I was misled about FFXIII...

From the time of launch, I heard so many complaints about the game... and while some are true, others are completely false.

I've heard so many people claim that the game doesnt make any sense, story wise, until you are very far in the game... well I'm at 3 hours & 40 min. and I already know about the world, the factions, characters and whythey are there and involved in the story.

The 1st 2 hours are very dull, combat wise, but becomes better just a few hours in.

Yeah Vanille & Hope areannoying... I definately won't dispute that, and Snow has some really cheezy lines... but Lightning and Sazh are pretty good. In terms of JRPG's its english voicing is quite good... again, I say in direct comparison with most JRPG's.

I just picked it up on a whim, since I thought I should know first hand how bad the game was, since I spent so much time bashing the genre, this game included. Thankfully I can report that I was wrong about this game at least, I think the combat system takes the genre in the right direction... still I feel JRPG's have overall become stale and the epitomy of cliche, hopefully devs will find ways to change it up some more.

The part most people didn't like about FF13 is that it took 20 hours to open up. You never expect/want that in any RPG.

I actually enjoyed the game. I'll never play it over again, but I'll try for the plat now that I'm free to roam Pulse.

I think it's less that the story doesn't make sense and more that the story (and characters) are garbage. At least, that's my impression ten hours in.DJ_Lae

Well the characters arent original at all... but I dont think that makes them garbage, if that was true then 90% of jRPG characters are garbage. I just care if the character is likable or not. I like Vanille so long as she's not talking, hehe... and Lightning & Sazh are likable, I see the potential for Snow to be cool, but so far he's way too cliche, full of himself... "I'm your HERO" (wtf is that about, lol)

The story is good as far as I can tell, again, I'm only 3hr 40 min into the game.

It was an ok game, but a bit disappointing seeing the hype it had along with it's flaws.

Not the worst FF, but FAR from the best.

My two main problems with the game.

1. It gets extremely monotonous. You may be ok with it the first few hours in, but after 20 or so hours of nothing but running down beautiful corridors and fighting it gets old. Your only savior is when a cutscene comes along to break up those fights. And what happens after that cutscene? Another ridiculously long stretch through the killing tubes leading to the next one. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the game. Even when the game "opens up" you are still doing the same thing, but just in series of a few large fields rather than hallways and even that is only temporary. There is simply nothing to break up the tedium. Its a FF game with the pacing of a Ninja Gaiden title.....except that unlike Ninja Gaiden, the battle system isnt fun enough to simply stand on its own from beginning to end.

2. The fact that the devs though they had to force everything from the level design to the pacing to the gameplay to rotate around the story with absolutely no compromise. This might have been fine had the story actually been, I dunno....GOOD? Poor story. Poor presentation of the story. Bad writing. Forgetable characters. SE thought they had some masterpiece narrative worthy of being the centerpiece that the game revolves around. Unfortunately they were very wrong and the game suffered for it.

Its not a bad game. Its just average.

I love FFXIII. It was a breath of fresh air, especially after seeing FFX-2 and FFXII.

I love the game. It's my favourite game this year, and one of the few games that I've ever platinumed.

I finished it yesterday. The gameplay is a lot of fun. I loved the paradigm shift and stagger systems. What I didn't like much was the story and a few of the characters, like Snow and Hope being cheesy, and the poor Australian accent of Fang. Overall, still a good game and worth playing through.

Vanille is so bad she's good.

I don't get the hate on this board for FFXIII either. It's not the best game ever and not the best Final Fantasy. But it's by no means a bad game.

What is there to like about Lightning? I've seen many people say that they like her, but never really give reasons. She's a pretty straight-forward character nothing really special at all about her to me, but yeah I'd agree about Sazh being one of the best characters. Also, the story sucks in FF13, I felt it wasn't fleshed out enough about things and I had a couple of issues with the story near half of the game, but I don't want to spoil anything for you or make you think a certain way. It's a good rpg though.YuriSH

Fanboys will yell "read the datalogs!". I have nothing against reading in my games. Most of my favorite game stories were told through text boxes. But you shouldnt have to go digging through (contradictory) text to understand major plot points. If they can not convey the point through the abundant amount of cutscenes then maybe they should evaluate what went wrong and fix it. Story boarding goes a long ways SE!

Also, agreed about both Lightning and Sahz. For a game that was largely disapointing to me, I found Sahz to be one of the most "human" characters SE has created. Never would have guessed it looking at his visual design. Light was just bland.

I love FFXIII. It was a breath of fresh air, especially after seeing FFX-2 and FFXII.

DJ-Lafleur

Same here. The mass hate is kind of depressing.

Good game not the best FF and yet not the worst its in the middle but it got a lot of hate.

I did not like FF13 at all, mainly because i never felt i was playing a true RPG

There are no cities, shops, NPCs, quests, dialogs

When it finally opens a bit, it is a big empty area with some cteatures and missions from stones, hardly what a real RPG would be like imo

This may explain why it did not sell over two million copies in Japan (the last I heard, it sold about 1.8 million copies), as some of the recent Final Fantasy games pass that mark.

Cool one less hater who has never played the game to deal with now then :P

I can't make myself play the game for more than about an hour at a time. The story is terrible, characters are annoying, and the combat system sucks. I much prefer the gambit system from FFXII.

I loved it. It gets way too much hate here on SW; there are plenty of other games that deserve it more.

I love FFXIII. It was a breath of fresh air, especially after seeing FFX-2 and FFXII.

DJ-Lafleur

This may explain why it did not sell over two million copies in Japan (the last I heard, it sold about 1.8 million copies), as some of the recent Final Fantasy games pass that mark.

thom_maytees

Final Fantasy X and XII each sold about 2.32 million on initial Japanese install bases of around 6 million and 20+ million PS2s in Japan respectively. FFX-2 sold around 1.95 million on an install base of 12 million.

I would say, all in all, FFXIII has sold well compared to its immediate predecessors, given its circumstances.

Good game not the best FF and yet not the worst its in the middle but it got a lot of hate.

Kashiwaba

The part most people didn't like about FF13 is that it took 20 hours to open up. You never expect/want that in any RPG.

I actually enjoyed the game. I'll never play it over again, but I'll try for the plat now that I'm free to roam Pulse.

Grawse

FFX was the exact same it took ages before you could start back tracking it pushes you along a path till after Zanakand.

My two main problems with the game.

1. It gets extremely monotonous. You may be ok with it the first few hours in, but after 20 or so hours of nothing but running down beautiful corridors and fighting it gets old. Your only savior is when a cutscene comes along to break up those fights. And what happens after that cutscene? Another ridiculously long stretch through the killing tubes leading to the next one. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the game. Even when the game "opens up" you are still doing the same thing, but just in series of a few large fields rather than hallways and even that is only temporary. There is simply nothing to break up the tedium. Its a FF game with the pacing of a Ninja Gaiden title.....except that unlike Ninja Gaiden, the battle system isnt fun enough to simply stand on its own from beginning to end.

2. The fact that the devs though they had to force everything from the level design to the pacing to the gameplay to rotate around the story with absolutely no compromise. This might have been fine had the story actually been, I dunno....GOOD? Poor story. Poor presentation of the story. Bad writing. Forgetable characters. SE thought they had some masterpiece narrative worthy of being the centerpiece that the game revolves around. Unfortunately they were very wrong and the game suffered for it.

Its not a bad game. Its just average.

sandbox3d

My sentiments exactly, its the first FF i won't be repalying

[QUOTE="Grawse"]

The part most people didn't like about FF13 is that it took 20 hours to open up. You never expect/want that in any RPG.

I actually enjoyed the game. I'll never play it over again, but I'll try for the plat now that I'm free to roam Pulse.

razgriz_101

FFX was the exact same it took ages before you could start back tracking it pushes you along a path till after Zanakand.

but FFX has a somewhat better story. Really, the linearity would not be so bad if the story were great.

It wasn't.

It is no-where as good as the Final Fantasy releases on the Playstation 1...meconate

Well I personally enjoyed it almost as much as those (and the ps1 FFs are actually my fave in the series). I have played FF6 and its a great game but i just sort of enjoy the ps1 FFs and XIII over it. Maybe I should replay it?

[QUOTE="razgriz_101"]

[QUOTE="Grawse"]

The part most people didn't like about FF13 is that it took 20 hours to open up. You never expect/want that in any RPG.

I actually enjoyed the game. I'll never play it over again, but I'll try for the plat now that I'm free to roam Pulse.

texasgoldrush

FFX was the exact same it took ages before you could start back tracking it pushes you along a path till after Zanakand.

but FFX has a somewhat better story. Really, the linearity would not be so bad if the story were great.

It wasn't.

the story was your typical save the world story like every other FF...its their tried and tested formula.The story was just as good as every other FF when you really lookinto itat it the story aspect is shallow.

FFXIII is a great game but from what i played it has it's issues. It's in the middle comapred to other FF games I've played.

I think it's less that the story doesn't make sense and more that the story (and characters) are garbage. At least, that's my impression ten hours in.DJ_Lae

I disagree. I feel that the entire game is garbage. From the time you first put the disc in, from the moment you take it out and set it on fire. Complete and utter trash.

Damn you Square Enix, I gave you a pass on XII, but not this time.

The game definitely does a poor job of explaining things early in the game. Throwing all confusing terms at you like L'Cie, Pulse L'Cie, and Fal'cie.

[QUOTE="DJ_Lae"]I think it's less that the story doesn't make sense and more that the story (and characters) are garbage. At least, that's my impression ten hours in.Tangmashi

I disagree. I feel that the entire game is garbage. From the time you first put the disc in, from the moment you take it out and set it on fire. Complete and utter trash.

Damn you Square Enix, I gave you a pass on XII, but not this time.

100% agree, is hands down one of the worst games i have played in years myself too

It's a high budget "Final Fantasy" game that isn't perfect. Therefore it is the worst game ever.

[QUOTE="texasgoldrush"]

[QUOTE="razgriz_101"]

FFX was the exact same it took ages before you could start back tracking it pushes you along a path till after Zanakand.

but FFX has a somewhat better story. Really, the linearity would not be so bad if the story were great.

It wasn't.

the story was your typical save the world story like every other FF...its their tried and tested formula.The story was just as good as every other FF when you really lookinto itat it the story aspect is shallow.

The game itself is okay, but the story is definitely its weakest point. And that for a RPG, a JRPG no less, is killer.

The story never meshed together, it was told in bits and pieces that seems to jump from all over in the timeline. Because of that, at the start it was difficult to follow the dialogue. Gran Pulse was never fully fleshed out, seemed more like an offworld planet instead of the claims of its being an opposing faction to Cocoon.

The good outweighs the bad in FF13, but not enough to hide the flaws.

Vanille is so bad she's good.

I don't get the hate on this board for FFXIII either. It's not the best game ever and not the best Final Fantasy. But it's by no means a bad game.

shinrabanshou

Its a good game that has its problems, but the things that people complain about are irrelevant. I felt the same when i got my hands on it.

You should look up Hakumono's profile. Hes made alot of good posts on this.

When you have been playing FF games for over 15 years your standards are higher, SE insist on taking risks which is good don't get me wrong, but they don't seem to care when the feedback is negative (clearly they didn't learn from FFXII).

Prefer Tactics franchise. Main series FF are lousy since the PS2 era (not including Xi).

From the time of launch, I heard so many complaints about the game... and while some are true, others are completely false.

I've heard so many people claim that the game doesnt make any sense, story wise, until you are very far in the game... well I'm at 3 hours & 40 min. and I already know about the world, the factions, characters and whythey are there and involved in the story.

The 1st 2 hours are very dull, combat wise, but becomes better just a few hours in.

Yeah Vanille & Hope areannoying... I definately won't dispute that, and Snow has some really cheezy lines... but Lightning and Sazh are pretty good. In terms of JRPG's its english voicing is quite good... again, I say in direct comparison with most JRPG's.

I just picked it up on a whim, since I thought I should know first hand how bad the game was, since I spent so much time bashing the genre, this game included. Thankfully I can report that I was wrong about this game at least, I think the combat system takes the genre in the right direction... still I feel JRPG's have overall become stale and the epitomy of cliche, hopefully devs will find ways to change it up some more.

moistsandwich

I think the main problem with the story, characters, locations and factions is the fact that you really have to read every single data log entry to follow the story coherently. In game, the story and character motivations are badly explained. I'm about 30 hours in, and the game does open up around the 20-25 hour mark.

Vanille and Hope aren't nearly annoying as some characters in other JRPGs, mind. Anyone who has played Star Ocean 4 will know who I'm talking about, "kay"?

It's a good game, but I'm glad I waited and paid hald price for it.

Do you enjoy when people use esoteric gibberish instead of clear terms in order to lengthen a story? Do you like running down a 30-hour long hallway where you can always clearly see the walls? Would you like to avoid ever feeling a sense of accomplishment? Then FF XIII is for you. Built entirely out of questionable design choices, FF XIII is the exciting story of a large group of stock character archtypes running down a path. Sometimes things happen on that path, but don't worry, most of the time they don't! Fun for all ages, and doubles as a coaster when you get bored with it, FF XIII!

Do you enjoy when people use esoteric gibberish instead of clear terms in order to lengthen a story? Do you like running down a 30-hour long hallway where you can always clearly see the walls? Would you like to avoid ever feeling a sense of accomplishment? Then FF XIII is for you. Built entirely out of questionable design choices, FF XIII is the exciting story of a large group of stock character archtypes running down a path. Sometimes things happen on that path, but don't worry, most of the time they don't! Fun for all ages, and doubles as a coaster when you get bored with it, FF XIII!

subrosian

FFXIII is what it is and we won't change that, but all this hate on FFXIII of some people make other people not even try the game that they eventually can like it, thats what is truly not nice in FFXIII hate

The game itself is okay, but the story is definitely its weakest point. And that for a RPG, a JRPG no less, is killer.

The story never meshed together, it was told in bits and pieces that seems to jump from all over in the timeline. Because of that, at the start it was difficult to follow the dialogue. Gran Pulse was never fully fleshed out, seemed more like an offworld planet instead of the claims of its being an opposing faction to Cocoon.

The good outweighs the bad in FF13, but not enough to hide the flaws.

Gxgear

Thats a point of the story, superstitions and myths of two group of people and how fake they are, this even happen in our world in everyday basis :)