Why people didn't like this game

[Elskidor]

I can't even recall the things I didn't like about this game, but to me that speaks for itself. It's not a very memorable title. I thought the characters were bland and boring, which sucked because I was looking forward to a new bad ass female lead. The world was tiny and the entire thing was so linear it bored me to tears. I think I remember getting highly annoyed by the currency and the way in which you advanced. You couldn't even unlock certain things until you beat the game, and then if you wanted to you could do play through it again, or something like that, but if it wasn't fun the first time around, why would one want to replay it a second time? It has been a few years so I may give it another go, but I'm not expecting my opinion to change. That being said, it is a beautiful game though. It's probably the best looking FF title with some truly wonderful graphics, but graphics are also one of the most unimportant part of any game to me.

[Slothy]

I'm just going to put it out there that the battle system was the most boring and least tactical of any JRPG I think I've ever played. They did an excellent job of removing almost all player agency from it. For me it was the most unforgivable part of the whole thing. I could have forgiven a lot of its other problems including, possibly, the awful story and characters had it actually been fun to play.

[Hollycat]

I'm just going to put it out there that the battle system was the most boring and least tactical of any JRPG I think I've ever played. They did an excellent job of removing almost all player agency from it. For me it was the most unforgivable part of the whole thing. I could have forgiven a lot of its other problems including, possibly, the awful story and characters had it actually been fun to play.

This.

It was less like being given a game to play and more like being given a school assignment.

[Skyblade]

I found it fun to play. Eventually. The problem for me was that the combat was only good once you hit endgame. Until you had all the various jobs and abilities, it was the most mind-agonizingly dull game ever.

Once you could do everything, the combat system was alright. Until then? Worthless.

[Flaming Ice]

The problem is that they had to change the gameplay or they'd probably end up getting lower scores for the same ol' combat system.


They were probably testing something out and trying to improve it with the release of the other games.

[black orb]

>>> Because except for the graphics and the music (which was pretty average), everything about this game is terrible, story, battle system, cristarium, maps, difficulty, etc..

[Loony BoB]

Huh, I actually really liked most of the characters in the game, particularly their personality and development, and the script (not the story!) was generally great compared to most FF's. Needed a much better plot, though. I liked the premise (l'Cie/fal'Cie/Cie'th system), but the execution was terrible and the ending could have been a lot better. They could have taken some much more interesting steps, such as Hope actually turning into a Cie'th (and the rest of the party having to kill him) or Sazh actually committing suicide.

[Skyblade]

Unfortunately, we're well past the point that Square goes that deep. Was anyone fooled, even for a moment, by Sazh's "suicide"?

[Tigmafuzz]

Hallway Simulator XIII

[Mirage]

Unfortunately, we're well past the point that Square goes that deep. Was anyone fooled, even for a moment, by Sazh's "suicide"?

Considering the opening cinematic "montage" showed him alive in a cutscene that hadn't happened yet at that point in the game, not really. They spoiled the game before it had even started!

What I dislike about FF13 is that there are no towns, no NPCs, no nothing except for the party members. The world doesn't feel alive. I never got the impression that this is a world that actually existed outside of being the stage where the main story played out.

There are no side-quests for the first 90% of the game either. All you get is some dumb stones that make voices appear in your head or something. While it adds gameplay content, none of the cieth stones really make you care about the people who gave you the missions, at least not to the degree that a real NPC with voiceovers and facial expressions would.

There is also nearly no exploration, and you can't even revisit old places. Every area you can see in the game is one of the following: Your next destination, or an area you can never ever go to. It makes the game's level design predictable and unexciting. Furthermore, even if you do bump into things that aren't part of the main story, the characters never speak among themselves about the amazing things they see on their journey either. You get a pre-digested datalog entry about it instead. Well that is nice, but I wanted to know Snow's personal reaction to it, or Fang's personal reaction to it, not a dry piece of text.


I've recently been playing Tales of Xillia, and that game is nearly bursting at the seams with character interaction like that. Countless times, the game will display short conversations between party members, based on things you run past, examine, or even do in battle. If one character gets knocked out a lot in a battle, she's apologize for dragging you all down a bit later as you're back in the field areas, running around. Other times, one of the party members might make a comment about how amazing she thought one of the windmills that just came into view were. Even if they are just text boxes with voiceovers, I feel that they alone add a as much meat to characters than almost all of the actual cutscenes in FF13, and then I've not yet counted the actual cutscenes of Xillia.


So... that's what I mainly hate about FF13.

[Loony BoB]

Unfortunately, we're well past the point that Square goes that deep. Was anyone fooled, even for a moment, by Sazh's "suicide"?

Nope. But if they did have that happen, I think it would have been on par with Aeris' death. Ditto Hope turning into a Cie'th and having to be killed by his friends. That would have been an amazing twist.

[Jessweeee♪]

Unfortunately, we're well past the point that Square goes that deep. Was anyone fooled, even for a moment, by Sazh's "suicide"?

Nope. But if they did have that happen, I think it would have been on par with Aeris' death.

I wonder sometimes if that's precisely why they don't kill off party members mid-game anymore.

[Skyblade]

Unfortunately, we're well past the point that Square goes that deep. Was anyone fooled, even for a moment, by Sazh's "suicide"?

Nope. But if they did have that happen, I think it would have been on par with Aeris' death.

I wonder sometimes if that's precisely why they don't kill off party members mid-game anymore.

The usual response to this is, I think "wasted resources". Playable characters are so expensive to produce, models, animations, voice acting, etcetera, that companies are loathe to throw that away.

Notice how perfectly balanced the characters are, with their relation to the classes and combat styles? Killing Sazh off would have wrecked all of that, not to mention removing the only comic relief in the game.

Square did the bare minimum for characterization in this game. There's, what, fifteen people, total, in the whole game? Could they really afford to get rid of one?

[Elpizo]

Square did the bare minimum for characterization in this game. There's, what, fifteen people, total, in the whole game? Could they really afford to get rid of one?

Sure they could. They got rid of Jill without any flair or spectacle too, after all. She never got to do much and then got unceremoniously offed by a pope before we even got a chance to do it ourselves.

[Skyblade]

Square did the bare minimum for characterization in this game. There's, what, fifteen people, total, in the whole game? Could they really afford to get rid of one?

Sure they could. They got rid of Jill without any flair or spectacle too, after all. She never got to do much and then got unceremoniously offed by a pope before we even got a chance to do it ourselves.

This is true. And I do agree that they certainly could have (and it would have been much more compelling than what they did). I just think that the developers felt a little too tied to their systems to actually do something like that.