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

[Shoggoth2588]

I, a Final Fantasy fan who thought IX was better than VIII and yet, liked VIII better than the rest, was also extremely disappointed by Final Fantasy XIII. It's like hanging out at a bar, eyeing an incredibly beautiful woman. Then once you go up and talk to her, she starts banging her head on the bar and jumps out of the nearest window to appease the hive of robot crab-people living in her brain. It wasn't just that the game play was bad but the fantasy elements were minimal. As I've bitched before, a majority of the encounters are with either soldiers, animals or, robots. Even the Eidelons [the term used in the much better FFIX for summoned creatures] were all transforming robo-beasts. I got to Chapter 11, the supposed 'good chapter' and met nothing but an aggravated sigh of frustration from more of the same swamp-water I've already waded through. I hope the games I reserved, using the credit earned by trading in that game, are not as disappointing...

 

[Loves2spooge]

To be honest, I thought Tidus was far more likeable as a character, plus he ultimately had more depth. Lightning as a lead character is quite frankly horrible, not one redeeming feature. To be fully honest, she's quite the *****.

I think you need to look at this scene again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU8-e-C4Uy0

At least Vanille has a reason to be...avoiding and seems out of place because she was trying to hide something. These two however are just annoying and stupid.

Yeah, granted, that's a stupid scene, but at least it acknowledges the absurdity behind it, and even has a little charm to it. I can watch that and crack a smile, but when it's a scene with Vanille in FF13 it's just *cringe* all the way. If even ONE character in FF13 noted how annoying Vanille could be, it would've added some layer of humanity to it, but no, they were just as they were and nothing more; one dimensional. Even Vanille's back story didn't add much to her, perhaps it was poor storytelling or the fact I simply didn't like the character. Either way it didn't work.

 

[Thaius]

I, who is still catching up with the older entries in the series but still considers Final Fantasy to be my favorite game series of all time, loved Final Fantasy XIII for it's intuitive battle system (my personal favorite of the series) and it's highly personal and character-driven storyline. The story could have done better on the epic, grand narrative scale, but I'd rather err toward the character-driven than make the horrific mistake that XII did by having too much story and next to no character development.

My favorites are still VI and VII (tied for first), but XIII is up there with X for me, right in second place.

 

[ckam]

It's one of those hit-or-miss games. Y'know, just like XII.

 

[Estarc]

Auto-battle did ruin it a bit, but I must admit when it came to later in the game, having an auto-chain button for playing as a ravager was hella useful, considering the amount of spells you need to juggle.

I wasn't complaining that Auto-Battle was there, I was complaining about the battle system as a whole. Certainly, within Final Fantasy XIII's battle system Auto-Battle is a godsend, but that's the problem. Two characters are at all times controlled by uncustomisable AI (sometime poor AI). You cannot even switch characters if you want to use, say, a specific buff with one of your non-leader characters.

Another example is that in the more intense battles, the Medic AI falls sort. They only heal back to green level HP, and then cast the cure spell one at a time. If I were controlling them myself, I'd continuously spam Cura and Curaja. It is simply the most efficient.

 

[twaddle]

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.

if you don't like the grind my friend i have 2 words for you:Cheat. codes. (note i have never used cheats on a ff game but i admit the grind does get tedious.)

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

I, a gamer since the age of two, have yet to play Final Fantasy XIII in spite of knowing a vast majority about it; confession it will not be superior to Final Fantasy X in any way because that game was epic.

To further elaborate, Final Fantasy XIII is essentially the definition of a hit or miss title in the RPG genre, albeit JRPGs in their entirety could be argued to this extent. Nonetheless, Square attempted a different sense of direction which inevitably led to controversy. At the core basis, FFXIII is no less linear than any previous title in the series, instead it simply does not attempt to masquerade its aforementioned linearity in comparison to its predecessors. FFVII may have possessed an open world however you were still regulated to a specific location to advance the plot, you were limited at various intervals as to what was allowed, with some locations have no actual necessity until you were suppose to have advanced that far.

I believe the primary reason - which I concede is not the case here, however bear with my generalization - is people who fancied Final Fantasy XII, believed Square was venturing into the open world allure akin to the Western RPG games, such as Jade Empire or Mass Effect. Thus the return to linearity, story-telling and character focus erupted a debate between the already split fanbase. From a personal standpoint, while I have not played the game myself, I can offer something of an opinion given my existing knowledge of the game. I agree the restriction to the gamer has breached the preverbal limit, in not allowing you to even establish your party until nigh the conclusion of the game.

Regardless, I ponder as to whether or not FFXIII would have been better having not retained the Final Fantasy title.

 

[twaddle]

personally my hope is for ff 13 versus. i lost hope for 13 the moment tetsuya nomura said "i wanted to make a female Cloud." (i like ff7 but square enix has beaten this dead horse to bloody hell and shoved several large spikey red hot steel handled brooms up it's arse.)

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

personally my hope is for ff 13 versus. i lost hope for 13 the moment tetsuya nomura said "i wanted to make a female Cloud." (i like ff7 but square enix has beaten this dead horse to bloody hell and shoved several large spikey red hot steel handled brooms up it's arse.)

If you play the game or do any research, Lightning is scarcely at all similar to Cloud. Appearance wise, yes they possess similarities. Personality was, I believe Lightning may be the superior of the two and are ultimately to distinctly different characters.

 

[James Cassidy]

Yeah, granted, that's a stupid scene, but at least it acknowledges the absurdity behind it, and even has a little charm to it. I can watch that and crack a smile, but when it's a scene with Vanille in FF13 it's just *cringe* all the way. If even ONE character in FF13 noted how annoying Vanille could be, it would've added some layer of humanity to it, but no, they were just as they were and nothing more; one dimensional. Even Vanille's back story didn't add much to her, perhaps it was poor storytelling or the fact I simply didn't like the character. Either way it didn't work.

And Tidus wasn't one dimensional? Yuna wasn't one dimensional? Perhaps it was you who just didn't like the character period. I saw more personality with a ham sandwich than I did with Tidus or Yuna.

Tidus didn't even have a backstory he was a dream some god made up while sleeping. (Sorry I am not wrapping this in spoilers. If you haven't played the game by now that is your lose.) That's as bad as when you watch a TV show and the final episode is the main character waking up to reveal that the whole series was nothing, but a dream.

I am not saying Vanille was the greatest character ever written, but she is not the worst either. What about Vaan from Final Fantasy 12? A gender confused boy who wanted to...wait, what was Final Fantasy 12 about? I don't even remember what Final Fantasy 12 was about and I played the damn game. Something about sky pirates or something. BTW, Final Fantasy 12 is by far the weakest in the whole series. I think even you can agree that it makes FF13 look like Final Fantasy 7.

If you can watch the laughing scene between Tidus and Yuna and actually crack a smile at that.....wow. I had to turn the game off it was that bad. "Really? They really wrote that in?" It wasn't even funny as a mockery.

I guess we can only agree to disagree.

 

[BladesofReason]

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".

Dude, I don't remember making a new name and posting this under it, but those are my exact thoughts!

I thought XIII was good, and a nice attempt at changing things up will trying to rehabilitate the series from X, X-2 and XII

 

[James Cassidy]

Jesus christ dude, I forgot how painful that scene was. I think X is ok simply for the gameplay but there isn't a single character I could relate to or genuinely like.

Yeah I didn't play the game after that. I facepalmed at it.

I still think FF8 was the best. Followed closely by FF7. FF7 changed the way the games were being made, but FF8 improved on those aspect and created something perfect. Perfect story, perfect characters, everything.

Some might say Squall was stupid in terms of how oblivious he was about Rinoa, but that was he character development that made him special. He had to open up by the end to her which made it more romantic.

 

[Xerosch]

Maybe the problem was that you followed the production for so long the game couldn't live up to what you expected?

 

[Nmil-ek]

XIII feels empty just empty y'know I can stand linearity hell Final Fantasy X is about as linear as it gets and I enjoyed it, but the game world feels so damned lonley and static despite everything being super generated HD bloom out the arse particle effect wonders. Why is there nothing ot interact with, why are there no towns, why can i not backtrack, why instead of linear in terms of progression did you go go linear in terms of overall design remember the calm lands from FFX huuuuge area but still a straight a to b. Even the small touches like an airship to talk with your pary members or shop npcs it's all missing.

The battle system is meh far too easy and yet far too fidgety you never end up using half the shit available to you just endlessly spamming the same moves or auto battle. And the godamned development is actually weaker than bloody 12 why did you do 80% of the background info in a fricking dossier?!? Do they have any idea how pacing works, how immersion breaking it is to have to stop the flow of a story to read up on terms like fal'cie I would have prefered to have exposition shoveled at me anything bar a freaking dossier.

 

[Loves2spooge]

Yeah, granted, that's a stupid scene, but at least it acknowledges the absurdity behind it, and even has a little charm to it. I can watch that and crack a smile, but when it's a scene with Vanille in FF13 it's just *cringe* all the way. If even ONE character in FF13 noted how annoying Vanille could be, it would've added some layer of humanity to it, but no, they were just as they were and nothing more; one dimensional. Even Vanille's back story didn't add much to her, perhaps it was poor storytelling or the fact I simply didn't like the character. Either way it didn't work.

And Tidus wasn't one dimensional? Yuna wasn't one dimensional? Perhaps it was you who just didn't like the character period. I saw more personality with a ham sandwich than I did with Tidus or Yuna.

Tidus didn't even have a backstory he was a dream some god made up while sleeping. (Sorry I am not wrapping this in spoilers. If you haven't played the game by now that is your lose.)

I am not saying Vanille was the greatest character ever written, but she is not the worst either. What about Vaan from Final Fantasy 12? A gender confused boy who wanted to...wait, what was Final Fantasy 12 about? I don't even remember what Final Fantasy 12 was about and I played the damn game. Something about sky pirates or something. BTW, Final Fantasy 12 is by far the weakest in the whole series. I think even you can agree that it makes FF13 look like Final Fantasy 7.

If you can watch the laughing scene between Tidus and Yuna and actually crack a smile at that.....wow. I had to turn the game off it was that bad. "Really? They really wrote that in?" It wasn't even funny as a mockery.

I guess we can only agree to disagree.

No, they had depth, that revelation with Tidus at the end was great, Yuna has a personality beyond her task, unlike Lightning who is very much based around her task. Tidus and Yuna were likeable, they were better written and the story drove them. X had a great story, whereas XIII was just flat and uninspired. As for Final Fantasy XII, I agree, Vaan didn't really stand out much as a main character, but characters like Balthier, Fran and Basch really redeemed it. The main element that redeemed XII though was that it did have a good story, and the battle system went as deep as you wanted it to go. It wasn't the best of the series, but next to XIII, it's a winner in my eyes.

No, I don't expect to come to a consensus; clearly with the replies I've gotten there are lovers and haters, but different strokes for different folks. The article's an opinion piece, so it's open for debate, but the way I see it, Final Fantasy XIII stands as a failure in the series, and a failure that shouldn't have happened.

 

[Zetsubou-Sama]

This surely cannot be worse than FF XII, the game that had no plot, no characters, and had all that political gibberish that wasn't in the least entertaining only confusing and trying to pass off the game as complex. The same game with the huge ass map with barely anything to do in it except go from A to B. And a battle system that thrives on you gathering all of your limits to bust them out, while at the same time allow every character in the game to use anything they want without the least uniqueness to each.

Only Numerical FF I didn't finish.

 

[Loves2spooge]

...why did you do 80% of the background info in a fricking dossier?!? Do they have any idea how pacing works, how immersion breaking it is to have to stop the flow of a story to read up on terms like fal'cie I would have prefered to have exposition shoveled at me anything bar a freaking dossier.

I completely neglected to mention that; yes, what an unbelievably stupid method of storytelling; document what you've just heard and hope it makes more sense than the bad writing. At least XII was concise with its dialogue and storytelling. Worst of all, it's C-rate writing masquerading as a grand tale.

 

[KwaggaDan]

Final Fantasy XIII can be summarised with the following simile: the gamer was the annoying fat kid, and Final Fantasy a similarity aged neighbour. And Final Fantasy's mom forced it to play with the gamer kid. So FF did that, but it made the gamer feel unwelcome every step of the way. From the annoyingly loud footsteps up and including having the most annoying male protagonist Snow and second place Tidus wannabe Hope...

 

[Dexiro]

Not talking to the OP in particular, but love/hate threads about FF13 are getting old D:

The FF games are good for different reasons.
Personally i liked FF13 as more of an interactive film. You didn't play a big part in the direction of the story, but it was fun getting past the obstacles and the scenery was amazing.
It wasn't much more linear than most games, just people made a point of it because of the shape of the maps. I can't help but think if the paths crossed over each other or they added some sharp U-turns people wouldn't complain so much, but it'd be purely aesthetic.

Then other FF games excel for the story, some for the gameplay mechanics and for the flexibility/exploration. And people either love or hate whatever makes a particular FF game good, it's just how it is.