I Don't Get the Complaints around XIII

[champagne supernova]

Let's not get back to the old flawed argument of "You haven't even played it"

- I have watched hours of video and walk through material of it in both Japanese and English

- I have read dozens of Reviews good and bad

- I have read comments on this and other forums

- We have review sites for precisely the reason of working out whether we want to buy it WARNING WARNING PLEASE MAKE A NOTE OF THIS PLEASE MAKE A NOTE OF THIS!!!! PLEASE READ READ READ READ!!!!!!

Actually, let's. By your logic:

I know what it feels like being on heroin because
- I've watched hours of documentaries and movies on it
- I've read articles on it
- I have heard what people have said about it.

Actually, heroin works better with this argument because at least there are peer reviewed articles on the effects of heroin. There aren't any such things about FFXIII.

Rozaheku has done a good job at explaining the difference between extras and core gameplay. Yes, XIII was extreme in it's linearity. But no Final Fantasy has been an open-ended Bioware kind of affair. They have all been linear. XIII just took away the illusion of freedom. And yes, it is very easy for the guys who made VII to just paint a little island there and draw one scene (and in VII, they literally did draw the backgrounds) with a crystal in it and 3 lines of dialogue. Yes, the extras were cool. And the NPCs were alright (although again, nothing much spectacular happened when you spoke to them). But, I most certainly don't think VII is good because it had the Golden Saucer, Chocobo Breeding or optional characters (and honestly, as Vincent is one of the more influential characters in the background to the story, it is more bad planning that he wasn't compulsory).

Same with VIII. And bringing in X as an argument against linearity is absurd. You can fight Dark Aeons? I can fight many more optional monsters in XIII. What do Dark Aeons have that these monsters don't. And you can go Monster Hunting in X so you can fight super monsters. Sounds like fun, but honestly, killing 5 or 10 of each beast is anything but. It gets boring. Quickly. At least XIII has Gran Pulse where you feel like you are in a massive environment and you can go in any direction. Calm Lands is like the Archylte Steppe lite-lite.

I'm not praising XIII for being linear. But neither am I criticising it for it either. In the context of the game, it worked. XIII focused on the core of the game and not distractions from it. Which I believe is the key ingredient. If I really wanted to race chocobos, I would go buy a chocobo racing game.

And choice isn't necessarily a good thing. This isn't my opinion either. Modern Economics, and in particular Game Theory, have shown that life is a non-parametric and therefore options can actually be detrimental to the utility of an individual (and that is a fact, not an opinion).

Which she explains as being worried of what he might do, that he might go crazy. So no, this isn't a plot hole, it is explained in Midhir (Mideel)

This being the same guy who randomly fell on the floor holding his head and shaking it strangely, who dressed up as a woman and who tells everyone (and with belief too) that he was in SOLDIER, even though he most certainly wasn't. Sounds like it's a bit late for her to worry about him going crazy. And surely she should be curious as to why he knows so much about the Nibelheim incident, but she didn't see him there. But it's fine. As long as there's a sentence that makes no rational sense in there explaining it, all's good. An alien could have also popped down and said they temporarily borrowed her memory. Would that be cool too?

And the World Map does not count as exploration, because what you are mostly exploring is.........NOTHING! All you do is fly the airship around and look at all the places you haven't seen yet, et VOILA, exploration done. The World Map is again nothing more than an illusion of grand spaces.

So, I am happy with a game which has a core that is great, that is fun to play, that has an interesting story, that is immensely polished and is unbelievably stylish, even if it means sacrificing some distractions. I think XIII worked for me because I didn't have a chance to catch my breath, because I had to keep on pushing on. Yes, I may not replay it in a while, but I never really replayed any other FF either.

Of course I hasve been on the other end of the argument.
For all those who criticize him imagine if you treated those of us who feel the game is flawed like you claim he is treating you. Worse than that.

I would respect his opinion more if he played the game. Argument relating to that is at the top of this post.

EDIT:

This game has some glaring faults, and some of them are criminal for an RPG. An RPG with restrictions on exploration, interactive NPC, side quests, diversions, minigames, character control, and traditional towns is at odds with that we judge an RPG by and the things that actually make a game an RPG.

Correction, what you think makes an RPG. Genres evolve over time whetever you like it or not.

Beat me to it.