Final Fantasy XIII: The Escapist's opinons.

[Cuppa Tetleys]

FFXIII has received extremely mixed reviews, from absolute masterpiece, to downright boring waste of time. I, personally, still haven't finished it or played it for a while; I played (agonizingly) till the 'good bit' Gran Pulse, milled around there and did most of the side missions, then went on to complete the game.

And then stopped.

I just couldn't take it anymore; it was so repetitive, and by the end (even though I'd trained up in Gran Pulse doing side missions) the enemies were so hard that it took me a full 10 minutes to beat each group you encountered individually. And don't get me started on the boss battles; they just take the piss - not unreasonable to spend almost an hour on and then die due a cheap shot at your party leader! Frustrating!!!

In all, I enjoyed the side missions or 'additional content' of the game...more than the actual game itself, so I was wondering if anyone has similar feelings or can tell me if it's worth finishing.

 

[MakeLoveNotWar]

-snip-.

Yeah, my experience exactly.. Even the same emotions as you about it :\

 

[MakeLoveNotWar]

I mean, like any game it has it's moments. I did enjoy the entire Sunleth Waterscape area.. After a while the game just stopped doing it for me though and I can't get back in to it.

 

[The Cheezy One]

I haven't even been able to watch the entire trailer without cringing. The game is somehow better, but still a bit 'power of friendship'

 

[Casual Shinji]

It was pretty terrible.

The story was an incomprihensible mess, the characters were beyond ridiculous (Vanille taking the cake), the crafting system was pointless busy work and the linearity was atrocious.

Say what you will about FF12, atleast there was stuff to do.

I liked the Paradigms though, but that's really the only thing about it that was good.

 

[Akihiko]

Well. The monsters in the Gran pulse main area, Archylite Steppes or soemthing along those lines, aren't meant to be beaten until the final chapter and post game. If you go to any of the next areas, either the side area which you can get to from the ship wreckage(You get extra cutscenes and some of the cith stones are there), or the next story dungeon Mah'haraba(I think that's the name...) they aren't much more difficult than the enemies you found in the previous dungeon in chapter 10, not including the Juggernaut there which again, you aren't meant to defeat.

I dunno. If you don't like the game already then honestly I don't think playing the game any further would change your mind. It's more of the same in terms of gameplay, except more story is revealed and ofcourse the ending(Although I thought the ending was absolutely atrocious).

Personally I really enjoyed it, but it would seem on the escapist I am part of a minority.

 

[Flamezdudes]

I really liked it, but I guess I'm in the minority.

Same here. I really enjoyed it for the most part, especially the gameplay and soundtrack. Vanille and Hope could get annoying sometimes though, however I don't think it deserves all the hate it gets.

 

[Sassafrass]

This review sums up what I think off it. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.203989] As it's my review of it. /Self plug.

Anyway, I enjoyed my time with FF XIII. I no longer own it as I traded it in after completing it for a second time and finishing most of the Marks. It wasn't the best FF game ever (I think that is FFX. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.166262]) but it was certainly a good fun game. Glad I got it.

 

[Ryuo]

I really liked it, but I guess I'm in the minority.

I'll be in this minority.
I liked 13, while I will admit there were other FF's that were better, this isn't the place for that.

 

[Trogdor1138]

I'm up to Chapter 11 and have been playing it for a few weeks, I was surprised to really like the game a lot after being turned off by all the stuff I'd heard about it. I'm only now starting to get slightly bored with it but am content to play through the rest of the game and complete the story.

I can see definite flaws I have with the game and I can understand the criticism, but it got too much crap, I think it's a very good game.

I'd type more but I can't be bothered right now and am tired >_>

 

[LightspeedJack]

I'm sick of seeing threads about this game. It always goes like this: Me and a few others say we like it and the vast majority shout "ARRG ITS TEH LINEARS!!!!" We get it, can we move on? Final Fantasy XIV now that's a piece of shit.

 

[Danzaivar]

I've not actually played this one (Officially gave up on the series at 12), but the fact that within a month the price had gone down, and you can comfortably pick it up for under £20 brand new kind of tells me it's not a great game. As opposed to say, Red Dead Redemption which is still selling at £40 even though it's older than dirt by now.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

I really liked it, but I guess I'm in the minority.

Same here. I really enjoyed it for the most part, especially the gameplay and soundtrack. Vanille and Hope could get annoying sometimes though, however I don't think it deserves all the hate it gets.

I didn't even find them that annoying. Once Hope stopped whining and decided Snow needed to be stabbed in the face I warmed up to him pretty quickly.

He redeemed himself at that part, but both of them were still annoying as heck to me (Hope started parroting what everyone else said on revelations throughout the story to sound more "leader-like", and Snow was still that mindless "Hero's don't need plans!" tangent). Though otherwise, I was one of the ones that liked the game as well, save perhaps the obvious grind part of Gran Pulse that could take nearly 30 hours to get anywhere productive. The graphics were orgasmic, if anything.

But by far, my most favorite character is still Lightning (Completely a surprise, I know), of course.

 

[Quicksilver_Phoenix]

I liked it, though I haven't finished it because the gameplay is so repetitive.

Still, I enjoyed the story and visiting all the different locations well enough to finish it eventually.

 

[Taynas]

I'm really enjoying this game a lot more then I have enjoyed any other JRPG for a long time. The combat is fast and challenging. The plot is less about defeating some big baddie and more about a group of people dealing with a death sentence/curse. Sure the characters have highly violent and dramatic reactions to everything but I feel that the context of their situation helps to explain that. Also, while the halls did wear on me at some points, halls are better then thinking you can go anywhere but actually being able to do nothing but follow the plot from city to city.

 

[Larnx]

I myself played up to about Chapter 5, and helped my best friend complete it. Every damn hour of the 40 hours spend I swore, complained and nagged about it being terrible. And frankly, I couldn't disagree with myself. From a silly battle-system which pretty much teabagged everything good about XII's and the characters...*Shudder*. If XV is gonna continue on the same path as XIII I'm sure as hell ain't buying it.

 

[TheRobotandtheBeast]

I liked Xiii, but it felt REALLY empty. You witness an entire population in cocoon but you still feel that your group are the only ones really alive.

It also ended up being terribly arse heavy.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Loved the combat, liked the story around the Sazh focused middle.

But mostly, I liked the fact that every fight was a challenge, and you couldn't just grind your way out of it.

THE GAME DOES NOT PLAY ITSELF. After the beginning, at least. In the VERY beginning, it does play itself. But once you get the paradigms, you have to start paying attention. I didn't care much about not being able to choose your party until half-way in, as your team was linked to the narrative and changing by the chapter.

In most of the fights, you're switching between paradigms, quickly and constantly re-evaluating the situation to determine the best course of action.