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

[Declan Driver]

I am a fan of FF games and I like how they are at least trying somthing new with the battle system seeing as every game today is getting faster paced. Saying that why the designers decided to make every character shine a colour during each paradigm shift AND get the camera into some action positions over each character thinking this totally awesome is beyond me.

Lets face it, they are trying somthing new and sure it didnt work it out to everybodys liking but trial and error takes more than 2 games. Saying that the sotry line was an acid enduced coma, the characters didnt make any sense and the cinematics.... your not even giving us a chance to play the game!!!! But i suppose in this case that wasnt a bad idea...

 

[T-004]

Started with 7 and loved it.
Became obsessed with Tactics.
Was distrustful of 8 till I played it and then adored it.
Tried 9 and found it entertaining.
Enjoyed 10 thoroughly, even enjoyed 10/2.
12 was a hard slog which im yet to complete.
Completed Dirge of Cerberus twice and while it had glaring faults I enjoyed it.
Completed Crisis Core and immediately started a new game.
Played 13 till I got to Gran Pulse and now find that I cant be bothered :/

A disappointing (apparent)end to a great series of games. The only thing that could save the name now would be the probably never happening reimagining of 7 (Which although the original is a classic could do with having the story tightened up and maybe extended somewhat).

 

[Loves2spooge]

Final Fantasy X and X-2 was....ugh.....You think Vanille's voice acting was bad....try Tidus.

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 *****.

 

[DarkDain]

I, who does not care, doesn't really care.

 

[Mr. Self Destruct]

I, who has completed them all, hated 12, but bum loved 13

hope that helpd

 

[Estarc]

I felt that Final Fantasy X was the highlight of the series. It represented, to me, the perfection of the Final Fantasy game mechanics.

Final Fantasy XIII did a lot of things right. I thought that the boss battles were all suitably epic and difficult, for one. But it also did a lot of things wrong, such as its stupid lack of towns. I know Square-Enix likes to complain that it would cost too much mon- sorry, I mean take too much time - to render the towns in HD, but without any type of immersion in the world of Cocoon, I found that I didn't even care if the place was destroyed.

Auto-Battle was another mistake. It was necessary within the battle system they designed, but it ultimately left me feeling like that battles were being fought by AI and that I did not have any control over them. Manually inputting commands is pointless because the Auto-Battle usually picks the best commands for the scenario. Final Fantasy XII was way better in this regard, since the Gambit system allowed you to customise your actions in excruciating detail.

I loved the soundtrack though. Best videogame soundtrack I have ever heard.

 

[Pinkros]

I, who has only played through XI and X, and have played some X-2, before I lost interest in that, has no opinion on X13, since I did not play it.

But to the FF series in general, I can say that I find them pretty, and usually with some interesting storylines, especially IX, imo. But I can't stand those endless sessions of grinding random encounters anymore, else I'd definetly play through it again.

 

[USSR]

I loved near every damn minute of the game.

I honestly don't have a problem with any characters. I don't see how you can hate the characters that much. You seemed a little melodramatic in your little article.

The story may have seemed "done before" to you, but after a thirteen series installment, how 'bout you make a better storyline.
But on a serious note, First off. It would be reasonable to hate the story if it had done before "in the series itself", but otherwise I don't see a reason to complain since "being original" is slowly dieing these days.

Secondly, you compare there writers to you.
You've wrtten one book, as they've written 13 storylines.

Come back and tell me when you've written 13 books, and we'll see if you've lost any originality, as we compare it to your first book.


Also, the game came out in Japan in December of 2009. You could've saved yourself the bitching about it here and just read a review of the story before you bought the game.

/fanboy rant

 

[Terramax]

I, not a Final Fantasy fanboy, dislike blatant advertisements of a blog. I do, however, like Final Fantasy 13 for having gameplay.

 

[Mafiastyle]

I, who has played most of the final fantasy games - except for FFIII, have somehow come to terms with FFXIII. It wasn't the greatest game but it certainly helped wash out the horrid gameplay experience through FFX-2 and FFXII.

While it DID disappointed me with it's lack luster exploration - I did have some fun with the paradigm shifts from time to time. (Although certain aspects of it - I wanted to stab face because why do I have to change everyone else's job for one stupid chain/heal factor?)The Pulse De Chocobo music was a great and Orphan's music has made it into my love section.

Anyways...It was like a saving grace from the other terribad games that I mentioned before it. (Sorry if you liked those games - It just wasn't for me. ) ^^

 

[Yopaz]

I, who thought FF7 was mediocre at best and FF8 was even worse, say that FF13 is easily the best numeric Final Fantasy since the SNES days of yore. Having not played the mighty FF6 or FF4 in many years, I would dare say that 13 may very well be the greatest game in the bunch.

Well, if you liked the SNES games it's kinda obvious that you will hate FFVII and FFVIII since they came close to murder not only the series, but the entire genre of JRPG.

I haven't played FFXIII, but a friend of mine gave me one rule to separate the Final Fantasy fanboys. There are those who thinks FFVII is the best Final Fantasy game because it was the first FF game they played and hate every other FF game because it's not FFVII, and those who played the SNES games that have various opinions on the games afterward, but often hate FFVII.

I hate to tell you this, but you don't qualify as a Final Fantasy fanboy. You are, and have probably always been, a Final Fantasy fan. A fanboy would never admit to himself or other that anything associated with their object of fandom is in any way flawed.

A fanboy would usually do exactly that. Being a fanboy means you hate changes and just want to play the same game with some updates, a lot like autism actually...

 

[GonzoGamer]

I hate to tell you this, but you don't qualify as a Final Fantasy fanboy. You are, and have probably always been, a Final Fantasy fan. A fanboy would never admit to himself or other that anything associated with their object of fandom is in any way flawed.

I think you're right.
OP was under the impression that he was a FF fanboy.

I know how he feels though. I used to think I was a Burnout and GTA fanboy: my favorite games of last gen were from those franchises. GTA I've been enjoying since my friend showed me the original on his computer.
However, during this generation, those two franchises have turned completely lame. Burnout has completely lost track of what set it apart from other driving games; they really need to bring back crash junctions before I buy another Burnout.
GTA seems to be stuck in Liberty City. Rather than go back to it after visiting other cities (like they did last generation) R* seems to be addicted to LC. It aint that interesting. At least it's not interesting enough for me to want to pay $20 for some new missions in it.

It's not all bad though. While FF, Burnout, and gta may have crashed into the mountain this gen, I've been introduced to whole other franchises I didn't know about but really enjoy as well. Between Fallout3, Saints Row2, and Just Cause 2 I have more sandbox action than I can handle and I'm hoping that Split Second will be a sufficient replacement to Burnout; I'm not that optimistic but there's a chance.

 

[Jennacide]

The fact you can admit you dislike 13 expressly makes you NOT a fanboy. A fanboy are the guys that take all the shit they are given and gobble it up like it's good. It proves you're a true fan, that loves what the series once was, and the abyss of terror it now is.

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....

That's most JRPGs for you. The Shin Megami Tensei series being an exception to the rule. And Shadow Hearts 2, which is amazing in all it's intentional campiness.

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

I've never really been a big FF fan but i did love FF7. I thought the materia system was a really good idea and i liked all the awsome spells, summons, and secrets. future FF games haven't really intrested me, due to different reasons for each game. But i understand why they're popular and i don't begrudge anyone who likes them. It wasn't until FF12 that i started to call foul (i don't count FF 11 because it's an MMO) everyone was praises the inovative gambit system but the more i saw of it the less i liked it. It seemed like all it was designed to do was take control away from the player. (and in a turnbased game thats a bad idea) Also the secrets seemed to be gitting harder and hard to achieve and more offten then not wern't worth it. So in comes FF 13 and i'm convinced that Square died when it merged with Enix. Reviewers are praiseing the battle system as revolutionary but i've played this kind of game before...its called Dragons Lair. Dragons Lair was a FMV game where you watched a cartoon and you had to hit the right button at the right time to avoid dying. Thats what FF 13 is, oh sure theirs a bit more to it but not much. And i've been led to understand that you don't get to use most of the best stuff in the game until after you've beaten it...no I've kept a distance from FF games over the years out of lack of intrest but FF 13 is the first one i've actively hated on.

 

[The Mapper]

ARRRRRR 13 where did you go so wrong? I cant take it FF is so good why is this 1 so bad?

The fighting system is so crap it makes me want 2 cry.

On another point why are games being dimed down so much were not all COD:MW2 tards that cant understand a game that doesn?t hand them a win on a plate

I have played and completed ever one of them so far but now what do I do hope that the next one so good but for the crimes 13 has committed I don?t think I will

On a positive point the story was ok?

 

[James Cassidy]

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.

 

[tzimize]

I, who found ff7s combat to be the best, ff8s story to be best, ff9s characters to be best, ff10s level design to be best and everything after that to be utter crap also hates ff13 with a passion and think its one of the worst games ever made.

FF8 is my overall fav though.

 

[Loves2spooge]

Final Fantasy X and X-2 was....ugh.....You think Vanille's voice acting was bad....try Tidus.

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 don't mean to sound like a dick or anything but did you completely finish the story on FFXIII? I found Vanilles character development became far deeper later on in the game, at least in terms of the 'arc' her character goes through.

Indeed I did, along with the side quests. I may not have liked the game, but I'm a completist when it comes to Final Fantasy games.