FF7 comparisons (SPOILER)

[Del Murder]

I find a lot of similarities between this game and the other FF games.

The ATB and flow of battle remind me a lot of FFX-2. Changing jobs mid-battle is also X-2.

Crystarium, FFX obviously, but it's more of a mesh between X and XII.

The weapon upgrades remind me of VIII's weapon system which annoyed the crap out me. This one is slightly better because at least you do find new equipment from treasure spheres. Oh yeah, treasure spheres, FFX again...

Controlling one character at a time while the rest follow some AI? XII.

The linearity of the story constantly moving forward on a more or less straight path: X.

Not that this game isn't unique in its own ways. The way it handles summoning is new, among other things. But when you do 13+ of these games you're going to see some similarities.

[Shlup]

Palumpolum, anybody? Best reference in the game so far, in my opinion.

Haha holy crap I didn't see that. I just thought it was a really silly name.

!!!!!!!

My favorite characters and I totally didn't notice! WIN!

[Madame Adequate]

Christ guys I've barely even played FFIV and I saw the reference the first time I saw it!

Edit: That doesn't make sense but it amuses me so I'm leaving it there. I mean the first time I saw the name, I got the reference. Derp

[Shlup]

I tend to not look very deeply into things. Hence my general absence from this thread.

[crazybayman]

Yes, I noticed the PalumPolum reference. It's awesome.

Also the MECHANICAL/ROBO SIN (Uhlan, I beleive?)

[eestlinc]

I still think of the twins as Palom and Porom, and I hear those names with accents on the second syllable of each. So when the voice acting says "Palumpolum" with the accents on the first and third syllables, it is easy to miss.

[Digital Phoenix]

I now this somewhat strays away from the main point of the thread, but I hated how in some unprofessional reviews, the reviewer was comparing the game to Final Fantasy VII instead of rating it on its own merits.

Oh, and a lot of JRPGs have similar storylines, even if they are not connected in any way. I can make a large sum of comparisons between Valkyria Chronicles and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, for example.

Hope reminds me of Tidus in some ways. Same goes for Vanille and Riku.

[Crowseye]

To be fair, comparing something to something else is a valid way of evaluating something.

Any review that doesn't just rehash the game's features is subjective in some fashion. And that's really the point of a review. If reviews were only meant to restate information, you'd only ever need to read the ones with the most of it.

However, "the battle system sucks" or "the game is linear" are relatively meaningless without the author stating what point of reference the he or she is using. Saying "the battle system is a lot more fast-paced than the one in FFVII" or "the game doesn't offer as many opportunities for the player to take time off of the main storyline to do things like race chocobos or collect items like Materia" is an attempt to normalize what is still actually an opinion. It says, "when I say 'fast-paced,' I mean fast compared to this." It can be argued that such a review is far more useful for giving the reader an idea of whether they want to play a game, particularly if they've played the game the reviewer is comparing his or her subject to...

FFVII has likely been played by far more people than any of the other games and is widely considered the best in the franchise (by the far larger number of casual fans) so, as a point of reference to let the audience know where he or she is coming from, comparing a Final Fantasy game to FFVII makes sense...there's a good chance that the people thinking of playing the FFXIII you're reviewing have played FFVII at some point.

Now, if the actual point of the review was to demonstrate why FFVII is still the best FF by comparing it to something else--"OMG the final villain is a joke compared to SEPHIROTH!!!111one"--then it's not really attempting to be a review any more.

[Future Esthar]

I actually get more FFVIII vibes than I do VII.

And I'm not talking about the Snow-Seifer thing.

Thematically speaking, Lightning has the whole Squall super-soldier thing going on with the other members of the party looking to her as the leader, even where she seems to be primarily self-motivated.

The party is made up of rather unremarkable individuals (as opposed to royalty, aging heroes, or notorious rogues and bandits) seemingly brought together by fate for reasons they don't understand.

Pulse and Cocoon have a sort of Galbadia and Esthar relationship. Whereas FFVIII had Sorceresses pulling strings, we have the fal'Cie in FFXIII.

Not saying that the game is a clone, just pointing out some themes that are similar.

Of course, gameplay-wise, it has a lot in common with X.

Can not agree the most.
Except for Snow.
Comparing him to Seifer is absurd.

[Edge7]

[QUOTE=Future Esthar;2808630]

Except for Snow.
Comparing him to Seifer is absurd.

I think he means in character design. Did anyone notice that both Sazh and Barret are both the second party members
of the games and are both loving fathers?

[Crowseye]

Except for Snow.
Comparing him to Seifer is absurd.

I didn't come up with that. That was a common complaint I read leading up to the game's release.

The visual design of the characters are very similar however: blonde hair, black bottoms, grey trench coat...

[Future Esthar]

I understand the characters are supposed to fight Snow later and how this compares to Seifer though.

[Mercen-X]

I just want to point out that I have already identified every reference in XIII from beginning to end upon first glance without any outside help despite the fact that I've never played it because playing it would require me to own a PlayStation3 making this statement utterly impossible.

(SPOILER)You mean a Sweeper. A Super Sweeper is the item.

(SPOILER)Did any spin-off of VII have a Super Sweeper as an enemy? I can't remember. Since you can own one in VII, I think it would have been interesting to be able to use it combat. Same, of course, obviously goes for the Masamune Replica.

Can not agree the most.
Except for Snow.
Comparing him to Seifer is absurd.

Can not agree the most? I'm not sure I understand the intended definition of that phrase...

Final Fantasy... no real obvious references to previous works as there is nothing really worth mentioning.
Final Fantasy II... Cid? Was Cid in the first one?
Final Fantasy III... more than likely something from II and, naturally, a Cid.
Final Fantasy IV...

Anyway, the more games Square releases with the title Final Fantasy, the more references you'll see to previous installments. The only references of any real worth in these games are from outside titles like Valkyrie Profile, Ehrgeiz, Bouncer, Chrono, etc.
Suggested ReferencingPersonally, I'm looking forward to seeing a character similar to Lily from Radiata Stories and, of course, a girl named Ridley is always a nice tip of the hat. Then again, I also liked Aldo and Ernest. Claudia would count not only as a reference to Radiata but as a reference to Cloud crossdressing. What was my point again?

[finaloblivion]

huh?

[Rad Bromance]

FE,

FF8 similarityRagnarok.

Actually, it's also the name of Cloud's second strongest sword in VII.