5 Things I Hate About You, Final Fantasy XIII

[Adairen]

Before you start flaming, it must be known that I've played the FF series ever since it's first release on the US shores. Sneaking into my game room when the parents were asleep. I lost mass quality shut-eye for my show & tell the next morning, but catching up to Kefka was well worth it. Fast forward to today and now we have the newest installment of the Final Fantasy series. There's plenty to like about the game and to name a few, the game looks hotmazing and the battle system is very sm... Read the full article...

[Ashylarry]

It almost sounds like you've never played a JRPG before Ada! Music gets much much better past 5 hours in and you get to some new areas( <3 Gran Pulse.) Yuj's hair is fugly, glad you only have to look at it for 10 minutes, and Vanille is probably the worst character in a FF game to date hands down!

Battle system is awesome, game is actually challenging and the retry system lets you experiment without having to fear running through a dungeon again if you forgot to save. Story is meh til about ~20 hours in when the twists and turns hit then its lights out good.

All in all, I think its the best of the next-gen FF's(PS2 and up) and I really hope they add some DLC even though they said they wont!

[Xaleph]

I have to agree with Ashlylarry here - this is probably on of the best next-gen games I've played. The battle system and story are top notch and the graphics aren't too shabby either. As far as Nobuo's pieces - I've studied many of them, learned how to perform them on several instruments and rearranged several of them. I agree that Nobuo is amazing but Final Fantasy X's co-composer and Dirge of Cerberus's composer Masashi Hamauzu scored the game. Masashi Hamauzu I think did an excellent job and I find his different musical paradigm to be at par with the quality of some of the best video game composers.



oh and for the record - I think games that take the whole role-playing thing too seriously is boring. It kind of reminds me of my friends who were really into LARPing. When it's silly, satirical, and/or cute (which in itself is satirical of the genre), then I really tend to enjoy it (which is why I liked WoW - it makes fun of so many other games even itself). When it's serious, much like baldur's gate (nothing wrong with baldur's gate - I've played the first and second original games and they're a blast), I start skipping through the plotline and look up gamefaqs.com to see where I need to go next simply because the storyline is way too dry. I do agree that I use video games to relax and get away from drama/serious situations, not to have more. As far as FFXIII goes, I think the emo isn't enjoyable but it's not over-done.



My gripes -
The pace is way too fast.
The thing I used to enjoy about Final Fantasy games was that you'd go on a plotline chain and then it'd die off at some city where you could explore, do some sidequests, go to the tutorial/battle building, find some comical situations/scenes, and then continue the plotline. This game does not do that - you're basically going from save point to save point as our only source of shop/upgrade/pissbreak.

The game is way too linear
There is the 'Feeling' of linearity and the 'Being' of linearity. The feeling comes from the arrow on the minimap - they should really default it off and have an option to turn it on. The being comes from the fact that you cannot go any other direction except for down the road, or take a fork that goes to the exact same place. This changes over halfway through the game. FFX and FFXIII are the same in this regard - I don't like it, but I can understand why some do.

The plotline is cool but some parts are cliche

Spoiler:

The whole I'm Infected and need to find the cure part of the game - it's an old plotline and frankly sucks. but w/e - I know some people actually think that part is cool.

anyways time to go home.

[Kinetic]

I'm with Ada and Ashylarry.

I overlook the horrible JRPG traits of Final Fantasy games because I enjoy the battle systems, mini-games, and hidden intricate stuff. Something is very satisfying about completing a perfect battle against a tough enemy. Amazing graphics don't hurt either.

I would kill for an American game studio to create a Final Fantasy type game without all the emo angsty bullshit. Are you reading this Blizzard?

[Adairen]

Don't get me wrong, the game clearly the best RPG on next-gen.

Xaleph: the music is composed very well, however some of the tracks are misplaced very badly.

[govtcheeze]

Great post Ada. The "scenes" are so disconnected from the story they give in the text. Half the time I think I understand what's going on, only to read the story text and be like WTF story bus did I miss!? I wouldnt mind the reading except each section is such a rehash of previous text. The constant "eah" in conversation is also annoying, very awkward.

The age difference between serah and snow goes way past creepy. I keep expecting Chris Hanson to pop into frame. "Hey Snow, wanna take a seat for me over there?"

Granted I am still in the tutorial (just learned about the skill sphere thing, havent gotten to leveling up gear yet) so maybe it gets better. Even if it doesn't this is still shaping up to be the king of FFs. Battle is amazing, graphics are the best I have ever seen, story is great, and I am really liking the paradigm system. My loved the FF12 gambit system, I hope we can do more tweaking with paradigms.

[Tivia]

It almost sounds like you've never played a JRPG before Ada! Music gets much much better past 5 hours in and you get to some new areas( <3 Gran Pulse.) Yuj's hair is fugly, glad you only have to look at it for 10 minutes, and Vanille is probably the worst character in a FF game to date hands down!

Battle system is awesome, game is actually challenging and the retry system lets you experiment without having to fear running through a dungeon again if you forgot to save. Story is meh til about ~20 hours in when the twists and turns hit then its lights out good.

All in all, I think its the best of the next-gen FF's(PS2 and up) and I really hope they add some DLC even though they said they wont!

Some solid complaints, certainly not the usual I want attention flaming I see on most review sites. I will disagree with the comment on Vanille being the worst character in a FF game. Clearly you never had the displeasure of playing FFX-2, because Pain takes that trophy with ease. Not to mention Snow and hope are far worse characters, with Snow just being irritating to listen too and worthless as a character and Hope being a whiny emo. I won't disagree with her clearly being the drunk chick though, but at least the drunk chick is cute and amuses me unlike the other two.

Some general comments.

I am really tired of the linearity comments, honestly it is a weak argument. I have played every single FF with few exceptions and all of them were linear. The pretense to non linearity in them was you could run around talking to npcs that wouldn't progress the story but wouldn't do anything special for you either. So reality is that all FF's have been just as linear, this one just went ahead and eliminated the useless bs.

Not really getting the awkward silences comment, to me the pacing of speech has actually felt very normal. If anything typically pacing in most RPG's feels overly rushed, while this feels like I am listening more to an actual conversation. I suppose this is a YMMV depending on where you live and the pace of conversation you are used too.

I agree on the romance bit, yes there is one in every FF. However making Serah look 13 and Snow just flat unlikeable killed the effect here.

Musical score, I agree that Nobuo was bar none one of the best composers for FF. I was disappointed that he wasn't in this one, but at the same time the score is far from bad. I do agree that some of the song placement is a little odd, but the overall effect is solid.

I am typically into Jpop and Anime style and as such don't usually mind the crazy hairdo's. However in this instance I completely agree on Yuj, Ugh I am glad I only had to put up with him a precious few minutes. It was literally like they tried to find the worst possible hair for him.

I utterly hate being forced to control a character. Ok fine they wanted to do the multi party, multi storyline bit. I can live with that. However give me a bloody choice on who my party leader is.

I love the improvement to the sphere grid system. This is by far the best character customization system yet. It really is especially nice after that miserable system in 12.

I have to admit that the combat system has really sucked me in. When i saw screens of the auto battle button, I instantly had flashbacks to that atrocity gambit system in 12. Fortunately this system is so much more then that in that it rewards actual tactics, planning and reflexes.

Overall the game so far for me is shaping up to be the best FF installment in the series. I still lean to 7/8/10 as I haven't finished the game just yet, but it is a close race at the least. All my complaints in general are trivial.

[Zergtech]

So easy, so linear. You can literally just push X repeatedly and win.

Everything else graphics story music is typical FF/Square meaning extremely awesome.

[Tivia]

So easy, so linear. You can literally just push X repeatedly and win.

Everything else graphics story music is typical FF/Square meaning extremely awesome.

Someone hasn't made it past chapter 7 evidently.

[Zergtech]

Someone hasn't made it past chapter 7 evidently.

Yeah you got me there. Too much gaymes at once!

[Xaleph]

Xaleph: the music is composed very well, however some of the tracks are misplaced very badly.

Yeah, I'd definitely agree with you there.

[Loopah]

Having just completed the game last night, I can say that it turned out to be probably #3 on my FF games list, right behind FFX and FFVII. The game gets much more strategic towards the end of the game in the way that you use the different paradigms. The "random" encounter enemy groups get VERY epic and much more challenging towards the end of the game. And lastly, the final area/boss/etc is very epic and I definitely felt a sense of accomplishment upon beating it.

I plan on going back through and completing all the missions/finishing out everyone's Crystarium/doing all sidequests. Doing that I feel will give me the sense of 'grinding' that I sometimes missed throughout the game. After finishing the game, I must say that the story was great and the battle system is very FRESH and EXCITING. I am liking the way FF is going with their past 3 console FF games (the 'grids' for lvling up have been in since FFX). My only gripe is the short length of the main storyline (43hours on my play clock) which probably can be blamed on how linear the areas force you to be (no expansive cities to explore, no expansive dungeons to scour). Overall, the game is a fine piece of work that I will continue enjoying for many weeks to come trying to do all the extras.

[SoulShatter]

So far I am really not liking the game. I am in chapter 5 though, so I assume there is still a lot more to go.

Things I don't Like:
I do not like that the enemy's are on the screen. I liked the randomness of the older versions.
I do not like that there is a save point every 3 feet.
I do not like that I can only command one character. That said, the system they have in place for 'controlling' the other party members is decent.
I do not like that I can not choose my party makeup.
I hate that there is no MP.
I hate that my HP is restored after every single battle.
I hate that there is the star rating for combat (even though I have only had 2 battles with less than 5 stars (both were 0 stars lol).
I do not like that there are no Cities.
I do not like that there are no Dungeons. (at least so far)
I hate that there is more movie time, than playing time. I bought an RPG, not a movie. I have Advent Children if I wanted to watch Final Fantasy characters do stuff.

Things I do like:
I love the graphics. The game looks absolutely breath taking. I am running it in High Def, and it's fantastic.
I like that they use the sphere grid type progression system.
I like that there are still summons.
I like that the spells are still called the same thing.
I love that Cid is in the game. Even if he is an enemy!

[govtcheeze]

An interesting thing is happening. I am now a few pages into Chapter 5 and a lot of the things that annoyed me seem to be going away. I can't tell if it's because I am just now used to them, if they did get better, or there is so much more going on that they do not take center stage.

A few follow up points:

I love not having to heal up after every battle. Everyone pretty much did this after every battle anyway, so they removed the micromanagement. it was never hard, didn't add value (ooo only 97 hp pots now), and wasted time.

I love no mana. Its and out dated, artificial system. I can't remember the last FF I used offensive magic in except for a few key battles. Spells were great for buffing but weapons were just as effective and way less annoying. Spells are fun again, yea!

I love the paradigm system and how you have to switch between them often to win. Now to be fair, I dont win a battle unless I get the 5 stars so that means not switching on easy mode and hitting x non stop. I have found the other chars are not as efficient as I would like, and allowing me to prioritize each paradigm with gambits would have made this amazing system even better.

I like the autobattle button for easy fights, but I also like they didnt make it the most efficient method of killing. I recently realized by taking a few extra seconds to set my first ability string then repeating it I can be more efficient (more stars).

I like the battle star system. Turns each fight into a mini game and makes you want to be as efficient as possible. Given this, I think the difficulty is just about right. I get 5 stars about 85% of the time, and still die occasionally if I forget to kill a buffer first or just get lazy. The only fight that has really tossed my mental salad was

Spoiler:

Odin

and that is because I misunderstood the com vs rav role. Once I got squared away that enemy became a fun battle.

I like the sphere system. Its a bit linear for my taste (I prefer the LP board) but still works great and its fun to unlock new abilities.

I like the preemptive strike. It may take a few extra seconds to watch the enemies path and sneak in for the PE but when it works its a good time.

I don't understand the item upgrade system yet. I am confused if components give the item properties or if they gain properties when upgraded. I haven't needed the upgrades yet and probably won't mess with it until I do. I would also rather save my components for end game items instead of wasting them on the noob stuff anyway.

This game keeps getting better and better. I am looking forward to grinding out max chars and items with these fresh systems.

[Kinetic]

I love no mana. Its and out dated, artificial system. I can't remember the last FF I used offensive magic in except for a few key battles. Spells were great for buffing but weapons were just as effective and way less annoying. Spells are fun again, yea!

This is a MAJOR plus for me. In all previous FF games I would avoid using magic because my crazy OCD mind didn't want to burn mana on "regular" enemies and ether always seemed to be in short supply without grinding to get/buy more.

I love that every job seems viable. Sure some of them will slow you down and not get you 5 stars, but all of them have their place if you prefer that style.