Am I the only one who LIKED FFXIII?

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Good god. I've been burned!

Now you're a burn victim. Maybe you can make a career out of being on Dancing with the Stars. xD

[Bolivar]

Now you're a burn victim. Maybe you can make a career out of being on Dancing with the Stars. xD

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Now you're a burn victim. Maybe you can make a career out of being on Dancing with the Stars. xD

LMAO

[chionos]

It's linear. Most long-time SE/FF fans remember the many open-ended FF games that Square gave us and miss that. I'm sure that it would be much easier to appreciate the game's linear nature if the majority of us weren't anticipating (from instinct or habit) a huge explorable world. Sidequests, hidden treasures and hidden characters. Mystery. Fantasy. I'm an old-school FF fan, but it's not just nostalgia that makes me disappointed in the game. I mean, I enjoyed playing it, but in the end it fell flat compared to other FF's and compared to modern games in the genre. When someone says it's the worst FF that's not really much of an insult.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Yeah, I agree that the linearity of it is a detriment to its reputation, but a lot of games are pretty damn linear and people don't whine about those. The expectation of a ridiculously long game with a multitude of side quests is almost unheard of outside Bethesda's offerings. But I agree, they could make the next entry shorter but less linear, and with more exploration/deviation from the path.

[dambaz]

final fantasy 13 was a brilliant game the only thing that i can say i had a problem with was the lack of towns and places other than that yeah i enjoyed it

[DMKA]

FFXIII was awesome. It really trimmed the fat and kept the only things that were good about FF to begin with.

*snip*
While I have no issue with you expressing your bewilderment with people who don't hold the same opinion as you, I suggest you pick your words more carefully in the future. ~ WK

[Hollycat]

I will never get to finish this game. bought it from gamestop new. played it once. 2 months later, took it out of its case, put it in the ps3. it shattered. stupid ffxiii

[Giga Guess]

I enjoyed it. I found it a little slow to start, and a few things like irksome (Or leader fell, how will we go on?!) but stuck with it because...well, it was pretty, and I was intrigued by the battle system. But a few chapters in, a feeling struck me, one I hadn't felt since FFX-2 (Yeah, yeah, grab the torches and pitchforks, I liked that one too.) I *CARED.* I cared that there was clearly more to Vanille's smiles and giggles that met the eye, I cared Snow and Lightning were both tirelessly working to save the presumably unsavable Serah, I cared that Hope was trying to reconcile his grief of losing his mother, and his own crappy fate. FFXII, five hours in, rocks could have fallen, the entire cast could have died...well, I would have missed Basch and Balthier a bit, but frankly...I don't think I would have cared. Not so here.

I dunno, others may disagree, but I thought it was an improvement after FFXII.

[Hollycat]

I enjoyed it. I found it a little slow to start, and a few things like irksome (Or leader fell, how will we go on?!) but stuck with it because...well, it was pretty, and I was intrigued by the battle system. But a few chapters in, a feeling struck me, one I hadn't felt since FFX-2 (Yeah, yeah, grab the torches and pitchforks, I liked that one too.) I *CARED.* I cared that there was clearly more to Vanille's smiles and giggles that met the eye, I cared Snow and Lightning were both tirelessly working to save the presumably unsavable Serah, I cared that Hope was trying to reconcile his grief of losing his mother, and his own crappy fate. FFXII, five hours in, rocks could have fallen, the entire cast could have died...well, I would have missed Basch and Balthier a bit, but frankly...I don't think I would have cared. Not so here.

I dunno, others may disagree, but I thought it was an improvement after FFXII.

I dunno, others may disagree, but I thought it was an improvement after FFXII.

improvement after FFXII.

ಠ_ಠ
:twak:

I LOVE FF12

[Bolivar]

While I agree SOME things improved on FFXII, XIII just did not have anywhere near the depth of XII's combat and customization system, nor did it have the really challenging encounters that even the main story could provide in that game. Actually, XII had very similar level design to XIII, except there was no transition to battle (you cannot tell me that wasn't a disappointment and a HUGE step back from XII to see enemies on the field and then transition to a battle screen) and the side paths were legitimately interesting to go down and had reasons for doing so. There was so much branching off of everything that if you actually explore (as I think the game designers intended you to) you could rack up a HUGE play time before you've even scratched the surface of the story.

[VeloZer0]

(you cannot tell me that wasn't a disappointment and a HUGE step back from XII to see enemies on the field and then transition to a battle screen)

Can and am.

Of the things I was very pleased with FF13 was the abandonment of what I think is an incredibly foolish idea. When you fight on your dungeon map you are completely confined to creating dungeons that can support encounters in all areas. I though the dungeon layout was terribly uninspired in FF12, every single place you visit is just a huge wide open area. And it 100% has to be this way, there is no room for any variation or choice in this system. Though people wish to get away from random encounters and battle scree transition I think that the are necessary to avoid straight-jacketing yourself into very limited dungeon design parameters.

Though this isn't the place to discus how challenging FF12 was or wasn't I can't help but be boggled when you describe encounters that are seriously more difficult than FF13's fare.

[Del Murder]

I agree with Velo. Having semi-turn-based combat on the field limits the freedom of layout design. Not that FFXIII's corridors weren't also limited.

FFXI's dungeons were also limited in design for that reason. They certainly weren't as cool as some of the layouts in the PS1 FFs.

[Jessweeee♪]

It's hard to say if I enjoyed the battle system more in FFXII or FFXIII!

[Bolivar]

I though the dungeon layout was terribly uninspired in FF12, every single place you visit is just a huge wide open area.

How? The first substantial dungeon you're introduced to, the Waterways, are filled to the brim with stairs, multiple vertical tiers, and side paths. Other than boss battles or areas that are obviously supposed to be plains, I can't think of too many huge wide open areas...

As far as dungeon design, I do agree there's a degree of blandness because it essentially used repetition of simple geometric shapes to create large labyrinths, but I think Wolf once pointed out that those PS1 dungeons weren't really well designed dungeons, they were just areas to make the pre-rendered backgrounds look cool. FFXII kinda brought back that real dungeon design of having a large labyrinth you have to navigate and figure out ways to open up alternate paths (that aren't made obvious by FFXIII's markers of where the next step to solving the "puzzle" is). I think the addition of that old school element really added another layer of substance to FFXII's gameplay, especially when compared to FFXIII's corridors.