Thought this would be an interesting topic. Of the two poster child's of "OMG! They ruined Final Fantasy!" which one did you like better and why?
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Thought this would be an interesting topic. Of the two poster child's of "OMG! They ruined Final Fantasy!" which one did you like better and why?
Final Fantasy XIII . Yes, it's blemished, but at least they didn't try and split up characters on purpose so they could try and cough up some extra cash from us. Yes, there's FFXIII-2 and LR, but they are both big full meaty games. FFXV is a broken clock that's trying to be "fixed " with sellotape and some of its numbers are removed....on purpose.
I liked XV's cast at first, but after a while, they became very one-note. Prompto takes photos, Noct sleeps, Gladio embraces that ''toxic masculinity'' and Iggy says meme. I hated the XIII cast for years, but after spending time with XV's lackluster bros, they started to shine a bit more. I hate Lightning, but okay, at least she's a character. Same with Hope, Vanille, and Fang. The only one I don't remember developing much was Snow. Snow stayed as Snow throughout the game- he just learned to be careful of Lightning. Even then, at times, he still managed to piss her off.
The XIII cast is not the best, but at least they feel like a group of characters. The only one I can credit from XV is Prompto, but you have to buy his DLC ofc to really feel that.
Also, XIII is linear, but at least those straight roads you stroll across look beautiful. XV is a big open world that just feels dull and empty. Then again, I've never been a fan of the "big open world " craze. Just give me an FFI-FFIX world map.
More like "What? People actually liked either of them." I didn't finish either. If I had to choose, I'd probably go with FFXV. It wasn't good enough to keep me hooked, but it didn't turn me away as much as FFXIII.
Honestly they're both pretty even to me. Each has its own set of flaws and things I actually like (gasp), and overall it balances out to the point where I consider both to be somewhere between "okay" and "good".
So...reaganomics!
That said if i really absolutely had to choose between the two, I'd pick XV over XIII because I prefer its soundtrack.
I like both of them and I don't understand why people complain that much. They have flaws, but they're still fun, with great characters, stories and soundtracks. I prefer FFXV because of the meaningful friendship between the four guys and the tragedy, but as I said, I like both.
I love both games, but I'm going to sidestep the question and say that I really appreciate how Type-0 became the underdog fan favorite of Fabula Nova Crystallis.
If I recall correctly, people considered Agito a side piece next to the two titans that were XIII and Versus XIII. It's funny how things turn out.
I think it helps that it was the entry no one had expectations for, especially since it was announced originally as a cell phone game.
I was unaware that it was the most highly regarded. Are you sure that's true? Of the three, it's the only one I almost never hear talked about at all and even at time of release the reception seemed lukewarm.
In terms of actually having some kind of vague structure to it's plot - XIII is superior. And it did even, in places, make me feel actual human emotions, unlike XV.
However, XV is the better game. It is the more disappointing game as well, but that's by virtue of the excellent game that's hiding just underneath the surface but can't find its way out.
I would switch out "highly regarded" for "not publicly loathed by a vocal community". Financially it did terrible in comparison to the numbered entries and would have likely done worse if it didn't come with the XV demo. Sadly the "started as a mobile game" defense was a double edged sword as it meant no one had any expectations for it, but also meant no one was interested in it either. It's release in the West could have been handled better as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Golbez
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For my own assessment and to no one's surprise, I honestly enjoyed XV more, warts and all.
Setting: Both game kind of drop the ball here, but I feel XV does a better job of pulling together it's lore and setting into the narrative. XIII has the more interesting premise but doesn't do anything with it and then goes in a decidedly different direction in the sequels from the base game. I appreciate the fact that when XV name drops a place or person as important, it usually comes to play in the plot at some point even if it's background only. They could have played the Lucian Kings more especially after Kingsglaive. Overall, I think my biggest issue here and where XV does better is consistency with the world view and rules of the setting. XIII may have the same cast and mythos, but I kind of feel like they are are different games that just happen to have the same cast as opposed to feeling like a collective whole that builds on each other. It seems weird how so many events from within the first game's story has little bearing on what happens by the third game. Whereas XV has a more consistent feel to its setting outside of the gimmicky "events" which could never work in the narrative anyway. Something as simple as the infrastructure of the world designed to protect people from the constant daemon infestations is underappreciated whereas by Lightning Returns, it feels like the whole fal'Cie/l'Cie drama is an afterthought which sort of just cheapens how much weight the concept had in the first title.
Plot: Again, both have problems but XV's is generally less insulting to one's intelligence up until the end and the whole "King of Light Prophecy" makes you raise an eyebrow as you really start to think about it. Both endings are basically Deus ex Machina's but XV's makes a bit more sense as opposed to XIII's being a literal one you won't understand unless you read the Ultimania, play the sequel or listen to blowhards like myself rant about it. I feel the biggest problem with both stories is that for XV, all the cool world shattering stuff happens off screen, or in the DLC. You spend a lot of time wishing the cool parts had been playable which is disappointing, my issue with XIII is that the plot had several chances to go into very interesting directions and never did. In fact any time the game had a chance to go in a daring direction it always took the safest route. XV still has some suspenseful moments and plays with your false sense of security as bad things happen to the cast left and right, XIII plays it so safe that every time it teases something disastrous you know it will never go through with it, and most of the time it doesn't so I give XV the point here for being a little more ballsy. Both have pacing issues but XV's is largely a result of the game style being open world which rarely lends itself well to a structured narrative. XIII's issue is that it's taking a simple premise and trying to stretch it out for thirty plus hours. Not that XV isn't guilty of this as well in several places. Both games have an issue of having really slow beginnings, good middle sections, and disappointing end sections. In truth, the saving grace of XV is really the cast, not so much the plot. I think the biggest issue with XV is that it's plot is simple and kind of boring, while XIII's is intriguing but utterly stupid in execution. A good chunk of how much you'll like either story really comes down to how well either of them convince you to take what it tells you at face value and not actually think about what it is actually doing. Both games had a moment or two where I said to myself "How does that make any sense?" but to XV's credit, I was towards the end before it started being dumb whereas I was in Chapter 3 in XIII about the time I uttered that phrase for the first time.
Cast: I liked XV's cast more. This mainly stems from the fact that I enjoyed how the team really meshes with each other and the theme of brotherhood and camaraderie shines through with the team. Course Gladio does become a pill in the plot with his "tough love" attitude, Prompto tries way too hard to be the comic relief and his subplot is easily the worst implemented into the game, and if I'm going to be frank, I do find Noctis to be a boring character who only works when his dull personality is bouncing off the more colorful members of his entourage but I find that is a problem with the genre more than just XV specifically. Still, I find there is a certain charm in watching the four interact with each other and there are some honestly powerful moments between them.
Most of you know I don't like XIII's cast, Lightning's anger issue rub me the wrong way and having it followed up with SE just plastering wherever they could has only entrenched my animosity towards her. Snow could have been interesting and I'm sure I would have a different opinion of him had I played the sequels as he seems to be the only cast member to actually go through a legitimate story arc that doesn't end up getting retcon by the game's ending. Still, Snow feels kind of flat to me due to spending so much of the plot off screen. Hope would have worked better had the plot either allowed him a better means to develop his story of if he had a different story to begin with. I know I'm a broken record on this but I feel that Hope is simply a poor man's Ken Amada from Persona 3, and when you combine that with how utterly safe and family friendly XIII is with the plot, there is honestly little drama in his story that doesn't feel staged. Vanille is easily my least favorite among the cast simply because I hate the Hyper Genki Girl archetype, the fact she's kind of stupid and overly childish doesn't really help considering how "super cereal" the game's plot tries to be. She's also attached to a lot of the game's worst writing moments so I kind of wish she simply didn't exist. Fang has no real point in existing in the plot. Like seriously, why is she here? She could have been more interesting, especially since her more confrontational personality would have worked better had she been given Vanille's story. I still feel like XIII would have done better to just merge the two of them together cause Vanille feels like a quota box for fanboy tastes while Fang who is actually charming could have been more impactful if she was the one who was focused on with the plot. Sahz, well Sahz is the one exception to the team since his story is actually something rare in the medium since JRPGs shun parents like they were lepers. This doesn't change the fact he mostly feels like an Eddie Murphy expy a la Mushu/Donkey variety where he's there for comic relief. He has one of the best character moments but again, the plot is too safe to make it meaningful and it's a shame the sequels drop him like a rock since he was the only character who actually offered something new to a fairly cookie cutter JRPG cast. Also, while I know XII usually gets knocked for the cast being "perfect strangers to each other" am I the only person who finds it odd that for such a small cast every party member has one if not two other cast members they rarely speak to? I mean I don't think I ever remembered Snow and Sahz ever talking to each other outside of a group conversation. Which is odd because they actually have the most in common with each other out of the whole party. I think Lightning is the lone exception and even she rarely talks to Vanille when you think about it. Fang only ever interacts with Vanille and Lightning, for a game people tout as being the most character driven, it's odd how clicky the party is with each other. Just saying...
Granted, both games do an abysmal job with the supporting cast but at least Iris and Aranea are interesting if painfully underutilized. Cor seems to get the majority of his screen time in the DLC from what I gather and Lunafreya has kind of been the poster child of characters falling through the cracks, she's a plot device, not a person. Cidney is just as cringy as I feel most fans felt she would be in terms of being oversexulized, but I was surprised to find she actually ended up having a bit more depth to her which eased the cringe a little. XIII only really has Serah because Dahj has no personality, Cid feels more like a Mustang cosplayer than a character, and the NORA crew are so bland that when the showed up in the last chapters I was honestly surprised because I forgot they existed. XV gets a few more points for having some colorful NPCs who give out quests, whereas XIII's supporting cast barely has ten friendly NPCs and most of them only show up for one or two scenes at most before the plot forgets them.
Villains: This is a weird one cause the games are practically inversions of each other in my mind. XIII has a few colorful and interesting villains who are ultimately sidelined and under-perform so the game can spend more time on the blandest villain to grace the franchise's history and I'm counting Cloud of Darkness and Zemus in this assessment. Nothing about Barty is actually a surprise or even interesting, his plan doesn't even make sense when you think about it. Whereas the other two villains actually had some interesting build up to them before the plot shoves them aside to let Barty take center stage. XV has the opposite problem, the majority of the villains are cookie cutter evil empire expy's with Ravus and Ardyn being the only dissidents from this assessment outside of Ravus being the token honorable villain and Ardyn being the deceitful Chancellor. So the fact all of them get pushed to the side for the only villain with any actual personality be considered a bad thing? Well yes, cause you should never write a character if they aren't going to serve a real purpose, but the villain sting doesn't hurt as much here, at least Ardyn is actually fun to see when he shows up unless you just don't care for his brand of villainy. But considering the last two single player entries had hands off villains with reserved personalities, I kind of enjoyed finally getting a chatty villain who likes to chew the scenery when he's around.
Combat Systems: Honestly? I didn't care for either of them. If they represent the future of the franchises future, then I honestly have nothing to really look forward to it seems. XIII offers a bit more variety, but I honestly felt that XV was a more tactical system. I'll let that statement sink in a bit. XIII's issue is that the gameplay is too formulaic and static. There is very little room for player creativity in the combat system because so much of it is automated and combat has to flow in a certain direction to be successful. There is really no way to get around it. XV's system is far more open and success really comes down to the player making the most of the tools and abilities given to them. In XV, I found myself actually using abilities and weapon load outs for unconventional strategies. My favorite being a Hunt mission which involved spamming Prompto's deceptively not useless flashbang move to defeat a powerful group of Nocturnal Slimes. If Noct got too banged up, I had to scan the battlefield to find warp points to heal him up or make a retreat. If my party is getting banged up in XIII my options really depend on one thing, will we win regardless? If yes, then I switch to a defensive paradigm and heal up, if not, I just let the team die and reconfigure them to be more successful. Yes, you have things like Saboteur and Synergist who are very important for later battles and most boss battles, but it's not really tactical if all you need to do is use Libra to have the A.I. figure out the best strategy. That's the issue of XIII's mechanics, it makes you think you're playing smart when really the computer is kind of doing all the hard stuff for you. You're just babysitting the A.I. scripts and while there are a few tactical elements at play here in order to boost the speed of your character's actions, I honestly don't feel like it ever makes a real difference outside of getting a higher battle score which itself is pointless because it nets you nothing but an anchievement/tropy/completionist and some items that are counter-intuitive to the player if the former is your only goal for getting good scores.
Now it sounds like I prefer XV's combat, but that's not actually true. Yes, there are options for some interesting tactics and you have to actually pay attention to spatial awareness to maximize certain abilities but frankly, XV's combat is kind of boring and once you get a few good levels and weapon upgrades, you can spam warp strike to end most battles effortlessly. In fact, I started to find XV's combat so dull that the actual gameplay change up in Chapter 13 was actually a welcome sight for me until it also grew tedious. I just don't like Action-RPGs as much as Turn Based ones and I'm incredibly picky and critical with Action-RPG mechanics. So while XV fixed a few issues I had with XIII's system, it didn't actually make it a better experience for me. I will say that XV handled summons better for me as I still find the direction of summons in XIII to be nonsensical. I wish magic had been better handled in both.
Overall, my biggest gripe with both games is the underwhelming customization options. In fact, it's getting to the point where if SE makes a game where leveling involves making dots glow on line maps, I'm going to automatically dock it because holy hell is leveling a chore in these games. The real issue with both games is a sheer lack of variety. XV had to make leveling up non-combat skills and an optional way to use the battle system in order to make the level grid seem larger than it really is. XIII only levels three lousy stats and garners a few abilities that are way too streamlined compared to earlier entries. I can commend XV for not including a gimmicky equipment mechanic, but there is honestly not a whole lot of variety in it either which is a shame. XIII's equipment system had some potential but it's never truly actualized in any meaningful way as most of the interesting options are underwhelming over boring practical upgrades, and the actual upgrade mechanics are some of the most tedious grind fests in the series next to leveling up magic and weapons in FFII.
Sidequests: Ha, like this is a contest, you actually have to have some if you wish to compete. XIII basically has Mark Hunts, which only open up at the end of the game as well as one mini-game at the Nautilus that is frankly too simple to be called a real mini-game unless we're going to count VI's Auction House as a mini-game now. There is also that weird sheep quest and the one to revive Vanille's pet robot but the first one is largely pointless and the second one is kind of forgettable if it wasn't for the fact the game is so sidequest starved that anything that actually takes you out of the monotony of the main game is welcomed. It not a surprise the sequels rectified this complaint really quick.
XV has the opposite issue, there are too many sidequests and they are all boring MMO nonsense like fetch quests and kill a certain monster nonsense. But XV also wins out because it actually has some legitimately fun side content to do that isn't an event or relegated to DLC. I honestly enjoyed hunting down recipes for Ignis which could either involve one of the samey fetch quests above, checking out new local cuisine, or finding rare animals to kill for meat. I also loved the fishing mini-game, brought back good memories of Breath of Fire IV, though I could have done without the chorus in the background. Most importantly, XV has the optional dungeons which are actually some of the most creative parts of the game with interesting themed locations like the Goblin Mine or FFI Ice Cave redo, as well as some cool puzzles and optional boss battles. I also enjoyed having the power to explore more as I actually like free roaming around between story events and such, but XV may be too big of a world and I wonder how many hours of my playtime weren't just me trying to get to the fun part of the game. It's not helped that the Regalia is kind of a boring transportation method (Chocobo all the way) and Fast Travel is anything but fast. Still, XV is a game that gives you plenty of interesting things to do if you want to just screw around for a few hours. This is largely why I feel XV is a better game between the two because it at least knows you're here to unwind.
Soundtracks: Both are actually pretty good. Neither is my cup of tea but if there is one thing Square-Enix did maintain from Square before the merger, it's the ability to have a good soundtrack. I feel my issue with both is simply that Hamazu's OST is one where I feel some of the lesser known pieces are better than the ones the fans love. I generally zone out battle themes when I play games, so having the most memorable pieces from XIII be the battle themes doesn't work well for me but some of the area themes are actually pretty nice if painfully short. I feel Sakimoto has the same issue as many of my favorite themes from Tactics or XII are often themes that play once and are generally a minute in length at most compared to the themes you hear all the time. For XV, my issue here is that I honestly felt the OST for Brotherhood was better. In fact once I unlocked it, it's what I listened to the most in the Regalia and it always dumbfounded me how much better it fit the feel of the game than the actual OST. In fact with the exception of Somnus and the Stand By Me song, I doubt I could actually recall a single theme from XV. I enjoy it once I listen to it of course, but it didn't leave as much of an impression like XIII's OST did.
Art Direction: Graphically both games are gorgeous so comparing them is redundant especially when tech gets involved. Instead I'm going to focus on the actual art direction each game went with. The real kingmaker here pretty much depend on whether you prefer subtle and grounded or loud and fantastical. XIII's design lends itself to a conflict of extremes that is made purposely to convey the conflict of Cocoon's science and civilization against Pulse's natural and barbaric. While XIII doesn't go so far to make the world unrecognizable for the player, it does overload the sense experience with a wide palette of colors and designs that all compete to grab your attention. XV by contrast almost feels like the real world, to the point where contrast really comes into play once the major fantastic elements start to show up. I don't think anything was quite as unnerving as the first time an Iron Giant appeared when I stayed up too late and too far from a rest stop. It makes the fantasy elements stand out better because you get so use to the mundane world as you travel about. It does create some awkward moments like chocobo riding or heaven help us the ridiculous flying car nonsense. I feel XV's art direction appeals to me more simply because it appeals to my need to move past the surface. and find deeper answers whereas XIII doesn't really hide anything which makes it initially more interesting but grows more boring as you become accustomed to it. There are no areas in XIII I really wish I could return to because while each zone was interesting initially, I ultimately grew bored of it by the end of the chapter but that could also stem from level design and gameplay structure, whereas in XV, I would actually get a little excited to have an excuse to return to Alitissa or Fantasy Cuba. I even started to miss the Hammerhead by the end of the game. Character design-wise, I actually prefer XIII's variety with the core cast, I feel that if Tabata was going to change a few things in XV, it would be expanding the color palette of the core team's wardrobe, but I understand that's a left over from Versus XIII. Granted, I'm more likely to wear Ignis' outfit than Snow's.
Sequels vs. DLC: Eh, I didn't care for either of them. Not that I've partake of either mind you, so I can't judge on their quality. I never felt like XIII was a strong enough title to deserve a sequel. Hell, I feel the sequels downplaying the whole fal'Cie/l'Cie nonsense to bring in all this Chaos/Seer powers/timey whimey ball shenanigans only adds to my argument that XIII never had a well established setting and theme going for it. On the other hand, I really detest service model business practices, it was one of the reasons why I resisted PC gaming for so long cause I never wanted to encourage playing an unfinished product that will be patched later. My own judgement on XV are largely based on the Day 1 Vanilla version, I am sure if I were to play the Royal Edition or even just replay the vanilla version I own with two years worth of patches, I would walk away with a very different opinion of the game. I'm probably a little more miffed with XIII, especially since SE kind of promised us XIII-2 would be the only sequel and I feel the fact it gained sequels assigns an unearned value to a subpar title. Likewise, XV's rocky development was never a sequel so the constant fan feedback patches and DLC stuff was kind of expected on my part, but I still feel the game could have handled the DLC better by not making it so obvious where it lands within the game proper. There's also a real sense that XV was designed to please instead of just being someone's idea of a good game.
I'm also biased about how well it did, because I put a lot of work into writing articles here during that time to promote it and I was very excited about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf KannoI would switch out "highly regarded" for "not publicly loathed by a vocal community". Financially it did terrible in comparison to the numbered entries and would have likely done worse if it didn't come with the XV demo. Sadly the "started as a mobile game" defense was a double edged sword as it meant no one had any expectations for it, but also meant no one was interested in it either. It's release in the West could have been handled better as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Golbez
Our interview with one of the voice actors:
http://home.eyesonff.com/showthread....tasy-Type-0-HD!
And on aggregate review sites like metacritic, it did just as well in the eyes of fans as the other games. It got a 7.7, where as XIII got 7.2 and XV got 7.8, on top of (as previously stated) not really having a vocal community of naysayers.
It's fair to say it did the best in the "expectations vs reality" category.
I liked both. I liked the vs. thing WK did so I'm gonna do my own extremely simplified version.
Setting: I love a good fantasy world created through imagination and left apart from reality. Hands down, this goes to XIII. Pulse and Cocoon have so much going for them, while a "Fantasy based on Reality" just ended up meaning "A lot of boring stuff" for me. I loved the place inspired by Venice, though.
Plot: Eh, not fussed either way. Probably FFXV.
Cast: XIII. Some characters I didn't like at the start I ended up loving, and that's impressive. Granted, there were still characters I didn't care for over the long run but I really enjoyed others, and it felt very Final Fantasy VII in some ways for me as the characters had a lot of variety to them, a lot of clear purposes or driving factors... a lot of character! I liked pretty much everyone in FFXV too but I didn't love any in particular, which left them running behind on this one.
Villains: Definitely preferring FFXV on this one. FFXIII's villains were bland sideplots to me. If we count the later games, Caius was cool.
Combat Systems: I suppose I probably preferred FFXIII, but battle systems are rarely the important thing for me in a Final Fantasy game. I just want to feel immersed in the characters and world. I do at least commend the games for giving me far more of a challenge than I ever experienced in the previous games in the FF series (MMOs excepted) because I actually had to think in a lot more battles than in, say, FFVII where I could generally get by holding down buttons to win at the fastest speed possible, even against bosses. Not being able to overlevel in XIII (I forget if I could in XV) meant I had to be careful at times, and learn the right paradigms. I liked the idea of the star systems for your battles too, so you could find the most efficient ways to win against various enemies over time.
Sidequests & Minigames: Oh, FFXV. Not even a contest. The FFXIII Cie'th stones were better than the Mark Hunts in XV but fishing alone stomped XIII into the ground when it came to minigames and sidequests, because quite frankly aside from Cie'th stones in XIII there are no sidequests or minigames. Basically in XIII there was nothing to do at all other than battle and do story stuff. At all. Okay, you could do chocobo digging thing but that wasn't really worth the time and it wasn't entertaining either.
Soundtracks: Probably FFXIII. I remember a lot of songs over the XIII series, and little to none of the XV game. Not a slant to XV at all which had good music, but XIII was good and had memorable songs.
Art Direction: XIII, for reasons explained well by WK. I like the colourful nature of it all. It works well for my desire to experience fantasy over reality.
Sequels vs. DLC: Can't comment on the FFXV DLC as I didn't play it, but I really enjoyed the different natures of the various FFXIII games because they were actually different while still being similar enough to be connected. FFXIII-2 and LR:FFXIII weren't a saving grace to the plot of FFXIII by any means, but they addressed the gameplay issues fantastically and I really appreciate the later entries for this. It showed experimentation by Square-Enix, something I feel they sorely needed to do.
This is somewhat difficult for me to decide on since I like and dislike both for different reasons.
XV: I actually quite like the idea of this group of friends going on this trip together. Usually we see a group of somewhat random people coming together under one cause and they grow closer throughout their adventure, but I just really like the interactions of the 4 friends of light we get in XV. They nailed that road trip feel down. I even liked the idea of the tension they started to feel with Gladio’s tough love section, though I did feel it was poorly implemented. I also liked watching the group talk or play around on their phones while camping or sleeping out at hotels.
The world of XV is also pretty fun to just play around in. I like being able to listen to other soundtracks while driving around. I liked being able to customize your chocobos a bit. There were also some cool locations with the ability to take some cool pictures, and there were fun side things to do like fishing or seeing what new recipes exist.
However, most side quests were boring fetch quest type things. I also felt like most side characters got the short end of the stick. I hated the immersion breaking aspect of walking by some of the people in towns and having so few character models (I once saw 4 of the same person standing right around each other. I saw three of the same person sitting at a table talking to each other. Etc.) I also liked the enemy design, but I felt there were too few different types and got bored of them. I don’t like action rpgs in my final fantasy either, which hurt my experience somewhat. The game just also feels rushed, and I wish Nomura hadn’t been sitting on it for years doing nothing only for it to be thrown together at the end. It really could have used more time in actual development. I also hate that I have the season pass, but they expected more money to be shelled out for the Royal update with the expanded final dungeon. I still never have bought that because that just felt wrong to me. All in all, the game is fun, but it was ultimately disappointing from the get go.
XIII: I remember really enjoying this game when it first came out. I also had a friend who would come over after school to play it sometimes, and he got mad because one time before he came over I was so close to beating the game that I spoiled the ending for him when he showed up. I had been really struggling with that final battle so I didn’t want to stop when I was actually winning. I didn’t grow to dislike it more until after that first time.
I’m actually one of the rare people who didn’t enjoy the music at first. It’s grown on me, but I wasn’t feeling it then. I did enjoy the design of the world and characters though. It was a very pretty game to look at. I also enjoyed a lot of the ideas in the story, and I think the mythos between all of the XIII games is pretty cool if under utilized. Same as the minor villains in the game. I liked them a good amount, but they were under utilized.
I also quite enjoyed the battle system. I didn’t like that the leader dying was a game over, but switching paradigms was fun, and it gave me more to think about and required more timing than your standard final fantasy. I honestly wouldn’t mind continued use of the battle system with some tweaks. I felt the battles could get pretty challenging at times too. I did hate how limited you were in your paradigms at first though, and I don’t like how they limit your leveling every so often.
Also, the linearity of the world does honestly hurt the gameplay. The lack of side quests hurts it too. I understand most all final fantasy games are pretty linear, but you have more stuff to explore and discover on multiple play throughs. You have mini games to play in the other games, optional summons to find, optional towns to explore, lots of people to talk to to help learn new things about the world, etc etc. XIII has none of that, and it’s just not very exciting after that first play through. I do someday want to complete all of the Cieth stone missions, but that just usually isn’t enough to draw me back. The story also falls apart probably halfway through the game, and the ending was a let down.
I do love the sequels though, and I’m glad of XIII’s existence for them. They addressed a lot of the issues with XIII while XIII-2 enhanced some of the stuff I did like. I stand by my review I wrote for EoFF that XIII-2 is extremely fun and stands with the greats of the series. I liked capturing monsters. I liked finding all of the different paradox endings. I even liked the game’s story, and I’m one of the few who actually liked the way the game ended.
I didn’t enjoy the gameplay of Lightning Returns quite as much, nor did I care for the story really, but it was still a good amount of fun. I kind of liked how the game took itself a bit too seriously, but then things could just be really silly with the focus on playing dress up and changing clothes in the game. There are some silly looking costumes and npcs in that game, and I remember always being a bit amused by it.
All in all, XIII was more enjoyable initially to me, and the sequels are great fun. XV was more of a disappointment to play at first, but it gives more reason to go back to its world and is more fun on replays than the first XIII game.
I got one more category to judge these games on:
Theme Song - Okay, so right off the bat let me just say that XIII should have kept their original Japanese song, if only because the lyrics fit the game better than My Hands did. The song feels out of place similar to FFXII's ending theme song. With that said, I'm not a fan of either version. Though the original Japanese fits better, like XII's it feels more like SE cramming a J-Pop ballad into the game for buzz appeal as opposed to making something unique for the game itself like Eyes on Me or Memories of Life. My issue being that XIII's original theme feels like a J-Pop song meant to play on the radio and sell albums.
XV is something I'm a bit more conflicted with. I love Stand by Me, and while Florence and Machine do a decent cover, I don't feel it does the original justice. I also have the issue of the song meshing with the title. Lyrically the song works perfect for FFXV and it's theme, but I feel that choosing a popular and well known pop song makes it feel out of place in the setting. On the other hand, I really love the expansions Comrades main theme Choosing Hope, which I honestly feel would have worked better as FFXV's Main Theme. Course I have a weakness for Gospel and Blues music, and this goes back to the fact that I felt Brotherhood's OST fit the world of FFXV a bit better than the music we got. Now some of you are probably wondering why I'm not pulling out Somnus since it was the game's original theme, but let's be honest here, that was Versus XIII's theme back when XV was suppose to be fantasy mafia. It's a nice theme but even it's implementation into the main game kind of feels like an afterthought. I'm edging this over to FFXV but if I had it my way, Final Fantasy would drop song/ballads from the series all together because they haven't been good since IX.
Going to copy the VS thing!
Setting: Final Fantasy XIII's world and the universe was short and closed off, but what we saw was beautiful and imaginative. The FFXV just felt dry, and what we could basically almost see outside our windows. If you are into that realistic fantasy, that's fine, but imo fantasy is better when it's wild and creative. FFXIII.
Plot: FFXV. FFXIII's plot could have been decent if it wasn't written so poorly and lazy, and SE just didn't have this " weeell, read the journals if you are confused !" attitude. FFXV's story is the opposite, it's rather simple, but it's much easier to understand and get attached too. FFXV.
Cast: Not really keen on either, as one seems one- note and the other seems annoying and frustrating to deal with. Though might give the vote to XIII as it has Hope, Fang, and Vanille. FFXIII.
Villains: FFXV. What did FFXIII have? Some random flying Pope man? Caius is an improvement, but Ardyn is there in the original game and not just a DLC/ Sequel baddie.
Combat Systems: FFXIII. No contest. It has its flaws, but it feels like a Final Fantasy game and it can actually become quite addictive.
Sidequests & Minigames: FFXIII- you could be there for hours and the FFXV sidequests just felt like forced chores.
Soundtracks: I love both. Draw. This is where both of the games truly shine.
Art Direction: XIII. XV's " all the main characters wear dark and greyish clothing only " is hideous. It did make sense for a game that was supposed to come out a decade ago, when that edge-y, depressive style was in- but if Tabata could remove Stella, he could give the main characters a better less outdated style.
Sequels vs. DLC: Sequels. The FFXV DLCs really steam me up.
Theme Songs :Stand By Me is one of my favorite songs ever, so yeah, easy answer there! FFXV. Also, My Hands didn't really suit FFXIII at all. I like it, but it just didn't feel like it belonged as an FFXIII theme song, while Stand By Me is a romantic song, it can also be used as a brother-y theme for Noct's friends, standing by him, no matter what.
I also think that Kiss Me Goodbye should've been in FFX and not FFXII but that's for another time.