The background information? Relies on reading the Datalogs to fully understand
No. I can blatantly say, No, that is factually wrong. There is no need to peruse the Datalog to understand what is going on in the game. The only way one may 'need' to read it, is if the player has paid absolutely no attention to any cutscenes. And that is only possible if you blasted not-game-sound into your ears or were watching something entirely else.
I found myself thinking Lightning was a Rule 63'd Squall instead of sharing similarities with Cloud.
Well, her initial concept was to call back to Squall.
It's a lot less exciting than it sounds and turns the battles into puzzles to solve. On the plus side, they actually made the summons far more important and useful than 12 so that's good.
I disagree again. The battles are fun (if one does not rely on Auto Battle, which doesn't even prioritize the better moves for the situation, anyway) to begin with. And the summons are not necessary. I think the only time I used the summons during the plot was twice: both times when it was mandatory to begin the battle with them. And only once, during the battle with Neochu in Chapter 11, which was for the sole sake of getting the Growth Egg early.
dropped once the linear areas finish
Not really... sure, they are now free and not stuck as before, which makes them feel better, but the scenes still show that their brands are evolving, their time is running out and simply running away from their Focus isn't gonna work. As the Big Bad says, if they don't do it, they can just give that Focus to someone else and have them do it. A Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't situation. Only difference between Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 is, the party heads off with determination and an exact goal on their mind - before, they were simply roaming around, with nothing to do... which was nice, I felt it really brought out the feeling of being incapable of escaping.
I think this was one of the mayor issues I had with the game. I felt very imcomplete, like a lot of it was taken out and or lost in development but clearly hinted at.
@catmuto
As someone who also thinks you don't need the datalogs to understand the story, the OP clearly said "background information" (which is true, remember Bismarck?)...you even quoted them.
@marcellX: In regards to Bismarck: what difference does it make? One can get through the game fine without it ever being an issue, so what does it matter?
I think this was one of the mayor issues I had with the game. I felt very imcomplete, like a lot of it was taken out and or lost in development but clearly hinted at.
Really? What Deus Ex Machina? If we are talking about the ending... quite honestly, that always made perfect sense to me. I never thought that it had some Deus Ex Machina added into it. Sure, XIII-2 says it did, but... Pfft, that's XIII-2. The weakest of the three XIII games and one that retconned a lot of stuff to begin with.
@camuto
...ooook?
Did you just forget what was being talked about or something? We're talking about a lot of background information that could only be known through reading the datalogs. The most bare bones of the story could be understood yeah, but must of everything else was just thrown there and barely if ever talked about. Bismarck appear for literally a few seconds, does nothing, is never talked about and your left with a what the fuck was that all about sensation.
The party didn't had a plan throughout the whole game about how to solve the issue. You yourself said how they would have to either solve complete their focus and destroy orphan/cacoon or not at which point they'll just give the focus to someone else. So they go and do all that the enemies wanted them to do, kill them and form Ragnarok...but them they save cacoon becuase, reasons. Hell even the whole Ragnarok thing isn't really explained. What is is? Why do they supposively need to transform into it? why do you need two people? etc. etc.
Also I wasn't just talking about main story-wise. There's a lot of things in the game that are imcomplete or don't seem to go anywhere, implying that they were cut, as the example of Bismarck.
I'm a defender of the game but I completely agree with the datalog bit. I don't think a lot of secondary information is ever explained except through logs. Even say Cids role is not very clear without reading. The main story themes, about loss and desperation etc come through strongly, but not why a character is in a place or how that place fits into the wider world
@catmuto - So the characters becoming l'Cie husks permanently... only not... isn't a deus ex machina? As well as becoming crystal stasis and then magically returning to pure human? It is explained in 2 by divine intervention but that isn't mentioned at all at the time. And as above poster said... Ragnarok, how exactly Ragnarok as a beast-creature is even able to destroy Cocoon.... for a start.
And yes - I agree that their time may still run out as part of the story but Gran Pulse is completely free. The sidequests offer nothing more to the narrative, the tension stops (meta wise) because there is no ticking clock while you grind, sidequest, explore, etc. You could complete it in a little while or spend hours. If they had sidequests with NP Cs that helped develop the world... that would have been fantastic.
@Tomwithnonumbers - Agreed. Even the villains are driven by loss so I wish they could have introduced them as the antagonists and developed their Despair Event Horizon a little more with more time. It would have really tied everything together perfectly.
But really, all the game needed was some major balance between story and freedom to explore. I understand why as fugitives the main characters probably wouldn't have the freedom in towns to move around but even that could have been worked in as a sneaking around sub-game.
May or may not have been raised by egregious Brazilian wolves.
It's a bit thoughtless to say that there "blatantly" is no way one can have missed out on story elements if they watched the cutscenes, especially since Square is rather infamous for sucking rather hard at getting plot points across, even moreso if it's their largely soulless and/or lethargic post-2004 output. You can throw a bunch of pretentious made-up fantasy names at somebody, but not everybody will be able to keep up with all that stuff. Investment is important and all that.
So the characters becoming l'Cie husks permanently... only not... isn't a deus ex machina? As well as becoming crystal stasis and then magically returning to pure human?
See, when I played the game, I noticed... Hey, the ending looks exactly like the Focus flashes we saw from Chapter 3 onward. Yes, it didn't show everything, but it looks identical. It just didn't show the crystal part - which makes me think that the way the ending played out is what the Focus was: become Ragnarok, but end up crystalizing Cocoon on the pillar. (Yes, this would include Vanilla's and Fang's Focus given centuries ago)
Ragnarok, how exactly Ragnarok as a beast-creature is even able to destroy Cocoon....
Ragnarok is named after the event of the world's destruction in, if I recal correctly, Norse mythology. It doesn't HAVE to be explained, it just can do this thing.
but even that could have been worked in as a sneaking around sub-game.
No. I would have hated that. Unnecessary sneaking, just so I could - say - stock up on some items or equipment? I'd rather not sneak, fight my way through the town and not have to bother with sneaking. I'm playing an RPG, not a Stealth Game. If I did, I'd probably be a bigger fan of MGS.
Bismarck appear for literally a few seconds, does nothing, is never talked about and your left with a what the fuck was that all about sensation.
And I'm talking about its importance to the story. Is Bismarck important to the story? No. Would knowing more about him change how the plot would play out? No. So why bother?
Yeah, see, you completely lost me right there. It was put in, it was a very important part of the story, yet it's not explained.
You can have a Prophecy Twist but it still has to make sense. It wasn't until later games that they say a lot of that was Etro, who was not mentioned at all in the game except for passing mention in the datalogs and even then you couldn't had figured out it was her by it.
Again, we were talking about and I quote "background information", that was the topic, you're the one going on on a tangent. Not to mention that, they put it there, that's reason enough. Why bother explaining cause it doesn't directly affect the plot? well why put it there in the first place?
I'll at least agree with catmuto that Ragnarok is implied to be hella powerful by its name, and an aspect of the Final Fantasy series is "this cool-sounding apocalyptic thing is more powerful than a thousand suns" - The Void and Neo Exdeath from V, Kefka from VI, Meteor from VII etc. I'll also add that the same combination to create Ragnarok is the one that cracked Cocoon's shell hundreds of years ago. So despite not being a huge eldritch beast or Fantasy Satan, Ragnarok is implied to be very powerful.
As to why it decides to save Cocoon - I theorize that Fang (and Vanielle I guess?) first became Ragnarok, Fang was like any other Pulsian and was very much against Cocoon and its people. So her actions as Ragnarok were done voluntarily. Over the game, Barthandelus and everyone else assumed that Ragnarok was an uncontrollable destructive beast, but due to her fondness for the party and knowing more about Cocoon than she did at first, and after all that Power of Love Ass Pull stuff at the end there, she saves Cocoon because she has full power over the summon. It's been assumed that it's just a destructive angry dick of a thing, but I feel like Fang has full control over it.
That's not in the game, so feel free to take or leave it as you please.
Other than that, I agree with everyone else. The Ci'eth transformation and subsequent changing back is never explained (unless it was a dream, which everyone's whited-out Brands seems to disprove), the datalog is overutilized and a lot of lore and plot detail is left hanging for the Datalog to pick up because they couldn't fit it all in. Though the crystals turning back and all is because their Focuses were completed, because Cocoon was taken down by Ragnarok in the end - even if it was saved by Ragnarok's actions. That's enough of a stretch for me to accept, personally.
FFXIII is very flawed, with the sheer amount of datalog stuff being a major factor. They should have put more into the game itself, given the game some atmosphere and lore instead of bringing the Makers and other plot elements onto the story out of nowhere for dramatic effect. The story and cutscenes needed more subtlety and less "pew pew splosions! vital villain motivations and new plot points spouted out of nowhere as if it's common knowledge! pew pew more splosions!!". Even if the splosions were awesome.
Come sail your ships around me, and burn your bridges down.
catmuto - it's less about shops and buying items and more interaction. There are very few NP Cs you can interact with due to the characters being fugitives and those that you do see are largely limited to custcenes. Towns are a pretty good way to allow for that without making it mandatory.
Mr Mallard - honest question here but I thought when the Focus was completed you were given immortality via crystal stasis, as Serah does at the beginning. Unless it's because Fang and Vanille performed the act which negated the others which... does actually work. Ish. Ragnarok being a summons monster makes sense.
And to be fair - this isn't the first Final Fantasy game that's relied on background information to fill in holes. 8 never bothered to explain the origins of the Sorceress and their divine source outside of its own in-game datalog but the story itself gave enough information to make sense, in a Timey Wimey Ball way.
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It tried
As other reviewers have said, 13 took every major consternation of 12 and tried to fix it. And in doing so made an incredibly unbalanced game.
The game is incredibly linear... to a point. Unfortunately, the bulk of the story is told through the linear areas and then completely dropped when you are given freedom to explore. At which point you can do nothing but explore, and grind, and do little meaningless sidequests... and grind more. You are stuck with a set party through most of the important parts of the game so experimentation is limited.
The background information? Relies on reading the Datalogs to fully understand and a great deal of the deus ex machinas aren't explored until the sequels. Put together they make a complete story but this is a really bad design choice to leave so much unfinished for so long a time. The enemies? The ones you want to fight you don't get a chance to and the true Big Bads aren't built up as a legitimate threat. In fact aside from the main characters there aren't that many prominent NP Cs or actual important antagonists driving the plot.
Which is a pity as there is actually a good theme running through the storied areas. All the characters are driven by loss and grief and how they deal with it is really the emotional crux of the whole game. But this is - again - dropped once the linear areas finish. The characters themselves aren't terrible but aside from Hope aren't really breaking any new ground. I found myself thinking Lightning was a Rule 63'd Squall instead of sharing similarities with Cloud.
The combat returns to shifted-screen turn based style but with the addition of Ai taking over and the Paradigm shift to simplify everything. It's a lot less exciting than it sounds and turns the battles into puzzles to solve. On the plus side, they actually made the summons far more important and useful than 12 so that's good.
It's not the worst game ever and definitely fills a niche. Had a better hand been guiding it and the plot balanced out better between free roaming and linear areas it probably would have been a lot better.