeps from the damn architecture all over the world, framed by Final Fantasy's most realistic and well motivated villain ever... how is that shitty? Unconventional yes, but shitty? I don't see it. It also has some of the best writing Final Fantasy has ever seen, and if 13 is any indication ever will see.

Terrible Music Direction? Seriously? It's the only Final Fantasy since 6 which has a consistent musical tone throughout the entire story, no random shifts between Orchestra and Techno ala Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX and X. It's all big, Star Wars style orchestration, the final boss battle "The Battle For Freedom" changes from a dark, deadly battle to a heroic overture once you knock Vayne down to half HP and the shift is stunningly dramatic.

Boring battles I'll give you though, no question, FFXII has a substandard battle system.

ok i'll give you that they where good characters, panello and vaan aside... but there was no character development, besides a little exposition explaining their backrounds (Balthier: btw i used to a judge)... I really like a story with character development, but its just a personal preference.
More importantly the pacing is well off, i feel like spent more time running around fields stabbing monsters than actually advancing the plot. This is an even bigger problem since the combat is a bit crap, making all these running towards the next bit incredibly tedious. I honeslt was still waiting for the story to begin proper and for the 'real' villain to show up when i got the the final boss.. and the it just ended. Also there are way to many similarities with star wars for it to be a coincidence.
Square was obviously trying to make a more western rpg with 12, thus we get the huge tracts of land to explore, but absolutely nothing to do in them, no side stories to make the world feel alive, which is why it doesn't work.
As for the music, Hitoshi Sakimoto is very talented, but he should be writing symphonies not scoring games. He writes the same piece of music for every game he's involved in, and its all this overcomplicated, chaotic mix of every instrument in the orchestra which sound absolutely stunning on its own, but is far to complex to work as background music in a game.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

HOLY EFFEN SNIP

ok i'll give you that they where good characters, panello and vaan aside... but there was no character development, besides a little exposition explaining their backrounds (Balthier: btw i used to a judge)... I really like a story with character development, but its just a personal preference.
More importantly the pacing is well off, i feel like spent more time running around fields stabbing monsters than actually advancing the plot. This is an even bigger problem since the combat is a bit crap, making all these running towards the next bit incredibly tedious. I honeslt was still waiting for the story to begin proper and for the 'real' villain to show up when i got the the final boss.. and the it just ended. Also there are way to many similarities with star wars for it to be a coincidence.
Square was obviously trying to make a more western rpg with 12, thus we get the huge tracts of land to explore, but absolutely nothing to do in them, no side stories to make the world feel alive, which is why it doesn't work.
As for the music, Hitoshi Sakimoto is very talented, but he should be writing symphonies not scoring games. He writes the same piece of music for every game he's involved in, and its all this overcomplicated, chaotic mix of every instrument in the orchestra which sound absolutely stunning on its own, but is far to complex to work as background music in a game.

An excellent rebuttal if you don't mind my saying, good and logical counterpoints that I can't really disagree with. Except for the one about Sakimoto, but to each their own right?

 

[Pink_Pirate]

HOLY EFFEN SNIP

ok i'll give you that they where good characters, panello and vaan aside... but there was no character development, besides a little exposition explaining their backrounds (Balthier: btw i used to a judge)... I really like a story with character development, but its just a personal preference.
More importantly the pacing is well off, i feel like spent more time running around fields stabbing monsters than actually advancing the plot. This is an even bigger problem since the combat is a bit crap, making all these running towards the next bit incredibly tedious. I honeslt was still waiting for the story to begin proper and for the 'real' villain to show up when i got the the final boss.. and the it just ended. Also there are way to many similarities with star wars for it to be a coincidence.
Square was obviously trying to make a more western rpg with 12, thus we get the huge tracts of land to explore, but absolutely nothing to do in them, no side stories to make the world feel alive, which is why it doesn't work.
As for the music, Hitoshi Sakimoto is very talented, but he should be writing symphonies not scoring games. He writes the same piece of music for every game he's involved in, and its all this overcomplicated, chaotic mix of every instrument in the orchestra which sound absolutely stunning on its own, but is far to complex to work as background music in a game.

An excellent rebuttal if you don't mind my saying, good and logical counterpoints that I can't really disagree with. Except for the one about Sakimoto, but to each their own right?

Indeed to each his own, i don't begrudge you for liking FF12, it's not like i didn't enjoy it either, it will just always hold a special place in my heart as the first final fantasy to truly disappoint me. Personally i really like Sakimoto's score for Valkyria Chronicles, but it just doesn't work in FF12 for some reason..to complex, like he's trying to steal the limelight from the rest of the game. Or maybe he was just trying to outdo Nobuo... just feels like the music is trying to hard.

 

[Gizoku]

I'm about 13 hours into FF13 and so far I'd say 12 > 13.

FF13 has actual character development on its side (pretty good characters at that), but at the minute, the story still seems to be a bit of a clusterfuck (the datalogs of the chapters help). Originally Balthier was meant to be the lead 12, but apparently the guys in charge Square-Enix thought the game needed a pretty boy teen lead - hence Vaan. Dose make sense considering he really does seem crowbared into the game.

As far as the actual game is concerned FF12 is better in terms of leveling. I loved the way in twelve you could make each character into whatever you wanted, I had Basch as a paladin, Balthier as a thief (I swear he was almost impossible for enemies to hit) and so on. Unfortunately towards the end it kind of became moot as everyone could get everything, but I think there's a LOT more choice in the licence board than there is in the Crystarium - from where I am in the game anyway.

The battles, I'd say, are a close call - I actually really like them in FF12. I'd say they are 13's strongest point though.

I'm really getting annoyed with how tedious 13 is getting at this point - run to the end of a corridored environment fighting re-skinned enemies along the way, repeat... It really could do with more exploration and a mini-game. Hopefully chapter 11 is as good as everyone is making out, my patience is starting to wear a little bit thin.

 

[Rush_Thores]

Gil becomes a big deal and you can get enough upgrade stuff when it goes all openworldtastic. Sure, there is no focus on it for awhile, but there isnt really any need for awhile.

Music isn't fantastic, but by no means painful.

People need to give the game a bit of a chance. They are on like chapter 2 and ***** about a confusing story. Give it time, it gets clearer and pretty good over time. Same with the characters, I did not like annnyyyy of them at first. Lightning-***** Sazh-Stereotypical Black Comic Relief Vanille-Bubby High-Pitched . . .Thing Hope-Whiny Emo Snow-Overexcited Wannabe Hero Fang-***** (Different strain of ***** than lightning)
But after time, I came to like all of them. They grew into more than single dimensioned cliches. . . specifically multi-dimensioned cliches. Even Vanille, I enjoy them all.

And yeah, for most fights you can use the same com/rav, com/med, rinse repeat method, but use the opprotunity. The scores they give you for the first 10 chapters really make no big difference, so take the opprotunity to mess with the paradigms and it is really fun.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Best one yet.

Knocks 8 off the top.

I hate Hope.

 

[rickthetrick]

Just doesn't feel like a final fantasy game imho.