Final Fantasy XIII is a beautiful underated epic. Yes, it truly is. - by Gab.

[k-ossuburb]

I'm just going over the comments here since I've never played any of the Final Fantasy games since FFVII. But with names like "Hope" and "Lightning" and a story about being slaves to gods who need them to do some kind of quest in order to find their cutie mark... or something like that. The whole thing sounds like fanfiction.

The main thing that always got me about the Final Fantasy games is how much people go on about the play time of them. I've always said that if you cut out all of the in-game and pre-rendered cutscenes you could cut that down by at least half. See, I'm a bit of a stickler for that kind of thing, the play time on a game should involve actually playing the game, not sitting down to watch a lengthy cutscene or fiddle around with menus.

 

[Grey_Focks]

The combat is supposed to be slow (Read RPG), and the system is supposed to be that complex. And I didn't rate the game on graphcis, I'm just praising them. Trust me, if you go play Crysis 1, you'll surely be amazed by the graphics, but I bet you'll get bored in a while (That is, unless you enjoy bland repetitive first person shooters... in which case, go right ahead).

a) Who says RPG combat is supposed to be slow, this isn't the 90's anymore. Oblivion, Fallout, Mass Effect, etc all prove you can still have excellent RPGs with good/decent/passable combat.

b) Really now, crysis is a bland repetitive fps? repetitive I can kinda see, but what game isn't, but I cannot take the opinion of any seriously who has played crysis and called it bland. It's more than just pretty graphics.

c) You say you didn't rate the game on graphics.....except that you did, you gave it a 10/10. Is it all you rated it on? No, but you DID rate it's graphics.

Really though, I just didn't think this was a very good review. Just about everyone I know who's played the game, including my friends who LOVE old school JRPGs, really hated how linear the first 15 hours was, and they literally had to force themselves to play through it. Also, saying it's "The most beautiful and engaging story I've ever seen" does yourself no credit. Not saying it isn't a good story, I haven't played it, but saying....that? Also, please lose the different colored words next time, they don't so much draw attention to the words as they do just hurt the readers eyes. Bold works fine.

 

[Jungy 365]

As someone who recently defended XIII on this website, this caught my eye. It's refreshing to see someone who shows his passion for a game many believed to be bad, and I applaud you for doing so. I myseld thought it was a very good game. Not a great game, as it had a few issues. If you read my comment on one the Escapist article for the recent screenshots, you'll see that I had a problem with the way the characters exaggerated their faults, making them so ridiculous (Hope blaming everything on Snow, disregarding those who actually did it, and hating him so much he wants to kill him). However, I liked the characters and the game as a whole, and found it to be thoroughly enjoyable.

 

[Palademon]

Well, I thought it was pretty good too. I don't expect all FF games to be alike. The characters didn't annoy me even though people in real life can annoy me quite easily.

"Hope's a whiny *****" I hear, and yes I can comedically call him so when he refuses to heal me, but honestly, how would you react at that age knowing you're mother got killed, you now fight monsters, are wanted, and if you don't do as the monsters say you will die? I don't care if tehy're stereotypes. As if the FF series was famous for avoiding that.

I can understand people's complaints about combat, but it still has thought involved, even if the thought isn't picking each individual action but picking a style based on the attacks in that style.

Infact I only stopped playing after about 35 hours when my guide suggested back tracking for crystarium and I said "I'll do it later then".

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I believe Bob said it best about most of the Final Fantasy system.

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

People! Auto attack wasn't an issue with the game!
You were supposed to be focusing on paradigm switching and the stagger bar.
The battle system was too complex and didn't leave enough time for attack choices, and the auto attack feature was made to compensate.
I loved the battle system, the only problem was how long it took to properly implement and introduce it.
At the beginning when the stagger bar and paradigms meant nothing, the battles were dull because there was nothing to do.

 

[feauxx]

nice review, i absolutely loved the game

 

[Dragonpit]

I can understand everything but story, which I'd actually give 9/10 for. The story was wonderful up until the very end, at which point I feel it lost itself in its meaning. Beyond that, I can agree.

 

[WolfenD]

I'm sorry but the bottom line is that most Final Fantasy games are shit. They all have bad stories and characters. And 13 is aswell. Good example Snow ,a emo child and all round weak boy in the story however as soon as he gets into a battle he can cast magic and take out armed storm troopers. The only good thing that game out of Final Fastasy is the Nine and the Crystal games that it. Overall the FF are bad JRPGs when compared to other JRPGs.

 

[TitanAtlas]

Okay, im not saying FFXIII game was a bad game, but it definitly is not an underrated epic... hell it isnt even an epic...

I dont care about graphic wise (even tough i have to say its visually beautifull), nor im picking with the soundtrack (that again... marvellous!!!).

Im not even picking with the combat (even tough i didnt like it, it was solid for many people).

Im picking it forthe lame, sappy story it has... let me be honest... its a cry baby fest every single minute... a cutscene triggers and another sad story... theres no epic feeling.. no rage or angriness... its just everyone crying and/or remembering someone else that died so they cry a little more... hell the ending even with an visually and mentally disturbing yet majestic boss, it all went to the cry baby fest...

Also 50+ hours!? Thats because you have to grind for exp and watch the goddam cutscenes that i might add, are more then gameplay itself...

For me FF13 is a solid 7.8 or a 8.0... no more then that... also no Replayability... that would mean extra or new content when you restarted your game...

 

[ServebotFrank]

I couldn't find myself able to go through FF XIII I tried but I was over all unimpressed. Then I was told that the game doesn't get "amazing" until about 20 hours in. Sorry but that's FAR too long for me to sit through. I follow the theory of some games start out not terribly great but get awesome later (Nocturne I hear is a great example and I will play it) but after about 6 hours I couldn't stand it. The combat wasn't great as all it felt like I was doing was doing was pressing the attack button and seeing whether the enemy dies or not. I hear it gets complex later but complexity is not what should be regarded as being good. That's confusing I would've preferred the Final Fantasy fights worked before.

For the linearity I'm not really angry about as all the past Final Fantasy games were still linear games. However they were open world so it gave the illusion that it was huge epic world. The airships attributed to that factor as well. The character Lighting was the most, uninteresting character I have ever seen in my life. She was portrayed as some badass tough girl with little personality other then fact she has a sister and likes her. I heard that guy with the afro and chocobo had a good story but I never got to see it. In fact I liked him as he seemed to be the only character who didn't act like a obnoxious prick. Hope weirded me out and Vanille isn't exactly fun to listen to.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Ya......like bioshock it might be deeper than the other things around today...its still in the shallow end of the kiddy pool....... I really wish square would stop using the FF name on thier dumb lil side projects......

 

[Shia-Neko-Chan]

People seem to only dislike the game because they feel they have to, really. It's hard to ignore all of the blind Square-Enix hate, just because it's the cool thing to do. Well... to what seems to be a vocal online minority, anyway. Sort of disappointing. Why can't we just give all games a chance?

People have been saying strange things about the game since it came out, like "The game has no strategy", which I can't seem to understand. I'm pretty sure quickly switching between paradigms (and making them, choosing a character, and levelling a role for each character, for that matter) for the characters' survival holds strategic value. It's actually pretty dynamic and strategic, but no one gave it a chance outside of the tutorial zone to see this. If people don't want to use the auto-attack button, then they shouldn't use it. They have an option. It's the same thing as when I was watching my cousin play Forza Motorsport 3 and he used the rewind function and said "I hate that racing games have these now" but didn't have an answer when I asked "then why did you use it?"

They also tried really hard to say the game had plotholes, when the ones they came up with were all actually non-existant. SPOILERS: ((("lol, if lightning gave away her sword, then why does she have it in the beginning?" Yeah, try looking in the first cutscene in the entire game. "Lol, if sazh shot himself in the head, why is he still alive?" Really? if he's still alive, then he didn't shoot himself in the head.)))

The music in the game was actually pretty engaging and memorable, I thought. Most of it's made by one of my favorite composers Masashi Hamauzu, and I love the way he composes music. Also, the way they inserted music, the cinematography, was amazing and gave me goosebumps a lot of the time.

I loved the world and design of ffxiii's world. it was all really beautiful and highly detailed and just the style I liked.

Honestly, though, the story had potential to be darker than it was. I was hoping for a darker story, something like FF7 dark, but I'm okay with the story as it is now, honestly. Also, I wish I understood how the characters are all just archetypes, as people continue to say.

It's okay to not like the game, but I get the feeling a lot of the people I see online only dislike it because they feel they have to. Just give this game a chance. It's actually pretty nice. Maybe not the best game ever, but it's still a nice one to have in your arsenal, I think.

 

[ameemo]

I can understand what you're saying but I completely disagree. I could literally go on for hours about the numerous things I feel were done wrong in that game,I can only give it credit for being a stunning looking game and for not having an "mp bar".
It was incredibly linear and had virtually nothing on offer in terms of side-quests,it also had the excellent idea of controlling only a single character who's death would constitute a 'game over' (I mean why even have phoenix down and revive let alone a party if they can't be used properly)
There was also the single worst case of voice acting I have ever heard it,I have never hated a 'good' character as much as Vanille..

My opinions are exactly 100% this plus lightning just did not work as a main character for me, i just could not bring myself to like her.
but like OP said, to each their own

 

[Davroth]

The story was awfully generic.

And giving the gameplay a 6/10 is far too generous imho.

It really didn't felt like playing a game, more like playing a movie.

 

[floobie]

I'm playing through it right now. I understand some of the criticisms, but they don't particularly bother me. I don't see how FFXIII can be criticized for being too linear, though, while FFX isn't. They feel pretty similar to me, overall.

However, it's definitely what I'd call an endurance game. I end up playing it in bursts. I might play it several hours at a time for a week straight, and then drop it entirely for a few weeks. There are points throughout the game, in which a lot of shit just happened, you've hit a "calm" point, and your motivation to continue immediately is gone. Though, every FF game I've played has been like this.

I personally quite like the combat system. It's fast, but still allows for a decent amount of strategy. In this case, the main strategy is in shifting paradigms, and choosing the right paradigm(s) for a given fight, as opposed to selecting specific attacks and skills for each character. However, I'd prefer to be able to take control of any character during a fight. Let the AI handle the other characters, but let me step in for whichever character I deem to be the most critical at any given moment, and make sure what needs to be done gets done. That's my main annoyance with the combat system.

The characters are, overall, pretty good. I find them all pretty relatable in their own ways. Even Vanille. Her voice acting is REALLY annoying, but I can still establish empathy with her character... mostly when she isn't talking The story and the world in general are just awesome.

With all that said, it is clearly a bit of a departure from the FF series as a whole. But, in my case, what I liked about the previous games has remained intact. I can understand other people feeling differently. It's just like when a band releases a new album. They have loads of fans, but each fan has their own reasons for liking the band. If their new album removes the element a particular fan liked the most, they probably won't like it nearly as much.

 

[Shia-Neko-Chan]

The story was awfully generic.

but how exactly was it generic at all? The only thing in the story that's often been done before was the angelic theme of the antagonist.

 

[mireko]

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.

Counter-point: The Shin Megami Tensei series has been able to make the combat feel fast and exciting despite being fully turn-based. This has as much to do with the nature of the combat mechanics as it has to do with good design.

One of the problems with Final Fantasy XIII's combat is that everything has way too much health and you deal way too little damage. There aren't many vulnerabilities you can exploit to cut down on the time you'll spend in combat short of going through the dull task of staggering everything you meet, and you end up standing there for a while, hacking away at your enemies without much effect.

No matter how you look at it, that's kind of boring.

Still, I liked the combat after I got to the part where paradigm shifting became the main focus. It's an interesting system and definitely something worth expanding upon for the sequel, but in FFXIII it is undeniably slower than many other RPGs. I'm not even sure why they built it like this, except maybe to balance the difficulty.

[small]On the other hand, I hated everyone who wasn't Lightning and thought the story was bland, poorly written (that dialogue!) and overall bad. We might just have to agree to disagree.[/small]

Anyway, you say this is your favorite game on the PS3. Have you played Demon's Souls, Valkyria Chronicles or Resonance of Fate? The first two alone justify the expense of the console, and the third isn't bad either.

 

[Risingblade]

I actually enjoyed the game very much till it became a grindfest. That's the only reason I haven't finished it

 

[CJ1145]

I can't agree with you because of Hope.

Yes, just Hope. That little fucker was so annoying I'll never touch that game again. Not even promises of epic stories, rewarding gameplay, or even lesbians coerced me to return to it. I will never, so long as I live, stand to hear him ***** about Snow or his mother.