Final Fantasy XIII advice

[ilikepie59]

I've never actually played a Final Fantasy game before, but I've heard a lot of good stuff, and since I just got a PS3, I was thinking of trying FFXIII.
My question (for anyone who knows a little about the series) is this:

Is number 13 a bad place to start? Should I play a few earlier ones first? Will I be completely lost by not really knowing anything about the Final Fantasy universe?

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

You won't be lost, they are all standalone adventures. Except for X and X-2.

13 is...divisive...to say the least. I liked it a lot, many others didn't. Don't start with 8, either. That's equally divisive among fans.

A generally well looked upon entry to the series is Final Fantasy 9. I'd start there.

You can download Final Fantasy 9 off of the Playstation Store.

If you have access to a PS2 or a backwards compatible PS3, start with Final Fantasy 10, though.

 

[Lambi]

I recommend starting with either FF IX or VI. You'll most likely have to hunt down an emulator and a site with ROMs for FF VI since it's an SNES game. But it's a great start. The first FF game is a good start too. Just need to hunt down an emulator for either the NES or GBA, depending on if you'd prefer the original or the remake.

 

[NickCaligo42]

Lord, no. You'll be bored out of your wits the whole way through. FF13 has the distinction of being the second game made by "the Final Fantasy B-Squad" as I call them; the group responsible for the Tactics games rather than Nomura, Kitase, and their team, and they have no idea how to handle the main series. 12 was halfway acceptable, just had a dull plot and dull characters, but 13 was a disaster in production. They basically cut half the storyline they'd developed out of the game and Frankenstein'd together cutscenes and events from the first half with gameplay and story events from the second half, so it doesn't flow well at all and the first 20 hours have almost no important action or character development. By six hours in, exactly nothing has happened and you still have no concept of where the FF13 takes place or what's going on.

Get FF7 or FF9 on the Playstation store. Better yet, get a hold of an SNES emulator and nab FF6, or pick up Chrono Trigger for the Nintendo DS.

 

[Googenstien]

I think you will be fine starting on 13.. I havent played a FF since 7,8 and I loved this one.

People are down on the past few FFs for some reason, but the game plays and looks fantastic. If you really want to know what you missed in the past, read the wiki or I am some fan site has run downs. But the whole first half or so of 13 is story driven so its not like you will be totally left out in the cold with story.

 

[MCDeltaT]

Start with 9. Then play 7 if you still crave more. 13 is good but not as good as these two.

 

[whooshiwoo]

Like others wrote every game (except for X-2) in the series stands for its own, so there's no really bad point to start, BUT you might not want to go back after you've played the later games since some really bothering issues have been taken care of in later installments.

XIII was a pretty good game, but by far not the best.
My favs are (in this order) IX, X/VIII (can't decide which is better ), VII - I guess those three are the ones most people love most, though IX is kind of ... well, half the folks I know love it, the other half hates it

Many consider VII or VI to be the best ones, I've played every single one of them and my top 3 is as stated above
I didn't like XII too much by the way ... the story was bleargh and the "exploring" was nothing but tedious. The battle system in itself was pretty awesome, though.

 

[ScatterBen]

Lord, no. You'll be bored out of your wits the whole way through. FF13 has the distinction of being the second game made by "the Final Fantasy B-Squad" as I call them; the group responsible for the Tactics games rather than Nomura, Kitase, and their team, and they have no idea how to handle the main series. 12 was halfway acceptable, just had a dull plot and dull characters, but 13 was a disaster in production. They basically cut half the storyline they'd developed out of the game and Frankenstein'd together cutscenes and events from the first half with gameplay and story events from the second half, so it doesn't flow well at all and the first 20 hours have almost no important action or character development. By six hours in, exactly nothing has happened and you still have no concept of where the FF13 takes place or what's going on.

Get FF7 or FF9 on the Playstation store. Better yet, get a hold of an SNES emulator and nab FF6, or pick up Chrono Trigger for the Nintendo DS.

I don't think that that's true: XIII was developed by your supposed "A-Squad" of Kitase and Nomura so take your frustration out on them instead of the "Ivalice Alliance", who yes, did make Tactics - the only good FF spin-off and probably the FF with the best story out of them all. The Ivalice Alliance has only made XII in the main series.

However, I do agree with you that XIII is a terminally flawed game and that he should definitely not use it as his entry to the series. Like you said, VI, VII and IX are much better games and better introductions.

If I've got the wrong end of the stick with what you're saying I'm sorry, but it does sound a lot like you're accusing the guys who made one of the best games ever in FF Tactics (and Vagrant Story and, in my opinion, FF XII) of making the turd sandwich that is FF XIII, which is just not true. FF XIII is made by the guys responsible for other turd sandwiches such as FF VIII and FF X.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

VII, VIII, and IX are on PSN for $10 I think. So far, XIII has been kind of a let down, but I'm almost at the "good part" where it opens up. Do NOT play Crisis Core before playing VII though. It would pretty much be a huge spoiler and probably make VII pretty confusing.

 

[Deleted]

I've never actually played a Final Fantasy game before, but I've heard a lot of good stuff, and since I just got a PS3, I was thinking of trying FFXIII.
My question (for anyone who knows a little about the series) is this:

Is number 13 a bad place to start? Should I play a few earlier ones first? Will I be completely lost by not really knowing anything about the Final Fantasy universe?

I suggest you play the PS1 (7,8,9) games to get a good feel of final fantasy, then try the SNES ones if you're into retro games. 13 is like a black seep of the series, good in its own ways but so different.

Also each game is more or less different from each other, the stories are all cmopletely different from each other, like Zelda. The only direct sequel that I know of is FF10 and FF10-2, which is not 11 or 12. Just 10-B more like.

 

[Almgandi]

If you want to have an enjoyable start into the franchise start with either 6,7,(8),9 or 10

 

[NickCaligo42]

Snip

First: Don't make this so personal. I don't know you and I don't have any beef with you, and I didn't call it a "steaming pile of shit." I called it a development nightmare, which Square-Enix has openly stated that it was. Although, yes, it is a steaming pile of shit.

Second: Tactics is a decent game. Not dissing their past projects, I'm just saying that the main series isn't their thing, which is an honest thing to say. It's just not the type of game they're comfortable designing. It's like having the guys behind the Prince of Persia games make a Grand Theft Auto title, it's a bad idea and it goes against their strengths.

Third: Kitase produced it. He didn't direct it, like he did with past games in the series. He also produces many of the other games Square makes, but that doesn't mean he's the chief creative or systems director for all of them. Nomura did the character designs for the main party members, but not any of the other characters, which fell on the FF12 character artists. The two of them are involved to the extent that they have their names attached to it, and that's basically it. I'm low on proof that Kitase wasn't as directly involved in 13 as he was in previous games, but I feel like I can be reasonably certain of that given that it shows none of the storytelling or game design trademarks of his or Nomura's past games, showing a style more akin to that of FF12 and The Last Remnant--which is the Tactics team. The original FF team as a whole, meanwhile--which is a lot more important than just the two of them--has been working on Kingdom Hearts, the FF7 spinoffs, and Versus 13. So, no, they didn't head this one up. It was definitely the FF12 team again.

Fourth: I don't blame the FF12 team, I blame CEO Yoroichi Wada, the Japanese Bobby Kotick, for his blatant mis-management of Square's assets.

Fifth: Are you aware at how angry Nomura is about the business decisions behind FF13, and how he's threatened to leave the company if Wada forces them to cross-platform Versus 13 in the middle of development? The company's not looking good right now, and I wouldn't be shocked if by the end of V13's development Nomura left for Mistwalker. The writing's on the wall. Check out the article on Versus 13 they published here about a month ago--the one where Nomura states that "although HD graphics are difficult for us to deal with, we're doing our damndest to deliver a game as good as the old ones" (paraphrasing) as opposed to FF13 director Motomu Toriyama's near-constant stream of excuses when it comes to HD graphics and the linearity of the game and its lack of content. If that wasn't an indirect slam on Toriyama, I don't know what was.

If you don't mind, now, I'd appreciate it if you edited your post so as to not publicly call me a liar.

 

[AyaReiko]

Lord, no. You'll be bored out of your wits the whole way through. FF13 has the distinction of being the second game made by "the Final Fantasy B-Squad" as I call them; the group responsible for the Tactics games rather than Nomura, Kitase, and their team, and they have no idea how to handle the main series. 12 was halfway acceptable, just had a dull plot and dull characters, but 13 was a disaster in production. They basically cut half the storyline they'd developed out of the game and Frankenstein'd together cutscenes and events from the first half with gameplay and story events from the second half, so it doesn't flow well at all and the first 20 hours have almost no important action or character development. By six hours in, exactly nothing has happened and you still have no concept of where the FF13 takes place or what's going on.

What should we have expected when the only other direction credit 13's director has is X-2?

As for the OP, AVOID FF13 AT ALL COSTS. It can best be described as a "RPG on rails". Extremely linear in every sense save for one Chapter. Just watch Yahtzee's review to get a good idea how bad the game is.

 

[Chomajig]

DON'T PLAY FF13. (Caps Lock off)
I prsonally feel let down by every single final fantasy game I have ever played (that's only FFIV for DS, FF13, FFXII Revenant Wings and Tactics Advance II). The first game I played was Tactics Advance II and the only FF game I have enjoyed. This is partly because I hate the ATB system in IV, disliked the battling and generally poor content of Revenant Wings and, well, FF13 is FF13. I would go with the crowd though, and buy the ones on PS1. However, Final Fantasy Advance II: Grimoire of the Rift (to give it's full name) was, and still is, one of my favourite games of all time and in the top 3 for DS. I know it's a spin-off, but it's got 300 sidequests! Also, great characters and incredibly deep and tactical gameplay.

 

[Axeli]

Lord, no. You'll be bored out of your wits the whole way through. FF13 has the distinction of being the second game made by "the Final Fantasy B-Squad" as I call them; the group responsible for the Tactics games rather than Nomura, Kitase, and their team, and they have no idea how to handle the main series. 12 was halfway acceptable, just had a dull plot and dull characters, but 13 was a disaster in production. They basically cut half the storyline they'd developed out of the game and Frankenstein'd together cutscenes and events from the first half with gameplay and story events from the second half, so it doesn't flow well at all and the first 20 hours have almost no important action or character development. By six hours in, exactly nothing has happened and you still have no concept of where the FF13 takes place or what's going on.

What should we have expected when the only other direction credit 13's director has is X-2?

As for the OP, AVOID FF13 AT ALL COSTS. It can best be described as a "RPG on rails". Extremely linear in every sense save for one Chapter. Just watch Yahtzee's review to get a good idea how bad the game is.

I third this.

FFXIII is a horrible game and a horrible story. You won't find a more a stupid, contrived, melodramatic and boring game.

You know, if the characters stuck with their completely over the top and two-dimensional personalities they start with instead developing into merely two-dimensional and boring characters, the plot could probably work as an unintentional comedy.