Views on XIII now that time has passed?

[Shauna]

This is absolutely terrible and I agree 100%. The even bigger problem is that the Datalog does not have entries for enemies, like XII did.

Wait, isn't there a full bestiary and aren't there DataLogs for the bad guys? I'm pretty sure there are...

There is a bestiary, but I'm not sure if the one for FFXII was more in-depth than just a picture and the affinities/etc of the enemies a la FFXIII.

And speaking of those roles, the idea that paradigms offered any interesting strategies is a joke because you can get through the entire game with two of them, maybe three if you want to throw in some status effects, but it isn't necessary. Playing a game where you mash auto-battle to attack, then switch to a healing paradigm when you're low on health and mash auto-battle some more gets old fast. Playing it for more than 30 hours moves past the realm of got old into kill me now please.

I'm not convinced by this at all. First, yes, most fights can be won without too much trouble, but that's true of essentially every JRPG ever made. In the main, only boss fights, bonus fights, and the first couple levels of a D&D based system like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale are ever actually difficult in games. In this game, there are definitely some fights that are tough and need to be approached correctly, and you might power through if you just have an attacker and a medic, but it's far from optimal play. If you actually had to use every paradigm in every fight and constantly rotate between everything, I guarantee people would complain that ordinary fights were way too difficult, and I'd make that complaint myself. Complaining about auto-battle is also silly, it's just the same as hitting attack or casting heal, and nobody ever complains about how all you do with Cloud is either select Attack and then the enemy or select Magic -> Cure and then yourself, but it is literally the exact same thing.

Press X to win is only okay under certain circumstances, of course.

Even then, as I say erry time this conversation comes up, there are times in FFXIII when I actually have to put some thought into what I am actually doing with the paradigms and battle set-up (and still got my ass handed to me despite all that). Which, again, is more than I can say about my recent venture through FFVII in which I could have fallen asleep holding down X during battles and still ended up fine.
I think what probably takes away from the fact that I died a lot in FFXIII was the fact that I respawned just outside the battle, ready to try again. The single time I Game Over'd in FF7 I had to do like half a dungeon again, which makes mistakes more brutal. I am mixed on my feelings here, because having death be a punishment is one thing, but on the other hand... if I had to re-do the section preceding Hecatoncheir the 20 times I failed to beat him, I probably would have not been a happy chappy.

And the other thing people whine about... Yes, you cannot directly control what your party members do, but that is true of many games - Setting AI in other RPGs to "Focus on healing!" or "All out attack" or "Stay defensive!" as their battle style is essentially what you're doing in this battle system. But, this is a cardinal sin in FFXIII for... reasons. And, I am sure I'll get some excellently worded walls of text explaining these reasons.

(I agree on many other points about the bad things about FFXIII, but the battle system is just something I'll never understand. Perhaps it may just not be to some people's tastes, but to say that it is somehow infinitely worse compared to other RPG battle systems? I just can't get behind that line of thinking. xD)


I first played FFXIII... when XIII-2 had come out. So I knew all about the hate it got, and I had all that to muse upon while I also had the experience of watching Matt play it briefly - in which I didn't think it looked terrible. When I played it, I enjoyed it. Yep, it had massive flaws with the story and all that, but I enjoyed myself well enough when I played. I may even go back to it again one day!