a return to one of the great games of the series?

[Wolf Kanno]

It will be interesting to see, its one of the reasons why I'm not already decrying XIII as "epic fail" I need to play it first of course, but since they have removed so many elements that I enjoy out of the genre, it basically makes me feel that XIII can be a very good game but has lost the chance to be a great game. I feel SE is sorta gambling here by putting all their eggs in one basket with the story. Though as Vyk has kinda shown, the game does strike a great level of appeal from those who tire of RPG conventions altogether. Still, I think the big question I'll be asking myself as I play it is whether I can still call it an RPG or not.

[Madame Adequate]

Weirdly (As I completely disagree on FFX ) I agree pretty much totally with WK on this. I'm expecting to enjoy FFXIII, but from what I have seen I really doubt that I'll treasure it like I do VII and X. I hope to be pleasantly surprised, of course, but I'm going into it expecting a fairly fun game.

[ANGRYWOLF]

I don't agree about FFX..
I suspect if Square brought in 10 fans and asked them what makes a great FF/what should be in an FF game to make it great they would get 10 different opinions.

I just don't think this game (FFXIII) is going to live up to the usual expectations I 've had.Maybe that's because FFXII was such a major disappointment for me but I don't feel the enthusiasm I expected.

[Madame Adequate]

I don't agree about FFX..
I suspect if Square brought in 10 fans and asked them what makes a great FF/what should be in an FF game to make it great they would get 10 different opinions.

Actually I reckon they'd get 11.

[Wolf Kanno]

Getting FF fans to agree on details is like getting ten people to agree on a great pizza toppings. I'm sure XIII will bring in a whole new host of fans and we'll all grow quickly irritated with them cause we remember "how much better it was in the old days". I'm looking forward to XIII, not in a sense I feel this game will blow me away, I'm pretty sure the chance for that to happen has passed since I've never been very impressed with the game since the first videos were released but I am curious to see the experiment that it offers. I'm also looking forward to the combat system cause it sounds impressive but I'm not sure how well it will work out.

If XIII reminds me of any title, its probably Xenosaga Episode II which was an ok game from an actual great series. That game also removed a ton of RPG conventions and focused completely on story and the battle system but neither really panned out well so this is why I'm a bit apprehensive in regards to XIII as I feel the story premise is a bit hokey and overly melodramatic.

P.S. (SPOILER)FFX Sucks

[Sefie1999AD]

I think Nomura's games tend to be "hit or miss" in terms of quality. IMHO, FFVII was a hit, FFVIII could have been better, FFX was a miss, KH was a hit, FFX-2 was pretty good and both FFVII AC and KH2 were fan service... though I enjoyed the latter two. Now, based on what I've read about FFXIII and based on the gameplay videos I've seen, it seems FFXIII tries to be FFX on steroids, which I don't find a good thing. At all.

From what I've gathered, FFXIII seems to have top-notch graphics and loads of lengthy cinematics. The game seems to be very linear, and it seems the "flesh" (world map, towns, NPCs, shops etc) has been removed to make way for cinematics and walking through dungeons after dungeons. This is a lot like in FFX, which also had great graphics at that time, long cinematics, linear gameplay and a long, long road to wander, although even FFX wasn't daring enough to drop towns, NPCs and shops out of the game. In addition, just like in FFX, buying new weapons and armor doesn't seem to do much in FFXIII, and I may be wrong, but the development system feels like "let's remove all complexity and traditional FF features so that you only have to concentrate on beating the enemies".

Has anything changed from FFX? Actually, yes. FFX's slow-paced battles that became even slower if you wanted to train all characters ("Pikachu Tidus, I choose you! Okay, you're done, now Wakka. Great, now Yuna. Then Lulu. And Kimahri. Et cetera.") have turned into fast-paced action battles similar to FFX-2's. I personally liked those fast battles a lot in FFX-2. The soundtrack, unlike FFX's, seems very good, and it seems Hamauzu has finally succeeded in creating a great, powerful musical score. Orchestral, vocal and choral songs add up a lot to the soundtrack. As for other things, it seems Nomura didn't want to repeat FFXII's way of having subtle characters. I've heard FFXIII's characters are more like "in your face". You could even call them melodramatic. I'm not sure what to think about XIII's characters yet. I mean, FFXII's subtle characters were likable and all, but I still felt a bit like, "hopefully Revenant Wings will let me get to know the characters better", after the game. Subtlety is usually a good thing, but it shouldn't be taken too far, IMHO. I don't know anything about the actual storyline in XIII, however, so I won't say anything about it.

All in all, what can be expected from FFXIII? Great visuals. Lengthy cinematics. Great music. Fast-paced action battles. Melodramatic characters. And... well, that's it. I don't know about you, but sounds extremely shallow to me. If I wanted a movie, sure. If I wanted an action game, no problem, I guess. However, when it comes to RPGs, I'd really prefer some content. Hopefully Final Fantasy number 13 will be more than just eye candy and action battles.