danintexas said:
DustyDrB said:
danintexas said:
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.