I, Final Fantasy fanboy, hated Final Fantasy XIII; confessions of a disappointed gamer.

[GundamSentinel]

FFXIII was a very good game. Maybe not for FF purists (how someone could be is beyond me, as FF has always been about reinventing itself), but to me it was. Bah, no FF fan would care what I say, as I liked both X and XII. Silly me.

 

[FinalDream]

I didn't clarify this in the article, but FF9 is actually my favourite, FF7 was my 'dawn of a new era' moment.

You see thats what I love about Final Fantasy, we all like different ones, I like 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 13. Where as I would like to travel back in time and erase 9 from existence. 13 is not perfect, probably not worth the wait but its not terrible.

 

[Noxshadow]

So why did that...that thing have to make its way into my beloved series? Not that the other characters were much better, but still....

I honestly thought you were trolling for a second there. Then I came to the horrifying revelation that you're serious.
Your beloved series?

Spoiler: Image Macro

 

[Amnestic]

FFXIII was a decent addition to the series and had no more/greater flaws than any other Final Fantasy game to date.

/FF fan
//IX was my favourite.

 

[Jon Etheridge]

I played it for about 16 hours. After sinking that amount of time into it and still being bored as hell I gave up on it. The game looked pretty, but after 16 hours of playing I should at least feel invested in the characters or the story. The only one even slightly relatable to me was Sazh. It got to a point where I felt like I was just going through the motions. Walk down a path, fight, repeat. I did enjoy the paradigm shifts and thought that was a neat new device for a fast battle system, but Final Fantasies have always relied on the story and this one didn't keep my attention.

 

[Teifi]

I, a long-term FF fan (who is in love with FF7) think that FF1 to FF10 all required quite alot of thought, battle tactics, strategy, character development (ability-wise and skill-wise), however I played 10 hours of FF13 and I came to the realization that all i was doing was holding forward and repeatedly pressing X. I haven't played it in months, since. I feel no inclination to continue it...

 

[Loves2spooge]

So why did that...that thing have to make its way into my beloved series? Not that the other characters were much better, but still....

I honestly thought you were trolling for a second there. Then I came to the horrifying revelation that you're serious.
Your beloved series?

Spoiler: Image Macro

That wasn't my quote.

 

[Mr. Purple]

I, one of the 10 people on earth who liked FF8 the most, says that he likes FF13 better than any other, having played all of them. Well, actually...It's tied with 8. Changes based on mood.

Then again, I'm the person who adored Chrono Cross, and thought that Trigger was "meh".

<color=purple>
I have not played 8 and now I feel compelled to do so. I too love XIII and most others seem to hate it. Perhaps you and I have the same tastes. :O

 

[King Kupofried]

The game is fun for what it is worth, if a friend asks me if the game is fun and worth purchasing I say "Yes, but don't expect too much". Had the game called itself anything else I probably would have enjoyed it more, but because I hold Final Fantasy up to very high standards and I am incredibly biased, I still hate it.
I hate it because it forces me to feel what I would always maintain was a completely invalid thing to feel towards JRPGs, that it feels more like watching a game than playing one.

The Paradigm system was.. interesting sounding, but an utter failure. It's only purpose I could feel was to make up for the fact that every Job had so little to do that there was no way you could possibly stand to stay on any single job for a boss battle duration. This is made even more firmly in my mind by the fact that nearly every job is given a 'Do everything, now' button. I'm sorry, there is no strategy in this system, switching jobs occasionally just to have everyone throw everything they have at it every five seconds does not make me feel like I outsmarted the enemy or exploited a specific weakness. If they let you use each individual character and force you to make decisions as quickly as the battle is going on and let you use singular abilities like the old games, there would be some strategy involved, but as it stands it just feels too much like the game is driving itself while you occasionally let it know which lane to merge onto.

 

[Loves2spooge]

It got to a point where I felt like I was just going through the motions. Walk down a path, fight, repeat. I did enjoy the paradigm shifts and thought that was a neat new device for a fast battle system, but Final Fantasies have always relied on the story and this one didn't keep my attention.

I've honestly never found myself hammering the confirm button more than I have in FFXIII. Rather than strategizing commands I was trying to get them out there as soon as possible because the system moves too fast, and as I say in the article, if they slowed it down just a little bit they could've allowed for more planning. I liked the fact it used an ATB queue as opposed to a single action, and that certain actions cost more than others, and it's a system that could've been utilized to a great extent, but instead they had to forgo it in favour of a frenzied battle.

You see thats what I love about Final Fantasy, we all like different ones, I like 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 13. Where as I would like to travel back in time and erase 9 from existence. 13 is not perfect, probably not worth the wait but its not terrible.

I've gotta say, I'm surprised; I thought being a fan of the earlier games you'd take well to IX. It was a great blend of classic character sets with modern twists, and Vivi's probably the best character in the series (next to Kefka).

 

[Loves2spooge]

The game is fun for what it is worth, if a friend asks me if the game is fun and worth purchasing I say "Yes, but don't expect too much". Had the game called itself anything else I probably would have enjoyed it more, but because I hold Final Fantasy up to very high standards and I am incredibly biased, I still hate it.
I hate it because it forces me to feel what I would always maintain was a completely invalid thing to feel towards JRPGs, that it feels more like watching a game than playing one.

The Paradigm system was.. interesting sounding, but an utter failure. It's only purpose I could feel was to make up for the fact that every Job had so little to do that there was no way you could possibly stand to stay on any single job for a boss battle duration. This is made even more firmly in my mind by the fact that nearly every job is given a 'Do everything, now' button. I'm sorry, there is no strategy in this system, switching jobs occasionally just to have everyone throw everything they have at it every five seconds does not make me feel like I outsmarted the enemy or exploited a specific weakness. If they let you use each individual character and force you to make decisions as quickly as the battle is going on and let you use singular abilities like the old games, there would be some strategy involved, but as it stands it just feels too much like the game is driving itself while you occasionally let it know which lane to merge onto.

The very fact that you can't even control your other two party members is a complete testament to what you said. The system has the basis of strategy, but it's completely lost in its almost 'mandatory' auto functions.

 

[Kajin]

I like the FF series, but don't have the attention span to ever finish one. I get to that part in every game where they say "Go forth and grind...or go get rofl-stomped by the final boss." I think it's bad game progression, and realized after FF10 that I was wasting my money on games I'd never finish.

"But its an RPG grinding is part of the experience"

To that I say, getting raped is part of the prison experience and it still sucks. There is such a thing as flow to games. Most FF games chug along at a good pace, your characters gain strength at a rate proportional to that of monsters you fight. Inevitably, however, you reach that defining boss fight where afterwords you're left with two choices: confront the final boss that you're horrifically under-geared and leveled to beat, or go grind out the levels and gear for a few days so you have only a semi-frustrating time beating it. It is a HUGE break in the story that is only meant to extend game-play hours. It's so jarring to an immersive experience that they may as well plaster a sign across the screen "THE GAME HAS ENDED. THANK YOU FOR PLAYING."

Oh my god, and don't even get me started on their constant half-assed attempts at mixing turn-based combat with real-time combat. Fuck that, you either do turn based combat or give me real-time combat where I'm not having to micro manage 3 characters while dodging the enemy's attacks.

That more or less depends on individual play style I suppose. Out of all the hours I've spent playing JRPG's I've only once ever had a problem like that, but then again I'm an OCD gamer that likes doing all the side quests and exploring as much as possible before I move on to the next major part of the story. Because of that, the bosses are usually a bit too easy for me. Final Fantasy VII and VIII especially.

I'd actually like to go and play FFVI because I've heard good things about it, but the controller I use for my rom gaming is broken and I hate using keyboard and mouse for such purposes.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

FF9 was great, FF7 was so so to ok,FF8 was a trainwreck with a midly interesting story, FF4-6 were geat.FF1-3 so so to ok,FFX was to minimalistic so so story crappy world layout, FF12 finally go the 3D world half right everything else was broken or bland. FF13 broke the world and everything is broken or bland.....

FF is the emptily of modern game design, flash + shallow + making up sht as you go and if you slap a brand name on it you will sell millions before people wake up to find it SUCKS....

 

[Trotgar]

I, who's only played Final Fantasy VI, which I liked, and VII, which I didn't really like and hated the combat system of their both aswell as Chrono Trigger's and all other games' combat systems that are similar, have always been more into WRPG's, though I have nothing against JRPG's in general, so I haven't played that much of the Japanese ones.

And if you bothered to read that "I, who..." -thingy, you can probably deduce that I have never played Final Fantasy XIII. It looks okay, but I don't have PS3, or any other console, either.

 

[Ghost]

13 was very different, but i liked it, especially after about 20 hours or so that is. It has nothing on 4, 9 and 12. Yes those are my favourite ones and I'm not 'trolling', I also think 7 is ridiculously overrated, so i guess i have very different opinions on Final Fantasy games than most people.

 

[AAA1]

I, who loves ff, and played some, (though not seven for some reason) hated 13!!!
It took me ages to actually do anything as all i was doing was hitting auto-battle to win every battle.
Then i changed to automaically let me do it.
But even then i felt the whole point of the fighting system was to change paradyms, which to me didnt satisfy my ffx needs, like being able to switch out for anyone during battle, being able to control all three people, and all having the same sphere grid.

Though i did like the story.

 

[Cade the Imperfect]

I dont know why my opinion seems to differ so much from the "norm" but i personally enjoyed ffx for about 6-10 hours before i found it dull and quit playing completely. ff7 i thought was cool and all to watch but playing it i didn't find it worth more then a rent. But ff13 i love the most out of the series, im not saying its the best game in history nothign of that sort. But my favorite in the long running numbered series for sure.

Cause ff tactics = 100% win, probably the best game ever

 

[Legion IV]

I a final fantasy fanboy whos played every FF game (Besides 3,12,10-x2) beileve final fantasy 13 to be WELL WORTH the wait as it is a masterpeice and i honestly think its my favorite game of all time now well Guilty Gear will always be the greatest game ever but FF13 is second lol.

 

[James Cassidy]

I loved Final Fantasy XIII

I haven't play a good one since Final Fantasy VIII. Final Fantasy IX was okay, but the story confused me a bit. Final Fantasy X and X-2 was....ugh.....You think Vanille's voice acting was bad....try Tidus.

I admit, FF13 wasn;t as strong as past FF games, but it was better than was was released in the past 10 years

 

[FinalDream]

It got to a point where I felt like I was just going through the motions. Walk down a path, fight, repeat. I did enjoy the paradigm shifts and thought that was a neat new device for a fast battle system, but Final Fantasies have always relied on the story and this one didn't keep my attention.

I've honestly never found myself hammering the confirm button more than I have in FFXIII. Rather than strategizing commands I was trying to get them out there as soon as possible because the system moves too fast, and as I say in the article, if they slowed it down just a little bit they could've allowed for more planning. I liked the fact it used an ATB queue as opposed to a single action, and that certain actions cost more than others, and it's a system that could've been utilized to a great extent, but instead they had to forgo it in favour of a frenzied battle.

You see thats what I love about Final Fantasy, we all like different ones, I like 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 13. Where as I would like to travel back in time and erase 9 from existence. 13 is not perfect, probably not worth the wait but its not terrible.

I've gotta say, I'm surprised; I thought being a fan of the earlier games you'd take well to IX. It was a great blend of classic character sets with modern twists, and Vivi's probably the best character in the series (next to Kefka).

I really liked the style and the return to Final Fantasy's traditional roots, but it left me cold. I did not like the story, I did not like the characters and the final cutscene was horrible. Just horrible. Apart from the nostalgia it really failed to connect with me.