It wasn't a bad game per say, but I guess compared to how a lot of final fantasy games are supposed to be really really great, this one was just ok/good. My only complaints were that the side characters (Jhil, Cid's sidekick friend whose name escapes me, and Yahg) were done pretty bad, felt that instead of being in the world it was happening around me, and nothing sidequest wise but hunts. Story felt like it could have been tweaked more, but I had fun with the game. Loved the focus on the characters, especially Hope, Lightning, and Sazh.
I hated the characters and only finished the game because I already sunk so much time into it. Sometimes I would let them die in combat because they were pissing me off.
Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama once Final Fantasy XIII-2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107030-Final-Fantasy-XIII-2-Will-Exceed-Final-Fantasy-XIII] would "exceed" the first game in "every way."
Good to know that you are setting your standards at the level of The Ninth Circle of Hell. Which, by the way, is where I think the person who designed the battle system is headed. Judecca awaits!
Christ, this brings back horrid memories. Oh well, FF fans will by the game no matter what. So I guess I cannot blame them for making something people will want to buy
Very good for you. I only got through 14 or so hours before my rage/quit. I thought it was horrid for a few reasons
1) Combat made me feel like I had little control of events
2) The item leveling system was needlessly complicated
3) The aesthetic was boring
4) Hope was a little ***** and I wanted him stabbed to death
5) Snow was so stupid, and looked like a hobo
6) Lightning was emo without being badass.
7) Vanille was borderline insane and downright stupid.
8) What was done in the cutscenes was more awesome then you were allowed to outside them
9) I could not care LESS about any of the main characters
10) The level up system did not reward innovation or non-linear thought
11) Enemies have only a few tactics used to beat them
12) No money dropped
13) Few items dropped
14) Combat was downright dull
15) Did I mention that fucking hated Hope?
16) The fakey-made-up words made it hard to follow
17) There were some creepy moments in there
18) The story was beyond stupid
19) I did not ever once forget that I was playing a game. I was well aware of it. And if you can't let me escape, when I can believe in a curse of Spirt Eating from a dead god of the dead, then you fail!
20) Overall, I hated it, and it made me feel ill
At least FF X was so bad it was downright funny. At least it had a good combat system!
13 was a pretty good play thru for sure. Now it wasnt as good as some others in my opinion but well worth a play. Plus you can prob get it for like 25 dollars which is just win!
It wasn't bad, but I felt more could've been done. The combat was way too easy for the first two disks; with everything being a straight shot, it was enough to plow through almost everything. The theme that surrounded the story became extremely ambiguous at the final boss, where it completely lost me. Story up to that point was excellent, and the bosses were imaginative. Fighting a war ship from a distance was an invigorating challenge. The role system was difficult to get a hold on, especially when it came to the tougher creatures of Pulse, which were capable of finishing you in one or two hits, even when you were fully leveled. But I think the worst part of it was the sheer amount of time it took to progress. I'm not against a lengthy game, but I don't think it was completely worth it here. That said, it was a good game, but it could've been better.
PS: Captcha fail. How the hell am I supposed to type in Japanese kanji!?
Didn't read all the posts before, so I don't know if this was said, but Yahtzee had it right when he said that he was told the game gets good 20 hours in...so are you going to muck through 20 hours before it gets good?
Personally I played a few hours of it but the point of Final Fantasy was a cross between good storytelling and a unique turn based combat system that slowly got better over different games. FFXIII is unique, but not in a good way, I believe this is the first game that has made combat a QTE cutscene with a menu for which button you want to press. But it did have a good JRPG story for what I saw, and the Espers were probably the most badass things I ever saw. Disappointment abounds in me.
It was some fun at points. I loved sazh However... Hope made me pissed, I couldn't tell if Vannele had an accent or it was kind of a mental defeceny. I couldn't tell the diffrence... And I was really angrey I couldn't control every character. It seems they didn't want me to actually fight, Considering theres auto or take a mintue wherein you die if you try to pick your own moves. And the only part of combat I felt actual control over was the shift. The story I liked however.
But the combat was fun, I'll give it that.
Not trying to troll, just going to state my opinion. Sorry if I just shat on your opinion with the pic.
Long Answer.
What could have been is what I see the character as. You have the child with the justified reason to be depressed, the brash young man who wants to be a hero, the strong, independant soldier woman, the two mages with more than what meets the eye, and the loving father. All are normal archetypes. Unfortunately, none of these were what I'd call solid or well-developed.
I hope you won't mind me doing a comparison with pictures from Persona 3, which in my opinion, handles archetypes a bit better.
The kid becomes rather boring, after realizing the futility of revenge.
Same damn motivation, same damn revelation, same damn after-event plot importance. Damn Ken.
The brash young man just appears to be stupid a large majority of the time, and eventually becomes competent, I suppose.
We also handled JRPG archetypes better.
The strong woman is a **** for most of the game until she defrosts over the kid, and becomes also, kind of boring.
A Yellow Ice Queen.
The two mages with the darker side kinda become grating after, and by the girls, I mean Vanille. Fang and her indistinct attempt-at-some-sort-of-Island-person accent were okay.
Because one of them annoys me too. [/img]
But I don't disagree with your opinion completely. I only hate the writing, not your opinions or the characters.
On-Topic:
It was an okay game. Not really good for 6 years of effort, but okay in it's own right. Sure, Vanille was annoying, and the whole l'Cie/Fal'Cie thing got annoying after a while, especially since I couldn't stop seeing everything as some sort of fantasy version of World War II or some shit. But I thought there was potential that could have been a fuck awesome game, if it weren't for Motomu Toriyama and Yoichi Wada.
It might not be as good as other Final Fantasies, but that's really an objective thing. In a lot of ways it's better. It plays much smoother and has a much more cohesive world then any other final fantasy other then X, in my opinion. But that's just it, it's all opinion
But the idea that it's a bad game is just silly, it's a game that cost multimillions to make and sold millions of copies and was a huge success It clearly succeeded in doing what it set out to do. and was successful.
'Cept for the fact that it made your GOD DAMN party so mind-numbingly stupid to the point if your leader died, it was automatic game over. I mean is everyone else too stupid to know how to revive anyone without the presence of the main character to give them the moral support they need to attempt to be an individual!?
Honestly nothing pissed me off so much than that little tidbit. Oh and the whole Linearity of the game was also quite irksome. Jesus are they afraid that we might get lost in exploration or might have too much of a good time and deviate more than 5 minutes away from the story arc?
Freedom people. That's what I want. All Final Fantasies were known for their great exploration of the world around your characters and give it some depth. Now in terms of other final fantasy games, XIV remains the worst thankfully.
To me it stands as FF6, FF7, FF8 and FF10 (Mostly cause of the cheesy voice acting) as my all time favorites
See, I don't get the unadulterated hate for XII. Is it because the limit system was completely different than previous games, and because the combat system was modeled after an MMO (which as a sidenote, was done fairly well)? I see very few substantive arguments as to why FFXII is a poor FF game; nearly every one I see is some variant of "they changed it now it sucks" with no in-depth analysis of its mechanics, battle system, story, or characters and why those elements are poor.
Because, at least in my opinion it was frankly the freshest, most intelligent and deepest FF game since VI. Sure, it was derivative of other, greater science fiction works, but that doesn't convict the game of being trash by its own merit. Yeah, it had a fairly convoluted plot and the juiciest, most provocative bits weren't spoon-fed to the player; get over it and think critically about what you're playing.
I'm going to mention one thing that I think Square could have done much better with the story, since others have discussed the linearity and combat system. They try to make a three-act story into a game with a five-act structure and don't even really raise the dramatic question until 20-25 hours into the game.
...
Not to mention the characters aren't in the least bit sympathetic until they get to Pulse and figure out they need to get over their shit and work together. Then they're arguably even worse considering the ever-permanent "POWER OF FRIENDSHIP! GANBATTE! *Japanese Fist Pump*" in chapters 12-15. Argh.
I agree with you on those points, eacaraxe. Especially about the "Friendship" crap. Plus it's been pointed out by others that the plights that each of them go through is actually not as bad as other characters, making them look even bratty, thus decreasing sympathy from anyone.
For me, FFXIII, wasn't bad per se, but considering the amount of hype that preceded it, it was an enormous disappointment. Here are some of the good and bad points for me:
Good points of FFXIII:
- Graphics
- Music (I love the battle music and the last segment of the boss battle theme which is epic stuff for me)
- The most dynamic battle system in the FF series, which made it tons of fun.
Bad points:
- Plot - things just made less and less sense as you further progressed through the game. But the story was something that many posters before me have pointed out.
- Linearity - also pointed out, nothing to add here.
- Lack of development of playable characters - i meant more on the basis of gameplay, not so much on story. But when you go through the game, the individuality of the characters get reduced, and the Eidolons and their unique commands (e.g. Fang's Highwind or Vanille's Death) pretty much are the only things that distinguish each other on the battlefield. I like more personalisation of the playable characters, like in IX, which is pretty much why titles like XII and V don't appeal to me as much.
- New kind of open world - Understandably, it's hard to have the kind of open world like in other FF titles when you're fugitives wherever you go. But the Gran Pulse area did not make me want to grind at all. I honestly did not care to do all of the C'ieth missions, most are poor substitutes for side quests.
With all the cons pointed out, it was nevertheless an enjoyable game.
I found the game intolerable. I don't begrudge anyone who likes it or their reasons for doing so, but I tried - God I tried - to like it, but I can't. It was just awful. For me, it failed in telling its story, it failed in having a story more complex than a twelve-year-old's fanfic for that matter, failed in developing characters that were even remotely likeable, failed in making gameplay enjoyable, it failed in having a tone, it failed in pretty much every aspect.
The only thing it succeeded at was annoying me constantly. And having subtextual lesbianism. It was good at annoyance and non-explicit lesbians.
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