Final Fantasy 13 - A Viewpoint From Both Sides.

While I don't take reviews on their word since most seem biased I will admit the gameplay in XIII does seem kind of like a step backwards compared to others in the series from what I've been reading. My friend did give me a scan of a dungeon and yeah... it was pretty straight forward compared to dungeons I've seen in previous FFs with pretty much no actual turns.

FFIX was pretty much the last game released by Squaresoft, that I thought was any good. FFX was decent, but mainly it seemed to be a huge test on how they could utilize the playstation 2, rather than a serious game.

Once Enix got involved all of Squares franchises sorta became washed out.

15 minutes is totally enough time to give a game a chance.

"OMG I DIED ON THE FIRST BOSS! I QUIT!"

:o

Absolutely, imo Enix have tried to introduce too many changes to what was absolute brilliance by Squaresoft, as a result the FF series seems to have lost that special something that made the games up to and including FF9 so special.

I'm a bit dissapointed reading these reviews, I was looking forward to FF13, it sounded like they had gone back to the original methods of gameplay, also that it was very similar to FF8 (one of my fav's). Sounds like that was a bag of lies.

I'd rather have some change.
Why play the same game but a different story each time?
Give me some new ***. I'm looking forward to it still - I take player reviews as a grain of salt. Especially pessimistic ones...

This, when I read a review I only bother with how they describe the gameplay elements and weed out the opinions on them.

Im going to buy it for myself and judge it for myself before i jump on any bandwagons, hardcore FF fans called me a loser because i enjoyed playing 12, yeh, i didn't love it like i did 7, but i enjoyed it, from all the trailers 13 looks decent, so i hope it doesn't let itself down.

I just rented this game from Game fly, and havent gotten into the game to much yet... it seems ok.. but one thing im unsure of is, can you ever control the other characters, I dont like this one character control situation and the other characters in your party just do whatever AI bs they are programmed to do. I dont so much mind no lvls, and i think the skill path, which looks similar to the orb skill path from FFX is kinda neat, havent done much with it yet tho.. but those are my points/questions... any help?

It looks good!!! Story is so/so though. You can beat it in pretty easy in a little over 20hrs of game play. I only spent 3 hours in 2 areas buffing up characters. I have not tried any of the after main quest stuff. Had to come back to my beloved FF11 !!!

It seems to me SE traded in all redeemable quality and substance possible from an RPG for delicious cake eye candy and glossy appeal =/

I loved the story!

And no, party leader only. This seems annoying early on but when the battles become really fast-paced etc, you'd never keep up with more.

Crystarium doesn't really become deep until Chapter8+ (especially 10+) when you'll suddenly have to make choices. Until then you should be pretty much maxing it every chapter.

It is not a bad game. But I can definitely see where you are coming from with that Weewoo.

Give the game a go before you say that <_< it's different from the others but not in such a bad way.

I guess I'm nostalgic and miss the old days of EPIC story telling (FF6) and having a free for all roaming spree exploring random sites, cities, towns and side stories to help develop an understanding of the story/situation and other character's past/current development.

I for one noticed a definite wane in quality since FF9. Perhaps that's because things were so damn linear. Also the stories have become rather lackluster IMO.

FF13's storyline is very epic! More complex than most of the others as well.

If you want random exploration then you won't like this. FF13 basically cuts out the filler and puts you straight in the heart of the action. There's a lot of character development despite this.

FFX had an amazing storyline (though very basic looking at it from the outside) and linearity isn't necessarily a bad thing if it streamlines things. That said, I don't like non-linear games like GTA etc...

I enjoyed FF13 quite a bit, but I can understand some of the other points as well.

Having to shop through the save point is a plus to me, no way would i want to have to run all the way across the world just to buy an item exclusive to that shop (and then realizing you're at the wrong shop hurts more).

Considering how fast paced the game is, I'm fine with having to keep up with the one character. Micromanaging three other characters while 5 Sahagins pound on you relentlessly would be tough =\ Plus, I look at it as a change of strategy having to keep the leader alive more than anyone else.

People say its just Mash the 'x' button, and to some extent it is, but not paying attention to the battle and changing paradigms when necessary will get you your *** kicked, or prolong some boss battles upwards of 20 minutes (If they even let you. *ahem* Doom >_<)

It's the first time I've actually had difficulty with the end boss in a FF game. Granted, the Death move is cheap, but at least it'll remain a challenge even when my characters are all overpowered. I suppose the % based attacks try to combat that as well.

Some Australian game review show criticised the game with similar points, but they lost all credibility from me when they praised the FF12 battle system being better (auto-pilot anyone?), and when they said "There's not even something like the Mark hunts from Final Fantasy 12!"
..RTFM or play the game to the point where you find Cei'th stones before reviewing the game. Stupid try hard nerds..</endMiniRant>

Most people I've seen hating on ff13 were the ones who loved 12 to death for some reason <_< I personally didn't like 12 and loved 13.

EDIT: There is also a very easy way to beat the last boss which basically means you are unlikely to be Death'd. It's quite an unorthodox approach for an FF game. Since I don't want to spoil anything in this thread, PM if you're interested at all (though you've already beaten it, so~)

OP is a , move along.

Everyone (yes, everyone) of the people i know that said they hated 13 didnt even play to the funny parts of the game (paradigms, getting all 6 chars, reaching pulse, etc). they were all like: meh, only run straight, always control someone else, blablabla. THen i told them to just get that ***done to reach the fun part. Everyone that played at least to the part where you see titan eating up the adaman somehow changed his/her mind and started to like it.

I just had my hopes up that there would be more in depth gameplay and exploration than something that plays through like MGS4.

Not that it makes it a bad game, I mean MGS4 was *** awesome, but it just goes against my expectations of what I desire in a FF title. I miss the days of FF4-9.

Well, the gameplay is indepth. The battle system is more demanding than most of the others (if not all of the others) but the exploration side of it does lack until late on.

If you go into it without wanting it to be another FF 4-9 though, I think you'll enjoy it. It's just a different kind of game.

Oh don't get me wrong, there were lots of gameplay styles from multiple FFs that I really came to like. Just the overall lack of openness or control within the story made me a sad panda.

I miss being a stubby polygon wandering around the world map, visiting random towns, buying new equipment upgrades upon each visit, learning more about a community or character's past/current point of view relating to the story. Gives a much more wide and immersed feel of the world you're taking part in and I'm sure as in all FFs: trying to save.

Yeah, I can understand entirely. I loved those as well but I approached it with an open mind (despite my replies in this topic ages ago... was very pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it so much) and found I liked it. Would I want another large-scale full exploration FF? Definitely. I was certainly happy with this outing though.

Kinda makes me wish they'd stop pumping out fresh titles and actually take the time and patience/effort to remake some of the older FFs. Although many would cry bloody murder over it, I think it'd be nothing short of amazing to see FF4-9 put onto the capacity of the PS3.

But the other half of me sees where the fanboys would scream in agony come from. To do such a thing would almost be to say the original wasn't good enough, and to remake would destroy it's simplistic, nostalgic and untainted old school perfection.

I am quite torn on this viewpoint.

The problem is, who wxant to play a game for like 15~20h before having the fun of it ?
FFXIII has a lot of good points, but it does get more bad points than goods.
i could mentions alot of them, like the evolution system, who will shell out 60k CP for an augment of 10 HP ? when you've done your main ability for each chars its what it cost to upgrade what we could call the "subjob Crystanium" .
Also, yes the game is damn too linear, before grand pulse, all you do is runing from a point (A) to a point (B), actually i've completed like 50 of all of the X missions... gosh, god bless titan, happyness its a kind of cheat to avoid you runing all around for thoses missions... seriously, your Cieth Statue is to the far east, then you see your monster being by the far west, wtf? & you should do that for 55 missions or more?

Also, who did try to get the last weapons & good accesories ? i tryed to make accesories with Auto-Celerity/Auto-Protect/Auto-etc, well guess the effect doesn't last 5 mins in a fight, when you fight a guy like the "Neotyugh" or the "Zirnitra" which are two of the hardest boss in the game, you really feel idiot, because you just thrown away somes important gils to make a totaly useless accesory !

The game look good, amazing graphics, very cute & touchfull story, amazing & dynamic fight system, but lets be honest, SE really faild for the bonuses part & longtimes/ end part of the game, after completing 20 missions or even before you will get incredibly bored, when you will have to farm to make your Ultima/Omega weapon, you will come back to FFXI thinking its more worth farming there XD.

How is the endgame of this one much different from the others? All involve grinding towards some ultimate equipment/hardest enemies...

This is why it is not a good idea and it stops your characters becoming carbon copies of each other (see: FF12).

YOU just threw away money to make a useless accessory. You should've realised beforehand that the auto-accessories aren't great outside of grinding/farming.

idk, I've avoided prolly 90% of my battles pre-chapter 11 not counting the times I intentionally grinded to max crystal stages. When I was done grinding I'd just skip all the other battles.

So, whoever said it most can't be avoided is doing it wrong.

i try everything in a game before judging it, not like many ppl in this thread, from the begining to the end i was using gears giving more magic & more attack on my chars, i did not try any other gears like "Malediction resist +30%" etc, which are all situational, not all enemy are going to put malediction, not all are gonna poison, etc, only somes bosses like the said "Neotyugh" which give you up to 8 debuffs in same time >:(

What the point of a game ? I should have realised what ? we are talking about FFXIII, not about FFXI, yeah i did try thoses armors, but w/e if i did or not, it had to be tryed to judge, untill the end of the game, you only has kind of armor giving buff once per fight if your HP are low, all other "Auto-effect" has to be upgraded & evoluted, so there is no way to know.

alos sorry, not playing with a guild book, somes ppl where referencing to FFX, where that kind of said accesories are actually incredibly good, if not essentials to kill bosses like Der richter etc w/o call Yojimbo to use zanmato.

anyway, not going to argue with you, since its time for work ^^; have a good day.