Why people didn't like this game

I think XIII-2 was mostly a warm-up for Kingdom Hearts 3... (By that I mean that you go from world to world, everything is basically kind of silly until it gets serious, and then it all just hits the fan, and then you're done. Smack inna face.) I mean, it WAS/IS fun to play and all, but the story itself just doesn't make sense. Incoherent, disjointed, maybe in preparation for a non-linearity that was designed away... Caius was a surprisingly interesting antagonist, but Snow's part of the cake just... I don't even know. Better if they'd left him out, or kept him in New Bodhum, instead of generating disbelief. I'm still utterly baffled by Alyssa. Absolutely uncalled-for, that one. At least the final dungeon was a challenging puzzle without going overboard into convolution galore.

I actually liked Lightning and Sazh, but didn't like Snow or the other characters it suddenly switched to in the beginning. I played through it just wanting to get back to Lightning and the whole beginning feels longer than Taris in KotOR. I didn't like that you couldn't control your allies in battle and got a game over when you died when there's two fresh allies you should be able to utilize in combat. It doesn't help that Square has been constantly changing the battle system in each game since X-2. The FMVs felt like they were trying to do the FFX, MGS, Xenosaga thing but it just didn't deliver the same quality or substance as those games did. It didn't pull me in and was largely unforgettable except for a few areas. What I can't figure out is why this game is getting so much attention from Square and another sequel after XIII-2. It feels as those they're trying to make it the next Final Fantasy VII.

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

It didn't pull me in and was largely unforgettable except for a few areas. What I can't figure out is why this game is getting so much attention from Square and another sequel after XIII-2.

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It did better in Japan than it did here. It did really well there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIII

"Final Fantasy XIII received generally positive reviews. It was rated 39 out of 40 by the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu.^[103] Dengeki praised the game for the battle system, stating that the battles are by far the most exciting in the series, and concluded Final Fantasy XIII deserved a score of 120, as 100 would not be enough.^[117] The game was voted as the second best game of 2009 in Dengeki Online's reader poll,^[118] and in January 2010, it was voted the best game ever in Famitsu's reader poll."


Edit: XII actually did spectacular too, but seeing as they had already entered the PS3 era when FFXII was released, it just made more sense to turn their FFXIII into their shining star.

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Originally Posted by Elskidor

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

It didn't pull me in and was largely unforgettable except for a few areas. What I can't figure out is why this game is getting so much attention from Square and another sequel after XIII-2.

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It did better in Japan than it did here. It did really well there.

Final Fantasy XIII - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Final Fantasy XIII received generally positive reviews. It was rated 39 out of 40 by the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu.^[103] Dengeki praised the game for the battle system, stating that the battles are by far the most exciting in the series, and concluded Final Fantasy XIII deserved a score of 120, as 100 would not be enough.^[117] The game was voted as the second best game of 2009 in Dengeki Online's reader poll,^[118] and in January 2010, it was voted the best game ever in Famitsu's reader poll."

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..........
All right, cultural differences.

I just bought FFXIII-2, and I'm planning on retrying FFXIII again, and giving XIII-2 a try in hopes I was just being too negative the first go around. I also didn't care too much for X until years after it's release so I'm hoping I was just being a overly judgmental a-hole about XIII in 2010.

I know Japanese and Western audiences of Final Fantasy can differ on certain games, but I wouldn't mind reading reviews from Japan critics. FFXIII falls pretty low on the list of Final Fantasy favorites from critics and fans out west. Critics and fans of these lists match up kinda close to one another.

Critics on their Debut Systems. Gamerankings.com


Final Fantasy VI SNES 93.96%
Final Fantasy IX PS 93.32%
Final Fantasy VII PS 92.35%
Final Fantasy X PS2 91.73%
Final Fantasy XII PS2 90.77%
Final Fantasy IV SNES 90.00%
Final Fantasy VIII PS 89.17%
Final Fantasy XI PS2 85.13%
Final Fantasy XIII PS3 84.15%
Final Fantasy V GBA 82.45%
Final Fantasy Origins II's PS 80.64%
Final Fantasy XIV PC 80.50%
Final Fantasy III DS 77.83%




Final Fantasy I NES Can not find an official NES critics review 1987






IGN Community Voted


Final Fantasy VI 9.4%/Final Fantasy VII 9.4%
Final Fantasy X 9.3%
Final Fantasy IX 9.1%
Final Fantasy IV 9.0%
Final Fntasy VIII 8.9%/Final Fantasy XII 8.9%
Final Fantasy I 8.7%/Final Fantasy V 8.7
Final Fantasy XIII 8.5%
Final Fantasy III 8.4%
Final Fantasy XI 8.2%
Final Fantasy II 7.8
Final Fantasy XIV 6.2% (Wondering if this has been updated since the re-release.)

FFXIII is one of my favorites ever. But there are definitely some things wrong with it. I think in short the plot involved too much telling (mostly in the form of datalogs) and not enough showing. Also everything that happens after the final boss is kind of what.

I loved the characters. I think Snow gets a worse rep than he deserves among the fans. His story is all about what it means to be a protector. NORA presents themselves like some kind of local militia, but really they're rebels without a cause. They're just a bunch of kids with guns and have no real combat experience. They fend off approaching wildlife from the town, but in Cocoon you don't even get much of that. Suddenly the government tries to exterminate all citizens and visitors to Bodhum and instead of being angry at this injustice they're actually excited to have a chance at real heroism. Snow is thinking he's gonna be a big damn hero and swoop in, save the girl, and get all the glory but he is not prepared to deal with the responsibility of protecting lives. This is why he's Lightning's least favorite person ever. She had to raise both Serah and herself when was fifteen and joined the guard so she could protect Serah and put food on their table. Lightning has seen battle, and she knows what it means to be responsible for another human being, and now the weird neighbor kid that has real ninja stars and learned to throw them says he is capable of taking care of her sister. But yeah, trout gets real, he gets punched in the face and blown up and falls long distances, he gets yelled at. Once he acknowledges and accepts the burden of being a protector he gains the respect of Lightning and Hope. He's not my favorite character in the FFXIII series, but he's more than he gets credit for P:

I just figured out why people didnt like this game. The victory fanfare is hardly like its self. :colbert: That's my reasoning.

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Originally Posted by Freya

I just figured out why people didnt like this game. The victory fanfare is hardly like its self. :colbert: That's my reasoning.

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It returns sounding classic in Final Fantasy XIII-3 when you finish a sidequest.

Sweeeet That is my favorite thing about the FF games (i know that sounds lame) The victory fanfare just wasn't recognizable enough in the first two XIII entries. Glad it's back!

The different victory fanfare didn't bother me at all.

I've given this game a second chance and I'll say its not quite as bad as I originally thought. Its extremely linear which is pretty bad, but the combat and everything is cool. The linearity wouldn't have been so bad if had just been confined to certain parts of the game e.g. "dungeons." On the whole though, the lack of variety in choosing ones path is probably the biggest downfall of FFXIII, especially when other RPGs like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are so much about variety. Anyway, back to the good points. I really did enjoy the combat system, and part of me did appreciate what Square Enix were trying to do by having a more streamlined experience. FFXIII really wasn't anymore linear than Call of Duty, so I don't see how people can say that XIII is a bad game yet COD is awesome.

I think in the future that Final Fantasy needs to avoid making such a linear game. It might also be time to do away with turn based combat too. Active combat like in Skyrim is where RPGs are headed now, so Final Fantasy may be better off going into that kind of direction now. I wouldn't mind Final Fantasy having combat more like Metal Gear Solid actually. That would be cool.

I totally agree that the lack of variety is the downfall. I'd be fine with the linearity if there was plenty to do in the game. But it is literally 'run, fight, cutscene' for 95% of it. And the only major sidequest is either a tedious grind (weapon upgrading) or just more fighting (mark hunts).

The battle system, story, characters, design are all not perfect but they are decent enough. The problem is that there is just not a lot to this game in terms of how you play it.

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Originally Posted by Elskidor

I just bought FFXIII-2, and I'm planning on retrying FFXIII again, and giving XIII-2 a try in hopes I was just being too negative the first go around. I also didn't care too much for X until years after it's release so I'm hoping I was just being a overly judgmental a-hole about XIII in 2010.

I know Japanese and Western audiences of Final Fantasy can differ on certain games, but I wouldn't mind reading reviews from Japan critics. FFXIII falls pretty low on the list of Final Fantasy favorites from critics and fans out west. Critics and fans of these lists match up kinda close to one another.

Critics on their Debut Systems. Gamerankings.com


Final Fantasy VI SNES 93.96%
Final Fantasy IX PS 93.32%
Final Fantasy VII PS 92.35%
Final Fantasy X PS2 91.73%
Final Fantasy XII PS2 90.77%
Final Fantasy IV SNES 90.00%
Final Fantasy VIII PS 89.17%
Final Fantasy XI PS2 85.13%
Final Fantasy XIII PS3 84.15%
Final Fantasy V GBA 82.45%
Final Fantasy Origins II's PS 80.64%
Final Fantasy XIV PC 80.50%
Final Fantasy III DS 77.83%




Final Fantasy I NES Can not find an official NES critics review 1987






IGN Community Voted


Final Fantasy VI 9.4%/Final Fantasy VII 9.4%
Final Fantasy X 9.3%
Final Fantasy IX 9.1%
Final Fantasy IV 9.0%
Final Fntasy VIII 8.9%/Final Fantasy XII 8.9%
Final Fantasy I 8.7%/Final Fantasy V 8.7
Final Fantasy XIII 8.5%
Final Fantasy III 8.4%
Final Fantasy XI 8.2%
Final Fantasy II 7.8
Final Fantasy XIV 6.2% (Wondering if this has been updated since the re-release.)

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I personally think that III and V, especially V, are better games than XIII. XIII is my overall least favorite in the series, although this still doesn't make it a "bad" game persay. That's probably a testament to the quality of Final Fantasy on the whole, that it is very hard for the series to have a truly bad game.

Historically if you look at the most popular FF games, (VI and VII and IX) and the least popular post-NES (X-2, XIII and V) I think that it starts to become clear what people want in an FF game, even if I think XIII is one of the best, the reason people love VI and VII are because they are easy games at their core but have fantastic exploration in rich worlds full of lifelike NPCs (for their time). The games with far superior gameplay over them (V and X-2) are less popular and lack these things, XIII fits right next to them when you consider this. Perhaps if these games were titled something else and people bought them without expecting exploration and whatnot, they would have much better reception. As it is, some people have already gone back to all 3 with different expectations and found out they really loved the games they just weren't "good FF games".

I think Hope and Lightning was the coolest in the group though.

But yeah it was alright, sorta neutral on this game but, it got really fun when the side quests came along on.
"Gran Pulse" And you got to fight alot of monsters.

So at that point i was starting to enjoy the game with the "Stagger" mode.
The game was alright. ;)

I think the newer generation will like it.
There's a game for each generation.