Worst FF yet.

[kratoscar2008]

I respect your opinion, I did not mean in terms of that they wern't developed at all, I meant as in some wern't fleshed out to the extent of Noal and Serah. I don't see adding monsters is a way of avoiding memorable characters. If they planned on making playable characters I am well and truly sure they would make them memorable. They have established what characters there were in FFXIII. It didn't do a FFX-2 and tac on another woman to make it baywatch fantasy, it just thought of a new gameplay aspect which they thought people might enjoy and appreciate.

After the crapinness that was FFXIII and the Boring characters of FFXII they hell sure had to make good characters however i dint like Serah at all along with her sister at leat they are more memorable than the FFXII characters.

[mikeboxmad]

This game was not the worst ff game ever. this is actually my favorite ff game I have played however i do believe it comes down to personal prefrence on which ones people like and dislike

[L]

This game was not the worst ff game ever. this is actually my favorite ff game

im sorry but



what?

Are you sure that you've actually played any of the games in the series?

[mikeboxmad]

im sorry but



what?

Are you sure that you've actually played any of the games in the series?

I played final fantasy 8,10, and 13 and i honestly enjoyed 13-2 the most its just personal opinion on the ones i have played

[kryceks]

I never finished FFXIII. It just didn't seem to hold my attention long enough to do so. I think I played until I first arrive on Gran Pulse and then stopped.

I suppose it is not the worse game I've ever played, it just wasn't for me. I can understand why others might like it though. The production quality is really high and the plot is somewhat engaging. There was a sense of mystery and doom, but as the story unfolded it started becoming predictable. I actually only remember one character (Hope) having any type of arc. But then again, I guess it is not fair for me to judge because I didn't finish the game. So I'm not sure if any of the other characters developed more by the end.

I hear FFXIII-2 has some differences from the first and is an overall improvement. I'm not sure if I will ever play it though. These games are moving into a different direction than that of which I'm interested in.

[vixvicco]

Won't say its the worst one as such, but its definitley up there. I did not enjoy it much at all. Everyone says its so good and better than the previous, but honestly, reviwers nowadays must be getting paid off or something.

[L]

well

what do you do when an entire generation of gaming is clearly complete bullshit and you run a company centered around helping the industry thrive? If every reviewer was a realist, they would have drove this industry to the ground years ago.

Greg Street AKA "Ghostcrawler" Lead Systems Designer of World of Warcraft
On Paladins: "oh yeah, we're going to nerf them. to the ground, baby."

The amount of cost and effort is nowhere near the output, and most current releases always feel like there are a multitude of things that could have been easily improved upon in beta. FFXIII-2, if nothing else, is probably the best example of the sorry state of this industry right now.

Not a completely worthless game when you cut the story out of it, but the story and caius are so terribly fucking bad. It brings down the game so much, I didn't even buy the game and it pisses me off that a company can pass this shit off as a complete product without being reprimanded and then have the audacity to add some to be continued DLC shit at the end of the game.

Caius, trolling. Throw some infractions on that bitch yo. I vote permban.

Honestly, with some battle system improvements and a variety of endgame challenges - I could see the game not being too bad off. But no. All of the endgame challenges besides the fiends in the Archyltte Steppe and Paradox Endings (and what was speculated to be a canon story ending) are purchasable DLC.

But we didn't have this problem with Final Fantasy X, did we? Sure, no one liked Tidus and their dicks became conclave when they watched the laughing scene... but the game had a handful of endgame challenges, did not have 12 weapons that shared THE EXACT SAME FUCKING MODEL, characters with the personality of a rock (at least we know where Serah gets it from), caius or all of this dlc bullshit.

I thought it was funny. But seriously, is SE becoming the Japanese version of EA?
The company that 250 thousand consumerist readers voted worst company of 2012?
Bank of America, Paypal, USPS... and EA takes the golden poo.
I think SE would have given them a run for their money if the consumerist was not an American site.

[klauss]

I definitely agree with you that none of the characters were interesting, in that they lacked any qualities that really drew you to them (emotionally). However, I can't help but love the game, simply because of the fact that it's 'pretty'... PROFOUND, right? I know. But in all seriousness, what the game lacks in character development and story, makes up for in 'atmosphere'. In all of the Final Fantasy games that I've played so far (FFX, FFX-2, FFXIII, FFXIII-2), none of them failed to create an uplifting atmosphere that attracts you to the game. The soundtrack (of FF13/13-2), albeit; not excellent (in comparison to earlier FFs), was sufficient enough in being one of the two main components that creates the atmosphere. The other component, of course, is graphics and from Square Enix, you can expect the best. However, the graphics isn't that noteworthy in that it didn't really show me anything new. Some pretty colours here and there, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary when it comes to SE. For instance, in FFX, being the first FF installment of the 'next gen' console (at the time) I was completely amazed by the graphics. Over a decade since its release and I'm still amazed by the amazing visuals. One of the main things that really mesmerized was the water. It was like the first time I saw water look like water in a game! And of course, the gameplay, voice-acting, story etc. was simply brilliant in FFX.

Which brings me to my main point, I feel that since FF13 and FF13-2, it appears that SE can simply rely on atmosphere alone to draw an audience. I really fear that this maybe the case, since it suggests that the FF series is going to turn to absolute horsecrap, just like mainstream music that rely on the 'glam' of music videos and auto-tune, totally disregarding all the other aspects of music that makes music, well, music. So what I'm saying is, having played FF13 and FF13-2, I feel that the artistic value of the FF series is just going to turn into one of those 'sell-out' products. I seriously hope this isn't the case. The only thread of hope left, is FF Versus 13, which I'm banking my hopes on, especially because Tetsuya Nomura said that he's directing it and being completely involved in its development. If it turns out to be another FF13/FF13-2, I'm going to cry and lose hope in the FF series.

[Sheechiibii]

Okay, I see a challenge to defend my opinion challenge accepted!

Characters
You say that Serah and Noel look very generic, but I disagree. I don't think they're any more generic than many other main characters in the FF franchise (youre right about the kingdom hearts thing though, I think it's the blue). Serah's clothing for starters is totally insane, as is her whole look in XIII-2 even her weapon looks pretty bizarre. She was an 'ordinary girl with a white skirt' in XIII, but not in XIII-2. I don't think a characters looks should really matter that much anyway, it's their actual personality that should matter far more and I think Noel especially is a pretty unique character. He's nothing like any FF character I've seen before, he can be light-hearted at times and serious at others, he's guarded and hurt because of his past but he doesn't mention it or moan about it all the time, he keeps it inside. He's certainly not a crybaby and neither he nor Serah struggle with their 'emo problems' they just stick in and get on with trying to sort everything out. All the way through the game I thought how different Noel was to the usual FF hero.

Story
I'm not sure I can refute you on this because you haven't actually given much examples. When do the characters come to a conclusion they shouldn't have been able to reach? I would actually say that as far as FF goes this game has one of the less complex storyline there's been. Other than perhaps X-2 and XII I can't think of any FF that has a simpler story. Etro took Lightning to Valhalla to be her protector, the timeline was changed so nobody remembered her ever surviving the fall of cocoon – so that's why and how. Yeul has the ability to see into the future so that she can lead people down the right path. She has a guardian because she's very young and her ability is something only she has, therefore she needs protecting. Noel ended up in Valhalla because Etro took pity on him when he was nearly dead and wondering around alon in his time not knowing how to change things. You see his story full circle when you go to A Dying world and see his dream of his old life, and it ends how the game begins, with Noel being taken to Valhalla by Etro.

Monsters
The monsters – well, that's your experience. Believe me, the first monsters you pick up are not the best the game has to offer, not in the slightest. All the way through the game I picked up new monsters and swapped them around. I didn't need any incentive other than wanting my party to kick ass, the same reason I level my characters up. Obviously if you level your first three monsters up far ahead they will be better than most of the others you get start out at, but that's to do with the monsters potential. They learn different abilities, they level up differently depending on what materials you use, and you can infuse monsters together to get new abilities for them. Base statistics don't mean anything much to do with the monsters potential.

Soundtrack
I liked this soundtrack a lot. Noel's theme is possibly now my favourite music from any FF it's so beautiful. Music taste, however, is not something I can defend. Everyone likes different things, so there's not much point in me trying to debate it, but I will say that all of the FF games have had some good music and some bad and some forgettable. I just soundtracks on whether there are any outstanding numbers and XIII-2 definitely has that for me.

Post-game Play
I don't have a lot of reason to play the game more, because I did almost all the side quests during the main game. A huge reason to play after the ending is to see all the paradox endings. Getting all the fragments and trophies is an achievement – the same reason why people try to max out characters in other games, try to find the best weapons and beat all the secret bosses – it's nice to feel like you've accomplished something. But the one thing that makes me want to play this game post-game compared to other games is the alternate endings.

Classic Elements
There are plenty towns in XIII-2, there's the town in Archylte Steppe, New Bodhum and the Bresha Ruins. There's the town (although deserted) in Oerba, there's the entire city of Academia. But you know one of the things I like about XIII-2 was that everywhere was different, you weren't just given small look-alike towns one after the other like in many other FF games, you got basic towns, huge cities, abandoned shacks and bases build around ruins.

This isn't the first FF not to have summon abilities either,and given that they had the monster system I don't think they needed summons as well. You don't need two sets of beasts to look after. As for the airship thing, there hasn't been an airship since FFX. FFIX if you think about it because what did the airship in X do that was different to the gates in XIII-2? And if you're talking about just in general airships being present in the plot – there was an airship at the end, you had a battle on it's roof as well.

Sure there's no actual open world to explore, but how could they feasibly do that in a game where they cross through so many different time frames? There's no way they could build an entire world for every time, and I think we get enough locations that having big empty fields to run through between each site isn't really missed. When is the last time you got to choose a party between 7-8 different characters? FFIX had 8 characters to choose from and as everyone knows when you have that many characters many do not get focus, do not get development. I'd far rather have a few characters that get proper story and development time than have a load of characters, half of whom have no purpose and a few who are just gimmicks.

They haven't done away with side quests that are only available for a certain period of time. I know this because I had to redo a whole area (and a bunch of areas to get to it) because I missed something I could only get once. (New Bodhum XX3). Also, apart from getting Fragment skills, another great reason to collect as many fragments as possible is because you need them to get the best weapon in the game, and the more fragments you have the better the weapon will be. Yes the weapons look the same, with different colours and shapes. That's pretty normal for FF – if a character has a sword they're not going to get a new weapon that looks like a gun, it's going to be another sword, with different colouring and variations etc. I think there are challenging optional bosses. I was nearly maxed out at the end of my play and I couldn't even defeat Fomoire let alone Long Gui or Immortal.

I'm not saying you have to love the game or even like it, and you're free to hate it if you want (I despise XIII and have no problem saying so whenever) but being annoyed that other people like it isn't really going to do your argument any favours. A lot of people can't understand those who like VIII, or XII. I don't particularly understand the immense love for VII, but people have different opinions and opinions are not absolute, there is no wrong or right. I'm not wrong for liking the game any more than you're wrong for disliking it.

As for the science fiction thing. Time travel really isn't that out-there as far as FF is concerned, it was introduced way back in FFVIII. The world of XIII-2 is very fantasy-like, much more so than VII or VIII's world and it doesn't have space travel like those two or IX. What makes VIII fantasy? What makes VII fantasy? You can't say 'the fal'cie and magic don't count' because you could do the same thing to many other FF games. So many Final Fantasy games have had science fiction in them, it's the mixture of that and fantasy elements that makes them different from other games.

[Razberry Knight]

Ok screechiibii. You basically tried to defend xiii-2 by using a mess of litttle bits of positive to make up for the bigger ones.
Characters: i like them because their unique appearance (which any character will have in FF) And unique weapons. Then you defend their personalities such as nnoel being kind hearted and not a cry baby but to me, that just dullens the character. Its why people hate zack for not really being that unique. Noel has no balance of good/bad qualities hes not that interesting and for him to be such a relevantt character? The last human being always throws me off. If it wsnone of the last, then it would sound reasonable. Overall he does have bad qualities, like Snow he also tries to be the hero in everything.

Time travel was included in the first final fantasy however it made sense in the first kne, this one just made u a story based on it but not really being relevant.

The setting of it is fantasy like and sc fi like just like its predessessor, however we still dont have a fricken clue what makes this a final fantasy xiii title. The series never holds balance and the jump between xiii and xiii-2 throws us off even more to believe any ff fan can like it.