Poll: Is FF XIII a *bad* game, or just not as good as it could have been?

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pigmypython

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Jan 15, 2010
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I was really disappointed with it because the previous FF games were very good. If it was a separate title that had nothing to do with FF then I would think it O.K.. But because it is compared to the previous FF games then it falls way short.
 

Thaius

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Mar 5, 2008
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My only real complaint was the overall story. The characters were fantastic (I wish people would shut up about Hope being emo; watch your mom die and try to handle it better) and the drama between them was some of the best I've seen in the series. The combat system was one of my favorites of the series, the graphics and aesthetic design were beautiful, and the soundtrack is the only truly fantastic non-Uematsu one in the series thus far. But the metanarrative was a bit weak; they had some awesome concepts and an awesome fantasy world and just didn't do much with it. Other than that, loved it.

That said, I want one more like the older ones.
 

Pearwood

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Mar 24, 2010
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It had a tough act to follow coming right after my favourite Final Fantasy but I think it was decent. The combat was fun and the story was incredibly convoluted and weird but interesting enough to keep me playing, that's about all I can say about it.

Thaius said:
(I wish people would shut up about Hope being emo; watch your mom die and try to handle it better)
Very good point, plus he was supposed to be about 12 years old or something? There's a difference between being emo and being traumatised.
 

GundamSentinel

The leading man, who else?
Aug 23, 2009
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It was a fun game. Sure, it took a while to get somewhere, but I loved every minute of it.

Whatever it does, Square-Enix can't win. If they kept pooping out FFVII clones people would complain, if they evolved the franchise (like they're doing now) people still complain. For the record, I hated FFVII and I'm proud of it.
 

AlternatePFG

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Jan 22, 2010
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I thought it was just bad. I really disliked almost everything about it, but I did manage to get to the 20 hour point where people said it got better. I thought it got noticeably worse at that point.
 

Eacaraxe_v1legacy

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Mar 28, 2010
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starslasher said:
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.
Yup. When you think about it, there wasn't a single plot point on Cocoon in acts 2-3 of the game that couldn't have been done -- better -- on Pulse. The only thing I can think of offhand is meeting with Hope's father, and even that could have fit into what I thought FFXIII's story structure should have been by making it the point the party was run to ground by PSICOM and deciding to go on the offensive (and in the game, it was). In retrospect, given some of the early-game locales, it almost feels like the game's designers wanted it the way I mentioned, but late in development decided they needed to put more of the game's story on Cocoon to give the player a better idea of that location and a sense of attachment, and just cut-pased locations wholesale -- Vile Peaks, Gapra Whitewood, Sunleth Waterscape, off the top of my head -- with a handful of band-aid fixes.

I'll be honest, from all the information released up until launch, the implication that Cocoon was going to be an introductory locale which is returned to during the climax -- in effect being the Midgar of FFXIII -- was pretty clear, and it came as an absolute (unfortunate) surprise that Cocoon made up about 75% of the game's locations and story. After the game's token romp through Pulse, the "FRIENDSHIP! *J-fist Pump*" crap was just straight out of game designer ass, especially when it came strongest from the least-likely characters (Lightning) and weakest from the most-likely (Snow). The game's designers would have done far better to have dumped Japanese nakama tropes and went with "we'll never be friends but at least we can be allies", especially in the case of relations which were strained if not borderline hateful.