Final Fantasy XIII low review scores...really?

79.14% on Gamerankings so far. How can anyone with half a brain rate this game below an 8.5, you may say that because I haven't played this game I don't know what I'm talking about but look at the facts. This game has gotten lower than King Kong, Tony Hawk's Project 8 and Banjo Kazooie! Just because it doesn't follow the path of the other Final Fantasys doesn't give revewrs the right to give it a 5/10 (team xbox). It may be linear but there is no way that this game is worse than Marvel" Ultimate Alliance even if the standards have been raised since then. If anyone else feels strongly abotu this voice your opinion.

I think you're putting too much thought behind Square Enix's history and not on the present. You also haven't even played the game yet, so who are you to say that these reviewers are brain dead for saying the game isn't as good as others?

Its an RPG. Its linear, doesn't offer many towns or NPC interaction, doesn't have a very robust leveling system that allows you to shape your party into what you want, only lets you control one character at a time, hardly any side quest. Any of these elements in any other RPG would be completely disgraced, and it would be completely okay if everybody said it sucked, but since it has Final Fantasy in the title...

Besides, since when was an 8.5 a bad score?

This game has gotten lower than Banjo Kazooie!.

xxxBravo_3xxx

You have upset me. Banjo Kazooie > Final Fantasy forever man.

[QUOTE="xxxBravo_3xxx"]This game has gotten lower than Banjo Kazooie!.

RobboElRobbo

You have upset me. Banjo Kazooie > Final Fantasy forever man.

High five! Who doesn't love that Bear and Bird in a bookbag?

You also haven't even played the game yet, so who are you to say that these reviewers are brain dead for saying the game isn't as good as others?

Its an RPG. Its linear, doesn't offer many towns or NPC interaction, doesn't have a very robust leveling system that allows you to shape your party into what you want, only lets you control one character at a time, hardly any side quest. Any of these elements in any other RPG would be completely disgraced, and it would be completely okay if everybody said it sucked, but since it has Final Fantasy in the title...

DamianAlexander

you just contradicted yourself my friend

[QUOTE="RobboElRobbo"]

[QUOTE="xxxBravo_3xxx"]This game has gotten lower than Banjo Kazooie!.

DamianAlexander

You have upset me. Banjo Kazooie > Final Fantasy forever man.

High five! Who doesn't love that Bear and Bird in a bookbag?

I'm talking abotu the first one that was ported to the 360. I mean I love it and always have but....comon it can't be better than this game no way

[QUOTE="RobboElRobbo"]

[QUOTE="xxxBravo_3xxx"]This game has gotten lower than Banjo Kazooie!.

DamianAlexander

You have upset me. Banjo Kazooie > Final Fantasy forever man.

High five! Who doesn't love that Bear and Bird in a bookbag?

I am bias though because I grew up playing them and I have never liked JRPGs. It's reasonable if he doesn't like Nuts and Bolts but Kazooie and Tooie might just be the best platforming games of all time.

[QUOTE="DamianAlexander"]

You also haven't even played the game yet, so who are you to say that these reviewers are brain dead for saying the game isn't as good as others?

Its an RPG. Its linear, doesn't offer many towns or NPC interaction, doesn't have a very robust leveling system that allows you to shape your party into what you want, only lets you control one character at a time, hardly any side quest. Any of these elements in any other RPG would be completely disgraced, and it would be completely okay if everybody said it sucked, but since it has Final Fantasy in the title...

xxxBravo_3xxx

you just contradicted yourself my friend

Please, please, please show me where I contradicted myself.

[QUOTE="DamianAlexander"]

[QUOTE="RobboElRobbo"]

You have upset me. Banjo Kazooie > Final Fantasy forever man.

xxxBravo_3xxx

High five! Who doesn't love that Bear and Bird in a bookbag?

I'm talking abotu the first one that was ported to the 360. I mean I love it and always have but....comon it can't be better than this game no way

The port was (is!) amazing. HD support, better controls, better frame rate, achievements, stop n swop explained. I don't get what's not to like. Biggest nostalgia feeling I ever had was firing up Banjo Kazooie XBLA for the first time.

[QUOTE="xxxBravo_3xxx"]

[QUOTE="DamianAlexander"]

High five! Who doesn't love that Bear and Bird in a bookbag?

RobboElRobbo

I'm talking abotu the first one that was ported to the 360. I mean I love it and always have but....comon it can't be better than this game no way

The port was (is!) amazing. HD support, better controls, better frame rate, achievements, stop n swop explained. I don't get what's not to like. Biggest nostalgia feeling I ever had was firing up Banjo Kazooie XBLA for the first time.

I know just how you feel, I felt like I was eight again. The port was amazing.

Well thanks to the reviews now I can save my money for other titles I'm more interested in. Don't get my wrong I've played a fare share of old Final Fantasy titles ( FFT, FF3, FF7, FF8 ) Since the reviews seem "great" I think I'll wait until the game is $40 or lower.

[QUOTE="xxxBravo_3xxx"]

[QUOTE="DamianAlexander"]

You also haven't even played the game yet, so who are you to say that these reviewers are brain dead for saying the game isn't as good as others?

Its an RPG. Its linear, doesn't offer many towns or NPC interaction, doesn't have a very robust leveling system that allows you to shape your party into what you want, only lets you control one character at a time, hardly any side quest. Any of these elements in any other RPG would be completely disgraced, and it would be completely okay if everybody said it sucked, but since it has Final Fantasy in the title...

DamianAlexander

you just contradicted yourself my friend

Please, please, please show me where I contradicted myself.

you said that I haven't played the game yet so I shouldn't judge and then in the next paragraph you go on and bash it yourself as if you have played the game. Comon.

[QUOTE="DamianAlexander"]

[QUOTE="xxxBravo_3xxx"]

you just contradicted yourself my friend

xxxBravo_3xxx

Please, please, please show me where I contradicted myself.

you said that I haven't played the game yet so I shouldn't judge and then in the next paragraph you go on and bash it yourself as if you have played the game. Comon.

I have... ;) (I totally just lied)

I think FFXIII is going to bash by some critics for being something that it's not trying to be, I have read alot of reviews bashing the game for lacking rpg elements, I find it funny how ME2 did the same thing and it was the best thing ever ect.. (smells like reviewers are being bias imo), I wish game reviewers were more reliable instead of being hypocrites sometimes when they review games, don't praise one game for doing something and knock another game for doing the same thing.

I think you're putting too much thought behind Square Enix's history and not on the present. You also haven't even played the game yet, so who are you to say that these reviewers are brain dead for saying the game isn't as good as others?

Its an RPG. Its linear, doesn't offer many towns or NPC interaction, doesn't have a very robust leveling system that allows you to shape your party into what you want, only lets you control one character at a time, hardly any side quest. Any of these elements in any other RPG would be completely disgraced, and it would be completely okay if everybody said it sucked, but since it has Final Fantasy in the title...

Besides, since when was an 8.5 a bad score?

DamianAlexander

Based purely off the review(I haven't played it, I could be wrong), it looks like the game offers nothing new and takes away a great deal of the old. I think that most gamers like new games that actually offer something new, I think that is why ME2 was given better ratings than FF13, just for the record I haven't played ME2 either, but I didn't like ME anyways.

I think FFXIII is going to bash by some critics for being something that it's not trying to be, I have read alot of reviews bashing the game for lacking rpg elements, I find it funny how ME2 did the same thing and it was the best thing ever ect.. (smells like reviewers are being bias imo), I wish game reviewers were more reliable instead of being hypocrites sometimes when they review games, don't praise one game for doing something and knock another game for doing the same thing.[QUOTE="DamianAlexander"]

I think you're putting too much thought behind Square Enix's history and not on the present. You also haven't even played the game yet, so who are you to say that these reviewers are brain dead for saying the game isn't as good as others?

Its an RPG. Its linear, doesn't offer many towns or NPC interaction, doesn't have a very robust leveling system that allows you to shape your party into what you want, only lets you control one character at a time, hardly any side quest. Any of these elements in any other RPG would be completely disgraced, and it would be completely okay if everybody said it sucked, but since it has Final Fantasy in the title...

Besides, since when was an 8.5 a bad score?

wizdom

No ,ME2 took a lot of the rpg elements out or toned downed but replaced each with something that worked just as good or better which made the game leaps and bounds better then the first. From all the reviews and complaints about FF13 its basically what we already know. Thats the fact that there has been little to no attempt to improve on the same old formula on jrpg's and FF13 is a product of its own hype, i mean what rpg fan wouldn't be excited, the first final fantasy for the next gen plenty of time to make massive improvements. Then look at what all the latest wrpg have done to up there game. Then you read the reviews and read the interviews and find out not only did they not improve not only did they not try something new they took a lot out. Now from what ive seen its going to be a good game and worth checking out at some point weather its first day or when it gets cheaper its going to sell and ppl will like it. It just wont be that jaw dropping GREAT game we all were expecting. My personal feelings is this with a rpg like ME2 coming out and setting a new bar for games in general jrpg need to get with the program get out of the past and make an effort to be more then just the same every single game.

79.14% on Gamerankings so far. How can anyone with half a brain rate this game below an 8.5, you may say that because I haven't played this game I don't know what I'm talking about but look at the facts. This game has gotten lower than King Kong, Tony Hawk's Project 8 and Banjo Kazooie! Just because it doesn't follow the path of the other Final Fantasys doesn't give revewrs the right to give it a 5/10 (team xbox). It may be linear but there is no way that this game is worse than Marvel" Ultimate Alliance even if the standards have been raised since then. If anyone else feels strongly abotu this voice your opinion.

xxxBravo_3xxx

First of all, reviews are opinions. If you like the game, why would you care about some other guys opinion about it? Enjoy the game, I believe it`s to be a great game and can`t wait for it`s release(2 days omfg lalalalala). There was also a lot of discussion about Xbox 360 version being graphically lower compared to Ps3 but as I watched hd comparison videos I can see no difference.. But yeah well that was off topic. :)

But then in the second hand, if somebody gives it 5/10 there is something wrong with the reviewers approach. Just the pure fact that the graphics are absolutely stunning and detailed would require the whole game to be otherwise absolutely garbage to professionally give it such a bad rating. So I`d call it unprofessional and prejudiced preview. Reviewer was propably annoyed by something in the game and let it go past his professionalism lol.

I`m not going to say anything more about the game itself than graphics because I`m yet to try it out. But even tough it would had been stripped for the "traditional freedom", or whatever they want to call it, if it`s presented well enough and there is still plenty of stuff in the game that makes it a Final Fantasy living up to it`s title, then it`s not necessarily such a let down as you might think.

Think about past Final Fantasy games, there is a plot which you follow till the end and some mini quest in the way. I readed one preview critizing the monster-grinding. Well, what has it been before? Hasn`t there always been a lot of monster fights?

I`m not going to defend the game more before I get my hands on it. Just saying that if you see a bad review about a game you`re waiting for remember that it is only someone`s opinion.

i have the game

its amazing, so screw the critics

play it yourself, and u will have the ability to formulate your own opinion, instead of letting some clown do it for u and dictate your actions as a result

I also liked FF6 the best! I think I have finished it 2 times till the end and began it couple of times during the past 5 years without going far.

Storyline and overall atmoshpere, and everything revolving around characters and espers was splendid. And in it`s time the graphics were also great, seems fun to say it now tough. :) I would love to see a remake of it too, definitely. Square should just copy the plot and remake it.. :P But about remaking FF7 they said that it would take too many years to finish.

?? On what i have read the reviews have been mostly positve,I don't know what you are talking about.

The last JRPG I played was Eternal Sonata, and that game really, really sucked: it was linear as hell, the storyline was boring, combat was not fun, etc.

Before that, however, was FFXII, and that game was awesome in every way.

That is why I suspect that FFXIII, if what the reviews say is true, might deserve the low ratings.

How could they take a splendid game like FFXII, and cut out pretty much everything that made it fun and exciting?

I want my license grid and open world back.

IMHO

I haven't played a FF game since X-2. I'm not so sure about this one. One reason being that I have many other games to finish at the moment. Second reason being I'm hearing mixed reviews about it. Check out invisible walls latest episode because they talk about the game in depth, and they talk about how the fans might receive. It just looks really stream lined from the previous titles.

[QUOTE="DamianAlexander"]

[QUOTE="xxxBravo_3xxx"]

you just contradicted yourself my friend

xxxBravo_3xxx

Please, please, please show me where I contradicted myself.

you said that I haven't played the game yet so I shouldn't judge and then in the next paragraph you go on and bash it yourself as if you have played the game. Comon.

square enix games havent been scoring as high lately. compared to newer rpg's from bioware and bethesda, final fantasy may seem not as revolutionary seeing as how it sticks to traditional jrpg roots. its the 360 ported version so it is going to be lower than the ps3 counterpart. western audience reviewing a game developed in the east who audience has different likes/dislikes from western audience.

pick any of all of those and you will understand

Nope i feel that its getting the scores that it deserves and shows that the gaming industry really cant rate things based on name alone despite what people may think. what they have done with FF13 is horrible and the really missed the opportunity to make a classic now its just another game in a sea of jrpgs and people wont be talking about this game in the following years like they did with FF7 or FF10. So many bad design choices, what were they thinking. Its like an insult they expect you to buy it on name alone. Now if the game had any other name scores would be alot worse.

square enix games havent been scoring as high lately. compared to newer rpg's from bioware and bethesda, final fantasy may seem not as revolutionary seeing as how it sticks to traditional jrpg roots. its the 360 ported version so it is going to be lower than the ps3 counterpart. western audience reviewing a game developed in the east who audience has different likes/dislikes from western audience.

pick any of all of those and you will understand

tutt3r

i dont agree with that at all. The Western world has always loved jrpgs. They wouldn't bother releasing them outside of japan if they didn't. Other FF games had no problems getting high scores. Their is no side story to why the game is getting lower scores its simply not good enough to deserve 9's and 10's and is frankly a step back from past games in the series.

79.14% on Gamerankings so far. How can anyone with half a brain rate this game below an 8.5, you may say that because I haven't played this game I don't know what I'm talking about but look at the facts. This game has gotten lower than King Kong, Tony Hawk's Project 8 and Banjo Kazooie! Just because it doesn't follow the path of the other Final Fantasys doesn't give revewrs the right to give it a 5/10 (team xbox). It may be linear but there is no way that this game is worse than Marvel" Ultimate Alliance even if the standards have been raised since then. If anyone else feels strongly abotu this voice your opinion.

xxxBravo_3xxx

Well...from what I've seen of the game (the very un-final fantasy music in the trailer, the fact that you can only control your party leader, the supposed extreme linearity which is very common in RPG's but not to the point that you are unable to backtrack to previous locations until much later in the game, the summons look more like transformers than mythical beasts of legend)

This is all speculation on my part as I haven't played it yet...but it's refreshing to see that just because a game has a Final Fantasy *insert number here* title it's not guaranteed an automatic high score.

play it yourself, and u will have the ability to formulate your own opinionH_U_R_D

seriously if this game turns out to be bad (have my doubts its meant to be linear like FFX which i loved ) square enix really need something that will make them alot of $ as a lot of the games they have published in the last year or two have floped, why dnt they just remake some of the all time greats FF6 , 7 etc

1. 8.5 is a great score
2. Expectations were very high
3. While JRPGs usually only have one linear story, exploration is still a key portion, which seems to be gone (haven't played it, only by reviews I've read.)

Really based on the reviews I've read, it seems like it only got as high as it did was because of the brand.

[QUOTE="wizdom"]

I think FFXIII is going to bash by some critics for being something that it's not trying to be, I have read alot of reviews bashing the game for lacking rpg elements, I find it funny how ME2 did the same thing and it was the best thing ever ect.. (smells like reviewers are being bias imo), I wish game reviewers were more reliable instead of being hypocrites sometimes when they review games, don't praise one game for doing something and knock another game for doing the same thing.[QUOTE="DamianAlexander"] [QUOTE="karma1680"]

[QUOTE="wizdom"]

I think FFXIII is going to bash by some critics for being something that it's not trying to be, I have read alot of reviews bashing the game for lacking rpg elements, I find it funny how ME2 did the same thing and it was the best thing ever ect.. (smells like reviewers are being bias imo), I wish game reviewers were more reliable instead of being hypocrites sometimes when they review games, don't praise one game for doing something and knock another game for doing the same thing.[QUOTE="DamianAlexander"]

I think you're putting too much thought behind Square Enix's history and not on the present. You also haven't even played the game yet, so who are you to say that these reviewers are brain dead for saying the game isn't as good as others?

Its an RPG. Its linear, doesn't offer many towns or NPC interaction, doesn't have a very robust leveling system that allows you to shape your party into what you want, only lets you control one character at a time, hardly any side quest. Any of these elements in any other RPG would be completely disgraced, and it would be completely okay if everybody said it sucked, but since it has Final Fantasy in the title...

Besides, since when was an 8.5 a bad score?

karma1680

ME2 is more an RPG than what I have heard of FFXIII. Its not only on character progression and leveling that makes an RPG, its also on exploration, and even though some call it an "illusion" of freedom I think it works. THis is not only for ME2 but Fallout3, and ME1 as well. I think RPGs -in the real sense of the word, are in the West now. I'm not saying FFXIII is a bad game, I'm just saying that maybe it should be approched as something different than an RPG...seeing the decline on Jrpgs in the west I think it would be better. How would you compare, FFXIII and Lost Odessey...

It has an average of 83 on Metacritic and who cares in the end? Do you only buy games that others tell you is good? Let this game get an average of 6 I'll still buy it.

I haven't seen the scores giving 5s yet. I think squares best days are behind them, but at the same time I am enjoying DS remakes and I'm looking forward to gaiden, FF:Gaiden is the game that deserves mad hype(or so it might appear at this point).

just play the game is the first lineal FF and the story dont look so good

It`s a shame to see how a couple of mediocore reviews give birth to such a prejudiceon the game.

I mean,it will be released tomorrow and lots of people are already talking like they would had played it?Now don`t get me wrong, I couldn`tcare less about what other people think about FF13. But it would truly be a shame if people who were intending to buy it, choose not to do so because spotting such words to be repeating in discussions around the game like "linear", "boring" etc, before it`s even released.

Let this game get an average of 6 I'll still buy it.

craigalan23

That doesn't seem very smart. Maybe you've got a hell of a lot more time and money than I do, and can afford to risk wasting these things on the chance that your opinion will differ from the majority's, but I'm not sure most of us have that sort of luxury. If the overwhelming majority of people are sayinga game isn't good, or that it has certain noticeable weaknesses, then chances are(not 100%) that I'll probably feel the same way.

That said, averaging above an 8 isn't horrible. But what I find more important is what people are saying in the reviews. It just doesn't sound like something I'm going to enjoy as much as I could have. That, combined with the low score(for a Final Fantasy mainline game) means I'll probably be waiting to find a cheap used copy somewhere down the line. So Square probably wont be getting my money, and I have no guilt about that. Make a better game, and I'll give you my money. There's too many great games out right now that I'm not willing to skip over just for brand loyalty. I'm not that kind of consumer.

I'm 12 hours into it and the 5/10 just seem ridiculous. It's almost as if people were reviewing it against "expectation" more than anything. On its own, this game is better than almost any 79% ranked game out there - which really only means that it should be rated higher in my opinion. I'd give it a 9 to 9.5 easy so far