Final Fantasy: Slow Poke Edition

[Ayen]

Well, I was on my way to this gay Gypsy bar mitzvah for the disabled when I suddenly thought "Gosh, Final Fantasy XIII's a bit rubbish. I think I'll make a thread about it.

I remember looking at the game through the glass case at the local K-Mart and for one reason or another (I think it was the full price) I decided not to buy it. Think I took home Bioshock that week instead, can't remember. Anyway, instead, I decided to go to Blockbuster and see if they had it. I rented it for seven bucks and took it home to play, a year later the Blockbuster closed down. Coincidence!? Most likely.

It was fine at first. Lightning was okay, Sazh was okay and a Chocobo in an Afro was hilarious and then the game decided it would be a marvelous idea to change main characters on me and go to Snow and for one defining moment... I knew what it was like to be a Squall/Tidus/Vaan hater. Oh. My. God. I wanted to take a drill to my temple he was so annoying. Then cue the "Mom can be tough too" trout combined with some more cringe worthy moments and I was done. Vanille and Hope didn't bother me as much when I cut to them, though I didn't get far enough into the game to see the examples of why people hated Vanille and Hope. Though I do know why people hated Hope I only seen it discussed a thousand times. I didn't even get to Fang

The whole time I just wanted to go back to Lightning. Just take me back to Lightning. Yay I'm back to Lightning. Now I'm going to walk down this hallway.
Still going down the hallway.
Still going down the hallway.
Still going down the hall-- Oh for the love of Yevon get on with it already!
Yay we got on to it!
More cringe worthy stuff. That's it, I'm done. Give me my seven bucks back, Blockbuster. "But you like Final Fantasy X" GIVE ME BACK MY SMURFING MONEY!

I haven't even gotten to why I hated the battle system yet. I'll be fair to the game and say it wasn't just it fault, but I hated how Square has swapped back and forth like they have no sense of direction. In X-2 we get dressspheres and a faster paced battle, in XI it's an MMO, XII we're back to consoles but it plays more like Kingdom Hearts, XIII we're back to turn based but I can't control any of my allies. Why can't I control my allies? What logical purpose is there to be turn based if I can't control my allies and get a game over screen when I die but my allies aren't? Does the CPU not know how to use Phoenix Down!? With a real time battle system like in XII that would make sense, but it just doesn't work with turn base, I'm sorry, it doesn't. Oh and then in XIV it's a MMO again. Maybe it's the nostalgia, maybe it's my memory, but I don't remember the older Final Fantasy games overhauling the battle system so much. It was a lot more gradual in its changes leading into X. STICK TO A CHANGE BEFORE YOU IMPLEMENT ANOTHER ONE! -throws Hope through a window-

However, I will note one thing I liked about the game. This clip:



That was pretty badass.

I need to give this thread a topic so it's not just one long winded rant.

Where were you when Final Fantasy XIII was released and your initial reaction to it? Did you rent it first or did you buy it straight away like a lot of fans of the franchise and Square did?

Discuss.

[Skyblade]

I got it straight away. And I liked it, or at least aspects of it. There was plenty to hate, however, and that sort of overwhelmed its good aspects.

The pacing absolutely killed the game. Gameplay, story, character development, world building. It doesn't matter, pick an aspect of this game, and you can easily spot just how poorly paced and structured it was.

The world was the weakest aspect. I can't remember ever playing an RPG in which the world felt so empty. There is no life, no people, nothing to do. It just felt barren. Part of building a good story and world is to make you connect with the world and its people, to forge a connection with them that makes you, the player, want to save the world. There is nothing, at all, noteworthy or memorable about this world. There is no reason to get invested, no reason to care.

The level layout massively emphasized this. I know I don't need to harp on the corridors, but I would be remiss not to mention them. The extremely linear and featureless level layout, in a way, completely matched the completely featureless world. Linearity itself is not necessarily a bad thing. FFX was linear, far more so than most of the games in the series. But FFX's hallway was thriving. You couldn't go more than twenty steps in that game without running into an NPC. Whether it was someone just living their own life, or someone on their own quest to help the world in a way that they could, there was so much life in that hallway that it made you forget the linearity and just thrive in the world (plus, although it was essentially just as linear, you could at least move side to side in X's hallways, even if there was no point to doing so).

The writing was horrible. As you said, there are cringe-worthy moments all over the place. The dialogue is atrocious, the character motivations frequently felt confusing and out of character, and the story's premise rarely held together. You spend 90% of the story going around in circles with the characters, waiting for them to come to a conclusion (all of which could have been avoided had Anima just pulled a Barthandelus and just said "yo, go kill that moon", instead of wasting time with the visions). The character sub-plots were ridiculous, and only held together thanks to the non-plot moments, when they actually seemed like real characters. That's right, the writing was at its best when it wasn't dealing with the plot, and that's not a good sign for your story. Finally, the whole "fake out" with Sazh was one of the most pathetic, poorly written, and blatantly obvious attempts to elicit an undeserved emotional response I've ever seen, in any form of media. No one believed it, even for a moment. Let's say they actually went ahead and did it, exactly the way they did, except when they cut away, Sazh actually shoots himself. No one would have believed it. They'd keep waiting, and waiting, for Sazh to come back. And only when the game is over would most of them go "oh, gosh, he really did... Wow". There's still no one who would have taken it at face value, but it would have had some impact, and a deserved emotional response. As it is, it is merely the finale of an utterly pathetic debacle of writing.

The combat I actually enjoyed. Eventually. Again, it was horribly, horribly paced. The combat is only fun once you actually get to take advantage of the systems. The game locks you down and restricts you so much that for 90% of the game, you don't have the tools needed to let you make choices in combat. You literally just hit auto-attack 99% of the time and win everything. Only once you unlock all the jobs and a lot more abilities for those jobs do you actually begin to have some impact on the combat with how you play.

It wasn't my least favorite Final Fantasy, but it was not one I would rate particularly high on my list.

[Sephiroth]

However, I will note one thing I liked about the game. This clip:



That was pretty badass.

Oh, you will love Lightning Returns.

The lack of freedom and variety in Final Fantasy XIII is very present except some situations. And it was such a pity for me because there was so much I liked about it but it clashed together. Still, what I like always makes be happy even with all that stuff. A few other things and it could have been so much better. But it is fine for me, and definitely with the Compilation.

[Mirage]

The world was the weakest aspect. I can't remember ever playing an RPG in which the world felt so empty. There is no life, no people, nothing to do. It just felt barren. Part of building a good story and world is to make you connect with the world and its people, to forge a connection with them that makes you, the player, want to save the world. There is nothing, at all, noteworthy or memorable about this world. There is no reason to get invested, no reason to care.

Sounds like something copypasted out of one of my posts

[Shauna]

XII we're back to consoles but it plays more like Kingdom Hearts

I am so distracted by this comment. In what way is the FFXII battle system like Kingdom Hearts?

[Skyblade]

XII we're back to consoles but it plays more like Kingdom Hearts

I am so distracted by this comment. In what way is the FFXII battle system like Kingdom Hearts?

The combat takes place on the overworld, not in a separate instance, the way it does in most FFs. And you can freely move around during the combat. And that's about it.

[Mirage]

But it has no hitbox detection or any action oriented combat maneuvers that are more or less guaranteed to be found in almost any action RPG.

[Ayen]

However, I will note one thing I liked about the game. This clip:



That was pretty badass.

Oh, you will love Lightning Returns.

The lack of freedom and variety in Final Fantasy XIII is very present except some situations. And it was such a pity for me because there was so much I liked about it but it clashed together. Still, what I like always makes be happy even with all that stuff. A few other things and it could have been so much better. But it is fine for me, and definitely with the Compilation.

I'm reluctant to give anything that has XIII slapped on it my money in fear Square will take it seriously and make XIII-4.

XII we're back to consoles but it plays more like Kingdom Hearts

I am so distracted by this comment. In what way is the FFXII battle system like Kingdom Hearts?

The combat takes place on the overworld, not in a separate instance, the way it does in most FFs. And you can freely move around during the combat. And that's about it.

^ Pretty much what I meant just didn't know how else to explain it.

I like how that's the distracting comment and not, well, pretty much everything else I said.

[Shauna]

Yep, well that was a new and interesting comment that I didn't understand! Any and all criticism of FFXIII hits the same checkboxes of why it is bad and it is just nothing new.

But comparing FFXII and Kingdom Hearts? Crazy talk that I want to probe for more information!

[Karifean]

I liked it. Not like there was any reason for me to dislike it. I'm used to typical Japanese cringe-worthy moments, I accept pretty much any character without second thoughts and I don't mind a hallway if it doesn't get too monotonous. And honestly, I didn't think XIII's linear path was all that monotonous, and that's because of one thing: the battles.

The combat system had me as soon as Paradigm Shifts were introduced. Fighting by essentially controlling your party's strategy and switching between them on the fly is an interesting concept. The game gives you a long time to experiment with all the different roles and find out what works best for you. And then it finally opens up entirely and you can play around with it all you like. It was quite fun.

[Skyblade]

But it has no hitbox detection or any action oriented combat maneuvers that are more or less guaranteed to be found in almost any action RPG.

Oh, I agree. I would never make the comparison between the two myself. But, looking for similarities, that's what I could find.

The line should have read: XII went back to consoles but plays much more like an MMO.

I still loathe XII's battle system.

[Del Murder]

I played FFXIII at released and enjoyed it as a game, but not as a FF game. It fell way short of my expectations for the series but as an independent game it was pretty fun.

[Psychotic]

Don't put Snow in the same category as those other mooks! I love Snow. I love the fact that he's a big dumb goof and everyone knows he is but he still carries on doing what he does with a smile on his face.

[Ayen]

Don't put Snow in the same category as those other mooks! I love Snow. I love the fact that he's a big dumb goof and everyone knows he is but he still carries on doing what he does with a smile on his face.

I don't put Snow into the same category. He gets his own special category.

[maybee]

After not enjoying FF XII I rented it, it felt strange renting a Final Fantasy, usually Final Fantasy meant just buying the thing as soon as you see it new. But as soon as you don't enjoy one, that trust in the brand wavers.

I'm actually one of those strange people who didn't mind this game, it was a $ 70 trout load of flaws and annoying moments, but it had it's good things and enjoyable moments too.

It's not the best Final Fantasy, nor the worst. Guess somewhere down the bottom..... but not the complete bottom.

I think it's because I don't mind, or rather see the glass as full when it came down to the strict linear gameplay It's linear, but you know we're your going and if you hate/ dislike a dungeon, no problem, you're out of there asap. And no more getting lost, because ...... you can't.

Imo this is the modern day's Noob Final Fantasy game. Sort of like how the SNES generation had Mystic Quest.

- It's linear
- the game holds your hand
- the game has that modern anime feel that would attract younger players, like 12- 15
- the storyline has a guide that you can read, just in case you don't understand

imo this is Mystic Quest 2010