Final Fantasy XIII

[Liquid]

Anyone else looking forward to this game come March? Holy crap, I sure as hell am....

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/international-trailer-final-fantasy/60730

[MikoChika]

I sure am as well! i've already preordered it. Now it's just a waiting game.. Gah! the trailers look so pretty. I sure hope the story's good, and I hope the battle system is desent as well.

[LordKefka]

I'm getting it but I haven't enjoyed a FF to the fullest since FFIX back in 2000..

[Liquid]

I never really gave FFIX a chance. However, I absolutely loved FFXII.

[PyronIkari]

Anyone else looking forward to this game come March? Holy crap, I sure as hell am....

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/international-trailer-final-fantasy/60730

Crappy game is crappy.

Let's go through the major problems first. The most common being that the first 80% of the game is a straight line. Dungeons included, you have no free will for 20-30 hours of the game. You move forward, and press circle (or X in America) when prompted to. There is no exploration, no towns, no world, and even the dungeons are a singular path. There are no shops, aor people to talk to at all. Everything is auto prompted. When you finally get to do some exploration, it's incredibly limited to mostly NOTHINGNES. Sure you can look around other areas, but there's nothing there 99% of the time, and the things that are there, are things you can't do until you HAVE to go there later anyways.

The story is crap. The majority of the story is the sister whining about wanting to be with the other, and not even angsty whining. Just whining. THere's no depth to any of the characters, and there's no background to any of the characters. It's just shit happening and you're doing those things, because you're told to in the game with no real drive or emotion coming from anyone. If you thought FFXII was lacking story, FFXIII makes FFXII look like a grand novel adventure.

Controls are horrible for the most part. Everything that looks fun, where you'd like good controls are limited to "press up and press X when prompted". While stuff that has nothing to do you're given full control and angles, and the ability to do all this stuff, only... it's useless because it's a straight line anyways.

The only compliment this game seems to get is that the battle system is fun to mess around with... but olny after you're done with the majority of the game and CAN do things to mess around with. But at the same time, it becomes stupid, because now you can just do infite juggles and such insane crap that the game no longer has any adventure/fun to it. Sure you are doing more than FFXII where you just put the controller down for the most part, but since the rest of the game is so bad, the fighting barely makes up for it.

Out of the some odd 50 people I've talked to who have beaten this game... 1 has said it was worth getting. And even he said "it's worth getting, but it's not that great. It's got a fun battle system and the game isn't REALLY bad, but it's not good". The others mostly said, it's not even worth playing, let alone buying.

So I *WAS* looking forward to it... 2 years ago. Now that it's out, and everyone I know that has played it have told me not to, even huge ff fanboys/girls... it's not.

FFXIII is called the worst FF by not a small margin by the majority of the people. So I will not be getting it, and at best, will borrow it from someone if I get really bored.

But just so you know, I did play the game a bit, and I was more then disappointed with what I played.

[Knightfire]

I'll be getting it. Sure it may be linear, but FF X was linear too and that was still a good game. I'm expecting it to be at worst a ho hum experience like XII was, which I still did enjoy somewhat.

[Mantaray3000]

Who cares if the game is linear isn't that what a non-MMORPG is supposed to be about? The same goes for action adventure titles like Uncharted 2 or Devil May Cry. IMHO,FFXII wasn't very memorable nevertheless, it had its own merits such as not having random battle encounters as well as not having a cliche story about saving the world from some ultimate evil.

[PyronIkari]

Who cares if the game is linear isn't that what a non-MMORPG is supposed to be about? The same goes for action adventure titles like Uncharted 2 or Devil May Cry. IMHO,FFXII wasn't very memorable nevertheless, it had its own merits such as not having random battle encounters as well as not having a cliche story about saving the world from some ultimate evil.

Uh... no, non-mmorpg's are supposed to NOT be like that. Action games like Uncharted and Devil May Cry are NOT RPG's.

Look at it like this. Would you enjoy Zelda, if there was no world. If the dungeons were a straight line, and you didn't have to look for hearts, or anything like that?

You guys seem to not understand what "linear" means. We're not talking about the story... we're talking about the games. Normally dungeons  in RPG's have different routes, dead ends, treasure chests to look for, and different paths that lead different places. Now imagine... that instead it's a LINE... and then that line curves to the left... then it curves to the right... then you turn right... and that's the end.

Now imagine, there are no towns, but a straight path you have to run. And there is no one to talk to. Then there's a mountain... with a path, that you run straight on, that curves, and you see another path to the right, but you're not allowed on that path because there's something blocking it so you keep running straight. Then there's a hole you jump over... and that's it.


THIS IS HOW FFXIII IS. It's like a vertical shooter. You go straight. That's it. It isn't a linear story, it's a linear game. A linear game with bad controls, a horrible story, and an overall horrible game. There's some pluses to it, and what not, but the game seriously is really bad. I haven't felt this way about an RPG since... ... ... Beyond the Beyond.

But FFXIII will sell incredibly well anyways, and everyone will love it, because it's FINAL FANTASY.

But just as a note, even Japan as a collective thinks FFXIII is crap.

[Mizuki]

I just remembering some 2ch posts talking about this game and how bad it is.

[Mantaray3000]

I don't see why a linear game is so bad, yes normally RPGs do have different routes, dead ends, treasure chests to look for, and different paths that lead different places. But lately many people have seem to complain how all RPGs (not incuding MMOs) follow this formula so I don't see why its so bad to try a new approach and create a different experience for new and veteran gamers. And since the world is so vast in this game its not a good idea to have it completely open or else players will want to explore everything which takes up time not to mention makes them lose sight of the story. As for the story being "horrible" what Final Fantasy game has not been subjected to that? That goes the same for movies. Again it goes back to personal taste, what someone might think its bad another will see it as good. The only reason why I see people thinking FFXIII sucks is because they expected to be blown away by the plot plus they don't like changes to something they're used to. If so many people think this is such a bad thing then atleast Square Enix will know not to follow this path again.

On a side note: I never said Devil May Cry and Uncharted 2 were RPGs they are action adventure titles which is another seperate genre. And why haven't you responded to my PMs Pyron?

[LordKefka]

So.... what's good about FF XIII then? It seemed pretty easy for you to list the fun factors of "normal" RPGs instead of this game lol...

Speaking of which, I wonder when Golden Sun 3 will come out... :V

[Jun-Watarase]

I just remembering some 2ch posts talking about this game and how bad it is.

Some posts'll actually make fun of overseas fans saying that we'll eat it up, regardless of how bad it is, because it's "Final Fantasy". The title's so huge that it'll succeed, even if it fails. If anyone's really interested in just the story, someone should just put together all the animated cut-scenes, since from what I've seen, that's what most of the game is. :[

[PyronIkari]

I don't see why a linear game is so bad, yes normally RPGs do have different routes, dead ends, treasure chests to look for, and different paths that lead different places. But lately many people have seem to complain how all RPGs (not incuding MMOs) follow this formula so I don't see why its so bad to try a new approach and create a different experience for new and veteran gamers. And since the world is so vast in this game its not a good idea to have it completely open or else players will want to explore everything which takes up time not to mention makes them lose sight of the story. As for the story being "horrible" what Final Fantasy game has not been subjected to that? That goes the same for movies. Again it goes back to personal taste, what someone might think its bad another will see it as good. The only reason why I see people thinking FFXIII sucks is because they expected to be blown away by the plot plus they don't like changes to something they're used to. If so many people think this is such a bad thing then atleast Square Enix will know not to follow this path again.

On a side note: I never said Devil May Cry and Uncharted 2 were RPGs they are action adventure titles which is another seperate genre. And why haven't you responded to my PMs Pyron?

Because I don't want to PM you because you seemed to miss the point of my earlier PMs.

As for what's horrible? The fact that it's not a game of its genre. If an adventure game got rid of those things, it would suck. They've eliminated everything that makes an RPG fun, and didn't compensate with anything. What's bad about it? Everything. I've played it, you're basing it off theory. The game literally feels like you're holding up, and mashing X (or O in my case). You walk up a straight line, it activates a scene or battle, you complete that, you reach an "action" sequence where you press X to do whatever you need, you repeat. You're running straight to the next place, and repeating. You're playing a movie more than you are a game. Because there's no free will, there's no exploration, there's no creativity. This would be forgivable in a small sense, if the movie had a good story. But it doesn't.

So really, what does the game have to offer? It's boring, it's linear, and the story sucks. As an RPG, it's not an RPG, there's very little to no development, there's horrible character interaction, and seemingly very little actually happens.

LordKefka: The positives? It does have a fun battle system when you get far enough to do stuff. But that in itself makes it boring. The battle system allows you to obliterate enemies. Infinite juggles and the such. But this leads to a different problem as well. Attacking is the only thing useful. Magic, skills, etc... all useless when attacking does more damage, takes less time, and leaves you less vulnerable.

Something was said by Gunter in #capcom over ten years ago and it applies so well with FFXIII. "Xmen Vs SF is a great game... one of the best puzzle games I've ever played". His meaning in this was that, the game isn't a good fighting game, but as a puzzle of trying to find out combos and physics to do things. Making insane combos that look awesome, instead of competing is what makes that game good. Much in that vein, FFXIII battles are all about creating combos and insane things, more than it is enjoyable and challenging.

The unengaging story and boring characters, the boring transition from A->B where I don't even get to do anything except run straight, and run into fights (most of which are forced, though you can avoid some fights). The inability to runaway from fights when weak enemies attack me, and I don't want to waste my time hitting attack x10 to kill them. Not being able to look forward to getting to the next town to explore, by equipment, and try out the new stuff(I literally never used the save point store, because there was no reason to. Besides stuff being retardedly expensive, you never bought anything needed. Weapons you got via the dungeons and drops were always better, and it's not like you ever missed any of them, because you really had to be stupid to miss stuff that you couldn't not see).

You can say you will try it out and form your own opinion, but it's really arrogant of you to claim that it's a "good game", especially before playing it. It's also not like I'm in the minority about this. The large majority of people dislike the game and with good reason.

You know, Squeenix said that FFXIII is going to be the last game of the "FF Formula" right? They're selling the rights to squeenix USA most likely. They're going to try and take a new direction and not do FF's anymore..

[LordKefka]

The battle system sounds ok from that I guess but I honestly would trade "cool looking" GC and a wild battle system for a good story and character developments any day.

[Mantaray3000]

I don't see why a linear game is so bad, yes normally RPGs do have different routes, dead ends, treasure chests to look for, and different paths that lead different places. But lately many people have seem to complain how all RPGs (not incuding MMOs) follow this formula so I don't see why its so bad to try a new approach and create a different experience for new and veteran gamers. And since the world is so vast in this game its not a good idea to have it completely open or else players will want to explore everything which takes up time not to mention makes them lose sight of the story. As for the story being "horrible" what Final Fantasy game has not been subjected to that? That goes the same for movies. Again it goes back to personal taste, what someone might think its bad another will see it as good. The only reason why I see people thinking FFXIII sucks is because they expected to be blown away by the plot plus they don't like changes to something they're used to. If so many people think this is such a bad thing then atleast Square Enix will know not to follow this path again.

On a side note: I never said Devil May Cry and Uncharted 2 were RPGs they are action adventure titles which is another seperate genre. And why haven't you responded to my PMs Pyron?

Because I don't want to PM you because you seemed to miss the point of my earlier PMs.

As for what's horrible? The fact that it's not a game of its genre. If an adventure game got rid of those things, it would suck. They've eliminated everything that makes an RPG fun, and didn't compensate with anything. What's bad about it? Everything. I've played it, you're basing it off theory. The game literally feels like you're holding up, and mashing X (or O in my case). You walk up a straight line, it activates a scene or battle, you complete that, you reach an "action" sequence where you press X to do whatever you need, you repeat. You're running straight to the next place, and repeating. You're playing a movie more than you are a game. Because there's no free will, there's no exploration, there's no creativity. This would be forgivable in a small sense, if the movie had a good story. But it doesn't.

So really, what does the game have to offer? It's boring, it's linear, and the story sucks. As an RPG, it's not an RPG, there's very little to no development, there's horrible character interaction, and seemingly very little actually happens.

LordKefka: The positives? It does have a fun battle system when you get far enough to do stuff. But that in itself makes it boring. The battle system allows you to obliterate enemies. Infinite juggles and the such. But this leads to a different problem as well. Attacking is the only thing useful. Magic, skills, etc... all useless when attacking does more damage, takes less time, and leaves you less vulnerable.

Something was said by Gunter in #capcom over ten years ago and it applies so well with FFXIII. "Xmen Vs SF is a great game... one of the best puzzle games I've ever played". His meaning in this was that, the game isn't a good fighting game, but as a puzzle of trying to find out combos and physics to do things. Making insane combos that look awesome, instead of competing is what makes that game good. Much in that vein, FFXIII battles are all about creating combos and insane things, more than it is enjoyable and challenging.

The unengaging story and boring characters, the boring transition from A->B where I don't even get to do anything except run straight, and run into fights (most of which are forced, though you can avoid some fights). The inability to runaway from fights when weak enemies attack me, and I don't want to waste my time hitting attack x10 to kill them. Not being able to look forward to getting to the next town to explore, by equipment, and try out the new stuff(I literally never used the save point store, because there was no reason to. Besides stuff being retardedly expensive, you never bought anything needed. Weapons you got via the dungeons and drops were always better, and it's not like you ever missed any of them, because you really had to be stupid to miss stuff that you couldn't not see).

You can say you will try it out and form your own opinion, but it's really arrogant of you to claim that it's a "good game", especially before playing it. It's also not like I'm in the minority about this. The large majority of people dislike the game and with good reason.

You know, Squeenix said that FFXIII is going to be the last game of the "FF Formula" right? They're selling the rights to squeenix USA most likely. They're going to try and take a new direction and not do FF's anymore..

When did I said it was a good game? All I said was; what someone might think its bad another might see it as good. That doesn't mean I think its a good game.

[Knightfire]

You know, Squeenix said that FFXIII is going to be the last game of the "FF Formula" right? They're selling the rights to squeenix USA most likely. They're going to try and take a new direction and not do FF's anymore..

I would like some sort of source to that bit of info, because that's news to me.

[Dagger-6]

What a shame.  I was thinking about making this the first FF game I bought since it was coming out on XBox...but if it's that linear I'll probably stay away or just rent it.  At least there's Mass Effect 2 coming out at the end of this month...

[PyronIkari]

You know, Squeenix said that FFXIII is going to be the last game of the "FF Formula" right? They're selling the rights to squeenix USA most likely. They're going to try and take a new direction and not do FF's anymore..

I would like some sort of source to that bit of info, because that's news to me.

http://gs.inside-games.jp/news/214/21499.html

Him talking about western developing. Eidos as the developer specifically, which was recently purchased by squeenix USA.

http://gs.inside-games.jp/news/215/21509.html

Him talking about FFXIII being the last of its kind.

[Knightfire]

Interesting to sat the least. Judging by what was written it is still just rumors and speculation, but then again it might be the translator giving the wrong impression. As far as "The Last" of it kind., that could be taken in any direction. True, it could be the way that you mentioned, but it could also be interpreted that it could be the last FF where Single Platform only (for most of the world in this case) or where they used a specific character design in mind.

[Liquid]

I am sad to hear that this game is largely linear. That is one of the huge things I hated about FFX (although I still enjoyed the game for the most part.) I loved all the exploring and talking to random NPCs in FFXII. The side quests were pretty fun too. Some brought back some memories from much older FF titles. Loved the scenary, music, design, etc...which reminded me a lot of Vagrant Story, which is one of my favorite games for PSX.

Regardless of this new FF title's shortcomings, I have to be a sheep and buy it. I try to collect and play all of the titles, although I'll admit I've failed at making time to complete a few of them. I going to have to play this title for myself before I decide to judge it. Worst case scenario, it'll at least look pretty as I sadly progress through the game in a linear fashion, lol.

I hate that they gave away just about all of the storyline in the trailers for this game tho. Very pretty trailers....but they have far too many spoilers for me.