Oh Squeenix, how you disappoint me.

[RJ Dalton]

I was losing my interest in Square before they merged with Enix. It began with FFIX and just began a long, downhill trend from there.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Squeenix? Is that supposed to be cute?

I'm hardly surprised considering how "linier" the game is in comparison to other games. But thay all are basically *walk around, battle, cutscene* in that order.

 

[Space Spoons]

I'm only a couple of hours in, but I'm digging the lack of blatant exposition. The characters interact in a natural way; they don't go out of their way to explain every last detail because these are things that they, logically, should already know. It's a refreshing change of pace, in my opinion.

I don't mind having to read up in the codex. They're not particularly wordy articles, anyway.

 

[wooty]

I'm actually enjoying the change of pace.
No idea why. All I know is, I am enjoying it. Give it some time and maybe they'll grow on you.
Like how Vanille's voice, after bugging the hell out of me originally, is growing on me.

Yeah, is she trying to be Australian? It slips in and out.

Yeah, I think so.
It sort of switches back and forth alarmingly though. Like they've asked someone who has never done an Aussie accent to do it. It's my only gripe with the game thus far.

the girl who does the voice is Australian, I thought it was south Ifrican at first, but apparantly not

OT: The stories picking up for me now, about 6 hours into it. I'm already starting to formulate what I thinks going on already, but it keeps throwing me things to re-adjust my view

 

[Daniel Cygnus]

Well, with a pedigree like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5FTJxfV3pc

...what can you expect? Also, I lost hope as soon as I saw that it was ATB. Which is why I'm still hoping for Versus XIII

For the last time, THIS WAS DONE INTENTIONALLY. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AWKWARD. Yuna was talking about how she kept smiling even though she didn't feel like carrying on sometimes.

Also, the codex thing doesn't seem to be a dealbreaker to me. I actually read and enjoyed the completely unnecessary info Mass Effect provided me about each and every aspect of each and every detail in the massive world.

 

[EzraPound]

I stopped caring after 9 when I saw that 10 completely abandoned everything that made the series what it was. 8 was garbage and I blame the direction that game took for the abomination that would be Spirits Within.

I never had any intention on playing 13 when I saw a guy sporting a fro and a level of technology similar to 8. That's not fantasy, that's science fiction, or hell, fiction. I don't care if the established fantasy setting is cliche that's what I expect from the series.

After 14 games their skills must be getting rusty.

It's not that so much as that that all of the Final Fantasy games that Hironobu Sakaguchi played only a tertiary role in are basically worse than those he was directly involved with -- Final Fantasy VIII and X he only executive produced, for example, and his departure from Square in '04 ensured that the company's artistic heyday was effectively over. Also -- of all the FFs that Sakaguchi did direct or produce, Final Fantasy III was the one that his role was most minimal. More than a coincidence, doncha think?

Fact is, the closest you're going to get to a "real" Final Fantasy game these days is by playing the titles by Mistwalker. And I'm not even saying those are good.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I'm following it easy enough...Pay closer attention.

I read them anyway, though. The synopsis is short...

 

[SturmDolch]

Well, with a pedigree like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5FTJxfV3pc

...what can you expect? Also, I lost hope as soon as I saw that it was ATB. Which is why I'm still hoping for Versus XIII

See, I keep thinking, maybe I'm being too judgemental on these Final Fantasy games. Then I see things like this.

 

[archvile93]

I've always been disappointed in Square Enix more myself, seriously, no modding the game content? How do you expect PC gamers to have fun?

By playing it the way it's supposed to be played. Do you really think modding is supposed to be a game's saving grace?

Since when did Final Fantasy games come out for PC's anyway? And you're right, there's something seriously wrong with a game when its main selling point is modability.

 

[geldonyetich]

Maybe in their recent layoffs they fired the guy that normally does the story. Final Fantasy XIII's story is coming to you as a courtesy of a class of 3rd grade elementary students who won a contest.

But I kid. Really, Final Fantasy stories have always been a bit wantonly mysterious. Their writers have always subscribed to the rule of thumb that if most players know what's going on before the game is finished, it's not obscure enough. For example, the whole Luguna arc in Final Fantasy 8. Or the vast majority of nonsense that is Kingdom Hearts.

It's hard to be critical of this writing style. Saying it's wrong, per se, is a bit like saying a work of modern art is wrong. Sound enough in a rant [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsfX6xqCBks], but intellectually it doesn't pan out because there's not really a definitive criteria towards universal "good" in art.

In other news, I'm surprised FFXIII is even out yet. Man, I haven't finished a Final Fantasy since VII.

 

[JaredXE]

*Sigh*

My problem was beginning the game in medias res without ANY exposition or idea about the character's motivations and why the world is the way it is. You simply just don't do that without it being an already established universe and characters. For example, the original aired first episode of Firefly was the Train Job, starting in the middle of the action, with NO explaination of the world or characters....and subsequently people were confused. Empire Strikes Back though, starts in the middle of action because we already know the world and it's characters.

Lightning and Sahz start on a train, chatting away, and we don't fully understand about what. Then it turns out that they don't know eachother, they just met. But to get the understanding of what the fuck they were talking about, you need to read the codex.

"Show Me" the story, but show me all of it, not bits and pieces that I need to fill in from a diary.

EDIT: Yes, I call it Squeenix. No, I am not trying to be cute, that is the way I have always called it since the merger, and I'm not the one that came up with it. Many people refer to it as Squeenix.

 

[kawaiiamethist]

I'm actually enjoying the change of pace.
No idea why. All I know is, I am enjoying it. Give it some time and maybe they'll grow on you.
Like how Vanille's voice, after bugging the hell out of me originally, is growing on me.

Yeah, is she trying to be Australian? It slips in and out.

Vanille has a British accent. Fang's is Australian...for unknown reasons.

Yeah, this game really is a disappointment. Extra text is supposed to add small, interesting details to the story, not be relied on to tell the story! I haven't bothered with them, so I'm 12 hours in and utterly confused about this world and Lightning's goal.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I've always been disappointed in Square Enix more myself, seriously, no modding the game content? How do you expect PC gamers to have fun?

uhh..enjoy the game for what it is? i mean, i might be on to something here, maybe people can enjoy games...in their original state?!?

See one of previous posts. It's just a backhanded tactic to use against gamers, I mean, unless they're attempting to sell mods or something like that there's really no harm to it, it's just a hypersensitive Japanese company trying to control its assets far too much. I mean, look at Valve. Valve openly supports mods of their games and even gives tools to help. Thus, we have games like Counterstrike that actually even just began as mods. Modding is a great opportunity for companies to connect with their fan community as well as show off their engine. Square Enix, rather then doing this, sends cease-and-desist letters to anyone who has the BALLS to change their code a bit. Somewhat of an immature response.

i understand mods are fun and all, but they are a company, and it is their product, they can do with it what they want, and just because they do differently from valve (oh no, a blight upon the planet! ZOMGGG) doesn't mean they are the spawn of satan, if you dont like their ways, then dont play their games

I've always been disappointed in Square Enix more myself, seriously, no modding the game content? How do you expect PC gamers to have fun?

By playing it the way it's supposed to be played. Do you really think modding is supposed to be a game's saving grace?

Since when did Final Fantasy games come out for PC's anyway? And you're right, there's something seriously wrong with a game when its main selling point is modability.

you said it better than i did, a game shouldn't be about "modability" it should be about the game itself in the first place

 

[jesus6662008]

Am I the only one who thinks that all I'm doing in each battle is 'press a to win game' (x for those with a ps3)?

Also, I dislike the fact your health comes back after every battle. I mean, its nice, sure, but it makes it far too easy :/

 

[Sylveria]

Atleast it is better than 12. Then again, bowel surgery is better than 12.