Forum - View topicThe X Button - Under Ratings
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2093 |
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Yeah, I think a good number of the detractors of Sazh must have turned the game off 30 minutes into the game where initial appearances are deceiving. He slowly becomes one of the most sympathetic characters in the game, and as a spoiler[father trying to save his son] certainly unique amongst the entire FF franchise as far as characters go.
I honestly don't even trust FF reviews anymore, so many people who have been with the franchise for so long seem to have very nitpicky details about what exactly a FF has to entail. I mean, I literally had a friend said the game was awful simply because it was mostly linear and that was it in terms of his criticisms. He had no issue with the gameplay, story, characters, it was simply the lack of much freedom to explore that brought the entire game down in his eyes. It's things like these that make me believe a good deal (but not all) of long-term FF "fans" aren't going to like any future FF games unless they're virtually perfect in their eyes. |
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Juno016
 Posts: 2390 |
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I've beaten FFI, II, IV, VI, VII, and XIII (almost all very VERY recently, too) and have at least played half of FFVIII and FFIX. In my opinion, FFXIII had some of the most memorable and developed characters of them all (including Sahz, the black guy, who I use as a good example of how to characterize a black person in a Japanese game). As for story, I thought it had great potential and it worked off a lot of the potential very well, though I do have to agree that, while the ending was still very satisfying for me... it lacked a true coherence that I can really explain other than, "The good guys beat the bad guys and saved the world." The feelings behind it were good. The writing wasn't particularly bad. But there is definitely something about the logic of it that I just didn't understand. Mainly, spoiler[how is it that defeating the bad guy, whose plan it was to be defeated and allow Cocoon to fall, was a good thing? And if stopping Cocoon from falling was easy as pie (albeit with some personal sacrifice), why were they so worried about it before?] I feel like I'm either missing some details or just... pointing out an awkward flaw.
It's definitely one of my favorite FF's out there, and it's not like I consider my opinion sacred, but at the very least, I do like to tell people to try it out before they criticize. And if they put down the controller for good before finishing the game (especially if they can't get past the first few hours or so of story), then they really don't have anything credible to review the game with other than, "I didn't like [critique] up to where I got and thus I couldn't finish it." That goes for any game, and I don't exclude myself in this regard. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14772 |
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GameFly 
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Etrien
 Posts: 525 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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I wasn't going to respond to this thread until I saw this comment. I found Sazh to be an extremely well written character - probably one of the best on the entire series - because they succeeded in making him believably human. In a franchise that's typically littered with exaggerated, emotional teenagers, he was like a breath of fresh air. Easily my favorite character in the game (and that's even when considering that the game has two of the strongest female characters in the FF series), and the only character I pretty much never took out of my party once given the option. But, as an aside, if you didn't like FFX, I doubt you'd like FFXIII. (I like both, but they share many of the same flaws.) I clocked about 100 hours into XIII, and I remember actively thinking around the 12 hour mark: "Wow, this is probably the worst modern FF game I've ever played." But lo and behold, the remaining 80% of the game was actually really fun, and by the end I loved the game. So, even though my final overall opinion is highly positive, and I'm definitely glad I played it, the beginning is so badly done that it makes it tough to recommend to people. "You've just gotta get through the first 20 hours" is a terrible endorsement. |
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Juno016
Posts: 2390 |
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You, too, huh...? Well, I realized my problem when I got through about 1/3rd of the game and THEN started using the Crystarium system, only to find out I had foregone the entire leveling system the whole time. And it wasn't until before the final boss that I bothered to upgrade my weapons, not realizing I should have done so looooong ago. Either I was really good at the game to get that far like that, or... really stupid to ignore something like that for so long. >_>;;; |
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rojse
 Posts: 234 |
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I've played Final Fantasy XIII, and put in about twenty-five hours so far. While I did somewhat enjoy the story (I don't think the story is as bad as it's made out to be by many people) I didn't like how linear the game is. For much of the game, there was little choice in how I could level my characters or items, what classes and configurations I could give my parties, or in exploring areas. Even when the game opened up and let me start doing my own thing, all that allowed me to do was kill quest monsters, grind for EXP, or grind for rare drops. And since I found the battle system quite boring, that got quite old quite quickly.
It's not that I dislike linear storylines in my games. I just much prefer games that, while linear, are much better in giving you the illusion of choice - such as quests to complete, decently-entertaining minigames, or interesting choices in how I configure and level my party. And while it has been argued that a vocal minority dislike FFXIII, the sequel did have a noticeable drop in sales. It will be interesting to see if the threequel suffers the same fate. |
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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I agree. I loved the character in XIII. The way they approached their meeting and development was interesting. All forced to come together and go out on the run. Pairing off and forming better relationships with some than others. The whole game was probably the most character focused out of the franchise. It detailed all the days and events prior to the start of the game for the characters. As for the gameplay, I didn't have any real problems with it. It made sense from a story-standpoint. Constantly being on the run as fugitives meant they didn't have the luxery of wandering around towns (when they did arrive in towns they were treated as battle zones because of all the soldiers chasing them, for example) and always had to keep moving. For the game, it worked. Would it have worked for any other game, like say VII? Of course not, nor would I want every future game to emulate XIII's style. I just see it as an interesting execution. Sometime the gameplay has to accommodating for the lore, like how Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter was much different than previous Breath of Fires. It had a time limit and other limitations due to the story. In those cases I have no problems with games having a different approach. Though I could see how someone who just wanted a more standard JRPG might be upset... XII got some criticism as well because of the whole open world/MMO combat system. But as for me I liked them both.
That's indicative of all Final Fantasies though. X2 sold worse than X, Revenant Wings sold worse than XII, and so on. I think most people just care about the core game and not any spin-offs or sequels that come out of it. |
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Etrien
Posts: 525 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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That's my biggest complaint about XIII. The game introduces its gameplay mechanics only bit by tiny bit, and you don't even have access to the full spectrum until probably after 1/3rd or so through the whole game. Heck, for the first couple hours, you're forced through a dungeon and tons of battles where you get no form of exp and your characters have no real diversity or meaningful abilities. Each character had a melee attack, item(?), and one very basic special move. The fights were soooo repetitive and pointless. Imagine my surprise that when the game finally gave me access to the full battle system, it was really frickin' fun. *You actually do earn latent exp from these fights, but it's only given to you later on when you get access to the Crystarium. For a first time player, it feels like you're getting nothing for all the fights in the early game.
Same. I'm actually kind of glad they still keep experimenting with each title, even though said changes are always met with lots of vocal backlash. XII and XIII's gameplay almost couldn't be more different, but they both took some interesting deviations from the norm and were ultimately enjoyable, imo. I'm glad they're not satisfied with just rehashing the same thing, even if it means messing up on occasion. Though I just mean the main, numbered, series; SE definitely does enjoy some copious rehashing.
Pretty much. I liked XIII, but I've never touched XIII-2, nor do I have any real interest to do so. |
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Cecilthedarkknight_234
 Posts: 3820 Location: Louisville, KY |
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Normally I wouldn't have bought 13-2 but my local game-stop had the collectors edition pre-owned with the arbook, full soundtrack, hard-bound case for only 20 dollars. I'm a huge sucker for such editions that I couldn't pass it up such a great deal despite not liking the first game. I will also probably get slack for this I honestly think 13-2 is better than 13-1 because of the time travel aspect and multiple endings. |
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