Forum - View topicGAME: Final Fantasy XIII
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ultimafullmetal
 Posts: 70 Location: Fredericksburg, Ohio |
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If this... Overall : B Graphics : A Sound/Music : B+ Gameplay : B- Presentation : A- ...is considered a bad score. I have a feeling this game was over-hyped a bit. |
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FlyingFox
 Posts: 58 |
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I love this game for all the reasons people hate it. I love the linearity, I don't give a shit about huge boring towns. I love that I don't have to worry about losing my progress to game overs. FFXIII is streamlined and accessible.
I really hope Square doesn't drop all these advances when they make next game because of all this backlash. I don't want them making a piece of crap like FFXII again. |
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swienke
 Posts: 245 |
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I have a hard time understanding how the first 15 hours or so are "boring." There may not be a boatload of plot developments and exciting bad guys raining down, but it's full of character moments that are absolutely essential for understanding and appreciating the story. Without those moments, without watching the way the relationships between the characters develop, the rest of the story has little emotional resonance. As for the characters themselves, many of them may be somewhat annoying at first, but that's what makes their growth and maturation all that much more striking and memorable. Would I have liked Lightning so much if she had just been spoiler[a stoic soldier from the very beginning? No. But watching that coldness tinged with almost suicidal desperation slowly give way to warmth and a determination to find some type of solution ] is what makes her so compelling. The same holds true for most of the other characters.
As for the linearity complaint, I can understand how it may annoy some people, but I personally NEVER found it grating. It serves an important purpose: to maintain the momentum and pacing of the story. Honestly, fugitives don't have the time to go visit a bunch of shops and run around town all day, so the linearity makes perfect sense. Likewise, when the game eventually opens up, it does so when it makes sense story-wise. I also kind of feel that the linearity allowed them to add more detail to each town and environment than if they had all been open. Ultimately, your enjoyment of the game will depend on the reason why you play RPGs in the first place. Do you play them because of the joys of exploration, the ability to try various skills or crafts, the minigames, the sidequests, etc.? If so, you will probably not enjoy FFXIII. However, if you play because of the stories, the characters, and the sense of wonder at being drawn into a new world, then I doubt that you will be disappointed at all. |
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LiuXuande
 Posts: 201 Location: Chicago |
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Haha, I don't know what you're smoking, FFXII was amazing, and I'm a diehard fan of the entire series, so I'm saying it as one who gives each game a fresh review...not like one of those VII or X-only fanboys. There were so many ways you could do a battle...the game didn't limit you, and the gambit system was quite possibly the best recent innovation in a Final Fantasy game (Paradigm system is interesting too, but you have no control at all over your AI here) and some of those hunts were incredibly epic. Yeah, the overall story could have used some work, and Vaan was annoying, but aside from him the voice acting was superb, the writing was very well done (just look at some of the dialogue in Lowtown and Bur-Omisace, for instance) and the story was still compelling. That opening FMV with Ashe in her spoiler[Funeral garb] still gives me chills. I still really like XIII so far, but it's not at all "towns" or such that I'd complain about. X was exactly as linear, but you could backtrack, stop, and do sidequests even still. XIII is basically an extension of X, the towns there were useless anyway. Like for example, would some games or sidequests in Natuilus have been too much to ask? (other than the incredibly stupid chase-the-chocobo lol). Also My Hands sucks. It's just a horrible excuse for them to promote her and her song, and to appeal to an American audience that would rather listen to crappy mad R&B and might buy her CD... whereas Kimi ga Iru Kara was *written for the game* by Hamauzu, and we should be hearing that instead. Oh and:
Like that would ever happen. We got all the previous themes without being butchered or replaced, sometimes just redubbed (Suteki da ne and Melodies of Life come to mind) so I honestly didn't understand this decision by Square at all. I probably wouldn't have minded a redub either; Real Emotion and 1000 Words turned out pretty well. But anyway overall, I'm really enjoying XIII so far, and I'm still in the linear portion. The battle system is unique and interesting, and the story is drawing me in. I'll look forward to the when the game opens up as well, I doubt it will disappoint. |
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KoujiTamino
 Posts: 163 Location: Tacoma, WA, USA |
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XII was awesome, quite possibly my favorite game because of how huge and explorable the world was. If FFXV is like XIII, I'll probably drop the series. I like the game, but I don't want every game afterward to be just like it. If the gameplay gets anymore streamlined and stripped down I'd be hard pressed to call it an RPG anymore.
The only thing Nomura did was the Main Character designs, just like every other game since VII except IX, XI, and XII. Why do people always jump on him like he's the big decision maker at Square-Enix? However... Once Versus XIII comes out, which is his baby, then it's Open Season.
Interesting, I liked My Hands. Maybe I would have been more upset about the song being changed if Kimi ga Iru Kara wasn't quite possibly the blandest FF vocal theme ever. 
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ShinigamTakuto
Posts: 50 |
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I agree with this part, it takes quite a while to figure out what the hell the terms mean.[/quote] |
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Neko Nip
Posts: 2 |
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I gave up on it
 . I've played X, X2 XII and VII and I would have to say this on was way over hyped. I would give it a
Overall "C" Game play "C" Graphics "A" Sound "B" But would say it's too slow to open and I didn't find it very compelling. Nothing at like FF XII. I just could not get into it! |
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Capella
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I agree. If 'advances' means stripping even more RPG elements from the series than I may have to stop playing as well. Even though I love FFXII and the games before it, I don't expect every game to be like it. I do however expect a little bit more than what FFXIII gave because at least for me, the story and characters aren't everything and streamlining the game took some of the enjoyment out of it. I personally don't mind linear game play as long as I'm allowed those few moments of freedom and control because like another commenter mentioned, FFX was just as linear but it at least let you stop, slow down, do a few puzzles/side quests and explore. I also agree that Natuilus seemed like the perfect place to allow you to do these things, and I don't understand why they didn't. |
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UltimateSpaceLion
 Posts: 28 |
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I'm about 15 hours in, and while I'll admit that I'm not as firmly grasped as previous games in the series would have had me by this stage, it's obvious that FFXIII takes so long to get going because the story is shaping up to be something really epic, and the game is taking its time putting all the pieces in place.
I generally try to take each FF on its own merits and not to compare it to the previous entries in the series. People complain about the lack of exploration, but Final Fantasy games have never struck me as being all that focussed on exploration or freedom of movement. While I can't speak for I-VI, all the entries from VII-XII have been pretty linear from what I can see. Nobody plays JRPG's for the exploration or freedom - that's what Western RPG's are for, e.g. Fallout, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, etc. I play JRPG's for the story, the visual aspects, and the battle systems. I'll agree that some more side-quests early on would have been nice, but this isn't a make-or-break for me. If we are making comparisons though, I'm going to go on record as saying that while I preferred XII's gambit system, XIII's story is way more interesting. Think I still prefer XII's characters even though many of them seemed to be there just to add to the scenery. I also prefer the rather more medieval setting of XII with some bursts of technology thrown in. XIII's world just looks too shiny sometimes! Edit: Great review by the way! A lot more in-depth than many professional reviews I have read... |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Done with XIII, found I hated the lack of exploration, yet all together it was an enjoyable game. I just found I like 12 and pretty much most all the ones before it more (back to ps1 gen, not counting spin offs). I like my traditional rpgs, and for the first 15 hours I was seriously considering putting it away and pulling out an old PS1 FF game instead.
But now it's time for me to save up for a new computer and get ready for FFXIV (or just buy a ps3, unsure yet). It'll offer everything I want in a FF game, just not the typical story line and main characters. Can't forget Nobuo Uematsu and Akihiko Yoshida. I know I missed Uematsu's touch on the music for 13. Yeah, it's an MMO, but I played 11 for a good couple of years and can't wait to see what Square has learned from 11. |
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bamwabam
Posts: 11 |
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XII was ok. i just didn't like the fact that the main character was there just to be there and had no point in the story
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domino
 Posts: 373 |
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I think 13 was surprisingly pleasant. Despite the linear first half of the game, I actually like the first half more than the second. I'm the type of gamer who prefers a good story to exploration, and the post-chapter 10 story just doesn't click with me like story in the first 9 chapters did.
But then again, after playing 12, ANYTHING looks good. |
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Animehermit
 Posts: 964 Location: The Argama |
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really getting tired of all the 12 hate, go back to playing final fantasy VII until you can come up with an original opinion on the matter. thats the problem with all the VII fans if they get anything that isn't final fantasy VII they complain, and complain and complain. also i don't understand why everyone questions whether or not the series is still and RPG or not, with games like Mass Effect ( which is more of a 3rd person shooter) and Fallout ( a first person shooter) its amazing that anyone can even define RPG as a genre. and i will never understand why all the reviews say that game doesn't get good until the 15th or 20th or 25th hour or so, the game is not a complete unbearable mess until then, i felt that the game opened up a lot when you get the full use of the combat system. the Linearity doesn't bother me that much, this is square enix, not Bethesda, i wasn't expecting an open world experience. |
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Capella
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It's honestly not that hard to define an RPG. I haven't played Fallout but I am currently playing Mass Effect and even though it isn't anything like FF or any other more traditional RPG I've played, it has all of the characteristics that define an RPG. Yeah, it may play like a shooter but everything else about the game screams RPG because there's quests, side-quests, classes, exploration, character customization, the small puzzles you do to gain access to items,etc. Basically, a lot of the same things you would see in games that are defined as RPGs. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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This is a grossly unfair and hypocritical criticism. The fact that one prefers more story focused JRPGs to more exploration heavy ones in no way discredits their opinion. It's a simple preference in no way inferior to those who prefer the opposite. Hence the reason it is rather absurd to criticize VII fans for complaining when something is different amongst a sea of people who are complaining due in no small part to XIII being different from their own preferred style of exploration focused RPG. Although, for that matter, I find such stereotyping altogether silly. While I can't speak for domino, your assumption is at best baseless. Despite what some people seem to believe, not everyone falls neatly into one of these two little Final Fantasy camps. I for one can't stand 12. Yes I like 13, 7 and 10 but also I like 5, 6 and 9. I can't stand 8. |
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