Final Fantasy XIII-3

[Magicite Spring]

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They also provide a knockdown type effect to certain enemies so they were than just useful for Area of effect which is what made me annoyed they were so irritating to get to.

Again, I see your point, but the only times I ever wanted to use the knockback effect I just used ruinga, which is easy to get to.

The other key thing is that you only need to find them once per battle. Once you do you can just use the repeat function so you can do the same moves again. You still have to search through the list, but only once per battle which is a bit better. A bit.

 

[Magicite Spring]

The big problem for FFXIII was the inital time sink you needed to put in to unlock everything. Once you do, the combat system is everything you want it to be. Only being able to pick your partys paradigms may not seem like much, but against the high level monsters picking the right paradigm is very VERY important, and any wrong moves mean you need to start over again. To me, this meant that the little control I had over the party was actually a lot because it meant the difference between winning and losing a fight. I also think that at the speed the combat takes place it would be horrible trying to control the whole party. From that perspective, being only able to control the leader is a good move

I beat the game... and no matter how far I got or how fast the battles got I never felt like I was doing anything other than point the characters in the right direction... and that's the failing of the system... not the lack of control... but simply the fact that I, as a player, feel completely left out of the gameplay... and in turn, left out of the world and unable to connect to it... and at that point turns into little more than watching a cutscene, while fiddling with the controller... no matter how bad the big bads are it's not, " I the player defeated the enemy." It's always, "I instructed someone to defeat the enemy." and there's a huge difference between the two... it just fails to engage in any level... I mean it's the main reason I don't play RTS games...<.<

Unfortunately, I can't argue with this. If you don't feel you have enough control, then you didn't. I did think I had enough control, so I did. Its just a matter of personal opinion here.

 

[Geek2theRight]

I really enjoyed XIII. It was actually the first one I'd found myself wrapped up in since IX. Now I'm playing XIII-2, and finding it more enjoyable in pretty much every way. I especially love that they dump you right into the game, no tutorials necessary to unlock most of the important features. That was my one complaint about XIII -- the tutorial that stretched multiple chapters.

So yes, a thousand times yes, I want a FF XIII-3!!!

 

[Benni88]

Please no! As a protagonist, Lightning was pretty cool. However, I feel that the paradigm system was the worst tactical combat system of any final fantasy. Sure, it made watching the fight very cinematic and enjoyable, but that's what it felt like, watching.

I know its a lot of work to produce these games, but if there was ever a time for a reboot, its now.

 

[Vivi22]

The other key thing is that you only need to find them once per battle. Once you do you can just use the repeat function so you can do the same moves again. You still have to search through the list, but only once per battle which is a bit better. A bit.

In that case you may as well just be using auto-battle.

Here's the problems I had with FFXIII's system. First, if all you're going to be doing is repeating the same action over and over, you may as well just hit auto-battle, particularly since the menu's are too convoluted to navigate with any reasonable speed. Second, if the game is so lacking in strategic depth that auto-battle (essentially game AI) is picking actions as well as I can, then you need to go back to the drawing board. AI should not be just as good as I am at weighting strategic options and picking the right attacks. But then, you can't really expect much depth from a game where picking the overall strategy is the only real decision you'll make, and where I easily blew through the game using 2 paradigms. One attack oriented with magic to stagger quickly and physical attacks to maintain the stagger meter. And another with healing and sentinel. Occasionally you might use one for buffs/debuffs, but I can count on one hand the number of times I actually found that useful.

So basically, we had a game where the only meaningful decision you ever make is to recognize when to attack and when to heal. Maybe it opened up a bit more with end game content and monsters, but I shouldn't need to play for 40 hours and stray from the beaten path to get to a game with more depth than basically picking strategy A or strategy B.

I honestly consider FFXIII to be the worst RPG I've ever played if only because I've never seen something so completely unengaging. I'm actually still impressed that such a pivotal company in the genre could spend that many years working, seem to throw so much polish at a game, and fail so miserably at making a combat system. I'd actually have more respect for it if it were a straight rip off of something more interesting, or if it at least tried to have more depth but was just really boring. Instead they went for something flashy, trying to emulate the style of a lot of Western games in other genres without any of the substance, or understanding why they're fun.

So yeah, back on topic, I think another sequel to a terrible game is a terrible idea. How about lighting a fire under Nomura's ass and getting Versus XIII out the door. Last I saw anything on it it at least looked like it held some promise.

 

[Sacman]

The big problem for FFXIII was the inital time sink you needed to put in to unlock everything. Once you do, the combat system is everything you want it to be. Only being able to pick your partys paradigms may not seem like much, but against the high level monsters picking the right paradigm is very VERY important, and any wrong moves mean you need to start over again. To me, this meant that the little control I had over the party was actually a lot because it meant the difference between winning and losing a fight. I also think that at the speed the combat takes place it would be horrible trying to control the whole party. From that perspective, being only able to control the leader is a good move

I beat the game... and no matter how far I got or how fast the battles got I never felt like I was doing anything other than point the characters in the right direction... and that's the failing of the system... not the lack of control... but simply the fact that I, as a player, feel completely left out of the gameplay... and in turn, left out of the world and unable to connect to it... and at that point turns into little more than watching a cutscene, while fiddling with the controller... no matter how bad the big bads are it's not, " I the player defeated the enemy." It's always, "I instructed someone to defeat the enemy." and there's a huge difference between the two... it just fails to engage in any level... I mean it's the main reason I don't play RTS games...<.<

Unfortunately, I can't argue with this. If you don't feel you have enough control, then you didn't. I did think I had enough control, so I did. Its just a matter of personal opinion here.

No, not really... I mean even a small inspection of the design aspects would reveal just how tailor made the whole experience was to leave the player out of it... everything about the game just seems to be afraid of the player cramping the games style... I mean it's linear to the point of being soul crushingly oppressive in every aspect of the design... even when the world opens up it's still just as bad because we're still stuck on the same restrictive mechanics that create the problem... it goes beyond subjectivity and into the realm of objectively faulty game design...<.<

Now whether you like the game or not is certainly subjective...<.<

 

[havoc33]

The other key thing is that you only need to find them once per battle. Once you do you can just use the repeat function so you can do the same moves again. You still have to search through the list, but only once per battle which is a bit better. A bit.

In that case you may as well just be using auto-battle.

Here's the problems I had with FFXIII's system. First, if all you're going to be doing is repeating the same action over and over, you may as well just hit auto-battle, particularly since the menu's are too convoluted to navigate with any reasonable speed. Second, if the game is so lacking in strategic depth that auto-battle (essentially game AI) is picking actions as well as I can, then you need to go back to the drawing board. AI should not be just as good as I am at weighting strategic options and picking the right attacks. But then, you can't really expect much depth from a game where picking the overall strategy is the only real decision you'll make, and where I easily blew through the game using 2 paradigms. One attack oriented with magic to stagger quickly and physical attacks to maintain the stagger meter. And another with healing and sentinel. Occasionally you might use one for buffs/debuffs, but I can count on one hand the number of times I actually found that useful.

So basically, we had a game where the only meaningful decision you ever make is to recognize when to attack and when to heal. Maybe it opened up a bit more with end game content and monsters, but I shouldn't need to play for 40 hours and stray from the beaten path to get to a game with more depth than basically picking strategy A or strategy B.

I honestly consider FFXIII to be the worst RPG I've ever played if only because I've never seen something so completely unengaging. I'm actually still impressed that such a pivotal company in the genre could spend that many years working, seem to throw so much polish at a game, and fail so miserably at making a combat system. I'd actually have more respect for it if it were a straight rip off of something more interesting, or if it at least tried to have more depth but was just really boring. Instead they went for something flashy, trying to emulate the style of a lot of Western games in other genres without any of the substance, or understanding why they're fun.

So yeah, back on topic, I think another sequel to a terrible game is a terrible idea. How about lighting a fire under Nomura's ass and getting Versus XIII out the door. Last I saw anything on it it at least looked like it held some promise.

I wouldn't say it's the worst I've ever played, but for the rest you are spot on.

 

[OrpheusTelos]

Lol, did you just say Hallway Simulator 13's combat was excellent?

13 was the dullest experience of my life, predicable story (who the flying fuck didn't see the Oerba thing coming?) Lame characters (Exceptions being Lightning and Sazh) and a godawful battle system (slow as fuck and required little effort, auto battle chose the best possible combination of moves for each paradigm, choosing abilities was beyond pointless unless you were a medic) Battles dragged on WAY too fucking long and the main narrative wasn't interesting. The music, mythology, world and graphics were amazing however. The whole game left a bad after taste and I believed the sequel couldn't save it...

I'm glad I was wrong!

FF13-2 gave me a wholly enjoyable and satisfying experience and left me leaving that game happy (ending kinda sucked but the series will continue) I loved the Serah and Neol duo, the monster party members you could tame, the battle system actually became GOOD! Some extra tweaking and It can become excellent! The story was better, more fun to follow and you weren't just running through corridors. It is everything 13 should have been!

Put it this way, 13-3 is a day one purchase for me, perhaps even a pre-order!

I said that I thought it was ok. But thanks.

And trust me, the 'minor tweaks' made to XIII-2's combat didn't fundamentally change the way it worked in XIII. Same basic system, which was excellent. The addition of character switching after one character died, plus cutting down the animation times, smoothed it out, but fundamentally the system is the same as it always was, which is good.

 

[kyogen]

Why yes, OP, I would like a Final Fantasy XIII-3. I liked XIII and XIII-2, Lightning is one of my favorite characters from this installment, and I would like to see the end of the story. A trilogy would wrap things up nicely.

 

[HHammond]

I think I would like XIII-3 has long as it's a bit more like XIII storywise than XIII-2. XIII's story had some serious pacing issues and if they just figured that out a bit more I'd be happy. XIII-2's story was just plain awful and I hated Noel. Serah was okay but I preferred (most) of the cast of XIII. Also, XIII at least gave you the option to swap out party members which meant that if you didn't like a character, you could bring in someone you liked more.

For XIII-3 I think they need a more simple story. Stop trying to do massive complex epics and stick to a simple plot and then add some interesting character side stories. Also, NO FREAKIN' TIME TRAVEL! It was really badly handled in XIII-2 and it just made things even more confusing. Just stick to a simple:

Spoiler

The gang have to go save Lightning and restore order to the world.

Also, don't be too angsty. The cast of XIII where way too angsty and took why too long to get likable. See, this is something a lot of the better Final Fantasy games did in my opinion. They start of fun and happy and then, after a few hours when we've gotten to know the characters in a likable sense and learnt about the world, they start to tear shit up and mess with the characters. See VII and IX. I think they should have had the escape of the train to be a bit more fun and light hearted, pushed back Hope's mum dying and Lightning's self destruction thing until a bit later and just given the audience time to start to like the characters!

I do think XIII had some seriously well done parts. I can't remember a relationship as well done as Vanille and Fang (who in my mind are definitely an item).

 

[Fractral]

Well. I enjoyed both the games, 13-2 moreso than 13 for various reasons including the better difficulty curve, the more open environments, the less linear story and the better sidequests. However, I ended up feeling rather cheated when I finished 13-2, mainly because it only took me ~25 hours to complete, for £45. Sure, it was pretty high quality stuff, and I enjoyed it all the way through, but I can't help but worry that this is a trend we're going to see with Squeenix, where they make their games shorter and then sell on the extra content as DLC. If 13-3 follows the trend, it could end up being only 15 hours long for the main story.
That would be my main concern over 13-3. That and them ruining the story again.

 

[Maxtro]

I figure I got about half way in XIII; the part where Lightning and Hope where running around some forest area, it took me months to get that far. Then my 60 GB died RIP and lost my save, never to play XIII again.

Then I heard 13-2 was coming and after watching the reviews, I had no interest in at all. And now there's going to be a 13-3? WHY?!

I wish Square would finish up Versus 13 and for God'sake, call it 15. I really don't want to see a Final Fantasy Versus 13 Championship Hyper Fighting Edition 4.

 

[malestrithe]

I'll play it, but I'm in favor of the company going back to 1 maybe 2 FF titles a year and spending time ruining some of the other franchises they have rights. Start with a lot of the stuff that has not gotten official releases outside Japan like Live-A-Live, Bahamut Lagoon, Treasure of the Rudras, Monstania, and so on. From there, all of the Non Dragonquest Enix stuff.

 

[SweetShark]

The sad thing is, I'd probably end up playing it anyway... we don't get enough big budget JRPGS these days. >_> Dammit, Square. Make good games already, I know you can do it.

CAPTCHA: get well. Please?

Your reason for you to "make" yourself to play FFXIII-3, is very wrong...
You don't need to get a big budget game to enjoy an JRPG.

 

[Tanis]

IF PEOPLE WOULD STOP BUYING CRAPPY JRPGs THEN WE'D STOP GETTING THEM MADE...

But, seriously?
I'm still waiting for the next Atlus JRPG.

SE is DEAD to me.
Atlus is where it's at for GOOD JRPGs.

 

[K84]

Just leave XIII-2 as it is, it ended so dark^^
It was a fun game, vastly superior to XIII, and i like the time travel stuff.
(Time Travel is awesome, can't go wrong there.)

Just let the dark/bittersweet ending we got, stay as it is.
It's done.

 

[Plucky]

Wait what? a 3rd one?

I assumed people had high hopes for XIII-2 because it would be opposite of what X-2 was to X, but although i never heard of direct things about it, it wasn't probably not that much of an improvement to be that notable.

I guess it's extremely easy to make people's opinion on individual games in a series good if the game is good itself, but it could be hailed as a plague if it does a single bad thing that deters the core mechanics that the previous older games in the series used, people assumed that if X-2 (a sequel) was bad, then chances are that a 13-2 would've been good.

In other note, how well did the countless milking of the FF7 universe do with a few games and 2 movies....?


But in short, the Final Fantasy series is extremely shaky within the fanbase; the most shaky topics is probably...
- The leap into 3D (and potential undertones of Sony-Nintendo's rivalship)
- FF7's constant insistence at expanding it's universe instead of a remake that all past 6 games has got.
- FF6 vs 4 and 5
- FF7 vs 8 vs 9
- A true sequel to a game in a series of games where their sequels never linked up to prior games in the series before. (FFX)
- Final Fantasy turning online twice XI, XIV. (meaning that most people outside of Japan probably has never played those games...the same thing would probably happen with Dragon Quest X, unless the Wii dies in the west and Nintendo doesn't want to publish it, even if they're the western localizer for the series, though there's still the possible Wii U version)