Quote Originally Posted by Scruffington View Post

Considering Final Fantasy XIII is one of my favorite games ever, I thought chapter 10 from that game was incredible.

Not only is the theme that plays (Will to Fight) one of my absolute favorite songs from the entire game, but the chapter itself has so much variety.

First of all, it has a really unique vibe to it. Fresh off of chapter 9 (which is one of the best chapters in the game) where you escaped the Palamecia and fought Dysley, the group has crashed into the Fifth Ark. It has a pretty somber atmosphere at the start, as the party decides whether to complete their Focus and destroy Cocoon, or follow Serah's wish and save it. Chapter 10 also includes the "conclusion" of Cid Raines' story in the game more or less, which I thought was pretty well done.

Not only is the story and the music for this chapter really good, but the setting and enemies are interesting. Fifth Ark actually originates from Gran Pulse, and is full of subways and skyscrapers. The setting actually feels pretty large. There are so many different enemies you encounter: Flans, Behemoths, Pulsework enemies, Frag Leeches, Zwerg droids, Bombs etc.

I think this chapter actually includes pretty much everything I like about XIII.
We'll have to agree to disagree then because I consider XIII to be the worst FF if not one of the worst games I played last generation. Nothing happens in Chapter 10 that either under-performs due to poor planning or is completely made pointless a few chapters later. It's stuck between the more impactful Chapter 9 where the writer's suddenly remembered they should actually have a real plot and villain; and it comes before Chapter 11, where the party finally reaches Pulse (the only fun part of the game) where the party ultimately dicks around for several hours before the bad guy shows up to reveal they had a better Plan B anyway.

Fang faces her Eidolon, but she's barely been in the plot and is the least developed character in the story at this point, her revelations doesn't reveal really anything new or exciting about her. You have Cid, another poorly utilized side character who is barely in the plot enough to be impactful, suddenly reveal he's working for the bad guys which would have been more interesting if the story had done a better job building him up as an ally beyond being told he's the head of the rebellion against Dysley. He decides to kill you, which is pretty much what everyone you meet wants to do, so no surprises there, makes the sacrifice to spurn the party on to find another way (they don't) and his rebellion/sacrifice is made moot two chapter later when he's revealed to still be around and being Dysley's little bitch.

The chapter involves just what you've been for the previous 9 chapters, running through samey corridors, fighting said corridors samey villains, which are mainly just beefier color swaps of enemies you've fought a dozen times or more before this point. The Paradigm system finally completely opens up, but a) you already have access to the full party (finally) with each one having at least one Paradigm Role properly developed so it's easier to just use a proper party over wasting time leveling up low level roles, b) most of the secondary roles cost two to three times as much XP making them a waste of time to level over just hoarding XP to level up their better roles once a new chapter starts and the level limiter gets raised again, and c) Pulse is a way better leveling spot for the party, especially for gil to raise your gear (the thing that really matters) so basically this chapter is just prolonging your way to the better part of the game.

The Chapter is completely pointless, Cid's revelation of working for the bad guys would have worked better in Chapter 9, giving the impression you're walking into a trap, and his story impact of fighting fate would have worked better if he wasn't brought back two chapters later showing that man is fate's bitch which sends a really confusing message about the game's central theme. Fang should have gotten her Eidolon last, since she's not only the final party member but needed more development to create actual conflict that needs to be resolved instead of rushing through it and making her feel out of place in the whole story. Chapter 9 and 11 would have worked better not to have a slower and ultimately pointless story/game chapter separating the story and game highs of the whole title. There are so many story and game design problems with Chapter 10 that it ultimately ruins the flow of the game, whereas XV's Chapter 13 is at least a giant build up to the story's bigger revelations, and as Summoner of Leviathan mentions, the gameplay changes work to place the player in the same mindset of Noctis who is confused, frustrated, and ultimately sick of all the trout you're being put through.

The big clincher here for me is that I feel removing Chapter 10 in XIII wouldn't hurt the game one bit. Whereas removing Chapter 13 in XV would be very problematic for the game overall, because actual relevant trout happens in it. Chapter 13's issue is that it overstays it's welcome, gives the raw deal to Nifelheim's cast, and the last ditch effort to give Prompto some character development horribly backfires.