Reviews VideoGame / Final Fantasy XIII

Yeah, those are the two main issues I've observed: that it takes awhile to pick up, and the linearity.

In this day&age, people want things now and right away - so the first part's understandable, if sad. And the linearity? Makes perfect sense; these guys are fugitives, with the whole world against them and they're ticking time-bombs... no one has the TIME to explore, or shop around, or do anything but run really. That entire isolation no-choice policy is the point of the plot and the general gameplay, and it does it well.

And as far as Snow, he's simply your standard Hero who believes doing the heroic thing will make everything work. Problem is, he's in a too-dark-for-his-ideals genre, and that's the sad part imo.

Agreed on most else you've said.

@Omegafire A lot of the game doesn't feel like being a fugitive though. Why the linearity in FFXIII feels so bad is a really interesting question, especially when compared to X where it doesn't feel bad at all.

I actually think the camera angle might be a big factor. Walking along a corridor in X looks like this◊ or this◊. The camera isn't straight on and it's pointing towards a lot of scenic beauty.

In FFXIII the camera is head on. Although the actual environment may be beautiful, the direction and focus of the character is along the actual path, which is normally featureless. Like here◊ and here◊.

And in FFX the paths are more likely to have different shapes depending on the area, Macalania feels different from the Thunder Plain which feels different to the Djose Road which is a different shape to the Mihen Highway etc. The only locations where the shape feels noticeably different in XIII are the military animal training ground, the Gran Pulse plains and the weird place just before the end. Everything else is roughly the same size and shape as the original highway at the start

And FFX is constantly giving you more context to your journey and reminding you that you're battling across a broken and dangerous world. FFXIII can be quite unclear about where you are or why and for a large chunk of the game it doesn't really bring up the whole fugitive thing at all. Some of the levels after the plains in Gran Pulse don't seem to be giving you any purpose in your journey at all.

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But as for the rest, I don't think the review is panning Snow right? He's very hateable at the start, but he's meant to be because he pushes his ideals in a way that ignores the human cost, whats important is that changes with the game and I too adore what happens when Hope and Snow's plots come together. Vanille and Sazh, Hope and Lightning were my other favourite two people combinations

Moderator edit: Corrected the broken link because it messed with the formatting below.

I gotta agree that yes, they included different aspects to the core series, which doesn't go so well. We're accustomed to have those kinds of changes on the side games. I found the new single transforming character from Lightning Returns interesting, however I don't know if I would had felt the same had it been first implemented on FFXV. It's rather whiny of us, but that's how it is.

However realizing this I looked pass this when I played the game and found that there are still issues that no one sems to talk about because they just focus on the linearity and single character control. The weapon enhance system is difficult to understand and you're given little to no tutorials. Also several parts of the game felt imcomplete or lacking. Several places and fal'cie were barelly showed and had just passing roles, or even none at all (Bismark), which is not helped by the fact that when you finally reach Pulse and it's open-ness, there's little variety on what to do.

You shouldn't have too much difficulty obtaining large amounts of gil. Enemies drop plenty of items that do almost nothing for your weapons, but can be sold for decent amounts of cash. Likewise, items that sell for little money you should use to enhance your weapons. I never had trouble figuring out how the weapon enhance system worked, either.

"What's out there? What's waiting for me?"

In this day&age, people want things now and right away - so the first part's understandable, if sad.

I haven't played XIII myself, but from what I hear, Gran Pulse is the point where most people agree that the game picks up, and it's 20-30 hours of playtime in. I don't think there's anything "sad" about expecting a game to be good before you've sunk roughly a full day of your life into it and completed over half the story. There's delayed gratification, and then there's too damn little too damn late.

What matters in this life is much more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too. - F. Rogers.

I don't think there's anything "sad" about expecting a game to be good before you've-

What defines as good is opinion, of course; I thought 13 was good when it started, even knowing that the 'Exp' system hadn't been introduced yet, simply because I liked the combat. Yes, even when it was that simple.

@Tom With No Numbers, I know it wasn't panning him, as it was his opinion. I simply gave my take on Snow, without the personal 'I generally like him' bit.

The paradigm system is boring. There's no new impact to any new spells like how the previous games had. And you can basically play the entire game on cruise control without even pressing a button yourself since allies can & will beat the fight without you.