Zero Punctuation: Final Fantasy XIII
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
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Game play being good or bad is a very trivial thing, some people like the turn based battles some people like to dive in into real time combat. It's like comparing Wrestling with a Chess match. They are both the equivalent of a conflict but the latter features a fictitious situation in which you actually think before throwing a punch (sometimes).
Ever since FF11 (online) SE has been trying to implement the standard MMO setting; tank+ heals+ dps, into the single player game. Failing massively to do so in FF12, they now introduce the ''Paradigm shift''(or however its spelled) which combined with Auto-attack makes it feel more like an RTS, not exactly reinventing the wheel but adding corners for it to look pretty! still, it is not working as its supposed to for some reason...
Ever since FF11 (online) SE has been trying to implement the standard MMO setting; tank+ heals+ dps, into the single player game. Failing massively to do so in FF12, they now introduce the ''Paradigm shift''(or however its spelled) which combined with Auto-attack makes it feel more like an RTS, not exactly reinventing the wheel but adding corners for it to look pretty! still, it is not working as its supposed to for some reason...
Lol Yahtzee is just fantastic, it's fanscinating how spot on he is, i recognized the loud footsteps right after the first minute of gameplay and it annoyed me unconciously! I like the character's look and cinematics, i gonna download them somewhere and watch them like a movie, but the gameplay itself is un-bear-a-bly boooring and teeeedious and the monsters must've been designed by an army of people on a shroom trip, serously! This game is something for people who like those j-rpgs, i would watch it as movie, but the game itself sucks balls imo, but that's a matter of taste.
If someone hasn't said it yet, kutos to you for defending FFXIII, where so many others are quick to judge it harshly.Abriael said:Welcome to the world of gaming today. You must dislike a whole lot of games out there, given that corridors and on rails gameplay has become almost the norm and for sure not the exceptionTetranitrophenol said:
At the very least Final Fantasy XIII offers something else on top of it. Plenty critically acclaimed games do NOT offer anything else after the customary ten hours of sticking to a single rail.
rage? please. I'm actually very much amused. It's always funny to see gamers criticize elements that they acclaim in other kind of games. Biases are always an amusing thing on the internets.Indecipherable said:
All three have a very steep character progression. How I wish I could see that in more western games, where characters like Kratos start dull and remain dull til the end...Stranger 517 said:
The paradigm shift system falls under the "easy to learn, hard to master" definition. Once you master it, you have plenty control. Mind you, if you're not shifting paradygm at least every two attacks, normally you're doing something wrong.
Oh, just FYI, with the right timing the paradigm shift animation is instant, and it even fully recharges your ATB bar.
Easy to learn. Hard to master.
I've played through it twice now. The first time, even with the guide, was a pain because I didn't take the time to 'master' the paradigm shift system. My second playthrough was a breeze, I could not believe how much time I shaved off!
I admit, I wasn't keen on elements of the story, but then, it is rare for anything to satisfy 100%. My biggest gripe is with the role of Lightning; in the end she was of no consequence to the story, ie, she was not important enough to save the world. The marketing presented her as a solid female lead for a numbers installment, not just a member of a ensemble cast. Even Tina got a better deal than her! If Lightning were a male, he would have had a stronger backstory, a love interest and far more involvement in the finale.
Fortunately, SE gave me reason ingame not to dwell, with Vanille and Fang to keep me occupied. I am in the tiny, secluded 'but I liked Vanille...' camp. Where Lightning gave me the cold shoulder, that kooky Vanille opened her arms and gave me a warm smile. And I liked Hope too. His story was one of the most involved, and the progression was compelling. I wish I could say the same for Snow. He really bothered me to the bitter end.
Wow look at all the angry responses in this thread! I can't believe people can't seem to understand that thinking the game is terrible is no more wrong than thinking it's great. Personally I can't understand why people would want someone who clearly hated the first 5 hours of the game to keep on playing till it became more satisfying (if it ever did). 5 hours is a pretty fair chance to anything, and hell I wouldn't have even given it that. Like many have said before games are a fun hobby to waste time with. If a game is unbearable for 5 hours then that doesn't count as a game to me anymore. I don't care how long the game is 5 hours of boredom is terrible and I was bored long after 5 hours.
Plus I find it ridiculous that people are criticizing others for hating the fact they couldn't understand what was going on or why at around 10 hours or slightly more. That's less of a problem of people wanted all the story handed to them and more of a problem with the games story telling entirely. Very early on you should at least have an idea of who your characters are and what their goals are without having to read anything. Otherwise there doesn't seem to be much purpose to anything you do and less reason to care. The story can have whatever twists and turns to keep me enthralled afterward but at least give me a pretty decent beginning that doesn't make me feel like a know nothing idiot.
As for the corridors thing yeah all games are linear in a way but in today's time I expect my rpgs to give me a little more freedom on exploration than XIII does. Being able to branch off and explore towns and forests and other areas and talk to people is what I enjoy about rpgs. Taking that away makes it feel like a boring grind.
As for the combat I didn't care for it but others seem to like it so I wouldn't say it's bad just not my kind of system. Hell most people hated the system from XII but I liked it since I never put anyone except characters I didn't give a shit about on gambits anyway. Pretty much kept me in the action from directly controlling most people during all the boss and lesser monster fights, so I never felt like the "game is playing itself".
The part of the story I got sucked to me but I didn't stick through the whole game so I didn't know everything, but after about 13 hours I really didn't care to know anymore. Just about all the character were irritating to me for different reasons and i feel like this could have been avoided as well since I've played numerous rpgs where I didn't hate anyone on my team. Overall I'd just say XIII is not game for me since I find it crappy but then I find most Final Fantasies get this opinion from me. Just this one more than any other.
Plus I find it ridiculous that people are criticizing others for hating the fact they couldn't understand what was going on or why at around 10 hours or slightly more. That's less of a problem of people wanted all the story handed to them and more of a problem with the games story telling entirely. Very early on you should at least have an idea of who your characters are and what their goals are without having to read anything. Otherwise there doesn't seem to be much purpose to anything you do and less reason to care. The story can have whatever twists and turns to keep me enthralled afterward but at least give me a pretty decent beginning that doesn't make me feel like a know nothing idiot.
As for the corridors thing yeah all games are linear in a way but in today's time I expect my rpgs to give me a little more freedom on exploration than XIII does. Being able to branch off and explore towns and forests and other areas and talk to people is what I enjoy about rpgs. Taking that away makes it feel like a boring grind.
As for the combat I didn't care for it but others seem to like it so I wouldn't say it's bad just not my kind of system. Hell most people hated the system from XII but I liked it since I never put anyone except characters I didn't give a shit about on gambits anyway. Pretty much kept me in the action from directly controlling most people during all the boss and lesser monster fights, so I never felt like the "game is playing itself".
The part of the story I got sucked to me but I didn't stick through the whole game so I didn't know everything, but after about 13 hours I really didn't care to know anymore. Just about all the character were irritating to me for different reasons and i feel like this could have been avoided as well since I've played numerous rpgs where I didn't hate anyone on my team. Overall I'd just say XIII is not game for me since I find it crappy but then I find most Final Fantasies get this opinion from me. Just this one more than any other.
You know I cant belive you got the badge for not incurring moderator wrath when you blantly insult two good people. You are being very critical of someone who is paid to be, drumroll please, a frekin critic. I can see his point very clearly having played the game. Have you yourself played FF13? If not, I dont see how you can slander his review. If your have and you liked it...what the hell is wrong with you.Sir John The Net Knight said:
FF13 is bland, boring and mind-numbingly painful. If you just wanted me to sit and watch pretty graphics hell make it a anime or something damn(an anime I wouldnt watch but still). "Oh 20-30 hours in it opens up" and "The last three chapters are bigger than the rest of the game" are not reasons to play a game.
GTA4's tutorial took around ten hours, and I thought THAT was too long, it was lucky it didnt handicap me too bad I almost gave up. So you can imagine 20 hours, with a game not even on par with GTA4, hell frekin no. And my last point Squarenix hasnt learned a damn thing in a decade. Its like they recycle the same crap, but fanboys just eat it up, and whenever they tried to change the fanbois bitched so they sat with their thumbs up their butts while RPG's like Mass effect, Fallout, Dragon Age, and other open world titles have changed the way we look at games and what we want when we play.
But Square will just keep shilling the same crap until the fanboi's stop buying games and they listen to more hardcore players.
you seriously cared enough to write that long winded asshole rant Arcane Azmadi? haha, who's the retard 
hey those programmers work hard im sure they just overlooked a few grammer errors
what are we the grammer police
what are we the grammer police
I forgot to mention in my previous post these facts:
You can't make a good review without pointing out the good and the bad in something. If you only talk about the bad points, you are obviously biased, no matter what anyone says. Same for if you only talk about the good things. In order to make a good review, you MUST discuss the good and bad points EQUALLY. Without this, the entire review is biased. You must also complete the entire game, if you are going to review it. Without playing through it in its entirety, you will never be able to give it a fair review.
More often than not, whether it be a game, movie, show, etc., it will usually always start dull and boring, as well as in different people's opinions, bad. It is all opinion-based. The story is then gradually built up, though for some people they think it builds up too slow. This is most often the case for people who are impatient and would like to finish the story ASAP. The best way to build up a story and its characters, is to have a slow, gradual buildup.
This turned out longer than expected, but it is the truth, that a lot of you are probably too stubborn to learn from.
You can't make a good review without pointing out the good and the bad in something. If you only talk about the bad points, you are obviously biased, no matter what anyone says. Same for if you only talk about the good things. In order to make a good review, you MUST discuss the good and bad points EQUALLY. Without this, the entire review is biased. You must also complete the entire game, if you are going to review it. Without playing through it in its entirety, you will never be able to give it a fair review.
More often than not, whether it be a game, movie, show, etc., it will usually always start dull and boring, as well as in different people's opinions, bad. It is all opinion-based. The story is then gradually built up, though for some people they think it builds up too slow. This is most often the case for people who are impatient and would like to finish the story ASAP. The best way to build up a story and its characters, is to have a slow, gradual buildup.
This turned out longer than expected, but it is the truth, that a lot of you are probably too stubborn to learn from.
The impatient people are better off playing fps or some other genres rpg and mainly jrpgs take time to really get going the first half or so seem to be about showing all the people and parties involved. Some like to give you more people or parties later on like the true enemies or the last few party members. some jrpgs just like to jump around like someone on drugs like what ff13 did the people who have played it know what I'm talking aboutragnawind said:
I actually played FFXIII for a full 15 minutes.
The second it gave me free reign over everything, I looked into the journal, (or whatever the game called it) saw that it gave me the entire story in TEXT, and turned the game off.
I've played almost every Final Fantasy game. (With the exception of IV & VI)
None of the Final Fantasy games in the past have spoon fed you the story instead of showing you at the beginning.
I'm extremely disappointed.
The second it gave me free reign over everything, I looked into the journal, (or whatever the game called it) saw that it gave me the entire story in TEXT, and turned the game off.
I've played almost every Final Fantasy game. (With the exception of IV & VI)
None of the Final Fantasy games in the past have spoon fed you the story instead of showing you at the beginning.
I'm extremely disappointed.
The parts listed in the datalog about the party are just extraneous unnecessary bits of information. They just add it as a side extra. The real story is all covered within the cut-scenes and movies within the actual game. Many games with a database that gives you a synopsis, etc. of the story only had unnecessary bits of information if anything new at all is listed. In the datalog, I have only noticed that it summarizes the story as it unfolds. Any new information is revealed later during actual story events in the game. The extra information in the datalog is for those who want to know what will happen later on in the course of the story before it happens. Eventually, all extra information is revealed in story-related events, at a point where it fits in with the rest of the story.It isn't really a bad thing.Vancifer said: