Why did you love/hate Final Fantasy XIII?

[ps3freak18]

There almost always seems to be both sides of the fence. Either you love or hate FF XII. With the upcoming release of XIII-2 I have seen some excitement and disappointment concerning the sequel to arguably the most hated Final Fantasy game. Although I don't every recall the subject being discussed in great length. So what was it that made you rage or praise this game. List everything you can think of and discuss. I'm curious to see because I'm not a hardcore Final Fantasy fan and would like to get some different perspective on the game. I for one loved it. What did you think? I will post my reasons in a little while.

[Ixion]

It basically comes down to a poor story and repetitive gameplay:

-Corny, melodramatic dialogue. Not enough exposition and world development.
-No plot progression until the end of Chapter 9
-No clear objective. Most of the story was very ad-hoc (i.e. "Let's go to this town and see if we can find something".)
-Gameplay was very repetitive and one-dimensional (95% of the game consisted of battles.)
-Battle system had a lot of flaws.

I did enjoy the battle-system overall (despite its many flaws), as well as the graphics, art style, and a good amount of the soundtrack. But the constant corny dialogue and the constant battles ultimately gave me a nauseating feeling when playing this game.

[ps3freak18]

You have some great points that I also share with you even though I loved the game.

Good-

-The battle system for me was a lot of fun. It made the game much faster paced ( Which I know a good bit of people didn't like. Saying it felt westernized.) But the battles were quick and if done properly felt rewarding to me.
-Visible enemies was something that I also liked. 12 had this, and I'm glad it was in 13. Mostly because of very weak mobs that I didn't feel like wasting time with. Having the option to avoid mobs was a great thing to me.
-Health bars for enemies is also something I liked. Also in 12, it is nice knowing how much longer you have to bash on an enemy before they are downed.
-Paradigm shifting was a bit of a double edge sword. It added a special strategy into the gameplay but it could get very repetitive. It also help keep you on your toes instead of casting,attacking and just using items.
-Overall world design was great as well. The game was beautiful for the scale of the game. Characters also looked very well.
-C'eith stone missions. Gave you something to do is the limited open world atmosphere that XIII had.

Bad

-The story was mediocre and most of the characters were pretty bad. Minus Fang and Lightning. Other than that I didn't care much for any of them.
-Linear aspect. One of the most disappointing aspects of the game. Pretty self explanatory and I'm sure many feel the same way.
-Stagger meter. Although I liked it I think I disliked it more. But many enemies had a very high number of hit points and it would have taken very long on some battles. Some of the battles it just felt unfair once the enemy was staggered.
-Retry and lack of mana. One of the biggest things that took the RPG element out of the game. This was just a bit too far of a step outside of the usual FF formula. If they would have added an option to disable the retry, I believe more players wouldn't have had a problem with this. It was there so I used it.
-The upgrade system. Although a bit of a double edge sword here as well. I like the fact that you could upgrade almost everything. The upgrading process was just too vague and simple all in the same time. Also took countless hours of farming to upgrade everything.
-The Crystarium. Just too simple and dumbed down plain and simple.

I know I listed more dislikes than likes but I still love the game. I think I just spotted more of the bad because they stood out more because it was really lacking in some major areas.

[AaronSOLDIER]

It basically comes down to a poor story and repetitive gameplay:

-Corny, melodramatic dialogue. Not enough exposition and world development.
-No plot progression until the end of Chapter 9
-No clear objective. Most of the story was very ad-hoc (i.e. "Let's go to this town and see if we can find something".)
-Gameplay was very repetitive and one-dimensional (95% of the game consisted of battles.)
-Battle system had a lot of flaws.

I did enjoy the battle-system overall (despite its many flaws), as well as the graphics, art style, and a good amount of the soundtrack. But the constant corny dialogue and the constant battles ultimately gave me a nauseating feeling when playing this game.

+the terrible characters. There hasn't been a FF game in the past where I haven't connected with at least 3 characters.

[Ixion]

You have some great points that I also share with you even though I loved the game.

Good-

-The battle system for me was a lot of fun. It made the game much faster paced ( Which I know a good bit of people didn't like. Saying it felt westernized.) But the battles were quick and if done properly felt rewarding to me.
-Visible enemies was something that I also liked. 12 had this, and I'm glad it was in 13. Mostly because of very weak mobs that I didn't feel like wasting time with. Having the option to avoid mobs was a great thing to me.
-Health bars for enemies is also something I liked. Also in 12, it is nice knowing how much longer you have to bash on an enemy before they are downed.
-Paradigm shifting was a bit of a double edge sword. It added a special strategy into the gameplay but it could get very repetitive. It also help keep you on your toes instead of casting,attacking and just using items.
-Overall world design was great as well. The game was beautiful for the scale of the game. Characters also looked very well.
-C'eith stone missions. Gave you something to do is the limited open world atmosphere that XIII had.

Bad

-The story was mediocre and most of the characters were pretty bad. Minus Fang and Lightning. Other than that I didn't care much for any of them.
-Linear aspect. One of the most disappointing aspects of the game. Pretty self explanatory and I'm sure many feel the same way.
-Stagger meter. Although I liked it I think I disliked it more. But many enemies had a very high number of hit points and it would have taken very long on some battles. Some of the battles it just felt unfair once the enemy was staggered.
-Retry and lack of mana. One of the biggest things that took the RPG element out of the game. This was just a bit too far of a step outside of the usual FF formula. If they would have added an option to disable the retry, I believe more players wouldn't have had a problem with this. It was there so I used it.
-The upgrade system. Although a bit of a double edge sword here as well. I like the fact that you could upgrade almost everything. The upgrading process was just too vague and simple all in the same time. Also took countless hours of farming to upgrade everything.
-The Crystarium. Just too simple and dumbed down plain and simple.

I know I listed more dislikes than likes but I still love the game. I think I just spotted more of the bad because they stood out more because it was really lacking in some major areas.

So you only liked the battle system and audiovisual aspects too? I guess you just REALLY liked those two things then. lol

+the terrible characters. There hasn't been a FF game in the past where I haven't connected with at least 3 characters.

That's mainly a product of the poor dialogue though. If the characters talked more about the world, plot, and other information, instead of continuously spouting generic lines about their feelings, then they would be much less annoying!

[AaronSOLDIER]

Well I also wasn't a fan of the majority of the character designs either, compared to what the characters look like in Versus XIII for example, they look much more mature and 'cool'.

[The Black Wolf]

I liked Final Fantasy XIII because:

1. It's just fun to play!
2. Addictive battles and gameplay.
3. Eye candy visuals
4. Nice music
5. Liked the character design


Those are the top 5 reasons. I'm not hard to please, gameplay and how fun the game is takes priority over everything else. If the game is fun to play, I don't mind anything else. Final Fantasy XIII is not perfect, but the plot is just enough for me to get into it.

I'm excited for Final Fantasy XIII-2 and it's one of the many games I will purchase from 2012.

[Inzane2050]

I'm a big critic of the game.

Final Fantasy XIII

Story~~~~~~~~~~~~

Poor pacing (the action was nonstop and then a stand still on Pulse)
Poor dialog
Characters and character development were poor and corny, especially given Vanille and Hope.
Unclear objective/end goal (chanting "save Cacoon" is very meaningless, especially considering Cocoon was for the most actually under no real threat unless the main cast actively pursued such with their L'Cie powers)
Multiple side stories that nonetheless concurred while the main cast was separated from each other.
Hope's main conflict was completely and very unnecessarily dragged out. (Kill Snow! Spend 30 hours muttering under my breath as if it contributes to the story)
Poorly designed antagonist.
Very detached feel to the world of Cacoon (the whole reasoning that they could not stop in towns was nonsense, Toriyama. Those tattoos were easy enough to conceal.)
No love story. No reason to really feel for the characters.
Poorly told and data logs are required to have a more proper understanding of what's happening.
Deus Ex Machina (a story should never end with a Deus Ex Machina)

Gameplay~~~~~~~~~

A lot of RPG elements removed and simplified.
Lack of control over party members.
post battle auto-heal, lack of MP, and retry option take away from the struggle to survive.
Fast-Paced feel was indeed good and enjoyable to watch tho.
Combat too fast and with no pause function.
Auto-Battle makes choosing your own commands pretty futile.
Weaknesses, etc, automatically learned and taken advantage of for you without your needed input.
30 hour tutorial of the battle system.
Battles are nonstop and repetitive. You never do anything in the game other than run straight forward without rest and button-mash thru battles. It's practically an interactive movie.)
Extremely linear.
No Towns, shops, genuine exploration, no mini games, no side quests outside of more monster battles.

Atmosphere~~~~~~~

Absolutely amazing. Visuals and Music add for amazing immersion tho the rehash of the two main themes is problematic at times.
Very diverse locations keeps things very fresh as you travel thru the world of FFXIII.

[ps3freak18]

So you only liked the battle system and audiovisual aspects too? I guess you just REALLY liked those two things then. lol



That's mainly a product of the poor dialogue though. If the characters talked more about the world, plot, and other information, instead of continuously spouting generic lines about their feelings, then they would be much less annoying!

I know it comes off that way but a lot of the stuff I had problems but I enjoyed them more than I hated them. None of the bad that I listed I absolutely disliked minus the crystarium and characters. More could have been a little better but didn't break my enjoyment of the game. Not to mention the game was a challenge at parts. This was what made me enjoy it very much too. It progressively got harder then kind of leveled of for a while. But it never got overwhelming. I was more critiquing it than anything. I would say it is one of my favorite games this gen. But it has it flaws but I easily overcome them just out of pure enjoyment. I had a blast playing it I just noticed this stuff along the way.

[itachi73378]

Okay so before starting I want to say that FFXIII was my first FF game so I'll always have a special place for it in my heart.

I loved FFXIII because:
fast paced battle system
This was the first game where buff, debuff actually mattered.Being able to avoid battles was awesome. Paradigm system was really good and I didn't mind the auto battle button as others. As stated by most of you the soundtrack and graphics were top notch.

Story wise I had no complaints. I liked all characters and thought that their reactions were natural as they were ordinary people thrown in a chaotic situation. If I were them I wouldn't know what to do, and I'd just run aimlessly. The story was shrouded in mystery for the most part which kept my attention as I was just as curious to see how the character will escape their fates of turning into mindless Cieth. There was also the mystery of what the actual 'purpose' of Serah was in the beginning (the cause f her crystallization). The government 'secret' was a good twist aswell, and it increased the pace of the story as the FalCie became involved.
The "Thirteen Days" videos and diary entries REALLY cleared every thing up and put the events in chronological order and the story really fell into place by the end. The ending cutscene made me go WOW and since I truly felt for the characters, it was very satisfying.

It was also the most toughest rpg I played.
That is all I can think of right now.

[Tyrien]

I loved how fast paced and punishing the battle system became near the end of the game.

I also loved the story. It is all over the place, but if you read the extra lore and actually watch what's going on everything ties together well. To me, that's a good story. It's fine for me if I'm not quite sure what's happening during the experience. Actually, when I'm reading a book I want to keep guessing about what's actually going on. It's not until I turn to the last page that I should be able to pull everything together and understand the story.

[TGO]

What loved...be easier to point out what I didn't like, cuz music, graphics and everything was top-notch
but I didn't like
Vanille - I'm sure theres something WRONG with that girl, I don't hate her but geez
Hope - I really think they should of made him a girl, no seriously he would have been tolerable then instead of a little brat who needs a slap
No inns?
No people in villages, towns or anything
1 summon per character, hated it
I like the battle system but I wanted to control the rest of the team
some of the dialogue was off
weapon upgrading
30 hour tutorial....and that it really
oh and FYI, ONE OF THE BEST FF CHARACTER EVER!

[Thorzilla]

You know what, regardless of what many might say otherwise, I think FFXIII is one hell of a game. Sure, it's linear as hell, but for me the combat system did it. It was fast, hectic and it was loads of fun. The lore was great too, but the game barely touched it unless you took your time to read the journal entries. From a storytelling point of view, yes, FFXIII was lacking, like it was also lacking sidequests and many other FFish things (fanfare, towns, etc, etc, etc). That aside, it was brilliant to me gameplay wise and the music was awesome. I can't wait for XIII-2 already!

[Ixion]

I liked all characters and thought that their reactions were natural as they were ordinary people thrown in a chaotic situation. If I were them I wouldn't know what to do, and I'd just run aimlessly.

Running around aimlessly may have been realistic, but it does not make for an interesting story IMO. Same thing goes for why there are no towns in the game. They're on the run and have to avoid the towns? So you take out every gameplay feature due to this, add nothing, and blame it on the story? Then it was a poor story choice.

The story was shrouded in mystery for the most part which kept my attention as I was just as curious to see how the character will escape their fates of turning into mindless Cieth.

You could say it was shrouded in mystery, or you could just say there was no plot progression through six of the chapters. They actually did a very poor job of keeping a sense of mystery, since they didn't continuously provide us with new, mysterious plot points. They just gave us nothing except character drama.

The government 'secret' was a good twist aswell, and it increased the pace of the story as the FalCie became involved.

That's part of the problem though. The pacing of the story ground to a halt for six chapters, and then they went crazy over the last two or three.

I also loved the story. It is all over the place, but if you read the extra lore and actually watch what's going on everything ties together well. To me, that's a good story. It's fine for me if I'm not quite sure what's happening during the experience. Actually, when I'm reading a book I want to keep guessing about what's actually going on. It's not until I turn to the last page that I should be able to pull everything together and understand the story.

I didn't find it difficult to understand the story. I never found that to be part of the problem.

[Versus]

Well I also wasn't a fan of the majority of the character designs either, compared to what the characters look like in Versus XIII for example, they look much more mature and 'cool'.

How do the VersusXIII characters look more "mature and cool"? There for the most part very basic which is fine to like, but more mature? I mean most FFs have unique designs for their characters.

[Dave-The-Rave]

Basically the complete opposite of what the haters are saying IMO, a lot of what they say was bad I enjoyed and some of their point I don't think are true at all. Can't wait to start XIII-2 in a few days.

People just have to stop comparing everything to the PS1 Final Fantasys..the fact is, with today's technology it is a lot harder to make a game of those scales. Which is the main reason we won't get the VII remake.

[DarkVincent07]

I didn't love it it hate it.

I loved the character designs, music and most of all the battle system,

But I hated pretty much everything else.

In my mind it all balances out to an average FF


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[itachi73378]

Running around aimlessly may have been realistic, but it does not make for an interesting story IMO. Same thing goes for why there are no towns in the game. They're on the run and have to avoid the towns? So you take out every gameplay feature due to this, add nothing, and blame it on the story? Then it was a poor story choice.



You could say it was shrouded in mystery, or you could just say there was no plot progression through six of the chapters. They actually did a very poor job of keeping a sense of mystery, since they didn't continuously provide us with new, mysterious plot points. They just gave us nothing except character drama.



That's part of the problem though. The pacing of the story ground to a halt for six chapters, and then they went crazy over the last two or three.



I didn't find it difficult to understand the story. I never found that to be part of the problem.

I think that if they had not run around aimlessly it would have been much more annoying and mainstream. Many games do this, when the character suddenly knows what to do and by luck his first try solves every problem and he gets all the answers.

FFXIII took on a realistic approach.
Go to one place: Find nothing (increased tension)
Go to second place: Find nothing
Third place: Some clue etc.

As far the argument goes of no plot progression, then I don't really give a crap as long as the game is giving m some to chew on.That FFXIII did. You constantly got the "Thirteen days" entries, new info about the Cocoon and pulsian conflicts, and overall background. It also gave me time to understand the personal motivations of characters and it really shows their human aspect when the argue and quarrel in the beginning chapters.

Again, its very subjective, but I don't have any complaints about the game except that even some normal enemies took an hour to kill for insignificant cp.

[boogernose]

For me it was simple: I hated the battle system. I never got far enough into the game to asses the story because every battle seemed drawn out, and the game became a chore to play. I gave up after about 8 hours.

Well that's MY opinion.

[Fon]

All I remember from Final Fantasy XIII was running straight forward for hours, battle after bloody battle before finally making it to an open area and repeat. Everything was underwhelming, the story was not interesting and the only good character in there is Sazh(?). The game is very forgettable. I don't hate the game like I used to, I just don't care anymore and neither will I care for it's sequel.

People just have to stop comparing everything to the PS1 Final Fantasys..the fact is, with today's technology it is a lot harder to make a game of those scales. Which is the main reason we won't get the VII remake.

Ni No Kuni and the Tales series don't have that problem with today's technology. If Tales of Vesperia can have an incredible team of characters and a great story, then so can Final Fantasy. Blaming tech and limitations is just a poor excuse.

How do the VersusXIII characters look more "mature and cool"? There for the most part very basic which is fine to like, but more mature? I mean most FFs have unique designs for their characters.

I agree with him actually. The Versus XIII characters do look more cool and mature.

[AaronSOLDIER]

How do the VersusXIII characters look more "mature and cool"? There for the most part very basic which is fine to like, but more mature? I mean most FFs have unique designs for their characters.

It's a world of difference to me.

[itachi73378]

You know what, FFXIII characters have way more diversity.
From the trailers FFversus characters look all emo. They do look cool and mature but not necessarily 'better'. I will reserve my judgment until I play it in 2015

[Fon]

It's a world of difference to me.

It's like night and day(No pun intended). Versus XIII seems to bring out the badassness to the max.

[AaronSOLDIER]

FFVII Cloud seemed emo at first, then you got to know him. Sorry but XIIIs characters just sucked. The gameplay wasn't even that bad to me it was the story and characters and that's mainly what I play FF games for. If I want a game for its gameplay I'll play GTA or something.

[itachi73378]

FFVII Cloud seemed emo at first, then you got to know him. Sorry but XIIIs characters just sucked. The gameplay wasn't even that bad to me it was the story and characters and that's mainly what I play FF games for. If I want a game for its gameplay I'll play GTA or something.

Yeah but he was the only one in the cast. Versus seems to be all like that. Although their 'emo-ness' also exudes maturity somehow. Also I'm only talking about their appearance right now. So from a looks stand point, the versus cast is looking like any cast form a Western fps, and that is not the reason I play JRPGs