FFXIII: Love It or Hate It?

dan290786 said:
i find it also a shame that many people here actually like FFXII and XIII and what Final Fantasy has become. That is fair enough, i respect everyones opinions but is there no one out there that liked the way VII to IX was made?
Click to expand...

I like VII, hate VIII, love IX. I also like XII, and I'd probably like XIII if/when I get a chance to play it. Each game has redeeming qualities that I can appreciate. Except for VIII. I just can't get into that one.

The thing with this argument of "what FF has become" is that it's a bit short-sighted. The franchise has been around for 20 years. It's bound to go through significant changes. And anyone who expected XII to be like the others wasn't paying attention. It was made by the same people who did Vagrant Story. It was bound to have a radical shift of some form. And that was the battle system, and the focus on battle instead of solely on plot, plus a more politic-oriented plot as opposed to the same-old rehashed love story while saving the world. I found it a refreshing change.
 
I remember the first trailer that was leaked for this and I remember I was pissing myself! I thought it looked awesome. And to tell the truth when I bought it I ran home to play it. And I wasn't dissapointed at all!
:monster::woo:
i'm simple like that.. :(
 
Final fantasy 13 is bad...

This game is probably the biggest let down since final fantasy 8, its all the same, the fighting sucks, the characters suck, i wouldn't even dare think that lighting is clouds ego.
The story also sucks and lastly the level up system, i mean why couldnt they keep it the same?

If you think this was a harsh comment on the game then please lock this topic and never come back to it again, if you agree please carry on posting about your thoughts on this game.

And if there is also a topic already made about this go ahead and lock this.
 
Lunatic Cloud said:
This game is probably the biggest let down since final fantasy 8, its all the same, the fighting sucks, the characters suck, i wouldn't even dare think that lighting is clouds ego.
The story also sucks and lastly the level up system, i mean why couldnt they keep it the same?
Click to expand...

Awww, FFVIII really isn't that bad at all - it was just the odd confusing elements woven into the storyline and the Junction system that brought it down a bit. But anyway, it's not a FFVIII topic, so I'll get to the point.

I don't fully agree with you there. Sazh and Fang are two great characters - they bring something fresh and fascinating to an otherwise rather stereotypical (to a JRPG) cast - brawny, mostly idiotic "hero" Snow, overly ditzy and sugary Vanille, whining, depressed Hope. Lightning is alright - no way can she be seriously compared to Cloud. They're two completely different characters and I wholeheartedly say that Lightning is a better protagonist than Cloud.

Some aspects of the story do suck - it's not a spoiler section so I won't go into it - but on the whole, it's rather good. It focuses a lot on each of the characters, their backstories and their state of minds as it goes along. It definitely isn't the best story - a few weird bits of writing here and there, but it isn't crap - compared to some other RPG stories I have seen. You can probably tell easily that there were significant storyline cuts though.

The thing is about changing things or keeping them the same - SE can't afford to not innovate. Japan's gaming industry is falling behind that of the west's greatly now. JRPGs just aren't generally the pioneer stunners they once were. SE has to adapt and "evolve" the franchise so it doesn't stay overly stale and so that it can attract interest typically from those who aren't FF fans.
 
Fleur said:
Awww, FFVIII really isn't that bad at all - it was just the odd confusing elements woven into the storyline and the Junction system that brought it down a bit. But anyway, it's not a FFVIII topic, so I'll get to the point.

I don't fully agree with you there. Sazh and Fang are two great characters - they bring something fresh and fascinating to an otherwise rather stereotypical (to a JRPG) cast - brawny, mostly idiotic "hero" Snow, overly ditzy and sugary Vanille, whining, depressed Hope. Lightning is alright - no way can she be seriously compared to Cloud. They're two completely different characters and I wholeheartedly say that Lightning is a better protagonist than Cloud.

Some aspects of the story do suck - it's not a spoiler section so I won't go into it - but on the whole, it's rather good. It focuses a lot on each of the characters, their backstories and their state of minds as it goes along. It definitely isn't the best story - a few weird bits of writing here and there, but it isn't crap - compared to some other RPG stories I have seen. You can probably tell easily that there were significant storyline cuts though.

The thing is about changing things or keeping them the same - SE can't afford to not innovate. Japan's gaming industry is falling behind that of the west's greatly now. JRPGs just aren't generally the pioneer stunners they once were. SE has to adapt and "evolve" the franchise so it doesn't stay overly stale and so that it can attract interest typically from those who aren't FF fans.
Click to expand...

I suppose you have a point, i meen if they kept all the final fantasy games the same as the very first one they wouldnt make much money off it.
 
Good: gorgeous graphics, innovative battle system, hours of gameplay, captivating story. Fang. Need I say more?

Bad: Linearity, LACK OF GIL.

Still love it though... XD
 
Guys, remember this is a post count section. Please try not to post one-liners. If you disagree, give reasons why. Thanks. :)
 
Well Im 20 hours in, im enjoying it but not as much as I hoped which I guess is just what happens when you hype something up to much. But I love it more than I hate it even if im slightly dissapointed. I love the battle system its just that is so linear and I really miss towns and NPC that you can actually talk to :(
 
I agree with you on the graphics, gameplay for me is ok but i disagree with you on thr story. I also don;t like how most of FFXIII is basically pressing X to then watch a cut scene. It's like that all the way through. I feel it's a big let down but its better than FFXII...just!
 
Sportacus said:
I hate it.

At this rate, I probably won't even finish the game. I am currently fed up with this "oh heres your boss and a 3 minute cutscene, after that enjoy the legion of monsters you have to kill so you won't be underleveled for the next boss!" routine.

It's broken my patience for this game, I'm pretty sure I'm done with it.
Click to expand...

weird most people complaine about to many cutscene and not enough battle

dan290786 said:
i find it also a shame that many people here actually like FFXII and XIII and what Final Fantasy has become. That is fair enough, i respect everyones opinions but is there no one out there that liked the way VII to IX was made?
Click to expand...


ff7-9 was awesome games i loved them.

I hated ff12 never even finish it.

However i really like ff13.
Why because i like ff games on the characters and story line.
Even if everything else is bad. and yes it was almost a straight line but how they dd it was a bit fun as well as the battle system i never use the auto battle thing. I really like it.
yes ff7-9 was very good games however if ff went back to making games that was just like them i would stop playing since to me every ff need to be different. Of course because of this their be games i will dislike and others will to. however ff cannot stay the same they gto to change.

sorry for my bad eng
 
Last edited by a moderator:
dan290786 said:
i find it also a shame that many people here actually like FFXII and XIII and what Final Fantasy has become. That is fair enough, i respect everyones opinions but is there no one out there that liked the way VII to IX was made?
Click to expand...

I liked VII and VIII. IV is my favorite FF. Playing through VI now and liking it.

I also loved XIII.
 
dan290786 said:
I agree with you on the graphics, gameplay for me is ok but i disagree with you on thr story. I also don;t like how most of FFXIII is basically pressing X to then watch a cut scene. It's like that all the way through. I feel it's a big let down but its better than FFXII...just!
Click to expand...

Without the intention of trolling or ranting, I want to express my opinion to anyone who is hating on the game solely because of it's formula.

If you don't like cutscenes or battles, you shouldn't be playing Final Fantasy. I noticed a lot of the complaints here are "Oh, it's just a bunch of battles followed by a cutscene followed by more battles." What do you think any of the PS2 or PS3 gen FF games are? The formula is tried and true. Let's take it back even further, to PS1. In fact, I'll be so bold as to take on FF7, which has far fewer haters than FFXIII does. There weren't cutscenes in the same way that we've seen them in FFX or FFXIII. Instead of cutting away to a scene (which, btw, you could easily skip if you hated it so much), the "cutscenes" were done as you travelled, ie. the party would talk to each other so that the story would develop. One of the exceptions is the
flashback to Nibelheim
, which is more of a true cutscene. In this way, it seemed like there were less cutscenes simply because of their style - they didn't shift the player's focus from traveling from point A to B to a whole new scene. They weren't actual cutscenes, but they still took time to watch and understand. Either way, after this flashback, you end up getting into more battles, eventually leading up to a boss battle and some new gear: A formula that has worked for years and is a fundamental element of an FF game.

What I will agree with is that the linearity of the game severely impacts the player's overall satisfaction level. In FF7, 8, etc., you didn't notice the cutscenes as much because you could branch off and do whatever the hell you wanted to do whenever the hell you wanted to do it. In FFXIII, you were forced to go one way almost all the time, and therefore you were constantly bombarded by cutscenes, and it became that much more of a drag.

Personally, I was far too engrossed in the graphics and Fang's sexy accent to care about how many cutscenes I was watching. Why? Because I'm playing a Final Fantasy game, and an FF game without a cutscene is like a first-person shooter without guns.
 
ehh i like it a little it's just thai it's all in 1 town. i beat it and traded it in. it's not worth playing again

Mod Edit: Could you please put a little more into your post? Thank you.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
well ambios i just dont feel the games are "final fantasy" anymore. Sorry if that makes me sound like im not a true fan but thats just how i feel. Im also not a fan of FFXI and soon to be XIV being made online
 
I quite enjoyed this game tbh. Though I wouldn't say it was my all time favorite, I don't hate it either. I'm leaning more on the 'love it' side rather then hate and i'm going to back up the reasons why I did llike it.



DeadFantasy said:
the battle system: I thought the battle system was very interesting. it took some getting used to, but once I did I liked it a lot. I always had a thing for the job system so right away it made the grade :P. The paradigrams were pretty cool, it allowed me to adapt to any situation, which was quite often with how fast paced the game was. In previous FF's, in between turns you had time to go make a sandwich and take a whiz but in XIII it was like BAM! BAM! BAM! Every few seconds you'd have someone to command. It kept me on my feet, and made the battles a little less tedious. I also like the crystalarium, I liked how (once you got far enough) you could decide who maximized what role. It was pretty cool, although, when you have acess to all the role's, things like HP+20 shouldn't cost 20,000 CP just because it's not their specialty.​


Customizing: Even though it wasn't in depth, the option to maximize your equipment kept me pretty busy :D​

Lastly the storyline: I thought it was very creative and interesting. I liked most of the characters ('cept Fang) and I thought they all contributed to make a good plot. Even though it was slow and kinda fuzzy in the beginning, it eventually made sense and helped make XIII even more unique.​
Click to expand...

Quote explains it :D
 
I completed it two days ago, so here's my final, overall verdict. I neither love it or hate it. I'm in the middle. I enjoyed most parts of the game. Others, not so much. There have been much discrepancy surrounding this game and I'm not surprised. It's a brave move forwards from the old JRPG mold which was always bound to polarise views.

On the story - it is not the best I have seen, but still typical of an epic Final Fantasy storyline anyhow. The setting and lore is certainly interesting - particularly everything to do with the Fal'Cie, Cocoon, War of Transgression etc. Just like FFXII, a lot of attention was put into setting and story that makes FFXIII a highlight over its current JRPG competitors. Unfortunately I did not like everything. Some aspects of the story I found disappointing (especially
Jihl Nabaat's
demise at the hands of
Barthandelus
).

On the gameplay - the linearity wasn't torturous. Even in the earlier chapters there was still gameplay there. However, until Chapter 11, the game just feels like a marathon of battles and the odd cutscenes. As the player you just seem to be rushing forwards, determined to reach the finishing line. It did help the story flow quickly and efficiently though, but up until you are free to do sidequests later and to run around, it was a bit limited in terms of gameplay. The battle system can be praised. It was more dynamic, albeit made a little easier compared to previous games.

On the visuals and music - they are mostly spectacular. The graphics are as astonishing as ever and there are a handful of beautiful CGI sequences embedded. SE really have paid a lot of attention to visuals. The soundtrack is not the best out there, but it did the job well. I do wish the more traditional themes are there, such as the Prologue opening theme and the battle victory jingle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top