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Final Fantasy XIII |OT|

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H_Prestige said:
A good, classy story with interesting characters who speak like adults and not babies is not tedious. But that isn't what FFXIII is. So the cutscenes are really annoying, especially since they're fully voiced. At least with FFVIII, I don't have to hear the whiny anime crap.
Ummm... why are you in this thread?
<sees the 'All Trolls Welcome' sign>
Ah, my mistake. Here... have some cookies!
 
Finished the game last night at 46 hours. I had issues with the final boss fight which left me slightly raging Sunday night, but I came back last night, upgraded everyone's weapons to lvl 2 (my strategies were sound, my damage output was too low), and watching Fang/Light rip the bosses apart as commandos was completely satisfying.

I'm in the love camp with the game. Now I'm ready to go attack the side quests.
 
[I don't know about you, but when I played previous FF games, the gameplay experience consisted of more than just the parts where I furiously mash attack and hit cure.
That doesn't sound at all like the FFXIII I played.

Those games would get boring fast if I were just running forward through a tunnel fighting one mini-boss/boss after another, with only movies to break the pace.
I rather go through tunnels then try to find may way then crappily designed "dungeons" with way to easy battles. Bring on the mini-bosses. At least they bring some fun.

A good, classy story with interesting characters who speak like adults and not babies is not tedious. But that isn't what FFXIII is. So the cutscenes are really annoying, especially since they're fully voiced. At least with FFVIII, I don't have to hear the whiny anime crap.
What your describing is not in video games.And besides as for as characters and story go. FFXIII is the least offensive jrpg or game when it comes to that.
 

Rpgmonkey

Member
I was playing my friend's copy yesterday, and while it doesn't help that I was in Chapter 10, I didn't know I'd find this game to be such a chore to play after the first time.

Was fun to play with non-overpowered characters though. :)

Rahxephon91 said:
And besides as for as characters and story go. FFXIII is the least offensive jrpg or game when it comes to that.

Eh...
 

Lothars

Member
with goozex I will be recieving a copy of FFXIII for 360 as well, but I want to finish it on PS3 first anyway but glad to get the copy anyway.
 
No, Rahxephon is actually right in this instance. Many JRPGs play off anime tropes and are mostly inaccessible to those who don't have a predisposition to that stuff. FFXIII is indeed one of the least offensive and most accessible in that aspect.
 
Finally finished the damn game.

It wasn't all that bad, but they've done so many dumb design decisions, and the main plot is pretty poor.

Some stuff that comes to mind (incoming nerd rage):

- Worst villain in a Final Fantasy game. Cid Raines should've been the main bad guy.

- Chapter 1 and 2 should be cut in half, and made into a single "tutorial" one.

- "Grand Pulse", the mission system and changing characters should've started at chapter 3. I know the storyline doesn't allow it, but they could've easily come up with something.

- Sazh is underused and Lightning didn't feel that much important to the storyline.
(Although not as useless as Vaan in XII.)

- Slow-mo paradigm change in battle is frustrating.
 

Rpgmonkey

Member
Rahxephon91 said:
In spite of your name, you must not play a lot of jrpgs if you think FFXIII is actually that offensive.

It was more on your comment about it being the least offensive JRPG/game when it comes to characters and story, not how offensive I actually think is.

I'm not a part of the "FFXIII attack force" at all, I just don't agree.
 
And you consistently live up to your tag.
Yep, because you actually know what kind of stuff I like and crap. Get bent.

It was more on your comment about it being the least offensive JRPG/game when it comes to characters and story, not how offensive I actually think is.

I'm not a part of the "FFXIII attack force" at all, I just don't agree.
Fair enough and my mistake.
 
cosmicblizzard said:
No, Rahxephon is actually right in this instance. Many JRPGs play off anime tropes and are mostly inaccessible to those who don't have a predisposition to that stuff. FFXIII is indeed one of the least offensive and most accessible in that aspect.

Is it really that different from the type of crap in Star Ocean?

Either way, it's a huge downgrade from FFXII in that regard.
 
Is it really that different from the type of crap in Star Ocean?
Are you kidding? It sure as hell is.
Either way, it's a huge downgrade from FFXII in that regard.
Yes the game that's story petered out after 5 hours and has like 2 characters with anything close to a personality. The only thing XII has on XIII is that is sounds better and that the world is well realized.

I think its pretty crazy that we are now saying the story aspects of XIII are as bad as Star Ocean a game series where you have annoying cat girls and a pink haired Space operators that acts intensity cute. Is XIII's story anywhere close to good? No. Is it as bad as most video game stories? No. It at least attempts to have actual characters with some sort of development that while very sensational and obviously anime influenced, though is it really valid to say that's a negative when western video games take their ques from Hollywood, have something that almost hits actual okness. Its narrative is almost terrible ,but I don't see how anyone could be offended by it. This XIII hate is getting out of hand. Its like people are putting on rose tinted glassess to the entire jprg genre and video games as a whole.

The entire "anime influnced" argument is lame. Guess where FF comes from? Japan. Guess what the people behind these games may like. Japanese anime and manga. Holy fuck!

I get that anime may not always be a great place for story telling , but jesus.

a176 said:
Are you trying to troll or something?
What the hell would I be trolling?
 
H_Prestige said:
Either way, it's a huge downgrade from FFXII in that regard.

XII had an interesting world and some decent intrigue, but it never went anywhere. Honestly, outside of Balthier (and Ashe to a lesser extent), the cast of XII was pretty weak (and I say this as someone who liked the game.

By contrast, all six of XIII's main characters are well fleshed out and unique. Hope is the only one who even comes close to being portrayed as an "anime stereotype", but he winds up developing in a pretty different way by the time everything is said and done.
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
Someone mind explaining the weapon upgrading system? I just got to pulse, but it's clear my damage output is too low. So it's making it hard to survive...and in general kill stuff. It shouldn't take 10 minutes for one of those Behemouth things.
 
shintoki said:
Someone mind explaining the weapon upgrading system? I just got to pulse, but it's clear my damage output is too low. So it's making it hard to survive...and in general kill stuff. It shouldn't take 10 minutes for one of those Behemouth things.

Basically, there are two types of upgrade materials (outside of transformation components which are only used when a weapon or accessory is maxed out).

Natural components (represented by an icon that looks like a claw) don't add a lot of points, but they increase the multiplier of the item. Mechanical Components (represented by an icon that looks like a hammer) add a large amount of points but decrease the multiplier. What you want to do is increase the multiplier up to 3 (the maximum), and then use your mechanical components.

You should also note that some components (like Credit Chips and Gold Dust) say "can be sold for a premium" in their descriptions. You should sell these rather than using them.
 
"Downgraded compared to XII"


LMFAO

Please Square continue to "downgrade" your games if FF12 is the shining example of the FF series {facepalm}

FF13 FTW!
 
H_Prestige said:
Is it really that different from the type of crap in Star Ocean?

If you say that knowing full well what goes on in SO4, I question your sanity.

Anyway, if you really look at a Tales game or a Grandia, you'll see just how much the dialogue in FFXIII is the exact opposite of animu comparatively .
 
cosmicblizzard said:
If you say that knowing full well what goes on in SO4, I question your sanity.

Anyway, if you really look at a Tales game or a Grandia, you'll see just how much the dialogue in FFXIII is the exact opposite of animu comparatively .

TO me it actually felt like the devs knew anime cliches and purposefully tried to avoid them by doing the opposite things.
 
Darthdevidem01 said:
TO me it actually felt like the devs knew anime cliches and purposefully tried to avoid them by doing the opposite things.

Outside the "moms are tough" (which is a totally anime thing to say), I can't recall one instance where they said anything even remotely related to an anime cliche.
 

Cep

Banned
cosmicblizzard said:
If you say that knowing full well what goes on in SO4, I question your sanity.

Anyway, if you really look at a Tales game or a Grandia, you'll see just how much the dialogue in FFXIII is the exact opposite of animu comparatively .

No.

Definitely not as bad as Tales and the like, but far from being 'the exact opposite.'

Not that being/not being animu is an exact measure of quality or anything...
 

dramatis

Member
cosmicblizzard said:
Outside the "moms are tough" (which is a totally anime thing to say), I can't recall one instance where they said anything even remotely related to an anime cliche.

Really. Really, the ending isn't anime cliche at all. :/
 

Cep

Banned
dramatis said:
Really. Really, the ending isn't anime cliche at all. :/

That reminds me, it felt like something straight out of Tales.

shintoki said:
The idea wasn't bad. But it shows they sorely need a real writer or editor for the story to clean it up.

Supposedly, Watanabe is a professional writer.
 
Cep said:
No.

Definitely not as bad as Tales and the like, but far from being 'the exact opposite.'

Not that being/not being animu is an exact measure of quality or anything...

Okay, exact opposite was a bit much. It's still not to the extent of a normal JRPG.

dramatis said:
Really. Really, the ending isn't anime cliche at all. :/

Okay, the ending and the pre-final boss speeches were incredibly cliche. Of course pre-final boss speeches are almost a requirement in my book. Sure, these weren't as good as some other JRPGs but they got me pumped up anyway.
 

rush777

Member
I'm hitting turtle farm burnout.... when will I be able to beat them without summons or casting death?? and why are they the only way to make good money in this game.
 
Darthdevidem01 said:
Please Square continue to "downgrade" your games if FF12 is the shining example of the FF series {facepalm}

FF12 isn't the shining example of the FF series, but FF13 is the busted light bulb.
 
I actually wonder how Watanabe would do if he had full creative control. That post duckroll made about direction and such really got me thinking about this.
 

george_us

Member
brandonh83 said:
FF12 isn't the shining example of the FF series, but FF13 is the busted light bulb.
I always thought of FFXII as a flawed masterpiece. If the story could of maintained its momentum and the job system put in place earlier then it would have stood as the pinnacle of the FF series in my opinion. FFXIII just seems poorly designed from top to bottom.
 
Cep said:
Yes, Final Fantasy XII and XIII prove this.

No FFXII's dialogue and writing was fine actually.

@brandonh

FFXIII is a very different light bulb, a light bulb that shines as bright as any and one thats as awesome as any, but people busted it up because they wanted their usual yellow light giving light bulb.
 

dramatis

Member
Darthdevidem01 said:
No FFXII's dialogue and writing was fine actually.

@brandonh

FFXIII is a very different light bulb, a light bulb that shines as bright as any and one thats as awesome as any, but people busted it up because they wanted their usual yellow light giving light bulb.

FFXII's dialogue and writing was fixed to the best it could be by Alexander O. Smith, a godly translator.

FFXIII is indeed a different light bulb, but in no way does it shine half as bright as titles even from the last generation. Not because it is not the usual light bulb, but because it is a half-broken light bulb; it aimed to be something it could not deliver.
 
The thing I don't get about FFXIII is the appeal, I mean, who wants a game like this? It's an RPG that is basically one long hallway with pre-set battles along the way. There's nowhere to go, no one to talk to, and not very much to do. The world feels so small. I found it oppressively claustrophobic.

And this is your next-gen Final Fantasy of the future? That's what I don't get. It feels like such a step back from FFXII.
 
CryingWolf said:
The thing I don't get about FFXIII is the appeal, I mean, who wants a game like this? It's an RPG that is basically one long hallway with pre-set battles along the way. There's nowhere to go, no one to talk to, and not very much to do. The world feels so small. I found it oppressively claustrophobic.

And this is your next-gen Final Fantasy of the future? That's what I don't get. It feels like such a step back from FFXII.

The battle system is amazing. That's the biggest reason it's my GOTY so far. This is probably one of the top 5 battle systems of all time.

Yes, there's not much in the way of exploration, but it's hardly alone in that. Not every RPG needs to be Morrowind (or even Earthbound). I love the battle system, I find the world and lore to be fascinating, and I really like all the characters. And while most of the game is pretty linear, I found exploring Pulse to be a lot of fun. It's not a great game in terms of exploration, but it is a great game in terms of game mechanics and storytelling.

It's not a step back from XII, it's a step to the side. They're two completely different games which I enjoy for completely different reasons.
 
CryingWolf said:
The thing I don't get about FFXIII is the appeal, I mean, who wants a game like this? It's an RPG that is basically one long hallway with pre-set battles along the way. There's nowhere to go, no one to talk to, and not very much to do. The world feels so small. I found it oppressively claustrophobic.

And this is your next-gen Final Fantasy of the future? That's what I don't get. It feels like such a step back from FFXII.

+1
 
KuwabaraTheMan said:
The battle system is amazing. That's the biggest reason it's my GOTY so far. This is probably one of the top 5 battle systems of all time.

Yes, there's not much in the way of exploration, but it's hardly alone in that. Not every RPG needs to be Morrowind (or even Earthbound). I love the battle system, I find the world and lore to be fascinating, and I really like all the characters. And while most of the game is pretty linear, I found exploring Pulse to be a lot of fun. It's not a great game in terms of exploration, but it is a great game in terms of game mechanics and storytelling.

It's not a step back from XII, it's a step to the side. They're two completely different games which I enjoy for completely different reasons.

Fair enough, I mean, I appreciate you trying to explain the appeal. I don't think I'll understand, but I can respect your opinion.

Personally I didn't find the story or characters compelling, but that's just me.
 

Cep

Banned
KuwabaraTheMan said:
The battle system is amazing. That's the biggest reason it's my GOTY so far. This is probably one of the top 5 battle systems of all time.

Yes, there's not much in the way of exploration, but it's hardly alone in that. Not every RPG needs to be Morrowind (or even Earthbound). I love the battle system, I find the world and lore to be fascinating, and I really like all the characters. And while most of the game is pretty linear, I found exploring Pulse to be a lot of fun. It's not a great game in terms of exploration, but it is a great game in terms of game mechanics and storytelling.

It's not a step back from XII, it's a step to the side. They're two completely different games which I enjoy for completely different reasons.

FFXIII is a definately a step back from its nearest analogue (FFX).
 
Cep said:
FFXIII is a definately a step back from its nearest analogue (FFX).

Personally, I like XIII more than X, although I enjoy both games quite a bit. I think the battle system is much better (and I say that as a huge fan of the CTB system), I think the world is more fleshed out, and the cast is more well rounded (compared to X where everyone outside of Tidus, Yuna and Auron was about as relevant to the plot as Penelo in XII).

I'll give X a slight edge in the actual story (which was more unpredictable), and a definite edge in dungeon design and music, however.
 
george_us said:
I always thought of FFXII as a flawed masterpiece. If the story could of maintained its momentum and the job system put in place earlier then it would have stood as the pinnacle of the FF series in my opinion. FFXIII just seems poorly designed from top to bottom.

I agree. I love XII but a few things about it keep it from being what it really could have been. That's better than the 2 or 3 things that FFXIII did really well.
 
Cep said:
Very much agreed, and I do not even like FFX.

Same here. I did not like FFX but I made it much further in that game than I did in FFXIII. I dislike them both for similar reasons, but FFXIII moreso.

FFXII, I loved. Actually, I appreciate it even more now than I did at the time. Playing FFXIII made me realize that FFXII was a near-masterpiece, and I'm now replaying it.
 
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