The Hate Thread

[Flying Arrow]

FFXIII is too exhausting for me. When you have a game that stretches past 30 hours you need to have variety. The entire game is literally battles and cutscenes. And even when you hit Chapter 11, and the game supposedly opens up, your still just fighting enemies. This game blows.

I just saved at the intermission between Chapters 10 and 11. Here's hoping the game starts to 'get good' as everyone says. Up to now it's been kind of a roller coaster of like and dislike. The first two or three chapters are dull, disorienting, and not at all gripping. From around 4-7, I was kind of getting into it as the plot and battle system started to open up. Around 8-10, started getting bored again.

The battle system is fun, of course, but it's completely and totally not enough to keep the game interesting for 60 hours. And really, I'm not sure that any single element from any game on its own is fun enough to carry a 60 hour game. Basically, I feel like I've had my fill of fun already. If the game does get "really good" in 11, then shame on SE for designing their game like this.

More criticism: SE are banking that the 60-hour slog is worth it because of the story. It's not - ever - in any game. It's not that good. It's a silly video game story with some moments of good stuff and some moments that are just dreadfully written. One scene in (SPOILER)Chapter 9 goes like this:

Snow calls around a corner to scare away some guards.
Lightning: What are you doing?
Snow: Thought I could scare 'em away.
Lightning: Don't you get it? The fal'Cie have them so conditioned to hate us. They'll never run away!
Snow: (smashing the wall) Damn those fal'Cie!

Completely embarrassing. More pointless and redundant than Kojima. This kind of utter garbage isn't worth the grind. I feel bad for all the people out there who genuinely and honestly play for the "story" when there's so much wonderful literature and cinema in the world.

At this point, I'm finishing the game because of misguided loyalty to the numbered series. I've generally returned games to the store for less than this.