I got this from a friend who hated it, and I didn't have much in the way of expectations. I'd heard lots of bad things about it, but figured I'd give it a try. Despite my low expectations, I kept an open mind, and was quite pleasantly surprised.
As everyone says, the beginning is the weakest part by far. You're dumped right in the middle of a fast-paced action sequence, the battle system is virtually nonexistent, and there's not even the illusion of nonlinearity. The characters leave a bad first impression; Lightning as a cold bitch, Snow as an immature moron with delusions of grandeur, Hope as a whiny kid, and Vanille as a grating adult child.
However, I stuck with it, and eventually began to see the light. The battle system started building on itself and eschewing the 'press A to win' parts earlier, the pieces of the story began assembling themselves, and character development began making the rounds. I ended up quite liking some of the people I'd hated only a few hours ago.
It's not without flaws, though. Some of the dialogue is awkward and stilted, the cutscenes (especially the flashbacks) sometimes get too sappy, the AI in battle occasionally has dumb moments, and FUCK the 'party leader death' rule.
Final Fantasy XIII, all in all, isn't anywhere near as bad as everyone says it is. Everybody that says 'it takes 20+ hours to get good' is wrong; while that is the best part, it gets good long before that. If you can stick with it, it'll pay off in the end.
It's quite a mixed bag.
I got this from a friend who hated it, and I didn't have much in the way of expectations. I'd heard lots of bad things about it, but figured I'd give it a try. Despite my low expectations, I kept an open mind, and was quite pleasantly surprised.
As everyone says, the beginning is the weakest part by far. You're dumped right in the middle of a fast-paced action sequence, the battle system is virtually nonexistent, and there's not even the illusion of nonlinearity. The characters leave a bad first impression; Lightning as a cold bitch, Snow as an immature moron with delusions of grandeur, Hope as a whiny kid, and Vanille as a grating adult child.
However, I stuck with it, and eventually began to see the light. The battle system started building on itself and eschewing the 'press A to win' parts earlier, the pieces of the story began assembling themselves, and character development began making the rounds. I ended up quite liking some of the people I'd hated only a few hours ago.
It's not without flaws, though. Some of the dialogue is awkward and stilted, the cutscenes (especially the flashbacks) sometimes get too sappy, the AI in battle occasionally has dumb moments, and FUCK the 'party leader death' rule.
Final Fantasy XIII, all in all, isn't anywhere near as bad as everyone says it is. Everybody that says 'it takes 20+ hours to get good' is wrong; while that is the best part, it gets good long before that. If you can stick with it, it'll pay off in the end.