It seems there's a lot of grief over Final Fantasy 13 and the things they "changed" from "traditional" Final Fantasies. I've just been wanting to type this up for a while, so here goes:
As a dad/husband, I've got to say that my RPG time has greatly diminished. Wouldn't trade the family for the world, but I do miss my RPGs from time to time. I've found that handhelds work wonders, as they're usually tailored to have many, many save points so I can get in a sec or two of epic old-school gaming. The "streamlining" if you will...allows me to get an epic RPG without the huuuuge time constraint.
I remember playing my first RPG, FF7, and not knowing about saving often. I would die, there goes an hour or two. There's a "continue right before you died" feature on this game! And without the random battles, if I'm in a big battle and need to go..I can literally let my characters die if I must, and go back through the now non-populated world (with no random battles) to the last save point I hit! Plus, I love, LOVE the recap/datalong that some are complaining about "having to read". It refreshes me on the story if I haven't gotten a chance to play for a long time.
Linearity......yes, you don't get to "explore". But I was getting a bit tired of missing something epic in MOST games these days because they decided to take a good two-hour chunk of a game and shove it in some "optional" dungeon I didn't know about. It's all here! I get to know I've experienced most of the story just playing through. Again, in 7...there were two additional characters to add to your party that if you didn't know the secrets you wouldn't even SEE! I actually started 12 over again because I hear some side item you got for beating an enemy that was supposed to be hard (but I was too leveled up to know) is NECESSARY for an ultimate item....and I sold it. If it's NECESSARY, don't let me sell it! Makes me think of the people who had the Lunar demo on PS1 and sold the ocarina or whatever you HAD to have to beat the game because of a forgotten code in the demo!
Controlling only one character: I'm really digging paradigms. Having an AI teammate to change to to heal me while I continue pounding on an enemy....it's great. Allows me more freedom, I feel, in organizing my strategy. I feel actually more involved in managing than if there was a menu for each character. And I like how you can queue up your attacks while the ATB is filling.
Leveling system: having it broken down into general "this will help this role" sections is great. Then I know if I need better healing.....level in healing!
A lot of people want "traditional" final fantasy games. But they've reinvented themselves so many times through the series....if it was the same thing as the last one, it wouldn't be a Final Fantasy. I'm coming back to this one time after time and have had 12 since it came out....and have never finished it.
Am I alone? All I see are haters of 13....I'm enjoying it! Yes, the characters are emo and talk funny....but look at, well....all the others. That's one consistency. :P
RyanDJ:Leveling system: having it broken down into general "this will help this role" sections is great. Then I know if I need better healing.....level in healing!
I like the leveling system. It reminded me a lot of FFX.
RyanDJ:Controlling only one character: I'm really digging paradigms.
I too dig the paradigms. It reminds me a lot of FFX-2 with the dress spheres. What I don't like is only controlling one character. I do realize that you cannot control all three with the battle system that is used in FFXIII, but I'm not really a fan of the action battle system.
There are elements I really enjoyed of FFXIII, enough to get me around 30 hours in (chapter 9). Unfortunately, there wasn't enough there to get me past that. I traded it in and got Arc Rise Fantasia (for the Wii). I then requested FFXIII from Goozex with hopes I'll get back to it (thanks again Killmak!) FFX was the first console RPG I ever played, FFIX was the second. Those are two of the best RPGs I've ever played and I unfortunately compare every other one to them
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Lost Odyssey was better.
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mafafu: Lost Odyssey was better.
Agreed, though my opinion carries no weight as I hate turn based RPG's
cheeznrice:I do realize that you cannot control all three with the battle system that is used in FFXIII, but I'm not really a fan of the action battle system.
They could've easily implemented a "hot swap" in battle feature much how you were able to quickly alternate between characters in Magnacarta 2
I-Weapon-X: cheeznrice:I do realize that you cannot control all three with the battle system that is used in FFXIII, but I'm not really a fan of the action battle system. They could've easily implemented a "hot swap" in battle feature much how you were able to quickly alternate between characters in Magnacarta 2
True. I've seen that in other games as well. Magnacarta 1 and Rogue Galaxy come to mind as well.
I was fine with a lot of the changes they made, fight replays, paradigm system, leveling, etc. The problem with FF13 was the terrible pacing, super linearity, dumb story and dumb characters. IMHO. The best part of that game was the hunts.
I liked the game for what it was (an rpg). I did like the fact that I did not have to spend hours level grinding. The only other aspect of the game I actually did not like was that I felt like I had to rely on the in game encyclopedia to much in order to really know what was going one. And I NEVER used the big monster things you could summon. I could do more damage without them.
I would give the overall game 4 out of 5 stars though.
To bad the ending pretty much destroy the whole purpose of the game but manages to get a happy ending anyway
It also annoyed me that your strongest weapons aren't neccesary also
Zerker: To bad the ending pretty much destroy the whole purpose of the game but manages to get a happy ending anyway
I found the ending to be one of the most satisfying parts of the whole experience, minus the terrible Leona Lewis song.
Renaissance 2K: Zerker: To bad the ending pretty much destroy the whole purpose of the game but manages to get a happy ending anyway I found the ending to be one of the most satisfying parts of the whole experience, minus the terrible Leona Lewis song.
I thought the ending was atrocious.
<Avoiding Spoilers>
There are a whole lot of really good things about the game. I mean, a LOT. I loved the battle system, the scenary is amazing (albeit a little too clean) and 4 out of 6 characters being terrific isn't bad!
Linearity is thrown around like a cuss word with FFXIII, but it's not horrible. It's just... not up to FF standards. But it's also a symptom of a larger problem. Where is the adventure!? In my opinion Final Fantasy is a game about Adventure! Exploration! Airships! Meeting new characters! Helping people as you go along! Truly living the epic experience. Sure you miss some stuff on the way, but that's what makes your character unique. It's your character!
13 had great music! in some places... But I found myself listening to the music at other places and thinking, "I've heard this before. It was in other jrpgs. It's generic!"
I mentioned 4 our of 6 characters being amazing. I stand by that. But Hope and Vanille should not have even been in the game. They served no purpose at all. Hope could have been replaced by Snow and Vanille by Fang and nobody would have noticed. That is, except for the lack of crying and complaining. And annoying, very badly done voice acting for Vanille.
The story. That's the big one. Now, there are a lot of people that read meticulously about the Fal'ci and the blah blah blah, but frankly the entire game can be summed up at the VERY last scene of the game. I mean, the final boss FINALLY explains the entire plot of the game. I remember trodding along for 60 hours without really knowing the plot (and before you ask, yes, I was paying close attention) then talking with the final boss and saying, "Oh... Is that why we came here?" And speaking of which... Did my characters even have an inkling that THAT was the mission? I get the impression they just wandered in a vague direction and eventually Dues Ex Machina'd into the perfect position to save everything.
/Once again, loved the battle system. Loved the scenary. Loved 4 of 6 characters. The music wasn't half bad and the voice acting... Aside from Vanille was great. I really wanted to love this game... So I did. As an action game. It's cool. It's Devil May Cry in a sense. But it's not Final Fantasy.
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Adding on to the complaints others have that I like:
Auto-Heal after battle. Again, in time-saving. All I would do is buy 99 of everything and heal up completely after a battle...here, it's done.
No towns: This was close to annoying for me, but I gotta say that in the end I don't miss them that much. There's 20 NPC's, one is important to storytelling, and again with the hidden things that can only be found by talking to the guy behind the bush in the back of the animal pen twelve times so he finally tells you something that makes another guy in town for some reason start spouting information about a secret castle....etc. I'm enjoying the simplification.
mafafu: Renaissance 2K: Zerker: To bad the ending pretty much destroy the whole purpose of the game but manages to get a happy ending anyway I found the ending to be one of the most satisfying parts of the whole experience, minus the terrible Leona Lewis song. I thought the ending was atrocious.
I'm going to try not to throw around a spoiler here.... But isn't the ending... a tad... Genocidal? I mean, if that spell worked, and people were living at the place that was hit by it... Wouldn't there be lots of people dead? Like... Millions?
eh, i disagree, i liked it well enough; the end battles however were pathetic
