XIII: The Flaw thread

[Shin Gouken]

I made a thread about this, but really don't understand why the linearity freaks people out so much. Yes, you can't run around everywhere. Wow, big deal. I can't run around everywhere in Metal Gear Solid 4 either. It must also be a bad game! And in all honesty, since when has a Final Fantasy game not been linear. I will admit XIII lacks any illusion of choice until Chapter 11 (more so than in MGS4 even, before someone uses that against me), but it's not like any other Final Fantasy has allowed much in the way of exploration until mid or end game. For the first 6-7 (maybe even 10, I haven't played this in ages) hours of VII, you are stuck in Midgar, literally on a straight path. You then head onto the World Map where you go to Kalm, for some more straight-line stuff. Then through the tunnel and onto Junon (unless you stop at the Phoenix tower place, whatever it's name is). Across the sea to Costa de Sol. To Coral. To Golden Saucer. Even if you wanted to explore, your choices of destinations were limited because of natural barriers that you were unable to cross, or engine problem (by Cosmo Canyon).

By your logic, every game is linear because you are aiming to reach the end. FFVII wasn't linear even while in Midgar. You had places that you could explore, even if you couldn't advance in a different direction. Choices you made would affect scenes much later, hidden things were available to find, mini-games popped up occasionally - basically it was far from straight forward.

FFXIII IS straightforward. There is nothing to do except move forward, fight what you are told, and fight it more or less how you are told. Again i say it's fine for people to enjoy it, but i still find it shocking when people can't comprehend why other people don't enjoy it.

And the game favours style over substance. I can admit that. But I don't see why that is a flaw either. There are many movies that favour style over substance which are very enjoyable. Yes, the battle system does have some kinks in it, and the AI can do some silly things (I will get into that when I write my flaws), but it was good fun. I notice that people are complaining that there are too many things happening at a time. Pay attention or slow down the battle speed. And whatever you do, don't play WipeOut on anything above the slowest speed, otherwise there may be cranial explosions. XIII's battles were exciting, they were fun, and yes, you might be nothing more than a glorified general providing broad strategies, but it looked good and it felt good. And I don't see why the AI automatically choosing to do what I was going to do ANYWAY is a bad thing! I would call that progress.

Again, it's preference so i understand your point of view on this. But i still wouldn't call it progress. Battles are designed to be flashy which sums this game up perfectly. Which is different and obviously people enjoy that, but removing large chunks of options in battle (Blue magic, stealing etc) and limiting strategies and customization is not progress. A different approach that seems to have worked for a lot of people, but not progress, just as many people were disapointed at the lack of strategy in favour of faster paced flashier battles.

Inability to move characters in battles

Inability to provide some broad strategy for non-AI characters

Two very good reasons to argue the battle system was not "Progress"

And that is why I cannot understand why some individuals who have not actually played the game can make broad, sweeping statements about it. It's like someone talking about what sex feels like while still being a virgin. Yes, you can read up about it as much as you like (even watch it being done), but you can't describe what it feels like until you've done it.

I agree with the majority what said person says (in regards to XIII anyway) but until he has experienced the game himself noone is going to take what he says seriously so i wouldn't worry