Why all the hate on FF 13? (PS3 version if it matters)

[Veldt Falsetto]

I actually loved the first half of the game, which appears to be the least popular part, the combat was quick, mildly challenging and always entertaining whilst the (in my opinion) amazing story was throwing plot twists at you with perfect pacing.

Once it got to Chapter 11, however, where the game opens up to an almost free roam environment, it became so dull I traded it in almost instantly. I just don't see the appeal in grinding to fight more and more ridiculous enemies, which took all the fun from combat, previously one of the best points of the game for me. I would of forgiven this if the story had kept up throughout the chapter but this too had ground to a halt, with hours and hours of relentless enemy grind with little to no plot, which up to this point was possibly my favourite story line in almost any game.

Just for the parts I enjoyed it is one of my favourite games, alas thanks to the near end game sections, it will never be up there with the greats to me.

This, people complain about it being too linear but I liked that, it kept with the story and the theme really well. It's when it opened up it got really boring.

I loved the fact that grinding isn't really present. It's an amazing thing.

Also I say you should regain the game. After chapter 11 it all picks up again and 12 and 13 have really great story and battle sections. Pick it up again if you have the patience to trudge through chapter 11 because it really is worth it.

 

[linkzeldi]

There's linear story telling. . . and then their's walking down a hallway for 17 hours!

 

[CheckD3]

I tried it, and this is my experience w/ it

Cutscene is actiony but boring, skip, Run run, fight (boring) run, fight, run fight, run, run run, NOT COMBAT! Lame, turn off and fuck this game

The story didn't grab me and combat bored me, had no reason to want to keep playing so I didn't. A good game should hook in at the beginning of the game should be the hook that keeps you in, either it be gameplay or story or ect.

 

[CmdrGoob]

I bought this game near a month ago. It has sat on my shelf in the shrink wrap because of all the bad reviews from players I have read. So last night when I got home I said fuck it lets see what its like.

6 hours in to the game I am left wondering - Does this game drastically change after 6 hours in? Reason why I ask myself is this seriously has to be the best Final Fantasy I have played yet. Its so fast paced with decent characters and what so far is a rock solid story line.

I heard lots of complaints about keeping track of fal'cie vs l'cie thing. I will be the first to admit I am rather a slow guy. I always have to meet someone multiple times to recall their name. lol - I am not having any issue with it. Course I am also taking time to go through and read every word in the datapad. Helps in summarizing the story and filling in some of the gaps you may of missed.

So far this is shaping up to be my fav RPG of this gen. Does the game change that much later on?

You must be from an alternate dimension, because I found the exact opposite to be true. The pacing is glacial, the characters are irritating, and the story is thin and weak.

And the gameplay is tedious (autobattle! autobattle! autobattle!) and loses any advantages a proper turn based system might have while gaining none of the advantages of a real time system, the level design is retardedly linear, and the crystablahbium system is so totally constricted that it's completely boring.

I'd call it the most boring game I've ever seen.

 

[technoted]

I've been playing since FF6 and I'll admit I'm a fanboy for FF but I hated 13, since 10 I've felt the series gets worse and worse.

 

[Akihiko]

FFXIII is honestly like marmite, you either love it or you hate it.

If you play it, you need to go into it with an open mind. If you go in expecting a Final Fantasy, then you'd probably be disappointed. Although the linearity is very comparable to Final Fantasy X. Majority of the other Final Fantasys required you to go from A to B too, it just had the illusion of freedom. But I suppose some people miss that illusion.

Oh, and despite popular belief, I can't speak for others, but I know I've probably played far more Final Fantasys than those who complain that if you like XIII then you can't have played any others. Just thought I'd throw that out there, since although I don't mind people disliking the game, that is one statement which bugs me to no end, along with the statement "You must be a blind fanboy if you like it". Apologies for having different tastes.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

FFXIII is honestly like marmite, you either love it or you hate it.

If you play it, you need to go into it with an open mind. If you go in expecting a Final Fantasy, then you'd probably be disappointed. Although the linearity is very comparable to Final Fantasy X. Majority of the other Final Fantasys required you to go from A to B too, it just had the illusion of freedom. But I suppose some people miss that illusion.

So how come when I said the exact same thing earlier in this thread, someone said I was wrong? I guess you phrased it better than me, or people like you more. Glad someone else sees the game the same as I do.

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

It's just boring. My immediate reaction upon trying it was to turn it off and play Shadow Hearts 2 again to remind myself what actual interesting and memorable characters, a well developed world and plot twists not ripped from a mediocre shonen series were. Ten hours later, that was still my opinion. Any game that takes more than ten hours to become enjoyable was clearly made my incompetent howler monkeys, unless it's doing something deliberate and meaningful with being un-enjoyable (like, for instance, the conversations in the film film Mr. Zhao). FFXIII was definitely not doing that. The mech design was alright though (I'm a bit bored of the aesthetics otherwise).

Pretty much this.

It looked good, but the combat was really damn boring during the first 10 hours, considering you just have Attack and Blitz during the beginning, most of the characters pissed me off or just didn't show enough personality for me to make a judgement, I couldn't figure what the fuck everyone was doing, and I'm sorry, but if a game doesn't have good characterisation, fun gameplay, or badass content during the first 10 hours, I'll probably fucking hate it.

 

[eggy32]

God, it was a massive disappointment for me and I had low expectations going into it. I only lasted about 2 or three hours because the battles were boring with no strategy involved, just press A and the plot made no sense. I assumed that datapad thing was like the codex in mass effect or something, giving you knowledge of the lore that wasn't necessary to understand the plot. It is not good story telling to thrust me into action the make me read about what just happened over and over.
Oh and btw,, I don't hate it because it's successful. I love plenty of successful things, like other final fantasies, halo's not bad either.

 

[Nehari]

my issue with the game is only that it is extremely linear, and there are very little areas to explore move around and find secrets and treasures and hidden areas. in this game you walk in a straight line to the end where eventually you finally get to a large open explorable area, then returns back to walking in a straight line and then the end. there is very little exploration, but I find the story was very very very very well executed, and I enjoyed the progressive character development, and all the plot twists were awsome. the only issue is that there are alot of things left only explained by checking your data log. I checked my data log constantly, but alot of my friends didn't and got the story all mixed up and confused.

 

[LightningBanks]

My issue is....It might break my ps3 if I buy and attempt to play it

 

[Lullabye]

My main problem is it isn't much of an interactive experience. I mean, 13 titles later, you'd think they'd at least do the whole MSG thing.(you know, 20 billion hours worth of cutscenes, but then when you got to play, it also was part of the story and provided some unique and genuinely interesting experiences.)

 

[Ace of Spades]

Where do I even begin with this? I suppose with the intro cutscene. The game tells you almost nothing about the world in which the game takes place, and throws you randomly into some resistance movement against an authority called Psicom. Who are Psicom, why are these people resisting them, why does a civilian mother randomly sacrifice herself for their cause even though she had seemingly no previous association with them? All of these are left unanswered. Also, every single character is completely unlikable with the possible exception of Sazh due to him being cast as the only sane human being in a world full of people who seem to know far more about what's going on that the player. Secondly, the gameplay in general is flat-out awful. The game takes place in one extremely long linear corridor peppered with insipid fight sequences. There is actually a function in the combat that has the game [strong]choose abilities for you[/strong] and features extremely long cool-down times for each ability. Later it introduces a paradigm system that allows to change character class, but the only way to ensure you don't die during the aggressively long and uninteresting boss fights is by switching to a configuration with a medic and pressing X repeatedly for the duration of the battle. That's right, it is legitimately possible to win a boss fight by pressing only one button. To return to your original question, I hate FF13 because it has no redeeming qualities. Everything about the game is so aggressively poor that I cannot bring myself to continue playing it. After more than 10 hours of playtime with no improvement, it solidifies its place as the worst RPG I have ever encountered.

 

[Lord Thodin]

God this game was so bad. Personally I wanted this game more than oxygen at the time, then got it, and wanted to die.

 

[SteveeVader]

I bought this game near a month ago. It has sat on my shelf in the shrink wrap because of all the bad reviews from players I have read. So last night when I got home I said fuck it lets see what its like.

Do you mean to tell me there was a chance you would have never played the game you bought because of the bad press you heard after you bought it?

Yes. When I bought it - it was under a special I found with Best Buy - get 3 games get a $25 gift card. So to be fair the other 2 games I got were Forza 3 and Mass Effect 2. You can guess why FF 13 was in the shrink

Damn thats a good deal and Mass Effect 2 as an rpg is immensely superior.

As for FF13. I got incredibly far but the data got corrupted so I had to play it again AND BOY DID TIME (&(&ING TICK AWAY. I guess at first I was under a false illusion because first time I played I found it ok but rocky but after wanting achievements and see the end I just gave up. I played to the part when you control snow for the first time. I just switched off it was so awful and I was slightly bias as I was in the end of Mass Effect 2 and Assassins Creed 2 but god I just wanted it to end.

So here's my lowdown.

Graphics - Just absolutely astounding some of the best in games in fact the best however it does have it's problems. 1 - What is the point; if you want to tell a great story you want to display it gloriously, the game is basically corridors with cutscenes WORSE THAN MGS4 - yet mgs4 actually reframed a coherent plot which adds to the element as the game has a lot of informative cutscenes about characters and development the extra graphics are worth it. In FF13 the constant swaying of gameplay to scene is INCREDIBLY IRRITATING in which it negatively effects it. Characters add and state insipid things it just drags out the game. Graphics are pretty but in a game where plot is literally absent it is pointless.

(btw I put graphics first as it is this titles only saving grace. I am a 100% of the time uncaring about graphics as I am visually impaired so it does not bother be. Just saying this as I do not want to be judged as a graphics whore - Thanks)

Gameplay - Frankly poor as hell as for a large portion literally 75% of my playing was pressing X on auto attack. THIS IS NOT GAMEPLAY pressing X countlessly over and over does not enrich ones mind of greater plateaus and new innovative ways. It just makes it tedious and pointless and distances the player. The paradigm system is inventive but is pretty much a more grandiose dress sphere system from FFX-2 so it not a leap in fact it is worse as you cannot tactician properly as you can only control one character. This incredibly hinders the story also as the characters feel like needless accessories which is incredibly disappointing.

Plot - Oh boy is this where the plot epicly fails. The plot to this game is needless to say the MOST retarded piece of crap I have ever witnessed not only as a gaming veteran but a scholar, I have a degree in Literature and Film and cannot make any sense of it at all. It actually makes not sense either as it has no direction. To look in a datapad to try and understand the plot IS NOT GOOD STORY TELLING FFS. Mass effect 2 did it perfectly by giving major/minor exposition of a planet or race and the codecs in for one example I was interested in a Vorcha and it elaborated on politics and their habitation. Metal Gear even elaborates a certain point (sometimes too ) however it fully encompasses the story and lets you realise what is going on.
In FFXIII some entries are up to as much as 10 PAGES reading an essay is NOT STORYTELLING. The characters are too just as bad as they are bloody charactatures of ethnicity or anime stereotypes, it is extremely bad storytelling to fall in cliche characters as it demotes and dilutes the plot further.

All in all Final Fantasy feels like a devolution of gaming rather than a potential new era for JRPGs it falls on cliches heavily and the overall plot is so senseless it is laughable.

 

[Pearwood]

I imagine it's because the return to linearity is a bit jarring after FF12 for some or for the ones who hated FF12 probably just because it doesn't follow the established FF battle formula (although if that's true god knows how FF7 and 8 got so popular especially since 8 is by far the worst game Square have ever made). Although having said that I've been replaying the older FF games lately and I have to say even though they are linear they do give quite a good illusion of freedom where FF13 doesn't.

Personally I thought it was a decent addition but not one of my favourites, I particularly liked the difficulty of it though. Every enemy I ran into had a chance of killing me, it never got to the point where I didn't have to think. Plus it stopped the level grinding which is always a bonus.

But still I'd say play 12, play 9, play 4 then play 13. Or play 3 if you just want a hard Final Fantasy (that's 3 on the DS, not 6).

Long critique

I'd agree about the plot being far too convoluted, I wouldn't say it's hard to follow though it's just kind of stupid. The ending is what annoyed me most, they built up the fight with Dysley so much and it all ended with one huge deus ex machina. They do explain it but to get the explanation you have to go through all the bonus missions, I can totally understand why someone who didn't like the battle system would totally write that off.

Got to say though I did like the battle system, it was annoying in the start that you were just pressing auto attack but really by the end of the game if you were spending many turns not switching paradigms you must have been using the strategy guide to figure out the weapon upgrade system. I doubt you could switch paradigms fast enough if you had to enter in each command manually.

 

[feeback06]

Where do I even begin with this? I suppose with the intro cutscene. The game tells you almost nothing about the world in which the game takes place, and throws you randomly into some resistance movement against an authority called Psicom. Who are Psicom, why are these people resisting them, why does a civilian mother randomly sacrifice herself for their cause even though she had seemingly no previous association with them? All of these are left unanswered. Also, every single character is completely unlikable with the possible exception of Sazh due to him being cast as the only sane human being in a world full of people who seem to know far more about what's going on that the player. Secondly, the gameplay in general is flat-out awful. The game takes place in one extremely long linear corridor peppered with insipid fight sequences. There is actually a function in the combat that has the game [strong]choose abilities for you[/strong] and features extremely long cool-down times for each ability. Later it introduces a paradigm system that allows to change character class, but the only way to ensure you don't die during the aggressively long and uninteresting boss fights is by switching to a configuration with a medic and pressing X repeatedly for the duration of the battle. That's right, it is legitimately possible to win a boss fight by pressing only one button. To return to your original question, I hate FF13 because it has no redeeming qualities. Everything about the game is so aggressively poor that I cannot bring myself to continue playing it. After more than 10 hours of playtime with no improvement, it solidifies its place as the worst RPG I have ever encountered.

You pretty much nailed it. Although I'd still take it over 12 -_-

 

[Akihiko]

If you had to read the datalog to understand the story, you probably didn't listen to the cutscenes. I didn't bother reading the datalog until after I completed the game, and I still understood the story perfectly. Though the ending was atrocious, agreed.

FFXIII is honestly like marmite, you either love it or you hate it.

If you play it, you need to go into it with an open mind. If you go in expecting a Final Fantasy, then you'd probably be disappointed. Although the linearity is very comparable to Final Fantasy X. Majority of the other Final Fantasys required you to go from A to B too, it just had the illusion of freedom. But I suppose some people miss that illusion.

So how come when I said the exact same thing earlier in this thread, someone said I was wrong? I guess you phrased it better than me, or people like you more. Glad someone else sees the game the same as I do.

I don't know, i guess they haven't noticed yet. That said. Even FFXII still required you to go from A to B. The world was larger(Infact I found it to be too large, no point in having a big world if it's largely empty), and there was sidequests to do, but the story was still 'linear'.

 

[LightningBanks]

My issue is....It might break my ps3 if I buy and attempt to play it

I heard about that, scary shit.

Yeah I know, its annoying because I want to get it now its come down in price, but Id rather not destory my ps3, I use it for street fighter