Please feel free to read my take on the official novalisation of Dissidia Final Fantasy at this link:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5580755/..._You_Fight_For
1up review by Jeremy Parish (one of the very few game reviewers whose comments genuinely approach real critique): Final Fantasy XIII Review for the PS3,Xbox 360 from 1UP.com
Edge Magazine's very interesting review: Review: Final Fantasy XIII | Edge Online (Avoid the post-review comments if you want your soul to remain intact)
The reviews agree on one thing: the first 25 hours are lame because the combat system is limited.
The reviewers disagree on another thing: the story.
Since the game is so driven and focused around the story, it would appear that the only way you can figure out whether you're going to enjoy this game is by playing it. And yeah, it seems like personal preferences are a big decider in that regard.
Game trailers review
Joystiq - Review: Final Fantasy XIII
It seemed like a pretty even-handed review, though I will only know for sure once I play the game. I find their point about linearity interesting~
Last edited by The Summoner of Leviathan; 03-07-2010 at 06:43 PM.
Final Fantasy XIII: Review Reception - PlayStation 3 Feature at IGN
Here's a fairly cool summary of all the reviews so far.
Hey, remember when KH2 took five hours to open up? Or when Twilight Princess took three to get out of the first damn village? Remember all the crap reviewers gave those games for doing something so brain-dead?
But when FF XIII multiplies that by four, its somehow okay?
I'm still going to get this game, and I may even think its the bees knees by the time I'm done. But how can so many possibly describe what amounts to a 20 hour tutorial in a positive light? No other game would be given a pass on that crap.
Because nothing beats the sound of a million voices screaming in unison.
^ I agree. That's terrible. We'll have to see to what extent the game actually feels like an overlong tutorial. Twilight Princess (and most of the 2000 decade's Zeldas) and Okami pissed me off for that reason. On the other hand, FFXII took a while to get going, but it arguably was only because the battle system only got more interesting as it got more complex, so the initial simplicity was just unenthralling. Completely the opposite of being tutored the whole time.
I did hear one podcaster say XIII feels like it's exposing all of its nuances in increments, revealing new strategies and situations in which a player may want to use them. So maybe it's not tutoring per se. Not really sure if those two concepts are all that different, though. We'll see.
Goddamn IGN. Thanks for posting the link, but damn I don't think I've ever seen an article as bad as this in regards to this numbers game/score award bullOriginally Posted by champagne supernova
. IGN generally don't write very good reviews as it is, but this is just smurfing moronic. "How critical were the critics?" Indeed.
Last edited by Flying Arrow; 03-06-2010 at 04:14 PM.
Or go the other way an realize that in FFVI you didn't get the ability to use magic on most characters for a dozen or so hours, and it was completely linear and didn't open up until until the very end.
Not defending XIII because I haven't played it yet, but the things that are described as negative seem to be to be common fodder of the older generation of JRPGs.
Except you forget that VI also has a class system and relic system which were both introduced fairly early in that game. VI also throws you into several scenarios that gave the player a limited amount of control between choosing where the story was going (when the party gets split up on the Lete River not to mention the Lete river itself and all the non-straightforward dunge0on designs) and it constantly introduced new characters that brought in new playstyles all the way up to the point when it "opened up". So I don't feel the older games are as bad as what some reviewers have been complaining about.
XIII reviews are talking about how even a leveling system doesn't get introduced until a few hours in and some have hinted the full extent of the Paradigm system won't unlock until somewhere between the 50% and 70% mark in the game. The issue of how the system opens up is one of the few elements I'm really concerned about cause frankly the battle system is about the only thing I'm really looking forward to. It will be a shame if it goes FFX's route and doesn't come into its own until the game might as well be over.
True beauty exists in things that last only for a moment.
Current Mood: And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe. Maybe this year will be better than the last. I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself. To hold on to these moments as they pass...
Who. Called. It.
I'll admit that I haven't really looked that much into the criticisms of FFXIII. (I'm going to buy it regardless, what is the point in looking at other peoples opinions?). I just feel like the snippets I have heard could easily be applied to other well loved games, FFVI for example. You can defend FFVI , but I think you could see how someone could make similar comments about the game.Except you forget that VI also has a class system and relic system which were both introduced fairly early in that game. VI also throws you into several scenarios that gave the player a limited amount of control between choosing where the story was going (when the party gets split up on the Lete River not to mention the Lete river itself and all the non-straightforward dunge0on designs) and it constantly introduced new characters that brought in new playstyles all the way up to the point when it "opened up". So I don't feel the older games are as bad as what some reviewers have been complaining about.
XIII reviews are talking about how even a leveling system doesn't get introduced until a few hours in and some have hinted the full extent of the Paradigm system won't unlock until somewhere between the 50% and 70% mark in the game. The issue of how the system opens up is one of the few elements I'm really concerned about cause frankly the battle system is about the only thing I'm really looking forward to. It will be a shame if it goes FFX's route and doesn't come into its own until the game might as well be over.
I would hardly say FFVI has a class system. Sure, each character has a special ability and you can only equip certain items on certain people. Insofar as that is true, there are classes, however the lines are very blurred with Espers. Traditionally, magic is not open to every class. I'd say FFVI has as much as a class system as FFX: it is only a class system as much as you allow it to be. Sure Rikku is a "thief" class as well as Locke, but hey let's give Locke an Esper and Rikku learn a bit of Lulu's Sphere Grid and now they're mages as well! FFVI class system is more of a pseudo-class system in all honesty.
Relic system? Seriously? It is just the same as equipping accessories in most other RPGs, just this time you get two. Though the Gametrailer video review is the first time I heard about the crafting system for the weapons in FFXIII and from their impression it is underwhelming.
As for linearity, FFVI, along with a few others, are pretty linear until you get an airship or something similar. Basically you have the town NPCs more or less drawing you a map where to go next. Sure, you have that nice big open world map to go to, but for the most part at the beginning of the game all other areas are conveniently blocked off, leaving your next destination very obvious. Not so coincidental and ever so convenient, the only place you can go is the place that all the earlier NPCs were talking about and the next plot point! Not to say they don't open up, they do, but it only occurs later in the game. Sure, it seems open but if you look close enough they are just giving you slack on the leash.
That being said, FFVI is still one of my favourite instalments in the series (along with FFT and FFXII).
The reviewers complaining about melodrama make me laugh though. It is like they haven't played most JRPGs or watched anime. Sure, they are not all like that but it is common enough that it shouldn't be surprising. To me, it is like complaining about the fact that most RPGs are about saving the world or some re-iteration thereof.
Give me a good battle system and an engaging plot and/or characters and I am pretty much set.
XIII is bold, and that's fine. I don't mind linearity, I play my RPGs for the story, and if XIII focusses 90% on that, all the better. XII is the only game in the series where I clocked 150 hours + because I wanted to do all sidequests. In a game the style of X or XIII, I don't want to do this, so a heavy focus on the story is good.
Of course I won't defend or crack the game down till I played it myself next week, but I do feel critics are complaining a tad too much at times, sometimes for stupid reasons. Like Gamespot. It made Vanille a "the bad" of XIII. Instant fail, as Vanille clearly rules.
You don't need to play it or read reviews, you can watch it on youtube and judge from there. The first half or more of the game is a straight line. If you are playing a game for purely the story, it isn't a game you should be playing. The cinema is the place for that.
An RPG is supposed to have a balance but clearly XIII does not. I really cannot understand why so many are saying "I have heard all these criticisms, there is so much I can do to see if it is true, but instead I will buy it anyway"
Nothing is achieved by that except the game designers think it is ok to shaft us all with 90% cutscene and 10% pressing action button. FF13 is the most linear FF there has ever been. It is a a straight line "attack pallette swap monster" over and over again.
Call me crazy but that isn't what I started playing Final fantasy for. I played it for its battle system, menu system, exploration AND story. Not fighting 100 monsters in 1 linear path with a cutscene or three at the end of it.
As for more reviews these ones are good:
Edge Magazine 5/10
Review: Final Fantasy XIII | Edge Online
FFXIII takes brave risks with the series’ foundations, but they ultimately create trembling fractures throughout the entire edifice, that robust battle system unable to support the weight of an entire world. Final Fantasy games are always an investment. This time, the returns are questionable.
When your party is finally operating at full capacity, there’s still more of the linear story to trudge through – and it is a trudge. The game’s producers have gone on record as saying that western audiences don’t understand this first section, but in fact we do: it’s just a bit rubbish. The first 25 hours of the game are one long corridor of palette-swapped enemies, fights that never quite find the right level of challenge, and cutscene after cutscene (after cutscene) leaving your joypad entirely idle.Wired 6/10
Review: Beautiful, Boring Final Fantasy XIII Loses RPG Magic | GameLife | Wired.com
The most important thing to understand about <cite>Final Fantasy XIII</cite>, the latest in the world’s most popular line of role-playing games, is that it isn’t a role-playing game.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Just ask its creators: In a recent interview, the director of this PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game (available March 9) said the changes he made to this installment were so dramatic that it constituted a “new genre” outside the “RPG template.”
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