Opinions on the XIII Characters... particularly Snow

[Loony BoB]

Regarding "But he doesn't behave like an adult!" - he's only 21, I'd say he acts about as sensible as quite a number of 21 year olds in this world. But seriously, why would I want everyone in the game to act like an adult? That would be dull. Even "fun loving" ones, you still need the less sensible people to shake things up. I can't think of a single Final Fantasy game I've played where everyone acted like an adult and I still found them all great. I wouldn't say Snow acts like a child, either, though. He acts like someone who is desperate to prove himself (to himself as much as anyone else) and encourage others. I think there's a lot more to Snow than most people think, because they focus too much on the parts you see throughout the majority of the game. Vanille gets similar treatment.

[Sephiroth]

Snow is a great character. He was intended as a reliable and still an often silly character. Even Lightning in Episode Zero shows why exactly she does not want Serah to marry him. It does not clash at all with what is intended/what is canonical. Of course we an still dislike it but seeing how much of a jolly character is that really would do everything for the people he likes even though he does not do it the smartest way and whose mental breakdown from 1 to 3 was shown so well and you can still rely on him, shows me he really is a well-written hero.

Also I must laugh about the adult comment coming from an internet forum. I must have forgotten the internet is full of mature geniuses who would never act like Snow and there is also good chance I get a super-intelligent (supposedly) reply to that post.

To put it in a nutshell: I like Snow.

[Fynn]

By adult I didn't mean mature. He just doesn't act somebody with a fully functioning brain. In a game so void of any self-awareness, a character like that just looks like someone who's really mentally impaired.

I just want my characters to be people. I simply cannot enjoy Snow because he is a caricature in a game that tries to be serious and profound. I consider it bad writing.

[Rocket Edge]

The characters weren't the worst part of the game. I'm struggling to remember as it's been so long since I played the game but - I didn't remember finding the characters annoying really, including Vanille! It's just that I didn't care about them. Well apart from Hope. He's probably the only character I disliked when playing a video game. People talk about Tidus, Rikku, Squall, etc. as being examples but I liked them all. But Hope started blaming Snow for his mothers death when he had nothing got to do with it. It was annoying.

To be fair though, the characters were IMO hurt by a poor story. They throw words at you like 'L'Cie, and Fal'cie, and I was expected to know it from the get-go. 80% of the time I had no idea what was going on in the game. I had to go to Paloompaloompa or whatever it's called. Why? All of sudden a guy wearing a wedding dress is my enemy. Why? It didn't make sense. And the reason I came to know all that is because I had to read through data-logs to scrub up on it. It was so much fun.

Storylines have been SE's huge downfall since the merge.

[Loony BoB]

I agree regarding storylines, although I'll note that I felt FFV's storyline was average at best and VIII's storyline was pretty bad (despite this, they make up two of my favourite three Final Fantasy games). XII's storyline I never fully wrapped my head around, despite playing it twice (if any game ever needed datalogs, FFXII was it). I've always felt that FF is really bad with endings and general world plots, while great at character writing, gameplay, world-building and graphics.

The world plot problem isn't as common as the ending problem, but ironically the worst plot I've experienced (VIII) also had the best ending. And when I say 'ending', I mean post-final-boss-events. I mean, you look at VII's ending. One of my absolute favourite games of all time. The Lifestream comes out, smashes up meteor, BANG we don't get to find out what happens to any of our heroes with the exception of Red XIII. Before anyone says Advent Children, that wasn't out until years later, it doesn't count.

[Mercen-X]

Vanille's Hecatoncheir transforms from Machina Maw into Full Throttle.

[Kuja9001]

Made an account just to post this

http://kuja9001.tumblr.com/post/9120...evised-edition

[Bolivar]

At first I could actually identify with Hope in that I thought Snow was an impossibly oblivious character, that he acted so cheesy and upbeat despite real people dying around him for his cause. But then you have the reconciliation scenes and by that time you realize that Snow has suffered himself and it's that positive attitude that he uses to try to keep others motivated as well.

Haven't played the game since I beat it a few years ago but that's how I look back on it.

[Forsaken Lover]

The Snow and Hope subplot was what kept me going through the first half or so of XIII. I wanted to see what would happen when the confrontation finally happened.

I was not disappointed.

Snow and Hope have the best development in the game.

Along with Vanille:


Hope x Vanille forever.

And Lightning is awful. I will never fathom the Snow hatred while Lightning is right there, being a mega ultra bitch.

[Loony BoB]

And Lightning is awful. I will never fathom the Snow hatred while Lightning is right there, being a mega ultra bitch.

To be fair, if she wasn't that way, we'd not get to see some great scenes and that infamous (in my mind) line of "Worst. Birthday. Ever."

[Pumpkin]

Gosh I hated Lightning

[Masamunemaster]

I'm posting this here because it seems appropriate. I am in chapter nine at the moment and actually had to heal, which is where I noticed how slow light is to cast cure. She just casually takes her sweet time like this is a game or something!