Final Fantasy XIII is a beautiful underated epic. Yes, it truly is. - by Gab.
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when did i say i didnt like most rpgs? i enjoyed oblivion, fallout, borderlands, fable one and two, and guild wars. while thats not MOST rpgs, it enough for me to have an opinion on them.gabmed said:
I somewhat agree, I loved the story and the music and I could see past the obnoxious voice acting to the likable characters underneath, but my problems were as follows:
1.) There was NO GAMEPLAY whatsoever. Every battle was like a cutscene where you have to mash the "Play" button every 20 seconds. The "Active Time Battle System" is clearly something that Square Enix should just let go of for current generation games. It doesn't work with current graphics. But it's ok for portables.
2.) The maps were all linear corridors until you get to Gran Pulse. But when you do, they quickly hurry you out of the area almost like they're ashamed of it and put you back into linear corridors until the game ends, whereupon they let you go back to Gran Pulse like it's some kind of optional reward.
3.) The weapon upgrade system. It just didn't make sense. I can accept that you have to use scrap parts to improve your weapon, that makes sense. The weapons have levels. But the levels go on FOREVER and the only way to transform them into an overall better weapon is through the use of an item. But even the strategy guide won't tell me which damn item I need! I could accept if the weapons transformed at say, level 10 and all I have to do is pour resources into them, but no, the weapons transform when I hold the magic rock of obscurity to it, levels be damned. And the guide doesn't mention the rock or even have it as part of the items list. And I got the "Special Edition" Guide!
These 3 reasons are why I personally beat FFXIII and then never turned it on again.
1.) There was NO GAMEPLAY whatsoever. Every battle was like a cutscene where you have to mash the "Play" button every 20 seconds. The "Active Time Battle System" is clearly something that Square Enix should just let go of for current generation games. It doesn't work with current graphics. But it's ok for portables.
2.) The maps were all linear corridors until you get to Gran Pulse. But when you do, they quickly hurry you out of the area almost like they're ashamed of it and put you back into linear corridors until the game ends, whereupon they let you go back to Gran Pulse like it's some kind of optional reward.
3.) The weapon upgrade system. It just didn't make sense. I can accept that you have to use scrap parts to improve your weapon, that makes sense. The weapons have levels. But the levels go on FOREVER and the only way to transform them into an overall better weapon is through the use of an item. But even the strategy guide won't tell me which damn item I need! I could accept if the weapons transformed at say, level 10 and all I have to do is pour resources into them, but no, the weapons transform when I hold the magic rock of obscurity to it, levels be damned. And the guide doesn't mention the rock or even have it as part of the items list. And I got the "Special Edition" Guide!
These 3 reasons are why I personally beat FFXIII and then never turned it on again.
Well, people will obviously disagree with me, but those aren't RPGs. Those are action RPGs, and one of the best, also. I know it seems silly to point that, but it's quite a difference for me. You want RPG? Classic, unaldutered RPG? You go to Chronno Trigger. You go to Final Fantasy 1 and (unfortunatly)2. You go to Final Fantasy 10. A classic RPG is turn-based, and you play it alone. At least, in my opinion. Anyone who disagrees can point it out.Jegsimmons said:
I hate this game for so many, mainly the story, really, really, really annoying characters (snow is the biggest douche in the universe) and the battle system but the main problem is the fact that it said final fantasy on the cover. If this had just been a normal jrpg I may have just said it was ok and moved on but as this is a ff it has the problem of having to be compared with its predecessors and compared to the previous FF's i was shit.
I did not like x-2 or 12 very much either but at least x-2 had the happy ending I wanted at the end of X and 12 was a return of the jedi rip off and lets face it there are worse things to rip off.
Why they have decided to make XIII-2 rather than concentrate on FF verses XIII that looks like it might actually be good I have no idea.
I did not like x-2 or 12 very much either but at least x-2 had the happy ending I wanted at the end of X and 12 was a return of the jedi rip off and lets face it there are worse things to rip off.
Why they have decided to make XIII-2 rather than concentrate on FF verses XIII that looks like it might actually be good I have no idea.
The story could be the best thing in the world ever, the problem is the combat. I know square are better than this, FFIV has to be one of my favorite RPG's, the best thing was the fact that the combat whizzed by and didn't get in the way of the story. Also the characters are bloody irritating beyond belief all having the horrible JRPG game speech problem where they don't actually talk to each other, rather make dramatic statements at each other making very little sense. Put it all together and you get a game so long and boring and just generally not as good as the RPG's we are treated to today like ME, Fallout, Oblivion, Jade empire and of course KotOR
It's a nice playable movie, it isn't a good rpg. It is too linear and constrained and although I can see that characters are purely an opinion I thought they were really horrible.
You gave they gameplay a 6/10 that should be your overall score because tbh just because a game is pretty doesn't mean it's good. Good RPG's in my opinion are Tales of Vesperia, Suikoden, Skies of Arcadia etc. You know that ones that actully let you have a look around, find secrets and get involved with the world your in rather than funnel you down a corridor for another cutscene for an entire game. In ff13 they sometimes don't even bother with a side path for a random treasure chest :<.
Exploration is a big thing for me in an rpg, so I guess, sadly, Final Fantasy isn't for me anymore.
I also didn't think Leona Lewis' song was that bad tbh she's a pretty amazing singer.
You gave they gameplay a 6/10 that should be your overall score because tbh just because a game is pretty doesn't mean it's good. Good RPG's in my opinion are Tales of Vesperia, Suikoden, Skies of Arcadia etc. You know that ones that actully let you have a look around, find secrets and get involved with the world your in rather than funnel you down a corridor for another cutscene for an entire game. In ff13 they sometimes don't even bother with a side path for a random treasure chest :<.
Exploration is a big thing for me in an rpg, so I guess, sadly, Final Fantasy isn't for me anymore.
I also didn't think Leona Lewis' song was that bad tbh she's a pretty amazing singer.
Glad someone else loved this game as much as i did. Only thing you didn't give enough time to was the utterly awesome tactical combat system.
Utterly seriously Square took the only good thing from X2 and ran with it, making the most awesome RPG combat system i have ever seen, everything else about the game could have been crap and the combat system would have kept me coming back. Also the level capping and full heal after each fight were bold moves that improved it still more by giving square the potential to make every battle a fight for your life, not a 'junk fight' just there to sap your resources.
Utterly seriously Square took the only good thing from X2 and ran with it, making the most awesome RPG combat system i have ever seen, everything else about the game could have been crap and the combat system would have kept me coming back. Also the level capping and full heal after each fight were bold moves that improved it still more by giving square the potential to make every battle a fight for your life, not a 'junk fight' just there to sap your resources.
an action RPG isn't an RPG....so i geuss half-life isn't a first person shooter because its a PUZZLE FPS. seriously, that made little to NO sense what so ever. an RPG is ROLL PLAYING GAMES, in those games you take on a roll and PLAY THE GAME. they are the very deffinition of an RPG.gabmed said:
I completely agree with the third and the second. Although the third is the thing I most hate on this game, the second I see as a positive factor, really. Linearity isn't that bad, as long as you enjoy the ride. Kinda like a rollercoaster: You don't spend the whole ride hoping for a way to get off the tracks, you just enjoy the same ride 2 or 3 times before it stops and you feel like going again.OrokuSaki said:
Wait, that might be a little too personal to be generalised...
ANYHOW... the first one... that's actually a weird one.
People keep saying that the game is just pressing the auto-fight button and done. It's an interactive movie, nothing more.
Well, wait, what? Have you TRIED doing that in chapter 5 or 6? If you even think of doing it, you'll end up on the ground crying for your dear life. Seriously. You'll have to use a different skill each round, therefore making the Auto-Battle a gambling system. If you don't believe me, I give you a challenge: Find me a later-game battle on youtube that is beaten only using auto-battle.
It's new. It's different. The reason why Final Fantasy games have ran so long is because they don't depend on their past games. SE can do whatever the hell they want with each new game, because they are all just new games. They're made by the same company, they have common themes, they have general themes to follow, but they're still new games regardless.Gizmo1990 said:
Also, Versus looks like it's gunna be stellar. I do wish they'd get moving on it.
And this is part of the problem, people are judging it as a Final Fantasy Game, not as a RPG. I do agree it is a good game, I do think some things could of been done better, but, then again, there are always going to be some things that could of been done better.gabmed said:
Ah... then excuse me, I'll get back to playing Bulletstorm, one of the best role-playing games of all times.Jegsimmons said:
What? You take on a role and play the game! Isn't that the definition of RPG?
Uh, duh, no. Also... yeah, I should've explained it better. RPG's are divided in many different areas, Action RPG's such as those ones ARE RPGs, but not the other way around. There are so many RPGs in the world your mind would implode. XIII isn't one of those that you mentioned. It's kind of unfair to compare to those.
Also, Half-Life is more of a First Person Puzzler (FPP), but now I'm just trying to tease you. =P
I beat the whole game more or less using auto battle. With the exception of that one fight in the arena..... It was the last boss of the game the first time you fight him. That was the only time I didn't use auto-battle. (Mostly because the morons kept throwing lightning at a lightning-resistant enemy).gabmed said:
The roller coaster analogy makes sense, except that this is Final Fantasy, since game 1 there has always been an open world to explore and hundreds of things to do in it. I can understand that linearity is good for the story part of the game, but after the story ends only having a small open world seems like a major downside.
I can understand wanting to keep on track, I usually do in FF games, until the story ends and then I like to run around and solve the 10,000 puzzles and find the Ultimate Weapons. Both of which are denied me in this latest installment.
although i enjoy it, there are some great issuesL the gameplay is non-existent and most importantly: the characters are god forsakenly awfull. most i don't care about, one has the most annoying voice ever (we all know who), true some have a sort of character development, but its really forced. they are really bland, except shaz(or something) he is a character who is normal.
I liked the story too; I really don't see how so many people have such an issue with the story. It's epic, it's heart-warming where it matters, and (most of) the characters were pretty I thought.
What I didn't like was everything else, pretty much. I'll give the graphics and music a pass, because the graphics are simply fantastic, even though I'd expect nothing less in a FF game, and the music was okay considering it wasn't composed by Nobuo Uematsu. I actually completely understand what they were trying to do with the gameplay, and I think they succeeded; I just didn't like it.
I could talk for a day about how and why I hated the batte mechanic, but the worst part about the whole game, the absolute worst part, was the world.
FFXIII actually takes place in two worlds, Cocoon and Gran Pulse, and amazingly enough, they managed the incredible feat of making both seem extremely tiny. The linearity I could put up with, as I felt that was only going to be present for so long until the world eventually opened up. But when it finally did open up, turns out you were on a whole other world anyway, without the option to return to all those places in the beginning anyway.
So, in effect, you end up sprinting fast as you can through Cocoon, and when you get to Gran Pulse, all those locations are blocked off. Where's the scope? What have I achieved? The one thing I loved about Final Fantasy games was the ability to go back and obliterate all those things you used to have trouble with, and along the way, there'd be tons of sidequests, extra items to gather, minigames, all that awesome stuff you'd find in a FF game. Except XIII. There'd no sense of progression relative to the actual world.
And what end-game content that actually was present was woeful. Basically, all it amounted to was fighting mosters, and a few minor Chocobo missions and something to do with an old robot toy or something. On top of that, the only locations where this took place was on a plain, in a cave, in a ruined tower, in a ruined city and in some kind of segmented extension of the plain.
I could go on for ages about how annoyed I was about this game. FFXII, which was the first mainstream FF game where the whole world wasn't actually open to exploration, felt ten times bigger than FFXIII, and FFXIII took place on two whole f**king planets.
TL;DR: I feel wholeheartedly disinclined to agree with your 8/10 for replayability.
What I didn't like was everything else, pretty much. I'll give the graphics and music a pass, because the graphics are simply fantastic, even though I'd expect nothing less in a FF game, and the music was okay considering it wasn't composed by Nobuo Uematsu. I actually completely understand what they were trying to do with the gameplay, and I think they succeeded; I just didn't like it.
I could talk for a day about how and why I hated the batte mechanic, but the worst part about the whole game, the absolute worst part, was the world.
FFXIII actually takes place in two worlds, Cocoon and Gran Pulse, and amazingly enough, they managed the incredible feat of making both seem extremely tiny. The linearity I could put up with, as I felt that was only going to be present for so long until the world eventually opened up. But when it finally did open up, turns out you were on a whole other world anyway, without the option to return to all those places in the beginning anyway.
So, in effect, you end up sprinting fast as you can through Cocoon, and when you get to Gran Pulse, all those locations are blocked off. Where's the scope? What have I achieved? The one thing I loved about Final Fantasy games was the ability to go back and obliterate all those things you used to have trouble with, and along the way, there'd be tons of sidequests, extra items to gather, minigames, all that awesome stuff you'd find in a FF game. Except XIII. There'd no sense of progression relative to the actual world.
And what end-game content that actually was present was woeful. Basically, all it amounted to was fighting mosters, and a few minor Chocobo missions and something to do with an old robot toy or something. On top of that, the only locations where this took place was on a plain, in a cave, in a ruined tower, in a ruined city and in some kind of segmented extension of the plain.
I could go on for ages about how annoyed I was about this game. FFXII, which was the first mainstream FF game where the whole world wasn't actually open to exploration, felt ten times bigger than FFXIII, and FFXIII took place on two whole f**king planets.
TL;DR: I feel wholeheartedly disinclined to agree with your 8/10 for replayability.
Hey I agree. FFXIII was severely underrated.
People who over criticise it for being linear etc probably shouldn't be playing JRPGs, I don't mind a bit of linearity, the main problem in this area was the length it took to introduce all elements of gameplay, making gameplay very boring at the beginning (It's great by the end).
The other only gripe I had with the game was the ridiculous cheesiness of the script (definitely not aided by the dubbing).
It received a certain stigma in the west for some reason, they loved it in Japan.
Overall good game and I agree with most of your review.
People who over criticise it for being linear etc probably shouldn't be playing JRPGs, I don't mind a bit of linearity, the main problem in this area was the length it took to introduce all elements of gameplay, making gameplay very boring at the beginning (It's great by the end).
The other only gripe I had with the game was the ridiculous cheesiness of the script (definitely not aided by the dubbing).
It received a certain stigma in the west for some reason, they loved it in Japan.
Overall good game and I agree with most of your review.
Well really that can be summed up by "When the new Final Fantasy came out, I was literally in "meh" state. I'd just finished Bioshock 2 and was sure no game could ever top it.". Truth be told I am without a doubt a fanboy when it comes to Final Fantasy, I own a huge collection of FF merch, all the games of the main series and most of the spin off games, but in all honesty X was the last good game in the main series, not including 11 because it was an MMO, XII was playable because as linear as it was and as depressing as most of the characters were it was unique, XIII on the other hand just seems to lose everything good about the series and instead gained shiney graphics. Even Final Fantasy I has cities for gods sake!