I've heard varrying things about this game...none very good.
I'm a big fan of Final Fantasy, but I'm so hesitant to even rent it and I would very much like reasons to rent/buy. Please if any community can help me do it, it's good old EoFF
So what's the deal?
I've heard varrying things about this game...none very good.
I'm a big fan of Final Fantasy, but I'm so hesitant to even rent it and I would very much like reasons to rent/buy. Please if any community can help me do it, it's good old EoFF
By all means rent it. If you don't like the game within the first few hours you aren't going to like it at all, so it's worth spending the money if you're a little cautious before buying it.
Opinions on the game are so varied that you'll likely never get a good sense of how you'd feel about the game. A lot of people loved it, just as many hated it (such as myself). If you want a little more background on the pros and cons then check out some posts in the strengths and flaws threads.
It completley depends on what you enjoy most from your FF experience.Originally Posted by Proxy
FFXIII is very heavily story and character driven. The Crystarium and weapon levelling is very straight forward, most dungeons consist of straight lines with pre-set battles and the battle system favours a faster pace with flashy graphics rather than more defined strategies.
I found these to be the opposite from what i enjoy about FF so my experience with FFXIII wasn't great. If you're looking for customization and exploration in the style of XII then you may not enjoy it. But if you preferred the linearity of FFX than you'll probabley find it very enjoyable. It's completley down to your personal taste.
There are a few genuine flaws in the game which don't come down to opinion, but they shouldn't define your experience of the game so i wont bother mentioning them here.
Well, naturaly it is somewhat subjective. I'll try and be as objective in my 'review' as possible.
In my oppinion does it live up to the 'glory days' of PS1 and SNES FF titles.
No.
Is it worth playing
Yes.
The game is extremely linear, as you might have heard a few people say already. For just about the entirety of the game you will be exclusively doing one of three things: traveling down a set pathway, encountering monsters and watching cut scenes. The main focus of the story is the character development. Your customization options take hours to open up, for much of the game you will have no control over character development or party composition.
The character/equipment set up aspect is simple and not very involved.
Graphics are naturally stunning.
Combat is fast paced AI based, with the player choosing tactics instead of actions. Though I don't like it as much as more traditional systems it is the only RPG with AI characters I have enjoyed playing.
Hope that helps make an informed choice.
In my opinion FFXIII was amazing. End of.
So far, these are very educated posts.
I was really hoping it would be like FFXII which I very much enjoyed, and even X wasn't too bad.
No wonder the orginal developers left squeenix.
I think I will take your advice Vivi22, and rent it. But, when I do rent it, I will take it in, unbiased and playing it as a Final Fantasy game.
But don't stop there guys! Please continue on with pros and cons, and your thoughts.
I think a lot of people grew up, and then forgot what it was like to play a JRPG.
I would advise you play it as a JRPG and not a Final Fantasy game. A significant part of my disappointment with the game was because I was measuring it against a very high standard. It's not really fair to the game, but as we all know the world isn't fair.I will take it in, unbiased and playing it as a Final Fantasy game.
Oh dear, like i said before, this is the opposite to FFXII in every single way. However, you know this before playing it so at least your expectations are in the right place, i unfortunatley found out the hard way
Initially when you start, you'll be mashing one button alot in battles - It gets better but as someone mentioned earlier, you basically bring 6 pre-set strategies into battle and just switch between them.Two characters are AI so are completley uncontrollable, you simply pick what job class they use which essentially means you're picking one of 6 different ways for them to behave.
The fast paced battles make it really difficult to manually select your commands (since the time it takes to manually pick 6 actions is about twice as long as it takes for your ATB to fill, so to do it manually means wasting precious turns) So you'll be using the auto-battle command and just switching your Paradigms.
There are actions which your AI characters will never use and that can never be activated by auto battle. A few normal attacks such as death, couple of special skills, and few select abilities that require TP to use (like summon). You may make frequent use of these things, but personally i didn't. For the most part, the pace of battle and the need to maintain a constant flow of attacks if you want to stagger your oponent, will leave you mashing the auto-command.
The Crystarium is fairly straight forward. Similar to the sphere grid, though 3-dimensional, it's as simple as following the pre-set path. It's divided into 6 parts, one for each job class. You can choose which class to level, however each character has specialist roles which is recomended you stick to, as the other roles have incredabley massive CP requirements. So as far as levelling is concerned, it's pretty straight forward.
Basically what i'm getting at is, FFXIII does alot of the work for you. It guides you down a corridor, throws you into a pre-set battle, most if not all of which is fought for you, then you spend your CP on the crystarium in pretty much which way your told. My advice would be to forget FFXII exists and try to apreciate FFXIII for what it is, as comparing it to XII is going to lead to incredable disapointment
I think being unbiased is a good approach. I also was a bit sceptical when I was considering buying it because of the apparent extreme linearity of it. And when I played the other FFs, I did every single side-quest and played every single mini-game there was. I enjoyed running around towns chatting to NPCs and doing random quests (VIII was my favourite in my regard - so many side-quests! And not kill the monster ones).
So XIII completely cut this aspect out of the game. An aspect that I enjoyed. But I bought it and played it with an open mind. So here are some of my thoughts.
Character Backstories/Motives/Development: I would say that this is the best FF in this regard. All the main characters have well-fleshed out backstories, a sincere motivation for taking part in the plot, and they all develop as characters, realistically altering based on the circumstances that they face. And that is a refreshing change to modern FFs, where a lot of characters just tag along for the ride, with very little reason for them to be there. And they never develop as characters (Penelo from FFXII -> you are the biggest culprit).
Plot: The story is basically character-driven. So I think Square got the important bit right by getting the characters done properly. The plot at times can be unrealistic and over-the-top. But it is basically a prop to drive the characters on. And the characters are really top-notch. I think Loony Bob and I were discussing characters and he said that they all had depth - none of this one-dimensional rubbish. Some of them are cooler than others (Fang & Sazh for me), but they all are really good.
Villains: I thought they were good. I don't want to get into the details of it as I will spoil the game for you, but for me, the villains all believed they were doing the right thing. Which is quite invigorating, instead of the usual: I'm an evil person and I want power. So I would say that is similar to Vayne in XII. (SPOILER) And finding out that Cocoon was basically a chicken battery reminded me of the Matrix scene when Neo finds out that humans were being used as batteries. There are quite a few Matrix similarities I think
Linearity: Okay, this is not ideal. I like my FF games to be open. But I think that it worked out well. Maybe the developers at XIII were talking crap and the only reason it is linear is because of the work it would require to make it any other way, but they also mentioned that they did it to drive the story forward. If they did, it worked for me. But this is a preference and there definitely will be no consensus on this.
Battle System: Another thing where there will be no consensus. Put it this way. It's like an action movie. Very flashy, very stylish and very quick. But you end up being more of a general to your troops instead of the micro-manager you were in previous FFs. I quite enjoy this. I'm playing IX at the moment. The Festival of the Hunt where you have 12 minutes to hunt down monsters. Well, it took me 50 seconds to dispatch a lowly monster. And I seem to keep choosing the same actions. XIII automates this - fact. But I enjoy this automation rather than repeatedly pressing attack. That is an opinion.
But seriously, it looks really cool. Really, really cool.
I listed a whole lot of flaws in the flaw thread. There are some minor issues I found with it. But here is my final viewpoint on it.
Experience: Sometimes, XIII feels like a glorified movie. I will agree with that. You are kind of fighting to move the story along. I would say that every single FF has done this to some degree (and definitely since VII), but XIII is the most obviously blatant in this. But I enjoyed this story. And I loved the style that this game has. It oozes it.
So, I found the battles fun. In an over-the-top manner. People are going to argue that there is no strategy to them. I found that there was some strategy, especially in the timing. Another thing was that it is entirely possible for you to get defeated by most enemies if you are not paying attention. There are also movements forwards in that your HP automatically restores itself after each battle. I'm sure someone will argue that this is a step backwards, but I remember that in XII I just ran around in circles waiting for my MP to build up so I could cure my entire party before continuing. Sounds like a waste to me. Or continuously having to buy potions etc in every other FF game. Pointless stuff. Battles should be about battles, not how good you are at buying stock.
So I think this game has made progress in some significant areas, although like anything new, it is not perfect. I play FF for the story mainly. I enjoyed the story immensely. Therefore I liked this game. It is not perfect, it could be improved, but I liked it. And seeing this, I have great faith in Versus XIII (which has always been the one I've favoured over the 2).
Yeah that villain outlook is seen quite often in movies though. So nothing new for me.
But thank you for pointing out the pros and cons in the sections you did.
Oh agreed. Just not normally in Final Fantasies. Kefka, Sephiroth, Ultimecia? They did not have that outlook!Yeah that villain outlook is seen quite often in movies though. So nothing new for me.
But thank you for pointing out the pros and cons in the sections you did.
I don't know about that. I think there are plenty of JRPG's that don't fall within the FF series that are better than most of the games bearing the FF name. Persona 3 (or really just about any Shin Megami Tensei game I've played), Vagrant Story, Valkyria Chronicles, and hell, even Demon's Souls technically counts. I wouldn't put many FF's up there with them, despite many considering FF to be the pinnacle of JRPG gaming.
Kefka, Ultimecia no. But I believe Seph was thinking along those lines. He thought he was doing the right thing, it was selfish, but he still thought he was. Not really going for more powerOh agreed. Just not normally in Final Fantasies. Kefka, Sephiroth, Ultimecia? They did not have that outlook!Yeah that villain outlook is seen quite often in movies though. So nothing new for me.
But thank you for pointing out the pros and cons in the sections you did.
There's a debate going on about that in the VII thread. No, Sephiroth wanted to become a God. Not as a means to go to other planets and save. Being a god was the end, not the means. Definitely not for the greater good.Kefka, Ultimecia no. But I believe Seph was thinking along those lines. He thought he was doing the right thing, it was selfish, but he still thought he was. Not really going for more powerOh agreed. Just not normally in Final Fantasies. Kefka, Sephiroth, Ultimecia? They did not have that outlook!Yeah that villain outlook is seen quite often in movies though. So nothing new for me.
But thank you for pointing out the pros and cons in the sections you did.
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