XIII: The Strength Thread

[Future Esthar]

Oh yeah.Army of one and launch were cool moves.

[Rozaheku]

- Crystal Tools is amazing.

You mean the game engine? Can you be more specific? eg. what about it is amazing? There is so much to a game engine that it's hard to tell what made you decide this (not that I disagree, mind you!).

Well, to be perfectly honest I was only refering to the battle system so refering to it as Crystal Tools was kind off a dumb move of me.

[Brennan]

Snow has a kickass theme

[Slothy]

Sazh. He's still done some stupid stuff that annoyed me in this game, but at his best he was the only character I could actually believe in any way shape or form. Not perfect, but far and away the best character in the game. Next to the Frocobo anyway.

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

[Rad Bromance]

- It's actually challenging for a change
- You can't get ridiculously overpowered and kill everything in one hit on your first playthrough
- For the most part, a good cast of characters
- It's visually gorgeous
- It has a much better soundtrack than the last few FF games
- The battle system is wonderful and probably the best of the franchise
- The voice acting is better than all the other FF games that have voice acting
- Frocobo
- The story, while nothing we've not experienced before, is far better told than any of the other FF games

It's not perfect but I liked it better than the last three or four Final Fantasy installments.

[the holy meteor]

The battle system is my favorite, in this game and even the whole FF series. The focus is on the paradigms and actual battle strategy. Maximum strength alone doesn't get the player through tough battles. The system is very simple yet encourages strategy and thinking.

I love the game's music. The strongest tracks are the battle themes; the best battle music in FF, IMO. Its regular battle theme is great, my favorite in the series. Saber's Edge and Eidolons are pretty epic. The game needs strong battle music because that's the heart of its gameplay.

[Chloe.]

- It's actually challenging for a change
- You can't get ridiculously overpowered and kill everything in one hit on your first playthrough
- For the most part, a good cast of characters
- It's visually gorgeous
- It has a much better soundtrack than the last few FF games
- The battle system is wonderful and probably the best of the franchise
- The voice acting is better than all the other FF games that have voice acting
- Frocobo
- The story, while nothing we've not experienced before, is far better told than any of the other FF games

All of this. Also, the healing after every battle. I'm sure there's more but I can't think at the moment

[Ezme]

All of this. Also, the healing after every battle. I'm sure there's more but I can't think at the moment

Originally that really annoyed me but now I think I'll get annoyed when I play an old FF! LOL

[Slothy]

- The story, while nothing we've not experienced before, is far better told than any of the other FF games

How so? I'm honestly curious for your thoughts on why it's the best told story in the series because I hated everything about how it was told. It just seemed to meander on with absolutely no direction for most of it, while the characters made decisions that didn't mesh with their characters solely to keep the plot moving in the direction the writer wanted.

I know this is the strength thread so I'm not just trying to rip it apart here. I'm just honestly curious because I can't think of anyone I've talked to who liked the story that much who could give a reasonable explanation of why.

[Madame Adequate]

I thought the story was great until around the time you get to the end of Chapter 11, at which point it all fell apart very quickly.

[Ezme]

You can really feel how they ran out of time thats for sure. I like it better than the whole "time compression" jazz but no where near the best

[finaloblivion]

- It's actually challenging for a change
- You can't get ridiculously overpowered and kill everything in one hit on your first playthrough
- For the most part, a good cast of characters
- It's visually gorgeous
- It has a much better soundtrack than the last few FF games
- The battle system is wonderful and probably the best of the franchise
- The voice acting is better than all the other FF games that have voice acting
- Frocobo
- The story, while nothing we've not experienced before, is far better told than any of the other FF games

All of this. Also, the healing after every battle. I'm sure there's more but I can't think at the moment

Originally that really annoyed me but now I think I'll get annoyed when I play an old FF! LOL

High five!

Actually I'm playing through FF8 right now, and I honestly get frustrated because of the speed of the battles.Why aren't all my characters attacking rapidly and at the same time? rip this jerk up!
I actually wait for all of the their ATB guages to fill so I can *kinda* stack their commands and have it resemble XIII combat. And also healing after battle? I'm running out of potions like every 20 minutes.

[Shin Gouken]

- The story, while nothing we've not experienced before, is far better told than any of the other FF games

How so? I'm honestly curious for your thoughts on why it's the best told story in the series because I hated everything about how it was told. It just seemed to meander on with absolutely no direction for most of it, while the characters made decisions that didn't mesh with their characters solely to keep the plot moving in the direction the writer wanted.

I know this is the strength thread so I'm not just trying to rip it apart here. I'm just honestly curious because I can't think of anyone I've talked to who liked the story that much who could give a reasonable explanation of why.

The story telling in FFXIII was an insult. Most of the important information is told throught the datalog and alot of other information was told through constant flashbacks. From chapters 2 through to 8, very little actually happens regarding plot. Our characters are running away, we have no idea if they are going to save or destroy the world and from chapter 12, it's motivational speaches in most every cutscene, despite our heroes not really knowing what they plan to do.

[Future Esthar]

I like it better than the whole "time compression" jazz but no where near the best

It´s not better.Why didn´t you like it?

FFXIII has the best soundtrack in my opinion.

[Ezme]

It's an opinion, you cant just say no to someone else's opinion. I didn't like the time compression storyline, I like theories of reality and dimensions (I have a philosophy degree so I better lol) but the whole time compression thing never held up for me. I didn't like it, I know others did but I didn't.